Cash for Climate

Let's say the world will spend $250 billion a year for the next 10 years to minimize the suffering caused by climate change. What's the best bargain we can get for the money? The Copenhagen Consensus Center (CCC), a think-tank in Denmark headed by Skeptical Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg, has commissioned 21 papers from leading climate experts and economists to answer that very question. Over the coming month, the CCC will be looking at the benefits and costs of proposed actions in four different areas: climate engineering, cutting future greenhouse gas emissions, economic growth, and green energy technologies. Each topic will feature a main research paper accompanied by a series of critiques by other experts called perspective papers. At the end of the process, the CCC will assemble a panel of five leading economists, three of them Nobelists, to rank all of the proposed solutions as to their relative cost-effectiveness. This ranking process is the CCC's specialty—it has twice used this technique to rank order various proposals for solving some of the world's biggest problems, including disease eradication, sanitation, economic development, malnutrition, and the oppression of women. This week, the CCC kicked off the process with the high-tech topic of climate engineering, starting with a paper by J. Eric Bickel, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin in Operations Research and a fellow in the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, and Lee Lane, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., where he also serves as the co-director of the Institute's Geoengineering Project...Reason

The Color of Change Is Green

The curious thing about the troops manning the effort to create a clean, green economy in the age of Obama is that they are not the stereotypical environmental activists one normally thinks about. Sure, the greens at the major environmental organizations are on board with Obama (though some think he's not going far enough). But the real leaders of the new green jobs movement aren't environmentalists at all; they're labor union officials and inner-city community organizers like those at Color of Change. Their interest is not protecting the environment as much as it is hijacking the green zeitgeist to agitate for economic justice, airing ethnic, racial, and other grievances, and grabbing government cash...AmericanSpectator

Gov. Herbert views fire, criticizes federal policies

Gov. Gary Herbert on Sunday joined critics questioning why the 10,000-acre Mill Flat Fire that destroyed at least three structures and threatened more than 600 others was not suppressed earlier. After flying over the blaze's towering smoke column in a helicopter, he aimed his criticism at a decision to let the lightning-caused fire burn as a way to clear old growth and invite rejuvenation. "A lighting strike may be a good way to manage resources but [it] may not be the best practice," the governor said. Conditions similar to those where the Mills Flat Fire is burning exist throughout central and southern Utah on public land in Gunnison, Garfield and Iron counties, he said, adding he plans to take the matter up with Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service officials. Herbert also took aim at restrictions on federal wilderness areas. The Mill Flat Fire started July 25 within the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness Area. Before Congress designated the area as protected wilderness, livestock grazing controlled vegetation overgrowth that causes fires to burn more intensely when they do start, he said. "With wilderness, our hands are tied behind our backs," Herbert said. "It sets us up for a tragedy." Perhaps sheep should be allowed to graze in now restricted areas, he said...SaltLakeTribune

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service leaves livestock-killing wolf pack in wild

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to leave a wolf pack in the wild in southwestern New Mexico, despite the pack killing five cows this month. The federal agency - which can remove wolves that kill three head of livestock within a year - confirmed that a cow killing on Aug. 12 was the third by the pack this month. This week, the wolf program's field team confirmed two more kills by the alpha pair in the Beaverhead area of Catron County. However, Fish and Wildlife Regional Director Benjamin Tuggle in Albuquerque ruled Friday that the Middle Fork Pack is highly valuable genetically to the effort to establish endangered Mexican gray wolves in the wild on the border of Arizona and New Mexico. Tuggle said the pack's alpha pair, released in 2004, are a breeding pair that are raising at least four pups and that removal could jeopardize the pups' survival. It was the second time this summer the federal agency decided against removing a wolf linked to at least three livestock kills in southwestern New Mexico. In June, Fish and Wildlife decided to allow the alpha male of the San Mateo Pack, who had been linked to four livestock killings, to remain in the wild...AP

Over at Wolf Crossing, Laura Schneberger writes:

It continues to be unfortunate that the Albuquerque press seems to not get what is happening in Ranch / Wolf country. There have been 5 confirmed yearling kills within mere weeks, on one ranch way to the north of the wilderness boundary and the Middle Fork wolf pack are feeding and teaching pups to live entirely on livestock. Remember FWS own science says for every kill there are usually 6-8 more that cannot be found. There is no real 3 strikes rule anymore. FWS haven’t removed wolves for killing livestock since Fall of 2007. Defenders of Wildlife haven’t reimbursed ranchers for depredations since about the same time. This is occurring even during aggressive hazing that has been going on for at least 3 weeks. So tell me what part of this situation is sustainable and leads to recovery in the wild...

Wolf's journey shows value of connectivity

A wolf with a global positioning system device attached to her neck has documented what wildlife biologists have long known: individual wolves often travel long distances when looking for a mate, new hunting prospects, or both. In this case, the wolf, an adult female, traveled 450 kilometers (280 miles) from Jasper National Park before being killed by a trapper near Sheridan Lake, B.C. Even more amazing long-distance trotting was documented in recent years when wolves that originated in the Yellowstone ecosystem wound up in northern Colorado, one just west of Denver and the other near Beaver Creek and Vail. In the latter case, a global positioning device documented a travel of 450 direct miles (724 kilometers), although wildlife biologists estimate the wolf actually covered 1,000 miles. Wolf expert Mark Hebbelwhite told the Rocky Mountain Outlook that such journeys illustrate the importance of connectivity between ecosystems. But in Wyoming's Jackson Hole, exactly the opposite problem was evident. There, three wolves had an affliction called the mange, a parasitic infection of the skin that causes the animal to scratch their hair off, leaving them exposed to the elements. The wolves, federal officials tell the Jackson Hole News&Guide, have been hanging around people's houses. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a permit to the landowner to use rubber bullets to shoot at the animals, in an attempt to drive them off...DailyNews

Wolves Are Set to Become Fair Game in the West

A wolf hunt is set to begin in Idaho on Tuesday if a federal judge does not stop it. It would be the first time in decades that hunters have been allowed to pursue the gray wolf, an animal that has come to symbolize tensions over how people interact with wilderness in the West. On Monday, the judge, Donald W. Molloy of Federal District Court, will hold a hearing to determine whether to issue an injunction sought by wildlife advocates against the hunt and reopen the question of returning the wolf to the endangered list. The states’ hunts will be over when the limit is reached or when the season ends, which is Dec. 31 in most areas. “The first day is the best day when it comes to an animal as smart as a wolf,” said Nate Helm, president of Idaho Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife. The resurgence of the wolf population, rooted in a federal effort to reintroduce the animals to the Northern Rockies in the mid-1990s, has long angered deer and elk hunters and cattle and sheep ranchers who say the wolves are depleting game and killing livestock. Federal wildlife officials said that in 2008 a record 264 wolves were killed in the region for the legal reason of protecting livestock. The clash illustrates a persistent divide in the West, where environmentalists and wildlife conservationists have long gone to court to fight laws they say favor powerful groups like hunters, ranchers and others. Wolves have been one of the most tangled issues of late, including in front of Judge Molloy...NYTimes

Two firefighters die in Station wildfire

Officials say two firefighters were killed when their vehicle rolled off a mountainside as they battled the massive Station wildfire in northern Los Angeles County. County Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant said at a news conference that the two men were amid intense fire near Mount Gleason in the Angeles National Forest on Sunday afternoon when the vehicle crashed. A tearful Bryant said the men's families have been notified. He did not release their identities or give a cause for the crash. The fire has consumed 66 square miles, destroyed at least 18 structures and was threatening some 12,000 homes. Ash rained on cars as far away as downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, spreading in all directions in hot, dry conditions...AP

Backcountry pilots push for better access

A clearing in Lewis and Clark National Forest 100 miles southeast of Great Falls, once used only for cattle grazing, will soon be a stopover for pilots. They're hungry, too — for access to the backcountry. "This would be their trailhead to recreate on the forest," forest Supervisor Spike Thompson said as he sidestepped cow pies while strolling down the new 4,000-foot-long airstrip he approved. Sticking out in the green meadow like a highway center line, the Russian Flat grass airstrip will provide access to the Little Belt Mountains for adventurous aviators for the first time. The grass strip is scheduled to open in spring 2010. John McKenna, a 55-year-old pilot from Bozeman and the president of the Recreational Aviation Foundation, said the Montana airstrip is the first to be approved on any forest in the nation in 40 years, but he's lobbying for more like it. "Maybe we ought to talk about airplanes being reintroduced, like the grizzly or wolf," McKenna said. The nation's 154 forests are updating their travel rules and pilots such as McKenna have become involved, just like motorized users and wilderness advocates, said Gordon Schofield, group leader for land use in the Forest Service's Missoula-based Northern Region. That's leading to new requests for access to the national forest after decades without them, he said...GreatFallsTribune

Activists want to meet with county about gas industry

Regional activists want to know how Garfield County officials feel regarding the possibility that gas drilling activities may be polluting groundwater in western parts of the county, and they plan on finding out at a Sept. 8 meeting of the board of county commissioners in Glenwood Springs. Representatives of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, a volunteer group of industry watchdogs, and the Western Colorado Congress, a nonprofit that has been involved in numerous Western Slope development issues, will be at the meeting to talk about the impacts of gas drilling on the county's communities and residents. Among the subjects sure to come up, organizers said, are recent findings by the Environmental Protection Agency that gas drilling activities in central Wyoming may have polluted the wells of area ranchers with chemicals used in a practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or “frac'ing.” Frac'ing, a drilling practice that the gas industry says is crucial to recovering hard-to-reach gas and oil pockets deep underground, involves the injection of large quantities of sand, water and chemicals into a well after it is drilled. The high-pressure compound fractures the subterranean strata and releases the gas or oil to flow to the surface...PostIndependent

How an El Niño affects weather

Whether it’s El Niño, La Niña or El Nothing, there sure has been a lot of interest in the seawater temperatures in the eastern Pacific these days. And for good reason — they can have a dramatic affect on our local weather. Since January 2007, we’ve either been in a La Niña or neutral condition when it comes to ocean temperatures. In other words, seawater temperatures have been below normal. There is a rough correlation between seawater temperatures and seasonal rainfall. More times than not, below normal seawater temperatures produce below normal rainfall, and above normal seawater temperatures produce near or above normal rainfall. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center indicates that a weak El Niño, which produces above-normal seawater temperatures, developed in the eastern Pacific during July and is forecast to strengthen through our rainy season. The term El Niño was first documented centuries ago by Peruvian fishermen. Since the warming often occurred during the Christmas season, Peruvians called this event “Corriente del Niño,” meaning “current of the Christ child.”...TheTribune

For Sierra Valley ranchers, help to resist developers tougher to find

As the pressure to sell his 320-acre Loyalton ranch grew, Goicoechea resorted to a state law that protects farms and ranches from annexation, eminent domain and other development demands. "Developers offered money first, and when I turned them down they turned to threats," Goicoechea recalled. "I could have cashed out very easily. "But ranches like this aren't happening everywhere, and I've never wanted anything else. I have no objection to the development – just leave me out of it." Goicoechea's story is similar to others around the 300,000-acre Sierra Valley, the largest alpine valley in the Sierra Nevada and one of the biggest in the nation. Many other ranchers and farmers pressured to sell their land to developers have turned to conservation easements and state conservation laws to keep their land in agriculture and to preserve the bucolic, 19th-century character of Sierra Valley. But now with many funding sources drying up, conservation groups and ranchers – once at odds over how the land should be used but now working together to protect it – are wondering how much longer the valley can hold out...SacramentoBee

How Tre Became America's Most Wanted Environmental "Terrorist"

On August 12, 2008, after a tumultuous seven-year investigation, Arrow was sentenced in Federal court to six-and-a-half years for lighting three cement haulers ablaze at the notorious Ross Island Sand and Gravel in Portland, Oregon, as well as firebombing two trucks and one front loader owned by Ray Schoppert Logging Company near the timber town of Estacada, Oregon. The acts were in protest of the Eagle Creek timber sale in Mt. Hood National Forest in the late 1990s. A grim-faced, 34-year-old Arrow listened warily as Judge James Redden read his sentence. At the behest of his lawyers, Bruce Ellison and Paul Loney, Arrow earlier signed off on a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice and accepted responsibility for his role in the arsons, even though for years he denied any involvement. “[I’m] true to a higher power ... I don't feel I need to be rehabilitated,” Arrow stated in a verbose speech to the court upon hearing the ruling. "Corporations have usurped much of the governmental power. Corporations seem to be able to get away with poisoning the very entity we rely on for our well-being with no punishment, or very little punishment," he declared. "I don't know what happened to you but they were very serious crimes, and you know it,” responded a disgruntled Judge Redden. The closing of the case was seen as a major victory by the FBI, which had long promoted Arrow as America’s most notorious and dangerous eco-terrorist...PacificFreePress

Rancher Dusty Hunt honored for rescue

In an emotional ceremony Friday that saw a lot of smiles, as well as a few tears of joy, the New Mexico Army National Guard honored members of the Grant County Search and Rescue Team, along with local rancher Dusty Hunt, for rescuing a couple lost in a canyon. Tom and Linda Bosworth were stranded for nearly four days without food or water in the Saddle Rock Canyon area after their Jeep flipped over while they were exploring the area. Tears of gratitude and a belief in miracles - of both the divine and human kind - were the sentiments expressed by a very grateful Tom and Linda Bosworth to all who contributed in the search that saved their lives. The Bosworths were near death when they were found and had to be airlifted to a Tucson hospital for treatment. Hunt, who is not a member of the Grant County Search and Rescue team but owns the grazing rights for the land where the Bosworths were first stranded and lost, helped participate in the search on his own. It was truly a grassroots effort that helped find the couple, said Linda Bosworth, starting with friends and family members from afar frantically calling local agencies, and ending with Hunt hiking up an arroyo in his white cowboy hat...SilverCitySunNews

Beds made of hay are latest hotel craze

Holiday-makers around the world are facing up to the fact that, in times of recession, large travel expenses are difficult to justify. While for some this has meant the end of life as we know it, for a new generation of nature lovers and eco-conscious tourists, it has prompted the discovery of a cheap and unusual alternative. In Germany and its European neighbors Austria and Switzerland, a long weekend in a converted barn - sleeping on a bed of freshly raked hay -- is fast becoming the 'staycation' of choice. Heuhotels ('heu' is German for hay) offer exactly what their name suggests. For as little as eight euros ($11) a night backpackers, couples, families and, in the case of one "hay hotel" in central Germany - 'groups of up to 60' - can rest their heads in a way nature intended. "I suppose some people might find the idea unappealing," manager Sarah tells CNN, "but for anyone who wishes to snuggle up close to nature it's perfect."...CNN

The U.S. versus Monsanto?

Did a warning shot just fly across Monsanto's bow? Most of the focus on the newly invigorated antitrust division of the Department of Justice has centered on the possibility that the feds are taking a hard look at Google's domination of the online advertising market. But for the foodies, organic and family farmers, and anti-GMO activists of the world, there's a far more provocative target at which to aim the antitrust cannon: the Roundup, GMO-corn and GMO-soybean king, Monsanto. This is not idle speculation. On Aug. 7, Philip Weiser, a newly appointed deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division, gave an important speech in St. Louis, which just happens to be where Monsanto is based. The title of the speech: "Toward a Competition Policy Agenda for Agriculture Markets." Weiser started off with some historical observations about the Sherman Act, the enabling legislative authority for antitrust enforcement, pointing out that worries about price fixing by "the Beef Trust" in the late 19th century encouraged senators representing agricultural states to support passage of the bill. Weiser then delivered a pair of pointed paragraphs unlikely to be received with smiles at Monsanto HQ...Salon

Horse 'n buggy lawman ruled

Wyatt, Virgil and other Earp family members walked the streets of San Bernardino in their day. Virgil was Colton's first city marshal, after serving as a territorial marshal in Arizona. Wyatt occasionally wore a badge as well. But their short local legacies, colorful as they may have been, were overshadowed by a man who served as San Bernardino County's sheriff from 1903 to 1915. At more than six feet tall and 200 pounds, John C. Ralphs was an imposing figure and the prototypical Western lawman. Historical accounts say he had a deep booming voice. He sported a modified handlebar mustache and a wide brimmed hat. And in an era when the automobile was fast becoming the transportation of choice, Ralphs doggedly stuck to the horse and buggy. He was the county's last frontier sheriff. He was said to love camping with his posses in the desert, entertaining his men with tales of capturing criminals and espousing his philosophy of life. What else would you expect from a man born on a wagon train passing through Utah on the way to California?...PressEnterprise

Appreciation: Elmer Kelton, celebrated Texan and author

When novelist Elmer Kelton died peacefully in his sleep last weekend, Texas lost one of its most beloved authors. He was the author of The Time It Never Rained, which one critic listed as one of the dozen or so best novels written by an American in the 20th century, and more than 60 other books. He garnered so many awards – seven Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, four Western Heritage (Wrangler) Awards from the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame, lifetime achievement awards from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Western Literature Association – that his wife once confessed they were reduced to putting them in drawers. And the WWA voted him the "Best Western Writer of All Time." But to call Elmer's work Western diminishes writing that went far beyond the genre and the region to deal with universal themes. Elmer, who was a willing and popular speaker whenever asked, used to tell audiences he liked to take a character, put him in a time of change and transition and see what he did. Those times of change were almost always in Texas history, which his novels cover from the Texas Revolution to contemporary times...DallasMorningNews

On the edge of common sense: For a life-changing event, ride a real bull

'So, what's the difference between riding a mechanical bull and riding a real one?" the boy asked his dad. "You will know the difference, my son, the first time you climb over into the buckin' chute and look down." The mechanical bull is a carnival ride, it is not a life-changing experience. Riding a real bull will affect how you answer one of the questions you will be asked the rest of your life. Whenever Professional Bull Riders comes on ESPN, or extreme sports are being discussed, you will have a practiced answer like "I was going to ride one once, but I had a sinus infection so I couldn't" or "I was taking piano lessons and worried about injuring my hand" or "Yeah, I rode bulls till my brains came in." I can't remember the first bull I got down on. I do recall trying to hang on to the back of a steer in a roping chute and being scraped off. I started riding bulls in high school. There wasn't much of a system set up for kids to learn. Most of the rides I made were in rodeos where the money was up. I tell the story in retrospect years later that I had a friend on the New Mexico State University rodeo team named Charley Engle. He was a good bull rider and I admired him. When I asked him for advice he suggested that I had to practice. "Practice!?" I thought. Does that make any sense to anyone reading this? I'm going to have a train wreck tomorrow, I better have one today to practice!...Amarillo.com

Song Of The Day #121

Today's selection is by The Cruzeros and is available on their 12 track CD Scandalosa.

No, this is not the traditional country you're used to finding here, but it will get your heart pumping this Monday morning.

I can also share with you that after 62 years of kicking around nightspots, rodeo arenas, the Halls of Congress and other places I won't mention, you better be careful of the choices you make, cause in the end you'll be Stuck With It.

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Sometimes even cowgirls bite the dirt

Julie Carter

The business of being a cowgirl is not for sissies. Doesn't matter if you are thinking cowgirl in the rodeo arena or on the ranch.

Both require a measure of grit and tough that one either has, or not. You can't buy it at the store.

Tenacity is a mindset that gets a cowgirl through a life of measurably tough times. Some folks call it hard-headedness but it goes beyond that, goes beyond stubborn or even just gutsy.

Frankly, it's the same inborn "cowboy-up" gene that puts a cowboy back on his horse right after a wreck, that lets them think getting bucked off over a prank is funny and that allows them to endure long days, short nights and working in weather that stops the rest the of world.

There was a time when I thought "cowgirl" was a choice. While the word is both a noun and a verb, it is also a chemical, biological explanation for why you can take the cowgirl to town but you can't ever get the "cowgirl" out of her.

I think back and recall the places in my life where I tried to graduate from the country-kid cowgirl I was raised and attempt to become more cosmopolitan and worldly.

There was the disco-phase in the '70s.

Donna Summer and I were constant musical companions and I had the moves down pat, which were no more than a country jitter-bug morphed into a classical kind of dancing.

Then, the flash-dance phase.

Torn, off-the-shoulder sweatshirts, rolled bandanna headbands and lots of curls, flounce and bounce in the hair-do.

Although during this phase, I did own a horse and trailer and spent my summers rodeoing, making me a mixed message.

There have been periods of my adult life where I lived in big cities (Denver, LA and Phoenix).

I lived in apartments and condos and spent my free time on a beach with the Pacific Ocean serving as my "home on the range and wide open spaces."

I got over that. "Cow-girl" always called me back. That inner yearning, an emptiness that was never filled with fast lanes and fast living.

Somewhere along the way, I figured it out. I am what I was in the beginning.

I wasn't supposed to go anywhere to be someone different, I was only to be me wherever I was.

Now I look at the young'uns, as we older people call them.

Tough young cowgirls with a life ahead of them to experience and the youth to be the best they can be.

I hope they can find the understanding that who they are now is who they are going to be, and their job is only to improve on it.

Photos (see below) of a young cowgirl in a progressive wreck at a rodeo where her horse was falling, reminded me of the tough involved in being a cowgirl.

I was in that same kind of wreck so many times - I got up and brushed myself off as I watched my horse run back to the arena gate. I'd lived to do it again another day, and did.

Life is kind of like that. You fall fast and fall hard.

All in the course of living. Without giving it a second thought, you just get up, dust yourself off, and walk on out the gate knowing you'll be back to run another day.

When I get to Heaven, I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing boots under my white robes.

They'll be a large crowd of us, those that were blessed enough to be born cowgirls.

Julie can be reached for comment at www.julie-carter.com . Photos are courtesy of Kyla King, Mountainair, and are of Chandi Langley, 19, of Estancia and a student at NMSU.