forests | Filome sharers have read the following articles about "forests" | www.filome.com filome.com http://www.filome.com/key/forests You're viewing shares 1-19 of 19 total shares for the keyword forests This is a keyword feed for "forests" from Filome read and shared items in Google Reader. If you would like to search or subscribe to category/keyword feeds for posts that are by shared with Google Reader users visit http://filome.com. en-us Copyright for these items belong to their original publishers. No filome, google reader, shared items, community knowledge organizer This is the keyword feed for "forests" from my read items in Google Reader. This is the keyword feed for "forests" from my read items in Google Reader. http://www.filome.com/images/feed_image.jpg forests | Filome sharers have read the following articles about "forests" | www.filome.com http://www.filome.com/key/forests This is a keyword feed for "forests" from Filome read and shared items in Google Reader. If you would like to search or subscribe to category/keyword feeds for posts that are by shared with Google Reader users visit http://filome.com. http://www.filome.com filome beta The healing effects of forests http://www.physorg.com/news199121152.html Shared item PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories
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"Many people," says Dr. Eeva Karjalainen, of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Metla, "feel relaxed and good when they are out in nature. But not many of us know that there is also scientific evidence about the healing effects of nature."

healing nature effects metla feel healing effects ]]>PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories
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"Many people," says Dr. Eeva Karjalainen, of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Metla, "feel relaxed and good when they are out in nature. But not many of us know that there is also scientific evidence about the healing effects of nature."

healing nature effects metla feel healing effects ]]> Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:00:28 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,1 Deer News - The New York Times http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/deer/index.html Shared item topics.nytimes.com
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hmm, we need wolves.
C. M. Glover

"Too Many Deer in Pennsylvania," announced a headline in The New York Times. The article went on to explain how white-tailed deer had eaten so much of the ground-level vegetation in the state?s forests that "hillsides which were once masses of rich green are now gray and barren." This may sound familiar. But it appeared Aug. 26, 1928.

The animals were scarce in many areas of the country in the early 1900's, so scarce that hunting was curbed, and some communities imported herds from other regions. The white-tailed species, in particular, quickly rebounded. But it wasn't until the second half of the century that the population exploded, as predators declined and human development altered the landscape.

Deer thrive in "edge" ecosystems, where cut-over forests meet farm fields and the cultivated vegetation of subdivisions and office parks. As their density increases, they wipe out flowering plants, woody shrubs and tree saplings that make up the forest "understory", anything from ground level up to about six feet. While biologists say that 10 deer per square mile is all that a healthy forest can support, the population has reached 40-50 in some rural areas, with some estimates as high as 100 in a square mile in highly developed Eastern suburbs.

Read More...

From the East Coast to the Rockies, browsing by white-tailed deer has transformed woodland ecology, resulting in "ghost forests," as one environmental scientist called them. With the protective ground cover gone, small creatures from frogs to songbirds disappear. Invasive plants like Japanese knotweed crowd out ferns and other native plants.

If the forest floor is denuded, suburban landscaping provides a limitless feast.

While damage to the forests is the main problem caused by deer overpopulation, at least as far as scientists are concerned, other issues have mobilized local officials.

Nothing raises public concern like the deer?s role in carrying the tick that causes Lyme disease, which has spread to all 50 states.

In winter 2007-08, bovine tuberculosis was found in deer in the upper Midwest, and sharpshooters went in to reduce the herd. Wasting disease, a transmissible neurological condition the equivalent of mad cow disease, is not widespread, but states like Wisconsin and Colorado were hard hit in recent years.

With so many deer crossing roads, accidents are common. Nationwide, cars hit at least 1.5 million deer a year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports, causing more than a billion dollars in vehicle damage.

Hunting is the main check on the deer population, and sportsmen have a strong say in local game policies. But hunters usually do not want the herds reduced, and they object to laws that require them to kill one or two does for every buck, which is prized for its antlers. At the same time, residents who want fewer deer may object to gunfire so close to their yards, roads and running paths.

Densely populated towns have tried to ease residents? worries by hiring marksmen, who, perched high up, use bait to lure deer to a certain spot, then shoot downward. This practice is called "remote euthanasia."

In winter 2008, Maplewood, N.J., hired volunteer sharpshooters to cull the deer in a nature preserve that borders hundreds of upscale homes. Opposition was intense. At the end of the five-week hunt, 213 white-tailed deer had been killed.



deer tailed forests white ground deer forests tailed white tailed tailed deer square mile ground level york times white tailed deer ]]>topics.nytimes.com
First shared by - phillip
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Shared by phillip
hmm, we need wolves.
C. M. Glover

"Too Many Deer in Pennsylvania," announced a headline in The New York Times. The article went on to explain how white-tailed deer had eaten so much of the ground-level vegetation in the state?s forests that "hillsides which were once masses of rich green are now gray and barren." This may sound familiar. But it appeared Aug. 26, 1928.

The animals were scarce in many areas of the country in the early 1900's, so scarce that hunting was curbed, and some communities imported herds from other regions. The white-tailed species, in particular, quickly rebounded. But it wasn't until the second half of the century that the population exploded, as predators declined and human development altered the landscape.

Deer thrive in "edge" ecosystems, where cut-over forests meet farm fields and the cultivated vegetation of subdivisions and office parks. As their density increases, they wipe out flowering plants, woody shrubs and tree saplings that make up the forest "understory", anything from ground level up to about six feet. While biologists say that 10 deer per square mile is all that a healthy forest can support, the population has reached 40-50 in some rural areas, with some estimates as high as 100 in a square mile in highly developed Eastern suburbs.

Read More...

From the East Coast to the Rockies, browsing by white-tailed deer has transformed woodland ecology, resulting in "ghost forests," as one environmental scientist called them. With the protective ground cover gone, small creatures from frogs to songbirds disappear. Invasive plants like Japanese knotweed crowd out ferns and other native plants.

If the forest floor is denuded, suburban landscaping provides a limitless feast.

While damage to the forests is the main problem caused by deer overpopulation, at least as far as scientists are concerned, other issues have mobilized local officials.

Nothing raises public concern like the deer?s role in carrying the tick that causes Lyme disease, which has spread to all 50 states.

In winter 2007-08, bovine tuberculosis was found in deer in the upper Midwest, and sharpshooters went in to reduce the herd. Wasting disease, a transmissible neurological condition the equivalent of mad cow disease, is not widespread, but states like Wisconsin and Colorado were hard hit in recent years.

With so many deer crossing roads, accidents are common. Nationwide, cars hit at least 1.5 million deer a year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports, causing more than a billion dollars in vehicle damage.

Hunting is the main check on the deer population, and sportsmen have a strong say in local game policies. But hunters usually do not want the herds reduced, and they object to laws that require them to kill one or two does for every buck, which is prized for its antlers. At the same time, residents who want fewer deer may object to gunfire so close to their yards, roads and running paths.

Densely populated towns have tried to ease residents? worries by hiring marksmen, who, perched high up, use bait to lure deer to a certain spot, then shoot downward. This practice is called "remote euthanasia."

In winter 2008, Maplewood, N.J., hired volunteer sharpshooters to cull the deer in a nature preserve that borders hundreds of upscale homes. Opposition was intense. At the end of the five-week hunt, 213 white-tailed deer had been killed.



deer tailed forests white ground deer forests tailed white tailed tailed deer square mile ground level york times white tailed deer ]]> Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:48 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,2 Tierra del Fuego - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Tierra_del_Fuego# Shared item secure.wikimedia.org
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How wonderful for the people of the Faroe Islands!
Flora in Tierra del Fuego

Forests from Tierra del Fuego have expanded beyond local importance; they have been a source of trees that have been planted abroad in places with practically the same climate but which were originally devoid of trees like Faroe Islands and nearby archipelagos. Most species were gathered from the coldest places in Tierra del Fuego, sites mainly with tundra borders. This effort resulted in positive changes, as the heavy winds and cool summers in the Faroe Islands did not allow the growth of trees from other regions in the world. The imported trees are used ornamentally, as curtains against wind, and for fighting erosion caused by storms and grazing in the Faroe Islands.[5]



faroe trees tierra islands fuego trees islands faroe fuego tierra faroe islands ]]>secure.wikimedia.org
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Shared by phillip
How wonderful for the people of the Faroe Islands!
Flora in Tierra del Fuego

Forests from Tierra del Fuego have expanded beyond local importance; they have been a source of trees that have been planted abroad in places with practically the same climate but which were originally devoid of trees like Faroe Islands and nearby archipelagos. Most species were gathered from the coldest places in Tierra del Fuego, sites mainly with tundra borders. This effort resulted in positive changes, as the heavy winds and cool summers in the Faroe Islands did not allow the growth of trees from other regions in the world. The imported trees are used ornamentally, as curtains against wind, and for fighting erosion caused by storms and grazing in the Faroe Islands.[5]



faroe trees tierra islands fuego trees islands faroe fuego tierra faroe islands ]]> Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:00:17 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,3 Where Clouds Displace Forests http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704869304575109972788522954.html?mod=e2tw Shared item online.wsj.com
First shared by - ZachSeward
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forests displace clouds ]]>online.wsj.com
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forests displace clouds ]]> Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:25:36 -0500 30:00 tag:filome.com,4 CauseWorld's Checkin For Charity Gets More Citi Money http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Pko0bvCa9lY/ Shared item TechCrunch
First shared by - chrisbrogan
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CauseWorld, a mobile app that lets users check in to retail shops for credits that can be donated to charity, is clearly on a roll. The app first launched in December as the first mobile application that let's you do good deeds simply for walking into a store.

CauseWorld app users earn karma points when they walk into stores and check in with their cell phone. No purchase is required at any store, and karma points can be redeemed nine predefined good causes. Big brands like Kraft Foods and Citi (both are on board) then turn the karmas into real dollar donations to those causes. Food for poor families, water in Sudan, trees in the Amazon, etc. are examples of the causes.

The company has now donated about half of the original $500,000 donated by Kraft and Citi for the test period. And these brands seem to be happy. CauseWorld has been downloaded more than 300,000 times, probably putting it on par with location based check in networks like FourSquare. Last week Proctor and Gamble said it will give users karma points for scanning the bar codes of 27 products, like toothpaste or face cream. And now Citi will announce that it is expanding it's support of CauseWorld. It's total contribution is now at $700,000.

The charity angle on CauseWorld is brilliant and gives users an added incentive to check in at retail stores. But ultimately what Shopkick, the company behind CauseWorld, is aiming for is a bridge between the mobile world and the physical retail space. CauseWorld. Shopkick has much bigger plans, they say, that's all very hush-hush. Sometime later this year we'll see their new product.

The company, founded by Cyriac Roeding, has attracted some of the most high profile investors in Silicon Valley: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Reid Hoffman.

The press release is below:

CITI INCREASES CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NEW CAUSEWORLD' APP FROM SHOPKICK, INC.

CauseWorld adds two leading microfinance organizations to its cadre of consumer-supported causes

New York, NY March 9, 2010 Citi announced today that it will expand its support of shopkick, Inc.'s successful CauseWorld application by providing an additional $350,000 in financial support for CauseWorld causes. Citi's total contribution now stands at $700,000. About half has already been given to the causes by Citi on behalf of CauseWorld shoppers.

Citi also announced that the CauseWorld application would add two microfinance organizations BRAC and ACCION USA to its cadre of causes to which shoppers with the app may now donate.

Already, the CauseWorld app is having a strong impact. It speaks volumes about the potential power of location-based mobile services. Citi continues to explore ways to bring new value, including convenience and smarter ways to use money, to customers and potential customers by working with leading companies, VCs, and startups like shopkick, said Jeff Semenchuk, head of Citi's Growth Ventures unit. Citi is committed to meeting our customers' emerging mobile, retail and payment needs, he said.

The CauseWorld app is proving to be a very effective way for Citi to support leading social impact-focused nonprofit institutions. The fact that shoppers are making the decisions makes it all the more interesting. We're pleased that the CauseWorld app will also now include two of the leading microfinance organizations, BRAC and ACCION USA, said Robert Annibale, Global Director of Citi Microfinance and Community Relations.

ACCION USA brings affordable microfinance solutions to small business owners. It funds microcredit loans and financial education programs that help American small business owners grow and thrive.

BRAC is a development organization dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor to bring about changes in their own lives. Shopper-generated karma will help provide microcredit loans to give poor women in Africa the tools they need to generate income for themselves and their families.

CauseWorld users will be able to donate to BRAC and ACCION USA immediately.

Since its December 23 launch, Citi has helped support a number of important causes through CauseWorld, including providing clean water for people in developing countries such as Sudan, providing meals to families in the US, planting trees as well as donating books. CauseWorld users are also benefiting Haitian and Chilean earthquake relief efforts.

Citi saw the potential in CauseWorld before the app was even built, said shopkick CEO Cyriac Roeding. It's every entrepreneur's dream to work with people who get' the idea, even before it becomes reality. Citi's new microfinance causes and additional financial contribution underscore their focus on creating sustainable impact. shopkick is backed by Kleiner Perkins and Reid Hoffman.

The CauseWorld application, available for Apple's iPhone and Google's Android, was released in December. The CauseWorld app works by allowing iPhone and Android users to collect karmas by opening the app and checking-in when they come close to, or enter, retail stores. Karmas are then funded by Citi and Kraft Foods so that the user can spend collected karmas on real world charitable actions like planting trees, feeding families in America or providing clean water to people in Sudan.

Once the chosen action has been carried out by the charity partner, users can publish their good deeds to their Facebook feed, so all of their friends can see their pride and join in supporting good causes. A list of participating retail stores is included in the CauseWorld app and no purchase is necessary at the stores to earn karmas. With the addition of BRAC and ACCION USA, eleven charities have partnered with the CauseWorld App including: American Red Cross, Feeding America, American Forests, GlobalGiving, DonorsChoose.org, Prevent Child Abuse America, Carbonfund.org, American Humane Association and Room to Read.

How it works:
Users download the free app on their iPhone.
Collect karmas, the currency created from sponsorship money from Kraft Foods and Citi, by visiting participating retail locations.
Spend karmas on real world charitable actions like planting trees, feeding the hungry and providing clean drinking water.
Charities carry out the actions.
Publish on Facebook to show friends and family.
Build up a profile with icons showing all your karma expenditure.
Earn badges and level up by earning more karma.

The CauseWorld App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone or at www.causeworld.com/iphone.

About Citi
Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.Citigroup.com or www.Citi.com.

About shopkick
shopkick is a new Menlo Park-based startup funded by Kleiner Perkins's iFund and Reid Hoffman, founder and Chairman of LinkedIn, and investor in Facebook. shopkick Inc. was founded based on the belief that the intersection of mobile and physical retail is the next big opportunity in mobile to create consumer value. The Silicon Valley-based company's goal is to drastically improve the shopping experience of consumers by utilizing cell phones' location awareness, unprecedented personalization capabilities, and social/viral features. shopkick launched its mobile application CauseWorld in the United States in December 2009, supported by Citi and Kraft Foods. The shopkick team consists of mobile and web experts who previously built the mobile division of CBS in Los Angeles, and successful mobile and online ventures in Europe and the U.S. (12snap, GoldPocket Wireless, Loopt, CommerceFlow, Rojo), and from Google, TellMe/Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble.

About ACCION USA
ACCION USA is a leading U.S. microfinance organization that provides access to capital and financial education to low- and moderate-income individuals, primarily minorities and women. A pioneer and recognized leader in U.S. microfinance, ACCION USA empowers individuals to create sustainable businesses, increase family incomes, and contribute to the economic development of cities across the U.S. Since inception in 1991, ACCION USA has provided over $119 million in small business loans ranging from $500 to $50,000, offered nationwide via the ACCION USA online lending platform. For more information about small business loans, visit www.accionusa.org.

BRAC
BRAC, an international development organization, was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 by Fazle Hasan Abed. Today, BRAC has grown to become the world's largest NGO employing more than 120,000 people, the majority of which are women, and reaching more than 110 million people with development interventions in Asia and Africa. Since 2002, BRAC has been using its experiences of innovating and scaling up multifaceted anti-poverty programs to energize and accelerate poverty alleviation efforts in other countries. Currently BRAC has country programs in Afghanistan, Liberia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda, and is beginning programs in Haiti. BRAC also provides support to other NGOs in Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Peru. BRAC USA is an affiliate office of BRAC that engages volunteers, supporters and other resources to further BRAC's vision of a world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination where everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential.

Information provided by CrunchBase



causeworld citi app brac shopkick ]]>TechCrunch
First shared by - chrisbrogan
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CauseWorld, a mobile app that lets users check in to retail shops for credits that can be donated to charity, is clearly on a roll. The app first launched in December as the first mobile application that let's you do good deeds simply for walking into a store.

CauseWorld app users earn karma points when they walk into stores and check in with their cell phone. No purchase is required at any store, and karma points can be redeemed nine predefined good causes. Big brands like Kraft Foods and Citi (both are on board) then turn the karmas into real dollar donations to those causes. Food for poor families, water in Sudan, trees in the Amazon, etc. are examples of the causes.

The company has now donated about half of the original $500,000 donated by Kraft and Citi for the test period. And these brands seem to be happy. CauseWorld has been downloaded more than 300,000 times, probably putting it on par with location based check in networks like FourSquare. Last week Proctor and Gamble said it will give users karma points for scanning the bar codes of 27 products, like toothpaste or face cream. And now Citi will announce that it is expanding it's support of CauseWorld. It's total contribution is now at $700,000.

The charity angle on CauseWorld is brilliant and gives users an added incentive to check in at retail stores. But ultimately what Shopkick, the company behind CauseWorld, is aiming for is a bridge between the mobile world and the physical retail space. CauseWorld. Shopkick has much bigger plans, they say, that's all very hush-hush. Sometime later this year we'll see their new product.

The company, founded by Cyriac Roeding, has attracted some of the most high profile investors in Silicon Valley: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Reid Hoffman.

The press release is below:

CITI INCREASES CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NEW CAUSEWORLD' APP FROM SHOPKICK, INC.

CauseWorld adds two leading microfinance organizations to its cadre of consumer-supported causes

New York, NY March 9, 2010 Citi announced today that it will expand its support of shopkick, Inc.'s successful CauseWorld application by providing an additional $350,000 in financial support for CauseWorld causes. Citi's total contribution now stands at $700,000. About half has already been given to the causes by Citi on behalf of CauseWorld shoppers.

Citi also announced that the CauseWorld application would add two microfinance organizations BRAC and ACCION USA to its cadre of causes to which shoppers with the app may now donate.

Already, the CauseWorld app is having a strong impact. It speaks volumes about the potential power of location-based mobile services. Citi continues to explore ways to bring new value, including convenience and smarter ways to use money, to customers and potential customers by working with leading companies, VCs, and startups like shopkick, said Jeff Semenchuk, head of Citi's Growth Ventures unit. Citi is committed to meeting our customers' emerging mobile, retail and payment needs, he said.

The CauseWorld app is proving to be a very effective way for Citi to support leading social impact-focused nonprofit institutions. The fact that shoppers are making the decisions makes it all the more interesting. We're pleased that the CauseWorld app will also now include two of the leading microfinance organizations, BRAC and ACCION USA, said Robert Annibale, Global Director of Citi Microfinance and Community Relations.

ACCION USA brings affordable microfinance solutions to small business owners. It funds microcredit loans and financial education programs that help American small business owners grow and thrive.

BRAC is a development organization dedicated to alleviating poverty by empowering the poor to bring about changes in their own lives. Shopper-generated karma will help provide microcredit loans to give poor women in Africa the tools they need to generate income for themselves and their families.

CauseWorld users will be able to donate to BRAC and ACCION USA immediately.

Since its December 23 launch, Citi has helped support a number of important causes through CauseWorld, including providing clean water for people in developing countries such as Sudan, providing meals to families in the US, planting trees as well as donating books. CauseWorld users are also benefiting Haitian and Chilean earthquake relief efforts.

Citi saw the potential in CauseWorld before the app was even built, said shopkick CEO Cyriac Roeding. It's every entrepreneur's dream to work with people who get' the idea, even before it becomes reality. Citi's new microfinance causes and additional financial contribution underscore their focus on creating sustainable impact. shopkick is backed by Kleiner Perkins and Reid Hoffman.

The CauseWorld application, available for Apple's iPhone and Google's Android, was released in December. The CauseWorld app works by allowing iPhone and Android users to collect karmas by opening the app and checking-in when they come close to, or enter, retail stores. Karmas are then funded by Citi and Kraft Foods so that the user can spend collected karmas on real world charitable actions like planting trees, feeding families in America or providing clean water to people in Sudan.

Once the chosen action has been carried out by the charity partner, users can publish their good deeds to their Facebook feed, so all of their friends can see their pride and join in supporting good causes. A list of participating retail stores is included in the CauseWorld app and no purchase is necessary at the stores to earn karmas. With the addition of BRAC and ACCION USA, eleven charities have partnered with the CauseWorld App including: American Red Cross, Feeding America, American Forests, GlobalGiving, DonorsChoose.org, Prevent Child Abuse America, Carbonfund.org, American Humane Association and Room to Read.

How it works:
Users download the free app on their iPhone.
Collect karmas, the currency created from sponsorship money from Kraft Foods and Citi, by visiting participating retail locations.
Spend karmas on real world charitable actions like planting trees, feeding the hungry and providing clean drinking water.
Charities carry out the actions.
Publish on Facebook to show friends and family.
Build up a profile with icons showing all your karma expenditure.
Earn badges and level up by earning more karma.

The CauseWorld App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone or at www.causeworld.com/iphone.

About Citi
Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.Citigroup.com or www.Citi.com.

About shopkick
shopkick is a new Menlo Park-based startup funded by Kleiner Perkins's iFund and Reid Hoffman, founder and Chairman of LinkedIn, and investor in Facebook. shopkick Inc. was founded based on the belief that the intersection of mobile and physical retail is the next big opportunity in mobile to create consumer value. The Silicon Valley-based company's goal is to drastically improve the shopping experience of consumers by utilizing cell phones' location awareness, unprecedented personalization capabilities, and social/viral features. shopkick launched its mobile application CauseWorld in the United States in December 2009, supported by Citi and Kraft Foods. The shopkick team consists of mobile and web experts who previously built the mobile division of CBS in Los Angeles, and successful mobile and online ventures in Europe and the U.S. (12snap, GoldPocket Wireless, Loopt, CommerceFlow, Rojo), and from Google, TellMe/Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble.

About ACCION USA
ACCION USA is a leading U.S. microfinance organization that provides access to capital and financial education to low- and moderate-income individuals, primarily minorities and women. A pioneer and recognized leader in U.S. microfinance, ACCION USA empowers individuals to create sustainable businesses, increase family incomes, and contribute to the economic development of cities across the U.S. Since inception in 1991, ACCION USA has provided over $119 million in small business loans ranging from $500 to $50,000, offered nationwide via the ACCION USA online lending platform. For more information about small business loans, visit www.accionusa.org.

BRAC
BRAC, an international development organization, was founded in Bangladesh in 1972 by Fazle Hasan Abed. Today, BRAC has grown to become the world's largest NGO employing more than 120,000 people, the majority of which are women, and reaching more than 110 million people with development interventions in Asia and Africa. Since 2002, BRAC has been using its experiences of innovating and scaling up multifaceted anti-poverty programs to energize and accelerate poverty alleviation efforts in other countries. Currently BRAC has country programs in Afghanistan, Liberia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda, and is beginning programs in Haiti. BRAC also provides support to other NGOs in Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Peru. BRAC USA is an affiliate office of BRAC that engages volunteers, supporters and other resources to further BRAC's vision of a world free from all forms of exploitation and discrimination where everyone has the opportunity to realise their potential.

Information provided by CrunchBase



causeworld citi app brac shopkick ]]> Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:50:18 -0500 30:00 tag:filome.com,5 Killing Rainforestsby the second!!! http://gotcha.co.nz/2010/03/07/killing-rainforests-by-the-second/ Shared item Gotcha!
First shared by - Mark_Montgomerie
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Here's a question for you: How fast are the world's rain forests being destroyed?

The answer would be quite easy to find out wouldn't it? And even if you didn't know, you wouldn't just make up a number and just trot it off as the truth would you? Would you? And you wouldn't just make up some figure designed to scare people would you?

Actually, this question raises a trend I've noticed more and more: environmentalists believing that they have the right to just make up any scary sounding number or fact and put it out to the world, safe in the knowledge that no-one (and certainly no journalist) will fact check them.

Well I took a sample of the most commonly quoted deforestation rates and I noticed 3 very curious things:

For some reason they love to tell you how quickly rain forests are being raped and pillaged in terms of how football fields per second.

There is absolutely no consensus whatsoeverthe claimed rate of deforestation is wildly spread-out, but more curious still always seems to be a nice round number, easily converted into a throwaway statistic. Some websites provide statistics which are themselves wildly inconsistent.

The claims are almost never backed up with references or evidence, and when they are the original source is often flimsy, or some other greenie (sound familiar?).

This post may seem flippant, but it highlights something sinister: more and more often environmentalists are simply making up alarming facts and figures believing that the ends justify the means.

The environmentalists have no problem with lying, they know they will get away with it.

In the interests of consistency, I've devised a new standard unit for measuring the rate of deforestation of rainforests: FF/s, or football fields per second.

1 FF/s is the equivalent of 1 regulation football field being cut down for every second.

This is how I work it out. Feel free to check any and all claims in this post:
I'm going to use a regulation association football pitch, as demanded by FIFA and IFAB: 105metres by 68metres, giving a total of 7140m^2.

If you started felling rainforest at midnight on January 1, at the rate of 1 FF/s, each and every second, by the time new year came around again you would have felled 225,167.04km^2.

Following?

OK, let's look at some of the claims:
Every year, the area of Wales in rainforest is cut down

This statistic is dear to my heart: it was what we were told when I was being schooled in the United Kingdom. It seems that the amount of deforestation depends on where you live in the world.

Let's see, Wales has an area of 20779km^2. If you wanted to cut down an area the size of Wales you would need to cut down 0.0923 FF/s. That's bugger allthat's not even 1 penalty box per second, let alone the whole pitch!

Not to be outdone by their neighbours to the west, the website www.rainforestconcern.org makes the claim that rain forests are being cut down at the rate of the area of England every year.

Clearly, something is wrong because Wales and England are not the same size, even with all those mountains.

Cutting down the area of England (130,395 km^2, according to the UK Government) is equivalent to cutting down 0.5791 FF/s.

This is strange because the packaging for Surf washing powder makes the claim that: Every second, an area of rain forest the size of a football field is cut down.

Perhaps the Americans can help.

The website Mongabay (http://kids.mongabay.com/elementary/501.html), a website aimed at children, makes the claim that: Every year an area of rainforest the size of New Jersey is cut down and destroyed..

However, later on, ON THE SAME WEBSITE, it is claimed: Today tropical rainforests are disappearing from the face of the globe. Despite growing international concern, rainforests continue to be destroyed at a pace exceeding 80,000 acres (32,000 hectares) per day.

Both of these claims cannot be true, but let's examine them individually:
Cutting down rainforest the size of New Jersey (a state with an area of 19200km^2) would require you to fell trees at a rate of 0.08527 FF/s.

On the other hand, chopping them down at a rate (exceeding) 80,000 acres per day (exceeding!) would require you to fell at a rate of 0.5248 FF/sover six times faster than the other claim made, by the same author, on the same site.

I emailed the owner of the mongabay website, Rhett Butler, asking for a clarification of the New Jersey claim.

His reply was weird, but instructive of the logic behind he claims:
The article was written in 2004 when more than 18,000 square km of forest were cleared, substantially more than the surface area of NJ. You can see from the INPE remote sensing data for just the Brazilian Amazon (which accounts for roughly half of tropical forest loss), that while deforestation has dropped substantially, the claim is probably not far off today.

But his site never says that; it claims that EVER YEAR an area the size of New Jersey is cut down. Mr Butler has also managed to lose 1200 km^2 of the State of New Jersey. Also note the claim that deforestation has dropped substantiallythat will be important later on.

(Update: Mr Butler has emailed me again, this time claiming that it is, in fact, going up).

One claim, which comes up quite a lot is the claim that 1 acres are felled, every second. This claim is almost never referenced.

This claim is repeated by the environmental group Raintree, who claim on their website: One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries. (http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm)

Another answer on that same site (also curiously unreferenced) is: Three football fields a second.

They can't both be right, since cutting down 1 acres a second is only 0.8502 FF/sthree and a half times slower than previously claimed, by the same people, on the same website.

Best of all is this little laundry list from ownforest.com:
Every second . . . we lose an area the size of two football fields!
Every minute . . . we lose an area 29 times the size of the Pentagon!
Every hour . . . we lose an area 684 times larger than the New Orleans Superdome!
Every day . . . we lose an area larger than all five boroughs of New York City!
Every week . . . we lose an area twice the size of Rhode Island!
Every month . . . we lose an area the size of Belize!
Every year . . . we lose an area more than twice the size of Florida!

Hurray! Now we're back to only 2 football fields a second!

None of these claims are referenced (funny that). But they must be truelook at all the exclamation marks!!!!!!!

There are 7 claims made there, but oddly enough, none of them are consistent:

The claim: every second2 football fields yields us 2 FF/s.

The claim: every minute29 times the Pentagon yields us 7.853FF/s! (The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world, covering an area of 116,000m2 according to the official website, it has 6 dedicated zip codes!!)

The claim: every hour684 times larger than the New Orleans Superdome is a bit trickier to work out. If we include just the building (with a floor space of 24,991 m2 according to the City of New Orleans website) then we need 0.02499FF/s.

However, if we count the whole 210,437m2 complex then we get 5.5999FF/s!!

The claim: Every dayblah blah New York gives us a FF/s of 1.2725.

The claim about 2 times Rhode Island every week gives us 1.25 FF/s.

The claim about Belize being chopped down every month requires 1.22FF/s.

So every year (EVERY year?) an area not once, but more than TWICE the size of Florida gets chopped down?

Hang onisn't it just New Jersey that gets rainforest destroyed in its honour?

I've been to Florida, and to New Jersey, and Florida alone is way bigger than Jersey (over 7 times bigger ), let alone needing to double in size to accommodate the logging.

Chopping down Florida twice requires a whopping bullshit call of 1.24FF/s.

In this country we are lucky. Our politicians wouldn't try to make up stuff, would they?

A Green party of New Zealand press release dated 20 August 2007 makes the claim that: tropical rain forests are disappearing at an accelerating rateabout 15 million hectares a year right now.

Wait just a second there pilgrim! That other greenie guy told me that deforestation has dropped substantially since 2004. Which one is lying?

In any case, 15 million hectares per year equals 0.6662 FF/s.

However, according to the reply by the Greens to the 2005 Budget delivered to Parliament on 7 June 2005, the world loses 2 football fields per second of rainforesta figure 3 times greater than their other claim.

I'm not going to go into what I think the real FF/s is, nor even whether it's as bad as is being made out. I just would really like some fact checking.

Imagine if you will what would happen if different drug companies made hugely divergent claims about the effect of aspirindo you think they would get a free pass too? No? well why do the environmentalists?



claim area ff second size ]]>Gotcha!
First shared by - Mark_Montgomerie
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Here's a question for you: How fast are the world's rain forests being destroyed?

The answer would be quite easy to find out wouldn't it? And even if you didn't know, you wouldn't just make up a number and just trot it off as the truth would you? Would you? And you wouldn't just make up some figure designed to scare people would you?

Actually, this question raises a trend I've noticed more and more: environmentalists believing that they have the right to just make up any scary sounding number or fact and put it out to the world, safe in the knowledge that no-one (and certainly no journalist) will fact check them.

Well I took a sample of the most commonly quoted deforestation rates and I noticed 3 very curious things:

For some reason they love to tell you how quickly rain forests are being raped and pillaged in terms of how football fields per second.

There is absolutely no consensus whatsoeverthe claimed rate of deforestation is wildly spread-out, but more curious still always seems to be a nice round number, easily converted into a throwaway statistic. Some websites provide statistics which are themselves wildly inconsistent.

The claims are almost never backed up with references or evidence, and when they are the original source is often flimsy, or some other greenie (sound familiar?).

This post may seem flippant, but it highlights something sinister: more and more often environmentalists are simply making up alarming facts and figures believing that the ends justify the means.

The environmentalists have no problem with lying, they know they will get away with it.

In the interests of consistency, I've devised a new standard unit for measuring the rate of deforestation of rainforests: FF/s, or football fields per second.

1 FF/s is the equivalent of 1 regulation football field being cut down for every second.

This is how I work it out. Feel free to check any and all claims in this post:
I'm going to use a regulation association football pitch, as demanded by FIFA and IFAB: 105metres by 68metres, giving a total of 7140m^2.

If you started felling rainforest at midnight on January 1, at the rate of 1 FF/s, each and every second, by the time new year came around again you would have felled 225,167.04km^2.

Following?

OK, let's look at some of the claims:
Every year, the area of Wales in rainforest is cut down

This statistic is dear to my heart: it was what we were told when I was being schooled in the United Kingdom. It seems that the amount of deforestation depends on where you live in the world.

Let's see, Wales has an area of 20779km^2. If you wanted to cut down an area the size of Wales you would need to cut down 0.0923 FF/s. That's bugger allthat's not even 1 penalty box per second, let alone the whole pitch!

Not to be outdone by their neighbours to the west, the website www.rainforestconcern.org makes the claim that rain forests are being cut down at the rate of the area of England every year.

Clearly, something is wrong because Wales and England are not the same size, even with all those mountains.

Cutting down the area of England (130,395 km^2, according to the UK Government) is equivalent to cutting down 0.5791 FF/s.

This is strange because the packaging for Surf washing powder makes the claim that: Every second, an area of rain forest the size of a football field is cut down.

Perhaps the Americans can help.

The website Mongabay (http://kids.mongabay.com/elementary/501.html), a website aimed at children, makes the claim that: Every year an area of rainforest the size of New Jersey is cut down and destroyed..

However, later on, ON THE SAME WEBSITE, it is claimed: Today tropical rainforests are disappearing from the face of the globe. Despite growing international concern, rainforests continue to be destroyed at a pace exceeding 80,000 acres (32,000 hectares) per day.

Both of these claims cannot be true, but let's examine them individually:
Cutting down rainforest the size of New Jersey (a state with an area of 19200km^2) would require you to fell trees at a rate of 0.08527 FF/s.

On the other hand, chopping them down at a rate (exceeding) 80,000 acres per day (exceeding!) would require you to fell at a rate of 0.5248 FF/sover six times faster than the other claim made, by the same author, on the same site.

I emailed the owner of the mongabay website, Rhett Butler, asking for a clarification of the New Jersey claim.

His reply was weird, but instructive of the logic behind he claims:
The article was written in 2004 when more than 18,000 square km of forest were cleared, substantially more than the surface area of NJ. You can see from the INPE remote sensing data for just the Brazilian Amazon (which accounts for roughly half of tropical forest loss), that while deforestation has dropped substantially, the claim is probably not far off today.

But his site never says that; it claims that EVER YEAR an area the size of New Jersey is cut down. Mr Butler has also managed to lose 1200 km^2 of the State of New Jersey. Also note the claim that deforestation has dropped substantiallythat will be important later on.

(Update: Mr Butler has emailed me again, this time claiming that it is, in fact, going up).

One claim, which comes up quite a lot is the claim that 1 acres are felled, every second. This claim is almost never referenced.

This claim is repeated by the environmental group Raintree, who claim on their website: One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries. (http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm)

Another answer on that same site (also curiously unreferenced) is: Three football fields a second.

They can't both be right, since cutting down 1 acres a second is only 0.8502 FF/sthree and a half times slower than previously claimed, by the same people, on the same website.

Best of all is this little laundry list from ownforest.com:
Every second . . . we lose an area the size of two football fields!
Every minute . . . we lose an area 29 times the size of the Pentagon!
Every hour . . . we lose an area 684 times larger than the New Orleans Superdome!
Every day . . . we lose an area larger than all five boroughs of New York City!
Every week . . . we lose an area twice the size of Rhode Island!
Every month . . . we lose an area the size of Belize!
Every year . . . we lose an area more than twice the size of Florida!

Hurray! Now we're back to only 2 football fields a second!

None of these claims are referenced (funny that). But they must be truelook at all the exclamation marks!!!!!!!

There are 7 claims made there, but oddly enough, none of them are consistent:

The claim: every second2 football fields yields us 2 FF/s.

The claim: every minute29 times the Pentagon yields us 7.853FF/s! (The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world, covering an area of 116,000m2 according to the official website, it has 6 dedicated zip codes!!)

The claim: every hour684 times larger than the New Orleans Superdome is a bit trickier to work out. If we include just the building (with a floor space of 24,991 m2 according to the City of New Orleans website) then we need 0.02499FF/s.

However, if we count the whole 210,437m2 complex then we get 5.5999FF/s!!

The claim: Every dayblah blah New York gives us a FF/s of 1.2725.

The claim about 2 times Rhode Island every week gives us 1.25 FF/s.

The claim about Belize being chopped down every month requires 1.22FF/s.

So every year (EVERY year?) an area not once, but more than TWICE the size of Florida gets chopped down?

Hang onisn't it just New Jersey that gets rainforest destroyed in its honour?

I've been to Florida, and to New Jersey, and Florida alone is way bigger than Jersey (over 7 times bigger ), let alone needing to double in size to accommodate the logging.

Chopping down Florida twice requires a whopping bullshit call of 1.24FF/s.

In this country we are lucky. Our politicians wouldn't try to make up stuff, would they?

A Green party of New Zealand press release dated 20 August 2007 makes the claim that: tropical rain forests are disappearing at an accelerating rateabout 15 million hectares a year right now.

Wait just a second there pilgrim! That other greenie guy told me that deforestation has dropped substantially since 2004. Which one is lying?

In any case, 15 million hectares per year equals 0.6662 FF/s.

However, according to the reply by the Greens to the 2005 Budget delivered to Parliament on 7 June 2005, the world loses 2 football fields per second of rainforesta figure 3 times greater than their other claim.

I'm not going to go into what I think the real FF/s is, nor even whether it's as bad as is being made out. I just would really like some fact checking.

Imagine if you will what would happen if different drug companies made hugely divergent claims about the effect of aspirindo you think they would get a free pass too? No? well why do the environmentalists?



claim area ff second size ]]> Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:35:09 -0500 30:00 tag:filome.com,6 Out Of A Forest http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Likecool/~3/I_BNiLSD5xk/Out_Of_A_Forest--Video--Gear.html Shared item Likecool
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Directed by Tobias Gundorff Boesen."It is shot in the forests surrounding Viborg, Denmark. My m..(more...)



forests surrounding viborg denmark shot ]]>Likecool
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Directed by Tobias Gundorff Boesen."It is shot in the forests surrounding Viborg, Denmark. My m..(more...)



forests surrounding viborg denmark shot ]]> Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:25:26 -0500 30:00 tag:filome.com,7 World's biggest coal company brings U.S. government to court in climate fraud http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/climategate/ROux/~3/EzM-pogFYUM/worlds-biggest-coal-company-brings-us-government-to-court-in-climate-fraud Shared item CLIMATEGATE
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The world's largest private sector coal business, the Peabody Energy Company (PEC) has filed a mammoth 240-page Petition for Reconsideration, a full-blown legal challenge against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The petition must be answered and covers the entire body of leaked emails from Climategate' as well as those other gate' revelations including the frauds allegedly perpetrated under such sub-headings as Himalayan Glaciers,' African Agricultural Production,' Amazon Rain Forests,' Melting Mountain Ice,' Netherlands Below Sea Level' as well as those much-publicized abuses of the peer-review literature and so called gray literature.' These powerful litigants also draw attention to the proven criminal conduct by climate scientists in refusing to honor Freedom of Information law (FOIA) requests.

Peabody is, in effect, challenging the right of the current U.S. federal government to introduce cap and trade regulations by the back door.' In this article we summarize Peabody's legal writ.

PEC has pulled out all the stops to overturn the EPA findings Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act' made on December 7, 2009. Those findings were in turn premised on the Supreme Court decision of April 2, 2007 of Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), where the court ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act.

PEC argues inter alia that the law requires that the federal agency must articulate a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made as per the case of Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n of the United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mutual Auto Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43 (1983).

The PEC arguments are based primarily on the release of email and other information from the University of East Anglia (UEA) Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in November of last year. Their civil action lists most of the principle scientists such as Professor Phil Jones, of the UK's Climatic Research Unit, who recently admitted there has been no statistically significant' global warming for 15 years and agreed the Medieval Warm Period may have been just as warm, if not warmer than current global temperatures.

The petition argues the EPA must reconsider its Endangerment Finding based on all the new material from Climategate that was not available during the original EPA comment period' and which is central to the outcome that EPA reached in promulgating its Endangerment Finding.

The petition further states that the EPA failed to properly exercise its judgment as required by the Clean Air Act (CAA) and acted in an arbitrary and capricious fashion by relying almost exclusively on flawed reports of the IPCC in attributing climate change to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and which were influenced by political rather than scientific concerns.

Among their submissions the PEC legal team attacks the Nice Tidy Story of Unprecedented 20th Century Warmth using emails written while climatologists were making preparations for the Third IPCC report. Among them Keith Briffa stated that:

I know there is pressure to present a nice tidy story as regards apparent unprecedented warming in a thousand years or more in the proxy data' but in reality the situation is not quite so simple. [CRU email 938018124.txt (Sep. 22, 1999)]

Briffa went on to say that:

I believe that the recent warmth was probably matched about 1000 years ago. [CRU email 938018124.txt (Sep. 22, 1999)]

The PEC legal eagles then cite another key researcher, Ed Cook, who in a lengthy email bristles at the effort to eliminate the MWP and wrote:

I do find the dismissal of the Medieval Warm Period as a meaningful global event to be grossly premature and probably wrong.

[CRU email 988831541.txt (May 2, 2001)]

The PEC action criticizes the discredited IPCC reports that were not the product of a rigorous, transparent and neutral scientific process. PEC argues:

The CRU information reveals that many of the principal scientists who authored key chapters of the IPCC scientific assessments were driven by a policy agenda that caused them to cross the line from neutral science to advocacy.

As an example of bias, Dr. Kevin Trenberth Senior Scientist, Head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research is cited for his admission:

I tried hard to balance the needs of the science and the IPCC, which were not always the same.

Hide the Decline

The coal company's lawyers argue that to hide the decline in the correlation between recent temperatures and what was showing in the proxy data, Professor Michael Mann and then Phil Jones unethically and fraudulently grafted on actual temperature data to the end of their proxy reconstructions rather than using the same proxy data as had been used throughout the reconstruction.

By this trick' they made the graphic presentations of the proxy reconstructions misleading, since the effect is to make it seem as if the proxy data shows rising 20th century warming when it doesn't. But the real deception in the trick was in hiding what became known as the divergence problem.

The divergence problem is where the proxy data are contradicted by actual data, as they are for a significant period of the time when direct temperature measurements exist, the accuracy of the proxy data over the entire period of the proxy reconstruction is called into question so that the science cannot be determined to be settled.

In a robust attack lawyers for the PEC further assert:

Moreover, the Information Commissioner's Office of the United Kingdom (U.K.), the agency that oversees and enforces the U.K.'s freedom of information laws, after investigation, recently concluded that CRU broke those laws in refusing to respond to information requests.

The petition concludes that:

In sum, given the seriousness of the flaws that the CRU material and other information reveal in the development of the IPCC reports, the Agency must reexamine the Endangerment Finding. The Agency can no longer have confidence that those reports present a fair, unbiased and accurate assessment of climate science.

Moreover, PEC is demanding that the EPA shall convene a full evidentiary hearing as a part of such reconsideration. If this element of the petition were granted it is highly probable that the weight of the new evidence now freely available since Climategate would expose the criminal and fraudulent component within the science of man-made global warming, and would likely succeed in having all the EPA's findings on carbon dioxide invalidated.

Thereby, from accomplishing their civil task Peabody will lend further weight to the likelihood of criminal charges being brought against those individuals implicated in international fraud on the largest scale ever known.



pec proxy epa data cru ]]>CLIMATEGATE
First shared by - Steve_Palmer
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The world's largest private sector coal business, the Peabody Energy Company (PEC) has filed a mammoth 240-page Petition for Reconsideration, a full-blown legal challenge against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The petition must be answered and covers the entire body of leaked emails from Climategate' as well as those other gate' revelations including the frauds allegedly perpetrated under such sub-headings as Himalayan Glaciers,' African Agricultural Production,' Amazon Rain Forests,' Melting Mountain Ice,' Netherlands Below Sea Level' as well as those much-publicized abuses of the peer-review literature and so called gray literature.' These powerful litigants also draw attention to the proven criminal conduct by climate scientists in refusing to honor Freedom of Information law (FOIA) requests.

Peabody is, in effect, challenging the right of the current U.S. federal government to introduce cap and trade regulations by the back door.' In this article we summarize Peabody's legal writ.

PEC has pulled out all the stops to overturn the EPA findings Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act' made on December 7, 2009. Those findings were in turn premised on the Supreme Court decision of April 2, 2007 of Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), where the court ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act.

PEC argues inter alia that the law requires that the federal agency must articulate a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made as per the case of Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass'n of the United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mutual Auto Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43 (1983).

The PEC arguments are based primarily on the release of email and other information from the University of East Anglia (UEA) Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in November of last year. Their civil action lists most of the principle scientists such as Professor Phil Jones, of the UK's Climatic Research Unit, who recently admitted there has been no statistically significant' global warming for 15 years and agreed the Medieval Warm Period may have been just as warm, if not warmer than current global temperatures.

The petition argues the EPA must reconsider its Endangerment Finding based on all the new material from Climategate that was not available during the original EPA comment period' and which is central to the outcome that EPA reached in promulgating its Endangerment Finding.

The petition further states that the EPA failed to properly exercise its judgment as required by the Clean Air Act (CAA) and acted in an arbitrary and capricious fashion by relying almost exclusively on flawed reports of the IPCC in attributing climate change to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and which were influenced by political rather than scientific concerns.

Among their submissions the PEC legal team attacks the Nice Tidy Story of Unprecedented 20th Century Warmth using emails written while climatologists were making preparations for the Third IPCC report. Among them Keith Briffa stated that:

I know there is pressure to present a nice tidy story as regards apparent unprecedented warming in a thousand years or more in the proxy data' but in reality the situation is not quite so simple. [CRU email 938018124.txt (Sep. 22, 1999)]

Briffa went on to say that:

I believe that the recent warmth was probably matched about 1000 years ago. [CRU email 938018124.txt (Sep. 22, 1999)]

The PEC legal eagles then cite another key researcher, Ed Cook, who in a lengthy email bristles at the effort to eliminate the MWP and wrote:

I do find the dismissal of the Medieval Warm Period as a meaningful global event to be grossly premature and probably wrong.

[CRU email 988831541.txt (May 2, 2001)]

The PEC action criticizes the discredited IPCC reports that were not the product of a rigorous, transparent and neutral scientific process. PEC argues:

The CRU information reveals that many of the principal scientists who authored key chapters of the IPCC scientific assessments were driven by a policy agenda that caused them to cross the line from neutral science to advocacy.

As an example of bias, Dr. Kevin Trenberth Senior Scientist, Head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research is cited for his admission:

I tried hard to balance the needs of the science and the IPCC, which were not always the same.

Hide the Decline

The coal company's lawyers argue that to hide the decline in the correlation between recent temperatures and what was showing in the proxy data, Professor Michael Mann and then Phil Jones unethically and fraudulently grafted on actual temperature data to the end of their proxy reconstructions rather than using the same proxy data as had been used throughout the reconstruction.

By this trick' they made the graphic presentations of the proxy reconstructions misleading, since the effect is to make it seem as if the proxy data shows rising 20th century warming when it doesn't. But the real deception in the trick was in hiding what became known as the divergence problem.

The divergence problem is where the proxy data are contradicted by actual data, as they are for a significant period of the time when direct temperature measurements exist, the accuracy of the proxy data over the entire period of the proxy reconstruction is called into question so that the science cannot be determined to be settled.

In a robust attack lawyers for the PEC further assert:

Moreover, the Information Commissioner's Office of the United Kingdom (U.K.), the agency that oversees and enforces the U.K.'s freedom of information laws, after investigation, recently concluded that CRU broke those laws in refusing to respond to information requests.

The petition concludes that:

In sum, given the seriousness of the flaws that the CRU material and other information reveal in the development of the IPCC reports, the Agency must reexamine the Endangerment Finding. The Agency can no longer have confidence that those reports present a fair, unbiased and accurate assessment of climate science.

Moreover, PEC is demanding that the EPA shall convene a full evidentiary hearing as a part of such reconsideration. If this element of the petition were granted it is highly probable that the weight of the new evidence now freely available since Climategate would expose the criminal and fraudulent component within the science of man-made global warming, and would likely succeed in having all the EPA's findings on carbon dioxide invalidated.

Thereby, from accomplishing their civil task Peabody will lend further weight to the likelihood of criminal charges being brought against those individuals implicated in international fraud on the largest scale ever known.



pec proxy epa data cru ]]> Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:01:00 -0500 30:00 tag:filome.com,8 Give the commons back to the people! http://francoistremblay.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/give-the-commons-back-to-the-people/ Shared item Check Your Premises
First shared by - Mariela
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At least, this is the conclusion of a study which found that common forests outperform government-controlled forests, and casts a shadow on a UN plan to empower governments to seize even more commons around the world.

One reason may be that locals protect forests best if they own them, because they have a long-term interest in ensuring the forests' survival. While governments, whatever their intentions, usually license destructive logging, or preside over a free-for-all in which everyone grabs what they can because nobody believes the forest will last.

The authors suggest that locals would also make a better job of managing common pastures, coastal fisheries and water supplies. They argue that their findings contradict a long-standing environmental idea, called the tragedy of the commons, which says that natural resources left to communal control get trashed. In fact, says Agrawal, communities are perfectly capable of managing their resources sustainably.



forests commons governments managing locals ]]>Check Your Premises
First shared by - Mariela
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At least, this is the conclusion of a study which found that common forests outperform government-controlled forests, and casts a shadow on a UN plan to empower governments to seize even more commons around the world.

One reason may be that locals protect forests best if they own them, because they have a long-term interest in ensuring the forests' survival. While governments, whatever their intentions, usually license destructive logging, or preside over a free-for-all in which everyone grabs what they can because nobody believes the forest will last.

The authors suggest that locals would also make a better job of managing common pastures, coastal fisheries and water supplies. They argue that their findings contradict a long-standing environmental idea, called the tragedy of the commons, which says that natural resources left to communal control get trashed. In fact, says Agrawal, communities are perfectly capable of managing their resources sustainably.



forests commons governments managing locals ]]> Sun, 14 Feb 2010 07:35:26 -0500 30:00 tag:filome.com,9 U.S. pledges $275 mln for tropical forests in 2010 - Reuters http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2Farticle%2FenvironmentNews%2FidUSTRE5AI57Y20091119&usg=AFQjCNGzTuMiXv6Ywk1fdgusPgb8QGbEhQ Shared item Guyana - Google News
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guardian.co.uk
U.S. pledges $275 mln for tropical forests in 2010
Reuters
The US pledge follows an offer last week from Norway to pay Guyana up to $250 million by 2015, and which has illustrated the complexity of constructing such ...
Prince Charles announces funding scheme to protect rainforestsguardian.co.uk
Efforts to save rainforests boostedThe Press Association

all 10 news articles


pledges co forests mln tropical ]]>Guyana - Google News
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guardian.co.uk
U.S. pledges $275 mln for tropical forests in 2010
Reuters
The US pledge follows an offer last week from Norway to pay Guyana up to $250 million by 2015, and which has illustrated the complexity of constructing such ...
Prince Charles announces funding scheme to protect rainforestsguardian.co.uk
Efforts to save rainforests boostedThe Press Association

all 10 news articles


pledges co forests mln tropical ]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:41:47 -0500 30:00 tag:filome.com,10 Norway offers Guyana up to $250mln to save forests - Forexyard http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.forexyard.com%2Fen%2Freuters_inner.tpl%3Faction%3D2009-11-09T174045Z_01_L9486183_RTRIDST_0_CLIMATE-FORESTS&usg=AFQjCNHRijfcJNYuE5x1VtNxXr-d37Bmdw Shared item Guyana - Google News
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Norway offers Guyana up to $250mln to save forests
Forexyard
OSLO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Norway agreed on Monday to pay Guyana up to $250 million by 2015 to preserve forests in the South American nation as part of a ...
Norway - Guyana and Norway enter into partnership to protect Guyana's tropical ...ISRIA

all 3 news articles


guyana norway forests save offers ]]>Guyana - Google News
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Norway offers Guyana up to $250mln to save forests
Forexyard
OSLO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Norway agreed on Monday to pay Guyana up to $250 million by 2015 to preserve forests in the South American nation as part of a ...
Norway - Guyana and Norway enter into partnership to protect Guyana's tropical ...ISRIA

all 3 news articles


guyana norway forests save offers ]]> Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:10:28 -0500 30:00 tag:filome.com,11 Trashing Tragedy of the Commons? Communities Found to Manage Forests Better Than Government http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nonprofitnews/~3/hk-aZc1Yvlw/communities-better-manage-tropical-forests-than-government.php Shared item Idealist's Npnews Topic
First shared by - ScottS
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Deforestation in Haiti, photo: Nick Hobgood via flickr. It's economic and environmental conventional wisdom that natural resources held in common tend to get over-exploited. But a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and being highlighted by New Scientist, contends that at least in the case of tropical f...Read the full story on TreeHugger


study proceedings national academy exploited ]]>Idealist's Npnews Topic
First shared by - ScottS
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Deforestation in Haiti, photo: Nick Hobgood via flickr. It's economic and environmental conventional wisdom that natural resources held in common tend to get over-exploited. But a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and being highlighted by New Scientist, contends that at least in the case of tropical f...Read the full story on TreeHugger


study proceedings national academy exploited ]]> Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:56:16 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,12 Choral Valley http://rgarg.posterous.com/choral-valley Shared item rajneesh's posterous
First shared by - Raj
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A forest almost no one knows! Madhya Pradesh is home to some of the amazing places in India and this is among them. Cut deep by the Choral River, the resultant valley and surrounding forests are some of the most lush and remotest.


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choral valley lush forests resultant ]]>rajneesh's posterous
First shared by - Raj
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A forest almost no one knows! Madhya Pradesh is home to some of the amazing places in India and this is among them. Cut deep by the Choral River, the resultant valley and surrounding forests are some of the most lush and remotest.


Permalink | Leave a comment



choral valley lush forests resultant ]]> Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:24:18 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,13 Preserving forests to reduce carbon emissions http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/SbSV/~3/GWN3xG7t828/preserving-forests-to-reduce-carbon.html Shared item Google LatLong
First shared by - ScottS
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Following last week's launch of the new Climate Change in Google Earth tour series, we are excited to announce the release of three more tours. These tours shed light on solutions that non-profit organizations and communities are doing to prevent or adapt to further climate change.

The new tours we released today all involve deforestation -- preventing, protecting, and preserving our global forests around the world in an effort to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a large part of the cause of climate change.

Greenpeace tells a story of a successful collaboration between companies, such as McDonald's, and Greenpeace campaigners to establish a moratorium on further destruction of Amazon rainforest for soybean plantations.

Conservation International flies you through Madagascar, where they are helping local communities forge new economic paths through REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) projects. Stone Gossard, of Pearl Jam, also speaks about their support of Conservation International's efforts through donations from concert ticket revenue.

Take a virtual tour with WWF of the peatland swamps in Sebangau, Borneo. With the deforestation and burning of peatland for agriculture, vast amounts of carbon emissions are released. WWF has helped local communities preserve their peatland swamps, which you can fly over in this tour.

See all these tours now by visiting www.google.com/cop15, and clicking on the button for each tour. Then stay tuned for more!

Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach


emissions tour tours change google ]]>Google LatLong
First shared by - ScottS
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Following last week's launch of the new Climate Change in Google Earth tour series, we are excited to announce the release of three more tours. These tours shed light on solutions that non-profit organizations and communities are doing to prevent or adapt to further climate change.

The new tours we released today all involve deforestation -- preventing, protecting, and preserving our global forests around the world in an effort to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a large part of the cause of climate change.

Greenpeace tells a story of a successful collaboration between companies, such as McDonald's, and Greenpeace campaigners to establish a moratorium on further destruction of Amazon rainforest for soybean plantations.

Conservation International flies you through Madagascar, where they are helping local communities forge new economic paths through REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) projects. Stone Gossard, of Pearl Jam, also speaks about their support of Conservation International's efforts through donations from concert ticket revenue.

Take a virtual tour with WWF of the peatland swamps in Sebangau, Borneo. With the deforestation and burning of peatland for agriculture, vast amounts of carbon emissions are released. WWF has helped local communities preserve their peatland swamps, which you can fly over in this tour.

See all these tours now by visiting www.google.com/cop15, and clicking on the button for each tour. Then stay tuned for more!

Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach


emissions tour tours change google ]]> Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:40:22 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,14 We have destroyed 80% of his habitat http://osocio.org/message/we_have_destroyed_80_of_his_habitat/#When:19:59:00Z Shared item Osocio Weblog
First shared by - AKachmar
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In just five years there will be no Orang-utans living in the rainforests of Borneo, because there will be no rainforests. Today the continued expansion of oil-palm plantations is the greatest threat to the Orang-utan. If action is not taken immediately we will have to explain to future generations that we knowingly sentenced the species to extinction.
Campaign is from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS). BOS works for the conservation of orangutans and their ecosystem by involving and educating the local people.

Author: Marc

rainforests borneo orang bos orangutan ]]>Osocio Weblog
First shared by - AKachmar
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In just five years there will be no Orang-utans living in the rainforests of Borneo, because there will be no rainforests. Today the continued expansion of oil-palm plantations is the greatest threat to the Orang-utan. If action is not taken immediately we will have to explain to future generations that we knowingly sentenced the species to extinction.
Campaign is from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS). BOS works for the conservation of orangutans and their ecosystem by involving and educating the local people.

Author: Marc

rainforests borneo orang bos orangutan ]]> Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:16:19 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,15 The Quick and Dirty Guide to American National Parks http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EverythingEverywhere/~3/qtqSMA9co1U/ Shared item Everything Everywhere: Around the World Travel Blog
First shared by - Raj
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Mount Rushmore National Monument

This guide is for both Americans who are looking to explore their own country, and for those from outside of the US who are looking to make a trip to America. It is by no means an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but it should answer some of the obvious questions and give you a place to start your planning.

The National Park System

Parks in the United States can be very confusing. Every level of government has their own parks. Cities (Central Park in New York), states (Redwood State Park in California) and federal (Yellowstone) all have their own park systems. The National Park System is a division of the Department of the Interior and is responsible for the 391 locations in the National Park System.

Entrance to Wind Cave National Park

They should not be confused with the National Forest system which is run by the Department of the Agriculture (yes, trees are viewed as a crop). National Forests are often run like parks but with important differences. They usually are not as developed for tourism, often allow hunting and fishing and limited firewood gathering. National Parks seldom allow hunting (none that I am aware of), and does not allow the collection of firewood and rocks. The National Park Service also manages historical sites as well as the city park system in Washington DC.

Park System Naming Conventions

The National Park System includes not only national parks, but monuments, historic sites, battlefields, recreation areas, preserves, seashores, lakeshores, trails, scenic rivers, and other designations. Officially, there is no difference between the titles given to locations. Unofficially, locations given the designation of National Park are usually considered the premier destinations in the system.

Sometimes a site might be upgraded from a preserve or monument to the status of a park. Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge was upgraded to a national park in 1978, for example.

Ellis Island National Monument


What Is And Isn't In The Park System

Many of the famous landmarks in the United States are not part of the National Park System. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Hollywood sign in LA, The Smithsonian Museums, Mount Vernon, and Monticello are not part of the park system. The decision process of what is and what is not part of the park system is often a matter of politics. Only a few block from Independence Hall in Philadelphia is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial. Who is Thaddeus Kosciuszko you ask? Exactly. It was basically a bone thrown to the Polish-American community.

There is a National Park Service location in every state and US Territory including Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Bison in Theodore Roosevelt National Park


The Crown Jewels in the Park System

You are probably aware of the top attractions in the park system. The big three are usually considered to be The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite. After this, there are a large group of second tier parks which outstanding in their own right, but just don't get as much attention. These include: Death Valley (CA), Galcier (MT), Denali (AK), Rocky Mountain (CO), Grand Teton (WY), Zion (UT), Sequoia (CA), Arches (UT), Great Smoky Mountains (TN), Acadia (ME), Everglades (FL), Volcanoes (HI), and Olympic (WA). You will notice that all but three of these (Acadia, Everglades and Smoky Mountains) are located west of the Rocky Mountains.

On a related note, most of the major historic sites in the park system are located in the east: Statue of Liberty (NY), Independence Hall (PA), Gettysburg (PA), Valley Forge (PA), National Mall (DC), Gateway Arch (MO),

National Park Passport and Season Pass

One other thing should be noted. You can purchase a small passport book in any bookshop in the park system. You can then collect stamps (rubber stamps with ink) at every park service location. It is great fun for kids and adults. I've collected over 100 stamps so far in the 10 years I've been doing it. In fact I've purchased three books because I've been to locations and forgot to bring my book. While I have read of people who have visited every national park, it is something which would be difficult for most people to achieve in a lifetime.

You can also get a year pass to every national park location for $80 per year. If you do a lot of traveling it can quickly pay for itself. Each entrance to Yellowstone for example is $25 and most large parks have some sort of entrance fee. Some parks do not have an entrance fee but do charge for parking, which is not covered by the pass.

Conclustion

With 391 locations in the National Park system, there will probably be something in the area no matter where you travel in the US. Take the time and do some research before you make a visit. The US National Park system is arguable the best in the world and worthy of exploration.

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.



park national system parks locations ]]>Everything Everywhere: Around the World Travel Blog
First shared by - Raj
syndication+ 148 | Search 1 | Shares 1

Mount Rushmore National Monument

This guide is for both Americans who are looking to explore their own country, and for those from outside of the US who are looking to make a trip to America. It is by no means an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but it should answer some of the obvious questions and give you a place to start your planning.

The National Park System

Parks in the United States can be very confusing. Every level of government has their own parks. Cities (Central Park in New York), states (Redwood State Park in California) and federal (Yellowstone) all have their own park systems. The National Park System is a division of the Department of the Interior and is responsible for the 391 locations in the National Park System.

Entrance to Wind Cave National Park

They should not be confused with the National Forest system which is run by the Department of the Agriculture (yes, trees are viewed as a crop). National Forests are often run like parks but with important differences. They usually are not as developed for tourism, often allow hunting and fishing and limited firewood gathering. National Parks seldom allow hunting (none that I am aware of), and does not allow the collection of firewood and rocks. The National Park Service also manages historical sites as well as the city park system in Washington DC.

Park System Naming Conventions

The National Park System includes not only national parks, but monuments, historic sites, battlefields, recreation areas, preserves, seashores, lakeshores, trails, scenic rivers, and other designations. Officially, there is no difference between the titles given to locations. Unofficially, locations given the designation of National Park are usually considered the premier destinations in the system.

Sometimes a site might be upgraded from a preserve or monument to the status of a park. Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge was upgraded to a national park in 1978, for example.

Ellis Island National Monument


What Is And Isn't In The Park System

Many of the famous landmarks in the United States are not part of the National Park System. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Hollywood sign in LA, The Smithsonian Museums, Mount Vernon, and Monticello are not part of the park system. The decision process of what is and what is not part of the park system is often a matter of politics. Only a few block from Independence Hall in Philadelphia is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial. Who is Thaddeus Kosciuszko you ask? Exactly. It was basically a bone thrown to the Polish-American community.

There is a National Park Service location in every state and US Territory including Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Bison in Theodore Roosevelt National Park


The Crown Jewels in the Park System

You are probably aware of the top attractions in the park system. The big three are usually considered to be The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite. After this, there are a large group of second tier parks which outstanding in their own right, but just don't get as much attention. These include: Death Valley (CA), Galcier (MT), Denali (AK), Rocky Mountain (CO), Grand Teton (WY), Zion (UT), Sequoia (CA), Arches (UT), Great Smoky Mountains (TN), Acadia (ME), Everglades (FL), Volcanoes (HI), and Olympic (WA). You will notice that all but three of these (Acadia, Everglades and Smoky Mountains) are located west of the Rocky Mountains.

On a related note, most of the major historic sites in the park system are located in the east: Statue of Liberty (NY), Independence Hall (PA), Gettysburg (PA), Valley Forge (PA), National Mall (DC), Gateway Arch (MO),

National Park Passport and Season Pass

One other thing should be noted. You can purchase a small passport book in any bookshop in the park system. You can then collect stamps (rubber stamps with ink) at every park service location. It is great fun for kids and adults. I've collected over 100 stamps so far in the 10 years I've been doing it. In fact I've purchased three books because I've been to locations and forgot to bring my book. While I have read of people who have visited every national park, it is something which would be difficult for most people to achieve in a lifetime.

You can also get a year pass to every national park location for $80 per year. If you do a lot of traveling it can quickly pay for itself. Each entrance to Yellowstone for example is $25 and most large parks have some sort of entrance fee. Some parks do not have an entrance fee but do charge for parking, which is not covered by the pass.

Conclustion

With 391 locations in the National Park system, there will probably be something in the area no matter where you travel in the US. Take the time and do some research before you make a visit. The US National Park system is arguable the best in the world and worthy of exploration.

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.



park national system parks locations ]]> Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:58:15 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,16 The Quick and Dirty Guide to American National Parks http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/EverythingEverywhere/~3/qtqSMA9co1U/ Shared item Everything Everywhere: Around the World Travel Blog
First shared by - Raj
syndication+ 148 | Search 1 | Shares 1

Mount Rushmore National Monument

This guide is for both Americans who are looking to explore their own country, and for those from outside of the US who are looking to make a trip to America. It is by no means an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but it should answer some of the obvious questions and give you a place to start your planning.

The National Park System

Parks in the United States can be very confusing. Every level of government has their own parks. Cities (Central Park in New York), states (Redwood State Park in California) and federal (Yellowstone) all have their own park systems. The National Park System is a division of the Department of the Interior and is responsible for the 391 locations in the National Park System.

Entrance to Wind Cave National Park

They should not be confused with the National Forest system which is run by the Department of the Agriculture (yes, trees are viewed as a crop). National Forests are often run like parks but with important differences. They usually are not as developed for tourism, often allow hunting and fishing and limited firewood gathering. National Parks seldom allow hunting (none that I am aware of), and does not allow the collection of firewood and rocks. The National Park Service also manages historical sites as well as the city park system in Washington DC.

Park System Naming Conventions

The National Park System includes not only national parks, but monuments, historic sites, battlefields, recreation areas, preserves, seashores, lakeshores, trails, scenic rivers, and other designations. Officially, there is no difference between the titles given to locations. Unofficially, locations given the designation of National Park are usually considered the premier destinations in the system.

Sometimes a site might be upgraded from a preserve or monument to the status of a park. Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge was upgraded to a national park in 1978, for example.

Ellis Island National Monument


What Is And Isn't In The Park System

Many of the famous landmarks in the United States are not part of the National Park System. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Hollywood sign in LA, The Smithsonian Museums, Mount Vernon, and Monticello are not part of the park system. The decision process of what is and what is not part of the park system is often a matter of politics. Only a few block from Independence Hall in Philadelphia is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial. Who is Thaddeus Kosciuszko you ask? Exactly. It was basically a bone thrown to the Polish-American community.

There is a National Park Service location in every state and US Territory including Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Bison in Theodore Roosevelt National Park


The Crown Jewels in the Park System

You are probably aware of the top attractions in the park system. The big three are usually considered to be The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite. After this, there are a large group of second tier parks which outstanding in their own right, but just don't get as much attention. These include: Death Valley (CA), Galcier (MT), Denali (AK), Rocky Mountain (CO), Grand Teton (WY), Zion (UT), Sequoia (CA), Arches (UT), Great Smoky Mountains (TN), Acadia (ME), Everglades (FL), Volcanoes (HI), and Olympic (WA). You will notice that all but three of these (Acadia, Everglades and Smoky Mountains) are located west of the Rocky Mountains.

On a related note, most of the major historic sites in the park system are located in the east: Statue of Liberty (NY), Independence Hall (PA), Gettysburg (PA), Valley Forge (PA), National Mall (DC), Gateway Arch (MO),

National Park Passport and Season Pass

One other thing should be noted. You can purchase a small passport book in any bookshop in the park system. You can then collect stamps (rubber stamps with ink) at every park service location. It is great fun for kids and adults. I've collected over 100 stamps so far in the 10 years I've been doing it. In fact I've purchased three books because I've been to locations and forgot to bring my book. While I have read of people who have visited every national park, it is something which would be difficult for most people to achieve in a lifetime.

You can also get a year pass to every national park location for $80 per year. If you do a lot of traveling it can quickly pay for itself. Each entrance to Yellowstone for example is $25 and most large parks have some sort of entrance fee. Some parks do not have an entrance fee but do charge for parking, which is not covered by the pass.

Conclustion

With 391 locations in the National Park system, there will probably be something in the area no matter where you travel in the US. Take the time and do some research before you make a visit. The US National Park system is arguable the best in the world and worthy of exploration.

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.



park national system parks locations ]]>Everything Everywhere: Around the World Travel Blog
First shared by - Raj
syndication+ 148 | Search 1 | Shares 1

Mount Rushmore National Monument

This guide is for both Americans who are looking to explore their own country, and for those from outside of the US who are looking to make a trip to America. It is by no means an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but it should answer some of the obvious questions and give you a place to start your planning.

The National Park System

Parks in the United States can be very confusing. Every level of government has their own parks. Cities (Central Park in New York), states (Redwood State Park in California) and federal (Yellowstone) all have their own park systems. The National Park System is a division of the Department of the Interior and is responsible for the 391 locations in the National Park System.

Entrance to Wind Cave National Park

They should not be confused with the National Forest system which is run by the Department of the Agriculture (yes, trees are viewed as a crop). National Forests are often run like parks but with important differences. They usually are not as developed for tourism, often allow hunting and fishing and limited firewood gathering. National Parks seldom allow hunting (none that I am aware of), and does not allow the collection of firewood and rocks. The National Park Service also manages historical sites as well as the city park system in Washington DC.

Park System Naming Conventions

The National Park System includes not only national parks, but monuments, historic sites, battlefields, recreation areas, preserves, seashores, lakeshores, trails, scenic rivers, and other designations. Officially, there is no difference between the titles given to locations. Unofficially, locations given the designation of National Park are usually considered the premier destinations in the system.

Sometimes a site might be upgraded from a preserve or monument to the status of a park. Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge was upgraded to a national park in 1978, for example.

Ellis Island National Monument


What Is And Isn't In The Park System

Many of the famous landmarks in the United States are not part of the National Park System. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Hollywood sign in LA, The Smithsonian Museums, Mount Vernon, and Monticello are not part of the park system. The decision process of what is and what is not part of the park system is often a matter of politics. Only a few block from Independence Hall in Philadelphia is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial. Who is Thaddeus Kosciuszko you ask? Exactly. It was basically a bone thrown to the Polish-American community.

There is a National Park Service location in every state and US Territory including Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Bison in Theodore Roosevelt National Park


The Crown Jewels in the Park System

You are probably aware of the top attractions in the park system. The big three are usually considered to be The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite. After this, there are a large group of second tier parks which outstanding in their own right, but just don't get as much attention. These include: Death Valley (CA), Galcier (MT), Denali (AK), Rocky Mountain (CO), Grand Teton (WY), Zion (UT), Sequoia (CA), Arches (UT), Great Smoky Mountains (TN), Acadia (ME), Everglades (FL), Volcanoes (HI), and Olympic (WA). You will notice that all but three of these (Acadia, Everglades and Smoky Mountains) are located west of the Rocky Mountains.

On a related note, most of the major historic sites in the park system are located in the east: Statue of Liberty (NY), Independence Hall (PA), Gettysburg (PA), Valley Forge (PA), National Mall (DC), Gateway Arch (MO),

National Park Passport and Season Pass

One other thing should be noted. You can purchase a small passport book in any bookshop in the park system. You can then collect stamps (rubber stamps with ink) at every park service location. It is great fun for kids and adults. I've collected over 100 stamps so far in the 10 years I've been doing it. In fact I've purchased three books because I've been to locations and forgot to bring my book. While I have read of people who have visited every national park, it is something which would be difficult for most people to achieve in a lifetime.

You can also get a year pass to every national park location for $80 per year. If you do a lot of traveling it can quickly pay for itself. Each entrance to Yellowstone for example is $25 and most large parks have some sort of entrance fee. Some parks do not have an entrance fee but do charge for parking, which is not covered by the pass.

Conclustion

With 391 locations in the National Park system, there will probably be something in the area no matter where you travel in the US. Take the time and do some research before you make a visit. The US National Park system is arguable the best in the world and worthy of exploration.

Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. Follow me as I travel around the world.



park national system parks locations ]]> Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:58:15 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,17 More rubbish from 60 Minutes tonight. The Age of Megafires http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/06/more-rubbish-from-60-minutes-tonight-the-age-of-megafires/ Shared item Watts Up With That?
First shared by - Tim
syndication+ 131 | Search 1 | Shares 1


Right on cue, CBS news 60 minutes is expected link the recent California fires to global warming. Never mind that the fire was caused by arson, or that the area hadn't burned in 40-60 years, leading up to a collection of dry dead underbrush which is part of the natural fire cycle. Never mind that La Nina made for a dry couple of years exacerbating the problem. Never mind that we get fires in California about this time every year. No, its the Age of Megafires:

THE AGE OF MEGAFIRES Global warming is increasing the intensity and number of forest fires across the American West. Scott Pelley goes to the fire line to report. David Gelber and Joel Bach are the producers. Watch a preview http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5285410n

UPDATE: WUWT reader Jason writes to tell us that this story is a rerun, and originally aired in 2007. See it here. I'll bet the intro will mention the California fires though. They may have even freshened up the report a bit for the current situation.

I wonder if CBS borrowed the title from the Christian Science Monitor 2007 report?

Here is a top 20 report from CDF, note that they poo-poo 1932. Note also that there were quite a number of 100,00+ acre fires more than 10 years ago, directly contradicting the interview in the CBS trailer.

NYT was saying it is all getting worse back in 1996. Curiously though, you won't find a single mention of global warming or climate change in that story. It was all about forest management issues:

But the recent methods used to control the growth of Western forests has also been blamed. In view of this summer's debacle, debate is intensifying on how to better manage these forests.

Loggers correlate today's wildfires with a Federally mandated cut in timber harvests from national forests, from a peak of 12 billion board feet a year in the 1980's to about 4 billion this year.

But after World War II, a Smokey the Bear ethic took hold in the West, and total fire suppression became a national goal. Without regular low-level fires, Western forests grew dense, and massive amounts of fuel built up.

Today, when a Western forest ignites, it often explodes with a force unknown in earlier times. Racing from tree crown to tree crown, fires last longer and travel farther.

Scott Pelley is the same reporter that went to Antarctic in 2007 at the height of the melt season to tell us that Antarctica is Melting. They called that one the The Age of Warming Of course Scott never told his viewers that it was the peak melt season or that Antarctic ice is above normal.

And finally, never mind that 100 years ago, we didn't have CNN or 60 minutes or Action News to regularly scare us to death with dramatic visual linkages. Back then, fire were just another part of the natural landscape.

From my perspective , we live in the Age of MegaFUD



fires age fire mind warming ]]>Watts Up With That?
First shared by - Tim
syndication+ 131 | Search 1 | Shares 1


Right on cue, CBS news 60 minutes is expected link the recent California fires to global warming. Never mind that the fire was caused by arson, or that the area hadn't burned in 40-60 years, leading up to a collection of dry dead underbrush which is part of the natural fire cycle. Never mind that La Nina made for a dry couple of years exacerbating the problem. Never mind that we get fires in California about this time every year. No, its the Age of Megafires:

THE AGE OF MEGAFIRES Global warming is increasing the intensity and number of forest fires across the American West. Scott Pelley goes to the fire line to report. David Gelber and Joel Bach are the producers. Watch a preview http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5285410n

UPDATE: WUWT reader Jason writes to tell us that this story is a rerun, and originally aired in 2007. See it here. I'll bet the intro will mention the California fires though. They may have even freshened up the report a bit for the current situation.

I wonder if CBS borrowed the title from the Christian Science Monitor 2007 report?

Here is a top 20 report from CDF, note that they poo-poo 1932. Note also that there were quite a number of 100,00+ acre fires more than 10 years ago, directly contradicting the interview in the CBS trailer.

NYT was saying it is all getting worse back in 1996. Curiously though, you won't find a single mention of global warming or climate change in that story. It was all about forest management issues:

But the recent methods used to control the growth of Western forests has also been blamed. In view of this summer's debacle, debate is intensifying on how to better manage these forests.

Loggers correlate today's wildfires with a Federally mandated cut in timber harvests from national forests, from a peak of 12 billion board feet a year in the 1980's to about 4 billion this year.

But after World War II, a Smokey the Bear ethic took hold in the West, and total fire suppression became a national goal. Without regular low-level fires, Western forests grew dense, and massive amounts of fuel built up.

Today, when a Western forest ignites, it often explodes with a force unknown in earlier times. Racing from tree crown to tree crown, fires last longer and travel farther.

Scott Pelley is the same reporter that went to Antarctic in 2007 at the height of the melt season to tell us that Antarctica is Melting. They called that one the The Age of Warming Of course Scott never told his viewers that it was the peak melt season or that Antarctic ice is above normal.

And finally, never mind that 100 years ago, we didn't have CNN or 60 minutes or Action News to regularly scare us to death with dramatic visual linkages. Back then, fire were just another part of the natural landscape.

From my perspective , we live in the Age of MegaFUD



fires age fire mind warming ]]> Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:16:10 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,18 What to Do If You Have Too Much Money http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/PrYR/~3/yJOKNyJhza8/what-to-do-if-you-have-too-much-money.html Shared item Citizentube
First shared by - RickKlau
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Wow. That's a lot of yard signs. Nice oppo-video work from the Moran campaign in VA. Let's hope that saving Virginia's forests wasn't the top item on Terry McAuliffe's gubernatorial platform.



top forests virginia saving item ]]>Citizentube
First shared by - RickKlau
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Wow. That's a lot of yard signs. Nice oppo-video work from the Moran campaign in VA. Let's hope that saving Virginia's forests wasn't the top item on Terry McAuliffe's gubernatorial platform.



top forests virginia saving item ]]> Sat, 02 May 2009 12:38:41 -0400 30:00 tag:filome.com,19