DuBois column: Smokey gathers cattle, climate change and cloud seeding

 

 

Smokey gathers cattle, climate change and cloud seeding

Smokey closes a forest

The Forest Service has announced they are closing parts of three different districts in the Gila National Forest during activity to remove unauthorized and unbranded cattle. The closures are to “minimize public exposure to the potentially hazardous conditions associated with the capture and removal of the cattle.” They have let a contract to remove 50 head, to be completed by September 2022.

I don’t recall the Forest Service closing an area so a rancher can gather his cattle.

I guess if your cattle are authorized and branded, you are on your own.

The Forest Service says this is part of a decades-long effort to stop the spread of unauthorized cattle that have been in the removal area since the 1970s. They let us know that since 1994 they have removed over 640 head. That computes to one cow every 15 days and not something I would he highlighting in a press release.

They also tell us the unmanaged cattle “cause long-term damage to water quality, riparian ecosystem conditions, and habitat for threatened and endangered species.”

What would happen to you and I if we went 27 years in a row violating the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act on our property? The press release would be about fines and jail time, not removing 2 cows per month.

Meat sell-out

The North American Meat Institute, which claims to represent 95 percent of the country’s meat producers, has announced they have committed to reduce greenhouse emissions by 2030, in line with international climate targets. The Meat Institute says it will help individual companies establish reduction goals, and those targets (set in the 2015 Paris Agreement) must be approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative, a partnership among the Carbon Disclosure Project, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Oh, goody.

To make sure each of their members meet the Paris Agreement targets, they will verify the progress each company makes on animal care, food safety, labor and human rights.

Just what do “animal care, food safety, labor and human rights” have to do with climate change?

This, my friends, is another example of how enviros use a hook, such as climate change, to accomplish their other goals, such as animal rights.

COP 26, double your pleasure

The United Nations Summit on Climate Change, known as COP 26, recently met in Glasgow, Scotland. The summit kicked off with various leaders taking the podium and promising programs to address the climate change threat. After the Presidents and Prime Ministers left, the work really began. The goal was to agree on policies to deal with deforestation, warming temperatures, rising seas, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and determining how the wealthier countries of the world deliver on promises to help the poorer, less developed nations.

Thankfully, they reached agreement on none of those issues. What did they reach agreement on? Like most government entities do, they reached agreement on expanding themselves. They created three new lobbying groups: a coalition of nations to halt deforestation, another coalition to curb methane, another to lobby to stop spending tax dollars to fund overseas fossil fuel projects. 

We also now know the environmental cost attributed to this U.N. summit. The two-week climate conference is expected to produce 102,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide according to a United Nations assessment. That is the equivalent of 222.9 million pounds of carbon dioxide. The previous climate change summit, COP 25 in 2019, resulted in the emission of 51,101 metric tons of carbon dioxide. That means the environmental elite, who want us to lower our carbon footprint and completely redo our economy for earth’s sake, doubled their emission carbon dioxide. They lecture us, bemoan our lifestyle, and at the same time double their own pollution.

Cloud seeding

The Washington Post recently ran an extensive article on cloud seeding. It pointed out the western United States is having one of its worst droughts in recent memory, with one-third of the country, mainly west of the Rocky Mountains, experiencing severe to exceptional drought. The article states that with this historical drought in the west, “states are doubling down on their cloud seeding programs.”

While I was at the Dept. of Interior, the subject of cloud seeding came up several times, usually in relation to the Bureau of Reclamation. I always raised the same questions. If federal dollars are used to fund or partially fund cloud seeding:

“Who owns the additional water?”

“Who decides what amounts are allocated to what uses?”

“Are the additional waters subject to NEPA, ESA and CWA considerations?”

I never received the answers.

C.J. Hadley 

Range Magazine editor and publisher, C.J. Hadley was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Will Rogers Medallion Awards committee at their recent banquet in Fort Worth, Texas.

Congratulations C.J. What a wonderful recognition of your many talents!

I would also like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you have a very Prosperous New Year.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation

This column originally appeared in the December editions of both the New Mexico Stockman and the Livestock Market Digest.