This is an attractive source for kids and adults. It contained the image above. http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/ A good resource page with great links (including the one above) http://www.ucsusa.org/resources/ozone.resources.html

and the conference fills in...*wheee!*

I am trying...keeps me thinking and hunting. I am delighted you like it so far.

Great conference, Marcia, I�m full of awe!! And what a brave start......�What we are doing to Earth and what we can do about it� is of course the question above all other questions. Terrible is that most people give a sh** to what we are doing to it. Life is short!

Thanks for visiting and posting. The Earth is really all there is. It is worse than animals living in their own filth because they do not know any better; we are doing it and can prevent it and clean up the rest. I guess beside giving up in futility, one corner of your world is the best way to begin. We could make great progress if we stopped triple-packaging everything and stuffing the landfills with plastic. Recycle, and really mean it! Come back often, please!

and not because it's the thing to do, but because it makes sense!

It means our survival. Quite plainly stated, either we learn to exist with the planet, or we will lose and not exist at all!

So, what DO we do about it??!! Can�t boast with anything much I�m afraid......all right I�m in the habit of talking, reading and writing about environmental problems a lot, isn�t that something? :-)

What sort of things are you discovering in your reading and what are you writing about? Finland must have some unique problems plus the ones we all share. (yeah, and you did not know I was so keen on rocks, either...Surprise!)

Oh I knew you had a thing for rocks, why wouldn�t I?? I like big ones especially (Surprise!) Recently made a story about the erratic boulders that the continental glacier scattered here and there in the landscape. I found an amazing specialist who knew practically everything about every big boulder in the country. I also talked to a guy who managed to get his beloved boulder protected and not being destroyed by a new motorway.

Sounds like Finland was at the top of the Glacier if the boulders are huge. Actually, Stonehenge is built of glacial debris as is Avebury ( and most likely the rest of the stone circles and standing stones of Britain and Europe.)

Let's hear it for the guy who beat the system and kept his boulder patch intact!

speaking of boulders--there's a place in Kansas that has the most unique looking piles of rock i've seen. they're nearly perfectly round with deep grooves in the surface. i can't remember where we saw them (i was much younger then!). i'll do some checking and let y'all know...

Got any pictures or the the name of the place? Thanks for hunting for the info. Somehow, boulders and Kansas never went together in my mind!

which is what makes it so unique! the pictures we have are at my folks' home....

Hustle your scanner over there and post them....please?!

can't do that in a quick and efficient manner as they are 12 hours away. anyway, will work with them on getting the pics and will do some serious searching on the net :)

Thanks - I would do it, but I no nothing of the area, so I appreciate your help. Meanwhile I am off to check the net for a good webring to join. Our first choice was locked...

I learn things at each of your topics, Marcia... Fantastic work!

Thank you, Dear! It keeps me reading and researching - some of my favorite things to do. This entire enterprise has been such fun, and it is keeping me up on the entire field, which is a real plus. Return often!

The Weastern states of the US are experiencing serious wild fires: Wildland Fire Update Check Out the Large Fire Map August 28, 1999 -- Good progress was made on several large fires in the West with full containment expected tomorrow on nine large fires in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas. Approximately 460 new small wildland fires were reported nationwide yesterday. As containment is met on large fires, resources are being released to respond to new and ongoing fires. Six military C-130 aircraft, converted to airtankers by the Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems (MAFFS), are assisting suppression efforts in northern California. There are currently 19 large fires in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas for a total of 200,958 acres. Nearly 12,000 firefighters are battling blazes throughout the West and are supported by 910 engines, 118 helicopters, 19 airtankers, and 1,885 support personnel. Fire Weather Outlook Scattered, mostly wet, thunderstorms are expected in Montana, eastern Idaho and Wyoming today. California and Nevada will be clear with continued hot temperatures. See the National Weather Service Fire Weather Web Page for more detailed fire weather information. Large Fires California See map for fire locations 13 Large fires/complexes; 117,178 acres; more than 7,000 firefighters committed supported by 657 engines, 75 helicopters, 16 airtankers, and 1,461 support personnel Lots of good information and fire location details at http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html

For some really great information on the aerial firefighting equipment see http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/aviation/id.html

haven't been watching the news the last couple of days, thanks for the info!

From the BBC: Japanese officials struggling to contain the worst nuclear accident in the country's history say they believe the situation has now stabilised. More than 300,000 people living in the area have been told they can leave their homes but there is still a 350-metre "exclusion zone" around the plant. However, fears persist over the effects of fallout from the accident. Officials told residents caught out in Thursday evening rain showers to wash their clothing and said locally grown vegetables should not be eaten. Radiation levels soared to 15,000 times the normal level just after the accident - schools were shut, train services halted and farmers were warned not to harvest their crops until safety checks had been carried out. But officials say radiation levels outside the plant have now returned to normal, and local residents are no longer at serious risk. They issued the statement after operators drained coolant water and carried out a number of other measures to reduce the risk of contamination resulting from a leak inside the uranium processing plant. The Governor of Ibaraki Prefecture, Masaru Hashimoto, said he had received confirmation at 0615 (2115GMT) that the nuclear chain reaction at the uranium processing plant had stopped. The aftermath of the accident coincided with the arrival on Friday of a second British ship carrying a cargo of plutonium for Japan's nuclear power industry. The Pacific Pintail docked in Takahama, 400km (248 miles) southwest of Tokyo. More than 30 workers at the Tokaimura plant are thought to have been exposed to radiation. Two are in a critical condition and are expected to be given bone marrow transplants. The victims include builders who had been working at the plant, people who live nearby and firemen who helped in the rescue. Human error Officials said workers had caused the accident at the plant by pouring too much uranium solution into a tank. Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi criticised the response to the accident, saying it had taken too long for experts to assess the seriousness of the situation. He also held an emergency meeting of the cabinet which set up a special task force - the first time it has taken such a measure after a nuclear accident. Washington has meanwhile announced that a joint American and Russian team is being sent to Japan. Criticality Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said it was very likely there had been a "criticality incident" at the plant. Criticality is the point at which a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining. The French nuclear institute said the incident was the 60th in the world since 1945, following 33 such accidents in the United States and 19 in the former Soviet Union. One of the workers reportedly told an official that he had used about 16kg of uranium - nearly eight times the normal amount - during the process just before the accident. Workers normally use up to 2.3kg of uranium in each procedure to prevent a criticality accident, officials said.

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK Saving an Ecosystem HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK is an island within an island. It is a shelter for what remains of the once-rich tapestry of Hawaiian life -- a tapestry unraveled by alien species. In some areas of the park, natural habitats are damaged beyond recovery. The park concentrates its energies on the most biologically diverse habitats and those that offer the best chance for successful restoration. The immediate strategy is to control or eliminate the most disruptive alien plant and animal invaders. Park crews erect fences to keep out feral animals; hunt feral pigs; and pull out or cut down firetree, banana poka, guava, and ginger. As native plant communities reestablish themselves populations of Hawaiian honeycreepers, nene, Kamehameha butterflies and happyface spiders once again flourish. In recognition of its outstanding natural values, Hawaii Volcanoes has been honored as an International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site. The park continues to mend the fabric and promote the lasting vitality of this remnant of pristine Hawai'i.

From the BBC : Secret Britain - When you take a peek inside Britain�s natural treasure trove, you�ll find a cache of irresistible but unsung wildlife gems. By Simon Bell. Wildlife migrates over majestic plains, soars above rolling deserts and traverses swathes of impenetrable forest. But not in Britain. The thing about Britain is that nothing can roam, soar or traverse for long without falling off the edge. It�s small, compact, bijou. Tiny, but fashioned with incredible attention to detail - and detail is where the British landscape excels. Not for us the huge, impressive panoramas. Like the crowded backroom of an antiques shop, our countryside is crammed with prehistoric trinkets, imported exotics, relics from an icy age and treasures known and forgotten and, perhaps, some yet to be discovered. We have only geology, meteorology and ourselves to blame. Our landscape is prone to twisting, folding, collapsing, erupting and heaving itself out of and into the sea at a moment�s geological notice. Our climate is described as temperate but rarely seems to exercise either moderation or restraint. Thanks to our own actions, our immediate biosphere has had its original, all- pervading wildwood transformed beyond recognition into a patchwork of farmland, heath, ancient grassland and coppiced woodland. Britain's charm lies in its unpredictability, in its intricacies, in the myriad puzzle-like pieces that make up its whole. This landscape is, in turn, reflected in the naturalists who explore it - the stone-turners, the crawlers on their hands and knees, and those with a predilection for powerful optics. It's a landscape that has engendered a preoccupation with the small and the beautiful. This is not to say that Britain lacks great wildlife spectacles. Half the world�s grey seals seek shelter on our shores. We are home to spectacular seabird colonies, including 70 per cent of the world�s gannets. Thousands of wildfowl find our mild climate preferable to the severe winters of their summer breeding grounds. Carpets of bluebells are almost uniquely a British preserve. But spectacle is not what Britain is really about. We�re an understated people, possessed of a quiet reserve. We don�t tend to shout about our achievements, and so is it any wonder that there are so many treasures that remain hidden and unappreciated? What follows is an unashamedly personal choice of some British wildlife gems. It�s a reminder that what we have on our doorstep can be just as fascinating and extraordinary as the wildlife in far-flung places that we hear so much about.

Oil From Sunken Tanker Hits French Coast NANTES, France (Reuters) - An oil slick from a sunken tanker began washing up on France's Atlantic coast Friday, bringing a grim Christmas for an area which lives by its fisheries, oyster farms and tourism. As the first blobs of oil soiled the shore in the Finistere region near the southern tip of Brittany, affecting a 40-mile stretch of coast, volunteers fanned out for a clean-up operation in what could be the start of an economic as well as ecological catastrophe. Pushed by gale-force winds, the main spill from the Erika tanker, which broke in two and sank in stormy seas on December 12 carrying 25,000 tons of viscous fuel oil, is expected to hit Belle-Ile island, to the southeast, within hours. Tests confirmed that the oil washing up in Finistere was also from the Erika. Officials had earlier said it could have come from another tanker cleaning up its holds. Oil giant TotalFina, under fire for its handling of the spill, pledged to clean up the mess and said thousands of tons of oil trapped in the vessel, lying 45 miles south of Finistere, should be pumped out. Meteo France said most of the 8,000 tons of fuel oil spilled from the 25-year-old tanker, broken up into slicks some 37 miles long, was 9.4 miles south of Belle-Ile. It said it could reach the island during the night and the mainland at Le Croisic, near Nantes, Saturday. Authorities along hundreds of kilometers of Atlantic coast have taken emergency measures to fight the feared environmental disaster. MINISTER CRITICIZED Environment Minister Dominique Voynet cut short a vacation following criticism of her absence. Her office said she would visit volunteers treating oil-soaked seabirds Saturday. Philippe de Villiers, head of the regional council of Vendee, had earlier demanded that she be sacked. The oil poured into the sea after the Maltese-registered Erika broke in two. Charterer TotalFina has insisted it is not responsible for the spill, but the disaster has proved a public relations embarrassment for the firm and chairman Thierry Desmarest sought to curtail criticism by offering aid. ``We pledge to restore completely the ecological balance in the coastal waters which could be affected,'' Desmarest told RTL radio. ``We will do everything needed to restore confidence.'' An international flotilla of pumping vessels, battling bad weather, has only been able to mop up some 1,000 tons of oil. Around 100 soldiers were on Yeu island to help and a further 120 were stationed in Vendee. Reinforcements were on alert. OIL STILL IN SUNKEN SHIP A Vendee court ordered local authorities to appoint experts to assess the cost of possible pollution damage. Council chief de Villiers had wanted TotalFina to pay. Around 15,000 tons of oil remained in the holds of the wrecked Erika and maritime authorities feared some of the fuel may be seeping out, threatening further environmental havoc. TotalFina boss Desmarest said the cold temperatures on the ocean floor should help solidify the oil. ``However, it does not seem reasonable to us ... to leave the fuel in the holds of the two halves of the tanker indefinitely. Without doubt an operation will have to be launched to pump it out. It is complicated,'' he said. De Villiers called for pumping to start at once. Government ministers have demanded an urgent review of maritime transport laws. Transport Minister Jean-Claud Gayssot said several oil companies including TotalFina had responded positively to his proposal for talks on shipping safety.

Awful! Remember the pics of oil covered birds in the Persian Gulf after the war?

Yes, and those in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez ran aground...ghastly! How are you doing with that terrible storm in Europe? Did it get as far south as Lisbon and Albufeira?

There have been showers and some wind at different times here in Lisbon and in Albufeira. We were afraid the storm would hit us for New Year's Eve but I checked the weather channel online just now and it is supposed to get better for friday.

Excellent news. I can ease off on the worrying a little. Keeping my eye on that European weather map, however...I just don't trust it!

A few years ago I was working for an environmental group called Clean Water Action, they got the name from the Clean Water Act which was one of the first causes on which they'd worked. One of the things we were doing when I was there was calling people to back legislation for fish testing. Who knows exactly what get dumped into the oceans? But fish and seafood can be sold to consumers without being tested. We also had a list of how different types of fish ranked in terms of safety, i.e., salmon was near the bottom of the list safetywise because it spends part of its life in fresh water, whereas cod which lives in very cold, relatively deep ocean water was at the top. I remember calling this one man who lived in Massachusetts and asking for his support on the issue. He was interested and did support fish testing. (New Englanders are very politically involved generally.) So we got to talking about the safer varieties of fish and I mentioned cod was about the safest. He then told me that there weren't many cod ish left, atleast not in the Grand Banks. That was a shock. When the first European explorers got the Grand Banks they were amazed that they could dip baskets into the water, then pull them out full of codfish. But as he noted several hundred years of overfishing and then polution were bringing a big decline in the cod population. Among those most adversely affected were fisherman, something of an irony.

Codfish overfishing has gone on for most of the 20th century if not before. They were considered almost a trash fish until recently when their rarity beccame widely known. Now it is polution. We are poisoning ourselves! Again! The best way to indicate love of the Earth other than tending her more carefully is this little offering to those who share my feelings.

Your graphic reminded of a cartoon of the Earth I once saw. The Earth is sitting in a rocking chair, wrapped in a blanket, wheezing and shuddering, and the caption had the Earth asking, "Is this any way to treat your mother?" It's not that your Earth looks similar, just the thought to love and care for it better.

*lol* This is true! It was chosen for me since I had no idea then what to put there. I fell in love with it immediately, and since I have the new buttons up and changed the color of the hot links to match, I thought I should try one more time to make it work. It did! Thanks for noticing...(*jumping up and down quietly bearly able to contain my glee*)

oops...you were speaking of the hearts circling the world graphic. I thought you meant the cover page one. If you ever see that earth in a rocking chair again on the net, please post the url for it. Thanks!

Don't stop jumping, I did notice the graphic on the page. Gaia, herself, would be happy with the likeness.

Delighted you liked it. *BIG smile and dancing a special hula in appreciation!*

Maybe you could do a graphic of a lei bedecked Earth dancing a hula; although, that would be tough as the Earth has no arms. Can't tell the story, aren't the hula dancers arms and hand supposed to tell a story? Besides, rotation is enough.

..."keep your eyes on the hands.." as the song goes. I'll look for one like that *lol* There is a good probability that a global flower shipper has such a graphic. Thanks for the suggestion!

U.S. Announces Program to Restore Chesapeake Bay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Clinton administration Wednesday announced a $91 million program to restore up to 35,000 acres of environmentally sensitive land along the Chesapeake Bay and many of Virginia's streams and rivers. The project aims to restore wetlands and wildlife habitats for native creatures, including the Peregrine falcon and the Virginia big eared bat both endangered species. The conservation program will also seek to reduce nitrogen, phosphorous and sediments in streams and rivers. ``The Chesapeake Bay is a unique and valuable natural resource,'' Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said in a statement. ``Thousands of people make their living from it, and many more use it for recreation.'' The total cost of the program is expected to reach $91 million over 15 years. Of that amount, $68 million will come from the federal government and $23 million from Virginia.

The Chesapeake is beautiful. I hope the animals get more regard than the tourists. Don't get me wrong, when I go to Baltimore there'a nothing I like more than -- crabcakes! I love crabcakes; however, it would be nice for everybody if the crabs were living in clean water.

I was hoping Autumn would read this - she lives there. I learned to sail on the Chesapeake. It was a long time ago and had lots of backwater areas which were teaming with wildlife. I hope they can save it!

This concerns the re-introduction of the red wolf into one of its former habitats, North Carolina. The red wolf is being re-introduced into the Alligator River Preserve; however, there is a threat to the red wolf's survival as a species. The threat is the coyote. The problem is with the virtual inihilation of the red wolf from its habitat a vacuum was created, which was filled by the coyote. Unfortunately for the coyote offspring produced by the red wolf/coyote mating are fertile. The red wolves being reintroduced to Alligator River are bred by a team of biologists on St. Vincent's Island off the coast of Florida. When the wolves are released in Alligator River they do sometimes mate with coyotes, upsetting the genetic integrity of the endangered species (red wolves). Their is controversy about this though. Biologists in Canada, when there still are intact wild populations of red wolves, contend that thier data indicates that red wolves carry coyote genes because the two types have bred together for millenia. In fact, they are closely related branches of the same type of canid, accounting for the reproductive viability of their offspring. Another group of biologists in the United States believes the red wolf/coyote hybrid is nature's way of trying to redress a balance caused by humans. The red wolf was trapped, poisoned, and shot, those that survived had their habitat divided into suburbia and shopping malls, the result the more adaptable and opportunistic coyote moved in. The hybrid is nature's way to solve the problem. However, back at Alligator River aggressive coyotes are being sterilized and any hybrid litters born to the red wolves are put to sleep.

This is a no-win situation which is sure to rile both sides. Is there no option aside from killing other animals to establish a viable population - perhaps in another place?! We cannot redress one problem by causing another. Auwe!

Monday, April 17, 2000 Deformed frogs create concerns By MEREDITH GOAD, Staff Writer Copyright � 2000 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. Portland, Maine Press Herald Some had a third hind leg, others had 12 toes on one foot. There were extra bones in their feet, and extra sheaths of skin that made it difficult for them to hop in the right direction. A new study of deformed frogs has found these and other malformations in northern leopard frogs collected from Maine. The study, conducted by the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisc., used sophisticated X-rays to examine deformities in 180 frogs collected at 16 sites in Maine, Minnesota and Vermont; it represents the most extensive look to date at the bone structures of malformed frogs. Carol Meteyer, a veterinary pathologist and the lead researcher on the project, says she wanted to look beyond deformed frogs' external oddities to survey their joints, bones and other internal structures. Meteyer says she hopes the new images will give other researchers clues to what is going awry in the frogs' development from tadpoles. In her own analysis of the X-rays, Meteyer found compelling patterns of abnormalities, particularly in the Maine frogs. These findings, she said, suggest the frogs' deformities are tied to both where they live and the stage of development at which they were damaged. She is now pursuing a theory that the malformations in the Maine frogs may have been caused by a parasitic worm that gets into the skin of tadpoles. The deformed Maine frogs were collected at Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a 9,000-acre refuge on Sunkhaze Stream in Milford, just a few miles north of Bangor. Frogs were also collected in Pittsfield and Orono. Bizarre malformations have now been found in 38 species of frogs and 19 species of toads in 44 states. The scope and nature of the deformities alarm scientists because amphibians are considered to be barometers of potentially serious environmental problems. Biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first discovered deformities in young frogs at Sunkhaze Meadows in 1997. Last year, in their own study of Maine and New Hampshire wildlife refuges, they also found deformities in green frogs, pickerel frogs, bullfrogs, northern leopard frogs and American toads at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Wells and at Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Newington, N.H. The frogs at Rachel Carson had missing eyes, missing hind legs, "double feet" � one foot growing on top of another � and other deformities. The type of deformity a frog has affects how well it's able to hop, catch flies and carry out essential activities of frog life. "We noticed that when they had extra limbs, those limbs did move but they weren't coordinated with the two normal ones," Meteyer said. ". . . It was more than dead weight, it was getting in their way." Frogs with skin webs also had problems moving around. "They can't stretch their leg," Meteyer said. "It's like a tight band of skin that holds the ankle up to the hip, and so they can't really jump very well. It also causes rotation of that leg, which causes them to jump in the wrong direction. They think they're going straight, and they're actually going off at an angle." Because of these problems moving around, deformed frogs are pretty much doomed to short lives. Researchers rarely find malformed frogs breeding in the spring, implying that they're either easy targets for predators or poor food gatherers. "They can't catch insects very well, so they don't put on very good fat stores and they don't make it through hibernation," Meteyer said. Meteyer says the precision and patterns of some of the abnormalities she found in her study were striking. All the tadpoles at a single site seemed to have received the same type of damage at the same stage of development. "One of the reasons that the Maine site was so important is it had a characteristic signature of malformations," she said. "It was one of only three sites we looked at where the frogs had multiple rear legs. Only 5 percent of all the frogs we looked at had multiple rear limbs." There were also other patterns. Frogs with extra rear legs also had extra toes and extra bones in their feet, she said. Frogs that had extra bones in their ankles also had extra toes. In Vermont, every study site had frogs with missing bones, "and that was as extreme as having no hip bone development on one side and no limb on one side," Meteyer said. Meteyer said developmental patterns are set by mid-June, well before the young frog hops out of its pond in August. What could be causing the deformities in Maine frogs? Scientists have come up with several possible explanations. Some hypothesize that chemicals in the environment might be the culprit. Other possibilities are the effects of ultraviolet rays from the sun, physical trauma, or infection with a parasitic worm. At Rachel Carson and Great Bay, researchers found that frogs and toads were infected with a virus that's common in hatchery fish. "It's interesting that we would find a virus at our two worst sites, so we can't rule out the possibility that if a virus is introduced early enough in development that it could disrupt it in some way," said Lisa Eaton-Poole, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in Concord, N.H. Eaton-Poole said she'll be collecting more frogs at Rachel Carson, Great Bay and Sunkhaze Meadows this year. She'll also be collecting egg masses, water and sediment from the Rachel Carson refuge this spring to send to the Wye Institute, a research facility affiliated with the University of Maryland. A scientist there will use those eggs as well as eggs from the African clawed frog � the amphibian equivalent of a lab rat � to search for potential contaminant problems in the water and soil. Most people believe it's likely there are multiple causes of frog deformities, some of which have probably not yet been identified. Meteyer says that in the case of Sunkhaze Meadows, and in at least one site in Minnesota, the parasitic worm may be to blame. The worm is an immature flatworm that penetrates the skin of tadpoles and has been linked to the growth of multiple limbs in California tree frogs. Meteyer has found worms under the skin of tadpoles from Sunkhaze Meadows, and is now working to identify them. "The immature worms were there at the right stages of development," she said. "That would be kind of nice to be able to say that at one site in Minnesota and at one site in Maine we have something we can attritube this to, whereas in Vermont we still don't know what's going on."

Thanks, Cheryl

You're welcome.

oh, i like it too!

Yup...it's the only one we have (Earth, that is...)

you're right and we'd better take care of it for our sake. (as george carlin so eloquently put it, the earth will live without us, we need to recycle to save ourselves! --ok, something to that effect)

Thanks for that timely posting. I had forgotten. The man was a genius who could make you laugh and think at the same time. I'm doing what I can...but I think more than one other person is undoing what I am doing...*sigh* All you have to do it watch a little NASA Tv feed when the shuttle is up there and see how tiny and thin that layer of sustaining air really is.

to me, it just flat out makes sense. we've always had whip cream containers and butter pots around and i'm carrying on the tradition. even saving pudding cups (which we don't have a recycling deal for) and using them for seedlings. cake pans (the kind you get when you buy from the bakery or grocery store) can be used as mini greenhouses to help get your seedlings going. use your noggin and be creative!

Oh man, are you sure we weren't cloned or something. I do the same things! Yay, Wolfie!!!

I am off to Baseball...we're gonna get beaten! By Fresno State!

Just before I go off to Mom's for Easter, I'd like to wish everyone at Geo a Happy Earth Day. Also a Happy Easter to those who celebrate it. Now for a few words about Mom. My mother has had a package of Ziplock bags for at least five years. She keeps washing them out and reusing them. When I was growing up I thought it was so embarassing that we took our own bags when we went grocery shopping. Then I got a little older and learned it was the better way. We don't have a spare Earth. We have to love and respect the won we have.

Give your mom our best wishes for Easter and congratulate her for being on the cuttting edge of taking care of the earth. Wish there were more mom's like that. My biggest pet peeve is disposible diapers. Did not use them and would not even now. HAPPY EASTER

i did use dd's and i don't wash out the ziploc bags...we really don't use them that often. but my mom asked us to bring them home.

Yeah...ziplocks have a finite life, but those with the zippers on them get my craft stuff and I use them for as long as they hold the stuff. I am still using the first ones. We need a crafts conference. Now that Terry is back, perhaps he will make us one...!!!

i use mine for craft stuff as well. and also to store some of the barbie stuff my daughter has. of course, who stuff is now in a plastic box! clothes in one, dolls in another!! oh, and glass spaghetti jars, picante jars, etc. make great vases as well as for rooting plants!!

Your glass spaghetti comes in Jars? Ours comes all dried out and wrapped in celophane ( not plastic) and has a label I cannot read. Like a little bundle of really skinny white shoelaces. They are called bean threads. Picante Jars with the "waist" nipped in part way up make pretty vases for rooting plants.

oops, Wolfie, were you talking about glass jars containing regular spaghetti or glass noodles in Jars? I think I was all confused...*sigh* It must be my turn.

spaghetti sauce jars, yup. *laugh*

Silly me! Thanks for the clarification.

Our local council is getting quite good on recycling now. We take the papers to the containers in the gym car park, and bottles, jars etc. At times it seems like a losing battle with plastic waste. I reuse what I can, but there is always so much packaging. I can't get into my garden shed, so I'm not growing any seeds this year and so won't use things up that way. Disappointing. I wish someone could get through to marketing managers that we don't want all this disposable packaging.

They are very poor at it here on this finite Island, and there are things I simply will not buy because of triple or worse packaging.

It was part of my reverse culture shock here when we came baak from Africa. i could not believe the waste!

Indeed! I know disposable diapers are a God-send, but they are an anathema to me and anyone else who really cares about the waste management problem and can afford the time to wash and dry diapers like our grandmothers did... Sadly, most of the trash around Hawaii is tossed by local people. (They like to blame the tourists, but that simply is NOT the case!)

I've always felt that really great gift for a new mom is a diaper service. I know they're expensive. Instead of having a lot of people coming to a baby shower each buying a different gift; why not pool your finances on a diaper service. We did it for a friend of mine, and she said the service was the greatest thing.

That is brilliant, Cheryl! May I add that I agree entirely with that, though I did not have it, my sister did and loved it.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, GAIA !

More bureaucratic stupidity: Inspectors who monitor long-line fishing are laid off: There won't be a check to see if endangered species are caught The federal government has dramatically cut back the number of observers monitoring long-line fishing boat to see if they snag green sea turtles, monk seals and other endangered creatures. The National Marine Fisheries Service has laid off 12 of 14 inspectors Tuesday. Carroll Cox, head of EnviroWatch Inc., said the 14 positions provided monitoring for only 3 percent to 5 percent of the state�s 118 long-line vessels. Long-line fishing vessels inadvertently snare endangered species such as turtles, dolphins, albatrosses, and monk seals. At a news conference today, Cox said the Hawaii Longline Observer Program under the Fisheries Service was �never funded adequately.� He is afraid the drastic cut signals the death of the program and from now on �we will only be guessing� at what goes on at sea. Charles Karnela, administrator of the Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Area Office, said the positions were cut because of a lack of funding and �no money is in the budget for next year.� Karnela said it is with �great regret that this is being done� because �it�s everybody�s feeling that we should have more observers.� Karnela and Cox disagreed about whether the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act mandate an observer program. Jonathan Lono Kane, regional director of the Inlandboatmen�s Union of the Pacific, said the layoff showed a �total disregard for labor laws� as the union has been negotiating a contract in behalf of the observers for the last year, and working conditions must stay the same until it is finalized. Kane said he is planning to file unfair labor practice charges against the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the Fisheries Service parent agency, which has not yet responded to his calls. Karnela said he was not aware that anything illegal was done by putting the observers on indefinite leave without pay, and that �our attorneys are aware of what we are doing.� Cox said his group is afraid future monitoring will depend on the long-line vessels� own documentation of interaction with marine mammals, which might not be accurate. The vessels would not want to jeopardize their own interests by reporting any negative impact on endangered species. �If an observer is not aboard the boat, how would we know they�re adhering to the rules?� he asked.

Happy Mothers' Day, Gaia! You are the Mother of Us All.

Indeed! Thanks Cheryl. Did you see the wishes and gif I set up for Gaia two posts prior to yours? I decided to make my own since no one else had anything appropriate!

Yes. Lots and lots of hearts for a beloved mother.

yup! At least one from each of us circling her like a huge hug. I liked that thought!

This excerpt is from the TIME special Earth Day Issue. Avoid Eating Seafood From Endangered Populations. Like fish but don't want to help wipe out species? The Monterey Bay Aqaurium has published a menu of dos and donts. It's available at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/ Some excerpts: BEST CHOICES Dungeness crab Halibut (Alaska) Mahi-mahi Salmon (Alaska, wild caught) Tilapia Striped Bass BAD CHOICES Atlantic Cod Orange Roughy Chilean Sea Bass Shark Shrimp Swordfish FOR MORE ADVICE Environmental Defense - http://www.environmentaldefense.org/ Audubon Guide to Seafood - http://audubon.org/campaign/lo Marine Stewardship Council - http://www.msc.org/

I have that issue on the desk right beside me. Thanks for posting some of the information and the great links. Definitely eat Mahimahi..but Tilapia?! They are teeny and all bones. Unless you like picking your way painfully slowly through your meal so you don't choke on the bones, stay away from the latter.

Science News Week of June 3, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 23 Future Looks Cloudy for Arctic Ozone J. Gorman This week at the spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., scientists announced that more polar stratospheric clouds formed in Arctic skies last winter than had ever been recorded previously and that the clouds lasted longer. Meanwhile, researchers say, they observed significant ozone loss. Polar stratospheric clouds hit the ozone layer with two punches. "These are the culprits in ozone loss," says NASA's Michael J. Kurylo of Washington, D.C., who is a leader of the project known as the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE). On the surfaces of particles within the clouds, inactive chlorine compounds derived from humanmade chlorofluorocarbons convert into a reactive form that destroys ozone. If they linger, the clouds also drip nitric acid, lowering the nitrogen concentration in the stratosphere. Nitrogen mitigates chlorine's power to destroy ozone, and nitrogen loss�a process called denitrification�leaves chlorine free to attack ozone. At the meeting this week, one international group of researchers reported preliminary results from last winter indicating more and longer-lived polar stratospheric clouds in the Arctic than they had expected. The data, obtained between December 1999 and March 2000, came from SOLVE instruments on aircraft. "We did see patchy, severe denitrification," says SOLVE team member Eric J. Jensen of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. However, he adds, the team must analyze more data before speculating on how widespread the phenomenon was and whether it might have contributed to the ozone losses observed last winter. Computer models suggest that even without denitrification, other processes can cause the lower stratosphere to lose 40 to 50 percent of its ozone, says Katja Drdla of Ames. With severe denitrification, she says, the loss can total 60 to 80 percent. Also at the meeting, Azadeh Tabazadeh of Ames presented independent satellite measurements from the latest Arctic winter. Her group found that polar stratospheric clouds persisted 1.2 to 1.5 times as long as they did during the coldest winters of the 1990s. Her team reports signs of denitrification, "but it's not severe," Tabazadeh says. She adds, "Most of the [ozone] loss actually during this winter I don't believe was due to denitrification." The reports follow a study by Tabazadeh and her colleagues in the May 26 Science that warned of unusually long-lived polar stratospheric clouds in the Arctic. They examined satellite measurements from a typical Antarctic winter in the 1990s and the two coldest Arctic winters of the decade. Tabazadeh's group found that polar stratospheric clouds lasted half as long in the Arctic as in Antarctica. Mathematical modeling by Tabazadeh's group suggests that if Arctic stratospheric cooling continues at 2�C per decade, such clouds could last twice as long in the Arctic during the coldest winters of the decade that will begin in 2010. The date could slip to the 2030s if cooling slows to 1�C each decade. Severe denitrification could increase Arctic ozone loss by 30 percent once polar stratospheric clouds become twice as persistent, Tabazadeh's team speculates.

Reuters via ExciteNews, June 1 2000 Report of millions of fish falling from the sky in southern Ethiopia. ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Drought-stricken peasant farmers tending their fields in southern Ethiopia got a nasty shock when the heavens opened and they were pelted by fish, a local newspaper reported Wednesday. "The unusual rain of fish which dropped in millions from the air -- some dead and others still struggling -- created panic among the mostly religious farmers," the weekly Amharic newspaper said. Saloto Sodoro, a fish expert in the region, attributed the phenomenon to heavy storms in the Indian Ocean which swept up the fish before shedding them on the unsuspecting farmers. Southern Ethiopia has been in the grip of a severe drought for two years which aid officials say threatens the lives of up to 8 million people.

Science News - Week of June 17, 2000; Vol. 157, No. 25 Excreted Drugs: Something Looks Fishy J. Raloff Doctors recommend drinking plenty of water to replenish lost fluids and wash away wastes. Just where do the excreted wastes go? At least a few, including hormones and heart drugs, end up in streams�and eventually someone else's drinking water, a new study finds. Though the amounts detected in water from a Louisiana tap were small�just a few parts per trillion (ppt)�they can be biologically active, another study finds. At these concentrations, one of the hormones measured and another found in birth control pills alter the apparent gender of fish and, possibly, their fertility. In a suite of yet more studies, collaborating state, federal, and university scientists report finding male carp and walleyes in Minnesota that were producing "sky-high" quantities of vitellogenin, an egg-yolk protein normally made only by females. Such feminization might explain the suspected inability of some adult male fish to make sperm. The researchers had caught the walleyes in the effluent of a sewage-treatment plant�a type of facility that others have shown can release estrogenic pollutants (SN: 3/21/98, p. 187). Researchers reported all these findings last week in Minneapolis at a meeting sponsored by the National Ground Water Association. More... http://www.sciencenews.org/20000617/fob1.asp

now i don't understand this: drugs that are taken are used in the body, right? are they saying that if one drinks water in an effort to rid their bodies of toxins, they are flushing the beneficial drugs out and into our drinking water where they aren't beneficial at all? (just thinking out loud, a dangerous thing for me)

That about says it. Your absorption rate is different from everyone else's and different for each medication. It also varies with what you eat. Consuming mineral oil will just about eliminate all absorption...and we ingest it second hand in the water we drink because it is eliminated by other animals as well as us.

United Nations Takes in World Biodiversity Watchdog By Neville Judd CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, July 3, 2000 (ENS) - A United Nations body faced with the daunting task of monitoring and assessing the health of the planet's species and ecosystems opened in the UK today. When the blue UN flag rose over the World Conservation Monitoring Center (WCMC) in Cambridge this morning it marked the opening of the first UN institute in the United Kingdom for 50 years. Endangered white rhinos in Africa (Photo by Steve Bailey courtesy Wildnet Africa) The WCMC joins the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as its global biodiversity information and assessment centre. Alternatively known as the Center for World Biodiversity Information and Assessment, it will help nations create their own biodiversity information systems, enabling them to develop science based policy and regulations for the environment. "As part of the UN Environment Programme, you will help the world community confront one of its most daunting challenges: protecting the Earth's precious biodiversity," said UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, in his video address to the opening ceremony. "We may be at the dawn of a new millennium, but the environmental problems we face are painfully familiar. They may even be getting worse." UNEP's executive director Klaus Toepfer said the Earth's biodiversity is being lost to unsustainable consumption levels in industrialized countries and poverty in developing countries. "Overall, ecosystems and species populations have declined by 30 percent in the past 30 years and the trend is continuing," he said. Mark Collins, the center's UNEP director, said the WCMC would provide the accurate, accessible scientific based information vital for informed decision making on biodiversity issues. "WCMC is ideally placed to make a major contribution to the worlds understanding of our precious living resources," said Collins. "WCMC provides information about the living world, on which we all depend for the basics of life. The center provides the objective environmental data that governments, businesses and other organisations require to make strategic decisions. It also monitors changes in the natural environment to provide early warning of potential crisis," said Collins. Golden lion tamarin found in Brazil (Photo by Russell Mittermeier courtesy Conservation International) "Becoming part of the United Nations is important to us because it gives international recognition of our work. It will enable us to operate at higher levels making our data more accessible to policy makers and organisations involved in environmental planning. It gives us better access to the data that has been compiled in countries by their governments. We hope to include this detailed work into our information systems and make it globally available." As well as working with governments, the WCMC works with the private sector, providing biodiversity information, such as the presence of threatened species and the location of protected areas. Mining companies like Rio Tinto consult WCMC when deciding whether to progress with initial exploratory work. "This type of intelligence is invaluable, and has provided strategic input to our development plans," said John Roskam, Rio Tinto corporate affairs adviser. "For example, at one stage we were on the point of signing a joint venture agreement, when WCMC alerted us to the fact that the area had just been designated a World Heritage Site and we were able to withdraw from the deal." The WCMC's roots go back to 1979, when it was founded by the IUCN World Conservation Union as the Conservation Monitoring Center. In 1988 the World Conservation Monitoring Center was created jointly by IUCN, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and UNEP. In April 1999, UNEP, IUCN and the UK government decided the WCMC, already a world centre of biodiversity information, would be ideally suited as the nucleus of a sorely needed global facility. Hawai`i's State Flower, Hibiscus Brackenridge, is an endangered species. (Photo by D. Herbst courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) In recognition of its expertise, UNEP turned WCMC into its Center for World Biodiversity Information and Assessment. The revamped center will expand and emphasize its role in advice, technical assistance and training. It will help developing countries gather and handle biodiversity data while seeking partner organizations to enhance and promote its work. The center will negotiate agreements with relevant international conventions, including the Biodiversity Convention, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the Convention on Migratory Species, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the World Heritage Convention.

Help Plant A Tree With Just A Click One click a day. It'free. http://www.webreleaf.com/

NASA goes on SAFARI NASA Science News for August 16, 2000 Southern Africa offers a unique climate sub-system where scientists can study the effects of industrial activity, biomass burning and changing patterns of land usage on the environment. Last weekend an international team of scientists launched an intensive campaign -- part of the SAFARI 2000 project -- to study this complex region from the ground, the air and from space. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast16aug_1m.htm?list

Ozone Hole Update NASA Science News for September 08, 2000 Antarctica's ozone hole now covers an area three times larger than the entire land mass of the United States - the largest such ozone-depleted region ever observed. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast08sep_1.htm?list There is a graphic: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/4.2

From Maggie: uesday September 12, 2:58 PM ZDNet UK - Silicon.com - BBC - New Scientist Bacteria 'hasten climate change' By environment correspondent Alex Kirby in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard A Swedish scientist working in the Arctic circle says he believes he has found a way in which nature is speeding up the rate of global warming. He says more carbon dioxide (CO2) is being released by bacteria in the soil to add to that resulting from human activity. Dr Kim Holmen has also found levels of another greenhouse gas, methane, are increasing fast. He believes his discoveries probably mean some disturbing news ahead. Dr Holmen is associate professor of global change studies and greenhouse gases in the department of meteorology at Stockholm University. He chairs the greenhouse gas monitoring programme of the World Meteorological Organisation, is working at the Mount Zeppelin air monitoring station at Ny-Alesund, the world's most northerly settlement. Sensitive It has a population of about 60 scientists, and is on the west coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard group, about 600 miles from the North Pole. The Mount Zeppelin station has instruments sensitive enough to detect cigarette smoke two kilometres away. Dr Holmen has been using them to monitor the increase in the atmosphere of several greenhouse gases. Using as a baseline the amount of CO2 in 1860 (the earliest reliable date, he says) as 290 parts per million (ppm), he has found that it has now reached an annual average of 375 ppm. The figure fluctuates a little according to the season. Molecule for molecule, methane is 30 times as potent a greenhouse gas as CO2. Dr Holmen has used analysis of Greenland ice cores to establish a baseline for atmospheric methane in 1800 of 700 parts per billion. In August 2000, he measured it on Mount Zeppelin at 1,850 ppb. Speaking from Mount Zeppelin, Dr Holmen said: "The increase in the amount of CO2 and methane in the atmosphere is very rapid. Feeding on itself "It's quite extraordinary, and we must expect surprises, probably nasty surprises." Dr Holmen believes he has also found what scientists call a positive feedback - a way in which global warming triggers processes which intensify its effects. Ten years ago, he says, we knew that pollution was helping to warm the atmosphere. Then, in 1993, the Phillipines volcano Mount Pinatubo erupted, spewing out aerosols which cooled the atmosphere during the two following years. Human influences continued unabated, but were not enough to outweigh Pinatubo's cooling effect. So Dr Holmen concluded that there must be another factor at work as well. In 1996 the cooling gave way to renewed warming. But Dr Holmen says only part of that is attributable to pollution. The rest, he believes, shows nature taking a hand. He says: "An outstanding feature of the global carbon cycle has been discovered because of the climatic fluctuation caused by the Mount Pinatubo eruption. "We've a positive feedback mechanism. We think it releases more CO2 because of the respiration rates of bacteria in the soil. The natural system accelerates global warming." Uncertainty He is also concerned at the effect on the atmosphere of aircraft, which can cause high, thin clouds to form. These trap the Sun's heat and also enhance the greenhouse effect. "The greatest uncertainty is clouds", he says. "An error of one or two per cent by a computer looking at clouds can make the difference between a warming and a cooling world."

Countries Struggle Toward Global Climate Deal http://2kj.com/news.html LYON, France, September 15, 2000 (ENS) - Two weeks of international talks aimed at developing detailed rules for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change ended today in Lyon, France, with no breakthroughs reported on the key political issues that continue to divide countries. Michael Cutajar is executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin) Whether even last minute ministerial negotiations now due to take place in November in the Hague will succeed in overcoming the obstacles remains unclear. Here are the main Kyoto protocol-related issues that were debated in Lyon: The CDM, or clean development mechanism for transferring technology to developing countries: The focus of discussion is which technologies will be eligible under the CDM. Some countries want to limit eligibility to a "positive list" of renewable energy and demand-side technologies. The EU is broadly supportive of an early start for the scheme, but even it is divided over whether nuclear should be excluded. Land-use change and forestry sinks: At issue is the accountability of practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While urging caution over the inclusion of sinks in the protocol, the EU is again split. The Lyon-conference developed draft texts on the relevant articles, but they still contain numerous "square brackets," denoting disputed options. Environmental NGOs have criticised proposals by the USA and other countries, that they say would enable emissions credits to be sought for land practices that have been conducted for many years. Compliance: Likewise, the key question of what should happen if a country fails to comply with Kyoto protocol rules or its own commitments. Delegations agreed on a framework containing both enforcement and facilitative elements, and that failures to meet gas reduction commitments should be dealt with through the former. However, Russia, Japan and Australia continued to oppose so-called "binding consequences" for non-compliance. Joint implementation projects between industrialised countries: Parties failed to agree on a proposed "positive list" of sustainable projects. Meanwhile, it emerged that Russia, where many JI projects could be sited, has failed to supply required annual reports since 1997. Environmentalists estimate that official figures in fact overestimate by a factor of 40 the potential carbon emissions cuts from projects supposedly under way. Emissions trading: After much bickering, the EU and the USA are reported to have agreed on eligibility criteria for engaging in an international trading system. There is still no progress on the EU's demand that access to emissions trading and the other "flexible mechanisms" should be legally capped. {Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}

Benign Urine Industrial cotton is the world's favourite - and most polluting - fabric fibre. As David Hecht reports from Senegal, small farmers have good reason to seek out 'eyes-on' methods for growing the raw material of denim. Research by Georges Badiane. http://www.oneworld.org/ni/issue302/cotton.html Every day Dass Sangare collects the urine of his seven cows. �It�s not exactly a pleasant job,� he says, sitting in the shade beside his hut surrounded by one-and-a-half hectares of cotton. �They usually go in the morning just before they�re milked. If you don�t get a bucket under them in time you miss most of it.� Sangare then leaves the urine to ferment for a few days, dilutes it with water and sprays it over his cotton plants. �It�s one of the best insecticides there is,� he says. �It�s also a herbicide and fertilizer, and its free.� Most important, the urine repels whiteflies (bemissia tabacci) which in 1997 were responsible for a 36-per-cent fall in Senegal�s cotton production. Most Senegalese farmers spray their cotton with substances like Politrine N, Tamaron 400CE, Sherpa Monochrotophos, Nivacron and Asodrine. None have worked. �If they would just spray cow urine once a week,� says Sangare, �their whiteflies would go away.� Organic-cotton farmers have had yields of up to 1.8 tonnes per hectare � almost double the national average � with no whiteflies. Helped by a non-governmental organization, Enda-Pronat, more than 500 cotton farmers around the village of Koussanar (in the region of Tambacounda, southeast Senegal) last year stopped using any chemicals to protect their crops. �And more want to convert. We just don�t have the support system,� says Mohamedoun Ag Mohamed Abba, an Enda-Pronat agronomist. Abba says farmers don�t just stop using chemicals � they have to have a whole new approach. �You can�t get around the fact that soils and plants need help,� he says. �The difference is that conventional, chemical methods attempt to transform fields into controlled environments, eliminating everything that does not maximize the growth of one plant. Organic methods, on the other hand, focus on using elements in the environment to promote the natural health of the selected plant, so that it effectively resists insects, weeds and diseases.� To see a dramatic demonstration of the results of organic methods, farmers just take a short walk down a dirt track leading away from Koussanar. There are two of Abba�s experimental cotton fields next to each other, only one of which is sprayed with cow urine. The plants on one are bright and bushy-green; on the other they are grey and straggly. It is hard to believe they are the same species. �Minerals like iron, potassium and magnesium in urine act as fertilizer, while its acidity kills newly sprouting weeds,� says Abba. But he admits research is not conclusive on why only the urine repels whiteflies. �It seems a hormone in the cow urine is the active ingredient,� he says. �We�re also finding that the urine of female goats and sheep works � and even the urine of women has similar properties.� Women�s urine has the advantage that it is easier to collect. The secret of Koussanar�s success is more than just urine. Potions are made from an unlikely array of raw materials � burnt animal bones, wood ash, chilli powder, garlic and the leaves, roots and fruits of dozens of local plants. One of the most remarkable is a plant called neem, which is abundant in much of sub-Saharan Africa and is used extensively by African herbalists to cure everything from malaria to dandruff. Recent experience of neem in the West has confirmed what traditional healers have known for centuries. The farmers in Koussanar use neem to make insect repellent from the leaves and nuts, and fertilizer from the nut shells. Such techniques were largely replaced in Africa after 1945, when Western chemicals became readily available even to poor peasant farmers. For decades Senegal�s Government marketing board, SODEFITEX, has given chemicals to cash-crop farmers on condition that they sell their produce back to the board. The cost of the chemicals is then deducted from their profits from the harvest, at times leaving them with nothing. Alternatives to growing cotton with chemicals were all but forgotten in Africa until 1993, says Abba. Now organic-cotton production has also begun in Benin, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe, with plans for Ghana and Mali as well. Organic cotton still only amounts to 0.08 per cent of all the cotton in the world, but that figure is on the rise, says N�Gone Toure, a co-ordinator at Enda-Pronat: �More importantly, a few years ago the experts said it was impossible to avoid artificial inputs. Now many are changing their mind.�

Amazing! And, totally organic! Remember that next time you eat your organically raised veggie salad...!

The Romans used human urine as part of the tanning process. Collecting jars were left at strategic points all over town ....the snippet courtesy of the Roman Army museum on Hadrians wall and the Vindolanda site museum.

Urine from any source is still used in "third world" countries. By the time it is dyed, scraped, pounded, sewn and tooled, does it really matter with what it was tanned? As long as I do not get odd stares, it is ok with me!

Climate Talks Falter, Broad Deal Now Sought THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The world's first effort to agree practical measures to fight global warming stumbled in its final stages on Friday as U.N. officials said time to seal a detailed and comprehensive pact had run out. Delegates at U.N. climate talks in the Hague said however they would try until the last minute to agree a pact on emissions controls and that a workable deal on practical steps was possible before the conference winds up on Saturday afternoon. But U.N. officials said the more modest goal was now only a broad political accord mapping out a final route to emission controls, rather than a detailed agreement. Their comments dimmed prospects of achieving the conference's formal purpose -- a legally-binding technical pact setting out concrete measures by developed countries to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases implicated in global warming. A European expert said a political agreement in preparation would be detailed enough to allow countries to start implementing some measures to fight emissions. "It will be a detailed political statement that would be sufficiently detailed to attach to the Kyoto protocol to show how to implement the accord and give it practical effect," said Michael Grubb, Professor of Energy Policy and Climate Change at London's Imperial College. "I still think the will to reach an agreement is palpable and universal, with the possible exception of a couple of countries in OPEC," said British Environmental Minister Michael Meacher, referring to the oil exporting cartel. The conference is trying to agree steps to implement a 1997 pact agreed in Kyoto, Japan, that called for a five percent average cut in developed nations' 1990 levels of emissions by 2010. It also wants to help poor nations avoid becoming big emitters themselves as they develop, for example by adopting clean energy technologies or planting forests to soak up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. International concern over the climate has risen in recent years with experts pointing to global warming as the culprit in increasingly erratic weather events like the floods ravaging some Asian nations and Australia this week. The officials in The Hague did not detail the reasons why negotiations had made slow progress but delegates said this was due to intractable disagreements between the big players at the talks, the European Union and the United States. U.N. spokesman Michael Williams said conference chief Jan Pronk had told government ministers that he considered no final technical deal was possible at the two-week talks even though he had extended the finish by 24 hours to Saturday. "Ideally Mr. Pronk is hoping we can have a political agreement on this document that will have the broad outline of what we need," Williams said, referring to a paper by Pronk containing compromise proposals. "We would take the broad-based political agreement (from The Hague talks) and (later) translate this into technical detail," he added. Williams said a broad political pact would have to be robust enough to stop any later renegotiation of key political aspects but allow enough negotiating space to clinch technical points. Signaling the sheer complexity of global warming and the political sensitivities surrounding plans to fight it, Williams added: "All these things are so complicated that they cannot be put into one paragraph." The EU-U.S. row centers on a U.S. plan to allow developed nations to count carbon dioxide soaked up by forests, so-called carbon sinks, against emissions reduction targets set in Kyoto. The plan would let developed countries claim credit both for planting such forests at home and for paying developing nations to expand their own forests, although Pronk's proposal does not permit this practice to the extent demanded by Washington. EU officials say the plan promoted by the United States, the world's biggest polluter, would result in an increase in global emissions of the greenhouse gases implicated in climate change, rather than a drop as mandated by the U.N. environmental accord sealed in Kyoto. France as president of the 15-nation EU slammed U.S. proposals, saying they would actually lead to a rise in emissions of the greenhouse gases implicated in global warming. "We are not taking a step in the right direction. We are taking a step backwards," said French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet amid last-minute efforts to clinch a deal. A chorus of anti-U.S. protest swelled as Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and Sweden battled floods seen by activists as the kind of damage in store if humanity keeps using fossil fuels. Those weather woes follow hard on the heels of flooding this year in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and eastern India that has killed hundreds of people and left millions homeless.