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.
VERY early click here (i.e., I got up at 3 something), and success in the Senate last night.
December 6, 2007
Senate Panel Passes Bill to Limit Greenhouse Gases
By JOHN M. BRODER
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 ?- A Senate committee approved a broad bill on Wednesday night to address climate change, a major step toward passage of a measure that would for the first time slow and then reverse emissions of the gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet.
The Environment and Public Works Committee split largely along party lines on the bill, which calls for a roughly 70 percent cut from 2005 levels by 2050 in the production of carbon dioxide and other climate-altering pollutants.
The legislation would limit emissions for virtually all sectors of the economy, but would allow swapping of pollution permits among carbon emitters.
Some of the permits would be granted free at the beginning of the program; others would be auctioned, with the money used to develop clean technologies and aid the poor in paying the higher energy bills such a system would be likely to entail.
The so-called cap-and-trade plan is modeled on a successful system for sulfur dioxide and mirrors some aspects of a carbon-trading program in Europe.
The committee, which approved the measure by an 11-to-8 vote, worked through dozens of amendments over nearly 10 hours of hearings on Wednesday.
The legislation, which is opposed by a powerful array of forces including utilities, oil companies and manufacturers, faces an arduous path through the full Senate and then in the House. Little action is expected before the first of next year.
Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, sponsored the measure. They said it was a historic first step toward dealing with a problem that will require prompt action by the United States, which, along with China, is the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases.
Democratic lawmakers and various environmental groups hailed the passage of the bill, while saying it could and should be strengthened.
"This bill is a strong framework to address the most serious challenge of our time," said Lexi Shultz, Washington representative for climate policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "But if it's really going to do the job it needs to get stronger. If we are to have a fighting chance to avoid the worst effects of climate change, the United States has to cut emissions by 80 percent from current levels by the middle of the century."
The bill's chief critic on the committee, Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, said the measure would impose an unacceptable price on American industry, homeowners and consumers and cost up to 2.3 million jobs over the next decade.
Senator Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the environment committee, called the vote the greatest accomplishment of her 30-year political career.
"This vote is a historic moment for my country," Ms. Boxer said in an interview after the vote. "It is a signal that America is finally taking bold steps to avert a catastrophe for our children and grandchildren."
Ms. Boxer also noted that representatives of 190 nations are gathering in Indonesia this week to talk about steps to follow the Kyoto climate accords when they expire in 2012. She said the committee's passage of the bill sent a signal to that meeting that the United States was serious about meeting its responsibilities.
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.
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).
sumac wrote:Yes, you really must, Stradee. Pulled a cabbie out of his cab? Nice going, ehBeth.
Will go click.
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!
ehBeth wrote: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
Good for you! I'm glad you found your earring too!
Is poitrine the same thing as the loo or latrine???
