In the Pacific temperate rainforest ecoregion yes. Sorry. I don't really understand the point of the question. There are bears in the woods in western British Columbia. It's a temperate rainforest.

This is an incomplete analysis. I really don't have time to go into it now, but many of the reasons many of these poor countries are poor is because of exploitation by rich ones. Meanwhile the capitalist model of healthcare means that rich people get better care than poor ones (who often get none at all - the US being…

Which bit? The part where the US media constantly attempts to undermine Venezuela by describing it as a "dictatorship", when its electoral systems are far more secure than those in the US, or the part where I have to criticise Venezuela for being a petrostate? It looks like the US was involved in the right-wing…

Do you have any evidence that capitalism or communism work - I mean for the majority, preferably everyone, not for a few rich elites?

It would be interesting to compare environmental life cycle analyses of printed maps against GPS devices. Offhand I can't find such a thing. I suspect I do more environmental damage getting on the bus to visit these places than I do buying the maps, but I'd be interested to see data showing otherwise.

I'm a dirty rotten holdout when it comes to a map and compass. I learned this skill from my dad in my early teens. One of his favourite "teaching strategies" was to have me in the hills somewhere, give me the map and compass, and get me to show him where we were and how to get where we were going.

This is fascinating, but not particularly unusual.

Look up alternatives to capitalism, or post-capitalism. I'm not about to write a free article for IO9 when only half a dozen people will read it.

It's not just about food. I agree that better distribution and a move down the food chain would help, but there are all sorts of other factors - some, like certain types of pollution, badly quantified, but others such as biodiversity loss (with the associated loss of support systems) and access to fresh water that are…

That said, the claim that there is more to life survival strays dangerously close to religion.

If we are all just bags of meat following biological imperatives

No, it's too perilous! (NSFW!)

Unfortunately, much of this book has been debunked (pdf).

Subtle slander? The book is instructive, but should not be read at face value.

Arendt's work has its flaws but I do find Eichmann in Jerusalem to be very instructive today. I see a world full of discrimination - against other humans, against nonhumans, against entire ecosystems. Much of this is not a conscious attempt to do evil, but about lots of little people doing little things against those…

It's pretty clear to me that in our respective corporatocracies, with them clearly in control, a very limited number of rich people are running away with everything.

No, this is a myth peddled by libertarians, equating a means of redistribution of resources with social control by governments (as opposed to the corporate dystopia they seem to favour). It's quite feasible to have a more egalitarian society without central control of it. The conservatives just don't want you to learn…

Universe 25 involved mice. Other similar experiments involved rats. You may have read about similar experiments.

I read this trying to work out whether it was about mice or rats.

It's a false dichotomy, as I said. Humans are animals. You just seem to think that some animals are worth less than others on the basis of a demonstrably false distinction based on cognitive ability. I think that attitude stinks.