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Post-Valentine’s Day quickies

Photo: Mongabay.com

Always a day late and a dollar short, I present to you, ah, two more love stories from nature. The first from Mongabay, which includes a hot photo of two mountain gorillas in the dorso-ventral (missionary) position. A true feminist of the gorilla world, this female has also pioneered the use of tools to measure the depth of puddles before walking into them. Given enough evolutionary time and no competition from upright walking primates, her progeny would probably discover fire and eventually use it to burn their bras.

You might want to take a cold shower before reading this next one from The New York Times, which is quite explicit.

What weighs less than two pounds and has a gnarly 11-inch-long Johnson?

Sexiest jobs lists ‘forget’ to include eco-professionals

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CDC confirms FEMA trailers tainted with formaldehyde; residents urged to move

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Wisconsin college gives away bikes to students who pledge not to drive

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Send an ocean-themed e-card

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Tiny island nation of Kiribati creates world’s largest marine reserve

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Sunscreen-slathered swimmers contributing to coral bleaching, says study

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Mining behemoth responds to Gristmill

This past Christmas, I named Anglo-American Mining Company CEO "Cyanide" Cynthia Carroll the "world's biggest scrooge" for planning to plop one of the world's biggest gold mines right atop the richest salmon fishery in the world in Alaska's Bristol Bay -- and wreaking massive devastation to the landscape, wildlife, and economy of Alaska (you can see pictures of this landscape in the extraordinary book Rivers of Life by Robert Glenn Ketchum and Bruce Hampton).

Well, my little article got some big attention from Anglo-American, and spokesflack Sean Magee struck back in a lengthy riposte, which I've excerpted below (full version here).

In Glenn's article, he talks about the "gold lust" of mining company CEOs who want to gild their bathrooms and fill their swimming pools with the precious yellow metal. Unfortunately, the gold mine he's referring to will actually be a copper mine. As much as 95% of the recoverable metal contained in the Pebble ore body is copper. Somehow, a copper toilet bowl, or filling a swimming pool with pennies, just doesn't create the image of a greedy corporate executive Glenn was shooting for.

When I pressed Magee on this point, he clarified that 95 percent refers to the weight, not the value. According to him, it becomes 30 percent when you compare the value of the gold to the copper. Of course, with gold prices hitting $900 an ounce and investors rushing into gold, the gold part of the mine is becoming a lot more valuable. But mining companies don't like to talk about gold, because 85 percent of global demand is driven by jewelry; it's hard to defend the destruction that accompanies gold mining when almost all of it goes to make bling. I also admit, I had a hard time believing Magee -- the email address he used to send me his letter ends in "@hdgold.com."

Regardless, let's talk about copper. Here's what Magee says is so great about it:

Elk populations getting out of control in some national parks

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New studies show salmon farms destroy wild stocks

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