On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 16:22:51 -0500 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > ... Together, the bike industry, advocates and the bicycling community are making real progress in Congress. >
Thanks for keeping me informed about your efforts to insure safe bicycling, and I am pleased to see your results are paying off. I must warn you that this reply message is quite long, especially if you read the additional posts I have included. I hope you will take the time to read all of it. I believe protection of the environment is crucial to the future of safe and enjoyable bicycling in America. Unfortunately, the outside environment we are all count on to bike safely and pleasantly in is being seriously threatened. Perhaps you already know, but not only is it getting totally unsafe on many routes - due to excessive numbers of competing automobiles -- but the safety of breathing the air we have no choice but to breathe is getting worse. Bicyclists are more susceptible to this problem as they are totally exposed to the air and breathe deeper than normal due to the physical exertion required. Things are is bound to get worse as global warming continues as the warmer air makes for more ozone and the poorer and warmer air increases the risk of stroke. And contrary to what most TV weather forecasters still erroneously tell people (see attached public disclosure by National Weather Service employee Patrick Neuman), global warming is already well underway in the Midwest, including Wisconsin, and elsewhere. Excessive automobile driving in the U.S. contributes greatly to that as well. Perhaps "America Bikes" could help push for stronger air pollution control programs (not weaker ones like the Bush Administration is pushing) and join with others in demanding that the federal government to take some timely action to reduce greenhouse gases from the U.S. so things don't get totally out of control before it get too late to do anything? As Senator John McCain and many more U.S. senators are saying in Congress these days -- but not enough to pass Climate Stewardship Act last month (< http://madison.indymedia.org/feature/display/14835/index.php >), global warming is no longer a problem the U.S. can afford to ignore. Things are bound to get worse regarding global warming the more greenhouse gases are emitted to the atmosphere, and because they have such a long life in the atmosphere (centuries), once the atmosphere warms up, it is unlikely to cool back down any time soon. The procrastination and deception still being practiced by governmental "leaders" in this country, particularly at the federal level, is unconscionable and becoming more and more intolerable, in my opinion. Who else can we count on to do something about this grave threat to all of us if our governmental continue to ignore this problem? Mike Neuman http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/message/229 �For all practical purposes, there is today only one world suitable for man. Measured by nature�s standards rather than by those of historical man, it is at present a delicately balanced, highly perishable world that has evolved over long geologic epochs of environmental change. And man, acting as if he owned this world, or at least had come into leasehold possession of it, has played his role as lessee very indifferently�� (Lyton Caldwell, 1971) ______________________ 10 October - Reuters "Strokes Go Up as Air Quality Drops" NEW YORK - People are more likely to be hospitalized for strokes on days when air pollution is bad, new research shows. Strokes occur when blood is unable to reach areas of the brain usually because of a blocked or damaged blood vessel. Depending on the affected area, patients may have difficulty moving or speaking. In the most severe cases, death can occur. "This study provides new evidence that higher levels of ambient pollutants increase the risk of hospital admissions for stroke, especially on warm days," senior study author Dr. Chun-Yuh Yang, from Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan, said in a statement. The new findings, which are published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke, are based on a study of stroke and air pollution data recorded in Kaohsiung between 1997 and 2000. During that period, 23,179 hospitalizations for stroke occurred. On warmer days (at least 20 degrees Celsius), stroke admission rates increased as air levels of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and other pollutants rose. In contrast, on cooler days, only carbon monoxide levels were tied to such rates. "Particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide seem to be the most important pollutants," Yang notes. For each incremental rise in air levels of particulate matter and nitroxide dioxide, the risk of stroke admission rose by around 50 percent. Moreover, after accounting for these pollutants, the other pollutants had minimal effect on admission rates. This type of study can only show an association, it cannot prove that polluted air causes stroke, the authors note. However, these findings "support the possibility" that there are disease processes in the blood vessels supplying the brain that are triggered by air pollution, they add. http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22514/story.htm ========================= http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/15001 ------------------------------------------------------------ Earlier Snowmelt Runoff paper and images of Fossil Butte & Green River Formation ------------------------------------------------------------ Saturday, 15 November 2003 by Pat Neuman Summary: I prepared a paper & presented it at the NOAA-National Weather Service-Climate Prediction Center Workshop in Reno, Nevada, 22 October 2003. I took pictures on the way back to Minnesota. Links to large pictures and my paper on Earlier Snowmelt Runoff for rivers in Minnesota, Wisconsin & North Dakota are listed below. The paper shows definite climate warming trends for earlier snowmelt runoff and increasing dewpoints in the Upper Midwest and Northern Great Plains. The data for the paper includes 100 years of daily river discharges ... high quality United States Geological Survey mean daily flow data, and average monthly & annual dewpoints and air temperatures, 50 (dewpoints) & 100 (air temperatures) year periods of record. Large image of Fossil Butte National Monument in southwest WY at: http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/display/14091/index.php Large image of Green River Formation in northeast Utah at: http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2003/11/13572.php Large image of my poster as it was presented at: http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2003/11/7204.php My paper on Earlier Snowmelt Runoff, including text, figures, & data are on the Minnesotan's For Sustainability website, accessed by the link at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/message/264 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chanhassen, Minnesota ==================================== 30 September - Reuters "160,000 Said Dying Yearly from Global Warming" MOSCOW - About 160,000 people die every year from side-effects of global warming ranging from malaria to malnutrition and the numbers could almost double by 2020, a group of scientists said on Tuesday. The study, by scientists at the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said children in developing nations seemed most vulnerable. "We estimate that climate change may already be causing in the region of 160,000 deaths...a year," Professor Andrew Haines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told a climate change conference in Moscow. "The disease burden caused by climate change could almost double by 2020," he added, even taking account of factors like improvements in health care. He said the estimates had not been previously published. Most deaths would be in developing nations in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, which would be hardest hit by the spread of malnutrition, diarrhoea and malaria in the wake of warmer temperatures, floods and droughts. "These diseases mainly affect younger age groups, so that the total burden of disease due to climate change appears to be borne mainly by children in developing countries," Haines said. Milder winters, however, might mean that people would live longer on average in Europe or North America despite risks from heatwaves this summer in which about 15,000 people died in France alone. Haines said the study suggested climate change could "bring some health benefits, such as lower cold-related mortality and greater crop yields in temperate zones, but (that) these will be greatly outweighed by increased rates of other diseases". Russia is hosting a World Climate Change Conference this week to discuss how to rein in emissions of gases like carbon dioxide from factories and cars that scientists blame for blanketing the planet and nudging up temperatures. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who opened the conference on Monday, suggested in jest that global warming could benefit countries like Russia as people "would spend less money on fur coats and other warm things". But Putin also backed away from Russia's earlier pledge to swiftly ratify the key Kyoto pact on curbing global warming, a plan that will collapse without Moscow's backing. He told 940 delegates to the conference Russia was closely studying the issue of Kyoto. "A decision will be taken when this work is finished," he said, giving no timetable. Haines said small shifts in temperatures, for instance, could extend the range of mosquitoes that spread malaria. Water supplies could be contaminated by floods, for instance, which could also wash away crops. http://www.greenhousenet.org/news/Sept-2003/dyingyearly.html _______________ 7 October - National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences "IEHS-funded Researchers Find Low-level Ozone Increases Respiratory Risk of Asthmatic Children" New evidence gathered in a study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences suggests that asthmatic children who use maintenance medication are particularly vulnerable to the effects of ground-level ozone, even at levels well below the federal standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Their research results were published Oct. 8 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study was conducted at the Yale University School of Medicine. NIEHS is one of the federal National Institute of Health. "Although the 1-hour average ozone levels in our study were well below the federal standard, statistical analysis revealed that for every 50 parts per billion increase in ozone, the likelihood of asthma symptoms the following day increased by more than 35 percent among asthmatic children on maintenance medication," said Brian Leaderer, Ph.D., the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology at Yale University and principal investigator for the study. Asthma, an inflammatory disorder of the airways that is characterized by periodic attacks of wheezing, shortness of breath and coughing, can be triggered by inhaled allergens such as pet dander, dust mites, molds or pollens. But researchers have also shown that air pollutants such as ground-level ozone, an active form of oxygen that is the prime ingredient of urban smog, and fine particulate matter, which includes dust, dirt, smoke and soot from a variety of natural and man-made sources, can significantly aggravate asthma symptoms. Repeated exposures to ozone and fine particles at or above the federal standards can irritate or damage sensitive tissue in the airways and lungs, making breathing even more difficult for asthmatics and causing more attacks, increased use of medication, and more visits to hospital emergency clinics. Children are particularly vulnerable to these exposures because their respiratory systems are still developing, and they tend to spend more time in outdoor activities than do adults. Earlier studies of children with asthma living in highly polluted regions, such as Mexico City and Los Angeles, all concluded that exposure to ozone and fine particles in excess of 120 parts per billion (ppb) and 65 micrograms per cubic meter ( g/m3), respectively, greatly increased the risk for respiratory symptoms. "We wanted to design a study that examined the effects of air pollution on a particularly vulnerable population - children with active asthma - in regions where pollution levels were somewhat lower than those in major metropolitan areas," said Leaderer. Study participants included 271 asthmatic children living in Connecticut and the Springfield area of Massachusetts during the spring and summer of 2001. The investigators conducted monthly interviews with the mothers to obtain information on each child's daily wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and asthma medication use. Daily measurements of ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter were provided by the Departments of Environmental Protection of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Although mean 1-hr average ozone concentrations measured only 59 ppb, variations in daily levels had a profound effect on the respiratory symptoms of those who used maintenance medication. A 50 ppb increase in 1-hr ozone was associated with a 35 percent increase in wheezing, and a 47 percent increase in chest tightness. The highest ozone levels were associated with increased shortness of breath and rescue medication use. However, the investigators did not find a significant relationship between the children's exposure to fine particulate matter and daily respiratory symptoms or rescue medication use. Furthermore, no exposure-dependent outcomes were observed for either pollutant category among children who did not use maintenance medication. "Our results suggest that ground-level ozone is strongly associated with adverse health effects in children with asthma, even at levels below the current federal standards," said Leaderer. Other co-investigators from Yale University include Janneane Gent, Ph.D., Elizabeth Triche, Ph.D., Theodore Holford, Ph.D., Kathleen Belanger, Ph.D., and Michael Bracken, Ph.D., along with William Beckett, M.D., at the University of Rochester. http://www.niehs.nih.gov/oc/news/yalasth.htm _______________ 8 October - National Center for Atmospheric Research "NCAR Explores Link Between Climate Change and Air Quality" The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and other institutions are launching a far-reaching project this month to help the government keep polluted areas in compliance with Clean Air Act standards in the event of rising global temperatures. The three- year project will focus on modeling air quality in the United States in the middle of the 21st century. The National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Forest Service are funding the project. As the climate warms, the population increases, and forests and croplands are altered, scientists expect the potential for air pollution in coming decades will change in significant and sometimes subtle ways. Policymakers, already concerned about curbing industrial emissions, also must factor in the possibility of more wildfires and the differing impacts that tree plantations and natural forests have on the formation of pollution. "When conditions are changing, all your strategies have to be adjusted," explains NCAR scientist Alex Guenther, who is part of the research team. "For the government to make sure that air quality doesn't worsen, it needs to take into account changes in temperature and vegetation as well as industrial emissions." Guenther will look into the impact of higher temperatures on plant emissions of certain chemicals, known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The compounds, which smell of pine and other familiar vegetation, are harmless in a natural setting. But they can react with human-generated industrial emissions of nitrogen oxides to form ground-level ozone, the major component of smog. Research has shown that VOC emissions increase by 15% to 25% with every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degree Fahrenheit) temperature increase, potentially leading to more smog. When natural vegetation is cleared to make room for plantations of fast-growing trees, such as poplars, VOC emissions can increase as much as 20 times. The team plans to answer several questions, including: 1) How will global warming affect air quality, both directly through higher temperatures and indirectly through changes in air circulation patterns and land cover? 2) How will wildfires affect regional air quality and haze? 3) How will changes in land use, such as tree plantations, suburban landscapes, and agriculture affect regional air quality? 4) What is the likely effect of Asian pollution on U.S. air quality? The researchers will use the NCAR Climate System Model, along with scenarios of future wildfires and land use, to simulate the atmosphere over regions of the United States during a 10-year period in the middle of this century. They will compare their projections with a national EPA analysis of air pollution in 1996 and a model of air quality in 2000, when wildfires burned extensively. The team will explore air quality across the country using coarse, 36-kilometer (22-mile) grid cells in the models. In the Northwest and upper Midwest, however, it will use much finer-scale, 12-kilometer (7-mile) modeling. The Northwest is of interest both because climate change could affect its extensive wooded and agricultural areas and because its dense forests could fuel major wildfires. The upper Midwest has contended with significant pollution levels and, like the Northwest, has large wooded and agricultural areas. Researchers will then turn to an even finer-resolution grid (4 kilometers or 2.5 miles) to look at air pollution in certain urban areas, such as Chicago. This will enable them to capture the nuances of how local lake or sea breezes can nudge pollution plumes over areas adjacent to cities. "The result of this project will be a greater understanding of how future climate may impact urban and regional air quality," Guenther explains. "The knowledge should be very valuable for long-term planning efforts to improve and maintain clean air well into the future." Participants include scientists from Washington State University, the University of Washington, and the U.S. Forest Service, as well as NCAR. http://www.ucar.edu/communications/newsreleases/2003/guenther.html ________________ 13 October - Madison Independent Media Center "35,000 Heat-Caused Deaths Not Enough to Change Bush Administration's Indifference on Global Warming" What will it take for President Bush and the U.S. Congress to realize that by there not making bold decisions now that will greatly slow the rising accumulations in greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, that they are in fact jeopardizing the quality, if not the very lives, of today's children for the rest of this century? The estimated death toll from the massive heat wave that settled over Europe in August 2003 has been revised upward to 35,000 deaths. European governmental officials initially estimated the number of dead at just under 19,000; however, that estimate turn out to be premature since it did not include the thousands of people who died later in August after becoming ill during the first two extremely hot weeks of August. The phenomenon of global warming is now believed to have contributed to the high mortality of the heat wave that struck Europe. This is because an increase in temperature of even one or two degrees can be fatal when it comes on top of an already prolonged period of high temperatures. The average monthly temperatures around the world have been consecutively above the average monthly global temperatures for 88 month, while annual average global temperatures have been above the mean since the beginning of the 1980s. It is suspected that the heat wave that settled over Europe this August might not have been as hot and humid had the warming associated with the rising greenhouse gas accumulations in the atmosphere not added to the severity of the problem. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/anomalies/triad_pg.gif http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update29.htm Despite Europe's record-settling temperatures and an usually high level of heat-caused mortality around the world recently, U.S. governmental officials meeting with Russian officials in Brussels last week said the U.S. was "indifferent" as to whether Russia signs the Kyoto protocol limiting greenhouse gases, and the U.S. will not change its policy: "We're indifferent. We're doing what we're doing, we're going to continue what we're doing whether or not Kyoto enters into force", US climate negotiator Harlan Watson said, according to an October 8th story made public by AFP (via Clari News). President Bush flat out rejects the whole notion of limiting fossil fuel burning in the United States, saying he fears the economic implications of doing so. Meanwhile, critics of the U.S. position say what the Bush Administration is doing amounts to a policy of doing exactly nothing about the U.S.'s high annual greenhouse gas emission rates, despite the connection of those high emission rates to the inevitable worldwide tragedies from global warming. Scientists predict the number, severity, length and geographic extent of deadly heat waves will increase dramatically in the coming years, as carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases continue to build in the atmosphere from too many humans burning too many fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) in electric power generation plants, automobiles, airplanes, trucks, industrial and residential furnaces, boats and other machines and engines. The actual total death count for the heat wave that hit Europe this summer came to 35,118 deaths. The number dead in France was 14,802, while 7,000 died in Germany; 4,230 in Spain; 4175 in Italy; 2,045 in the United Kingdom; 1,400 in the Netherlands; 1,316 in Portugal; and 150 in Belgium. At the meeting between Russian and U.S. senior officials that was held last Wednesday in Brussels, it was said that Russian President Vladimir Putin remained undecided on whether to sign the Kyoto Agreement. If Russia signs the agreement, the agreement will go into effect even without participation by the United States. As Russia and the United States continue to withhold from signing the Kyoto agreement, the U.S. Congress is expected to approve an energy bill in January that will greatly expand fossil-fuel production in the U.S.. The U.S. Congress will also be taking up legislation on whether to establish a "cap and trade" system to regulate and limit the total tonnage of greenhouse gas emissions emitted by the residential, commercial, industrial and transportation sectors of the U.S. economy later this month. http://madison.indymedia.org/feature/display/14475/index.php ________________________________________________________________ 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
