Bikes In Heat On Open Streets! - A Portland Photo Diary

by JayinPortland

I don't know why I do this, but I hang my jacket on this planter hook on the ceiling right in front of my window.  At least 3 or 4 days a week I slowly open my eyes to what looks like some huge guy standing over my bed pullout couch in the dark, at which point my heart considers early retirement.  For a few seconds at least, until I get my bearings and remember that it's just my jacket and that jackets only attack people in weird cult flicks.

So anyways, this is how I started my day.  Jumped in the shower, choked down a bowl of oatmeal and cursed myself for not setting the coffee maker last night.  Well, I'll just hit the coffee shop across the street for a cup and I should make the bus because it's not due for...

Now.

Whoops.  Okay, well now I have 17 minutes to get my cup of coffee and make it back to the bus stop.  And I did.  We're heading up to work SE Portland Sunday Parkways, and then we're gonna hit the Hawthorne Street Fair for a little bit afterwards.  Come along!

continued at Daily Kos....

Daily Kos to the Climate Change Rescue

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

The GOP has a few unscrupulous political bullying tactics to prevail, either by gaining public opinion or convincing Democrats to pre-compromise followed by one-sided "bipartisianship." One is the fear card based on racism/sexism/lies, whatever suits its whims. The GOP can't use the fear card with climate change because the reality of impacts is frightening. You can imagine the ads we would see if the GOP supported climate change and the Democrats opposed. The horror of impacts happening now and projected to occur are worse than any lies the GOP typically use on issues to scare and shock Americans into supporting their positions.

So the GOP relies on its standby that comprehensive climate change legislation is a tax.  This ignores the reality that we already are paying a fossil fuel tax based on the corporate welfare paid to fossil fuel industry as we foot the bill for external costs. While not planned beforehand, our Gulf Recovery Blogathon focused on a variety of these costs. I think this might be an effective message to counter the GOP's "cap and tax" that appears to have impacted public support for climate change reform.

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Can We Avoid Extinction through Science?

by RobertConnors

Science is clearly showing that the human race is on course to cause its own extinction, along with that of virtually every other species in our entire planetary biosphere. Can science also show us the tools and methods to get out of the box we find ourselves in?

continued at Daily Kos....

Sunday Train: Richard Florida and the End of the Automobile Age

by BruceMcF

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

This week in The New Republic, Richard Florida presented his vision of High Speed Rail as the central strategic point of leverage in an economic "reset" to get us out of the doldrums resulting from the failure of the 20th century growth model to deliver ongoing, sustained growth any more ... though the way he frame it is:

As dismal as housing prices continue to be, they have yet to hit bottom in some places. Unemployment remains frozen at an overall level of nine-plus percent, and job creation has been anemic. If the crisis belonged to George W. Bush, the recovery has been Obama’s—and it has been a fragile and tentative one at best. Along with billions of dollars in stimulus payments, the president has spent down most of his political capital. So what is his next step?

So ... what is the next step?

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It does beg the question ... How many, Where to, Why for ?

by jamess

Edward E. Clark, President of the Wildlife Center of Virgina

Video statement

Earlier in June of this year, I was invited to be part of an interdisciplinary team of wildlife experts, that was organized by the Humane Society of the United States.  There were about five of us from around the country, who work with two HSUS disaster response experts.

We flew into New Orleans with the idea that we were going to spend a week, in the area -- accessing the damage of the Oil Spill; looking at the Habitat at risk.  

And trying to come up with an Inventory if you will, of the short term and long term issues, that needed a response.
[...]

Well the hour came, where we finally were -- supposedly -- given our clearance to fly over the area where the Oil was coming ashore.  

[... and ? ]

continued at Daily Kos...

Climate News: Week ending 14 August 2010

by billlaurelMD

This is the next in a series of diaries on the state of Arctic sea ice (and other topics as warranted) in memory of Johnny Rook, who passed away in early 2009. He was the author of the Climaticide Chronicles.

I'm expanding this diary series a bit to include more than just Arctic topics, though that will continue to be my major emphasis. In that vein, here are the headlines for the week ending 14 August:

1. Arctic sea ice continued to retreat at an average pace.

Weather in European Russia continued to be very hot, but the smoke from burning peat and forest fires was cleared by a shift in the wind.

Yet more flooding occurred in Pakistan, with at least 13 14 20 million people displaced. This is the worst flooding in the history of that country.

The National Climate Data Center in Asheville NC issued its July 2010 global climate summary. Short description:  HOT, but not quite a record if you count land and ocean.

Hurricane season in the Northern Hemisphere, surprisingly, has had its slowest start on record.

Discussion below the fold.

continued at Daily Kos...

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 82

by Gulf Watchers

The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #302 - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - khowell

Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

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24 Hours of Wonder: Gulf Region Nature Photodiary

by matching mole

All the photos in this diary were taken between 5 PM Tuesday and 4 PM Wednesday this past week.  We had guests and we showed them a couple of the local natural wonders: St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge and Wakulla Springs and river - both just to the south of Tallahassee in the Florida panhandle.  We had an unusually fantastic time and I thought I would share some of what we saw.

continued at Daily Kos...

New method uses Sunlight to remove CO2 from Atmosphere: Updated

by yuriwho

To be able to use solar energy to drive chemical reactions is a hot topic these days, especially if the reaction can produce fuel from thin air or be used to remove greenhouse gasses safely from the atmosphere.

The research article described here can do both.

I have believed (and advocated) for some time now that unless we can actively remove large quantities of CO2 from our atmosphere and oceans safely and efficiently without causing worse problems, we are likely doomed as a species. I'd give us less than a thousand years without these measures. Perhaps a lot less.

When I read about this new research, I felt a little bit of weight being lifted from my shoulders. This may not be the magic bullet, but I have hope now.

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Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (2010 Perseid Meteor Shower edition)

by Neon Vincent

Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.

This week's featured story comes from Space.com via MSNBC.

Perseid meteor shower lives up to its promise

The 2010 Perseid meteor shower lived up to its promise of a meteor per minute just before dawn Friday, providing an excellent celestial spectacle for people around the globe who had dark and clear skies.

"In Iran, the Perseid meteor shower was great," Mohammad Reza Zaman Sani told Spaceweather.com.

More science, space, and environment stories after the jump.

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