another top ten list

This one comes from PlanetSave. They got together top conservationists and scientists and came up with the top ten animals in most need of protection from extinction. Many of these, I didn’t even know were in trouble.

1.) Pacific Walrus – Alaska
2.) Red Knot bird – Texas
3.) Wolverine – Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington
4.) Gunnison Sage-grouse (bird) – Colorado, Utah
5.) Fluvial Arctic Grayling (fish) – Montana
6.) Island Marble Butterfly – Washington
7.) Southern Rockies Boreal Toad – Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho
8.) Mason’s Skypilot (plant) – California and Nevada
9.) Great White Shark – Coastal States
10.) Wood Turtle – Great Lakes and Northeastern States, Virginia and West Virginia

You can find all of their adorable pictures HERE.OK… so the plant picture may not be “adorable”, but you get the point.

they have me so confused

It seems that for every handful of bad deeds performed by the EPA, they counter with one good deed. I feel like I am in a bad relationship where I stick around through all the terrible, because the good is just oh-so-good.

This posts “Top Ten” list is of a different nature and comes from the EPA. They have created their version of the FBI Most Wanted list, by posting pictures and data on the men with the most heinous environmental crimes.

A top EPA enforcement official said the people on the list represent the “brazen universe of people that are evading the law.” Many face years in prison and some charges could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

“They are charged with environmental crimes, and they should be brought before the criminal justice system and have their day in court,” said Pete Rosenberg, a director in the agency’s criminal enforcement division.

The list includes men like John Karayinnades who dumped oil contaminated grain off the coast of Florida or Joseph O’Connor who dumped pollutants off the coast of San Diego.

But my one question for the EPA is: where are the CEO’s of Ford or GM for polluting the air with high emissions SUV’s sold by the millions? Or, the United States Navy for their illegal practice of dumping trash off the air craft carriers, polluting our oceans? Or, our current President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for allowing ruling after ruling, in favor of the planet, to be vetoed or overturn at the behest and benefit of a power company, pharmaceutical company, chemical company or the like?

And while I think the list is important, and does include people that need to be charged with crimes, I think their crimes pale in comparison to the onslaught against the environment that other men have committed. However, I am also aware that the nature of our country is that the men missing are the men we reward… with $15 million.

You can find the EPA list, here: http://www.epa.gov/fugitives/