Another G8 Summit, another protest.

Thousands rallied in northern Japan calling for the G8 rich industrialised nations to be disbanded on Saturday while in Paris, member France called for the group to grow to include major emerging states such as China and India.

In Sapporo, several thousand people protested against the annual Group of Eight summit due to take place at a luxury hotel 70 km (45 miles) away.

The 90-minute march by Japanese and foreign activists took place under heavy security ahead of the July 7-9 meeting at the hot spring and lake resort of Toyako.

The only bad thing about these protests is that nobody important ever listens to the voices of the protestors. The only people that pay attention anymore are the activists themselves, and once in a while a news story like this will show up. That's about it.

It's too bad, though, because the protesters usually have some very good things to say.

This is interesting and noteworthy:

Planning to fly off to the tropics? Well, its time you reconsidered your holiday plans, for according to a new research, a typical flight there has a greater impact on global warming than a flight in temperate latitudes.

As well as producing carbon dioxide and contrails, planes also produce nitrogen oxide, which triggers both the creation of the warming gas ozone, and the destruction of another greenhouse gas, methane, according to the study.

According to Keith Shine of the University of Reading, UK, in mid-latitudes, the ozone and methane reactions cancel each other out and you get zero net warming from nitrogen oxide emissions, reports New Scientist.

But the brighter sunlight in the tropics is very efficient at converting nitrogen oxide to ozone - in fact it creates ozone five times faster than in the air of mid-latitudes, according to Shine's calculations.

Whereas methane destruction only increases marginally, Shine added.

Hopefully when I'm ready to retire, train service to Florida will be much better than it is today, and then rail passengers can hop on my boat and I'll take you to any tropical island you want to visit :)

Sorry about the downtime. Some asshole decided to constantly download every file on this site over and over and over again a little over a week ago, and they ended up using several gigs worth of my available bandwidth. I caught it before it got too bad, but as the end of the month came up I was dangerously close to going over my limit. Seeing as how I get hosting for this site for free, I don't want to abuse my bandwidth limits, which are honestly extremely generous. Because of that, I decided the best thing to do would simply be to put the site in maintenance mode rather than have everything disappear with an ugly error message.

On another note, things should be back to normal now that we're in a new month, and I've added a new auto-generated news page: LGBT News.

This isn't just an environmental blog, but a blog about the problems preventing us from creating a truly global community. That means everything from protecting endangered species to politics to climate change and human rights issues, of which LGBT issues are a part and will continue to be covered here.

A lot of people out there are apparently weather fanatics like me. While I'm typically more of a news junkie, I am absolutely fascinated by weather, which tends to go along with my interest in climate change and other environmental issues. It all started in the 9th grade when my earth science teacher, fresh out of college, managed to draw my attention away from girls long enough to seed a life-long interest in weather science that has continued to grow as I've gotten older.

My interest in the weather grew even more after I joined the Coast Guard, especially since lives depend on weather knowledge when you're at sea. Since then I've continued to grow my interest in weather. I'm no expert, by any means, but I like to think I have a better than average understanding of what is happening with the weather on any given day.

Now, with a sister living in St. Louis, I have a little more of a personal interest in the weather, namely the flooding that's taking place along the Mississippi River. And when my interest gets piqued, I generally start looking for datasets I can open up in Google Earth. Ideally I'd like to find satellite imagery overlays to show current flooding on the map itself, but I haven't found that. What I have found, though, is probably the next best thing.

The National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey have a few .kml files you can open up in Google Earth (or any other mapping software that supports the .kml file format). Here they are...

• USGS Water Watch: An interactive map that shows real time water flow in streams and rivers. Link to the .kml file is at the bottom of the page.
• NWS River Data: Similar data to the USGS data, but presented a little differently.
• guiWeather KML Warehouse: Several very cool weather overlays that are informative, although not specific to flooding.
• NOAA Realtime WDSSII Data: Realtime weather data from NOAA, with a variety of different overlays
• SSEC Data: University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science & Engineering Center has a number of different satellite image overlays available
• NASA Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission: This one is very cool, and the page has a ton of different rainfall total datasets that can be loaded into Google Earth.

I have more kml files that I personally use, but don't have links to their sources at the moment. I'll have to dig them out and upload the actual .kml files to the server for direct download but can't do that from here. I'll try to get them up when I get home later this evening.

If you have others that I haven't listed here, please feel free to add them in the comments and I'll put them up in the main post.

UPDATE: I found a massively comprehensive list of weather overlays for Google Earth at Wunder Blog from Weather Underground. They list just about everything you can think of, and even more.

UPDATE 2: Found it! Here's an overlay graphic taken from NASA's Terra satellite showing the flooded areas and breached levies in the Midwest. Click Here to get it.

UPDATE 3: More! If you're looking for more current, up to date images you can go to the MODIS Rapid Response System page from NASA and get the latest images in a variety of resolutions.

This file is a 250 meter resolution image that clearly shows where the levies have failed in much higher detail than the file linked above. It is a very large file, though, and may take a minute or so to download. You can also download it directly from the NASA MODIS page I linked.

UPDATE 4:I pulled the link to the 250m image because it was killing my bandwidth. Someone has been downloading it pretty much non-stop for a couple of days so rather than run into bandwidth limit problems, I decided to get rid of the link. You can still download the file from the MODIS website.

I'm getting a lot of requests via email for more information about the Divest for Darfur program. I personally don't have any official connection with the program, however if you're coming here looking for more information, you can go to the Divest for Darfur website.

I created a new auto-generated news page today. This one covers Mass Transit.

Those assholes in Iceland have killed another polar bear. How fucking expensive is a tranquelizer gun?

So Republican Congressmen are celebrating the many accomplishments of George W. Bush, in spite of his gawd-awful approval ratings and the fact that 84% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. What are they celebrating? Accomplishments like this

Possibly my favorite television journalist, Aaron Brown's new show on PBS, Wide Angle, will be tackling the massive humanitarian crisis that is Darfur.

In the half-century since Sudan was granted independence from colonial rule, the country has been in a chronic state of civil war. Most of the fighting has been between the Arab-controlled central government in Khartoum and rebels in the predominantly Christian and animist south. But in 2003, rebels in the Darfur region of western Sudan — a predominantly black, Muslim area — rose up against the central government, angered by the economic and political marginalization of their region.

In response, government-backed militias known as the janjaweed began a “scorched earth” campaign — riding on horseback, the janjaweed looted shops, raped women, and burned entire villages to the ground. Five years later, United Nations officials estimate that as many as 300,000 people may have been killed, and more than 2.5 million have been displaced.

[...]

Heart of Darfur takes a look at the people and places affected by the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Our cameras follow the people working to bring an end to the conflict and suffering, such as Mohamed Siddig Suliman, a Darfuri aid worker who has been working in the region for more than 20 years. We travel into the expanding Sahara desert with Siddig, where, he explains, three decades of drought conditions have led to fighting over scarce resources—one of the root causes of the conflict in Darfur.

We also meet General Martin Luther Agwai, the former head of the Nigerian Armed Forces, who now leads UNAMID, the joint U.N./African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur. The film follows Gen. Agwai as he helicopters into hostile areas to meet with leaders of various rebel factions. We learn that he is concerned about the fragmentation of the rebel groups, the logistics of UNAMID’s deployment, the expectations on the mission, and the limits of his power. Still, Gen. Agwai manages to have a positive outlook.

The documentary premiers on July 1, 2008.

Jennifer Moss, aka Earth Friend Jen or the Pastie Lady, is back in the news. Now she's in Oregon, and wants to ride topless in the local 4th of July parade.

A woman seen frequently in Ashland riding topless on her bicycle says she plans to be in Ashland's Fourth of July parade free and independent of all clothing but a hemp G-string. The Chamber of Commerce says that's contrary to the rules for the family celebration. She says she'll sue if she can't parade as she wishes.

Jen Moss has been known as "The Naked Lady" since she moved to Ashland in May from Ojai, Calif., drawn by the town's nudity laws. They specify only that people must cover their genitalia in a city park or the downtown commercial district, which means Moss need not cover her breasts.

The police in California, she says, harassed her when she rode her bicycle wearing a G-string and pasties.

Moss applied for an entry for the parade, which draws thousands each year.

The Ashland Chamber of Commerce learned of her coverage plans from an online posting. She promised to lead in-line skaters "wearing only a hemp G-string and blowing a conch shell."

"We don't feel that someone in the parade who is topless or nearly naked is appropriate for a family audience," said parade chairman James Kidd.

Eh, this is one I wouldn't get too worked up over if I were Jen. Although I have to admit it would make me a little more likely to attend the parade if I knew topless ladies were going to be in it.

UPDATE: Oops, forgot to add the link. You can find the full article here.

UPDATE 2: Welcome to all the visitors from Buzz Feed. I guess being labeled a perv can be a good thing at times, even if my comments were meant as a joke...

I'm not sure what to make of this story. I know some pretty hard-core, right-wing folks who are vehemently anti-gay, but to whisper into the ear of a dying man "Satan Got You!" "What is the Devil whispering in your ear about now?" is just... seriously fucked up.

Check out the whole story here.

I'm not sure what the hell is happening here, but it appears that Republicans in the Senate are hell-bent on disrupting any form of actual work. Two days in a row now, while testimony was being given that was damaging to the Bush administration, Republicans used a little-known Senate rule to shut down Judiciary committee hearings. Don't take my word for it, watch the video and see for yourself.

With the price of gasoline at or above $4.00 per gallon for most people in the U.S., commuters and travelers are finally hopping on the train or taking the bus. The problem is, so many people are doing so that our infrastructure simply can't handle this many passengers.

The story is the same everywhere: In Seattle, commuter rail ridership recorded the biggest jump in the nation during the first quarter, with 28 percent more riders than during the same time last year. Ridership in Harrisburg, Pa., rose 17 percent. In Oakland, Calif., it rose 15.8 percent.

Nationwide, Americans took 2.6 billion bus, subway, commuter rail and light rail trips in the first three months of the year, 85 million more than in the same period in 2007, the American Public Transportation Association said. But it’s not clear that the nation’s transit systems are able to handle the load.

While many major cities cities have invested heavily in mass transit over the past 15 years, many more have not. Now that people are demanding service, there isn’t the infrastructure to provide it.

I've read several articles lately about people having to stand and wait for hours at a time because buses are too full and nobody else can get on. But back in Ohio where I used to live, the regional transit authority is actually cutting routes because of a lack of funding, in spite of a jump in ridership and higher fares.

Still, Congress is at least making an attempt to fund some types of mass transit, voting for more than $15 billion in funding to improve and expand the national rail system.

The bipartisan bill, which passed by a veto-proof margin of 311-104, would authorize funding for the national passenger railroad over the next five years. Some of the money would go to a program of matching grants to help states set up or expand rail service.

Besides the $14.9 billion provided for Amtrak and intercity rail, an amendment to the bill would authorize $1.5 billion for Washington's Metro transit system over the next 10 years.

Typically, if it's good for the country and good for the economy, but bad for big oil, the White House is threatening a veto.

The White House has threatened a veto, saying the bill doesn't hold Amtrak accountable for its spending. But similar legislation has passed the Senate, also with enough support to override a veto.

[...]

The Bush administration and other Amtrak critics want to see the company move toward self-sufficiency, but Amtrak supporters say passenger railroads around the globe require government subsidies and point to the large sums of federal money spent on highways.

Let's stop and seriously think about that for a moment. If we were to take our interstate highway system and say "highways have to be self-sufficient", we'd have riots in the streets and near-revolution opposition to it. Every highway would have to become a toll road, and the cost of driving would skyrocket, especially for commuters who use the highways at least twice a day to enter and leave our major cities.

The truth is, a self-sufficient highway system probably isn't even possible, let alone feasible. So why should we expect a passenger rail system to be self-sufficient, especially when it takes cars off the road and reduces pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Ah, yes... it takes cars off the road, which is bad for the Detroit automakers and bad for the oil industry. I know that sounds like a lot of enviro-lefty rhetoric, but thing about it this way... the same people who are complaining about subsidizing passenger rail (and mass transit in general) are the same people who are fighting tooth and nail to continue subsidizing the oil industry. Anybody else notice a correlation between the two?

Got the following press release sent to me this morning...

Conservationists cheered House passage today of another three wilderness bills, and urged the Senate to take the measures up quickly. The bills, which passed by voice vote, will together protect for all Americans more than 320,000 acres of wild public land in California and New Mexico. From California’s iconic Joshua Trees and Giant Sequoias to New Mexico’s 1,000-foot-deep Canon Largo, more of our natural treasures will stay as they are for future generations, thanks to the action of Congress today.

“The U.S. House of Representatives has today given the ‘gold standard’ of protection to some of the country’s most beautiful places,” said Mike Matz, executive director of the Campaign for America's Wilderness. “Passage of these bipartisan bills today sends a strong signal that even in times of polarization and stalemate, lawmakers are working across party lines to find common ground in protecting our wild land,” said Matz. “We are seeing a real renaissance in wilderness protection in this country.”

The measures passed today are:

* The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act (H.R. 3682), introduced by Rep. Bono Mack (R-CA), to protect more than 190,000 acres in Riverside County as wilderness, provide wild and scenic protection to 31 miles of four rivers, and expand the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. A companion bill has been introduced by Sen. Boxer (D-CA).
* The Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness Act (H.R. 3022), sponsored by Rep. Costa (D-CA) and Rep. Nunes (R-CA ), will protect 115,000 acres of wilderness in the Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. Sen. Boxer has sponsored a Senate companion bill.
* The Sabinoso Wilderness Act (H.R. 2632), offered by Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM), would designate more than 15,000 acres in San Miguel County as wilderness.

The House has now cleared five wilderness bills this year (the two others protect land in Oregon and West Virginia), and passed another for wilderness in Virginia last October. Four additional bills, for wilderness in Idaho, Oregon, and Colorado, have cleared the Senate Committee and are awaiting action by the full Senate. A bill creating the Wild Sky Wilderness in Washington State became law last month.

Good, Obama has released a statement on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Change bill. I was a little concerned that he didn't show up to vote for cloture on this bill, but I'll get to that after you read his statement, which is here in full.

“As this week’s debate on climate change has unfolded, the American people and those watching us around the world had every reason to hope that we would act. Every credible scientist and expert believes action is necessary. This is critical and long overdue legislation that represents a good first step in addressing one of the most serious problems facing our generation.

Like many of my Senate colleagues, I believe the legislation could have been made even better. Had there been a substantive Senate debate about some of the concerns with this bill, I believe the outcome could have generated broad support. It certainly would have received my support.

Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the Senate has chosen to block progress, rather than work in a good faith manner to address this challenge. This is a failure of our politics and a failure of leadership — a President who for years denied the problem, and a Republican nominee, John McCain, who claims leadership on the issue but opposes this bipartisan bill.

We can’t afford more of the same timid politics when the future of our planet is at stake. We are already breaking records with the intensity of our storms, the number of forest fires, and the periods of drought. By 2050, famine could force more than 250 million from their homes. And if we do nothing, sea levels will rise high enough to swallow large portions of every coastal city and town.

This bipartisan legislation establishes an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions. It helps states, cities, and towns invest in technologies to reduce energy bills for homeowners, increase energy efficiency, construct green buildings, and expand public transit. It invests in green technology to help our automakers to retool and our fossil-fuel industries to become clean. The bill provides real financial relief to working families. Importantly, the bill restores our great nation’s international leadership role, while including provisions to ensure that all major emitting nations also take serious action to solve this global problem.

Let me clear, this bill is not perfect. Emissions reductions must reflect the scientific consensus, which are reductions of at least 80 percent 2050. We must ensure that more middle-class families reap more of the financial benefits created by this bill. And we must direct greater resources to the regions of the country that will bear the brunt of this critical transition to a clean energy economy.

I believe that the American people are ready to lead the world on this issue. The time for distractions, divisions, and excuses is over. The time for new coalitions, informed and civil debate, and a sense of shared purpose is long overdue. As president, I am committed to ensuring that our children and our children’s children can point to this generation as the time when American found its way again.”

The fact that he did show up to vote for cloture is not a great thing, but it's not entirely bad either since there weren't near enough votes for cloture to happen. At best, only 54 Senators would have voted for cloture, which essentially means the same results would have happened with or without Obama.

It's good, however, that he's as conflicted about Lieberman-Warner as a lot of us are. As much as I want a climate change bill to pass, I would prefer a good, solid bill that actually starts us down the correct path over a lukewarm bill that's been watered down and may be difficult to build on down the road.

Perhaps H.R.6186, the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act introduced by Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts will be more to his liking, and mine as well. We'll see how it plays out, but I don't really expect a major climate change bill to pass until next year.