Friends of the Earth's...

"The Government must take urgent action to protect our environment and
economy by reducing our dependence on oil. It is a major contributor to
global climate change, and ties our economy too closely to an
increasingly
volatile supply. There are alternatives, but the Government is not doing
enough to promote them."


CLIMATE CHANGE NOT FUEL PRICES: THE REAL ENERGY CRISIS
Jun 1
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/climate_change_not_fuel_pr_0
1062004.html

The Government must take urgent action to reduce the nation's dependence
on
oil, Friends of the Earth said today. The call comes as concerns grow
about
world tensions and rising oil prices. Alternatives to oil and a dramatic
improvement in fuel efficiency are needed to improve economic stability
and
help the fight against global climate change - the biggest environmental
threat the planet faces.

Friends of the Earth urged action as the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, is
under
pressure from the roads lobby and industry over rising oil prices. He has
called on OPEC (Oil Producing and Exporting Countries) ministers, meeting
on
Thursday, to increase oil production, but Friends of the Earth warned
that
this is not a long-term solution. Fluctuations in production and price
are
likely to happen again. Oil is one of the biggest contributors to the
production of carbon dioxide, the main climate-changing gas.

Friends of the Earth's climate campaigner Tony Bosworth said

"The Government must take urgent action to protect our environment and
economy by reducing our dependence on oil. It is a major contributor to
global climate change, and ties our economy too closely to an
increasingly
volatile supply. There are alternatives, but the Government is not doing
enough to promote them."

The transport sector is responsible for 27 per cent of the UK's carbon
dioxide emissions [1]. The Government must do more to reduce this
sector's
dependence on oil and help tackle climate change.

Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to adopt the following
measures:

Ensure that the motor industry makes and sells more fuel-efficient
vehicles

Motor vehicles could be significantly more fuel efficient than they
currently are. New cars are generally more fuel-efficient than older
models,
but the motor industry is unlikely to meet its voluntary pledge for new
cars
sold in Europe to have average emissions of 140 grams per kilometre by
2008/9. Last year new cars sold in the UK emitted, on average 172.8 grams
of
carbon dioxide per kilometre. New targets should be introduced and made
legally-binding.

Introduce financial and legal incentives to promote biofuels

Biofuels are renewable and, compared to petrol or diesel, offer up to a
70
per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Some biofuels can be
readily
used by vehicles, others will require cars being adapted. Biofuels can
also
be added as a mix to oil-based fuel. Friends of the Earth is supporting
calls for the Energy Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, to
be
amended to ensure that petrol suppliers source an increasing percentage
of
their products from renewable sources.

Greater support for public transport, walking and cycling

Despite Government promises, traffic levels continue to rise. The
Government
is currently reviewing its 10 year transport plan and is expected to
announce new priorities and spending plans next month. This must include
more investment in providing alternatives to car use rather than more
road-building and motorway-widening. Friends of the Earth is part of the
Way
To Go coalition of 29 transport, environment and social justice
organisations (www.waytogo.org.uk)

Financial incentives to encourage motorists to use their cars less.

According to the latest Government figures motoring costs have fallen by
4.8% since Labour came to office (whilst rail costs have gone up three
per
cent and bus travel by 8.2 per cent) Motoring is also cheaper now in real
terms, than it was 30 years ago [2]. Friends of the Earth wants the
Chancellor to use fuel tax to ensure that motoring costs do not fall
further. This will encourage people to buy more fuel-efficient cars and
discourage unnecessary car journeys. Congestion charging - which has led
to
a 19 per cent fall in emissions of carbon dioxide in London's congestion
zone, as well as a 30 per cent reduction in congestion - should also be
introduced to other areas.

Higher road taxes for gas-guzzling vehicles.

The Chancellor has cut road tax for the most fuel efficient vehicles.
Friends of the Earth is calling for him to raise tax levels for the most
fuel-inefficient cars.

More support for rail freight

Since 1990, emissions of climate-changing gases from the freight industry
have risen by 59%. The Government must do more to get freight on rail by
investing in rail freight infrastructure and .reintroducing grants to
encourage businesses to switch from road to rail freight.

Introduce demand management measures for aviation

Emissions of carbon dioxide from aviation are set to rise rapidly in
coming
years following the Government's recent decision to allow a massive
expansion in air travel. By 2020 aviation could account for 10-12% of all
UK
emissions of carbon dioxide. Urgent action is needed to introduce
measures
to manage demand for aviation including making airlines pay tax on the
fuel
the use, which they currently do not.

A briefing is available from Friends of the Earth

[1]
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/sustainable/quality04/maind/04n
03.htm

[2]

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/cm040317/text/
40317w05.htm#40317w05.html_sbhd7
=======

visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AviationWatch/


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The latest from NASA's Earth Observatory (01 June 2004)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the News:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/

* Latest Images:
   Landslides in Cameroon

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16
563

   Earthshine and Climate

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16
562

   Alexandria, Egypt

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16
561

   Mississippi River Delta

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16
560

   Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16
559

   Peppin Fire on El Capitan

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16
558

   Sun Glint from Solar Electric Generating Stations

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16
557

   Isla Fernandina, Galapagos

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=16
556

* NASA News
   http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/
	 - Scientists Look at Moon to Shed Light on Earth’s Climate
	 - Students Compete In An Odyssey To Solve NASA-Sponsored Problem

* Media Alerts
   http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/
	 - Quake in Alaska Changed Yellowstone Geysers
	 - History of Vineyards Maps Britain's Changing Climate
	 - Thick Marine Beds of Siderite Suggest Early High Carbon Dioxide in
Atmosphere
	 - Mountains Have the Scars to Prove the Conflict between Tectonic Plates
and Climate
	 - Study Helps Satellites Measure Great Lakes' Water Quality

* Headlines from the press, radio, and television:
   http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Headlines/
	 - Looming Atlantic Hurricane Season Seen as Busy
	 - More and More Disturbing Climate News
	 - 'Dead Zones' Threaten Fisheries
	 - 'Slips' Complicate Science of Earthquakes
	 - Scientists Look at Moon to Shed Light on Earth's Climate
	 - Biomass Could Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Report Says
	 - Global Warming Could Lead to Fast Freeze, Warns Scientist
	 - Arctic Thaw Heralds Climate Change Crisis
	 - Volcano Drove Up UK Death Toll in 1783
	 - As Smog Thickens, So Does the Debate
	 - Leading Environmentalist Urges Radical Rethink on Climate Change
	 - Climate Change Affecting Crops
	 - Computers Help Study Global Warming
	 - Mercury and Tides Climb as Climate Change Rises on Global Agenda
	 - Canada, U.S. Scientists Impatient for 'Slow Quake'

* New Research Highlights
   http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/Research/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
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To unsubscribe, e-mail: eo-announce-unsubscribe@...
For additional commands, e-mail: eo-announce-help@...




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Please see the article, footer and remarks that follow below.

Pat Neuman
Chanhassen, MN

The following article includes discussion of many way to change
transportation.

Article:  Jun 1, 2004
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/climate_change_not_fuel_pr_0
1062004.html

Friends of the Earth
Climate Change Not Fuel Prices The Real Energy Crisis

The Government must take urgent action to reduce the nation's dependence
on oil, Friends of the Earth said today. The call comes as concerns grow
about world tensions and rising oil prices. Alternatives to oil and a
dramatic improvement in fuel efficiency are needed to improve economic
stability and help the fight against global climate change - the biggest
environmental threat the planet faces.

Friends of the Earth urged action as the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, is
under pressure from the roads lobby and industry over rising oil prices.
He has called on OPEC (Oil Producing and Exporting Countries) ministers,
meeting on Thursday, to increase oil production, but Friends of the Earth
warned that this is not a long-term solution. Fluctuations in production
and price are likely to happen again. Oil is one of the biggest
contributors to the production of carbon dioxide, the main
climate-changing gas.

Friends of the Earth's climate campaigner Tony Bosworth said "The
Government must take urgent action to protect our environment and economy
by reducing our dependence on oil. It is a major contributor to global
climate change, and ties our economy too closely to an increasingly
volatile supply. There are alternatives, but the Government is not doing
enough to promote them."

The transport sector is responsible for 27 per cent of the UK's carbon
dioxide emissions [1]. The Government must do more to reduce this
sector's dependence on oil and help tackle climate change.

Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to adopt the following
measures:

Ensure that the motor industry makes and sells more fuel-efficient
vehicles

Motor vehicles could be significantly more fuel efficient than they
currently are. New cars are generally more fuel-efficient than older
models, but the motor industry is unlikely to meet its voluntary pledge
for new cars sold in Europe to have average emissions of 140 grams per
kilometre by 2008/9. Last year new cars sold in the UK emitted, on
average 172.8 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre. New targets should
be introduced and made legally-binding.

Introduce financial and legal incentives to promote biofuels

Biofuels are renewable and, compared to petrol or diesel, offer up to a
70 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Some biofuels can be
readily used by vehicles, others will require cars being adapted.
Biofuels can also be added as a mix to oil-based fuel. Friends of the
Earth is supporting calls for the Energy Bill, currently progressing
through Parliament, to be amended to ensure that petrol suppliers source
an increasing percentage of their products from renewable sources.

Greater support for public transport, walking and cycling

Despite Government promises, traffic levels continue to rise. The
Government is currently reviewing its 10 year transport plan and is
expected to announce new priorities and spending plans next month. This
must include more investment in providing alternatives to car use rather
than more road-building and motorway-widening. Friends of the Earth is
part of the Way To Go coalition of 29 transport, environment and social
justice organisations (www.waytogo.org.uk)

Financial incentives to encourage motorists to use their cars less.

According to the latest Government figures motoring costs have fallen by
4.8% since Labour came to office (whilst rail costs have gone up three
per cent and bus travel by 8.2 per cent) Motoring is also cheaper now in
real terms, than it was 30 years ago [2]. Friends of the Earth wants the
Chancellor to use fuel tax to ensure that motoring costs do not fall
further. This will encourage people to buy more fuel-efficient cars and
discourage unnecessary car journeys. Congestion charging - which has led
to a 19 per cent fall in emissions of carbon dioxide in London's
congestion zone, as well as a 30 per cent reduction in congestion -
should also be introduced to other areas.

Higher road taxes for gas-guzzling vehicles.

The Chancellor has cut road tax for the most fuel efficient vehicles.
Friends of the Earth is calling for him to raise tax levels for the most
fuel-inefficient cars.

More support for rail freight

Since 1990, emissions of climate-changing gases from the freight industry
have risen by 59%. The Government must do more to get freight on rail by
investing in rail freight infrastructure and .reintroducing grants to
encourage businesses to switch from road to rail freight.

Introduce demand management measures for aviation

Emissions of carbon dioxide from aviation are set to rise rapidly in
coming years following the Government's recent decision to allow a
massive expansion in air travel. By 2020 aviation could account for
10-12% of all UK emissions of carbon dioxide. Urgent action is needed to
introduce measures to manage demand for aviation including making
airlines pay tax on the fuel the use, which they currently do not.

A briefing is available from Friends of the Earth

[1]
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/sustainable/quality04/maind/04n
03.htm

[2]
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/cm040317/text/
40317w05.htm#40317w05.html_sbhd7

=======

THE WORLD IS IN CRISIS DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING!
Hydrologist's recommended links:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/message/608
Financial incentives-ConserveNow!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/message/229
Graph of global temperature 10 year moving averages:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paleontology_and_Climate/

Remarks:

In year 2000, I sent messages for discussion on changes needed in
transportation to mn-politics-discuss, mpls-issues and mn-stpaul
discussion groups.  I included connections to the need to reduce fuel
use,  traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.  The moderators
claimed greenhouse gas emissions and climate change were not appropriate
for their lists. I tried unsuccessfully again in 2003, with emphasis that
local action is essential.  I was directed to the mn-national forum,
moderator by an individual that also moderators mn-politics-discuss, who
rudely and immediately shut me out from his Minnesota discussion groups,
again.

==================================


________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
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--------- Forwarded message ----------
Northern Power Systems Awarded $6.0 Million Turnkey On-Site Power
System Project by SC Johnson
06/01/2004Northern Power Systems Awarded $6.0 Million Turnkey On-Site
Power System Project by SC Johnson
System Will Deliver Substantial Annual Energy Cost Savings and
Support Manufacturer's Greenhouse Gas-Emission Reduction Goals
WAITSFIELD, Vt., June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Northern Power
Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of Distributed Energy Systems Corp.
(Nasdaq: DESC, http://www.distributed-energy.com ), has been selected
by SC Johnson to engineer, build, and commission a $6.0 million
turnkey combined heat and power (CHP) system that will provide
critical load support for manufacturing operations at the company's
Waxdale Plant in Racine, Wisconsin.

Major components of the new Northern system include a gas
turbine/generator, a heat recovery steam generator, gas compressor
system, proprietary microprocessor-based controls, power distribution
equipment required for the cogeneration system loads and a 4,750
square-foot building to house all major equipment. The system's
combustion turbine generators interface with the building's
electrical services/utility and deliver steam to the plant. Recovery
of heat from the generator exhausts will produce about 19,000 pounds
per hour of plant steam.

Second Major Project with SC Johnson

SC Johnson awarded the turnkey CHP project to Northern based on the
proven success of another CHP system built by Northern at the
company's Waxdale plant. Installed in 2003, the first CHP system also
employs a gas turbine/generator and heat recovery/steam generator.
The first system runs on methane gas from the nearby Republic
Services' Kestral Hawk Landfill, while the new system will burn
primarily natural gas. Together, the two systems are expected to
provide approximately 75% of the annual electrical demand of the
Waxdale plant.

Significant Reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Because they employ clean-burning energy sources of methane and
natural gas, the two turbines deliver a state-of-the-art cogeneration
system that supports SC Johnson's long-running commitment to
environmental protection and emission reduction of carbon dioxide,
greenhouse gases and other pollutants. SC Johnson is a charter member
of the EPA's Climate Leaders program, a voluntary industry-government
partnership that encourages companies to develop long-term
comprehensive climate change strategies and set greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions reduction goals. SC Johnson has set a goal to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent in the United States by 2005,
compared with 2000 levels.

"Once both turbines are operational, total emissions reductions will
equal 52,000 tons of greenhouse gases each year, or the amount
generated by 4,210 automobiles annually," noted Franklyn Ericson, SC
Johnson's manager of environmental operations. The landfill-gas
powered turbine commissioned in 2003 accounted for the removal of
32,000 tons of that total, while the second will remove another
20,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year. The first landfill-gas
turbine project earned the company the 2004 Wisconsin Governor's
Award for Excellence in Environmental Performance and contributed to
the EPA honoring the company with a "Lifetime Achievement" award for
its long-term commitment to energy efficiency and emissions
reductions.

According to SC Johnson, the two turbines together will make Waxdale
the first consumer packaged goods manufacturing plant in the Midwest
to produce a substantial portion of its own energy through clean-
burning technologies. The primary source of electricity in the region
is now coal-fired generation. Once both turbines are operational, the
total emissions reductions from the clean electricity generation will
be the equivalent of removing 298 railroad carloads of coal from the
Wisconsin environment annually.

Energy Cost Savings

In addition to the environmental benefits, the system will deliver
compelling economics through a net savings in energy costs. The
cogeneration system will allow SC Johnson to eliminate one of four
large natural gas-burning boilers that produce steam to run the
Waxdale manufacturing lines.

According to Charles "Chach" Curtis, vice president of Northern's on-
site power systems business unit, the project delivers key benefits
and an attractive ROI for SC Johnson. "Despite low energy costs in
Wisconsin, this project still has very favorable economic value, most
of the which comes from the use of heat recovery for the production
of steam for manufacturing processes," Curtis said.

Added Reliability of Energy Supply

In addition to the environmental benefit and cost savings, the
cogeneration system will also improve the reliability of the Waxdale
manufacturing facility's energy supply. In normal operation, the
cogeneration system will run in tandem with the utility grid to
supply power to the plant. In the event of a utility power outage,
Northern's advanced control system will isolate the cogeneration
system from the utility grid. By transferring plant loads to the
cogeneration system when the outage occurs, SC Johnson can keep its
critical plant operations up and running -- even in the event of a
grid failure.

About SC Johnson

SC Johnson is a family-owned and -managed business dedicated to
innovative, high-quality products, excellence in the workplace and a
long-term commitment to the environment and the communities in which
it operates. Based in Racine, Wisconsin, the company is one of the
world's leading manufacturers of household cleaning products and
products for home storage, personal care and insect control.

About Northern Power Systems, Inc.

Northern Power Systems, Inc. designs, builds and installs reliable
power solutions for commercial, industrial, government, and military
customers. The company also conducts research and development in the
areas of renewable energy, distributed generation and hydrogen
technology. Since its founding in 1974, Northern has installed over
800 systems in 45 countries on all seven continents. Northern Power
Systems, Inc. is headquartered in Waitsfield, Vermont and employs 100
people with engineering, fulfillment, and customer-support
capabilities. The company is a wholly owned operating subsidiary of
Distributed Energy Systems Corp. For more information, visit
http://www.northernpower.com.

About Distributed Energy Systems Corp.

Distributed Energy Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: DESC) creates and delivers
products and solutions to the emerging decentralized energy
marketplace, giving users greater control over their energy cost,
quality, and reliability. As the parent company of Proton Energy
Systems, Inc. (http://www.protonenergy.com ) and Northern Power
Systems, Inc., Distributed Energy Systems delivers a combination of
practical, ready-today energy solutions and the solid business
platforms for capitalizing on the changing energy landscape. For more
information, visit http://www.distributed-energy.com.

http://distributed-energy.com/press/corporate.html?
news_id=16947&year=2004&month=06




________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
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May be good background info for some people.

Pat

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "janson2997" <janson1997@...>
To: fuelcell-energy@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004 05:40:00 -0000
Subject: [fuelcell-energy] >>>>>"coal cell "
Wabash River Coal gasification

coal cell

Mechanical Engineering Magazine

The gasifier will supply the fuel, and an electrochemical reaction will
generate the power.

by Jeffrey Winters, Associate Editor

It's a cliché in discussions about energy generation that coal is the
dirtiest fuel around. And, sure, there's a lot of evidence around to
support that view. Coal mining is incredibly
disruptive, and coal is heavy and bulky, involving rumbling freight
trains to transport it. And most of all, to make electricity, coal is
burned in boilers, with the exhaust vented through smokestacks and the
ash carted to landfills.

The idea that fuel cells are every bit as clean as coal is dirty is just
as widespread. Fuel cells, after all, take hydrogen and oxygen, and
combine those elements to make electricity and water. Because it is a
combustionless reaction, there are no byproducts such as nitrogen oxides,
and the whole process promises to be far more efficient than
burning fuel.

So, what would you get if you could combine coal and fuel cells? Which
attribute would dominate—dirtiness or cleanliness?

That's the question about to be answered in a power plant in Indiana as
part of a pilot program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The
Wabash River Coal Gasification Repowering Project in West Terre Haute is
preparing to receive a two-megawatt fuel cell system designed to convert
gasified coal into electricity.


A FuelCell Energy power plant like this one will soon convert coal gas
into electricity. Such future combinations could provide zero-emission
energy.


The cells were fabricated by FuelCell Energy of Danbury, Conn., at a
65,000-square-foot facility in nearby Torrington. They are scheduled to
be installed at the Wabash River plant by the end of the month and run
for one year. If the concept lives up to its promise, it might well
revolutionize the way we think about coal as a fuel.

Coal isn't generally thought of as being compatible with fuel cells. But
the coal at the Wabash River plant is first turned into a hydrogen-rich
gas.

Coal gasification is hardly a new technology. The first instances of
gasifying coal date to the late 1700s, when it was part of a method for
making tar. By 1812, commercial companies were supplying coal gas for
heating and lighting London. (The famous "gaslights" were powered by coal
gas.) By the start of the 20th century, most major cities in the
developed world had gasworks, which often dominated skylines with their
towering tanks.

To get coal gas (also known at the time as "town gas," and today as
"syngas"), coal or another hydrocarbon was pulverized and placed in a
sealed container. The fuel was heated to over 1,500¡F until compounds,
such as carbon monoxide, methane, and hydrogen, separated from heavier
tars and solid coke. In many ways, gasification can be thought of as a
type of fuel-rich, low-oxygen combustion.

The process was not without its problems. Coal is a complex fuel, with
sulfur, metals and other impurities, and the residue from the
gasification process was often toxic. Former gasworks sites are often
contaminated with hazardous wastes. Another critical concern was
efficiency: Early gasification methods delivered only 25 percent of the
coal's original energy content into gas form. Often, gasification was
viewed primarily as a means to produce coke rather than gas.

Gasification technology improved in the 1920s and 1930s, yielding more
gas and less coke. But by then, natural gas was being piped into
industrial areas. Cheaper and cleaner than coal gas, natural gas began to
dominate the market wherever they competed head to head.

In places such as Germany, where coal is plentiful and natural gas is
rare, gasification remained an important technology. In recent years,
coal gas has been produced in the United States for niche applications,
such as raw material for chemical plants.

The energy crisis of the 1970s brought an upsurge in interest about
portable fuels from coal and other minerals. But the spike in oil prices
was too short-lived, and the push for alternative fuels died out. The
technological development continued, however, and by the 1990s, the
Department of Energy began funding coal gasification research as a
possible pathway to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

Transforming Wabash River

The program, called the Clean Coal Technology Program, was, in part, an
effort to promote commercial-scale integrated gasification
combined-cycle, or IGCC, coal power plants in the United States. Two such
plants came online in the mid-1990s. The first was a 1950s-vintage
pulverized coal-burning boiler in western Indiana, the Wabash River
plant, operated by Global Energy of Houston.

The plant was rated at 90 MW and ran at 33 percent efficiency. As part of
the demonstration project, the plant was gutted and connected to an
advanced gasification system.

The coal is first slurried, then combined with pure oxygen and subjected
to high temperatures and pressure. This not only partially oxidizes the
slurry, but also melts the coal ash, enabling it to flow out of the
gasification chamber.

The remaining gas moves into a second stage gasifier that enhances its
heating value. After the gas is cooled, it's scrubbed of chlorides and
sulfides, leaving a mostly pure fuel stream to be piped into a gas
turbine.

"We've been running on petroleum coke since 2000," said Phil Amick,
director of gasification technology at ConocoPhillips and former project
manager of the Wabash River Plant. "It's cheaper than coal, but it's 5.5
percent sulfur. A conventional utility boiler would never have enough gas
cleanup to run on a fuel with that much sulfur."

At the Wabash plant, sulfur is transformed from a problem to an asset.
"We make about a railroad tank car a day of sulfur," Amick said. "We sell
that to a broker, and it ends up in fertilizer."

The system, which included a heat-recovery steam generator, started
operations in 1995 and proved to be 40 percent efficient over a four-year
demonstration period. What's more, the plant (now rated at more than 260
MW) captured sulfur with more than 99 percent efficiency and generated
undetectable amounts of particulate emissions.

Another DOE demonstration project, the Polk Power Station near Tampa,
Fla., rated at 250 MW, was started from scratch. The Polk Power Station
uses a slightly different gasification technology, but turned out to be
every bit as clean; in fact, both plants lay claim to being the cleanest
coal-fired generators in the world.

The success of these gasifiers in electrical generating facilities has
spurred the DOE to push for more uses of the technology. Gasifiers are
seen as potential sources for mass-producing hydrogen for transportation
uses. And in February, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham unveiled plans
for building a billion-dollar prototype fossil
fuel power plant that would combine electricity and hydrogen production
with the virtual total elimination of harmful emissions, including
greenhouse gases.

Such a plant, called FutureGen, would have a gasifier at its heart.

"Gasification is the cleanest way to make power from coal," Amick said.
"And since you've converted all the energy to a gas and put it in a pipe
at pressure, you can even remove the CO2. It's still expensive, but it's
easier with a gasifier than with anything else."

Coal gas traditionally is made of a mixture—mostly hydrogen and carbon
monoxide. Hydrogen can be used in a number of applications, from gas
turbines to fuel cells. Carbon monoxide is a bit trickier to deal with.
It burns just fine, though it doesn't have as high an energy density as
other fuels. But carbon monoxide can foul many fuel cells.
It gloms onto the catalysts and destroys their ability to catalyze
chemical reactions. For cells such as proton exchange membranes or
phosphoric acid fuel cells, CO must be scrubbed from the fuel stream at
all costs.

Removing carbon monoxide is not a large problem. It requires making it
react with high-temperature steam to make hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
But it comes at a price in terms of energy consumption and complexity.
Researchers at Ohio University in Athens are working to develop a fuel
cell system that can run on normal coal gas.



The Wabash River plant in Indiana will start sending coal gas into a fuel
cell early next year.

Professor David Bayless is experimenting with small stacks of planar
solid oxide fuel cells, or SOFCs. "With the planar SOFCs, carbon monoxide
is not a poison," Bayless said. "It's not as good a fuel as hydrogen—it
doesn't have the energy content—but planar SOFCs can use it."

The question, Bayless said, is how many impurities—such as hydrogen
sulfide and metals such as mercury—the SOFCs can handle. The greater
tolerance they have for impure fuel streams, the cheaper and easier it
will be to connect them to coal gasifiers.

"If this is going to be viable in the long term," Bayless said, "the cost
of the fuel cell has to be competitive with other energy conversion
systems."

In fact, Bayless envisions gasifiers and fuel cells as pieces of a
revamped rural energy system. Coal gas can be separated into two streams:
pure hydrogen, which can be used for transportation purposes, and carbon
monoxide mixed with trace impurities. If this second stream can be
converted directly into energy, it could make rural coal not
just a cheap fuel, but a clean and efficient one as well.

"The efficiencies of coal plants right now are about 37 percent," Bayless
said. "With fuel cells, you're talking about a theoretical efficiency of
70 percent. So right there, you're almost doubling the energy conversion
rate. And if you are using SOFCs, it's hot enough to make steam or to
convert into another industrial process, so you have the potential for
much higher energy utilization.

"This is good for coal, long-term. If you are using it more efficiently,
it makes it a more valuable fuel. And less input for the same usable
output just has to be good for the environment."

Carbonate Design

The experiment in Indiana starting next year won't involve a solid oxide
fuel cell, though. Instead, FuelCell Energy will be installing a molten
carbonate fuel cell stack power plant.

One advantage of the carbonate design is in scale. Planar SOFCs are still
somewhat experimental and available in stacks on the order of a few
thousand watts. Molten carbonate fuel cell stacks routinely weigh in at
250 kilowatts. For the Wabash River demonstration, eight stacks will be
combined for a total of 2 MW. George Steinfeld, director of systems
development at FuelCell Energy, said it will be the largest
carbonate fuel cell power plant operating on coal in the world.

FuelCell Energy has been planning for this sort of project for more than
20 years. "Fifty percent of U.S. power is generated from coal," says
Hansraj C. Maru, FuelCell Energy's chief technology officer. "It's a
large part of the market." And FuelCell Energy believes that its
technology is well suited to coal gas since it can run directly on
methane and carbon monoxide as well as just pure hydrogen. (A carbonate
fuel cell needs a carbon fuel to provide the carbon dioxide needed on the
cathode side of the cell.)

"The fuel is more dilute than pure methane," Maru said, "so we have to
design the fuel cell system for this dilute stream."

One way to increase the energy density of the stream is by methanation.
The two major components of coal gas, carbon monoxide and hydrogen, are
reacted catalytically to make methane and steam. On the one hand, this
adds a processing step and thus unwanted complexity. But the reaction is
exothermic—and so is self-sustaining. And the
extra heat can help drive other processes, including ones designed to
remove trace levels of sulfur from the fuel stream.

Steinfeld said the project is aiming for efficiencies in the 48 percent
range, a 20 percent improvement over the efficiency of the current IGCC
plant at Wabash River. But that increase will be scarcely noticeable in
the overall operation of the plant: The eight fuel cell stacks will be
receiving less than 1 percent of the coal gas stream, with the rest being
sent on to the turbines. And the cells will operate at times from natural
gas rather than coal gas.

Still, if the demonstration proves successful, it might well lead to new
plants along this model. (All parties agree that established plants are
unlikely to convert to this technology.) This is especially true of new
plants in built-up areas, where gas turbines have proven far more popular
of late than coal-fired boilers. "The typical image
of coal goes away when you combine it with a fuel cell," Steinfeld said.

Indeed, such a power plant probably wouldn't need a traditional
smokestack. Trainloads of coal enter; electricity, carbon dioxide, sulfur
and various trace metals leave—it sounds less like industry than like
magic.

http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/dec03/features/coalcell/coalcell.htm
l

j2997



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Fw:

Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 17:52:11 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Light a fire under the Bush Administration

Dear NRDC BioGems Defender,

Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned, but when it comes to global
warming the Bush Administration has taken denial of disaster to a whole
new level.

With the world burning up from the hottest ten years in recorded history,
the administration hasn't simply ignored the flames. It's poured gasoline
on them.

First, President Bush broke his campaign promise to control global
warming pollution. Then he snubbed the rest of humanity and rejected the
Kyoto Protocol, our best chance to solve the problem.

Since then, the Bush Administration has gagged its own scientists for
telling the truth . . . censored its own global warming studies . . . and
used Enron-style accounting tricks to hide the disastrous results of its
do-nothing policy.

As we hurtle towards an environmental nightmare of killer heat waves,
prolonged
droughts and devastating water shortages, the Bush Administration is
obsessed
with one thing only:  protecting the fat profits of oil, coal and auto
companies -- America's biggest global warming polluters.

But you and I are about to change all that.

With the opening of "The Day After Tomorrow" -- the new global warming
disaster
movie -- we have a golden opportunity to make the U.S. Senate pass the
McCain-
Lieberman bill and force the Bush Administration to reckon with this
looming
environmental crisis.

The Senate is likely to cast its decisive vote in mid-June. That means we
need your immediate financial support in order to mobilize massive
grassroots pressure on all 100 senators -- and demand that they obey the
will of the American people, not the wishes of corporate polluters.

Please go to https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/globalwarming/donate.asp and
make
an Emergency Contribution that will help pass this visionary bill and
light a fire under the Bush Administration.

Let me tell you how the NRDC Action Fund is going to seize this rare
moment in history.

This week, millions of Americans will flock to movie theaters to see "The
Day After Tomorrow." While the movie's story line is surely exaggerated,
it will succeed as nothing else has in alerting our nation to the fact
that global warming is real -- and that it is happening today, not the
day after tomorrow.

You can't buy this kind of massive public education. And it comes at the
perfect time: just as the Senate prepares to cast its second vote on the
McCain-Lieberman bill. If passed, this law will finally set mandatory
limits on global warming pollution from power plants, automobiles and
other major culprits behind the number one environmental problem of our
time.

Last fall, the McCain-Lieberman bill was defeated by only seven votes.
That narrow margin of victory stunned the White House and put it on
notice that a growing number of senators reject its do-nothing approach.

Today, the unthinkable has become possible: the U.S. Senate could
actually pass
global warming legislation. "The Day After Tomorrow" will energize the
public in a way that nothing ever has. But we need your immediate help to
channel that energy into a nationwide outcry that will secure a landmark
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Your donation will enable the NRDC Action Fund to launch a nationwide
mobilization campaign aimed squarely at delivering the eight votes we
need. Several senators are close to voting yes. We can nail down their
votes with a deluge of letters, phone calls and editorials from their
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But that will cost money. We must raise $200,000 as soon as possible in
order to:

*  Produce and run two weeks of hard-hitting radio and print ads in key
states
*  Follow up with phone banking that will generate thousands of calls to
the Senate
*  Mobilize the local support of farm organizations, recreational groups,
and labor unions that will throw their weight behind the McCain-Lieberman
bill.

We can get to our $200,000 goal if 8,000 caring people like you give $25
each. I hope you'll agree that is a small price to pay to turn up the
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Please go to https://www.nrdcactionfund.org/globalwarming/donate.asp and
contribute $25 -- or even more if you possibly can -- so that we can wage
and
win this fight for our planet's environmental future.

When you go to our website, you'll also be able to make your voice heard
in support of the McCain-Lieberman bill by sending electronic messages to
your two senators.

The Bush Administration has fiddled long enough while global temperatures
rise,
wildfires burn and Antarctic ice shelves collapse. The time has come to
break industry's stranglehold on this administration and its do-nothing
global warming policy.

Please, give today and help us light a fire under the White House and
corporate
boardrooms across America by passing the McCain-Lieberman bill.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

John H. Adams
President
NRDC Action Fund
. . .


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--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SpaceDaily Express <spacedaily@...>
To: npat1@...
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 08:32:28 -0500
Subject: SpaceDaily Express - June 2, 2004
Message-ID: <200406021332.i52DWSA27255@...>

----------------------------------------------
        SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - Jun 2, 2004
... putting your day into space every day ...

       -- sponsored by AeroAstro Inc --
           Making Space For Everyone
               www.aeroastro.com
----------------------------------------------

-----------
QUICK SPACE

- NASA Administrator Calls For Robots To Save Hubble Space Telescope
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/hubble-04h.html

- Robot Tracks Rocket In Space
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/robot-04l.html

- 17th Century Solar Oddity Believed Linked To Global Cooling
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-04zh.html

- Bringing The Martian Landscape To The Silver Screen
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-04o.html

- Spitzer Leads Great Observatories To Uncover Black Holes And More
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/blackhole-04f.html

- Spitzer Spies Parallelogram-Shaped Galactic Meal
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04e.html

- Finding A Middle Ground For Early Stellar Formation
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04d.html

- Photos Of Nearby Galaxy Open New Era Of Discovery
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04c.html

- NCAR Instrument Gets Breakthrough View of Sun's Magnetic Halo
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarscience-04k.html

- Scientists Measure Sun's Smallest Visible Magnetic Fields
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarscience-04l.html

- Quakes Beget Quakes Near And Far
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-04f.html

- The Frontiers Of Ultrasound Tech Reach Heart And Brain Science
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-04zc.html

- UK Laws Could Allow Hybrid Human-Animal Experiments
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-04zb.html

- Cornell Licenses 3-D Micro-Imaging Technology To Zeiss
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/3d-04c.html

- "Lab-On-A-Chip" Could Protect Astronauts And Detect New Life
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/chip-tech-04k.html

- Oil Wars Highlight Need For Renewable Energy, World Conference Told
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601153126.0fgeqw6f.html

- Global Semiconductor Sales Up 36.6 Percent Year-On-Year
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601162748.cvrrav8a.html

- Software Exports From India's Technology Hub Surge 46 Percent
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601162706.h93aboky.html

- China Bars IT Professionals From Going To Taiwan Trade Show
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601082232.9l1gspr5.html

- Lockmart Presents Weather Sat Model To Air Force Weather Agency
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-04q.html

- US Renews Call for EU To Retain China Arms Embargo
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602020847.12aoob0i.html

- China Accuses Pentagon Of Cold War Mentality, Ulterior Motives
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601101046.cu4rljk9.html

- No Signs Of Chinese Wargames: Taiwan
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601100547.uhfoyymj.html

- India, Pakistan Survive Verbal Scare
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclear-india-pakistan-04e.html

- More Possibly Bomb-Grade Highly Enriched Uranium Found In Iran
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601224008.vinypf6a.html

- US Sounds Out New Indian Government On Defence Ties
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601145001.di5lhd9d.html

- Pakistan Says Missile Test Not Linked To Change Of Indian Government
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040531151026.770m5lsk.html

- Iran Makes Its First Anti-Ship Missile
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040531132712.ipgx0omt.html

- Cook And The Transit Of Venus
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/venus-04c.html

- Cassini Make Tiny Course Change For Saturn
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04j.html

------------------
HEADLINES IN BRIEF
June 2, 2004

... putting your day into space every day ...

------------
SPACE SCOPES

- NASA Administrator Calls For Robots To Save Hubble Space Telescope
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/hubble-04h.html

Denver (UPI) Jun 01, 2004 - NASA administration Sean O'Keefe said Tuesday
his agency is seeking proposals to send a robotic mission to save the
Hubble Space Telescope.

----------
ROBO SPACE

- Robot Tracks Rocket In Space
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/robot-04l.html

Washington (UPI) Jun 01, 2004 - For the first time ever, an airborne
robotic sensor system developed by NASA has tracked a rocket during
launch and communicated with its computer without human intervention.

------------
HOT AND COLD

- 17th Century Solar Oddity Believed Linked To Global Cooling
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-04zh.html

San Francisco (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - A mysterious 17th century solar funk
that some have linked to Europe's Little Ice Age and to global climate
change, becomes even more of an enigma as a result of new observations by
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers.

- Australian farmers warn of drought's return after brief respite
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040601063852.um3epmif.html

- Tanzanian economy fails to hit target in 2003 because of drought
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040531122557.0u2absf1.html

- Dead Sea to disappear in 50 years unless linked to Red Sea canal:
Jordan
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040601190048.lvgep8wc.html

---------
MARSDAILY

- Bringing The Martian Landscape To The Silver Screen
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-04o.html

Evanston Ill (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - A bowl of blueberries by the thousands,
a rock called "Lion Stone," dunes of red sand, the shoreline of a salty
sea, wind-sculpted volcanic rock -- all of these features of the Martian
landscape come to three-dimensional life for faculty and students when
they don their 3-D glasses and step into the Visualization Laboratory at
Northwestern University.

---------
COSMOLOGY

- Spitzer Leads Great Observatories To Uncover Black Holes And More
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/blackhole-04f.html

Pasadena (JPL) Jun 02, 2004 - Astronomers unveiled the deepest images
from NASA's new Spitzer Space Telescope today and announced the detection
of distant objects -- including several supermassive black holes - that
are nearly invisible in even the deepest images from telescopes operating
at other wavelengths.

- Spitzer Spies Parallelogram-Shaped Galactic Meal
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04e.html

- Finding A Middle Ground For Early Stellar Formation
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04d.html

- Photos Of Nearby Galaxy Open New Era Of Discovery
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04c.html

-------------
SOLAR SCIENCE

- NCAR Instrument Gets Breakthrough View of Sun's Magnetic Halo
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarscience-04k.html

Boulder (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - A new instrument developed at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has captured landmark imagery of
fast-evolving magnetic structures in the solar atmosphere. Steven Tomczyk
(NCAR High Altitude Observatory) presented the images on Monday, May 31,
at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in
Denver.

- Scientists Measure Sun's Smallest Visible Magnetic Fields
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarscience-04l.html

Denver CO (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - Solar physicists from Lockheed Martin, and
The Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics of the University of Oslo have
analyzed the highest resolution images ever taken near the solar disk
center and found surprising new small-scale magnetic field structures.

---------
TECTONICS

- Quakes Beget Quakes Near And Far
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-04f.html

University Park PA - Jun 02, 2004 - Earthquakes not only shake up the
local area but they also increase the rate of earthquake events locally
and at a distance. The answer to how this happens may be in the
laboratory, according to a Penn State researcher.

--------------
SPACE MEDICINE

- The Frontiers Of Ultrasound Tech Reach Heart And Brain Science
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-04zc.html

New York (UPI) Jun 02, 2004 - Ultrasound is venturing into crucial new
frontiers, with doctors using sound waves to zap otherwise inoperable
tumors and scan the living brain, eye and heart as never before,
scientists told United Press International.

- UK Laws Could Allow Hybrid Human-Animal Experiments
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-04zb.html

London (UPI) Jun 02, 2004 - Britain could become the first country where
scientists successfully create a human-animal hybrid, thanks to a legal
loophole allowing such experiments.

----------
TECH SPACE

- Cornell Licenses 3-D Micro-Imaging Technology To Zeiss
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/3d-04c.html

New York (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - Biomedical microscopic imaging deep inside
living tissue with unprecedented clarity could become routine and widely
available with the signing of technology-transfer and
collaborative-research agreements on Friday (May 28, 2004) by Carl Zeiss
Jena GmbH, a leading maker of microscopy instrumentation, and by CCTEC,
the technology, enterprise and commercialization arm of Cornell
University.

- "Lab-On-A-Chip" Could Protect Astronuats And Detect New Life
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/chip-tech-04k.html

Huntsville AL (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - Imagine a huge laboratory filled with
people and equipment shrinking to fit on a small chip — the size of a
dime. Scientists on Earth use labs on chips for medical tests and other
research. Marshall Center scientists are customizing these chips for use
in space. One day they may be used in devices to detect contaminates, and
rovers may use them to identify life on Mars.

-----------
ENERGY WARS

- Oil wars highlight need for renewable energy, world conference told
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601153126.0fgeqw6f.html

- World conference on renewable energy opens as oil prices surge
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601095152.sk5nghli.html

- US domination worries EU, Caribbean Latin leaders
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040528220445.i6k33jnc.html

- EU and Latin American leaders call for greater world cooperation
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040528171517.kgvqynqf.html

---------
TECH.WIRE

- Sony to pull out of non-Japanese pocket computer markets
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601171730.url900pj.html

- Global semiconductor sales up 36.6 percent year-on-year
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601162748.cvrrav8a.html

- Software exports from India's technology hub surge 46 percent
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601162706.h93aboky.html

- China bars IT professionals from going to Taiwan trade show
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601082232.9l1gspr5.html

--------
SPACEWAR

- LockMart Presents Weather Sat Model To Air Force Weather Agency
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-04q.html

Offutt AFB (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company has
presented a model of a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)
Block 5D-3 spacecraft to the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) here.  Since
1966, the U.S. Air Force has launched more than 30 Lockheed Martin DMSP
satellites.  Now in its fourth decade of service, the DMSP has proven
itself to be a valuable tool in scheduling and protecting military
operations on land, at sea and in the air.

French defense minister calls on EU to set up own defense force
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601174446.i000ejc3.html

------------
DRAGON SPACE

- US Renews Call for EU To Retain China Arms Embargo
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602020847.12aoob0i.html

Washington (AFP) Jun 02, 2004 - The United States Tuesday renewed calls
for the European Union to maintain a 15-year-old ban on arms sales to
China amid signs the EU embargo may be lifted with Britain's support.
"The United States has repeatedly expressed its concerns to European
Union member states regarding possible lifting of the arms embargo
against China," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

- China Accuses Pentagon Of Cold War Mentality, Ulterior Motives
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601101046.cu4rljk9.html

- No signs of Chinese wargames: Taiwan
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601100547.uhfoyymj.html

- Britain backing plans to end EU's China arms ban: report
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040531215504.zs45qsyz.html

- Singapore and US joint naval exercises to focus on maritime warfare
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601072854.b20by9qt.html

--------
NUKEWARS

- India, Pakistan Survive Verbal Scare
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclear-india-pakistan-04e.html

New Delhi (UPI) Jun 02, 2004 - India and Pakistan Tuesday overcame a
recent verbal dual and fixed June 27 and 28 for bilateral talks to pursue
the peace process.

- Top Iranian nuclear official to give press conference
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602061855.fe5lr1vj.html

- More possibly bomb-grade highly enriched uranium found in Iran - IAEA
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601224008.vinypf6a.html

- US welcomes India-Pakistan peace talks
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601222825.fchokoet.html

- Iran must clarify questions about uranium contamination and
centrifuges:
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601181848.qoxgycz9.html

- UN atomic agency would take Iran to Security Council if military link
proved
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601140728.iwrdcae5.html

------------
MISSILE NEWS

- US sounds out new Indian government on defence ties
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601145001.di5lhd9d.html

- Chinese army preparing military exercises aimed at Taiwan
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601090421.prdcq539.html

- Pakistan says missile test not linked to change of Indian government
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040531151026.770m5lsk.html

- Iran makes its first anti-ship missile
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040531132712.ipgx0omt.html

- Indian home minister says Pakistan missile test to escalate arms race
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040530130553.edp5ni8l.html

- Pakistan tests nuclear-capable missile
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040529112838.ln7kfxuh.html

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----------------
YESTERDAY'S NEWS

- Europe's Vega Rocket Moves One Step Nearer Launch
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-04q.html

- Cook And The Transit Of Venus
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/venus-04c.html

- Cassini Make Tiny Course Change For Saturn
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04j.html

- Stormy Bands On Ringed World
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04k.html

- China Spends Up Big On Military
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-04zk.html

- China Developing Credible Military Options To Confront Taiwan
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040530115902.nv45j1es.html

- EGNOS Improves Safety For Maritime Navigation In China
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-04zi.html

- China To Build First Regional Climate, Ecology Surveillance Network
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/china-04zj.html

- Prospect Of Sudden Climate Change
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-04zg.html

- Antex To Offer Multi-Zone and XM Receivers For The Home
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/xm-radio-04i.html

- Gravity Probe B Mid Way Through Orbit Checkout
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gravity-04n.html

- Double Stars Emerge As New Heavyweight Champions
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04b.html

- Sensors Can Turn Surfaces To Touch Screens
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/materials-04zf.html

- Opportunity On The Edge Of More Mars Science
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzp.html

- The Columbia Hills in Color
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzq.html

- Lockheed Brings A THAAD To Troy
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/bmdo-04p.html

- Pakistan Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040529112838.ln7kfxuh.html

- Indian Home Minister Says Pakistan Missile Test To Escalate Arms Race
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040530130553.edp5ni8l.html

- Raytheon Delivers First Production Tactical Tomahawk Cruise Missile
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/missiles-04ze.html

- Nuclear Sites Ready For Terror
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclear-blackmarket-04d.html

- North Korea A "Far More Compelling Threat" Than Iraq: Kerry
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040530155931.t1uf15fr.html

- UN Atomic Agency Persisting In Deciphering Global Nuclear Smuggling
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040530101532.m8bockhy.html

- Libya Received Clandestine Nuclear Shipments As Late As March: IAEA
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040529160410.b0ec0azt.html

- Russia's Super Subs Sink
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/submarine-04b.html

- NASA-Industry Alliance Initiates UAV National Airspace Access Project
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-04zd.html

- Jet Models Will Push The Envelope For Safety's Sake
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/aerospace-04g.html

- Death Toll In Caribbean Floods Soars Past 1,400
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040531013405.3xf1ydrz.html

- 35 Dead, 220 Injured In Iran Quake, According To New Toll
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040530072427.f4w45abe.html

- Germany Leads Race To Harness Wind Power
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040531014422.gr3amnkq.html

- Australians Warned Crisis Looms Unless Water Usage Dries Up
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040530030308.xz2ezddh.html

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Abrupt Climate Change
June 1, 2004
Paleoclimate evidence from ice cores, tree rings, and other natural recorders
reveals that large changes in climate such as in temperature and precipitation
have happened in the past. The changes have occurred over decades to centuries,
sometimes affecting small regions and sometimes entire hemispheres. The changes
are massive compared to anything we have experienced since people have been
keeping records of climate. What if these abrupt climate changes were to occur
in the future? Would ecosystems be affected? How would humans adapt? These
questions motivate a vigorous research effort to understand the changes of the
past, and eventually to predict future abrupt climate change. More information
can also be found at http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2236.htm

http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwmisc~WhatsNew
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/abrupt/index.html


________________________________________________________________
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The National Academies
Advisors to the nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine

Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises is a 2002 report from the Ocean
Studies Board, the Polar Research Board, and the Board on Atmospheric Sciences
and Climate of the National Research Council.

Subscibe to a free newsletter from the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate
(BASC).
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/basc/BASC_Newsletter.html
--------

Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises

Until the 1990s, the dominant view of climate change was that Earth's climate
system has changed gradually in response to both natural and human-induced
processes. Evidence pieced together over the last few decades, however, shows
that climate has changed much more rapidly - sometimes abruptly - in the past
and therefore could do so again in the future.

Abrupt climate change generally refers to a large shift in climate that persists
for years or longer - such as marked changes in average temperature, or altered
patterns of storms, floods, or droughts - over a widespread area such as an
entire country or continent, that takes place so rapidly and unexpectedly that
human or natural systems have difficulty adapting to it. In the context of past
abrupt climate change, "rapidly" typically means on the order of a decade.

Severe droughts and other past abrupt climate changes have had demonstrable,
adverse effects on human societies. While it is important not to be fatalistic
about the threats posed by abrupt climate change, denying the likelihood or
downplaying the relevance of past abrupt events could be costly. Increased
knowledge is the best way to improve the effectiveness of response; research
into the causes, patterns, and likelihood of abrupt climate change can help
reduce vulnerabilites and increase our ability to adapt.

Copyright © 2004. National Academy of Sciences.
All rights reserved.
500 Fifth St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001.

http://dels.nas.edu/abr_clim/



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Brief Instructions, it's easy...

Go to http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/ccgg/index.html

Click 'Interactive Atmospheric Data Visualization'

Click a red circle location on world map

Click 'Submit' from down on left side of screen.

View graph of CO2 for the location you selected.

Increases at all locations continue.

Pat N

------

Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory(CMDL)
Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases Group(CCGG)

The NOAA CMDL Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases group makes ongoing discrete
measurements from land and sea surface sites and aircraft, and continuous
measurements from baseline observatories and tall towers. These measurements
document the spatial and temporal distributions of carbon-cycle gases and
provide essential constraints to our understanding of the global carbon cycle.

This data exploration tool enables visitors to view near real-time preliminary
CCGG measurement results.

Climate Monitoring & Diagnostics Laboratory
Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases
325 Broadway R/CMDL1
Boulder, CO 80305


________________________________________________________________
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Movie review: 'Day' offers thrilling global warning
Colin Covert,  Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/stories/411/4797568.html







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--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SpaceDaily Express <spacedaily@...>
To: npat1@...
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 08:14:10 -0500
Subject: SpaceDaily Express - June 3, 2004
Message-ID: <200406031314.i53DEAF24550@...>

----------------------------------------------
        SPACEDAILY EXPRESS - Jun 3, 2004
... putting your day into space every day ...

       -- sponsored by AeroAstro Inc --
           Making Space For Everyone
               www.aeroastro.com
----------------------------------------------

-----------
QUICK SPACE

- First X Prize Attempt Set For June 21
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/xprize-04e.html

- Sources Of Solar Hazards In Interplanetary Space
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/radiation-04g.html

- New Moon Shot Not So Costly
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-04zf.html

- Rovers Examining Hills And Crater In Bonus-Time Mission
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzr.html

- NASA To Award Contract For Aerospace Testing
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/aerospace-04h.html

- Globalstar Improves Service Coverage In The Caribbean
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/globalstar-04b.html

- BT Selects Intelsat To Support Broadband Services
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/internet-04zzh.html

- Water: Key To A Healthy Economy
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/water-earth-04c.html

- Columbia To Start Major Tree-Ring Climate Research Study
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-04zi.html

- Micro-Satellite Steers By The Stars To Return Views Of Earth
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/microsat-04h.html

- Scanning Blood Flow During Operations
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-04za.html

- Scientists Prepare To Place Einstein On The Rim Of A Black Hole
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/blackhole-04g.html

- Engineers Visualize Electric Memory As It Fades
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/chip-tech-04l.html

- Near-Infrared Laser Transfers Data To Mid-Infrared Laser Beam
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/laser-04k.html

- Microsoft To Appeal Against EU Ruling Next Week: Sources
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040602151343.otqrdfb3.html

- China Can Use Wind Power To 'Leapfrog' Over Polluting Energy:
Greenpeace
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040603065640.we2dnlow.html

- Electrical Power Plants Are The Main Polluters In North America
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040602203027.jwhy5ynd.html

- World Bank Vows To Raise Lending For Renewable Energy
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040602165641.69sdynfs.html

- Green Groups Worried About Outcome For Renewable Energy Conference
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040602094822.4agfwqd7.html

- ATK AARGM Tests Off To A Flying Start
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/missiles-04zf.html

- US Sounds Out New Indian Government On Defence Ties
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601145001.di5lhd9d.html

- Chinese Army Preparing Military Exercises Aimed At Taiwan
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601090421.prdcq539.html

- Australia Expands Acquisition Of High-Tech Surveillance Aircraft
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040603042830.finyvwae.html

- Only A Matter Of Time Before Terrorists Use "Dirty Bomb": New Scientist
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602190039.xx9pymw1.html

- Us Accuses Iran Of Nuclear 'Deceit And Denial'
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602190704.9so0wrk5.html

- Iran Says It Will Continue Centrifuge Equipment For Time Being
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602092640.mt5sxo9p.html

- India Sets Dovish Tone With Pakistan, China In Call For Nuke
Coordination
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602090246.lml74psb.html

- NASA Administrator Calls For Robots To Save Hubble Space Telescope
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/hubble-04h.html

- Taiwan Seeks Special 18.2 Bln Military Budget Amid Tensions With China
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602113632.p8b7asw4.html

- Global Semiconductor Sales Up 36.6 Percent Year-On-Year
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601162748.cvrrav8a.html

------------------
HEADLINES IN BRIEF
June 3, 2004

... putting your day into space every day ...

------------
SPACE TRAVEL

- First X Prize Attempt Set For June 21
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/xprize-04e.html

Mojave CA (SPX) Jun 03, 2004 - A privately-developed rocket plane will
launch into history on June 21 on a mission to become the world's first
commercial manned space vehicle. Investor and philanthropist Paul G.
Allen and aviation legend Burt Rutan have teamed to create the program,
which will attempt the first non-governmental flight to leave the earth's
atmosphere.

- First private-sector space flight set for June 21
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040602180823.lgsq9oif.html

- Sources Of Solar Hazards In Interplanetary Space
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/radiation-04g.html

---------
MOONDAILY

- New Moon Shot Not So Costly
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-04zf.html

Washington (UPI) Jun 02, 2004 - NASA's plan to fulfill President George
W. Bush's space exploration effort suggests the agency will have to spend
about $64 billion over the next 15 years to send U.S. astronauts back to
the moon.

---------
MARSDAILY

- Rovers Examining Hills And Crater In Bonus-Time Mission
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mers-04zzzzr.html

Pasadena (JPL) Jun 02, 2004 - More than a month into bonus time after a
successful primary mission on Mars, NASA's Spirit rover has sighted
possibly layered rock in hills just ahead, while twin Opportunity has
extended its arm to pockmarked stones on a crater rim to gather clues of
a watery past.

--------------
ROCKET SCIENCE

- NASA To Award Contract For Aerospace Testing
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/aerospace-04h.html

Moffett Field CA - Jun 03, 2004 - NASA Ames Research Center will award a
contract valued at more than $48 million to Jacobs Sverdrup of Tullahoma,
Tennessee. The cost-plus-incentive-fee/award fee, performance-based
contract will provide a wide range of support services for aerospace
testing and facilities maintenance and operations at NASA Ames.

--------------
CONSTELLATIONS

- Globalstar Improves Service Coverage In The Caribbean
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/globalstar-04b.html

San Jose CA (SPX) Jun 03, 2004 - Globalstar, the world's most widely-used
handheld satellite phone service, announced Tuesday that its service
quality in the high-traffic Caribbean region has been dramatically
improved, following the installation of a fourth antenna at its regional
gateway at Las Palmas, Puerto Rico.

--------------
INTERNET SPACE

- BT Selects Intelsat To Support Broadband Services
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/internet-04zzh.html

London (SPX) Jun 03, 2004 - Intelsat today announced the commercial
launch of BT's new satellite broadband service using the Intelsat system.
The service will be an integral part of BT's overall broadband strategy
to bring competitively priced two-way, high-speed services to users
throughout the United Kingdom.

----------
WATERWORLD

- Water: Key To A Healthy Economy
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/water-earth-04c.html

Canberra (SPX) Jun 03, 2004  - One of the largest water research
partnerships in Australian history, the Water for a Healthy Country
National Research Flagship, was launched in Canberra today by the Deputy
Prime Minister John Anderson.

-----------------
EARTH OBSERVATION

- Columbia To Start Major Tree-Ring Climate Research Study
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-04zi.html

New York NY (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - The National Science Foundation (NSF)
has awarded the Tree-Ring Laboratory of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
Columbia University, a $5.5 million grant to study one of the largest
climate systems affecting the globe--the Asian monsoon climate system.

--------------
MICROSAT BLITZ

- Micro-Satellite Steers By The Stars To Return Views Of Earth
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/microsat-04h.html

Paris (ESA) Jun 02, 2004 - Since its launch in October 2001, ESA's Proba
micro-satellite has been returning remarkable imagery of some of our
planet's major landmarks with a compact instrument called the High
Resolution Camera.

--------------
SPACE MEDICINE

- Scanning Blood Flow During Operations
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-04za.html

Warsaw (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - PERMON is developing a radiological imaging
system that will give medics a clearer view inside the human body by
accurately monitoring organ blood flow during operations. This essential
information will lead to an increase in techniques such as laser surgery
over more invasive methods.

---------
COSMOLOGY

- Scientists Prepare To Place Einstein On The Rim Of A Black Hole
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/blackhole-04g.html

Cambridge MA (SPX) Jun 03, 2004 - It may soon be sink-or-swim time for
Albert Einstein. Scientists are preparing for the ultimate test of
Einstein's law of gravity, known as the theory of general relativity,
through a systematic, in-depth study of hundreds of black holes.

----------
TECH SPACE

- Engineers Visualize Electric Memory As It Fades
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/chip-tech-04l.html

Madison WI (SPX) Jun 02, 2004 - While the memory inside electronic
devices may often be more reliable than that of humans, it, too, can
worsen over time.

- Near-Infrared Laser Transfers Data To Mid-Infrared Laser Beam
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/laser-04k.html

- Jefferson Lab Completes 100th Experiment
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/physics-04p.html

- Indian software revenue to grow 30-32 percent
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040603070133.0hn3jpfa.html

- Taiwan's TSMC positive on chip outlook
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040603045054.f4psrjsg.html

- Hong Kong pursues love affair with the mobile phone
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040603023456.fnu9272l.html

- Microsoft to appeal against EU ruling next week: sources
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040602151343.otqrdfb3.html

- Sony to pull out of non-Japanese pocket computer markets
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601171730.url900pj.html

-----------
ENERGY TECH

- China can use wind power to 'leapfrog' over polluting energy:
Greenpeace
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040603065640.we2dnlow.html

- Electrical power plants are the main polluters in North America
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040602203027.jwhy5ynd.html

- World Bank vows to raise lending for renewable energy
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040602165641.69sdynfs.html

- Green groups worried about outcome for renewable energy conference
http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040602094822.4agfwqd7.html

------------
MISSILE NEWS

- ATK AARGM Tests Off To A Flying Start
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/missiles-04zf.html

Minneapolis MN (SPX) Jun 03, 2004 - Atk (Alliant Techsystems) is
currently conducting System Design and Development captive carry flight
tests of its AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) at
the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake, California.

- US sounds out new Indian government on defence ties
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601145001.di5lhd9d.html

- Chinese army preparing military exercises aimed at Taiwan
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601090421.prdcq539.html

--------
WAR.WIRE

- Australia expands acquisition of high-tech surveillance aircraft
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040603042830.finyvwae.html

- Only a matter of time before terrorists use "dirty bomb": New Scientist
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602190039.xx9pymw1.html

--------
NUKEWARS

- US accuses Iran of nuclear 'deceit and denial'
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602190704.9so0wrk5.html

- Top Iranian official plays down new IAEA nuclear revelations
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602120304.q0sk2fuw.html

- Iran says it will continue centrifuge equipment for time being
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602092640.mt5sxo9p.html

- India sets dovish tone with Pakistan, China in call for nuke
coordination
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602090246.lml74psb.html

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----------------
YESTERDAY'S NEWS

- NASA Administrator Calls For Robots To Save Hubble Space Telescope
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/hubble-04h.html

- Robot Tracks Rocket In Space
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/robot-04l.html

- 17th Century Solar Oddity Believed Linked To Global Cooling
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-04zh.html

- Bringing The Martian Landscape To The Silver Screen
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-04o.html

- Spitzer Leads Great Observatories To Uncover Black Holes And More
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/blackhole-04f.html

- Spitzer Spies Parallelogram-Shaped Galactic Meal
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04e.html

- Finding A Middle Ground For Early Stellar Formation
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04d.html

- Photos Of Nearby Galaxy Open New Era Of Discovery
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-04c.html

- NCAR Instrument Gets Breakthrough View of Sun's Magnetic Halo
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarscience-04k.html

- Scientists Measure Sun's Smallest Visible Magnetic Fields
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/solarscience-04l.html

- Quakes Beget Quakes Near And Far
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-04f.html

- The Frontiers Of Ultrasound Tech Reach Heart And Brain Science
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-04zc.html

- UK Laws Could Allow Hybrid Human-Animal Experiments
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacemedicine-04zb.html

- Cornell Licenses 3-D Micro-Imaging Technology To Zeiss
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/3d-04c.html

- "Lab-On-A-Chip" Could Protect Astronauts And Detect New Life
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/chip-tech-04k.html

- Oil Wars Highlight Need For Renewable Energy, World Conference Told
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601153126.0fgeqw6f.html

- Global Semiconductor Sales Up 36.6 Percent Year-On-Year
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601162748.cvrrav8a.html

- Software Exports From India's Technology Hub Surge 46 Percent
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601162706.h93aboky.html

- China Bars IT Professionals From Going To Taiwan Trade Show
http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040601082232.9l1gspr5.html

- Lockmart Presents Weather Sat Model To Air Force Weather Agency
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/milspace-04q.html

- US Renews Call for EU To Retain China Arms Embargo
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040602020847.12aoob0i.html

- China Accuses Pentagon Of Cold War Mentality, Ulterior Motives
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601101046.cu4rljk9.html

- No Signs Of Chinese Wargames: Taiwan
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601100547.uhfoyymj.html

- India, Pakistan Survive Verbal Scare
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nuclear-india-pakistan-04e.html

- More Possibly Bomb-Grade Highly Enriched Uranium Found In Iran
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601224008.vinypf6a.html

- US Sounds Out New Indian Government On Defence Ties
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040601145001.di5lhd9d.html

- Pakistan Says Missile Test Not Linked To Change Of Indian Government
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040531151026.770m5lsk.html

- Iran Makes Its First Anti-Ship Missile
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040531132712.ipgx0omt.html

- Cook And The Transit Of Venus
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/venus-04c.html

- Cassini Make Tiny Course Change For Saturn
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04j.html

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> Wednesday, June 2, 2004
> This message includes:
>
>    1. State of the World 2004 June Feature: Watching What We Eat
>    2. June Worldwatch Live Online Discussions
>    3. Good Stuff Feature--When Health Care Does Harm
>    4. More June Highlights
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 2. June Worldwatch Live Online Discussions
>
>     * June 4: Ensuring a Better Day After Tomorrow
>       2:00 PM EDT (1800 GMT), with Thomas Prugh and Erik
> Assadourian.
>       Submit questions now at www.worldwatch.org/live/discussion/99/
>     * June 11: Moving Toward a Less Consumptive Economy
>       2:00 PM EDT (1800 GMT), with Michael Renner.
>       Submit questions now at www.worldwatch.org/live/discussion/92/
>     * June 25: Watching What We Eat
>       2:00 PM EDT (1800 GMT), with Danielle Nierenberg and Brian
>       Halweil.
>       Submit questions now at www.worldwatch.org/live/discussion/93/
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Did you receive this e-mail from a friend? If you would like to sign
> up for your own Worldwatch e-mail updates, please visit
> www.worldwatch.org/register/.
>
> About the Worldwatch Institute: The Worldwatch Institute is an
> independent research organization that works for an environmentally
> sustainable and socially just society, in which the needs of all
> people are met without threatening the health of the natural
> environment or the well-being of future generations. For more
> information, visit us on the web at www.worldwatch.org.
>
> Support the Worldwatch Institute: Join the Institute and help
> inspire
> a revolution in global thinking on how we live on planet earth. To
> view the benefits of membership, go to: www.worldwatch.org/donate/
>
> To unsubscribe from the Worldwatch Institute e-mail list, go to:
> www.worldwatch.org/register/unsubscribe/
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>

Pat N

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!

--------- Forwarded message ----------
To: Paleontology_and_Climate@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 04:49:47 -0500
Subject: [P&C] Evaluation of government agencies on climate change /
global warming

Was: Re: Digest Number 253... from "Sonya"

Hi Sonya,

I appreciated your comments about the National Academies(NA) and NOAA
CMDL Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases(CCGG) CO2 measurement sites.  I
recommend the CMDL FAQ web page to people wanting to learn the
fundamentals on global warming.

Q(1):  Do you think the CMDL FAQ web page is a good starter for people
with serious interest in learning about climate change / global warming?

Q(2): Based on the CO2 data,  the NA and NOAA CMDL FAQ explanation and
your knowledge on climate change / global warming, please provide an
evaluation of the information at the following web locations:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2236.htm
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/abrupt/index.html

Pat


-------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Sonya"
To: Paleontology_and_Climate@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 23:58:26 -0400
Subject: Re: [P&C] Digest Number 253

Pat,

Thanks for the link for the newsletter from the National Academies----
-----I have used their site for some time and I had never noticed
that you could sign up for a newsletter, lol.........and thanks for
the CO2 site link.

It seems like there is a lot of  fluff on the NA site.........at
least the material that I have read seemed to be rather on the fluff
side.........The link in the current April Newsletter for the Weather
Modification Trends, I read that whole book online, lol,  last year
when it came out and it seemed to hem and hah  alot........ but maybe
the field has been hemmed and hawed and the authors didn't have any
choice.........

anyhow
Thanks again,
Sonya


________________________________________________________________
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Thu, Jun. 03, 2004
Preparing for worst

Governor and Devils Lake mayor ask corps to add 3 feet to levee
By Rona K. Johnson
Grand Forks, ND Herald

DEVILS LAKE -- North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven and Devils Lake Mayor Fred Bott
asked the Corps of Engineers on Wednesday to add 3 feet to the top of the levee
protecting the city of Devils Lake, rejecting the recommendation of the corps'
project director.
"Our understanding is that the city wants to move forward. . . . We have the
state resources in place to move forward, and that includes the local share, so
our sense is to move forward," Hoeven said at a State Flood Coordination
Committee meeting in Devils Lake.

The governor said he has $2 million earmarked for the project which would cost
$8 million to $10 million, according to Corps Project Engineer Bonnie Greenleaf.

Greenleaf said she wasn't convinced that the city needed to raise the levee
until next summer.

The top of the city's levee is at 1,457 feet, which would protect the city from
a lake level of 1,450 feet, about a foot higher than the lake stands now. When
the corps built the levee, it allowed 7 feet of freeboard, Greenleaf said.

But after some analysis, the corps decided it was comfortable with 6 feet of
freeboard, which means the same dike would protect the city to a lake elevation
|of 1,451 feet.

"I don't think we've ever officially conveyed that information to the city and,
of course, I guess we like to be conservative, too," she said. "I don't think
that we're at the point where we have to pull the trigger and move the trucks.
In fact, I'd be very comfortable if we didn't start raising the levee from '57
(feet) to '60 until next summer, even."


Rising water

The lake level reached a record 1,448.91 feet Wednesday morning, according to
the National Weather Service.

Hoeven and other state, local and federal officials toured the Devils Lake area
to assess damage caused by 3 to 8 inches of rain that fell throughout the basin
over the Memorial Day weekend.

The weather service is predicting that under the current conditions, there is a
50 percent probability that the lake level will hit 1,449.8 feet over the
summer.

There is a 20 percent probability that the lake could rise to 1,450 feet,
according to Mark Ewens, a meteorologist technician with the weather service in
Grand Forks.

The State Flood Coordination meeting, which was scheduled for today, was held
Wednesday because of the recent flooding.

Devils Lake has risen about 3.3 feet since a heavy rain aggravated the snow melt
in late March.

Hoeven said he's working on a three-point plan to deal with flooding in the
Devils Lake Basin.

"That means storing water in the upper basin, that means continuing to mitigate
in the Devils Lake area, working on the roads, working on the dikes and, in some
cases, relocating houses, and it also means an outlet to try to stabilize the
lake," he said.

Hoeven said in order for his plan to work, he needs the state, local and federal
officials to work together. And he would like the Federal Emergency Management
Agency to take the lead in working with other federal agencies, such as the
Department of Transportation and the Corps of Engineers.

Hoeven and the state's congressional delegation, Sens. Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan
and Rep. Earl Pomeroy, sent a letter to Michael Brown, Department of Homeland
Security undersecretary of emergency preparedness and response, urging him to
reconvene a task force to coordinate an immediate response to rising water on
Devils Lake.

The task force would include the DOT, corps and the Federal Highway
Administration.

In a conference call to Devils Lake-area officials Wednesday, the delegation
said they're pressing federal agencies to send representatives to Devils Lake to
see the flood conditions for themselves.


Basinwide damage

Damage from recent heavy rains wasn't isolated to the area immediately
surrounding Devils Lake. The whole basin was affected, and officials from the
surrounding counties told Hoeven that residents in their counties were reporting
water in basements and flooded roads and cropland.

If Devils Lake reaches an elevation of 1,450 feet, it will cover 80,917 acres of
land, which includes 38,736 acres of farmland and Conservation Reserve Program
acres and 34,934.5 acres of hayland, according to a study conducted by the North
Central Planning Council.

Spirit Lake Nation Chairman Valentino White Sr. said many people on the
reservation are dealing with flooding.

"With the high water table in a lot of areas, we have a lot of homes that are
literally sinking," he said.

Another problem is that they have roads that are being used as dikes, and that
is blocking federal dollars that they need to fix roads.

Also, if those roads should give out, there are homes and people in harm's way,
he said.

Even though an existing Presidential Disaster Declaration covers counties in the
Devils Lake Basin, which means that the federal government will pay 75 percent
of the cost to repair damaged infrastructure, many county officials said they
will have trouble paying their 15 percent share of the cost.


What's ahead

Officials at Wednesday's meeting were especially interested in the short- and
long-term weather orecast, which calls for above-normal precipitation.

"Right now, the Climate Prediction Center is calling for a normal to a continued
above-normal precipitation pattern across the Northern Plains, based on
historical trends," Ewens said. "The wet cycle that was started in '93 really
does not show any significant signs of breaking."

In 1993, the Devils Lake area received 25.58 inches of rain, according to
records kept by Michael Connor, manager of the Devils Lake Basin Joint Water
Resource Board.

Before 1993, the rainfall in the area averaged 16.98 inches a year. But from
1993 to '03, rainfall has averaged 21.39 inches.

The weather service is predicting a chance for some light precipitation Friday
and another chance for more significant precipitation Monday.

Reach Johnson at (701) 780-1229; (800) 477-6572, extension 229, or
rjohnson@....

  I M A G E S

Herald photo by Eric Hylden
N.D. Gov. John Hoeven, state engineer Dale Frink, Dept. of Transportation
Director Dave Sprynczynatyk and Ramsey County Commissioner Joe Belford survey
the rising Devils Lake on a tour Wednesday.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/8824544.htm



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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
LEADER: Day after tomorrow

Financial Times; Jun 03, 2004

You don't have to swallow the scenario of The Day After Tomorrow, the
new disaster movie on climate change that has the northern hemisphere
plunged overnight into another Ice Age, to believe renewable energy
such as wind and solar power deserves support. But it has to be
support that provides steady incentives for the development of
efficient renewable energy in a way that does not needlessly
jeopardise jobs and growth or distort competitiveness.

Interesting Article in Full:

http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=040603001109&query=renewable+energy&\
vsc_appId=totalSearch&state=Form

j2997

Yahoo! Groups Links



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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june04/climate_4-21.html#

TOM BEARDEN: A small compound of wooden buildings in Hawaii Volcanoes
National Park is the modest headquarters for an ambitious global
warming research project.

On this day, scientists gathered under the eaves, temporarily
avoiding the rain, as they prepared for another day in their living
laboratory.

This is the laboratory: a dense tropical rainforest on the slopes of
Mauna Loa Volcano. They're looking for the effects of rising
temperatures due to global warming. Many scientific studies on the
subject derive from computer models. But here in Hawaii, it's a hands-
on approach -- one locale and one species at a time.

Scientists from numerous disciplines and agencies, including the U.S.
Geological Survey, are working together, trying to understand the
complete dynamics of Hawaii's multiple ecosystems, from lava fields
to rainforests.

Small changes in the climate here can immediately affect plants and
animals, even wipe them out entirely. Because of that sensitivity,
one goal of the so-called bio-complexity project is to see whether
the Hawaiian ecosystem can serve as an early warning system for
climate change elsewhere and how it may impact plants and animals.

After an hour of bumping over old lava-bed roads, the team lugged
their gear into the forest and began setting up nets. They're
studying native birds, which are highly vulnerable to an avian strain
of malaria, which arrived with birds imported as pets. The mosquitoes
that are spreading it came from 19th century sailing ships.
Microbiologist Carter Atkinson studies how the malaria spreads.

Investigating diseases
CARTER ATKINSON: We're investigating the ecology of avian diseases
here in Hawaiian forest birds across a large landscape, looking at
different areas -- why it's transmitted at different rates, at
different elevations -- what are some of the factors that are
contributing to enhancing transmission.

TOM BEARDEN: After 20 minutes, interns Christy Wyckoff and Ben Fogel
recovered an I'iwi, a species of native Hawaiian honeycreeper.

Back at a temporary work station under a tarp, the skilled hands of
chief technician Caleb Spiegel kept the bird subdued while he checked
its weight and took measurements of beak, length and tail.

He looked under the feathers for body fat and added leg bands for
identification. And he took a blood sample to monitor whether the
disease was present at this altitude. Avian malaria is almost 100
percent fatal, but the birds have a safety zone of sorts.

The malaria protozoa carried in the mosquitoes can't survive in cool
temperatures. And at this elevation in the rainforest it's cool
enough to be disease-free. But that zone may shrink, even disappear,
because of global warming.

The data gathered, Spiegel gave the bird a drink of sugar water and
released it back into the forest. Patrick Hart is a researcher with
the U.S. Geological Survey.

He says temperatures have already risen in Hawaii's forests,
shrinking the safe zone and leading to a decrease in population.

PATRICK HART: Most places you go in Hawaii , you won't hear the
numbers of species that we're hearing right now. And that's all
because we're out of the disease zone. If we went downhill another
thousand feet in elevation, we wouldn't be hearing acepas, we
wouldn't be hearing creepers, we wouldn't be hearing akeapola.

TOM BEARDEN: And just 1,000 feet down you have what amounts to a
partial desert?

PATRICK HART: For birds, yeah. Yeah, exactly. We'd be in a forest
that looks like this, and you might not even hear a Hawaiian bird in
a minute or more, not one call.

TOM BEARDEN: Silent forest.

PATRICK HART: Silent forest, yeah.

Temperature change
TOM BEARDEN: Do you any idea how much change in temperature can cause
a threat to the birds?

PATRICK HART: Really just a couple of degrees, I would think. If the
mosquitoes are able to come up the mountain just another 1,000 feet
than they do now, they could be transmitting a lot more disease and
could wipe out a whole community of Hawaiian birds with just a couple
degree increase, we think.

TOM BEARDEN: Atkinson co-authored a study projecting what would
happen if the Hawaiian temperature rose by two degrees.

Under that scenario, the healthy birds were confined to a narrow
disease-free zone between 5,000 and 6,500 feet. When the temperature
rose, the disease-free zone shrank on the island of Hawaii.

On the island of Kauai , it shrank even more dramatically. Dennis
LaPointe was another co-author of the study. He's a research
ecologist studying the mosquitoes who carry the disease to the birds.

DENNIS LA POINTE: What we're looking or focusing on now is disease
over the broad landscape. And we're hoping that, you know, through
doing this work, we will be able to develop control strategies that
will ultimately reduce disease or even eradicate disease in some
areas.

TOM BEARDEN: But global warming may affect Hawaii's forests in more
ways than just raw temperature. Changing the climate may also change
the way clouds form and how moisture reaches the soil.

Thomas Giambelluca, a climatologist at the University of Hawaii
working with the project, is trying to understand the subtleties of
the rainforest climate. He set up an 80-foot tower with moisture
sensors on top. Below that, on the forest floor, an elaborate series
of catchments measures rainfall that reaches the ground.

THOMAS GIAMBELLUCA: We use this system, which has a number of troughs
radiating out in the up-slope direction. That directs the water down
to a central funnel here. And beneath the funnel is a tipping bucket.
There's a data logger here that records the number of tips, actually
records the time of each tip, and that can remain in the field
without anyone attending it for quite a long time.

TOM BEARDEN: The sensors above the tree tops also measure moisture
from clouds and fog.

THOMAS GIAMBELLUCA: Rainfall's not the only input of water that we
get. When fog envelopes these trees, which very often happens here,
the droplets of water in the cloud directly impact the vegetation,
drip down to the soil and supply water just the same way that
rainfall does.

And some of the vegetation here also has aerial roots that can absorb
that water directly without it getting down to the soil.

So if there's a change in the elevation or the thickness, the range
of that cloud, that could impact this forest and other areas in
Hawaii.

The Hawaiian damselfly
TOM BEARDEN: Research ecologist David Foote is studying one of the
first species that might be affected by a change in moisture -- the
Hawaiian damselfly.

He's catching damselflies in artificial pools and numbering their
wings with a marking pen. Damselflies are also valuable because, as
Foote demonstrated in the lab, the larvae eat mosquito larvae.

In the forest, damselfly larvae tend to live in water droplets that
collect at the base of native lily plants.

DAVID FOOTE: Here we are -- right on the tip of my thumb. So, this is
a much younger stage in the development. They molt through several
skins as they grow larger. And I can put them side by side here on
the tip of my finger, maybe on two fingers, and you can see them
crawling around.

We predict that this species, because it requires such a specialized
aquatic habitat that it will be very sensitive to small changes in
moisture level.

TOM BEARDEN: So that little pocket of moisture at the base of those
leaves might not be there?

DAVID FOOTE: That's right. And as these forests get desiccated by
drought events, we think that species like this that are highly
specialized to very specific little aquatic niches are going to be
the ones that are lost first.

TOM BEARDEN: The scientists on the project will also examine the role
that non-climate factors have on species, like human land use --
clearing forests to graze cattle and expanding towns and resorts. The
Hawaiian study does not limit itself to looking at present-day
conditions.

Research assistant Shelley Crausbay is studying paleoecology, the
history of Hawaii's past climate. She recreates that history by
studying core samples from a Hawaiian lake bed -- because there is
little oxygen at the bottom of the lake bed, grains of pollen, pieces
of moss, and even entire insects have been perfectly preserved. Some
are as old as 12,000 years.

SHELLEY CRAUSBAY: Most scientists have come to a consensus that
climate change has been initiated, and what paleoecology can offer
now is how will ecosystems respond to climate change? How have they
responded in the past? How sensitive have they been? What kind of
climatic change does it take to initiate a change in vegetation and
how intense, in what direction, and what duration?

TOM BEARDEN: The long-term goal of the whole project is to tie
together the pieces from past and present, to model the entire system
across the whole Hawaiian landscape.

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Grist Magazine <grist@...>
To: daily-grist@...
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 14:01:22 -0700
Subject: DAILY GRIST, 03 Jun 2004

Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

1.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW NEVER DIES
Film Plot Rings True as NOAA Runs up Against White House

In Roland Emmerich's climate-change blockbuster "The Day After
Tomorrow" -- perhaps you've heard about it? -- a crusading scientist
from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tries to get
the word out about the dangers of sudden climate change, butting
heads with a recalcitrant vice president (who looks suspiciously like
a certain Dick we know).  Much of the science in the movie is
preposterous, but it turns out that the notion of the White House
shushing NOAA scientists is right on the money.  Find out how life
imitates, um, "art" in Muckraker -- today on the Grist Magazine
website.

today in Grist:  White House efforts to quiet NOAA echo film -- in
Muckraker
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/muck/muck060304.asp?source=daily>

sign up:  Receive word by email each time a new Muckraker column hits the
scene
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/signup/subgrist.asp?source=daily>



2.
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVELOCK
Famed Ecologist Argues Nuclear Power Needed to Fight Global Warming

A prominent ecologist is raising a ruckus in environmental circles by
arguing that the world needs to immediately embrace nuclear energy if
it's to have any chance of combating climate change.  James Lovelock,
the U.K. scientist whose Gaia Hypothesis -- that the earth itself is
a self-regulating organism -- made him famous (well, in some
circles), argued in a recent op-ed in The Independent that humanity
needs to stop burning fossil fuels straight away and "there is no
chance that the renewables, wind, tide, and water power can provide
enough energy and in time," so nuclear is our only option for the
next few decades.  He entreated environmentalists "to drop their
wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy."  Many enviros were not
convinced.  As Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth U.K. put it,
"Climate change and radioactive waste both pose deadly long-term
threats, and we have a moral duty to minimize the effect of both, not
to choose between them."

straight to the source:  The Independent, James Lovelock, 24 May 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2556>

straight to the source:  Terra Daily, Agence France-Presse, 24 May 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2555>

straight to the source:  BBC News, Alex Kirby, 03 Jun 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2554>



3.
10 THINGS I HAITI ABOUT YOU
Deforestation in Haiti Increases Flood Danger

More than 90 percent of the country of Haiti is deforested.  If you
think that's depressing, consider that the lack of trees to hold soil
in place has left Haiti's rural residents vulnerable to periodic
floods in which torrential rainwater tumbles down mountains, picking
up gravel and boulders that slam into villages.  A flood last week
killed 1,700 people around the village of Mapou.  And yes, it gets
worse:  The root of the problem is poverty.  Virtually no one in the
country outside a few urban centers has access to electricity, so
they burn tree-derived charcoal to cook.  Government ministers met
yesterday to consider solutions ranging from importing propane or
wood to increasing enforcement of the logging bans regularly flouted
by desperate residents.  The U.S. and France are both offering some
food and reforestation aid, but it's unlikely to dent the problems of
a country that has descended almost completely into poverty.  Gloom
and doom, yes.  Humor, not so much this time.

straight to the source:  Yahoo! News, Associated Press, Paisley
Dodds, 02 Jun 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2551>

see also, in Grist:  A view of flood damage in Haiti -- a dispatch by
Peace Corps volunteer David Doherty
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/dearme/doherty121203.asp?source=daily>



4.
MIGHTY MORPHIN' COAL-POWER RANGERS
NAFTA Commission Critical of Coal-Fired Power Plants

Overall pollution in North America declined by 10 percent from 1998
to 2001 (the last year for which figures are available), but
coal-fired power plants continue to lag behind other sources in the
pace of improvement and in reducing the total amount of  pollution,
according to a new report.  The Commission for Environmental
Cooperation, a panel established by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico
under NAFTA, listed 46 coal-fired power plants among the top 50
polluters in North America.  Release of chemical pollutants by
industrial sources overall fell by 18 percent, while production from
power plants fell by only 9 percent.  "The [power plant] sector
generated 45 percent of the 755,502 tons of toxic air releases in
2001, with hydrochloric and sulfuric acids being the chemicals most
commonly released from the burning of coal and oil," said a statement
released with the report, which also tagged power plants with "64
percent of all mercury air emissions, mainly from coal combustion."

straight to the source:  San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press,
John Heilprin, 02 Jun 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2549>

straight to the source:  Terra Daily, Agence France-Presse, 02 Jun 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2550>



5.
COAL HAND LUKE
EPA Proposal Altered to Favor Coal-Fired Power Plants

On the heels of today's report that 46 of the top 50 polluters in
North America are coal-fired power plants comes this tidbit:  A U.S.
EPA proposal to curb interstate air pollution was altered by the
White House at the last minute in a way that heavily favors, uh,
coal-fired power plants.  The proposal would establish a pollution
credit-trading system for soot and ozone emissions, to be run by the
states, similar to the sulfur-dioxide trading system currently in
place to reduce acid rain.  A section was deleted from the final
draft last month by the White House Office of Management and Budget;
the seemingly arcane change -- switching from the energy output-based
system favored by enviros and gas and nuclear-power utilities to an
energy input-based system that favors coal-fired utilities -- could
mean "tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars to large utilities,"
says Michael Bradley of the Clean Energy Group, which represents some
dozen utilities.  Coincidentally, most of the coal-fired power plants
that will benefit from the change are located in swing states
important in the upcoming presidential election.

straight to the source:  The Globe and Mail/Wall Street Journal, John
J. Fialka, 03 Jun 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2552>

straight to the source:  BushGreenwatch, 03 Jun 2004
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=2553>

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Also in GRIST MAGAZINE:

Another one bytes the slush -- Charles Wohlforth's "The Whale and the
Supercomputer" compares views of climate change -- reviewed by
Elizabeth Grossman in Books Unbound
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/books/books060204.asp?source=daily>


A new global perestroika -- dispatches from an international dialogue
on science and sustainability -- by Michael Levitin
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/dispatches/levitin060104.asp?source=daily>


Watership down -- the world is running low on H20 -- by Lester Brown
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/imho/imho091900.asp?source=daily>

-----------------------------------------------------------------
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GRIST MAGAZINE, a beacon in the smog, at <http://www.gristmagazine.com>.




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PALEONTOLOGY

Snakeheads: Coming Down the Mountains
Linda Rowan

Snakeheads (Channidae) are air-breathing freshwater fish that can walk on

the land and jump in the water. These large fish (0.3 to 1.8 m long) have

heavy bones and sharp teeth. Unfortunately, they are predatory and have
become a problem in North America, where they have been introduced
accidentally and could decimate native species.

An excellent fossil record of this robust fish indicates an origin in
Pakistan at least 50 million years ago (Ma). Bohme tracked their
migration
into western Eurasia about 17 Ma and into Africa and eastern Asia about 8

Ma. In nature, extant snakeheads are restricted to African and Asian
regions of high precipitation with temperatures greater than 20{o}C.
Using
these climatic restrictions, the author inferred that their migration
about
17 Ma fits with a northward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone,
and their migration about 8 Ma fits with the development of the Asian
monsoon--two climatic shifts related to the uplift of the Alps, Pyrenees,

and Himalayas. Thus, the mobility of the snakeheads traces paleoclimate
and
past tectonics. -- LR

Geology 32, 393 (2004).
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/etoc

Copyright (c) 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science.
Fw: Editors' Choice:  304 (5676)

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Historic global warming vote could come up next week
---------------------------------------------------
June 3, 2004

I've just learned that Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph
Lieberman (D-CT) are looking for time on the Senate schedule as
soon as next week to bring their historic Climate Stewardship
Act up for an all-important second vote. That means we could
have less than one week from today for our final push to pass
the bill.

The new timing has given us a chance to extend our grassroots
organizing, advertising and petition gathering efforts. As you
may recall, we had originally thought a vote would come as early
as May.

With this urgent vote push, we now have less than a week to
raise the additional $250,000 we need to keep the pressure on.
Click here to make a final contribution in support of
Environmental Defense Action Fund's 51 Club to help us get to a
global warming majority of 51 Senate votes --
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/91q6AKp1VQOA/

Even at this late stage, with your contribution, we can step up
our ad buys in our target states. Every dollar counts and could
make the difference. With your contribution, here are just a few
of the ad buys we could expand in the stretch run to the vote:

* $425 = 10 television ads in Memphis, Tennessee, during ABC's
Good Morning America
* $1,670 = 100,000 banner ad impressions on fieldandstream.com
* $4,605 = 1 print ad in the Sunday New Orleans Times Picayune
* $12,129 = 1 print ad in the Sunday Cleveland Plain Dealer
* $25,279 = 70 cable television ads in each of the media
markets in the target states

We've also picked up that some energy industry lobbyists are
stepping up their opposition to the bill, realizing that
Senators McCain and Lieberman are dead serious about forcing
another vote in this session of Congress. This is on top of the
ongoing campaign by the big polluters to discredit some of the
world's leading scientists and muddle the science of global
warming. That's why it's so urgent that we be able to respond
with effective organizing and advertising in these final
countdown days.

What our opponents don't seem to realize - or choose to ignore -
is that every day the problems of global warming are getting
worse.

We are already seeing global temperature rises and more extreme
weather patterns. Arctic sea ice has shrunk by 250 million acres
-- an area the size of California, Maryland and Texas combined.
Severe drought affecting parts of North America, Southern Europe
and Southern and Central Asia in recent years has been linked to
global warming. And in the U.S. alone, crop losses brought on by
global warming are expected to double by 2030 to around $3
billion. [For more details on the global warming impacts, read
our climate change white paper -- "The Heat Is On"
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/i7q6AKp1VQOq/]

The clock is ticking and the temperature is rising. Passing the
bipartisan and practical McCain-Lieberman is a critical first
step toward changing the politics of indifference that permeates
Washington, D.C.

I believe we can astound the pundits and deliver a total of 51
votes for the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act in the
Senate test ahead. Against all odds, and against the intense
lobbying of our opponents, we were able to defy the pundits'
predictions and come within striking distance of a majority last
October.

But since the vote could come up any day now, every minute
counts. We are nearing the home stretch and must now redouble
our efforts. So even if you've made a generous gift recently,
please consider making an additional contribution today.

Click here to link to our secure online giving page:
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/91q6AKp1VQOA/

Quite frankly, the stakes are so high for the environment that
we simply must succeed.

I hope you will help make history.

Fred

P.S. Every dollar will help us win this critical vote. If you
can give more than $51 please consider doing so. If less, know
that I appreciate whatever amount you can afford.
http://actionnetwork.org/ct/91q6AKp1VQOA/
--------------------------------------------------

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
http://actionnetwork.org/join-forward.html?domain=ed_donor_appeals&r=m7q6
AKp1Dj4Y

--------------------------------------------------

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/active_planet/

________________________________________________________________
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--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "harelbarzilai" <harelbarzilai@...>
To: powertothepeople@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 22:06:15 -0000
Fossil-Fuel Based Society: we're "At War with Planet Earth Itself"

World 'appeasing' climate threat
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent

One of the UK's best-known scientists, Professor James Lovelock, says
only a catastrophe will prompt the world to tackle the threat of climate
change.

He says the global climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, is simply an
attempt to appease a self-regulating Earth system.

Professor Lovelock thinks the Earth's attempts to restore its equilibrium
may eliminate civilisation and most humans.

He wants a rapid end to the destruction of natural habitats, which he
says are key to planetary climate and chemistry.

======
"We are at war with the Earth itself. We are Gaia's target now"
--Professor James Lovelock
======

  Professor Lovelock won acclaim for developing the Gaia Hypothesis, which
suggests the Earth functions as a single organism which maintains the
conditions necessary for its survival.

His latest comments were made at a conference at Dartington Hall in
Devon. He told a collection of scientists, civil servants and others
concerned about climate change of his concern at the prospect facing the
Earth.

Professor Lovelock said: "In the late 1930s when I was a student we knew
that war was imminent, but there was no clear idea of what to do about
it.

Future fears

"I find a marked similarity between attitudes over 60 years ago and those
now towards the threat of global [climate] change.


"Most of us think that something unpleasant may soon happen but we are as
confused over what to do about it as we were in 1938.

"Our response so far is just like that in 1938, an attempt to appease.
The Kyoto agreement is uncannily like that of Munich, with politicians
out to show that they do respond but in reality are bidding for time."

Professor Lovelock said global warming was "the response of our outraged
planet", and the consequences for humanity were likely to be far worse
than any war.

"We are at war with the Earth itself", he said. "We are Gaia's target
now." Professor Lovelock added that we had still to wake up to the
seriousness of our plight, with some people continuing to deny that
global change even existed.

Heeding them, or the deep Greens who rejected science, would allow the
planet to return to its normal state of health, "but by eliminating the
majority of humans and probably civilization as well".

Repeating his call for humans to use the best technology, including
nuclear energy, Professor Lovelock said: "There may be a way to come to
terms with Gaia and survive, and it is to take the hi-tech road.

"We must stop fretting over the minute statistical risks of cancer from
chemicals or radiation.

Scorched Earth policy

"Our goal should be the cessation of fossil fuel consumption as quickly
as possible, and there must be no more natural habitat destruction
anywhere.

"To attempt to farm the whole Earth to feed people, even with organic
farming, would make us like sailors who burnt the timbers and rigging of
their ship to keep warm.

"The natural ecosystems of the Earth are not just there for us to take as
farmland; they are there to sustain the climate and the chemistry of the
planet."

In place of sustainable development, Professor Lovelock called for "a
well-planned sustainable retreat", a programme that would dwarf the space
and military programmes.

He said his hope lay "in that powerful force that takes over our lives
when we sense that our tribe or nation is threatened from outside".

Professor Lovelock told BBC News Online: "I do think it will take a
disaster to wake us up.

"We had one in Europe last summer with the heatwaves which killed 20,000
people. I'm afraid it will take more of the same, or something else like
that, to stir us."

Tony Juniper, from Friends of the Earth, said there was much to admire in
Professor Lovelock's thinking but it was crazy to consider nuclear power
as a solution.

"One of the advantages of nuclear power is that it produces fewer carbon
dioxide emissions than fossil fuels, but weighed against this are a great
many disadvantages - and top of the list is what to do with the very
deadly radioactive waste," he told the BBC.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3766831.stm
=============

DON'T MOURN, ACT! WEBSITES FOR ACTION:

http://www.greenhousenet.org/

http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp

http://www.solarcatalyst.com/

Overview and local actions you can take: http://www.PostCarbon.org
=============
:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/powertothepeople/


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Gulf Stream Migration Routes Affects Biological Productivity
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oceans-04i.html
illustration only
Providence RI SPX) Jun 04, 2004
Situated between the continental shelf of the eastern United States and the
north wall of the Gulf Stream flowing eastward from Cape Hatteras, the Slope Sea
is a transition region between the productively rich coastal waters and the
productively static open ocean.
In the current SeaWiFS special issue of Deep Sea Research II, University of
Rhode Island oceanographers Stephanie E. Schollaert, Thomas Rossby, and James
Yoder describe their four-year, NASA-funded study of the Slope Sea along the
Gulf Stream in order to understand the processes that control the yearly
variability of surface concentrations of chlorophyll, the pigment found in
plants and algae.

Annually, cold, fresh Labrador waters "spill" into the Slope Sea, influencing
the path of the Gulf Stream, pushing it south in the spring. Since the advent of
ocean color remote sensing in 1978 and particularly since the 1997 launch of the
dedicated ocean color sensor SeaWiFS, the surface chlorophyll concentration of
waters off the U.S. east coast have been found to be highest in the north (e.g.,
Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, Labrador shelf) and during the winter when the Gulf
Stream is farthest south and more Labrador water is present.

The scientists expected that during the years when the Slope Sea expanded due to
a greater transport of Labrador water, primary productivity, or the production
of plankton that forms the basis of the food chain, would be increased. However,
their results showed the opposite effect.

The Gulf Stream location determines the area of the Slope Sea and the extent to
which nutrients are present. Years when the Gulf Stream is farther south the
average chlorophyll concentrations are smaller and vice-versa when the Gulf
Stream is offset to the north. An increased number of Gulf Stream rings may also
play an important role in supplying additional nutrients to the surface waters.

While the north-south movement of the Gulf Stream is the primary determinant of
Slope Sea chlorophyll concentrations, the current's movement may also generate
other effects that may influence biological productivity.

Understanding how the Gulf Stream's migration affects biological productivity in
the Slope Sea will help scientists make inferences about large-scale, low
frequency climatic effects upon the carbon cycle of ocean margin waters.




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"We're disturbing the system at rates that greatly exceed those that have
characterized climatic changes in the past," Lowe said.

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/climate-04zj.html

Continents Played Key Role In Collapse And Regeneration Of Earth's Early
Greenhouse

illustration only
by Dawn Levy
Stanford CA (SPX) Jun 04, 2004
If a time machine could take us back 4.6 billion years to the Earth's birth,
we'd see our sun shining 20 to 25 percent less brightly than today. Without an
earthly greenhouse to trap the sun's energy and warm the atmosphere, our world
would be a spinning ball of ice. Life may never have evolved.
But life did evolve, so greenhouse gases must have been around to warm the
Earth. Evidence from the geologic record indicates an abundance of the
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Methane probably was present as well, but that
greenhouse gas doesn't leave enough of a geologic footprint to detect with
certainty.

Molecular oxygen wasn't around, indicate rocks from the era, which contain iron
carbonate instead of iron oxide. Stone fingerprints of flowing streams, liquid
oceans and minerals formed from evaporation confirm that 3 billion years ago,
Earth was warm enough for liquid water.

Now, the geologic record revealed in some of Earth's oldestrocks is telling a
surprising tale of collapse of that greenhouse - and its subsequent
regeneration. But even more surprising, say the Stanford scientists who report
these findings in the May 25 issue of the journal Geology, is the critical role
that rocks played in the evolution of the early atmosphere.

"This is really the first time we've tried to put together a picture of how the
early atmosphere, early climate and early continental evolution went hand in
hand," said Donald R. Lowe, a professor of geological and environmental science
who wrote the paper with Michael M. Tice, a graduate student investigating early
life. NASA's Exobiology Program funded their work. "In the geologic past,
climate and atmosphere were really profoundly influenced by development of
continents."

The record in the rocks
To piece together geologic clues about what the early atmosphere was like and
how it evolved, Lowe, a field geologist, has spent virtually every summer since
1977 in South Africa or Western Australia collecting rocks that are, literally,
older than the hills. Some of the Earth's oldest rocks, they are about 3.2 to
3.5 billion years old.

"The further back you go, generally, the harder it is to find a faithful record,
rocks that haven't been twisted and squeezed and metamorphosed and otherwise
altered," Lowe says. "We're looking back just about as far as the sedimentary
record goes."

After measuring and mapping rocks, Lowe brings samples back to Stanford to cut
into sections so thin that their features can be revealed under a microscope.
Collaborators participate in geochemical and isotopic analyses and computer
modeling that further reveal the rocks' histories.

The geologic record tells a story in which continents removed the greenhouse gas
carbon dioxide from an early atmosphere that may have been as hot as 70 degrees
Celsius (158 F). At this time the Earth was mostly ocean. It was too hot to have
any polar ice caps.

Lowe hypothesizes that rain combined with atmospheric carbon dioxide to make
carbonic acid, which weathered jutting mountains of newly formed continental
crust. Carbonic acid dissociated to form hydrogen ions, which found their way
into the structures of weathering minerals, and bicarbonate, which was carried
down rivers and streams to be deposited as limestone and other minerals in ocean
sediments.

Over time, great slabs of oceanic crust were pulled down, or subducted, into the
Earth's mantle. The carbon that was locked into this crust was essentially lost,
tied up for the 60 million years or so that it took the minerals to get recycled
back to the surface or outgassed through volcanoes.

The hot early atmosphere probably contained methane too, Lowe says. As carbon
dioxide levels fell due to weathering, at some point, levels of carbon dioxide
and methane became about equal, he conjectures. This caused the methane to
aerosolize into fine particles, creating a haze akin to that which today is
present in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. This "Titan Effect" occurred
on Earth 2.7 to 2.8 billion years ago.

The Titan Effect removed methane from the atmosphere and the haze filtered out
light; both caused further cooling, perhaps a temperature drop of 40 to 50
degrees Celsius. Eventually, about 3 billion years ago, the greenhouse just
collapsed, Lowe and Tice theorize, and the Earth's first glaciation may have
occurred 2.9 billion years ago.

The rise after the fall
Here the rocks reveal an odd twist in the story -- eventual regeneration of the
greenhouse. Recall that 3 billion years ago, Earth was essentially Waterworld.
There weren't any plants or animals to affect the atmosphere. Even algae hadn't
evolved yet. Primitive photosynthetic microbes were around and may have played a
role in the generation of methane and minor usage of carbon dioxide.

As long as rapid continental weathering continued, carbonate was deposited on
the oceanic crust and subducted into what Lowe calls "a big storage facility ...
that kept most of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere."

But as carbon dioxide was removed from the atmosphere and incorporated into
rock, weathering slowed down ú there was less carbonic acid to erode mountains
and the mountains were becoming lower. But volcanoes were still spewing into the
atmosphere large amounts of carbon from recycled oceanic crust.

"So eventually the carbon dioxide level climbs again," Lowe says. "It may never
return to its full glorious 70 degrees Centigrade level, but it probably climbed
to make the Earth warm again."

This summer, Lowe and Tice will collect samples that will allow them to
determine the temperature of this time interval, about 2.6 to 2.7 billion years
ago, to get a better idea of how hot Earth got.

New continents formed and weathered, again taking carbondioxide out of the
atmosphere. About 3 billion years ago, maybe 10 or 15 percent of the Earth's
present area in continental crust had formed. By 2.5 billion years ago, an
enormous amount of new continental crust had formed -- about 50 to 60 percent of
the present area of continental crust. During this second cycle, weathering of
the larger amount of rock caused even greater atmospheric cooling, spurring a
profound glaciation about 2.3 to 2.4 billion years ago.

Over the past few million years we have been oscillating back and forth between
glacial and interglacial epochs, Lowe says. We are in an interglacial period
right now. It's a transition ú and scientists are still trying to understand the
magnitude of global climate change caused by humans in recent history compared
to that caused by natural processes over the ages.

"We're disturbing the system at rates that greatly exceed those that have
characterized climatic changes in the past," Lowe said.

"Nonetheless, virtually all of the experiments, virtually all of the variations
and all of the climate changes that we're trying to understand today have
happened before. Nature's done most of these experiments already. If we can
analyze ancient climates, atmospheric compositions and the interplay among the
crust, atmosphere, life and climate in the geologic past, we can take some first
steps at understanding what is happening today and likely to happen tomorrow."


________________________________________________________________
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GS-D-HQ Office of Communications" <officeofcomm@...>
Date  Friday, June 4, 2004 5:39 am
To  usgs-news@...
Subject  USGS in the News, 6/3/2004
USGS in the News, 6/4/2004

Contributors:  Susan Hutson, Heather Friesen, Catherine Puckett, Marcia
Nelson
========================
1.  Small quake shakes northern California (CNN Europe (NAT))
2.  What's lost when the spray clears (Los Angeles Times (CA))
3.  Lava flow both impressive and 'a little scary' (Honolulu Advertiser
(HI))
4.  A fast germ test before you swim (Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH))
5.  Geologists' Drilling Taps Ancient Bay Crater (Washington Times (DC))
6.  Link found between leech, turtle tumors (Honolulu Advertiser (HI))
7.  Drought, beetles may trump artificial forest thinning (USA Today (NAT))
8.  Experts remain puzzled over beak deformities in Alaska's birds
(Anchorage Daily
    News (AK))
9.  Drought may 'reset' forest ecosystems (Seattle Times (WA))
10. Crater's history comes to surface (Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA))
11. 1,000 frog species yet to be discovered (Washington Times (DC))
12. Hurricanes shape state ecology, landscape (Orlando/Daytona Florida
Today (FL))
13. EarthTalk: Is the world running out of oil? (Environmental News Network
(NAT))
14. Earthquake rocks northern Iran; 35 killed (Buffalo News (NY))
15. Colorado conversion? (Sacramento Bee (CA))
16. Iran Quake Kills 25, Six Die in Helicopter Crash (Boston Globe (MA))
17. World oil production on downward side of Hubbert's Peak (Springfield
News-
    Leader (MO))
18. This world is running on empty (Houston Chronicle (TX))
18. Russia Is World's Key to Having Oil to Burn (Los Angeles Times (CA))
20. The earth's climate will change (St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO))
21. Water Pressure (National Wildlife Federation)
22. PREDICTING EARTHQUAKES (Online News Hour)
23. Expert: Third World Poised for EQ Catastrophe (NPR)
24. Fish Invasion (Kare 11 (MO))
=========================
1.  Small quake shakes northern California (CNN Europe (NAT)), 6/3

(CNN) -- A 4.5-magnitude earthquake rattled parts of northern California
early Thursday. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/West/06/03/california.quake/index.html
=============================
2.  What's lost when the spray clears (Los Angeles Times (CA)), 6/3

Many home gardeners use pesticides, but an unfortunate side effect may be
the estrangement of birds and bees, and the sunset of a simpler life.

By Emily Green, Times Staff Writer

As the Saturday morning TV gardener P. Allen Smith gave tips last weekend
on how to make a toad house by turning a flower pot upside down, the
commercial breaks consisted entirely of dueling lawn care ads from Scott
Co. and Bayer CropScience for products that would kill dandelions, kill
crabgrass, kill grubs.

There was no mention that these products would also kill the toad.

Not many of us could be expected to know this. Too few of us farm to
recognize many garden products as diverted agricultural pesticides. But
many are, and in the last 50 years, the home garden market has become one
of the easiest, and least scrutinized, places for agrochemical giants to
funnel untold amounts of big-gun farm chemicals.

Yes, they are legal, but if given one wish, mine would be to ban them. To
my mind, there is no place for these products in the home garden. They kill
insects, kill weeds and kill fungi precisely because they're poisons. The
chances that we might misuse them isn't high, it's inevitable ? and
mistakes can have devastating consequences.

Take Rosepride, an Ortho product promising "total flower care." The
insecticide in it is an organophosphate, a class of chemicals developed in
the runup to World War II in Germany as a chemical weapon and a suspected
cause of Gulf War Syndrome and chronic fatigue. A farmer would use it in
the face of a plague of locusts. Ortho recommends we use it in our flower
beds as often as every seven days.

Every seven days?

For flowers?

Perhaps more egregiously, for the novice gardener inundated with
advertisements, the overwhelming message is that using these chemicals is
the way to garden. In fact, with a bit of skill, we not only can produce
beautiful, healthy plants, but also protect ourselves.

For most of human evolution, humans didn't poison pests, we outsmarted
them: We'd avoid mosquitoes by clearing stagnant water, or stocking ponds
with fish that ate them. We'd aerate shrubs to avoid fungus. We'd compost
yard clippings in a pile mixed with leaves and manure and wet as often as
it took to get hot enough to kill weed seeds and check plant pathogens.
We'd stop pruning in spring to encourage nesting birds who glean aphids.
Some farmers kept lush hedgerows in old fields precisely to accommodate
those fabulous creatures. Birds would get help from lacewings and wasps and
ladybirds. We'd add compost soil to improve drainage and avoid boggy and
diseased conditions. We'd choose hardy plants, suited to the region.

As so many of us moved to cities, in only two generations we have largely
lost those skills. We've gone from gardening with our wits to using
chemicals. During the transition, we've trusted our regulators, chiefly the
Environmental Protection Agency, to keep those chemicals safe.

It's done as good a job as the Food and Drug Administration has keeping
junk food healthful. Back to Rosepride, which, in addition to containing
organophospates to kill the bugs, contains the fungicide Triforine as part
of its "triple action" cocktail. It is an EPA Class 1 chemical, meaning
highly toxic. We apply it to rosebushes to do the job discreet pruning and
a spray with the hose could manage.

The predominant herbicide in weed-and-feed treatments is the chemical
2,4-D, one of two active ingredients that made up Agent Orange. This is a
hormone-disruptor that throws a plant's growth into overdrive, causing it
to grow itself to death. Chemists explain it as "cancer for plants."

EPA statisticians and University of Minnesota pathologists associate 2,4-D
with high levels of cancer in Midwestern crop workers, and birth defects in
children conceived during spring spraying. The National Cancer Institute
looked at it as a possible source of cancer in family pets exposed to
treated lawns. The debate remains open as to whether the chemical caused
the cancers; meanwhile, 2,4-D remains on the market.

Manufacturers only admit problems when we fail to follow their
instructions. The industry term is "off-label" use. This ignores the
overwhelming likelihood that a busy householder won't read the fine print,
and spray pesticides wearing nothing but a T-shirt and shorts, inhaling
residual as he goes. A professional applicator would wear boots, long
pants, long-sleeves, a mask and often goggles. He or she would work before
dawn, before winds rise.

The risk is even more alarming for immigrant gardeners who don't speak
English.

The interests of wildlife and the environment are treated as beneath
mention. The newest wave insecticide, Imidacloprid, used in systemic rose
treatments, is heralded as a good thing because it kills only bees. What
about the inherent obscenity of treating a flower with a chemical that
kills its pollinator?

Finally there is the irony that once you begin using pesticides,
particularly insecticides, you not only lose your pollinators, but you also
either poison or starve the beneficial insects, reptiles and birds that
would have naturally controlled scale, aphids, mites and white flies in the
first place. Once you do this, you've effectively fired nature and become
hooked on pesticides.

The agro-chemical industry likes to promote the idea that using pesticides
is the traditional way to garden, that more organic practices are niche,
new wave, a bit out there, frankly. The opposite is true. The ability to
synthesize nitrogen for fertilizers (and bombs) was only developed in
Germany during World War I, and the fertilizers only mass-marketed after
World War II.

Pesticide manufacturers invariably point to the exhaustive safety trials
done before the products are licensed by the EPA. The problem with these is
we don't use what the government approves. Our regulators scrutinize only
the active ingredient, the poison. This rarely constitutes 10% of the
product, and often as little as 2%. The rest is a mix of soaps and oils to
make a product stick and penetrate the target. But safety tests on rats
done during the licensing phase use only pure active ingredient, before
it's been mixed with things expressly designed to make it more persistent.

They say dose makes the poison. However, with pesticides, there is no way
of measuring the environmental load. Manufacturers are not obligated to
report sales, and most decline EPA invitations to volunteer the
information. Even the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, which
monitors professional use, does not audit the home market. A 10-year-old
EPA estimate, fashioned after studying financial reports, is that 50
million pounds of active ingredient goes into the American homeowner market
every year.

Whatever the amount, when the U.S. Geological Survey tests streams and
rivers around urban centers, it routinely finds every garden chemical, led
by weedkillers. The overflow is inevitable. Lawns are graded toward gutters
to direct water from home foundations. When sprinkler systems click on,
irrigation water, fertilizers and pesticides run the same course, down
gutters, catch basins, storm drains, streams and to the ocean.

Although farmers try to alter their practices every year with a steady
conversion to organic methods and ever more refined versions of Integrated
Pest Management, there is a social imperative to allow them to use
pesticides when needed.

For homeowners, the obvious solution is to avoid pesticides. Why poison our
eighth of an acre under the stars?

=============================
3.  Lava flow both impressive and 'a little scary' (Honolulu Advertiser
(HI)), 6/2

By Kevin Dayton and Mike Gordon, Advertiser Staff Writers

HAWAI'I VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK ? Lava from Kilauea volcano poured into the
ocean yesterday from several places along the Wilipe'a delta, attracting
scores of visitors.   Those who made the trek down the last half-mile of
Chain of Craters Road and across three-quarters of a mile of old lava flows
were impressed with the sight, and most especially with the heat.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jun/02/ln/ln03a.html/?print=on
============================
4.  A fast germ test before you swim (Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH)), 6/2

Cuyahoga River samples used to assess new method

By Steve Luttner, Plain Dealer Reporter

Boston Heights


Inside an old farmhouse here is a laboratory where the federal government
is studying a new, quicker method of testing the quality of public waters.
Water samples are drawn daily from the long-abused Cuyahoga River, which
cuts through the 33,000-acre Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/summit/1086168776167500.xml
===========================
5.  Geologists' Drilling Taps Ancient Bay Crater (Washington Times (DC)),
6/2

CAPE CHARLES, Va. (AP) -- Geologists drilling half a mile below Virginia's
Eastern Shore say they have uncovered more signs of a space rock's impact
35 million years ago.
For more than two weeks, scientists drilled round-the-clock alongside a
parking lot across the harbor from Cape Charles. They stopped at 2,700
feet.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20040601-115416-2545r
==========================
6.  Link found between leech, turtle tumors (Honolulu Advertiser (HI)), 6/1

By Timothy Hurley, Advertiser Staff Writer

Scientists working in Hawai'i have discovered a link between a marine leech
and fibropapilloma, the deadly tumor disease that has plagued sea turtles
here and around the world.   The find, chronicled in a recent edition of
the Journal of Virology, offers hope that researchers are getting closer to
unlocking the mystery that has baffled scientists for decades.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jun/01/ln/ln07a.html/?print=on
===========================
7.  Drought, beetles may trump artificial forest thinning (USA Today
(NAT)), 6/1

By Associated Press

KINGS BEACH, Calif. (AP) _Even as the nation devotes billions of dollars to
artificially thinning crowded forests, a stressed-out Mother Nature is
taking matters into her own hands on a catastrophic scale humans can't hope
to match, scientists say.  An epidemic of bark beetles is killing untold
millions of trees from Alaska to Arizona.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/climate/2004-06-01-drought-trees_x.htm
============================
8.  Experts remain puzzled over beak deformities in Alaska's birds
(Anchorage Daily News (AK)), 6/1

Why is the problem more common in Southcentral than elsewhere?

By Doug O'Harra

With fury in its tiny dark eyes, the black-capped chickadee struggled to
escape research technician Lisa Pajot by pecking her fingers. But tips of
the bird's deformed beak had grown apart since its last monthly exam and it
could not pinch the skin.   Its feathers were dirty and a bit frayed too --
potentially fatal problems for a wild bird.

http://www.adn.com/front/story/5142731p-5073311c.html
============================
9.  Drought may 'reset' forest ecosystems (Seattle Times (WA)), 6/1

By Don Thompson, Associated Press


As the nation devotes billions of dollars to artificially thinning forests,
Mother Nature is taking matters into her own hands on a scale humans can't
hope to match, scientists say. An epidemic of bark beetles is killing
millions of trees in areas from Alaska to Arizona. In the Southwest, an
eight-year drought is killing many trees that the beetles don't.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2001943905&zs\
ection_id=2001780260&slug=drought01m&date=20040601
=========================
10.  Crater's history comes to surface (Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)), 6/1

A comet or asteroid may have formed a depression below Bay

BY A.J. Hostetler, Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Geologists drilling half a mile below the Eastern Shore say they uncovered
more signs of a space rock's impact 35 million years ago.  For more than
two weeks, scientists drilled around the clock alongside a parking lot at
the Sustainable Technology Park across the harbor from Cape Charles. They
stopped at 2,700 feet Wednesday.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Common%2FMGArticle%2FPri\
ntVersion&c=MGArticle&cid=1031775800219&image=timesdispatch80x60.gif&oasDN=times\
dispatch.com&oasPN=%21news
===============================
11.  1,000 frog species yet to be discovered (Washington Times (DC)), 5/31

New York, NY, May. 31 (UPI) -- Researchers have recorded some 4,900 frog
species -- including toads -- but scientists say there may be as many as
1,000 more yet to be discovered.  Christopher Raxworthy, associate curator
of the department of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History
in New York, said 990 species have been identified since 1995. But since
2000, perhaps a third of the U.S. amphibians have disappeared from local
habitats, the U.S. Geological Survey reports, and in the higher elevations
in South America and Australia, a number of species have been gone for
nearly a decade.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040531-070125-5588r.htm
==================================
12.  Hurricanes shape state ecology, landscape (Orlando/Daytona Florida
Today (FL)), 5/31

Changes make Florida unique


By Jim Waymer


Irene wiped out clams in Port St. John. Andrew set free Burmese pythons and
other exotic pets that still slither through the Everglades.   With the
good, bad, and sometimes ugly, hurricanes shape Florida's ecological
landscape. For better or worse, they spur the odd and spectacular on land,
lake and sea. Life evolved to endure the onslaughts.

http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/localstoryN0601HURRICANESGOOD0.htm
===========================
13.  EarthTalk: Is the world running out of oil? (Environmental News
Network (NAT)), 6/1

>From the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Is the world running out of oil?


? Allie Knopf, Kansas City, Missouri


Many experts say that evidence points to a declining world oil supply.
According to renowned petroleum geologist Colin Campbell, who has worked
for Texaco, BP, Shell, and other major oil companies, world oil discovery
peaked in the 1960s, while world production is set to peak about six years
from now. Campbell predicts "the onset of a chronic long-term shortage" by
2010.


According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), part of the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE), the United States has 22.7 billion barrels of
"proven" oil reserves as of January 2004, about 20 percent less than we had
in 1990. "Proven" refers to estimated amounts that can be recovered in
upcoming years with reasonable certainty.


Outside the United States, nearly two-thirds of the world's proven oil
reserves exist in the 11 countries that make up the Organization of the
Petroleum Export Countries (OPEC): Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait,
Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and
Venezuela.

The U.S. Geological Survey, which last conducted its World Petroleum
Assessment in 2000, estimated that 649 billion barrels of undiscovered oil
and 612 billion barrels of "oil reserve growth" exist outside the United
States. "Undiscovered" refers to oil located in places that haven't yet
been drilled or explored; "oil reserve growth" refers to new discoveries
near or in existing oil fields.


These estimates do not include oil sitting in storage facilities, such as
the1 billion barrel capacity U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, located
underground in salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico coast. It is the
world's largest cache of emergency oil, with a provision of 53 days of
import protection.

How much oil do we need anyway? According to the International Energy
Outlook, released this year by the EIA, world demand is expected to
increase by 1.9 percent annually, from 77 million barrels per day in 2001
to 121 million barrels per day in 2025, with much of the increase projected
to occur in the United States, China, and other developing nations in
Asia. More than 19 million barrels of oil were consumed per day in the United
States alone in 2003.


Dr. Nancy Kete, director of the World Resources Institute's Climate,
Energy, and Pollution Program, said, "We must face the inescapable fact
that the nation's environment, economy, national security, and oil resource
base all point to the need for vast investments in energy

============================
14.  Earthquake rocks northern Iran; 35 killed (Buffalo News (NY)), 5/30

By Ali Akbar Dareini, AP

MARZANABAD, Iran - Giant boulders and crushed cars littered a mountain road
Saturday, a day after landslides were unleashed by a strong earthquake in
northern and central Iran that killed at least 35 people and injured 250
others.   A helicopter flying a provincial governor and three of his aides
who had been surveying the damage crashed Saturday in the northern
mountains, killing all eight on board.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040530/1024702.asp


============================


15.  Colorado conversion? (Sacramento Bee (CA)), 5/30



A key interior official professes his love for the issue-rich river



By Stuart Leavenworth, Bee Staff Writer

RAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. - Hermit Rapid, known for its boat-gulping
waves, sits halfway down our trip through the Grand Canyon. It is hardly
the most dangerous rapid on the Colorado River, but it isn't a place for
amateurs - especially water lawyers who can't swim.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/9480541p-10404459c.html


============================



16.  Iran Quake Kills 25, Six Die in Helicopter Crash (Boston Globe (MA)),
5/30


By Parisa Hafezi

QAZVIN, Iran (Reuters) - Officials said Saturday at least 25 people had
died in Friday's earthquake in northern Iran and that six more, including
provincial leaders, were killed when a helicopter crashed en route to the
disaster scene.  The quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey measured at
6.2 magnitude, also shook the capital Tehran, sending startled residents
running into the streets and shattering some windows.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2004/05/30/iran_quake_kills\
_25_six_die_in_helicopter_crash?mode=PF
==============================
17.  World oil production on downward side of Hubbert's Peak (Springfield
News-Leader (MO)), 5/30

An important facet of petroleum economics not found in recent news stories
about rising gasoline prices is the prediction that world oil production
may be at or near its peak.   The prediction is based on "Hubbert's Peak,"
a theory developed by the late M. King Hubbert, a noted geophysicist who
taught at the university level, worked for the U.S. Geological Survey and
headed up research for Shell Oil Company during his long career, according
to published information about Hubbert and his work.

http://springfield.news-leader.com/opinions/today/0530-Worldoilpr-99833.html
================================

18.  This world is running on empty (Houston Chronicle (TX)), 6/29

By Llewellyn King

The late M. King Hubbert was a visionary in the world of oil and,
accordingly, he was either revered or reviled. Then he was forgotten. Now,
in a time of oil shortage, some economists are taking a furtive look as his
work.


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/editorial/outlook/2599066


=================================


19.  Russia Is World's Key to Having Oil to Burn (Los Angeles Times (CA)),
5/30


By James Flanigan


With sky-high gasoline prices burning into family budgets, the oil-using
world listened anxiously last week for words of deliverance from the Saudi
Arabian oil minister, Ali Ibrahim Naimi. Folks would have been wiser to
listen to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.


For as significant as Saudi production is ? and as helpful as Naimi's
pledge to increase petroleum output by 11% to 9 million barrels a day
should be ? it is Russia that will lift the globe out of its current energy
funk.


In the last five years, Russia's oil production has soared 48%, thanks to
steadily rising flows from new wells. The country is already producing 9
million barrels of oil a day, making it the world's largest producer.

But it isn't about to stop there. Putin and his oil ministers plan to crank
up output to 11 million barrels a day in the next five years. That rise,
coupled with the efforts of several other suppliers, is why crude prices ?
now at a lofty $40 a barrel and in some eyes headed to a stratospheric $50
? will settle back down to $25 by 2006.

It may sound crazy as American motorists head into the summer driving
season confronted by record pump prices. But by 2010, even as developing
countries such as China and India exhibit a nearly insatiable demand for
energy, production from non-OPEC nations probably will generate a surfeit
of oil. Today's headlines ? and hand-wringing ? will be a distant memory.


Joseph Stanislaw, president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, is
among those who see an oil surplus ahead. He predicts that global
production, now at 82 million barrels a day, will grow by 20 million
barrels by decade's end.

"Key to this balance is Russia," says Stanislaw, who has just issued a
report titled "Oil: How High Can It Go, and for How Long?"

New fields in Siberia are being developed by companies that suddenly stand
among the biggest anywhere. Lukoil Oil Co., Russia's largest petroleum
firm, for example, is now the world's second-largest private holder of oil
reserves, after Exxon Mobil Corp. (Lukoil also has acquired more than 2,000
gas stations in the U.S.)

Yukos Oil Co. and Sibneft, Russia's second- and third-ranked producers,
respectively, are also developing projects in Siberia's forbidding
vastness.

Russia sets aside opportunities in Siberia for homegrown companies, but it
takes in partners elsewhere in its enormous territory. ConocoPhillips, for
example, is in a joint venture in the Russian Arctic with Rosneft ("neft"
is the Russian word for oil). And Exxon Mobil is part of a project on
Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East.

As is always the case with finding and tapping oil, collecting the prize
isn't easy. For all its ambitions, Russia faces a paucity of pipeline
capacity as it tries to get the stuff out of Siberia to waiting markets in
Europe and Asia. Putin, in fact, stepped in personally last week to
reprimand Transneft, the state-controlled firm with a monopoly on
pipelines, for bureaucratic dawdling.


He made specific suggestions for pipelines that would run from eastern
Siberia to the Black Sea. Putin also is pushing Yukos to pump 1 million
barrels a day from its new Siberian field, even though he put Yukos'
chairman, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, in jail in December.

"The government must base its decisions on the interests of the state as a
whole and not on those of individual companies," the former KGB member said
in a speech Wednesday.

Russia is not alone in adding to the world's supply of oil. Other countries
including Mexico, Nigeria and Libya came forward last week with vows to
expand their output as well.

For its part, Canada plans to raise its production by 78% (to about 5
million barrels a day) this decade, mainly by increasing output from the
Athabasca oil sands in northern Alberta. The sands are gigantic formations
that hold more than 1.6 trillion barrels of oil ? more than all the world's
present reserves.

Companies don't actually drill the oil sands. Instead, they mine the muck
and manufacture crude oil from a mixture of sand, water and bitumen ?
asphalt in its natural state.

Facilities to separate oil from the mix are expensive to build. But SunCor
Energy Inc., a Calgary, Canada-based firm that controls leases on sands
containing 10 billion barrels of oil, is spending $7 billion over the next
five years to double its output to 500,000 barrels a day. Syncrude Canada
Ltd., a consortium in which Exxon Mobil has a stake, is looking to invest a
similar amount.


Of course, none of this should be taken as a signal to buy a second Hummer
and trip along blithely. Petroleum remains a finite resource. Eventually,
it will run out.

SunCor President Rick George notes that the use of oil energy will grow
more in the next 25 years than it has in the last quarter-century. Car
culture is just coming to China. The pressures on the resource base, on the
capital markets to fund the development of more oil and on the environment
to tolerate the burning of more hydrocarbons will expand geometrically.

What this means, in short, is that the clock is ticking.

This column has called attention many times to the need for our economy to
diversify away from oil and gas energy. Such warnings do not mean that oil
is running out today or tomorrow or even the day after that. The U.S.
Geological Survey postulates that petroleum supplies will be relatively
abundant until the 2040s. That gives us about 35 years to adapt.

Meanwhile, because of Russia and others, $2.50-a-gallon gasoline prices
won't be the permanent fate of the car-buying public. Not yet anyway.


================================


20.  The earth's climate will change (St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)), 5/29

By Eli Kintisch

If last week's storms didn't get your attention, perhaps the doomsday movie
"The Day After Tommorow" has. Climate change - sometimes referred to as
global warming - is back on the front burner.   Yes, the movie takes
liberties with science, making Jurassic Park seem like a documentary. And
no one can say that last week's hailstorms and flooding are a direct result
of global warming.


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/NewsWatch/30368B52AD6979A\
886256EA30037671C?OpenDocument&Headline=The+earth's+climate+will+change


===================

21.  Water Pressure (National Wildlife Federation), Jun/Jul 2004

By Don Hinrichsen

U.S. water sources are under increasing pressure as population centers
grow, but industries and individuals are taking measures to keep the
faucets flowing

IN THE LOBBY of my apartment building in Manhattan, a large poster
admonishes residents to "Save water, it's a precious resource." Although
New York State isn't known for water shortages, New York City occasionally
runs low when its upstate reservoir system is drained to the limits. It's a
simple case of too many people using too much water too fast.

http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?articleId=928&issueId=68
================================
22.  Predicting Earthquakes (Online News Hour), 6/2

Scientists are learning more than ever before about the structure and
properties of the Earth's crust and upper mantle -- bringing them to the
brink of discoveries about earthquakes that could one day save millions of
lives.   BETTY ANN BOWSER: When a major earthquake hits a heavily populated
area, like this one did last year in Japan, it takes people by surprise.


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june04/earthquakes_6-2.html
===========================
23.  Expert: Third World Poised for EQ Catastrophe (NPR), 6/2  (NOTE:  Will
need Real Media Player to Listen to this article)


http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=02-Jun-2004&prgId=3
============================
24.  Fish Invasion (Kare 11 (MO))
Asian Carp are making their way up the Mississippi River toward Minnesota
and their arrival could mean big trouble.  The fish are fast breeders,
voracious eaters and downright dangerous for boaters.
http://www.kare11.com/news/news-article.asp?NEWS_ID=64334#





________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
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There is no outflow from Devils Lake until the lake level rises another
10 ft.  Then water spills overland into the Sheyenne River.  That has not
happened during the historical record period (1830 to present).

Devils Lake is now at 1449.0 ft above mean sea level (ft-msl).  The lake
has risen 26.3 ft since 1993, when the level was at 1422.7 msl-ft.

The area of the Devils Lake basin area is approximately 3,810 square
miles.

  Articles and historical lake level and inflow data are at:
http://nd.water.usgs.gov/pubs/key/d2.html

Pat N





________________________________________________________________
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7:00 AM  Joy Cardin - 06/07B
Some say the movie, “The Day After Tomorrow”, exaggerates the
consequences of global warming.  But after seven, Joy’s guest says
global warming is real.Guest:  Ross Gelbspan, author, of “Boiling
Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists
Are Fueling the Climate Crisis-and What We Can Do to Avert
Disaster”(Basic Books), coming out in July.  www.heatisonline.org
----------
Now you can listen to many Ideas Network programs from our Audio
Archives up to 12 months after their broadcast! And if you can't
receive a WPR station in your location, listen to our live
webcasting channels! Both our live webcasting and audio archives
are located at http://wpr.org/webcasting/
-----------------------------
http://www.madison.com/communities/preserveourclimate/events

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Preserveourclimate/

--------------

Pat N



________________________________________________________________
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... "annual rate of modern human emissions of greenhouse gases to the
atmosphere in the 1990s -- from fossil fuels burnt in cars, factories and
power plants -- was 35 to 360 times as fast as the pace of the Eocene gas
buildup."


Ancient belch may have lit global warming

OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- A vast belch of gas from beneath the North
Atlantic 55 million years ago may have warmed the planet and hold clues
to threats from an even faster modern surge in greenhouse gases,
scientists said Wednesday. The apparent release of hydrocarbons from
subsea rocks in the Eocene epoch might also bolster theories that spasms
of volcanic activity could have triggered extinctions like the demise of
the dinosaurs 10 million years before the Eocene.

In an article in the science journal Nature, Norwegian researchers said
they had found traces of thousands of hydrothermal vents in lava off
Norway that could have been the source of a rise in greenhouse gases 55
million years ago. Until now, scientists have been at a loss to explain
the trigger for a 5-10 Celsius (10-20 F) global warming over about 10,000
years in the Eocene -- a blink in geological time.

"We think that magma heated sediments containing organic material and led
to an explosive release of gases," said Henrik Svensen, a researcher at
the University of Oslo and main author of the article.

"It's like burning a pizza and creating a lot of greenhouse gas in your
stove," he told Reuters. Some of the craters were six miles across in the
Voering and Moere basins in the North Atlantic off what is now Norway.
Some plants and animals, especially in the seas, were wiped out by the
Eocene temperature spike. "But it's not one of the major global
extinction events," he said.

The scientists said the annual rate of modern human emissions of
greenhouse
gases to the atmosphere in the 1990s -- from fossil fuels burnt in cars,
factories and power plants -- was 35 to 360 times as fast as the pace of
the Eocene gas buildup.

Faster now
"We can cause the same amount of global warming ourselves in a few
hundred years at current rates," Svensen said. Scientists say that gases
linked to human activity could bring disaster with more storms, floods
and higher sea levels. The Eocene global warming theory outlined in
Nature bolsters the idea that a buildup of gases can disrupt the climate,
as forecast by U.N. models. A U.N. panel of scientists has predicted a
1.4 to 5.8 Celsius rise in temperatures by 2100.

Gerald Dickens of Rice University, Texas, wrote in Nature that the Eocene
warming should be studied more as "an intriguing but imperfect analog of
current fossil-fuel emissions."

During the Eocene, mammals strengthened their grip on the planet after
the extinction of the dinosaurs. Creatures ranged from horse-like animals
as small as dogs to a spiny relative of the hedgehog that apparently
hopped like a rabbit.

Much of the gas released was apparently methane, a major component of
natural
gas and the second-biggest contributor to global warming behind carbon
dioxide. The U.N.'s stalled 1997 Kyoto protocol seeks to limit emissions
despite a U.S. pullout.
Svensen said the theory of Eocene warming might bolster the idea that
volcanoes were responsible for past climate change and explain bigger
extinctions like of the dinosaurs, now more commonly blamed on a giant
meteorite strike. Nature flagged its article "The day the Earth let rip"
-- methane is an odorless component of burping or flatulence.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/03/environment.warming.reut/index
.html

From:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/earthchanges/

Pat N


________________________________________________________________
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Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
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Gas May Have Spurred Ancient Global Warming-Nature

June 2, 2004
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO, Norway (Reuters) -- A vast belch of gas from beneath the North
Atlantic 55 million years ago may have warmed the planet and hold clues
to threats from an even faster modern surge in greenhouse gases,
scientists said Wednesday. The apparent release of hydrocarbons from
subsea rocks in the Eocene epoch might also bolster theories that spasms
of volcanic activity could have triggered extinctions like the demise of
the dinosaurs 10 million years before the Eocene.

In an article in the science journal Nature, Norwegian researchers said
they had found traces of thousands of hydrothermal vents in lava off
Norway that could have been the source of a rise in greenhouse gases 55
million years ago. Until now, scientists have been at a loss to explain
the trigger for a 5-10 Celsius (10-20 F) global warming over about 10,000
years in the Eocene -- a blink in geological time.

"We think that magma heated sediments containing organic material and led
to an explosive release of gases," said Henrik Svensen, a researcher at
the University of Oslo and main author of the article.

"It's like burning a pizza and creating a lot of greenhouse gas in your
stove," he told Reuters. Some of the craters were six miles across in the
Voering and Moere basins in the North Atlantic off what is now Norway.
Some plants and animals, especially in the seas, were wiped out by the
Eocene temperature spike. "But it's not one of the major global
extinction events," he said.

The scientists said the annual rate of modern human emissions of
greenhouse
gases to the atmosphere in the 1990s -- from fossil fuels burnt in cars,
factories and power plants -- was 35 to 360 times as fast as the pace of
the Eocene gas buildup.

Faster now

"We can cause the same amount of global warming ourselves in a few
hundred years at current rates," Svensen said. Scientists say that gases
linked to human activity could bring disaster with more storms, floods
and higher sea levels. The Eocene global warming theory outlined in
Nature bolsters the idea that a buildup of gases can disrupt the climate,
as forecast by U.N. models. A U.N. panel of scientists has predicted a
1.4 to 5.8 Celsius rise in temperatures by 2100.

Gerald Dickens of Rice University, Texas, wrote in Nature that the Eocene
warming should be studied more as "an intriguing but imperfect analog of
current fossil-fuel emissions."

During the Eocene, mammals strengthened their grip on the planet after
the extinction of the dinosaurs. Creatures ranged from horse-like animals
as small as dogs to a spiny relative of the hedgehog that apparently
hopped like a rabbit.

Much of the gas released was apparently methane, a major component of
natural
gas and the second-biggest contributor to global warming behind carbon
dioxide. The U.N.'s stalled 1997 Kyoto protocol seeks to limit emissions
despite a U.S. pullout.
Svensen said the theory of Eocene warming might bolster the idea that
volcanoes were responsible for past climate change and explain bigger
extinctions like of the dinosaurs, now more commonly blamed on a giant
meteorite strike.

Nature flagged its article "The day the Earth let rip" -- methane is an
odorless component of burping or flatulence.

Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service

  ©2004 GEA Consulting
All rights reserved

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/03/environment.warming.reut/index
.html


________________________________________________________________
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Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
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> Thanks for your interest and participating
> in ""Fuelcell-energy Group"
> janson2997
---------

From my 4 May 2004 message,
> ... I was at the 15th Annual Transportation Research Conference, a
forum for shared research in transportation in the Upper Midwest.   The
featured  speaker was Professor John Heywood, Sun Jai Professor of
Mechanical Engineering and Director of Sloan Automotive Lab,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Prof. Heywood expressed an
urgency that is needed to reduce fossil fuel emissions of greenhouse
gases(GHGs), not a single method, but many... <

In reply to a question from the audience, Professor Heywood replied that
Fuelcells showed the most promise for alternatives.

  I am not a specialist in the energy field but I could see that Professor
Heywood is a highly respected scientist and teacher.   Do others have
similar high degree of respect  perceptions of Professor Heywood and his
conclusions?

My my background includes 25 years in hydrologic modeling and prediction
in the Upper Midwest.  Other interests I have include prairie vegetation
and early Eocene fossils.

On this list,  I would like to see comment on how large corporations
(Lockheed Martin in particular) are investing in fuel cells and
encouraging public and government energy conservation.  I would like to
see comment on how people are changing their lives to reduce their use of
generated power and transportation distances. I'd appreciate seeing a
continuation of the excellent posts being made to Fuelcell-energy Group
on the subjects of paleontology and climate.

Are minds changing on global warming?    What agency or group should be
held most responsible for the lack understanding and actions by the
public in the U.S.?

I am interested in seeing comments from others on these questions, here
at Fuelcell-energy or at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paleontology_and_Climate/
Additional information that I post on Climate is at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/

Pat N


________________________________________________________________
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June 2, 2004
...
In an article in the science journal Nature, Norwegian researchers said
they had found traces of thousands of hydrothermal vents in lava off
Norway that could have been the source of a rise in greenhouse gases 55
million years ago. Until now, scientists have been at a loss to explain
the trigger for a 5-10 Celsius (10-20 F) global warming over about 10,000
years in the Eocene -- a blink in geological time.
...
The scientists said the annual rate of modern human emissions of
greenhouse
gases to the atmosphere in the 1990s -- from fossil fuels burnt in cars,
factories and power plants -- was 35 to 360 times as fast as the pace of
the Eocene gas buildup.

Faster now

"We can cause the same amount of global warming ourselves in a few
hundred years at current rates," Svensen said. Scientists say that gases
linked to human activity could bring disaster with more storms, floods
and higher sea levels. The Eocene global warming theory outlined in
Nature bolsters the idea that a buildup of gases can disrupt the climate,
as forecast by U.N. models. A U.N. panel of scientists has predicted a
1.4 to 5.8 Celsius rise in temperatures by 2100.
...
OSLO, Norway
By Alister Doyle (Reuters) --
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/03/environment.warming.reut/index
.html


Pat N


________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!