Beluga – Isn't that caviar?

Belugas (Dean Rocky Barrick) http://www.rockybarrick.com/

No, that's the other beluga. We're talking whales here.

First right whales (http://environmentalvalues.blogspot.com/2008/04/those-goddamn-whales.html). Now belugas.

Beluga whales are animals that occur in disjoint populations at Arctic and sub-Arctic latitudes. It's a "small", toothed, whale, sans a dorsal fin – an adult immediately recognizable for its uniform, creamy white color. We use the modern definition of "small", which is "weighs less than your SUV, and is typically shorter than one, too". Unlike your SUV, the beluga has the misfortune of liking to congregate in river estuaries, fjords, bays, and other shallow waters right off the coast and near busy ports such as Anchorage, Alaska.

On January 14, 2009, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced that she would sue to have the endangered Cook Inlet population of belugas delisted (http://greennewstoday.org/?p=23). Cook Inlet is an area where exploding gas and oil development has spurred planning to expand the port of Anchorage and possibly build a new bridge (presumably this time, to somewhere). The beluga swims – at a typically unhurried 3-9 kph – squarely in the way of this increase in economic welfare. Whatever small economic benefit the little white whale contributes derives mainly from the amusement it affords people in marine "parks". So far as Palin is concerned, the whales should stay there and stay clear of the development of vastly greater economic goods in the Cook Inlet. There it is just a natural liability.

Ironically, Ms. Palin's previous move (in August 2008) to remove federal protection for the polar bear might well have been in the beluga's interests: Aside from humans and orcas, the polar bear is the beluga's primary predator.

We dedicate this limerick to Ms. Palin's zealous dedication to keep the caviar on her plate.

Damn nuisance – that slug-like white whale:
Obstructs us wherever we sail.
    So sue 'em we must
    Or surely go bust!
God's will is for us to prevail.

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And the great president said...

Deadly Embrace: Cypress and strangling fig

On the eve of his presidency, No. 44 is channeling No. 16. The earlier great president's unifying vision – his embrace of diversity and diverse interests – brings to mind the broad and inclusive vision of The Natural Capital Project and the new environmentalism that it inspires.

This new environmentalism – embodied in the work of The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund – also embraces inclusiveness and unification. It rightfully boasts astounding success in attracting corporate funders. See, for example: Goldman, R.L., Tallis, H., Kareiva, P., and Daily, G.C., "Field evidence that ecosystem service projects support biodiversity and diversify options", Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 105:27 (July 8, 2008), pp. 9445-94448 (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/06/27/0800208105.abstract). It is truly awe-inspiring to find such a tight partnership between the wealthiest and most powerful multi-national corporations and the environmental movement, that Rio Tinto, among others, is literally setting The Nature Conservancy's agenda – http://www.nature.org/joinanddonate/corporatepartnerships/files/ilc_agenda_june.pdf.

Biodiversity offsets, habitat banking, mitigation banking – are all innovations that have put new life into Rio Tinto's resource-extraction business. (For some of its handiwork, see http://environmentalvalues.blogspot.com/2008/05/toontown-guide-to-economic-value.html.) These innovations affix the environmentalist imprimatur on activities that were previously seen by less broad-minded environmentalists as simply beating the crap out of the natural world. Of course, Rio Tinto still does that – but now in exchange for not beating the crap out of real estate worthless to it, or manufacturing a facsimile of the crap-beaten-out land on real estate worthless to it, or (the finest innovation of all), the mere promise to do one of these things. This is the magic of offsets and banking – a magic which spikes the rejuvenating elixir of the new environmentalism.

Skeptics of this approach may be unaware of one of the 16th president's most powerful nation-unifying speeches. This ignorance is forgivable. For obscure reasons, this speech was scrapped and all but a few rarely seen and never-heard excerpts are lost to history. But the few extant passages are truly inspiring – in no small part because we can see in them the clear inspiration for The Natural Capital Project and The Nature Conservancy.

Here is the longest surviving contiguous fragment:

We need to bring everyone with an interest in slavery into our house and to our table, including those with a direct economic stake in it. We cannot arbitrarily ignore any interest if we hope to forge an effective agreement, which must be one acceptable to all. By respecting all interests, there is no doubt that we can reach consensus on a new, gentler, more humane kind of slavery that can sustain the unity, harmony, and welfare of this great nation of ours.

One can imagine that at this point, had this speech been delivered, everyone in attendance cheers and waves their 34-star American flags. No. 16 goes on:

Of course, we must honestly acknowledge the undeniable economic cost of more humane treatment. And so undeniably, we cannot expect our fellow citizens, those who happen to be slave owners and who have contributed so much to the greatness of our nation, to bear the cost without gentle encouragement to lighten their brutality.

The way forward is together. It is one in which we appeal to the better nature of those of us who own slaves. We must offer just compensation which coaxes from that nature an understanding that a slave owner's best interests are served when his most brutal acts are abandoned. And we must give the slave owner a way to offset and bank whatever brutal acts he cannot, despite his best and most sincere efforts, abandon for fear of economic ruin. The greater good will be served by asking of the slave holders among us that they set aside places where no slave can be flogged without cause and where slave families are permitted to stay together, unless they attempt to flee this just and humane compact.

This, I believe, is at the core of an effective healing of this nation's deeply dividing wound.

So the great 16th president might have spoken.

It was our good fortune, as the election of No. 44 has made more clear than ever, that we instead got the 13th Amendment.

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