North Dakota by the numbers

Energy 

Formation pressures

Booming North Dakota by the numbers 

 Mar 16th 2013 |From the print edition

IN 2012 North Dakota produced more crude oil than any other state except Texas. Between 2011 and 2012 production there increased by more than 250,000 barrels a day (b/d). By November last year almost 22m barrels of oil a month came out of the ground—outpacing the traditional petroleum-pots of Alaska, California and Oklahoma. About 33,000 wells will be drilled over the next 15-25 years, 5,000 of them in the next two years. [More...]

More eco-porn

Rockhopper penguins, G Harris

Seriously, what is not to love about two vast new marine protected areas in Patagonia, one of the most beautiful places on the planet? The Wildlife Conservation Society tells me that Isla Pingüino Coastal Marine Park and Makenke Coastal Marine Park have been established recently by the country's National Congress.

Red-legged Cormorant in Puerto Deseado Patagonia. G Harris

A pair of Imperial Cormorants in Punta Leon Patagonia. G Harris.

A matter of style

Journalists at The Economist have recently been issued with our new Style Book. It comprises 184 pages of rules, orders, guidelines, suggestions, warnings and worldly wisdom. I've been dipping into it every day and I was particularly struck by this passage describing the history of military euphemisms and how they have been introduced to neuter social outrage.


"Worse can be expected when politicians try to justify a war. “They make a wilderness and call it peace,” wrote Tacitus nearly 2,000 years ago, quoting Calgalus, a British chief whose people had been beaten up by the Romans. Orwell was equally acute in pointing out 60 years ago how terms like transfer of population and rectification of frontiers put names on things without evoking mental pictures of them. Friendly fire, body count, prisoner abuse, smart bombs, surgical strike, collateral damage have been coined more recently with the same ends in mind. Thus in Britain the War Office and the secretary of state for war became the Ministry of Defence and the defence minister. In due course nuclear weapons became nuclear deterrents – unless they were held by bad people. The Reagan administration spoke of its airborne invasion of Grenada in 1983 as a vertical insertion. The butchers of the Balkans produced ethnic cleansing, and the jihadists of al-Qaeda have offered sacred explosions in place of Islamically incorrect suicide bombs. The Bush administration, with its all-justifying war on terror (prosecuted with the help of the Patriot Act), provided more than its fair share of bland misnomers. Its practice of enhanced interrogation was torture, just as its practice of rendition was kidnapping, extraordinary rendition was probably torture contracted out to foreigners and its self-injurious behaviour incidents at Guantánamo Bay were attempted suicides. Some of those who now advocate a military attack on Iran refer to it as the kinetic option."

I only took a brief trip out to the Cook County Forest Preserve with Heidi Garbe of the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation but it was well worthwhile to see coyote prints all over the snowy ground. The Coyote Project here is looking to understand more about the urban coyote, and its impressive but quiet invasion of the metropolis.


Urban coyotes 

Dogged persistence 

The coyote is quietly conquering urban America 

Mar 9th 2013 | CHICAGO |From the print edition

ON A snowy trail that cuts around the trees is a neat line of paw prints which look as though they were made by a domestic dog. But Heidi Garbe, a research scientist with the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, can tell that they were made by a special kind of dog: Canis latrans, the coyote. Its footprint is more oval and its tracks more linear than those made by any household pet.

Around 2,000 coyotes are reckoned to live in Chicago and its suburbs, and it seems likely that the animal is thriving in many other built-up parts of the country. Once restricted to the south-western United States, it spread across the continent during the 20th century and more recently made its way into large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Boston and even New York. In 2010 a particularly intrepid specimen was caught in a parking lot in Tribeca, a trendy neighbourhood in Manhattan.

In Chicago, the Cook County Coyote Project has been trying to understand how the species is conquering the metropolis. Part of the answer is that the coyote is clever, extremely adaptable and reproduces quickly. They are opportunistic eaters and will eagerly consume rabbits, rats, Canada geese, fruit, insects and family pets. They may also be filling an empty niche for a top predator that was once filled by wolves. [More...]

Enter the dragon

Another futile attempt to highlight the possibility that trade bans can sometimes fuel, rather than prevent, the trade in an endangered species. I keep writing about this, lots of people find it upsetting and get cross with me. And the fact is: I'd like to be proven wrong but I have a sinking feeling that I am not.

Conservation

Trade protection 

Mar 5th 2013, 16:54 by N.L. | CHICAGO AND J.P. | LONDON 

THIS month the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will turn 40. From March 3rd to 14th delegates from 178 countries are gathering in Bangkok to review the treaty, which regulates the sale of wildlife and allows for a global ban in the trade of a species when it is threatened with over-exploitation. One of the subjects on the agenda is whether such bans work.

Trade bans are controversial. They can be effective in stabilising population numbers. This happened with the African grey parrot, for instance. But evidence abounds that sometimes they may do more harm than good. On March 1st Duan Biggs, from the University of Queensland, in Australia, and colleagues wrote in Science that legalising trade in rhino horn may be essential to ensure survival of the species. Last year Kirsten Conrad argued in Tropical Conservation Science that a trade ban, combined with a confluence of other forces, may create a “perfect storm” to accelerate the demise of the elephant, rhino and tiger. [More...]

A tale of two bridges

New PPP bridge; WVB East End Partners

This is a cute little story I wrote last week about two new bridges over the Ohio River. One will be privately financed and maintained, the other will be bought the traditional way. Both, though, will be built and designed by the same company. Any bets on which bridge will be in better shape in 40 years? This natural experiment may help answer this question.
 


Building infrastructure 

A river runs through it 

A natural experiment in infrastructure 

Mar 2nd 2013 | CHICAGO |From the print edition

IN 1969 Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon; the Boeing 747 took its maiden flight and the states of Indiana and Kentucky set their sights on building a new crossing over the Ohio river. Planners wanted a better connection between southern Indiana and the city of Louisville in Kentucky. Yet federal and state governments are notoriously slow to make such investments so it is not surprising that it has taken America four decades to reach a point where construction is imminent.

The plan, now known as the Ohio River Bridges project, calls for two new bridges. One crossing will be in downtown Louisville and the other will be slightly out of town. Construction is expected to begin this summer and they should both be open by 2016.

Good reasons abound for building both of the new crossings: they will improve regional mobility, generate jobs, improve access to markets and make transportation more efficient. But one of the unusual aspects of the plans is that the states of Indiana and Kentucky have unwittingly created one of the world’s best natural experiments for testing two methods of procuring infrastructure.

The downtown bridge is being built by Kentucky and the other, known as the East End crossing, is being built by Indiana. Yet while Indiana has legislation that allows for public-private partnerships (PPP), Kentucky does not. So the downtown bridge will be procured the traditional way, and the East End crossing will use a PPP. [More...]

An update on Detroit

Detroit

Motoring towards disaster 

Mar 1st 2013, 20:35 by N.L. | CHICAGO 

"THERE is probably no city that is more financially challenged in the entire United States." So says Rick Snyder, the Republican governor of Michigan, in reference to Detroit. Today Mr Snyder announced plans to have an emergency manager take over the city.

Detroit can appeal, but on March 12th the governor is likely to appoint a new boss who will supersede the city’s elected officials (their authority will be suspended). He will have the power to cut spending, alter labour contracts and sell city assets. This is nothing new for Michigan—five cities are already under state oversight. Detroit, though, would be the largest. [More...]