From: "Paul T. O'Leary" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Bikies] Better Lawns and Gutters Tour >... BTW (and staying mostly OT), the brochure has a "non-link" to another page on the County's web site about rain gardens, including how to create one. Does anybody know of a similar document about "prairie-fying" ones lawn? > I not familiar with such a document, although perhaps that is what my neighbors think I've done to my lawn over the past several years.
However, I do know of another document that may be on the T of natives gardens, and bicyclists as well It's mostly about the weather, and more to the point, the 6-year strategic plan of the highly bureaucratic agency that calls itself the "National Weather Service". You see, the NWS, strangely enough, has avoided taking any position with regard to one highly relevant and important topic to us all -- the rapid rise in the quantities (and therefore concentrations) of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in recent years -- to the tune of 200 some billion more tons of CO2 alone in the atmosphere now as opposed to the turn of the last century (when the Model "T" Ford was just being born). Oh I know, some of you just prefer not to hear about, much less talk about, this topic. It too depressing, and there is nothing anyone of us can do about it. Of course that's what the NWS (as well as the Administration that is now in control of the NWS) expect us to think. They count on us to keep burning fossil fuels in our cars, in our Segways, our motor boats, our motorcycles, ATVs, NASCARs, in the airplanes we fly, in the snowmobiles we buy, in the SUVs (and Hummers) we drive, and to get back OnT, in our power mowers and John Deere's, and all the road building vehicles and the like. They don't appreciate anyone of those who work for them speaking beyond their authority, of course, and if they do, they are quickly and effectively "silenced" though one means or another. Even though their organization is all about the weather - not just temperatures, clouds and tomorrow's forecast - it does not have a position, or claim any knowledge of for that matter, the very essential issue of the changing climate, and how it will (and already is) affecting growing conditions, and habitat for animals that have depended on the climate of their region staying relatively stable for hundreds and thousands of years, until now. The weather, in particular temperature and precipitation, is often overlooked as a key ingredient for native gardening and sustainability. Yet the weather determines the extent of most kinds of things that can be accomplish outdoors, how safe activities will be (including bicycling), what can be farmed, which plants will flourish and which plants will not, and the impacts on wildlife. The U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a draft Strategic Plan for 2003-2008 and is currently seeking public comment. The plan does not even acknowledge the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a panel of some 2,500 of the world's scientists (including John Magnuson from the UW - Madison) who believe global warming is an urgent problem. The plan is absolutely SILENT on the issue of how the weather and climate is changing these past several years, despite overwhelming evidence that it is. This "strategic plan" (ironically called "Working Together to Save Lives" can be read and commented on by going to: http://www.osp.noaa.gov/docs/newnwssp_pubreview.pdf http://www.osp.noaa.gov/lo_2003_2008_strategic_plan_comments.htm Persons or groups with interest in the plan are being asked to provide their comments on the Plan before the deadline date of June 20th, using the websites indicated above. [One note of caution in reading the plan: the NWS mentions "climate variability" in its plan, which has nothing to do with global warming. Weather and climate vary greatly over regions and time, whereas NWS terminology for climate usually means short term (for 30, 60, 90 day temperatures & precipitation outlooks by NWS).] It is also requested that those of you who can, contact other people, and groups, with interest in the plan (and its shortcomings), and suggest that they comment on the draft as well. The NWS is the agency that gives guidance to all the weather forecasters we see on TV and hear on the radio. It's no wonder the whether forecasters all have different opinion on whether or not global warming is a problem. The information they receive from the lead federal agency on the weather and climate is as tainted as most people in this country receive, because we mostly get our information from the heavily fossil fuel industry influenced politicians from the president on down, and of course the national, now corporate, media, who's budgets are funded mostly from automobile related advertising on TV, and other fuel dependent products. The results that all this hiding from reality these past several years, by us and by those who represent us in government, is that the problem of global warming has in fact gotten much worse, and that the other emissions to the air from human activity have masked the problem of warming to some degree in the meantime: > "Smoke is clouding our view of global warming, protecting > the planet from perhaps three-quarters of the greenhouse > effect. That might sound like good news, but experts say > that as the cover diminishes in coming decades, we are > in for a dramatic escalation of warming that could be two > or even three times as great as official best guesses. This > was the dramatic conclusion reached last week at a > workshop in Dahlem, Berlin, ... aerosols [dust] may have > reduced global warming by as much as three-quarters, > cutting increases by 1.8 �C. ... most aerosol emissions > only stay in the atmosphere for a few days. > Most greenhouses gases remain for a century or longer. > So as time goes on, aerosols will protect us less and less > from global warming. "They are giving us a false sense > of security right now" (04 June 03 New Scientist). > > 'Sooner, not later' Will Steffen of the Swedish Academy > of Sciences says the message for policy makers is clear: > "We need to get on top of the greenhouse gas emissions > problem sooner rather than later." New Scientist One would think, at the very least, the NWS's strategic plan would say something close to what Will Steffen of the SAS says to his Swedish policy makers in final quote from above. But the NWS plan contains no such statement of need. It remains silent on the whole matter climate warming, as undoubtedly was intended from the very beginning of the "NWS planning process". "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr. ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
