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

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (9242)	2/2/2007 9:17:56 AM
From: Triffin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36921

Saw that .. Also noticed that the authors used "may be" three times in their abstract .. They're not sure that the ROV is seeing anything other than a natural process .. Also methane releases mean more food for these 'bugs' from Science magazine .. Methane-Consuming Archaea Revealed by Directly Coupled Isotopic and Phylogenetic Analysis Victoria J. Orphan,1* Christopher H. House,2* Kai-Uwe Hinrichs,3 Kevin D. McKeegan,4 Edward F. DeLong1 Microorganisms living in anoxic marine sediments consume more than 80% of the methane produced in the world's oceans. In addition to single-species aggregates, consortia of metabolically interdependent bacteria and archaea are found in methane-rich sediments. A combination of fluorescence in situ hybridization and secondary ion mass spectrometry shows that cells belonging to one specific archaeal group associated with the Methanosarcinales were all highly depleted in 13C (to values of -96). This depletion indicates assimilation of isotopically light methane into specific archaeal cells. Additional microbial species apparently use other carbon sources, as indicated by significantly higher 13C/12C ratios in their cell carbon. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of simultaneous determination of the identity and the metabolic activity of naturally occurring microorganisms. 1 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA. 2 Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. 3 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. 4 Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. * These authors contributed equally to the work. I don't disagree that we live on a changeable planet. In fact, human populations would never have reached present levels without major co-operation from the planet by providing us with a relatively benign climate in which to grow and flourish. If the present equilibrium is about to shift; I doubt that there's much that we could or should do about it .. Triff .. @ClimateRealist.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (9242)	2/2/2007 10:10:33 AM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36921

AIR FORCE TO BECOME PELOSI Private 1st class transportation required for Pelosi and her staff. Dems, our motto: "...but some are more equal than others!" It didn't take long for Nancy Pelosi to create the imperial Speakership. She has requested that the Pentagon supply her with military aircraft at all times, and not just for herself, but also for her staff, her colleagues, and her family The office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pressing the Bush administration for routine access to military aircraft for domestic flights, such as trips back to her San Francisco district, according to sources familiar with thessions. The sources, who include those in Congress and in the administration, said the Democrat is seeking regular military flights not only for herself and her staff, but also for relatives and for other members of the California delegation. A knowledgeable source called the request "carte blanche for an aircraft any time." "They are pressing the point of her succession and that the [Department of Defense] needs to play ball with the speaker's needs," one source said. The request originally went to the Pentagon, which then asked the White House to weigh in. Mrs. Pelosi's request is not new for a speaker, who is second-in-line in presidential succession. A defense source said the speaker's regular access to a military plane began after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, who was speaker at the time, started using U.S. Air Force planes for domestic travel to and from his district for security reasons. A former Hastert aide said the congressman did not use military planes for political trips or regularly transport his family. I'm not even sure that the succession is good enough reason to meet the demand for the House Speaker, even if Denny Hastert used that reasoning. The Speaker is second in line for the Presidency in the case of the death of the President and Vice-President, and therefore deserves some special security protocols. It doesn't take a military flight to implement those, especially just to fly home on the weekends. This request by Pelosi goes far beyond even that questionable consideration. Pelosi's staff doesn't have anything to do with the succession, and neither do her colleagues in the House. The military is not a charter service for politicians who want to avoid using the same airports as the rest of the hoi polloi. The military has other responsibilities, especially in a time of war, and pampering Congressmen shouldn't take precedence over them. That most certainly applies to flying Pelosi's family around, too. I seem to recall that Pelosi and her party ran on the notion that the Republicans had grown too fat over the perquisites of power. The GOP lost touch with the people of America, they claimed, and let power go to their heads -- and certainly in some cases they were right. It's hard to square that rhetoric with these new demands that the Pentagon start providing free charter flights to Democratic politicians and their staffs and families at a moment's notice. Thursday, February 1, 2007 .captainsquartersblog.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (9242)	2/2/2007 12:09:57 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 36921

What the U.N.’s Global Warming Report Really Says By Texas Rainmaker on United Nations The United Nations has issued a strongly worded letter on global warming. And when the United Nations issues strongly worded messages, people listen! If we don’t act now, we could possibly face further strongly worded messages from the organization. The timing is almost perfect. A new Democrat majority in Congress and Al Gore being nominated by liberals in Hollywood for an Oscar and socialists in Norway for a Nobel Prize. And the report would almost appear to be a page out of the Democrat’s playbook: complain, whine and rant, but offer no solutions… <<< The panel’s bleak 21-page report (PDF), released officially in Paris, was aimed at laying out the how, what and why of global warming, but not to offer remedies. >>> But there’s just one problem for the Sky-is-Falling-Liberals. While the report makes the not-completely-confident claim that global warming is “very likely” man-made, it also says this: <<< A United Nations report issued today by the world’s top climate scientists said global warning was “very likely” man-made and would bring higher temperatures and a steady rise in sea levels for centuries to come regardless of how much the world slows or reduces its greenhouse gas emissions. >>> So basically, global warming is here to stay (as if it were some sort of cyclical environmental phenomenon) and it’s going to happen whether we conserve or not. Now back to your regularly scheduled Happy Meals, SUVs and hairsprays. feeds.feedburner.com whitehouse.gov news.yahoo.com ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu usatoday.com