Okay, what's the deal with the cow tax? The American Farm Bureau issued a release on November 20 saying it was opposed to allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases because this would lead to a tax on livestock. Cows and hogs belch and, well, you know, they emit other gases containing carbon. And carbon leads to global warming. The Farm Bureau executive director estimated that if there were a tax rate of $43.75 per ton of emitted greenhouse gases, then the fee would mean an annual assessment of $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 for each head of beef cattle and $20 per hog. This caused a general "panic" in the farming community, according to the New York Times. "Our profit margin on the cattle we sell is about $87," said one Alabama cattleman. "If they pass this tax, it would take away all of our profit."

Cooler heads have prevailed, however. The newspaper in Florence, Alabama, quotes the president of the Alabama Cattleman's Association: "It's not going to happen. We've talked to EPA and they told us it's not even in their game plan." R-CALF, a cattle producers' group, issued a release saying there was no tax planned. "This so-called cow and pig tax has stirred up livestock producers everywhere, which is exactly what U.S. corporate agribusinesses and their respective trade associations want to happen, so that our attention is diverted away from the true issues immediately facing us," said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. "This sort of spin has "“ temporarily "“ shifted the focus away from important issues like country-of-origin labeling (COOL), the examination of U.S. antitrust laws, the fight to prevent the introduction of diseases like BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and FMD (foot-and-mouth disease), as well as the anticompetitive effects from packer-owned livestock and other captive supply practices."

The Bush Administration is set to legalize a coal mining practice that has destroyed at least 1,600 miles of streams in the Appalachian mountains. The Washington Post reports Saturday that the U.S. Interior Department will make it easier for mining companies to dump their waste in and near rivers and streams.

For nearly a quarter century, coal mining companies have been prohibited from dumping waste from coal strip mining into and near stream beds. "Mining companies have frequently disregarded the law," reports Juliet Eilprin. In mountaintop removal mining, companies peel off the tops of mountains and then dump the soil and rocks in the valleys — and streams — below. This practice would be okayed by the Bush administration's rule. "The implications of this ruling are devastating, they're widespread and they're irreversible," said one environmentalist.

The Clinton Administration prepared rules that would have prohibited this form of coal mining, but never enacted them. The Bush White House has been pushing to formally legalize these "valley fills" for most of its time in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Geological Survey announced Tuesday that there were about 765 grizzly bears in northwestern Montana, a good bit more bear than the 250 to 350 estimated earlier. The results came from a five-year study of grizzly DNA derided as pork (to mix meat metaphors)   by John McCain. Montanans wanted the study in the hopes that a high bear-count would lead to reduced restrictions on oil drilling and logging.

Now that there are more bear, there are more bear problems, reports the Choteau Acantha, a weekly paper in Teton County. Melody Martinsen reports that bears are increasingly dining on local livestock as they try to put on weight before winter. Bears are munching on sheep and cattle like they were party favors. Ranchers are setting snares, catching and relocating bears. Sheep producer John Hayne had put up three sides of an electric fence (paid for in part by Defenders of Wildlife), but the bears came in side four. Hayne fired some "cracker shells" at the grizzlies and chased them away. It's pretty exciting out there in Teton County.

A dark sky — a truly dark sky — is so rare these days that it's now a tourist attraction. The Wall Street Journal reports that two-thirds of the world's population (including nearly everyone in the US and Europe) "no longer see a starry sky where they live." Most people live in places where it never gets dark enough for the human eye to adjust to night vision. "Our children grow without seeing what is possibly the most extraordinary natural wonder," says Italian astronomer Fabio Falchi.

There is a movement, led by the International Dark Sky Association, to promote lighting that doesn't ruin the night sky. But the amount of artificial light worldwide has tripled since 1970. Even Death Valley is lit up by the glow from Las Vegas.

Women who work night jobs or who live in brightly lit cities report higher rates of some kinds of cancer, the WSJ reports. Bright lights disorient turtles and birds. For most of us, it's just hard to see the stars.