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duchamp

duchamp Avatar

Location: Florida Panhandle
Gender: Female


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 4:54pm

 jadewahoo wrote:
 miamizsun wrote:

Jade, I didn't say that they wanted to (see "If" and "willingly" in the bold type above), so it isn't my premise. I'm sure it is an honest oversight on your part.

But this does bring up an interesting question: Who owns this land (or has the legal mineral rights to it) that is being logged or cleared for farming?

And I believe you're a little confused on the non-aggression policy I speak of, and how that works. Let me state it again, aggression by governments, corporations by way of government corruption, and even neighboring people is wrong.

Yep... I got it right. It is more of the patronizing arrogance so typical of intellectuals. Your assumption, once again, is that they might want to "raise their standard(s) of living". The patronization comes where you hold a preconceived notion that somehow these folks would even think that  industrialization would be perceived by them as somehow being a higher standard of living. Yours is an aggression of intellectualism. It is a form of cultural imperialism that sets the stage for religions and corporations and governments to justify their bloody aggressions. I know this may seem harsh to you. Know that I do not hold in my mind that 'you' are of such an inclination, but your posturing is so very recognizable by any of us who have suffered the fate of such patronization.

As to your question: It is most generally land that has been set aside by governmental and international deed to the tribal peoples of the area. Like tribal peoples need some effen government to say to them "Ok, this bio-region you inhabit, and have inhabited since time immemorial, is now, ummm... YOURS! Gee, aren't we such nice overlords?——————- Oh! Wait! It has petroleum and timber that the IMF wants in exchange for a reduction of our debt to the World Bank & Friends?——- Ummm... go ahead, Hunt Oil, Chinese clearcutters, McDonalds Burgers Land & Cattle Co... We, the generous overseers of these poor unfortunate dumb fucks will let you strip away the resources and, ummm, it will rise their standard of living! Yeah... Thats the ticket!"

Words are your weapons. People like you frighten me.

 
Thunderheart is playing on Hulu, now.


jadewahoo

jadewahoo Avatar

Location: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 4:48pm

 miamizsun wrote:

Jade, I didn't say that they wanted to (see "If" and "willingly" in the bold type above), so it isn't my premise. I'm sure it is an honest oversight on your part.

But this does bring up an interesting question: Who owns this land (or has the legal mineral rights to it) that is being logged or cleared for farming?

And I believe you're a little confused on the non-aggression policy I speak of, and how that works. Let me state it again, aggression by governments, corporations by way of government corruption, and even neighboring people is wrong.

Yep... I got it right. It is more of the patronizing arrogance so typical of intellectuals. Your assumption, once again, is that they might want to "raise their standard(s) of living". The patronization comes where you hold a preconceived notion that somehow these folks would even think that  industrialization would be perceived by them as somehow being a higher standard of living. Yours is an aggression of intellectualism. It is a form of cultural imperialism that sets the stage for religions and corporations and governments to justify their bloody aggressions. I know this may seem harsh to you. Know that I do not hold in my mind that 'you' are of such an inclination, but your posturing is so very recognizable by any of us who have suffered the fate of such patronization.

As to your question: It is most generally land that has been set aside by governmental and international deed to the tribal peoples of the area. Like tribal peoples need some effen government to say to them "Ok, this bio-region you inhabit, and have inhabited since time immemorial, is now, ummm... YOURS! Gee, aren't we such nice overlords?——————- Oh! Wait! It has petroleum and timber that the IMF wants in exchange for a reduction of our debt to the World Bank & Friends?——- Ummm... go ahead, Hunt Oil, Chinese clearcutters, McDonalds Burgers Land & Cattle Co... We, the generous overseers of these poor unfortunate dumb fucks will let you strip away the resources and, ummm, it will rise their standard of living! Yeah... Thats the ticket!"

Words are your weapons. People like you frighten me.


miamizsun

miamizsun Avatar

Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 2:49pm

 jadewahoo wrote:
 miamizsun wrote:

schlab, that's true. I like the concept of mark's link, however it is their land to do with as they wish. If they want to willingly industrialize their local to raise their standard(s) of living, we don't have the right to tell them they can't. If private individuals own it, they can opt to let it be, or not.

I'd hate to see government intervention along the lines of what we did to the Native Americans.

Regards
The big wide gaping hole in your premise is that the local tribal peoples of the Amazon Basin want the timbering and mineral exploitation of their lands.  These activities are bring done to the forests and lands of the Amazon in spite of the tribal voices raised that cry out against the pillage of their home being done by the corporations, with the tacit assent or blind-turned eye of the governments of the areas affected. Your oh-so-noble hands-off attitude is what enables precisely the very thing you ostensibly decry: the genocide of a people through the destruction of their homeland and its means to be able to support the people who live upon and with it.

No, this doesn't come from the 'news'. It comes from my spending feet-on-the-ground time with these people in the Amazon.

 
Jade, I didn't say that they wanted to (see "If" and "willingly" in the bold type above), so it isn't my premise. I'm sure it is an honest oversight on your part.

But this does bring up an interesting question: Who owns this land (or has the legal mineral rights to it) that is being logged or cleared for farming?

And I believe you're a little confused on the non-aggression policy I speak of, and how that works. Let me state it again, aggression by governments, corporations by way of government corruption, and even neighboring people is wrong.

I did see this in a search:

The CAUSES of RAIN FOREST DESTRUCTION
The following issues are discussed:

1. Immediate Causes

Logging

Agriculture-Shifted Cultivators

Agricultures-Cash Crops & Cattle Ranching

Fuelwood

Large Dams

Mining and Industry

Colonization Schemes

Tourism

2. Underlying Causes

Development and Overconsumption: the Basis Cause

Colonialism

Exploitation by Industrialized Countries*

The Debt Burden*

The Role of Poverty and Overpopulation

 

*link


bokey

bokey Avatar

Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 9:56am

 Zep wrote:


Climate change 'makes birds shrink' in North America


Scarlet tanagers are more than 2% smaller today than in the 1960s



 
If the reverse holds true, this winter should cause turkey sized sparrows soon.


Zep

Zep Avatar

Location: Funkytown


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 9:46am



Climate change 'makes birds shrink' in North America


Scarlet tanagers are more than 2% smaller today than in the 1960s

Climate linked to smaller birds
By Matt Walker — Editor, Earth News

Songbirds in the US are getting smaller, and climate change is suspected as the cause.

A study of almost half a million birds, belonging to over 100 species, shows that many are gradually becoming lighter and growing shorter wings.

This shrinkage has occurred within just half a century, with the birds thought to be evolving into a smaller size in response to warmer temperatures.

However, there is little evidence that the change is harmful to the birds.

Details of the discovery are published in the journal Oikos.

Many of these species are apparently doing just fine, but the individual birds are becoming gradually smaller nonetheless
Dr Josh van Buskirk University of Zurich
In biology, there is a general rule of thumb that animals tend to become smaller in warmer climates: an idea known as Bergman's Rule.

Usually this trend can be seen among animal species that live over a range of latitude or altitude, with individuals living at more northern latitudes or higher up cooler mountains being slightly larger than those below, for example.

Quite why this happens is not clear, but it prompted one group of scientists to ask the question: would animals respond in the same way to climate change?

To find out, Dr Josh Van Buskirk of the University of Zurich, Switzerland and colleagues Mr Robert Mulvihill and Mr Robert Leberman of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Rector, Pennsylvania, US decided to evaluate the sizes of hundreds of thousands of birds that pass through the Carnegie Museum's Powdermill ringing station, also in Pennsylvania.

They examined the records of 486,000 individual birds that had been caught and measured at the ringing station from 1961 to 2007.

These birds belonged to 102 species, arriving over different seasons. Each was weighed. It also had the length of its wings measured, recorded as wing cord length, or the distance between the bird's wrist to the tip of the longest primary feather.

Their sample included local resident bird species, overwintering species, and even long distance migrants arriving from the Neotropics.

What they found was striking. Of 83 species caught during spring migration, 60 have become smaller over the 46 year study period, weighing less and having shorter wings.

Of the 75 species migrating in autumn, 66 have become smaller.

In summer, 51 of 65 breeding species have similarly reduced in size, as have 20 out of 26 wintering species.

The differences in size are not big.

"On average, the decline in mass of spring migrants over the 46 year study was just 1.3%," says Dr Buskirk.

"For a 10g warbler that's a loss of just 130mg."

But some species are losing more weight.

For example, the rose-breasted grosbeak has declined in mass by about 4%, while the Kentucky warbler has dropped 3.3% in weight and the scarlet tanager 2.3%.

The trend is particularly noticeable among those birds that winter in the New World tropics of the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

"The headline finding is that the body sizes of many species of North American birds, mostly songbirds, are gradually becoming smaller," says Dr Buskirk.

However, their populations are not dwindling.

"So many of these species are apparently doing just fine, but the individual birds are becoming gradually smaller nonetheless," says Dr Buskirk.

That suggests that bird species in North America are obeying Berman's rule, by evolving into a smaller size as temperatures increase.

Though this change appears quick, it has taken place over at least 20 generations of birds.

"There are plenty examples of rapid contemporary evolution over much shorter time periods," says Dr Buskirk.

Whether the trend will cause the birds any long-term consequences is unclear.

"In one obvious sense, the consequences are positive," says Dr Buskirk.

"That is, as temperatures become warmer, the optimal body size is becoming smaller."

However, even though the species appear to be adapting to the new climatic conditions, it could still be that their average "fitness" in evolutionary terms, is going down.

"Evidence from other studies is that some species will benefit and others will be harmed, and it's not always the species we like that will be harmed," says Dr Buskirk.

The jury is still out as to why any species responds to warmer temperatures by becoming smaller.

Originally, biologists proposed that having a larger body surface to volume might help in warmer climates.

But more recent ideas suggest that animals might actually be responding instead to something else that correlates with temperature, such as the availability of food, or metabolic rate.

"It looks like it might take a while before we know," says Dr Buskirk.

His team says much more data is now needed to confirm this trend and to see if it is happening in animals other than birds.

For example, it took an avalanche of data before people became convinced that climate change is already altering when birds start migrating.


sirdroseph

sirdroseph Avatar

Location: Not here, I tell you wat
Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 8:28am

 jadewahoo wrote:
 miamizsun wrote:

schlab, that's true. I like the concept of mark's link, however it is their land to do with as they wish. If they want to willingly industrialize their local to raise their standard(s) of living, we don't have the right to tell them they can't. If private individuals own it, they can opt to let it be, or not.

I'd hate to see government intervention along the lines of what we did to the Native Americans.

Regards
The big wide gaping hole in your premise is that the local tribal peoples of the Amazon Basin want the timbering and mineral exploitation of their lands.  These activities are bring done to the forests and lands of the Amazon in spite of the tribal voices raised that cry out against the pillage of their home being done by the corporations, with the tacit assent or blind-turned eye of the governments of the areas affected. Your oh-so-noble hands-off attitude is what enables precisely the very thing you ostensibly decry: the genocide of a people through the destruction of their homeland and its means to be able to support the people who live upon and with it.

No, this doesn't come from the 'news'. It comes from my spending feet-on-the-ground time with these people in the Amazon.

 

That's right, perhaps if someone would have been able to intervene with US's manifest destiny, it might have prevented the near and complete annihilation of the North American indigineous peoples which makes that last comment ultra rich in irony.{#Yes}


samiyam

samiyam Avatar

Location: Moving North


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 8:09am

 oldslabsides wrote:

Perhaps.  That doesn't make them any more immune to thoughtless human slashing and burning, tho.
 
We need that "One World Government" everybody keeps talking about.  Then we could tell those starving peasants that they can't slash and burn.  Perhaps the armies with the baby-blue helmets will be kind and just line them up.

jadewahoo

jadewahoo Avatar

Location: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 7:53am

 miamizsun wrote:

schlab, that's true. I like the concept of mark's link, however it is their land to do with as they wish. If they want to willingly industrialize their local to raise their standard(s) of living, we don't have the right to tell them they can't. If private individuals own it, they can opt to let it be, or not.

I'd hate to see government intervention along the lines of what we did to the Native Americans.

Regards
The big wide gaping hole in your premise is that the local tribal peoples of the Amazon Basin want the timbering and mineral exploitation of their lands.  These activities are bring done to the forests and lands of the Amazon in spite of the tribal voices raised that cry out against the pillage of their home being done by the corporations, with the tacit assent or blind-turned eye of the governments of the areas affected. Your oh-so-noble hands-off attitude is what enables precisely the very thing you ostensibly decry: the genocide of a people through the destruction of their homeland and its means to be able to support the people who live upon and with it.

No, this doesn't come from the 'news'. It comes from my spending feet-on-the-ground time with these people in the Amazon.


marko86

marko86 Avatar

Location: North TX
Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 6:11am

 miamizsun wrote:

Mark, I like the concept of private individuals purchasing land to save it. However, I didn't see the source for their scientific observations/claims. It is possible that I may have over looked it.

Regards
 

True, I kinda took the 1st page I found to point out the main issue with the amazon right now is the human caused deforestation and not global warming per se. There are many links to the research data on the wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_rain_forest
miamizsun

miamizsun Avatar

Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 6:10am

 oldslabsides wrote:

Perhaps.  That doesn't make them any more immune to thoughtless human slashing and burning, tho.
 
schlab, that's true. I like the concept of mark's link, however it is their land to do with as they wish. If they want to willingly industrialize their local to raise their standard(s) of living, we don't have the right to tell them they can't. If private individuals own it, they can opt to let it be, or not.

I'd hate to see government intervention along the lines of what we did to the Native Americans.

Regards

miamizsun

miamizsun Avatar

Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 6:01am

 marko86 wrote:

It's a good example of looking at one thing and missing the entire big picture.

 
Mark, I like the concept of private individuals purchasing land to save it. However, I didn't see the source for their scientific observations/claims. It is possible that I may have over looked it.

Regards

miamizsun

miamizsun Avatar

Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 5:56am

Aquatic 'dead zones' contributing to climate change from Eurekalert

As oxygen-deprived waters increase, they emit more greenhouse gasses into atmosphere

Cambridge, Md. (March 11, 2010) - The increased frequency and intensity of oxygen-deprived "dead zones" along the world's coasts can negatively impact environmental conditions in far more than just local waters. In the March 12 edition of the journal Science, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science oceanographer Dr. Lou Codispoti explains that the increased amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) produced in low-oxygen (hypoxic) waters can elevate concentrations in the atmosphere, further exacerbating the impacts of global warming and contributing to ozone "holes" that cause an increase in our exposure to harmful UV radiation.

"As the volume of hypoxic waters move towards the sea surface and expands along our coasts, their ability to produce the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide increases," explains Dr. Codispoti of the UMCES Horn Point Laboratory. "With low-oxygen waters currently producing about half of the ocean's net nitrous oxide, we could see an additional significant atmospheric increase if these 'dead zones' continue to expand."

Although present in minute concentrations in Earth's atmosphere, nitrous oxide is a highly potent greenhouse gas and is becoming a key factor in stratospheric ozone destruction. For the past 400,000 years, changes in atmospheric N2O appear to have roughly paralleled changes in carbon dioxide CO2 and have had modest impacts on climate, but this may change. Just as human activities may be causing an unprecedented rise in the terrestrial N2O sources, marine N2O production may also rise substantially as a result of nutrient pollution, warming waters and ocean acidification. Because the marine environment is a net producer of N2O, much of this production will be lost to the atmosphere, thus further intensifying its climatic impact.

Increased N2O production occurs as dissolved oxygen levels decline. Under well-oxygenated conditions, microbes produce N2O at low rates. But at oxygen concentrations decrease to hypoxic levels, these waters can increase their production of N2O.

N2O production rates are particularly high in shallow suboxic and hypoxic waters because respiration and biological turnover rates are higher near the sunlit waters where phytoplankton produce the fuel for respiration.

When suboxic waters (oxygen essentially absent) occur at depths of less than 300 feet, the combination of high respiration rates, and the peculiarities of a process called denitrification can cause N2O production rates to be 10,000 times higher than the average for the open ocean. The future of marine N2O production depends critically on what will happen to the roughly ten percent of the ocean volume that is hypoxic and suboxic.

"Nitrous oxide data from many coastal zones that contain low oxygen waters are sparse, including Chesapeake Bay," said Dr. Codispoti. "We should intensify our observations of the relationship between low oxygen concentrations and nitrous oxide in coastal waters."


sirdroseph

sirdroseph Avatar

Location: Not here, I tell you wat
Gender: Male


Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 5:26am

 marko86 wrote:

It's a good example of looking at one thing and missing the entire big picture.

 

  • We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years
  • One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries.
  • Rainforests are being destroyed because the value of rainforest land is percieved as only the value of its timber by short-sighted governments, multi-national logging companies, and land owners.
  • Nearly half of the world's species of plants, animals and microoganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to Rainforest deforestation.
  • Experts estimates that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest species dissapear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.
  • Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations, even by world giants like Mitsubishi Corporation, Gerogia Pacific, Texaco and Unocal.
  • There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000.
  • In Brazil alone, European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's. With them have gone centuries of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destoyed by deforestation, rainforest peoples are also dissappearing.
  • The Amazonian Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.
  • The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recyling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
  • More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.

  •  
    Naw, all that is just the natural cycle of the Earth, we didn't have nuffin to do with so it didn't or isn't happening.{#Rolleyes}{#Wink}


    marko86

    marko86 Avatar

    Location: North TX
    Gender: Male


    Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 5:19am

    It's a good example of looking at one thing and missing the entire big picture.

     

  • We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years
  • One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries.
  • Rainforests are being destroyed because the value of rainforest land is percieved as only the value of its timber by short-sighted governments, multi-national logging companies, and land owners.
  • Nearly half of the world's species of plants, animals and microoganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to Rainforest deforestation.
  • Experts estimates that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest species dissapear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.
  • Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations, even by world giants like Mitsubishi Corporation, Gerogia Pacific, Texaco and Unocal.
  • There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000.
  • In Brazil alone, European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's. With them have gone centuries of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destoyed by deforestation, rainforest peoples are also dissappearing.
  • The Amazonian Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.
  • The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recyling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
  • More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.


  • Red_Dragon

    Red_Dragon Avatar

    Location: Dumbf*ckistan


    Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 4:53am

     miamizsun wrote:
    New study debunks myths about Amazon rain forests  from Eurekalert

    They may be more tolerant of droughts than previously thought

     
    Perhaps.  That doesn't make them any more immune to thoughtless human slashing and burning, tho.

    miamizsun

    miamizsun Avatar

    Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
    Gender: Male


    Posted: Mar 12, 2010 - 4:49am

    New study debunks myths about Amazon rain forests  from Eurekalert

    They may be more tolerant of droughts than previously thought

    (Boston) — A new NASA-funded study has concluded that Amazon rain forests were remarkably unaffected in the face of once-in-a-century drought in 2005, neither dying nor thriving, contrary to a previously published report and claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

    "We found no big differences in the greenness level of these forests between drought and non-drought years, which suggests that these forests may be more tolerant of droughts than we previously thought," said Arindam Samanta, the study's lead author from Boston University.

    The comprehensive study published in the current issue of the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters used the latest version of the NASA MODIS satellite data to measure the greenness of these vast pristine forests over the past decade.

    A study published in the journal Science in 2007 claimed that these forests actually thrive from drought because of more sunshine under cloud-less skies typical of drought conditions. The new study found that those results were flawed and not reproducible.

    "This new study brings some clarity to our muddled understanding of how these forests, with their rich source of biodiversity, would fare in the future in the face of twin pressures from logging and changing climate," said Boston University Prof. Ranga Myneni, senior author of the new study.

    The IPCC is under scrutiny for various data inaccuracies, including its claim - based on a flawed World Wildlife Fund study — that up to 40% of the Amazonian forests could react drastically and be replaced by savannas from even a slight reduction in rainfall.

    "Our results certainly do not indicate such extreme sensitivity to reductions in rainfall," said Sangram Ganguly, an author on the new study, from the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute affiliated with NASA Ames Research Center in California.

    "The way that the WWF report calculated this 40% was totally wrong, while calculations are by far more reliable and correct," said Dr. Jose Marengo, a Brazilian National Institute for Space Research climate scientist and member of the IPCC.




    emeraldrose63

    emeraldrose63 Avatar



    Posted: Mar 11, 2010 - 7:31pm

    March 11, 2010

    Migratory birds and climate change

    The Department of the Interior put out a report today on how climate change is adding to the stresses that are causing the decline of hundreds of species of migratory birds. It's an annual update of efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and major conservation organizations to keep tabs on what a changing climate means for birds in all types of habitats.

     

    Already about a third of the nation's 800 migratory bird species are endangered, threatened or in serious decline. The report says climate change will cause problems for many of them, but the ones most at risk are oceanic birds such as albatrosses and petrels.

     

     


    Read more: http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/washington/2010/03/migratory-birds-and-climate-change.html#ixzz0hvh16PCU

    miamizsun

    miamizsun Avatar

    Location: (3283.1 Miles SE of RP)
    Gender: Male


    Posted: Mar 9, 2010 - 6:27am

    Imagine (central) bankers setting global taxation policy....and collecting the funds. Who could have spotted this coming....

    IMF proposes climate change fund

    The head of the International Monetary Fund says countries should adopt a quota system to raise money needed to adapt to climate change.

     

    The head of the International Monetary Fund has proposed a plan for the world's governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organisation that normally does not develop environmental policies.

    The IMF managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said the fund is concerned by the huge amount of money needed and the effect this will have on the global economy. He added that the proposal may help efforts to reach a binding agreement on climate change this year.

    Strauss-Kahn proposed that countries adopt a quota system similar to the one the fund uses to raise its own money, which could bring in money faster than proposals to increase carbon taxes or other fundraising methods. He only provided a broad outline of the plan, as the organisation will release a paper this week with full details. It is unclear how the proposal will be received.

    The IMF raises funds from its 185 members mainly through a quota system that is based broadly on each country's economic size. The United States is currently the largest shareholder.

    "We all know that will take time and we don't have this time. So we need something which looks like an interim solution, which will bridge the gap between now and the time when those carbon taxes will be big enough to solve the problem," Strauss-Kahn said. "And that is exactly what the IMF proposal is dealing with."

    He said a climate change accord reached last December estimated $100bn a year will be needed by 2020 to fund programs, including those to help poor nations deal with droughts, flooding and food shortages expected to be caused by climate change.

    Nations failed to reach a binding deal in Copenhagen in December, but agreed on a voluntary plan to control greenhouse gas emissions which are blamed for the gradual heating of the Earth that scientists predict will worsen weather-related disasters. The accord, however, included collective commitments by rich countries to provide billions of dollars to help poor countries adapt to climate change, a major demand the poor nations had made.

    The more than 190 nations will reconvene in Cancun, Mexico, later this year for another attempt to reach a binding agreement to replace the Kyoto protocol, which sets emissions targets for industrial countries and expires in 2012.




    cookinlover

    cookinlover Avatar

    Location: Auckland, New Zealand (former Boston native and Atlanta transplant)
    Gender: Male


    Posted: Mar 8, 2010 - 11:56am

     jadewahoo wrote:

    ... them all straight to the hell of their own conscience awoken.
     
    And it's one, two, three,
    What are we fighting for ?
    Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
    Next stop is Vietnam;
    And it's five, six, seven,
    Open up the pearly gates,
    Well there ain't no time to wonder why
    Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

    jadewahoo

    jadewahoo Avatar

    Location: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
    Gender: Male


    Posted: Mar 8, 2010 - 8:42am

     oldviolin wrote:
    *flush*
     
    ... them all straight to the hell of their own conscience awoken.

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