Bush’s Climate-Change Feint

You’ve probably all heard that the President suddenly is interested in climate change and he even wants to have an international conference to set caps on emissions to establish “aspirational goals” on the emission of greenhouse gases.

Every week Washington Post’s Dam Froomkin writes a long and detailed column about the White House — White House Watch. Today he examined Mr. Bush’s apparent change of heart in excruciating detail. Bush’s Climate-Change Feint. By Dan Froomkin. Washington Post. Most of detail is near the end of this long piece. To sum it up, almost everyone is very skeptical of Bush making any real change.

Alan Gregory seriously injured in bicycle mishap

We have all enjoyed Alan Gregory’s conservation news, and Alan has been a regular poster to this blog.

I’m very sad to report “Alan was struck while cycling by an elderly driver turning left who failed to look in his oncoming direction on 4/29. He was within several hundred yards of being back home. He has been in the hospital since with TBI (traumatic brain injury, no broken bones.) His prognosis is uncertain but he is responding in various ways, trying to talk and is alert a good part of the time but agitated, with periods of quiet.”

The above is from his spouse. She responded to my query. I noticed his page had not been updated for some time. Another blogger also told me he had been injured in a cycling accident.

I greatly hope that he will recover fully from the TBI, and be back blogging and enjoying the outdoors soon.

NASA Administrator Questions Need to Fight Global Warming

NASA Administrator Questions Need to Fight Global Warming. By Marc Kaufman. Washington Post Staff Writer.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says that although global warming is changing Earth’s climate, he’s not convinced that is “a problem we must wrestle with.”

The NASA chief — whose agency has come under fire in Congress for cutting several programs designed to monitor climate change — also says it’s “rather arrogant” for people to take the position that today’s climate is the optimal one.

This is a unique new argument for not doing anything about global warming, and it is a silly one. Those who want to stop global warming are not acting out of hubris, but recognize that humanity and the rest of life on Earth is adapted for cooler temperatures than we have now and certainly lower ones than what we will see.

The fact that this Bush Administrator would make such a specious argument shows the politicization of yet another agency.

Copper Basin: A secluded bastion of the Old West

Jason Kauffman wrote a fine story on Copper Basin, a beautiful mountain valley hemmed in between the Pioneer and White Knob Mountains about 20 miles east of Hailey, Idaho.

Copper Basin could be Idaho’s Lamar Valley with similar wildlife, and even better scenery, but it has a big problem . . . cows, lots of them . . . all the way to timberline and right up into the rocks at the end of the alpine tundra.

Story. Copper Basin: A secluded bastion of the Old West. Sun Valley Guide. Summer 2007.

Pronghorn in Copper Basin. Photo copyright Ralph Maughan

Copper Basin and the Pioneer Mountains. Copyright Ralph Maughan