With ANWAR, the retreat from Kyoto, the lies of the EPA concerning mercury, the air quality of ground zero, and its pandering to big industry, the opening of National Parks to logging, snowmobiles, etc, and the out right refusal to accept verifiable scientific facts, are you really surprised that this admin scores so low on environmental issues? I guess when all the animals are in zoos vs. the wilderness, we have to boil our water to drink, and all need masks to breathe, we can look back on this moment with a smile and say I remember the good ole' days.

Enviromental degradation and destruction is only going to get worse. There is no apparent rush on the part of the U.S., the world's current largest consumer of resources and energy, to shift to alternatives. Organizations will continue to study and publicize the growing problems. The government will become increasingly irritated and weary of the criticisms. Look for infiltrations of "green" groups, smear campaigns, IRS audits, harrassments and other types of vendetta to quell activity considered detrimental. I'd also be suspicious of employees and leaders of Greenpeace, The Sierra Club and the like having a rash of car wrecks, boating accidents, hunting misshaps, cancer clusters, "suicides", and other life-ending events. The CIA/NSA can be very creative when it comes to ridding those considered troublesome.

It doesn't matter if millions and millions will perish.

Terri Schiavo has passed and that seems to be all the news that this media wants to concentrate on.

This may be old news, but I thought that these states suing the EPA was pretty funny. Well, I guess it would be funny if what the EPA was doing wasn't true. Welcome to the monkey house...

Sorry for the double post...

Mary,

Have you read that Oil End Game book? Is it worth $40 for the paperback?

Tex, I have ordered a copy of it and gone through their executive summary, but haven't read it yet. I've been very impressed with RMI's work, believe they have some great ideas and have been supporting them for the past few years. Their last newletter had a story about the first building in Washington, DC that will get a LEEDs certification. (Your mention of LEEDs was the first time I had heard about this. Thanks for the mention. I might have missed the article without your mention.)

Other than nuclear, there aren't really any viable alternatives that produce enough energy.

The biggest danger to this world is over population. Poor countries have both a high birth and dead rate.
Sending funds to those places does not solve anything. We should send them birth control and teach them that the size of their family should be to what they can afford to feed.

What if they don't listen?

Mary,

I'm happy you got some benefit from one of my posts. Let me know if you have any questions on the LEED program.

As a side note to those interested in the clean power gen topic that live in Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, or Texas.... Change your electric service provider to Green Mountain Energy. In Texas, it's 100% wind energy and it's the same price as TXU.

Sending funds to those places does not solve anything. We should send them birth control and teach them that the size of their family should be to what they can afford to feed.

Is that how we should handle people on welfare as well?

What if they don't listen?

It all comes down to a little word: Sex. I could relate a lot of stories on that subject from Europe, Africa and here.
Europe: 6 children with 4 mentally impaired the mother came to the school and announced been pregnant with twins. When told that maybe she should thing about having her tubes tight! She thought it mend that could not have sex anymore.
Africa: In the 50”s in the village, having 16 children was common. The reality is that only 1/3 of them survive to adulthood, as they die from pneumonia, malaria and other diseases. In those years the population was doubling every 10 years as a girl at 13 was already breeding.
USA: a Navy’s wife who got had 1 child every time her husband came back from duty, while not knowing that he finally got a vasectomy, thought that GOD was mad at her because she did not have another one after that.
It worth trying to educated them because we might no have another 100 years.

As we advance step by step to the environmental precipice, condemning future generations to a dead planet, it must be acknowledged that a majority of Americans today are unwilling to make any of the sacrifices necessary to protect species diversity and failing ecosystems. A majority of citizens vote for candidates from a party thoroughly hostile to the environment, but many Democratic politicians have been unwilling to confront Detroit and selfish, porcine American consumers as well. Hundreds of years from now, with millions and millions of non-human species extinct, the oceans completely dead, the poles melted, and no stable climate anywhere, our generation and its horrible "leaders" will be vilified, cursed and condemned as an abomination upon the earth.

Here are some ideas that we may still have time for.

Mary, I recently read an article that the oceans have heated up to a point where they can't be reversed quickly enough to stop whatever major effects they will have on coming climate changes. Of course this doesn't mean we should help the process along even more but significant changes are certain. This will mean increases in the size of flood and desert zones around the planet, decreases in agricultural area, shortages of fresh water and so on. Is there any world maps that show these estimate changes over the coming years? Will California become like New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona like the Saharan desert, Montana like California, Canada more like the U.S. in the 20-th century, etc.

I recently read an article that the oceans have heated up to a point where they can't be reversed quickly enough to stop whatever major effects they will have on coming climate changes.

I've also read that. I think there are some ideas about what will have with the weather as we go forward: One scientific report I saw thought that instead of alternating El Ninos/La Ninas, the world would shift to a constant El Nino. According to NOAA, the last La Nina that was expected never showed up and the torrential storms in LA were due to an El Nino (much earlier than expected). Of course, there is the possibility that the Gulf Stream could shift and that would totally change the weather patterns back East and in Europe.

What we really know about the weather is that it will be very unpredicable and that's not too reassuring for humans or other living creatures.

Key findings of the Pentagon Report

The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defense adviser Andrew Marshall. Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.

· Future wars will be fought over the issue of survival rather than religion, ideology or national honor.
· By 2007 violent storms smash coastal barriers rendering large parts of the Netherlands inhabitable. Cities like The Hague are abandoned. In California the delta island levees in the Sacramento river area are breached, disrupting the aqueduct system transporting water from north to south.

· Between 2010 and 2020 Europe is hardest hit by climatic change with an average annual temperature drop of 6F. Climate in Britain becomes colder and drier as weather patterns begin to resemble Siberia.

· Deaths from war and famine run into the millions until the planet's population is reduced by such an extent the Earth can cope.

· Riots and internal conflict tear apart India, South Africa and Indonesia.

· Access to water becomes a major battleground. The Nile, Danube and Amazon are all mentioned as being high risk.

· A 'significant drop' in the planet's ability to sustain its present population will become apparent over the next 20 years.

· Rich areas like the US and Europe would become 'virtual fortresses' to prevent millions of migrants from entering after being forced from land drowned by sea-level rise or no longer able to grow crops. Waves of boatpeople pose significant problems.

· Nuclear arms proliferation is inevitable. Japan, South Korea, and Germany develop nuclear-weapons capabilities, as do Iran, Egypt and North Korea. Israel, China, India and Pakistan also are poised to use the bomb.

· By 2010 the US and Europe will experience a third more days with peak temperatures above 90F. Climate becomes an 'economic nuisance' as storms, droughts and hot spells create havoc for farmers.

· More than 400m people in subtropical regions at grave risk.

· Europe will face huge internal struggles as it copes with massive numbers of migrants washing up on its shores. Immigrants from Scandinavia seek warmer climes to the south. Southern Europe is beleaguered by refugees from hard-hit countries in Africa.

· Mega-droughts affect the world's major breadbaskets, including America's Midwest, where strong winds bring soil loss.

· China's huge population and food demand make it particularly vulnerable. Bangladesh becomes nearly uninhabitable because of a rising sea level, which contaminates the inland water supplies.

Forgot one thing, the Pentagon climate change report leaked in 2003 (2004?) is for a worst case scenario. Recently reports have come in saying that global warming effects are larger than expected so maybe the worse case scenario is the most likely scenario ???