http://www.eswr.com/2011/07/spelunkers-can-visit-colorado-caves-as-part-of-convention-judge-rules/
The Center for Biological Diversity – an organization with far many more lawyers than scientists – is a “environmental advocacy group” of the worst kind. The modus operandi of these lawyer-intensive organizations is to flood the legal system with frivolous lawsuits to the point where the defenders cannot afford to defend themselves. A lot of the more suspect legal commercials on television are like that.
Recently they’ve turned their meaty hooks on the White Nose Syndrome problem (WNS). WNS is a bat-bat disease that has been devastating bats across the eastern seaboard. Waaay back in the beginning, there was concern that people were transporting the disease, but there’s no data supporting that notion and a lot of data in direct contradiction. But like UFO nut jobs and bigfoot spotters these lawsuit factories will grasp at any straw to further line their coffers.
So its a great victory when we’re able to defeat them in their own arena – the courtroom. Science will inevitably marginalize organizations like the CBD, someday. Until that day, we need to keep fighting the war on ecoterrorism.
Oh and if you want to contribute to actual science helping to understand and eventually defeat WNS, consider giving to the NSS’s WNS Rapid Response Fund. We actually do science and not lawsuits.
http://www.caves.org/WNS/Rapid_Response.shtml
