Category: RT Newswire

USE ME! Essentially, this is a catch all for everything. This is probably the ONLY category where things that are not directly related to Rising Tide affiliates/allies should go. For example if a coal company goes out of business (and we didn’t directly cause it) it should probably only go here.

Abrupt Climate Shifts May Come Sooner, Not Later

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“Many scientists are now raising the possibility
that abrupt, catastrophic switches in natural
systems may punctuate the steady rise in global
temperatures now underway.”

“In the interior United States, a widespread
drought that began in the Southwest about 6 years
ago could be the leading edge of a new climate
regime for a wider region.”

“[There is an] urgent need for committed and
sustained monitoring of those components [that]
are particularly vulnerable.”
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Earth Institute News
Jeffrey Sachs, Director
2008-12-19

Abrupt Climate Shifts May Come Sooner, Not Later
Rising Seas, Severe Drought, Could Come in Decades, Says U.S. Report

To get the full report, go here:
http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap3-4/final-report/default.htm.

San Francisco– The United States could suffer
the effects of abrupt climate changes within
decades-sooner than some previously thought–says
a new government report. It contends that seas
could rise rapidly if melting of polar ice
continues to outrun recent projections, and that
an ongoing drought in the U.S. west could be the
start of permanent drying for the region.
Commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science
Program, the report was authored by experts from
the U.S. Geological Survey, Columbia University’s
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and other
leading institutions. It was released at this
week’s meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

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Auction Proceeds, But Legal Action Delays Damage to Utah Wilderness Negotiations Provide Opportunity to Save Utah’s Wild Areas

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 2008  12:10 PM

CONTACT: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Erin Allweiss, 202-513-6254 or 202-277-8370 (cell)

Auction Proceeds, But Legal Action Delays Damage to Utah Wilderness Negotiations Provide Opportunity to Save Utah’s Wild Areas

WASHINGTON – December 19 – In a move that could save 100,000 acres of pristine Utah wilderness from destruction, an agreement between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and a coalition of environmental and preservation groups was filed in court late last night. The deal will temporarily prevent BLM from issuing leases on 80 contested parcels of Utah wilderness, including land adjacent to national parks, for 30 days (until January 19). Although BLM will go forward with today’s auction, the agency has agreed not to issue the contested leases. This will give Judge Urbina of the U.S. District Court time to hear the case.

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Land Management Changes Undermine Wildlife Conservation on Public Lands

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18, 2008  2:35 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity

Josh Pollock, Center for Native Ecosystems, (303) 546-0214
Megan Mueller, Center for Native Ecosystems, (303) 546-0214
Lisa Belenky, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 385-5594

Land Management Changes Undermine Wildlife Conservation on Public Lands; Yet Another Round of ‘Midnight Regulations’ Strips Wildlife and Endangered Species Protection Out of Agency’s Guidance Manual

DENVER-December 18. In another example of last-minute changes issued on the way out of office, the Bush administration has released final changes to a key policy manual for management of endangered, threatened, and other special-status species found on federal lands that would eliminate important protections currently given to the most at-risk wildlife and plants.

Among the sweeping changes to the Bureau of Land Management Special Status Species Manual are new policy directives that undermine protections for endangered and threatened plants, limit efforts to protect those species officially awaiting protection under the Endangered Species Act, make it prohibitively difficult to protect sensitive species found in multiple states, and eliminate some protections for state-protected species found on federal lands.

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When Loss of Forest Cover Made the World Hotter

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” … physical evidence, backed by powerful
simulations on the world’s most advanced computer
climate models, is reshaping that view and
lending strong support to the radical idea that
human-induced climate change began not 200 years
ago, but thousands of years ago with the onset of
large-scale agriculture in Asia and extensive
deforestation in Europe.”

“No one disputes the large rate of increase in
greenhouse gases with the Industrial Revolution,”
Kutzbach notes. “The large-scale burning of coal
for industry has swamped everything else” in the
record.

“But looking farther back in time, using climatic
archives such as 850,000-year-old ice core
records from Antarctica, scientists are teasing
out evidence of past greenhouse gases in the form
of fossil air trapped in the ice. That ancient
air, say Vavrus and Kutzbach, contains the
unmistakable signature of increased levels of
atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide beginning
thousands of years before the industrial age.”
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