The “back door” tactics should be assigned to Murkowski. She openly stated her concerns for her state being ravaged by climate change in a speech in 2006, but by the end of 2009, Murkowski’s standards changed dramatically. An article titled: “Lisa Murkowski proposes to fiddle while Alaska burns” puts it nicely. http://climateprogress.org/2009/09/21/lisa-murkowski-fiddle-while-alaksa-burns-epa-regulation/.

Ignoring Alaskan fires are just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. Last week ended with 12-20 ft. waves around Ventura, CA, while mudslides wiped out homes in an area still expecting 3″ of rain along with coastal funnels, 14 tornadoes ripped through Texas in the dead of winter, ice storms ran throughout the Midwest snapping power lines, and the south was expecting heavy storms with possible tornadoes. And I blogged that the earthquake that crushed Haiti was a big one, part of a series of activity that went up and down our California coastline. Yeah it’s a real good time to waylay the EPA from acting to regulate emissions that may be exacerbating our climate problems.

Murkowski fails to connect the dots. But why? My guess is that the coal industry can buy more time for permits and be exempt from future regulations once permitted because another Republican senator changed the language in the Senate Climate Change Bill that would allow these exemptions. Covering the coal industry is key here although Murkowski likes to upset the little guy arguing that EPA regulations will hurt small industry, farms, and such in bad economic times. Gaining momentum depends on getting the little guy on her side. The big guys are already there.

More than just there, two lobbyists for the coal industry wrote Murkowski’s amendment. Murkowski admitted to it. http://www.greendaily.com/2010/01/18/murkowski-partnered-with-big-coal-and-oil-lobbyists-to-attack-th/ .

Lovely. The media hardly mentions Murkowski’s attempt to usurp the judicial branch’s directive, and consequently deny the power of the Clean Air Act, let alone let us know that the coal industry wrote this legislation. This comes on the heels of our Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations can openly support or oppose candidates running in our legislature.

Heck between writing legislation and buying the candidate, I’d say the wealthy (corporate America) have indeed taken over.

More:

http://www.themudflats.net/2010/01/20/tell-murkowski-to-give-back-the-money/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheMudflats+%28The+Mudflats%29.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/us/23memo.html.

http://www.oliverwillis.com/2010/01/21/blanche-lincoln-mary-landrieu-join-republican-effort-to-make-the-environment-worse/.

The Bush EPA http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/07/another-epa-administrator-bites-the-dust/.

Over the past decade in the U.S. both science and intelligence sometimes took a backseat to ideology and well, ideology. If Haiti is any indicator, we need to start paying very close attention to a majority of scientists when it comes to climate change. Worldwide, climate is going to get decidedly worse and in a shorter time span than first expected. It’s too bad that contributing to Haiti now in a time of crisis should have been an effort 2 years ago to aid Haiti in an effort at prevention. What’s pouring into Haiti now could have made a life saving difference had it come back then.

Are future catastrophic climate events going to be more of the same, disastrous? Hopefully we will begin to listen to the majority of scientists worldwide that climate change is real and we need to address it now. Haitian officials were concerned but with so many other problems the warnings of disastrous events that may or may not happen soon were put on the back burner. Sound familiar? That pot boiled over and the ramifications have the whole world involved now.

I know some people are still surprised by the earthquake prediction in Haiti. While reading an article on blackpoliticalthought.blogspot.com I noticed someone wrote in a comment: “It does amaze me that scientists can predict this sort of geological activity. Wish they could have provided money for the Haitians to build up their infrastructure to be able to better sustain the shaking.” Some people are not surprised at all. They see this as a precursor of things to come.

And some people just don’t care that scientists were able to predict this earthquake. There is a disconnect of thought between science-earthquake-Haiti and science-climate disasters-world. For instance, right now Senator Lisa Murkowski is gearing up for a vote on January 20th that would block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants and other polluters in the U.S. in 2010. According to Credo: “The vote — on an amendment to a must-pass bill to lift the debt ceiling — will remove the EPA’s enforcement funding and power so big polluters like the coal industry can ignore the Clean Air Act.”

See what I mean?—DISCONNECT. Down the road and looking back at this 2-20-10 vote initiated by Murkowski, hopefully we won’t recall that nothing was done.

Keep environmental progress moving forward. Tell your senators to vote to keep the Clean Air Act in tact. http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/cleanairactvote/?r=5161&id=7318-1623890-tjVWFyxhttp://act.credoaction.com/campaign/cleanairactvote/?r=5161&id=7318-1623890-tjVWFyx

http://blackpoliticalthought.blogspot.com/2010/01/scientists-warned-in-2008-of-major.html.

The 25 years between 67 and 91 saw a lot of oil go into our oceans. Luckily, the past 20 years has seen a decrease in tanker spills worldwide. The Exxon Valdez was so horrible; the attention caused a marked improvement in reducing accident rates for oil tankers. Unfortunately, the concern wasn’t so much for the environment or wildlife as it was for the financial liabilities from a spill. A shame, since we know quite well that oil companies do indeed recover financially. We know what big oil’s net earnings are these days. The irony is that wildlife and the environment doesn’t seem to recover quickly at all, or ever for that matter.

Thirteen hundred miles of Alaskan coastline was spoiled from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Communities and fisheries were ruined. Four thousand otters died and at least one population of orca whales has yet to recover. Local livelihoods were destroyed, and many wildlife and fish populations are still depleted, while Alaska’s economy lost millions, according to the same newsletter.

It’s good to know we learned from that spill. Tanker spillage is drastically down but we haven’t licked the problem altogether. The same environmental research information from a consulting firm that reported tanker oil spills are way down, also said that pipelines have taken up the slack. It stated: “Since 1985, U.S. pipelines have spilled more oil than tankers and barges combined. Since 1991, pipelines have annually spilled 37 times as much as tankers. The change in the proportion U.S. pipeline spillage is largely due to the fact that since 1990, pipelines transport more oil across more miles than water carriers.” And that infrastructure is old and getting older. Luckily, we’re spilling less and less over the past two decades, but as the report went on to say:

While the statistics show encouraging downward trends, there is no room for complacency. An ill-timed oil spill that occurs in a sensitive location, regardless of spill size, can cause devastating damage to natural environments, property, and business, and, occasionally, to human lives. Aging pipeline and facility infrastructures,
as well as aging vessel fleets, may be ticking time bombs, especially as they become subjected to increasing oil throughput and transport in future years. Increased international attention to tanker safety has had a positive influence that is sorely needed in other vessel categories and for non-vessel sources, particularly pipelines.

Oil is a leaky business both on land and sea. We’re faced with more oil exploration in the sensitive areas spoken about here. In 2007, Bush lifted a longstanding executive ban on off shore oil leasing in Bristol Bay, Alaska. According to WWF’s newsletter, Bristol Bay is known as America’s fish basket that contributes $2.2 billion to the economy annually. It is near the Bering Sea, “which produces nearly half of America’s wild seafood.” Do you like seafood? Consider Gulf shrimp also, since the recent Senate version of the energy bill includes more oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. We’re messing with our food supply when we go for the crude. We endanger wild life, and the economy of the regions at risk for “oil spillage.” Right now the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia vacated Bush’s plans for oil leasing in Bristol Bay. Help keep it that way. Contact your representatives and tell them to limit oil drilling, especially in areas that have long been protected FOR GOOD REASON. Besides, we only have 3% of the world’s oil supply, and use 25%. This horse is not going to win the race this time. The math dictates we must find replacements for our energy needs or forever be dependent on nations that, well, just don’t like us.

http://www.environmental-research.com/publications/pdf/spill_statistics/paper4.pdf

It’s not small either. According to the Anchorage Daily News: a helicopter followed a strand of the stuff for 15 miles! It’s passing by the North slope. The North Slope in Alaska is home to oil development and is a sore spot for environmentalists since reports about the impact of wildlife in that area are not good. The blob that’s passing by is surmised to be a natural phenomenon, not an oil spill or anything.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if nature produced some sort of glob to even the score for the devastation by the oil industry in that area? The North Slope sits on permafrost. You know the layer of earth that is unthawing rapidly up there. Who knows, the North slope may end up heading south or into the sea where it will meet its match with nature’s Arctic Blob. Funny times we’re in.

Read about it: http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html

It takes so much activism by citizens of this country to stop atrocities against wildlife and for the preservation of all we hold dear in this country like our peaceful forests and parks against the likes of the NRA and big time hunting consortiums, that I’m beginning to believe America has lost its way. We simply do not present ourselves as a decent, Christian nation any longer. Our talk is cheap. We’re known for our deeds and the picture is not pretty when it comes to wildlife and habitat.

Do we as this supposed Godly nation realize the Lord specifically mentions the word wolf/wolves 13 times in the bible? In every instance He makes it perfectly known that wolves are to exist as predators. They have a purpose and in no way are they to be extinct in the world to come. They will indeed lay down with the lamb.

From a scientific viewpoint, wolves inhabited the U.S. for 750,000 years; one would think that by now in the 21st century we as “the smartest of the animal chain” would have figured out how to live with them. Stop the carnage as seen in the video below:

Science is not a part of Alaska’s wolf hunting program. There is no official wolf count. Alaska only guesses as to how many wolves it has or has not. To continue to escalate a hunting program like this with no clear figures as to how little or much the wolf populations there are being decimated is criminal.

Read about the history of wolf control in Alaska: http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/wildlife_conservation/imperiled
_species/wolves/wolf_recovery_efforts/alaska_wolves/background/history_of_wolf
_control_in_alaska/index.php?ht=
An excellent read about the history of wolves in the U.S. http://www.ferrum.edu/philosophy/wolfproject.htm

Some people have wolves for pets. Amazing: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090528075841AAiDs2U.

 

What’s with all the threatening volcanoes lately? Over the weekend news about Mt. Redoubt in Alaska that threatened the most populated area around Anchorage, was followed by England’s unusually cold winter with the most snow in 18 years. While, this morning 3 different volcanoes in Japan are spewing, as well as a Mt. Karymsky in Russia!

 

So far, so good. No one is hurt. Ash spitting volcanoes can swamp a city to its rooftops. It’s like an impure avalanche that just blankets people, houses, and streets, and adds to earth’s dilemma. Volcanic activity adds to the ozone effect, the greenhouse effect, and haze effect where particulates partially block the sun causing an overall cooling. In other words, while they may be a good belch for the earth, they are not good for the environment or us.

 

Researchers also recently found that volcano activity tends to cool the tropics for years afterward. The 20^th century didn’t have too much volcanic activity, and global warming may have stopped that cooling as well as squelch some volcanoes from belching.

 

I think that it’s only logic that as scientists work together worldwide and compile their findings about climate change relative to gulf streams, water surface temps, ice melt, drought, rainfall, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc., we will find that the impact on each other is greater than we once thought, and that the whole thing can indeed be thrown off kilter by excess or lack of component parts of the whole, like gases. 

 

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090105175356.htm

 

http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/climate_effects.html

 

About Mt. Redoubt: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hcWJaxwgurm_TV9AVcObQBWbS25QD96355IO0

 

About Britain’s Freeze: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article5642066.ece

 

 

 

 

 

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.

As someone with a daily environmental blog, I’m more than interested in Sarah Palin. Environmentalists have known about Palin for quite some time. And it’s those environmental groups that were targeted first for attempting to protest at the RNC. 

There is much footage out there of the emptied EarthJustice bus of protestors left by the side of the road by the Minneapolis police. It appears to be overkill and ridiculous with at least 10 police cars surrounding the bus as if it carried felons escaping prison. What a display of force to stop protestors for the environment. From many accounts, the Republicans had plants inside of these types of groups to report what, when, and how they would be going about protesting at the convention in order to stop them from reaching their destination. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/31/raids/.

This is frightening for the U.S.A. More news has shown up on video on websites of outright abuse. One article stated that 3 homes where protestors were staying were entered by police SWAT teams. Citizens banned for peacefully assembling in protest, especially before they do so is a direct hit on our constitutional rights and perpetrated by our own federal government. SWAT teams? Just a tad bit of overkill. Obama’s bigger convention didn’t utilize SWAT teams or infiltrators. When I saw a GOP rep head butt, yes, head butt an ABC reporter, well, how juvenile, not to mention mean.

It’s not right. Without protestors, many citizens are being denied, albeit short term, the facts of Palin’s horrible environmental decisions and her ruthless record of predator management, which is the aerial killing of wolves.  Besides that, the state of Alaska under Palin sued the USFWS to keep the polar bear off the endangered list stating that their numbers have increased and they are a stable population.

I’ve already given the definition of endangered in another blog. The meaning should resonate with Palin since she has a BA in journalism and knows well that it means: “exposed to danger.” If anything could be more exposed to danger it would be the wildlife of Alaska under Palin and her buddies (SCI) Safari Club International who believe it’s their right to hunt any animal, endangered or not. SCI still pushes to allow hunting polar bears.

Palin stands strong against lobbyists, maybe, but only the lobbyists of her choice, because on the other hand she sought millions in earmarks for Wasilla, Alaska. Environmentalists have known that she’s bad news for our environmental future with a script right out of the mouths of big oil—drill more.

  http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/01/Palin_making_use_of_hated_earmarks/UPI-34181220275668/.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=6c588f46-da6e-4816-a4be-789a4836b478

As a Democrat, I couldn’t be happier with this pick. I had to laugh when it was said her campaign for governor was run on “ethics.” OMG!

Wait until the large environmental groups disclose her ethics.  For example Rodger Schlickeisen of Defenders of Wildlife issued this statement already about Palin’s destructive environmental policies:

“Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration.”

To be to the right of the Bush/Cheney regime is a scary thought. That’s pretty far out there. Sarah Palin is a scary thought for wildlife. Alaska’s predatory management program is barbaric. I recently blogged about 14 wolf cubs shot in the head on the spot after an illegal stakeout by Alaskan Wildlife Agency employees? Bears have been added to the predatory list now. Funny how wolves and bears have always been a part of the Alaskan landscape, but now they are intolerable. Animals in Alaska do not have a friend at the governor’s house.

I don’t think Sarah likes living things as much as money. That will come out sooner or later. Cruelty is not a nice trait to see in a woman.