maybe we should try to help them

. [click image]

See also the Sea Shepherd Gulf Rescue page....
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Happy Mother's Day

Mother Earth that is!

Earth Day

HISTORY OF EARTH DAY
EARTH DAY NETWORK
MOTHER EARTH NEWS
GREEN ENERGY NEWS
WHOLE EARTH CATALOG
BLUEBEAR'S ECOBLOG

Al Gore's Challenge

Updated 7/18/08 Now with the full speech.

Read the full speech here.

Read what others are saying here.

The WE Campaign.

[Mr. Gore - Please be my President!]

Bush Administration Dragging Its Feet on Polar Bear Protection

[click photo]
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Boom Boom Out Go the Lights!

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Speaking of Dominoes!

[click photo to enlarge]

Link to article at National Geographic

The chunk of coastal ice was some 160 square miles (415 square kilometers) in area—about seven times the size of Manhattan.

The shelf's rapid collapse began on February 28 (see image sequence at top right), sending a giant swath of broken ice into the sea (detail at bottom).

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The Most Incredible Thing I've Ever Seen

From The Blue Planet series.

Selling the West at Bargain Basement Prices

Another Assault (Updated)

"Just a drop in a bucket."

[click photo]

Update 2/7/08:

Yesterday it was reported that last weeks sewage spill was actually the second in a series of spills. On January 25th 2.5 million gallons of raw sewage was released into the same creek as the second spill. KTVU TV reports:

MILL VALLEY, Calif. -- The head of the state Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday called for independent review of the regional water board after an investigation revealed a second major sewage spill into the San Francisco Bay. State water officials said their investigation had revealed that last week's spill of 2.7-million gallons of partially treated sewage into the Bay was preceded by the release of about 2.5 million gallons of virtually raw sewage during a storm on Jan. 25. The Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin reported the first spill to the state Regional Water Quality Control board, which oversees the water treatment plant in Mill Valley. But the Marin agency did not report to state officials how much sewage was released and used an incorrect date.

...........................................................................................................

Linda Adams, who heads the state Environmental Protection Agency, wants an independent review of the regional water board because it failed to immediately investigate the first sewage spill."Although it appears that the Sewerage Agency failed in its responsibility to report the original incident as required by state law, the Regional Board staff apparently missed at least two opportunities to investigate the matter," Adams wrote in a letter to Regional Water Board Executive Officer Bruce Wolfe. "I respectfully request that you immediately authorize a thorough and independent investigation of the Regional Board's standard operating procedures concerning emergencies of this nature," the letter read.

The original post follows....

Once again San Francisco Bay is under assault by the byproducts of civilization. This past Thursday a combination of sewage and storm water, 2.7 million gallons of it, poured into Richardson Bay which opens into San Francisco Bay between Sausilito and Tiburon.

The Raw Story has this to report:

The accidental release occurred Thursday night when rainwater overwhelmed the facility and an emergency alarm system failed, Marin County officials said Friday.

County health officials are warning the public to avoid fishing or touching water in or around Richardson Bay, an arm of San Francisco Bay that stretches between Tiburon and Sausalito.

Officials have posted signs warning of possible contamination at beaches and waterfronts along Richardson Bay. They are also conducting tests near the accident site to determine the extent of the spill and possible public health issues.

The spill happened after a worker at the treatment plant failed to turn on enough pumps to handle the amount of water flowing into the facility during a storm, said Stephen Danehy of the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin. Staff had gone home when the alarm was triggered around 4:30 p.m.

The emergency telephone notification service the facility uses for nighttime alerts also failed, leaving a voicemail for an on-duty staffer, he said.

The problem wasn't discovered until an off-duty worker checked the facility's status remotely on the Internet around 8 p.m., Danehy said. The overflow was fixed a half-hour later.

Yet another incident caused by human error helping to damage the bay.

At least we can be encouraged since:

Danehy said most of the wastewater that flooded into the bay has been carried out by the tides, and that there will likely be little other cleanup needed.

"In the grand scheme of things, 2 million gallons is a lot of water," he said. "But going into the area where it drained into, it was a drop in the bucket. And this was diluted and treated, to some degree."

Pfeh!

A Matter of Degrees

VIDEO LOST WHEN SPLASHCAST VIDEO SERVICE SWITCHED TO A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE

Watch the entire show February 10th 8 PM ET, 9 PM PT

LINK
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Human Causes for Global Warming This is nothing new!

This film clip is from 1958. Why then is Global Warming a "new" topic?
Why wasn't more done sooner?


(I actually remember this from grade school.)

We Gotta Fix This Messed-Up World!

h/t Big Dan

DU Storm

When my friend and fellow blogger Homeyra sent me this photo my first thought was that this was a dramatic photo of a natural event which occurs frequently in desert areas such as Iraq.

Then I took a trip to neufneuf where Agent 99 reminded me of something.

For the last 4 1/2 years, as well as during the Gulf War, we have been disposing of tons of radioactive waste in the form of Depleted Uranium all over the Iraqi countryside. Pulverized into minute particles upon penetrating tanks and the like, it is easily inhaled but remains in the lungs causing damage over time.

Also blamed for birth defects and other abnormalities, traces of it have been found on the wind as far away as Europe and other areas surrounding the Mideast.

So not only is that dust cloud obnoxious, it is

RADIOACTIVE!
STOP THE WAR
BAN DU

Japan's Kaguya Moon Probe

The Japan Space Agency's (JAXA) Kaguya moon probe has begun its mission and is returning High Definition photos such as the one above. It has also released two probes, one of which will eventually land on the moon.

On a mission to map the moon using High Definition photos the satellite is currently going through its initial tests prior to starting the actual mission.

This photo clearly shows how finite our world is and gives meaning to the causes to save its environment and its people.

More can be found at the Kaguya website.

They're Killing The Bay

On Wednesday November 7th a container ship leaving the Port of Oakland clipped the footing of a tower on the Bay Bridge. Although the bridge was undamaged the ship sustained a long gash in its side.

Originally it was reported that only 140 gallons of oil had been spilled. It wasn't until the next morning that the true extent of the 58,000 gallon spill was realized.


The Coast Guard response was far from stellar. They have been backpedaling on various aspects of their response or lack of it.


Volunteers work to help save the wildlife.


UPDATE 11/14/07:

The pilot of the freighter that struck the Bay Bridge last week, fouling the bay with 58,000 gallons of fuel, told federal investigators that the accident occurred after the ship's radar failed and the captain of the vessel made a monumental error, a lawyer for the pilot said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger postponed the start of the bay's normally vibrant fishing season, while cleanup crews made significant headway on the worst-hit beaches, and politicians and environmentalists braced for a flurry of state and federal hearings into the spill.

The most startling of the day's revelations came from attorney John Meadows, who represents John Cota, the pilot of the Cosco Busan last Wednesday. Cota said the Chinese captain of the ship guided the freighter toward a bridge tower in the fog, the attorney said.

Meadows said his client told him and investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is looking into the crash, that the Cosco Busan's radar "conked out" twice - first before departure and again as the ship was near the lighthouse on Yerba Buena Island.

More Here - includes a time line of the incident plus numerous links to orginaztions involved in the cleanup.

My question is why this 900 foot long ship was allowed to navigate in the fog with 300 feet visibility and a faulty radar?

UPDATE #2 11/14/07:

The Coast Guard and the owners of the Cosco Busan freighter apparently botched the drug and alcohol testing of the crew of the ship after it hit the Bay Bridge last week and dumped 58,000 gallons of oil into the bay, Coast Guard officials told The Chronicle this morning.

The agency informed lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday that ship's operators had failed to test all the crew members for drugs within the 32 hours required by federal law. In fact, some of the crew was not tested until 53 hours after the incident last week.

The immediate testing of the crew after an incident is the responsibility of the owner and operator of the vessel, but the Coast Guard is responsible for making sure the testing rules are strictly followed.

The Coast guard, for whom I have always held the highest regards, is beginning to look like FEMA:

"It certainly shows the operator missed a crucial detail," Lt. Commander Tony Guild, who oversees inspections, investigations and analysts for the Coast Guard's western region.

Guild said a Coast Guard casualty investigator only learned on Friday that the drug testing of the crew had not taken place from an agent for the ship's owner, Regal Stone Ltd.

"(The agent) said, 'We only tested the master for drugs, so the Coast Guard investigating officer said, 'You need to test everybody,' " Guild said.

Guild said the Coast Guard investigator moved quickly to order the drug tests, but acknowledged the agency bore some responsibility for failing to get the tests done on time.

"I think we could have done a better job of that," he said.

There also seems to be a huge discrepancy in the amount of oil recovered so far:

More than 2,745 gallons of oil has been collected from the water so far, the command center for the spill reported this morning. Another 580 gallons have been dispersed naturally, and an estimated 4,060 gallons of oil has evaporated.

The total has been revised in recent days from a total of 20,546 reported recovered from the water last week, as emergency officials were able to more accurately gauge the precision of what was water, what was oil, and what was actually pulled up from the bay.

Full Article

So they were reporting over 20,000 gallons last week but now it is only a little over 7,000 gallons including that which was "dispersed naturally" - about 1/3 of what was originally reported.

What exactly is "dispersed naturally" - was that the oil stuck on the dead birds?

It 's All We Have Stop screwing it up!

Too Hot Not To Handle

Links:

Ice Shelf Collapse ... National Snow and Ice Data Center ... The Conscious Earth ... Earth Portal ... Greenland Ice Melt ... Live Earth ... Greenpeace ... Sierra Club ... Friends of the Earth ... League of Conservation Voters ... Leave No Trace ... National Audubon Society ... The Nature Conservancy ... Rainforest Action Network ... Seacology ... Soil and Water Conservation Society ... Wilderness Society ... World Resource Institute ... At the Lair ... Imagine Peace

Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Former President Jimmy Carter has this to say:

"I'm delighted,this might even encourage him to consider another political event.

I don't think there's any doubt that Al Gore would be the best qualified person to be the president of the United States. He was obviously elected both in Florida and around the country in 2000, and I've always hoped he would be, you know, coming back again sometime."

[click photo]


Will he or won't he?

[click photo]

Chair of UN climate panel 'stunned' to share Nobel Prize with Gore.

Pachauri, the chairman of the United Nations panel on climate, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Al Gore, said he was "stunned" when he received a phone call informing him of the news.

"I can't believe it, overwhelmed, stunned," he said on learning that the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, had been awarded the prize.

The Big Melt

The Warming



The Evidence


The Effects - People


The Effects - Food Chain


The Effects - Polar Bears


The Effects - Seals

The Prediction - Next 40 Years

North Pole Oil

Photo - Andy Armstrong/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The summer of 2007 has seen the lowest extent of sea ice at the North Pole in recorded history. As of September 16th sea ice extent was 1.59 million square miles – 461,000 square miles less than the previous low for the day... which was recorded in 2005.


Sea ice extent is continuing to fall, although this is the end of the melt season and it has slowed drastically. The image above, from the National Snow and Ice Data Center shows the extent of the ice cover on September 16th of this year. The magenta line is the median summer time minimum value for the years 1979-2006. It’s easy to see the scope of the problem.

The Natural Resources Defense Council reports:

Average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. Arctic ice is getting thinner, melting and rupturing. For example, the largest single block of ice in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for 3,000 years before it started cracking in 2000. Within two years it had split all the way through and is now breaking into pieces.

It is widely accepted that this increase in melting is caused by Global Warming. The loss of ice is actually accelerating melting by exposing more open water, which, being darker in color, absorbs significantly more solar energy than the reflective white icecap, further heating the polar sea.

The Natural Resources Defense Council also tells us of the effects the melting is having on the local environment, the people and the animals who live there:

The melting of once-permanent ice is already affecting native people, wildlife and plants. When the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf splintered, the rare freshwater lake it enclosed, along with its unique ecosystem, drained into the ocean. Polar bears, whales, walrus and seals are changing their feeding and migration patterns, making it harder for native people to hunt them. And along Arctic coastlines, entire villages will be uprooted because they're in danger of being swamped. The native people of the Arctic view global warming as a threat to their cultural identity and their very survival.

There is however another threat to their cultural identity and the environment, a threat being exposed by the disappearance of the sea ice.

GAS, OIL, GOLD and DIAMONDS

Beneath the ice shelf lies the Lomonosov Ridge, a 1,200 mile long underwater ridge which Russia claims is linked to the Siberian continental shelf. It is estimated that the ridge contains ten billion tons of gas and oil. It is also rich in diamonds, gold and other metals.


This article from the Daily News gives a look at what is at stake:

Under current international law, the countries ringing the Arctic - -Russia, Canada, the U.S., Norway, and Denmark (which owns Greenland) - are limited to a 200-mile economic zone around their coasts.

…none can claim jurisdiction over the Arctic seabed because the geological structure does not match the surrounding continental shelves.

Predictably, there is now a rush of countries performing research to prove Lomonosov Ridge and other areas of seabed are a part of their landmass in order to lay claim to the riches under the thinning ice cap.

RUSSIA

Russia was the first to stake a claim. In June an expedition using a nuclear powered icebreaker returned, claiming to have geological evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge was indeed part of the Russian continental shelf. This from The Guardian:

According to Russia's media, the geologists returned with the "sensational news" that the Lomonosov ridge was linked to Russian Federation territory, boosting Russia's claim over the oil-and-gas rich triangle. The territory contained 10bn tonnes of gas and oil deposits, the scientists said.
Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper celebrated the discovery by printing a large map of the North Pole. It showed the new "addition" to Russia - the size of France, Germany and Italy combined - under a white, blue and red Russian flag.

More recently Russia sent two mini-subs to the sea floor at the North Pole to post a titanium Russian flag and make claim to the territory. The Guardian reports:

Russia symbolically staked its claim to billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves in the Arctic Ocean today when two mini submarines reached the seabed more than two and a half miles beneath the North Pole.
In a record-breaking dive, the two craft planted a one metre-high titanium Russian flag on the underwater Lomonosov ridge, which Moscow claims is directly connected to its continental shelf.

However, other countries are not pleased:

… the dangerous mission prompted ridicule and skepticism among other contenders for the Arctic's energy wealth, with Canada comparing it to a 15th century colonial land grab.
"This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say: 'We're claiming this territory'," the Canadian foreign minister, Peter MacKay, told CTV television.
Mr MacKay predicted that the Russian expedition would not bear fruit, adding: "There is no threat to Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic ... we're not at all concerned about this mission. Basically it's just a show by Russia."

ENTER CANADA

With the melting of the sea ice the fabled Northwest Passage is now opening in the summer and Canada is laying a sovereign claim to it. This from the Canada’s CBC News:

It used to be, when it came to claims of Arctic sovereignty, that it was the Americans we feared. They, after all, had the multi-hulled icebreakers and nuclear submarines to transit our Northwest Passage virtually at will.
But for a number of years now, Russia has been getting into the hunt as well. And its latest move — a naval manoeuvre currently underway that is designed to plant an actual Russian flag, in a titanium capsule, at the base of the North Pole, 4,200 metres below sea level — raises the international stakes considerably.
Canadians have always tended to regard the northernmost reaches of their land as an integral, if isolated, part of the country. The vast and frozen Arctic archipelago even gets its own reference in the country's national anthem: "The true north strong and free."
But how much of "Canada's North" is Canada's? Just about everyone agrees that the many islands that dot the Arctic to the north of Canada's mainland belong to Canada. But what about the water between them? Who, if anyone, has jurisdiction over the waters separating Somerset Island from Devon Island, or Melville Island from Banks Island?
The Canadian government says the jurisdiction is clear — they're Canadian waters. But the U.S. and some other countries, especially now Russia, don't agree. They see the Northwest Passage as an international strait that any ship should be free to transit. And increasingly, they are seeing the Arctic seabed as a resource to be carved up among certain northern nations.

Not only has the formerly naturally off-limits polar sea floor become an issue, but so also has the once elusive Northwest Passage become a catastrophe-widened super highway for shipping squabbles:

Plainly put, the Arctic ice is thinning at an alarming rate. Because of global warming, there are predictions that the Northwest Passage may be open for large parts of the summer in as little as 15 years.
Critics say that risks turning the Northwest Passage into the commercial sea route that explorers began searching for in the 15th Century. They say the rest of the world is sure to take more notice of a shipping route between Asia and Europe that would be 5,000 kilometres shorter than the current route through the Panama Canal.

DENMARK JOINS THE FRAY

On August 14th of this year a team of forty scientists set out on a Swedish Icebreaker sailing from Svalbard, a remote Norwegian island. The group, ten of them Danish, will also be accompanied by a Russian ice breaker. Their destination is the Lomonosov Ridge.
From the Telegraph:

According to the Danish government, evidence gathered during the trip could clinch ownership of the North Pole for the nation, which has a population of fewer than six million and whose entire mainland lies further south than John O'Groats.
Its claim to the Pole is based on its ownership of Greenland, which has a population of only 57,000 and was awarded to the Danes in 1933 by an international court which rejected Norway's claim to the vast, frozen island.
Helge Sander, Denmark's minister of science, technology and innovation, said: "The preliminary investigations done so far are very promising. There are things suggesting that Denmark could be given the North Pole."
Christian Marcussen of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, the expedition leader, said: "We will be collecting data for a possible [sovereignty] demand.

That however is not the only area of contention for Denmark. They are also involved in an ongoing dispute with Canada.

HANS ISLAND

Very near the North Pole is tiny Hans Island, barren and uninhabited. Only half a square mile in size, it has become the center of a dispute between Canada and Denmark over the territory.
This dispute has been going on since 1984 when Denmark’s Minister for Greenland Affairs flew in by helicopter, raised the Danish flag, buried a bottle of brandy at its base leaving a note saying: “Welcome to the Danish Island”.
Newsweek reports:

Canada and Denmark are engaged in a vigorous cold war of words and gestures over who has claim to Hans Island. In recent years, both have dispatched expeditions to the Godforsaken place and planted their flags; both have sent warships to assert their claims. For the two countries, the island represents much more than a speck on the charts; it's a test case that will help determine the future of the world's last great land grab, a struggle for virgin territory that mixes geology and geopolitics.

Then two years ago the Canadians stirred up the dispute some more:

The dispute erupted again two years ago when former Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham set foot on the rock while Canadian troops hoisted the Maple Leaf flag.
Denmark sent a letter of protest to Ottawa, while Canadians and Danes took out competing Google ads, each proclaiming sovereignty over the rock 680 miles (1,094 kilometers) south of the North Pole.
Some Canadians even called for a boycott of Danish pastries.

CANADA BECOMING DEFENSIVE

This past July, Canadian Prime Minister Stephan Harper announced that between six and eight new warships would be built to patrol the Northwest Passage.

Stephan Harper – “The ongoing discovery of the North’s resource riches – coupled with the potential impact of climate change – has made the region an area of growing interest and concern.
Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic.
We either use it or lose it.
And make no mistake, this Government intends to use it.
Because Canada’s Arctic is central to our identity as a northern nation.
It is part of our history.
And it represents the tremendous potential of our future.
That’s why I’m so pleased to be here today.
To announce our first moves forward to defend and strengthen Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.
The first element of the plan will be the construction and deployment of six to eight new state-of-the-art offshore patrol ships.”

Full Speech

In addition to the new patrol ships the Canadians are also installing a system of listening devices throughout the northern waters to monitor the ship and boat traffic in the area as shown in the following video from CBC News.



WHERE IS THIS ALL HEADED?

Once again from The Guardian:

Russia first made a submission in 2001 to the UN commission on the limits of the continental shelf, seeking to push Russia's maritime borders beyond the existing 200-mile zone. It was rejected.
But the latest scientific findings are likely to prompt Russia to lodge another confident bid - and will alarm the US, which is mired in a 13-year debate over ratification of a UN treaty governing international maritime rights.
The Law of the Sea Treaty is the world's primary means of settling disputes over exploitation rights and navigational routes in international waters. Russia and 152 other countries have ratified it.
But the US has refused, arguing it gives too much power to the UN. If the US does not ratify it, Russia's bid for the Arctic's energy wealth will go unchallenged, proponents believe.

Given this administration’s bad attitude toward the UN, ratification might have gone the way of Kyoto – leaving us to fight the world in the Arctic – but there are clambering capitalists so eager to start cashing in – even with more environmental protections – they may manage to turn it around in time.

Meanwhile, the polar bears keep drowning.

David Attenborough - Two Questions

Are We Changing Planet Earth?


Can We Save Her?