Aug. 22, 2005 - 21:56 MDT

IN SMALL PACKAGES

I guess in many papers this little bit, less than a quarter page shows up, as it is from Universal Press Syndicate by Steve Newman. Called Earthweek: A diary of the planet

Every Monday is an update. In it are items of interest like earthquakes and their severity (on the Richter scale), cyclones, hurricanes and such. Today's venue mementions the spread of bird flu in Russia, the effect of flooding in India, burning forests in Borneo.

Then an item of importance to us: "The worst drought to strike the American MIdwest since 1988 has burned parts of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers into virtual sandbars and has caused widespread crop losses.

But I think of greater importance to citizens of the world is the first item: Climate 'tipping point'

"Climate scientists warned that a vast expanse of western Siberia has begun an unprecedented thaw, which could cause a "tipping point" in global warming. The area spans nearly 400,000 square miles and is melting for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago. The discovery, made by Sergei Kirpotin at Tomsk State University in western Siberia and Judith Marquand at Oxford University, was published in New Scientist. The researchers said as the world's largest frozen peat bog melts, it will release vast quantities of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent in global warming than carbon dioxide."

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So there is drought here in the breadbasket of the nation. Not only in the arid west are things drying up, but in the Mississippi Valley. But the news of the humonguous peat bog in Siberia melting down and releasing unbelievable amounts of methane gas into the world's atmosphere is hard to imagine.

I doubt that GWB can have this report pulled out, distorted his way or have it changed in any way. He can pooh-pooh it as propaganda and things like that. But as far as I can understand, global warming is happening and will hasten evermore with the release of all that methane gas.

The world wide weather pattern is changing and rapidly as far as I have read. Yet what is being done by our administration in an effort to cut back on things that cause global warming ? Seems as if there is no concerted, coordinated effort to conserve any petroleum fuels, no big push to make the auto manufacturers put more efficient cars on the road. Humvees buzz through the countryside, wonder what the MPG is on those babies ?

The effort to make power plants and big industrial outfits clean their emissions seems to be dwindling more than ever before.

Seems to me to be a very explosive situation and this little item is like dynamite, it COMES IN SMALL PACKAGES . . . . . . . . . .

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