Category: RT Newswire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2008
2:35 PM

CONTACT: Defenders of Wildlife
Richard Charter, (707) 696-1363
Sandra Purohit, (202) 772-0250

Offshore Drilling Could Destroy Bristol Bay Fisheries
Defenders of Wildlife Opposes Interior Department Approval of New Leases

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – April 8 – Today’s announcement by the Department of the Interior inviting offshore oil and gas drilling throughout Alaska’s fishery-rich Bristol Bay could undermine commercial and recreational fishing throughout the region, Defenders of Wildlife warned. It also puts at risk important marine mammal and migratory bird habitat.

“Through thousands of years of careful stewardship, Alaska’s indigenous peoples have maintained the healthy web of life in Bristol Bay. Now the Bush administration is encouraging the oil industry to submit maps showing where they want to drill offshore,” said Richard Charter, a consultant for Defenders of Wildlife. “This is a tragic and high-risk decision destined to ultimately destroy one of America’s only remaining sustainable marine ecosystems.”

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On Sunday morning the intersection of North 9th Avenue and 6th Street was witness to the unusual sight of approximately 30 volunteer workers digging holes, planting plants, and installing park benches on some vacant ground just north of downtown. Consisting of a variety of concerned people, including neighborhood residents, staff of nearby businesses and non-profits, and visiting youth, the group spent most of the day building what a new sign announces to be the “Ramona-Magon Memorial Garden and Autonomous Community Park.” Continue reading

Published on Monday, April 7, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
Climate Target Is Not Radical Enough – Study
by Ed Pilkington in New York

One of the world’s leading climate scientists warns today that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem.0407 01 1 2

In a startling reappraisal of the threat, James Hansen, head of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, calls for a sharp reduction in C02 limits.

Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02 – the most stringent in the world – should be slashed to 350ppm. He argues the cut is needed if “humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed”. A final version of the paper Hansen co-authored with eight other climate scientists, is posted today on the Archive website. Instead of using theoretical models to estimate the sensitivity of the climate, his team turned to evidence from the Earth’s history, which they say gives a much more accurate picture.

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Public Release: 7-Apr-2008
Purdue University
‘Revolutionary’ CO2 maps zoom in on greenhouse gas sources

A new, high-resolution, interactive map of US carbon dioxide
emissions from fossil fuels has found that the emissions aren’t all
where we thought. The maps and system, called Vulcan, show CO2
emissions at more than 100 times more detail than was available
before. Until now, data on carbon dioxide emissions were reported
monthly at the level of an entire state. The Vulcan model examines
CO2 emissions at local levels on an hourly basis.
NASA

Contact: Steve Tally
tally@purdue.edu
765-494-9809
Purdue University
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Public Release: 7-Apr-2008
NOAA Headquarters
NOAA aircraft to probe arctic pollution

NOAA scientists are now flying through springtime Arctic pollution to
find out why the region is warming — and summertime sea ice is
melting — faster than predicted. Some 35 NOAA researchers are
gathering with government and university colleagues in Fairbanks,
Alaska, to conduct the study through April 23.

Contact: Anatta
anatta@noaa.gov
303-497-6288
NOAA Headquarters
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Public Release: 7-Apr-2008
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Regional nuclear conflict would create near-global ozone hole, says
CU-Boulder study

A limited nuclear weapons exchange between Pakistan and India using
their current arsenals could create a near-global ozone hole,
triggering human health problems and wreaking environmental havoc for
at least a decade, according to a study led by the University of
Colorado at Boulder.
University of Colorado

Contact: Michael Mills
mills@colorado.edu
303-492-7767
University of Colorado at Boulder

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