Climate change: The case of the missing heat

His old pack, made up of his daughters and their new male partners, came roaring back to the Lamar Valley in mid-March. They swooped down on 755M’s den, attacked his consort, and chased the pair away. The two staggered into the forest, 755M’s mate leaving a trail of blood in the snow. She died that night. And what of 755M? He’s rarely seen these days. He wanders in the borderlands between other packs, hunted and haunted – a lone wolf, bereft of all.

We all love happy endings and, like many others who follow the Yellowstone wolves, I rooted for 755M and his new mate. It was not to be.

She wanted to know what had become of him, McIntyre said, just as we would if we became separated from our family members.

For most of the 20th century, scientists were taught to regard animals as mindless beings lacking thoughts or emotions. But that attitude, too, has been swept aside as researchers with a more evolutionary perspective have revealed that species from fish and turtles to rats and lions have mental skills not so dissimilar from our own. Many animals—not just human animals-- love and laugh and grieve (link is external).

Cougar societies that aren’t actively hunted—and so have the oldest males and females—also cause fewer problems for people.

From Rob Wielgus’s research at the Large Carnivore Conservation Laboratory (link is external) at Washington State University in Pullman

We know now that animals have personalities (link is external) (some are shy, others are bold) that affect their reproductive success.

Animals were regarded more or less like cogs in a wheel; one dies, another one takes its place. Long-term studies of elephants, chimpanzees, dolphins, and other species tell a different story, though.

But the numbers overlook the social consequences of these deaths.

And that is true. The death of one or two, or even a dozen Yellowstone park wolves (the number of park wolves believed to have been shot or trapped outside its boundaries in the 2012-2013 hunting season (link is external)) does not mean that the population is doomed. Wolf biologists emphasize how resilient the animals are. Packs may vanish, but others will take their place; there are pups this spring.

After the death of 832F, officials emphasized that the parks’ wolf population was still viable; there were plenty of wolves for people to see with more than 80 remaining.

“I can’t prove it, but I think that’s why 832 led her pack back there,” Rick McIntyre, a biological technician for the Yellowstone Wolf Project, told me. McIntyre has followed the canids daily since they were reintroduced to the park in 1995, (link is external) and knows the individual wolves better than anyone.  “Even though 754 wasn’t the alpha male, he was her favorite. I think she went looking for him.”

But two weeks before her death, the pack’s beta male, 754M, had also been shot and killed in the same area.

People were drawn to 832F because she was an unusual female wolf—saucy, independent, powerful and wily enough to bring down a bull elk alone, and unwilling to be anything other than the leader of her pack. She’d scorned all her suitors until she met a pair of malleable males, the black-and-silver furred brothers, 755M and 754M. They were younger than she was, and were mediocre hunters at best, but the trio formed a pack, which the brothers wisely let her lead. By 2012, they had grown to 13 strong, and were the indisputable rulers of the Lamar River Valley with its herds of elk and buffalo. All that changed, though, in early December 2012, when 832F was killed 15 miles from the park’s eastern boundary.

enormous repercussions, which continue to this day.

From a purely demographic standpoint, biologists say no. If there are sufficient numbers of wolves to breed, then the species is fine

Does the death of one wolf matter?

He is, after all, still alive, although some might say he’s but a ghost of his former self, because she is gone, felled by a Wyoming hunter’s bullet.

Only a few weeks before

lay so still he looked more like a stone or downed log. Most unlike a wolf, he was alone.

I learned this firsthand during a visit to Yellowstone National Park last winter

The decision is based solely on numbers, and so it misses what is increasingly evident to wildlife biologists and conservationists: the importance of individual animals.

according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

When A Wolf Dies Do individual animals matter? Posted Jun 07, 2013

Virginia Morell

When A Wolf Dies

through state regulations and/or international conventions

The brochure gives examples of farmers in India poisoning elephant watering holes because they claim elephants damage their crops, and livestock owners in Russia and Africa killing tigers and lions on their land.

This loss of habitat causes the extinction of species

affect of overpopulation on animals

here is a very real and dangerous affect for animals.

Anika Mohammed

Overpopulation of humans, what does this mean?

Human Overpopulation as an Animal Rights Issue

Among students, religion not being importantand having no religion were associated with beingin favour of permitting abortion in any circum-stance and being against putting a woman whohad had an abortion in jail (p<0.001).

The proportion of medical students whoagreed that abortion should be allowed wasalways larger than the corresponding proportionof civil servants.

We carried out two cross-sectional, descriptivesurveys, one with civil servants from a São PauloState public institution and the other with medi-cal students from three medical schools, also inSão Paulo State. Two different questionnaireswere used for the civil servants and the medicalstudents (Box 1), consisting of questions with pre-coded response categories for self-completion.

Considering that the answersobtained in surveys depends in great part on howthe questions are formulated, the aim of thisstudy was to compare the answers to generalquestions about the circumstances under whichthe respondents thought abortion should beallowed, with the answers of the same respon-dents to the question of whether a woman whohas had an illegal abortion should be sent toprison as the law mandates.

Cur-rently, the Penal Code is under review in the Par-liament, causing a heated debate betweenrepresentatives of the Catholic and Protestantchurches and those who defend women’s sexualand reproductive rights.

In Brazil, the Penal Code dates from 1940 andestablishes that abortion is a crime but notpunishable in three cases: if the woman’s lifeis at risk, if pregnancy results from rape, andmore recently (since a court judgement in 2012)in cases of fetal anencephaly.7All other abor-tions are punishable with 1–10 years in prisonboth for the woman and for the person whocarried out the abortion.

One belief is that if abortion is criminalized,women will have fewer abortions than in an envi-ronment of liberal laws and easy access to safeabortions.5Experience shows this is not realistic,however; in fact, in countries where abortion islegally restricted women have more abortionsthan those living under more liberal laws.

The treatment ofabortion in these Penal Codes has remained almostunchanged (with a few exceptions), mostly underthe pressure of religions that traditionally opposeabortion, particularly the Catholic Church andother Christian faiths in Latin America.

Unsafe abortions will continue to be a burdenfor the health and well-being of women in coun-tries where very restrictive abortion laws make ita crime.

According to the most recent global estimates,while the total number of induced abortionsdeclined between 2003 and 2008, the numberof unsafe abortions increased proportionately.

Brazilian parliamentarians who are currently reviewinga reform in the Penal Code need to have this information urgently.

This paper presents the findingsfrom two studies. One was carried out in February–December 2010 among 1,660 public servants and the otherin February–July 2011 with 874 medical students from three medical schools, both in São Paulo State, Brazil.Both groups of respondents were asked two sets of questions to obtain their opinion about abortion:

Unsafe abortions remain a major public health problem in countries with very restrictiveabortion laws.

iterature response logs are regular records, usually daily, that children keep as running diaries of their read ing. Third, they may update their reading re cords.

o offset this state of emotional neutrality in classrooms, teachers must thoughtfully re consider how reading instruction may be reor ganized to rekindle a sense of joy and ownershi

he only problem associated with this second block of sharing time is stopping. Sticking to the 10-minute time limit is often very difficult because children sincerely enjoy this time for sharing their ideas, work, and discoverie

r. Sheets also notes that mini-lessons force him to be concise in his demonstrations of skills in real reading situations.

ome teachers like to act in the role of "recorder" for the group or "wait in silence."

elf-selected reading. During SSR stu dents may become involved in one or more ac tivities (see Figure 1). To begin the workshop, students and teachers spend 10 minutes en gaged in free reading of a book they have cho sen for recreational reading or they may be reading goal pages established in their litera ture response group.

turn on a CD of classical background music.

hen the timer bell sounds, the chil dren begin to write their entries on the lines provided below the spaces where they drew their illustrations. A

riting complete sentences writing sentences that ask a question

Each child draws an illustration about the new or ongoing topic he or she has selected to write about. Children may talk with peers or with me about their topics or drawings.

any op portunities for connecting reading de coding skills with writing occur during these sessions.

ost of my direct writing instruc tion takes place during these brief ses sions, which may last up to 15 minutes.

They ruled their empire through a decentralized network of subject peoples that paid regular tribute–including everything from the most basic items, such as corn, beans, and other foodstuffs, to luxury goods such as jade, cacao, and gold–and provided troops for the empire.

Matthew S. MacLennan

ZFIN_ZDB-GENO-100308-4

promontory

Hemos mencionado que los actores formulan y de sarrollan estrategias. Estas son intentos de desenvolver los intereses o satisfacer las necesidades . Las estrategias suponen cierto tipo de cálculo en el que cada actor que toma en cuenta, no solame nte sus intereses o necesidades y su vinculación con los componentes objetivos, sino también la exp ectativa sobre el comportamiento de los otros actores. Esto es, la estrategias son el resultado de las relaciones que se dan entre los sistema de actores. Para ello dan lugar a configur aciones que vinculan a actores diferentes.

una lógica subordinada a las otras tres, en la medida que no genera procesos autónomos de toma de decisiones y de acciones sobre la ciudad, sino que lo hace en tanto que alguna de las otras tres la receptan. Estos actores, que pueden definirse en tres polos sociales dis tintos: académico, gubernamental y técnico-privado, contribuyen a las decisiones de los anteriores y, en tal sentido, introducen perspectivas que forman parte de esas decisiones.

Ese desarrollo parece realizarse de cuatro ma neras fundamentales: a) acciones individuales o colectivas directas; b) organización comunitaria, de base solidaria para la producción directa; c) organización de movimientos reivindicativos frente a los actores gubernamentales; y d) orientación hacia relaciones clientelares, conformándose en clientela de algunos actores gubernamentales o políticos. Esas formas no son excluyentes y pueden combinarse en un mismo momento o sucesivamente.

Existen actores que se determinan en razón de lo que podemos denominar la lógica de la necesidad. Esta se muestra relevante en tanto que se desarrolla fuera (total o parcialmente) del mercado y de las políticas públicas.

Actores que participan en la producción de la ciudad orientados predominantemente en función de una lógica política, sin tener que someterse a la obligación de obtener ganancia económica. Pueden desarrollar procesos no mercan tiles de producción de la ciudad, desde el punto de vista, no ya de cada una de las actividades (o actores) individuales, sino en razón de una doble vinculación

Procesos demográficos: personas o familias que deciden ir del campo a las ciudades o de una ciudad a otra y, una vez en ellas, deciden localizar se en ciertos lugares o cambiar sus localizaciones urbanas anteriores. Procesos económicos que produ cen los soportes físicos para esa gente y sus actividades: viviendas, talleres, locales comerciales, equipamientos e infraestructuras; servicios que permiten la vida en la ciudad: transportes, trat amiento de residuos, educación y salud, etc. Procesos de producción cultural, desde la innovación en su sentido más amplio, incluyendo obviamente la tecnológica, hasta otras formas de la creación so cial: costumbres, artes, comunicaciones, formas sociales, etc.

Entender una ciudad como sociedad local implica suponer que lo que en ella pasa depende de lo que hacen los actores que en ella inci den, depende de sus decisiones. En segundo lugar, implica que esas decisiones surgen dentro de relaciones concretas: entre actores particulares económica, social y culturalmente. En tercer luga r, que esos actores deciden sobre la ciudad y lo hacen dentro en un contexto formado por los ámbitos globales de la realidad (nacional e internacional)

En segundo lugar, los actores locales, hemos supuesto, tienen capacidad para determinar a los procesos locales. Los actores económicos porque pueden incidir en el mercado local y los actores políticos porque logran incidir en las decisiones fundamentales a nivel local (gobierno local). Esto significa que los actores locales tienen cierta cap acidad de determinación de los procesos locales pero no la tienen (por lo menos en el mismo grado) respecto de procesos no locales: no son determinantes en las decisiones que toman otros gobiernos locales ni sus productos pueden determinar otros mercados locales.

reproducen su poder en relación a los otros actor es locales y en referencia al gobierno local.

La ciudad es, entonces, una sociedad local que se caracteriza por una particular relación con el territorio: la aglomeración con base en la división social del trabajo, frente a la dispersión de la sociedad rural.

En una sociedad local encontramos unidad de procesos económicos y sociales, también identidades y procesos políticos propios. Es d ecir, individuos o grupos sociales con poderes diferenciados que dependen de su ubicación dentro de l sistema (local) de relaciones. Esto significa que el poder se acumula o se pierde en razón de las relaciones que se dan en la sociedad local.

etrás de la urbanización, detrás de la ciudad, encontramos dos tipos de procesos estr ucturales fundamentales: los de la acumulación capitalista y los de la dominación propios de es a forma social.

Son actores que se reproducen como tales predominantemente dentro del ámb ito local. Esto significa, actores económicos que reproducen su capital en función de relaciones dent ro del ámbito territorial local (comerciantes o productores que tienen como mercado predominante a la población local), actores políticos que

De acuerdo a lo anterior, llamamos "actores lo cales" a los sujetos (individuales o colectivos) cuyo comportamiento se determina en función de una lógica local y/o su comportamiento determina los procesos locales.

Los actores sociales, por su parte, son la s unidades reales de acción en la sociedad: tomadores y ejecutores de decisiones que inciden en la realidad local. Son parte de la base social, son definidos por ella, pero act úan como individuos o colectivos que, además, están sometidos a otras condiciones (culturales, étnico-culturales, políticas y territoriales)

pensar la ciudad como sociedad local implica, inmediatamente, percibirla como un sistema de relaciones entre actores.