NEWS ROUNDUP

Challenge to Scientific Consensus on Global Warming A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age and/or that 2) our Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance. "This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery. Other researchers found evidence that 3) sea levels are failing to rise importantly; 4) that our storms and droughts are becoming fewer and milder with this warming as they did during previous global warmings; 5) that human deaths will be reduced with warming because cold kills twice as many people as heat; and 6) that corals, trees, birds, mammals, and butterflies are adapting well to the routine reality of changing climate. Despite being published in such journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Review Letters, these scientists have gotten little media attention....
Emission ruling is a victory for state's policy California cleared a critical green light in its campaign to require automakers to build vehicles that emit less greenhouse gas. Wednesday, a federal judge upheld a Vermont law requiring automakers to cut climate-warming vehicle emissions 30 percent by 2016. The law is virtually identical to California's Assembly Bill 1493, adopted five years ago and since copied by 14 other states. The auto industry has sued three states, including California, in an attempt to block the laws. The Vermont case is the first to be decided. In a 240-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions III rejected both of the auto industry's main arguments: that the emissions-cutting requirements are technically unworkable and that state-level requirements to reduce greenhouse emissions effectively violate the federal government's authority to set mileage standards....
Eating Less Meat May Slow Climate Change Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on Thursday. In a special energy and health series of the medical journal The Lancet, experts said people should eat fewer steaks and hamburgers. Reducing global red meat consumption by 10 percent, they said, would cut the gases emitted by cows, sheep and goats that contribute to global warming. "We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not connected to the study. "If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," Brewster said. Other ways of reducing greenhouse gases from farming practices, like feeding animals higher-quality grains, would only have a limited impact on cutting emissions. Gases from animals destined for dinner plates account for nearly a quarter of all emissions worldwide. "That leaves reducing demand for meat as the only real option," said Dr. John Powles, a public health expert at Cambridge University, one of the study's authors. The amount of meat eaten varies considerably worldwide. In developed countries, people typically eat about 224 grams per day. But in Africa, most people only get about 31 grams a day. With demand for meat increasing worldwide, experts worry that this increased livestock production will mean more gases like methane and nitrous oxide heating up the atmosphere. In China, for instance, people are eating double the amount of meat they used to a decade ago....
Wilderness deal made An association of home builders has reached a compromise with wilderness proponents on the boundary for eastward growth of Las Cruces, both groups announced during a news conference Wednesday. As a result, the Las Cruces Home Builders Association said it will endorse a plan by conservationists that would grant a federal wilderness designation to thousands of acres in Doña Ana County. The groups had been at odds throughout a negotiations process about wilderness hosted by the city early this year. Ranchers and off-road vehicle users remain opposed to the wilderness designation in most cases, though they've backed another method of protecting land from development. Steve Wilmeth, a Doña Ana County rancher, said he's concerned about the home builders decision to endorse the conservationists' entire proposal, including the Broad Canyon and Potrillo mountain areas. Ranchers and off-road vehicle users have said they're worried the wilderness designation — which restricts most mechanized travel — would keep law enforcement and Border Patrol from easily accessing the land. "This is a bigger issue than just ranchers ... here," he said. "When there is a legitimate national security concern, this is a reckless and irresponsible decision in the long run for our community."....
Lawsuit Challenges Fish "Habitat" in New Mexico and Arizona The federal government acted illegally when it designated vast stretches of riverbeds in New Mexico and Arizona as "critical habitat" for two species of fish found throughout the Southwest – the spikedace and loach minnow. So argues a lawsuit announced today by Pacific Legal Foundation. The resulting land use restrictions create flood dangers for landowners, among other problems, according to PLF attorneys and their clients. Filed on behalf of the Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties for Stable Economic Growth, and the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, the lawsuit contends that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service – the agency responsible for the March 21, 2007, habitat designation – did not follow the requirements of the Endangered Species Act when it set aside more than 500 miles of riverbed in Arizona and New Mexico. "Along hundreds of miles of streams and rivers, the federal government has essentially prohibited landowners from making improvements on their own private property – in the name of protecting two fish species," said PLF attorney Damien Schiff. "But this command violates the Endangered Species Act itself in some basic ways. The regulators haven’t clearly identified physical and biological features in the designated areas that are essential for the species’ conservation. And they have ignored their legal duty to consider the economic impact of the designation."....go here to view the lawsuit.
R-CALF: Assistance Given to LU Ranch, Joyce Livestock On the recommendation of the R-CALF USA Private Property Rights Committee, the group’s board of directors has decided to contribute $1,000 to the legal expenses of the LU Ranch and Joyce Livestock in their long-term fight with the federal government for the water rights on land covered by federally administered grazing allotments. After years of wrangling in the court system, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the ranchers owned the water rights on the federal land, but unfortunately, the Idaho Supreme Court held that the ranchers were not entitled to recover their attorney fees. Oklahoma attorney and R-CALF USA member Harlan Hentges said that through the years, U.S. governmental officials have claimed that the federal government owns the water rights on land covered by federally administered grazing allotments. Not so, he said. “The water rights belong to the ranchers who have put the water to beneficial use and have owned these water rights for decades,” he said. “Through the years, overzealous governmental officials have abused their power and ignored ranchers' private property rights on the water. “The United States sued LU Ranching and Joyce Livestock and challenged these ranchers’ historic water rights for their ranching operations, which are located on federally administered grazing allotments,” Hentges explained. “The ranchers had two choices: 1) give up their water rights to the United States, and therefore the viability of their ranches; or, 2) defend their historic family water rights against the United States, even though the cost of doing so would exceed the value of their ranches. These ranchers defended their water rights and prevailed.”....
Picture it: 64,000 new acres of wilderness On the map, they are an archipelago of green stretching across the topography of San Miguel and Dolores counties — thousands of acres that could become the newest wilderness areas on the Western Slope. They run from Naturita Canyon and McKenna Peak in the west to Mount Sneffels and Deep Creek, hovering just above the roof of Telluride — some 64,000 acres in all. An at the end of the month, local conservationists will ask Congress to introduce legislation converting these patches of federal land into wilderness areas. The designation would keep cars, helicopters, ATVs and bikes off these lands, and prevent any road construction or road upgrades, said Hilary White of the Sheep Mountain Alliance, which is leading the charge in San Miguel County. “It basically is the highest protection of public lands there is,” White said. “The wilderness designation strives to protect the pristine wildlife habitat and corridor areas left in the United States.” The U.S. House and Senate must pass legislation designating these lands — which are owned by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management — as wilderness areas. White said she and other supporters will meet with U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a Western Slope Democrat, this month to outline their proposal. Eric Wortman, Salazar’s legislative director, said the congressman’s office would then vet the proposal and run it by interested groups....
Feds must live up to commitment to maintain failing logging roads There's an old saying that when you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging. Right now, our federal government is in a hole and is still digging. In doing so, it is turning its back on an agreement with Washington state to maintain and restore thousands of miles of decades-old, deteriorating logging roads in our national forests. Prolonged underfunding of forest road maintenance in our national forests has increased erosion and road failures, and the problem grows daily. Muddy water from failing and washed-out forest roads harms fish — including threatened and endangered runs of salmon — that need cold, clear water to thrive and reproduce. Muddy water harms the gills of salmon and trout. Silt smothers their eggs when it settles into clean gravel beds. Muddy runoff also contributes to making streams wider, shallower and more susceptible to warming by the sun. Warm streams further threaten salmon and trout that need cold, clean water to survive....
Utahns push U.S. bill to fund rural schools Commissioners from five Utah counties descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday to push for a bill to get government funding for rural schools. The pending legislation would extend a current law originally passed in 2001 that provides a "safety net" for rural school districts, especially those in Western states, that have little private land available to tax and do not get all the money owed to them by the federal government. Some communities had depended on funds generated from the Forest Service land to fund schools and other local projects, but the amounts started to decrease as the money generated by the Forest Service lands began to go down, according to the National Forest Counties and Schools Coalition. In 2000, Congress passed a law giving money to those communities that saw cuts. But the law expires on Sept. 30 unless Congress renews it. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., has a bill that would extend the act and make other changes that could help rural communities in states, such as Utah, with a lot of public land. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, is a co-sponsor of DeFazio's bill....
Ex-Forest Service worker fights firing Ruth Wenstrom says she was only trying to be honest. The former San Bernardino National Forest public information officer says when cuts were made in fire-suppression spending in 2006, she was stunned. For several years previously, the San Bernardino district had received twice-monthly severity funds to bolster its firefighting capability and aid in the removal of trees killed off by a bark-beetle infestation. The cuts meant a reduction in on-duty fire engines in the forest from 25 to as few as 16 during the week. "I was told to say, 'There's no problems out there, and there's no need for added money,' " Wenstrom said, recalling a directive she received in April 2006. "And that was a bald-faced lie." Only months earlier, now-retired Forest Supervisor Gene Zimmerman had called the San Bernardino National Forest the "most threatened community in the nation" because of its population density and the fire danger. That danger was evident in 2003 when the Old and Grand Prix fires raced through the hillsides and mountains, destroying more than 600 homes....
County vows to fight for roads Otero County plans to take on the Forest Service regarding road access under Revised Statute 2477, a provision in the 1866 Mining Law that states any road under county jurisdiction, regardless of when that jurisdiction was established, supersedes any subsequent jurisdiction claimed by any other entity, including the Forest Service. In a discussion at its work session Wednesday, the Otero County Commission expressed its intent to take on the Forest Service regarding roads in the Lincoln National Forest. "We want to stop the closure of any roads and trails by the Forest Service," said Commission Chairman Doug Moore. "If they want to challenge any of the roads we claim under R.S. 2477, we'll duke it out in court." "If we have to list every goat trail, butterfly path, and meteor pathway, we will," Commissioner Clarissa McGinn said. "We want a preemptive action to keep these closures from happening. These closures are going to take place very soon if we don't stop this." Moore said the Forest Service plan is to close nearly half the roads and trails in the Lincoln National Forest....
Report rebukes USFS's direction The "can do" mentality blamed in the deaths of five firefighters last year in Riverside County underscores an even greater problem within the U.S. Forest Service: The agency has lost direction, an outside report suggests. Wildfires will likely kill an increasing number of firefighters unless the Forest Service's mission and acceptable levels of risk are better defined, according to the report. "Many remain unclear about the limits to the mission, leading them to take on responsibilities that put them in harm's way, cause over-reaching and lead to unsafe situations," an excerpt of the 46-page report reads. Crews are stretched to fight larger fires with fewer numbers, are overloaded with rules and are frequently torn between whether to act as agents of a "forest service" that manages the forest and fights forest fires or a "fire service" that is responsible for protecting homes built in sensitive forest areas, according to the report. Dialogos, a consulting firm commissioned by the agency to address safety concerns in the wake of mounting deaths, prepared the report....
Abandoned mines cause environmental devastation Prospectors began hacking at Colorado's mountainsides 150 years ago in search of gold, silver and any other kind of profitable metal that might have been nestled deep inside the rock. Soon mines peppered the landscape. And while most of them were abandoned nearly a century ago, their consequences on the region's ecology and human health will continue to thrive long after our own generation has withered. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 500,000 abandoned mines exist in the U.S., the majority of which lie out West. Colorado is home to about 23,000 of them, according to the Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining & Safety. Not all of the mines emit pollutants, but enough of them do to cause a host of problems. Perhaps the most obvious are the physical dangers. Last year, 22 people died nationwide from falling in abandoned mine shafts, inhaling deadly odorless gases or being crushed in cave-ins. Those dangers represent just a small piece of the problem these old mines create....
Bats, kangaroo mice, sage grouse on wildlife agenda Bats, kangaroo mice and sage grouse will be among the beneficiaries from a series of Nevada Division of Wildlife projects approved Tuesday. The projects are all authorized in contracts approved by the Board of Examiners. Largest on the list is a $140,000 contract in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service to build what was described as "bat compatible gates" on abandoned mines throughout the state. Wildlife Diversity Administrator Laura Richards there are 17 species of bat in Nevada and that 14 of them are listed as "sensitive." Thousands of old mines in the state must be somehow closed off so people don't enter them and get injured or killed. But in the past, that meant permanently sealing the mine entrances. "A lot of abandoned mines are maternity roosts for bats," she said. The idea is to build gates that prevent people from entering old mines while allowing the bats free access....
Panel upholds methane ruling A federal appeals court has upheld a judge's ruling that allows limited coal-bed methane development in Montana's portion of the Powder River Basin. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an April 2005 ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Anderson that allowed limited drilling on federal leases in southern Montana while the Bureau of Land Management expands an environmental impact report for the area. The Northern Cheyenne tribe and the Northern Plains Resources Council had challenged the decision. The groups asked for and received an emergency order from the appeals court in June 2005 halting all drilling pending the outcome of their appeal. On Tuesday, both sides said it was unclear when or if drilling would occur. The tribe and the Northern Plains Resources Council have the option of asking the entire 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear their appeal. In its decision, the panel supported the lower court's decision. "The district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing the partial injunction proposed by BLM because it provides an equitable resolution consistent with the purposes of (National Environmental Policy Act)," the panel wrote....
Protect Colorado's wilderness, DeGette says Colorado and its wilderness are at a crossroads and unless action is taken immediately much of the state's beauty may be lost forever, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette said Wednesday in announcing that the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2007 will be introduced in Congress next week. Under the bill, further exploration and drilling on top of Colorado's Roan Plateau, its cliffs and some of the plateau's valleys would be prohibited, DeGette's office said Wednesday. But rigs and pads already in place would not be affected. "In the last seven years our public lands have faced an onslaught like never before from the Bush administration, particularly on the lands we are talking about in my bill, which are mostly Bureau of Land Management lands," DeGette said at a news conference at Denver's Confluence Park. She said more than 85,000 acres of wilderness and other "public quality lands" have been leased for oil and gas drilling in Colorado and "more are being offered up for leasing every day. "Drilling rigs, new roads, pipelines, more well pads, more noise and more dust have tarnished our landscapes, impacted our communities and disrupted our wildlife," DeGette said. But oil and gas industry reaction was swift and negative to the proposed bill....