A Beautiful Lie

What happens when carbon dioxide levels skyrocket? Most climate scientists think they know the answer: global warming.

But to determine just how high temperatures may climb and how climate patterns may shift, researchers may need to pinpoint, for comparison, a time in our planet's past when a similar carbon dioxide jump happened.

Read the full article here

"AMERICAN FORESTS, the Washington, DC-based nonprofit announced today that its Global ReLeaf program will plant 3.2 million trees in 2009 to help restore forests important for endangered wildlife, clean water, and carbon sequestration. Native trees will be planted in 42 projects in 8 countries and 18 U.S. states and benefit species including endangered red cockaded woodpeckers in the South, trout in Oregon and West Virginia, the wintering grounds of monarch butterflies in Mexico, wildlife along Lower Kinabatangan River in Borneo, Malaysia, and migratory birds on four continents."

Read the full article here

America's fisheries are in serious trouble. Overfishing, wasteful bycatch and other threats are pushing our fisheries to the brink, despite decades of ever-tightening regulations.

But there is hope. This week, the Senate is considering a funding request, submitted by Florida Senator Bill Nelson, to provide $33 million to rejuvenate America's fisheries through an innovative fishery management system called "catch shares."

A vote is scheduled this week.

Please take action today to support funding to restore America's fisheries.

View the full article and take action here

You can follow us here

Today is Earth Day so let's all do something to take care of this amazing planet and all those that live in it.

Attention Echelon: We are inviting all of you around this wonderful world to come and join us in Hollywood, CA to participate in the recording of our new album.

The date: Sunday, April 26th, 2009.

Location will be announced in the next few days.

You won't want to miss this.

Mars is coming!!!

From theanimalrescuesite.com:

Horses have been our trusted companions and are a historically significant part of American culture. They deserve a more dignified end to their lives than to be inhumanely slaughtered and served for dinner.

H.R. 503 would put an end to this practice by prohibiting the transport of America's horses to foreign countries for slaughter. Ask President Obama today to urge Congress to support H.R. 503!

For the full article, click here

30 Seconds to Mars is auctioning off 2 tickets to any future show AND a meet and greet with the band in support of the Farm Sanctuary’s Spring 2009 Auction. Don't miss your chance to see the band live and meet them before a future show of your choosing. The auction is active NOW and will be open until March 30, 2009 at 3:00pm EST. Click here for more information and the chance to win this exclusive prize and support Farm Sanctuary!

Farm Sanctuary works to end cruelty to farm animals and promotes compassionate living through rescue, education and advocacy. Farm Sanctuary envisions a world where the violence that animal agriculture inflicts upon people, animals and the environment has ended, and where instead we exercise values of compassion. Learn more at www.farmsanctuary.org.

PROVEHITO IN ALTUM

-MARS

Dear NRDC Member,

It's the worst possible news for the wolves of the Northern Rockies: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has given the green light to a Bush-era plan that will kick them off the Endangered Species list.

Please give an emergency contribution to help NRDC rush to court to defend these wolves.

Nearly 1,000 wolves from Greater Yellowstone to Glacier National Park could be caught in the cross-fire of state-sponsored wolf hunts -- and that killing could begin in just a few weeks.

The decision couldn't come at a worse time. Breeding season is here, and wolves will start giving birth in April. That means pregnant females and newborn pups will be among those gunned down.

I'm sure you share my disappointment that the Obama Administration has abandoned a science-based approach in this rush to hand wolf management back to the states.

That's why NRDC cannot stand by and let this deadly attack go unchallenged.

We're filing suit in federal court to block this flawed Bush-era policy -- a policy that will simply not stand up to scientific review. But to wage and win this life-or-death case for wolves, we need your emergency donation right
away.

We've won this fight before, thanks to your support. Last summer, NRDC and 11 other conservation groups compelled the Bush Administration to abandon its first attempt to strip wolves of their protection when we made the case
that wolf populations had not yet fully recovered.

Today, less than 6 months later, wolf populations still haven't reached biological recovery levels. In fact, over this past year, the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park declined 27 percent -- and wolf pups in the park are
dying of a yet-to-be-determined disease.

It's incumbent on Secretary Salazar to withdraw this disastrous plan and submit it to the kind of rigorous scientific review that the Obama Administration has championed on so many other environmental issues.

Otherwise, we can expect a bloodbath in the Northern Rockies. The last time wolves lost their protection, 110 of them were gunned down in 120 days -- nearly one per day.

NRDC and our partners stopped the slaughter then. And we must do it again -- before the states get their "Open Fire" orders. Idaho has plans ready to go that would wipe out more than 100 wolves in just a single area of the
state.

NRDC members and activists like you have always stood up for the wolves of the Northern Rockies when they've been threatened. That's why I'm contacting you first -- and counting on you to rally to the wolves' rescue.

Wolves have already been exterminated in 96 percent of their former range. They are making one of their last stands right now in the Northern Rockies. We can't afford to have the government drag them back to the brink of
extinction.

Please click here to make an emergency contribution to save 1,000 wolves -- before the states have a chance to pull the trigger.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

P.S. Most Americans are not even aware that wolves are in danger. That's why I'm counting on NRDC members and activists like you to rush to the wolf's rescue now while there is still time to save their lives.

Take part in Earth Hour 2009 on Saturday, March 28 at 8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet Earth. For more information on Earth Hour 2009, visit www.earthhour.org.

As part of 30 Seconds to Mars' support of Habitat for Humanity, the band has donated an autographed hardhat to be auctioned off by Habitat to help raise funds for families in need. Go to www.clothesoffourback.org/habitat and bid NOW. 100% of the proceeds raised in this auction benefit Habitat for Humanity families, so please bid often. Check out the auction page for the full list of bands who donated in support of this very worthy cause at www.clothesoffourback.org/habitat.

Thank you, as always, for your support.

PROVEHITO IN ALTUM

-MARS

According to Carbon Friendly Solutions, our cars emit more carbon dioxide than anything else. By making our day-to-day travel more efficient, we can drastically reduce our overall carbon dioxide emissions. If you're curious how much carbon dioxide your travel emits, you can use the carbon calculator below.

You can also learn how much carbon is offset during your flights or vacations, or to get the code for your own carbon calculators, click here

http://www.climateprotect.org

Our mission is to persuade the American people-and people elsewhere in the world-of the importance and urgency of adopting and implementing effective and comprehensive solutions for the climate crisis.

The Alliance for Climate Protection is undertaking an unprecedented mass persuasion exercise based on scientific facts. Through a new combination of non-partisan alliances with Americans from all walks of life and innovative and far-reaching communication techniques the Alliance will focus on presenting the facts about climate change and its solutions to the general public in an accurate, clear and compelling manner.

Americans have always risen to meet the most important challenges to our nation's and the world's future. Together, we can address the climate challenge domestically and provide a robust economy for now and for our children.

Book: The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed by John Vailliant

Movie: Earthlings, directed by Shaun Monson (2003)

The Global Carbon Project (GCP) was established in 2001 in recognition of the enormous scientific challenge and fundamentally critical nature of the carbon cycle for Earth sustainability.

The scientific goal of the project is to develop a complete picture of the global carbon cycle, including both its biophysical and human dimensions together with the interactions and feedbacks between them.

http://www.globalcarbonproject.org

From the NY Times:

"A new analysis of the dramatic cycles of ice ages and warm intervals over the past million years, published in Nature, concludes that the climatic swings are the gyrations of a system poised to settle into a permanent colder state - with expanded ice sheets at both poles.

In essence, says one of the two authors, Thomas J. Crowley of the University of Edinburgh, the ice age cycles over the past million years are a super-slow-motion variant of the dramatic jostlings recorded by a seismograph in an earthquake before the ground settles into a new quiet state. He and William T. Hyde of the University of Toronto used climate models and other techniques to assess the chances that the world is witnessing the final stages of a 50-million-year transition from a planet with a persistent warm climate and scant polar ice to one with greatly expanded ice sheets at both poles."

For the full article, click here

From the NY Times:

"The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia."

"Over all, the floating ice dwindled to an extent unparalleled in a century or more, by several estimates."

"Now the six-month dark season has returned to the North Pole. In the deepening chill, new ice is already spreading over vast stretches of the Arctic Ocean. Astonished by the summer's changes, scientists are studying the forces that exposed one million square miles of open water - six Californias - beyond the average since satellites started measurements in 1979."

For the full article, click here

See where our carbon emissions are coming from, and what you can do to help, by viewing this clipping from The Good Sheet.

From Men's Vogue:

"But then we saw that a spider the size of a golf ball had been lowering himself on a thin web slowly toward the dome of Moby's bald head. As the crowd shouted 'Don't kill it!' the actor Jared Leto leapt from the crowd with a plastic cup to contain the fierce arachnid. "The spider is an animal too," Leto said as he gingerly escorted his new friend from the stage."

For the full article, click here.

BARTHOLEMEW CUBBINS, ANGAKOK PANIPAQ and some creative friends of 30 SECONDS TO MARS called DEEP FRIED PRODUCTIONS have a brand new alternate version of ABL that they want to share. Initially the idea for the original video was to feature this element of graphic text running across certain images to illustrate and highlight specific environmental facts and issues. Ultimately for the initial release we felt the original was best left with a more subtle, minimal approach that left the icebergs and glaciers open and easier to see and share. We thought this version was really interesting and provocative and definitely worth sharing. So here it is: the alternate version of ABL. We hope it makes you think about the state of things the way it did for us.

Click here to watch

30 Seconds to Mars is auctioning off 2 tickets to any future show AND a meet and greet with the band in support of the Farm Sanctuary Online Auction. Don't miss your chance to see the band live and meet them before a future show of your choosing. The auction is active NOW and will be open until September 18, 2008 at 12:22pm EST. Click here for more information and the chance to win this exclusive prize and support Farm Sanctuary!

Farm Sanctuary works to end cruelty to farm animals and promotes compassionate living through rescue, education and advocacy. Farm Sanctuary envisions a world where the violence that animal agriculture inflicts upon people, animals and the environment has ended, and where instead we exercise values of compassion. Learn more at www.farmsanctuary.org.

New Yorkers drink over 1,000,000,000 bottles of water every year.

On average, bottled water costs 900 times the amount of tap water.

This year, Americans will spend $40 billion on bottled water.

25% of all bottled water is re-packaged tap water.

Tap water regulation has more stringent governmental standars than that of bottled water regulation.

The amount of oil required to put one bottle of water in your hand would fill 1/4 of that same bottle.

90% of used water bottles are not recycled.

Right now, millions of pounds of track are floating in the Pacific Ocean to form an 'island' at least twice the size of Texas. 90% of that trash is discarded plastic...

From redOrbit:

"Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center say Arctic Ocean sea ice has melted to the second lowest level since satellite observations began.

On Monday, they recorded Sea ice melt that exceeded the low recorded in 2005, which had held second place.

Ice in summer 2008 has a chance to diminish below the record low set last year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Some environmentalists groups are calling the rapid melts another alarm bell warning of global warming.

For the full article, click here.

We are proud to announce that the HOUSE THE ECHELON BUILT – the Echelon initiated Habitat for Humanity project – is nearing completion on its 5th house. Let’s do all we can to help them meet their target.

You can view the Echelon’s HopeBuilder’s page and donate at http://www.hopebuilders.org.uk/fundraising.php?c=viewaccount&aid=71.

On the heels of his co-host role at MTV Asia’s annual award show in Malaysia, Jared Leto paid a visit to Sentul, Malaysia to visit a potential build site for Kuala Lumpur’s Habitat for Humanity offices.

To read about Jared’s visit and see more pictures, visit Habitat Malaysia’s weblog.

From Time.com:

"From 30,000 feet up, flying over the heart of the ice cap, you can't imagine it would ever be possible to lose Greenland. The only flaws in the sheer, marble-colored landscape are the black shadows cast by the scattered clouds above. But as our plane heads west toward the old American air base at Kangerlussuaq, puddles of blue glacial melt begin to appear, vast, unblinking eyes that reflect the sky back up. Then the whiteness is suddenly ruptured, the ice wrinkles and thins,revealing slashes of rock beneath the 2.9 million cubic km of ice. By the time the coast comes into sight, the ice sheet ends abruptly,leaving bare brown dirt and rock. Finally as we descend toKangerlussuaq, the green in Greenland is visible."

For the full article, click here

By DINA CAPPIELLO
WASHINGTON (AP) - Government scientists detailed a rising death toll from heat waves, wildfires, disease and smog caused by global warming in an analysis the White House buried so it could avoid regulating greenhouse gases.

In a 149-page document released Monday, the experts laid out for the first time the scientific case for the grave risks that global warming poses to people, and to the food, energy and water on which society depends.

"Risk (to human health, society and the environment) increases with increases in both the rate and magnitude of climate change," scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency said. Global warming, they wrote, is "unequivocal" and humans are to blame. The document suggests that extreme weather events and diseases carried by ticks and other organisms could kill more people as temperatures rise.

Allergies could worsen because climate change could produce more pollen. Smog, a leading cause of respiratory illness and lung disease, could become more severe in many parts of the country. At the same time, global warming could mean fewer illnesses and deaths due to cold.

"This document inescapably, unmistakably shows that global warming pollution not only threatens human health and welfare, but it is adversely impacting human health and welfare today," said Vickie Patton, deputy general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. "What this document demonstrates is that the imperative for action is now."

While the science pointed to a link between public health and climate change, the Bush administration has worked to discourage such a connection. To acknowledge one would compel the government to regulate greenhouse gases.

The administration on Friday dismissed the scientists' findings when it made clear that the Clean Air Act was the wrong tool to control global warming pollution. Instead, the administration asked for public comment on a range of ways to reduce greenhouse gases from cars, airplanes, trains and smokestacks under the 1970 law.

A better solution, the EPA said, would have Congress writing a law aimed just at global warming. Jonathan Shradar, a spokesman for EPA chief Stephen Johnson, said that while the administrator knows that "the science is clear and that climate change is a significant issue", Johnson did not want to make a "rash decision under the wrong law."

"Once there is an endangerment finding, then the Clean Air Act is activated and regulation may begin," Shradar said. In December, the White House refused to open an e-mail from the EPA that included the finding that climate change endangered public welfare. The determination was based on an earlier, and similar version of the document released Monday. At the time, the White House insisted on removing all references to the science, according to Jason K. Burnett, a former adviser to Johnson on climate issues.

Burnett, a Democrat, has charged that Vice President Dick Cheney's office deleted portions of congressional testimony last October prepared by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that made similar assertions on the health effects of global warming.

The White House contends the testimony was changed because of doubts about the science. After the release of the EPA analysis, industry representatives suggested the link between climate change and health was weak. "The question is not a scientific one. It is a legal and political question, of how much impact justifies the extraordinary use of the Clean Air Act," said Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a coalition of power companies. While no one doubts that more people die in a heat wave, the question is whether that death is "related to manmade greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

From Science Daily:

According to a new study, global warming could lead to larger changes in snowmelt in the western United States than was previously thought, possibly increasing wildfire risk and creating new water management challenges for agriculture, ecosystems and urban populations.

Researchers, including a Purdue University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, discovered that a critical surface temperature feedback is twice as strong as what had been projected by earlier studies.

For the full article, click here.

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
RUSUTSU, Japan - President Bush and leaders of the world's richest nations pledged Tuesday to "move toward a low-carbon society" by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, the latest step in a long evolution by a president who for years played down the threat of global warming.

The declaration by the Group of 8 - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia - was the first time that the Bush White House had publicly backed an explicit long-term target for eliminating the gases that scientists have said are warming the planet. But it failed to set a goal for cutting emissions over the next decade, and drew sharp criticism from environmentalists, who called it a missed opportunity.

On Wednesday, leaders of developing nations took up the climate change issue and said that they too supported "a long-term global goal for emission reductions," but they were not specific and fell short of supporting the Group of 8 declaration.

In a sense, the Group of 8 document represents an environmental quid pro quo. In exchange for agreeing to the "50 by 2050" language, Mr. Bush got what he has sought as his price for joining an international accord: a statement from the rest of the Group of 8 that developing nations like China and India, which have not accepted mandatory caps on carbon emissions, must be included in any climate change treaty.

European leaders, who have long pressed Mr. Bush to take a more aggressive stance on global warming, said the declaration could enhance efforts to reach a binding agreement to reduce emissions when negotiators meet in Copenhagen next year under United Nations auspices.

"This is a strong signal to citizens around the world," the president of the European Commission, Jos&>33; Manuel Barroso, told reporters. "The science is clear, the economic case for action is stronger than ever. Now we need to go the extra mile to secure an ambitious global deal in Copenhagen."

The leaders of the eight industrialized countries, who gathered on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido for their annual meeting, spent months debating the language of Tuesday's communiqu&>33; in lower-level talks. Critics said it was short on specifics, and that developed and developing countries would need to make much sharper cuts in emissions to head off the worst effects of global warming.

The statement left unclear, for instance, if the cuts made by 2050 would be pegged to current emissions levels, or 1990 levels, as many advocates had hoped.

A 50 percent cut from current levels would result in a smaller decrease by 2050 than Japan and European nations had envisioned under the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate agreement that the Bush administration rejected after it took office. Kyoto and earlier agreements had set 1990 as the baseline for cuts. The United States emitted about 20 percent more carbon dioxide in 2007 than it did in 1990.

"It is one step forward from the U.S. point of view, because President Bush has agreed that the United States, for the first time, must be bound by an international treaty," said Philip E. Clapp, director of the Pew Environmental Group, who is here monitoring the negotiations. "But the emissions reduction goal is extremely weak; the language in the communiqu&>33; is almost meaningless."

The White House painted the document as a victory.

"The G-8 is giving a lot, but the G-8 is also suggesting that others need to be part of that equation," said James L. Connaughton, Mr. Bush's top environmental adviser. "And that's a very important shared statement."

Mr. Bush did not speak publicly about it, although Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany raised the issue when she appeared briefly before cameras with the president, before the document was released. Mrs. Merkel, who has been pushing Mr. Bush to take a stronger stance on global warming, pronounced herself "very satisfied."

Yet already, there are signs that the document could produce a rift between rich and poor nations. South Africa's minister of environmental affairs, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, issued a blistering critique of Tuesday's communiqu&>33;, calling it a concession to "the lowest common denominator" and expressing concern that it "may, in effect, be a regression from what is required to make meaningful change."

Cutting emissions in half is one step in curtailing warming, climate experts have long said, because the main greenhouse gas generated by human activities, carbon dioxide, can persist for a century or more in the atmosphere, once it is released. As long as more is being emitted than the oceans or plants can absorb, its concentration will rise. And fuel emissions are projected to rise relentlessly, driven by quickly expanding economies in Asia.

For Mr. Bush, with just six months left in office, Tuesday's declaration was part of a concerted effort to salvage his legacy on climate change. His reputation as an outlier on the issue was set in the earliest days of his administration, when he abandoned a campaign promise to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and refused to join the Kyoto Protocol because it did not apply to developing nations.

But over time, Mr. Bush's stance has shifted. In 2005, he surprised Europeans when, on a trip to Denmark, he stated unequivocally that humans caused global warming.

Some advocates credit the Group of 8 with Mr. Bush's shift. "The peer pressure on issues like climate change has helped," Dennis Howlett, coordinator of the Canadian advocacy group Make Poverty History, said Tuesday.

On the way to last year's Group of 8 meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany, Mr. Bush proposed his own process for grappling with global warming: a series of meetings involving so-called major emitters, including the developing nations China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, dubbed the Outreach Five.

Those leaders have been meeting this week in Sapporo, also on the island of Hokkaido, and on Tuesday they issued their own declaration, pledging, without specifics, to work toward reducing emissions in "a deviation from business as usual" if developing countries offered them financial assistance to do so.

"This is a positive answer to the G-8 leaders' demand for action by all major emitters," said David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. "That's news."

Tuesday's communiqu&>33; was not the end of the discussion here. On Wednesday, the Outreach Five leaders and their counterparts in South Korea, Indonesia and Australia joined the Group of 8 for a second round of talks and a declaration from the entire group was issued suggesting they believed developed countries should share the biggest portion of the climate change burden.

Alden Meyer, who is tracking the negotiations for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said Tuesday evening, "Developing countries want the industrialized world to do more."

The climate paper was among a series of communiques issued Tuesday on matters as varied as the rising food prices, the global economy, aid to Africa and the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

Environmentalists' feelings were perhaps best summed up in an ad in The Financial Times on Tuesday, placed by Avaaz.org, an international online advocacy group. It showed the faces of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, Mr. Bush and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada pasted on the Japanese cartoon character Hello Kitty.

"Hello Kiddies," the headline read. "Be a grown-up. Set 2020 climate targets now."

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

By CHRISTOPHER PALA
BUTARITARI, Kiribati - Off the palm-fringed white beach of this remotePacific atoll, the view underwater is downright scary.

Corals are being covered and smothered to death by a bushy seaweedthat is so tough even algae-grazing fish avoid it. It settles in thereef's crevices that fish once called home, driving them away.

Dead coral stops supporting the ecosystem and, within a couple ofdecades, it will crumble into rubble, allowing big ocean waves to reach the beach during storms and destroy the flimsy thatched huts of the Micronesians.

"We are catching less and less fish, and the seaweeds are fouling our nets," says Henry Totie, a fisherman and Butaritari's traditional chief, in an interview in his traditionally built house in the village near the blue-green lagoon.

The area affected, about four miles long and a mile wide, lies off the island's main village, an underwater examination showed. It looked strikingly similar to Kaneohe Bay in the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where the seaweed also has spread out of control.

"This is one of the most damaging seaweeds I have ever seen," says Jennifer E. Smith of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has studied the Hawaiian invasion for eight years. "If there is that much< Eucheuma in Butaritari, it proves it can destroy a healthy reef as opposed to a degraded one like in Kaneohe."

Moiwa Erutarem, the Butaritari representative of the fisheries ministry, said the biggest losses were being felt by the most vulnerable: those who use nets in the shallow coral table and do not have the boats required to fish farther away. Seafood is virtually the only source of protein in Butaritari, complemented by breadfruit and coconut.

This equatorial island of 4,000 people is the latest victim of a 30-year global effort to encourage poor people in the coastal areas of the tropics to grow seaweed that, while not edible, produces carrageenan, an increasingly sought-after binder and fat substitute used in the food industry, notably in ice cream.

Today, about 120,000 dry metric tons a year are produced, mostly in the Philippines and Indonesia, where the two main algae originate. Kappaphycus alvarezii is most desirable because of its high carrageenan content; Eucheuma denticulatum is less valuable but easier to cultivate.

Both were introduced in the past three decades to 20 countries around the world from Tonga to Zanzibar and the result in most of them has been failure or worse. The alga K. alvarezii invaded the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve in south India a decade after commercial cultivation began in nearby Panban. "No part of the coral reef was visible in most of the invaded sites, where it doomed entire colonies," the journal Current Science has reported.

In the Pacific, for example, the two algae were introduced to 10 countries and are said to be commercially cultivated in three: Kiribati, the Solomon Islands and Tonga.

But in the case of Kiribati, interviews with seaweed officials in Tarawa, the capital of this nation of tiny islands sprinkled over a swath of ocean the size of India, reveal that since the first effort to cultivate algae in 1986, the industry has lost money almost every year and the farmers have shown little enduring enthusiasm for the crop.

In some places and times, low prices are blamed. In others, unreliable purchasers are. Then there are cultural factors. Some Pacific countries, like Kiribati, are populated by what ethnologists call nonconsumers: people who need just a little cash to get by and once that need is met, prefer to spend time with their family, go fishing or sleep.

There is also "pubusi," (pronounced poo-boo-SEE) the local tradition in which one person can ask another for pretty much anything, using the magic word, and the other person has to hand it over or face public opprobrium.

"What's the point of making money if you have to pubusi it all away?" says Kevin Rouatu, a stocky, cheerful former banker who runs the Atoll Seaweed Company in Kiribati.

This state-owned company was formed in 1991 to restart failed efforts by the fisheries ministry, advised by foreign consultants, to introduce seaweed farming in the 1980s. Today, after the algae were introduced to 10 islands in Kiribati, only one, Fanning in the Line Islands, is producing anything. So the government is giving up on the other nine and moving the seaweed company to Christmas Island, which is near Fanning Island and more than 2,000 miles from Tarawa.

"The government raised the price we pay to farmers to 60 cents a kilo so we lose 27 cents a kilo by the time we've shipped it to the processing plant," which is 3,000 miles away in the Philippines, Mr. Rouatu said. "The government didn't give us the difference last year, so we were only able to buy 100 tons, and the farmers are now stuck with 250 tons."

In Butaritari, where seaweed farming ended two years ago, Reuera Redfern, a retired seaman who became the island's top producer and then the seaweed company's purchasing agent, estimates there is 6 to 10 dry tons' worth of Eucheuma - the variety with less carrageenan - on the coral reefs today, and an unknown amount off Tarawa. Mr. Redfern said he was told it was also spreading in Abemama, another island in the Gilbert group.

Today, Mr. Totie, the Butaritari traditional chief, says the only way to prevent Eucheuma (which locals call seaweeda, since it has no local name) from destroying the entire lagoon is for the seaweed company to offer to buy it. "Then the people would go out and get it and it would be gone in a few months," he said. "If they wait, the problem will just get worse." Mr. Rouatu agrees that some sort of noncommercial purchase plan needs to be set up to save the Butaritari lagoon, perhaps with foreign aid.

In an interview, President Anote Tong recalled going fishing with Mr. Redfern, his school friend, and said he was aware of the problem. But he displayed little interest in solving it, saying vaguely that it required a "scientific solution" - which he could not define.

"Buying it is something we cannot afford," he said. "If we got a grant for that purpose, maybe, but," he added with a fleeting smile, "it may encourage cultivation."

Dr. Smith argued that even if by world standards the damage caused by the alga is small, it adds a layer of stress to corals already dying fast because most of the algae-grazing fish that kept the reef ecosystem healthy have been eaten, leading to a much higher coral mortality when global warning sends water temperatures up. "Introduced species have had large impacts on marine ecosystems around the world," she said. "We should avoid the intentional introduction of species that are known to harm coral, not promote it."

In Hawaii, three kinds of algae were brought in during the 1970s by a professor of botany at the University of Hawaii, Max Doty, who developed the techniques of cultivation that were exported around the world. One species dominates Oahu's south and the two others, mostly Eucheuma, have spread to about half of the coral heads of Kaneohe Bay.

Celia Smith, the successor to the late Dr. Doty at the university, is now a leader in the effort to save the bay. "It's not easy," she said, for the seaweeds grow at a rate of 7 percent a week.

The university, state and Nature Conservancy devised Super Suckers, vacuum cleaners on powered catamarans that are sucking up 3,000 pounds of seaweed a day each. "At the current rate, we'll need 10 years to clean up the bay," says Brian Hauk, the state aquatic invasive species supervisor.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

30 Seconds To Mars And Hollywood For Habitat For Humanity Unite For One-Of-A-Kind Build.

Over $10,000 raised by band auctioning off the chance to build alongside them and a Habitat for Humanity Partner family in Los Angeles area.

Los Angeles, CA (June 30, 2008) Multi-platinum selling recording artists 30 Seconds to Mars joined hands yesterday with Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity for a one-of-a-kind Habitat build day in Carson, CA. In advance of the build, the band organized an auction of "build slots" to give fans the opportunity to volunteer alongside them and their family and friends. In less than a week, six extra workers were enlisted and over $10,000.00 was raised to fund additional Habitat for Humanity projects.

Working on a home being repaired and renovated through the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles' "A Brush With Kindness" program, the band, their family and friends, and the auction winners joined Melvin Jones as he performed urgently needed repairs to the home that his mother currently resides in and has owned for over 35 years.

The auction winners/volunteers traveled to the build site from as close by as Los Angeles and as far away as Vienna, Austria. Following a full day of hard work on the build site, Theresa, one of the intercontinental volunteers, said of the experience: "We bid because of the band but the experience was more rewarding than we could have ever imagined. It was great to meet some very nice people, have fun and do good... and it was very impressive to see how the band worked their butts off!"

Originally, the auction was intended to be for two morning slots and two afternoon slots, but after an overwhelming response, two additional volunteers were accommodated. Andi, a fan from Budapest, who bid for and won the morning auction was unable to attend and donated her slots to Kira and Jen, two fellow 30 Seconds to Mars fans that she had met on tour.

Fans quickly got involved around the globe. Even those who couldn't outbid the winners were able to participate and support the band's efforts. The Echelon (30 Seconds to Mars' core fans) created their own initiative within "Hope Builders", a program of Habitat for Humanity in the UK, which raises funds to build homes internationally. Within the same week that the auctions were running prior to the band's build day in Los Angeles, "The House that the Echelon Built" had already raised enough money in the UK to fund the construction of more than two homes and is currently approaching their target for a third.

"We are so proud of our friends and family around the world who have put together their own teams and volunteered," commented Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars. "It's a wonderful and selfless gift and we are so thankful and moved by the generosity shown by all. It was a great day today with our family, friends and fans on the build site with the Jones family in Carson, but it was even more special knowing we were joined around the world in this event. We ended the build covered in dirt, sweat and smiles."

"Seeing the work being done on the Jones home, by two generations of family, for two generations of family, and watching the band members introduce their mother to Melvin's mother was truly inspiring," said Allison Winkler, VP of Music and Talent Partnerships for Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity. "Everyone who volunteered worked tirelessly, and was generous with their spirit, in addition to being generous with their time. We are very grateful to 30 Seconds to Mars, to all involved with this unique A Brush with Kindness build event, and for the outpouring of support globally for Habitat for Humanity from the 30 Seconds to Mars community."

All carbon emissions caused or resulted from travel associated with the 30 Seconds to Mars auction for Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity will be offset with a purchase of green tags.

About Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity
Launched in 2000 with a 20 house "blitz build", Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity (HFHFH) is an entertainment industry partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Actors, screenwriters, musicians, agents, directors, producers, studio executives and label executives are among the thousands of volunteers who have helped build homes for people in need, in the United States and around the world. HFHFH was founded by Screenwriter/Director Randall Wallace (Braveheart, We Were Soldiers) to support Habitat for Humanity's goal of eliminating substandard housing by making decent, affordable housing a matter of conscience and action. Participants support the work through donations, volunteer hours and advocacy. HFHFH works in partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles to help HFHFH volunteers connect donors and supporters to Habitat for Humanity's work around the globe. http://www.hollywoodforhabitat.com

About A Brush With Kindness
Launched during the Jimmy Carter Work Project Los Angeles (October, 2007), Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles' A Brush with Kindness (ABWK) program focuses on safety related improvements and exterior home repair services (painting, roof repairs, other minor exterior repairs and cleanup, landscaping, etc). ABWK is a benevolent program serving low-income homeowners impacted by age, disability and family circumstances who struggle to maintain their homes, and homeowners with disabilities and senior citizens are given priority. ABWK repairs help maintain the health and safety of the occupants, preserve the dwelling and enhance neighborhoods and the city at large. By targeting specific communities in need, ABWK makes a noticeable impact, revitalizing the appearance of the homes and strengthening connections in the community. With a moderate investment of funds and the use of volunteer labor, Habitat for Humanity can now help low-income homeowners to continue to live independently and securely in their homes, remove blight, and, most importantly, help preserve the affordable housing stock in a community. http://www.habitatla.org/abwk.asp

From CNN.com: "The North Pole may be briefly ice-free by September as global warming melts away Arctic sea ice, according to scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

"We kind of have an informal betting pool going around in our center and that betting pool is 'does the North Pole melt out this summer?' and it may well," said the center's senior research scientist, Mark Serreze.

It's a 50-50 bet that the thin Arctic sea ice, which was frozen in autumn, will completely melt away at the geographic North Pole, Serreze said."

For the full article, click here

Bid on one of two chances to join 30 Seconds to Mars and Habitat for Humanity for a very special private build event on June 25th in the Los Angeles area. All of the proceeds from the auction will benefit Habitat for Humanity.

You will be able to bid for you and a friend to join the band, their friends and family during either a morning or afternoon build. To bid, or to learn more about the rules, the build or Habitat for Humanity, click here.

This is an amazing organization and we are very excited to join them. Come be a part of what will be an unforgettable day!

"No single person will stop global warming, but by working together, we can make it a priority for government and business. We'll succeed because when people unite and call for action, change is inevitable. Together we can solve the climate crisis."

Visit wecansolveit.org for more information.

From The Wall Street Journal:

"The Interior Department has decided to protect the polar bear as a threatened species, amid a decline in Arctic sea ice due to global warming, handing environmentalists a major victory. Opponents said it could trigger new obstacles for oil companies seeking to drill in the Arctic. The official announcement was to come from Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne later this afternoon."

For the full article, click here

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Melting ice in southern Chile caused a glacial lake to swell and then empty suddenly, sending a "tsunami" rolling through a river, a scientist said Thursday. No one was injured in the remote region.

Cachet Lake is shown partially dried in early April, next to the Colonia glacier.

Glacier scientist Gino Casassa said the melting of the Colonia glacier, which he blamed on rising world temperatures, filled the Cachet Lake and increased pressure on the ice sheet.

The water bored a 5-mile (an 8-kilometer) tunnel through the glacier and finally emptied into the Baker River on April 6.

"The remarkable thing is that the mass of water moved against the current of the river," Casassa told The Associated Press by telephone from the Center for Scientific Studies in the southern city of Valdivia. "It was a real river tsunami."

The lake was nearly full again by late Wednesday, he said. Casassa said temperatures were unusually high during the recent Southern Hemisphere summer.

"This is a phenomenon that occurs periodically during the summer season, caused by the melting of large masses of ice that swell some lakes," he said. "The basic cause is global warming."

The Tempano lake in Chile's Bernardo O'Higgins National Park abruptly disappeared last year, and has since recovered just some of its former volume.

From CNN.com: "Ice on the move. The Wilkins ice shelf suffered a large fracture this week, as an area seven times the size of Manhattan collapsed. Satellite images over the past month indicate that a 160-square-mile section of ice from the shelf, on the western edge of the Antarctica Peninsula, had disintegrated. It is the latest of several collapses around the peninsula, which has warmed markedly in recent decades and shed other fringing ice shelves. In each case, the removal of ice around the periphery seems to allow inland ice to move more readily toward the sea."

The Bush administration has just eliminated federal protections for hundreds of endangered wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies. This decision leaves the region's wolves at the mercy of outrageous state management plans that could lead to the killing of all but 300 wolves and eliminating 80% of all the wild wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies.

Learn more and join the fight at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/...9?z00m=13792952

Many thanks to our ever-vigilant army four bringing this horrific story and worthwhile cause to our attention.

World Water Day is happening on March 22nd. Find more information about this cause by visiting http://worldwaterday.net

It's official. MTV has added A Beautiful Lie into its rotation beginning Monday, March 10. Additionally, MTV2 has moved the video into its Elite 8!

It's time to get voting! We've created the banners below to help get the word out. To get them onto your blog, profile or website just copy and paste the code below the banner you'd like to display.

<a href="http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/trl/TRLvoting.jhtml" target="_blank"><img src="http://thirtysecondstomars.com/tools/banners/banner_abltrl2.jpg" border="0"></a>

We've already gotten a phenomonal response and so many have come to join us and get involved. Let's keep sharing this beautiful video and encouraging people to come join us all at abl.org, and the nrdc at itsyournature.org

From NRDC:

Many renewable industries facing collapse moved one step closer to a reprieve today when the House of Representatives voted 236-182 in favor of the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008.

Many energy incentives contained in the 2005 energy bill are set to expire by the end of 2008. Without extending tax incentives to invest in renewable industries, many companies would face massive layoffs starting as early as next month.

View the full press release here

From NRDC:

"WASHINGTON (February 27, 2008) – The United States gets an overall grade of C for oceans restoration efforts in 2007, according to the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative (JOCI) in its report card issued today. The annual Ocean Policy Report Card is designed to measure how quickly and effectively government implements recommendations from two recent national commissions that were established to ensure the continued health and productivity of ocean resources.

The federal government received a D for their lack of a cohesive federal policy to protect and restore ocean resources. State governments received the highest grade, an A-, for their continued efforts to establish and implement individual state ocean reform legislation."

View the full press release here

http://digg.com/environment/Jared_Leto_and_30_Seconds_to_Mars_Go_Green http://www.greendaily.com/2008/02/01/30-seconds-to-mars-sings-for-environment http://www.ecorazzi.com/2008/01/31/30-seconds-to-mars-launches-massive-environmental-campaign-short-film

From The Independent: "A 'plastic soup' of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting 'soup' stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan."

For the full article, click here

Scientists agree that unless we act soon to significantly reduce global warming pollution, average temperatures will continue to rise, causing more heat waves, air pollution, droughts and wildfires, heavier rains and flooding, rising sea levels, melting tundra and widespread loss of wildlife habitat.

Urge your senators to co-sponsor and strengthen legislation that would cut global warming emissions.

Join the campaign by clicking here and signing the petition.

"The Arctic...

Beautiful. Desolate. Fragile. There's something magical about even the name itself. I heard recently that often times the most difficult path is also the right one. Well, this project was definitely one of the most painstaking and difficult creative challenge we have ever undertaken as a band. It has also been one of the most inspiring – a rare opportunity to reach into our imagination and push the limits of whats possibile. It will always be an important part of our story and adefining element of our lives."

Whole Foods is eliminating plastic bags in their stores, and encouraging their customers to bring reusable bags when they visit. For the full article, click here

From AFP: "The Arctic ice cap has shrunk by an area twice the size of France's land mass over the last two years, the Paris-based National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said Wednesday.

"The year 2008 promises to be a critical year on every level," said Jean-Claude Gascard, the body's research director and coordinator of European scientific mission Damocles, which is monitoring the effects of climate change across the Arctic."

For the full article, click here

From the Guardian UK: "Global warming is doubling the rate of sea level rise around the world, but attempts to stop it by cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions are likely to be futile, leading researchers will warn today.

The oceans will rise nearly half a metre by the end of the century, forcing coastlines back by hundreds of metres, the researchers claim. Scientists believe the acceleration is caused mainly by the surge in greenhouse gas emissions produced by the development of industry and introduction of fossil fuel burning."

For the full story, click here.

From the New York Times: "A federal judge in Vermont gave the first legal endorsement to rules in California, being copied in 13 other states, that intend to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by automobiles."

For the full article, click here

From EnvironmentalLeader.com: "America’s consumers offer a warning to business leaders and marketers looking to ride the green wave: either back your eco-friendly words with socially responsible actions or risk a backlash. Conscious consumers are demanding that companies be transparent about their practices and accountable for their impact on people and the planet."

For the full article, click here

From DMNews: "From The National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) has brought a measurement element to its recently launched social media site, branded It's Your Nature, by launching a widget.

It hopes to address a problem many marketers face with the rising use of social media: how to track user activity."

For the full article, click here

From YubaNet.com: "As a result of dramatic sea ice retreat this summer and the smallest Arctic sea ice coverage ever recorded, the world's wild polar bear populations are at risk of extinction if Arctic sea ice continues to shrink at current rates."

For the full article, click here

From CNN: "The idea of intervening to modify the earth's climate is not a new one. As early as 1836, American meteorologist James Pollard Espy proposed enhancing precipitation by lighting huge fires, which earned him the nickname 'The Storm King'.

More recently the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has suggested that erecting a vast bank of mirrors in space -- to reflect and block out sunlight -- would lower temperatures."

For the full article, click here

http://nrdc.org
http://www.twitter.com/ablorg
http://30secondstomars.com
http://myspace.com/thirtysecondstomars
http://buzznet.com
http://habitat.org
http://www.aspca.org