Companies get OK to annoy polar bears – Associated Press. “Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas. The Fish and Wildlife Service issued regulations this week providing legal protection to seven oil companies planning to search for oil and gas in the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern coast of Alaska if “small numbers” of polar bears or Pacific walruses are incidentally harmed by their activities.”
Bristol to be Britain’s first cycling city – The Telegraph. “As the Government looks to persuade people to use two wheels rather than four, Bristol will be the first city to get a bicycle rental scheme, similar to the Velib system which has been a runaway success in Paris. Commuters who use bikes will also get access to somewhere to have a shower and get changed before going to work.”
Petrol prices pinching post office – Associated Press. The U.S. Post Office is feeling the pinch at the pump–”every time the price of gasoline goes up a penny it costs the Postal Service $8 million.” To counter the rising gas prices, the Post Office is buying gas in bulk, packing mail more tightly, and reviving walking as a mail-delivery method.
NJ weighs bill encouraging alternative farm energy – Associated Press. “New Jersey lawmakers are contemplating a bill that defines solar and wind energy generation as agricultural activity. State Sen. Bob Smith, who is sponsoring the bill, acknowledged his bill is an “attempt to think outside the box when it comes to farming.”
Fuel strike leads to localised rationing – The Telegraph. “Fuel rationing has been introduced in parts of Britain as the impact of the Shell tankers drivers’ strike intensifies. Several independent retailers in the West Country have imposed limits as low as £10 as they wait for new stocks to arrive; 647 [gas stations] have either run dry completely or had to turn away motorists looking for diesel or petrol.”
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Here one that just missed the gate…
Poll: most Britons doubt cause of climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/22/climatechange.carbonemissions
We need some leadership here! I think because our climate scientist get projection wrong ie they are alway under estimating things, the public are thinking (hoping) that the may be getting it wrong overall.
paulm,
You have a leader. His name is AL Gore. He won the Nobel Peace Prize. He has a $300,000,000 “public education” fund. Follow his example in every way.
Gore has gone as far as he can…Obama has to take the helm now. But also local politicians and journalists have to do their bit. Its getting there, but its frustrating.
RE: Poll: Most Britons doubt cause of climate change.
They should go read : “Climate Change and Global Warming” by Andrew Materman at:
http://www.usefulinfo.co.uk/climate_change_global_warming.php
I’m going to inform the editors of the “Guardian” of this interseting article that has a straight-forward analysis of the Central England Temperature record that shows no change in regional climate for 3 years!
See you later Joe!
The whiteman declared the polar bear an “endangered species” to deprive the natives in both the US and Canada of a source of income. The objective is to drive the improvished natives of their traditional lands so that these lands would then become available for resource extraction by greedy whitemen who wouldn’t have to pay them a royalities.
Harold — it was named “threatened” not “endangered.” I’m glad for your sensitivity to natives, but there ain’t going to be many polar bears left in 10 or 20 years either way. I’d say a (slightly) more plausible conspiracy is that we could use global warming to drive them from their lands and free up the ice for more drilling.