Sen. Inhofe Calls for Inquiry Into Suppressed Climate Change Report
Republicans are raising questions about why the EPA apparently dismissed an analyst’s report questioning the science behind global warming.
By Judson Berger, FOXNews.com, June 29, 2009 [here]
A top Republican senator has ordered an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s alleged suppression of a report that questioned the science behind global warming.
The 98-page report, co-authored by EPA analyst Alan Carlin, pushed back on the prospect of regulating gases like carbon dioxide as a way to reduce global warming. Carlin’s report argued that the information the EPA was using was out of date, and that even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased, global temperatures have declined.
“He came out with the truth. They don’t want the truth at the EPA,” Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla, a global warming skeptic, told FOX News, saying he’s ordered an investigation. “We’re going to expose it.”
The controversy comes after the House of Representatives passed a landmark bill to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, one that Inhofe said will be “dead on arrival” in the Senate despite President Obama’s energy adviser voicing confidence in the measure.
Ecopocalypse causes giant fish ears
First Vulcans, then Obama, now les poissons
By Rik Myslewski, The Register UK, 26th June 2009 [here]
Under the sea, fish are growing abnormally large ear bones - and it’s all our fault.
According to a study published Friday in the prestigious journal Science, boffins at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at San Diego’s University of California have discovered that rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the world’s oceans are causing sea bass to grow oversized otoliths - that’s boffinspeak for ear bones.
And what causes rising carbon dioxide levels? You guessed it: we humans.
A Scripps statement blames “human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning” for causing “both increased ocean CO2 and ocean acidification.”
For the aforementioned bass, big ear bones may be no laughing matter. “Otoliths serve a vital function in fish,” says Scripps, “by helping them sense orientation and acceleration.”
David Checkley, a Scripps professor and lead author of the study, admits that “At this point one doesn’t know what the effects are in terms of anything damaging to the behavior or the survival of the fish with larger otoliths.” He adds, however, that “The assumption is that anything that departs significantly from normality is an abnormality and abnormalities at least have the potential for having deleterious effects.”
The seafaring researchers plan further studies to determine if the same deformities are occurring in fish other than the sea bass and whether being otolithically big-boned affects a fish’s survival and behavior.
“If fish can do just fine or better with larger otoliths then there’s no great concern,” says Checkley. “But fish have evolved to have their bodies the way they are. The assumption is that if you tweak them in a certain way it’s going to change the dynamics of how the otolith helps the fish stay upright, navigate and survive.”
We can only hope that the ocean’s finned folk never learn of our complicity in their predicament. The briny deep is already a dangerous enough place without it being stocked with billions of enraged - if clumsy - smelt, scrod, grunts, and grunions.
Mystic Met Office predicts neighbourhood Thermageddon
Modelling ‘totally inadequate’ last year - why trust it now?
By Tony Newbery, The Register UK, 24th June 2009 [here]
On Thursday, the Met Office launched its new report on global warming: UK Climate Projections 2009, otherwise known as UKCP09. This is based on the output of Hadley Centre climate models that predict temperature increases of up to 6°C with wetter winters, dryer summers, more heatwaves, rising sea levels, more floods and all the other catastrophes that one would expect from similar exercises in alarmism.
What makes this report different from any of its predecessors is the resolution of the predictions that the Met Office is making. They are not just presenting a general impression of what might happen globally during this century, or even how climate change could affect the UK as a whole. They are claiming that they can predict what will happen in individual regions of the country - down to a 25km square. You can enter your postcode and find out how your street will be affected by global warming in 2040 or 2080.
All this is rather unexpected. In May last year, I posted here and here about a world summit of climate modellers that took place at Reading University. On the agenda was one very important problem for them; even the most powerful super-computers that have been developed so far are not capable of running the kind of high resolution models that they claim would allow them to reduce the degree of uncertainty in their predictions, and also make detailed regional predictions that policy makers would like to have so that they can build climate change into infrastructure planning. … [more]
Human-bear conflicts eased by wet weather in Sierra
Tahoe Daily Tribune, June 22, 2009 [here]
Wet weather in June has spurred a bumper crop of berries and other vegetation favored by bears, leading to a considerable decrease in human-bear conflicts in the Sierra, wildlife biologists said.
The recession also is playing a role in fewer bear encounters in the Lake Tahoe area, experts said, because fewer people staying at vacation rentals means less garbage to lure bruins to populated areas.
“The calls are down considerably,” said Carl Lackey, a biologist and bear expert with the Nevada Department of Wildlife. “Definitely, this wet spring is just awesome for bears as well as all the other wildlife out there.”
Jason Holley, a bear biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game, agreed.
“We had one of the wettest springs on record, really. It was pretty sensational,” he said.
Unusual conditions brought thunderstorms through most of the month, including eight straight days of rain May 30 through June 6. In Reno, it’s been one of the wettest Junes since records started back in 1870.
The moisture has nourished natural vegetation that bears depend upon — manzanita berries, chokeberries, wild roses, forbs and grasses, while boosting populations of the insects, squirrels and other critters bears like to snack upon, Lackey said.
Holley agreed that conditions should help avoid a major problem with human-bear conflicts.
“I don’t expect a lot of the true wildland bears to have to search so far for food,” Holley said. “The chances of them coming across people and our food is reduced.”
Similar wet weather in May 2008 helped keep last summer a mild one for bear problems in the Tahoe-Reno area. So far, Lackey said, he’s had to capture about six or seven problem bears, fewer than this time last year.
That wasn’t the case in 2007, when serious drought conditions caused a record problem with bears in Nevada, California and other Western states.
In the Reno-Tahoe area that year, wildlife and law enforcement officers responded to hundreds of calls, including potentially dangerous situations where bears broke into occupied homes in search of food. In Nevada alone, 157 bears were captured, some repeatedly. … [more]
Coincidentally, I just did a partial count of world human population and came up with “2″
Razor wit from the estimable Tom Nelson, [here]
The Associated Press: Partial walrus estimate alarms conservation group [here]
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A partial federal assessment of Pacific walruses estimates their minimum population at just 15,164 but says the count likely missed a number of animals.
The estimate released Thursday only represents animals counted in about half of walrus habitats in the Bering and Chukchi seas and does not account for animals that were in water rather than on ice. …
Wildlife biologist Doug Burn said agency officials had hoped to have a firm walrus population count by now but experienced problems with the thermal imaging methodology.
A method that counts walruses using body heat was tested near St. Lawrence Island during a relatively warm winter but did not prove reliable during a colder winter in 2006, Burn said.
“We realized we were missing a lot of walrus groups,” he said. … [more]
Herger bill would fast-track forest clearing, logging
By Ryan Sabalow, Redding Searchlight, June 17, 2009 [here]
U.S. Rep. Wally Herger has drafted a bill that would allow local governments to declare a fire-risk emergency on federal forest land, putting them on a fast track to clearing and logging projects while bypassing lawsuits.
The Chico Republican’s California Catastrophic Wildfire Prevention and Community Protection Act is designed to bypass the “red tape that has stymied effective forest management,” Herger said Tuesday in a statement.
“We have tried for years to bring collaboration and sound forest management to our landscape, only to be stymied by activists who don’t understand the danger Northern California is faced with each fire season,” Herger said.
The bill was immediately condemned by at least one environmental group.
“Herger’s bill is completely out of touch with the best available science on fire and forest ecology,” said Douglas Bevington, the forest program director of Environment Now, a Santa Monica environmental group responsible for several lawsuits against timber projects on public land. “It is simply another pretext to subsidize the timber industry to plunder our national forests at taxpayer expense.”
Herger’s legislation seeks to implement clearing projects on U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management acreage if the projects are identified “at-risk” by a nearby community or watershed.
The federal agencies would still have to conduct environmental review on the proposed thinning projects, but under Herger’s law, they wouldn’t have to come up with a list of alternatives that can delay the process.
The projects that are granted emergency declarations also wouldn’t be subject to judicial review.
“My legislation seeks to implement these projects under an expedited process and free from the delay tactics of frivolous appeals and lawsuits,” Herger said. … [more]
Marbled Murrelet DPS Status Review Announced
USFWS News Release, June 17, 2009, [here]
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today the completion of a 5-year status review of the marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus), a rare seabird native to the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
“After a thorough review of the best available scientific and commercial information, the status of marbled murrelets in Washington, Oregon and California has not changed and the recovery criteria for removing the species from the federal list of threatened and endangered species have not been met,” said Ken Berg, Supervisor of the Service’s Washington State Fish and Wildlife Office. “Our review concludes that the tri-state population of marbled murrelets is a valid Distinct Population Segment under the Endangered Species Act, in accordance with Service policy, and should remain protected as a threatened species.”
In conducting the review, Service biologists considered more than 100 studies completed since the agency’s last 5-year review in 2004. …
The 2004 5-year review concluded that the currently listed population was not a valid DPS.
However, the Service now finds that the California, Oregon and Washington population is discrete at the international border due to the following reasons: 1) the coterminous United States has a substantially smaller population of murrelets (approximately 18,000) than does Canada (approximately 66,000); 2) breeding success of the murrelet in Washington, Oregon and California is considerably lower than in British Columbia; and 3) there are differences in the amount of habitat, the rate of habitat loss and regulatory mechanisms between the countries.
The 5-year status review and other related information can be found at: http://www.fws.gov/westwafwo/
The Service will use the 5-year review to inform its consideration of a 2008 petition to delist the marbled murrelet population in Washington, Oregon and California. A decision on the delisting petition is expected in the coming months. … [more]
Burned Mount Hood area remains closed
By Terry Richard, The Oregonian, June 16, 2009 [here]
In order to protect young emerging vegetation and to prevent erosion of soils within the burned area, most of the area will need to remain closed where the Gnarl Ridge fire burned on the northeast slopes of Mount Hood last summer in the vicinity of Cloud Cap Inn and Tilly Jane.
There is one exception to this area closure. Visitors to Mount Hood National Forest will be able to hike on the Tilly Jane Trail No. 643, a route used to access climbing routes which begin at the Cloud Cap Saddle. The area immediately adjacent to the Tilly Jane Trail will remain closed to public entry.
The Polallie Ridge Trail No. 643-A will remain closed until rehabilitation and reconstruction work is completed. Road 3512, the road to Cloud Cap Inn. will also remain closed until the road surface can be stabilized and culverts replaced.
Once the road work is completed, the road will be able to accommodate recreational traffic. The closed area includes the area east of the historic Cloud Cap wagon road.
Last winter a protective blanket of snow enabled forest managers to open the backcountry to winter recreation. With the blanket of snow now gone, the area is vulnerable to damage.
The area also serves as an important zone of contribution to the Crystal Springs Water District which serves more than 6,000 residents in the upper Hood River Valley. Due to these concerns, the Mount Hood Forest supervisor has decided to keep the severely burned area of the fire closed to public entry during the summer and fall months until snow once again blankets and protects the burned area this coming winter.
Last fall, rehabilitation work such as aerial and hand mulching of severely, burned, erodible soils was completed. However, a substantial amount of work still needs to be completed this coming summer.
For more information, contact the Hood River Ranger District at 541-352-6002.
Rebound of wolves takes toll on Idaho elk
By Rich Landers, The Spokesman-Review, 05/10/09 [here]
SPOKANE — Wildlife researchers devoted several sessions last week to the impact of predators on big game during the Western States and Provinces Deer and Elk Workshop in Spokane.
A Washington Fish and Wildlife Department researcher presented documentation of a dramatic increase in elk calf survival in the Green and White river drainages after cougar numbers were reduced.
Of particular interest to the gathering, just days before several states officially took over management of gray wolves, was an update on Idaho’s research into the impact of wolves on elk. The report was presented by Idaho Fish and Game Department wildlife biologist Pete Zager.
“I’d like to tell you we have this ungulate-wolf thing figured out,” he said as the audience of scientists eased into educated smiles. “But that’s not the case.”
While scientists are trying to gather data and study the options for finding a balance between wolf recovery and prey sustainability, wildlife managers are under public pressure to make decisions.
Zager said researchers don’t have all the information they need, but they realize “we’ve got to get rolling and make decisions based on the information we have.”
Here’s what researchers know for sure about elk and wolves in Idaho, he said:
- Elk herds are declining.
- Wolf packs are growing — well above original objectives.
- The number of elk harvested by hunters has been declining, from around 25,000 in the mid-1990s, when wolves were reintroduced to the Northern Rocky Mountains, to roughly 15,000 last year.
- Elk hunting seasons and quotas have been reduced for 2009, but the impacts of wolves are likely to go unchecked.
- Wolf management through hunting is scheduled to begin this fall, but likely will be challenged in court by animal protection groups.
- Wolves have become the most important factor in predation on elk.
However, they’re not the only factor.
“Wolves have given cougars a huge favor by taking the spotlight. Cougars are still a significant factor (in elk mortality).”
- Forest fire suppression also is a factor in elk declines.
- The effects of wolves on elk vary dramatically in various game management units.
Bottom line: “We still need to be monitoring wolves and elk like crazy,” Zager said.
NREPA: Land off-limits to people
by Vern Westgate, May 14, 2009
Here’s the basic issue. The (misnamed) Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) is a huge Northwest American land grab. It is being pushed through Congress right now as HR 980. This bill proposes that 24 million MORE acres of land (about 38,000 square miles) in five northwestern states be given over to the Wildland’s Project. The intent is to drastically reduce human presence on the land.
The land’s resources currently provide jobs and recreation. This land grab also includes private property. For example: HR 980 lists Skitwish Ridge as an “inventoried roadless area in the Panhandle National Forest.” That’s about 12 miles from Coeur d’Alene. The claim is this is roadless. It’s not roadless, in fact there’s a home for sale there. If you Google map Skitwish Ridge and select Satellite view, you’ll see miles of roads including Interstate 90! We use those roads for recreation and jobs.
Who leads this ripoff? Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York who represents Manhattan. She’s been at this since 1993 and introduced this bill again. The representation on the committee is 21 Democrats, 14 Republicans. Of the five states targeted only three are represented on the committee and nobody from Idaho.
Here’s the size of the land grab: Oregon, 1,087,00 acres; Washington, 754,800 acres, Wyoming, 3,266,000 acres; Idaho, 9,800,000 acres; Montana, 8,256,000 acres.
HR 980 includes these details:
* The plan forbids development of public land in the five states by removing over 6,000 miles of existing roads, (from a roadless area?)
* The plan supposedly creates about 2,300 jobs for a “sustainable economic” base. That means government related and controlled jobs.
* In Idaho alone it threatens 20,000 existing jobs in logging and more in recreation, hunting, mining, ranching, etc. These are real jobs that have been genuinely sustained since 1900.
Why should you care? Under UN Agenda 21, use of natural resources is to be reduced dramatically, and all private property ownership is to be completely eliminated for the good of “Mother Earth.” How is this going to be accomplished? Legislation like HR 980 will end state and US sovereignty through various international and regional trade and cooperation treaties.
A few pandemics and economic crises will be “fixed” by a reduced population living in tightly controlled, highly concentrated population centers with large areas of our country/state off-limits to humans.
The bill is in front of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands subcommittee right now. If you want to know more and find out who to contact, take the time to learn of the full impact and text of this bill. Here are web sites:
http://www.savethewest.net/nrepasummary.htm
www.freedomadvocates.org
Utah wilderness becoming a hot spot for marijuana plantations
By Sam Penrod, KSL NewsRadio, May 11th, 2009 [here]
SALT LAKE CITY — Drug agents in Utah are gearing up for what may be another busy summer searching for huge marijuana plantations hidden away in Utah’s mountains.
The pot grows create numerous issues that go far beyond more drugs on the streets, including trash, chemicals and the potential for violence against those who may unknowingly discover the illegal operations.
Last summer was the busiest ever for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Utah. The agency investigated 11 pot-growing sites on public land in the state; more than 90,000 marijuana plants were seized. …
At the Sanpete County site, law enforcement found what they had seen in other grow sites over the summer: natural springs and hundreds of feet of irrigation piping, with sprinklers to water the plants. Garbage was everywhere, including containers of fertilizer and other chemicals, some used to spray the plants for bugs.
All the marijuana plantation busts were complex operations, requiring a summer of hard work that was all for nothing. “It’s pretty intensive. It is not something you throw in the ground and come back next fall and hope you have a good crop. That’s not the way it works,” said DEA Supervisory Special Agent Michael Root.
The drug cartels have encountered more trouble smuggling marijuana across the U.S.-Mexico border since 9/11, so they’ve moved growing operations to the United States. …
Most of the suspects arrested were illegal immigrants hired to do the work. For those operations that are harvested and make it to the street, the payday is millions of dollars. … [more]
News You Can Use From the Editors of RANGE magazine
New on the Web! RANGEFiRE
Press Release: May 12, 2009
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To get the sparks flying, we’re offering a special subscription rate for RANGEFiRE bloggers — a year of award-winning RANGE magazine at 23% off, $15.50 for four quarterly issues! Call 1-800-RANGE-4-U (1-800-726-4348). We take VISA or MasterCard.
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Highway 58 closed by runaway windmill
By Gretchen Wenner, The Bakersfield Californian, May 3, 2009 [here]
A runaway windmill in Tehachapi closed Highway 58 — a major east-west freeway connecting California’s southern Central Valley to Las Vegas, Nevada and Arizona — for most of the day Sunday.
As of 9 PM, the highway remained closed between Tehachapi and Mojave. Officials had no estimate as to when it might reopen.
Wind turbines are subject to catastrophic failure when their brakes fail, allowing blades to spin uncontrollably. The resulting vibrations can cause them to explode, spewing propeller blades and debris hundreds of yards, as a YouTube video of an incident in Denmark last year shows.
Large turbines, like some in Tehachapi’s wind farm, can boast wingspans as wide as a jumbo jet.
The faulty unit was built in the 1980s and is much smaller than giant ones made today, said Meghan Dotter, spokeswoman for AES Corporation, a global power company with North American offices in Virginia, which owns the 90-kilowatt windmill.
The turbine’s brakes failed when winds exceeded 50 mph, Dotter said in an e-mail.
The California Highway Patrol shut Highway 58 “in an abundance of caution,” she wrote, “because the wind turbine was visible from the road.” … [more]
Thirty-six elk plunge to death
Over 150-200 foot rock face on Carter Mountain west of Meeteetse, Wyoming
By Echo Renner, Wyoming Livestock Roundup, Pinedale Online, April 28, 2009 [here]
Thirty-six head of elk plunged to their death over a 150 – 200 foot rim rock on Carter Mountain west of Meeteetse in January. Horn hunters discovered the carcasses last month, and reported it to area landowners, Scott and Marjorie Justice.
“We set up a spotting scope and could see ravens and birds in the area. We called the game warden, and went up with him,” explains Scott Justice.
Jim Olson, Meeteetse area Game Warden with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGF) says they discovered the elk carcasses at the base of the rock face. One cow elk got stuck on the way down, and remains there. “There were seven yearling males, 12 adult females, 10 calves, and seven unknown that slid down over another cliff,” says Olson. “The cliff is near where the elk normally travel through a chute in the rim rock. The calf ratio was high and I believe young animals were leading charge, and that’s why they missed. Something spooked them and they went over. It could have been wolves, helicopters, a storm - who knows.” He adds, “I have not seen this before in my career.”
Scott Justice describes, “The chute is right next to that cliff. It looked like some of the elk were still alive (after the fall) with broken legs, and wallowed around and died.” He continues, “We’ve seen up to 1,000 head of elk waiting there, and take over an hour to come single file down the chute during the evening to feed. Someone told me that was on old hand-dug stock trail where they used to trail domestic sheep off the mesa years ago. It’s broken now and real steep. It would be hard to get a horse down. My guess is those elk were all crowded around there, and wolves or something, spooked them over the cliff. …
Ed Bangs, Wolf Recovery Coordinator with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in Helena says, “This kind of thing happens, and is more common than you think. It can be impossible to determined what happened if it had been awhile. It sure could have been wolves or other native predators that spooked a herd, but depending on how long ago it happened, my first line of investigation this time of year would be an avalanche. Wild animals die from accidents all the time. The most interesting thing is people would think wolves are somehow more responsible for these types of things than anything else - seeing the world through wolf-colored glasses I suppose. But, absolutely it could have been wolves. …
Dr. Charles Kay, Adjunct Professor at Utah State University, conducts unbiased research on wolves and other wildlife. Kay says, “Several years ago there was a large herd of antelope that ran over a cliff and were killed near Green River. I do not recall anything similar with elk, but it would not surprise me if wolves or a bear could spook a herd (in this manner).” …
Jim Allen of Lander, a long-time outfitter and President of the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association (WYOGA) says, “Elk are incredibly agile and athletic. I’ve seen them go over a cliff I didn’t think a big horn sheep would go over. They had to be more afraid of what was chasing them than the cliff. I don’t think a grizzly was after them. They could maneuver away from a single grizzly, and grizzlies don’t travel in packs. It would be the same with a mountain lion. My opinion is wolves organized this effort, and did it very successfully.”
In October 2006, wolf researcher, Jim Akenson, was riding a mule on an icy mountain trail in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho, when he came upon a dead cougar. Suddenly, a pack of wolves materialized and began howling. For a terrifying moment, the 48-year-old biologist thought his startled mules were going to stampede and carry him off a 200-foot cliff. “It is the most precarious condition you can image, with wolves howling around you.” … [more]
Inbreeding takes toll on Mich wolves
By JOHN FLESHER, Chicago Tribune, April 2, 2009 [here]
The gray wolves of Isle Royale National Park are suffering from backbone malformations caused by genetic inbreeding, posing yet another challenge to their prospects for long-term survival, wildlife biologists said Thursday.
Although confirmed only recently, the problem apparently has been festering for decades in the small, isolated packs that wander the island chain in northwestern Lake Superior. The abnormalities, also found in some domestic dogs, can cause pain and partial paralysis while limiting the range of motion so crucial for predators in the wild.
The discovery raises the ethically thorny question of whether scientists should try to dilute the gene pool by introducing wolves from elsewhere, said researchers with Michigan Tech University in Houghton, which hosts a 51-year-old study of the island park’s wolves and moose. …
Although part of Michigan, Isle Royale is closer to Minnesota and Ontario. Moose found their way to the island — probably by swimming the 15 miles from Canada — around 1900. Two or three wolves arrived in the late 1940s, crossing a rare ice bridge from the mainland.
Weather, food availability, disease and other factors have caused the two species’ populations to fluctuate over the years. The most dangerous period for the wolves came in the 1980s, when their total dropped to 12 because of a parvovirus outbreak.
Their population stood at 24 this winter, roughly the long-term average. They were divided into four packs. …
Spinal malformation from inbreeding poses no immediate threat of extinction, Peterson said. The biggest short-term problem is a drop-off in moose, the wolves’ primary food supply, which scientists attribute to climate change. This winter’s moose census turned up 530 — only about half their long-term average and a drop-off from last year’s estimated 650.
The study team is considering whether to propose a “genetic rescue” — trapping unrelated mainland wolves and bringing them to Isle Royale, hoping they would breed and mix their genes with the existing population.
The question involves competing scientific and ethical values, Vucetich said.
Opponents of intervention believe humans should not tinker with wilderness systems. Even if Isle Royale’s wolves die out, their loss would provide information that could save endangered species elsewhere.
Other would counter that attempting to save the wolves also could yield valuable data, while sparing individual animals from painful bone deformities. … [more]