Category: RT Newswire

FIRST NATIONS, FIRST RESISTANCE—

SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL AT BIG MOUNTAIN, BLACK MESA, AZ.

On behalf of their peoples, their ancestral lands, and future
generations, more than 350 Dineh residents of Black Mesa continue
their staunch resistance to the efforts of the US Government– acting
in the interests of the Peabody Coal Company—to relocate the Dineh
and destroy their homelands. This land is the basis for the Black
Mesa peoples’ traditions, livelihoods, and spirituality.

At this moment the decision makers in Washington D.C. are planning
ways to seize tribal lands to extract mineral resources. The coal
companies are funding both the Republican and Democratic parties
because they have huge interests at stake. Presidential candidate
John McCain recently sponsored forced-relocation legislation
targeting these Dineh families; Peabody Coal, the world’s largest
coal company, currently has plans to expand its strip mine operations
and to seize more deep aquifers beneath these indigenous lands.
Peabody Coal Company has completely dug up burials, sacred sites, and
shrines designated specifically for offerings, preventing religious
practices. Not only were the principal concerns of the communities
directly affected by the legislation never addressed, those
communities were not even notified.

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National Center for Atmospheric Research
Public release date: 2-Apr-2008

Contact: Rachael Drummond
rachaeld@ucar.edu
303-497-8604

Tom Wigley
wigley@ucar.edu
303-497-2690

National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for
Atmospheric Research

Roger Pielke Jr.
pielke@colorado.edu
303-735-0451
University of Colorado, Boulder

Emission reduction assumptions for carbon dioxide overly optimistic, study says

BOULDER–Reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) over the
coming century will be more challenging than society has been led to
believe, according to a new research commentary appearing April 3 in
Nature.

The authors, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the National
Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, and McGill
University in Montreal, say the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) has significantly underestimated the technological
challenges of reducing CO2 emissions. The study, “Dangerous
Assumptions,” concludes that the IPCC is overly optimistic in
assuming that, even without action by policymakers, society will
develop and implement new technologies to dramatically reduce the
growth of future emissions.

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———————————–
“… no clear evidence that tropical forests have
modified their functioning in response to climate
change over the past twenty years. Indeed, these
results tend to suggest that the forests are now
rebuilding themselves after disturbances in the
past. Consequently, tropical forests will not be
able to limit the rapid rise in atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels for a long time to come. ”

“… forests are particularly susceptible to
episodes of drought. And some climate forecasting
models have predicted a reduction in rainfall
over tropical forests in the decades to come.”
——-

Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080330214448.htm

Tropical Forests Not Likely To Limit Expected
Rapid Rise In Carbon Dioxide, Major Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2008) – More than two
million trees belonging to nearly 5000 species,
growing in tropical forests spread over 12 sites
and three continents, have been monitored since
the 1980s. The aims of this major study were to
analyze the carbon storage capacity of tropical
forests and measure the effects of climate change
on how they function. This work was carried out
by an international team, coordinated by Jérôme
Chave(1), a CNRS researcher. Their results
suggest that the tropical forests studied did
indeed act as carbon sinks, but appeared to react
principally to intrinsic phenomena rather than
climate change. They also demonstrated the
complex functioning of forest ecosystems, their
vulnerability and the importance of efforts to
ensure their conservation.

Tropical forests account for nearly two-thirds of
terrestrial biodiversity and store more than half
of the carbon in the biosphere. Recent studies
have predicted that in a carbon dioxide-enriched
environment, physiological changes will affect
tropical plants; their functioning will be
modified, their biomass will increase and they
will sequester more carbon(2). Under these
conditions, rapidly-growing tree species should
be favored over slow-growing species, and
globally, the carbon sinks represented by
tropical forests should contribute to limiting
atmospheric emissions from fossil fuels.

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