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From: Tom <tombrooklyn_at_yahoo.com>
subject: [Paddlewise] Quiet Guilt
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2000 02:26:02 -0800 (PST)
> kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org wrote:
> ...I personally feel a lot of guilt
> > from driving all the time to go kayaking, and I
> wonder if any others on this
> > list feel the same way?

Nah, used to when I was young and idealistic. 
Bothered me alot.  Made me feel bad.  Got over it. 
Feel better now.  Besides, you have enough guilt for
both of us, so I don't have to feel any.

> On 06-Dec-2000 Bob Myers wrote:

> ...Since we all drive cars, we all share the guilt
when
> we go kayaking (except for
> those wonderful few who manage to do without). 

Thanks for not leaving me out.

> ...when autos
> are systematically destroying vast ecosystems on a
> global scale. 

True, but what are you gonna do?

> We have only
> just begun to see the impacts of global warming (the
> *ahem* tip of the iceberg,
> if you will :)  I think most people are living in a
> dream world if they are not
> genuinely concerned about the terrible impact of
> global warming.... 

Well then, somebody wake me up.  
You may take some comfort in that for every scientist
advocating a concern for global warming, they're is
another scientist who says there is no such thing 
> 

> 
> Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000  From: obrien
<obrien_at_proaxis.com>
 
> I don't have the numbers at my finger tips, but
> driving older less efficient 
> autos contribute a disproportionate am't of
> pollutants. ...  Now may be  the time to get more
>bang for our buck by buying and
> retiring the dirtiest autos.  

I'd be glad to sell anyone my '90 Ford 444 c.i. diesel
van for a price that will allow me to purchase a
newer, more efficient full size van.  I don't care
what they do with it after they buy it.  Would I have
to give up the heavy deer-shedder bumpers?   

> Some scientests are now saying that corals may be
> largely gone in 25 years
> due to global
> warming!!!!  

If we lose coral, it will be due to pollution, not
global warming.  

>....  Warm currents in
> 1997 disrupted
> the food chain resulting in a shift in feeding
> habits of key preditors
> which saw the
> otter as suddenly worth their effort.  Global
> warming seems to be here and
> impacting
> sea kayaking,too.  

That was a short term phenomona.  There is a normal
variation in short term weather patterns.  It has
nothing to do with global warming.

> I use a push mower and put in an ecolawn.

What is an ecolawn?

> I support ending gas subsidies and therefore
> pollution subsidies.  

What subsidies?  What gas are you talking about?  The
gas I know about is heavily taxed by the Govenment,
not subsidized.

> OK, I'll get off my soap box now and go to bed.

Good night all.


> Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 08:31:39 -0500
> From: "RiDem" <RiDem_at_email.msn.com>
> Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Kayaker's guilt (was:Jet
> Ski Ban Proposal - Ind
> 
> You haven't addressed the noise   pollution of jet
> skies  though. Cars
> remain on land, it is possible to escape them. As I
> said in my earlier post,
> what is so difficult to fathom about setting aside a
> small area with
> "natural noises", not man made one?

"Sounds" good.  Don't forget to restrict the airspace.
> 
> Right know I am listening to my neighbors snow
> blower (0.5 inches of snow
> fell last night). The leaves have been off the trees
> for the last  2 weeks,
> so the leaf-blowers have subsided. The daily morning
> buzz of lawn mowers is
> 4 months in the future, and it has gotten too cold
> for the kids to leave
> their car windows open as their vehicle shakes with
> their booming sound
> system.
> Rich

Try living in NYC.  Half the time it's hard to carry
on a normal cell phone conversation.  Whatcha gonna
do?
Someday I'm going to retire and have a nice, quiet, 
ostrich ranch.

Tom Dowling
Love the Smell of Diesel in the Morning


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From: obrien <obrien_at_proaxis.com>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Quiet Guilt
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 23:40:12 -0800
>> Some scientests are now saying that corals may be
>> largely gone in 25 years
>> due to global
>> warming!!!!  
>
>If we lose coral, it will be due to pollution, not
global warming.

Today I heard on NPR that 2 years ago 10% of the world's 
coral was dead.  It's now 27%!  It's been looked at
      extensively and the overwhelming evidence points to warming.
For example, corals grow producing coral growth rings which
can reflect growing conditions.  Looking at these rings and
counting back thousands of years shows current El Nino's
at twice the historic rates.  These are currently much 
more frequent than ever before.  These are also likely
to be more extreme as well. 
  
>You may take some comfort in that for every scientist
>advocating a concern for global warming, they're is
>another scientist who says there is no such thing 

That is simply not true.  Much has been learned about
the problem in just the last 5 to 10 years and the evidence
really is overwhelming.  The scientests that I have 
heard speak on global warming strongly have refuted 
this equality of proponents.  You will now be hard-
pressed to find a reputable scientist that won't admit 
that it now appears likely that global warming is here.

>>....  Warm currents in
>> 1997 disrupted
>> the food chain resulting in a shift in feeding
>> habits of key preditors
>> which saw the
>> otter as suddenly worth their effort.  Global
>> warming seems to be here and
>> impacting
>> sea kayaking,too.  
>
>That was a short term phenomona.  There is a normal
>variation in short term weather patterns.  It has
>nothing to do with global warming.

When the sea otter were virtually wiped out in SE
Alaska and BC the same thing happened to the kelp
forests.  Dispite our best efforts, these forests
are not back in anywhere near historic levels.  Once 
this ecosytem is disrupted, it will take a long time to
recover (unlikely in several lifetimes).

>> I use a push mower and put in an ecolawn.
>
>What is an ecolawn?

It's a lawn mix developed here at Oregon State.  It
has numerous unobtrusive wild flower seeds mixed in
with grass seed.  It gives a nice texture to a lawn
and requires much less watering. 
http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/store/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=80&mscssid=W07C
1QJUVSS12MNX000GQ3U2QHX6C2W2

At 02:26 AM 12/9/00 -0800, Tom wrote:
>> kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org wrote:
>> ...I personally feel a lot of guilt
>> > from driving all the time to go kayaking, and I
>> wonder if any others on this
>> > list feel the same way?
>
>Nah, used to when I was young and idealistic. 
>Bothered me alot.  Made me feel bad.  Got over it. 
>Feel better now.  Besides, you have enough guilt for
>both of us, so I don't have to feel any.

I don't like guilt trips.  But, I also don't like sticking
my head in the sand.  To bring this back to seakayaking,
we need to do as much as we feel comfortable doing and 
then do a little more still.  I plan to paddle along reefs
from time to time and hope that they are here for millions
of more years.  Unfortunately, the masses in this country
don't show much will to manage problems until crisis strikes.
And government is always two steps behind the public.
Serious, sensable ecologists have been marginalized by
conservatives and industrial spinmasters.


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From: <kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Quiet Guilt
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 10:19:21 -0800 (PST)
On 12-Dec-2000 obrien wrote:
>>> Some scientests are now saying that corals may be
>>> largely gone in 25 years
>>> due to global
>>> warming!!!!  
>>
>>If we lose coral, it will be due to pollution, not
> global warming.
> 
> Today I heard on NPR that 2 years ago 10% of the world's 
> coral was dead.  It's now 27%!  It's been looked at
>       extensively and the overwhelming evidence points to warming.
> For example, corals grow producing coral growth rings which
> can reflect growing conditions.  Looking at these rings and
> counting back thousands of years shows current El Nino's
> at twice the historic rates.  These are currently much 
> more frequent than ever before.  These are also likely
> to be more extreme as well. 

Here's the reason why corals are dying with global warming. Corals are very
sensitive to changes in temperature because of their physiological nature. A
living coral is a symbiosis between two organisms, coral polyps which build the
coral, and an algae called zooxanthellae which produce the chemicals that allow
polyps to build their limestone skeletons. Unfortunately, zooxanthellae have a
very narrow temperature range in which they can live, often as narrow as 0.5
degrees C. When temperatures rise beyond their allowable range, they die off,
and the coral reef is bleached (turns white). This is a dead reef. 

Bleaching is not always permanent. El Nino events often cause bleaching, but
the zooxanthellae can repopulate the reef after El Nino has gone away.
This kind of bleaching and repopulating has been observed many times.

Unfortunately, global warming does not go away from year to year. A reef that
is bleached from global warming related temperature rises is permanently dead.
And since zooxanthellae are so sensitive to temperature changes, coral is an
excellent indicator of global warming. That 25% of the reefs have recently died
is a pretty good indicator that global warming is happening.

For more info on coral bleaching, there are several articles about this on my
website:
 Glossary explanation of coral bleaching:
http://www.yourplanetearth.org/terms/details.php3?term=Coral+Bleaching

An article on the 25% of coral reefs already bleached and 70% may be bleached
by 2050:
http://www.yourplanetearth.org/article.pl?sid=00/12/12/0123204&mode=nested

An article about new institutions created to preserve coral reefs, including
Clinton's creation of coral reef national monument in Hawaii:
http://www.yourplanetearth.org/article.pl?sid=00/12/05/1933222&mode=nested

If you like coral reefs, or have never seen one (such as me), go see them soon
before they are gone!
Kevin




For more information 



For more information 

----------------------------------
Kevin Whilden
Your Planet Earth
http://www.yourplanetearth.org
E-Mail: kevin_at_yourplanetearth.org
ph: (206) 788-0281
fax:(206) 788-0284
----------------------------------

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