National Wildlife Federation:  “While I’m not one to despoil the fantasies of children by pointing out this weekend’s spokesbunny doesn’t exist, there is a very real threat that the American pika, the mountain bunny of the Rockies, could soon become a figment of our memory.”

The American pika, a mountain-dwelling mammal in the West, does not do well in temperatures above 78 degrees.

I typically focus on what the science tells us about the catastrophic impacts humans face if we stay anywhere near our current emissions path.  If self-preservation won’t motivate us, whatever empathy we can muster for our furry friends surely can’t.

Still, last year, I thought the apparently ‘expendable’ pika deserved at least one blog post, after the Obama administration threw them under the bus, denying them Endangered Species Act protection (see “So long Pika, we hardly knew ya“).

Now it’s Earth week and Easter Sunday — and there’s a new study on the grim local extinction rates of the pika, as Brad Johnson reports:

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Ecology as a social principle . . . condemns cities, culture, industry, technology, the intellect, and advocates men’s return to “nature,” to the state of grunting subanimals digging the soil with their bare hands. –  The Ayn Rand Letter

Anyone over 30 years of age today, give a silent “Thank you” to the nearest, grimiest, sootiest smokestacks you can find. — Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution

Conservative hero Ayn Rand helped push the movement away from its conservation ethos, which had been championed by Teddy Roosevelt and continued as late as George H. W. Bush.

Think Progress has a great post that reveals the true Ayn Rand. Don’t miss minute 3:20 of the video:

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Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) was once a champion of policies like cap-and-trade to combat global warming pollution, but he now calls his past climate leadership “stupid” and a “disaster.”

The polar explorer who worked with Pawlenty to “convince the skeptics” and find solutions to greenhouse pollution from oil and coal, Will Steger, is now “baffled” by Pawlenty’s reversal. Brad Johnson has the story.

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Here are more great Earth Day cards from the king of free e-card snark:

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