Tim DeChristopher-Utah Enviro Activist; Democracy Now! Interview:

http://www.bidder70.org/news/view/136168/

This is one of the 2 individuals who placed false bids on Utah public-lands wilderness that was being auctioned off to the fossil-fuel drilling consortium for taxpayer-subsidized plunder. He faces federal charges-& RTNA, EF! & others are coming to his defense.

—————————————————————————————————-

Lynas’ Book: Six Degrees

Mark Lynas slogged through scads of climate research, and lumped all the
reports that reported consequences of global heating of 1 degree Celsius
(above pre-industrial levels) into one group. Then he lumped all the
papers reporting consequences of global heating of 2 Celsius, then 3
Celsius, then 4, then 5, then 6.

The result is a book: Six Degrees. Own it. Lynas’ book is as nice a
wrap-up of the research as you can get. Minimum jargon, except where it’s
essential, and then he explains it clearly as he moves along.

I just skimmed quickly through chapter one, on the consequences of a 1
degree bump. Nobody thinks it will stop there. In fact, report after
report in the past couple years cites evidence that we can’t avoid getting
into the 2 degree territory.

We don’t want to get to 2, and especially don’t want to get past it. The
consequences will be anything but cheery.  Responding to the seriousness
of a 2 degree increase, and the evidence that we can’t duck it, the
august, esteemed Proceedings of the National Academy of Science recently
published an article under a title asking if we should stop worrying and
start panicking.

Having read many of the climate science reports, the chapters I read most
closely in Six Degrees were chapters two and three, where Lynas describes
what we can expect as the heating proceeds into the realm of 2 and, then,
3 degrees. But don’t be dismissive about 4, a level of heating that’s
certainly within reach. And while you’re at it, have a look at chapters
five and six, because that’s not out of the question, either.

I noticed a few times when Lynas took some poetic license with the trends
he describes, using language more colorful and explicit than scientists
usually use in public. But I saw nothing in his book that went too far.
When an author is describing trends with grave consequence, he errs more
by pulling punches than by being too hard-hitting.

Lance Olsen

—————————————————————————————————-

Boy do i REALLY hope there REALLY is a Hell…

ASW

U.S. Forest Policy Is Set to Change, Aiding Developer: Shift Would Let Firm Pave Logging Roads:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/03/AR2009010301715.html

—————————————————————————————————-

Published on Friday, January 2, 2009 by Agence France Presse

Coral Decline Warns of Ocean Changes: Australian Scientists

SYDNEY - A sharp slowdown in coral growth on Australia's Great Barrier
Reef since 1990 is a warning sign that precipitous changes in the world's
oceans may be imminent, scientists said Friday.

Strong evidence points to the cause being a combination of warmer seas and
higher acidity from increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide,
Australian Institute of Marine Science researchers reported.

"The data suggest that this severe and sudden decline in calcification is
unprecedented in at least 400 years," said Glenn De'ath, principal author
of a paper published Friday in the international journal Science.

 Continue Reading »

Watch out…the timber beast will be drooling all over this one.
Industrial logging is NEVER a solution-regardless of what “government
scientists” say.

ASW

—————————————————
“Since 1999, and especially in the last five years, the forests have
shifted from being a carbon sink to a carbon source.”

“That grim reality is stoking a new debate over commercial logging, one of
Canada’s biggest industries.”
——————————————–

Chicago Tribune  January 2, 2008

Canada’s forests, once huge help on greenhouse gases, now contribute to
climate change
By Howard Witt

VANCOUVER-As relentlessly bad as the news about global warming seems to be, with ice at the poles melting faster than scientists had predicted and world temperatures rising higher than expected, there was at least a reservoir of hope stored here in Canada’s vast forests.

The country’s 1.2 million square miles of trees have been dubbed the
“lungs of the planet” by ecologists because they account for more than 7
percent of Earth’s total forest lands. They could always be depended upon
to suck in vast quantities of carbon dioxide, naturally cleansing the
world of much of the harmful heat-trapping gas.

But not anymore.

Continue Reading »

Climate Change Forcing Penguins North?

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/01/01-1

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 31, 2008  10:03 AM

CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)  Luke Eshleman (202) 265-7337

Drilling and Mining in Store for Two Iconic Southwest Parks; Falling Commodity Prices Brings Brief Reprieve for Petrified Forest and Aztec Ruins

WASHINGTON – December 31. Drilling and mining may soon be affecting Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona and Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico, according to an internal Interior Department document released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Only plummeting commodity prices caused by the current recession have delayed groundbreaking for new natural gas wells and potash mining in or adjacent to the parks.

Continue Reading »

Published on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by the Fort Mill Times (South Carolina)
Idaho Miners Won’t Have to Restore Groundwater

by John Miller

BOISE, Idaho – Monsanto Co., Agrium Inc., and J.R. Simplot Co. will be able to mine phosphate without being forced to restore groundwater beneath their operations to its natural condition, according to a new rule awaiting approval by the 2009 Legislature.

The rule is backed by industry but opposed by environmentalists including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Idaho Conservation League, who say it gives mining companies near the Idaho-Wyoming border license to pollute forever.

It stops short of a 2007 draft proposal developed by the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality but never formalized. That would have required companies to clean up groundwater below their mines within eight years of ceasing activities.

Continue Reading »

Move to Increase Logging on Oregon Land

By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: December 31, 2008

The Interior Department announced a controversial decision late Wednesday to double the rate of logging on 2.6 million acres of federally owned forests in southwestern Oregon. In doing so, it brushed aside the objections of the governor and two federal agencies charged with guarding the quality of the area’s water and the health of the fish that depend on it.

The decision, which was posted on the Web sites of the Bureau of Land Management’s Oregon offices, has revived the battle lines formed during the fight over the extensive logging of old-growth timber in the 1980s, a practice blamed for the rapid decline in populations of the northern spotted owl.

Continue Reading »

————————————–
“Quite a lot is known, and very little is reassuring.”

“The remedies are not hard to grasp. Politicians, however, are supine.” “Yet the mass extinction, however remote, that should be concentrating minds is that of mankind. It is not wise to dismiss it where CO2 emissions, the other great curse of the oceans, are concerned.”
—————————–

The Economist Dec 30th 2008

The oceans

A sea of troubles

Man is assaulting the oceans. They will smite him if he does not take care

NOT much is known about the sea, it is said; the surface of Mars is better mapped. But 2,000 holes have now been drilled in the bottom, 100,000 photographs have been taken, satellites monitor the five oceans and everywhere floats fitted with instruments rise and fall like perpetual yo-yos. Quite a lot is known, and very little is reassuring.

Continue Reading »

Dec 31, 5:00 AM EST

Feds approve drilling plan for Montana’s Powder River Basin; more than 18,000 wells possible

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press Writer

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)–The Bush administration has approved a plan that could allow more than 18,000 natural gas wells to be drilled in southeastern Montana over the next two decades.

The decision by C. Stephen Allred, assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the Department of Interior, would allow companies to proceed with plans to drill on more than 1.5 million acres of federal land in Montana’s remote Powder River Basin.

Drilling in the basin has boomed over the past decade across the border in neighboring Wyoming. The heady pace of development pumped tens of millions of dollars into local communities-but also depleted water supplies and battered populations of game animals including sage grouse.
Continue Reading »

American Geophysical Union 2008 Fall Meeting

#1
—————————————–
“… motivations for advancing corn-based ethanol production
in the USA, such as reduced reliance on foreign oil and increased
prosperity for farming communities, must be considered separately,
but the greenhouse-gas-mitigation rationale is clearly unsupportable.”
——————–

Greenhouse-Gas Consequences of US Corn-based Ethanol in a Flat
World.

Davidson, E A., et al     edavidson@whrc.org
The Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth,
MA 02540- 1644, United States.

Continue Reading »

Cattle, Chemicals, Climate, and Oxygen in Gulf of Mexico

American Geophysical Union 2008 Fall Meeting

The GHG and Land Demand Consequences of the US Animal-Based Food
Consumption

Martin, P A Dept. of Geophysics, 5734 S. Ellis Ave., Chicago,
IL 60637, United States.

Eshel, G  Bard College, PO Box 5000, Annandale, NY 12504-5000,
United States.

Abstract: While the environmental burdens exerted by food production
are addressed by several recent publications, the contributions
of animal-based food production, and in particular red meat-by
far the most environmentally exacting of all large-scale animal-based
foods-are less well quantified. We present several simple calculations
that quantify some environmental costs of animal-and cattle-based
food production. First, we show that American red meat
is, on average, 350% more GHG (greenhouse gas)-intensive per
edible calorie than the national food system’s mean. Second,
we show that the per calorie land-use efficiencies of fruit and
beans are 5 and 3 times that of animal-based foods. That is,
an animal-based edible calorie requires the same amounts of land
as 5 fruit calories or 3 bean calories. We conclude with highlighting
the importance of these results to policy makers by calculating
the mass flux into the environment of fertilizer and herbicide
that will be averted by reducing or eliminating animal-based
foods from the mean US diet. This also enables us to make preliminary
quantitative statements about expected changes to the size and probability
of Gulf of Mexico anoxic events of a certain O2 depletion levels that are
likely to accompany specific dietary shifts.

—————————————————————————————————-

Moose are roaming right out of existence

In the Upper Midwest, the animals are dying off in startling numbers. Biologists blame global warming.
By Tim Jones December 29, 2008

Reporting from Chicago — It wasn’t long ago that thousands of moose roamed northwest Minnesota. But in two decades, the number of antlered, bony-kneed beasts from the North Woods has plummeted from 4,000 to fewer than a hundred.

They didn’t move away. They just died.

The primary culprit, scientists say, is climate change, which has systematically reduced the Midwest’s already dwindling moose population and provoked alarm in Minnesota, where wildlife specialists gathered for a “moose summit” this month in Duluth.

Continue Reading »

Arctic Sea Ice & the Snowy Owl

———————————————————–
“Six of the adult females that we followed in a satellite study
spent most of last winter far out on the Arctic sea ice.”

“It was very surprising, said Therrien, how far the individual
birds migrated from where they were banded on their nesting grounds
on Bylot Island, north of Baffin Island.

“The satellite data showed just how dramatic the owl movements
are. They flew huge distances. One owl went to Ellesmere Island,
another flew straight to North Dakota and a third ended up on
the eastern point of Newfoundland,” he said.
———————————————–

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081210143416.htm

Snowy Owl–A Marine Species?

ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2008)-Wildlife satellite studies could
lead to a radical re-thinking about how the snowy owl fits into
the Northern ecosystem.

Continue Reading »

Water vs. Shale Oil in the Rockies:

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-oil-shale28-2008dec28,0,462327.story

———————————————————————————————

Environmentalists Want Tenn. Ash-Spill Action
Stiffer warnings of health risks to residents urged
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Authorities need to more strongly warn residents that muck left from a major coal-ash spill in eastern Tennessee could pose health risks, a Southern environmental group said Saturday.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation said Friday that the mixture of coal fly ash and water coating a neighborhood near the Kingston Fossil Plant didn’t pose an immediate risk to residents unless they ingested it.

But Stephen Smith, executive director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said officials should more strongly encourage residents to avoid the sludge that surrounds their homes.

Continue Reading »

Utility Doubles Estimate of Tennessee Ash Deluge:
 
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/27-4

———————————————————————————————

Activist Who Upset Auction Draws Praise, Support:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/26-1

—————————————————————————————————-

Global Forest Coalition Newsletter: Forest Cover (Winter 2008 Issue)

Dear all,

Please find attached the 28th issue of Forest Cover, the newsletter of the Global Forest Coalition, or use the following link:

<http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/img/userpics/File/forest%20cover/ForestCoverNo28December2008.pdf>

This issue includes reports on the UN Climate Convention in Poznan, Poland and its impacts on forests, the IUCN fourth World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the UN Forum on Forests, in Vienna, Austria, and the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.

You will also find a report on the role of forest definitions in global climate change negotiations and on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Please share this newsletter with other interested organizations in your region.

Happy Holidays!!

Anne Petermann
North American Focal Point, Global Forest Coalition

—————————————————————————————————-

Bureau of Reclamation Releases Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Black Rock Dam Proposal:

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/12/22-0

—————————————————————————————————-

—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: Nicaragua: Government returns land title to Indigenous peoples
From:    “wsdp” <wsdp@igc.org>
Date:    Fri, December 19, 2008 9:49 am
To:      wsdp@igc.org
————————————————————————–

—–Original Message—–
From: First Peoples Human Rights Coalition
[mailto:info@firstpeoplesrights.org]
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 10:54 AM
To: info@firstpeoplesrights.org
Subject: Nicaragua: Government returns land title to Indigenous peoples

[Forwarded by Don Bain–donb@ubcic.bc.ca]

UN News Centre–UN News service
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29336&Cr=indigenous+rights& Cr1=
Nicaragua’s titling of native lands marks crucial step for indigenous rights – UN expert

17 December 2008. An independent United Nations human rights expert has praised the Nicaraguan Government for giving the indigenous Awas Tingni community the title to its traditional lands, marking the culmination of a decades-long struggle by the group to gain recognition and protection of its ancestral territory.
“This affirmative step by the Government of Nicaragua represents an important advancement in the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, James Anaya.

Continue Reading »

————————————————————-
“In 1955 there were 8.5 acres of forest for every
American. Today it is 4.7 acres. Assuming current
trends in land development and forest conversion
continue, U.S. per capita forest area will be 1.8
acres in 2050. ”

“Š carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases Š
are already influencing many forest species and
processes. Development and landscape
fragmentation confound these impacts.”

“Reprioritize forest management objectives on public lands.”

” Š provide incentives and institutions for
forest ecosystem management across ownership and
jurisdictional boundaries.”
————————————

Conservation Biology
Volume 22, No. 6, 1378-1379
DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01102.x

Conservation in Context

Sustaining America’s Forest Legacy
Norman L. Christensen, Jr.
Nicholas School of the Environment, Box
90329, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708,
U.S.A., email normc@duke.edu

America’s 750 million acres of private and public forest lands are a remarkable legacy of this nation’s commitment to forest conservation and restoration over the past century. This forest legacy provides a wide range of benefits and values including wood, clean water, wild- life, recreation, green space, carbon uptake and storage, cultural legacies and connections, and aesthetic beauty and inspiration-not to mention jobs and tax revenues to support schools and local government. But our world is changing, our forests are changing, and our forest legacy is in peril (NCSSF 2008).

Continue Reading »

<http://www.siskiyou.org/> Logo full color with text copy.jpg

December, 2008

How do you see the forest?

The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest has began the process of writing their Travel Management Plan, with the goal of publishing a map that shows which roads and trails are open to motorized travel. If it is not on the map then it is not open to public use.

The final plan will determine much about how we see, and protect the unique values of our National Forest. Siskiyou Project’s goal is to ensure that destructive roads are closed through this process. Roads which cause harm to sensitive botanical areas, create sediment sources impacting fish, and create conflicts with quite recreation uses are the focus of our attention.
Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 2008  12:10 PM

CONTACT: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Erin Allweiss, 202-513-6254 or 202-277-8370 (cell)

Auction Proceeds, But Legal Action Delays Damage to Utah Wilderness Negotiations Provide Opportunity to Save Utah’s Wild Areas

WASHINGTON – December 19 – In a move that could save 100,000 acres of pristine Utah wilderness from destruction, an agreement between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and a coalition of environmental and preservation groups was filed in court late last night. The deal will temporarily prevent BLM from issuing leases on 80 contested parcels of Utah wilderness, including land adjacent to national parks, for 30 days (until January 19). Although BLM will go forward with today’s auction, the agency has agreed not to issue the contested leases. This will give Judge Urbina of the U.S. District Court time to hear the case.

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2008  2:35 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity

Josh Pollock, Center for Native Ecosystems, (303) 546-0214
Megan Mueller, Center for Native Ecosystems, (303) 546-0214
Lisa Belenky, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 385-5594

Land Management Changes Undermine Wildlife Conservation on Public Lands; Yet Another Round of ‘Midnight Regulations’ Strips Wildlife and Endangered Species Protection Out of Agency’s Guidance Manual

DENVER-December 18. In another example of last-minute changes issued on the way out of office, the Bush administration has released final changes to a key policy manual for management of endangered, threatened, and other special-status species found on federal lands that would eliminate important protections currently given to the most at-risk wildlife and plants.

Among the sweeping changes to the Bureau of Land Management Special Status Species Manual are new policy directives that undermine protections for endangered and threatened plants, limit efforts to protect those species officially awaiting protection under the Endangered Species Act, make it prohibitively difficult to protect sensitive species found in multiple states, and eliminate some protections for state-protected species found on federal lands.

Continue Reading »

———————————————
” … physical evidence, backed by powerful
simulations on the world’s most advanced computer
climate models, is reshaping that view and
lending strong support to the radical idea that
human-induced climate change began not 200 years
ago, but thousands of years ago with the onset of
large-scale agriculture in Asia and extensive
deforestation in Europe.”

“No one disputes the large rate of increase in
greenhouse gases with the Industrial Revolution,”
Kutzbach notes. “The large-scale burning of coal
for industry has swamped everything else” in the
record.

“But looking farther back in time, using climatic
archives such as 850,000-year-old ice core
records from Antarctica, scientists are teasing
out evidence of past greenhouse gases in the form
of fossil air trapped in the ice. That ancient
air, say Vavrus and Kutzbach, contains the
unmistakable signature of increased levels of
atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide beginning
thousands of years before the industrial age.”
————————————————————

Continue Reading »

This is major…

ASW

——————————————————————————
“They concluded that reforestation of agricultural lands-abandoned as the
population collapsed-pulled so much carbon out of the atmosphere that it
helped trigger a period of global cooling …”
——————————–
Stanford University News Service

News Release
December 17, 2008

Post-pandemic reforestation in New World helped
trigger Little Ice Age, Stanford researchers say

The power of viruses is well documented in human
history. Swarms of little viral Davids have
repeatedly laid low the great Goliaths of human
civilization, most famously in the devastating
pandemics that swept the New World during
European conquest and settlement.

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 17, 2008  3:21 PM

Broad Coalition Works to Halt Egregious Midnight Land Sale in Utah

CONTACT: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Erin Allweiss, 202-513-6254 or 202-277-8370 (cell)
Robert Redford, Members of Congress, and Broad Coalition Call on Administration to Halt Midnight Land Sale in Utah Environmental and Preservation Groups Take Legal Action against

WASHINGTON-December 17. Robert Redford joined members of Congress and a coalition of environmental, preservation and business groups to stop the Interior Department from auctioning Utah wilderness to oil and gas companies. Congressmen Baird (D-WA), Hinchey (D-NY), and Holt (D-NJ) are leading the charge on the Hill to stop the auction, which is scheduled to take place on December 19. At a press event today, the environmental and preservation groups–led by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Southern Utah Wilderness Association, and Earthjustice–announced that they are taking legal action against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to halt the leasing of more than 110,000 acres of land near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and Nine Mile Canyon.

Continue Reading »

——————————————————
“The widespread occurrence of these trends is
particularly troubling as they suggest that
climatically-induced ecological thresholds have
already been crossed, even with temperature
increases that are below projected future warming
scenarios for these regions.”
————————————————–

Queen’s University
Public release date: 16-Dec-2008

Contact: Nancy Dorrance
nancy.dorrance@queensu.ca

Study links ecosystem changes in temperate
lakes to climate warming

Unparalleled warming over the last few decades
has triggered widespread ecosystem changes in
many temperate North American and Western
European lakes, say researchers at Queen’s
University and the Ontario Ministry of the
Environment.

Continue Reading »

————————————————
“While many other squid and octopus species have
oxygen transport systems that are equally
sensitive to pH, few have such high oxygen demand
coupled with large body size and low
environmental oxygen. Therefore the scientists
believe that their study results should not be
extrapolated to other marine animals.”
———————————————-

EurekAlert!

University of Rhode Island
Public release date: 15-Dec-2008

Contact: Todd McLeish
tmcleish@uri.edu
401-874-7892

Ocean acidification from CO2 emissions will cause
physiological impairment to jumbo squid

KINGSTON, R.I. – December 15, 2008 – The elevated
carbon dioxide levels expected to be found in the
world’s oceans by 2100 will likely lead to
physiological impairments of jumbo (or Humboldt)
squid, according to research by two University of
Rhode Island scientists.

Continue Reading »

This is almost ridiculous enough to be funny.

ASW

Business Week
December 15, 2008

Algeria’s Carbon-Capture Experiment
A venture by Algeria’s Sonatrach, BP, and
Norway’s Statoil to strip CO2 out of natural gas
and store it underground could help cut emissions

By Stanley Reed

About 700 miles south of Algiers, the capital of
Algeria, a monumental assemblage of pipes and
cylinders rises from the bleak Sahara Desert. Not
far away is a small airstrip and helicopter pad.
And in a compound down the road, surrounded by a
thick stand of trees to break the whistling
winds, there are dormitories, tennis courts, even
a mess hall, where a crew of chefs whips up
hearty meals including lobster pie and potato
tarts for several hundred people.

Continue Reading »

—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: The 300-350 Show: Forests and Biofuels
From:    “Phil England” <phil@switch-off.co.uk>
Date:    Fri, December 12, 2008 3:47 pm
To:      phil@switch-off.co.uk
————————————————————————–

Dear Friends,

THE 300-350 SHOW: Forests and Biofuels

We continue our coverage of the UN Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland where the
big issue on the table is “how to reduce emissions from deforestation”? The
big push from investors is to incorporate forests into the carbon markets,
but this approach is riddled with problems. Friends of the Earth
International has warned that this would “create the climate regime’s
biggest ever loophole.” We speak to Miguel Lovera, chair of the Global
Forest Coalition about his concerns and his proposals for an alternative way
forward.

Continue Reading »

More and more of these kinds of eco-restoration (aka re-wilding) projects are critical to mitigating and surviving climate change. In particular, specific measures that would help to protect water supplies (surface, ground, precipitation run-off, etc.) are a crucial first step in any ecosystem in any bio-region…in the case of the riparian zones of the Desert Southwest, that means (among other things) removing the damn cattle and restoring the willows and cottonwoods! Go WildEarth Guardians!!

ASW

Chapter 4
Wyatt and the Cottonwood Tree

Wyatt, the immortal wolf, remembers the Old West.

Wyatt led his pack from the wild lands of the Gila to the
Colorado Plateau, concealed by the tunnels of cottonwood that
formed a thin, green line of life for the arid desert. The shade
of the giant cottonwoods provided relief from the heat of the
day. At night, when the leafy canopy veiled Wyatt’s compass of
stars, he would simply follow the corridor upstream.

These passages were filled with birdsong, and kingfishers
swooped down from the branches, diving underwater after their
prey–a skill Wyatt envied. On hot summer days, when he came
upon one of the many beaver dams, he cooled off in their ponds.
Foxes and squirrels found shelter inside the trees. Every

cottonwood was an oasis.
Continue Reading »

Published on Saturday, December 13, 2008 by Inter Press Service

Climate Change: ‘Things Happen Much Faster in the Arctic’

by Stephen Leahy

QUEBEC CITY, Canada-In just a few summers from now, the Arctic Ocean will lose its protective cover of ice for the first time in a million years, according to some experts attending the International Arctic Change conference here.

‘Things are happening much faster in the Arctic. I think it will be summer ice-free by 2015,’ said David Barber, an Arctic climatologist at the University of Manitoba.

Such a ‘dramatic and serious loss of sea ice will affect everyone on the planet,’ Barber told IPS.

Barber spent much of last winter on a Canadian research icebreaker, the Amundsen, in the Arctic Ocean as leader of a 40-million-dollar ice research project. Scientists expected the Amundsen to be frozen in place for many months during the harsh Arctic winter, when there is no sunlight and temperatures plunge to -50 degrees C. Instead the ship stayed mobile as the normally impenetrable ice was thin and weak.

Continue Reading »

—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: Lakota win standing in Cameco nuclear fight
From:    “wsdp” <wsdp@igc.org>
Date:    Sat, December 13, 2008 7:07 am
To:      wsdp@igc.org
————————————————————————–

FYI – Good news.

From the article below: “This is about the Human Rights of my clients
and their future generations to have clean drinking water,” said Bruce
Ellison, attorney for White Plume and Owe Aku.
_________________________

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Lakota win standing in Cameco nuclear fight

At:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/12/lakota-win-standing-in-cameco-
nuclear.html

By Alex White Plume
http://www.unobserver.com <http://www.unobserver.com/>

Water Protectors and Human Rights Activists Granted Standing to Oppose
the World’s Largest Uranium Producer Transnational Corporation: Cameco,
Inc.

PINE RIDGE SD–An Atomic Licensing Board (ALB) judges’ panel of the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ruled in favor of petitioners who
filed interventions in the 10-year license renewal of Cameco, Inc.’s In
Situ Leach (ISL) uranium mine near Crawford, Nebraska.

Continue Reading »

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies against buffer zone changes at congressional hearing

by Ken Ward Jr.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Bush administration today will publish its final rule to revoke key water quality protections, a move that critics say helps to protect mountaintop removal coal mining from tougher restrictions.

The changes approved by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement are scheduled for publication in today’s Federal Register.

Last week, the White House and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency paved the way for the OSM to finalize its more than five-year effort to rewrite the 1983 stream “buffer zone” rule.

Continue Reading »

Mass migration on the horizon. Expect lots of
cheap real estate, emptied highways.
Lance

————————————————————-
“The Las Vegas Valley gets 90 percent of its
drinking water from the river, which also
supplies tens of millions of people in Arizona,
California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and
Wyoming.

“The UNLV study is further evidence that climate
change has been affecting the river for some time.

“Its findings come on the heels of dire
predictions for the future of the Colorado.”
—————————————————

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Dec. 11, 2008

CLIMATE CHANGE: Study tracks river’s course
UNLV researchers: More rain, less snow

By HENRY BREAN

You don’t need a crystal ball to predict the
potential impacts of climate change on the

Colorado River. According to UNLV researchers,

what could happen to the river is happening

already.

Continue Reading »

Billings Gazette (Billings, Montana)
December 12, 2008.

Forest Service peers into future with climate change
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/12/12/news/state/27-climatechange.txt
By BRETT FRENCH Of The Gazette Staff

More weeds, loss of some plant and animal species
and more intense wildfires are some of the future
scenarios the U.S. Forest Service faces under the
looming threat of global climate change.

“We’re almost on the cusp of an ecosystem shift,”
said Faith Ann Heinsch, a University of Montana
professor of climatology. “If we don’t increase
our summer precipitation and our winter
precipitation falls as rain, we’ll be looking at
some interesting changes. Water issues will be
the big fight in the West again.”

Continue Reading »

—————————————-
“As CO2 increases and weather patterns shift, the
chemical composition of our rivers will change,
and this will affect the oceans,” says co-author
Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution’s
Department of Global Ecology.

“What we learned from this work is that the ocean
system is much more sensitive to climate change
than we have previously appreciated,” says
Griffith.
———————————–

Science Daily
News Release

Climate Change Alters Ocean Chemistry
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211141832.htm

ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2008) – Researchers have
discovered that the ocean’s chemical makeup is
less stable and more greatly affected by climate
change than previously believed. Researchers
report that during a time of climate change 13
million years ago the chemical makeup of the
oceans changed dramatically. The researchers warn
that the chemical composition of the ocean today
could be similarly affected by climate changes
now underway – with potentially far-reaching
consequences for marine ecosystems.

Continue Reading »

For Immediate Release 11 December, 2008

Groups unite to challenge the definition of forests under UNFCCC/REDD

Poznan, Poland (UN Climate Conference)–Global Forest Coalition, The
Wilderness Society, World Rainforest Movement, Global Justice Ecology
Project, Via Campesina, the International Youth Delegation and the STOP GE
Trees Campaign united today to challenge the UN/REDD definition of forests.

Currently the UN considers industrial tree plantations as forests. This is,
simply put, an egregious error. Plantations are not forests. Forests are
diverse ecosystems and plantations are void of biodiversity. The UN
definition endangers Indigenous Peoples, forest dependent people, peasants,
small farmers, biodiversity and exacerbates climate change.

Continue Reading »

Navajo and Hopi tell Office of Surface Mining in Denver

THANKS to everyone who helped us make our point to the Office of Surface Mining yesterday! OSM disconnected their phone line because so many people flooded them with calls!

This is just the begining of this battle, we are more determined than ever to not allow our homelands to be turned into “minor” decisions for coal interests! I hope you will continue to stand in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and the “front line” communities that are taking a stand against these major entities!

Please help us get this update out and again thank you!!

-Enei

Enei Begaye
Co-Director, Black Mesa Water Coalition
PO Box 613 Flagstaff, AZ 86002-613
phone: (928) 213-5909
fax #: (928) 213-5905
www.blackmesawatercoalition.org

Continue Reading »

Forest Service Whiffs on Chance to Solve Two Critical Problems
Agency offers no remedy for wildlife and watersheds from oversized and decaying road
system

WASHINGTON-December 9. The U.S. Forest Service today chose to ignore its regulations
and pass on opportunities to address two of the most serious threats facing our
national forests-the impact of off-road vehicles (ORVs) and of our over-sized and
decaying forest roads system. Issuing new management guidelines today, the agency
provided direction on how land managers can elude existing safeguards rather than
comply with them.

“We could not be more disappointed with today’s announcement,” said Vera Smith, the
director of the recreation planning program for The Wilderness Society. “The
conservation community has worked diligently with the Forest Service over the past
three years to make this process a success for everyone.”

Continue Reading »

Protest Manifests as Indigenous Rights are opposed by U.S., Canada,

Australia and New Zealand at UN Climate Conference. 

Poznan, Poland– 9 December 2008

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, LOCAL COMMUNITIES AND NGOs OUTRAGED AT THE REMOVAL OF

RIGHTS FROM UNFCCC DECISION ON REDD

For photos and more: http://globaljusticeecology.org 

We, the undersigned representatives of indigenous peoples, local communities

and non-governmental organizations monitoring the progress of negotiations

in Poznan are outraged that the United States, Canada, Australia and New

Zealand opposed the inclusion of recognition of the rights of indigenous

peoples and local communities in a decision on REDD (Reduced Emissions from

Deforestation and Forest Degradation) drafted today by government delegates

at the UN Climate Conference.

————————————————————————————–

While i don’t know much at all about the details of this eco-restoration

effort in the forests of southwestern Oregon-but we need to be thinking

along these lines as a beginning. Localized/regionalized eco-restoration &

rewilding efforts that involve everyone in the area (including local

sawmills  & workers).

Without salivating over the whole “Obama-mania” thing (much of it

contrived, i believe) that’s being fostered nowadays, the notion of

“policy-as-a-tactic-not-a-goal” may work resonably well under the Obama

regime-& this can manifest in the launching of such projects everywhere

)the capital can come from both the Pentagon as well as

extractive-industry subsidies).

Hell-it ain’t rocket science…& time’s running out.

ASW

 <http://www.siskiyou.org/> Logo full color with text copy.jpg

“Shane Jimerfield, Siskiyou Project” <shane@siskiyou.org>

December, 2008

Siskiyou Project Signs Historic 10 Year-10,000 Acre Stewardship

Agreement

Continue Reading »

There’s a broad consensus that we  must avoid

letting atmospheric CO2 levels exceed 450 ppm

(parts per million), because 450ppm will heat the

planet to a dangerous 2 Celsius above

pre-industrial levels.

Over the past couple years, there’s been a

broadening consensus that we won’t hold the ppm

to 450. Why? Simply because we aren’t cutting our

consumption of forests and fossil fuels by

anywhere near enough to do that job.

Lance

———————————————————-

“In the jargon used to count the steady

accumulation of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s

thin layer of atmosphere, he said it was

‘improbable’ that levels could now be restricted

to 650 parts per million (ppm).”

——————————

The Guardian (UK)

Tuesday December 9 2008

Too late? Why scientists say we should expect the worst

At a high-level academic conference on global

warming at Exeter University this summer, climate

scientist Kevin Anderson stood before his expert

audience and contemplated a strange feeling. He

wanted to be wrong. Many of those in the room who

knew what he was about to say felt the same. His

conclusions had already caused a stir in

scientific and political circles. Even committed

green campaigners said the implications left them

terrified.

Anderson, an expert at the Tyndall Centre for

Climate Change Research at Manchester University,

was about to send the gloomiest dispatch yet from

the frontline of the war against climate change.

Continue Reading »

—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: [Action Alert - Support Indigenous Peoples!] CALL the Secretary
of Interior & Office of Surface Mining
From:    “Indigenous Environmental Network” <ienonlinenews@igc.org>
Date:    Mon, December 8, 2008 9:36 am
To:      stormf5@riseup.net
————————————————————————–

Please view this newsletter online at:
http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/view_newsletter.php?newsletter_id=1409791405
The Indigenous Environmental Network – PO Box 485 – Bemidji  – MN – 56619

To subscribe to this newsletter go to
https://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/subscription.php?username=ienearth&send_id=348302259&l=s&newsletter_id=1409791405

To change your address or edit your subscription preferences, go to
https://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/subscription.php?username=ienearth&send_id=348302259&l=p&email=stormf5@riseup.net

To forward this email to a friend, go to
https://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/forward.php?username=ienearth&newsletter_id=1409791405&email=stormf5@riseup.net&send_id=348302259

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Posnan, Poland Climate Talks: Forest Hotspots Pinpointed For Climate,
Biodiversity:

http://planetark.org/wen/50811

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Scientists discover that minerals found in collapsing ice sheets could
feed plankton and cut C02 emissions

David Adam, environment correspondent

The Observer, Sunday December 7 2008

Collapsing antarctic ice sheets, which have become potent symbols of
global warming, may actually turn out to help in the battle against
climate change and soaring carbon emissions.

Professor Rob Raiswell, a geologist at the University of Leeds, says
that as the sheets break off the ice covering the continent, floating
icebergs are produced that gouge minerals from the bedrock as they
make their way to the sea. Raiswell believes that the accumulated
frozen mud could breathe life into the icy waters around Antarctica,
triggering a large, natural removal of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere.

Continue Reading »

—————————————————————-
“It only takes four or five hours of temperatures above 30 [degrees Celsius
(86 degrees Fahrenheit)] to kill this highly vulnerable species,”
Williams said.
——————————————————

Scientific American
Dec 4, 2008

Global warming’s first mammal victim?
David Biello

White lemuroid possums-otherwise known as Hemibelideus lemuroides-may
have become the first mammal to disappear because of climate change,
according to an Australian researcher. The cute marsupials restricted
to certain mountaintops in the prehistoric “Lost World” of far
northern tropical Queensland, Australia, may have fallen victim to an
average temperature rise of at least 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5
degrees Celsius) over the last several decades.

Continue Reading »

Many voices are saying that the traditional subsistence economy of
the world’s forest-dwelling people is endangered by the new climate,
that forest villagers need for help in adaption to now-unavoidable
change, and that this need is largely ignored as rich nation’s try to
meet their own interests.

The news story below is focused on this issue’s place in the
international climate conference now underway in Poznan, Poland.
Lance

Jakarta Post (Jakarta, Indonesia)
December 06, 2008

Engage forest groups, conference told
Stevie Emilia, The Jakarta Post, Poznan

For forest communities, adapting to climate change is a matter of
life or death, but this aspect of the global issue tends to be
neglected, experts say.

“For many forest communities, adapting to climate change is already a
matter of survival. We need to act now to ensure a better future,”
said Frances Seymour, the director of the Bogor-based Center for
International Forestry Research (CIFOR), a leading group of forest
scientists.

Continue Reading »

For Immediate Release        Friday 5 December

Joint release: Global Forest Coalition, The Wilderness Society and Global
Justice Ecology Project

UN Climate Deal Could Pay for Forest Destruction
Carbon Karma Fortune-telling Action Foretells REDD Profits

Poznan, Poland–<http://www.globalforestcoalition.org>Global Forest
Coalition, <http://www.wilderness.org.au/>The Wilderness Society,
<http://www.globaljusticeecology.org>Global Justice Ecology Project and
concerned youth highlighted the risks associated with the implementation of
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in a
“REDD fortune-telling” action today at the UN Climate conference here.  In
its current form, they argue, REDD could derail the Climate Convention and
undermine a post-2012 Climate agreement.

Continue Reading »

So-REDD is being marketed heavily in Posnan-where Indigenous Peoples’ are largely locked out (again)…aren’t these climate parties a regular hoot?

ASW

In concept, forests can be used for carbon offset programs. However,
at the same time, getting from concept to policy and practice is
another matter, involving “difficult” choices, as a report to be
released today from climate and forest scientists makes clear.
Lance
——————————————————–
“But there are a range of complex issues facing the talks, such as:
the appropriate scale for implementing REDD projects; how to
incorporate forest degradation (as opposed to simply deforestation)
as part of the agreement; whether or not technology is sufficiently
advanced to measure and monitor forest-based carbon; how to guarantee
that forests conserved for carbon are not subsequently lost; and how
to ensure that the rights of forest-dwelling communities are
recognized and respected.”
———————————————

NEWS RELEASE
Center for International Forestry Research
Public release date: 5-Dec-2008

Contact: Jeff Haskins
jhaskins@burnesscommunications.com
48-510-853-540

Megan Dold
mdold@burnesscommunications.com
44-79-1754-4966

Report offers options for negotiators seeking to craft critical
accord on forests and climate change

Continue Reading »

Published on Thursday, December 4, 2008 by Environmental News Service (ENS)

ROME, Italy – Oceans and seas are becoming noisier with more vessels, increased seismic surveys for oil and gas, off-shore construction and recreation, and a new generation of military sonars, an alliance of wildlife groups said today. They warn that the cacophony is intensifying threats to marine mammals that use sound to communicate, forage for food and find mates.

The groups, attending the United Nations Environment Programme’s Convention on Migratory Species conference in Rome, are urging governments and industry to adopt quieter engines for ships, tighter rules on the use of seismic surveys, and new, less intrusive sonar technologies by navies.

Continue Reading »

Published on Thursday, December 4, 2008 by Inter Press Service

by Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS – Global efforts to combat climate change will lead nowhere as long as the indigenous peoples’ representatives have no say in discussions to lay out future plans, say activists who are attending the international conference on climate change being held in the Polish city of Poznan this week.

“Indigenous peoples have for centuries adapted to changing environments and would be able to contribute substantially to adaptation strategies the U.N. is trying to include in a new climate change treaty,” said Mark Lattimer of the London-based Minority Rights Group International (MRG).

Continue Reading »

——————Original Message —————————-
Subject: URGENT Support Needed: Navajo & Hopi Coal Fight Goes to DENVER!!!
From:    “Enei Begaye” <enei_begaye@yahoo.com>
Date:    Wed, December 3, 2008 5:29 pm
To:      blackmesawc@gmail.com
————————————————————————–

**** SUPPORT URGENTLY NEEDED! ****

Navajo and Hopi communities under threat for more coal mining on Black Mesa, Arizona

The U.S. Office of Surface Mining (OSM) will soon release a “Record of Decision” on the “Black Mesa Project” Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This decision will determine if the now closed Black Mesa Mine will re-open more lands for coal strip mining, potentially relocate more families from Black Mesa and give Peabody Coal Company a Life-of-Mine permit to mine on Black Mesa. A “Record of Decision” in favor of Peabody Coal Company’s “Black Mesa Project” would also allow the company the use of the Navajo Aquifer, which has been a center of controversy for the past 30 years and give Peabody Coal Company the right to mine untouched coal reserves indefinitely. For more information on the OSM process & the FEIS at:

http:// www.wrcc.osmre.gov/wr\BlackMesaEIS.htm

Continue Reading »

Arctic tundra emits methane even in winter
Wed Dec 3, 2008 2:17pm EST

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters)-The arctic tundra emits the same amount of methane in winter as in the warmer months, a surprising finding that bolsters understanding of how greenhouse gases interact with nature, researchers said on Wednesday.

Scientists have long known that wetlands produce large amounts of methane and had thought it unlikely that greenhouse gases escaped from beneath frozen tundra, said Torben Christensen, a biogeochemist at Lund University in Sweden.

Continue Reading »

Published on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 by McClatchy Newspapers

EPA To Gut Mountaintop Mining Rule That Protects Streams
by Renee Schoof and Bill Estep

WASHINGTON-The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved a last-minute rule change by the Bush administration that will allow coal companies to bury streams under the rocks leftover from mining.

The 11th hour change before President George W. Bush leaves office would eliminate a tool that citizens groups have used in lawsuits to keep mining waste out of streams. Mining companies had been pushing for the change for years.

It also means that President-elect Barack Obama’s administration will have to decide whether to try to restore and enforce the rule, a process that could take many months of new rulemaking. Obama’s transition team declined to comment on its plans on Tuesday.

Continue Reading »

The report, “The Climate Crisis and the Adaptation Myth,” is
published by the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and
is available at
www.environment.yale.edu/publication-series/climate_change/.

Public release date: 2-Dec-2008
Yale University

Contact: David DeFusco
david.defusco@yale.edu
203-436-4842

Most US organizations not adapting to climate change

New Haven, Conn.-Organizations in the United States that are at the
highest risk of sustaining damage from climate change are not
adapting enough to the dangers posed by rising temperatures,
according to a Yale report.

“Despite a half century of climate change that has already
significantly affected temperature and precipitation patterns and has
already had widespread ecological and hydrological impacts, and
despite a near certainty that the United States will experience at
least as much climate change in the coming decades just as a result
of current atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, little
adaptation has occurred,” says Robert Repetto, author of “The Climate
Crisis and the Adaptation Myth” and a senior fellow of the United
Nations Foundation.

Continue Reading »

———————————–
“In 1983, he collected specimens of two new species-Nebria wallowae
and Nebria labontei-near Glacier Lake in Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains.
Both were collected between 6,500 and 6,700 feet. When he returned in
August of 2008, he had to hike to an altitude of nearly 8,150 feet
before he found them.”

” … there’s no question that the beetles are moving higher up the
mountains. And where I used to find hundreds of them, I’m often now
finding just a handful-or none at all.”
——————————–

Public release date: 1-Dec-2008
California Academy of Sciences

Contact: Stephanie Stone
sstone@calacademy.org  415-379-5121

Ice beetles impacted by climate change
California Academy of Sciences entomologist finds beetles moving to
higher ground

In the summer of 1968, Dave Kavanaugh set off on a hike that would
change the course of his life. As a second-year medical student at
the University of Colorado, he had joined a climbing club with a few
members of the biophysics department, and the group had set their
sights on Gray’s Peak-the ninth highest mountain in Colorado.
Kavanaugh, who has never been able to do anything slowly, scampered
up to the top of the peak in record time and sat down to wait for the
rest of the group. As he peeled an orange and gazed out at the
surrounding terrain, a sudden movement caught his eye. A small black
beetle had crawled up onto his boot. While most climbers would have
ignored (or possibly squashed) the small intruder, Kavanaugh whipped
a collecting vial out of his pack-beetle collecting had been a hobby
ever since he took an elective entomology course in college-and
scooped up the rare specimen. He had never seen it before in
Colorado, and as he learned when he got back to campus, neither had
many others. There were only two previous records of the species in
the state. “That was it,” says Kavanaugh with a grin. “I was hooked.”

Continue Reading »

Damn! These egghead are really on to something!! And whaddya know: Dine’ on Black Mesa have asserted for years that Peabody Coal’s draining of the aquifer was impacting precipitation there in a negative way. Maybe more eggheads need to go to Pauline Whitesinger’s & herd sheep for awhile!!

Such implications are particularly critical in desert ecosystems-or anywhere some corporate scum want to plunder locals’ groundwater supplies…

ASW

I have the Nature Geoscience article as pdf.  Here’s how ES&T reported on it.
Lance
——————————————————————
“You could safely say [that] if subsurface water is heavily
impacted”-whether by agricultural pumping, sea level rise, or massive
parking lots that prevent groundwater recharge-”you literally could
be affecting the weather.”
————————————————————

Environmental Science & Technology
Publication Date (Web): October 22, 2008

Water belowground affects climate above

New modeling results show that groundwater conditions feed back into
climate by impacting energy transactions at the earth’s surface.
<http://pubs.acs.org/action/showStoryContent?doi=10.1021%2Fon.2008.010.28.134176>
Naomi Lubick

Continue Reading »

———————————-
“We’re seeing more floods and worse ones.”

“We, as emergency managers, have to start saying,
‘Look, we have to take a much broader view,
otherwise as our climate changes, this is going
to be a big deal.’”

Criss said more than 100 years of tinkering with
nature’s flow is creating unpredictable systems.
“We not only have more floods and higher flood
stages, but they occur at every time of the year
now,” he said.

“If we can keep the water in the upper watersheds
for just a couple of months between seasons, we
can dampen a lot of the change that is forecast
because of the climate,” he said, Š and any
depression — ponds, beaver dams — will aid that
process.
———————————————–

Emergency Management
Dec 1, 2008,

Floods May Worsen as the Climate Changes
http://www.govtech.com/em/articles/565970
By Jim McKay, Editor

It has become apparent as floods increase in
number and severity that terms like “100-year
flood” are outdated and so are the country’s
strategies for protecting citizens against major
events–save some forward-thinking communities.

Experts warn that reliance on decrepit levee
systems and continued buildup of floodplain
areas, combined with warmer temperatures and more
rain, will result in more death and damage from
flooding. They urge a more balanced approach to
flood management to mitigate this looming threat.

In spring 2008, floods killed more than 20 people
around the country, destroyed tens of thousands
of homes and inundated cropland, resulting in
rising commodity prices. Much of the damage
occurred in the Midwest where flooding was termed
“historic.” In Missouri during a 36-hour period,
four rivers crested at record levels March 17-19.
These “historic” floods are occurring more often
than calculations suggest they should.

In 1993, Midwest flooding caused more than $15
million of damage and killed 50 people. That
flood, called the Great Flood of 1993, was
estimated by the Army Corps of Engineers as
perhaps a 250-year flood.

In 2001, Bob Criss, professor of earth and
planetary sciences at Washington University in
St. Louis, wrote that the 1993 flood was, in
reality, a 30- or 50-year flood. “They said I was
Chicken Little,” Criss said. But he feels
vindicated by recent events. “We’re seeing more
floods and worse ones,” he said.

There’s been progress at mitigating these risks
in areas like Tulsa, Okla., and the Pacific
Northwest, where progressive strategies have
controlled flooding. But overall it’s been slow,
with a continuation of the same philosophies.

“We, as emergency managers, have to start saying,
‘Look, we have to take a much broader view,
otherwise as our climate changes, this is going
to be a big deal,’” said Bob Freitag, a former
emergency manager with FEMA [Federal Emergency
Management Agency] and currently professor of
urban design and planning at the University of
Washington. “We, as emergency managers, see
everything that goes wrong: all the mistakes that
were made on that stream–upstream in terms of
fencing it in, removing all storage, removing the
forest that provides detention. All those
failures–we see [them] at a point when it
comes downstream and destroys homes.”

Warming Trend

According to the National Climatic Data Center,
the Earth’s summer temperature rose above average
for the 30th straight year in 2008.

Some areas of the country are experiencing more
rainfall instead of snow, which means more severe
flooding in the spring. “The Governmental Panel
on Climate Change has said that in many cases,
we’re going to see less water in an area because
of climate change, but when it comes it’s going
to be the gullywasher,” said Gerry Galloway, a
civil engineer and former brigadier general who
was assigned by the White House to lead a
committee assessing the Great Flood of 1993.

In response, most areas are trying to funnel more
water through narrower channels, the age-old
strategy. In the Midwest, the Army Corps of
Engineers is deepening channels with wing dikes
and other structures to allow more water to pass
through.

“That’s what they think they’re going to do,”
Criss said. “You might be able to do that locally
with continued maintenance and dredging, but
thinking they’re going to change the bottom of
the river for any significant difference is
folly.”

The idea of creating narrower, deeper channels
has been the Midwest’s flood-control philosophy
for more than 100 years, but 19th-century maps
show the Mississippi River is no deeper now than
it was then, Criss said. “How do you dig a hole
in the bottom of a river? You don’t, and thinking
that we can is not very bright.”

Any dredging done on the bottom of a river, in
this case the Mississippi, is pointless because
it will just fill back up with mud without
continuous dredging, Criss said. That leaves the
water nowhere to go but up.

Criss said more than 100 years of tinkering with
nature’s flow is creating unpredictable systems.
“We not only have more floods and higher flood
stages, but they occur at every time of the year
now,” he said. “Basically we have a more chaotic
river than we had historically. It’s not the
controlled system we think we’re trying to make.
We delude ourselves with these concepts.”

Levees have been the main form of flood
protection for much of the country, but a recent
report suggested that the Army Corps of
Engineers, which oversees many of the levee
systems, lacks an inventory of thousands of
levees that may be unsafe. That report came amid
heightened concerns after the record floods in
spring 2008 and more extreme weather forecast
because of climate change.

Indiana residents boat down a street that flooded
as a result of remnants of Hurricane Ike in
September 2008.

For the most part, the levees have held up, but
there were breaches this spring in Missouri and
elsewhere. And everyone knows of Hurricane
Katrina, where 60 percent of damage resulted from
a failed floodwall. “When you’re dealing with a
levee, you’re dealing with a pile of dirt,”
Galloway said. “In some cases, it literally
started with a ‘wind row’ from a farmer’s grader,
then somebody else added something to it and you
have no idea what’s in it. Some levees have a
history of 150 to 200 years and it’s hard to tell
what’s down at the base.”

Behind those levees, communities developed and
are still developing despite the hazards.
Galloway led a blue ribbon study in 1994 that
concluded with the Galloway Report on the 1993
floods. “That same report could be put out today
on the Midwest floods that we just had, and it
started with, ‘Don’t let people build in the
floodplain when they don’t need to,’” Galloway
said.

Yet development in dangerous areas continues
nationwide. Galloway pointed to parts of St.
Louis near the St. Louis River where development
continues despite the flood threat. “Why? It’s
close to downtown. There is lots of land in
Missouri on higher ground, but it’s cheaper to
develop; it’s closer in and people can say, ‘Oh,
I’m by the river,’ so they let them do it.”

These communities spring up behind aging levees
that offer protection from a 100-year flood. “One
hundred years means a one-in-four chance in the
life of a 30-year mortgage that the levee is
going to be topped and that there’s going to be
some sort of disaster,” Galloway said.

The term “100-year-flood” is misleading and not
applicable anymore, experts say. “I think we’re
really overstating; I don’t think those terms are
useful,” Criss said. “We need to acknowledge that
the language is flawed and there are better
approaches.”

Galloway said the 1994 report called for 500-year
protection, but no one has been willing to buy
into it. “The Corps of Engineers said by 2011
they’re going to have 100-year flood protection,”
he said of the rebuilding effort in New Orleans.
“Aren’t they lucky? They’re still in huge danger.”

Big Risk

Besides New Orleans, California probably faces
the biggest risk of a catastrophic flood.
Developers there continue to build in floodplains
behind questionable levees. “It’s simply because
that’s where the money is and that’s where
developers go,” said Jeff Mount, geology
professor at the University of California, Davis
and director of the Center for Watershed
Sciences. “It’s more subsidized bad choices.”

California is searching for ways to strengthen
deteriorating levees that protect populous areas.
In the Natomas community in Sacramento County, a
levee breach could put more than 11,000 homes 20
feet underwater. The state recently passed a $4.1
billion bond measure to shore up weak and eroded
levees.

But that’s not enough, Mount said. The 2006 bond
measure amounted to patching an old tire, he
said, and the state’s efforts have progressed
little since then. “The tire’s bald, all worn out
and wobbly, and the rim is rusted,” Mount said.
“Right now we’ve brought the car into the shop
and we’re all standing around looking at the
tire.”

Mount said patching the levees is necessary.
“It’s an emergency.” But he said those repairs
are merely a Band-Aid. As in flood management
elsewhere in the United States, there are a
number of solutions, all of which comprise a
balanced approach that experts say is necessary.

Mount said truly fixing the levees might mean
relocating them or removing them altogether,
letting water spill over onto farmland to ease
pressure downstream. “As long as we’re primarily
agricultural, that’s a viable alternative to
creating fortress-like levees, which are so bloody
expensive and environmentally damaging.”

A proposed Auburn Dam along the American River
above Sacramento would help, but is expensive and
environmentally harmful. “On a purely economic
basis, it doesn’t work,” Mount said. “And where
are you going to mitigate the drowning of 37
miles of river to the [Sierra Nevada]?”

During the Missouri floods this spring, levees in
the upper watersheds failed, which ironically
saved the communities downstream from being
inundated. “The urban areas owe their livelihoods
and safety to the fact that their upstream
neighbors absorb the shocks of the very large
floods,” Mount said. “It’s the same as a levee
setback, in a sense. The levee breaks, takes the
top off the hydrograph and reduces the stage
downstream so the suffering of a few is the
salvation of thousands.”

It could be a lesson in flood management.

Instead of flushing water downstream as quickly
as possible, keep it in the upper watersheds
longer with detention areas, by setting back
levees or by flooding farmland. “It’s an
excellent idea, but it’s turned out to be damned
hard to do,” Mount said, principally because the
United States is a nation that puts private
property rights as highest values.

But the concept has worked in the Pacific Northwest and Tulsa, Okla.

Retaining Water

Parts of the Pacific Northwest are experiencing
more rain and less snow, which mean more runoff
in the spring and less water during the summer.
It’s essential to find ways to keep the water
where it falls for a longer period of time. That
was accomplished with retention ponds in Oregon,
where a stream called Buck Hollow–a tributary
of the Deschutes River–used to flow
intermittently. When it did flow, it was big,
brown and laden with silt.

Farmers along the stream built detention ponds,
which keeps the water longer in the upper levels
of Buck Hollow. The result is a consistent flow
of cooler, cleaner water for fish and more water
on the farmers’ fields.

Freitag said it’s important to understand that
flooding is natural, even beneficial. Prior to
the 1980s, Tulsa was continually hit with severe
floods. During a 15-year stretch, the federal
government declared Tulsa County a flood disaster
area nine times.

That’s history. Since 1986, the area hasn’t had a
major flood. “They’ve removed homes in the
floodplain, they’ve made large detention areas,”
Freitag said. “They’ve removed some of the tax
base at a cost, but they don’t have to have huge
repairs and now they have more attractive areas.”

It started with a citizen-driven movement that
eventually gained support from City Hall, said
Ann Patton, a founding partner of Tulsa’s Project
Impact, part of a short-lived federal initiative
aimed at creating disaster-resistant communities.
“We’ve moved well over a thousand buildings out
of the floodplains physically; we’ve done a lot
of visually appealing detention ponds to hold
water back and release it more slowly,” Patton
said. “We have a lot of trails and parks that are
in the floodplain and fewer buildings.”

Tulsa ramped up its maintenance drainage systems,
which had been neglected due to a lack of funds.
The city imposed a fee on utility bills to help
keep up with the maintenance. It was all part of
a balanced approach.

“One thing we learned was that in trying to
address some of the problems on a spot basis, we
actually made them worse,” Patton said. “We
realized that you have to look at floodwater
management on a comprehensive basis. You can
actually make your community better–not only
safer, but better by using the resource.”

A Humble Approach

Tulsa’s approach is to work with nature “with
some humility,” Patton said. And it’s an
appropriate concept, experts say. “Tulsa has a
terribly balanced approach,” Galloway said.
“They’re probably the poster child.”

Tulsa’s success story took decades and still
isn’t finished, Patton said. “When the wrong kind
of rain comes–and it could have been Hurricane
Ike–there will be more water over the land
than we want, but hopefully it won’t be as bad.
We haven’t fixed it; we’ve ameliorated it.”

And that’s the idea. “People have this idea of
flooding as bad,” Freitag said. “It’s just
change.” He and the others said communities must
learn to live with the flooding, and even benefit
from it.

“Floods are natural events,” Galloway said. “By
leveeing off so much of the floodplain, we’ve
prevented regeneration of the soils. And that’s
one of the major problems in coastal Louisiana.
We’ve destroyed much of the wetlands by taking
the sediment and dumping it in the Gulf of
Mexico.”

The sediment acts as nature’s sponge, helping
store the water and regenerate the soil, which
perpetuates the process. In the Northwest,
retaining water in the upper watersheds to
continue that natural process is becoming more of
a challenge. “What we’re going to have here in
the Northwest as we lose those snow storages, is
streams that are going to peak earlier and
summers that are drier and we’re going to have to
capture water everywhere.”

Freitag said the Northwest is blessed with
valleys filled with river sediment, which, along
with depressions like detention ponds, can help
keep water in the upper watersheds for a little
longer. “If we can keep the water in the upper
watersheds for just a couple of months between
seasons, we can dampen a lot of the change that
is forecast because of the climate,” he said. The
idea is to use the floodplain for storage as much
as possible, and any depression–ponds, beaver
dams–will aid that process.

It’s just one part of a balanced approach that’s
necessary to living with nature’s floods.

———————————————————————————————————-

Dow Jones is the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s–and Market Watch. The Market Watch story below shows that the financial community knows damned well that turning forests into fuel is lame at best.
Lance

————————————————————-
“It’s even worse on peatlands, which contain so much carbon that it
would be 600 years before we see any benefits whatsoever.”

“”This is not only an issue in South East Asia …”
————————————————————

MARKET WATCH
WASHINGTON, Dec 01, 2008

Biofuel Plantations on Tropical Forestlands Are Bad for the Climate and Biodiversity, Study Finds

(BUSINESS WIRE)–Keeping tropical rain forests intact is a better way to combat climate change than replacing them with biofuel plantations, a study in the journal Conservation Biology finds.

The study reveals that it would take at least 75 years for the carbon emissions saved through the use of biofuels to compensate for the carbon lost through forest conversion. And if the original habitat was carbon-rich peatland, the carbon balance would take more than 600 years. On the other hand, planting biofuels on degraded Imperata grasslands instead of tropical rain forests would lead to a net removal of carbon in 10 years, the authors found.

Continue Reading »

A Land Rush in Wyoming Spurred by Wind Power:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/us/28wind.html?ref=science

—————————————————————————————————————-

Amazonian Tribe Protests Oil Pollution:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5337802.stm

—————————————————————————————————————-

Published on Friday, November 28, 2008 by OneWorld.net

by Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS – Calls for greater participation of the world’s indigenous leaders are on the rise as another round of talks on global climate change opens in the Polish city of Poznan next week.

In a study released last week, MRG researchers warned that a new climate change agreement would be “seriously compromised” if policymakers continued to shut out the voices of those most affected by global warming.

More than 8,000 delegates from around the world are expected to participate in the meeting at Poznan. The two-week meeting is supposed to hammer out further international commitments to fight climate change, including climate-related financial assistance for developing countries.

Continue Reading »

Nov 29, 5:19 AM EST

Wildlife group seeks help from Texas oil tycoon’s wife to ease grazing on public lands

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Conservationists are looking to the wife of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens to help push for federal reforms that they say will help thousands of wild horses and save rangeland in the West.

Madeleine Pickens recently announced plans to create a refuge for wild horses. She came up with the idea after hearing that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was considering euthanizing some of the animals to control the herds and protect the range.

WildEarth Guardians wants to take Pickens’ plan further by proposing a solution the group believes would resolve public land grazing conflicts that have resulted in the horses needing a home.

Continue Reading »

Access to water must be high on climate agenda: group

Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:02am EST

By Svetlana Kovalyova

MILAN (Reuters) – Access to water is a basic human right and should be high on the agenda of climate change talks in Poland next week, the head of an Italian advocacy group said on Friday.

With more than 1 billion people having no access to safe water, the World Water Contract group for years has sought to make availability of water a basic right and add it to the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Given that water is threatened by climate change, it is time to include the human right to water in (the new climate) protocol,” Emilio Molinari, chairman of the group’s Italian branch, told Reuters on the margins of a water conference.

Continue Reading »

Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:04pm EST

By Raymond Colitt

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Destruction of the Amazon forest in Brazil accelerated for the first time in four years, the government said on Friday, as high commodity prices tempted farmers and ranchers to slash more trees.

Satellite images showed nearly 4,633 square miles (12,000 sq km), or an area nearly the size of the U.S. state of Connecticut, were chopped down in the 12 months through July, the National Institute for Space Studies said.

That is up from 4,332 square miles (11,224 sq km) last year but still down from a peak of 10,570 square miles (27,379 sq km) in 2004.

Environment Minister Carlos Minc, at a news conference in the capital Brasilia, said he was dissatisfied with the figure but insisted it would have been much worse without government policies aimed at tackling illegal logging.

“Many had expected an increase of 30-40 percent and we managed to stabilize it,” Minc said.

“When you confiscate soy and beef it hurts them in the pocket,” he said, referring to several crackdowns this year.

The government this year increased policing, impounded farm products from illegally cleared land and cut financing for unregistered properties, stepping up its efforts after figures showed a spike in deforestation late last year.

But President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s commitment to preserving the environment has come into question after Minc’s predecessor Marina Silva, known as an Amazon defender, resigned in May citing difficulty pushing through her agenda.

“Today’s figures are unacceptable but the long-term trend remains positive and they show that it is possible to do something about deforestation,” Paulo Moutinho, coordinator at the Amazon Research Institute, told Reuters.

Critics say the environmental protection agency is understaffed and underfunded to face thousands of often heavily armed loggers and ranchers in the world’s largest rain forest.

On Sunday a crowd in Paragominas, a town that depends heavily on logging, ransacked offices of the environment agency Ibama, torched its garage, and used a tractor to break down the entrance of the hotel where its agents stayed. It also stole 12 trucks with confiscated wood.

Commodity prices have plunged in recent weeks, but were near record highs for most of the year, increasing farmers’ incentives to clear forest.

The government must do more to change the economics of deforestation to make a real difference, analysts say.

“We need to make it more expensive to cut a tree than to preserve it,” said Moutinho.

He proposes local authorities and states be rewarded with tax breaks if they meet deforestation targets by cutting back logging and promoting sustainable industries from fruit picking to tourism.

(Editing by Alan Elsner)

—————————————————————————————————————-

This is a critical aspect of the climate-ecosystem relationship that receives very little attention. There is much more to the equation than carbon sequestration/release: forests (& vegetative ecosystems in general) have direct impacts on temperature, humidity, wind, and precipitation. Eco-restoration is vital to both surviving and mitigating anthropogenic climate change!

ASW

——————————————————–
” … could lead to an increase in precipitation by up to 20 percent …”

“The results show that, in addition to precipitation and temperature
changes, the project also will improve relative humidity, soil moisture
and reduce prevailing winds and air temperature.”
—————————————————-

Public release date: 24-Nov-2008
Journal of the American Water Resources Association

Contact: Sean Wagner
swagner@wiley.com
781-388-8550

Chinese forest project could reduce number of environmental disasters
‘Great Green Wall’ may be a model for worldwide conservation

Continue Reading »

Glaciers of the Tibetan Plateau feed water into the Mekong River Basin. Global warming is and will continue to endanger the glaciers. Although this climate-driven threat to the water supply of the hugely populated Mekong River Basin is still in its early stages, tensions in the Basin are
already moving toward conflict.

This article all but ignores the severity of our new climate’s threat. It doesn’t say, for example, that the increased temps already endangering glaciers will continue for at least a few more centuries, even if the world quits consuming fossil fuels and forests. But it’s a pretty good analysis of water conflict moving in the general direction of war.
Lance

———————————————
“Almost all the major rivers of Asia originate there. Tibet’s status thus is unique: No other area in the world is a water repository of such size, serving as a lifeline for much of an entire continent.”
————————————

Times of India  24 Nov 2008

Continue Reading »

—–Original Message—–
From: First Peoples Human Rights Coalition
[mailto:info@firstpeoplesrights.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 7:25 AM
Subject: Talks Could Learn from Indigenous Groups

From the article below: “Governments think of indigenous communities, who may face displacement or even the eradication of their homelands, as being part of the problem, when in reality they should be seen as part of the solution,” he [Mark Lattimer, Executive Director of Minority Rights Group] added.”
_______________________
[Article forwarded by Jack Hicks-<mailto:arcticnews@jackhicks.com>]

IPS
CLIMATE CHANGE: Talks Could Learn From Indigenous Groups
At: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44810
Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 (IPS)-As the United Nations readies for a key climate change meeting in Poland next month, a London-based human rights group warns that any new deal on global warming would be seriously compromised if the most vulnerable groups, specifically indigenous peoples, are shut out of the negotiations.

Continue Reading »

For Immediate Release

Release: Restraining Order Requested-Shoshone Grandmothers Plan Resistance Day on Proposed Mine Site

Contacts:

Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone grandmother, 775-468-0230
Dan Randolph, Great Basin Resource Watch, 775-722-4056
Julie Cavanaugh-Bill, Western Shoshone Defense Project, 775-744-2565 or
wsdp@igc.org

Restraining Order Requested-Shoshone Grandmothers Plan Resistance Day on
Proposed Mine Site

November 25, 2008, Crescent Valley, Newe Sogobi (Nevada).

As the holidays approach and the world watches President-elect Obama and the
bailouts; back in Nevada, home state of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,
it’s business as usual. Late yesterday, attorneys for several Western
Shoshone tribes and non-profit indigenous and environmental organizations
filed a request in the federal District Court in Reno, NV seeking a
restraining order against the construction of one of the country’s largest
open pit gold mines on the flank of spiritual Mt. Tenabo. The mine company
has already begun demolition of the pinyon forest with heavy machinery on
the site ripping out trees at a reported rate of 30 acres per day. As they
await a Court hearing and feeling compelled to take immediate action,
tomorrow, a group of Shoshone grandmothers will travel to the proposed mine
site to conduct a Day of Resistance to the destruction of the area and the
approval of the mine by the United States. Mt. Tenabo is a well-known home
to local Shoshone creation stories, spirit life, medicinal, food and
ceremonial plants and rocks and continues to be used to this day by Shoshone
for spiritual ceremonies and cultural practices. Over the years, tens of
thousands of individuals and organizations from across the United States and
around the world have joined with the Shoshone and voiced their opposition
to this mine-in fact, the mine is being referred to as the “most opposed
mine in the world”.

Continue Reading »

Published on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 by Reuters
Little Gain From Oil Sands Carbon Capture: Report

CALGARY, Alberta-Canada’s government saw only limited opportunities to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands using carbon capture and storage technology, according to briefing notes obtained by a Canadian media.

The notes, prepared by a carbon capture task force, were used by Canadian federal and provincial politicians and were obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, which said it requested them under freedom of information legislation.

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 25, 2008  4:41 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity
Miyoko Sakashita, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 436-9682 x 308 or (510) 845-6703 (cell)

Group Plans Suit Against Bush Administration for Ignoring Global Warming Threat to Coral Habitat
Federal Protection of Coral Habitat in Florida and the Caribbean Falls Short

SAN FRANCISCO-November 25. The Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday will give the Bush administration official notice of its intent file a lawsuit for illegally excluding global warming and ocean acidification threats from a new rule protecting habitat for elkhorn and staghorn corals. The federal government announced today that it will designate almost 3,000 square miles of reef area off the coasts of Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act for the threatened corals. The new rule, to be published in Wednesday’s Federal Register, was required by a court-approved settlement of a 2007 lawsuit brought by the Center.

Continue Reading »

Published on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 by Inter Press Service

Oceans Passing Critical CO2 Threshold
by Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada. An apparent rapid upswing in ocean acidity in recent years is wiping out coastal species like mussels, a new study has found.

Rising carbon dioxide levels in the world’s oceans due to climate change, combined with rising sea temperatures, could accelerate coral bleaching, destroying some reefs before 2050, said an Australian study in January 2002.

“We’re seeing dramatic changes,” said Timothy Wootton of the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, lead author of the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study shows increases in ocean acidity that are more than 10 times faster than any prediction.

Continue Reading »

Published on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 by The Guardian/UK

Forest Protection Plan Could Displace Millions, say Campaigners
Livelihoods of 60m indigenous people at risk from plans to tackle climate change by protecting forests, says Friends of the Earth

by Alok Jha

International proposals to protect forests to tackle climate change could displace millions of indigenous people and fail to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, according to environmentalists.

Friends of the Earth International (FoE) will argue in a report to be published on Thursday, that plans to slow the decline of forests, which would see rich countries pay for the protection of forests in tropical regions, are open to abuse by corrupt politicians or illegal logging companies.

Forests store a significant amount of carbon and cutting them down is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions – currently this accounts for around 20% of the world’s total.

Continue Reading »

Nov 25, 11:03 PM EST

Bureau of Land Management Pulls Auction Parcels on Oil-and-Gas Drilling Near National Parks
By PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)–Drilling leases on and near the border of Utah’s scenic national parks have been pulled from an auction block.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced its decision late Tuesday after negotiations with National Park Service officials who objected to noise, lights and air pollution near Arches National Park, Dinosaur National Monument and Canyonlands National Park, all in Utah.

Some of those parcels were within 1.3 miles of Delicate Arch, a freestanding span of 33 feet that is the signature landmark at Arches near Moab, Utah.

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 24, 2008  3:31 PM

CONTACT: Conservation Groups
Kristen Boyles, Earthjustice: 206.343.7340 x33  /  Shawn Cantrell, Seattle Audubon Society: 206.359.1363  /  Ivan Maluski, Sierra Club: 503-238-0442, x304  /  Steve Holmer, American Bird Conservancy: 202.234.7181 x216  /  Dr. Dominick DellaSala, NCCSP: 541.482.4459 x302  /  Nina Carter, National Audubon Society: 360.789.0792  /  Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity: 503.484.7495  /  Bob Sallinger, Audubon Society of Portland: 503.292.6855  /  Randi Spivak, American Lands: 202.547.9029  /

Conservation Groups Move to Rebuild Spotted Owl Population and Protect Old-Growth Forests
Effort begun to reverse weak habitat protection and flawed recovery plan in Pacific Northwest

WASHINGTON-November 24. Conservation groups challenged inadequate protections for northern spotted owls today in federal district court in Washington, D.C.  The groups asked the court for permission to intervene in an ongoing timber industry lawsuit which is aimed at weakening owl protections in order to log more western mature and old-growth forests.

Continue Reading »

Sydney Morning Herald
November 25, 2008

National safeguards for native plants
Stephanie Peatling

A NATIONAL seed bank of native plants will be
developed by botanic gardens as a way of saving
vulnerable species from climate change.

About 7 per cent of native plants are considered
at risk from rising temperatures, prompting the
eight botanic gardens in capital cities to launch
the conservation strategy.

Continue Reading »

It’s about time people (started thinking about U.S. forests…then again, this article holds a landmine toward the end…it’s called “biomass fuels.” Not a bad concept-if it means a return to wood-stoves & local, sustainable harvesting by local workers & sawmills (& not in roadless or old-growth areas).

This is all part of the Great North Woods that run from Maine to Minnesota…therefore this article has implications for the entire bio-region.

ASW

For a decade and more now, headline stories about the relationship
between our emergent new climate and the loss or reduction of forest
cover has proceeded as if only the forests of Africa, the Amazon,
Asia, and the Boreal North mattered. Forests in the U.S. have
remained substantially managed for extraction of wood products and
creation of related jobs–including extraction for jobs in the new
and still unsettled industry of burning forest biomass for fuels.

Lance

Times Union
November 23, 2008

Climate change affects forest
By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer

TUPPER LAKE-What if we looked at the Adirondacks as more than just
a 6-million-acre forest? What if we also viewed it as a kind of
living factory in the fight against global warming, a mechanism
capable of sucking up tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
every day?

Continue Reading »

Maine Youth Give Pierce-Atwood something to think about...

Maine Activists Target Portland Law Firm for Role in Commodifying Maine’s Groundwater

People from across Maine brought trash bags full of empty plastic water bottles to Pierce Atwood Law Firm’s office in Portland, ME on the morning of Friday, November 14 to demonstrate the physical ramifications of the corporate bottling industry for Maine’s landfills. The law firm represents both Nestle’ Waters North America and the Nature Conservancy in their water acquisition projects throughout Maine. Nestle’, the Nature Conservancy, and Pierce Atwood share both financial resources and leadership in order to pursue an agenda of commodifying Maine’s groundwater. Young Maine residents and their allies gathered in Portland to protest against Pierce Atwood’s role as the legal liaison in the corporate theft of Maine’s water. In particular, those gathered were concerned about Nestle’s continued legal action against the people of Fryeburg as well as the Nature Conservancy’s refusal to remove commercial water extraction from the development easements attached to the Plum Creek development plan for the North Woods.

Continue Reading »

It’s all going to ultimately revolve around water…because Water IS Life.

ASW

——————————————————-
” … the United States will have much less influence around the world
as the growing climate conditions, water and energy stress the planet.”

“Climate change, we concluded, is not by itself going to bring down any
governments. It is not going to lead to wars,” he added. But in the case
of “already stressed and strained and failing and flailing governments
and states … this well could be the straw that breaks the camel´s back.”
———————————————

American Chronicle
November 21, 2008

Water worth more than gold
by Michael Webster, Investigative Reporter

The new U.S. intelligence report issued by the
National Intelligence Council, the “Global Trends
2025″ report includes warnings tied to climate
change. Including water and food shortages
worldwide.

Thomas Fingar, chairman of the NIC and deputy
director of national intelligence says of the
report that may effect the U.S. most is that the
United States will have much less influence
around the world as the growing climate
conditions, water and energy stress the planet.

Continue Reading »

Death Bloom of Plankton A Warning on Warming:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/21-0

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2008  5:48 PM

CONTACT: Environmental Groups
Drew Bush (TWS), 202/429-7441, drew_bush@tws.org
Melissa Thrailkill (CBD), 415/436-9682 x313, mthrailkill@biologicaldiversity.org
Amy Mall (NRDC), 720/565-0188, amall@nrdc.org
Joe Nuehof (CEC), 970/243-0002, joe@cecenviro.org

Gift to Oil Industry Rushed Into Federal Register Before Bush Leaves Office
Final Oil Shale Regulations Endanger Lands, Communities of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming

WASHINGTON – November 17 – Ignoring the wishes of two governors and numerous members of Congress, the Bush administration announced today final regulations for a commercial oil shale program affecting almost 2 million acres of public lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. These regulations lay out the rules governing royalty rates, evaluation of lease bids, mitigation requirements, and other technical and procedural elements of commercial oil shale leasing and production.

Continue Reading »

Experts: Half World Faces Water Shortage by 2080

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/18-0

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Nature-Published online 14 November 2008

News

Marine dead zones set to expand rapidly

Rising carbon dioxide levels will make oceans
more hostile to life.

Quirin Schiermeier

Rising levels of carbon dioxide could increase
the volume of oxygen-depleted ‘dead zones’ in
tropical oceans by as much as 50% before the end
of the century – with dire consequences for the
health of ecosystems in some of the world’s most
productive fishing grounds.

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14, 2008  1:39 PM

CONTACT: The Wilderness Society
Maribeth Oakes, 202-429-2674, Maribeth_Oakes@tws.org
Kathy Westra, 202-429-2642, Kathy_Westra@tws.org

US Fish and Wildlife Service Releases Flawed New Wilderness Policy for Wildlife Refuge System
Policy Ignores Global Warming, Exempts Alaska Refuges from Wilderness Review Process

WASHINGTON-November 14. The Wilderness Society (TWS) today criticized the Bush Administration for its hasty release of a flawed new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wilderness stewardship policy for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Major deficiencies of the new policy, issued yesterday, are that it fails to take into account the issue of climate change in managing the 21 million acres of designated Wilderness within the nation’s 540 wildlife refuges, and that it exempts all refuge lands in Alaska from requirements for wilderness reviews. In addition, the policy was released without any opportunity for public comment-a serious problem given the document’s other shortcomings.

Continue Reading »

——————————–
“Halliburton (HAL) and other gas-service giants
are fighting to keep secret the potentially
hazardous chemicals they use …”

“Halliburton threatened to cease natural-gas
operations in Colorado if regulators there
persisted in demanding the chemical recipe …”

” … regulators have only lately sought to learn more …”
—————————————-

Business Week
November 11, 2008

Does Natural-Gas Drilling Endanger Water Supplies?
A debate is heating up over whether the
fracturing technique used in natural-gas drilling
could result in chemicals contaminating drinking
water

By Abrahm Lustgarten

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2008 5:26 PM

CONTACT: Defenders of Wildlife-Erin McCallum, (202)772-3217

New Report Highlights Need to Act Now to Protect Wildlife From Global Warming
Defenders of Wildlife releases “Beyond Cutting Emissions: Protecting Wildlife and Ecosystems in a Warming World.”

WASHINGTON – November 13 – The new administration of President-elect Barack Obama heralds a new era for U.S. action to address the threat of global warming, and the effects that climate change is already having on America’s wildlife and natural places. A report released today by Defenders of Wildlife provides a roadmap for how the next administration can help America’s wildlife and ecosystems survive the impacts of global warming.

Continue Reading »

———————————————————–
” Our study has shown that high temperatures push certain sockeye
salmon stocks beyond their thermal window, resulting in
cardiovascular failure and death,”

“Farrell adds that the same concepts may be applied beyond salmon
management as another recent study co-authored by Farrell and
published in the journal Science has revealed similar findings for
fish and squid from the Atlantic Ocean.”
—————————————————–

Warmer Rivers Impacting Health of Salmon Populations

University of British Columbia
Public release date: 12-Nov-2008

Contact: Brian Lin
brian.lin@ubc.ca 604-822-2234

UBC study establishes formula for predicting climate change impact on
salmon stocks

University of British Columbia researchers have found a way to
accurately predict the impact of climate change on imperilled Pacific
salmon stocks that could result in better management strategies.

Continue Reading »

WildEarth Gets Animated About Clean Water!

WildEarth Guardians is fighting for permanent protection of the cleanest waters in the Southwest, using a little known provision of the Clean Water Act (called Outstanding Waters). In New Mexico, we’re supporting Governor Richardson in his mission to designate over 5,000 river miles as Outstanding Waters, ensuring their pristine quality forever (as well as the quality of the surrounding national forest).

Our efforts include the production of our first Wild Short-an animated film meant to inform you about clean waters and inspire you to act. Follow the link below to watch the film and sign our petition:

[http://ga4.org/ct/v7quhYM18XF-/]

You can help protect our clean waters in two ways: by sharing our Clean Water Video with your friends and family, and by donating today:

[http://ga4.org/ct/vpquhYM18XFJ/]

Each $20 donation helps preserve a mile of wild rivers across the West.

Check out our profile at Charity Navigator:

[http://ga4.org/ct/v1quhYM18XFG/]
____________________________________________
WildEarth Guardians
505 988-9126
312 Montezuma, Santa Fe – New Mexico – 87501

————————————————————————————

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2008  2:19 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity-Miyoko Sakashita,
(415) 436-9682 x 308 or (510) 845-6703 (cell)

Environmental Protection Agency Warned to Address Ocean Acidification or Face Lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO-November 13. The Center for Biological Diversity today notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of its intent to file a lawsuit against the agency for its failure to respond to the threat of ocean acidification. Last year, the Center filed a formal petition asking EPA to impose stricter pH standards for ocean water quality and publish guidance to help states protect U.S. waters from ocean acidification. Today’s notice of intent to sue urges EPA to promptly respond to the Center’s petition.

Continue Reading »

Vandana Shiva New and Hopeful Perspective on Climate Change

EXCERPT:

Vandana Shiva Rocks the House. By Tom Phillfpot, Grist, October 26, 2008. “I’ve just
come out of the most hopeful and interesting discussions of climate change I’ve ever
witnessed. Anchored by Indian food-sovereignty activist Vandana Shiva [founder of
Navdanya], the panel discussion at Terra Madre’s [2008 biannual international
conference, convening in Turin] unveiled a new Manifesto on Climate Change and the
Future of Food Safety [PDF, 56 pp], drawn up by the International Commission on the
Future of Food and Agriculture. The room was packed beyond capacity with at least
400 people, and the discussion was translated through headsets into eight languages.
The document under discussion is brisk, lucid, and to the point… To me, Shiva and
her multinational crew of colleagues (other commission members include Wendell
Berry, Jose Bové of Via Campesina, Frances Moore Lappé, and Alice Waters) have
articulated a powerful new vision for confronting climate change — one more potent
even than Al Gore’s famed slides and push for trade-based solutions. Where Gore
dreams of a ‘low-carbon’ or even ‘carbon-free’ world, Shiva pines for a
‘carbon-rich’ future — one in which agriculture systematically builds organic
matter into the soil, capturing it from the atmosphere.”

LINKS:

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/10/25/904/94558

http://www.arsia.toscana.it/petizione/documents/clima/CLIMA_ING.pdf

———————————————————————————————–

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2008  11:27 AM

CONTACT: Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
Aaron Huertas, 202-331-5458

Biofuels Industry Pressures EPA To Ignore Rainforest Destruction

WASHINGTON – November 10 – The Environmental Protection Agency must accurately account for global warming emissions from biofuels when implementing the new renewable fuel standard, leading environmental and science groups said in a letter they sent today to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

In last year’s energy bill, Congress explicitly required the EPA to accurately measure global warming emissions from renewable fuels based on their entire lifecycle, from cultivation to fuel production to vehicle exhaust. However, industry trade groups and others are pressuring EPA to omit or delay accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from land use change, such as tropical deforestation, tied to expanding biofuels production.

Continue Reading »

Yale University
Public release date: 7-Nov-2008

Contact: Janet Rettig Emanuel
janet.emanuel@yale.edu
203-432-2157

Revised theory suggests carbon dioxide
levels already in danger zone

New Haven, Conn. – If climate disasters are to be averted,
atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) must be reduced below the levels
that already exist today, according to a study published in Open
Atmospheric Science Journal by a group of 10 scientists from the
United States, the United Kingdom and France.

The authors, who include two Yale scientists, assert that to maintain
a planet similar to that on which civilization developed, an optimum
CO2 level would be less than 350 ppm – a dramatic change from most
previous studies, which suggested a danger level for CO2 is likely to
be 450 ppm or higher. Atmospheric CO2 is currently 385 parts per
million (ppm) and is increasing by about 2 ppm each year from the
burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas) and from the burning of
forests.

Continue Reading »

Climate, Oxygen, and Extinctions

Journal of Paleontology
Vol. 44, No. 3 (May, 1970), pp. 405-409

Animal Extinctions, Oxygen Consumption, and Atmospheric History
A. Lee McAlester

Abstract
Past susceptibility to family-level extinctions within major taxa of fossil animals shows a close positive correlation (r = .905) with oxygen uptake in Recent representatives of the same taxa. Taxa that have had high extinction rates have high present-day rates of oxygen consumption; taxa that have had unusually stable histories have very low rates. This correlation shows that periodic episodes of animal extinction were caused by environmental stresses that selectively eliminated animals having high rates of energy utilization. Past variation in the concentration of atmospheric oxygen appears to be among the mostprobable environmental changes that could be expected to produce such an effect.

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Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Florida)
Nov. 07, 2008

Forest Service unveils effort to tackle climate change, preserve woodlands
By TOM KNUDSON – McClatchy Newspapers

RENO, Nev. – U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail
Kimbell Friday unveiled a new agencywide effort
to tackle the problem of climate change, saying
it poses the greatest danger yet to the nation’s
woodlands.

“This issue is so big,” Kimbell said in an
interview at the national convention of the
Society of American Foresters in Reno, Nev. “The
health and resilience of America’s forests affect
everyone.”

Continue Reading »

———————– Key Quotes —————

“A lack of rainfall could have contributed to
social upheaval and the fall of dynasties.

“The researchers discovered that periods of weak
summer monsoons coincided with the last years of
the Tang, Yuan and Ming dynasties, which are
known to have been times of popular unrest.

“Conversely, the scientists found that a strong
summer monsoon prevailed during one of China’s
“golden ages,” the Northern Song Dynasty.”

” …  the study showed that the dry period at
the end of the Tang Dynasty coincided with a
previously identified drought halfway around the
world, in Meso-America, which has been linked to
the fall of the Mayan civilization.

“The study also showed that the ample summer
rains of the Northern Song Dynasty coincided with
the beginning of the well-known Medieval Warm
Period in Europe and Greenland.”
—————–

National Science Foundation
Ñews Release: 6-Nov-2008

Dry spells spelled trouble in ancient China
Weakening of summer monsoons to blame

Continue Reading »

————————————————
” … has led to dramatic ecosystem shifts as far south as North Carolina
and extensive geographic range shifts of many plant and animal species.”
———————————————–

News Release
Public release date: 6-Nov-2008

Cornell University

Evidence found for climate-driven ecological shifts
in North Atlantic, says Cornell study

ITHACA, N.Y. – While Earth has experienced numerous changes in
climate over the past 65 million years, recent decades have
experienced the most significant climate change since the beginning
of human civilized societies about 5,000 years ago, says a new
Cornell University study.

Continue Reading »

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Wed Nov 5, 2008 1:36pm EST

Lemmings in Norway hit by global warming: study
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters)-Lemming numbers are dwindling in
Norway because of climate change, ending a
historic cycle of population booms and busts that
inspired a myth of mass suicides by the rodents,
scientists said on Wednesday.

Fewer lemmings-small brown, black or yellowish
mammals-in the mountains of south Norway meant
predators such as the Arctic fox were forced to
eat other prey including grouse and ptarmigan
birds.

Continue Reading »

EXCERPTS

Changes in the number, size and representativeness of fished species  have been
observed for approximately 20 years.

It appears that the proportion of South-living and warm-water fish in  French rivers
has increased from 20% and 40%, respectively, to 50%  between 1979 and 2004. Whereas
large numbers of these small fish tend  to become predominant within the
communities, large fish, more sensitive to the temperature increase, tend to
disappear little by  little.

Full story:

http://www.innovationsreport.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/impact_climate_warming_fish_121807.html

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———————————————
” … upward trend in both annual and seasonal rainfall…”

“The maximum length of dry spell also shows an upward trend…”

“….hundreds were swept to their death by a
sudden furious midnight river flooding on
Christmas eve.

“At the other extreme were protracted droughts and mega forest
infernos…”
—————————————

DAILY EXPRESS (Sabah, Malaysia)
06 November, 2008

Proof of climate change in Sabah

Kota Kinabalu: There are distinct, measurable signs and actual
events of global warming in Malaysia and Sabah, according to
Prof. Dr Felix Tongkul, Centre for Natural Disaster Studies,
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). “Consistent with changes in the
other parts of the world, surface temperature in most areas in
Malaysia has been showing an upward trend since the last four
decades at rate 2.7 to 4 degrees centigrade per hundred years,”
said Prof. Tongkul.

Continue Reading »

————————————————-
“Reynolds said a check of coastal waterfowl aerial surveys prior to
the 2005 generally showed the populations split 50/50 between
southwest and southeast Louisiana, with some surveys showing more
birds in the southeast. Katrina changed all that.”
———————————-

Times Picayune (New Orleans)
November 1, 2008

Experts fear Louisiana duck hunting may suffer permanent damage from
recent storms
http://blog.nola.com/outdoors/2008/11/experts_fear_louisiana_duck_hu.html

—- EXCERPTS —-

… a growing number of signs indicate those hard times may be the
wave of the future for southeast Louisiana.

Continue Reading »

Good Educational Materials. I have seen some of these segments at Sky Crosby’s place
(he’s the one who sent this to me) &-while not really very “radiakal” in
messaging-very informative & useful for outreaching to mainstream.

ASW

Outstanding Cable-TV Documentary Series Now Online.

Continue Reading »

Bush Administration, Timber Industry Deal Challenged in Oregon:

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/10/29-11

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Hydro Project Threatens Indigenous People, Biological Preserve

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2008  4:13 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity
Jacki Lopez, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 436-9682 x 305

Hydro Project Threatens Indigenous People, Biological Preserve; Human Rights Panel
to Review Issue

WASHINGTON – October 27 – Cascading from the heights of the Talamanca Mountains, the
Changuinola River forms the heart of the Panamanian portion of La Amistad
International Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that provides habitat for hundreds
of rare, endemic, endangered and migratory species, as well as the indigenous Ngöbe
and Naso tribes.

Continue Reading »

FALSE SOLUTION: The True Costs of AgroFuels
The Impacts on Forests, Climate, People, & Food

This report, co-produced by the Global Justice Ecology Project and Global Forest
Coalition and written by Dr. Rachel Smolker, details the ecological and social
impacts of both first-generation food-based agrofuels as well as so-called second
generation cellulose-based agrofuels.

This report can be downloaded at:

http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/img/userpics/File/publications/Truecostagrofuels.pdf

En Espanol:

http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/img/userpics/File/Spanish/Elverdadocostodelosagrocombustibles.pdf

—————————-

www/globalforesatcoalition.org

www.globaljusticeecology.org

——————————————————————————–

Arctic ice thickness ‘plummets’

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7692963.stm

———————————————————————————–

Climate Deal May Be Too Late To Save Coral Reefs, Scientists Warn

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/27-6

—————————————————————————-

Climate link to amphibian decline

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7693381.stm

———————————————————————————-

Polar bears dying out in Russian region: expert

<http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081024/sc_afp/russiaenvironmentclimatewarminganimal>http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081024/sc_afp/russiaenvironmentclimatewarminganimal

———————————————————————————-

—————————- Original Message —————————- Subject:
[siskiyou] Gov. Kulongoski needs to hear from you!
From:    “Shane Jimerfield, Siskiyou Project” <shane@siskiyou.org> Date:
Mon, October 27, 2008 3:46 pm
To:      siskiyou@lists.onenw.org
————————————————————————–

masthead.jpg

October 27,  2008
View as web page <http://www.siskiyou.org/action/index.html> .

Protect Ancient Forests and Wild Salmon, Take Action Today!

The Oregonian printed an opinion-editorial from former U.S. Congressman Les
AuCoin on the BLM’s Western Oregon Plan Revisions entitled,
<http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2008/10/an_environmental_legacy
_for_th.html> “An environmental legacy for the taking.” AuCoin represented Oregon in
the U.S. Congress for 18 years. The editorial reads, in part:

These towering forests are at the heart of Oregon’s identity. They define our state.
Our communities rely on pristine forests for clean drinking water. Ancient forest
groves are some of our best places to recreate and find solace. Over the years, we
have come to learn the important role our mature and old-growth forests play in
providing habitat for endangered salmon and other unique species. Recent research is
confirming that preserving and restoring our old-growth forests is vital to the
effort to combat climate change.

Continue Reading »

Rebecca Sommer is a German artist, journalist, photographer, documentary
filmmaker, and human rights activist. She is the representative for the
Indigenous Department USA of the Society for Threatened Peoples [2], an
international NGO in special consultative status to the United Nations
(ECOSOC), and in participatory status with the Council of Europe. She
founded Earth Peoples [3], a global circle of indigenous peoples working
together to promote the natural and human rights of indigenous peoples.

Rebecca Sommer earns her living as an artist, with works in beauty,
fashion, print and film, and has worked as the editor-at-large for
magazines such as Scene, Madison, and Spirit while living in Germany,
India, Great Britain, Brazil, South Africa and the USA.

For a listing of her current & past film documentaries:

http://www.rebeccasommer.org/press.html

————————————————————————————–

“Forest thinning”? Maybe…but better leave big timber outfits out of it-or else.

ASW

——————————————–
“… tree mortality is likely to rise …”

“Forests are in deep trouble,” said Ron Neilson, a Forest Service
bioclimatologist and a professor at Oregon State University.

“Tom Coleman, the Forest Service entomologist who announced the
discovery of the oak borer in August …”The very worst-case scenario
is that we see a massive die-off of our hardwood forest. . . .”

“The same dynamic is at play everywhere on the planet,” Neilson said.

“In Central California, forests have been scourged by a disease
called sudden oak death since the mid-1990s. British Columbia has
been hammered by red band needle blight. Forestry experts say heavy
summer rains promoted the spread of both infections.

“In Alaska, the deaths of millions of yellow cedars are linked to
earlier snowmelt, which exposes shallow roots to spring freezes.”
————————————–

San Diego Union-Tribune
October 25, 2008

Drought, beetles killing forests
More than 10,000 oaks in S.D. County affected
By Mike Lee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Bugs and diseases are killing trees at an alarming rate across the
West, from the spruce forests of Alaska to the oak woodlands near the
San Diego-Tijuana border.

Several scientists said the growing threat appears linked to global
warming. That means tree mortality is likely to rise in places as the
continent warms, potentially altering landscapes in ways that
increase erosion, fan wildfires and diminish the biodiversity of
Western forests.

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Indigenous People from Panama travel to Washington to condemn the carbon market

“The Clean Development Mechanism could be used to finance the
destruction of our homelands,” say representatives of the Naso and Ngobe people.

A group of Naso and Ngobe Indigenous Peoples from Western Panama will arrive today
in Washington, D. C. to take part in a hearing at the Inter-American Human Rights
Commission (IAHRC) on Tuesday October 28. The indigenous representatives will give
evidence of the discrimination, abuse, and displacement that they have been
suffering from Empresas Publicas de Medellin (Colombia), AES Corporation (United
States), and the Government of Panama, who are together constructing four
hydroelectric dams on the land of the Indigenous Peoples in the La Amistad Biosphere
Reserve.

Continue Reading »

Climate change linked to Indian tiger attacks
Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:09am EDT   
By Sujoy Dhar

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) – The number of tiger attacks on people is growing in
India’s Sundarban islands as habitat loss and dwindling prey caused by climate
change drives them to prowl into villages for food, experts said Monday.

Wildlife experts say endangered tigers in the world’s largest reserve are turning on
humans because rising sea levels and coastal erosion are steadily shrinking the
tigers’ natural habitat.

Continue Reading »

Tropical cyclones can bury greenhouse gases: study
Sun Oct 19, 2008 1:01pm EDT
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) – Tropical cyclones may be a tiny help in slowing global warming by
washing large amounts of vegetation and soil containing greenhouse gases into the
sea, scientists said on Sunday.

A study in Taiwan of the LiWu river showed that floods caused by typhoon Mindulle in
2004 swept into the Pacific Ocean an estimated 0.05 percent of carbon stored in
leaves, branches, roots and soil on the hillsides being studied. The carbon sank to
the seabed.

Continue Reading »

I don’t like market-based views either-but it’s still an interesting article.

ASW

The single biggest problem for Life on Earth is
that there are so many problems all at once.
Lance

———————————
“Bees can’t pollinate, nor can trees store carbon, if they have all died.”

“Business as usual is simply not an option,” she says. But that is the option many
governments seem to be choosing.
————————-

The Economist October 16, 2008

Fewer creatures great and small

Nature needs a bail-out, say those who fear that
a poorer, hotter world will bode ill for life’s
infinite variety

GREEN-MINDED folk of many shades came to Spain
this month, to talk about the need to save from
human recklessness as much as possible of
nature’s bounty of genes, habitats and species.
They brought bad tidings. Common birds are in
decline across the world. Almost one in four
species of mammals is in danger of extinction. If
current trends continue until 2050, fisheries
will be exhausted. As it is, deforestation costs
the world more each year than the current
financial crisis has cost in total, one economist
argued.

Continue Reading »

Published on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 by Inter Press Service
Going Beyond Climate Change: The Cost of Biodiversity Loss
by Ramesh Jaura

BARCELONA – While the financial mayhem continues to draw the headlines, the cost of
persistent biodiversity loss has yet to be established. But it is believed to be
bigger than that of the meltdown, and in many cases also irreparable.

While the financial mayhem continues to draw the headlines, the cost of persistent
biodiversity loss has yet to be established. But it is believed to be bigger than
that of the meltdown, and in many cases also irreparable. (Image: BBC media)The
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) now plans to gather
incontrovertible evidence on the value of preserving biodiversity and the cost of
losing it. The world’s oldest and largest global environmental network will task its
scientific commissions for this.

Continue Reading »

Federal Wildlife Agencies Ordered to Ignore Global Warming

Any questions?

ASW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2008  10:24 AM

CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Bill Boteler (202) 265-7337

Federal Wildlife Agencies Ordered to Ignore Global Warming
No Review of New Greenhouse Gas Pollution for Impact on Species or Habitat

WASHINGTON – October 14 – Top Bush administration officials have forbidden wildlife
agencies from analyzing the effects of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired
power-plants or any other project on species and habitat, according to documents
released today by Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility (PEER). These directives are designed to block the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) from being used as a legal tool for addressing global
warming.

Continue Reading »

Rethinking Climate, Forests, Wildfires, & Biodiversity
NOTES FROM THE 88 FIRE CONFERENCE
George Wuerthner

I attended the 88 fires: Yellowstone and Beyond fire conference in  Jackson,
Wyoming. The conference went on for five days and had many  simultaneous
presentations, featuring some of the latest insights  into wildfire ecology and fire
behavior. The following are some of  the highlights.

Weather and climate figured into many presentations for a variety of  reasons.
Speakers like Tony Westerling of the University of
California and Tom Swetnam of Arizona State University spoke about  long term global
climate change which will likely increase the
severity and number of large wildfires in the future.

Continue Reading »

Pollution may hit Himalayan monsoon clouds
Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:09pm EDT

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) – Higher levels of pollution in Asia may affect the formation of
clouds high in the Himalayas, perhaps disrupting monsoons and speeding a thaw of
glaciers, according to a study on Monday.

The report, by scientists in France and Italy, found microscopic particles in the
air that can be seeds for water droplets at a Nepalese mountain observatory, the
highest in the world at 5,079 meters (16,660 ft) above sea level.

Continue Reading »

Warmer climate to dry up peatlands: study
Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:00am EDT 

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Warmer temperatures in the years ahead will dry up peatlands,
release more carbon dioxide into the world’s atmosphere and aggravate global
warming, a study in Japan has found.

Peat is the accumulation of partially decayed vegetation in very wet places and it
covers about two percent of global land mass. Peatlands store large amounts of
carbon owing to the low rates of carbon breakdown in cold, waterlogged soils.

Continue Reading »

Published on Sunday, October 12, 2008 by The Associated Press
Deal Could Open National Forests to Developers

A controversial deal between the federal government and the nation’s largest private
landowner could increase residential development of forests around the country,
according to congressional investigators.

The proposed agreement between the Forest Service and Plum Creek Timber Co. would
allow the company to use roads on national forests in Montana to develop its
adjacent private property for subdivisions. Such easements often allow the company
to use public roads only for logging or forest management.

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2008   12:34 PM

CONTACT: Oglala Sioux Tribe, Environmental Groups, and Concerned Citizens
Katya Kruglak 703.304.507
David Frankel 308.430.8160
Oglala Sioux Tribe, Environmental Groups, and Concerned Citizens Join to Fight Cameco, Inc. Uranium Mine
License Renewal and Exp
WASHINGTON – October 10 – A Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) panel is currently deciding the fate of the uranium mine near Crawford, Nebraska. In two separate cases petitioners, made up of individuals from Nebraska, South Dakota and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation; as well as the Oglala Sioux Tribe; the Oglala Delegation of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council; a Lakota cultural group, Owe Aku – Bring Back the Way, and an environmental group, Western Nebraska Resources Council, are seeking to intervene in the 10-year license renewal proceeding for Cameco, Inc.’s In Situ Leach (ISL) uranium mine and to block the expansion of that mine.

Continue Reading »

Published on Friday, October 10, 2008 by Environmental News Service (ENS)

Supreme Court May Bar Groups From Contesting Federal Rules
by J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared sympathetic to a legal position held by the Bush administration that would limit environmentalists and other public interest groups from challenging federal regulations.

[The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared sympathetic to a legal position held by the Bush administration that would limit environmentalists and other public interest groups from challenging federal regulations.

The case centers on a dispute over rules imposed by the U.S. Forest Service, but legal experts contend the court’s ultimate decision could have far-reaching impacts and make it nearly impossible for many individuals and third parties to contest rules enacted by federal agencies.

Continue Reading »

Spread the word-and watch for this! Bush cronies will-like George Sr. did-use these last months in office to throw as much of the public trust to the timber, mining, drilling, cattle, & building interests as possible. Couple that w/ McCain/Palin’s fetish for oil & gas, & Obama’s fascination w/ coal & nuke power-& we could have a big problem on our hands!

I got this from the Western Shoshone Defense Project-who battles nuke & mineral outfits constantly…

ASW

While we’re all watching the ads and debates and wall street woes –
what is really happening to our lands and resources?

News From Representative Raúl M. Grijalva
7th Congressional District of Arizona

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 9, 2008
Contact: Natalie Luna (520) 622-6788 office
(520) 904-0375 cell

Chairman Grijalva Denounces Bush Interior Department’s Last Minute Effort to Strip Congress of Power to Protect Public Lands

Tucson, AZ–Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced it will rescind a regulation that allows two congressional committees to withdraw public lands from mining and other extractive activities in
emergencies.

The BLM will published a notice tomorrow in the Federal Register to rescind the rule (43 C.F.R. 2310.5) that allows the House Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to notify the Secretary to withdraw certain lands in emergencies in order to give Congress the opportunity to determine whether permanent protection for the lands is warranted. The notice tomorrow will give the public only 15 days to comment and provides no environmental analysis of the impacts of the proposed action.

Continue Reading »

Climate Science: A Shift Toward Impacts Research?

——————————————————–
“[Its] focus has definitely not been on understanding impacts,” says Lubchenco

“Š local and regional officials are receiving
‘inadequate’ help in preparing for potentially
catastrophic changes.”

“Š you have to monitor the planet closer than we’re doingŠ”

“Š CCSP staff Š recommend a shift toward impacts science.”
——————————————————————-

SCIENCE
10 OCTOBER 2008  VOL 322

NEWSFOCUS
Impacts Research Seen As Next Climate Frontier
Scientists hope the next U.S. president will
devote more of the billion-dollar climate change
research program to impacts

Marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco was among the
first scientists to study how ecosystems off the
California coast are being affected by climate
change. Although that work has put her ahead of
the curve, it’s hurt her chances of obtaining
funding from the $1.8 billion U.S. Climate Change
Science Program (CCSP), the major federal effort
in the field. “[Its] focus has definitely not
been on understanding impacts,” says Lubchenco, a
professor at Oregon State University, Corvallis,
and a former president of AAAS (which publishes
Science). Instead, she’s relied on grants from
private foundations to support her examination of
oxygen-depleted oceanic “dead zones.”

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2008  4:21 PM

CONTACT: Earthjustice
Ted Zukoski, Earthjustice, (303) 996-9622
 
Groups Challenge Federal Decision to Waste Natural Gas, Ignore Global Warming at Colorado Coal Mine
Agencies reject multi-million dollar chance to capture gas, protect climate

DENVER – October 7 – WildEarth Guardians and Earthjustice today called on federal agencies to withdraw a permit for a Western Colorado coal mine expansion that would waste massive amounts of methane and contribute to global warming.

Methane-also known as natural gas-is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, yet is also a valuable energy source.

“Not only is this a waste of valuable resources, it’s worsening global warming,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “We aim to put an end to this needless waste and safeguard the climate.”

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2008 12:32 PM

 CONTACT: The Wilderness Society
Nada Culver, 202-650-5818×117, nada_culver@tws.org
Chase Huntley, 202/429-7431, chase_huntley@tws.org
Drew Bush, 202/429-7441, drew_bush@tws.org
 
BLM Ignores Process, 2.5 Million Acres to Be Opened for Oil Shale Development; Public Denied Opportunity for Input

WASHINGTON – October 7 – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) undermined the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act when it decided to amend 12 land management plans for Colorado, Utah and Wyoming without providing an opportunity for the public to protest, The Wilderness Society charged in a letter sent today to the U.S. Department of the Interior. The plans were amended in particular to expedite the commercial development of oil shale in the Green River Basin of the three states.

Continue Reading »

US Seen Open to Forestry Offsets in Climate Fight
 
US: October 9, 2008
 
NEW YORK – As it inches toward forming climate policy, the United States is more open to attempting to slow global warming through investments in tropical forests than the European Union is, a broker that works on forestry deals said.
 
“There’s been this kind of predisposition against forestry on the part of the EU,” Ross MacWhinney, a carbon markets analyst at energy brokers Evolution Markets LLC said at the Reuters Global Environment Summit in New York. “But I think that in the US legislators are looking at forestry as a lower-cost option.”
Clearance of forests to create farmland in developing countries emits nearly 20 percent of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, according to the UN’s climate science panel. Trees store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide when they grow and release it when they rot or are burnt.

Continue Reading »

Cities Should Do More to Protect Nature – UN

SPAIN: October 9, 2008
 
BARCELONA, Spain – The world’s burgeoning cities must do more to safeguard animals and plants by increasing parkland, planting trees and recycling resources, the UN’s top biodiversity official said on Wednesday.
 
“The battle for life on earth will be won or lost in cities,” Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, told Reuters.
Cities cover just two percent of the planet’s land area but dictate 75 percent of the use of the world’s natural resources, he said. City dwellers have an impact far into the countryside, with rising demand for water and food.

Continue Reading »

Indonesia Papua Forests Seen Under Palm Oil Threat 
  
INDONESIA: October 9, 2008
 
JAKARTA – Indonesia must do more to save pristine rainforests in Papua from destruction, particularly with plans to open up huge tracts of land to develop palm oil plantations, environmentalists said on Wednesday.
 
The rapidly expanding palm oil industry in Southeast Asia has come under attack by green groups for destroying rainforests and wildlife, as well the emission of greenhouse gases.
“Although the deforestation rate in Papua is still low, the threat is very high, for instance, with palm oil plantation expansion,” Bustar Maitar of Greenpeace said.

Continue Reading »

Forest CO2 Storage Plans Should Aid Poor – Alliance 
 
SPAIN: October 9, 2008
 
BARCELONA, Spain – Forest protection can help fight climate change but any UN-led projects must also ease poverty and safeguard rights of indigenous peoples, an international alliance said on Wednesday.
 
The group, spanning 250 representatives of business, trade unions, forestry companies, governments and local and indigenous peoples, laid down guidelines for an international drive to tap forests to help soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
Deforestation, with trees burnt to clear land for farming from the Amazon to the Congo, accounts for 20 percent of world emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Trees store carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they die.

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2008
4:00 PM

Environmentalists Score Phosphate Mine Victory

CONTACT: Earthjustice
David Guest/Monica Reimer, Earthjustice, (850) 681-0031
Environmentalists Score Phosphate Mine Victory
Project that would have destroyed 480 acres of wetlands halted

BRADENTON, Fla. – October 6 – Earthjustice scored a major win today when
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended a permit that gave Mosaic
Phosphate the go-ahead to destroy 480 acres of high-quality wetlands
within the Peace River watershed.

“This permit suspension is a victory for the people of Manatee County and
everyone who lives in the Peace River basin” said Earthjustice attorney
Monica Reimer. “This establishes that the permit should never have been
granted. It didn’t comply with the law.”

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 2008
2:37 PM

Polar Bear Critical Habitat to Be Designated

CONTACT: Environmental Groups
Kassie Siegel, Center for Biological Diversity, cell: (951) 961-7972,
ksiegel@biologicaldiversity.org
Josh Mogerman, Natural Resources Defense Council, cell: (773) 853-5384;
office: (312) 780-7424, jmogerman@nrdc.org
Mike Crocker, Greenpeace, office: (202) 319-2471; cell: (202) 215-8989,
michael.crocker@greenpeace.org
Polar Bear Critical Habitat to Be Designated
Lawsuit Settlement Will Increase Protections for Species Imperiled by
Global Warming

OAKLAND, Calif. – October 6 – The Center for Biological Diversity, the
Natural Resources Defense Council, and Greenpeace have reached a partial
settlement with the federal government of the conservation groups’ lawsuit
that seeks to strengthen protections for the polar bear under the U.S.
Endangered Species Act and other laws. The agreement, filed today in
federal court, sets deadlines for the Secretary of Interior to designate
“critical habitat” for the polar bear, as well as to issue guidelines on
non-lethal strategies to deal with bears that pose a threat to public
safety under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Continue Reading »

Climate and Wildlife in the Rockies

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“… climate change as the ‘ultimate wild card’…”

“We need to recommit to …wilderness”

” … called for the protection of wildlife-migration corridors.”

” … taking on big conservation challenges, including … land acquisitions..”
———————————————————–

Summit Daily News (Summit County, Colorado)
October 6, 2008

State leaders call for focus on wildlife
BY Bob Berwyn

KEYSTONE – Without major changes in policy, deer,
elk and other wild animals could soon be crowded
out of Colorado by sprawling growth, energy
development and climate change, according to a
panel of experts meeting Monday in Keystone for a
wildlife conservation summit.

“The number and severity of threats facing
wildlife is unprecedented in our history,” said
Colorado Division of Wildlife director Tom
Remington, listing oil- and-gas development,
population growth, coal-and- uranium mining as
key issues, and singling out climate change as
the “ultimate wild card” as a factor that cuts
across all areas of conservation.

Continue Reading »

9th Circuit Court of Appeals Delays Snowmaking on San Francisco Peaks, AZ

The Associate Press
Published: 10.06.2008

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.—A federal appeals court that approved a plan for snowmaking on an Arizona peak sacred to Indian tribes is giving opponents time to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Friday granted a request to delay any construction at the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort near Flagstaff until the high court can decide if it will hear the tribes’ appeal.
Tribal lawyer Harry Shanker says the order preserves the status quo and protects the rights of the Indians opposed to resort’s plan to make snow on the San Francisco Peaks.
The appeals court cleared the way for the snowmaking in August after a yearslong court battle. The Supreme Court only takes about one percent of the cases it receives.

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Many Mammals in Rapid Decline World Wide
———————
“…will likely deteriorate further unless
appropriate conservation actions are put in
place.”

“… the populations of 52 percent of all mammal species are declining.”

” … more mammal species are rapidly declining than we had suspected.”
———————

Scientific American
News -  October 6, 2008

One Quarter of World’s Mammals Face Extinction
By David Biello

The baiji dolphin is functionally extinct,
orangutans are disappearing and even some species
of bats-the most numerous of mammals-are dying
out. A new survey of the world’s 5,487 mammal
species-from rodents to humans-reveals that one
in four are facing imminent extinction.

Continue Reading »

Climate, Wildlife, & Uncertainty

“Conservationists must therefore assess both
current and future distributions of species Š.
One critical question is whether models Š can Š
provide robust predictions of future
distributions under climate change.”

Miguel B. Araújo and Carsten Rahbek.
“How Does Climate Change Affect Biodiversity?”
Science, Vol. 313, September 8, 2006
===========================
Confront uncertainty. Once we free ourselves from
the illusion that science or technology (if
lavishly funded) can provide a solution to
resource or conservation problems, appropriate
action becomes possible.”

Donald Ludwig, Ray Hilborn, Carl Walters.
“Uncertainty, Resource Exploitation, and
Conservation: Lessons from History”  Science
260(2):17, April 2, 1993

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“Implications of Climate Change for Conservation, Restoration and
Management of National Forest Lands”

I am very pleased to pass along notice of a noteworthy new summary
study on the current state of research on climate change and national
forests in the US.  An excerpt from the executive summary is below.

Web page:

http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/habitat_conservation/habitat_conservation_basics/forestlands/clim
ate_change_and_national_forests.php

Report download:

http://www.defenders.org/resources/publications/programs_and_policy/biodiversity_partners/implications_of_climat
e_change_for_conservation,_restoration_and_management_of_national_forest_lands.pdf

The principal author is Rick Brown, and the report is published by
Defenders of Wildlife and the National Forest Restoration Collaborative.

“Before joining Defenders of Wildlife, Rick worked on national forest
management issues for the National Wildlife Federation.  Prior to
that, he was a biologist on the Mount Hood National Forest in
Oregon, and started his conservation career with the Oregon Rare
and Endangered Plant Project.”

http://www.defenders.org/about_us/staff/rick_brown.php
Continue Reading »

Peru studies climate riddle as the world heats up:

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49285M20081003

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Scientists to boost Southern Ocean CO2 monitoring:

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4902KK20081001

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Battle for The Amazon:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/01-11

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FLOW: A Documentary Review

WATER IS LIFE!

http://www.alternet.org/water/100506/flow%3A_the_film_that_will_change_the_way_you_think_about_water/?page=entire

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The Pentagon’s New Africa Command Raises Suspicions About US Motives:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/30-1

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FALSE SOLUTION: Shale Oil a Bust

Energy Expert Calls Oil Shale World’s Worst Fossil Fuel:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/30-7

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This situation is never easy: Indigenous Territory is being colonized by corporate fossil-fuel interests…there are Native residents who don’t want the development at all-aand there are Native residents who want what they see as a ” fair share” of the profit the corporation will generate from the development.

ASW

Protesters Move In Path of Pipeline in Canada:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/30-5

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Read this closely. The comments about the necessity for livestock in the so-called “developing” world are very valid: these people depend upon their relatively small flocks and herds (whether this be the Masai People of East Africa or the Dine’ People in the Four Corners Region of the U.S. It’s the privileged people-us-that really need to re-evaluate our relationship w/ meat & dairy. I get a sense that the cattle & hog industries are feeling the heat-so to speak-& are worming their perspectives into entities such as Ecologist magazine and the National Farmers Union of the UK. Here in America-we need this critical angle to get the livestock industry off public lands and out of the grain stocks. Healthier intact ecosystems, increased biodiversity, greater food security, more water, and fewer corporate subsidies…make NO mistake!

ASW

Published on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
Meat Must Be Rationed to Four Portions A Week, says Report on Climate Change
Study looks at food impact on greenhouse gases • Return to old-fashioned cooking habits urged

by Juliette Jowit

People will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change, a major new report warns.
Continue Reading »

Obviously, the larger the wind-turbine fields-the greater impact to resident and migrating wildlife. Large wind-turbine fields imply highly-centralized power grids…and isn’t centralized power the crux of the energy problem? Keep the operations small & locally-controlled, and maybe even the pheasants can be happy, too.

ASW

Study eases fear about wind farm threat to birds:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4900A120081001

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2008 4:40 PM

CONTACT: Earthjustice
Jan Hasselman, Earthjustice: 206 343-7340 ext. 25
John Kostyack, National Wildlife Federation: 202 797 6879
Federal Scientists: Flood Insurance Program Is Pushing Salmon and Orcas to Extinction
New Standards for Development in Puget Sound Floodplains Likely

SEATTLE, Wa. – September 29 – Scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service (”NMFS”) today issued a long-awaited regulatory finding that the National Flood Insurance Program is pushing orcas and several runs of salmon towards extinction, in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The National Flood Insurance Program is implemented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The document, known as a biological opinion, is all but certain to trigger significant improvements in the development codes applicable in cities and counties across Puget Sound to help reduce risks to people and wildlife. Without implementing the changes called for by NMFS, these cities and counties could lose eligibility for federal flood insurance.
Continue Reading »

This is particularly critical to climate and ecosystem relations. I got to know the wolverine fairly well-so to speak-during the Idaho forest-defense efforts in the 1990s. As with grizzly bears and tigers, wolverines are a wide-ranging, low-density species that require large tracts of pristine undeveloped wilderness for individuals to roam around in. As the article states-wolverines face threats from lessening snow-packs wrought by anthropogenic global heating-as well as from fragmentation of habitat by “development” of ANY kind. So listing the wolverine as endangered would not only help the species directly-but would ensure the protection of vast tracks of pristine undeveloped wilderness-which is critical to mitigating climate change and stabilizing the climate regime. The Bushies hate the ESA…

ASW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2008 3:01 PM

CONTACT: Earthjustice
David Gaillard, Defenders of Wildlife, (406) 586-3970
Tim Preso, Earthjustice, (406) 586-9699
Joe Scott, Conservation Northwest, (360) 671-9950, ext.11
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity, (503) 484-7495
Politics Overrules Biologists’ Views in Wolverine Decision
Conservation groups act to save imperiled species

MISSOULA, Mont. – September 30 – A recent federal decision refusing to protect wolverines in the western United States is a case of political considerations winning out over scientific findings by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service experts, according to a coalition of 10 conservation groups that filed suit today in U.S. district court. The groups are challenging the agency’s decision to deny wolverines protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Continue Reading »

Hybrid bear shot dead in Canada – first grizzly-polar hybrid found in the wild:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4766217.stm

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Grand Canyon no place for uranium mining:

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/260077

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Brazil government ‘worst logger’

High food and commodity prices are increasing the pressure on the Amazon

Brazil’s government has been named as the worst illegal logger of Amazon forests by one of its own departments.
Continue Reading »

Published on Monday, September 29, 2008 by The Washington Post
Bottled Water at Issue in Great Lakes; Conservation and Commerce Clash

by Kari Lydersen

CHICAGO – Even as a 10-year campaign to block wholesale export of Great Lakes water came to a successful conclusion in Congress last week, some legislators and environmentalists vowed to continue their fight to close a “bottled-water loophole,” a campaign that taps into a national debate over sales of H2O in disposable containers.

[Water from aquifers that feed Huron and the other Great Lakes is exempted from export regulations when it's in containers of less than 5.7 gallons. (By John L. Russell -- Associated Press)]Water from aquifers that feed Huron and the other Great Lakes is exempted from export regulations when it’s in containers of less than 5.7 gallons. (By John L. Russell — Associated Press)
A provision of the Great Lakes Compact allows water to be diverted from the basin if it is in containers holding less than 5.7 gallons. The question is whether bottling water from the aquifers that feed the lakes, the largest repository of fresh water on Earth, should be seen as ordinary human consumption, commercial production, or export of a treasured natural resource.
Continue Reading »

WATCH THIS CRAP! Water is Life-& the Great Lakes are probably the largest fresh-water reserve on Earth. Monied interests have been licking their lips over the Great Lakes Ecosystems for years now-from bottled-water outfits to utilities in arid climates.

ASW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2008 6:01 PM

CONTACT: Food and Water Watch
Jon Keesecker or Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch (202) 683-2500
Great Lakes Compact Passes the U.S. House, International Coalition of Water Advocates Calls for Additional Protections for Great Lakes

WASHINGTON – September 24 – On Tuesday, the U.S. House passed the Great Lakes Compact, which aims to ban diversion of Great Lakes water. Hailed as a landmark conservation bill by many, the Compact will ultimately fail to stop corporations from withdrawing and selling water as a commodity. Despite efforts launched by an international coalition lead by Food & Water Watch and the Council of Canadians to ensure a more comprehensive agreement, the Great Lakes Compact passed the U.S. House yesterday by a vote of 390 to 25.
Continue Reading »

From: EARTH PEOPLES

UN Admits Its Climate Change Program Could Threaten Indigenous Peoples

Sept. 27, 2008 – On the third day of the General Assembly’s 63rd Session, the
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Prime Minister of Norway
launched the United Nations REDD program, a collaboration of FAO, UNDP, UNEP and
the World Bank.

The inclusion of forests in the carbon market, or REDD (Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Degradation) has caused anxiety, protest and outrage throughout
the world since it was created at the failed climate change negotiations in Bali and
funded by the World Bank.
Continue Reading »

————————————————————–
“Meanwhile, forests and oceans, which suck up carbon dioxide, are
doing so at lower rates, scientists said.”

“Richard Moss, vice president and managing director for climate
change at the World Wildlife Fund, said …”We should be worried —
really worried.”

“Things are happening very, very fast,” Le Quere told the Associated
Press. “It’s scary.”
————————————————————
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-warming26-2008sep26,0,6690604.story
Los Angeles Times
September 26, 2008

Greenhouse gas emissions shock scientists
Carbon dioxide output is rising rather than falling, despite efforts
to curb it. ‘It’s scary,’ one researcher says.

WASHINGTON – The world pumped up emissions of the chief
human-produced global warming gas last year, setting a course that
could push beyond leading scientists’ projected worst-case scenario,
international researchers said Thursday.

The new numbers, which some scientists called “scary,” were a
surprise because experts thought an economic downturn would slow
energy use. Instead, carbon dioxide output rose 3% from 2006 to 2007.
Continue Reading »

From the Western Shoshone Defense Project:

Call to Protect Native Sacred Spaces

—–Original Message—–
From: First Peoples Human Rights Coalition
To: info@firstpeoplesrights.org
Sent: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 8:44 am
Subject: USA: Call to protect Native sacred places

From the Call to Action below: “Article 12 of the Declaration [United
Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples] affirms20that “Indigenous peoples have
the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and
religious traditions, customs and ceremonies and the right to maintain,
protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural
sites.” .

“Tribal Nations and Native rights organizations are aware of hundreds of
threatened sacred places throughout the US and are highlighting two
critical threatened sacred places as evidence for immediate political
action: The Medicine Lake Highlands located in California and the San
Francisco Peaks located in Northern Arizona.”
_____

Please fax a brief letter to Senate Indian Affairs Committee urging that
a hearing be held on these issues as soon as possible. The Committee fax
number is 202-228-2589.
Continue Reading »

FALSE SOLUTION: Forests, Logging, Biomass, & Wood-Fired Power

forwarded News Release: TreeHugger

US Forest Products Industry Nervous About Biomass-Fueled Generators :
TreeHugger

Wood-Fired Electricity; What’s Not To Like?

Create new incentives for a massive industry to compete for a primary
natural resource – trees in this case – and costs for existing
consumers of trees will go up, as will adverse environmental impacts.
Check out the title of this news release which appeared today on PR
Newswire: New RISI Biomass Study Finds Government Renewable Energy
Mandates Would Lead to Unsustainable Harvests Via:Yahoo
Continue Reading »

IEN Newsletter: Call on Congress and Administration to Immediately Address Tribal Sacred Lands Protection

Please view this newsletter online at:

http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/view_newsletter.php?newsletter_id=1409738047

The Indigenous Environmental Network – PO Box 485 – Bemidji – MN – 56619

To subscribe to this newsletter go to
https://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/subscription.php?username=ienearth&send_id=275837167&l=s&newsletter_id=1409738047

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Recent CO2 Increases: “Astonishing”

——————————————————————————
“Anthropogenic CO2 emissions have been growing
about four times faster since 2000 than during
the previous decade …”

” Š the acceleration of both CO2 emissions and
atmospheric accumulation are Š astonishing during
a decade of intense international developments to
address climate change.”
————————————————————-

Global Carbon Project
Public release date: 25-Sep-2008

Contact: Pep Canadell
Pep.Canadell@csiro.au
61-407-068-930

Growth in the global carbon budget
Updated global carbon budget released

Today the new Global Carbon Budget was launched
simultaneously by Global Carbon Project co-chair
Michael Raupach in France at the Paris
Observatory, and in the USA at Capitol Hill,
Washington by GCP Executive Director Pep Canadell.
Continue Reading »

More, Greater Wildfires in the North American West

Billings Gazette (Billings, Montana)
http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/09/25/news/wyoming/21-managers.txt
Thursday, September 25, 2008.

Researchers: Expect more wildfires
By BRETT FRENCH
Of The Gazette Staff

JACKSON – Now might be a good time to get into the firefighting business.

If science and history are a guide, the world and
particularly the Rocky Mountain West are poised
on the cusp of a dangerous increase in the size
and frequency of large fires, caused by a warming
climate.

“By the end of this century we’re expecting the
area in Canada that burns to double,” said Mike
Flannigan, a research scientist with the Canadian
Forest Service. “Others say it will be a change
of three to five times. It looks pretty gloomy.”
Continue Reading »

IEN Newsletter: Act Now To Stop Gov’t Giveaways to Nuclear Industry September News-Alerts-Actions Needed, Etc.

Please view this newsletter online at:

http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/view_newsletter.php?newsletter_id=1409731779

The Indigenous Environmental Network – PO Box 485 – Bemidji – MN – 56619

To subscribe to this newsletter go to
https://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/tools/subscription.php?username=ienearth&send_id=274576773&l=s&newsletter_id=1409731779

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Forests and the Atmosphere: New NCAR Experiment

————————————————————————-
“Forests help control the atmosphere, and there’s a big difference
between the impacts of a living forest and a dead forest,” says NCAR
scientist Alex Guenther, a principal investigator on the project. “With
a dead forest, we may get different rainfall patterns, for example.”
—————————————————————-

National Science Foundation
Press Release 08-162
Pine Bark Beetles Affecting More than Forests
September 24, 2008

Pine bark beetles appear to be doing more than killing large swaths
of forests in the Rocky Mountains. Scientists suspect they are also
altering local weather patterns and air quality.

A new international field project, led by scientists at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., is
exploring how trees and other vegetation influence rainfall,
temperatures, smog and other aspects of the atmosphere.

Plants take in and emit chemicals that affect the air, and they also
absorb varying amounts of incoming heat from the sun. When portions
of a forest die, the local atmosphere can change in subtle ways.
Continue Reading »

Unfortunate Milestone: Autumn Equinox, 2008

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=overshoot

September 23 this year marks an unfortunate
milestone: the day humanity will have used all
the resources nature will generate this year,
according to Global Footprint Network data. Earth
Overshoot Day marks the day when humanity begins
living beyond its ecological means. Beyond that
day, we move into the ecological equivalent of
deficit spending, utilizing resources at a rate
faster than what the planet can regenerate in a
calendar year.

Globally, we now now require the equivalent of
1.4 planets to support our lifestyles. But of
course, we only have one Earth. The result is
that our supply of natural resources — like
trees and fish — continues to shrink, while our
waste, primarily carbon dioxide, accumulates.

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=overshoot

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The Film Nestlé Doesn’t Want You to See: FLOW Highlights Impending Global
Water Crisis

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/09/19-12

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Decline in common birds may signal biodiversity crisis

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48M14820080923

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Published on Monday, September 22, 2008 by The Day (Connecticut)

Wetlands-Nature’s ‘Horizontal Levees’-Blunt Storm Damage
Recent study puts a dollar value on their ability to protect coast

by Judy Benson

In 1960, Hurricane Donna taught Bob Fish a lesson he’s never forgotten.

Go to theday.com to read the complete report,

The Value of Coastal Wetlands for Hurricane Protection. Great Hammock
marsh in Old Saybrook is an example of coastal wetlands that have tangible
value in absorbing a hurricane or other major storm’s floodwaters. Go to
theday.com to read the complete report, The Value of Coastal Wetlands for
Hurricane Protection. Fish lived then on the west side of Old Saybrook
close to the Long Island Sound shoreline. As Donna’s 100-mph winds swept
through southeastern Connecticut, he recalled, the Great Hammock tidal
marsh between his neighborhood and the Sound filled quickly with waters
from the storm surge. Some roads in the neighborhood flooded, but homes
and other property were for the most part spared.
Continue Reading »

Another egghead figures it out…wonder if he’s ever conversed w/ an
Indigenous person before in his life.

ASW

———————————–
“Climate scientists who grapple with this every
day … we see where it’s headed.
We understand it very well.

“I think the public needs to know, straight in
their face, that you can give up on
civilization as we know it. This is what I’m
trying to get across in the book. Do we
actually give a s— for future generations?”
—————————–

Vancouver Sun
Saturday » September 20 » 2008

Scientist speaks up
Andrew Weaver’s conscience pushed him into the political fray

Nicholas Read
Special to the Sun

Andrew Weaver says global warming could cause 80
per cent of the world’s species to become
extinct, and destroy civilization as we know it
by the end of the century.

It was pure chance that University of Victoria
climate scientist Andrew Weaver’s new book on
global warming came out during a federal election
campaign. But since it has, he’s taking an
extraordinary step for a scientist and declaring,
point-blank, no punches pulled, how he thinks
people should vote.

Continue Reading »

Priceless material here…

ASW

International Journal of Biometeorology
Volume 52, Number 7 / September, 2008
Pages 553-715

Publisher Springer Berlin/Heidelberg
ISSN 0020-7128 (Print) 1432-1254 (Online)

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2008  2:30 PM

CONTACT: World Rainforest Movement, Friends of the Earth International, Global
Forest Coalition
Ricardo Carrere, World Rainforest Movement, Uruguay: (+598) 2 413 2989
rcarrere@wrm.org.uy
Simone Lovera, Global Forest Coalition, Paraguay: simonelovera@yahoo.com
595-21-663654/ 595-981-407375
Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth International, Costa Rica: (+506) 8338-3204

Groups Call for Action on 21 September: International Day Against Monoculture Tree
Plantations

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2008  1:29 PM

CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Bill Boteler (202) 265-7337

More Cell Towers, WI-FI and Web-Cams Coming to Yellowstone
New Plan Extends Large Electronic Footprint Across Yellowstone’s Iconic Sites

WASHINGTON – September 18 – A new plan for Yellowstone National Park will greatly
expand cell phone, internet and wireless web coverage in high-visitation areas,
according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This
Wireless Communications Service Plan for Yellowstone was unveiled on Wednesday
in the hope of ending a four-year moratorium on new permits for cell towers and related
facilities.

Continue Reading »

Hundreds of New Species Found on Australia Reefs

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSSYD28732220080918

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Study: Quota Systems Help Keep Fisheries Afloat

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94756887

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No plant CO2 relief in warm world

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7620921.stm

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Watch this one, folx…junk science & PAC-backed politics will work to open the Wild
Rockies to oil/gas drilling…we’ve caught this odor on the breeze before.

ASW

————————————————————–
“McCain can always get a laugh with his line about spending money on  bear DNA (was
it “a paternity issue or a criminal issue”?), but he  would do better to get serious
about understanding regional concerns  if he expects Montana and other Western
states to support him.”
————————————————————–
Daily InterLake (Kalispell, Montana)
September 17, 2008

When politics and science collide
Inter Lake editorial

Montanans should be proud of an unprecedented grizzly bear population  census that
was recently completed in the Northern Continental Divide  Ecosystem.

Continue Reading »

Arctic Ice Melts to Second-Lowest Level: Scientists

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1630231020080916

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Climate Change Nudges Crickets, Locusts, Butterflies Away From Home

BBC has posted maps of changing distributions of crickets. To see the
maps, go here:
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2008/09/_when_you_get_in.html>

Here are some excerpts from text accompanying the maps.

“It is thought other domestic species of grasshopper and cricket may
be declining as a result of changing climate and the research project
should identify when a species is in trouble. The Common Grasshopper
is among those giving cause for concern.

“There is also anxiety about Britain’s butterflies as a result of
another very wet summer. Butterflies do not fly in the rain, making
it impossible for them to reach the plants on whose nectar they feed.
Heavy rain also means they are unable to breed.”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Antarctic Winter Ice Gets Bigger; Arctic Shrinks

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSLC65229120080912

———————————————————————————————————————————————

Indonesian govt “gives up” on stopping mud volcano-Energy Company to Blame?
Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:42am EDT

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s vice president said on Friday the
government had given up all hope of halting a mud volcano in East Java which has
displaced thousands of people, hurt businesses, and destroyed the local environment.

The disastrous mud volcano, which started erupting in May 2006 near Indonesia’s
second-biggest city of Surabaya, has proved a huge problem for the government.

Continue Reading »

And he didn’t even go into McCain’s egregious policies toward AZ Natives during his
many years as senator…

ASW

Subject: An Alaska Native speaks out on Palin, Oil, and Alaska

An Alaska Native speaks out on Palin, Oil, and Alaska

By Evon Peter

evonpeter@mac.com
<http://us.mc517.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=evonpeter@mac.com>

9/8/2008

My name is Evon Peter; I am a former Chief of the Neetsaii Gwich’in tribe from
Arctic Village, Alaska and the current Executive Director of Native Movement. My
organization provides culturally based leadership development through offices in
Alaska and Arizona. My wife, who is Navajo, and I have been based out of Flagstaff,
Arizona for the past few years, although I travel home to Alaska in support of our
initiatives there as well. It is interesting to me that my wife and I find ourselves
as Indigenous people from the two states where McCain and Palin originate in their

leadership.

Continue Reading »

This also fails to mention the likelihood of an extensive tornado outbreak-from Texas/Louisiana up into at least the Lower Mississippi Valley-along w/ much flash flooding & tropical-storm-force winds in these inland areas-that may even move further inland (Ohio-Tennessee Valleys) later.

This will not be pretty…

ASW

——– Original Message ——–
Subject:     Hurricane Ike update
Date:     Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:35:45 -0700
From:     Fred Heutte <phred@SUNLIGHTDATA.COM>
Reply-To:     Fred Heutte <phred@SUNLIGHTDATA.COM>
To:     OREGON-LEADERS@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG

There is a lot of media coverage but here are some key points:

* Hurricane Ike is a very large, dangerous storm that covers much of the Gulf of Mexico.  While it has held a quite steady course and has not gained much in wind force, it is poised for a direct hit on Galveston and Houston.

* Hurricane Ike will landfall at or close to Galveston Island around 2 am Saturday morning as a Category 2 storm with winds around 105-115 mph. Hurricane force winds will be felt in coastal areas for as much as 6 hours prior to that and will affect areas well inland as it turns sharply toward the north.  Millions of homes will lose power as
the storm damages the electrical grid.

Continue Reading »

Loggers still advance on Amazon Indians – official

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1134175920080911

—————————————————————————————————————————————

New Scientist
11 September 2008

Honey, climate change is shrinking the species
Catherine Brahic

The old adage that bigger is better could be
about to go out of fashion. Ecologists say
climate change will shrink species.

But don’t look out for hot shrinking animals just
yet – the effects are likely not to be seen for
many more years. Yet Kaustuv Roy, a biologist at
the University of California in San Diego,
believes we need to think now about how we are
going to preserve large species.

Continue Reading »

Don’t forget: there is more to the relationship between mature &
old-growth forests and climate stability than carbon sequestration.

ASW

Scientific American
News -  September 11, 2008

Old-Growth Forests Help Combat Climate Change
Mature forests in colder climes may continue to store more carbon
than they emit, helping stave off global warming

By David Biello

Rare is the forest untouched by man. Whether logging or clearing land
for agriculture, the bulk of the world’s forests have fallen to
crops, cattle or younger trees. According to some estimates, less
than 10 percent of forests worldwide can be considered old growth, or
undisturbed for more than a century. And that is not just a tragedy
for the plants and animals that require mature forests-it is also a
tragedy for the world’s climate, according to a study published today
in Nature.

Continue Reading »

———————————————–
“The 700 fishes now listed represent a staggering 92 percent increase
over the 364 listed as ‘imperiled’ in the previous 1989 study
published by the American Fisheries Society”

“‘Human populations have greatly expanded in many of these
watersheds, compounding negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems,’
noted Howard Jelks, a USGS researcher and the senior author of the
paper.
——————————–

US Geological Survey
News Release
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2019&from=rss_home

Silent Streams? Escalating Endangerment for North American Freshwater
Fish: Nearly 40 Percent Now At-Risk

Nearly 40 percent of fish species in North American streams, rivers
and lakes are now in jeopardy, according to the most detailed
evaluation of the conservation status of freshwater fishes in the
last 20 years.

Continue Reading »

OK-read this through to the end…it starts out sounding REALLY
sketchy-but don’t be put off until U finish it: the truth of the matter
lies in the last 2 paragraphs.

Duh…the Tribes have always known this. So do the churches, the
militarists, the factory/plantation owners-in short, the pigs….& that’s
why this power gets taken from wimmin in the 1st place.

ASW

——————————

http://www.time.com/time <http://www.time.com/time>

Monday, May. 12, 2008

What Condoms Have to Do with Climate Change
By Bryan Walsh

As the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael Hayden
should have some insight on the biggest threats facing the U.S. But when
Hayden recently described what he saw as the most troublesome trend over
the next several decades, it wasn’t terrorism or climate change. It was
overpopulation in the poorest parts of the world. “By mid-century, the
best estimates point to a world population of more than 9 billion,” Hayden
said in a speech at Kansas State University. “Most of that growth will
occur in countries least able to sustain it.” The sheer increase in
population, Hayden argued, could fuel instability and extremism, not to
mention worsening climate change and making food and fuel all the more
scarce. Population is the essential multiplier for any number of human
ills.

Continue Reading »

During the course of the Autumn and Winter of 2007-08, RTNA worked extensively with Native Forest Network-Gulf of Maine (NFN) and other groups in Maine to stop Plum Creek Timber and Real Estate’s proposed massive development of the Moosehead Lake Region in northern Maine’s North Woods. Part of the Great North Woods of eastern North America-this particular region is the largest undeveloped wildland in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River; this region is home to such species such as the Canada lynx, black bear, wolves, moose, loon, and many other native species. This region has also for many generations supported a traditional local economy that included subsistence hunting; fishing, primitive recreation, and eco-tourism. Plum Creek plans to impose luxury vacation resorts, golf courses, gated communities, marinas, and more-along with significant introduction and expansion of roads and other invasive infrastructure.

With all the growing fervor over human-induced global warming-and the attendant discussions of alternative fuels, greenhouse-gas reductions, fuel-efficiency, and “green technology”-there is curiously little discussion regarding one of the most fundamental underpinnings of climate stability: ecosystem health and integrity, and attendant human land-use patterns. When there is such discussion-it usually takes us to far-off (albeit equally critical) bio-regions such as Amazonia or the Siberian taiga. There is virtually no discussion whatsoever regarding land-use policies in the U.S.-despite the rapidly-growing body of scientific evidence (not to mention the centuries’ worth of warnings from the Indigenous Peoples of these and other lands worldwide) that indicates the importance of ecosystem protection, preservation, and restoration in the fight against climate change.

In Deecember, 2008, RTNA representatives testified to Maine’s Land Use Regulatory Commission (LURC), specifically elucidating the critical connections between ecosystem health and integrity on the one hand and climate stability on the other. This was part of a series of public hearings that also included economic as well as other ecological concerns regarding this project-and included many individuals and organizations.

LURC’s recent decision has just come forth as of July, 2008, and-much to the dismay of many (including RTNA)-it is highly favorable toward PC’s egregious, profit-driven development plans for the Moosehead Lake Region.

What follows are detailed comments submitted by both Native Forest Network-Gulf of Maine (NFN) as well as Forest Ecology Network (FEN) and RESTORE: The Maine North Woods (RESTORE)-the two groups RTNA worked with extensively-regarding LURC’s unfortunate decision.

Continue Reading »

Shun meat, says UN climate chief

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7600005.stm

———————————————————————————————————

Study: Sea Levels Won’t Rise As Much As Predicted

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94273237

—————————————————————————————-

Glaciers need closer watch in poor countries: UNEP
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL137256320080902

—————————————————————————————-

Sea Level Rises May Accelerate Due to Melting Ice Sheet
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/01-4

—————————————————————————————-

Global Warming: Western U.S. Feels the Heat

By JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

DUBOIS, Wyo.–As pilot Bruce Gordon lifts up from the
local airport, the distant perspective of the Teton Range
raises the spirits, but the unfolding sight of dying forests
sears the soul.

High-elevation white bark pines, which have endured droughts
and lightning and insect attacks in life spans as long as
1,000 years, are being killed by a tiny beetle whose numbers
were once limited by a bitter winter climate.

Continue Reading »

National Geographic News: NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/NEWS

“Water Mafias” Put Stranglehold on Public Water Supply
Tasha Eichenseher in Stockholm, Sweden
for National Geographic News  August 21, 2008

Worldwide corruption driven by mafia-like
organizations throughout water industries is
forcing the poor to pay more for basic drinking
water and sanitation services, according to a new
report.

If bribery, organized crime, embezzlement, and
other illegal activities continue, consumers and
taxpayers will pay the equivalent of U.S. $20
billion dollars over the next decade, says the
report, released this week at the World Water
Week conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

Continue Reading »

————————————-
“From 1948 to 2006, storms measured at extreme precipitation
increased 18% in the Pacific coastal states, including a 26% jump in
California, according to a 2007 analysis of federal climate data by
Environment California, an environmental group based in Los Angeles.
In the Los Angeles area, data show a 58% increase in torrential
storms.”

“”There is very little we can do effectively if it rains really hard,
except to get out of the way.”
——————————

Wall Street Journal
September 2, 2008

Suspect: Global Warming
Beetle Infestations,
Drowning Bears;
Now, Big Mudslides

By JIM CARLTON

BIG SUR, Calif. — Add mudslides to the mix of global-warming worries.

With California’s fire season in full swing, residents in charred
areas such as the one around this bucolic resort face the prospect of
catastrophic slides on newly denuded hills when winter rains return.

Continue Reading »

—————————————-
“Some warming-related trends in Arctic regions, such as the
encroachment of trees into tundra, may cause absorption of carbon
dioxide and thus partly counter the effects of thawing permafrost.
But Schuur and colleagues’ new assessment indicates that thawing is
likely to dominate known countervailing trends.”
————————————
Public release date: 1-Sep-2008
American Institute of Biological Sciences

Contact: Jennifer Williams
jwilliams@aibs.org
202-628-1500

After noon EST on September 2, the full text of the article will be
available for free download through the copy of this Press Release
available at http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/.

Thawing permafrost likely to boost global warming
Greenhouse gas emissions from previously frozen organic carbon in
soil are seen as larger than previously believed

Continue Reading »

CLIMATE AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS

Cut greenhouse gases to save coral reefs: scientists

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2645452820080827

Protection zones not helping reefs, study finds

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSLQ60854620080827

————————————————————————————

CLIMATE, WEATHER, SEA ICE

Sea Ice at 2nd Lowest Level; Polar Bears in Open Water; Fay Floods FLA;
Glacier Melting in Greenland

http://www.commondreams.org/news-2008/0826-31800.htm

Arctic ice melt seen as ‘tipping point’ in global warming

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/254885

—————————————————————————

—————————————————————–
“Our results are not good news for those living in the western United States.”
————————————————————–

Science/www.sciencexpress.org / 31 January 2008 /

Human-Induced Changes in the Hydrology of the Western United States

Tim P. Barnett,1* David W. Pierce,1 Hugo G. Hidalgo,1 Celine
Bonfils,2 Benjamin D. Santer,2 Tapash Das,1 Govindasamy Bala,2 Andrew
W. Wood,3 Toru Nozawa,4 Arthur A. Mirin,2 Daniel R. Cayan,1 Michael
D. Dettinger1

1 -Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San
Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
2 -Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
3 -Land Surface Hydrology Research Group, Civil and Environmental
Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
4 -National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2, Onogawa,
Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tbarnett-ul@ucsd.edu

ABSTRACT: Observations have shown the hydrological cycle of the
western U.S. changed significantly over the last half of the
twentieth century. Here we present a regional, multivariable
climate-change detection and attribution study, using a
high-resolution hydrologic model forced by global climate models,
focusing on the changes that have already affected this primarily
arid region with a large and growing population. The results show up
to 60% of the climate related trends of river flow, winter air
temperature and snow pack between 1950-1999 are human-induced. These
results are robust to perturbation of study variates and methods.
They portend, in conjunction with previous work, a coming crisis in
water supply for the western United States.

CONCLUSIONS:
Our results are not good news for those living in the western United
States. The scenario for how western hydrology will continue to
change has already been published using one of the models employed
here [PCM (2)] as well as in other recent studies of western US
hydrology [e.g., (15)]. It foretells of water shortages, lack of
storage capability to meet seasonally changing river flow, transfers
of water from agriculture to urban uses and other critical impacts.
Since PCM performs so well in replicating the complex signals of the
last half of the 20th century, we have every reason to believe its
projections and to act on them in the immediate future.

————————————————————————————————————————

Deforestation of Amazon has soared by 69% in a year
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Amazon deforestation jumped 69 percent in the past 12 months — the first such increase in three years — as rising demand for soy and cattle pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees, officials said Saturday.
Some 3,145 square miles of forest were destroyed between August 2007 and August 2008 — a 69 percent increase over the 1,861 square miles felled in the previous 12 months, according to the National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, which monitors destruction of the Amazon.
“We’re not content,” Environment Minister Carlos Minc said. “Deforestation must fall more and conditions for sustainable development must improve.”

Brazil’s government has increased cash payments to fight illegal Amazon logging this year, and it eliminated government bank loans to farmers who illegally clear forest to plant crops.
The country lost 2.7 percent of its Amazon rain forest in 2007, or 4,250 square miles. Environmental officials fear even more land will be razed this year — but they have not forecast how much.
Minc says monthly deforestation rates have slowed since May, but environmental groups say seasonal shifts in tree cutting make the annual number a more accurate gauge.

Most deforestation happens in March and April, the start of Brazil’s dry season, and routinely tapers off in May, June and July: Last month, 125 square miles of trees were felled, 61 percent less than the area razed in June.
Environmentalists also argue that INPE’s deforestation report wasn’t designed to give accurate monthly figures, but to alert and direct the government to deforestation hot spots in time to save the land.
The Amazon region covers about 1.6 million square miles of Brazil, nearly 60 percent of the country. About 20 percent of that land has already been deforested.

—————————————————————————————————————————————-

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, August 13 NOON
Land Use Regulatory Commission (LURC) 18 Elkins Lane – Harlow Building  22 State
House Station Augusta, Maine 04333-0022

For More Information Contact: Logan Perkins – 207-615-5158

Hoopla for the North Woods
Maine Earth First! says No More Games
Bold Protest Urges LURC to Reject Massive Plum Creek Development Plan

Augusta, ME – In a bold stunt today, a dozen people affiliated with  Maine Earth First!, protested at the LURC office in Augusta. One woman  suspended herself 35 feet in the air from a giant tripod made of wooden  poles, while others hula-hooped on the ground below her. Under the  banner “LURC: Do the right thing! No Development! Plum Creek can’t buy  ME” the concerned citizens gathered to make it clear that the only  responsible decision is for LURC to reject Plum Creek’s entire plan.  Maine Earth First! is an all-volunteer group of Maine citizens working toward the protection of all remaining wild places in Maine as sources  of biodiversity, climate stability and cultural heritage.

Continue Reading »

Independent.co.uk
Nature reserve surrendered to rising seas
By Michael McCarthy
Monday, 25 August 2008

A major nature reserve is to become one of the
first casualties of the rising seas around
Britain.

Part of Titchwell Marsh, a favourite spot for
birdwatchers on the north Norfolk coast, is to be
sacrificed to the waves to save the rest of the
site from destruction.

Continue Reading »

Peru: indigenous uprising claims victory — for now
Submitted by WW4 Report http://ww4report.com/node/5925

Indigenous groups in Peru ended more than a week of militant protests Aug. 20 at key
energy sites after lawmakers agreed to overturn a new land law issued by President
Alan García, which sought to ease corporate access to communal territories. García
had issued the law by decree earlier under special powers Congress granted him to
bring Peruvian law into compliance with a new free-trade deal with the US. A
congressional commission voted to revoke the law Aug. 19, and floor vote is expected
later this week. “We have lifted the strike,” said Alberto Pizango, head of Amazon
indigenous alliance AIDESEP. “We have faith and expect Congress to follow through.”
(Reuters, Aug. 20)

Continue Reading »

New forest to follow £1.6m deal
Wood ants
The area that has been bought is home to wood ants

Hundreds of thousands of trees are to be planted following a charity’s purchase of
Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston in the Highlands.

Trees for Life, which is based in Findhorn, Forres, has taken over 10,000 acres in a
£1.6m deal.

It plans to plant 500,000 native trees and re-connect the forest between Glen
Moriston and Glen Affric.

The organisation said the move would help protect declining numbers of wood ants and
black grouse.

The purchase is Trees for Life’s most important project to date and followed more
than two years of negotiations.

Founder and executive director, Alan Watson Featherstone, said: “This is a massive
step forward in achieving our vision of a renewed Caledonian Forest.

“It is a huge milestone for us, and we look forward to restoring
Dundreggan into a wild landscape that the UK and Scotland can be proud of.”

———————————————————————————————————————

——————————-
“Slowing economic growth in many nations, along
with high food and fuel prices, makes it harder
to find cash for forest protection.

“Friends of the Earth environmental group said
there were risks that an inflow of funds would
push up the value of forests and lead to a land
grab by foreign investors that could threaten the
rights of indigenous peoples on the land.”
———————————

Reuters
Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:18pm BST

U.N. climate talks split over deforestation funds
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

ACCRA (Reuters) – A 160-nation U.N. climate
conference in Ghana split on Friday over ways to
pay poor countries to slow deforestation, blamed
for producing up to 20 percent of the greenhouse
gases caused by human activities.

Continue Reading »

In what’s left of roadless areas of the nation’s National Forests,  wildlife species
get some security from human disturbance, harassment  and killing. It goes without
saying that wildlife can sure use the  security, with or without the pressures
exerted by our new climate.  But homeland security for wildlife isn’t the only good
reason to keep  the remnant roadless roadless.

What’s left of the nation’s roadless areas also serve the creatures  we all know
best — people. It’s no secret that many Americans like  to get out of their cars
and away from roadside crowds to enjoy the  singular freedom of a walk in the wild
quiet of roadless woods. I’m  one. For me, homeland security means security for the
roadless forests too.
Lance
————————
“Last year, more than 140 House members and 19 senators introduced  the National
Forest RoadlessArea Conservation Act. It is past time to provide permanent
protection for the forests by turning the Clinton rule into firm law.”
————————–
The New York Times
August 21, 2008

Editorial
There Ought to Be a Roadless Law

Among President Bill Clinton’s signature environmental achievements  was a
regulation that prohibited new roads – and by extension, new  commercial activity -
in nearly 60 million largely undeveloped acres  of the national forests. For seven
years, the Bush administration,  egged on by its friends in the timber and
oil-and-gas industries, has  worked tirelessly to kill the roadless rule.
Conservationists have  worked just as hard to preserve it.

Continue Reading »

Climate, Development, Biodiversity, and Glacier National Park
Glacier Park: The next century – Threats from all sides
By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

WEST GLACIER – One hundred years ago, when Glacier National Park first became a
park, grizzly bears roamed along the spine of the Rocky
Mountains, north into Canada, south into Sun River country, west to the Cabinets and
east onto lowland plains. Wolves wandered, too, and
wolverines and big bull elk.

They had no idea someone had drawn a new political boundary onto their landscape.
They still don’t. “These critters move,” said park biologist Steve Gniadek. “It’s
critical they be able to cross in and out of the park.” But often they can’t, and
Gniadek has come to see Glacier as something of an island, an increasingly isolated
refugium surrounded by a growing moat of development.

Continue Reading »

Warming Climate Threatens Alaska’s Vast Forests

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1928279720080819

——————————————————————————–

Climate Shift and SW fires

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/253598

———————————————————————————

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2008 2:06 PM

CONTACT: Conservation Groups
Greg Loarie, Earthjustice, (510) 550-6725
Shaye Wolf, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 632-5301, cell (415) 385-5746
Stuart Pimm, Professor of Conservation Biology, Duke University, (919) 613-8141,
cell (646) 489-5481

Alpine ‘Boulder Bunny’ Imperiled by Global Warming
State and Federal Lawsuits Filed to Protect American Pika

SAN FRANCISCO – August 19 – Conservation groups filed two lawsuits today seeking
protection of the American pika, whose survival is imperiled by global warming. The
groups went to state court seeking protection of the pika under the California
Endangered Species Act and to a federal court seeking protection under the federal
Endangered Species Act.

The American pika, Ochotona princeps, is a small relative of the rabbit whose
squeaky calls are a familiar companion to alpine hikers. Pikas live in the boulder
fields near mountain peaks in the western United States. Adapted to cold alpine
conditions, pikas are intolerant of high
temperatures and can die from overheating when exposed to temperatures as low as
80°F for just a few hours.

Continue Reading »

1900: Forests and Globalization

——————————————————-
“… the forest was six times as big a century ago … spree of …
shipments to Europe.”
——————————————————-

But how big was the forest before the destruction started? There are  active
district forest stations around the mountain, all of which  keep data pertaining to
their side of the mountain.

“Forest working groups and networks, and with unofficial support from  Forest
Department officers, say the forest was six times as big a  century ago.”

“Though the wettest and the most influencing in terms of climatic  conditions, Mount
Kenya forest is the most decimated of all five
water towers of Kenya.

“The destruction of Mount Kenya started in the early 1900s.

“Before gazettement of the national park in 1949, there was a
sustained spree of camphor harvests and shipments to Europe. Early  literature shows
Mount Kenya was the only place rich in the coveted  camphor trees.”

for more:
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1143992914&cid=4

————————————————————————–

I take the discussions/questions cited below as
an indication of how uncertain is the hope of
controlling insect impact on forests, how
uncertain is the hope of sequestration by
forests, and as another indication that we face
way serious challenge to holding temp increases
to 2C, or even 3C.
Lance

—————————————–
“Crutchfield is more skeptical that such efforts
would keep temperatures low enough. According to
his models, a continued increase in global
temperature is likely, and the beetles’ current
reaction to this   ‘early stage of warming’  does
not bode well for future forest health.”

“But, ‘there is a possibility that you could have
an acoustic signal to break up or slow down a
beetle infestation,’ Crutchfield says. In
preliminary field work, he and Dunn played
ultrasonic noise to interfere with the beetles’
sense in this acoustic range. The tests, he says,
were effective.

“‘Again, the bioacoustic idea is still a
hypothesis, one that has to be carefully tested
in a lab.’ Right now, though, Crutchfield adds,
‘it is the only alternative I see.”
———————————–

Continue Reading »

ScienceDaily (Aug. 13, 2008)

Even moderate climate change and limited land use changes could have
an adverse impact on flora, the researchers write in the current
edition of Biology Letters

Find more at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080813102725.htm

citation
Pompe et al. Climate and land use change impacts on
plant distributions in Germany. Biology Letters, 2008; 1 (-1): -1

—————————————————————————-

Rising Ocean Acidity Slows Marine Fertilization
Fri Aug 15, 2008 10:15am EDT  By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Rising acidification of the ocean could reduce fertilization of marine invertebrates and might eventually wipe out colonies of sea urchins, lobsters, mussels and oysters, according to a study.

Scientists knew that ocean acidification was eating away at the shells of marine animals, but the new study has found that rising acidity hindered marine sperm from swimming to and fertilizing eggs in the ocean.

Continue Reading »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 14, 2008 2:03 PM

CONTACT: Conservation Groups
David Hogan, Center for Biological Diversity, (619) 473-8217
Erin Tobin, Earthjustice, (510) 550-6725
 
Southern California National Forests in Peril;
Lawsuit Seeks Protections for Wildlife and Roadless Areas
 
SAN FRANCISCO – August 14 – Seven environmental groups filed a lawsuit today over the failure of the U.S. Forest Service to protect wildlife and roadless areas on four Southern California national forests – the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres, and San Bernardino. According to the lawsuit, overarching land-management plans prepared by the Forest Service in 2005 do little to protect nature from many harmful activities, including roads, off-road vehicles, power lines, oil and gas, logging, and grazing.

Continue Reading »

News Release

U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey

For release:  August 14, 2008
Contact: William Alley, 619-225-6125, walley@usgs.gov
          Jennifer LaVista, 703-648-4432, jlavista@usgs.gov

Strategy to Assess the Nation’s Ground-Water Availability

Declines in ground-water levels have led to
concerns about the future availability of ground
water, which provides half the country’s drinking
water, and is essential to the vitality of
agriculture and industry, as well as to the
health of rivers, wetlands, and estuaries
throughout the country.

Continue Reading »

Amazon Rainforest Threatened By New Wave of Oil and Gas Exploration
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/13/10973/
Rainforest Action Network Missive Urges Hundreds of Companies to Stop Using Palm Oil
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0813-03.htm
Dispute Raises Doubts Over Brazil’s Amazon Dams
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1351739920080813

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Intact Roadless Areas  & Climate Stability…another no-brainer.

ASW

Re: your Colorado forests e-mail

“The best people, like the best  wines, come from the hills.” — Edward Abbey
— On Wed, 8/13/08, Ceal Smith <slvwater@theriver.com> wrote:
From: Ceal Smith <slvwater@theriver.com>
Subject: FW: TWS statement on Roadless Rule injunction
To: “winter ross” <winterross@yahoo.com>
Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 12:02 AM

This is not going to go unchallenged.
Ceal

Statement on Wyoming Court’s Injunction of Roadless Rule  The Wilderness Society will be challenging today¢s decision by a federal judge in  Wyoming to enjoin the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.  The decision by Judge Clarence Brimmer puts at risk nearly 60 million acres of pristine national forest lands that were protected from road building and logging by the Clinton Administration.  The Roadless Rule enjoyed the most public support in the history of federal rulemaking, with more than 95% of the 1.7 million comments favoring the strongest possible protection.  The  Wyoming court decision contradicts prior court decisions upholding the Roadless Rule, as well as the public¢s overwhelming support for roadless area protection.   We are confident that today¢s ruling will be reversed on appeal and that roadless areas will remain protected from environmental degradation.  The Wilderness Society will do all it can to ensure that roadless areas continue to be havens for wildlife, sources of pure drinking water, scenic backdrops for communities, and great places for people to recreate.   Contact:  Mike Anderson, Senior Resource Analyst, The Wilderness Society.  Office: 206-624-6430 x227.  Cell: 206-890-3529 _______________________________________________
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ceal Smith, Acting DirectorSan Luis ValleyWater Protection CoalitionP.O. Box 351Alamosa, CO  81101(719) 256-5780ceal@slvwater.orgslvwater.org

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Published on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 by MSNBC
Bush Plan Takes Scientists Out of Decision Making On Endangered Species Status
MSNBC staff and news service reports

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration on Monday said it plans to let federal agencies decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.

The proposal, which does not require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have been performing for 35 years. Developers welcomed the plan, while environmentalists derided it.

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Background analysis
=======================================
“Climate change is not a new topic in
biology….. Observations of range shifts in
parallel with climate change … date back to the
mid-1700s.”

Parmesan, Camille. “Ecological and Evolutionary
Responses to Recent Climate Change.” The Annual
Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics
2006.
==================================

Recent paper available as PDF file

Proceedings National Academy of Sciences
August 19, 2008
vol. 105  no. 33  pp. 11823-11826

“Rapid shifts in plant distribution with recent climate change”
Anne E. Kelly and Michael L. Goulden

Edited by Christopher B. Field, Carnegie
Institution of Washington, Stanford, CA, and
approved June 6, 2008 (received for review March
24, 2008)

ABSTRACT: A change in climate would be expected
to shift plant distribution as species expand in
newly favorable areas and decline in increasingly
hostile locations. We compared surveys of plant
cover that were made in 1977 and 2006 -2007 along
a 2,314-m elevation gradient in Southern
California’s Santa Rosa Mountains. Southern
California’s climate warmed at the surface, the
precipitation variability increased, and the
amount of snow decreased during the 30-year
period preceding the second survey. We found that
the average elevation of the dominant plant
species rose by appox 65 meters between the
surveys. This shift cannot be attributed to
changes in air pollution or fire frequency and
appears to be a consequence of changes in
regional climate.

KEYWORDS: plant migration  range shift

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Published on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 by The Leader-Post (Saskatchewan)
Group Concerned About Climate Change Challenges Oil Sands Development
by Angela Hall

SASKATCHEWAN – As companies bid Monday for the chance to explore Saskatchewan’s oilsands, those opposed to such development made their voices heard at the Legislative Building.

About a dozen people with placards reading “Tar Sands = Climate Change” and “Get informed Saskatchewan” urged the provincial government to stop issuing exploratory permits for the oilsands until further study is done.

The event, organized by the local chapter of the Council of Canadians, coincided with the province’s August sale of oil and natural gas rights, which offered oilsands rights for only the second time.

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Human activity, El Nino warming West Antarctic: study
Tue Aug 12, 2008 5:37pm EDT 

.NEW YORK (Reuters) – Human activity and the El Nino weather pattern over the last century have warmed West Antarctica, part of the world’s coldest continent, according to a study based on four years of collecting ice core data.

The West Antarctic warmed in response to higher temperatures in the tropical Pacific, which itself has been warming due to weather patterns like a major El Nino event from 1939 to 1942 and greenhouse emissions from cars and factories, according to the study.

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