Ladywriter 7,783 Report post Posted May 8, 2009 Obama to rule on whether law can be cited to impose greenhouse gas limits WASHINGTON - A decision involving the iconic polar bear could determine whether protecting endangered species might also help save the earth from global warming.The Obama administration is approaching a weekend deadline to decide whether it should allow government agencies to cite the federal Endangered Species Act, which protects the bear, for imposing limits on greenhouse gases from power plants, factories and automobiles even if the pollution occurs thousands of miles from where the polar bear lives. The species law that affords protection for plants, animals and fish that face possible extinction became entangled with the need to reduce pollution linked to global warming more than a year ago. The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species, citing the decline of Arctic sea ice due to global warming. Fearful that the declaration putting the bear under the federal species law might be used to force regulation of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas from burning fossil fuels, the Bush administration issued a special rule: No action outside of the bear's Arctic habitat could be considered as endangering its survival. The limitation, hailed by business groups, prompted lawsuits from environmentalists and action by Congress. In March, federal lawmakers authorized Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to rescind the Bush administration's special rule, thus avoiding any complicated and time-consuming regulatory procedures. The deadline for such action is Saturday, 60 days after Congress acted. Salazar was said to be weighing the issue. Lobbying on the matter has been heavy, and Salazar has given little hint on whether he will rescind the Bush rule. no shit lobbying has been heavy. I've signed so many petitions... Look at the flowers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ladywriter 7,783 Report post Posted May 11, 2009 In the last 60 days, nearly 100,000 of our supporters signed petitions to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar urging him to rescind Bush's 11th-hour special polar bear rule. Thank you for all your help to get the word out to your networks and for signing the petition. I'm writing to let you know that today Salazar confirmed our worst fears for his tenure as Secretary of the Interior -- he announced that he will adopt Bush's polar bear extinction plan, a "special rule" sharply limiting protections for the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, as his own. Salazar's decision to keep the Bush rule is a terrible blow to polar bears and the future of their Arctic habitat. When Salazar responded last week to requests from you, as well as scientists, legal experts, and lawmakers around the country to revoke Bush's nationwide Endangered Species Act regulations, we knew his job was only half done. And his decision today cynically denies the polar bear the full protections it needs to survive. The 60-day opportunity approved by Congress for Salazar to revoke the Bush extinction plan with the stroke of a pen has passed, but we're not giving up. The Center for Biological Diversity is already challenging the polar bear extinction plan in court. We will now ask the judge in that case to throw out this illogical and illegal rule, and will continue to pressure the Obama administration to use our nation's most successful law for the protection of plants and animals on the brink of extinction to fully protect the polar bear. In the face of this bad news I also want to let you know how impressed we have been by the dedication and actions of our supporters to speak out for polar bears and the Endangered Species Act in the last two months. Thank you for your extraordinary efforts. We will continue to count on your support in the months to come. And you can count on us to keep you updated as our legal case develops. Sincerely, Kieran Suckling Executive Director Center for Biological Diversity P.S. For more information on Salazar's decision today to keep Bush's special polar bear extinction plan, check out our press release: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/esa-regulations-05-08-2009.html don't bum out its only a battle not the whole war >.< Look at the flowers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ladywriter 7,783 Report post Posted May 11, 2009 The thing is we don't really have the means to slash emissions as much as we need to just yet. We've got the carbon cap and trade/sequester thing going on. Factories, govt buildings etc are going to be easier to retool then getting a bajillion gas operated vehicles off the road; don't forget recreational vehicles and tractors; shit even yer lawnmower.... Even if the whole world stopped selling gas powered crap today it would still be ten years or more we could phase all this junk out. The problem is as long as these shenanigans go on the deeper the hole we're digging for all the chitlins that come next and next and next. We cant stop the earth changing but we can mitigate the damage. We're at a point where we have to focus on pushing away from the coast and or calling Holland for engineers to build some shits to protect our cities that can withstand noreasters and at least a 5 hurricane. Storm surge, the severity of storms, tornadoes popping up in some really fuckin weird places, extreme temperatures, increase in thunder storms- lateral winds and tornado conditions, exceedingly high precipitation events, drought and desertification. We have to deal with trying to reduce the damage instead of continuously adding to the problem. Think of it this way; places that don't usually get snow freak out (by our standards) when they get some. Schools close, ppl dunno how to drive in it even the plows >.< you get it. See, that kinda stuff is gonna happen more and more frequently. Winter especially has freaked the fuck out in the US. Our schools closed more for drastically low temps then shitty roads this year. We fucking froze hard and "January Thaw" was about a month late. When it snowed the majority of the time it was exceedinly high precipitation events. Syracuse took the golden Snowball award with 149.6 inches of snow recorded at the airport this season. The snow just buried us because it didn't get warm enough to melt any of the fucking shit. Cities n towns had it hauled off by the truckload. It felt like a godamn ice age Look at the flowers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sledgstone 8,672 Report post Posted May 12, 2009 There were so many cold days. I got frostbite damage on my toes this winter while shoveling and that has never happened before. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
