ADMINISTRATION ORDERED TO DECIDE ON POLAR BEARS ELIGIBILITY FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES PROTECTION BY MAY 15th

Good news for our furry white friends, the Polar Bears, came earlier this week when a courageous federal judge ruled that the Bush Administration had violated federal law by delaying it’s decision as to whether it will allow polar bears to receive protection under the Endangered Species Act.

In her ruling, Judge Claudia Wilken of Federal District Court in Oakland, Calif., ordered the Bushies to make such a decision by May 15th or be held in contempt of court. Additionally the judge ordered that the decision take effect immediately, setting aside the usual 30-day grace period

Currently, our nation’s polar bear population faces the threat of extinction from rising temperatures and rapidly melting sea ice, two conditions, which have caused food shortages, and led to the destruction of much of their native Alaskan habitat.

Kudos to our friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Center for Biological Diversity, and Greenpeace for pursuing and financing the litigation, which led to this important victory.

Not surprisingly, the boys and girls in the executive branch have used the delay to ram through questionable gas and oil leases in the area in question.

Additionally, if I had to venture a guess as to whether the polar bears will receive endangered species protection from the Bush administration, my guess would be no. Drilling in the Artic has long been a goal of the Bush administration and granting polar bears protected status would bring an end to such activities.

Thankfully, the NRDC, for one, has pledged to continue the good fight until all of America’s polar bears win the protection they so urgently need. Should any of our loyal readers have a few spare bucks lying around – I know, what’s the chance of that in this economy – consider sending them off with a letter of support to the good people at any of the groups listed above.

- LIB

READ MORE ABOUT THIS COMPELLING STORY

TO OBTAIN GREEN CERTIFICATION A FARM MUST MEET CERTAIN STANDARDS FOR MANAGING WETLANDS, NUTRIENTS AND PESTS. WATER AND SOIL CONSERVATION MEASURES ARE REVIEWED, AND BIODIVERSITY AND WORKER SAFETY ARE ALSO CONSIDERED

Nearly 29 million households bought a fresh Christmas tree last year, according to industry estimates. This year those consumers, well at least a lucky 200,000 of them, will have another option available to them. This year they will be able to buy a Christmas tree grown under environmentally sustainable conditions. A “green” Christmas tree, so to speak.

Sustainable Christmas trees are the brainchild of several of the nation’s largest Christmas tree growers. To be certified “green”, a grower must comply with strict standards established for managing wetlands, nutrients and pests. Water usage and soil conservation measures are also considered, as are biodiversity and worker safety.

“These measures help mitigate some of the environmental dangers of Christmas tree farming, such as excessive use of pesticides and contribution to erosion,” according to today’s Associated Press posting on the topic.

The green trees will be recognizable by special labeling. If you are in the market for a Christmas tree this holiday season, why not buy green. You will be glad you did.

-LIB

MORE…

SONAR COULD CAUSE WIDESPREAD HARM TO NEARLY 30 SPECIES OF MARINE MAMMALS

A federal judge in Los Angeles barred the Navy on Monday from using powerful underwater sonar blasts for anti-submarine tests off California’s Channel Islands, and warned that the sonar could cause widespread harm to nearly 30 species of marine mammals, including five species of endangered whales.

The preliminary injunction from U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper was issued while environmental organizations, led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, are suing both the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service to prevent the sonar experiments.

Active sonar pulses at certain mid-frequency ranges beneath the sea act very much like radar signals do through space, bouncing back from targets – such as spacecraft, planes or even features on the moon, for example – and identifying them.

MORE….

THE TYPES OF VALUES AND NORMS THAT CIRCULATE IN RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS TEND TO BE SELF-SACRIFICING AND PRO-FAMILY.

I am not sure how I feel about providing children with a religious education. I had one and I don’t think it made me a better person.

One thing is for sure; religion with it’s fire and brimstone approach to life sure as hell complicated the things for me, particularly in the already difficult teenage years.

What did make me a better person were the experiences that one encounters in the course of their daily life. There is much nastiness, hate and other bad things in our world today and for the last century or so.

This being so, it did not take long for me to decide that I wanted something better than all that. Further consideration made me realize that I could not want better things for me and mine and not wish them for others as well. Yes, I know, the Golden Rule and I don’t mean the one practiced by far too many Americans today; the one about he who has the gold makes the rules. Here I am a strict traditionalist.

Contrasting my 14 years of Catholic school religious indoctrination is my 21 years old daughter’s story. For the most part she did not receive a formal religious education, though there were a few years at the local Friends Christian school. Unlike me, she was from a young age, taught by her saintly mother the difference between right and wrong and how to recognize one from the other. She was then held to that standard in all aspects of her life.

This method obviously worked. The proof is in the fact that she is a kind, considerate young woman who I am proud to have as a daughter. I am happy also that as she grew through her teenage years, she was fortunate enough to discover a belief structure that worked for her, and is happy in that choice. This is not something that that many people can say, otherwise we would not see all of the migration religion to religion that we see in our world today. Nor, would the extreme groups be as popular as they are.

Clearly many of our regular readers will have different opinions on this topic. For that reason, I have included the findings of a new study by Social Science Research, stated to be the first study to look at the effects of religion on young child development.

It is their contention that Kids with religious parents are better behaved and adjusted than other children. They have isolated the following three reasons for this condition.

First, religious networks provide social support to parents, he said, and this can improve their parenting skills. Children who are brought into such networks and hear parental messages reinforced by other adults may also “take more to heart the messages that they get in the home,” he said.

Secondly, the types of values and norms that circulate in religious congregations tend to be self-sacrificing and pro-family. These “could be very, very important in shaping how parents relate to their kids, and then how children develop in response,” he said.

Finally, religious organizations imbue parenting with sacred meaning and significance, he said.

LiveScience.com has a more specific breakdown on the data. Follow this link to LiveScience

- LIB

Read On….

AT FULL CAPACITY, THE 10-MEGAWATT PROJECT COULD POWER 10,000 HOMES.

New York state is teaming up with a Virginia company to use the East River for a unique experiment in renewable energy: Six giant turbines are being placed underwater in a $7 million project to harness the energy of the tides and produce electricity.

One of the 16-foot-diameter, windmill-like turbines is already operating, supplying power to a grocery store and a garage on Roosevelt Island. The other turbines are being installed over the next two weeks.

“We’re looking for the most cost-effective way to get the most energy out of moving water while having a positive impact on the environment,”

Read On….

REBRANDS DISCOVERY HOME INTO THE FIRST 24-HOUR NETWORK DEDICATED TO GREEN LIFESTYLE PROGRAMMING

Discovery Communications Chief Executive David Zaslav announced Thursday at the network’s upfront presentation plans for Discovery PlanetGreen, a multiplatform initiative that aims to reach consumers on varied levels.

The PlanetGreen project includes rebranding the existing Discovery Home Channel into the first 24-hour network dedicated to green lifestyle programming; it is expected to reach 50 million U.S. homes when it debuts in 2008. Discovery also is investing $50 million in original programming and creating an online environment with original video content and interactive forums.

The network will set up an advisory board to aid in global endeavors, host a PlanetGreen Innovation Conference, attempt to make its global headquarters a carbon-neutral building and work with partners such as the Nature Conservancy.

In addition to PlanetGreen, Discovery will announce more original programming for its HD channel, Discovery HD Theater, during the upfront presentation to advertisers.

Eileen O’Neill, a senior executive and former general manager of Discovery Health Channel, will lead the Discovery PlanetGreen initiative.

SOURCE: TV WEEK

REPLACEMENT TISSUE FOR TRANSPLANTS COULD BE AVAILABLE WITHIN THREE YEARS IF TRIALS ARE SUCCESSFUL

Now we’re talking. This is good news for anyone suffering from cronic heart disease.

But the longstanding implications of this announcement are far greater, since a significant by-product of this research is an acceleration of the day when doctors will be able to grow replacement organs specific to an for individual. This will eliminate the need for today’s best option, the transplant process. Organs genetically matched for the individual will eliminate the lifetime need for immune supression drugs, and the toll that those take on the body. - LIB

A British research team led by the world’s leading heart surgeon has grown part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time. If animal trials scheduled for later this year prove successful, replacement tissue could be used in transplants for the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from heart disease within three years.

Sir Magdi Yacoub, a professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, has worked on ways to tackle the shortage of donated hearts for transplant for more than a decade. His team at the heart science centre at Harefield hospital have grown tissue that works in the same way as the valves in human hearts, a significant step towards the goal of growing whole replacement hearts from stem cells.

Read On….

RULING TERMINATES LOGGING AND MINING IN NATIONAL FORESTS

Finally a dose of sanity returns as the Federal Courts work to undue some of the damage of the Bush administration. Kudos, Judge Hamilton.

- LIB

A federal judge on Friday tossed out new Bush administration rules that gave national forest managers more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects without lengthy environmental reviews.

U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that the government failed to adequately consider the effects the rules would have on the environment and neglected to properly gather public comment on the issue.

Hamilton said in her written decision that the government couldn’t institute the new rules until proper environmental reviews were conducted, but she declined to specify how the nation’s 155 national forests should be managed until then.

The ruling overturns a key administration environmental rule that governs all 192 million acres of national forests and stops plans such as logging and mining in the parks.

Read On….

Related: Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton strikes down the “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003″

SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES DEALT CRUSHING BLOW AS SOUTH DAKOTA REJECTS ABORTION BAN. ARIZONA DEFEATS GAY MARRIAGE BAN AND MISSOURI BACKS STEM CELL RESEARCH

In a triple setback for conservatives, South Dakota rejected a law that would have banned virtually all abortions, Arizona became the first state to defeat an amendment to ban gay marriage and Missouri approved a measure backing stem cell research.

Nationwide, a total of 205 measures were on the ballots Tuesday in 37 states, but none had riveted political activists across the country like the South Dakota measure. Passed overwhelmingly by the legislature earlier this year, it would have been the toughest abortion law in the nation, allowing the procedure only to save a pregnant woman’s life.

Lawmakers had hoped the ban would be challenged in court, provoking litigation that might eventually lead to a U.S. Supreme Court reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

Read On….

Source AP

We received this earlier today from Defenders of Wildlife, via Macman, Paul Hillson of Paul Hillson Design, a regular contributor to this and our other website, recoveringliberal.com.

It is an important aspect that should be considered by our elected officials when structuring any immigration bill, but unfortunately will be overlooked unless we do our part by letting them know how we feel.

LIB

Illegal immigration — and America’s efforts to control it — has taken a heavy toll on America’s border wildlife. But this week we have a chance to do something to protect the jaguars, wolves and other wildlife along our borders.

The Senate is now considering its immigration bill, and you can help ensure that wildlife is protected. Please call your Senators and urge them to support wildlife-sensitive border security.

About half of the land along the Mexican border and a quarter of the land along the Canadian border are federal and tribal lands.

These areas include national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, forests and wilderness. Jaguars, the highly endangered Sonoran pronghorn, desert tortoises and other imperiled wildlife all make their home in these beautiful and often remote places.

Unfortunately, Border Patrol activities and illegal crossings have severely damaged these sensitive areas in ways that could take decades to repair.

A decade ago, the Border Patrol increased enforcement efforts in urban areas, shifting undocumented border crossings into more remote areas. These crossings and efforts to stop them — have serious impacts for sensitive desert habitat and the wildlife that needs it to survive.

Trails and roads carved by illegal immigrants can destroy sensitive vegetation and wildlife habitat. The fragile desert soils and plants could take over a century to recover.
Trash and human waste left behind during illegal border crossings affect soil and water quality. Abandoned vehicles are expensive to remove and towing them causes additional damage.

Similarly, low-level helicopter flights by the Border Patrol disturb wildlife and habitat. Off-road vehicle patrols also damage sensitive regions vital to local wildlife. And U.S. road-, light-, and fence-building projects disturb wildlife, destroy habitat and shift animal migratory patterns.

Senators Craig Thomas (R-WY), John Kyl (R-AZ), Ken Salazar (D-CO) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) have offered an amendment to the immigration bill that would address many of these issues, and Defenders is urging wildlife supporters like you to support it.

Help support responsible border control efforts. The Senate could vote on the immigration bill any minute, so please call your Senators now (if they don’t answer, please leave a message).

Thanks for standing up for sensible border security and responsible management of our country’s borderlands and the precious wildlife that lives there.