I grew up in an industrialized part of New Jersey, unconcerned about environmental issues (or, indeed, nature) until I read one of John McPhee’s books on geology and had an embarrassingly late conversion experience. I’ve been to law school and graduate school, the latter in English literature, and dabbled in human rights law before coming to NRDC. In the last few years I’ve focused on marine mammal conservation, so my 8-year-old knows A LOT about whales.
Posted May 6, 2013 by Michael Jasny in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
On June 9, 2008, at least 60 dolphins stranded along the coast of Cornwall, England, in what was by far the largest common dolphin mortality ever seen in UK waters. For hours, rescuers tried to lead them back to...continued→
Posted March 22, 2013 by Michael Jasny in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Sometimes problems are too obvious to obfuscate. Just yesterday the National Marine Fisheries Service released a new environmental appraisal of oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, and the conclusion they reached falls pretty squarely into the obvious category. ...continued→
Posted January 30, 2013 by Michael Jasny in Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today more than 30 members of Congress wrote to President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar, urging the administration against opening the U.S. east coast to airgun exploration for oil and gas. This is a very welcome development. As I’ve...continued→
Posted November 28, 2012 by Michael Jasny in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Three years ago, NRDC petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to add Hawaii’s coastal false killer whales to the endangered species list. Today, after a thorough review (and after litigation over missed deadlines), the Fisheries Service did just that. It’s...continued→
Posted April 20, 2012 by Michael Jasny in Moving Beyond Oil, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
A couple of weeks ago, the Obama Administration announced its plans to open up most of the east coast to oil and gas exploration. If you live near the coast and want to speak out against this terrible proposal – nearly...continued→
Posted April 13, 2012 by Michael Jasny in Moving Beyond Oil, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Imagine dynamite going off in your neighborhood every 10 seconds for days, weeks and months on end. Now imagine that you depend on your hearing to feed, mate, communicate and do just about everything else necessary for survival. That’s the...continued→
Posted April 10, 2012 by Michael Jasny in Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
What is happening to the dolphins? The rosy predictions that some have made since the Deepwater Horizon was plugged, in July 2010, have been belied by the sickening, relentless washing up of dead bottlenose dolphins on the beaches of...continued→
Posted March 28, 2012 by Michael Jasny in Moving Beyond Oil, Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today the administration announced its plans to open the Atlantic to oil and gas exploration. For the environment, this is terrible news, and not just because the airgun surveys it would allow are a gateway drug for drilling. As the...continued→
Posted March 22, 2012 by Michael Jasny in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
In October 2009, NRDC submitted a petition calling on NMFS to list the Hawaii false killer whale as an endangered species. Listing should be a no-brainer. NMFS itself has determined that the whales are at high risk of functional extinction...continued→
Posted March 2, 2012 by Michael Jasny in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Last month the Canadian Navy ran an active sonar exercise in one of the worst places in the world for it: the straits and channels outside Puget Sound, Washington. Not only do these waters create a natural duct for...continued→
Posted February 8, 2012 by Michael Jasny in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
On Monday morning, a Canadian Navy frigate ran a sonar exercise in the waters of Haro Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington. Incredibly, a good portion of that exercise took place on the U.S. side of...continued→
Posted January 19, 2012 by Michael Jasny in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Today two of the world’s leading marine mammal experts published an op-ed on CNN.com, calling on the U.S. to recognize a major threat to marine life: the rapidly rising level of chronic underwater noise off our coasts. It’s titled, Turn...continued→
Posted December 8, 2011 by Michael Jasny in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Yesterday, biologists investigating the recent mass stranding of beaked whales in the Ionian Sea reported a rise in the body count. At least 7, and possibly 8, whales are now known to have stranded on the Greek island of Corfu,...continued→
Posted December 5, 2011 by Michael Jasny in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Last week, beaked whales began stranding along the Greek island of Corfu, on the eastern edge of the Ionian Sea. The whales stranded alive, and rescuers struggled to lead them back to deeper water. Around the same time, a mother...continued→
Posted October 14, 2011 by Michael Jasny in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
More than one year after the Deepwater Horizon was capped, biologists in the Gulf of Mexico are trying to determine what has happened to the dolphins—which continue to turn up dead in alarmingly high numbers along the coast, from Louisiana...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
