Our World and Everything in It

CO2 gas has competition in our atmosphere. Methane gas and nitrogen trifluoride is increasing at an alarming rate. The ice melt in the Artic is releasing an enormous amount of methane from rotting plants. The nitrogen fluoride is used in the manufacture of flat panel monitors.

According to an article in USA, two Scripps Institute geoscientists have collected cylinders of air samples from around the world and both methane and nitrogen fluoride is building quicker than expected.

I’ve blogged about the little known methane gas explosions along the coast of Africa: http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/04/mankind-contributes-to-global-warming-through-fish/. They are caused by the same thing—rotting plants on the ocean floor, plants that used to be food for sardines and a rapidly declining fish supply due to overfishing, especially in that area.

Understand the chain reaction of imbalance now? One thing like overfishing causes excess plankton, which eventually dies and begins to rot on the ocean floor. The rot releases methane gas, which builds under pressure and eventually blows. The caveat to all of this is that the first global warming event 40 million years ago that literally scorched the earth was caused from excess methane gas. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2007/06/world-environment-day/.

And what about nitrogen trifluoride as evidence man truly is affecting global warming by excessive output of harmful gases that throws the (closed system) atmosphere out of balance? If geoscientists can actually register the growth of toxic nitrogen fluoride, which is not a naturally occurring element but rather a combination of elements used in the silicon industry, than that is proof man is contributing to the toxicity of our atmosphere and an imbalance of what we witness as global warming.

The more scientists are able to gather air samples worldwide the more our eyes will open to the fact we’re polluting at an awful rate and by doing so promoting the demise of our world and everything in it. I hope we can unite on this conclusion soon enough.

For those that say this is a normal cyclical happening, did we have excessive nitrogen trifluoride in the air back then too? We certainly didn’t have almost 7 billion people on earth to think about relative to global warming.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27400533/

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/06/worse-things-increasing-in-the-air-than-co2/

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/05/humans-have-been-affecting-the-earths-atmosphere-for-at-least-2000-years/

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/category/environmentalism/global-warming/page/4/

The NRDC and other organizations like Greenpeace and Center for Biological Diversity have filed a suit against the Bush Administration again on behalf of the polar bear according to the NRDC. The polar bear is on the endangered list, but it seems its habitat is not. Soooo there is a lot of leeway (loopholes) in that plan for Big Oil.

The White House has been flooded with petitions to protect the polar bear and its habitat, but the NRDC and others have had to file suit even as Bush’s time in office is limited. Likewise, the Center for Biodiversity has a lawsuit against the Dept. of Interior, lead by good ole Dirk Kempthorne, for attempting to expand oil and gas development in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas or the “Polar Bear Seas.” It’s called the “Five Year Plan.” Real nice. In five years we should be on our way to oil independence.

It’s more tail chase logic. Allow oil companies to invade polar bear country with the industry that produces the fuel that emits CO2 fueling global warming that is melting the polar bear’s habitat in the first place. It’s another pretty package with little inside from the Bush administration. Apparently, we are to assume the package itself is a big portion of the actual present. And so goes this administration’s polar-bear-is-an-endangered-species offering that sounds right and just but turns right around and gives oil companies the upper hand in the Arctic.

An Arctic that is diminished with one million square miles, six times the size of California, melted away in the past 30 years. For those that want to argue this all happened before, well it wasn’t the Medieval Warming Period from somewhere in the 900’s-1300’s era. We’re a heck of a lot warmer now. According to New Scientist Environment website we might have to go back 6000 to 125,000 years to get as warm as we’re getting and it’s only going to get worse. This is not just natural phenomenon happening here. Anyway the difference between thousands of years ago and now is almost 7 billion people.

Look at the more dense population areas of the world. They are along the water. Take a pitcher of water with ice cubes in it and watch as they melt. No water level change, but add ice and that pitcher overflows. Imagine the scenario if all the ice that covers the land in our coldest regions slips into the surrounding water. That’s adding some mighty big ice cubes to our albeit mighty big oceans/seas but the pitcher will still overflow.

Big Oil’s intrusion in the Polar Bear Seas is adding insult to injury or in this case certain death to the polar bear. And it’s unnecessary. There are some 63 million acres of land leased for oil exploration that hasn’t been touched. The intruder polluters also endanger birds, fish, and other mammals with potential oil spills.

Organizations like the NRDC, Earthjustice, Greenpeace, Center for Biodiversity, and others are making progress. Shell put off drilling in the Beaufort Sea off the Arctic Refuge coast for another year. Now if they can just hold the Bush Administration and Dirk Kempthorne at bay for oh, a couple of months, maybe a new administration will have a little more empathy for the polar bear and our environment. 

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11644

http://www.nrdc.org/naturesvoice/feature1.asp

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2008/081006.asp

I was watching a news program and that little ticker of news across the bottom said that an agreement was hatched between the largest private landowner in the country to use forest service roads for possible development in our forests. Plum Creek Timber Co. is the landowner. Plum Creek became an REIT in 1999. 

An REIT is a Real Estate Investment Trust that allows investors to buy equity in large tracks of land. A REIT is also a pass through entity distributing 90%, although many distribute 100%, of their total net income to its equity holders. The equity holders are then taxed on that income, not the REIT. For a pretty good explanation about REIT’s read: http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/real-estate/reit.htm.

Plum Creek is first and foremost a lumber company, the heir to the timberland originally granted by the federal government to the Northern Pacific Railway in the 1860s according to Wikipedia. Plum Creek’s website states that they replant some 85 million seedlings per year, work closely with conservation groups to preserve wildlife habitat and protect clean water sources. A good thing environmentally since they own, or rather their shareholders own, close to 8 million acres of wooded forest land.

But Senators Jon Tester D-Montana, and Jeff Bingaman D-NM want an investigation into the new ruling that allows Plum Creek to use forest service drives because the closed door negotiations didn’t allow the public to weigh in. And I’m beginning to see why. Here’s the bad thing.

Some of the places developed by Plum Creek already are high-end lodge and golf facilities right in the middle of our national forests. Who does that cater to in these economic times? You and I aren’t going to stay and golf there.  And what about developing subdivisions in these forests? An article in the International Herald Tribune stated, “Montana county officials say the proposal would make it easier for Plum Creek to sell timberland for houses or other development.” This may be the result of all the public/forest land the Bush Administration has auctioned off over the past 8 years.

Development??? There are empty houses standing all over the country so what the heck are we doing? Huge landowners like Plum Creek are no longer just harvesting wood and replanting, they are developing the land for high-end resorts so their shareholders make more money. These are some of our most pristine wild forestlands. It’s about as bad as Governor Crist of Florida filling in and developing the everglades when people are moving out of Florida because they can’t afford the homeowner’s premiums anymore.

So for as much as Plum Creek attempts to do for the environment, they equally hurt it with unnecessary development. It’s becoming a little clearer why there was such an onslaught against wolves especially around our national parks. We just got a stay of relief for the wolves that were scheduled for massive annihilation in the Yellowstone area. Plum Creek has a resort called “The Yellowstone Club,” and others like Moonlight Basin. These are high-end resorts and housing right in the heart of the very lands where these animals roam. Recently, buffalo have been slaughtered as well as wild mustang horses too. Ever wonder why? The excuses that were given for this massive kill were never very clear, but it’s becoming a lot more clear now.

I read about Bush’s plan to allow lumbering throughout our more dense forest areas like Idaho and surmised that development would soon follow. It just so happens that Plum Creek has its hand in natural resource business opportunities also that are relative to mineral extraction, natural gas production, and communication and transportation rights of way. That says a lot more. Mineral extraction and natural gas production is a whole other form of real estate development for big energy and another big motive for the animal removal and the easy, quiet deal to allow the use of forest service roads to facilitate Plum Creek.

The two Senators are worried that allowing Plum Creek to use forest service roads for development will set a precedent for other developers to do likewise. It looks to me like that was the plan all along. Clear out many of the animals that are under protection, make deals on the sly, and the next thing we’re asking is, “When did we lose our forests to homes and country clubs we don’t need?”

We certainly know what happens when humans attempt to habitate areas that are home to wild animals. It becomes a struggle for the critters who ultimately are eliminated as pests.

It doesn’t appear there are many sacred untouched tracts of land in our country anymore that are protected from development and the almighty dollar.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/11/america/Forest-Road-Deal.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_Creek_Timber

http://www.plumcreek.com/AboutPlumCreek/tabid/54/Default.aspx

Between the presidential campaign and financial crisis, we haven’t really absorbed the enormity of devastation from hurricane Ike. This time around it wasn’t just houses along the Galveston coastline but actual property that disappeared. Imagine being a homeowner without a home or the sandy beach where it once stood. What now? We’ve been told the storms are only going to increase in intensity, but we still refuse to believe we have a connection to any of it.

I’ve been watching the storms that continue up the eastern coastline. If something big makes it to New York—it will be catastrophic. By all indications more and more hurricanes are traveling that eastern seaboard path. It’s only a matter of time, and it’s too bad we will have to be kicked that badly before we pay attention to our role relative to the environment.

The other devastation that hardly got any media play is the half a million gallons of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from damaged oil rigs. Fifty two rigs were hit with thirty two severely damaged according to ABC news.

The Gulf of Mexico already has a “dead zone” that is miles wide where runoff pollution, mostly agricultural fertilizer, has killed the ecosystem in the gulf to the point there is no life all the way to the bottom. It’s caused by oxygen depletion. Fishermen say that they can tell when they’ve entered the dead zone. The water appears deep, murky and lifeless. Well now it’s oily too.

My whole point here is that the little jingle “Drill, baby, drill” that so many seem to want, will add hundreds more of these oil platforms in the gulf and along the eastern seaboard. The platforms are right in the path of worsening storms. Inevitably there will be more oil spills, killing more sea life above and beyond the devastation from the storms. And the storms will get worse as global warming continues to fire up from the pollution created from using oil to begin with. Can we not see we are our own worst environmental enemy in this instance?

It seems to me we’re on a destructive path literally rubbing salt in the wound of global warming by adding yet more oil drills along our coastlines, especially since we are currently witnessing what conservation can do, albeit forced conservation. Over six hundred thousand jobs have been lost in the U.S. so commuting to work is at a low. As a result of lowered demand, oil prices are dropping. In light of this drop in oil prices, doesn’t it seem prudent to conserve first before we rush to drill for more oil? After all, I don’t know too many parents that continuously fuel their kids with money when the kids haven’t shown that they are responsible with the cash in the first place by blowing it on everything they can. Ditto for U.S. oil usage. We consume way too much oil, and just as spoiled children have no business asking for more until we bring our oil habit under control.

There is a world hunger crisis. In comparison, we have no idea how bad this hunger crisis is. It’s so bad half of all primates are on the path to extinction due to habitat loss, and because they are being eaten.

There is no limit as to what people will seek as a protein source, and the proof is in the fact that the animals most close to people in their DNA makeup are being eaten along with just about anything else.

An article on MSNBC.com stated that “634 different types of primates are in danger of going extinct.” We know tropical deforestation typically from the encroachment of humans is one reason, “but now it appears that hunting is just as serious a threat in some areas, even where the habitat is still quite intact. In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction.”

Asian animals are in exceptional danger where “populations of gibbons, leaf monkeys, langurs and other species have dwindled due to rampant habitat loss exacerbated by hunting for food and to supply the wildlife trade in traditional Chinese medicine and pets.” This last part is what gets me. It’s like the Japanese herding and hunting dolphins as a “tradition.” They don’t seem to comprehend that extinct means they will no longer have the means to continue these traditions anymore. And guess what? Life will go on.

Our side of the world needs to realize there is another side that is starving. And in that starvation, some of the world’s most intelligent, beautiful exotic animals are being eaten into extinction too. And yet, there are those that still don’t think man greatly affects our world and everything in it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26013226/wid/18298287/.

“The Bush Administration announced it intends to withdraw its plan to strip gray wolves of their endangered species protection in the Northern Rockies,” according to an e-mail from NRDC. The wolves will once again be under federal protection.

It seems the Bush Administration erroneously declared the wolf populations fully recovered, nor could it be proven that the wolves were threatening deer and elk populations. Yet when the feds handed off control of wolves to the states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming 110 wolves were dead in no time.

The NRDC also stated: “That means Wyoming, Montana and Idaho will NOT be allowed to begin the extermination of hundreds of wolves this fall as part of a massive public hunt — the first in more than three decades. Instead, those wolves will continue to roam the Rockies — wild and free — as nature and the law intended!”

A big nose thumb to Butch Otter, Gov. of Idaho for wanting to be the first one to shoot a wolf. Congratulations to the thousands of people who worked to stop this illegal hunting. The NRDC, Earthjustice, and eleven other conservation groups took it to the courts and won.

This by no means is a sign to let our guard down. If things don’t change drastically in the future there will be another angle to sport hunt these animals down the road, especially if the state’s ever get that power in their hands again.

Sadly, this victory will not bring back Limpy, the crippled wolf icon of Yellowstone that was shot dead the moment it limped out of the park.

Does anyone else find it fishy that Michigan’s Senate Republicans fought to keep 25% of surface groundwater such as wetlands out of the Great Lakes Compact, and specifically out of the public’s domain, and now Michigan’s DEQ says it must slash its wetland inspection, and pollution spill response programs? The DEQ says many will be on the honor system when it comes to withdrawing water and dumping pollution. Great. Here we go with self regulation again, that’s not working out well in other sectors of the economy right now. 

So no one will be around if you complain that the guy behind you is filling in that nice little creek between both your houses, or that nice piece of land next to you in the boonies up north becomes a dump site of sorts, not to mention siphoning rivers like the Au Sable, and making some wetlands literally dry up.

So many cuts have been made to help Michigan’s economy along. Didn’t the senate anticipate little to no regulators being able to keep watch on our wetlands in the very near future?  It’s only been months since that compact was signed and already surface water is threatened, and not just the 25% the senate fought to keep out of the compact. Hmmm.

The only good thing is that Gov. Granholm also signed bills to manage the use of surface ground water via a computer system that will determine when and where business can make withdrawals. The problem is this computer system is so new. Just how many places have monitors installed? Probably very few. Where will the money to monitor come from since the DEQ is fresh out of money?

And here’s the kicker. Obama wants to contribute $5 million dollars to really, really clean up the Great Lakes. The way things stand now, our service water is out of the loop of protection as part of our Great Lakes. Unless it’s included in the future, there will be no clean Great Lakes. Pollutants from groundwater will make it into the lakes. And unchecked withdrawals of surface water will likely take place to the point some wetlands may disappear.

The decision to keep surface water out of public domain caters completely to industry and special interest groups. Now it’s all come back to kick us in the pants when we find we’ve lost our say in our own backyards for 25% of surface water  problems, and nobody will come if you call about the other 75% either.

http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-30/1221576618242910.xml&coll=7

http://greatlakesgreatmichigan.org/legislation.htm

I’m so pleased to see our neighbor Canada is trying to do something for the polar bears and their habitat by the advertisement above my blog. Please sign the petition. I did.

This is pretty gruesome to watch but I think it’s necessary to see the unethical, unfair sport of aerial hunting that has been promoted throughout Alaska by Sarah Palin. It is from Defenders of Wildlife.

This policy has basically fueled the wolf hunting program in Idaho. Why Idaho?

Check out this list:

Dirk Kempthorne is former governor of Idaho and rushed into his appointment by Bush as Secy. of the Interior.  The Secy. of Interior is over the USFWS.

Matthew J. Hogan, the former chief lobbyist for Safari Club International, is Acting Director of the USFWS.

Safari Club International, according to sourcewatch.com, consistently lobbies against the intent of the Endangered Species Act.

Butch Otter, governor of Idaho, is known for his desire to be the first person to take a shot at a wolf.

Sarah Palin graduated from the University of Idaho in 1987. She is the biggest catalyst in Alaska, along with SCI, for aerial hunting as a method for predator management—wolves. 

What is it with Idaho and their bloodthirst for wolves? Less wolves more hunting for people? What a totally unfair premise. It’s also a stupid act as it goes against a healthy balanced ecosystem. Wolves take care of the ever growing population of coyotes many people continue to mistake for wolves as one in the same. They are not. Coyotes are scavengers. They are usually killed by wolves for intruding on the wolves’ food. If hunting is used to replace the wolves, there will be little to no carcasses left for coyotes. Coyotes will begin to come into people’s yards as their population grows and wolf populations diminish from overkill. I had a lady comment elsewhere that people in Vermont are sympathetic to wolf hunts, and proceeded to tell me about problem coyotes in her yard. See what I mean?

Also, rangers in Yellowstone Park presented a pro-wolf video for Public TV that I watched. They showed all of the new tree, shrub, and grassy areas that were evolving because the wolves were balancing the overabundance of deer and elk that kept eating particular plant species to the ground. Over a course of time, one area went from a predominantly grassy plain to what appeared to be the beginning of a forest.

Obviously, hunting was unable to control the abundant population of deer, elk, and other vegetarian mammals.

Watch the video if you can. I could not. I do not call this hunting, and neither do real hunters. There is a place for legitimate hunting in America. This is not legitimate, nor is the reason for predator control in the extreme like aerial hunting.  Elk and deer populations in Idaho are beyond their limits based on state’s records. And Palin’s pressure to continue excessive hunting of wolves via plane/helicopter in Alaska as a form of predator management to preserve elk and caribou populations, is a complete contradiction to the detrimental outcome of elk and caribou populations within ANWR if drilling is allowed.

An Environmental News Service article stated: “The Canadian government has announced that it will protect more than 450,000 hectares (1,737 square miles) of Arctic wilderness in the Nunavut Territory, including a globally significant Important Bird Area, by establishing three new National Wildlife Areas.”

The Canadian government is contributing $8.3 million to the effort. Prime Minister Harpter said, “This is a real demonstration of our commitment to protect our species and their incredible habitat in the North.” Too bad it’s not our North like ANWR.

Now watch how example works America. The article also stated that, “In another recent announcement, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, pledged to permanently protect 225,000 square kilometres (86,872 square miles) of boreal forest in the northern area of the province. Covering more than 20 percent of Ontario’s total land mass, the area to be protected is roughly the same size as the United Kingdom.” Outstanding!

The boreal forest is one of the largest undisturbed forest and wetland ecosystems. And it’s quite a carbon storage facility storing 186 billion tons. Quebec joined in the preservation program earlier in May pledging to protect “18,000 square kilometres (6,949 square miles) of forest and wetlands in 23 new conservation areas. Fifteen of these new conservation areas are in the boreal zone.”

Great for Canada. What about us selling off parcels of our national parks and forests to private ownership for the highest bid? We’re still not getting it.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-04-01.asp.