.::Environment & Climate Change::.

Bridgewater official under investigation for alleged financial misconduct

2010-09-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

BRIDGEWATER -- The chairman of the town's Board of Finance has resigned from the board in the wake of reports he has been fired from his place of employment and is under investigation for alleged possible misdeeds.

Gregory Buchholz was terminated two weeks ago from his investment adviser position with Raymond James Financial Services Inc. in Southbury, a company spokesman, Anthea Penrose, said Tuesday.

According to the spokesman, Buchholz was fired after the company learned he was under investigation for alleged misappropriation of investors' funds.

Penrose said the financial firm was contacted by authorities about the investigation, and it terminated Buchholz's employment.

The company closed its Southbury branch office, where Buchholz had worked.

Penrose would not say how much money may have been misappropriated.

A publicly traded company, Raymond James Financial Services is regulated by the Federal Commerce Commission. The investigation is being conducted on a local and federal level, Penrose said.

"Raymond James confirms a former ... financial services adviser, Gregory Buchholz, is being investigated for allegedly misappropriating client funds. The firm ... is cooperating fully with authorities in the investigation of this matter," a prepared statement by the company reads.

Calls to Buchholz's home Tuesday were not returned.

Bridgewater First Selectman Bill Stuart said he was stunned by the allegations.

"I just can't believe it," Stuart said. "When this happens with someone who has been on one of your boards for a long time and who's done a good job, it's hard to believe."

Stuart said Buchholz came to Town Hall on Tuesday morning and told him he would be resigning from the finance board and also from theBridgewater Board of Trustees, of which Buchholz was vice chairman.

Buchholz served on the finance board since 2001 and was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2007.

"The last thing people ought to be doing is speculating on matters yet to be proven," said Ned Bandler, chairman of the Board of Trustees.

"I've worked closely with George," Bandler said. "He has been a valued colleague, a strong contributor in the work of managing the town's trust funds."

Bandler said Buchholz did not manage any money for the board.

The present allegations of mismanagement of funds are not the first to be made against Buchholz.

In February 1999, the state Department of Banking's Securities and Business Investments Division issued a consent order, restricting Buchholz's work as a financial agent.

It required Raymond James Financial Services to give prior approval to any trades Buchholz made with clients' mutual funds, according to a department securities bulletin.

The consent order was based on allegations that while he was associated with Edward D. Jones & Co., Buchholz "engaged in unsuitable investment strategies with respect to certain mutual fund transactions," the bulletin says.

Contact Susan Tuz

at stuz@newstimes.com

or 860-355-7322.

San Bruno Fire Pictures: "Hell on Earth" in California

2010-09-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

Photograph by Jeff Chiu, AP

A firefighting plane dumps retardant onto the San Bruno fire, which engulfed several northern California blocks on September 9.

Though the gas flow was stopped and the fire mostly contained by late Thursday, extinguishing street gas-line fires is notoriously tough, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Until the source of the gas is found, the pressure of the fuel and volatility of the escaping gas creates flames too forceful for firefighters to tackle.

(Read a National Geographic article on increasing fires in the U.S. West.)

Published September 10, 2010

Giant Underwater Plume Confirmed—Gulf Oil Not Degrading

2010-09-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

Christine Dell'Amore

National Geographic News

Published August 19, 2010

A giant plume from BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been confirmed deep in the ocean—and there are signs that it may stick around, a new study says.

Many scientists had predicted that oil-eating bacteria—already common in the Gulf due to natural oil seeps—would process much of the crude leaked fromBP's Deepwater Horizon wellhead, which was capped July 15. (Read more about how nature is fighting the oil spill.)

But new evidence shows that a 22-mile-long (35-kilometer-long), 650-foot-high (200-meter-high) pocket of oil has persisted for months at depths of 3,600 feet (1,100 meters), according to a team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts.

The oil plume's stability is "a little unexpected," study leader Richard Camilli, of WHOI's Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department, said at a Thursday press briefing in Washington, D.C.

"We don't have any clear indication as to why it set up at that depth."

It's unclear why the Gulf's microbes aren't eating the oil plume, but the organisms are infamous for being unpredictable, said study co-authorChristopher Reddy, a marine chemist at WHOI.

Counting on microbes to quickly clean up an oil spill is "like asking a teenager to do a chore. You tell them to do it on a Friday, to do it when it's most advantageous, and they do it on a Saturday," Reddy told National Geographic News earlier this month.

Further studies are needed to figure out why the plume isn't degrading, Reddy said during the press briefing: "We don't live in the world of the TV show CSI. ... Patience is a virtue."

Hard Evidence for Gulf Oil Plume

During a ten-day research cruise in June, the WHOI team used autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), free-swimming probes that are the "next generation" of remotely operated vehicles, Camilli said during the briefing.

The team's AUVs were equipped with mass spectrometers—devices that measure the masses of molecules. The spectrometers collected thousands of samples in various regions near the spill site.

Most of these samples detected hydrocarbons—ingredients of oil—at concentrations of 50 micrograms a liter.

Using this data, the scientists were able to piece together the shapes and sizes of two oil plumes: the large, deep plume and a more diffuse plume spread out between depths of 160 and 1,600 feet (50 and 500 meters).

University of South Florida (USF) chemical oceanographer David Hollander said the discovery of stubborn oil in the deep sea "falls right into line" with his recent findings.

"These hydrocarbons are plentiful, and will be around for a long time," Hollander said by email.

Hollander and a USF team announced this week that oil may have been found deep on the Gulf seafloor, and that it appears to be toxic to phytoplankton, small plants that live in the deep ocean and make up the base of the marine food chain.

It's too early to say whether the plume is harmful to marine life in the area studied by WHOI, expedition member Reddy said.

But the research does show that the oil plume hasn't yet spurred oxygen depletion in the Gulf, which can create a dead zone—a swath of ocean largely devoid of life-forms—according to Ruoying He, a physical oceanographer at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who was not involved in the new research.

He added that the new study—published today in the journal Science—is "extremely important," in part because it offers hard evidence of the suspected oil plume in the Gulf.

"I'm happy to see some in situ observations published so quickly," he said.

How Far Will Gulf Oil Plume Go?

The study raises another fundamental question that North Carolina's He is currently modeling: How far will the Gulf oil spill travel?

The plume has already fanned out a considerable distance from the BP wellhead, He noted. At the time of the survey, the plume was migrating about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) a day southwest from the spill site, according to the study.

And with oil-eating bacteria taking their time, it's possible that the oil could be transported even farther from the well before the crude gets degraded, WHOI's Camilli said.

(See "Gulf Oil Spill Could Reach East Coast Beaches.")

It's also possible the oil plume is already gone: "We don't know what the fate of this plume now is—this was a forensic snapshot in late June, and we have not been back there since," Camilli cautioned.

Deep-Ocean Focus Needed for Oil Cleanups

Since the toxic effects of oil and chemical dispersants are not fully known, "there is great room for debate and contrasting interpretation as to what the impacts will be," Robert Carney, a biological oceanographer at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, said by email.

(Learn more about how dispersants may be harming wildlife.)

At this point, though, a "far more valuable undertaking" would be to start figuring out how to prevent doing further harm to the deep ocean, he said.

"Through this all we have witnessed an aged and untested bit of dogma dominate response decisions: Protect the beach," Carney said. (See: "Oil Found in Gulf Beach Sand, Even After Cleanups.")

"Quite obviously, it is the whole ocean that we must protect and effectively manage," he said. "We are badly in need of new ideas."

"Firecane" Myth Busted—No Danger on Katrina Anniversary

2010-09-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

Brian Handwerk

for National Geographic News

Published August 25, 2010

With the Gulf oil spill largely gone, at least at the surface, you can rest easy that the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's Gulf Coast landfall won't be marked with a "firecane" or "black rain"—and it never would have been.

Flaming hurricanes and flammable rain are scientifically impossible, according to myth-busting scientists.

Ignited online, the firecane rumor has been covered by publications includingNew York magazine (read "Firecane!") and debated on Web forums such asMyth-Weavers, where one participant summed up how firecanes might be born:

Hurricane
Hurricane sucks up oil
Lightning ignites oil
FIRECANE!

But—surprise—the scenario doesn't stand up to scrutiny, according to Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for the Weather Underground website.

In an oil spill, Masters explained, it's the vapors from volatile compounds that burn, not the liquid oil itself. And most of those flammable volatiles evaporate and disperse soon after oil enters the water.

Even at the oil slick's worst this summer, the oil at the surface of the Gulf of Mexico (map) was largely a type of thick crude loaded with "heavy compounds" called asphaltenes, which don't burn easily under any conditions, Masters said.

(Satellite Pictures: Gulf Spill's Evolution.)

This summer, for example, BP had a hard time starting even the intentional burns meant to deplete the slick, according to environmental chemist Barry Dellinger. In a marine oil spill, he added, there's simply too much water mixed with the crude to allow for a sustained blaze.

"They actually use napalm to start the burns, or they can't get enough heat," said Dellinger, of Louisiana State University.

(See "Oil Slick May Be Burned to Help Stop U.S. Rig Spill" [April 27].)

Unlike napalm, the slow-burning fuel made infamous in the Vietnam War, "lightning would be a quick strike," he said.

"I wouldn't think that you could have enough sustained heat from that to continue to have oil vaporize and burn."

Even if lightning could somehow ignite a hypothetical oily storm, the fire would quickly be quenched, according to Weather Underground's Masters.

"Hurricane winds and rain chop up the water so much," Masters said. "It would be very hard to sustain a fire in those kinds of conditions."

And that's assuming the oil could make it into hurricane winds and clouds in the first place.

Black Rain?

If oil from an ocean spill were to impregnate storm clouds, you might theoretically end up with oily rain turning Gulf cities into tinderboxes. Just this June unsubstantiated videos purported to show "black rain" (for example,"Raining Oil in Louisiana?" on the Huffington Post).

But because seawater must evaporate to reach clouds and possibly turn to rain—and because the floating crude in an oil spill is as hard to evaporate as it is to burn—black rain is pure science fiction.

If a hurricane strikes an oil slick, "the amount of oil that's going to be able to evaporate is very, very tiny," said Chris Landsea, science and operations officer at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

"So any concentration of oil in the rain would be puny and the rain not much different at all from that found in a regular hurricane."

In addition, the seawater that makes it into clouds—even when an oil slick is present—is naturally clean, Weather Underground's Masters said.

The very process of evaporation filters out impurities, which is why it's used to make distilled water, he noted. "So that's not a good way to get oil into rain."

Oil on Land, Minus the Pyrotechnics

There are ways for an ocean oil slick to end up on land—for example via storm surges, tornado-like waterspouts, and strong winds. (See pictures of oil and tarballs on Gulf beaches in May.)

None of those methods, though, promise fire in the sky or combustible rain.

"The idea of a firecane, or oil raining down from the sky," NOAA's Landsea said, "those are really just impossible scenarios."

2010-09-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

Not a "firecane": A storm rages as debris from Hurricane Andrew burns in Homestead, Florida, in 1992.

Photograph by Raymond Gehman, National Geographic

Flaming hurricanes and flammable rain are scientifically impossible, according to myth-busting scientists.

Hurricane
Hurricane sucks up oil
Lightning ignites oil
FIRECANE!

But—surprise—the scenario doesn't stand up to scrutiny, according to Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for the Weather Underground website.

(Satellite Pictures: Gulf Spill's Evolution.)

"They actually use napalm to start the burns, or they can't get enough heat," said Dellinger, of Louisiana State University.

(See "Oil Slick May Be Burned to Help Stop U.S. Rig Spill" [April 27].)

Unlike napalm, the slow-burning fuel made infamous in the Vietnam War, "lightning would be a quick strike," he said.

"I wouldn't think that you could have enough sustained heat from that to continue to have oil vaporize and burn."

Even if lightning could somehow ignite a hypothetical oily storm, the fire would quickly be quenched, according to Weather Underground's Masters.

"Hurricane winds and rain chop up the water so much," Masters said. "It would be very hard to sustain a fire in those kinds of conditions."

And that's assuming the oil could make it into hurricane winds and clouds in the first place.

Black Rain?

"So any concentration of oil in the rain would be puny and the rain not much different at all from that found in a regular hurricane."

In addition, the seawater that makes it into clouds—even when an oil slick is present—is naturally clean, Weather Underground's Masters said.

The very process of evaporation filters out impurities, which is why it's used to make distilled water, he noted. "So that's not a good way to get oil into rain."

Oil on Land, Minus the Pyrotechnics

There are ways for an ocean oil slick to end up on land—for example via storm surges, tornado-like waterspouts, and strong winds. (See pictures of oil and tarballs on Gulf beaches in May.)

None of those methods, though, promise fire in the sky or combustible rain.

"The idea of a firecane, or oil raining down from the sky," NOAA's Landsea said, "those are really just impossible scenarios."

Walking Into the Stone Ag

2010-09-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

On the third day of an international conference in France of experts on prehistoric rock art, National Geographic Digital Media senior producer Andrew Howley makes his first visit into caves adorned with images painted 13,000 years ago.

By Andrew Howley

Tarascon-sur-Ariège, France--Today the laptops were shut and the projectors powered down, as the participants in the IFRAO conference on prehistoric rock art around the world piled into buses with people who shared their language for tours of some of the region's most beautiful and important decorated caves. I was with Group 4: English-speaking and headed for Bédeilhac and Niaux.

The grand entrance to Bédeilhac, one-time warplane repair shop.

Photo by Andrew Howley

Bédeilhac was first, an enormous cavern used during World War II as a plane repair shop, and in the 1970s for a film where a small plane was actually flown into and out of the grand entryway. Walking 300 meters inside, you begin to reach the untouched prehistoric area, and are treated to a stately black bison silhouette, hard-to-reach engravings, and a replica of the even-harder-to-reach molded clay bison, one of only a few such sculpted images from the region.

It doesn't take too long before modern usage of the cave seems a thing of the past, and you're gazing directly into the the Paleolithic era.

Photo by Andrew Howley

After a quick lunch of leftovers and a box of the local vintage, we headed up to Niaux, the grandest of the decorated caves in Ariège.

While some caves have been found in modern times, like Lascaux (discovered 70 years ago this coming Sunday), and many are still waiting to be found, Niaux, with its relatively easy entry way and wide caverns, has been known throughout history. This fact is illustrated, quite literally, by rock art of another kind.

Names of visitors and dates of visits cover several sections of the caverns (though they've been removed from where they were close to the prehistoric images). Some date from as recently as 2008. Others are verifiably from the 1600s. Still others claim to date from 1304 (no chance, based on the handwriting style) or to have been written by a first-century Jewish man by the name of Jesus. Perhaps you've heard of him?

The entry to Niaux commands a view of the valley below and of the Pyrenees rising to every side and ascending to rocky peaks in the distance.

Photo by Andrew Howley

So if people have been visiting the caves for at least the past 400 years, you may be wondering if they made any mention of seeing the prehistoric art. The answer is yes. And no. These early modern visitors did record their experiences and described the caves as having images of "horses and cows," but they seem to have had no awareness of the deep antiquity of the images' creation. It's a testament to the timelessness of these works from such a distinct time.

Cathedral in the mountain

After walking for a while longer, we reached the greatest section of paintings in Niaux, the Salon Noir. As we entered the great "cathedral in the mountain," we turned off our flashlights and our way was lit only by the lights controlled by our guide.

This increase in darkness (while exciting and atmospheric) is done as a precaution against changing the natural temperature and lighting conditions of the cave system too much. For decades, Niaux's tour programs have been strictly guided by scientists' recommendations for the number of people, duration of each visit, and number of visits per day, and it has helped keep the paintings in a very good state of preservation.

Lascaux famously suffered greatly from changes in humidity and temperature from years of unrestricted visits and elaborate but ultimately detrimental attempts at air conditioning. That cave is itself closed to all but a few now, while workers fight off a pervasive image-covering fungus. Visitors are welcomed at a full-scale replica cave called Lascaux II.

Copy of a painting of bison in the "Salon Noire" of the Cave of Niaux.

Photo from Wikimedia

In the gloom of a single light, we followed our guide to the first panel, where she pointed out the outlines of two bison. One (bearing a striking resemblance to an animal-cracker bison) is in fact the oldest painting in the cave, carbon dated to 13,850 years ago. To put that in perspective, if one day at noon you started thinking through 16 years every minute, you'd hit Jamestown in about 15 minutes and ancient Rome around 2pm. Stonehenge would go up around 5pm, and you wouldn't see this bison being painted until almost 2am the next day.

The lights went out and came back on as the first major panel was revealed. Here there were bison and horses, big and small, overlapping, facing each other, some complete, others partial, and all of it eye-openingly fresh and clear.

"After years of seeing images like this in books ... seeing them bright and bold and on their original cool, hard, wildly undulating surface was exhilarating."

After years of seeing images like this in books and two full days of seeing them projected on sun-blanched outdoor screens, seeing them bright and bold and on their original cool, hard, wildly undulating surface was exhilarating.

In the Internet era, we see images constantly. Big and small, hi-resolution, 3-D modeled, and so on. But the blessing is also a curse. Images now can be seen anywhere, but they don't actually exist anywhere.

In Niaux, these bison, horses, and ibex are most definitely existing. This is where they were made, this is where they've been for 13,000 years, and this is where they will be tomorrow and 13,000 years from now.

We processed around the large semi-circular Salon Noir, alternating between moments of quiet observation and reflection, excited pointing and questioning, and even in the depths of the cave, scholarly debate. My two favorite points of contention today: Can you say that some of the paintings are "better" than others? and can you tell whether any two were made by the same person?

After that, we made our way back out into daylight and the bright orange bus that would take us back to our home base.

What were they thinking?

Among all the various ideas that bounced around today, there was still the recurring theme that we'll never really know exactly what the makers of prehistoric rock art were thinking, but we can be pretty sure that there is no one simple explanation or answer. These images, and the experiences of making or seeing them can have many meanings at different levels at the same time.

My favorite illustration of this came shortly after we entered Niaux, and our guide pointed out the much smaller entry tunnel that the Paleolithic people had used.

Picturing a group of people in handmade leather garments softly stepping along a sandy floor across the gallery from where we were processing with our flashlights and hiking boots, I said to my neighbor: "I was just thinking how here we are now, and this is where the people of the past really were, and it's almost like it's all happening at once, and while they're the people of the past to us, we're the people of the future to them..."

"While you're having those thoughts," he replied, "I'm singing "Heigh-ho, heigh-ho.""

I whistled along and we continued deeper into the cave.

Earlier blog posts in this series:

Mysteries of Prehistoric Rock Art Probed

Finding pictures and meaning in rock art

Andrew Howley is a senior producer for National Geographic Digital Media, responsible for editing theNational Geographic website home page and the front page of National Geographic Daily News. He also manages the National Geographic Facebook page, which has more than 1,700,000 followers. Prior to joining National Geographic, Andrew was a programming manager at America Online, which included writing promotions for the Welcome Screen. He received a BA in Anthropology (focus on Archaeology) from the College of William & Mary, Virginia. His personal interests are history reading, painting, running, and developing educational projects.

All blog posts by Andrew Howley.

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Given Money, Schools Wait on Rehiring Teachers

2010-08-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

As schools handed out pink slips to teachers this spring, states made a beeline to Washington to plead for money for their ravaged education budgets. But now that the federal government has come through with $10 billion, some of the nation’s biggest school districts are balking at using their share of the money to hire teachers right away.

With the economic outlook weakening, they argue that big deficits are looming for the next academic year and that they need to preserve the funds to prevent future layoffs. Los Angeles, for example, is projecting a $280 million budget shortfall next year that could threaten more jobs.

“You’ve got this herculean task to deal with next year’s deficit,” said Lydia L. Ramos, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest after New York City.

“So if there’s a way that you can lessen the blow for next year,” she said, “we feel like it would be responsible to try to do that.”

The district laid off 682 teachers and counselors and about 2,000 support workers this spring and was not sure it

would be able to hire any of them back with the stimulus money. The district says it could be forced to cut 4,500 more people next year.

In New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg committed to no teacher layoffs this year in exchange for not offering raises. A spokeswoman said the city’s budget had already taken the federal aid into account.

In New Jersey, where about 3,000 teachers were let go in May, Gov.Chris Christie’s administration worries that the federal aid will only forestall difficult decisions later, and it is unclear how much will be spent immediately.

“It’s a real double-edged sword,” said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the governor. “This money will not be there next year, and we’re not going to get back up to the funding that they had previously been used to.”

A $26 billion federal aid package, signed by President Obama on Aug. 10, allocates $10 billion for school districts to retain or rehire teachers, counselors, classroom aides, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and others — with the remainder of the money directed toward health care for the poor, emergency personnel and other state purposes.

The education measure requires states to distribute the money for the current school year, but allows school districts to spend it as late as September 2012. It also allows schools to roll back furlough days. The education department estimates it could salvage about 160,000 jobs.

“We can’t stand by and do nothing while pink slips are given to the men and women who educate our children or keep our communities safe,” President Obama said last week. “That doesn’t make sense.”

Though preserving jobs will be good for the economy, it will disappoint out-of-work teachers and parents who have been expecting a surge in rehiring. Many districts, like Kansas City, Kan., face the likelihood of midyear cuts, and administrators will count themselves lucky to save jobs. In the nation’s fifth-largest district in Clark County in Las Vegas, administrators are eager to hire some teachers, though they wonder what they will do when the federal money runs out.

“We’re a little wary about hiring people if we only have money for a year, but we know that’s the intent of this bill,” said Jeff Weiler, chief financial officer for Clark County schools.

In Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry so far has rejected the new federal education dollars. Should he relent, Houston’s superintendent, Terry B. Grier, proposes to use $40 million to $70 million of it to extend the school day and year, and to hire tutors. He does not plan to rehire 414 people — including quite a few certified teachers — laid off from the central office staff.

“We can’t treat this money as if it’s a supplement to a jobs bill,” Mr. Grier said. “I want to put people to work to help children.”

Still other obstacles loom for districts, not the least of which is timing. School has resumed in many districts in struggling states, including Arizona, California and Illinois. Assigning new teachers and juggling classrooms could disrupt students. In California, the budget picture is further clouded by the state’s failure to pass its own budget for the coming year.

Even administrators in districts that start school after Labor Day have only weeks to rearrange class rosters. And with classes largely set in many places, they might more quickly deploy the money by hiring support personnel, like those tutors in Houston.

In Arizona, where most schools opened this month, nonteaching employees are more likely to be recalled. “It would be hard to add teachers this year,” said Paul Senseman, a spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer. “But the funds could be used on any school-level position like counselors, after-school programs, aides, nurses or coaches.”

Teachers’ unions are strongly urging districts to use the money right away to keep class sizes manageable and to reduce the jobless rolls. “The intent is to help districts avert layoffs now,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “Kids don’t have a pause button.”

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Moving From South Asia to U.S.

2010-08-12T17:25:00.000-07:00

A dangerous new mutation that makes some bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics has become increasingly common in India and Pakistan and is being found in patients in Britain and the United States who got medical care in those countries, according to new studies.

Experts in antibiotic resistance called the gene mutation, named NDM-1, “worrying” and “ominous,” and they said they feared it would spread globally.

But they also put it in perspective: there are numerous strains of antibiotic-resistant germs, and although they have killed many patients in hospitals and nursing homes, none have yet lived up to the “superbug” and “flesh-eating bacteria” hyperbole that greets the discovery of each new one.

“They’re all bad,” said Dr. Martin J. Blaser, chairman of medicine at New York UniversityLangone Medical Center. “Is NDM-1 more worrisome than MRSA? It’s too early to judge.”

(MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, is a hard-to-treat bacterium that used to cause problems only in hospitals but is now found in gyms, prisons and nurseries, and is occasionally picked up by healthy people through cuts and scrapes.)

Bacteria with the NDM-1 gene are resistant even to the antibiotics called carbapenems, used as a last resort when common antibiotics have failed. The mutation has been found in E. coli and in Klebsiella pneumoniae, a frequent culprit in respiratory and urinary infections.

“I would not like to be working at a hospital where this was introduced,” said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University. “It could take months before you got rid of it, and treating individual patients with it could be very difficult.”

A study tracking the spread of the mutation from India and Pakistan to Britain was published online on Tuesday in the journal Lancet.

In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted the first three cases of NDM-1 resistance in this country and advised doctors to watch for it in patients who had received medical care in South Asia. The initials stand for New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase.

“Medical tourism” to India for many surgeries — cosmetic, dental and even organ transplants — is becoming more common as experienced surgeons and first-class hospitals offer care at a fraction of Western prices. Tourists and people visiting family are also sometimes hospitalized. The Lancet researchers found dozens of samples of bacteria with the NDM-1 resistance gene in two Indian cities they surveyed, which they said “suggests a serious problem.”

Also worrying was that the gene was found on plasmids — bits of mobile DNA that can jump easily from one bacteria strain to another. And it is found in gram-negative bacteria, for which not many new antibiotics are being developed. (MRSA, by contrast, is a gram-positive bacteria, and there are more drug candidates in the works.)

Dr. Alexander J. Kallen, an expert in antibiotic resistance at the C.D.C., called it “one of a number of very serious bugs we’re tracking.”

But he noted that a decade ago, New York City hospitals were the epicenter of infections with other bacteria resistant to carbapenem antibiotics. Those bacteria, which had a different mutation, were troubling, but did not explode into a public health emergency.

Drug-resistant bacteria like those with the NDM-1 mutation are usually a bigger threat in hospitals, where many patients are on broad-spectrum antibiotics that wipe out the normal bacteria that can hold antibiotic-resistant ones in check.

Also, hospital patients generally have weaker immune systems and more wounds to infect, and are examined with more scopes and catheters that can let bacteria in.

When Light Triggers Migraines

2010-08-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

Light-induced migraine is common, and light often amplifies the pain after the headache has begun, Dr. David Dodick of the Mayo Clinic explains in response to reader questions on the Consults blog.

Fluorescent Lighting, Computer Monitors and Migraines

My husband gets disabling headaches from fluorescent lighting, even the new compact ones that look more like incandescent light. Also from looking directly at LCD monitors. Although he works at home and can avoid this lighting for the most part, it’s very disabling, prevents him from going many places that he’d like to, taking our daughter places, etc.

Once he’s affected, the only thing that really helps is sleeping. He’s being treated by a neurologist (who has diagnosed them as migraine), but the one med that seemed to help (I think Topamax) left him with exhaustion as a side effect, so he had to stop taking it. Wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses helps him tolerate the lighting a little better, but not much. The effects are much, much worse earlier in the day; he can tolerate greater exposure if it’s later in the day. Is there anything in the research literature about light-induced migraine and treatment strategies?
Ellen, New England

Dr. Dodick responds:

Light-induced migraine is common, and light often amplifies the pain after the headache has begun. (Doctors refer to this occurrence as photophobia.) There is exciting new research on the anatomical pathways that account for how and why migraine is worsened by light, and ongoing research to explain how and why light may trigger a migraine attack.

There aren’t novel treatment strategies yet to deal with light as a trigger, other than what your husband has already tried. That includes the use of preventive medications like topiramate (brand name Topamax), which may reduce one’s susceptibility to light as a trigger, so long as he and his physician can find a drug that he tolerates. I am confident that as we learn more about the mechanism involved in light as a trigger over the next five years, we will find better strategies to circumvent this problem.

Loss of Focus and Sensitivity to Light and Sound

I often get headaches that are only moderately painful but are debilitating — I can’t think clearly or focus, am sensitive to light and sound, lack normal appetite, am lethargic. Could this be some kind of migraine?
Anonymous, San Francisco

Dr. Dodick responds:

Indeed, the cognitive symptoms, sensitivity to light and sound, lack of appetite and lethargy are very typical symptoms of migraine. However, other disorders can mimic the symptoms of migraine. A thorough evaluation by your physician is necessary to arrive at an accurate diagnosis so that you can receive appropriate treatment.

For more on migraine, see Dr. Dodick’s responses in the Related Posts section, below, and The Times Health Guide: Migraine.

When the Doctor Doesn’t Look Like You

2010-08-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

One night during my training, over dinner in the hospital cafeteria, a fellow resident and I had a discussion about the situation of one of our professors. Known for his blistering teaching sessions, this senior surgeon possessed the uncanny ability to sniff out lapses in memory or judgment among doctors-in-training. Early on in my internship, I showed up at one of his practice trauma resuscitations blissfully unprepared. I left an hour later with his booming and rapid-fire admonitions still ringing in my ears. “You call yourself a doctor?” he had thundered. “This patient may just be a dummy, but you are killing her!”Nonetheless, this surgeon soon became a favorite of ours. He was brilliant in the operating room, gentle at the patients’ bedside and, as I quickly learned, highly effective in the classroom. What continued to vex me, however, was not the peculiarity of his teaching style; it was his inability to attract patients. While other, less-skilled senior doctors had waiting rooms that were overflowing, his was not.

“If I were sick,” I said to my fellow resident that night, “I know which surgeon I would ask for.”

“But you can understand why some patients and referring doctors don’t go to him,” she replied matter-of-factly. “Other guys wear Brooks Brothers, have recognizable last names and carry a degree from the ‘right’ medical school. But when a potential patient or referring doctor sees our guy, all they might notice is a foreigner with an accent and a strange name who graduated from a medical school in some developing country.”

Our professor had been born abroad and immigrated to the United States after medical school. But despite clinical accomplishments and professional accolades in this country, I knew, like my fellow resident, that there were patients and physicians whose initial impulse was to dismiss him or any other doctor with an accent or an international degree.

For more than 50 years, international medical school graduates like my former professor have filled the gaps in the physician work force in the United States. Currently, they make up fully one-quarter of all practicing physicians, and although a majority are foreign-born, approximately 20 percent are American citizens who have chosen to go abroad, most notably to the Caribbean, for medical school.

Regardless of whether they are United States citizens, all international graduates must go through an arduous regulatory process before practicing in this country, a process that includes verification of medical school diplomas and transcripts, residency training in American hospitals and the same national three-part licensing exams and specialty tests that their medical school counterparts in this country take. Many go on to choose specialties or work in the rural and disadvantaged geographic locations that their American counterparts shun. International graduates, for example, now account for nearly 30 percent of all primary care doctors, a specialty that has had increasing difficulties attracting American medical students.

Though these doctors have filled an important national health care need for over half a century, doubts regarding the quality of care they provide have continued to plague them. Health care experts interested in this issue have been stymied over the years by inadequate methodologies for evaluating the effectiveness of large groups of physicians and so have chosen instead to focus on exam scores, an admittedly crude proxy for quality of care.

But even that data has proven confusing. Studies initially revealed that international graduates tended to score lower, while more recent research shows that they routinely outperform their peers on training exams in areas like internal medicine.

Now researchers from the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research in Philadelphia have published the first study incorporating new research methods for evaluating the performance of large groups of physicians. And it turns out that contrary to certain individuals’ worst fears, accent or nationality did not affect patient outcomes. Rather, the main factor was being board-certified: completing a full residency at an accredited training program, passing written and, depending on the specialty, oral examinations, and having proof of experience with a defined set of clinical problems and technical procedures.

The researchers examined the records of more than 240,000 patients who were hospitalized for either congestive heart failure or heart attack and examined how their outcomes correlated with their doctors’ education and background. They found no differences in mortality rates between those patients cared for by graduates of international or American medical schools. But on closer review, they found that two factors did contribute significantly to differences in patient outcomes.

Dividing the international medical graduates into those who were foreign-born and those who were American citizens who chose to study abroad, the researchers discovered that patients of foreign-born primary care physicians fared significantly better than patients of American primary care doctors who received their medical degrees either here or abroad. John J. Norcini, lead author of the study and president of the foundation, postulates that the differences may stem from the fact that as primary care has become less attractive for graduates of American medical schools, it has also become less competitive. “The foreign international medical graduates are some of the smartest kids from around the world,” he said. “When they come over, they tend to fill in where the U.S. medical school graduates don’t necessarily go.”

Dr. Norcini and his co-investigators also found that patient mortality rates were related to the doctor’s board certification and time since medical school graduation, regardless of his or her background. Those physicians in the study who were board-certified had substantially lower death rates among their patients. And the greater the number of years since medical school graduation, the more likely that doctor was to have a patient with heart attack or congestive heart failure die in the hospital.

“If you put these two pieces of data together,” Dr. Norcini said, “they make a strong argument for board certification and the maintenance of certification programs currently being put in place to improve the periodic reassessment of board-certified doctors.”

While the results of this study will help Dr. Norcini and other medical educators further refine the regulatory process for physicians from international and domestic medical schools, Dr. Norcini points out that there is a “huge heterogeneity in all these groups” and cautions doctors and patients against making broad generalizations about any physician group. Instead, when searching for the best doctors, he recommends focusing not on a doctor’s medical school or country of origin but rather on board certification.

“My hope is that we begin to rely more on objective markers like board certification as a statement of quality rather than where someone went to medical school,” Dr. Norcini said. “One can always ask a doctor if he or she is board-certified and involved in maintaining that certification. It’s a straightforward quality marker, and it’s a question that’s easy to ask.”

He added, “And as a patient, I find that reassuring.”

Share your thoughts on this column on the Well blog, “Doctors Who Study Outside the U.S.”

G.M. Chief Stepping Down After Report of Strong Quarter

2010-08-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

DETROIT — In a surprise development, General Motors’ chairman and chief executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., announced Thursday that he would step down as chief executive on Sept. 1 and be succeeded by Daniel F. Akerson, a G.M. board member and a managing director of the Carlyle Group.Mr. Whitacre, 68, said he would stay on as chairman until the end of the year, when Mr. Akerson would assume that role as well.

“I believe we’ve accomplished what we set out to do,” Mr. Whitacre said. “We’re going to have a smooth seamless transition here.”

Mr. Akerson, 61, will become the fourth chief executive at the nation’s largest automaker in less than two years. Rick Wagoner, who had been chief executive since 2000 and chairman since 2003, was asked to resign in March 2009 by President Obama’s automotive task force. He was followed by another long-time G.M. executive, Fritz Henderson, who led the company through its bankruptcy restructuring but was then replaced in November by Mr. Whitacre.

The announcement came shortly after General Motors reported that it earned $1.3 billion in the second quarter and cited sustained progress in rebuilding operations after emerging from its government-sponsored bankruptcy last year.

Mr. Whitacre, a former chief of AT&T who came out of retirement to lead G.M., had previously said he would leave once the company stabilized its finances. But the timing of his announcement was unexpected, as was the choice of Mr. Akerson, a former chairman of Nextel Communications, as his successor.

Mr. Akerson said on a conference call that he did not anticipate major changes in strategy when he takes over. “We share a common vision for the goals and objectives of this company,” he said.

He is currently a managing director at the Carlyle Group, the giant private equity firm, where he is a senior executive of its buyout business. Before joining Carlyle, Mr. Akerson was a longtime telecommunications executive, having worked as chief financial officer at MCI and as the chairman and chief executive of XO Communications, where he supervised a turnaround of the company.

“We still have important work ahead of us,” Mr. Akerson said, “but I am confident that we are building the foundation for G.M.’s long-term success.”

Mr. Whitacre came to G.M. claiming to know little about automobiles and describing himself as “not a car guy.” But he made himself a public face for the company by appearing in several ad campaigns highlighting the quality of G.M.’s vehicles. He was criticized by some members of Congress for an ad in which he claimed that G.M. had repaid its government loans “in full,” even though the payment represented only a portion of the taxpayer money invested in G.M.

Under Mr. Whitacre, G.M. increased its market share in the United States and the average amount that buyers paid for vehicles, two big contributors to this year’s profits. He shuffled executives several times until he created a lineup of managers that he felt was best-suited to lead the turnaround.

He also pushed G.M. to simplify its operations and focus on his oft-repeated mantra: “Design, build, and sell the world’s best vehicles.” Anything that did not directly contribute to that goal “is dead now, or it’s on its way out,” he said on multiple occasions.

Mr. Whitacre, like his successor, came from a telecommunications background. An engineer who joined Southwestern Bell in 1963, he worked his way up to become the company’s chief executive in 1990. Mr. Whitacre then transformed the company into SBC Communications, and went on an acquisitions spree that included buying AT&T in 2005, with the company assuming its name. He retired in 2007, and was then chosen by the auto task force two years later to lead G.M.’s restructuring.

The quarterly profit reported on Thursday marked G.M.’s strongest financial performance since 2004, and set the stage for the automaker to file for an initial public offering, possible as soon as Friday. It was G.M.’s second consecutive quarterly profit.

The automaker’s results were a marked improvement over the $865 million profit in the first quarter. Revenue also rose in the quarter, to $33.2 billion, from $31.5 billion in the first. G.M. did not report second-quarter results a year ago because it spend part of the period reorganizing under bankruptcy protection.

The second-quarter profit was driven by strong results in G.M.’s core North American business, which had lost money for several years leading up to its bankruptcy filing.

G.M. said it had earnings before interest and taxes of $1.6 billion in North America during the quarter, a 33 percent improvement over its first quarter performance. The company’s European unit lost $200 million in the quarter, and its other international operations earned $700 million.

Judge Allows, but Delays, Gay Marriage in California

2010-08-12T17:19:00.002-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO — Same-sex marriage is legal again in California. Sort of.Eight days after ruling thatProposition 8 — a 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage — was unconstitutional, a federal judge on Thursday denied a motion to stay his decision, opening the door for untold numbers of gay and lesbian couples to wed in the nation’s most populous state. But the judge delayed the effective date of his order until Wednesday.

Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge of Federal District Court in San Francisco, issued a temporary stay last week when he invalidated Proposition 8, in order to allow arguments for and against same-sex ceremonies being performed while supporters of the ban appealed.

On Thursday, Judge Walker declined to extend that stay, but built in the delay to allow the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where the case has been appealed by proponents of Proposition 8, time to consider the matter.

In the ruling, the judge wrote, “The evidence presented at trial and the position of representatives of the state of California show that an injunction against enforcement of Proposition 8 is in the public’s interest.”

News of the ruling set off a joyous eruption at San Francisco City Hall, where several dozen gay couples had lined up outside the county clerk’s office in hopes of getting marriage licenses and a large crowd of supporters had slowly built on the City Hall steps during the morning. Several ministers had arrived to perform ceremonies and rainbow flags were being waved. But that mood soon turned to disappointment as couples realized that same-sex ceremonies would still be delayed.

One couple — Adrian Molina, an artist for Pixar, and Ryan Dooley, a Latin teacher, both 24 — were among those feeling mixed emotions.

“We’re excited, but we’re also sad,” said Mr. Dooley, who said he wanted to marry as soon as possible. “At least we’ll have a little more time to prepare and dress up.”

Supporters of Proposition 8 were confident, arguing that they would win in the long run, which is likely to be before the United States Supreme Court. Jim Campbell, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which had helped defend Proposition 8, said that “the right of Americans to protect marriage in their state constitutions will ultimately be upheld.”

“It makes no sense to impose a radical change in marriage on the people of California before all appeals on their behalf are heard,” Mr. Campbell said in a statement. “If the trial court’s decision is eventually reversed, refusing to stay the decision will senselessly create legal uncertainty surrounding any same-sex unions entered while the appeal is pending.”

Opponents of Proposition 8 expressed hope that gay men and lesbians would soon have the same marriage rights as opposite-sex couples.

“It would be delightful to have marriages resuming this afternoon, but it is understandable why Judge Walker would want the Ninth Circuit to have an opportunity to review,” said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “We look forward to the resumption of marriages next week, not only based on principles of equality and fairness, but as affirmations of love and basic humanity.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who had asked the court to lift the stay, said that he was pleased with the decision. “Today’s ruling continues to place California at the forefront in providing freedom and equality for all people,” he said in a statement. Any decision from the appellate court would come from a three-judge panel.

If it holds, Thursday’s ruling will make California the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage, joining Iowa, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and the District of Columbia. California briefly allowed such ceremonies in 2008 after a decision by the State Supreme Court struck down two laws that had limited marriage to opposite-sex partners. Over the next five months, some 18,000 gay couples wed.

In November 2008, however, California voters passed Proposition 8 by 52 percent, amending the State Constitution to establish marriage as only between a man and a woman. The ballot measure was challenged in state court, but in May 2009 it was upheld, though the State Supreme Court allowed the 18,000 same-sex marriages to stand.

Shortly after that, two gay couples filed a federal challenge — the case settled by Judge Walker, who agreed with their argument that Proposition 8 violated their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process. “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license,” Judge Walker wrote in his opinion, issued Aug. 4.

Supporters of Proposition 8 denounced Judge Walker’s reasoning, saying that it defied the will of the voters of California.

For many gay couples, the possibility of marriage, even while delayed, seemed tantalizingly close. Roger Hunt, 52, and Rod Wood, 56, were the first in line outside the clerk’s office at City Hall here on Thursday.

A couple for the last seven and a half years, the two men said the time had come to tie the knot, buying a pair of inexpensive stainless steel wedding rings until they can get something fancier.

“I’ve wanted to get married for a while now,” said Mr. Wood, who works for a publishing company. “There was a window, and we missed it. I did not want that to happen again.”

Malia Wollan contributed reporting.

Judge Allows, but Delays, Gay Marriage in California

2010-08-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

One couple — Adrian Molina, an artist for Pixar, and Ryan Dooley, a Latin teacher, both 24 — were among those feeling mixed emotions.

“We’re excited, but we’re also sad,” said Mr. Dooley, who said he wanted to marry as soon as possible. “At least we’ll have a little more time to prepare and dress up.”

Opponents of Proposition 8 expressed hope that gay men and lesbians would soon have the same marriage rights as opposite-sex couples.

Supporters of Proposition 8 denounced Judge Walker’s reasoning, saying that it defied the will of the voters of California.

A couple for the last seven and a half years, the two men said the time had come to tie the knot, buying a pair of inexpensive stainless steel wedding rings until they can get something fancier.

“I’ve wanted to get married for a while now,” said Mr. Wood, who works for a publishing company. “There was a window, and we missed it. I did not want that to happen again.”

Malia Wollan contributed reporting.

India Faces Intifada-Like Revolt in Kashmir

2010-08-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

SRINAGAR, Kashmir — Late Sunday night, after six days on life support with a bullet in his brain, Fida Nabi, a 19-year-old high school student, was unhooked from his ventilator at a hospital here. He was the 50th person to die in Kashmir’s bloody summer of rage. He had been shot in the head, his family and witnesses said, during a protest against India’s military presence in this disputed province.

For decades, India maintained hundreds of thousands of security forces in Kashmir to fight an insurgency sponsored by Pakistan, which claims this border region, too. The insurgency has been largely vanquished. But those Indian forces are still here, and today they face a threat potentially more dangerous to the world’s largest democracy — an intifada-like popular revolt against Indian rule that includes not just angry young men but their sisters, mothers, uncles and grandparents.

The protests — which have erupted for a third straight summer — have led India to one of its most serious internal crises in recent memory. Not just because of their ferocity and persistence, but because they signal the failure of decades of Indian efforts to win the assent of Kashmiris using just about any tool available — money, elections and overwhelming force.

“We need a complete revisit of what our policies in Kashmir have been,” said Amitabh Mattoo, a professor of strategic affairs at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and a Kashmiri Hindu. “It is not about money — you have spent huge amounts of money. It is not about fair elections. It is about reaching out to a generation of Kashmiris who think India is a huge monster represented by bunkers and security forces.”

Indeed, Kashmir’s demand for self-determination is sharper today than it has been at perhaps any other time in the region’s troubled history. It comes as — and in part because — diplomatic efforts remain frozen to resolve the dispute created more than 60 years ago with the partition of mostly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. Today each nation controls part of Kashmir, whose population is mostly Muslim.

Secret negotiations in 2007, which came close to creating an autonomous region shared by the two countries, foundered as Pervez Musharraf, then Pakistan’s president, lost his grip on power. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, by Pakistani militants in November 2008 derailed any hope for further talks.

Not least, India has consistently rebuffed any attempt at outside mediation or diplomatic entreaties, including efforts by the United States. The intransigence has left Kashmiris empty-handed and American officials with little to offer Pakistan on its central preoccupation — India and Kashmir — as they struggle to encourage Pakistani cooperation in cracking down on the Taliban and other militant networks in the country.

With no apparent avenue to progress, many Kashmiris are despairing that their struggle is taking place in a vacuum, and they are taking matters into their own hands.

“What we are seeing today is the complete rebound effect of 20 years of oppression,” said Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, the chief cleric at Srinagar’s main mosque and a moderate separatist leader. Kashmiris, he said, are “angry, humiliated and willing to face death.”

This summer alone there have been nearly 900 clashes between protesters and security forces, which have left more than 50 civilians dead, most of them from gunshot wounds. While more than 1,200 soldiers have been injured by rock-throwing crowds, not one has been killed in the unrest, leading to questions about why Indian security forces are using deadly force against unarmed civilians — and why there is so little international outcry.

“The world is silent when Kashmiris die in the streets,” said Altaf Ahmed, a 31-year-old schoolteacher.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made an emotional appeal for peace in Kashmir.

“I can feel the pain and understand the frustration that is bringing young people out into the streets of Kashmir,” the prime minister said in a televised speech. “Many of them have seen nothing but violence and conflict in their lives and have been scarred by suffering.”

Indeed, there is a palpable sense of opportunities squandered. Despite the protests of recent years, the Kashmir Valley had in the past few years been enjoying a season of peace.

The insurgency of the 1990s has mostly dried up, and elections in 2008 drew the highest percentage of voters in a generation. High expectations met the new chief minister, Omar Abdullah, a scion of Kashmir’s leading political family, whose fresh face seemed well suited to bringing better government and prosperity to Kashmir.

But election promises, like repealing laws that largely shield security forces from scrutiny and demilitarizing the state, went unfulfilled. After two summers of violent protests on specific grievances, this summer’s unrest has taken on a new character, one more difficult to define and mollify.

2010-07-04T02:55:00.000-07:00

They’re a diabolical nuisance, yet considered sacred. But for a gang of monkeys making their home at the Galta Temple in the Indian city of Jaipur, it’s an easy life — lounge by the sacred pool, groom your friends and accept handouts from worshippers paying respect to the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman. But their happy days may be numbered. When a lingering drought threatens local food supplies, the monkeys face an end to their easy gravy train.
Join this charismatic fuzzy-haired crew as they search for food and find trouble on the chaotic streets. When their quest for an easy meal goes awry, the temple troop finds life is harder away from home as they encounter monkey catchers, livid locals and bigger, badder monkeys. See how people cope with an army of troublemakers even as the monkeys contend with the official monkey catcher and rival bands of monkeys.
Throughout the series, Rebel Monkeys highlights the group’s ever-widening antics and the threats they encounter at their sacred temple home and across the big city. Watch a battle of wits and reflexes play out as the local monkey catcher attempts to apprehend any macaque that crosses the line, to be carted out to the countryside miles from their urban paradise.

Hurricane Alex Spawns Tornadoes; Could've Been Stronger

2010-07-04T02:44:00.001-07:00

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Now downgraded to a tropical storm, Alex grew fast in run-up to landfall.

Willie Drye

for National Geographic News

Published July 1, 2010

Eventually spawning tornadoes and killing at least three people, a strengthening Hurricane Alex came ashore Wednesday night in northern Mexico.
Hurricane Alex, however, did not push spilled oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster beyond the coastlines along the Gulf of Mexico, as had been feared. (See "Hurricane Could Push Spilled Gulf Oil Into New Orleans.")
And, once over land, the hurricane rapidly weakened and was downgraded to tropical storm Alex.
Hurricane Alex made landfall around 9 p.m. CT at the village of Soto La Marina, about a hundred miles (160 kilometers) south of Brownsville, Texas. (See Gulf of Mexico map.)
Flash flooding had been reported where the storm came ashore, said William Wagner III, president of Early Alert, a private emergency management consulting firm in Palm City, Florida.
"We got reports that a lot of fishing villages were hit pretty hard," Wagner said.
(Pictures: "Hurricane Alex Pushes Oil on 'Cleaned' Beaches.")

Hurricane Alex Could Have Been Much Stronger
Hurricane Alex's hundred-mile-an-hour (160-kilometer-an-hour) winds made it a Category 2 hurricane at landfall.
But the storm could have easily become much stronger, based on Alex's barometric pressure readings, said Jim Campbell, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Brownsville.
Barometric pressure—the force created by the weight of air—is an indicator of a storm's intensity, because the strong thunderstorms created by tropical storms decrease air pressure around the center of the storm. As the storm strengthens, the barometric pressure becomes lower, and winds accelerate.
Hurricane Katrina, for example, had a barometric pressure reading of 923 millibars when it made landfall in August 2005. Alex's barometric pressure at landfall was 947 millibars—the lowest for a June hurricane since 1957.
Also, radar showed that, just before landfall, Hurricane Alex was starting to gain momentum and intensify over very warm water, which is fuel for hurricanes, Campbell said. But making landfall caused the storm to become disorganized and weaken before its winds could become stronger.
"Just think what could have happened if it had had another hundred miles or so of water before it came ashore," Campbell said.
(See "Hurricane Season May Be 'Extremely Active.'")
Alex Unleashes Tornadoes
Alex spurred several tornadoes in Brownsville, including one that blew a tractor-trailer truck into a mobile home.
Hurricanes making landfall often spawn tornadoes because of the storms' interaction with the ground, according to Brian LaMarre, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Slidell, Louisiana.
A hurricane usually harbors cells of intense thunderstorms. Contact with land can cause the thunderstorms rotate more intensely, and that can produce tornadoes, he said.
LaMarre said Hurricane Alex did not push spilled oil beyond beaches because the storm made landfall about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) west of the Gulf spill site. (Related: "Hurricane Alex 'So Darn Large,' But Oil-Storm Fears Unfounded?")
But, he added, high waves and winds produced by Alex have temporarily halted work being done by BP to burn the oil and skim it from the Gulf's surface.

Oil Found in Gulf Beach Sand, Even After Cleanups

2010-07-04T02:39:00.000-07:00

Long-lasting, hidden oil from the Gulf spill poses risk, experts say.

Christine Dell'Amore

in Pensacola Beach, Florida, and Gulf Islands National Seashore
National Geographic News

Published July 2, 2010

Digging under the patchily oil-splattered white sands of Pensacola Beach, Florida (map), on Thursday, it didn't take long for scientists to strike black gold.

Oil patties and tarballs were discovered as deep as 2 feet (0.6 meter) beneath beaches dirtied by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill—the deepest oil yet found by a team of University of South Florida coastal geologists that's been studying the effects of the oil spill on Gulf beaches since early May. The previous record had been 6 inches (about 15 centimeters) deep, said geologist Ping Wang, the team's leader.

The discoveries suggest that toxic oil lies hidden under even "clean" patches of beaches along the U.S. Gulf Coast—and that oil-spill cleanup crews are only scratching the surface.

Because the buried oil is both harder to clean and slower to break down, it could be a long-lasting threat to beachgoers, both animal and human, experts say.

This "weathered" oil—mainly tarballs and tar mats—began washing ashore around June 23 in Pensacola. (See pictures of Gulf oil atop Pensacola Beach.)
Waves buried much of the oil under new layers of sand, particularly this week, when Hurricane Alex spawned rough seas around the Gulf. (See "Hurricane Alex Pushes 'Worst Oil' Ashore; Cleanup Slowed.")
"This time, we were lucky," said Wang, kneeling by a freshly dug hole striped with ribbons of black tar on Pensacola Beach, which remains open to beachgoers and swimmers, though a health advisory warns visitors away from any obvious oil.
Hurricane Alex's path was hundreds of miles to the east, so the storm's surges had been relatively small along Florida's Gulf coast.
As a result, the storm pushed only a thin amount of new oil onto Pensacola Beach and the nearby Gulf Islands National Seashore, which includes sites in both Florida and Mississippi. The preserve also remains open and under a health advisory. (See Gulf of Mexico map.)
(Gulf Oil Spill Pictures: Oil, Tarballs Hit Beaches.)
Yet when a bigger and closer storm powers through the Gulf, it could erode beaches and unleash the oil underneath, he said—while at the same time pushing ashore more oil from the Gulf spill, Wang noted. (See "Hurricane Could Push Spilled Gulf Oil Into New Orleans.")
Wang would know: He's studied 2004's Hurricane Ivan and 2005's Hurricane Dennis, both of which totally flooded Pensacola Beach.
Exposed oil, though, may be the least of the worries.
Even without cleanup crews, surface oil disappears fairly quickly as oxygen, sunlight, and oil-eating microbes break it down. Buried oil persists much longer, particularly deep down, where oxygen is in short supply.
What Lies Beneath: Oil Inches Below Beaches
"If [oil's] buried and you have a five-year-old out here next summer building a sand castle and they uncover a layer of tar and oil, that's not going to be good," said Tiffany Roberts, a Ph.D. student working in Wang's lab.
Contact with oil can cause skin irritation, and inhaling evaporated oil particles may cause nausea, headache, and dizziness—ailments already reported by some Gulf oil spill cleanup workers, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
That's why Roberts and colleagues are studying how oil is distributed atop the beach—in hopes of discerning a surface pattern that could be used predict the locations of buried oil, she said.
Right now cleanup crews are "dealing with the immediate," she said. Eventually "we've got to figure out what's below."
Like a New Oil Spill With Every Storm

It's easy for cleanup crews to be deceived by invisible oil, according to Michel Boufadel, who has studied the lingering oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill in Alaska. (Exxon Valdez Pictures: 20 Years on, Spilled Oil Remains.)
For example, in 1992 crews packed up and left the Valdez site without realizing that vast quantities of oil still sat below the surface—and much of that oil remains underground today, said Boufadel, chair of Temple University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Ambler, Pennsylvania.
"You can go to a beach and say the beach is clean," he said, "and then a year later a storm hits and you find out that the beach is still polluted."
It's like "getting a new spill" with every storm, Boufadel added.
Unlike the frigid Alaska coastline, however, Florida's beaches are hot and sunny—conditions that may evaporate exposed oil more quickly.
Wildlife Impacts are "Uncharted Territory"
If the spilled oil under Gulf beaches stays buried, it could harm wildlife that nest and feed along the coast, experts say. For instance, some shorebirds eat only small sand-dwelling invertebrates, such as bloodworms, which could be killed by the oil.
(Gulf Oil Spill Pictures: Birds, Fish, Crabs Coated.)
"If the oil does get into the surf zone and [poisons] invertebrates that these guys are eating, then the food base is gone," said Riley Hoggard, a resource-management specialist for Gulf Islands National Seashore. "It's going to be tough for some of these shorebirds."
(Related: "Oil-Coated Birds Better off Dead?")
Likewise, four species of Gulf sea turtle hatchlings—which crawl through sand layers to leave their underground nests—could get injured or killed through contact with buried oil on their way out to sea, Hoggard said.
In part to address such threats, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently began arranging the relocation of some 70,000 turtle eggs from 700 Gulf Coast nests. After the babies hatch in a special facility in a warehouse at eastern Florida's Kennedy Space Center, they will be released on several Atlantic Ocean beaches—on the other side of the state from the Gulf.
The turtles' internal magnetic "maps"—apparently "tuned" to Gulf beaches during incubation—should point the animals back to their native Gulf waters, even with the entire Florida Peninsula in their way, Hoggard said.
Hoggard admits the massive sea turtle rescue operation is "uncharted territory," and could fail. But "we can't afford to lose a generation of them," he said. "That's what gnaws at your stomach."

Evils of False Progress Interfere in Fight for Climate - Now It's up to Us

2010-04-03T13:43:00.000-07:00

The political agreement struck today has immediate operational effect, including the mobilization of finance to build the clean energy economy in developing countries... The dealt "does provide the framework for countries to move forward with ambitious national action. Action that will build clean energy markets, create jobs, enhance energy security..."

These ideas are admissions of the determined business-as-usual reformist wing of the industrial elite to preserve, if they can, mass consumerism that feeds megaprofits.
Why should a few more months of negotiating do anything but buy some time for those who refuse to "get it"? Ongoing failure will continue to be dressed up as good-faith efforts within the vicissitudes of statecraft.
The real state of affairs is truly, "It's up to us." From personal lifestyle change that's openly shared and publicized, to concerted and individual direct action, to local initiatives toward weakening corporate power including via boycott, it's all up to us. Nations and global institutions have failed to honor life itself, and they're taking us down -- not unlike the uncounted species going extinct daily. It's hard to face our true challenge when it's easier to wait until the next election and pretend again that one is doing one's bit.
As long as any climate deal or eventual treaty is in reality a realignment of industrial investment, toward the renewable-energy Holy Grail regardless of oil reality, then the accepted story is a fraud:

"billions in financial commitments from rich countries to the developing world to help in the fight against climate change. It is hoped that all countries will agree to a control mechanism -- meaning that each country agrees to allow its progress toward emissions reduction targets to be internationally verified." [Spiegel, Dec. 18 -- 'The Search for a Deal']

This constitutes a fraud in terms of slashing emissions, when the "energy market" programs and budgets mainly exist for still more funding, as opposed to immediate action that the Earth's crisis demands.
Take the poor countries' situation: their main root problems include cash crops and associated damage, and infrastructure boondoggles that resulted in major debt and concessions to privatization. Meanwhile these societies' strengths -- local indigenous knowledge and strength of community in acceptance of nature -- are being eroded by the transnational corporations and their lackey international lenders and "developed"-nation governments.
Therefore, money for the "developing nations" is not the real answer. It would be nice if it happened, if it went for the right things such as environmental restoration (e.g., tree planting = jobs and food plus carbon sequestration). But the intended big money -- assuming it happens when redistribution of wealth normally doesn't come about without revolution -- will be wasted to a great extent on corruption, cronyism, and the belief in industrial progress. A modern myth is that energy technologies and fuels are all the same -- just "energy" -- and can be somehow maximized and interchanged for continued "growth." Not to completely dismiss energy-technology aid, the distribution of some community solar panels for shared refrigeration and shared computer access, for example, would be helpful. But an unprecedented mass movement to slash emissions is what has to happen.
Let's be real: "$100 billion (€69.5 billion) annually for developing countries by 2020" is just talk, and is not going to happen with any more certainty than the world's population can go up and up indefinitely. The global economy cannot be sustained, let alone grow, with the loss of cheaply extracted petroleum that has already hit. Crash has begun, including petrocollapse, and the great unravelling is in motion.
There's very little evidence that President Obama gets much of this. Post Carbon Institute's Asher Miller's statement on Obama's Copenhagen contribution says it well: "US President Barack Obama has chosen political expediency over truth and justice." One might go further and wonder why one should have expected much from someone who turned out to be another war-machine Uncle Tom.
It is appealing that Chancellor Merkel says ""We have to change our lifestyles," but does this mean what it should: sharing appliances, ceasing commutes, establishing local economics to the exclusion of corporatism? Or does she mean "greener cars" and flicking switches in every home that burn a different form of energy than at present?
A culture change is overdue. It is underway, but it must become everyone's life purpose.

Climate change could displace 25 million by 2010

2009-12-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

Bonn, June 10 (IANS) By next year - that’s how soon around 25-50 million people will be displaced by climate change as it unleashes more natural disasters and affects farm output, says a senior UN researcher. Northern India will be among the worst affected in the long term.
“Climate change will displace 25-50 million people by next year. The situation will be the worst in the poorer countries,” says Koko Warner of the UN University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security.
“Most people will seek shelter in their own countries while others (will) cross borders in search of better odds.

“Societies affected by climate change may find themselves locked into a downward spiral of ecological degradation, towards the bottom of which social safety nets collapse while tensions and violence rise.”
Warner has just completed a study on climate-induced migration in collaboration with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Columbia University, the World Bank and the NGO CARE.
Warner and her colleagues have been pushing delegates from 182 countries gathered here for a meeting June 1-12 to include migration among the issues they consider as they prepare for a climate summit in Copenhagen this December.
“As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of natural hazards such as cyclones, floods and droughts, the number of temporarily displaced people will rise,” Warner told IANS in an interview.
“This will be especially true in countries that fail to invest now in disaster risk reduction and where the official response to disasters is limited.”
Her study confirms that ‘glacier melt’ will affect major agricultural systems in Asia. As the storage capacity of glaciers declines, short-term flood risks increase. The consequences of glacier melt would threaten food production in some of the world’s most densely populated regions.
In 2000, the river basins of the Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze, and Huang He collectively supported 1.4 billion people, almost a quarter of the world’s population.
Himalayan glaciers are already in retreat. Their dependence on glacier runoff makes downstream populations particularly vulnerable to the consequences, Warner pointed out. The Ganga irrigates 17.9 million hectares in northern India.
“The potential for migration out of irrigated areas could be significant,” Warner added.
“Although destination areas are hard to predict, it is likely that most migrating or displaced people would move to small to medium sized cities inland, and a smaller number would move to large megacities along the coasts or on the main branches of river systems, like Delhi. Many South Asian cities lack the capacity to absorb significant migration streams.”
However, Warner said: “There is potential for significant water saving efficiencies in irrigated areas of Asia, and if properly implemented this may forestall displacements of farmers.
Warner said in the densely populated Ganga, Mekong and Nile river deltas, a sea level rise of one metre could affect 23.5 millionpeople and reduce the land currently under intensive agriculture by at least 1.5 million hectares.
A sea level rise of two metres would impact an additional 10.8 million people and render at least 969,000 more hectares of agricultural land unproductive.
“Many people won’t be able to flee far enough to adequately avoid the negative impacts of climate change,” the researcher warned, “unless they receive support.”
But she said, “Sensationalist warnings must not be permitted to trigger reactionary policies aimed at blocking the movement of environmental refugees without genuine concern for their welfare.”
Countries attending this preparatory meeting are grappling with how much money each will get to adapt to climate change.
“Remember that people displaced by the chronic impacts of climate change, like inadequate rainfall and sea level rise, will require permanent resettlement,” Warner said.
(Joydeep Gupta can be contacted at joydeep.g@ians.in)

Dressing for the big freeze in New York

2009-12-28T06:54:00.000-08:00

When winter's full force hits New York, temperatures dip well below zero. And when the city freezes, New Yorkers ditch their stylish outfits for the "Michelin man" look, as Matthew Price explains.

New Yorkers swap style for practicality when snow and ice hit the city

To be honest, I don't think I ever saw this moment coming.
OK, so it had taken some time to get to this stage, but it still crept up on me.
The tipping point came as I stepped out of the splendidly ornate Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan the other day, just as the Sun was dipping beneath the skyscrapers.
That act removed the rare patches of light (and therefore warmth) which occasionally strike the pavement and help make a winter's day here something approaching bearable.
The wind whacked me smack in the face, burning my lips and my ears. I pulled up my scarf. Tightened my collar. Out came the woolly hat. Still no good. So I ducked into a bank, and got dressed in the foyer. Gloves on. Zips closed. Buttons fastened. Scarf and hat adjusted. Jacket hood pulled up over the lot.
Thank God for the long-johns I had put on that morning.
Back outside and I could not hear a thing through the layers but the Manhattan winter had been successfully shut out. And I looked like a "Michelin man".
Fashion ditched
Sartorially elegant it was not. But after three winters here, I have learnt the hard-stone-cold-frozen way that elegance is not what a New York freeze calls for.
he first year I was based here, I strode around in what I thought was a nice fashionable coat, knees knocking and me cursing myself for forgetting to stick a hat in my bag that morning.
One friend looked me up and down and dismissively told me it was not going to be warm enough.
"Oh, it's just fine thanks," I replied. "Worked a treat back in London." Little did I know.
Still I struggled around, teeth chattering, because, well, if you are an Englishman in New York you need to dress properly, don't you?
By the second year I had learnt something. I bought an extra layer to go under the coat.

When the cold is accompanied by snow, New York is the place to be

But come one day in February, I realised my school-boy error. I stood out on a mid-town pier on the Hudson River on one of those perfect New York days. The Sun shone fiercely down from a cloudless deep blue sky, but it made no difference.
I knew I was in trouble when my Australian colleague, one of those tougher than tough guys who spend most of the year in just a T-shirt, said in his understated manner: "I think we'd better get inside."
His lips were blue. It was -16C with wind-chill.
Wrapping up
It is funny what winter does to a city. New Yorkers are a stylish lot, of course. But come the cold, they go all practical as well.
I have never seen so many men in ear-muffs in my life. So many women sporting full length duvet-style coats. So many ski-outfits not actually on the ski-slopes.
And yes, this year mine will come out on the super-cold days. You can spot the tourists a mile off. They are the ones in the flimsy jackets.
I used to think they looked good in comparison, until I realised they looked silly. Arms tightly folded in against the cold, noses running, trousers flapping around barely-covered ankles.

Cross-country skiers and pole-aided walkers take to the snowy streets

Take my advice, if you are coming over for a weekend break, bring the moon-boots. And a pencil. It is the time of year when reporters ditch pens. The ink freezes.
Of course, you do get remarkably used to it. Last winter, I remember stepping out of my front door into what felt like a perfectly balmy spring day.
It actually turned out to be just a degree above freezing, but after a week during which the temperature had stayed well below I left the hat at home.
Winter wonderland
And when the cold is accompanied by snow, New York is the place to be.
Unlike the big freeze in London in early 2009, when an entire city ground to a halt, New York still functions well.
The snow ploughs clear the avenues, the subways still run, and the city looks wonderful. Like a snapshot from an old movie, it turns grey and white.
Brilliant white flakes swirl past the Statue of Liberty, rise up over the Empire State, and settle down with an elegant curtsey in Central Park.
The snow muffles the noise of a city that rarely sleeps. Everything here, for once, feels calm.
And in the hip and gritty Lower East Side, in amongst the dive bars and graffiti, come the cross-country skiers.
Gliding down Rivington, and heading north up Norfolk.

Snow gives Scots a white Christmas

2009-12-28T06:52:00.001-08:00

The Met Office said that snow has been confirmed in Glasgow

Flakes of snow have fallen on Glasgow on Christmas morning, giving the city its first white Christmas since 2004.

An official white Christmas requires a single flake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December.
The Met Office said that snow has been confirmed in Glasgow and was forecast for Edinburgh and the north east.
Forecasters have issued a severe warning of widespread ice across much of the country and more snow across southern and central Scotland.
Anyone planning to use the roads on Christmas Day have been advised to plan their journey carefully and check the Traffic Scotland website.
Although Friday will be quiet on the roads, gritters will continue to salt the icy surfaces.
'Treacherous conditions'
The A93 at the Spittal of Glenshee and the A90 have both reopened after being closed because of ice.
BBC Scotland's weather presenter Gail McGrane warned of the possibility of "treacherous conditions" through southern and central Scotland, with between 5cm to 10cms of snow in places.
She said the north and north east of the country were also likely to see further snow showers, chiefly Aberdeenshire, Moray, East Highlands and the Islands.
Initially they will be heavy and frequent but ease with time, and become confined to the Northern Isles.
Towards evening, a band of rain, sleet and snow will reach Galloway and during the evening and night, this wet weather will push across the southern uplands, into the central lowlands.
Bookmakers had been expecting to pay out on one of the nation's favourite annual wagers, with William Hill making Aberdeen the odds-on favourite to see snow at 4/6. Edinburgh and Glasgow were offered at 10/11.
Coral's David Stevens said: "It was odds-on that there would be snow in Glasgow, so punters have something to cheer, but overall we've escaped a festive hammering, and it's a happy Christmas for the bookies."

2009-12-28T06:51:00.000-08:00

New Yorkers swap style for practicality when snow and ice hit the city

To be honest, I don't think I ever saw this moment coming.
OK, so it had taken some time to get to this stage, but it still crept up on me.
The tipping point came as I stepped out of the splendidly ornate Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan the other day, just as the Sun was dipping beneath the skyscrapers.
That act removed the rare patches of light (and therefore warmth) which occasionally strike the pavement and help make a winter's day here something approaching bearable.
The wind whacked me smack in the face, burning my lips and my ears. I pulled up my scarf. Tightened my collar. Out came the woolly hat. Still no good. So I ducked into a bank, and got dressed in the foyer. Gloves on. Zips closed. Buttons fastened. Scarf and hat adjusted. Jacket hood pulled up over the lot.
Thank God for the long-johns I had put on that morning.
Back outside and I could not hear a thing through the layers but the Manhattan winter had been successfully shut out. And I looked like a "Michelin man".
Fashion ditched
Sartorially elegant it was not. But after three winters here, I have learnt the hard-stone-cold-frozen way that elegance is not what a New York freeze calls for.
The first year I was based here, I strode around in what I thought was a nice fashionable coat, knees knocking and me cursing myself for forgetting to stick a hat in my bag that morning.
One friend looked me up and down and dismissively told me it was not going to be warm enough.
"Oh, it's just fine thanks," I replied. "Worked a treat back in London." Little did I know.
Still I struggled around, teeth chattering, because, well, if you are an Englishman in New York you need to dress properly, don't you?
By the second year I had learnt something. I bought an extra layer to go under the coat.

When the cold is accompanied by snow, New York is the place to be

Cross-country skiers and pole-aided walkers take to the snowy streets

Snow gives parts of UK first white Christmas since 2004

2009-12-28T06:49:00.000-08:00

Snow gives parts of UK first white Christmas since 2004

More snow could fall in some parts of the UK next week

Snow has fallen in parts of the UK to make the first white Christmas for five years, the Met Office has confirmed.

Edinburgh, Glasgow, Nottingham and Leeds were all officially "white", with the required single flake being seen falling in the 24 hours of 25 December.
Forecasters are now warning that ice could cause problems on Boxing Day.
The Met Office has a dozen severe weather warnings in place for widespread icy roads in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.
The BBC weather centre said sleet and snow may have fallen elsewhere in the northern UK on Friday, but official confirmation has not yet been given of any more white Christmas locations.
A spokesman said the weekend would generally be warmer than previous days, although mornings would still be icy in the north.
Temperatures are, however, set to fall once again next week, leading to a risk of further snow in some central and northern parts of the UK.
After days of travel disruption, the Christmas Eve getaway generally passed off smoothly for motorists as weather improved across much of Britain.
The Highways Agency has lifted roadworks at 44 sites until 3 January and a spokeswoman said Christmas Eve had been quieter than Wednesday.
Andrew Howard, the AA's head of road safety, said it was possible people had waited until Christmas morning to travel.
He warned that even roads where ice had thawed could be dangerous.
"The trouble is that the salt gets washed away. If it refreezes then you don't have salt on the roads and there's very little you can do about it," he said.
"Even if a road has been salted, it doesn't mean it's safe."
The weather has wreaked havoc with the sporting calendar.
The National Hunt Boxing Day meetings at Towcester, Sedgefield, Wetherby and Market Rasen have been called off, while Wincanton and Huntingdon face late inspections.
Meanwhile, all but two of the Scottish Football League's Saturday fixtures have been postponed.

Evils of False Progress Interfere in Fight for Climate - Now It's up to Us .

2009-12-28T06:43:00.000-08:00

Although one yearns for global warming to indeed not exceed 2 degrees Celsius (or less, as African countries demand), the take-home message from the Copenhagen COP meeting is that polluters and growth mongers, large and small, will not let up. This is because they are not being forced to -- whether by their own peoples or by natural forces such as ecological or economic collapse. Most diabolical is the intention to switch energy as the main strategy for climate protection, when it will not work.

What has happened in Copenhagen -- is it really a matter of degree and the lack of strong measures? Or is it a matter of kind? Most technofixers are clever enough not to call for endless growth, but they may as well say there's unlimited, infinite growth through resource exploitation somehow made "green." Here's the revealing part of World Resources Institute's statement trumpeting the pathetically inadequate COP climate deal:

The political agreement struck today has immediate operational effect, including the mobilization of finance to build the clean energy economy in developing countries... The dealt "does provide the framework for countries to move forward with ambitious national action. Action that will build clean energy markets, create jobs, enhance energy security..."

These ideas are admissions of the determined business-as-usual reformist wing of the industrial elite to preserve, if they can, mass consumerism that feeds megaprofits.

Why should a few more months of negotiating do anything but buy some time for those who refuse to "get it"? Ongoing failure will continue to be dressed up as good-faith efforts within the vicissitudes of statecraft.

The real state of affairs is truly, "It's up to us." From personal lifestyle change that's openly shared and publicized, to concerted and individual direct action, to local initiatives toward weakening corporate power including via boycott, it's all up to us. Nations and global institutions have failed to honor life itself, and they're taking us down -- not unlike the uncounted species going extinct daily. It's hard to face our true challenge when it's easier to wait until the next election and pretend again that one is doing one's bit.

As long as any climate deal or eventual treaty is in reality a realignment of industrial investment, toward the renewable-energy Holy Grail regardless of oil reality, then the accepted story is a fraud:

"billions in financial commitments from rich countries to the developing world to help in the fight against climate change. It is hoped that all countries will agree to a control mechanism -- meaning that each country agrees to allow its progress toward emissions reduction targets to be internationally verified." [Spiegel, Dec. 18 -- 'The Search for a Deal']

This constitutes a fraud in terms of slashing emissions, when the "energy market" programs and budgets mainly exist for still more funding, as opposed to immediate action that the Earth's crisis demands.

Take the poor countries' situation: their main root problems include cash crops and associated damage, and infrastructure boondoggles that resulted in major debt and concessions to privatization. Meanwhile these societies' strengths -- local indigenous knowledge and strength of community in acceptance of nature -- are being eroded by the transnational corporations and their lackey international lenders and "developed"-nation governments.

Therefore, money for the "developing nations" is not the real answer. It would be nice if it happened, if it went for the right things such as environmental restoration (e.g., tree planting = jobs and food plus carbon sequestration). But the intended big money -- assuming it happens when redistribution of wealth normally doesn't come about without revolution -- will be wasted to a great extent on corruption, cronyism, and the belief in industrial progress. A modern myth is that energy technologies and fuels are all the same -- just "energy" -- and can be somehow maximized and interchanged for continued "growth." Not to completely dismiss energy-technology aid, the distribution of some community solar panels for shared refrigeration and shared computer access, for example, would be helpful. But an unprecedented mass movement to slash emissions is what has to happen.

Let's be real: "$100 billion (€69.5 billion) annually for developing countries by 2020" is just talk, and is not going to happen with any more certainty than the world's population can go up and up indefinitely. The global economy cannot be sustained, let alone grow, with the loss of cheaply extracted petroleum that has already hit. Crash has begun, including petrocollapse, and the great unravelling is in motion.

There's very little evidence that President Obama gets much of this. Post Carbon Institute's Asher Miller's statement on Obama's Copenhagen contribution says it well: "US President Barack Obama has chosen political expediency over truth and justice." One might go further and wonder why one should have expected much from someone who turned out to be another war-machine Uncle Tom.

It is appealing that Chancellor Merkel says ""We have to change our lifestyles," but does this mean what it should: sharing appliances, ceasing commutes, establishing local economics to the exclusion of corporatism? Or does she mean "greener cars" and flicking switches in every home that burn a different form of energy than at present?

A culture change is overdue. It is underway, but it must become everyone's life purpose.

Taking Responsibility for the Climate Crisis

2009-12-28T06:39:00.000-08:00

The unnatural dominant culture, coldly spewing its noise and heat, subjecting us to dirty machines and pavement, no longer makes sense in terms of our needs as humans. But don't let it get you down and make you give up. Play your guitar, enjoy the company of friends, or whatever else restores your humanity. Perhaps the songs and the conversations will lead to some liberation and justice, alleviating the pain of this senseless system running our lives into the ground. But we must do even more. Finding a "better job" is no solution long-term, however much we think we need money to survive.

Taking responsibility for our own lot and the climate crisis means we must first reject an unworkable system and culture. I hasten to clarify; this does not mean there aren't a lot of nice people caught up in it. But if they believe elections and voting with their consumer dollars are going to save them from the ecological crisis and the slide into societal chaos of collapse, they are of no help to themselves or to the countless species being driven extinct by modern civilization.
In complaining about the failure of the Copenhagen COP 15 meeting, and continuing to beseech the Barack Obamas of the world to "please take good care of us," we are behaving like overgrown children who have no business coming back to helpless, hopeless parents to save us when we are reluctant to take matters into our own hands for our survival.

Except, the Obamas and Merkels and other corporate front men say to us, "Yes, there there, we're here for you. And we're trying to be green. Now be good and stay out of our way." So we go off and brood, get a bit more frustrated, and then we come back with more proposals, only to be disappointed -- as our graves are dug deeper by the technological war-for-profit growth- is-essential system. To legitimize a fixed game by continuing to play by its rules is foolish and tiresome to those of us who see though the sham and self-delusion.
Blaming the Copenhagen fiasco on... ?
Some activists, such as the "global web movement" Avaaz.org, blame "big polluters" such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for the U.S. stance on climate protection, while sparing Obama significant criticism. Avaaz probably did not read Naomi Klein's recent Guardian- UK article that made a good case for blaming Obama. The deeper problem is that many activists want to hope Obama is their guy, not the polluter's guy. Sure, sure.
Still another progressive environmentalist view finds Obama still heroic as a constrained realist facing a tough Congress: a Grist.org column stated, "Instead of directing our frustrations at Obama, let’s direct them at the paralysis of vision and understanding among the American people."
When we face the fact that we are on our own and must build an alternative society, it would seem wise to look at the only sustainable model humanity has known: indigenous, traditional society based on tribes. Except for a few experiments in civilization that eventually failed, such as the Mayans and the Mississippi culture, the cultures of revering nature and the universe as it is -- not as our technology could remake it -- succeeded for millennia.

Now we are up against the wall, trying to create ecovillages and implement permaculture before we are crushed. It's ironic that so few people see the need. This is one reason it is so hard to jump to a safe haven where these sound practices are followed. It takes a good deal of sacrifice or luck in being able to make major changes in one's life under the yoke of the vicious economic system. Even so, there's really nowhere to run to, when we're all in this together. But we can and should each improve our situations in a responsible way.
So keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to exit the corporate economy, or at least to become more self-sufficient while creating more community. Someday a tribe will form around you, or you'll have to go find one. Driving to the supermarket and shopping online, and in other fashions not working closely with family or neighbors, has no future. It is antisocial as well as ecocidal.
* * * * *
Related reading: Evils of False Progress Interfere in Fight for Climate - Now It's up to Us, by Jan Lundberg
Email alert by Avaaz.org - The People vs. Polluters to raise money for Yes Men-like climate activists busted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Guardian, UK - Copenhagen's failure belongs to Obama "The American president has been uniquely placed to lead the world on climate change and squandered every opportunity."
Grist.org - Why is everyone so pissed at Obama?, Dec. 18, 2009

Grow up, America! - Sept. 11th analyzed in Jungian terms by Cal Simone, Culture Change, 14 September 2006