{"id":32266,"date":"2025-02-12T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=32266"},"modified":"2025-02-11T16:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T21:08:07","slug":"stamp-out-the-dunes-sagebrush-lizard-once-and-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/stamp-out-the-dunes-sagebrush-lizard-once-and-for-all\/","title":{"rendered":"Stamp Out the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard Once and for All!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest EPA scam to prevent energy production employs a favorite old ploy.\u00a0 Namely, create a full species out of a small slightly differentiated population of some animal (in this case lizards) and then claim this new species is endangered because there are so few of them.\u00a0 And the difference between the two populations can be almost non-existent.\u00a0 A different number of scales on their chins or a slightly smaller overall average length or whatever.\u00a0 Now the truth of this is that every species with a large enough range develops slight regional variation.\u00a0 And things like color will vary in order to blend with local conditions.\u00a0 Even over short time spans moths have been known to genetically select for darker or lighter color based upon the advantage in blending into backgrounds that had more or less coal dust in different parts of London in the 20th<\/sup> century<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So here comes the dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus) a small drab creature that is part of a family that includes 114 so-called species that extend from New York State to California and from the Canadian border to Panama.\u00a0 And even more pathetic, until very recently (1972) the arenicolus was considered just a subspecies of the sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus graciosus) which is in no way endangered.\u00a0 Now government funded biologists live to produce new species in order to have a reason to apply for a government fund to study this new endangered species.\u00a0 And as you\u2019ll read in this article<\/a>, the dunes sagebrush lizard is disappearing because oil and gas are being extracted from its home range.<\/p>\n

My thought is, \u201cToo damn bad!\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s suppose that what they say is true.\u00a0 Oil and gas extraction is bad for the very important lizard and if extraction is expanded then the very important lizard will go extinct.\u00a0 Dead, gone, buried, finished.\u00a0 Well, guess what.\u00a0 In twenty years, the sagebrush lizards on the other side of the dune will begin moving into that territory left vacant by the demise of the dunes sagebrush lizards that were just too delicate to make it.\u00a0 And in a hundred years they will adapt to the exact climate in that dune environment and guess what?\u00a0 They will look and actually be indistinguishable from the extinct dunes sagebrush lizard cousins they replaced.\u00a0 Hooray for evolution!<\/p>\n

So, my advice to President Trump is to have his EPA not only delete the dunes sagebrush lizard from the endangered species list but also reclassify it as a subspecies of the sagebrush lizard and forget about it forever.\u00a0 And while they\u2019re at it do a review of all the other endangered species to see how many of them are subspecies with tiny ranges that have been elevated to full species rank just so that their range can be excluded from useful human activities like building houses and fishing in lakes and drilling for oil.<\/p>\n

In the same way that Democrats use the USAID as a piggy bank to fund their wish list of stupid causes, the National Science Foundation is a source for endless grant money for things like inventing endangered species and spending whole careers walking around studying these unimportant populations of common species for no meaningful reason.\u00a0 Being the champion and greatest living authority on the dunes sagebrush lizard should be a badge of shame.\u00a0 And at the very least should be a pursuit unfunded by the United States federal government (in my opinion).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest EPA scam to prevent energy production employs a favorite old ploy.\u00a0 Namely, create a full species out of a small slightly differentiated population<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,712,3545,6],"tags":[4802,3370,3369,1073],"class_list":["post-32266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-fake-science","category-science","category-trump","tag-endangered-species","tag-energy-policy","tag-environmentalism","tag-epa"],"yoast_head":"\nStamp Out the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard Once and for All! - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/12\/stamp-out-the-dunes-sagebrush-lizard-once-and-for-all\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stamp Out the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard Once and for All! 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