Layoffs abound during these tough financial times. Now, things have gotten so bad that even hardworking porcupines are getting pink slips. When I heard that New York Gov. Paterson is proposing to slash funding for The Bronx Zoo and New York Aquarium (a 55% cut this year, and no money at all next year), my heart sank. One of the main purposes of the Bronx Zoo is to protect endangered species, and now the venerable institution may be endangered itself.

The folks at the Wildlife Conservation Society had a much more proactive response—they enlisted a porcupine to star in a PSA. By posting the funny, yet sobering, video online (see above), they’re hoping to spur people to take action to prevent the budget cuts, which also affect 74 other zoos, botanical gardens, and aquariums across the state.

If mosquitoes are the most common form of life in the air, bicyclists easily hold that title for the earth. They swarm Lira's streets, taking over entire lanes and making crossing the road a game of chicken. I have no idea how all the actual loose chickens pecking for scraps around here manage.

My shade grown cup of coffee tastes even more delicious today. A recent study that found shade coffee farms are not only good for birds, but also good for the genetic diversity of native tree species that grow amongst the coffee plants.

The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State
Edited by Kevin J. McGowan and Kimberley Corwin
Cornell University Press, 2008

How far would you go to help fight climate change? How about eating less meat? Or none at all? Anyone can do it, says Mike Tidwell, author, climate change activist, recovering carnivore. His stomach still growls at the thought of sumptuous BBQ pork on a bun, but Tidwell quit meat cold turkey—excuse me, carrot—because he says the human hunger for burgers, chicken wings, and ham has turned our stomachs into a bigger driver of climate change than our cars.

“I am Obama’s brother!” a stranger shouted to me through the open window of a matatu (small bus) as I was crossing the lush countryside of western Kenya. That was 2006. According to a New York Times article this week, cars in western Kenya “now sport bumper stickers with statements like ‘Obama, first cousin.’” Kenya has claimed America’s president-elect as its own, and the badge is revitalizing tourism, which plummeted following the gruesome riots during the country’s elections last December. Kogelo, the village where Obama’s father grew up, has become a hot ticket on Kenya’s tourist trail, according to the Times article. But there is another reason to visit the region: Kakamega Rainforest. Home to more than 400 species of birds and five types of monkeys, Kakamega is a bite-sized remnant of the vast tropical forest that once spanned the waist of Africa. The forest is being chipped away, but two guru birders aim to save it.

  
^{The pristine coral reef ecosystem around Howland Island will be protected as part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monuments. Photo courtesy NOAA.}

No one would ever call President George W. Bush a treehugger, but it seems he has an affinity for the ocean. Yesterday, Bush designated three areas of the Pacific Ocean as new marine national monuments. The designation will prohibit resource destruction or extraction, waste dumping, and commercial fishing within the combined 195,275 square miles—the largest fully protected marine area in the world.

“What’s in your wallet?” Not a query likely to prompt an enthusiastic response in this downbeat financial climate. But the question, “What’s in your backyard?” may set a budding naturalist off on a journey as fascinating and rewarding as an African wildlife tour. In tune with campaigns among biologists to assess animal and plant populations in specific local areas before human developments blow them away, the results may be of genuine use to science.

What do you do when you're in mosquito paradise and your bed net is full of holes? Duck and cover.

Arriving in the dusty, ramshackle city of Kampala, my journey begins into the heart of Uganda's troubling environmental and public health trade-offs. This typical African metropolis is built across the hills of the once tropical jungle shores of Lake Victoria.