Wednesday, March 12, 2008

IMAX: Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk 3D AP: "No one had to twist Robert Redford's arm to get him to narrate an IMAX film about a Grand Canyon river trip...The issues affecting the river, a source of water for some 27 million people in seven states, are addressed in a viewer-friendly way in "Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk 3D," which opens nationwide Friday. The film, directed by Greg MacGillivray, follows environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and anthropologist Wade Davis -- each accompanied by their respective daughters, Kick Kennedy and Tara Davis -- as they explore the river with the expertise of Native American guide Shana Watahomigie." "colorado water" 6:04:05 PM     Climate Change: The earth is a beautifully complex system Here's Part III of their series on climate change and its effects on Northern Colorado from The Craig Daily Press. From the article: As our public and private lands are mined for oil and gas, we are asked to endanger a sustainable economy and environmentally healthy future. We also are distracted from discussing and building a sustainable economic base. After mining and resource extraction, reclamation of the land may not replace enough of the same topsoil to provide nutrients supportive of anything deeper-rooted than grasses. Reclamation may be underfunded or not priority funded. What happens to Northwest Colorado after we allow the liquidation and marketing, as soon as possible, of our natural resources, giving profits to corporations that far exceed our royalties or tax intake, while also giving us additional present and future service, health and infrastructure costs? What happens when other natural resources, used to sustain us with hunting, tourism, agriculture, fishing, recreation, historical sites and research, are less healthy, less productive? Do we need to learn how Northwest Colorado must be alert to protect our own carbon dioxide-reducing sagebrush steppe ecosystems, after hurricanes such as Katrina and Rita? Those hurricanes killed or damaged about 320 million trees -- all now decaying or burnable in forest fires -- that will be releasing as much CO2 into the air currents over the United States as the rest of the nation's forests take out of the air in a year of photosynthesis. The role of the West's sagebrush acreage to remove and hold CO2 thus becomes more important. Do we need to learn that to make ethanol from corn requires lye, methane, likely pesticide use, and electricity, while to use renewable switchgrass to make ethanol will produce 4 to 6 times as much for the same energy input? Does the reality of an event occurring in the oceans from global warming instruct our understanding of our ecosystems? The Earth's oceans, having absorbed about 50 percent of human-caused CO2 overproduction, have thus now a decrease in the amount of carbonate ions available for shell-building organisms (such as krill) that are at the base of all fish and sea mammal food chains. Finally, do we need to find and study the climate change data produced in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change composed of 2,000 scientists from 100 countries, or will we instead give our allegiance to the reports of Exxon/Mobil, the largest private company in human history, holder of $300 billion in profits from our natural resources since the 1989 Exxon/Valdez oil spill (for which they have yet to pay any damages), and a founder of its own climate study group - Global Climate Coalitions? Exxon/Mobil's former CEO, Lee Raymond, liked to say often, "Science as a certainty is an oxymoron." "cc" 7:03:53 AM

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