Democrat wins in Colorado U.S. Senate race

NM Dem. Udall carries on green family legacy

Obama beats McCain in New Mexico presidential vote

McCain wins Wyoming

Udall defeats Pearce in US Senate race

MIT scientists baffled by global warming theory, contradicts scientific data Scientists at MIT have recorded a nearly simultaneous world-wide increase in methane levels. This is the first increase in ten years, and what baffles science is that this data contradicts theories stating man is the primary source of increase for this greenhouse gas. It takes about one full year for gases generated in the highly industrial northern hemisphere to cycle through and reach the southern hemisphere. However, since all worldwide levels rose simultaneously throughout the same year, it is now believed this may be part of a natural cycle in mother nature - and not the direct result of man's contributions. The two lead authors of a paper published in this week's Geophysical Review Letters, Matthew Rigby and Ronald Prinn, the TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science, state that as a result of the increase, several million tons of new methane is present in the atmosphere....

Profits to the Planet The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that it is launching a new conservation fund called the Earth Profits Fund. The fund will ask the world’s 500 wealthiest corporations to dedicate one percent of their profits to protect threatened forests, fisheries and other at-risk ecosystems around the world. IUCN, a Swiss-based nonprofit, is an environmental network comprised of more than 1,000 governmental and nonprofit organizations (also known as the World Conservation Union). The group is best known for producing and maintaining a Red List, the most comprehensive tally of the globe’s endangered species. The new Earth Profits Fund will act as alternative funding source for conservation programs in light of the fact that traditional sources are disappearing in light of the worldwide economic meltdown. If the group can get the buy-in from the world’s richest companies, it could raise some $10 billion a year to put toward conservation causes....

Mammoth step in bringing back extinct species Resurrection of frozen extinct animals, such as woolly mammoths, could be a step closer to reality, with scientists cloning mice from the brain cells of dead mice which had been in a deep freeze for more than a decade. The cloned mice were able to reproduce normally and have healthy babies. It had been thought this approach would not work with frozen animals, because ice crystals in their cells would have damaged their DNA. But a Japanese team of researchers, led by Teruhiko Wakayama of the RIKEN research institute in Kobe, developed techniques to get around this problem, producing clones from mice which had been kept at -20 degrees for 16 years. No special chemicals had been added to the mice to cryopreserve them, a situation which would also apply to animals frozen in the wild, such as mammoths trapped in the permafrost. Dr Wakayama said this meant his team's success "offers a distinct chance to resurrect extinct animals or preserve endangered species"....

Yellowstone wolves crash, Idaho's thrive Since the beginning of wolf reintroduction in the Northern Rockies, Idaho and its more than 20 million acres of wild lands have taken a back seat in the debate to Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone simply had more star power for wolf advocates seeking a remarkably ambitious program to restore wolves into a region where the animals were hated, poisoned and eliminated. The 2.2 million-acre national park at the core of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, along with nearby Grand Teton, also offered wolf advocates a level of government control like few places on Earth. When wolves were finally released in 1995, all the national hoopla went to Yellowstone. The releases in Idaho were almost a footnote. The Idaho wolves quickly found each other, along with the few native wolves that hadn't been illegally shot or poisoned. They formed their own packs and flourished in the wild backcountry of the Salmon-Selway ecosystem, which has ample supply of elk. With managers balancing protection with the needs of livestock owners, the Idaho wolves also found homes on the edges of the ideal habitat. Wolf numbers grew in Idaho at rates far higher than either Yellowstone or Northwest Montana, where they had been repopulating since the 1970s. When they were delisted back in March, there were as many wolves in Idaho - more than 700 - as there were everywhere else in the northern Rockies. Even in the face of relatively high mortality due to official killings to protect livestock, Idaho became the place where wolves grew old....

Offsetting Bush's Green Legacy: Advice for No. 44 There is no shortage of people eager to see President George W. Bush hit the road — his approval rating hovers at 25% — but few will celebrate the end of the Bush era more than environmentalists. From the green perspective, the Bush Administration has been an unmitigated disaster, with sins of omission (the failure to do anything significant on climate change) and commission (stealthy attempts to weaken environmental protections such as the Endangered Species Act). For Bush's successor, that legacy means having to play catch-up starting Jan. 20 on a dusty list of green issues; to name a few: national action on capping carbon, reengaging with the United Nations climate change treaty process, America's addiction to foreign oil, water shortages in the Southwest and accelerated species loss. But the most important task on that to-do list is simple: Don't be George W. Bush. At a time when climate change forced the rest of the world to pay more attention to the environment than ever before, Bush went AWOL. "I think the most important opportunity for the new leader is simply to be a leader," says Mark Tercek, the president of the Nature Conservancy, one of the most influential environmental organizations in the world. The new President will be faced immediately with the U.N.'s annual climate change summit, which occurs this December in Poland before he takes office....

Feds propose much fewer snowmobiles in Yellowstone A cap on snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would be lowered by 40 percent under a federal proposal released Monday in response to a judge's rejection of earlier plans. Parks officials had proposed allowing up to 605 snowmobiles a day in the two parks, but U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected that plan in September, agreeing with plaintiff environmental groups that it would increase air pollution, disturb wildlife and cause too much noise. The new plan calls for a cap of 318 snowmachines a day in Yellowstone and another 50 in Grand Teton to the south. Park administrators said they expect it will be adopted by Dec. 15. Yellowstone winter use planner John Sacklin said the new cap would meet Sullivan's concerns while park administrators again try to form a long-term plan for the machines. The cap would expire after three years....

The Philanthropic Roots Of Corporate Environmentalism Perhaps the first environmental historian to critique the influence of ostensibly progressive philanthropic foundations (big money) on the environmental movement was Robert Gottlieb. (1) Writing in 1993, Gottlieb noted in his influential book Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement that foundations "[a]s much as anyone else ...had become part of the process of creating the environmental policy system of the 1970s," which in turn, created a "new breed of environmental organization, with expert staff, especially lawyers and scientists, and a more sophisticated lobbying or political presence in Washington." However, of the subsequent work critically examining how liberal foundations have affected the evolution of the environmental movement, (2) none provides more than a cursory investigation of the involvement of liberal foundations in shaping environmental developments throughout the 1960s, despite the fact that even prior to the 1960s such foundations had been active in funding all manner of conservation and preservation organizations. This article fills this gap in the environmental literature by focusing specifically on the role of the two foundations that gave the environmental movement the most monetary support during its early days, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations.(3)....

CEO pleads guilty in shootings of neighbor's bison A modern-day range war ended Monday when a Texas businessman who owns a ranch in central Colorado pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and animal cruelty in the slaughter of 32 bison that belonged to a neighbor. Jeff Hawn, CEO of Seattle-based software company Attachmate, agreed to pay $83,000 to the bison's owner, $70,000 to charities and $4,000 to the Park County Sheriff's Department. Hawn could also face up to 10 days in jail when he's sentenced on Jan. 28. He faces two years of probation, and the case could be wiped from his record if he stays out of trouble during that time. Hawn's lawyer, Pamela Mackey, didn't immediately return a telephone message. Hawn lives in Austin, Texas, but has a luxury home on his Colorado property. Prosecutors say he gave 14 hunters permission to shoot and kill the bison on his land because they kept wandering there from owner Monte Downare's ranch....

Bison are Camp Pendleton's royal grunts They roam freely over the grassy hills, American royalty in a most unusual of settings. Nearby, young Marines are being tutored in the controlled application of violence, but the 147 bison of Camp Pendleton, shaggy, rust-colored and majestic, are protected by federal law. The Marine Corps makes no attempt to fence them. Instead, a staff of civilian biologists monitors the movements of the population, sometimes by helicopter. If the bison wander too close to the artillery or live-fire ranges, training is halted. Once the bison surrounded a vehicle containing the commandant, blocking his way. The four stars on his collar gave him absolute authority over 170,000 Marines but meant nothing to the bison. He waited until the beasts, in their haughty, self-assured manner, slowly decided to move. It all started in the mid-1970s, when the San Diego Zoo gave a dozen bison, which it did not have space for, to Camp Pendleton. Space was not a problem at the 125,000-acre base. The Camp Pendleton population, given its isolation, may prove a genetic boon to species preservation efforts....

Grizzly deaths reach legal 'trigger point' A female grizzly bear shot by a Pennsylvania elk hunter this week will push mortality levels for the bears past a management "trigger point" - only a year and a half after Yellowstone's grizzlies were removed from the endangered-species list.
Federal overseers of the bears are not panicking, however. "We've had high levels of mortality in the past. This isn't unprecedented. It does happen," said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I don't think this is a crisis at all. Populations are still increasing." But environmental groups, who have sued to restore threatened status for Yellowstone grizzlies, are worried. Surprised by the female grizzly Wednesday, the hunter fired his .300 Winchester Short Magnum rifle, possibly shooting through the female and killing her cub. The man was hunting in the Cinnabar Basin, northwest of Gardiner, with an outfitter who had left him at the edge of a clearing. When the bear wandered close, the hunter stood and yelled. The bear rushed toward the man in defense of her cub of the year....

From Calif. to Denver: Ozone woes become regional Ozone pollution — once seen as mainly an urban problem — is spreading across the interior West from rural Wyoming to suburban Phoenix. Levels of the corrosive gas that can impair breathing have exceeded federal health standards in Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado. Four Arizona counties and two in Utah also are likely to exceed a new, tighter federal standard, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. "It's a new ballgame in the West," said Mary Uhl, New Mexico's air quality director. "We've got to do something, and we've got to do it now." In Wyoming, ozone levels in rural areas are "creeping up," said David Finley, state air quality division administrator. "We need to keep our eye on this." The emerging pollution problem is leading to tighter controls on oil and gas operations and raising questions about how much development the West can sustain....

The Horseracing Industry wins by a nose (for now) In the eternal battle of industry vs. regulators, the horseracing industry is employing a [1] wily plan that just might save it from the final nail in the coffin a.k.a. federal oversight.Ever since the unfortunate and [3] very public death of the filly Eight Belles’ during the 2008 Kentucky derby, the horseracing industry has essentially been in a race to save its own life. With the clamoring of bewildered television viewers, animal activists, and opportunistic politicians to “do something” about the state of horseracing . Already barely scraping by with meager revenues and an ever dwindling fan base, new regulations and standards would almost certainly prove too costly, too time-consuming, and result in too boring a sport for the dying industry to bear. So, in what could be described as a Hail Mary pass, the national thoroughbred racing association last month [4] appointed ex-cabinet secretary Tommy Thompson to oversee the implementation of an industry-wide certification system for racetracks. In order to receive the certification, the tracks will need to demonstrate their ability to handle issues such as doping and humane treatment of horses (including retired horses). For the sake of the horseracing industry, and for the sake of the horses within the industry, I hope this works. As of now it seems to be a tenuous victory. Animal activists are still pushing hard for the feds to get involved, and no politician wants to be the one to turn his or her back on camera-friendly ponies....

It's All Trew: Good use of newspaper Today's highly-touted "recycling" programs are not new to old timers. The terms of "save it, use it up and wear it out" were the everyday habits of the early day families in order to get by and survive. Nothing was wasted or just tossed out. There was always a use of some kind. Hundreds of stories, jokes and pranks recall the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogues saved and hung in outhouses to save having to buy toilet paper. Not only was the habit a money saver it provided many hours of enjoyable reading for as long as you could hold your nose. No one threw newspapers of any type away. The principle use was to clean lamp chimneys. Something about the ink in the print made the glass globes shine and glisten around the flame. Since most lamps had to filled with kerosene each day, the newspaper was a staple around most rural homes and kept at ready for instant use. Ours was kept on a shelf in the pantry along with a stack of paper sacks, a ball of twine, a pile of white meat wrapping papers and some rubber bands. Dust from the Dust Bowl along with soot from wood and coal smoke settled on everything inside a home. Newspaper was used to cover shelves so that when they needed cleaning, the paper liner was changed. As most shelving at the time was usually crude and uneven, the newspaper hid the ugly surface neatly as well as providing a clean surface....

Obama Cabinet Picks

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At Politico.com Mike Allen has gathered intel on potential Obama appointments. The article gives Dem insiders info on both White House and Cabinet picks. Of interest to readers here are the following:

Secretary of Interior - Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Secretary of Agriculture - Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.)

Secretary of Energy - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)

Environmental Protection Agency administrator - Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.); Kathleen McGinty, former head of the Pennsylvania Environmental Protection Agency

Allen says McCain's people were too busy campaigning to talk.

EU facing revolt over climate change target enforcement The European Union is facing a revolt from poorer members over tough climate change targets at a time when the global economy is heading for recession. Italy has teamed up with seven east and central European countries - Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia - to threaten a veto over Brussels legislation that implements an EU target to cut Europe's CO2 emissions 20 per cent by 2020. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, attacked the target as an unnecessary burden on European businesses at a time when recession was intensifying international economic competition. "I have announced my intention to exercise my veto," he said. As well as agreeing to cut CO2 emissions, the EU is trying to enforce a target requiring European countries to produce 20 per cent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. Poland fears that its reliance on coal-fired power stations will see it unfairly squeezed and pushed to invest in expensive wind turbines, unlike France which is dependent on nuclear energy. The row has opened a deep rift over the costs of meeting environmental targets between rich Northern and Western member states and their poorer neighbours....

Obama Called Out for Comments About Bankrupting Coal Fired Power Plants With only hours before election day, coal has become a major topic of Decision 2008. Sunday, comments resurfaced from a taped interview Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama did with the San Francisco Chronicle in January. In the interview, which has been available online for months, Obama talks about the importance of coal. He went on to talk about his cap and trade proposal to help curb global warming. "If somebody wants to build a coal power plant they can, it's just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted," Barack Obama said to the San Francisco Chronicle in January. The campaign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain jumped on those comments today and is already sending out taped phone messages to voters in Ohio. Campaigning in Marietta today, McCain's running mate Sarah Palin mentioned the Obama comments. "He said that, sure, if the industry wants to build coal-fired power plants, then they can go ahead and try, he says, but they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry, and he's comfortable letting that happen. And you got to listen to the tape," Sarah Palin said....

Coal official calls Obama comments 'unbelievable' At least one state coal industry leader said he was shocked by comments Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made earlier this year concerning his plan to aggressively charge polluters for carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. According to the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training, the coal industry provides about 40,000 direct jobs in the state, including those for miners, mine contractors, coal preparation plant employees and mine supply company workers. The senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association called Obama's comments "unbelievable." "His comments are unfortunate," Chris Hamilton said Sunday, "and really reflect a very uninformed voice and perspective to coal specifically and energy generally." Hamilton noted other times Obama and vice presidential candidate Joe Biden have made seemingly anti-coal statements....