Bears aren't hibernating this Christmas.

Clinate Emergency anyone? - the Independent/UK

Want to Stop Atlantic Yards?

Email State Assemblyman Silver HERE
He has the final say, and has been known to block large projects before (West Side Stadium).

It's worth a shot...do it, quickly. Now is the time.

UPDATE: It didn't work. Sheldon Silver voted yes.

Offsetting Carbon this Holiday? This is a Must Read.

What kinds of projects really help reduce the effects of climate change? Energy-efficient light bulbs for Jamaicans? Solar stoves for Indians? Or planting trees in the former East Germany? - Speigel

It is certainly up for debate, but the need to reduce personal emmissions is not.

The annual emissions of an average Indian -- 1,987 pounds of CO2 -- is the same amount a German tourist generates on a flight from Frankfurt to Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, a popular vacation destination.

TerraPass offers three projects for offsetting your emissions: Wind Power, BioMass, and Industrial Effieciency. These are the most common types of offestting options for consumers. Carbonfund, like CarbonNeutral's Dedicate-a-tree scheme also offers the option of reforestation on top of renewable and efficiency projects. However, according to new research, reforestation is not the carbon sink many think it is.

"Forests on average certainly exchange a lot of carbon with the atmosphere. So if you want to say: Do they remove a lot of carbon from the atmosphere? yeah, sure they do. Do they put back a lot? Sure, they do that, too.

But the idea that they're going to combat the rise of CO2 in the atmosphere has, I think, probably been overstated. If you disturb them, by cutting them down or burning them, then they may exacerbate the rise of carbon dioxide," states Steve Wofsy of Harvard University

"A tree would have to be at least 60 years old before it became a net consumer of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere," said Ernst-Detlef Schulze, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry:

The BBC recently reported on a study conducted by Dr Govindasamy Bala of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Ken Caldeira, from the Carnegie Institution of Washington:

"Our study shows that tropical forests are very beneficial to the climate because they take up carbon and increase cloudiness, which in turn helps cool the planet," explained Dr Bala.

The further you move from the equator, though, these gains are eroded; and the team's modelling predicts that planting more trees in mid- and high-latitude locations could lead to a net warming of a few degrees by the year 2100.

So what does one do if they want to reduce carbon in the atmostphere? (Besides fighting forest fires, or throwing bricks at SUVs of course) Jonathan Shopley of CarbonNeutral says:

We always suggest to our customers that they first look into ways to reduce or even eliminate their carbon dioxide emissions.

Good advice. But if you can't stop all emmisions, make sure you choose the right option because the wrong choices could actually make our situation worse.

My advice? CarbonFund's Renewable Energy Option.

Crude Impact Trailer

The Oil Crash Trailer

Escape from Suburbia Trailer

The Bodyguards of Greed

THE NYPD have several dangerous and violent fascists amongst them. One of them was recently caught on tape, watch and be disgusted.

The Arctic Emergency

Ice is melting so fast in the Arctic that the North Pole will be in the open sea in 30 years, according to a team of leading climatologists.

Ships will be able to sail over the top of the world and tourists will be able visit what was, until climate change, one of planet’s most inaccessible landscapes.

Who's Army is God Siding With?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A watchdog group that promotes religious freedom in the U.S. military accused senior officers on Monday using their rank and influence to coerce soldiers and airmen into adopting evangelical Christianity.

How Do You Confuse a Room Full of Capitalists?

Tell them that you don't care about money.

Read this wonderful account of a presentation given by Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, at the UBS global media conference in New York. -NYTimes

"Wendy Davis of MediaPost describes the presentation as a “a culture clash of near-epic proportions.” She recounts how UBS analyst Ben Schachter wanted to know how Craigslist plans to maximize revenue. It doesn’t, Mr. Buckmaster replied (perhaps wondering how Mr. Schachter could possibly not already know this). “That definitely is not part of the equation,” he said, according to MediaPost. “It’s not part of the goal.”

The Feds are Worried About a Dollar Collapse

While Bush sends Paulson and Bernanke to China to discuss the value of your money, read this great story on Boulder Colorado (and other cities') plans to reduce energy use. - LATimes (this story will only be free for a couple of days so read it now)

And these Canadian politicians are getting their blood tested for dangerous toxins, revealing what kind of pollutants and contaminants their electors are exposed to.

Spitzer's Inauguration Party is Free and Open to the Public

He is paying for it himself, holding it outdoors, and welcomes the public. Too bad I dont live upstate!

Top Insiders are Selling Their Stocks

They are selling stocks at the fastest pace in 20 years.
What do they know they we don't?
Nothing. We know it too.
The economic chickens are coming home to roost. They might have more information on the actual timing of a stock market collapse though. Watch the criminals closely if want to understand the crime.

Tornado Rips Through London

Do you know climate chaos when you see it?

The Atlantic Monthly Online

The Coming Anarchy
How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet

You have to pay to read the article, but its nothing new for people who understand the active trends in today's civilization. What is noteworthy is that the Atlantic Monthly is catching on...This is a widely read magazine.

The Climate Emergency

Was this December first or May first? Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes hit the Northeast on Friday, December 1st in an unprecedented severe weather event.

At least three tornadoes have been confirmed in Pennsylvania. The official Storm Data of the National Weather Service does not list any December tornadoes in PA in records that begin in 1950, so these were the first December tornadoes in PA in at least 55 years!
- The Weather Channel

The Rich are Too Rich

The richest 2 per cent of adults own more than half the world’s wealth, according to the most comprehensive study of personal assets.- The Times Online/ UK

“Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and high-income AsiaPacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 per cent of total world wealth,” the report said.

Another NYC Cyclist Murdered by Someone in a Car.

read about it on Gothamist.

And Its Not Even Day One Yet

NYTimes - Moving swiftly in his efforts to change the culture of Albany, Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer said Thursday that he would unilaterally stop accepting campaign contributions greater than $10,000, which is less than a fifth of the $50,100 in individual donations currently allowed by state law.

Mr. Spitzer also said that from now on he would refuse to take advantage of several notorious loopholes in the state’s campaign finance laws that allow corporations and limited liability companies to circumvent donation limits by contributing through subsidiaries and other related entities.

...he said, “The logic is, this is the right thing to do to send a message that we meant what we said throughout this campaign, which is that we are going to change, in a fundamental way, the way government functions.