"WARM SPRINGS, Ore. -- Police Chief Carmen Smith says he knows three things about suspected drug trafficker Artemio Corona: He's from Mexico, prefers a Glock .40-caliber handgun, and is quite possibly growing marijuana on the Indian reservation that Mr. Smith patrols.
Cultivating marijuana in Indian country represents a new twist in the decades-old illicit drug trade between Mexico and the U.S., the world's largest drug-consuming market. For decades, Mexican drug gangs grew marijuana in Mexico, smuggled it across the border, and sold it in the U.S. But in the past few years, they have done what any burgeoning business would do: move closer to their customers.
Illicit pot farms, the vast majority run by gangs with ties to Mexico, are growing fast across the country. The U.S. Forest Service has discovered pot farms in 61 national forests across 16 states this year, up from 49 forests in 10 states last year. New territories include public land in Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, Alabama and Virginia."
We gotta take our country back. If we abide by the Constitution, end prohibition and let people be free, we wouldn't have these problems."WARM SPRINGS, Ore. -- Police Chief Carmen Smith says he knows three things about... more
Many of us feel as though being here we cannot make a marked difference elsewhere in the world to help mitigate deforestation and climate change. Tree Nation gives us a chance to use the Internet for truly positive change. It is a site devoted to more that just talk. You get action and results that will be felt for a lifetime in mitigating poverty, deforestation, and giving clean water to those who need it most. I highly recommend this site if you want to make a real difference in the world.Many of us feel as though being here we cannot make a marked difference elsewhere in... more
David Suzuki: "In 1992, I attended an event that filled me with hope. I remember being optimistic that the world could come together to fight the greatest threat to our planet and our own survival. We had done it before in overcoming other threats, like defeating Nazism in Europe and beating back horrific diseases like polio.
When Canada signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) treaty, we had not yet begun to experience the full consequences of climate change. There were no news reports of starving polar bears in the Arctic, the mountain pine beetle had not yet turned British Columbia's forests crimson, and we weren't facing a rapid increase in infectious diseases, like Lyme disease, that are exacerbated by warming temperatures.
But climate change is now affecting people and places all over the planet, from the most remote tropical rainforest to the urban parks where many of our kids play.
And scientists tell us that some changes, like melting sea ice in the Arctic, are happening much faster than any computer model had predicted.
Though the 1992 UNFCCC treaty set no mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions and contained no enforcement provisions (these would come later in the Kyoto Protocol and, we hope, in a forthcoming climate treaty that will replace it), it did set an ambitious science-based goal: to stabilize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent the effects of dangerous climate change.
Scientists say we can only achieve this goal if we radically reduce all major sources of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.
While much of the debate and action has focused on curbing emissions from burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, the destruction of our forests, wetlands, grasslands and peatlands is responsible for about one quarter of all other emissions into the atmosphere. That's higher than emissions from cars, trucks, boats and planes together.
In Canada and throughout the world, forests are being rapidly cleared for agriculture and oil and gas development and are being destructively mined and logged.
When forest soils are disturbed and trees are burned or cut down for wood and paper products, much of the carbon stored in their biomass is released back into the atmosphere as heat-trapping carbon dioxide, although some carbon can remain stored in longer-lived forest products, like wood used to make furniture or homes.
Thus the destruction of forests and other ecosystems is not only a driver of extinction of species, such as boreal caribou, but is a driver of global warming as well.
We need to adopt a carbon stewardship approach to how we use our forests and the goods and services we take from them.
For some scientists, carbon stewardship means setting aside at least half of all remaining intact forests as protected areas, particularly carbon-rich forests like old-growth temperate rainforests in B.C. and the boreal in Canada's north, where wildlife like caribou feed, breed and roam.
Protecting intact forests also promotes ecological resiliency so that species and ecosystems can cope with and adapt to the effects of climate change.
That doesn't mean the logging companies should be allowed to trash the other 50 per cent. Forests that we do manage for wood and paper production should be logged according to the highest standards of ecosystem-based management, without clear cutting, and with adequate protection for wildlife habitat like caribou, as well as sensitive areas like wetlands.
In December, the world's nations will meet at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen to negotiate a new strong and fair climate change agreement that will continue and strengthen the Kyoto Protocol.
Scientists tell us that to avoid dangerous climate change, governments must agree to deep reductions in greenhouse gases, including carbon emissions from the destruction of our forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems.
Continued at link....Yes they do indeed:
David Suzuki: "In 1992, I attended an event that filled me... more
Warming temperatures could lead to a significant increase in the productivity of high-elevation forests in the region, researchers at Oregon State University and the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station found.Warming temperatures could lead to a significant increase in the productivity of... more
I’ve said before that climate change is not just an environmental issue, but it turns out that a famous tree hugger cause has a big role in global warming. Deforestation is responsible for about 20 percent of global GHG pollution — more than all the world’s cars, trucks, planes, and ships combined.
There is some good news on this front, though.Blog Action Day post from Through a Green Lens:
I’ve said before that climate... more
More than a decade ago in the northeast corner of Bolivia, a group of polluters and environmentalists joined forces in the first large-scale experiment to curb climate change with a strategy that promised to suit their competing interests: compensating for greenhouse gas emissions by preserving forests.
The coalition of U.S. utility companies, two nonprofit groups and the Bolivian government had the common goal of making a dent in the worldwide deforestation that accounts for about 17 percent of greenhouse gas emissions each year. The outcome of that experiment is fueling debate over a key element in international climate strategy.
While the Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project has succeeded in keeping a biologically rich preserve of more than 6,000 square miles free from logging, it has fallen far short of its goal of reducing emissions. The mix of pragmatism and idealism -- providing powerful financial incentives to encourage influential companies and poor countries to work together to slow global warming -- shows the complexity of a much-heralded approach that Democratic lawmakers and international negotiators are trying to write into law.
Preventing the clearing and burning of tropical forests, which help absorb carbon dioxide and provide habitat to an array of species, has become a critical objective for environmentalists.
"It doesn't matter who caused the problem. We are in it together," said Wangari Maathai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work on tree planting in Africa and appealed to President Obama in a meeting last week on the need to preserve forests overseas. "If forests can be kept standing, it would be good for developed nations, it would be good for the developing world."
It also gives the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases more affordable carbon credits under the cap-and-trade system Congress is now debating. Without international offsets, pollution allowances would be 89 percent more expensive under the climate bill authored by Democratic Reps. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.) and Edward J. Markey (Mass.), according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Sixty percent of the international offsets would come from tropical forests, the agency said.
"Including offsets from tropical forests in a climate bill is a key to affordability," said Nigel Purvis, executive director of the bipartisan Commission on Climate and Tropical Forests. "It would be geopolitically and economically foolish for us to push back on that."
But a report Greenpeace will release Thursday questions the premise of using forest conservation overseas to compensate for U.S. pollution, noting that Noel Kempff envisioned keeping 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere over 30 years but has lowered that expectation to 5.8 million. The revised estimates do not take into account that logging may have moved to areas to the north, east and southwest of the project. And the report notes that the project's three corporate underwriters -- American Electric Power, BP America and PacifiCorp -- overestimated how much carbon the project kept from entering the atmosphere, telling the EPA it accounted for 7.4 million metric tons from 1997 to 2004.
"At this crucial time, with the [climate] negotiations in Copenhagen and U.S. legislation, can we afford to take a gamble on what the backers of these programs say haven't been as effective as they anticipated?" said Greenpeace spokesman Daniel Kessler.
American Electric Power chief executive Michael G. Morris said Greenpeace is naive to suggest the world should create a multibillion-dollar fund to preserve forests instead of letting corporations undertake these initiatives to meet their bottom line.
"When Greenpeace says the only reason American Electric Power wants to do this is because it doesn't want to shut down its coal plants, my answer is, 'You bet, because our coal plants serve our customers very cost-effectively.'More than a decade ago in the northeast corner of Bolivia, a group of polluters and... more
The Irony of 'preventing' destruction in the Cambodian forest.
A world away from the pubs and clubs that act as an ecstasy feeding ground for modern day party goers, Adam Yamaguchi embarks on a mission to find out how far globalisation has pushed the illegal drug business, and the devastating effects that it is having on the environment. A long nights drive across dirt tracks and a four hour hike in to the Cambodian jungle, the team find one of the camps where people are illegally harvesting the oil out of trees to begin the life of the ecstasy pill.
Forest Of Ecstasy airs Monday 19th October at 10pm. Sky 183, Virgin Media 155.The Irony of 'preventing' destruction in the Cambodian forest.
A world away from... more
Give tropical forests back to the people who live in them – and the trees will soak up your carbon for you. Above all, keep the forests out of the hands of government. So concludes a study that has tracked the fate of 80 forests worldwide over 15 years.
Most tropical forests – from Himalayan hill forests to the Madagascan jungle – are controlled by local and national governments. Forest communities own and manage little more than a tenth. They have a reputation for trashing their trees – cutting them for timber or burning them to clear land for farming. In reality the opposite is true, according to Ashwini Chhatre of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In the first study of its kind, Chhatre and Arun Agrawal of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor compared forest ownership with data on carbon sequestration, which is estimated from the size and number of trees in a forest. Hectare-for-hectare, they found that tropical forest under local management stored more carbon than government-owned forests. There are exceptions, says Chhatre, "but our findings show that we can increase carbon sequestration simply by transferring ownership of forests from governments to communities".Give tropical forests back to the people who live in them – and the trees will soak... more
Major reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions are necessary if we are to avoid disastrous climate change.Major reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions are necessary if we are to avoid... more
A revolutionary UN scheme to cut carbon emissions by paying poorer countries to preserve their forests is a recipe for corruption and will be hijacked by organized crime without safeguards, a Guardian investigation has found.
The UN, the World Bank, the UK and individuals including Prince Charles have strongly backed UN plans to expand the global carbon market to allow countries to trade the carbon stored in forests.
If, as expected, this is agreed at crucial UN climate change talks taking place in Bangkok this week and concluding in Copenhagen in December, up to $30bn a year could be transferred from rich countries to the owners of endangered forests.
But experts on all sides of the debate, from international police to politicians to conservationists, have warned this week that the scheme, called Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (Redd), may be impossible to monitor and may already be leading to fraud. The UN itself accepts there are "high risks".
Interpol, the world's leading policing agency, said this week that the chances were very high that criminal gangs would seek to take advantage of Redd schemes, which will be largely be based in corruption-prone African and Asian countries.
"Alarm bells are ringing. It is simply too big to monitor. The potential for criminality is vast and has not been taken into account by the people who set it up," said Peter Younger, Interpol environment crimes specialist and author of a new report for the World Bank on illegal forestry.
"Organised crime syndicates are eyeing the nascent forest carbon market. I will report to the bank that Redd schemes are open to wide abuse," he said.
The significance of the felling of forests across great swaths of the world cannot be overstated - it is are responsible for about 20% of the globe's entire carbon emissions. With governments anxious to find new ways to meet increasingly stringent national emission targets, a scheme which promises to benefit poor countries, cut emissions cheaply and not require any new technology is highly attractive.
But most of the countries rich in forests are also home to some of the world's most corrupt politicians and uncontrolled logging companies, who stand to make billions of dollars if they can get Redd projects approved.
"Fraud could include claiming credits for forests that do not exist or were not protected or by land grabs. It starts with bribery or intimidation of officials, then there's threats and violence against those people. There's forged documents too," said Younger. "Carbon trading transcends borders. I do not see any input from any law enforcement agency in planning Redd."A revolutionary UN scheme to cut carbon emissions by paying poorer countries to... more
Indigenous people from south-east Peru are suing Repsol-YPF and US company Hunt Oil over their plans to explore for oil on their land.
Local indigenous organisation FENAMAD has filed a lawsuit asking for an injunction to be placed on both the companies’ activities. The suit argues that the government did not consult with local people before giving the companies permission to work there, as is required under international law, and oil exploration would violate local peoples’ fundamental human rights to ‘enjoy a balanced environment’.
Hunt and Repsol-YPF own the rights to explore in an area known as ‘Lot 76’, which includes land belonging to the Yine, Matsigenka and Harakmbut tribes. At the heart of the Lot is the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, used by many villages in the region and the source of six rivers that are the only fresh water supply for an estimated ten thousand people.
‘FENAMAD hopes that this legal action will paralyze any activity inside the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve, as otherwise the very existence of Madre de Dios’s indigenous peoples would be put at risk,’ said FENAMAD spokesperson Jaime Corisepa.
Watch a film of the meeting with Hunt http://fenamad-indigenas.blogspot.com/ (in Spanish), entitled ‘See how the Peruvian Amazon’s indigenous peoples say ‘NO’ to Hunt Oil company’.Survival International
Indigenous people from south-east Peru are suing Repsol-YPF... more
A heartbreaking article about the main and man-made cause of Kenya's current catastrophic drought, its many dramatic consequences, and the radical but logical measures that will be taken.A heartbreaking article about the main and man-made cause of Kenya's current... more
Walking down the Suck Creek Mountain Road in Prentice Cooper State Forest, I was on my way to the see kayaking, but I never made it. However, I took some time to enjoy some of God's beautiful nature. I have seen this little hole in the side of this rock more than a hundred times, but never got in it, so today I did. I like the scenery and the way the trees enclose you with all of the leaves still on them is kind of neat.Walking down the Suck Creek Mountain Road in Prentice Cooper State Forest, I was on my... more
We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.
The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.
HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.
It's a great tragedy that the initial dramatic effects of global warming are felt more at the poles and in the tropics rather than in the temperate area of the rich, greedy and polluter West. If the environmental disaster began to hit us too the Western public and politicians would understand that the danger is real and imminent and it's essential to do something before it's too late. The next important opportunity to wake up is the UN climate conference scheduled for December in Copenhagen.It's a great tragedy that the initial dramatic effects of global warming are felt more... more
I went to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park on 09-10-2009 and was able to get several videos and photos of beautiful scenery and sites. I hope that everyone will view and enjoy my videos and please rate them as I have tried very hard to get the best views.
Here we see a giant tunnel for automobiles to pass through the mountains. Watch as vehicles come out and go into the tunnel. There are more visitors to our national and state parks every year. Everyone loves to go to the forest, but, the problem is the emission of fumes from gasoline operated engines. The pollution of the forest is one of the leading causes other than pestilence that destroys the oxygen needed for proper growth and natural provision,I went to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park on 09-10-2009 and was able to get... more
This evening, 09-13-2009, I received an email from WTVC NewsChannel 9 in Chattanooga, Tennesee informing me that the photos and story that I had provided for consideration to be approved for their website was accepted.
After seeing the ash trees dead and dying at Clingmans Dome atop The Great Smokey Mountain National Park, I could not keep my mind from wondering is there anything at all that could be done? I know that Park crews already are waging a costly and time-consuming battle against the hemlock woolly adelgid, an insect pest that destroys hemlock trees. Biologists say it's only a matter of time before the emerald ash borer reaches the park, which straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee state line. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2404403&l=0184ba344e&id=730049720
NEWS FLASH: It is already in the park. See for yourself in my new video if you have not seen it already or if you have not been to Clingmans Dome lately. http://current.com/items/90930239_the-ash-trees-are-dying-in-the-great-smokey-mountains.htm
Have you ever seen a flower, a bug, a tree, a weed, a garden, an animal, or a human-being come to life, or sustain life without the existance of water? The answer is no. Anything, if to maintain life, must by all means, have water to live.
The human body is 75% water. Should we lose water, then we lose our existance.Have you ever seen a flower, a bug, a tree, a weed, a garden, an animal, or a... more
The paper and timber industry's green certification for wood and paper products, SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) is about to qualify as an accepted certification under LEED which has become the standard for green building certification. But SFI's lack of credibility and loose guidelines make it anything but green or sustainable.The paper and timber industry's green certification for wood and paper products, SFI... more
