MMMMmmmm...What are you saying Invisible???

Aren't you mindless???

Only when I'm fast asleep, and sometimes even then.....


Is that sooooo wrong???

That's crazy talk. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have the media
to do my thinking for me. Invisible, you so crazy

Ok, I'm crazy


I actually like to think for myself

Outside my window I can see Mount Dufferin - it is more a big hill and
what is happening there is indicitive of the rest of British Columbia
these days.

The pIne beetle has dessemated the pine trees. Within a couple of years
no pine will stand in British Columbia. It has already crossed the
border into Alberta and provinces farther away like Ontario are already
bracing and planning for the onslaught.

The trees on the mountain are maily pine so looking across I see green
grass and the dead brown-red pines - once regal, once homes to birds and
other critters ... all being cut down.

A lot of wood is not salvagable because it has holes through it but
companies are using what they can.

Everything is dry and the dead trees just add more fuel ...

It is expected to be another hot dry year. Over the past several years,
British Columbia has seen several hundred forest fires. A few years ago
an entire town was lost.

The hills and mountains make fighting the fires difficult.

That is outside my window today ... as I drink a cup of tea and look at
the river and wonder what the summer will bring...

I've seen the devastation caused by the pine beetle in BC, and the
damage caused by some of the forest fires there and here in Alberta.
It's unbelievable.
What's needed is a really long cold winter to kill off the pine beetle.
BC hasn't had one for a while.

I had no idea that pine beetle infestation was so prevalent,
and I hope you don't mind I went and had a look for more information in
regards to pine beetles in British Columbia and found this information,
which I thought may be of interest to others unfamiliar to the problem,
as I was....sorry I forgot the link, but it was a Government Forestry
site..(I just typed in pine beetle..)




Beetle Biology
The Latin name for the mountain pine beetle is Dendroctonus ponderosae.
The life span of an individual mountain pine beetle is about one year.
Pine beetle larvae spend the winter under bark. They continue to feed in
the spring and transform into pupae in June and July.
Adult mountain pine beetles emerge from an infested tree over the course
of the summer and into early fall.
The mountain pine beetle transmits a fungus that stains a tree's sapwood
blue.
Comprehensive testing has confirmed that the blue stain caused by the
beetle has no effect on wood's strength properties.



Beetles and Cold Weather
Cold weather kills the mountain pine beetle. Mountain pine beetle eggs,
pupae and young larve are the most susceptible to freezing temperatures.
In the winter, temperatures must consistently be below -35 Celsius or
-40 Celsius for several straight days to kill off large portions of
mountain pine beetle populations.
In the early fall or late spring, sustained temperatures of -25 Celsius
can freeze mountain pine beetle populations to death.
A sudden cold snap is more lethal in the fall, before the mountain pine
beetles are able to build up their natural anti-freeze (glycerol)
levels.
Cold weather is also more effective before it snows. A deep layer of
snow on the ground can help insulate mountain pine beetles in the lower
part of the tree against outside temperatures.
Wind chill affects mountain pine beetles, but is usually not sustained
long enough to significantly increase winter mortality.



Beetle Impacts
About 9.2 million hectares were in red-attack stage in 2006 as a result
of the mountain pine beetle.
The mountain pine beetle infestation will have economic implications in
the future for 30 communities around the province.
25,000 families in British Columbia are having their livelihoods
impacted by the beetle infestation.



Contributing Factors
The mountain pine beetle prefers mature timber. After 80 years,
lodgepole pine trees are generally classed as being mature.
B.C. is believed to have three times more mature lodgepole pine than it
did over 90 years ago, mainly because equipment and techniques for
protecting forests against wildfire have greatly improved over time
Hot and dry summers leave pine drought-stressed and more susceptible to
attack by the mountain pine beetle.



Infestation Information
The start of the current mountain pine beetle infestation in B.C.'s
central Interior can be traced back to 1993.
A hectare is considered infested if it contains more than 10
beetle-attacked trees.
Mountain pine beetle outbreaks develop regardless of property lines.
They can appear in mountain subdivisions, backyards and municipal parks
the same as in wilderness areas.
The mountain pine beetle in B.C. is as far-ranging as Fort St. John to
the north, the Alberta border to the east, Smithers to the west, and the
United States border to the south.
The direction and spread rate of a beetle infestation is impossible to
predict exactly.
There are three stages in a mountain pine beetle attack: green, red and
grey.
In addition to B.C. and Alberta, the mountain pine beetle can be found
in 12 western American states, and even Mexico.
last updated: March 2007

A link, for the interested..

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/science/beetle.html


Oh My!! It is huge!!

The amount of forest that is affected,already, and the potential of
affecting billions more seems to be very real...

I didn't realise how dry, BC and Alberta had been, and that even
snowfall averages were down..


Thankyou for sharing this info Sherrie, and Harry, I am looking for more
info on h2s as well, and it's impacts..

Thank you Jess

Good morning everyone.

Nice to see this thread still going and people sharing the eco problems
in their country in such a nice way.

I just woke to a cloudy day.....but how wonderful....as there maybe a
few drops of rain there.

Good morning Riva

I found this about h2s and it's impacts on some of the families in
Alberta...from www.newsdesk. org/archives


In Alberta, Canada, many oil and gas operations are located near towns
and farms, sometimes less than a kilometer away. Residents blame a rash
of severe public health and environmental problems -- from crop damage
and childhood illness to miscarriages, livestock deaths and human brain
damage -- on the flaring and venting of natural gas at drilling sites
and refineries.

At the center of the controversy is hydrogen sulfide -- or "sour gas" --
a poisonous substance that has been compared to cyanide, and described
by the 1924 U.S. Public Health Service as "one of the most toxic of
gases."

According to Dr. Kaye Kilburn, a neurotoxicologist at the University of
Southern California and the author of the book "Chemical Brain Injury,"
hydrogen sulfide causes permanent brain damage at very low levels and
can kill at 500 parts per million.


Sour gas is widespread in Canada and throughout North America, he said,
and "in Alberta, particularly, [oil companies] have exposed quite a few
people who farm and ranch in the areas where they're putting a lot of
wells down ... So they expose these people to unknown but devastating
levels of hydrogen sulfide, so people end up brain-damaged as a
consequence."

Critics say that the regional government in Alberta is biased against
landowners, and has routinely ignored their health concerns in favor of
the interests of the oil companies there.

The story of the Graffs, a ranching family in Alberta, is typical.
According to the October 1, 2002, edition of the Ontario-based National
Post, through the late 1990s the family lost 25 percent of their calving
herd of cattle, with pigs miscarrying in record numbers, due to flaring
by the oil drilling company Crestar.

The Graffs themselves suffered spiraling health effects, including
pneumonia, heart problems, leg paralysis, declining muscle control,
weight loss and seizures.

The National Post article reported that for decades, thousands of
Albertans living near sour gas facilities have "persistently reported
health problems and reproductive abnormalities with their livestock,"
and that in the last 30 years hydrogen sulfide has killed "at least 34
workers in Alberta and British Columbia and disabled hundreds more ...
[and] downed cattle and forced the evacuation of aboriginal reserves."

In a phone interview from his office in Los Angeles, Kilburn said he
examined "five or six" people from Alberta who lived close to oil wells
and collection depots, including the Graffs, and said that they showed
signs of hydrogen sulfide exposure.

"These people have impairment of brain function and lung function," said
Kilburn, and the Graff's son Darrell "has pretty severe impairment. He
can no longer, at the age of 23 or 24, farm."

The National Post article describes the Alberta Energy & Utilities Board
(EUB) as essentially funded and run by the oil industry, and the Graff's
record of failed lawsuits and public hearings seem to reflect this. A
1999 ruling from the EUB even allowed Crestar to expand operations and
declined to help the family relocate to a region without any oil
drilling activities.

The Graffs eventually moved on their own, after selling their farm for
half its appraised value.

Bob Curran, a senior advisor at the EUB, said that while the agency
receives 70 percent of its funding from a levy on the oil industry and
30 percent from the government, they have made proposals to the
government to shift that ratio to 50-50.

He also said that the EUB does have a "'high percentage of staff that
has worked in the oil industry -- it's kind of ridiculous to not have
people with experience in the industry working in the field."

In Alberta, the Clean Air Strategic Alliance (CASA), an association of
industry, government and watchdog organizations, mandated a 25 percent
reduction in flaring by the end of 2001. CASA said petroleum producers
actually exceeded that target, cutting back 38 percent.

But an article in the Calgary Herald on July 26, 2001, reported a spike
in gas venting matching that reduction. Venting is the practice of
simply releasing raw gases into the atmosphere, at a much higher
environmental impact than flaring.

The EUB's Curran said that venting is permitted if certain guidelines
are met, but that his agency is working to reduce it across Alberta to
"virtually zero."

The regional government launched the Public Safety and Sour Gas
Initiative in early 2000, a commission that ultimately produced a report
that criticized the EUB for favoring industry and failing to monitor gas
releases and public health.

The report also made dozens of recommendations for reducing impacts and
improving public consultation, but concluded that the EUB and the
industry are, and have been, "endeavoring to ensure that sour gas
operations have minimal negative impacts on the public."

Curran said there is zero tolerance for hydrogen sulfide emissions, and
that if a drilling site was discovered to be releasing sour gas it would
be shut down.

Curran acknowledged that many Albertans are dissatisfied with the EUB's
performance.

"Generally there's a gap between what people feel has happened and what
the companies assert has happened," he said. He draws an analogy between
the EUB and the police department: "We strictly enforce the regulations.
If the regulations aren't strict enough, it's not in our ability to
change that."

While many residents are hopeful about new regulations to reduce
flaring, there is plenty of skepticism as to whether this will make a
difference.

"The Energy and Utilities Board is not doing a sufficient job of
protecting the health and well-being of farmers in rural Alberta," said
Anita Sorgard, Darrell Graff's sister. "In Alberta, the oil and gas
companies pay ... a major contribution to the wealth of the province.
The industry is looked on as a cash cow. So, much of the government
services are provided by the revenue generated by the industry ... And
so sometimes the emphasis isn't quite in the right area."

I awoke to the smell of smoke..

And what appeared to be fog laying over the valley here in town, wasn't
fog...

I don't know where the bushfires are at the moment, as I am off the
Rural Fire Brigade roster...but I know when I go back into town later
this morning someone will be able to tell me...

Sorry to hear about the fires. Hope you all keep safe up there.

Will try to send a few rain clouds your way.

Oh noes! We are having a down pour right now (which ticks me off
because I wanted to goto the movies) but we've been having wild fires
here too.

My wombat of death can stop fires with a stare!

I was reading the problems associated with the trees in Canada and the
US Rockies. In the east we are expierinceing similar problems. This is a
brief.............

by Juanita Teschner
Travel to the upper elevations of the Appalachian Mountains, and you’ll
find forests that have suffered serious damage. Fraser firs and spruce
stand like skeletons against the skyline. Northern hardwoods — beech,
maple, birch — look as if winter has descended, even in the spring.

What has caused this widespread devastation? Some blame insects like the
balsam woolly adelgid or the budworm or the Southern pine beetle. Others
point to acid rain as the underlying culprit. Most scientists agree that
a combination of forces is at work.

Dr. Harvard Ayers, chairman of Appalachian Voices and a professor of
anthropology and sustainable development at Appalachian State
University, has directed pioneering research on the decline of the
hardwoods from the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania through the
Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.

Ayers flew over the mountains of Pennsylvania and eastern West Virginia
last summer. “I saw thousands of acres of declining trees,” he says. “We
can’t unequivocally state that they’re killed by air pollution because
there are other causes, too, like drought and bugs and disease.

We have our problems with pine beetles here in the SE US also. I'm not
sure if they are the same beetles that y'all have in BC and Alberta.
They tend to be much worse here in times of drought. Also a pest whose
name escapes me is killing off the hemlock trees. This is moving south
and is now starting in my area. Of course almost the entire american
chestnut population was wiped out in the US years ago by the chestnut
blight. The blight was accidently imported from the orient. The problem
with the hemlock trees now is also from an introduced insect.

Wow, I had to read for a long time to catch up on all this. Jess, your
topic has really drawn some attention. Seems everyone had so much going
on in their own back yard that maybe we failed to be concerned about
anyone elses.

The issues, all of them, affect all of us, somethimes in ways we don't
even know yet.

I remember in the 70's reading so many scientific studies about global
warming and pollution. In my area, suburban Chicago, there was an
effort to make changes. I remember my whole neighborhood on water
alert. The women, not many of them worked then, would all drive to town
or walk on the nice days as a group. The waste disposal companies began
researching recycling. It was, in all, a pretty big deal - for a few
years.

Today, we still recycle, but now we have to pay extra for that service.
We no longer ride together because everyone works and everyone is on
different schedules. Or because we are in homes where there is not a
full time homemaker, many errands are done during lunch hour, and before
or after work.

I think where we fall short in making adjustments is not on an
individual basis. We fall short because we do not have cooperation
between the private lives of individuals and business, and government,
and schools.

I had a night job cleaning offices for a while. I was totally disgusted
by the waste. Paper, cans, all thrown in a dumpster. I even saw a guy
who had just changed his oil, use the dumpster to discard his old oil.
Tons of paper, recylable paper every week.

Mass transit is rarely successful, for the reasons I have stated above.
Technology - how many years were we dumping TV's, freezers,
refrigerators, then comes computers with all manner of CRT's, murcury
base. Paint dumped down drains, anti-freeze discarded in sewers or
yards, not knowing the dangers.

Now there are some places that will take old paint, anti-freeze, old
oil, computer screens. But you have to have something to put it in and
you have to get in your car and drive it to the sight. And these places
are not always close by.

In our neighborhood association, I suggested that we designate one day a
month, when someone would volunteer to pick up "whatever" and take it to
a safe disposal area. One guy worked for a paint company that would
take your left over paint. Cool!
One lady worked for a vehicle repair shop, old oil - cool. There was a
paper recyle area close by, cool again. The trouble was everyone was on
their own schedule, and it wasn't very well organized. People didn't
know what to leave out and it just got confusing. I still think it
would work, but it has to be "sold" and has to have a sound reliable
structure.

That is still individual. There is SO VERY much that companies could be
doing, so very much that local, state and federal governments could be
doing. There is SO VERY MUCH that those who make fortunes from the
technology they produce, SHOULD BE DOING.

These are some of the battles, I am trying to rally, along with others
in my area. But we are local, we are, the little people. To be big
people we need to be in mass. We need politicians who will answer the
call to address these issues. So I solicit those who are in office, and
those who would be in office.

What else, can we do? next post please.

read above mall........

So what else can we do? It seems that there have been several
organizations over the years. The biggest one that comes to mind is
GreenPeace. To be honest, not sure what they are all doing, but I don't
see anything happening from my level.

So what if we formed our own group. Think of things we can do in our
own neighborhoods, or in the closes city. We could all give ideas,
suggestions about getting things started. And if we find any success,
we could get our local news agencies involved by saying what "THE GROUP"
is doing, and how it's growing, that kind of thing.

I know it's vague, but it's enough to see what you all think.

Nimbin celebrates its 34th Mardi Grass Festival this weekend. This years
banner 007 licence to Mull.Its all happening in a small town west of
Byron Bay northern rivers NSW Australia.the aim is to campaign for
leagalization of cannabis. do ya all think thats a good idea ?do
ya think doing that, it may help save the world in any way?