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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Calladine who wrote (5847)	2/8/2006 7:24:41 PM
From: Ron	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 36917

Evangelicals urge action on global warming Reuters WASHINGTON - A group of 85 evangelical Christian leaders on Wednesday backed legislation opposed by the White House to cut carbon dioxide emissions, kicking off a campaign to mobilize religious conservatives to combat global warming. The group which included mega-church pastors, Christian college presidents, religious broadcasters and writers, also unveiled a full-page advertisement to run in Thursday's New York Times and a television ad it hopes to screen nationally. "With God's help, we can stop global warming for our kids, our world and our Lord," the television spot declared. The campaign by evangelicals coincided with a call on Wednesday by a leading U.S. think tank for the United States to take immediate steps to fight global warming, including working with other nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Pew Center for Global Climate Change said in a report that America has waited too long to seriously tackle the climate change problem and spelled out 15 steps the United States could take to reduce emissions it spews as the world's biggest energy consumer and producer of greenhouse gases. "This transition will not be easy, but it is crucial to begin now," the Pew Center said. "Further delay will only make the challenge before us more daunting and more costly." The campaign by the evangelical leaders represented a possible split in President George W. Bush's political base, in which Christian evangelical voters are heavily represented. However, the names of most of the president's most influential Christian political backers were notably absent from the list of signatories joining the campaign. Possibly the best-known signer was Rick Warren, author of the best-selling book, "The Purpose Driven Life." TRADING SYSTEM Specifically, and mirroring a proposal by the Pew Foundation, the leaders called on Congress to pass laws to create a trading system that would spur companies to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, which scientists say is a major cause of global warming. One such bill, The Climate Stewardship Act, first introduced in 2003 by Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and Connecticut Democrat Sen. Joseph Lieberman, would require that U.S. emissions return to their 2000 levels by 2010. The United States, with around 5 percent of the world's population, accounts for a quarter of its greenhouse gases and U.S. emissions rose by 2 percentage points in 2004 alone, according to government figures. The McCain-Lieberman bill has failed to win passage twice in the Senate, although a majority there did adopt a non-binding resolution to cap emissions. The issue has not come up for a vote in the House of Representatives. The Bush administration opposes imposing mandatory limits and backs voluntary efforts by companies. It has also refused to join the Kyoto Protocol, an international accord signed by the European Union, Japan and most other industrialized nations that sets hard targets for cutting emissions. The Christian leaders said they were impelled by their faith to launch the campaign out of a growing realization that the threat of global warming was real and that the world's poor would suffer the most. Paul de Vries, president of New York Divinity School, said: "However we treat the world, that's how we are treating Jesus because He is the cosmic glue." The leaders said a poll they commissioned of 1,000 evangelical Protestants showed that two thirds were convinced global warming was taking place. Additionally, 63 percent said the United States must start to address the issue immediately and half said it must act even if there was a high economic cost. The Pew Foundation also recommended boosting renewable fuel output and providing financial incentives to farmers to spur absorption of greenhouse gas emissions on farm lands. U.S. government weather forecasters reported on Tuesday that the nation's January temperatures were the warmest on record, beating the average for the month by 8.5 degrees Fahrenheit (4.7 degrees C). Two weeks ago NASA scientists confirmed that 2005 was the hottest year ever recorded worldwide. abcnews.go.com

To: James Calladine who wrote (5847)	2/10/2006 12:50:55 PM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 36917

Fewer migrating whales arrive in Mexican lagoons By Frank Jack DanielFri Feb 10, 2:14 AM ET The number of gray whales making a yearly migration from the icy North Pacific to breed in Mexico's warm lagoons has dropped this year, scientists say, possibly because of changing weather patterns. Gray whale researcher William Megill said food shortages in the whales' feeding grounds near Canada and Alaska mean that some of the thousands who make the annual 5,000-mile journey have departed late or even stayed behind this year. Other researchers said on Thursday that varying sea temperatures in the Bering Sea could be contributing to changes in migration patterns. Megill, a lecturer at Britain's Bath University, warned those that made the trip may be undernourished and said he feared many could die from lack of energy on their return trip north later in the year. "We saw in British Columbia this year there was nothing to eat until well into September," he told Reuters at San Ignacio lagoon on Mexico's Baja California peninsula. "I wouldn't be surprised to see carcasses up and down the coast, because they didn't have enough food." According to Megill's latest census, around 90 whales had made it to San Ignacio by February, down by about a half compared to the same month in 2005. Every year thousands of gray whales spend several months swimming from their northern feeding grounds to warm lagoons with a high salt content along Mexico's Baja California peninsula. Once there, pregnant whales give birth to half-tonne calves, teach their young to swim in the buoyant salty waters, look for partners and mate. Whale-watching in the lagoons is a popular tourist attraction. Gray whales in the lagoons sometimes approach visitors' boats and let humans touch them. Last week, dozens of the mammals -- which can grow 50 feet long and weigh up to 40 tonnes -- swam near the surface with new-born calves, while others flipped their forked tales out of the water in mating rituals. The whales, which were removed from the U.S. endangered species list in 1994, arrive in the lagoons between December and February and start their return journey in April. Research in traditional feeding grounds in the northern Bering Sea between Alaska and Siberia shows an abrupt rise in temperatures there since 2000, and a decline in the worm and shrimp colonies that nourish the whales. Sue Moore, head oceanographer at the University of Washington in the United States, said the whales appeared to be adapting to changing environmental conditions in the North by feeding in new areas and heading South later in the year. But she did not believe the whales faced greater challenges this year than in other years. "I do not think they are suffering starvation at this point -- gray whales are very resilient and can feed on a variety of prey all along their migration route," she said. Between 1999 and 2000, hundreds of gray whales washed up along the West coast of the United States and Canada, after they apparently suffered food shortages as a result of climatic changes related to the El Nino phenomenon. Recent changes in weather patterns in the North Atlantic are harder to explain, say researchers at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, since El Nino had little effect in 2005.

To: James Calladine who wrote (5847)	2/10/2006 7:17:38 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

Now back to the real business....the Japanese once again lying and killing whales....FOR DOG FOOD!...ENOUGH ALREADY Japanese said "feeding whale meat to dogs" Fri Feb 10, 1:39 PM ET Japan's stock of whale meat from hunting for scientific research is so large that the country has begun selling it as dog food, a leading marine conservation organization said on Friday. British-based charity the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) said Japan's whale meat stocks had doubled over the past 10 years as it increased the number of animals it killed every year, despite a global ban on commercial hunting. "Whaling is a cruel activity and the fact that Japan is killing these amazing animals to produce dog food is shocking," said WDCS science director Mark Simmonds. "We have heard many arguments from Japan over the years about why whaling is necessary to them but they have never stated that they needed to kill whales to feed their dogs." Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986, in line with an international moratorium, but began catching whales again the following year for what it calls scientific research. The WDCS said Japan's stockpile of whale meat stood at 4,800 tonnes last year compared with 673 tonnes in March 1998, and that this year it had doubled its hunt of minke whales as well as adding humpback and fin whales to the tally. It estimated that this could add a further 1,700 tonnes of whale meat to the already bursting warehouses. In an attempt to shift the rising whale meat mountains, Japan had already resorted to subsidizing sales of whale burgers and whale meat in school menus, but prices were falling steadily due to the surplus. Now, WDCS said, it had found a Web site advertising whale meat for pet food, extolling its virtues as "organic" and "safe and healthy" coming from factories already processing whale meat for human consumption. "WDCS hopes that the overt use of whales for dog food in Japan will expose its scientific whaling program as a politically motivated sham," the organization said on its Web site www.wdcs.org. Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.