Unholy alliance: Who's happiest about the fracking boom? Well, besides the frackers, the answer might be Big Ag, which is guaranteed a cheap supply of natural gas to whip up synthetic nitrogen fertilizers -- and is almost certain to side with frackers as various regulatory battles heat up. You'd think farmers would be concerned about any industry that uses (and could contaminate) massive amounts of water and might even make cows' tails fall off. Then again, tails don't bring in nearly as much as prime rib at the market, so who needs 'em? Mother Jones
BP settles up: A federal judge just accepted BP's deal with the Justice Department to plead guilty to 14 criminal charges and pay $4 billion in fines for its role in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As we all know, corporations are people — so shouldn't a company that's guilty of 14 criminal actions (not to mention killing 11 people) get life? New York Times
If you can't beat it, eat it: Eating invasive species is all the rage these days. (Check out Eat the Invaders if your next dinner party needs a theme.) Now a few chefs in the Chesapeake Bay area are trying to cultivate a taste for the snakehead fish, a hideous invader gobbling up native species across the Eastern seaboard. Just as marketing wizardry transformed Patagonian toothfish into Chilean seabass, a new name might do the snakehead wonders. Asian salmon, anyone? How 'bout Chinese perch? Washington Post
Snakehead surprise: On second thought, let's not go rebranding any more seafood: what with rockfish being called red snapper and skate wings masquerading as scallops. There are already more than enough fraudulent fish dinners going around -- much to the chagrin of marine biologist Steven Palumbi. Slate
Feline fiends: Another day, another study about how feral cats are a devastating plague on America's wildlife populations. This one suggests that cats kill as many as 3.7 billion (yep, that's billion with a b) birds every year. Cue the aggrieved cat owners criticizing the study's methodology, questioning its authors' motives, and expressing outrage that their darling Snowball is being tarred as a murderer. A good rule of internet thumb: avoid the comments section of any article about cats. Or relish it, whatever's your pleasure. Smithsonian Magazine
Dam the torpedoes, full speed ahead: China's government has announced plans to construct 13 dams on the pristine Salween River, a.k.a. "the Grand Canyon of the East." A massive hydropower project constructed with minimal environment oversight? What could possibly go wrong? Besides, you know, the loss of endangered species, the submersion of villages and farmlands, and the risk of freakin' earthquakes. Oh, those pesky earthquakes. The Guardian
Apathy is the new denial: As climate change becomes increasingly undeniable, America's talking heads have changed tactics: rather than insisting that the problem doesn't exist, they simply claim that the problem is too big and diffuse to combat, a position as misanthropic as it is cynical. Luckily, Stephen Colbert is around to skewer these buffoons. "America beat Tojo, we crushed Hitler, we put a man on the moon... but incrementally reducing CO2 emissions? That sounds like a lot of work." He also slips in a reference to "Satan's teat" for good measure. What a guy. Grist
Culture clash: There are bizarre festivals in Peru where matadors kill bulls with Andean condors strapped to their backs (to the bulls' backs, not the matadors'). Why?!? To celebrate the triumph over colonialism, of course. Bull = the colonials. Condor = the indigenous. Unfortunately, these condors, endangered icons of native wildlife, don't feel so triumphant in the end -- if they feel at all. The Guardian
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