British Climate Leader Says Stop Eating Meat to Save the Planet

A leader in global climate change Lord Stern say one way to end climate change is to go vegan. Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

Emissions from pigs and cows is a significant source of methane which a greenhouse gas. Methane is 23 times stronger that carbon dioxide as a gas.

Lord Stern author the 2006 Stern Review of the cost of global warming said that a good outcome of  the  upcoming Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen  would including higher food cost that raise the price of meat and other food the contributes to massive amounts of greenhouse gasses.

Stern believe that Copenhagen presents a unique opportunity to for the world break free from the world current course. He believes the world need to change the output of worldwide greenhouses from 50 gigatons to 25 gigatons by 2030.

He believes that peoples attitudes will change. “I think it’s important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating,” he said. “I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student. People change their notion of what is responsible. They will increasingly ask about the carbon content of their food.”

Lord Stern is calling for US President Barack Obama to attend the Copenhagen conference in December so an effective agreement with the U.S.in the lead will be reached. He said, was “desperately needed” to secure a deal.

Critics calls it  foolish. Jonathan Scurlock, of the National Farmers Union, said: “Going vegetarian is not a worldwide solution. It’s not a view shared by the NFU. Farmers in this country are interested in evidence-based policy making. We don’t have a methane-free cow or pig available to us.”

Times of London.

Land of Lost: Scientists Discovers Life in a Extinct Volcano in Paupa New Guinea

Scientists have a brave new world in a volcano in Paupa New Guinea recently to their surprise and delight. Giant rats, Fanged Frogs and other creatures were found  in an extinct volcano by a team of scientists from The United States and Great Britain made the discovery.  Mt. Bosvai a remote extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea that has not erupted in 200,000 years; Discovered new 40 species  of wildlife.

The scientist that climb down a one kilometer crater to find 16 new species of frog, 3 new type of fish,a new kind of rat and a new specie of rat the largest in the world.

The discovery has scientist excited but caution for the need to protect the rain forest.

The Bosavi woolly rat had no fear of humans when it was discovered. Photograph: Jonny Keeling/BBC

A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea.

‘A giant woolly rat never before seen by science’ Link to this audio

A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 frogs which have never before been recorded by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat, which may turn out to be the biggest in the world.

The discoveries are being seen as fresh evidence of the richness of the world’s rainforests and the explorers hope their finds will add weight to calls for international action to prevent the demise of similar ecosystems. They said Papua New Guinea’s rainforest is currently being destroyed at the rate of 3.5% a year.

“It was mind-blowing to be there and it is clearly time we pulled our finger out and decided these habitats are worth us saving,” said Dr George McGavin who headed the expedition.

“These discoveries are really significant,” said Steve Backshall, a climber and naturalist who became so friendly with the never-before seen Bosavi silky cuscus, a marsupial that lives up trees and feeds on fruits and leaves, that it sat on his shoulder.

“The world is getting an awful lot smaller and it is getting very hard to find places that are so far off the beaten track.”

The Guardian

Senate Bill Would Give the White House Control of the Internet

CNET Reports a new senate bill that would grant the President of the United State power to control and disconnect private computers in a time of  an emergency. This has set alarm bells to go off by internet and civil liberties groups.

There is also a revised version of the bill S.773 by Senator Jay Rockerfeller(D-West Virginia) which allow the white house to seize control over private sector  computer networks during a cybersecurity emergency.

Senate bill 773 would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and to what ever it take to protect the nation.  The bill has provision to create a federal certification in Cybersecurity professionals.

First Amendment advocates were  alarmed of the provisions think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness,” said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance,  their members includes Verisign, Verizon, Nortel and Carnegie-Mellon University.

“It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.”

A spokesperson for Senator  Rockerfeller declined to comment. A source that is aware of the bill compare what President Bush did immediately after 9/11 terrorist attacks by stopping air traffic. The senate source  says the government is concerned about an attack to the electrical grid via a broadband connection.

This comes on a the heels of a statement by President Obama in May where he announces that the government in not prepared  to handle these attacks. The White House  still has not hire a cybersecurity officer and a cyber security aid stepped down in less than three month on the post.

Meanwhile The Free speech advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation says the project has raised eyebrows in the legislation. Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the in San Francisco. “As soon as you’re saying that the federal government is going to be exercising this kind of power over private networks, it’s going to be a really big issue,” he says.

The most controverisal part of proposition is section 201 which permits the president to “direct the national response to the cyber threat” if necessary for “the national defense and security.” Also the administration to map out private network to be critical country and  the these entities “shall share” with the federal government.

The language has changed but it doesn’t contain any real additional limits,” EFF’s Tien says. “It simply switches the more direct and obvious language they had originally to the more ambiguous (version)…The designation of what is a critical infrastructure system or network as far as I can tell has no specific process. There’s no provision for any administrative process or review. That’s where the problems seem to start. And then you have the amorphous powers that go along with it.”

More on CNET News

Swine Flu could Kill up to 90,000 This Season

Science advisers to President Barack Obama says anywhere between 30,000-90,000 People could die as a result of the second go around this traditional flu season. The report released by the President Advisers on Science and Technology on Monday. Hospital intensive care which use up to 80% of space; may use all available space in the intensive care area alone.

Over a million people were sickened earlier this year. The number will increase in as schools  sessions start according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. If hospitals  swarmed with Swine flu patients many hospitals may put off elective surgeries argues James Bentley spokesperson of the American Hospital Association.

“If you have 1.8 million hospital admissions across six months, that’s a whole lot different than if you have it across six weeks,” said Bentley, whose association represents 5,000 hospitals across the country.

The White  House has order vaccine doses for at least 40 million people. House and Human Service  Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says we are heading into uncharted waters.“This isn’t the flu that we’re used to. “The 2009 H1N1 virus will cause a more serious threat this fall. We won’t know until we’re in the middle of the flu season how serious the threat is, but because it’s a new strain, it’s likely to infect more people than usual.”

The White House science advisers believes its possible between 1/3 to 1/2  of the US population  could be infected and up to 300,000 could hospitalized.“This is a planning scenario, not a prediction,” according to the report. “But the scenario illustrates that an H1N1 resurgence could cause serious disruption of social and medical capacities in our country in the coming months.”

Hackensack University Medical Center Chief Medical officer Peter Gross say the numbers may seem overblown considering the previous  swine flu out breaks in 1957 and 1968 fail to cause many death.  However,  if the government panel is correct on its projections, hospitals could be on trouble.

“I think every hospital in America is going to be in a crunch. We’ll be hard pressed to deal with those predictions,” he said.

Hackensack University Medical Center is is prepare for the worst. The 775 bed facility in Suburban New York City has order additional vaccine dosages and trying to figure out where to place patients.

“Influenza, you can make all the predictions you want, but it’s more difficult than predicting the weather,” Gross said yesterday in a telephone interview, after the advisory report was made public. “If influenza was a stock, I wouldn’t touch it.”

Bloomberg News has more.

Democrats Divided on Obama Care: Pelosi Says She has Votes; Blue Dog Democrat Says No She Don’t

If you are a democrat, today message from the Speaker of House of Representative Nancy Pelosi is good news However, if the word from so-called “Blue Dog” Democrat like Rep. Mike Ross(D-AR) the speaker needs check her numbers.

Pelosi believes that she has to votes to pass the health care reform bill.

“I have no question that we have the votes on the floor of the House to pass this legislation,” Pelosi told reporters.

But Congressman Ross doesn’t think so “No, I don’t think they have the votes,” Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., said,

Ross the bill as it stand is still too expensive and does not curb medical costs. “We’re speaking for a silent majority within the Democratic caucus,” he said. “The American people want us to slow down and they want us to get it right.”

ABC News Political Punch blog by Jake Tapper

News Flash for Al Gore and Climate Changers Mid-July mornings are chilly in Nashville and much of Tennessee

On Tuesday morning, Nashville broke the all time record for July 21 at 58 Degrees. Breaking the previous record of 60 degrees set back in 1877. Bobby Boyd of the National Weather service say Nashville tied or broke records for low temperatures over the past three days. Other Tennessee saw cool temps but non broke records.

So Al was it chilly in your mansion on Tuesday? It this Climate Change?

WHNT News 19

H1N1 Update: Shades of the 1918 Pandemic

UPDATE: Research scientists has discovered that the Swine Virus(H1N1) share one thing in common to the 1918 Flu virus. The infection of the  respiratory system, the lungs in particular.

The researcher have realized with testing of animals that the H1N1 virus can travel through upper respiratory system to well in the lungs which may in lead to pneumonia.

“When we conducted the experiments in ferrets and monkeys, the seasonal virus did not replicate in the lungs,” said Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin, who led the study.

The H1N1 virus replicates significantly better in the lungs.”

“There is a misunderstanding about this virus,” he said in a statement. “There is clear evidence the virus is different than seasonal influenza.”Said Kawaoka.

So far Swine Flu has killed 500 people worldwide and infected over a million people.  There is a concern the flu will infect more people by the fall.

The World Health Organization says that all countries should prepare for the H1N1 Virus and stockpile vaccine. WHO believes that the Swine Flu is unstoppable.

The article is found the science journal Nature.

Rueters

Breitbart

Senator Boxer Foresees Envronmental Catstrophies if Climate Change Bill Fails

Great More Fear mongering from Senator Barbara Boxer. The Junior Senator from California foresees environmental disasters for decades to come. Fires, droughts, floods, loss of plant and animal species; increasingly bad air and crop failure.

But Boxer who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works has linked the bill to five other committees including Commerce, Agriculture, Finance, Foreign Relations,and Energy which make it difficult for her fellow senators  from defeating the bill.

The bill success depends on 15 Senators the so-call “blue-dog Democrats” are generally are more conservative than Boxer. She hopes to pry’s a couple of Republicans.

However, Senator James Inhofe (R) Oklahoma the leading Republican on the Environment committee says the bill will be defeated once  the people learns that it is a massive energy tax hitting all incomes.

Yahoo News

World Leaders Back Obama’s Plan to Reduce Polutions

On Wednesday, World Leader including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to an agreement to reduce the world carbon output by 80%  by December 2050 . The accord happened during the G-8 Summit in L’aquilla, Italy.

The agreement will prevent the rise of the world’s temperature rising 3.6 degrees.

The move was to put pressure on the developing countries including China, Mexico and India. The Chinese leader  Hu Jintao was opposing the cut in greenhouses gases.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters,“Today in Italy we have laid the foundations for a Copenhagen deal that is ambitious, fair and effective. The change from where we were two, three, four years ago is significant. The world has now agreed that the scientific evidence on climate change is compelling,” he said.

The Times of London has more.

Obama’s ABC Healthcare Infomercial:Epic Fail

Wednesday night Obama’s daylong  infomercial came a went. With only 5 million viewers=1.1 rating. It was a bust.  Those who watched were not impressed and The president refused to answer key questions both from Doctors:  Orin Devinsky, a neurologist asked Ask the president to vow: Would you be willing to not seek extraordinary treatment for his wife or daughters if they are sick and the public option plan restricts they type of exams and or medical care. President Obama said that he would want the very best of care and didn’t make that vow.   (meaning the pols will keep health care and we lose ours.)

From ABC News

H/T: Hugh Hewitt