Western U.S. Faces Drought Crisis, Warming Study Says The U.S. West will see devastating droughts as global warming reduces the amount of mountain snow and causes the snow that does fall to melt earlier in the year, a new study says. By storing moisture in the form of snow, mountains act as huge natural reservoirs, releasing water into rivers long into the summer dry season. "We're losing that reservoir," said research leader Tim Barnett, an oceanographer and climate researcher at the University of California, San Diego. "Spring runoff is getting earlier and earlier in the year, so you have to let water go over the dams into the ocean." Summers are also becoming hotter and longer. "That dries things out more and leads to fires," Barnett added. "Our results are not good news for those living in the western United States," the scientists write in their report, which appears in today's online edition of the journal Science. Barnett and his team used computer models to study water flow in Western rivers over the past 50 years. The researchers found that the changes currently affecting the U.S. West have less than a one percent chance of being due to natural variability, Barnett told National Geographic News. His team verified that by running a variety of control tests under pre-industrial conditions that mimicked known natural cycles. What's been occurring recently, he said, is different from natural variability and is driven by the buildup of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. The study also found that more changes are on tap for Western snowpacks....
Canada to become next OPEC The United States' oil dependence on Canada, already America's largest supplier, is about to grow under a plan to build a new pipeline to transport oil from the tar sands of Alberta into the central part of the nation. TransCanada Corporation, a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, has announced the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline has been given a final Environmental Impact Statement approval from the U.S. Department of State because of the limited adverse environmental impacts that are expected. The approval is the result of nearly two years of analysis of the project proposal by more than a dozen U.S. federal agencies and other interested stakeholders. Now that the EIS is finished, TransCanada expects to receive authorization soon to begin the construction and operation of the pipeline at the U.S./Canada border crossing. According to the Energy Information Administration, the leading suppliers of U.S. oil in Nov. 2007 were: Canada, 2.431 million barrels per day; Saudi Arabia, 1.620 million barrels per day; Mexico, 1.581 million barrels per day; Venezuela, 1.381 million barrels per day; and Nigeria, 1.306 million barrels per day. According to Canada's Globe and Mail, by 2015 and the completion of the project, Canadian oil exports to the U.S. are expected to increase to three million barrels a day. Plans also are under way to extend Canadian pipelines down to the Texas Gulf Coast where the Texas refineries used to processing the "heavy" and "sour" oil processed from Mexico and Venezuela are well suited to process the sticky crude produced from Alberta's oil sands....
Discovery backs theory oil not 'fossil fuel' A study published in Science Magazine today presents new evidence supporting the abiotic theory for the origin of oil, which asserts oil is a natural product the Earth generates constantly rather than a "fossil fuel" derived from decaying ancient forests and dead dinosaurs. The lead scientist on the study – Giora Proskurowski of the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle – says the hydrogen-rich fluids venting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in the Lost City Hydrothermal Field were produced by the abiotic synthesis of hydrocarbons in the mantle of the earth. The abiotic theory of the origin of oil directly challenges the conventional scientific theory that hydrocarbons are organic in nature, created by the deterioration of biological material deposited millions of years ago in sedimentary rock and converted to hydrocarbons under intense heat and pressure. Proskurowski found hydrocarbons containing carbon-13 isotopes that appeared to be formed from the mantle of the Earth, rather than from biological material settled on the ocean floor. Carbon 13 is the carbon isotope scientists associate with abiotic origin, compared to Carbon 12 that scientists typically associate with biological origin....
Senate Takes Up Polar Bear Cause The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing Wednesday to look into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's delay in listing the polar bear as an endangered species. Most Democrats on the committee want the bear listed as endangered while some Republicans have criticized the idea as a stealth means of implementing regulations to combat climate change. The Department of the Interior indicated earlier this month that it would not meet the Jan. 9, 2008 deadline for classifying the bear, and it asked for 30 additional days to consider. Environmentalists, however, are concerned that the listing has been delayed to allow the sale of polar bear habitat along the Chukchi Sea for oil and gas exploration. The sale is currently scheduled for Feb. 6. Andrew Wetzler, director of the Endangered Species Project at the liberal Natural Resources Defense Council, testified that polar bears "stand on the brink of extinction."....
Stoned in Santa Barbara Seventy-five miles northeast of the building, in Santa Maria, there are still men with the skills that built Santa Barbara and its courthouse. One of them is Hank Antolini, the son of Italian immigrant Giovanni Antolini. It was old Giovanni who supplied the stone and supervised the work on the courthouse. Stone had been his own father's craft, and his father's before him, curling back through centuries in Italy. Now Hank, Giovanni's son, and Paul, his grandson, carry on the trade. "Stone," Hank Antolini says, "is the only thing that lasts. History couldn't be written without stone." In 1953 Hank found a nearby deposit of the rare and coveted Santa Maria stone, a type often requested by Frank Lloyd Wright and still used by architects in custom work. The Antolinis today restrict themselves to mining that deposit, located about 30 miles from and 3,000 feet above the city of Santa Maria, surrounded by the Los Padres National Forest. Hank and his son dig into their land, Colson Quarry, themselves; their five workers are driven to and from work every day by Paul, and enjoy both profit-sharing and pension plans. But G. Antolini & Sons may soon have no work for anyone. Santa Barbara County planning officials have been conducting an unrelenting regulatory crusade against the Antolinis for years, and the Antolinis aren't confident it will end until they are forced to close their mine. They've been struggling to keep afloat on a sea of extremely expensive bureaucratic requirements--report after report, plan after plan, hearing after hearing--while attempting all the while to run their small business. "It makes running your business like fighting a guerilla war," says Paul, Hank's 35-year-old son. "You never know what they're going to hit you with next." Santa Barbara County is a place where trying to build a luxury hotel can lead to a 15-year approval and lawsuit process; where constructing a McDonald's camp for cancer-stricken kids can be halted by strict permitting conditions; where even greenhouses and raspberry farms are considered an industrial blight....
Grouse need more help, biologists agree Wildlife biologists from five Western states have reached consensus on the latest science regarding sage grouse and energy development. Despite much bristling from those in the oil and gas industry in recent months, the science does indicate that the current level of federal restrictions on the industry is not enough to adequately protect the iconic bird. State biologists from Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota and Utah recently issued a 10-page report to their supervisors that includes recommendations to urge the Bureau of Land Management to base future stipulations on the science. The science includes the research of biologists Matthew Holloran, David Naugle and more than a dozen other published works. According to Naugle's studies in the Powder River Basin, the density and pace of coal-bed methane development is devastating sage grouse, "over and above those of habitat loss caused by wildfire, sagebrush control, or conversion of sagebrush to pasture or cropland. Moreover, the extent of CBM development explained lek (breeding ground) inactivity better than power lines, pre-existing roads, or West Nile virus mortality."....
Lion kitten dies in study Hound dogs released to tree a 7-month-old cougar last Friday unexpectedly caught and killed the kitten -- an episode that is almost unheard of, according to scientists involved in an ongoing mountain lion research project in northwest Wyoming. The accident happened when biologists from Craighead Beringia South's Teton Cougar Project were trying to capture and collar the kitten of an already radio-collared female cougar in the northwest section of Grand Teton National Park, near Moran Junction. For this particular capture, the Teton Cougar Project was working in concert with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the National Park Service. Teton Cougar Project biologists had been tracking the collared cat and its kitten for a couple of weeks after notifying Game and Fish that the carnivores were making frequent visits to a private ranch within the national park, where the owners keep horses. Howard Quigley, leader of the project, said everyone involved is devastated by the loss of the kitten....
Elk trap themselves When it comes to Mother Nature, sometimes things don’t go as planned. Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials drove to the Fall Creek elk feedground Tuesday morning in anticipation of a second attempt to lure elk into a trap for capture, only to find the elk had already triggered the trap, complete with nearly 300 elk inside. Exactly what happened remains a mystery, but the rope holding the trap gates open was severed, so the gates slammed shut, trapping the elk inside as they munched on hay that had been placed to bait them into the facility. Tuesday’s effort was part of the third year of a "test-and-removal" pilot project for the Pinedale elk herd. The project was a key recommendation of the Governor’s Brucellosis Coordination Team, with the goal of reducing brucellosis rates in the elk herd, and reducing the risk of transmitting the disease from elk to cattle....
A River Restored: Pulling the Plug A puff of white smoke and a cheering throng marked the official demise of Marmot Dam last summer. Portland General Electric's decision to breach the 94-year-old dam on the Sandy River fit into a recent pattern of utilities choosing to ditch relatively small energy-producing dams to help salmon. But what happens after the dignitaries go home, and a century's worth of mud, rocks and debris tumbles down the river? Researchers are only now learning what happens when you pull the plug. In the case of the Sandy, researchers are tracking the deposition of an estimated 1 million cubic yards of material - nearly 100,000 dump truck loads - that had piled up against the upriver side of the 47-foot-tall dam. On a brisk but clear morning last week, iridescent green water ran atop a bed of river-rounded rocks. Several large gravel bars formed small islands between alders and hulking fir trees rising above both banks. In short, it looked like a river. "This shows that river systems are really dynamic and pretty resilient," said Jon Major, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Vancouver. "They'll recover much faster than people think they might."....
Suit Seeks to Block Oil Search Off Alaska A coalition of environmental organizations and Inupiaq native groups filed suit in federal court in Anchorage on Thursday to force the Interior Department to do a new analysis of the environmental consequences of oil and gas exploration in the Chukchi Sea, off northwestern Alaska. The plaintiffs hope to stop plans to develop 29 million acres, which they argue could harm the endangered bowhead whale, a staple of subsistence hunting, and the polar bear, which is under consideration for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The current environmental assessment, the suit says, fails to adequately analyze the impact of the lease sale in the context of a warming climate. The assessment also “understates the potential impacts of oil and gas development,” including the risks of an oil spill, the suit says. The sale of leases in the Chukchi Sea is scheduled to take place next week. While the lawsuit does not seek to block the sale, should the judge agree with the environmental and native groups that the original environmental assessment was flawed, any leases might be voided....
Study: More cars hitting wildlife on highways in Colorado, nationwide Between seven and fifteen elk are hit and killed each winter on U.S. 36 between Boulder and Lyons. The elk are part of the North Boulder Elk herd which spends its summers near the Continental Divide and then travels 17 miles to wintering grounds on either side of the heavily traveled highway. Now Boulder County officials want to protect the herd and motorists from the type of wildlife-vehicle collisions that each year kill more than 200 U.S. motorists and injure thousands more with an annual cost of $200 million to society, according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. The collisions, according to a Montana State University study released Wednesday and submitted to Congress by the Federal Highway Administration, says that wildlife-vehicle collisions often kill the animals and "can pose a threat to the very survival of certain species." The study identified 21 federally listed threatened or endangered species in the United States for which road mortality is "one of the major threats to their survival." The report says that accidents between wildlife/domestic animals and vehicles between 1990 and 2004 increased by 50 percent - from less than 200,000 per year in 1990 to 300,000 in 2004. These accidents now represent approximately five percent or one in 20 of all motor vehicle collisions. The study suggests ways that both drivers can the wildlife can be protected. Among the suggestions are wildlife warning signs, animal detection systems, wildlife fencing and wildlife underpasses and overpasses....More wildlife, more cars and I'll be damned if they didn't find more collisions. Go here to read this important and much-needed study.
Point Reyes rangers all revved up about electric cars The latest endangered species to find refuge at the Point Reyes National Seashore feeds on sunlight, is friendly to both humans and the environment and could make a resurgence after being threatened with extinction. Automaker Toyota has told the national park it can keep five RAV4 electric vehicles that rangers have used for the past three years. "Our personnel have traveled 14,636 miles in vehicles that are nonpolluting because they're not using gasoline," said William Shook, chief of natural resources at the national seashore. "We've been in talks with the program manager at Toyota to keep renewing our agreement, and now Toyota is going to let us keep them as long as we like." The park has decorated its vehicles with scenes that showcase the national seashore, including a sea lion, a spotted owl, a tide pool and the Point Reyes lighthouse. They're fueled by four charging stations throughout the park, which are linked to five photovoltaic panels on park buildings, allowing the cars to be powered by the sun....I just chickened out and deleted my comment here. No use getting sued or publicly pilloried.
U.S. Senate Report Debunks Polar Bear Extinction Fears The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is considering listing the polar bear a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This report details the scientists debunking polar bear endangerment fears and features a sampling of the latest peer-reviewed science detailing the natural causes of recent Arctic ice changes. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000-10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s. A 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near historic highs.” The alarm about the future of polar bear decline is based on speculative computer model predictions many decades in the future. And the methodology of these computer models is being challenged by many scientists and forecasting experts.(LINK) Canadian biologist Dr. Mitchell Taylor, the director of wildlife research with the Arctic government of Nunavut: “Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present,” Taylor said. “It is just silly to predict the demise of polar bears in 25 years based on media-assisted hysteria.” Evolutionary Biologist and Paleozoologist Dr. Susan Crockford of University of Victoria in Canada has published a number of papers in peer-reviewed academic journals. “Polar bears, for example, survived several episodes of much warmer climate over the last 10,000 years than exists today,” Crockford wrote. “There is no evidence to suggest that the polar bear or its food supply is in danger of disappearing entirely with increased Arctic warming, regardless of the dire fairy-tale scenarios predicted by computer models.”....
Polar bear protection tops list for bio center's 'new' chief Saving the polar bear and getting more members top the priority list for Tucson's Center for Biological Diversity, says its new director. Kieran Suckling, a founder of the center, resumed the executive director's job this week after the resignation of Michael Finkelstein. Finkelstein was director for three years before resigning for what he said were personal and professional reasons. Suckling, 43, the group's science and policy director under Finkelstein, said getting the polar bear in the Arctic listed as a threatened species is a key step toward focusing the center on global conservation issues. Under Finkelstein, the center's membership grew from 15,000 to 45,000, its annual budget jumped from $2.8 million to nearly $6 million, and the staff expanded from 34 to 58....
Farmers sue in fight over water After months of losing fights over how much water can be pumped to farms from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a coalition of farm groups is striking back with a federal lawsuit blaming state agencies for endangering native fish in the Delta. In a suit filed in Sacramento federal court, the groups ask for a halt to California's practice of maintaining predatory, nonnative striped bass in the Delta for the benefit of fishermen, claiming the policy violates the Endangered Species Act. The bass feed on spring- and winter-run chinook salmon, steelhead and Delta smelt – all protected by the Endangered Species Act – and their dwindling populations harm the overall health of the estuary, ultimately resulting in reduced water deliveries to farmers, the lawsuit charges. "Allowing this destruction to continue when the populations of several of these species – including the Delta smelt – are crashing is outrageous," said Michael Boccadoro, spokesman for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, the lead plaintiff in the suit filed late Tuesday. Biologists already are concerned about drastic reductions in the Sacramento River's fall chinook salmon run, saying it is near collapse. Sport fishermen, however, scoffed Wednesday at the lawsuit's thesis, saying the real threat to the Delta is all the water channeled to farmers through the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project....
Country of origin labeling proceeding to September implementation The COOL law is full speed ahead, with implementation starting midnight Sept. 30, 2008. COOL is an acronym for country of origin labeling. Further delays in implementation are unlikely at this point, but the proposed language in the current farm bill should ease compliance for livestock producers, meat processors and retailers. Under the law, retailers have to prove country of origin by a label on the package or be fined $1,000 per item. They have to comply with an audit which establishes a three-label system for meat products that would differentiate completely domestic products from completely foreign products. The changes in the rules will make segregation, labeling, and record-keeping easier with RFID tagged animals and changes to the audit verification and enforcement rules further specify what business records may suffice for country of origin labeling. The easy way is to use commercial databases built for the task. Even produce farmers will need audit records to comply with COOL. Perhaps most important among the changes for cattle producers is a grandfather clause that considers all animals in the U.S. on Jan. 1, 2008 to be of U.S. origin. But sheep, swine, veal, goat, poultry, fish will need immediate recordkeeping to manage the COOL law as they come to market in a shorter time frame. Still, cattle producers will need to maintain documentation of origin by RFID tagging and branding (using their existing business records) from birth to slaughter and move those records thru stockyards intact from this point forward and or by using a commercial database where animal RFID tag records can be searched by processors and retailers....
Farmers Clog Mexico City; Protest Lifting Of Corn Tariffs Thousands of farmers on foot and on lumbering tractors clogged Mexico City Thursday to protest the lifting of corn tariffs under a free trade agreement, which they say is hurting their pockets. "No corn, no country" was the byword of the protest plastered in signs on tractors and buses, as the angry farmers, some of them leading herds of cattle through the streets, demanded equal treatment with farmers in the U.S. and Canada. While it was mostly peaceful, some tension existed late Wednesday when a column of slow-moving tractors ground to a reluctant halt before a phalanx of anti-riot police that barred access to the Zocalo, the city's main square. Some 1,500 police have fanned out across the city to prevent any unrest stemming from the protest, as farmers from across the country have made their way here, some on foot for 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles), since Jan. 18. A provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement lifting tariffs on corn - Mexico's staple food - kicked in on Jan. 1, 14 years after the agreement between the three neighbors came into being. Many farmers in Mexico have been against NAFTA from the start, but their protest has escalated as the date for lifting corn tariffs approached....