Seattle Post Intelligencer
Earth Day showdown: Who's greener?
By LISA STIFFLER
P-I REPORTER
On this eve of Earth Day -- here's a conundrum to consider, a puzzle on par with the eternal debate over which is cuter, puppies or kittens, or which is better, paper or plastic?
Who is greener, Nickels or Sims?
County Executive Ron Sims, Mayor Greg Nickels both get high marks.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has been splashed across the glossy pages of Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Time for his leadership on the global warming front. His initiative to get U.S. mayors to pledge to cut their greenhouse gas emissions was celebrated and sanctioned by no less than former Vice President Al Gore at a packed house at City Hall last month.
In the same period, there's been nary a nod from the national media for Ron Sims, who's been slogging away in the environmental trenches for nearly a decade as King County executive.
Between the two elected officials, there's a rift in the national love fest as big as the Antarctic ice shelf. But on a more objective scale, who's fought harder to keep the region's air and water clean, fish healthy and the planet cool?
"It's hard to compare and contrast because they're both so awesome," Bruce Gryniewski, executive director of King County Conservation Voters, a non-partisan, non-profit group.
"We're very lucky to have those kinds of folks in positions of leadership in the government."
Sims and Nickels each can toot their environmental horns over multiple initiatives.
Sims fought for restrictions on development in the county's rural regions, sparking the ire of countless residents in woodsier communities.
"He caught a lot of flak, but he stuck to the important principles," said Tim Trohimovich, planning director for Futurewise, a conservation organization.
Other accomplishments cheered by environmentalists include the county's shift to hybrid buses and plant-derived biodiesel in government vehicles. King County pushed a sewage treatment plant that's stirred up loads of controversy, but will clean and reuse millions of gallons of wastewater. The county bought 100,000 acres in the Snoqualmie Tree Farm to be preserved forever as open space.
And just this week, Sims announced plans to dramatically expand bus service. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases in the region and improved mass transit is seen as the best way to combat it.
"When you talk about environmental champions, Ron Sims' name always for me comes up as one of those elected officials," Gryniewski said.
So what about Nickels? Are his green laurels resting entirely on global warming?
In the environmental agenda, climate change "is considered to be the most important issue," said Shannon Harps of the Sierra Club's local office. "He really is the leader in the nation on this."
And yet, many argue that his green leanings go even deeper.
Nickels, too, has pushed to make government vehicles environmentally sound with more fuel-efficient cars and biodiesel. He's supported Seattle City Light's effort to become "climate neutral," meaning the public utility has no net release of global warming gases. Nickels has worked with a local conservation group to combat invasive weeds choking city parks.
Some environmentalists wish he'd taken a harder stand on regulations to keep development a safe distance from rivers and shorelines in order to keep water clean, yet still they don't knock his overall record.
But there is some rivalry between who is greenest of them all.
Days before Nickels' blockbuster climate-change media event, Sims trotted out a blueprint for the county's own global warming strategy.
And as the county has pursued recycling sewer water -- what's recognized as an important strategy in girding against potential future water shortages -- the city has taken shots at the project's feasibility.
"We push each other," said Steve Nicholas, director of the mayor's Office of Sustainability and Environment.
"Companies push each other and governments push each other too ... That's a good thing for the environment and the citizens of the Puget Sound."
Sims might shove back.
"You ain't seen nothing yet in terms of Ron and his environmental initiatives," said Kurt Triplett, Sims' chief of staff.
Still, he's gracious about the mayor's very public success.
"We applaud the mayor for what he is doing. He's earned that piece in Vanity Fair," Triplett said.
"Hopefully in the next one, you'll see Ron."
SOME EARTH DAY EVENTS
TODAY:
King County's Earth Day Expo at Westlake Plaza, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Events include children's crafts, gardening advice and exhibits from eco-friendly organizations: www.dnr.metrokc.gov/dnrp/pa/earthday or 206-296-1980 SATURDAY:
Restoration work at five locations along the Duwamish River and nearby parks, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., including weeding and planting at Herring's House Park at Terminal 107, Duwamish River Park and Gateway Park North at Eighth Avenue South: www.pugetsound.org or contact Robin Clark at 206-382-7007, rclark@pugetsound.org
Turn in reusable furniture, tools, exercise gear and baby stuff for reuse, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Seattle's North Recycling and Disposal Station, at North 34th and Carr Place North in Fremont.
"Use It Again, Seattle!" is held most Saturdays through June: 206-615-0701 or www.seattle.gov/util/services/ recycling
Head to the Washington coast for a large-scale cleanup of the shoreline at multiple locations: olympiccoastcleanup.us
For additional events: earthday.org or www.esw.org/help/volunteer.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/267571_earth21.html
Ferries a top terror target, FBI cautions
Local office links ranking to reporting of incidents
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY AND MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTERS
Puget Sound's busy ferries are the No. 1 target for maritime terrorism in this country, sharing that nerve-jangling status with Gulf Coast fuel tankers, according to a national assessment of efforts to protect U.S. seaports.
The findings, contained in a recent Justice Department inspector general's report, mark the first time the FBI has publicly placed such a high-risk label on Washington State Ferries.
Christina Ulloa, originally from Bainbridge Island, and Joseph Ferrante, both now living in Los Angeles, ride the ferry to Bainbridge Island from Seattle on Thursday.
The ranking was based largely on an analysis of significant suspicious incidents at maritime facilities around the country.
"Our conclusion was that there was an extremely high likelihood, in a handful of incidents, that there was pre-operation planning" for a terrorist attack on the ferry system, said supervisory intelligence analyst Ted Turner of Seattle's FBI office.
But Turner and other local FBI officials, along with the Coast Guard, suggested Thursday that the top ranking may be because of more aggressive reporting in this region.
Turner credited his agency's "very robust" efforts to monitor all suspicious incidents and the Washington State Ferries program to enlist help from crews and passengers as being likely factors in driving up the number of reported incidents.
"You cannot conclude from the fact that we have a lot of intelligence reporting that we are a No. 1 target," said Laura Laughlin, the FBI's special agent in charge in Seattle. "Obviously, the potential for a terrorist incident is here. But that's reading a lot into it to say that."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/267580_ferryterror21.html
Columbia River too high to move crane
P-I STAFF
For those who are wondering why an enormous white crane is sitting out in Elliott Bay without moving, it is on its way to the Port of Portland aboard the Zhen Hua 1. That ship left Shanghai for the Port of Seattle's Terminal 18, where it arrived on April 2 and then unloaded four other cranes weighing 1,200 tons each.
The ship is not slated to leave for the Columbia River until this Sunday at the earliest, because of predictions that Columbia River water levels will rise too high for the ship to pass under the Lewis and Clark Bridge in Longview.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/267572_kcbriefs21.html
List of casualties with Washington state ties
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
Since the U.S. lauched its war on terrorism, dozens of men in uniform with connections to Washington state have died while serving in Afgahnistan, Kuwait and Iraq. The first death occurred just months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and they continue today.
Below is a list of those who have died both as a result of combat and accidents (in alphabetical order by region).
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/162597_casualtiesww.html
Hu wraps up U.S. tour with visit to Yale
By MATT APUZZO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- China will make its own decisions on political freedom and human rights and not simply copy the model of Western countries, President Hu Jintao said Friday as he wound up his U.S. tour.
With protesters against his Communist rule kept several blocks away, Hu told students and faculty at Yale University that differences between China and the United States can be overcome by cooperation and their shared desire for peace.
But when asked whether his country's restrictions on political expression would cause unrest and hinder its economic growth, he said China was committed to democracy but had no plans to simply import other countries' policies.
"On one hand, we are ready and willing to draw on the useful experience of foreign countries into political involvement," he said. "On the other hand, we will not simply copy the political models of other countries." The question was one of a couple that Hu answered from among those submitted in advance in writing.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Hu_Visit.html
Timeline of events in Nepal
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Key events since King Gyanendra took power in Nepal:
2001:
June 1 - King Birendra and his family members are assassinated by his son, Crown Prince Dipendra, in a shooting spree at the royal palace. The prince goes into a coma from apparently self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
June 2 - Crown Prince Dipendra declared king while still in a coma. King Birendra's brother, Prince Gyanendra, declared regent.
June 4 - Dipendra dies, Gyanendra declared king. Anti-Gyanendra protests are held in the capital, Katmandu, where a curfew is imposed.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Nepal_Timeline.html
Ex-Taliban envoy warns U.S. to negotiate
By PAUL GARWOOD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Violence will persist in Afghanistan unless the U.S.-led coalition starts to negotiate with the toppled Taliban regime and other armed groups, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan told The Associated Press.
The warning from Abdul Salam Zaeef, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, came this week as fighting continued in the Afghan countryside. A U.S. soldier was killed Friday in a gunbattle and suspected Taliban militants killed six Afghan policemen, afterward burning four of their bodies.
In recent months, Afghanistan has seen a surge in bombings and shootings targeting coalition troops and Afghan forces, particularly in southern Taliban strongholds near the Pakistan border. The violence has grown even though many former Taliban fighters have been welcomed by the government under an amnesty program.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Afghanistan.html
Turkey strengthens forces against Kurds
By SELCAN HACAOGLU
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey has sent thousands of soldiers backed by tanks to its overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast and the Iraqi border following stepped-up attacks by Turkish Kurdish guerrillas, officials and reports said Friday.
Fighting between soldiers and the guerrillas, who are based in northern Iraq, often intensifies in the spring, when the snows melt, clearing mountain passes along the border.
Turkey already has some 2,000 soldiers, backed by tanks in northern Iraq to guard against cross border attacks.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Turkey_Kurds.html
Shiites nominate al-Jaafari ally for PM
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Shiite politicians agreed Friday to nominate Jawad al-Maliki as prime minister, replacing the incumbent in a bid to clear the way for a long-delayed new government.
Al-Maliki is a top ally of outgoing Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose nomination had sparked sharp opposition from Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders and caused a four-month deadlock.
Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties later agreed on nominees to fill the other top government posts of government, Shiite lawmaker Ridha Jawad Taqi said. The quick agreement was an indication that the minority groups were ready to accept al-Maliki's nomination in what would be a breakthrough in efforts to form a national unity government.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq.html
POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Frist's fundraiser
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Five Republicans are hoping for a repeat of some Tennessee magic.
In 2004, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., held a special Nashville fundraiser to introduce candidate John Thune to his donors. Months later, Thune ousted Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., in a major blow to the Democrats.
This weekend, Frist is holding a similar event for one incumbent senator - Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania - and four GOP challengers: Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey, Mike McGavick of Washington, Minnesota Rep. Mark Kennedy and Lt. Gov. Michael Steele of Maryland.
The invitation to the fundraiser has raised some eyebrows.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Frist_Candidates.html
Life and death at age 22 for a Marine
By TODD PITMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
RAMADI, Iraq -- Eyes hidden behind sunglasses designed to protect against flying shrapnel, Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Sims sat proudly atop the gun turret of his Humvee as the sun rose one morning over a dusty U.S. Marine base called Hurricane Point.
...As they pulled through a deep moat of sewage water just outside a gate at Government Center in the lead Humvee, Sims was on the gun turret facing the buildings around them, providing security for the convoy.
Just before they entered the compound, a rocket-propelled grenade came out of nowhere, killing him instantly.
In the dark dust of that moment, "time stood still," said an Iraqi interpreter who was with them at the time, a bespectacled man more than twice the age of the Marines. The interpreter declined to be named for fear of reprisals for working with Americans in Iraq.
The driver and the vehicle commander were fine. The interpreter, sitting in the back seat, was hit by shrapnel in the arm and leg. Some shrapnel hit a pistol in a holster on his hip. The pistol may have saved his life.
Hours later, deeply saddened, the interpreter sat against a wall in a blue chair near where Sims' Humvee was often parked at Hurricane Point.
There were bandages around his arm and leg, blood covering his boots. "He was like a son to me," the interpreter said. "He had his whole life ahead of him."
Justin Sims was just 22 years old.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq_The_Gunner_LH1.html
Dispatch from Iraq: A tiny bit of comfort
ARIC CATRON
A soldier sees and feels a wider variety of sights and emotions in a year than most people will experience in a lifetime. ...
In my short time in the military I have experienced more suffering than I could have imagined before joining up. I have held the hand of a dying Marine who had only one last wish: that someone would be with him and hold his hand as he passed on. So I sat there with a strange man, holding his hand, not saying a word, until he died. ...
I have watched grown men cry, and cried with them, as we stood in front of the traditional memorial of a rifle thrust bayonet-first into the ground with the fallen soldier's helmet and dog tags draped on the weapon. His empty boots stand at attention in the fore of this tableau.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/267529_vessay21.html
Nobel laureate says Iran would defend self
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS -- The Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian activist who won the peace prize for her struggle for women's rights, warned Friday that the Iranian people would defend their country against any American attack.
"We will not allow an American soldier to set foot" in Iran, said Ebadi, who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. "We will defend our country till the last drop of blood."
President Bush has not ruled out the use of force against Iran but has said force is not necessarily required to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Bush has dismissed recent reports of plans for a military attack against Tehran as "wild speculation."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_France_Iran_Nobel_Laureate.html
Prodi faces first test to his leadership
By ALESSANDRA RIZZO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ROME -- Center-left leader Romano Prodi, shrugging off Premier Silvio Berlusconi's refusal to concede defeat, prepared Friday for his return to power. The first test: ending a power squabble inside his own coalition.
Two center-left allies are trying to claim the post of speaker of the lower house of parliament, renewing questions over the cohesion of the ruling bloc. A top newspaper, Corriere della Sera, described the dispute as an "emblematic mess."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_Italy_Election.html
Penguins get Norway's first bird flu shots
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OSLO, Norway -- Eight penguins became the first birds in Norway vaccinated against bird flu Friday after an aquarium won an eight-month battle with health authorities, a newspaper reported.
"The safest birds in the Nordic region," declared a headline in Bergen's Tidende newspaper. The paper said the birds were among the first in northern Europe to get the vaccine.
The Bergen Aquarium, in western Norway's main city, had been trying since October to get government authorization for the vaccinations.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Norway_Safe_Penguins.html
Powerful heroin blamed for OD deaths
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAMDEN, N.J. -- Authorities are warning of a lethal type of heroin being sold in the Camden area after at least six apparent overdose deaths and close to two dozen hospitalizations since last week.
From Thursday to Friday afternoon alone, one person died and about 20 suffered nonfatal drug overdoses in the area, said Bill Shralow, a spokesman for the Camden County prosecutor's office. He said it appeared most of the problems stemmed from the heroin.
Most of the drugs were believed to have been bought from street dealers in Camden in bags with names such as Flatline, Monkey, Al Capone and Echo.
Prosecutor James P. Lynch said investigators believe that the deaths and overdoses are being caused by unusually powerful heroin, and not by poisonous substances sometimes used to dilute drugs.
"When people buy illegal drugs on the street and ingest them, they really have no idea what they are putting into their bodies," Lynch said. "As recent events clearly demonstrate, that can be a deadly mistake."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/1500AP_Bad_Heroin.html
Sudan relief efforts could collapse soon
By NICK WADHAMS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
UNITED NATIONS -- The relief effort in Sudan's Darfur region could collapse within weeks unless foreign donors contribute more money and the government eases restrictions that have slowed aid workers, the top U.N. humanitarian official said Thursday.
Jan Egeland told the U.N. Security Council that just 20 percent of relief work in Darfur has been funded this year. The international community has stopped pressuring Sudan's government or Darfur's rebels to cooperate with aid groups.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1105AP_UN_Sudan.html
Sudan says time not right for U.N. mission
By MICHAEL MELIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
UNITED NATIONS -- Sudanese officials have told the United Nations that they would not welcome a U.N. mission to assess conditions in Darfur as the world body prepares to take over peacekeeping operations, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday.
The Khartoum government said it first wants warring factions to finish peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria. The African Union set an April 30 deadline for a peace deal which the Security Council has endorsed.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1105AP_UN_Sudan_Darfur.html
2 Canadian soldiers wounded in Afghanistan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle of Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, wounding two of them, a spokesman said.
The attack happened in Sangin district of Helmand province, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition Lt. Mark Macintyre told The Associated Press.
He said the two soldiers were in stable condition.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1101AP_Afghan_Bomb_Attack.html
Canadian claims mistreatment by U.S agents
By BETH DUFF-BROWN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TORONTO -- Akhil Sachdeva, an accountant from India who emigrated to Canada, still wonders why he was seized at gunpoint by U.S. agents and held for months with hundreds of foreigners following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Chaining him to a bench at the FBI's Manhattan office on Dec. 20, 2001, federal agents demanded to know his religious and political beliefs, asked whether he had taken flying lessons and sought his personal views about the suicide hijackers, he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The 33-year-old is among eight foreign detainees who have sued U.S. officials, contending they were mistreated and terrorized by snarling dogs during four months at the Passaic County Jail in New Jersey. The class-action lawsuit is open to some 800 foreign-born detainees who were held for roughly the same amount of time.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1101AP_Canada_US_Detainee.html
Aruban authorities study sea floor photos
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Aruban authorities studied photos of the sea floor Friday as part of an investigation into the disappearance of missing American teenager Natalee Holloway, prosecutors said.
The photos were taken during a four-day search led by coast guard ships off the coast of the Caribbean island earlier this week, said Mariaine Croes, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office.
Croes declined to specify what authorities hoped to find in the photos or to say how the search was related to Holloway's disappearance nearly a year ago.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Aruba_Missing_Teen.html
Former maid Bolivia's new justice minister
By FIONA SMITH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LA PAZ, Bolivia -- At age 13, Casimira Rodriguez left her hardscrabble rural home, hoping to escape poverty by taking a job as a housemaid in the city. What she got instead was a nightmare of virtual slavery, and a first-hand view of the injustice many poor Bolivians experience.
Barely an adolescent herself, Rodriguez cooked, cleaned and looked after the children for an extended family of 14 people. She was not paid and was allowed out only to buy groceries down the street, she says.
After two years, Rodriguez escaped and brought her case for wages owed before a rural court. The judge asked her to be patient. A quarter century later, she's still waiting.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Bolivia_Justice_Minister_LH1.html
Michael Moore Today
Cheney takes a nap.
“Vice President Dick Cheney gets caught napping yesterday as Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other White House aides leave a press briefing by President Bush and Chinese leader Hu Jintao. The veep’s people later insisted he was reading his notes.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/21/cheney-takes-a-nap/
Halliburton First-Quarter Net Income Rises 33 Percent
By Steve Quinn / Associated Press
DALLAS -- Oilfield services conglomerate Halliburton Co. said Thursday that first-quarter net income rose 33 percent, a boost driven largely by increased sales and robust rig activity in North America.
The Houston-based company reported net income of $488 million, or 91 cents a share, compared to $365 million, or 72 cents a share in the same quarter last year.
Stripping out 1 cent for discontinued operations, the results were 3 cents a share better than the 87 cent per share profit among analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
Revenue rose to $5.2 billion from $4.8 billion in the same period of 2005, short of Wall Street's estimate of $5.62 billion.
"These are solid looking gains year-over-year," said Jeff Tillery, an analyst with Pickering Energy in Houston.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6598
Join Us on Saturday, April 29, in New York City
Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic policies wreaking havoc at home. The times are urgent and we must act!
Assemble: 22nd Street and Broadway, 10:30AM onward
March: At noon down Broadway to Foley Square
Grassroots action festival: 1:00-6:00PM, Foley Square
Watch and listen to a message from Rev. Jesse Jackson on the importance of marching together on April 29!
http://www.april29.org/
Endorse the April 29th Mobilization
Please add your organization to the growing list of groups endorsing the April 29, 2006, demonstration in New York City.
http://www.april29.org/modinput4.php?modin=119
Join our rally in Washington, DC on April 30th, 2006.
The Rally to Stop Genocide will feature leading voices in the effort to stop the genocide in Darfur, including a broad spectrum of prominent faith leaders, political figures, human rights activists, celebrities, and survivors of genocide.
http://www.savedarfur.org/rally/
Extend deadline: Give seniors extra time to choose Medicare drug plan
Tribune Editorial
Because Congress fabricated a Medicare drug plan of mind-numbing, Rube Goldbergian complexity, the least it can do is give America's seniors an extra month to get the help they need to figure it out without paying a penalty.
Under current law, people on Medicare have until May 15 to join a drug plan. If they are eligible for Medicare Part A or B and join a drug plan after that deadline, they will probably pay a penalty. The punishment is a 1 percent increase in premium for each month after May that they were eligible for the plan and did not join.
A late enrollee continues to pay that higher premium for the life of the plan.
Congress created this deadline, and the coercion that goes with it, to force retirees to choose a plan and sign up. If doing so were a simple clerical matter, that would be one thing. But it's not.
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3733158
Hands off: FBI should leave Jack Anderson archive alone
Tribune Editorial
The FBI waited until Jack Anderson was dead before going after what the muckraking columnist would never have given the agency in life: access to the files he used to report on government misdeeds that deeply embarrassed presidents and a host of government agencies, not least the FBI.
The agency's squirrelly approach to Anderson's widow and children to gain access to his archive and to strip it of any classified materials - though likely decades old - is as disturbing as it is unprecedented.
But even more troubling is the broader context of the FBI's fishing expedition. The Bush administration is waging a campaign of intimidation and possible prosecution of government leakers of classified information and the reporters who use the material in news stories. Anderson, who died in December, spent 40 years reporting such leaks, including details of the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals, and U.S. efforts in the 1960s to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Anderson's family says FBI agents told them they were seeking evidence in the case of two pro-Israel lobbyists accused of receiving classified information, but would confiscate any classified materials they ran across. The family, to its credit, refused access.
The Bush administration has used national security as a murky catch-all for classifying more documents than any previous administration. Its zealous effort to stamp
out leaks, except those orchestrated by the White House, follows exposure of domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency and of CIA-run secret jails abroad, two deplorable and possibly illegal ventures.
In the same vein, the National Archives and Records Administration announced Monday it would no longer participate in a secret government program in which the CIA and other agencies gathered up and reclassified more than 55,000 pages of documents, most of them dating from the 1940s and '50s.
We believe government secrecy is essential to our national security. But the Bush administration has made too free use of the secrecy stamp and, in general, mocked the ideal of open government.
The FBI's demand to comb the files of a celebrated columnist of years gone by is just such a mockery, the sort of government excess that Jack Anderson spent his life exposing.
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3733157
Jack Anderson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jackson Northman Anderson (October 19, 1922 – December 17, 2005) was an American newspaper columnist and is considered one of the fathers of modern investigative journalism. Anderson won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his investigation on secret American policy decision-making between the United States and Pakistan during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.
Jack Anderson was a key and often controversial figure in reporting on J. Edgar Hoover's apparent ties to the Mafia, Watergate, the John F. Kennedy assassination, the search for fugitive ex-Nazi Germany officials in South America and the Savings and Loan scandal. He discovered a CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, and has also been credited for breaking the Iran-Contra affair, though he has said the scoop was "spiked" because he had become too close to President Ronald Reagan. Anderson was a crusader against corruption.
Anderson was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1986. In July 2004, at the age of 81, Anderson retired from his syndicated column, "Washington Merry-Go-Round." He died of complications from Parkinson's disease, survived by his wife, Olivia, and nine children.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Anderson
Thomas: Our oil consumption is funding our enemies
Cal Thomas
Time to stop funding enemies with our oil consumption
While going through boxes during a move some years ago, I found Esso gasoline receipts from the '60s (Esso subsequently became Exxon in the United States). I showed them to my children and they were stunned. The price for a fill-up then was $3. Today, the price of gasoline has shot past $3 a gallon and some petroleum analysts predict prices equaling Europe's of $4 or more per gallon by summer 2007. That would mean a cost of $80 to fill a 20-gallon tank.
No study or special commission is needed to understand the root cause of growing energy costs. We've known it for years. Demand fuels cost. While there have been numerous efforts to curb demand or seek alternative energy sources since the 1973 Arab oil boycott, which began the escalation of gas prices, none has taken hold because the price always fell back to acceptable levels. From solar power, to windmills, to today's hybrid cars, nothing seems to have caught on sufficiently to force us to change our oil consuming ways.
Here's something that will: An enemy.
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3733166
The Business of Tragedy
Iraq's daily death toll keeps a lot of people working.
By Michael Hastings / Newsweek
April 20, 2006 - The outlook for Iraq's economy is grim. Oil production has fallen to prewar levels. With foreign investors scared off by political instability and a climate of violence that produces about 70 attacks a day, private investment has stagnated. Local businesses keep shorter hours, while wealthy businessmen are regularly targeted for kidnapping. Electricity levels have dropped to the same as they were three years ago, frustrating ordinary Iraqis and hampering new development projects. The main reason for these troubles: insurgents and unchecked militias have done a good job of driving Iraq's economy to a near halt.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6599
Six police, US soldier, killed in Afghan violence
By Mirwais Afghan / Reuters
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Taliban insurgents attacked a police post on Friday killing six policemen as gunmen opened fire on a patrol in a separate incident, killing a U.S. soldier, officials said.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan since the Taliban announced last month they had launched a spring offensive in their campaign to rid the country of foreign forces and topple the Western-backed government.
A senior government official in the southern province of Kandahar said the six police were killed in an attack on their post in the Maiwand district in the early hours of Friday.
A Taliban spokesman said by telephone from an undisclosed location Taliban fighters carried out the attack and seven policemen had been killed.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6602
Thousands of Iraqis Fleeing the Country
By Omar Sinan / Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt - Um Sami and her family left their home in one of Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods after her children and husband were harassed. The Shiite family went first to a more mixed Baghdad neighborhood, then to Jordan, and finally a week later to Cairo.
The veiled woman said her family was not comfortable in Egypt, but escaping Baghdad was a must. "Our life was a disaster. We could not take it anymore," she said.
Since the bombing of an important Shiite shrine in Iraq in late February, such stories of sectarian intimidation and fleeing have become common.
Within Iraq, thousands are on the move as death threats drive them to neighborhoods where their sect has more strength, international and Iraqi officials say. Reprisal killings between Shiite and Sunni extremists have sharply increased since the shrine bombing, and the bodies of civilian victims often turn up in the streets of Baghdad.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6601
Bush Counsel May Be Next in Shake-Up
By Elisabeth Bumiller and Jim Rutenberg / New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 20 — Joshua B. Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, has raised the possibility of moving Harriet E. Miers from her job as President Bush's counsel as part of a continuing shake-up of the West Wing, an influential Republican with close ties to Mr. Bolten said Thursday.
The Republican, who was granted anonymity to talk openly about sensitive internal White House deliberations, said that Mr. Bolten had floated the idea among confidants, but that it was unclear whether he would follow through or if the move would be acceptable to Mr. Bush, who has a longtime personal bond with Ms. Miers.
"It's a reflection of Josh's thinking," the Republican said. "It's not a prediction that he's going to get it done."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6603
Families of British troops pressure Blair
War opponents demand answers
By Alana Semuels / Boston Globe
LONDON -- One thing became clear to Pauline Hickey after she learned that her 30-year-old son, Christian, had been killed in Iraq in October: In her view, Prime Minister Tony Blair was to blame.
Since then, she has worked relentlessly to get Blair to meet her face to face so she can ask him why he took Britain to war and why he has not yet brought the rest of the troops home.
Hickey, who said she voted for Blair and has always supported his Labor Party, is one of dozens of soldiers' relatives who are planning to march to his official residence at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday to seek a meeting with Blair.
Hickey's decision links her with dozens of soldiers' families across Britain who have captured the public's attention by demanding answers from the government about its justification for going to war, much as Cindy Sheehan did in the United States a year ago.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6600
Raging Grannies and Raging Americans
By Cindy Sheehan
I am sitting here watching CSPAN where Congress is holding a special hearing into Chinese human rights violations: Which is of course an important issue that needs to be addressed. An Amnesty International report just came out and of all of the countries in the world the US is the fourth in numbers of executions behind China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. China by far executes the most people with seeming barbaric abandon.
Everyone who has a brain and a stake in what direction our country is going should be demanding that Congress investigate the administration and itself for human rights violations. This feeble excuse for an Executive Branch and its bobble-headed, rubber stamp, franchise of a useless body down the mall: Congress, are committing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes against our Constitution and rule of law. Instead of holding these investigations against China, they should be investigating themselves and George Bush and his cronies who are violating everything that we hold dear as Americans and are killing and torturing thousands of people just for the icing on the brutality cake.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=633
New Zealand Herald
6m programme to stop divorced parents fighting
22.04.06
By Nicola Boyes
Separated parents involved in bitter battles over their children will be offered Government-sponsored lessons on resolving the conflict, for the sake of the children.
The programme, which is to get $6 million from the Government, involves two two-hour sessions in which parents will be educated on how their separation affects their children.
They will be told what they can do to help their children, including limiting conflict, which is recognised as the most harmful to children in separated families. It advises on the Family Court and gives "parenting plans", including how to effectively parent with former partners.
There were 10,600 divorces in 2004 when the divorce rate was 13.2 per 1000 estimated existing marriages. One in three couples separate within the first 20 years of marriage.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10378511
More NZ troops flying to Honiara
22.04.06
By Mike Houlahan
New Zealand is sending 53 more soldiers to the riot-torn Solomon Islands.
On Thursday New Zealand rushed 25 Army personnel and 30 police to the Pacific nation to help quell two days of mayhem that caused widespread damage to the capital, Honiara.
Yesterday, soon after Australia sent a further 110 soldiers to the Solomons, New Zealand announced the extra 53 would be flying north tomorrow.
"The extra troops are required to help give broader coverage of Honiara, better protection of infrastructure, and greater capacity to investigate and apprehend key offenders," said Prime Minister Helen Clark.
The reinforcements bring the number of New Zealand personnel in the Solomons to 192 - 125 from the Defence Force and 67 police.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10378510
Fight fuel price rises with buses, trains - or sedate driving
22.04.06
By Wayne Thompson
The price of petrol is starting to make Aucklanders think twice before jumping in the car to go to the shops.
In the central business district yesterday, visitors and workers said they were thinking more about using public transport or their feet since the petrol price jumped 6c a litre this week to $1.68 for 91 octane and $1.73 for 95 unleaded.
Two Pukekohe mothers, Kirsten Ruiterman and Michelle Mullin, chose to travel into town with their children on the train - though both have cars at home.
"The train has become an attractive option," said Mrs Mullin.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10378509
Nepal King 'returns power to the people'
22.04.06
KATHMANDU - Nepal's King Gyanendra said last night he was handing over power to political parties and asked them to recommend a new prime minister.
"Executive power of the kingdom of Nepal, which was in our safekeeping, shall from this day be returned to the people," he said in Nepali in an address to the nation.
"We ask the seven-party alliance to recommend the name for the post of prime minister at the earliest."
The alliance launched a nationwide general strike on April 6 to force the king to relinquish the absolute power he grabbed in February 2005 when he sacked the government.
The monarch responded with a security clampdown which left more than a dozen dead, hundreds wounded and even more under arrest.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10378513
Violence fuelled by chequebook diplomacy between China and Taiwan
22.04.06
By Nick Squires
The violence which erupted in the Solomon Islands this week was fuelled by the bitter war of chequebook diplomacy being waged across the South Pacific by China and Taiwan.
The mobs which rampaged through the Solomons capital, Honiara, and burned down the historic Chinatown district were incensed by the appointment of a new Prime Minister they regard as being in the pocket of the Taiwanese.
They accused Snyder Rini and his predecessor, Sir Allan Kemakeza, of accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks in return for their recognition of Taiwan rather than the People's Republic of China.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10378497
Royal girlfriend's father in investigators' sights
22.04.06
The father of Prince Harry's girlfriend Chelsy Davy is facing financial disaster and possible imprisonment after the Zimbabwean Government announced it was investigating him for illegal currency dealing.
Charles Davy has accumulated a multimillion-dollar fortune through his big game hunting business, HHK Safaris, after it survived the wholesale seizure of white-owned farms and game reserves under the regime of Robert Mugabe.
But any protection once extended to Davy's company through his business relationship with a senior minister in the Zimbabwean President's Government seemed to have evaporated yesterday.
The country's anti-corruption minister, Paul Mangwana, said he was investigating the South African-born entrepreneur for the illegal export of large sums of foreign currency.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10378434
Doing away with the diabetes needle
22.04.06
By Jeremy Laurance
Doctors have developed a concoction of two drugs that can reverse diabetes.
Scientists have described the discovery as "an important step towards a potential cure".
It could mean an end to the daily insulin injections and rigid dietary restrictions suffered by millions world-wide.
Diabetes New Zealand said the drug mixture was great news for sufferers of Type 1 diabetes.
"We'd like to see more clinical trials to ensure that it's safe but we applaud the direction it's taking," said president Murray Dear.
Currently the only option for people with Type 1 diabetes other than taking insulin was to have a pancreatic transplant, which required a lifetime of immunosuppressant drugs.
"It's not really what you'd call a cure," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378424
Tokyo trains to run on fuel cells
22.04.06
Japan's biggest rail company will soon test what it says will be the world's first train to use fuel cells, following the lead of the country's carmakers in rolling out cleaner and more efficient transport.
Pollution-free fuel cells generate electricity through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, producing only water vapour as exhaust.
East Japan Railways, which serves the congested Tokyo area and carries 16 million passengers a day, will test the New Energy Train in July with the aim of operating it on regular tracks by the middle of next year.
The initial NE Train will be a single unit powered by electric batteries and capable of travelling at 100km/h. It is essentially a hybrid vehicle, with a diesel-run generator providing most of the electricity. Two 65kW hydrogen fuel cells will provide about a third of the power. It should be quieter than conventional trains.
"It's the first time this technology has been used in railway cars," said company spokesman Akira Mori.
"But it's still too soon to talk about when it will start carrying paying passengers."
JR East, as the company is also known, estimates that the NE Train will use 20 per cent less energy than traditional trains.
The company has cut overall energy consumption by 13 per cent since 1990, despite rising traffic volumes.
The NE Train's fuel efficiency will be helped by batteries that recharge every time the train brakes.
Similar technology has scored a big hit for Japanese carmakers, which are catering to surging global interest in hybrids.
The NE Train will be particularly useful in outlying areas where there are no overhead power lines.
But as with cars, hydrogen-powered trains will need more fuelling stations to make long-distance travel practical. And producing hydrogen is still costly and not always energy-efficient.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378418
Solomons PM secretly sworn in, troops patrol streets
21.04.06 1.00pm
By Michelle Nichols
HONIARA - The Solomon Islands secretly swore in new Prime Minister Snyder Rini today as Australian troops patrolled burnt-out buildings after two days of rioting sparked by his election.
Australia said it was committed to restoring law and order in the troubled South Pacific island chain to prevent it becoming a failed state and possible haven for terrorism.
After an overnight curfew forced rioters off the streets of the capital Honiara, those who ventured out wandered along dusty streets strewn with broken glass and debris.
Smoke still rose from dozens of blackened buildings, their roofs now collapsed. Damaged shops were derelict, doors and windows missing, littered with refuse left by looters.
Burnt-out cars dotted dirt roads through the town of 50,000 as heavily armed troops stopped and checked other vehicles.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378366
Bush and Hu find no breakthroughs on trade, Iran
21.04.06 1.00pm
By Steve Holland and Tabassum Zakaria
WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush failed to win a commitment from Chinese President Hu Jintao today on immediate steps to reduce China's huge trade surplus with the United States.
Hu did give Bush a general assurance he was working to make the Chinese currency more "flexible" but that fell far short of US demands for a radical revaluation of the yuan.
The two leaders, during Oval Office talks, also failed to bridge differences over how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions. Bush wants China to agree to tougher UN Security Council action, but his arguments did not persuade Hu.
Speaking in the Oval Office, the two leaders said their bilateral relationship had matured and they could discuss differences openly.
"He tells me what he thinks, and I tell him what I think, and we do so with respect," Bush said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378368
Iran defence minister dismisses talk of US attack
21.04.06
BAKU - The prospect of the United States using force to halt Iran's nuclear programme is empty talk, Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said yesterday.
US President George W. Bush says he is using diplomacy to curb Iran's atomic ambitions, but has not ruled out military options, even including a nuclear strike, to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons.
"The United States has been threatening Iran for 27 years and this is not new for us. Therefore we are never afraid of US threats," Najjar told reporters during a visit to neighbouring Azerbaijan.
"If you take into account the fact that they are not doing anything, this shows it is just talk," he said.
"We are ready to resolve all issues through negotiations (but) if we are confronted with something, we are ready to deal with it," the minister added.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378313
Berlusconi plays risky bet by not conceding
21.04.06 1.00pm
By Nelson Graves
MILAN - Will he or will he not make the phone call?
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has yet to concede defeat despite a ruling by Italy's highest court that upheld Romano Prodi's whisker-thin victory in the nation's closest election.
"He hasn't phoned me yet," Prodi said after yesterday's court verdict. "But I'm waiting, waiting, waiting."
Berlusconi has refused to follow the lead of Democrat Al Gore, who in 2000 called George W. Bush the day after the US Supreme Court denied a hand count of disputed ballots to congratulate his rival and urge the nation to unite.
No such concession from Italy's defeated prime minister, whose motto during the 10 days since the voting ended has been resist, resist, resist -- to the irritation of Prodi and the worry of many political analysts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378370
Nepali police gun down anti-king protesters
21.04.06 8.40am
By Gopal Sharma
KATHMANDU - Nepali police opened fire to block tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters marching into Kathmandu last night to confront King Gyanendra, killing at least three people and wounding up to 100.
But there were signs the embattled monarch was looking for a way to end the showdown with a seven-party alliance spearheading a campaign against his rule, said an Indian envoy who visited him to urge a speedy reconciliation.
"I am hopeful that very shortly some sort of announcement will be made by him which will help considerably defuse the situation," Karan Singh, an Indian lawmaker, told reporters in New Delhi on his return from Kathmandu.
"Now the ball is squarely in the court of the king."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378330
Dozen nations urge Norway to stop commercial whaling
21.04.06 1.00pm
LONDON - A dozen countries including New Zealand, Britain, France, Germany and Australia called today for an end to commercial whaling by Norway, which plans to step up whale hunts this year to the highest in two decades.
A senior British diplomat in Oslo delivered a formal statement to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry on behalf of the 12 countries, Britain said.
"The UK and many other countries remain strongly opposed to Norway's existing and unnecessary lethal whaling activities and we urge Norway to stop them," British Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw said in a statement.
"We shall continue to register our disapproval of all these whaling activities, which undermine the moratorium on commercial whaling...," he said.
Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Spain were the other countries to back the statement, issued soon after the start of the Norwegian whaling season on April 1.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378363
Australia warns of possible 'imminent attacks' in Indonesia
21.04.06
SYDNEY - Australia warned its citizens on Thursday of a possibly imminent attack on Westerners in Indonesia, saying that terrorists were in the advanced stages of preparing strikes.
"Recent reports suggest Thursday 20 April 2006 could be a potential date for attack but we emphasize that attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in Indonesia," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in an updated travel warning on its website.
It advised Australians to reconsider traveling to Indonesia, including the popular holiday island of Bali, because of "the very high threat of terrorist attack" and warned those already there to consider leaving.
"We continue to receive a stream of reporting indicating that terrorists are in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Western interests in Indonesia against a range of targets, including places frequented by foreigners," it said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378314
Vanunu ban extended
21.04.06 5.20am
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu faces another year of confinement to Israel after the Government extended a travel ban imposed when he was released from prison in 2004, his lawyer says.
Arguing that Vanunu could spill more military secrets, Israel's Justice Ministry rejected his appeal to be allowed to leave.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10378305
Antarctic building boom in 'polar year'
19.04.06
A research station set to be built by the Baltic state of Estonia in New Zealand's Ross Dependency is part of a construction boom expected on the frozen continent of Antarctica next summer.
The development rush has been linked to the declaration of next year as international polar year, but there are concerns it will create environmental problems, Melbourne's The Age newspaper reported yesterday.
Under the Antarctic Treaty, New Zealand and six other nations have territorial claims to the continent, but all such claims have little practical impact.
Few of the 45 treaty signatory nations recognise them and countries can build base stations or research sites regardless of whether they have specific permission from the territorial claimant.
New Zealand still asserts its claim to the Ross Dependency, but accepts international control of the environment under the treaty.
A spokeswoman for Antarctica New Zealand said yesterday that Estonia was running behind schedule for construction of its Antarctic base, a delay attributed by other sources to a shortage of funds in the Baltic state.
Estonia, which joined the Antarctic Treaty five years ago, wants to build a small, summer-only base for six people, comprising two huts, a small shed and fuel storage at Edmonson Point South, 350km northwest of Scott Base.
Other bases already in New Zealand's dependency are those of the Italians at Terra Nova Bay and the big US base at McMurdo.
The Czech Republic will open its climate research station on James Ross Island next December and Belgium is developing its own new research base.
The base, between the Russian station Novolazarevskaya and the Japanese station, Syowa, in the Dronning Maud Land region, will accommodate 20 people over the summer of 2007-2008.
France and Italy are developing a new permanent inland research station, known as Concordia, to be fully operational next year.
The newspaper also reported that China had ambitious plans to build inland, in addition to its coastal Zhongshan station near Australia's Davis base.
India's National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research appears to have rejected Australia's offer to share the Mawson station.
Instead it will put plans before the next Antarctic Treaty meeting in June for building its own facility next year in the Larsemann Hills area or nearby McLeod Island in Prydz Bay.
And South Korea's Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries is preparing to build a $119 million station at an undisclosed site in the Antarctic interior, according to the Korea Times.
The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, an environmental body with more than 150 member groups, said the pace of construction was threatening wilderness values.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&ObjectID=10377992
Ice invasion under discussion
11.04.06 3.00pm
Biosecurity issues in Antarctica have been the focus of an international meeting in Christchurch.
Delegates from France, the UK, Australia and America have met with their New Zealand colleagues at the Antarctica Non-Native Species Workshop which opened yesterday.
Under scrutiny is the growing threat being posed to the Antarctic environment by invasions from outside species and what options can be considered to mitigate them.
Delegates will develop a report which will be presented to the Antarctic Treaty meeting in Scotland in June
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10376999
Scott Base manager
29.03.06
By Janine Ogier
Name: Emma Reid
Age: 38
Role: Scott Base manager (summer season)
Working hours: Scott Base staff work Mon-Sat. This job is seven days.
Average pay: New Zealand salary plus 33.3 per cent Antarctic allowance
Qualifications: BA Hons (Otago)
Describe how you got this job?
As communications manager for Antarctica New Zealand I am already a member of the management team in Christchurch. Each season we appoint a Scott Base manager and those people whose skills match the job description are identified. I indicated a strong interest and there was a match between my skills and those required. I was on seconded to the role for three months.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10374862
Increase in 'glacial earthquakes' recorded
24.03.06 1.00pm
By Steve Connor
Dramatic new evidence has emerged of the speed of climate change in the polar regions which scientists fear is causing huge volumes of ice to melt far faster than predicted.
Scientists have recorded a significant and unexpected increase in the number of "glacial earthquakes" caused by the sudden movement of Manhattan-sized blocks of ice in Greenland.
A second study has found that higher temperatures caused by global warming could melt the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets much sooner than previously thought with a corresponding rise in sea levels.
Both studies - along with a series of findings from other scientists over the past year - point to a disturbing change in the polar climate which is causing the disappearance of glaciers, ice sheets and floating sea ice.
The rise in the number of glacial earthquakes over the past four years lends further weight to the idea that Greenland's glaciers and its ice sheet are beginning to move and melt on a scale not seen for perhaps thousands of years.
The annual number of glacial earthquakes recorded in Greenland between 1993 and 2002 was between 6 and 15.
In 2003 seismologists recorded 20 glacial earthquakes.
In 2004 they monitored 24 and for the first 10 months of 2005 they recorded 32.
The latest seismic study, published today in the journal Science, found that in a single area of northwestern Greenland scientists recorded just one quake between 1993 and 1999.
But they monitored more than two dozen quakes between 2000 and 2005.
"People often think of glaciers as inert and slow moving, but in fact they can also move rather quickly," said Goran Ekstrom, professor of geology and geophysics at Harvard University, who led the study.
"Some of Greenland's glaciers -- as large as Manhattan and as tall as the Empire State Building -- can move 10 metres in less than minute, a jolt that is sufficient to generate moderate seismic waves," Professor Ekstrom said.
Average temperatures in the Arctic have risen far faster than in other parts of the world over the past few decades resulting in the rapid acceleration in polar melting.
As the glacial meltwater seeps down it lubricates the bases of the "outlet" glaciers of the Greenland ice sheet causing them to slip down surrounding valleys towards the sea, explained Meredith Nettles of Columbia University"Our results suggest that these major outlet glaciers can respond to changes in climate conditions much more quickly than we had thought," Dr Nettles said.
"Greenland's glaciers deliver large quantities of fresh water to the oceans, so the implications for climate change are serious.
We believe that further warming of the climate is likely to accelerate the behaviour we've documented," she said.
The seismologists also found that the glacial earthquakes of Greenland occurred mainly during the summer months, indicating that the movements were indeed associated with rapidly melting ice - normal "tectonic" earthquakes show no such seasonality.
Of the 136 glacial quakes analysed by the scientists, more than a third occurred during the months of July and August.
By comparison only four earthquakes were recorded in the months of January and February for the period 1993 to 2005.
A separate study by Jonathan Overpeck and colleagues at the University of Arizona in Tucson found that global warming is on track to melt the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica sooner than previously predicted, ultimately causing a rise in sea levels of at least 20 feet.
"This is a real eye-opener set of results.
The last time the Arctic was significantly warmer than present day, the Greenland ice sheet melted back the equivalent of two to three metres [about six to ten feet] of sea level," Professor Overpeck said.
"We need to start serious measures to reduce greenhouse gases within the next decade.
If we don't do something soon, we're committed to four-to-six metres [13 to 20 feet] of sea level rise in the future," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10374217
continued …
Friday, April 21, 2006
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
I'll write more about my sister, Patricia, Saturday Night. Interesting story. She needed time.
Giant White Rhododendron
I have a life to try to save.
Nearly twenty years ago, my sister, Patricia was diagnosed with an astrocytoma. A brain tumor. The initial diagnosis was made at a community hospital with the prediction of six months longevity. Her spouse refused to believe it.
Patricia was a vivacious, petit woman who was very alive at the time and except for blurred vision she was her ususal perfection. Pat had concluded her professional career with AT&T International and moved to Ohio to start a family with a very successful husband. They were in Ohio for 3 months when she manifested the vision problem.
Her spouse sent her biopsies to three different university hospitals around the country. She ended up a month later at The Cleveland Clinic under the vigilance of Dr. Janet Bay. There she was given a successful 'shunt' operation and thirty days of radiation. We owe every day since then in thanks to the excellance of the technology and staff of The Cleveland Clinic.
She is now nearly twenty years out from the initial diagnosis. Her tumor has manifested again. This time there is a second one. The staff at the University Hospital she is getting care from feels strongly she will prevail after a one time treatment of a Gamma Knife. I believe so as well.
The Cleveland Clinic has perfected "The Gamma Knife" but is not the only hospital to have one.
My sister needs this treatment. She was supposed to have her treatment on Friday. I received a call a short time ago that she has cancelled her appointment because she is scared. I am scared. I need to attend to my sister's apprehensions. She is a few hours drive west from me and it will give me time to resolve my issues and plan a setting away from all others and help her sort through her complicated life.
For that reason, it might be a few days before I am back blogging as usual. I'll be back from time to time but it's a time for reflection and mentoring.
Check with Michael Moore. I believe in his message. I believe in Freedom.
Have a good day.
Patricia was a vivacious, petit woman who was very alive at the time and except for blurred vision she was her ususal perfection. Pat had concluded her professional career with AT&T International and moved to Ohio to start a family with a very successful husband. They were in Ohio for 3 months when she manifested the vision problem.
Her spouse sent her biopsies to three different university hospitals around the country. She ended up a month later at The Cleveland Clinic under the vigilance of Dr. Janet Bay. There she was given a successful 'shunt' operation and thirty days of radiation. We owe every day since then in thanks to the excellance of the technology and staff of The Cleveland Clinic.
She is now nearly twenty years out from the initial diagnosis. Her tumor has manifested again. This time there is a second one. The staff at the University Hospital she is getting care from feels strongly she will prevail after a one time treatment of a Gamma Knife. I believe so as well.
The Cleveland Clinic has perfected "The Gamma Knife" but is not the only hospital to have one.
My sister needs this treatment. She was supposed to have her treatment on Friday. I received a call a short time ago that she has cancelled her appointment because she is scared. I am scared. I need to attend to my sister's apprehensions. She is a few hours drive west from me and it will give me time to resolve my issues and plan a setting away from all others and help her sort through her complicated life.
For that reason, it might be a few days before I am back blogging as usual. I'll be back from time to time but it's a time for reflection and mentoring.
Check with Michael Moore. I believe in his message. I believe in Freedom.
Have a good day.
With spotted owl count falling, lawsuit is planned
Audubon Society tells Weyerhaeuser, state they are violating species act
By ROBERT McCLUREP-I REPORTER
More than a decade after the Clinton administration's Northwest Forest Plan was launched to save the threatened spotted owl, a Seattle environmental group says the bird's population in Washington is plummeting.
Citing "overwhelming evidence" about the decline of what became a focal point in the battle between environmentalists and the timber industry in the 1990s, the Seattle chapter of the Audubon Society launched a legal assault Tuesday on Weyerhaeuser Co. and the state agency that regulates timber cutting.
Joined by the Kittitas Audubon Society, the Seattle group cited five spots in southwest Washington where the state allowed extensive logging by Weyerhaeuser near owl nests. The logging, and more that is planned, violate the Endangered Species Act, the environmentalists contend.
Weyerhaeuser says it follows state regulations and even exceeds them in some ways.
While the spotted owl was the focus of intense clashes between environmentalists and timber-industry supporters in the early 1990s, those fights centered mostly on national forests. There, logging has long been severely curtailed to preserve the owl and other species that thrive in older forests.
The plan for saving the owl focused on protecting federal land in national forests. But that didn't work. Spotted owls are declining in number in Washington at more than twice the rate predicted by federal biologists. Environmentalists point to state commitments that private lands would make some contribution.
"Everyone knew it was biologically questionable to shift all the recovery to federal land," said Peter Goldman, a lawyer with the Washington Forest Law Center who is representing the Audubon chapters. "The state's never done its share, and now we're really in a panic mode. ... It's not just about the owl. It's about broken promises."
While Weyerhaeuser told the government years ago that it would establish a long-term plan to protect spotted owls on its extensive Southwest Washington holdings, the plan was never completed.
Instead, company biologists carefully monitor the owls, Weyerhaeuser says, and logging is designed to maximize owl survival by leaving intact areas considered important to the birds.
On Tuesday, the environmental groups filed an official notice to Weyerhaeuser and to state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland of their intention to sue.
"We've got protections across the state for spotted owls, and those do not extend to Weyerhaeuser," said Alex Morgan, conservation director for Seattle Audubon. "You've got one bad apple that is not living by the rules that other landowners have to live by. ... Instead, we have an entire region of the state that has zero protection for spotted owls."
Responded Frank Mendizabal, a company spokesman: "We are not aware that any of our operations, either ongoing or proposed, pose any threat to any northern spotted owl. We follow all the rules and regulations."
Spokeswoman Patty Henson at the state Department of Natural Resources said Sutherland would have no comment until state lawyers can study the filing.
Environmentalists threatened a similar suit in 2003 when they saw U.S. Timberlands Co. logging heavily around spotted owl nests on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. That launched a discussion of 2 1/2 years that culminated in the Forest Practices Board last year rejecting more-rigorous reviews of logging in 13 "spotted owl special emphasis areas."
Frustrated, environmentalists scouted out the best examples possible of where logging is harming owls. They centered in on a five-site region in Southwest Washington that was never tagged a "special emphasis area" for the birds despite being nominated for protection by state scientists.
The same sites were cited last year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in notifying Weyerhaeuser that federal biologists were concerned about the company's logging.
Since then, the company has met with federal officials and explained its system of carefully studying the owls to help shape timber cuts, said Kevin Godbout, the company's director of external and regulatory affairs.
Kenan Block of the Washington Forest Law Center looks for spotted owls in a state-managed forest in Grays Harbor County.
"We've been able to ease some of their concerns, and some of their concerns are ongoing," Godbout said.
He said the Southwest Washington conservation plan promised by the company, which was to cover owls and a number of other species, was developed but never put into effect because "we just weren't able to get as much consensus as we wanted among the various stakeholders."
Mendizabal said Weyerhaeuser has an extensive program to locate and protect spotted-owl nests. Its scientists share data they collect with state and federal officials.
He said the company actually goes further than the regulations require. Outside the "special emphasis areas" for owls, loggers can cut down a tree where spotted owls have nested so long as they wait until the nesting season is over.
Weyerhaeuser doesn't do that, though, Mendizabal said. Only after the birds have left and several nesting seasons have gone by with no sign of them is that patch of forest cut, he said.
In addition, Godbout said, the company routinely leaves more than the 70 acres around spotted-owl nests required in many situations by state rules. And in some of the places where the environmentalists are complaining, he said, it appears a spotted-owl competitor, the barred owl, has moved in and displaced the spotted owl.
"We take this responsibility seriously," Godbout said. "We manage with a wealth of information."
Pat Ward, a spotted-owl biologist working with the environmental groups, said cutting big swaths of forest near a nest can be almost as harmful as cutting the nest tree itself, because the owls need forest to find prey.
If Weyerhaeuser is allowed to continue logging near owl nests, "the probability that those owls are going to survive through time is really low," Ward said. "There's a very high likelihood that they will not do well if they persist at all."
TIMELINE
A partial history of the northern spotted owl issue:
1989: Federal officials propose to protect spotted owl under Endangered Species Act.
1990: Owl officially declared "threatened" and granted protection.
1991: U.S. District Judge William Dwyer forbids U.S. Forest Service to allow logging in spotted owl habitat. Forest Service halves logging in national forests. Weyerhaeuser CEO George Weyerhaeuser lobbies Congress and the Bush administration, which agrees to drop Weyerhaeuser and other private timberlands from proposed habitat protections.
1993: Clinton administration convenes nationally televised Forest Summit to develop plan to save owls while preserving the timber industry. Weyerhaeuser executive Charlie Bingham promises to develop a plan to protect owls and other threatened species on 100,000 acres of company land in Southwest Washington.
1994: Dwyer approves Clinton administration's Northwest Forest Plan, the result of the 1993 Forest Summit. It calls for large rollbacks in timber cutting in national forests.
1995: State Forest Practices Board designates 13 areas for "special emphasis" in protecting spotted owls on private land, but rejects state scientists' recommendation to extend protections to the northern Olympic Peninsula and Southwest Washington.
Late 1990s: Weyerhaeuser drops effort to develop Southwest Washington habitat-conservation plan.
2003: Environmentalists threaten suit under Endangered Species Act, saying state has allowed too much timber cutting near spotted owl nests by U.S. Timberlands Co. on eastern Cascade slopes. Negotiations with the state ensue.
2005: State Forest Practices Board rejects environmentalists' request to tighten logging on 115,000 acres in the "special emphasis areas" for owls.
2006: Environmentalists file notice required by Endangered Species Act, saying they will sue Weyerhaeuser and the Forest Practices Board.
P-I reporter Robert McClure can be reached at 206-448-8092 or robertmcclure@seattlepi.com.
By ROBERT McCLUREP-I REPORTER
More than a decade after the Clinton administration's Northwest Forest Plan was launched to save the threatened spotted owl, a Seattle environmental group says the bird's population in Washington is plummeting.
Citing "overwhelming evidence" about the decline of what became a focal point in the battle between environmentalists and the timber industry in the 1990s, the Seattle chapter of the Audubon Society launched a legal assault Tuesday on Weyerhaeuser Co. and the state agency that regulates timber cutting.
Joined by the Kittitas Audubon Society, the Seattle group cited five spots in southwest Washington where the state allowed extensive logging by Weyerhaeuser near owl nests. The logging, and more that is planned, violate the Endangered Species Act, the environmentalists contend.
Weyerhaeuser says it follows state regulations and even exceeds them in some ways.
While the spotted owl was the focus of intense clashes between environmentalists and timber-industry supporters in the early 1990s, those fights centered mostly on national forests. There, logging has long been severely curtailed to preserve the owl and other species that thrive in older forests.
The plan for saving the owl focused on protecting federal land in national forests. But that didn't work. Spotted owls are declining in number in Washington at more than twice the rate predicted by federal biologists. Environmentalists point to state commitments that private lands would make some contribution.
"Everyone knew it was biologically questionable to shift all the recovery to federal land," said Peter Goldman, a lawyer with the Washington Forest Law Center who is representing the Audubon chapters. "The state's never done its share, and now we're really in a panic mode. ... It's not just about the owl. It's about broken promises."
While Weyerhaeuser told the government years ago that it would establish a long-term plan to protect spotted owls on its extensive Southwest Washington holdings, the plan was never completed.
Instead, company biologists carefully monitor the owls, Weyerhaeuser says, and logging is designed to maximize owl survival by leaving intact areas considered important to the birds.
On Tuesday, the environmental groups filed an official notice to Weyerhaeuser and to state Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland of their intention to sue.
"We've got protections across the state for spotted owls, and those do not extend to Weyerhaeuser," said Alex Morgan, conservation director for Seattle Audubon. "You've got one bad apple that is not living by the rules that other landowners have to live by. ... Instead, we have an entire region of the state that has zero protection for spotted owls."
Responded Frank Mendizabal, a company spokesman: "We are not aware that any of our operations, either ongoing or proposed, pose any threat to any northern spotted owl. We follow all the rules and regulations."
Spokeswoman Patty Henson at the state Department of Natural Resources said Sutherland would have no comment until state lawyers can study the filing.
Environmentalists threatened a similar suit in 2003 when they saw U.S. Timberlands Co. logging heavily around spotted owl nests on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. That launched a discussion of 2 1/2 years that culminated in the Forest Practices Board last year rejecting more-rigorous reviews of logging in 13 "spotted owl special emphasis areas."
Frustrated, environmentalists scouted out the best examples possible of where logging is harming owls. They centered in on a five-site region in Southwest Washington that was never tagged a "special emphasis area" for the birds despite being nominated for protection by state scientists.
The same sites were cited last year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in notifying Weyerhaeuser that federal biologists were concerned about the company's logging.
Since then, the company has met with federal officials and explained its system of carefully studying the owls to help shape timber cuts, said Kevin Godbout, the company's director of external and regulatory affairs.
Kenan Block of the Washington Forest Law Center looks for spotted owls in a state-managed forest in Grays Harbor County.
"We've been able to ease some of their concerns, and some of their concerns are ongoing," Godbout said.
He said the Southwest Washington conservation plan promised by the company, which was to cover owls and a number of other species, was developed but never put into effect because "we just weren't able to get as much consensus as we wanted among the various stakeholders."
Mendizabal said Weyerhaeuser has an extensive program to locate and protect spotted-owl nests. Its scientists share data they collect with state and federal officials.
He said the company actually goes further than the regulations require. Outside the "special emphasis areas" for owls, loggers can cut down a tree where spotted owls have nested so long as they wait until the nesting season is over.
Weyerhaeuser doesn't do that, though, Mendizabal said. Only after the birds have left and several nesting seasons have gone by with no sign of them is that patch of forest cut, he said.
In addition, Godbout said, the company routinely leaves more than the 70 acres around spotted-owl nests required in many situations by state rules. And in some of the places where the environmentalists are complaining, he said, it appears a spotted-owl competitor, the barred owl, has moved in and displaced the spotted owl.
"We take this responsibility seriously," Godbout said. "We manage with a wealth of information."
Pat Ward, a spotted-owl biologist working with the environmental groups, said cutting big swaths of forest near a nest can be almost as harmful as cutting the nest tree itself, because the owls need forest to find prey.
If Weyerhaeuser is allowed to continue logging near owl nests, "the probability that those owls are going to survive through time is really low," Ward said. "There's a very high likelihood that they will not do well if they persist at all."
TIMELINE
A partial history of the northern spotted owl issue:
1989: Federal officials propose to protect spotted owl under Endangered Species Act.
1990: Owl officially declared "threatened" and granted protection.
1991: U.S. District Judge William Dwyer forbids U.S. Forest Service to allow logging in spotted owl habitat. Forest Service halves logging in national forests. Weyerhaeuser CEO George Weyerhaeuser lobbies Congress and the Bush administration, which agrees to drop Weyerhaeuser and other private timberlands from proposed habitat protections.
1993: Clinton administration convenes nationally televised Forest Summit to develop plan to save owls while preserving the timber industry. Weyerhaeuser executive Charlie Bingham promises to develop a plan to protect owls and other threatened species on 100,000 acres of company land in Southwest Washington.
1994: Dwyer approves Clinton administration's Northwest Forest Plan, the result of the 1993 Forest Summit. It calls for large rollbacks in timber cutting in national forests.
1995: State Forest Practices Board designates 13 areas for "special emphasis" in protecting spotted owls on private land, but rejects state scientists' recommendation to extend protections to the northern Olympic Peninsula and Southwest Washington.
Late 1990s: Weyerhaeuser drops effort to develop Southwest Washington habitat-conservation plan.
2003: Environmentalists threaten suit under Endangered Species Act, saying state has allowed too much timber cutting near spotted owl nests by U.S. Timberlands Co. on eastern Cascade slopes. Negotiations with the state ensue.
2005: State Forest Practices Board rejects environmentalists' request to tighten logging on 115,000 acres in the "special emphasis areas" for owls.
2006: Environmentalists file notice required by Endangered Species Act, saying they will sue Weyerhaeuser and the Forest Practices Board.
P-I reporter Robert McClure can be reached at 206-448-8092 or robertmcclure@seattlepi.com.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
This will help bring to focus the ruthlessness of the agenda of oil !
BASICALLY. Countries have no self discipline and desire for change, only GREED. Is there any doubt yet about why the USA and Britain are in Iraq?
Global warming sparks a scramble for black gold under retreating ice
David AdamTuesday
April 18, 2006
The Guardian
Unlike the Antarctic continent spread around the south pole, the Arctic has no formal international treaty to regulate activities. And while howling winds, drifting icebergs and months of freezing darkness kept prospecters at bay, there was little activity to regulate.
But as global warming thaws the ocean's icy layer, oil giants, shipping companies and even the odd enterprising tourist operator are casting their eyes towards the high north.
Last August a Russian vessel, the Akademik Fyodorov, became the first to reach the north pole without an icebreaker - one of seven ships to make it to the top of the world last year. This summer, Russian icebreakers aim to go one better and take paying guests, for £17,000 each. If the ice continues to thin and shrink as expected, then within a few decades cruise liners, container ships and tankers could all head over the pole, shaving thousands of miles off their voyages across the globe.
The biggest boom could be oil and gas. The US Geological Survey surprised some experts when it declared that a quarter of the world's undiscovered reserves lay under the Arctic Ocean. As the ice retreats, oil companies are scrambling to open a new frontier.
Bruce Evers, an analyst with the London firm Investec, says the big companies have no choice but to investigate the Arctic. "If they think there is oil and gas there then they absolutely can't ignore it," he says. "If there is going to be an Arctic Klondike rush then they will want to be there along with every other Tom, Dick and Harry. They can't afford to sit and watch the others explore and come up with some huge discoveries."
Attempts to open up the Arctic national wildlife refuge in Alaska to drilling remain deadlocked in the US Congress, but several companies have dipped more than a toe in the chilly Arctic Ocean further north. BP Amoco is developing an Alaskan offshore oil deposit called Northstar and the Norwegian company Statoil is working on a gasfield some 90 miles across the frozen Barents Sea from its most northerly outpost, Hammerfest. Called Snow White, the project is expected to start pumping liquefied natural gas to the US and Europe next year.
The jewel in the Arctic energy crown is the Shtokman field, also in the Barents Sea. Some 300 miles off the Russian Arctic coast and 10 times the size of Snow White, it is the largest offshore gas reservoir in the world. The Russian energy giant Gazprom is poised to announce partnerships with other companies to drill up to 120 wells.
"It's an unfortunate fact of life that the climactically benign and politically stable areas are running out of oil and gas," Mr Evers said. "So in politically stable areas like the Arctic there's going to be a substantial amount of interest."
That interest is already turning up the diplomatic heat, and there are a growing number of territorial disputes between the eight countries with a claim to the Arctic: Russia, the US, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.
A dispute between the US and Canada over rights to shipping lanes through the North-West Passage flared up again this year, with Canada promising to step up its military presence to protect what it regards as its territory and the US sees as international waters. Norway and Russia are squabbling over the Barents Sea, while Denmark is eyeing the north pole itself.
International law allows a country to claim the seabed up to 350 miles off its coast, which is judged from the edge of its continental shelf. Existing surveys show that no country's shelf extends far enough to give it a claim on the pole, so a neutral area around it is administered by the International Seabed Authority. To get round this, Denmark is trying to prove that Greenland - a Danish territory - is connected to a 1,100-mile underwater ridge that stretches towards the pole. Launching the effort in 2004, the Danish science minister, Helge Sander, said it was to give Denmark access to "new resources such as oil and natural gas". Canada and Russia are trying to make similar claims and it could take years to sort out.
Environmental campaigners are viewing the creeping development of the Arctic with mounting concern. Norway announced last month that it will limit drilling in some areas to protect fragile ecosystems. The 31-mile exclusion zone in the Barents Sea has large supplies of fish. But the embargo expires in 2010 and drilling elsewhere is being stepped up, with the granting of 13 oil and gas licences to 17 companies.
Stephanie Tumore, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace, said: "Haven't we learnt anything? Why are we going looking for more fossil fuels when what's happening in polar regions just proves that it is devastating and we cannot continue to do that?"
The consequences:
Precarious region
Wildlife
The Arctic is home to hundreds of species of mammals, birds and fish found in few, if any, other places on Earth. Polar bears, musk oxen and caribou are joined each summer by snowy owls, ducks and swans that migrate there to nest. Some of the hardiest organisms discovered live within the ice, helping to make the region a unique ecosystem. Now, 1,000sq miles of Arctic tundra on Alaska's North Slope is home to one of the world's largest industrial complexes, with 28 oil production plants, 4,800 exploration and production wells, 1,800 miles of pipes and 500 miles of roads.
Sea ice
Global warming has lead to an increase in melting of Arctic sea ice and in one study last year, scientists predicted that 4m sq miles of permafrost could shrink to 400,000 sq miles by 2100, disrupting ocean currents, releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and causing havoc to roads and buildings across Canada, Alaska and Russia.
Mineral exploration
The melting of Arctic sea ice has made the region more accessible to shipping, and oil and gas companies keen to prospect for natural resources. Some estimates suggest that one quarter of the planet's untapped fossil fuels, including 375bn barrels of oil, lie beneath the Arctic, and industry experts talk of a "black gold rush" as companies clamour to exploit the reserves. Off Norway's north coast, the state oil company, Statoil, is engaged in project Snow White, which workers believe will generate £34bn in liquefied natural gas over the next 30 years.
Pollution
Spillages and leaks add to the environmental damage caused by oil extraction and, according to the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), between 1996 and 2004, there were 4,530 spills of more than 1.9m gallons of diesel, oil, acid and other chemicals along the Alaskan border alone. Last month, hundreds of thousands of litres of crude oil gushed into the Arctic Ocean from a corroded 30-year old BP pipeline. The NRDC says there is at least one leak from an oilfield or pipeline every day.
Tourism
Global warming is also opening up the Arctic to tourism, with shipping companies offering voyages to the north pole. Previously, only well-equipped icebreakers would have been able to attempt the trip.
Ian Sample
Global warming sparks a scramble for black gold under retreating ice
David AdamTuesday
April 18, 2006
The Guardian
Unlike the Antarctic continent spread around the south pole, the Arctic has no formal international treaty to regulate activities. And while howling winds, drifting icebergs and months of freezing darkness kept prospecters at bay, there was little activity to regulate.
But as global warming thaws the ocean's icy layer, oil giants, shipping companies and even the odd enterprising tourist operator are casting their eyes towards the high north.
Last August a Russian vessel, the Akademik Fyodorov, became the first to reach the north pole without an icebreaker - one of seven ships to make it to the top of the world last year. This summer, Russian icebreakers aim to go one better and take paying guests, for £17,000 each. If the ice continues to thin and shrink as expected, then within a few decades cruise liners, container ships and tankers could all head over the pole, shaving thousands of miles off their voyages across the globe.
The biggest boom could be oil and gas. The US Geological Survey surprised some experts when it declared that a quarter of the world's undiscovered reserves lay under the Arctic Ocean. As the ice retreats, oil companies are scrambling to open a new frontier.
Bruce Evers, an analyst with the London firm Investec, says the big companies have no choice but to investigate the Arctic. "If they think there is oil and gas there then they absolutely can't ignore it," he says. "If there is going to be an Arctic Klondike rush then they will want to be there along with every other Tom, Dick and Harry. They can't afford to sit and watch the others explore and come up with some huge discoveries."
Attempts to open up the Arctic national wildlife refuge in Alaska to drilling remain deadlocked in the US Congress, but several companies have dipped more than a toe in the chilly Arctic Ocean further north. BP Amoco is developing an Alaskan offshore oil deposit called Northstar and the Norwegian company Statoil is working on a gasfield some 90 miles across the frozen Barents Sea from its most northerly outpost, Hammerfest. Called Snow White, the project is expected to start pumping liquefied natural gas to the US and Europe next year.
The jewel in the Arctic energy crown is the Shtokman field, also in the Barents Sea. Some 300 miles off the Russian Arctic coast and 10 times the size of Snow White, it is the largest offshore gas reservoir in the world. The Russian energy giant Gazprom is poised to announce partnerships with other companies to drill up to 120 wells.
"It's an unfortunate fact of life that the climactically benign and politically stable areas are running out of oil and gas," Mr Evers said. "So in politically stable areas like the Arctic there's going to be a substantial amount of interest."
That interest is already turning up the diplomatic heat, and there are a growing number of territorial disputes between the eight countries with a claim to the Arctic: Russia, the US, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.
A dispute between the US and Canada over rights to shipping lanes through the North-West Passage flared up again this year, with Canada promising to step up its military presence to protect what it regards as its territory and the US sees as international waters. Norway and Russia are squabbling over the Barents Sea, while Denmark is eyeing the north pole itself.
International law allows a country to claim the seabed up to 350 miles off its coast, which is judged from the edge of its continental shelf. Existing surveys show that no country's shelf extends far enough to give it a claim on the pole, so a neutral area around it is administered by the International Seabed Authority. To get round this, Denmark is trying to prove that Greenland - a Danish territory - is connected to a 1,100-mile underwater ridge that stretches towards the pole. Launching the effort in 2004, the Danish science minister, Helge Sander, said it was to give Denmark access to "new resources such as oil and natural gas". Canada and Russia are trying to make similar claims and it could take years to sort out.
Environmental campaigners are viewing the creeping development of the Arctic with mounting concern. Norway announced last month that it will limit drilling in some areas to protect fragile ecosystems. The 31-mile exclusion zone in the Barents Sea has large supplies of fish. But the embargo expires in 2010 and drilling elsewhere is being stepped up, with the granting of 13 oil and gas licences to 17 companies.
Stephanie Tumore, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace, said: "Haven't we learnt anything? Why are we going looking for more fossil fuels when what's happening in polar regions just proves that it is devastating and we cannot continue to do that?"
The consequences:
Precarious region
Wildlife
The Arctic is home to hundreds of species of mammals, birds and fish found in few, if any, other places on Earth. Polar bears, musk oxen and caribou are joined each summer by snowy owls, ducks and swans that migrate there to nest. Some of the hardiest organisms discovered live within the ice, helping to make the region a unique ecosystem. Now, 1,000sq miles of Arctic tundra on Alaska's North Slope is home to one of the world's largest industrial complexes, with 28 oil production plants, 4,800 exploration and production wells, 1,800 miles of pipes and 500 miles of roads.
Sea ice
Global warming has lead to an increase in melting of Arctic sea ice and in one study last year, scientists predicted that 4m sq miles of permafrost could shrink to 400,000 sq miles by 2100, disrupting ocean currents, releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and causing havoc to roads and buildings across Canada, Alaska and Russia.
Mineral exploration
The melting of Arctic sea ice has made the region more accessible to shipping, and oil and gas companies keen to prospect for natural resources. Some estimates suggest that one quarter of the planet's untapped fossil fuels, including 375bn barrels of oil, lie beneath the Arctic, and industry experts talk of a "black gold rush" as companies clamour to exploit the reserves. Off Norway's north coast, the state oil company, Statoil, is engaged in project Snow White, which workers believe will generate £34bn in liquefied natural gas over the next 30 years.
Pollution
Spillages and leaks add to the environmental damage caused by oil extraction and, according to the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), between 1996 and 2004, there were 4,530 spills of more than 1.9m gallons of diesel, oil, acid and other chemicals along the Alaskan border alone. Last month, hundreds of thousands of litres of crude oil gushed into the Arctic Ocean from a corroded 30-year old BP pipeline. The NRDC says there is at least one leak from an oilfield or pipeline every day.
Tourism
Global warming is also opening up the Arctic to tourism, with shipping companies offering voyages to the north pole. Previously, only well-equipped icebreakers would have been able to attempt the trip.
Ian Sample
Monday, April 17, 2006
Enemy of the Planet by Paul Krugman
Lee Raymond, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was paid $686 million over 13 years. But that's not a reason to single him out for special excoriation. Executive compensation is out of control in corporate America as a whole, and unlike other grossly overpaid business leaders, Mr. Raymond can at least claim to have made money for his stockholders.
There's a better reason to excoriate Mr. Raymond: for the sake of his company's bottom line, and perhaps his own personal enrichment, he turned Exxon Mobil into an enemy of the planet.
To understand why Exxon Mobil is a worse environmental villain than other big oil companies, you need to know a bit about how the science and politics of climate change have shifted over the years.
Global warming emerged as a major public issue in the late 1980's. But at first there was considerable scientific uncertainty.
Over time, the accumulation of evidence removed much of that uncertainty. Climate experts still aren't sure how much hotter the world will get, and how fast. But there's now an overwhelming scientific consensus that the world is getting warmer, and that human activity is the cause. In 2004, an article in the journal Science that surveyed 928 papers on climate change published in peer-reviewed scientific journals found that "none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position."
To dismiss this consensus, you have to believe in a vast conspiracy to misinform the public that somehow embraces thousands of scientists around the world. That sort of thing is the stuff of bad novels. Sure enough, the novelist Michael Crichton, whose past work includes warnings about the imminent Japanese takeover of the world economy and murderous talking apes inhabiting the lost city of Zinj, has become perhaps the most prominent global-warming skeptic. (Mr. Crichton was invited to the White House to brief President Bush.)
So how have corporate interests responded? In the early years, when the science was still somewhat in doubt, many companies from the oil industry, the auto industry and other sectors were members of a group called the Global Climate Coalition, whose de facto purpose was to oppose curbs on greenhouse gases. But as the scientific evidence became clearer, many members — including oil companies like BP and Shell — left the organization and conceded the need to do something about global warming.
Exxon, headed by Mr. Raymond, chose a different course of action: it decided to fight the science.
A leaked memo from a 1998 meeting at the American Petroleum Institute, in which Exxon (which hadn't yet merged with Mobil) was a participant, describes a strategy of providing "logistical and moral support" to climate change dissenters, "thereby raising questions about and undercutting the 'prevailing scientific wisdom.' " And that's just what Exxon Mobil has done: lavish grants have supported a sort of alternative intellectual universe of global warming skeptics.
The people and institutions Exxon Mobil supports aren't actually engaged in climate research. They're the real-world equivalents of the Academy of Tobacco Studies in the movie "Thank You for Smoking," whose purpose is to fail to find evidence of harmful effects.
But the fake research works for its sponsors, partly because it gets picked up by right-wing pundits, but mainly because it plays perfectly into the he-said-she-said conventions of "balanced" journalism. A 2003 study, by Maxwell Boykoff and Jules Boykoff, of reporting on global warming in major newspapers found that a majority of reports gave the skeptics — a few dozen people, many if not most receiving direct or indirect financial support from Exxon Mobil — roughly the same amount of attention as the scientific consensus, supported by thousands of independent researchers.
Has Exxon Mobil's war on climate science actually changed policy for the worse? Maybe not. Although most governments have done little to curb greenhouse gases, and the Bush administration has done nothing, it's not clear that policies would have been any better even if Exxon Mobil had acted more responsibly.
But the fact is that whatever small chance there was of action to limit global warming became even smaller because Exxon Mobil chose to protect its profits by trashing good science. And that, not the paycheck, is the real scandal of Mr. Raymond's reign as Exxon Mobil's chief executive.
There's a better reason to excoriate Mr. Raymond: for the sake of his company's bottom line, and perhaps his own personal enrichment, he turned Exxon Mobil into an enemy of the planet.
To understand why Exxon Mobil is a worse environmental villain than other big oil companies, you need to know a bit about how the science and politics of climate change have shifted over the years.
Global warming emerged as a major public issue in the late 1980's. But at first there was considerable scientific uncertainty.
Over time, the accumulation of evidence removed much of that uncertainty. Climate experts still aren't sure how much hotter the world will get, and how fast. But there's now an overwhelming scientific consensus that the world is getting warmer, and that human activity is the cause. In 2004, an article in the journal Science that surveyed 928 papers on climate change published in peer-reviewed scientific journals found that "none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position."
To dismiss this consensus, you have to believe in a vast conspiracy to misinform the public that somehow embraces thousands of scientists around the world. That sort of thing is the stuff of bad novels. Sure enough, the novelist Michael Crichton, whose past work includes warnings about the imminent Japanese takeover of the world economy and murderous talking apes inhabiting the lost city of Zinj, has become perhaps the most prominent global-warming skeptic. (Mr. Crichton was invited to the White House to brief President Bush.)
So how have corporate interests responded? In the early years, when the science was still somewhat in doubt, many companies from the oil industry, the auto industry and other sectors were members of a group called the Global Climate Coalition, whose de facto purpose was to oppose curbs on greenhouse gases. But as the scientific evidence became clearer, many members — including oil companies like BP and Shell — left the organization and conceded the need to do something about global warming.
Exxon, headed by Mr. Raymond, chose a different course of action: it decided to fight the science.
A leaked memo from a 1998 meeting at the American Petroleum Institute, in which Exxon (which hadn't yet merged with Mobil) was a participant, describes a strategy of providing "logistical and moral support" to climate change dissenters, "thereby raising questions about and undercutting the 'prevailing scientific wisdom.' " And that's just what Exxon Mobil has done: lavish grants have supported a sort of alternative intellectual universe of global warming skeptics.
The people and institutions Exxon Mobil supports aren't actually engaged in climate research. They're the real-world equivalents of the Academy of Tobacco Studies in the movie "Thank You for Smoking," whose purpose is to fail to find evidence of harmful effects.
But the fake research works for its sponsors, partly because it gets picked up by right-wing pundits, but mainly because it plays perfectly into the he-said-she-said conventions of "balanced" journalism. A 2003 study, by Maxwell Boykoff and Jules Boykoff, of reporting on global warming in major newspapers found that a majority of reports gave the skeptics — a few dozen people, many if not most receiving direct or indirect financial support from Exxon Mobil — roughly the same amount of attention as the scientific consensus, supported by thousands of independent researchers.
Has Exxon Mobil's war on climate science actually changed policy for the worse? Maybe not. Although most governments have done little to curb greenhouse gases, and the Bush administration has done nothing, it's not clear that policies would have been any better even if Exxon Mobil had acted more responsibly.
But the fact is that whatever small chance there was of action to limit global warming became even smaller because Exxon Mobil chose to protect its profits by trashing good science. And that, not the paycheck, is the real scandal of Mr. Raymond's reign as Exxon Mobil's chief executive.
Below 36 North Latitude
April 15, 2006. Amarillo, Texas.
Photographer states :: A firefighting helicopter (Sikorsky S-61 Fire King)
Click here to go to site.
April 16, 2006.
Wildfires across the USA. The largest I believe is "Flatside" Arkansas. It is over 5000 acres. The three wildfires in Arizona combined equal 5000 acres as well.
There is one controlled burn at "Chilly Spring Knob" North Carolina. There are none in Alaska and there are none in Canada.
Click here to animate. Thank you.
April 17, 2006. 9:00 AM.
Antarctica is still primarily cold, even the peninsula is cooling off but the east-southeast shoreline is being hit with a warmer trend. See it in animation of the map.
New Zealand Satellite Today
April 17, 2006 at 12:00 AM.
I have never witnessed a vortex on top of New Zealand like this, nor in this close a proximity of Antarctica or Australia in the southern ocean. This is unique, especially considering there is a cyclone at the northeast border of Australia as this satellite picture is taken.
Morning Papers - concluded
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Overcast
-29.0 degrees C
Updated Monday 17 Apr 8:30PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is :
39 °F / 4 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
70%
Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C
Wind:
5 mph / 7 km/h from the SE
Pressure:
29.71 in / 1006 hPa
Windchill:
36 °F / 2 °C
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 4100 ft / 1249 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Scott Base
Overcast
-29.0 degrees C
Updated Monday 17 Apr 8:30PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is :
39 °F / 4 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
70%
Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C
Wind:
5 mph / 7 km/h from the SE
Pressure:
29.71 in / 1006 hPa
Windchill:
36 °F / 2 °C
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 4100 ft / 1249 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
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