Wednesday, November 24, 2004
TWO PEOPLE IN AN ELEVATOR, ONE OF THEM FARTS, EVERYONE KNOWS WHO DID IT
"Clear Skies", my ass. "Self-regulation", my ass. Profitmargins, that's all there is. These greedy motherfuckers are poisoning us all, and they don't give a damn. They are pumping crap in the air that is precisely the reason that the polar caps will be gone this century. This fucking century. See the wonderful powers-that-be reaction to that fact in the article before this one....
States Pull Out of Talks to Cut Aircraft Pollution
Tue Nov 23, 5:09 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. state and local air pollution control officials said on Tuesday they are pulling out of five-year-old talks to develop a voluntary program for reducing pollution from aircraft engines.
A pollution-fighting deal with the aviation sector -- which is expected to see a doubling of nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions by 2030 -- could not be reached, and the officials said they told the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration so on Monday.
Major airports already have NOX emissions that are greater than those by large stationary sources, like refineries and power plants.
Officials with the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators (STAPPA) and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials (ALAPCO) joined talks in 1999 to cut pollution from aircraft engines.
"More than five years later, we are extremely disappointed that no progress was made concerning the primary objective of reducing aircraft emissions," the associations said in a joint letter to the EPA and FAA.
The two associations represent air pollution control agencies in 54 states and territories and over 165 major metropolitan areas across the United States.
The officials said a proposal made this summer was "inadequate in terms of scope and stringency" and constrained on the ability of state and local agencies to protect against aviation-related pollution.
Specifically, the groups said the proposed nitrogen oxide emission standard for aircraft engines was not strong enough and excluded other pollutants, such as soot.
The officials also opposed excluding airports not in metropolitan areas that failed to meet EPA's clear air standards and were concerned there were few protections against "dumping" old equipment at non-participating airports.
The officials said that despite not being able to reach an agreement, they are committed "to identifying and implementing strategies" for meaningful emission reductions from the aviation sector.Wednesday, November 24, 2004
WE'LL HAVE A MEETING TO DISCUSS AN AGENDA FOR A PLAN TO EXAMINE THE FEASABILITY
The fucking poles are melting, and these buttwipes are twiddling their thumbs, hemming and hawing and 'you first'-ing. The world is disintegrating, and these assholes are pretending that we can just fart around politically as usual.... hello? End of the world alert, anyone?
Arctic States Agree Vague Plan to Slow Thaw
By Alister Doyle
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Eight Arctic countries agreed a vague plan to counter a rapid melt of the region on Wednesday with indigenous peoples accusing the United States of blocking stronger action aimed at slowing global warming.
The United States, Russia, Canada and the five Nordic states, which all have territories stretching into the Arctic, encouraged "effective measures" to adapt to climate change without spelling out exactly how.
And governments noted "with concern" a report by 250 scientists this month warning that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe. They would take the findings into account in policies on everything from research to aiding indigenous peoples.
"We all need to intensify efforts against pollution in the Arctic," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the one-day meeting in Iceland.
But environmentalists, indigenous peoples and some of the nations had wanted an accord urging sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from cars and factories blamed for a warming that could melt the ice around the North Pole in summer by 2100.
"In terms of what the planet needs, this is far from enough," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which says it represents 155,000 people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia.
Still, she said that a seven-page policy document was more than she had expected from the consensus-based Arctic Council.
The United States said it would not sign up for any calls for caps in emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. Washington is the only nation of the eight outside the 128-nation Kyoto protocol on curbing global warming.
OSTRICH
"I don't know why the United States is like an ostrich burying its head in the sand," said chief Gary Harrison of the Arctic Athabaskan Council, which represents thousands of people in Canada and Alaska.
But Paula Dobriansky, U.S. Under Secretary, Global Affairs, rebuffed the criticisms. "We base our policies on science and we will take the findings (of the report) into account," she said.
"We have a vibrant national program" for addressing climate change, she told Reuters, saying that the United States was spending $5.8 billion on projects ranging from promoting renewable energy to burying carbon dioxide below ground.
Even so, environmentalists said the meeting was a lost opportunity to slow damaging climate change by the eight countries, which account for 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
"Arctic governments miss chance to show leadership on climate change," the WWF environmental group said. It urged all governments in the region to promise deep cuts in greenhouse gases.Wednesday, November 24, 2004
SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH
Dolphins Shield Swimmers From Shark
Tue Nov 23, 5:08 PM ET
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, AP - A pod of dolphins saved a group of swimmers from a predatory 10-foot great white shark off the northern New Zealand coast, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
The unusual incident occurred Oct. 30 when lifeguard Rob Howes took his 15-year-old daughter Niccy and two of her friends swimming near the town of Whangarei, The Northern Advocate said.
The dolphins, "started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us," Howes told the newspaper. When Howes tried to break away from the protective group, two of the bigger dolphins herded him back, he said.
Howes then spotted what he described as a 10-foot great white shark cruising toward them, but the man-eater was apparently repelled by the ring of dolphins and swam away.
"It was only about six feet away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face," he said.
Howes realized what the dolphins were doing: "They had corralled us up to protect us."
Another lifeguard, Matt Fleet, on patrol in a lifeboat, saw the dolphins circling the swimmers and slapping their tails on the water to keep them in place. Fleet told the newspaper he also had a clear sighting of the shark.
"Some of the people later on the beach tried to tell me it was just another dolphin but I knew what I saw," he said.
Ingrid Visser, who has been studying marine mammals for 14 years, told the newspaper that there have been reports from around the world of dolphins protecting swimmers. She said that in this case the dolphins probably sensed the humans were in danger and took action to protect them.
Visser, of the group Orca Research, said dolphins will attack sharks to protect themselves and their young.