Guest guest Posted September 28, 2004 Report Share Posted September 28, 2004 DEATH, BE NOT CLOUD Asian Cloud menaces world's most populous continent In the new book " Feeling the Heat, " Jim Motavalli describes a phenomenon that's likely to give you nightmares. Seriously, just stop reading. Okay, we warned you: Hovering in the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean and other Asian waters, and covering some 10 million square miles, is the Asian Cloud. This dense conglomeration of pollution bits curtails the amount of sunlight reaching the earth's surface, playing havoc with photosynthesis and disrupting natural hydrological cycles. It absorbs heat, warming the atmosphere. It drops to the earth as acid rain. It is expected to adversely affect the lives of up to a billion people. And, oh yeah: Given the right wind patterns, it can travel around the globe in a week. Sweet dreams! Read about this climatology-via-Stephen-King phenomenon in an excerpt in Books Unbound -- today on the Grist Magazine website. today in Grist: An excerpt from " Feeling the Heat: Dispatches From the Frontlines of Climate Change " -- by Jim Motavalli <http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3198> 2. GO WEST, YOUNG POLLUTOCRAT! Bush administration makes big push for oil and gas drilling in West With unprecedented speed, the Bush administration has opened vast swaths of environmentally sensitive land in the West to oil and gas drilling -- this by-now-familiar story is told comprehensively in articles in The Washington Post and The Seattle Times. The situation is summed up by Dave Alberswerth, former Clinton adviser and now a lobbyist for The Wilderness Society: " They haven't changed any statutes. They haven't changed any regulations. But they've changed a whole lot of practices and policies without any real public scrutiny. " Bureau of Land Management employees are now rewarded for speeding through approval of leases for energy companies, which in many cases are writing land-use plans themselves. Opposition is spreading from environmentalists to traditionally conservative ranchers, hunters, and anglers. Bush administration officials deny that they're damaging wild areas, but they happily concede that the balance for " multiple-use " areas has been moved toward resource extraction. straight to the source: The Washington Post, Joby Warrick and Juliet Eilperin, 25 Sep 2004 <http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3182> straight to the source: The Seattle Times, Craig Welch, 26 Sep 2004 <http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3183> 3. BAKED ALASKANS Global warming is destroying Eskimo villages While debates over the " precautionary principle " and economic tradeoffs take place down in the cozy lower 48, global warming is entirely less abstract to Inupiaq Eskimos on the coast of Alaska. They're not so much worried about losing jobs as losing, well, their villages. The annual mean air temperature in Alaska has risen 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 30 years, the warm season now starts earlier and finishes later, and Arctic Ocean ice has shrunk 5 to 10 percent, making ice fishing more difficult, among other problems. In spots, the coastline is disappearing -- some villages have lost up to 300 feet. Many villages are facing the ultimate decision: " Is it practical to stand and fight our Mother Ocean? Or do we surrender and move? " asks Edith Vorderstrasse, mayor of Barrow, Alaska. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study estimated that relocating one small village of 380 people, Kivalina, would cost $100 million to $400 million -- at the top end, more than $1 million a head. If that sounds forbidding, ponder for a moment the cost of relocating, say, San Francisco. straight to the source: Time Magazine, Margot Roosevelt, 27 Sep 2004 <http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3184> 4. WHEN GEEKS ATTACK Another group of scientists to campaign against Bush Scientists and Engineers for Change, a 527 advocacy group unveiled yesterday, plans to send scientists on speaking gigs in swing states to argue that the Bush administration disregards and distorts science -- in many cases, science relating to serious environmental problems. " We must begin to address climate change now. To do so, we must have an administration that listens to the scientific community, not one that manipulates and minimizes scientific input, " said Nobel Prize winner Douglas D. Osheroff. Osheroff is one of 10 Nobel winners who will join others in giving talks on what they see as the Bush administration's manipulation of science in areas from stem-cell research to energy. The normally nonpartisan scientific community has seen unprecedented mobilization against Bush this year, including a letter endorsing John Kerry signed by a group of 48 Nobel winners and a campaign spearheaded by the Union of Concerned Scientists that accuses Bush of politicizing science. straight to the source: The New York Times, Kenneth Chang, 28 Sep 2004 <http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3193> 5. CREATURE COMFORTS A new push for protecting sharks and lions Despite the relative infrequency of its attacks on humans, the great white shark has achieved a fearsome reputation, thanks largely to the 1975 film " Jaws. " Viewed with trepidation and fascination, it is now a prized catch for trophy hunters, who sell its jaws and teeth at great profit. Similarly prized by hunters is the African lion, a formidable cat whose fame has almost nothing to do with the 1996 film " The Ghost and the Darkness. " Both predators' numbers are rapidly dwindling. Countries that prize the animals -- Australia and Madagascar for the sharks, Kenya for the lions -- are seeking to have them added to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), signatories to which are meeting this week. Both additions face opposition from countries that favor instead stronger national protective measures (and that happen to benefit from trophy hunting). straight to the source: Terra Daily, Agence France-Presse, 28 Sep 2004 <http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3195> straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Reuters, C. Bryson Hull, 28 Sep 2004 <http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3196> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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