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Save Our
Environment
Action Alert
In the last year, with
your support, thousands of volunteers in the early voting states
have asked the presidential candidates hundreds of questions on
global warming - and many of the candidates have responded by
making the issue a top priority.
But most of us don't get the chance to
ask the presidential candidates about their commitment to solving
global warming or their plan to push bold new energy policies. We
have to rely on the media to ask these important questions. But
what if reporters ignore the issue?
Since January 2007, the top five TV
reporters have asked the presidential candidates 2,830 questions. Of
all of these questions, only four mentioned global warming! Four.
All year.
That's why we've launched a new effort
to call these reporters to task.
We need your help in putting pressure on these reporters for
ignoring the most important challenge of our generation.
In the more than 140 presidential
debates and interviews these hosts have moderated, they have spent
more time talking about baseball, UFOs, and Chuck Norris, while the
most urgent threat facing us is ignored.
That's why we've pulled together a
funny video highlighting the absurd questions that have been asked.
We've also launched a petition urging these reporters to get
serious about climate change.
Watch the video and sign the petition.
The head of the UN Panel on Climate
Change recently stated that "if we wait until 2012 it will be too
late. What we do in the next two or three years will determine
our future."
The decisions made by our next
president will make all the difference. So what are these reporters
waiting for?
Tell them to focus on the human race not the horse race!
Thank you for your support!
Treading Water
Wetlands Loss
Accelerates in Louisiana
by
Melinda Tuhus, emagazine.com
In late August and September 2005, the
one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered the Louisiana
Gulf coast and obliterated 200 square miles of wetlands. Since the
1930s, the Louisiana coast has lost the equivalent of a football
field every 45 minutes.
The Barataria and Terrebonne estuaries, which encompass four million
acres of the very richest Louisiana wetlands, produce nearly 20
percent of the nation’s annual seafood catch from mixed salt and
fresh water. Louisiana Highway 1 bisects the two estuaries, and
leads to Port Fourchon on the edge of the Gulf.
The port services almost a fifth of domestic oil production and 14
percent of the crude oil imported into the U.S. The telephone poles
paralleling the road now stand in several feet of water, and
low-lying graveyards are relinquishing their dead to the sea. Off
the coast, Grand Isle stands as one of the last barrier islands that
buffer wetlands from Gulf storms...
Click
here
for the rest of the story.
by Raya Widenoja and Brian Halweil,
ENN
Casual observers might consider it a
setback for proponents of ethanol and biodiesel now that Europe is
planning to ban biofuels made from crops grown on high-value
conservation lands. But the truth is, shunning biofuels produced on
wetlands, grasslands, and deforested land is good for both critics
and supporters. Overall, it’s even good for the biofuel industry
because it might restore some faith in their product, which has been
attacked from all corners in recent months. The main problem with
Europe’s new law, in fact, may be that it is not stringent enough.
A ban on some biofuels is good because there’s a natural tendency to
take advantage of a bull market. As with any crop, when demand
grows, farmers will expand production onto new territory, whether
it’s the sloping, erosion-prone “back forty,”ť a parcel of nearby
forest, or a patch of wetlands. The rising demand for grains and
oilseeds for food, livestock feed, and now biofuels is encouraging
farmers across the world to expand their cropland as much as the law
and the market tolerate...
Click
here
for the rest of the story.
Swimmers' Sunscreen
Killing Off Coral
by Ker Than, National Geographic News
The sunscreen that you dutifully
slather on before a swim on the beach may be protecting your
body—but a new study finds that the chemicals are also killing coral
reefs worldwide.
Four commonly found sunscreen ingredients can awaken dormant viruses
in the symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that live inside
reef-building coral species.
The chemicals cause the viruses to replicate until their algae hosts
explode, spilling viruses into the surrounding seawater, where they
can infect neighboring coral communities.
Zooxanthellae provide coral with food energy through photosynthesis
and contribute to the organisms' vibrant color. Without them, the
coral "bleaches"—turns white—and dies...
Click
here
for the rest of the story.
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