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Not much going on.
Hangin' in St. Louis for my three-hour layover. No hottie musician-type sightings to report.
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Hawaii Islands Win Unprecedented Protection
In the last five years, I can count on one hand the number of times environmental groups have come together to praise a new policy by President Bush -- and that one hand was probably making a fist. So for the ocean conservation community to be celebrating the president's announcement today, you know this is a VERY big deal.
George W. Bush is designating the world's largest fully protected marine reserve -- 84 million acres to be exact. A biologically rich string of islands known as the Northwestern Hawaii Islands (NWHI) will now enjoy complete federal protection from commercial fishing activities as a new National Monument. This is fantastic news for the seals, turtles, albatrosses, sharks, corals, and other marine life that call these waters home, and a strange, welcome, happy, confusing moment for conservationists everywhere. Congratulations to our colleagues who worked so hard to make this happen, including the Pew Charitable Trusts, The Ocean Conservancy, Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Environmental Defense, and especially all the groups in Hawaii. Read all about it. -
Energy security and global warming: different
Speaking of "energy security," I give you Reuters:
World leaders must not allow concern for energy security to distract them from taking promised action on global warming, top world scientists said on Wednesday.
Climate change solutions agreed at the G8 summit in Scotland a year ago risked being pushed off the agenda at next month's G8 summit in Russia by worries about security of energy supply, they said. -
Credit where credit is due
President Bush plans to designate an island chain spanning nearly 1,400 miles of the Pacific northwest of Hawaii as a national monument today, creating the largest protected marine reserve in the world, according to sources familiar with the plan.
Establishing the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a strictly protected marine reserve, which Bush is slated to announce this afternoon, could prove to be the administration's most enduring environmental legacy. The roughly 100-mile-wide area encompasses a string of uninhabited islands that support more than 7,000 marine species, at least a fourth of which are found nowhere else on Earth. -
The Mustache and GM, again
A few days ago I noted that GM had responded to Thomas Friedman's attack. Today, Friedman responds to the response, and continues to beat GM around the head and shoulders.
Sadly, all this takes place behind the dread NYT Select wall, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
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Forbes editor calls for tax increase to fight global warming
In a very Forbsian way, of course:
First, get rid of all other energy taxes. And legislation, while we're at it. Then tax carbon. Slowly. Start at a penny a pound, then increase -- let's not get crazy -- a penny a year.
The devil's always in the details.
The link makes you join, so I've pasted it below.
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What you can do.
Protestors at L.A.'s South Central farm were evicted yesterday:
It took authorities nearly eight hours to forcibly clear protesters from the farm. Officials bulldozed vegetable gardens and chopped down an avocado tree to clear the way for a towering Fire Department ladder truck so the final four protesters could be plucked from a massive walnut tree.
More bulldozing feels inevitable, but supporters haven't given up hope. What you can do (from a press release):
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Native tribe wary of mercury in fish.
Grist has kept tabs on northern Wisconsin's Mole Lake Sokoagon Chippewa tribe for the past five years as they've striven to keep a mine from disrupting their community and way of life. The story culminated in a happy ending just recently as the tribe rassled up $8 million in mortgage payments to the mining company, and the company returned the payment in full in the form of a trust fund.
But -- go figure -- the tribe is facing other environmental troubles. The Washington Post reports that the Mole Lake Chippewas (also known as the Ojibwe), who spearfish every spring for food and traditional purposes, have now added a new tradition:
[T]hey consult a color-coded map that tells them which of the more than 50 lakes in the region have the highest mercury levels.
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Sorry, not really panda porn.
Given pandas' population difficulties, "getting it on" probably isn't something they engage in very often, but don't tell the world's eager panda-philes that.
China has set up voyeur-friendly web cams that stream panda content live from the mountains of Sichuan in four 20-minute segments every day (except for weekends) so that, as Reuters says, "people around the world can spy on pandas doing what comes naturally to them."
If you're thinking "hot panda sex!," don't.
Even when conditions in the "fog-shrouded mountains" permit, panda voyeurs can witness largely sedate bears munching on bamboo shoots, sleeping, (and slowly going extinct).
Wolong Giant Panda Reservation and Research Centre, home to 154 wild and about 80 artificially bred giant pandas, launched the service on its Web site (www.pandaclub.net).
"PandaCam" will go live for four 20-minute periods a day, giving the animals a bit of privacy at weekends, Xinhua news agency said on Friday.
Uncomfortable spying on pandas in China? Try the U.S. version!
Yep, we have our very own PandaCam, already in action, trained on the bears at the National Zoo. Cute in the way that only captive, pacing pandas can be. (Is it on a loop or is that the third lap in the last ten minutes?) Fun!
