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Global warming's impacts on state forests: Burn baby burn!
Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencere
State Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark looks out at Washington's unhealthy forests from a pilot's seat, flying his plane from Olympia to his family's ranch in the remote reaches of Okanogan County.

"It is just mind-numbing the damage you see on west facing and south facing slopes . . . an overburden of dead and dying trees," Goldmark said yesterday, referring mainly to predation by pine bark beetles.

Goldmark had just shared his up-close perspective on global warming, and its consequences for trees in the Evergreen State, at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hearing here.

The likely future for our forests through the 21st Century: Burn Baby Burn.

"There is a 33 percent chance that we will see 2 million acres burn in one year by 2080: That is about 5 percent of the entire state," Goldmark told the EPA.

Big fires in our Okanogan, Chelan and Entiat drainages -- and in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, and in central Idaho -- have served as signal flares of what is to come.
(21 May 2009)

Alien Species Eroding Ecosystems and Livelihoods
Stephen Leahy, Inter Press Service
UXBRIDGE, Canada - Continent-hopping alien species are worsening poverty and threaten the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and natural systems that underpin millions of livelihoods in developing countries, warn biodiversity experts.

"The livelihoods for 90 percent of people in Africa directly rely on natural resources such as marine coastal biodiversity," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

"Around the world more than 1.6 billion people depend directly on forests for their survival," he told IPS from Montreal.

Biodiversity is not just fuzzy animals and pretty birds. It is the diversity of life on Earth that comprises ecosystems which in turn provide vital ecosystem services including food, fibre, clean water and air
(22 May 2009)
Also at Common Dreams.

A number of permaculturalists point out that the concept of alien species as "bad" is not as clearcut as is commonly represented. -BA

Eco-vandals take on the gas-guzzlers
James Mann, The Independent
Police are searching for a gang of radical environmental activists after a series of attacks on 4x4 vehicles.

The gang, who claim to have targeted up to 80 vehicles across South Manchester, let down tyres and leave notes accusing the owners of adding to global warming and increasing the chances of road deaths.

In the last week tyres on 20 vehicles were slashed or deflated in the Ladybarn and Withington of the city. This follows similar attacks on 11 cars last month. Police classify the deliberate acts as criminal damage.

A statement from the activists said tyres were deflated rather than slashed. It added: "Given the threat of climate change and the Government's inaction, direct action such as this is, unfortunately, necessary. Large SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles) emit substantially more greenhouse gases."

The statement also said accident victims were six times more likely to die if hit by an SUV rather than a smaller car.

Owners of SUVs – dubbed Chelsea tractors – have been branded irresponsible by environmentalists, for their vehicles' size and fuel consumption. Critics say the large four-wheel drive vehicles were originally intended for use by farmers on rough terrain in the countryside. But they have become popular with middle-class families living in cities and are used for school runs and shopping trips.
(23 May 2009)