Breathless in Washington
This is news from Radio Ecoshock
How fast are the polar ice caps melting? We need to know for sure. But a satellite designed to measure polar ice has been destroyed in a crash outside Archangel, in northern Russia. It was called Cryosat, designed by the British climate expert, Duncan Wingham, costing $100 million pounds Sterling.
Volker Liebeg, top man at the European Space Agency's Earth Observation branch, said the lost satellite was a loss for scientists who put years into the mission. It's also a loss for the science we need to measure climate change, and rising seas.
The Environmental News Service, ENS, reports scientific warnings that melting ice in Antarctica could raise sea levels, around the world, by five or six meters. That's sixteen to twenty feet.
At a 2 day conference in London, October 18th, Dr. Tony Payne said if the ice in West Antarctica, alone, melted, coastal states, such as Florida, would mostly disappear under water.
Get the full story at www.ens-newswire.com.
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In an excellent article in the newspaper The Guardian, September 29, George Monbiot argues, quote,
Climate change denial has gone through four stages. First the fossil fuel lobbyists told us that global warming was a myth. Then they agreed that it was happening, but insisted it was a good thing: we could grow wine in the Pennines and take Mediterranean holidays in Skegness. Then they admitted that the bad effects outweighed the good ones, but claimed that it would cost more to tackle than to tolerate. Now they have reached stage 4. They concede that it would be cheaper to address than to neglect, but maintain that it's now too late. This is their most persuasive argument.
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[Audio Clip "Asthma Girl"] where a nine year old describes the drowning feeling of an asthma attack, followed by another news clip announcing the Bush administration has removed Clean Air requirement for dirty power plants to clean up. Asthma is already soaring to new record rates in American cities. It's the silent, wheezing plague of fossil fuel generating plants.
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Meanwhile, the Republican controlled Congress finagled it's new Energy Bill, by a vote of 212 to 210. Against normal House rules, the vote was held open for almost an hour while back room promises won over two more Republican votes. No Democrat supported the measure.
Republican Representative Sherwood Boehlert of New York said:
"The bill weakens state and federal environmental standards ... and gives a break to wealthy oil companies, while doing little or nothing to
affect oil prices."
The Bill mows down long standing environmental protection rules, to push a new refinery, anywhere, no matter what. America will get the new polluting refineries it deserves.
Surely, these are the hey-days of the oil empire called America.
----------
Tune into RAdio Ecoshock at www.ecoshock.org - 24 hour FREE environmental radio.
How fast are the polar ice caps melting? We need to know for sure. But a satellite designed to measure polar ice has been destroyed in a crash outside Archangel, in northern Russia. It was called Cryosat, designed by the British climate expert, Duncan Wingham, costing $100 million pounds Sterling.
Volker Liebeg, top man at the European Space Agency's Earth Observation branch, said the lost satellite was a loss for scientists who put years into the mission. It's also a loss for the science we need to measure climate change, and rising seas.
The Environmental News Service, ENS, reports scientific warnings that melting ice in Antarctica could raise sea levels, around the world, by five or six meters. That's sixteen to twenty feet.
At a 2 day conference in London, October 18th, Dr. Tony Payne said if the ice in West Antarctica, alone, melted, coastal states, such as Florida, would mostly disappear under water.
Get the full story at www.ens-newswire.com.
------------
In an excellent article in the newspaper The Guardian, September 29, George Monbiot argues, quote,
Climate change denial has gone through four stages. First the fossil fuel lobbyists told us that global warming was a myth. Then they agreed that it was happening, but insisted it was a good thing: we could grow wine in the Pennines and take Mediterranean holidays in Skegness. Then they admitted that the bad effects outweighed the good ones, but claimed that it would cost more to tackle than to tolerate. Now they have reached stage 4. They concede that it would be cheaper to address than to neglect, but maintain that it's now too late. This is their most persuasive argument.
------------
[Audio Clip "Asthma Girl"] where a nine year old describes the drowning feeling of an asthma attack, followed by another news clip announcing the Bush administration has removed Clean Air requirement for dirty power plants to clean up. Asthma is already soaring to new record rates in American cities. It's the silent, wheezing plague of fossil fuel generating plants.
-----
Meanwhile, the Republican controlled Congress finagled it's new Energy Bill, by a vote of 212 to 210. Against normal House rules, the vote was held open for almost an hour while back room promises won over two more Republican votes. No Democrat supported the measure.
Republican Representative Sherwood Boehlert of New York said:
"The bill weakens state and federal environmental standards ... and gives a break to wealthy oil companies, while doing little or nothing to
affect oil prices."
The Bill mows down long standing environmental protection rules, to push a new refinery, anywhere, no matter what. America will get the new polluting refineries it deserves.
Surely, these are the hey-days of the oil empire called America.
----------
Tune into RAdio Ecoshock at www.ecoshock.org - 24 hour FREE environmental radio.
