Fake FEMA News Conference
Really? Dear American people, why do we still put up with this crap?
It used to be that the government went through all sorts of trouble to keep the truth from us. I can’t really explain what is going on here, deception fatigue? Are they so worn out from the endless lies that they have started to get lazy? Whatever the reason it is dirty pool for sure. Hecuva job FEMA, Hecuva job.
Lets all clean house in this next election. Think hard, research, pick a candidate you think will really do a good job (not just for president, but in every election you can participate in). Might I recommend Dennis Kucinich. I know he is a bit short, but I really like a lot of the things he is saying.
We have been following the Mega Fires in the south west. More here, and here.
Beautiful Machine
Original post by Scytle
Nutrient Pollution Ramping Up Frog Deformities (Sweet Jesus!)
Frogs, because of the nature of how they breed and reproduce are often the first to go when there is pollution in the environment. Their thin permeable skin allows pollutants to easily pass into their systems. In that respect they are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to our wetlands. If the frogs go, you know you are in trouble.
High levels of nutrients used in farming and ranching activities fuel parasite infections that have caused highly publicized frog deformities in ponds and lakes across North America, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. When I saw these pictures, I though “Sweet Jebus! This is the ugly truth of an environment that is out of whack.
The study showed increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorus cause sharp hikes in the abundance and reproduction of a snail species that hosts microscopic parasites known as trematodes, said Pieter Johnson of the University of Colorado, Boulder. The nutrients stimulate algae growth, increasing snail populations and the number of infectious parasites released by snails into ponds and lakes. The parasites subsequently form cysts in the developing limbs of tadpoles causing missing limbs, extra limbs and other severe malformations, Johnson said.
“This is the first study to show that nutrient enrichment drives the abundance of these parasites, increasing levels of amphibian infection and subsequent malformations,” said Johnson. “The research has implications for both worldwide amphibian declines and for a wide array of diseases potentially linked to nutrient pollution, including cholera, malaria, West Nile virus and diseases affecting coral reefs.”
Johnson is the lead author of a study on the subject published online the week of Sept. 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Science Foundation funded the work.
Deformed frogs first gained international attention in the mid-1990s when a group of Minnesota schoolchildren discovered a pond where more than half of the leopard frogs had missing or extra limbs, he said. Since then, reports of deformed amphibians have become widespread in the United States, leading to speculation they were being caused by factors like pesticides, increased ultraviolet radiation or parasitic infection.
While parasite infection is now recognized as a major cause of such deformities, the environmental factors responsible for increases in parasite abundance had largely remained a mystery until the study was undertaken, Johnson said.
“One of our main goals was to understand how parasites are going to respond to land-use changes and ecosystem alterations,” he said. “What we found is that nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from agriculture, cattle grazing and domestic runoff have the potential to significantly promote parasitic infection and deformities in frogs.”
The trematode has a complex life cycle that involves three host species, he said. In addition to the infectious stage in snails and the cyst stage in frogs, the parasites rely on predators including wading birds to complete their life cycle by consuming infected frogs and spreading the parasite back into the ecosystem through defecation.
The research team built 36 artificial ponds in central Wisconsin similar to farm stock tanks — a common breeding site of frogs and salamanders — and stocked each with selected numbers of snails and tadpoles of the green frog. In addition to adding nutrients, the researchers took on the role of birds in the trematode life cycle by adding parasite eggs to the tanks, then measuring the subsequent ecological responses.
In ponds with added nutrients, snail biomass increased by 50 percent and the snails increased parasite egg production by up to eight-fold, he said. The infection rate in frogs rose by two to five times in those tanks, Johnson said.
As few as 12 trematode larvae, known as cercariae, can kill or deform a single tadpole by burrowing into their limb regions and disrupting normal leg development, he said. A single infected snail can produce more than 1,000 cercariae in one night. Frogs that become deformed rarely survive long in the wild, he said.
“We were able to watch nutrient pollution move through the life cycle of the parasite as it cascaded through the food web,” he said. “Since most human diseases involve multiple hosts, understanding how increased nutrient pollution affects freshwater and marine food webs to influence disease is an emerging frontier in ecological research.”
A recent study of more than 6,000 species of amphibians worldwide concluded that 32 percent were threatened and 43 percent were declining in population. While the causes range from habitat loss to emerging disease, the researchers are now exploring how nutrient pollution and limb malformations contribute to the pattern, Johnson said.
Co-authors include Jonathan Chase from Washington University; Katherine Dosch, Richard Hartson, Daniel Sutherland and Stephen Carpenter from the University of Wisconsin; Jackson Gross from the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project; and Don Larson from University of Alaska.
Rare Bicycle Hunt
Do you know anything about this super sweet wooden bicycle? Don would be very happy if you could help him find the creator.
On a recient cruise there was a terrific wooden bicycle that was part of the on-board art auction that caught my eye. While the bike was ridable it was obvious that it was probably intended for display. The bike had a name etched into its frame that appeared to be “Tiuo Saug” and had a serial number of 0096 (which suggest that quite a few of these bikes have been made). The name was in script and difficult to interpret, so I could be wrong about the spelling. What I am trying to determine is exactly who made the bike. I have pictures if that would be of help in identifying the maker
If you do please leave a comment.
Many more pics after the fold.
Read the rest of Rare Bicycle Hunt
Mapping The Destruction
Two days ago we talked about the mega fires happening in the south west. Here is an interesting and eye opening google map showing just how crazy these fires are.
I highly suggest visiting the full sized map for more info.
The Rapture Of The Deep
“Water”, a stage play by Filter and David Farr. Performed at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London.
I really didn’t know what to expect tonight. Something multimedia, with on-stage mixing, and interactive theatre involving the audience…maybe. What I actually experienced from this, ostensibly climate change motivated, piece of theatre was an unexpected delight.
Firstly, the Lyric Theatre, of which the director of Water, David Farr, is artistic director. Enclosed in a facade of 90s modernism, the impressive internal build of the theatre, with its ornate mouldings and double tiered circle, seems determined to challenge any attempt to tame its historical presence - yet, like all good theatres, the beautiful acoustics bring you precisely where the sound engineer wants you. In the hands of a talent like Tim Phillips, looking for all the world like a Chemical Brother behind an aluminium desk, and almost always in semi-darkness, this odyssey of off-the-cuff sounds, mixing up such items as a rung wine glass, a popped cheek and the slap of a hand on the wooden stage, takes the performance into something that approaches full immersion theatre.
The story is unusual. Scientist and father of two, estranged from his wife and one of his children, takes the scientific and political world on with proclamations of imminent climate change - but this is 1981, and lobbied skepticism had yet to take hold, let alone the common knowledge that we really are changing the planet. Government adviser challenges a climatically ambivalent US Government, in the first of many congruent events taking place as the storyline develops. Adviser meets cave diver attempting a suicidal record attempt, while in a parallel world separated by the mere walls of a Vancouver hotel, the now dead scientist’s sons play out a family drama reflecting the two sides of a society that is being driven to take the easy option - the dive into a culture that consumes all who think they can control it.
No more needs to be said of the plot. It is almost incidental to the messages being put forward - subtly, almost unconsciously, through the actions of the balletically interweaving cast. Ferdy Roberts, who plays both father and the son who doesn’t want to take the cultural plunge, is at times heartbreakingly candid in his expression of grief and tortured indecision. The ensemble play like their lives depend on it and, let’s face it, our lives really do depend on understanding the vital messages that Water gets across so well.
If you are anywhere near London, then you have until 3 November to catch this unique piece of environmental theatre.
http://www.lyric.co.uk/pl295.html
Keith Farnish
www.theearthblog.org
Survey Shows Majority Of Cape Residents Support Cape Wind
Are you hearing this Teddy? A while ago we reported the results of a pole that showed there was a strong majority of people in Massachusetts that were in favor of the proposed Cape Wind project. A new study by the same group shows that not only do a majority of the states residents support the project, but a majority of Cape residents also support the project. You listening Kennedy and Delahunt and Cape Cod Commission? Your own neighbors and constituents WANT this project. Could your continued support of the very rich “save our view” NIYMBY’s end up being political suicide?
You can read the entire survey here. (pdf)
More than three out of five Cape Cod/Island residents (61 percent) — including a bipartisan 54 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Independents — favor the Cape Wind project, according to a major new scientific survey of 501 Cape and Island residents conducted by Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) for the Newton, MA.-based Civil Society Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank.
The Civil Society Institute survey tests six arguments made against Cape Wind by critics of the project and finds that not one of the arguments succeeds in persuading half or more of Cape/Island residents to oppose the project. In fact, fully half of the arguments — tourism/the regional economy, boating and commercial fishing — backfire and generate more support than opposition for Cape Wind.
Civil Society Institute President and Founder Pam Solo: “Facts and reason should dictate the future of Cape Wind. Thousands of pages from various agencies have examined the environmental impacts of Cape Wind and find no factual reason to stop the project. This survey offers further data. Citizens are following the debate and are rejecting a barrage of arguments against the project. Residents of the Cape and Islands want Cape Wind. They have followed the debate and remain supportive of offshore wind energy which could supply up to 75 percent of the energy needs of the Cape and Islands. Opponents are spending considerable capital — political and financial — to defeat Cape Wind and one would hope they will decide it is better spent solving problems than fighting against solutions.”
Opinion Research Corporation Senior Researcher Graham Hueber: “We tested six arguments used by Cape Wind opponents and none of them persuaded half or more of Cape and Islands residents to join their ranks. In some cases, including concerns about the potential impact on tourism and the regional economy, the opponents’ arguments actually boomerang against them and end up making most people more likely to support Cape Wind. This would appear to explain why only slightly over a third of Cape and Island residents oppose Cape Wind today.”
Barbara Hill, executive director, Clean Power Now, Hyannis, M., said: “An ever growing number of Cape Cod citizens understand that the Cape Wind project is an answer to record oil prices and the inescapable reality of global warming. Cape Wind is not the only answer, but the people of the Cape and islands are sick of the delays. They want Cape Wind built now.”
KEY SURVEY FINDINGS
More than three out of five Cape Cod/Island residents (61 percent) — including a bipartisan 54 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Independents — favor Cape Wind, including 42 percent who support it strongly. Only about a third (36 percent) of residents are against Cape Wind, with only a quarter opposing it strongly. These results are in keeping with the August 15, 2007 CSI survey on Cape Wind that found 58 percent support for Cape Wind on the Cape/Islands (based on a smaller sample size).
None of the attacks made against Cape Wind succeed in persuading half or more of Cape Cod/Islands residents to be more likely to oppose Cape
Wind:
— Only about one in five respondents (22 percent) say that Cape Wind should be delayed until so-called “deep water technology” is available to put the project farther off shore. By contrast, over half (51 percent) of respondents said “go ahead with Cape Wind now” using the proposed technology for the project. The issue of “deep water technology” has no impact on the thinking of 22 percent of respondents who say that they “oppose any version of Cape Wind.”
— Only about a third of respondents (35 percent) said that concerns about loss of tourism and other negative economic impacts made them less likely to support Cape Wind. Over half (55 percent) said the tourism/economic impact issue made them more likely to support Cape Wind.
— Just over one third of respondents (36 percent) said that the disputed potential for more bird deaths made them less likely to oppose Cape Wind. Nearly half (49 percent) said the bird issue made them more likely to support Cape Wind.
— A bit more than a third of respondents (37 percent) said that arguments about a potential harm to commercial fishing from Cape Wind made them less likely to support the project. Over half (56 percent) said they were more likely to support Cape Wind because of this issue.
— Fewer than two in five respondents (39 percent) said that arguments about potential navigation hazards to watercraft from Cape Wind made them less likely to support the project. Over half (55 percent) said the issue made them more likely to support Cape Wind.
— About two out of five respondents (42 percent) said the use of public land for Cape Wind made them less likely to support the project. Nearly half (48 percent) said the issue made them more likely to support the project.
— Just under half (49 percent) said they were less likely to support Cape Wind due to fears about abandonment of equipment. By contrast, 43 percent said the issue made them more likely to support Cape Wind.
Other key findings included the following:
— When it comes to generating electricity, wind power is the #1 choice (60 percent), followed by nuclear (21 percent), other (6 percent) and coal (5 percent). Cape Cod/Islands residents would support using the following energy steps and sources “before we resort to adding more nuclear power”: tougher energy conservation to reduce waste (89 percent); solar power (89 percent); and wind power (83 percent).
— 83 percent of respondents including 77 percent of Republicans, 88 percent of Democrats and 85 percent of Independents agree with the following statement: “The effects of global warming require that we take timely and decisive steps for renewable, safe and clean energy sources. We need transitional technologies on our path to energy independence. There are tough choices to be made and tradeoffs. We cannot afford to postpone decisions since there are no perfect options.”
— Nearly all respondents (96 percent) are aware of the Cape Wind project.
You can read the entire survey here. (pdf)
Survey results are based on a telephone survey of 501 adults age 18 and over, living in private households, in certain counties in the state of Massachusetts. Interviewing was completed during the period of October 10-15, 2007. Residents were screened to ensure that they lived in Dukes, Nantucket or Barnstable counties. Those living in Barnstable County were further screened to ensure that they lived on the Cape Cod side of the Cape Cod canal. In addition, all respondents were screened to ensure that they live in their home at least 6 months or half of the year. The data were weighted two variables: age and gender, to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the adult population. The margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level is plus or minus 4 percentage points for the sample of 501 adults. Smaller sub-groups will have larger error margins.
Of the 501 total respondents, 58 percent lived in Barnstable County, 19 percent in Dukes County and 23 percent in Nantucket. All of the respondents reported spending six months or more of the year in their home on the Cape and Islands.
Al Gores New Virtual Town Hall
I get personal emails from Al Gore. Me and the millions of other people who have had dealings with him, but he writes his emails like they are right to you, so it feels nice. Anyway here is the latest one I got from him.
“Dear Shane,
Current, the media company I co-founded six years ago with my partner Joel Hyatt, just last week launched a new web site that integrates television and the Web in an unprecedented way. It provides, as never before, a platform for citizens to make the media their own.
One of the features I’m most excited about on Current.com is called Viewpoints. Viewpoints is a virtual town hall where you can share your opinions, in video, about the issues that matter in the 2008 election: from global warming to government eavesdropping, and many more.
This digital town hall is already bustling, and you can find viewpoints from me and from a lot of people, including the candidates running for President. Come and listen to their positions and, more importantly, tell them and the rest of the world what you think!
Since Viewpoints is the only place on the Web where you can easily share your view in video, my hope is that you’ll take this opportunity to go toe-to-toe with the pundits on TV and help contribute to a new platform for public discourse. All it takes is a webcam and 60 seconds.
And, since we’ll be taking the most popular and most compelling viewpoints and airing them on Current TV — now available in 52 million homes around the world — you may very well get your voice heard on our global TV network.
I look forward to seeing and hearing you on Current.com, as we deepen the discussion on these important topics:
Thank you,
Al Gore”
Isn’t that sweet.
Alright Al, I’ll bite. I gave the site a look. My first impression was “gaaaahhh flash!” but at least the interface is well thought out. Basically it is a sort of opinion based youtube/digg hybrid. You post a video with your opinion, and then people vote on it. I thought it was kind of cool the way that when you held your mouse over the windows it told you how many voted for or against that opinion. Holding your mouse over the faces also produces little check marks or X’s float around their picture the size and number of x’s and checks is dependent on the votes.
The site seems to lean a bit to the left (which is fine by me), as the people with more conservative/religious views are less supported by the voters in general. But most of these polls have less than 100 votes, so it is far from clear how they will turn out after a couple thousand people vote on them.
It looks pretty interesting, and after a couple second I even was able to get over the fact thats its all flash (why Al, why?!). Stop by, vote on a which opinion you agree with, and maybe even leave a couple of your own. I could see something like this become a pretty interesting and useful tool for civic engagement and discussion.
Ask The Sietch : How Can I Keep My Animals Warm Using Solar Power
Do you have a question you would like to Ask The Sietch? Contact us or post your question in the Forums, and we will do our best to answer it. Got this one from the forum
Got this one from the contact form a couple of days ago.
Kim has sent me this interesting question.
I am trying to find a simply explained (I’m inexperienced) & inexpensive way to build a solar heated small animal shelter. Would you have any suggestions? I am wondering if I could somehow adapt your plans (#2) for a solar thermal panel to provide a source of warmth and / or way to keep drinking water from freezing. I am hoping you can give me some guidance about whether this is logical, technically feasible….safe, etc. Your thoughts on what might work would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Hi Kim. Yes you can safely and simply heat a small space (dog kennel, rabbit hutch, chicken coop, goat pen, etc) and/or keep water from freezing with solar power. There are basically two ways to do this, passively and actively.
If the animal you are trying to keep warm is a relatively hearty (aka its not some sort of rare tropical lizard that never experiences cold weather in its native habitat), like a dog or a goat or even a chicken and you can add a lot of heat to an enclosure with some passive methods.
First off you will want to think about changing seasons, in the summer time you are not going to want your animals as warm as the winter, and most animals have natural ways to stay warm, so you don’t want to make their homes so hot that they overheat (which can happen with animals with fur, even in the depths of winter). I would suggest that a good layer of insulation, and a shelter that keeps the animals out of the wind can go a long way towards keeping animals warm. A good sized dog, with a well insulated dog house will stay nice and toasty on even the coldest nights.
If you need a little more heat, you could try and build a passive solar enclosure. This would basically be a small greenhouse like structure that is attached to the insulated structure. See the image below.
The idea is that during the day the sun shines in (the heat is trapped by the glass) and heats up a thermal mass (bricks or a cement floor), then during the night you place an insulated cover over the glass (a big sheet of insulated foam, or insulation) and the animal can sit on the nice warm floor all night.
During the summer you might want to leave the insulated cover on all the time to keep the sun from heating up the inside. Chickens that get too warm can easily die.
You can enact this sort of insulation/passive solar way in a million ways. But the basic idea is to insulate, and heat a thermal mass (something that soaks up the heat during the day to release it at night).
If you need a little more “kick” you can try some active solar methods.
If you really need to heat something I would go and buy yourself a solar thermal panel. You can find dealers all over, and you can get one or two panels for less than 1000 dollars (most likely much less). You point the panel at the sun, and pump water through it, this water gets very warm, then you run this warm water through a thermal mass. See picture below.
Your solar panel collects heat from the sun, it is in essence a tiny greenhouse that concentrates and traps the infrared radiation (heat) from the sun. A series of small tubes in the panel allow you to pump water (or a glycol mix to prevent freezing in the winter) and transfer this trapped heat someplace else. In this case we would pour a small concrete slab with a network of tubes placed into it. The warm water flows through the system all day, and the concrete slab absorbs the heat. At night when the sun goes down the pump turns off and the warm concrete radiates the heat all night long. Combined with a very well insulated enclosure, and the animals own adaptations (fur, feathers, etc) you keep your critters warm.
You could also use a system like to keep water from freezing. Instead of running the network of tubes into concrete you would use a small copper coil of pipes and place it into the bottom of the water tank, in this way the water itself acts as your thermal mass. You would be heating up the water all day, and at night it would be warm enough not to freeze. During the summer you would detach this system because the water would get really warm.
So to answer your question, yes you can do this with solar. Yes it is safe, and yes it is feasible, even easy. You will still need to monitor your animals to make sure they are ok on really cold nights, but you would have done that any way. If you contact a renewable energy contractor in your area (especially one that has experience with solar thermal) they could help you whip up a system like this pretty easily.
I hope this helps, if you have any follow up questions feel free to contact me or leave a comment.
Global Warming Induced Mega Fires
Global warming is widely predicted to lead to more forest fires, specifically in the south west of this country. The latest of these mega fires has burned more than 335,000 acres in Southern California since they began. More than half a million residents have been evacuated from their homes, and a state of emergency has been issued for seven California counties. At last count more than 1500 homes have burned.
This summer was especially dry so the arrival of the hot dry winter Santa Ana winds have made things worse. Santa Anas are a winter phenomenon, and they often peak in December or January so unfortunately this is only the start of what could be a very bad fire season.
To get an idea of the kind of scale we are dealing with…
This is what global warming looks like.
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