| Tuesday, December 23, 2008 |
| Rocky Mountain Snowless Slopes |
 A study of two Rocky Mountain ski resorts says climate change will mean shorter seasons and less snow on lower slopes.
The study by two Colorado researchers says Aspen Mountain in Colorado and Park City in Utah will see dramatic changes even with a reduction in carbon emissions, which fuel climate change.
University of Colorado-Boulder geography professor Mark Williams said Monday that the resorts should be in fairly good shape the next 25 years, but after that there will be less snowpack - or no snow at all - at the base areas, and the season will be shorter because snow will accumulate later and melt earlier.
Reducing the rate at which carbon emissions increase - the best-case or "green" scenario - likely will still mean less snow accumulation and shorter seasons, but the results won't be as dramatic, the researchers said. The Rockies' high elevations and cold weather will enable the resorts to make up for snow shortages through stepped-up snowmaking.
More snowmaking, though, will require more water, a challenge in an area where most of the water rights are already allocated, the researchers said.
Find out more at http://www.savesnow.org/Labels: global warming |
posted by Christy @ 9:49 AM 
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| Thursday, December 18, 2008 |
| ALERT: Grand Canyon and Uranium Mining |
 Straight from the mouths of the folks at Sierra Club...
"By now you already know about the disastrous "midnight regulations" the Bush Administration is ramming through in their last few weeks in office.
But just last week - after a whispered announcement and just 15 days of public comment - the Bush administration began preparing a rule that could allow the Grand Canyon to be defaced by uranimum mining."
Upon further reading I found out a little bit more about this disastrous decision.
Environmentalists fear that uranium mining could adversely harm the national park and have a negative impact on the Colorado River, which provides drinking water to residents in Arizona, Nevada and California.
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona said, "This last-minute change puts at risk the health of millions of citizens of the West who rely on the Colorado River of the Grand Canyon for their drinking water supply, as well as visitors to the Park and tribal communities within and around the Grand Canyon."
Also, the Grand Canyon is currently a healthy breeding ground for many different types of birds, including condors.
The state of Virginia is currently having a fight over the very same type of mining. Scientists say uranium has never been mined anywhere safely. Waste products left over from uranium processing, called tailings, would have to be contained, and the liquid waste would be impounded in massive slurry ponds. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) stated these wastes pose the risk of spreading through wind or leakage.
Uranium waste sites would have to be monitored forever, and any cleanup or remediation will be at taxpayer expense.
Here is a copy of the advisory report put together by folks in Virginia.Labels: grand canyon, mining, uranium |
posted by Christy @ 8:40 AM
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| Monday, December 15, 2008 |
| Biomimicry and Living Buildings |
 I've been doing some reading on Greenbuild.
On November 19th, the Greenbuild 2008 conference kicked off in Boston, Massachusetts. Approximately 30,000 people from all around the world attended the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) event, which featured four days of discussions, seminars, tours, 800 industry vendors and tons of networking opportunities.
The theme which quickly became clear amongst all the attendees and vendors was the idea of "living buildings." E.O.Wilson and Janine Benyus addressed this by stating if we design buildings to act as living organisms, they said, we can make a huge difference for our future. The advice they gave to the architects and designers in the room, was to look to nature for advice and use biomimcry in their designs.
Biomimicry is a new discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems.
Fascinating!
The industry visionaries unveiled two new online resources that will help inspire designers to draw ideas from nature: The Encyclopedia of Life is an ambitious database project aggregating all published information about all the species known to this planet, from the thriving to the extinct. Asknature.org offers a more guided path for learning from nature. As their site states, you will find a starter culture of ideas—biological blueprints and strategies, bio-inspired products and design sketches, and biomimics you can talk to and collaborate with.
Sounds like we're going to be seeing more and more building mimicing nature in the future!Labels: Biomimicry, greenbuild, nature |
posted by Christy @ 2:26 PM
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| Saturday, December 13, 2008 |
| More undermining of Endangered Species Act |
 Even with his role as President coming to an end, Bush is pulling just a few more last minute tricks to further undermine the the Endangered Species Act.
Just this Thursday, the Bush Administration enacted a last-minute ruling, which cuts U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service scientists out of the review process for determining if new mining, logging and construction projects pose a threat to endangered animals.
What this really means is that political appointees, not scientists, will determine what poses a risk to endangered animals. For example, under these proposed changes, the Department of Transportation, not wildlife biologists, would decide whether an animal is threatened by a highway project.
As part of the changes announced by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in the final days of the Bush administration, the department finalized an interim rule that allows oil and gas drilling in polar bear habitat off Alaska's coast. The rule change is designed to prevent the Endangered Species Act from being used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, essentially making climate change policy.
President-elect Barack Obama said he would reverse the rule changes, as have some members of Congress. But that requires a lengthy rule-making process. And unfortunately that could mean all out crazy drilling and project making rather quickly until it can officially be reversed. Oy.Labels: endangered species |
posted by Christy @ 9:27 AM
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| Friday, December 12, 2008 |
| Greenpeace fights back for the rainforest |
 Treehugger has an article posted which discusses the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. They state that according to Greenpeace, "Police started investigating the suspect hackers in April 2007, swooping in a couple of months later to arrest 30 ring leaders. One is still in jail - the intermediary who brought the hackers and the loggers together - and in total, 202 people are facing prosecution."
How upsetting!
A total of 107 companies are being sued for $833 million for the illegal logging and smuggling of nearly 1.7 million cubic meters of timer - the equivalent of 780 olympic pools full of felled trees.
I did some extra reading and found some more stats and news regarding this situation to keep you more abreast of what is happening out there.
It turns out with all this happening the Brazilian government is planning to make it easier for people to continue chopping down even more of the trees. Brazilian national congress prepares to vote on a change to the country's forest code which could massively increase the amount of legal logging that will be allowed. This will be an increase of 20% of a property allowed to be chopped to 50% allowance! It is almost like they are saying we understand why you are breaking the law and we're going to help you out. But if this continues to happen you might as well just kiss the rainforest goodbye.Labels: brazil, greenpeace, rainforest |
posted by Christy @ 9:20 AM
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