The 81st Race for the Rain Forest Thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpQvOj3d6cA

26 second clip on YouTube of Jim in action with Geraldine and David Horton

Good Wednesday morning to all.

clicked

Early click here.

I will have to find out when the Vicar is broadcast here.

Good news, sue!

Yesterday, Kevin Rudd, the new Australian Prime Minister, signed the Kyoto Protocol. Yesterday was also the start of the U.N. climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, where the nations of the world hope to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto treaty which expires in 2012.
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Democratic leaders in the U.S. House reached a deal late Friday night to raise fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks to an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 -- a 40 percent increase from today's standard of 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.2 mpg for SUVs and pickups. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who's been pushing for an increase, came to agreement with House Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.), a longtime defender of automakers in his state. Dingell called the new standards "both aggressive and attainable." He made sure they included a provision that lets automakers continue getting credit toward mileage goals for selling flex-fuel cars that can run on a blend of gasoline and ethanol. The mileage measure is part of a larger energy bill that the House is expected to vote on and approve tomorrow. The fuel-economy provision also has the support of key senators. Pelosi called the mileage compromise "an historic advancement in our efforts in the Congress to address our energy security and laying strong groundwork for climate legislation next year."
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Canada sets aside huge tracts of land for protection

The Canadian government plans to set aside 25.5 million acres of northern boreal forest and tundra as protected land, off-limits from resource development. The total acreage (hectarage?) of the protected area is 11 times the size of Yellowstone National Park -- or, in Canadian, about twice the size of Nova Scotia and more than five times the size of Prince Edward Island.
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A dozen states are sueing the the EPA's moves to relax the nations's toxins reporting rule.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/us/29EPA.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin



Quote of the Week

"We're probably further ahead in actually doing something about greenhouse gases than most other countries."


-- John Marburger III, chief science adviser to President Bush

That quote is a riot, Stradee.

Politics...

I love it though.

nodding


A very thoughtful person sent me the following e mail link. Excellent art by Adrienne L. Schenfele, an Alaskan artist. Wow!!!

http://store.creativeculturearts.com/servlet/StoreFront

Very nice. I forwarded the link to karateka, who has a daughter who would appreciate one or two of them as gifts.

Nice link, Stradee. I, of course, like good art.

The tiny mention of Canada setting aside land for protection is a really good thing IMHO. Most of the lumber we use in the USA now comes from Canada. ehBeth can't allow the Canajan Gov to destroy their forests just to build stuff in the USA.

ha! me vs the Canadian government! then again, I pulled a cabbie out of a cab yesterday when he was getting in my way. I think he was surprised what a small woman could do with a bit of leverage

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You and your 300 friends have supported 2,833,422.3 square feet!

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St. Nikolas Day today. Did anyone get a lump of coal, or did everyone get treats in their shoes?

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1 Aktbird57 .. 2009 65.043 acres

Beth, if anyone can vrs the Canadian gov - thatta be you. {grin}

Dan, have you and Pattie created new artwork since the last set of photos you posted here? Good work, imo.

Rain last evening, and all day today! Hurray for Tahoe!

Now we all must collectively send rain to your house, sue.

Yes, you really must, Stradee. Pulled a cabbie out of his cab? Nice going, ehBeth.

Will go click.

And the hip bone..is connected to the.....leg bone......

ECOLOGY/EVOLUTION: A Loss of Bivalves
Andrew M. Sugden
The potential for ecosystems to shift abruptly from one state to another is becoming increasingly recognized, especially in aquatic environments. Cloern et al. document an unusual and instructive example in one ecosystem, brought about by changes in another, neighboring system. In 1999, the San Francisco Bay--a large lagoon-like estuary on the west coast of the United States--began to experience massive algal blooms for the first time since monitoring had begun more than two decades earlier. Such blooms are normally associated with eutrophication: the enrichment of waters by runoff of excessive nutrients (especially N and P) from agricultural land. However, in this case the nutrient loading of the estuary had been decreasing before the bloom. It appears that the bloom was instead the result of a collapse in the population of the bivalve consumers of the algae. This collapse was brought about by an influx of flatfish and crustacean predators of the bivalves into the estuary from the coastal ocean, which itself had resulted from a physical oceanographic change in the California Current System. Increased coastal upwelling of cold, nutrient-laden waters led to increased oceanic primary production and a bonanza for consumers and their predators, which were recruited in substantial numbers into the neighboring estuary. Hence, the state change in the estuary was caused indirectly by hithertounsuspected connectivity with the ocean. -- AMS

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104, 18561 (2007).

But............should we ask why ehBeth pulled the cabbie out of the cab?

I pulled a cabbie out of the cab he was trying to prevent me from getting into. Bit of an issue with taxi wars at the downtown hotels. I finally lost my temper, told him that I'd rather walk than go with him - then reached in and hauled him out (he'd been leaning into the cab I was trying to get into - arguing with 'my' cabbie - and blocking my way).

'My' cabbie was preparing to get out to fight - I decided I didn't have the time or inclination to deal with their crap.

Out! I'm going in this cab.

In the tussle I thought I lost an earring. Found it later in my mmmmm poitrine

Wildclickers, congrats to Maggie! Two new beautiful grandbabies

Emily Rose and Christian

ehBeth, courageous girl!

poitrine?

Good for you! I'm glad you found your earring too!

Is poitrine the same thing as the loo or latrine???