Climate Change Costly

Jonn Heilperin of the AP Wire reports that Climate Change may cost as much as 20 Trillion worldwide in the next two decades hitting the least able to afford the problems Climate Change will bring . That is not new since that is the way things are right now.

The report is written by th UN and in particular by Ban Ki-Moon the UN Secratary General. Aside from being a lot of money for the world to come up with  Ki-Moon is showing that this crisis will cost and we better be willing to “pay the piper” !

Its just like Gore says, “how hard do you want to fall?”

Listening to US Republicans debate I am struck by short-sighted persons like Romney saying that the price of Global Warming might be to high to pay. So the Gore type asks…”how hard do you want to fall?” I would ask that type if they want to fall at all.Global Warming is nothing we can keep stretching out. We have done that already. Read Heilperins article on the web in Global Warming News (put in your URL bar.)

Matt

Turn the Page

I have moved on from a paper that I have read for a long time.

As I navigate around the web. Here are some thoughts of mine.

When I was a child in D.C. I went to sleep at night feeling way more secure. My troublesome thoughts were about children or teachers from the school I was at or other Children from my neighborhood. Do parents just worry about a lot of “stuff”? or have times really changed for the worse?” Maybe you can help because my entire adult life has been about my children getting ahead of life’s game. Help me out on this troubling thought. My question is what do you do  to help you or your child or both of you get ahead in life?

 The changes are definitely physical (nature),technology has really changed since I was a child. No Seven Elevens on every other block or in each neighborhood. As an example in my house we had two phones that would ring from the wall and no PC at all in our house because they did not exsist. My parents did not run us all over, but we as children definitely ran around and why were French Fries so much better back when I was a teenager. You can get French Fries for 1 dollar now, but do not tell my older son that I took his younger sister to a McDonalds because like him, she asked to go there.

Fries and Caravelle bars for a nickle. I had a blast back in the day. Am I out of touch or a gadfly… Best Buy… I do not think so!!!!!!!

Matt

I Am Still Being Kicked off of the Washington Post.com Because I do Not Remember How I Signed Up For Them A Year Ago

I have spent 40 years reading the Washington Post. I would call that loyalty. Now I am disabled and have a hard time keeping up with my bills. Talk about loyalty.

Loyalty works both ways. I  learned that lesson the hard way;so I am not going to try to get loyal to the Post.

They are willing to turn the page; So am I. They can have their paper back there are no shortage of papers for me to read on line.

Matt

Forest Plan Assailed

This article is in today’s Washington Post and it is written by Christopher T Lee and the article is of great interest to me.

The Bush Administration wants to log a lot more and develop a lot more in the belaguered Tongass National Forest of Alaska. First of all lets take the people of Alaska out of the equation so we can look objectively at this problem. First the Tongass in Alaska is overlogged. The clearcuts are huge, and they are so avoided by the local wildlife they are like moonscapes at a time when we need the planet to have more respiration (breathing) and the Southeast Alaska Temperate Raiforests forests are so much a part of that equation.

There are the islands of Baronoff and Chichigoff. These islands are huge and they are part of a salmon rearing area and where the brown bear still thrives to an exceptional level because of the salmon and the sedge along the coastal areas. There are parts of the mainland Togass that seem Alaska remote, but these areas are steep and should not be logged anyway.

I have seen landslides in the wild and they will happen in Alaska’s remote steepness.

I see Cheney’s fingerprint all over this one…He and Bush have no sense about what makes sense on the wildlands of Alaska and the fate of these forests should not be left up to them or their Administration.

I was heavily involved in Forest Planning in the mid to late eighties and opposed much of what I heard for the tongass then, these guys are asking_should I say, bullying for more, and must be stopped now!!!!!!!!!

I recently had to give up my hard copy of the Post for reasons beyond my control. One of the true joys of my life (pretty meagher joy) was reading the weekend Post. Well, it forced me to find the Washington Post on the Computer line. I will miss some of my favorite authors. I say that with a sense of remorse. As I get more nimble with the computer I will find these writers again. Bare with me. Thats the way the ball bounces.Regards.

Matt

O’Malley Fires At the EPA

In Today’s Washinton Post is a David Fahrentold article titled, “O’Malley Attacks EPA Greenhouse Decision.” O’Malley is the governor of Maryland and he is one of 15 Governors who is suing the EPA for saying that California has to conform its gas emmisions standards to those that Bush and his administration support.

We have the technology to be more coservative on gas emmisions than the ones proposed by the states that are suing the Federal EPA. Support our fight against the EPA and get back to square one on gas emmissions.

Also CCan needs your help, especially if you are from Maryland. CCan is interested in pushing O’Malley to enact to fight politically for global warming problems over a large swath of this region by passing the Maryland Global Warming Act. See what CCan is attempting to do by visiting their website. Put CCAN, Chesapeake Climate Network in the URL Bar of your computer and read away. This is by far the most active group for grassroots folks in the Washington D.C. region who care about how Global Warming is ravaging the Chesapeake Bay. If you are interested in this issue…plug in!!!

Matt

What Makes Me Happy

I  looked on the Blog on Al Gore’s Current TV and realised that I have no idea what cool is nor am I predisposed to learn what is cool.

I awoke early this morning and read somewhere that person’s like me, who wake up early, are statistically more likely to go over the ridge (die).  Believe me when I say I will continue to awake early and that it makes me happy to be an earlybird.

I saw a Coopper’s Hawk fly by at a very fast rate. Two American crows were flying by and hurriedly got out of the way of the hawk. The hawk seemed to be going somewhere. I was happy to see that sight a block away from a crowded street. You are more likely to see that kind of site in the early morning hours.

I am more prone to doing that than to read Al Gore (who I have admired since the early political days of Gore) blog (not actually his writing) on his Current TV.

Matt

Sriddhar Pappu writes about “Green Collar Jobs”.

In the Style Section of today’s Washington Post is an article by Sriddar Pappu called, Politicians Power up with Green Collar Workers. There was a time when this kind of worker was thought to be a fringe worker. Now everyone is climbing allover everyone to be “Green Collar”. These environmental workers, latecomers or not, are part of the solution to human-caused Global Warming. I keep hearing Gore say, “how hard do you want to fall”?

I believe we have a bit of control here and the “Green Collars” are part of the sucess picture. Read the article by Pappu in Today’s Washington Post, in the Style section, or C1 in the hardcopy of the Post.

Matt

More Global Warming Articles In the Washington Post

Todays Washington Post, Section A, are two practical Global Warming stories that need to be read. They are realistic. The one called “A Big Drop In Emissions Is Possible With Today’s Technology”, by Doug Struck is actually quite hopeful.

Why I say that is because it says we can fall lightly if we use technology that is available now. I am not hopeful but the plausability is certainly out there for us to fall lightly on Global Warming. Struck has a very good article, on A 6. for those who have the paper. My guess is that this article will be on the Web, the Washington Post Web. I really hold out hope for the premiss of this article and philisophically I agree with this article. History is really against this article. For that reason I am less hopefull. This is one of those scenarios where I have to hold my breath and just move forward one day at a time.

In the other article, 11 Multinationals to Assess Their “Carbon Footprint”, by Alex Morales, some of the well known Industry giants have offered a plan to reduce their “Carbon Footprint” or Greenhouse Gas Emissions. An old school person like me thinks the multi-nationals should cleanup to help save humanity or their market, but these large multinational companies smell the money by staying clean. I have a hard time with that. Has the world passed me by on that on? Read Moraleses article in the Washington Post today. In a hard copy of today’s Post this article is above an add called Holiday Coupon Sale on, page A 16. Again like a canary, read this article.

Matt

Chronicling the Decline Of the Backyard Bird

In todays Washington Post there is more than news about the Maryland Terrapin men’s basketball team beating the number 1 ranked North Carolina team, or politics from Nevada and South Carolina.

Dion Haynes writes an interesting article about backyard birds in Washington D.C.. I have watched backyard birds in this area since I was a child. Later as a teen and much later as a professional wildlife biologist and as a handicapped upper middle-age man who finds birdwathing interesting enough to ride a midweek subway and local bus to. I would call that hooked for sure.

Hayne’s article hits home and gets one like me to think long and hard. I watched my mothers feeder when I was young. I watched my mother’s feeder in NW, D.C. when I was a teen eating French Fries at the Waffle Shop or McDonalds. D.C. had no subways but it had a lot of poltical marches on the Mall. I missed birding in D.C. in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, except for the occasional visit to see my parents.

Todays article by Haynes is sobering and very much suspected by me.

I remembere a lot of bluejays and grackles (common) song sparrows skulking in the shrubs, House Sparrows and Starlings were just taking hold of feeders and Carolina Wrens were rare, House wrens were common in our neighborhood and you never saw a Redwing blackbird or I should say rarely you would see them at the feeder.

What I have noticed is that the C and O Canal migratory birding in Maryland is way down for songbirds. I have birded their in spring for the past 3 years. Some mornings we would come home seeing twenty plus warbler species. Now 11 warblers is a lot and a lot for birds. I know now my neck aches from age and my eyes are not as good as they were when I was young, but even as I listen for birds I am often disappointed. My ears work just fine. At least for now they do.

Read Haynes and think about what he says because its hard to compare the then and the now, but the article makes me think.

Matt

More on Endangered Species some on Alaska

In the Letters to the Editors in today’s Washington Post on A 20  is a letter from the Alaka Wilderness League, Cindy Shogan ,who is that fine organization’s Executive Director. Cindy Shogan says regarding the January 16th Opinion on whether,or not, polar bears should be given Threatoned Status by the amazingly bad Secretary of Interior, Dirk Kempthorne. Bottom line is Kempthorne says we need to study more the polar bear’s designation as a Threatoned species in Alaska. The polar bear is probably an Endangered species in Alaska for sure and they (Kempthorne wants to study this. This is a roadmap for the species eventual extinction).

First of all we need to become independent of oil in America we have to stop! lining the pockets of Cheney and his friends and Bush and his friends with oil profits while we accelerate our  carbon emissions, which only excacerbates our oil costs and our survival while this insanity of pocket lining continues.

Getting more oil just prolongs a disastor and extincts a species, the polar bear, in the process.

We should not be in the Chuckchi Sea of Alaska getting more oil, we should be down in the lower 48 trying to find viable alternatives to fossil fuel and that lifestyle which which will end life as we know it if we keep tempting fate, which this move, leases in the Chuckchi will. Alaskan independence be dammed. Get on the USA survival Train and quit lining the Cheney and Bush pockets . They are laughing all the way to the bank while we and speciecs like the polar bear are holding an empty bag.

 More on Alaska read about the Pebble Mining District in Southwest Alaska near famous, to many of us, Lake Illiamna. It is heartbreaking and more of the same old that can be expected in one of the most significant salmon rearing parts of Alaska. Short-sited mining in the Pebble area near the Bristol Bay headwaters will line very rich men’s pockets and bring a few Alaskans short term jobs but may contribute to the end of a great fishery that sustains many Alaskans  and many sport fishing non-Alaskans.

Matt