Number 85 - To see a tree asmiling.

Official: Russian disaster sign of global warming

By DAVID NOWAK, Associated Press Writer
54 mins ago
MOSCOW – Russia's heat wave, drought and wildfires — which have killed dozens of people and destroyed millions of acres (hectares) of wheat — are another indication that global warming is causing more weather extremes around the world, a Russian official said Monday.
Alexander Bedritsky, the Kremlin's weather adviser, also cited other disasters that he believes may be related to rising world temperatures, including Pakistan's worst floods in recorded history, and France's 2003 heat wave, which killed 15,000 people.
Taken together, they "are signs of global warming," Bedritsky, who also serves as president the World Meteorological Organization, said at a news conference.
U.S. climate change envoy Jonathan Pershing also recently said that such weather disasters are the kind of changes that could be the result of climate change.

I wonder how the rain forests will be affected.


ugust 15, 2010
Bypassing Resistance, Brazil Prepares to Build a Dam
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
ALTAMIRA, Brazil — For Raimunda Gomes da Silva, the impending construction of a huge hydroelectric dam here in the Amazon is painful déjà vu.

About 25 years ago, the building of another dam more than 200 miles east of here flooded her property, driving a plague of poisonous snakes, insects and jaguars onto her land, she said, before submerging it completely.

Now, after starting a new life in Altamira, the government is telling her she needs to leave again, this time to make way for the Belo Monte dam, which will flood a large swath of this city, displacing thousands of people.

“This dam is a threat to me because I no longer have the energy I once did,” said Mrs. da Silva, 53, whose family of 11 shares a three-bedroom home with banana trees in the back. “We can no longer invest and build another house like this one. For me, this is like throwing away a lot of hope.”

But she will have little choice. Initial construction on the Belo Monte dam, which will be the third largest in the world, is slated to begin by next year.

Persistent opposition by environmental and indigenous groups, even with help from high-profile figures like the Canadian-American movie director James Cameron, failed to stop the $11 billion project, which will produce electricity for big cities like São Paulo while flooding about 200 square miles of the Xingu River basin.

Indigenous communities say the dam will devastate their lands and force about 12,000 from their homes. They say it will reduce the river level, destroying their traditional fishing industry.

The city of Altamira, above the dam, faces the opposite problem, with about a third of it to end up under water. Thousands of residents will be relocated.

Last week, regional indigenous leaders met here to plan a dramatic occupation of the dam’s construction site, but after four days of discussion failed to produce a consensus, the protest was called off. Members of nongovernmental groups trying to stop the dam are starting to sound resigned.

“The groups are still divided,” said Christian Poirier, the Brazil campaign leader for Amazon Watch, who attended the meeting. “There are a lot of political considerations right now for the indigenous leaders. Some have been neutralized by handouts or threats.”

The government has pushed hard to ensure that construction on the dam, decades in the planning, would begin before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leaves office at the end of this year. When some of Brazil’s most important private construction and civil engineering companies grew jittery about the financial risks earlier this year, the government raised its investment stake and is now financing more than three quarters of the project.

Valter Cardeal, director of engineering for Eletrobrás, Brazil’s state electricity company, said the project would have no negative economic impact on any indigenous community. He acknowledged that there would be reduced water flow downstream, but not enough, he said, to affect fishing.

He said Belo Monte would bring “improvements and advances” to indigenous people, including sanitation, better health and education services, and “territorial security” for their lands.

As to Altamira, he said people forced to relocate would be compensated and most would benefit.

In the low-lying neighborhood of about 700 homes where Mrs. da Silva lives, for instance, some homes are built on stilts to avoid seasonal flooding.

Mr. Cardeal said the relocation would lift those residents out of such “precarious, subhuman conditions.”

He said that the government would provide assistance to small farmers and that the construction companies had agreed to put $280 million in a sustainable development plan for the region.

Such assurances are disputed by dam opponents and many residents.

At a meeting in March, indigenous leaders waved bows and arrows, and threatened to go to war to stop the construction. But two tribes, the Xikrin-Kayapó and the Parakanã, have since dropped their opposition, citing concerns about losing government handouts, Mr. Poirier said.

He and others involved in the discussions accuse the government utility Eletronorte of trying to divide the indigenous groups by buying off leaders with gifts or threatening to deny their communities health or other services.

Mr. Cardeal and a spokesman for Electronorte denied those accusations.

Altamira residents are divided. Some are hopeful that the dam will bring jobs and money to this lightly populated municipality, Brazil’s largest.

During construction, the dam is expected to provide an estimated 20,000 jobs, although initially, at least, many of the workers will have to come from elsewhere, said Elcirene de Souza, the head of the Altamira federal employment office. She said 90 percent of the work force in Altamira was not qualified for the skilled jobs the project needs.

She said she was concerned that the influx of workers would usher in gangs, drugs and crime, as has happened in the building of other dams. Government officials, though, have told residents that they hope to avoid such problems by not creating a separate village for workers, as they have in the past, but incorporating the workers into the city.

Already résumés from applicants are flooding in, about 8,200 in the first four months of the year, from at least five Brazilian states, Ms. de Souza said.

Residents like Mrs. da Silva, skeptical of government promises of subsidies and relocation packages, are mainly concerned about where they will live. She said the government badly underpaid her for her last house, paying only the cost of construction materials, not the market price. She fears the same will happen again.

“When they arrive, they come with a price table showing what they will offer for our house, and we either accept that price or they won’t offer anything else,” she said. “They will tell me how much my house is worth and will not relocate me anywhere else.”

She fears for her husband, a fisherman. “He only has two more years left to get his retirement plan, but we aren’t sure if he will be able to fish for another two years,” she said. “Do you think the fish will hang around here? The fish know where to escape to, but us, we need to go where they throw us.”

August 15, 2010

The Sun Also Surprises

By LAWRENCE E. JOSEPH
Los Angeles

DESPITE warnings that New Orleans was unprepared for a severe hit by a hurricane, America was blindsided by Hurricane Katrina, a once-in-a-lifetime storm that made landfall five years ago this month. We are similarly unready for another potential natural disaster: solar storms, bursts of gas on the sun’s surface that release tremendous energy pulses.

Occasionally, a large solar storm can rain energy down on the earth, overpowering electrical grids. About once a century, a giant pulse can knock out worldwide power systems for months or even years. It’s been 90 years since the last super storm, but scientists say we are on the verge of another period of high solar activity.

This isn’t science fiction. Though less frequent than large hurricanes, significant storms have hit earth several times over the last 150 years, most notably in 1859 and 1921. Those occurred before the development of the modern power grid; recovering from a storm that size today would cost up to $2 trillion a year for several years.

Storms don’t have to be big to do damage. In March 1989 two smaller solar blasts shut down most of the grid in Quebec, leaving millions of customers without power for nine hours. Another storm, in 2003, caused a blackout in Sweden and fried 14 high-voltage transformers in South Africa.

The South African experience was particularly telling — the storm was relatively weak, but by damaging transformers it put parts of the country off-line for months. That’s because high-voltage transformers, which handle enormous amounts of electricity, are the most sensitive part of a grid; a strong electromagnetic pulse can easily fuse their copper wiring, damaging them beyond repair.

Even worse, transformers are hard to replace. They weigh up to 100 tons, so they can’t be easily moved from the factories in Europe and Asia where most of them are made; right now, there’s already a three-year waiting list for new ones.

Without aggressive preparation, we run the risk of a disaster magnitudes greater than Hurricane Katrina. Little or no electricity means little or no telecommunications, refrigeration, clean water or fuel. Basic law enforcement and national security could be compromised.

Fortunately, there are several defenses against solar storms. The most important are grid-level surge suppressors, which are essentially giant versions of the devices we use at home to protect computers. There are some 5,000 vulnerable transformers in North America; at $50,000 for each suppressor, we could protect the grid for about $250 million.

Earlier this year the House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow the White House to require utilities to put grid-protection measures in place, then recoup the costs from customers. Unfortunately, the companion bill in the Senate contains no such provision.

It’s not a lost cause, though; lawmakers can still insert the grid-protection language during conference. If they don’t, there could be trouble soon: the next period of heavy solar activity will be in late 2012. Having gone unprepared for one recent natural disaster, we would make a grave mistake not to get ready for the next.

Lawrence E. Joseph is the author of “Aftermath: A Guide to Preparing for and Surviving Apocalypse 2012.”

Danon - I am so sorry that your extreme heat is continuing so unrelentingly. I too come into the house by around 11 as the heat and humidity are too much.

OK, it isn't rocket science...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 11, 2010 (Reuters) — Scientists have identified two parts of the brain linked with severe anxiety in young monkeys, and they suspect these same areas may also play a role in children who develop anxiety disorders, offering new promise for treatment.

ya think...

So who is saving the monkeys from severe abuse? Hello NIH...

Hurray!!

Interior halts deepwater environmental exemptions

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
30 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration announced Monday it is requiring environmental reviews for all new deepwater oil drilling.
That means an end, at least for now, to the kind of exemptions that allowed BP to drill its blown-out well in the Gulf with little scrutiny.

The announcement came in response to a report by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which found that decades-old data provided the basis for exempting BP's drilling permits from any extensive review.

The Interior Department said the ban on so-called "categorical exclusions" for deepwater drilling would be in place pending full review of how such exemptions are granted.

"Our decision-making must be fully informed by an understanding of the potential environmental consequences of federal actions permitting offshore oil and gas development," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.
For now, new deepwater drilling is under a temporary moratorium in the Gulf. Once that's lifted, though, Interior's new policy is likely to make it much more time-consuming for oil companies to move forward with new deepwater projects, since environmental assessments will be required along the way.

Shallow-water drilling will also be subjected to stricter environmental scrutiny under the new policy.

BP's ability to get environmental exemptions from the Minerals Management Service led to some of the harshest criticism of the now-defunct agency in the wake of the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Some 206 million gallons spilled into the Gulf before BP stopped the leaking.

The report by the Council on Environmental Quality sheds new light on the granting of those categorical exclusions. The report says that the exclusions BP operated under were written in 1981 and 1986. That was long before the boom in deepwater drilling that was propelled by the development of dramatic new technologies for reaching deep into the sea floor.

The report also finds other problems with how the Minerals Management Service applied environmental laws in reviewing the BP project. It notes, for example, that in assessing the likelihood of a major spill, MMS did not consider the example of the disastrous 1979 Ixtoc spill in the Gulf — simply because the spill was not in U.S. waters.

MMS' successor agency, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Enforcement and Regulation, is agreeing to recommendations to try to improve gas and oil drilling oversight, including pushing for more time to review exploration plans, and performing more comprehensive site-specific environmental reviews.

The American Petroleum Institute said Interior's new rules on environmental reviews could create unnecessary delays without added environmental protection.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, applauded the steps announced by Salazar while calling for more far-reaching reform.

Stradee, I agree, smart doesn't mean intelligence. High IQ doesn't make a person smart. I think we should be looking at animals in cages (zoo's) - but, that would be biased, the animals would think everything is normal.
Oh well.

Trees, however, have a different view of the world. They react to climatic changes in obvious ways. You can look at a tree and if it doesn't smile at you - you know the tree is not feeling well.

Let's get busy and click to save trees.......!!!!!

They are asmiling at us.

sumac, thank you for the info....... It's always good to see your interests........ I have learned a lot from your input - that's not easy to say at my age........!

Many zoo animals were first taken from the wild, and the rhetoric is they're 'saving' the animals from extinction. not

A lot could be done to save wild animal habitat, there just arn't enough people who are willing to not infringe, poach, hunt, exploit...etc.

Yep, trees tell us a lot. I know wildclickers are listening.

We need to set traps for the infringing poachers who hunt and exploit...etc.
Then, put THEM in the cages.

Thanks Stradee.

Good morning all you wonderful wildclickers, and that includes ehBeth. I hope all is well with her.

I have started a project which I have put off for three years. Three years ago I pained Kilz on the kitchen cabinets and bought a very expensive gallon of white enamel paint. There the cabinets stayed until yesterday. I am finally getting to it, although painting is not a favorite chore of mine.

I know what you mean about painting. Three years ago I bought all the stuff needed to paint houses.......... Professional spray gun stuff,, filters,, base paint,, extra five gallon buckets,, water hoses,, etc -- the whole nine yards............
Paint??? Naaaaaah....... It's been sitting there for all this time. So. I made an agreement with one of the fellows who helped with the trees taken down around our home.. He will paint all three houses........ WOW...........!

I love to watch work.

Cleeeeecked....................

Good luck with the cabinets, sue

Not the most fun project for me either, but must be done. To Do list almost completed...just a few more benches and then paint for one side of the house plus trim. whew

Then during the winter i'll begin inside paint & wallpaper removal (not relishing that job at all).

So glad the garage takes good care of the Chevy!

Dan, you're making me smile!

Beth on FB and doing well after vacation sue. Not to worry

Good day all ~

And now I'm remembering why it took me three years to get back to it. Painting kitchen cabinets is a bitch.

Right on girl.......!

Always wanted to be a hippy - but, never got around to it.

Those were good days.

This has got to be true in most coastal areas.


August 17, 2010
Cape Cod Waterways Face Pollution Crisis
By KATIE ZEZIMA
ORLEANS, Mass. — Rising nitrogen levels are suffocating the vegetation and marine life in saltwater ponds and estuaries on Cape Cod, creating an environmental and infrastructure problem that, if left unchecked, will threaten the shellfishing industry, the tourist economy and the beaches that lure so many summer visitors.

More than 60 ponds and estuaries on the cape and a few elsewhere in the region have been choked by algae and seaweed. The culprit is nitrogen, much of it leaching out of septic system wastewater that runs through sandy soil into the estuaries. Faced with a federal mandate to fix their polluted waterways, Cape Cod towns have spent years creating plans to clean up the wastewater, largely through sewers and clustered septic systems.

So far, most of the efforts have been to no avail, stifled by disputes over science and over who should pay for such a sprawling and expensive public works project.

“This is the biggest environmental issue the cape has ever faced,” said Maggie Geist of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, a nonprofit environmental group. “And for a long time it’s been a hidden problem.”

The root of the problem lies in the popularity and unchecked growth of Cape Cod over the last 30 years. Towns chose not to install sewers when the government helped subsidize them in the 1960s and ’70s, fearing that it would lead to an influx of people. Newcomers arrived anyway and sprawled out, using individual septic systems to get rid of waste.

“We’ve reached capacity for the watershed,” said Lindsey B. Counsell, executive director of Three Bays Preservation, a preservation group in Barnstable. “We’re a victim of our own geology.”

Without remediation, excess nitrogen could decimate shellfish beds and lead to widespread summer fish kills as algae, warm temperatures and cloud cover stifle oxygen in coastal waters, say officials who have examined the problem. Bays will be overtaken with seaweed that rots in the summer, a blow to property values and an environmental concern.

Here in Orleans, wastewater has been a divisive subject for years. Some residents say the town should put in place a $150 million plan that was drafted two years ago and approved at a town meeting, while others are calling for additional review before it is financed by taxpayers.

The problem is not always immediately apparent. From a distance, one saltwater pond here looks pristine, the summer sun bouncing off its placid waters and boats bobbing in the salt breeze.

“It’s deceiving,” said Gussie McKusick, who lives alongside the pond. “It looks beautiful, but it’s all dead underneath.”

Septic systems deposit wastewater, a mixture of urine and water, into a leech field. Because the cape’s soil is so sandy and porous, the wastewater eventually is deposited into bays. Even after septic systems are removed, wastewater already in the soil will still be leaking.

The nitrogen problem is most acute in protected bays and saltwater ponds on the cape’s southern side. The tides coming from Nantucket Sound are not high and forceful enough to flush out the nitrogen, which causes algae and seaweed to flourish, choking out oxygen needed by vegetative and marine species.

In Falmouth, which has long finger-shaped salt ponds, some areas have been closed to shellfishing for years because of elevated nitrogen levels, said Robert Griffin Jr., the assistant harbor master.

The algae and seaweed kill eelgrass, where prized bay scallops grow. Those scallops are gone from the ponds in Falmouth.

In August, the problem is sometimes smelled before it is seen. The algae bakes under the hot sun, creating a foul odor that may already be driving tourists away. Paul Niedzwiecki, the executive director of the Cape Cod Commission, a regional land use agency, said he had heard anecdotally that some people had left because of the smell.

Officials and towns are also girding for the possibility of a lawsuit from an environmental group that is exploring its options under the Clean Water Act.

“A lawsuit would be intended to bring all of the relevant decision makers and authorities who should be part of the solution to the table,” said Christopher Kilian of the Conservation Law Foundation.

Towns on Cape Cod, which are fiercely independent and often fight regionalization, must try to work together on solutions, even though town wastewater plans can vary.

Residents are also fighting among themselves, with some wanting the entire town to pay for a plan and others insisting that only households that get sewers pay for them.

In Barnstable, voters will decide in November whether to finance $265 million in new sewers with a tax increase. And in Falmouth, officials are still trying to determine who will pay for their 50-year, $650 million plan. The largest project the town has ever undertaken was an $80 million expansion of its high school.

“This is the most massive potential public works project the town has ever seen, and clearly it’s something the town is uneasy about, and it gets challenged,” said Peter Boyer, a member of the Falmouth wastewater commission. “It’s a classic case, and it’s inevitable.”

Here in Orleans, Ms. McKusick waded through her pond, slimy seaweed sticking to her legs and feeling like wet lettuce under her feet.

“It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when,” Ms. McKusick said of fixing the wastewater problem. “And how much blood is on the walls when we’re finished.”

Drink, then drive? Whisky fuel could power cars


LONDON – How about a whisky to go?

Scientists say they have developed biofuel for cars from waste produced in distilling Scotch whisky.
Researchers at Edinburgh Napier University have produced a type of fuel called butanol using "pot ale" — the liquid residue from copper stills — and "draff," or leftover grain.
They say it can be used in ordinary cars without adapting the engines. And unlike some biofuels, it is made from waste products and does not require a crop to be grown.
The researchers say they have filed a patent application for the fuel, and plan to set up a company to get it into British gas stations.

An editorial in today's NYT.

August 17, 2010
Anglers and the Diatom
As a rule, invasive species do not invade on their own. They do so with human help. A good example is Didymosphenia geminata, a diatom that reproduces quickly and can grow in huge blooms and mats. In the past few years, it has spread widely from its native habit — cool mountain lakes and streams in North America and Europe — to waters where it was previously unknown or had only limited growth. It can alter stream ecology, affecting insect life and spawning habitat.

No one knows why this kind of algae — better known as didymo or rock snot — is suddenly able to grow profusely outside its relatively constricted native habitat. We do know one of the ways it travels — underfoot, on felt-soled wading boots favored by anglers because they give good traction on slippery rocks. It takes only a single cell to start a new colony, and felt soles are hard to dry thoroughly — one way of killing didymo — or disinfect. That’s why the makers of fishing gear are phasing them out and why Alaska and Vermont have banned them, to the misplaced dismay of some anglers.

Like the invasive and hugely destructive zebra mussel, it will take incredible vigilance to keep Didymosphenia geminata from spreading. Boaters have grown used to the signs warning against spreading zebra mussels — and to the precaution of keeping their boats clean and even disinfecting them with a mild bleach solution. Fly fishermen have it much easier. They can simply give up their felt soles in favor of rubber or studded soles. To each body of water we come as an alien, and it is our responsibility to come clean.

Yes Maam, alcohol can burn - even the 70% Iso stuff we buy at the store - ((it has an additive of WOOD alcohol of approx 10% - which means it will make the person who drinks it either really really sick - or dead.)) The blend of fuels now used by most service stations have alcohol mixed in with the gas. They still charge you the same BIG price as gasoline - but, don't tell you. That's a big secret for the gas giants and their lobby people keep the government quiet about it all. WOW....... Who's the dummy???

Oh Well, we have to keep on driving.

Let's drive to save another tree today!!!!!!

I think we did............

Thank you all Wildclickers.........

Check it out! On the 2008 vehicles and newer, the gadget sits on the dash board somewhere and tells drivers if their tires are 25% below manufacturers recommendations. I like that idea! Better gas mileage, braking and turning.