unEARTHED, the Earthjustice blog

Go, little pika! Go! We're cheering for you. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimon / CC BY-SA 2.0

It’s been a tough few days for the American Pika, who were shut out of the endangered species list, no thanks to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These alpine rabbit cousins (don’t let those mousey ears fool you) are adapted to live in cold climates and can overheat at even a mild 78°F. Rising temperatures have pushed pikas farther and farther up their mountainous habitat—and if things don’t change, soon there will be nowhere else for them to go but extinct.

Pika aren’t just any small fuzzball. The character and antics of this scrappy flower-gathering herbivore have endeared them to scientists, hikers, and Monday Reads writers alike.

For the most part, pikas are hard working little bunnies. (Slacker pika do exist; more on that later.) Although they weigh only a third of a pound, they must collect more than 60 pounds of vegetation to survive the winter. Pikas don’t hibernate, instead hunkering down by their “haypiles” and munching on the stores through the snowy months. How come the food doesn’t spoil, you ask? The venerable David Attenborough brings us these teeny mammals in action, and tells us why:

Warming temperatures have sent the tiny pika scrambling for its life to the nation's highest peaks—but, it may take the nation's courts to save it.

Yesterday (Feb. 4), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refused to wrap the pika in the protections of the Endangered Species Act, even though it has been driven from most of its historic range by climate change-linked conditions and clings to existence in the cooler air of mountain tops.

It took an Earthjustice lawsuit to make FWS even look at the pika's plight. Earthjustice attorney Greg Loarie reacted to the agency's decision:

We've already lost almost half of the pika that once inhabited the Great Basin, and scientists tell us that pika will be gone from 80 percent of their entire range in the United States by the end of the century. To conclude that this species is not threatened by climate change is an impossible gamble that we can't afford.

Ozone-caused smog in Los Angeles

Some top stories from the past week at Earthjustice…

This week found Earthjustice attorneys in courtrooms addressing a variety of issues, from protecting wildlife to public health.

On Monday, David Baron was in Arlington, Virginia, testifying in support of stronger standards for ozone pollution. Ozone is the main ingredient in the gray-brown haze commonly known as smog that blankets cities across the U.S. Each year it sends thousands of people to emergency rooms. Its long-term effects actually prevented a witness from testifying. The good news is that the EPA might finally reign it in.

On Tuesday, George Torgun, Mike Sherwood, Erin Tobin, and Trent Orr were all in Fresno, California, defending salmon and other fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. California's largest water district has asked a judge to temporarily suspend protections for the fish from February through May, when baby salmon migrate from the Sacramento River to the ocean.

Just south of Burlington, Vermont, the residents of the Wake Robin retirement community came together recently to share memories of living in leaner times. Driven more by survival instincts than environmental concern, the experiences of our elders provide valuable lessons in green living.

Luckily, Burlington Free Press reporter Matt Sutkoski was there to record the proceedings.

As a youth, Carmer Van Buren, now 81, moved to Vermont from suburban New Jersey after his father lost his job during the Great Depression. Despite lacking experience farming, the family settled on a small farm in Bradford and learned to grow their own food, manage animals and perform all the tasks necessary to support a farm.

He said a farmer across the road helped the family get started. "We had a lot of trial and error. We really learned self-sufficiency," Van Buren said.

Van Buren said learning how to live sustainably gave him a sense of pride.

For more than a year, Procter & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive and other household cleaner giants have been refusing to follow a New York law requiring them to disclose the chemical ingredients in their products and the health risks they pose.

When we asked them nicely, they ignored us or refused. When thousands of people across the company put the pressure on them, they responded with platitudes and still did nothing. And for almost a year, they've been fighting a lawsuit against them, slowing down the process whenever possible.

But today, both sides got their day in court, arguing the case before a Manhattan judge. Earthjustice attorney Keri Powell reminded the court that studies have linked chemicals commonly found in household cleaners to health problems like asthma and reproductive abnormalities. And that people deserve to know whether the products they use to wash their dishes, launder their clothes, and clean their homes could be harmful.

Industry's response: we'd rather wait until the authorities force us to provide the information.

Yesterday (Feb. 2), Westlands Water District—California's largest and most politically powerful agribusiness group—asked a federal judge to block a federal salmon restoration plan that protects salmon and other fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Earthjustice attorneys, who won a court order in 2008 putting the restoration plan in place, were there to defend it. Westland's move could put the survival of the river's salmon—and California and Oregon's multi-billion dollar commercial and recreational salmon fishing industry—on the line. The judge will announce his decision next week.

Westlands wants to end restrictions on the operation of huge delta water pumps and canals from February through May, when baby salmon migrate from the Sacramento River to the ocean.

Yesterday, a new political theater opened in the battle over whether the Clean Air Act should be used to reduce global warming pollution. At issue is a request contained in the Obama administration's 2011 budget proposal that $56 million—$43 million of it new—be directed to the EPA for use in efforts to cut global warming pollution from mobile sources like cars and stationary sources like coal-fired power plants.

The allocation is less than one percent of the total proposed budget for EPA (which hovers just above $10 billion) and less than 0.01 percent of the total federal budget proposal of $3.69 trillion. Which is to say that the request is less significant than the ideological divide illustrated by the Congressional proponents and opponents of the allocation's mere existence. Since Congress ultimately cuts the checks, the skirmishes that happen in those hallowed halls are critical.

Imagine loving to garden but being unable to do so because the air outside your home is thick with ozone. Or a travel down the freeway literally taking your breath away because the pollution is just that unbearable.

Enter the life of Mary Theriault. The northern Virginia resident battles chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was supposed to testify at an EPA hearing today in Arlington on stronger ozone standards. But Mary was hospitalized due to a COPD flair-up.

Earthjustice's David Baron was among the first to testify, commending EPA for doing the right thing in proposing to strengthen clean air standards.

Fargo the detection dog meets a right whale calf up close and personal. Photo: New England Aquarium.

Collectively, detection dogs have had a long and illustrious career. Although drug sniffing and bomb detection dogs often get top billing, canines are also proudly finding counterfeit DVDs, bed bugs, and cell phones.

And now we can add right whales to the list.

(Well, right whale scat, at least. Although occasionally, a curious right whale may show up along the way.)

In his 2010 State of the Union speech, President Obama delivered an impressive salvo to our overseas peers:

There is no reason that Europe or China should have the fastest trains.

And with that, he seemed to have kick-started America into the race to develop the high-speed rail systems of the future. Except that in Europe and China, the future is already here.

While Obama's promise of $8 billion of federal spending on high-speed rail is nothing to scoff at, it really will only buy us the blueprints—not the trains and tracks themselves. Anyone who has been across the pond knows that Europeans already enjoy a highly-developed high-speed rail system. But with little fanfare, China has also begun building a vast network of high-speed rail, and is showing no signs of slowing down.