World leaders urged to take action on Global Warming

World governments should take heed of the most wide-ranging scientific assessment so far of a human link to global warming and agree prompt action to slow the trend, the chairman of a U.N. climate report said on Monday.

A draft of the report, due for release on Friday, projects a big rise in temperatures this century and warns of more heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels linked to greenhouse gases, released mainly by the use of fossil fuels.

"I hope policies and action will be formed to address the problem," Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told reporters.

"I think, based on the awareness that is growing very rapidly in every part of the globe, you will see a certain political resolve developing."

Governments and scientists began a final review of the IPCC draft in Paris on Monday before its release on February 2.

The report draws on research by 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries and has taken six years to compile. It is unlikely there will be major changes between the draft and the final conclusions, according to diplomatic sources.

Thirty-five industrial nations have signed up to the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol, capping emissions of carbon dioxide.

The United States pulled out in 2001, arguing that Kyoto would cost jobs and wrongly excluded developing nations from goals for 2012. Still, President Bush said last week that climate change was a "serious challenge."

The draft report says there is at least a 90 percent probability that human activities are to blame for most of the warming in the past 50 years. The previous report, in 2001, put the probability at 66 percent.

The U.N. report, the fourth of its kind, is expected to foresee global average temperatures rising to 2.0 to 4.5 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 8.1 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, with a "best estimate" of a 3.0 C (5.4 F) rise.

Around 40 Greenpeace activists climbed Paris's Eiffel Tower on Monday to put up two banners pressing for urgent action on climate change. One read: "It's not too late."

State of the Union

As you know I don't like to get too political here at the G.E.
While I have STRONG political opinions- I just try to remain neutral
so as to not get caught up in the strong polarity that is American
Politics. But tonight and election nights are the exception.

For the first time since I can remember I will not be watching the
State of the Union address tonight. Because I do not wish to be in
an angry mood and watching tonight would only make me angry. More
men and women put in harms way in a needless war over oil.

What ISNT addressed would upset me as much as what IS. Why aren't
we intervening in Darfur? Why don't the Jangaweed rebels who rape,
burn, and pillage everyone and everything in sight- why are they not
considered "terrorists" by this Administration?

Why isn't GLOBAL WARMING even acknowledged by you Mr. President? You
should lead the world- seeing as we LEAD the world in Emissions and
pollution. You should begin tonights Union address by saying that
we will finally be joining the rest of the free world by signing on
to the KYOTO protocol to reduce emissions - the only saving grace we
have to saving this PLANET is to act now yet you continue to do nothing.

Your answer to not being dependent on foreign oil will be to dig into
yet another beautiful natural resource- In Alaska- rather than to lead
your nation to cleaner air and preservation of God's most glorious
treasures.

Liberal wacko you say? Most of my life actually I voted Conservative
Mr. President. What would you say to that?

War begets war. FEAR is a far greater Terror than a small army that
we can squash in a nano second and you know it. End the Administration
of FEAR and lead with Light, Hope and Peace. Even the thought of that
instills laughter. We are so far off course it makes me sad how blind
you are to it all.

MILLIONS are displaced in Sudan- MILLIONS. 200,000+ have been killed.
You labeled it a Genocide. Is that nobel enough? Do you think we are
powerless to help and "It's up to the U.N?" You ignored the U.N. to
go in to IRAQ so why the hypocrisy when there is a humanitarian crisis
that is so bad you labeled it correctly- GENOCIDE?

What good will it do to continue to "protect us from Terror" if you do
NOTHING to save this Planet. Ask any prominent Scientist of ANY political
background or nation Mr. President. We are in a Climate Crisis. And we
are doing NOTHING. We haven't even STARTED and the clock is about to
stop ticking. We soon won't have to worry about the Terrorists anymore
because they won't be here anymore. But neither will we.

Use your voice

Next Tuesday President Bush will set out his top priorities for the year when he delivers his annual State of the Union address to Congress.
We need your help to make sure the President emphasizes the urgency of ending the crisis in Darfur in his speech.
Please click here to ask President Bush to highlight his plan for Darfur when he addresses the nation on Tuesday.
Tuesday's State of the Union address provides an opportunity to ensure that ending the genocide in Darfur is a central part of the President's agenda and a top priority for the new Congress.
But there is another, even more critical reason why we need your help to reach out to President Bush today.
Right now, infamous Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is making a bid to become the next president of the African Union (AU) -- the very same international organization of African nations whose peacekeepers are trying to stem the violence in Darfur.
President Bashir's own policies have already led to the death and displacement of millions of Darfuris. We must do everything we can to stop President Bashir from become President of the African Union or more innocent Darfuris will pay the price.
Please join us in contacting President Bush right now to urge him to make Darfur a priority in his speech and to do everything in his power to prevent President Bashir from taking control of the African Union.
Click here to send your letter to President Bush now.
Once you've sent your letter to the President, help us spread the word about this urgent effort by forwarding this message to your friends and family.
Thank you again for your support.
Best regards,
David RubensteinSave Darfur Coalition
P.S. Will you join us as we turn up the heat? Click here to join our Weekly Action Network and commit to taking one action each week to stop the genocide in Darfur.

Another Giant ice shelf snaps

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) --

A giant ice shelf the size of 11,000 football fields has snapped free from Canada's Arctic, scientists said.

The mass of ice broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 800 kilometers (497 miles) south of the North Pole, but no one was present to see it in Canada's remote north.

Scientists using satellite images later noticed that it became a newly formed ice island in just an hour and left a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake. (Watch the satellite images that clued in ice watchers)
Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, traveled to the newly formed ice island and could not believe what he saw.
"This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years. We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead," Vincent said Thursday.
In 10 years of working in the region he has never seen such a dramatic loss of sea ice, he said.
The collapse was so powerful that earthquake monitors 250 kilometers (155 miles) away picked up tremors from it.
The Ayles Ice Shelf, roughly 66 square kilometers (25 square miles) in area, was one of six major ice shelves remaining in Canada's Arctic.
Scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in Canada in 30 years and point their fingers at climate change as a major contributing factor.
"It is consistent with climate change," Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 percent smaller than when they were first discovered in 1906.
"We aren't able to connect all of the dots ... but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role."
Laurie Weir, who monitors ice conditions for the Canadian Ice Service, was poring over satellite images in 2005 when she noticed that the shelf had split and separated.
Weir notified Luke Copland, head of the new global ice lab at the University of Ottawa, who initiated an effort to find out what happened.
Using U.S. and Canadian satellite images, as well as data from seismic monitors, Copland discovered that the ice shelf collapsed in the early afternoon of August 13, 2005.
"What surprised us was how quickly it happened," Copland said. "It's pretty alarming.
"Even 10 years ago scientists assumed that when global warming changes occur that it would happen gradually so that perhaps we expected these ice shelves just to melt away quite slowly, but the big surprise is that for one they are going, but secondly that when they do go, they just go suddenly, it's all at once, in a span of an hour."
Within days, the floating ice shelf had drifted a few miles (kilometers) offshore. It traveled west for 50 kilometers (31 miles) until it finally froze into the sea ice in the early winter.
The Canadian ice shelves are packed with ancient ice that dates back over 3,000 years. They float on the sea but are connected to land.
Derek Mueller, a polar researcher with Vincent's team, said the ice shelves get weaker and weaker as the temperature rises. He visited Ellesmere's Ward Hunt Ice Shelf in 2002 and noticed it had cracked in half.
"We're losing our ice shelves, and this a feature of the landscape that is in danger of disappearing altogether from Canada," Mueller said. "In the global perspective Antarctica has many ice shelves bigger than this one, but then there is the idea that these are indicators of climate change."
The spring thaw may bring another concern as the warming temperatures could release the ice shelf from its Arctic grip. Prevailing winds could then send the ice island southwards, deep into the Beaufort Sea.
"Over the next few years this ice island could drift into populated shipping routes," Weir said. "There's significant oil and gas development in this region as well, so we'll have to keep monitoring its location over the next few years."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Bulletin: Inner Peace symptoms

Be on the lookout for symptoms of Inner peace!

The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to Inner peace, and it IS possible that people everywhere could come down with it inepidemic proportions!

This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in theworld.

Some signs and symptoms of Inner peace:

A tendency to think and act spontaneously, rather than on fears based on past experiences.

An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

A loss of interest in judging other people.

A loss of Interest in interpreting the actions ofothers.

A loss of interest in conflict.

A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.)

Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.

Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.

An Increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.

An increased susceptibility to the love extended byothers,as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it. <<>>

If you have some or all of the above symptoms- please be advised that your condition of Inner peace may be sofar advanced as to not be curable. If you are exposed to anyone exhibiting any of these symptoms, remain exposed only at your own risk.- Saskia Davis

Devastating- Please join fight!

Dear ONE Member,
Congress is backtracking on a $1 billion increase in funding for poverty-focused development assistance that you helped secure through letters, petitions, and calls last year.
A $1 billion U-turn would be devastating. Please take a moment to ask your representatives to protect the $1 billion of funding and the lives that depend on it.
Without this funding 350,000 people with HIV/AIDS will not receive life-saving treatment, nearly 1 million anti-malarial bednets will not be distributed, and 120,000 people will not receive treatment for tuberculosis.
This is not rhetoric. It's not an exaggeration. Hundreds of thousands of lives are in the balance and Congress has the power to save them.
Please take a moment to ask your representatives to protect the $1 billion of funding and the lives that depend on it.
Fortunately, there is a bi-partisan bi-cameral effort underway to protect this funding and save lives that would be lost if this funding vanishes.
Dick Durbin and Sam Brownback in the Senate and Barbara Lee and Christopher Shays in the House of Representatives have written letters to the Congressional Leadership urging them to fund some of the crucial poverty fighting assistance that was allocated in 2006. Since ONE Members started taking action to protect this funding, 44 members of Congress have co-signed these letters, and the number keeps growing.
Ask your members of Congress to sign-on to the Durbin-Brownback and Lee-Shays letters.
We will be sending your letters directly to your representatives, and then ONE Volunteers will hand deliver your letters to Congressional Leadership next week.
Congressional Leaders are deciding right now how they want to allocate the small amount of funding, and it is up to you to let your representatives know that you want them to protect funding for poverty-focused development assistance.
Send a letter to your representative asking them to co-sign the Durbin-Brownback and Lee-Shays letters.
Take action now to assure that your members of Congress are committed to doing everything they can to represent your priorities.
Thank you for your voice,
Josh Peck, ONE.org

Islands disappearing

Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island

For the first time, an inhabited island has disappeared beneath rising seas. Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean reports
Published: 24 December 2006
Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.
As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities.
Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.
It has been officially recorded in a six-year study of the Sunderbans by researchers at Calcutta's Jadavpur University. So remote is the island that the researchers first learned of its submergence, and that of an uninhabited neighbouring island, Suparibhanga, when they saw they had vanished from satellite pictures.
Two-thirds of nearby populated island Ghoramara has also been permanently inundated. Dr Sugata Hazra, director of the university's School of Oceanographic Studies, says "it is only a matter of some years" before it is swallowed up too. Dr Hazra says there are now a dozen "vanishing islands" in India's part of the delta. The area's 400 tigers are also in danger.
Until now the Carteret Islands off Papua New Guinea were expected to be the first populated ones to disappear, in about eight years' time, but Lohachara has beaten them to the dubious distinction.
Human cost of global warming: Rising seas will soon make 70,000 people homeless
Refugees from the vanished Lohachara island and the disappearing Ghoramara island have fled to Sagar, but this island has already lost 7,500 acres of land to the sea. In all, a dozen islands, home to 70,000 people, are in danger of being submerged by the rising seas

Gm back in the game (of Saving Planet)

GM goes electric with new concept car at auto show
By Jui ChakravortySun Jan 7, 8:39 AM ET
Struggling auto giant General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) on Sunday revived its once-failed idea of a mass-market electric car, unveiling a new "concept" car called the Volt designed to use little or no gasoline.
Introduced at the North American International Auto Show here, the Chevrolet Volt will draw power exclusively from a next-generation battery pack recharged by a small onboard engine -- if the technology is ready in two or three years.
"We have a thoroughly studied concept, but further battery development will define the critical path to start of production," said Jon Lauckner, a GM vice president for product development.
The Volt is designed to run for 40 miles on pure electric power, making it marketable for everyday family use.
For the average American driver who drives 40 miles a day, or 15,000 miles a year, the Volt will require no fuel and lead to an annual savings of 500 gallons of gasoline, GM said.
Unlike current gas-electric hybrids, which use a parallel system twinning battery power and a combustion engine, the Volt will be driven entirely by electric power.
GM has been stung by criticism that it conspired to kill the EV1, an experimental electric vehicle program it launched in 1996 and killed by 2003. The documentary film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" released last year criticized GM for first developing but then abandoning electric vehicles.
GM said the Volt will have advantages over the defunct EV1, including smaller batteries, faster recharging, more room for passengers, and a faster maximum highway speed.
"For most drivers, the Volt will use little or no gasoline," GM chief engineer Nick Zielinski told reporters.
FIGHTING TO GET "GREEN" -- AND TOYOTA?
The Volt is part of GM's bid to demonstrate it is investing in break-through technology with some of the $9 billion saved through a wrenching program of job cuts and plant closures.
The push to develop environmentally friendly cars is also an attempt by GM to distance itself from its close association with gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, a reputation executives say has hampered its sales in some markets.
The Volt's combustion engine is designed only as a supplement to keep its batteries charged, an innovation GM executives hope will help the automaker jump ahead of Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T), which now dominates the hybrid market.
GM cut 34,000 jobs last year and plans to close 12 plants. Toyota is expected to surpass GM in global production this year, ending a run of more than 80 years for GM as the world's No. 1 automaker.
In November, GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner used a speech at the Los Angeles Auto Show to announce that GM would build plug-in hybrid vehicles, a potential industry first.
Plug-in hybrids, a favorite among many environmentalists, are capable of being charged with a standard electric outlet, a feature GM said it would build into the Volt.
"We commend GM for being the first out of the starting gate in the great plug-in car race of 2007," said Felix Kramer, who founded the non-profit group CalCars to spur automakers and regulators to push for mass-market electric car production.
Battery technology is key to the next generation of hybrid vehicles as automakers seek ways to lower the cost of batteries and increase their power and storage capacity.
The Volt will be outfitted with new lithium-ion battery packs, which hold a charge longer than the nickel metal hydride batteries now used widely in automobiles.
Lauckner said the Volt should be ready for production around the same time the lithium-ion batteries will be, which GM expects to be in two to three years.
Automakers have been cautious that lithium-ion batteries, which are now used in consumer electronics such as laptop computers, have a tendency to overheat.
But GM also plans to introduce hybrid systems in its Saturn Vue, Saturn Aura and Chevrolet Malibu cars and in its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra trucks.
Last week, GM awarded lithium-ion battery development contracts for its Saturn Vue Green Line hybrid to Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE:JCI - news) affiliate Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions and Cobasys, a venture of Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX - news) and Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (Nasdaq:ENER - news). Cobasys will work with privately held A123Systems to develop the technology.

Mainstream Media finally covering the "big" story

So many stories coming through now it's hard to keep up. Let alone walking outside
my door here in Fargo in January to melted snow, a warm sun and yet another record
high temperature. Fargo is the land of extremes. Extreme heat in the summer and
extremly cold and snowy in the winter.

We are most known for our winters however thanks to the movie "Fargo."
I moved here from Montevideo, Minnesota in the mid 80s.
Montevideo has alot of Chippewa American Indian in it's history
and means "From mountain I see."
I'm not Chippewan...I'm a less evolved Caucasian but I always loved the meaning
as it really illustrates the city I grew up in. Very little noticeable wind.
Cold winters but doable.
Right out of high school I moved from the "Mountain" to the Flat prairie. First thing
I remember about this city is the cold, winter winds. I only moved some 3 hours
north but it was like another Country! Siberia! Yet despite that the warm people
won me over and it became my true hometown. I moved away after 8 years but
then returned some 7 years later. And it's been getting warmer ever since.
We just had our first snowless winter over Christmas since 1957 according
the locals.

By JOHN KEKIS, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 55 minutes ago

As Marie Goff drove up the muddy access road to the top of the bobsled track at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Saturday, the thermometer on the dashboard caught her eye.
"Unbelievable, 51 degrees," said Goff, a driver for the Olympic Regional Development Authority. "Thank goodness it stopped raining and thank goodness the track is refrigerated."
The balmy winter, which has sap running, the buds on the trees are sprouting, and dogs are shedding their winter coats, has been unlike any other in Goff's memory, and she's 83.
The National Weather Service reported record or near-record temperatures across the region Saturday after a long warm spell.
Albany International Airport hit 71 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The temperature at Boston's Logan International Airport was 69 degrees at about 2:30 p.m. In New Jersey, all-time records set in 1950 were broken in Newark, Trenton and Atlantic City. And in New York City's Central Park, the thermometer hit 72, tying January's all-time high. The city, and much of the region, has seen no snow this winter.
"I can remember a thaw at Christmas many times, but not for the length of time we've had this year," said Goff, who was ferrying passengers at the Chevrolet Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, a competition on ice by racecar drivers.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projected a December, January and February about 2 percent warmer in the Northeast than the 30-year average, citing both the oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific, or El Nino, as well as long-term climate trends.
A cold front coming into the Northeast was expected to begin lowering temperatures Saturday night, said Neil Stuart, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
Eight of the 12 warmest years on record have happened since 1990, and the big culprit for the overall trend has been global warming, said David Robinson, the New Jersey state climatologist at Rutgers University.
"You can't explain this without including the enhancement of greenhouse gases," Robinson said.
The weather is bad news for some businesses. Kelly Belli, 34, a secretary at Aero Snow Removal's office in Newark, N.J., said worrying wasn't going to solve the lack of business, she said.
"You can't change the weather," she said. "It is what it is."

Gratitude is the Attitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
~ Melody Beattie