Intelligent people have known for some time that the whole notion of global warming being caused by man-made carbon dioxide is a farce, embedded in politics and driven by greed and the desire to capitalize on a faux crisis to make gobs of money. To justify the actions of those involved, including former Vice President Al Gore, they have for some time declared that anthropogenic global warming is settled science.

I never knew there was ever anything called settled science, as I see it as a dangerous and ignorant approach to anything. Suppose where we would be if scientists worldwide had settled on the initial science presented to them without offering any kind of challenge.

It now appears that the best way for global warming alarmists to protect their assumptions of settled science is to ban and/or stifle the opinions of anyone who disagrees. Such is the case for Dr. Mitchell Taylor, a recognized expert on polar bears, having dedicated 30 years to the study of the bears. Taylor has been banned from attending a meeting in Copenhagen of the Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG). The meeting’s objective is to formulate another theory to scare the public into further buying into the concept that global warming is killing all the polar bears because of melting sea ice. This they are hoping will set the stage for December’s United Nations climate change meeting, also to take place in Copenhagen.

One might ask why Dr. Taylor would be banned from such a meeting, being that he is an expert on polar bears. It seems that Dr. Taylor does not subscribe to melting sea ice or global warming as being caused by man. He says it’s natural. He also was one of 500 scientists who signed the Manhattan Declaration, a statement presented by 500 scientists from around the world willing to publicly state that climate change is natural. This obviously runs counter to the alarmists who aren’t interested in truth only to proceed with their agenda.

When opposing opinions are barred from debate, then global warming alarmists can better bolster their claims that the majority of the science community accepts man-made global warming and can label anyone willing to make any noise in opposition as some kind of whack-job, completely out of touch with the rest of the scientific world. (How many times have we heard about that in the history of world science? Columbus didn’t fall of the edge of the earth.)

As Christopher Booker wrote in an article about this in the Telegraph:

So, as the great Copenhagen bandwagon rolls on, stand by this week for reports along the lines of “scientists say polar bears are threatened with extinction by vanishing Arctic ice”

As an FYI, did you know that the average temperature of the Arctic at mid-summer is averaging below 0 – C? This hasn’t happened in 50 years of record keeping.

Tom Remington

Hunting’s Importance Reaffirmed

(Columbus)-Companion bills, introduced yesterday in Congress, protect the rights of sportsmen to hunt on federal land while also recognizing hunting’s importance to all conservation.

The Hunting Heritage Protection Act, is made up of Senate bill 1348, sponsored by Senator Saxby Chambliss (R- GA) and H.R. 3046, sponsored by Representative Denny Rehberg (R-MT).

Both pieces of legislation require that federal land be managed in a way that supports, promotes, and enhances access for hunting and mandates that an annual report be submitted to Congress detailing any limitations that are imposed on hunting federal lands. It also will require a written notification be given to Congress prior to any agency action that limits hunting on large parcels of federal land consisting of 5,000 or more acres.

“Sportsmen across America owe Senator Chambliss, Representative Rehberg, and other member of Congress many thanks for the steps they are taking to preserve our hunting rights,” stated USSA President and CEO Bud Pidgeon. “In a time where access to suitable hunting land is becoming increasingly difficult, this legislation goes a long way towards curtailing that trend and guaranteeing current or increased hunting opportunities are available today and tomorrow.”

Sportsmen should contact their Congressional elected officials and ask them to support the Hunting Heritage Protection Act. Inform them that hunters and other sportsmen and sportswomen are great stewards of federal lands and should have full access to those lands whenever and wherever possible. To find your Congressional officials, go to the Legislative Action Center.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen’s organizations that protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs. For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website, www.ussportsmen.org.

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

If you think it is more important to provide much needed water to human beings rather than keeping it from them in order to save a fish, visit this site and help the cause.

Tom Remington

During my recent vacation trip around the state of Maine, Milt Inman and I had the pleasure of accompanying our friend Gordon on his lobster boat that he moors in Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island.

Photo by Tom Remingon
This is Gordon’s lobster boat – “Jacquelyn”

Photo by Tom Remington
First you need to grab a small pitch fork and move the bait from the tub to a holding bin.

Photo by Tom Remington
I nice tub of ripe smelling herring seems to be the bait of choice today.

Photo by Tom Remington
Pulling traps is done mechanically these days and not so much by hand.

Photo by Tom Remington
Once the trap is up, hopefully you’ll find some legal-sized lobsters. Once the trap is cleaned out, it is baited again and dropped back into the sea.

Photo by Tom Remington
Lobster traps can claim more than just lobster. You might find various shelled creatures, including crabs. In this one instance a sea sculpin was found flopping around in the trap.

Photo by Tom Remington
Really, you do find an occasional lobster – hopefully a lot more than that. This lobster was a pretty good sized one but with tiny claws. Lobsters do tend to lose their claws and nature is kind to allow them to grow back. In this case they just hadn’t had the opportunity to get back to full size again.

Unfortunately, the fog refused to lift. Although Gordon is a very proficient and experienced seaman, he is uncomfortable about being on the water in the fog as he doesn’t have a lot of trust in other boaters. We checked perhabs 25 to 30 of his 70 traps and headed back to port.

Tom Remington

In a move that is becoming extremely nauseating and utterly ridiculous, void of any science that President Obama promised would return to decisions like this, the government reached an agreement with those groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, who had sued to stop delisting, the gray wolf was returned to government protection. It appears the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not exactly follow the legal steps before they could declare a removal from the Endangered Species Act list.

Before a move such as delisting, the USFWS must provide a 60-day public comment period and evidently this was not done. Because of that, the U.S. Government and the HSUS, et. al., reached an agreement that puts the wolves in Minnesota back under a “threatened” status and the rest of the wolves return as endangered. Wolves in Idaho and Montana that have be removed from the list, are not affected.

According to the news source that can’t be named or linked to, the agreement states that “if the Fish and Wildlife Service tries again to remove the wolves from the endangered list, it will hold a 60-day comment period.”

A spokesperson for HSUS said that this gives the USFWS the opportunity to reconsider their “failed wolf-management policies” and put an end to what they called “reckless plans” to start hunting wolves as part of the management plans.

The USFWS says it plans to regroup and attempt to delist the Western Great Lakes wolf population again.

Tom Remington

I have very little information on this right now but it appears that Barack Obama has in fact caved in to those who voted for him in the 2008 presidential election and has ordered a review of the decision made by the Department of Interior to remove the gray from the Endangered Species List in the state of Minnesota. Whether this order involves other states, I don’t know at this time.

I will have more information available to you as soon as I get it.

Tom Remington

Perched directly on top of a large rock, part of a rocky point on a small island off the coast of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park in Maine, towers a fish hawk or osprey nest. We milled about in the lobster boat for a few minutes but could not see much life in the nest or coming to and going away. I would estimate that the nest stood at least 4 or 5 feet above the rock it sat on.

Photo by Tom Remington

Even though this gem of a piece of property sits only feet from Maine’s rock-bound coast, not all houses that sit overlooking the Atlantic Ocean are high-priced mansions.

Photo by Tom Remington

But then again, places don’t need need to be large and manionesque to be some of the most beautiful places on earth.

Photo by Tom Remington

Photo by Tom Remington