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Pacific Northwest is example of energy boom — and worried biologists

PORTLAND, Ore. - Wind energy may be emerging as an important alternative power source for the Northwest, but there are concerns about the danger to hawks and eagles as turbines expand to wild areas of the Columbia River Gorge.

By year's end, more than 1,500 turbines will be churning out electricity in the windy gorge. Until now, most of the projects have gone up in wheat fields — cultivated land that long ago drove away the rodents that raptors hunt. But as wind energy developers move into wilder areas along the ridge of the gorge, near canyons and shrub-covered rangeland, birds could be at risk from the 150-foot blades of giant turbines.

I wanted to enjoy and capture a last glimpse of Fall 2007 so stopped by the second most important battleground in the history of the environmental movement in NEO, after Whiskey Island, being the Shaker Lakes Nature Center, above (see full size here). Were it not for 11 exceptional women from Shaker, including REALNEOan Martha Eakin's mother, a seriously crude, corrupt, foolish Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairman, former Cuyahoga County Engineer Albert Porter, would have driven freeways through this exact spot in the Shaker Lakes. The scenario is very much like we have in NEO today, with seriously crude, corrupt, foolish political bosses attempting to do seriously crude, corrupt, foolish things to our region, like demolishing the Breuer, over-bridging and retrenching I-90, and likely the "Opportunity Corridor", which is driving far more than 11 exceptional women to take on the latest generation of seriously crude, corrupt, foolish leaders... and, like the Shaker 11, we are winning.

Rockefeller / MLK Drive is as beautiful a place to enjoy nature - these days, fall colors - as any place on Earth that has been touched by man.  As I've been thinking about the Native Americans of this land, and Indians of India and America, and the current hostility in this county of past invaders against all others who want to live here too, I was drawn to the Indian Cultural Garden, today, and it was spectacular (full size image here).

I stood there alone, in one of the world's most beautiful places, as commuting suburbanites whizzzed by, and I thought of the last photos I took near here, of the demolition of historic apartment buildings on East Boulevard, that were part of this park's historic fabric and culture, quietly demolished for parking lots, for the whizzzzzing commuters (Full size images: above and below).

An amazing (and quite funny) man, who invented many amazing things, including wind turbines and the EV1 Electric car. The video runs about 21 minutes, so get your popcorn first.

The Shaker Lakes Regional Nature Center has a photography club and last week Judith K. McMillan presented a (her first) power point presentation outlining her evolution from teacher to photography experimenter par excellence.   Ms. McMillan has a voracious curiosity - producing mosaic photo images of a tire dump in Maine to stark black and white photos of bird nests in the CMNHIstory archives.  

I hope to see this story receive wider notice and attention.

Students charged with hacking school computer, changing grades

It is interesting to reflect on "Cleveland" as a "shrinking city", with 100,000s in declining population, 10,000s of abandoned residential, commercial and industrial lots and buildings covering 1,000s of acres of land, and a failing tax base. Simply put, much of Cleveland is free to the taking, and taxpayers will even pay to get taken by their leaders - the land that is being freed up in this latest Savings and Loan "crisis" is worth $ billions and is being given to the friends of politicians for long term speculation and short term enrichment... what is bad for the poor is very good for the rich, who can buy low (can't beat free, with public subsidy). I'd say all this foreclosure hoopla is as fraudulent as was the housing bubble itself, being pure voodoo economic bullshit media spin to steal from the poor and give to the rich - the "Developed Nations" way and a NEO leadership specialty. I'd like to propose a completely different spin on dealing with our shrinking city crises, which is to give back to the Native Americans what we stole from them in the first place, since we destroyed it and supposedly it is now a burden to we settlers in our cowardly New World.

The Star Neighborhood development plan includes a surface-level RTA Red Line rapid transit stop in East Cleveland, between the E. 120th stop location, to be moved west to the "Triangle", around Mayfield, and the current Superior stop, which is on a raised platform. The new neighborhood rail stop will be more like is found in Shaker, for neighborhood use, and is core to Transit Oriented Development for the surrounding neighborhood, now largely blighted, as illustrated by this pan in the general vicinity of the new stop, taken here at Lakeview and Euclid, at current track-height.

Giving Climate Change a Kick

By Eli Kintisch
ScienceNOW Daily News
9 November 2007

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS--Top climate scientists have cautiously endorsed the need to study schemes to reverse global warming that involve directly tinkering with Earth's climate. <--!break--> Their position on geoengineering, which will likely be controversial, was staked out at an invitation-only meeting that ended here today. It's based on a growing concern about the rapid pace of global change and continued anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases.

"In this room, we've reached a remarkable consensus that there should be research on this," said climate modeler Chris Bretherton of the University of Washington, Seattle, during a morning session today. Phil Rasch, a modeler with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, underscored the point. "We're not saying that there should be geoengineering, we're saying there should be research regarding geoengineering." No formal statement was released at the meeting, which was organized by Harvard University and the University of Calgary, but few of the 50 scientists objected to the idea.

The field of geoengineering has long been big on ideas but short on respect. Some of the approaches that researchers have dreamed up include launching fleets of space-based shades to dim the sunlight hitting Earth or altering the albedo of the ocean with light-colored reflectors. Perhaps the best-known idea is to pump aerosols into the stratosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanoes. But there's been scant support from mainstream scientists, many of whom fear that even mentioning the g-word could derail discussion of carbon-emissions cuts. Others worry that technological tinkering might backfire. "I just accepted on faith as an environmental scientist that this had to be a bad idea," said Harvard's Scot Martin, who said he was reluctantly coming around.

Harvard geochemist Daniel Schrag and physicist David Keith of the University of Calgary thought that geoengineering deserved a closer look (Science, 26 October, p. 551). In an opening presentation yesterday, Schrag explained that extensive, rapid melting of arctic sea ice (ScienceNOW, 2 May) and the fact that the world's 2005 and 2006 carbon emissions from fossil fuels were higher than predictions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are forcing the hands of climate scientists. Schrag also fears that when countries are faced with the prospect of even more drastic environmental change, they will turn to geoengineering regardless of whether the consequences are known. "We're going to be doing this if we're afraid of something really bad happening, like the Greenland ice sheet collapsing," he said.

The degree of scientific uncertainty was clear throughout the 2-day meeting. In a discussion of existing models, climate modeler Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford, California, concluded that reducing the intensity of sunlight hitting Earth by about 2% could "markedly diminish" the massive warming effects of an atmosphere with a carbon dioxide content of 560 parts per million (ppm). (The current level is about 385 ppm.) But over lunch, researchers debated the analysis. "You know you can get some sea ice back," Caldeira said to David Battisti of the University of Washington, Seattle. "I don't know that," Battisti retorted, explaining that Caldeira's model assumed a so-called slab ocean, which does not include the heat circulation patterns that help determine the fate of polar ice.

And then there are the risks. Harvard paleoclimate scientist Peter Huybers told his colleagues during one session that understanding of the world's climate may not be sufficient to properly wield geoengineering tools. "We should be humble about how much we know about the climate system," Huybers said.

Most of the discussion focused on whether to jump-start what has been an anemic research agenda with no public financing. Some participants said that they were spurred into action by a paper that appeared in Climatic Change last year, in which Nobelist Paul Crutzen called for geoengineering research (Science, 20 October 2006, p. 401). Others were swayed more recently. Just 2 weeks ago, modeler Raymond Pierrehumbert of the University of Chicago in Illinois, writing on the RealClimate blog, compared discussing geoengineering to "having a shiny new toy" and told climate scientists to "get back to the serious business of trying to figure out how to economically reduce global CO2 emissions." At the meeting, however, Pierrehumbert urged scientists to study the problem as a supplement to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, although he called for a 10-year moratorium on any geoengineering. "To the extent I've changed my mind a little bit," Pierrehumbert explained to Science, the reason is the ease with which countries could embark on geoengineering.

Harvard climate researcher James Anderson told the group that the arctic ice was "holding on by a thread" and that more carbon emissions could tip the balance. The delicacy of the system, he said "convinced me of the need for research into geoengineering," Anderson said. And 5 years ago? "I would have said it's a very inappropriate solution to the problem."

From: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1109/1?rss=1

Photo from: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v409/n6818/images/409420aa.2.jpg

There’s a little mystery on the plywood construction wall around the Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ontario, Canada has recently exempted all bicycles which sell for less than $1,000 from Provincial sales tax.   Toronto, the largest city in the Province of Ontario, has  sophisticated bike transportation management - an official part of the City government.

Main Entry:

See the complete set of 6 photos at: http://m3.lackcolor.com/piles/?s=naturesnewriver

Neither the Gund Foundation nor the Cleveland Foundation made a peep to preserve the Breuer, and two of our County Commissioners (with the exception of Mr. Lawson-Jones) are (at best) too ignorant to appreciate the international architectural jewel which Jacobs bought and sold to the County  (The Breuer Tower, like the Coast Guard Station, shows Jacobs has erudite architectural taste?).

The Artist

Carl Pope believes we are living in a time in which individuals and small groups can exert tremendous influence on the world. His artistic practice is rooted in a belief that outer change is born within the imagination, inspiring the individual to become a catalyst to effect transformation in the world. The goal of “The Mind of Cleveland” is to inspire civic pride and cooperation during this critical point in the city’s history. Now seems to be the perfect time to pose these questions.

Just in case you are interested in "Keeping Up With The Joneses" (who ever they are..)

http://www.zipskinny.com/state.php?state=OH

Build Your Own Green Home Game

Just thought some of you might be interested in this...

http://www.greenisuniversal.com/game.php