Test Site for What Grows On in Rhode Island!

Yesterday, January 20, 2009, more than two million people spent the day in 20-degree weather and lived to tell the tale ~ and what a tale! What a day! What a sight, to see about twice the population...

Go to The Providential Gardener for links to the people and organizations that make up the "growing community" in Rhode Island.

Mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears, who has climbed Mt. Everest five times, has recently been documenting the rapid disappearance of glaciers in the Himalayas. In an interview with the Web site, SolveClimate.com, Breashears illustrates the swift retreat of the Rongbuk glacier near Everest by comparing photographs from the 1920s with pictures he took last November. As Breashears demonstrates, the Rongbuk has melted so severely that many sections of it

VIDEO: Global warming
and the Himalayas are now 400 feet lower than eight decades ago and large swaths of it have disappeared. Speaking at an Asia Society conference last week on the melting glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, Breashears called Everest “the highest part of the highest water tower in the world” and says that the glaciers’ disappearance threatens water supplies in many parts of Asia.

Counting the heads gathered at the center
It’s expectation made manifest
More than a million drawing future breath, watching
A man, an oath, a speech full of fight and promise,
Gathering clouds, raging storms, the urgency of now
History pulled us here, desire compresses years into a moment
New leadership, collective exhale, breathe in, hold again
For the earth, for Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, the Gulf Coast,
For the next paycheck, the next meal….

Official ceremony closed by the only man who should, the man
Who once said in front of four presidents,
“….in the morning, will words become deeds that meet needs?”
Who showed the power of pointed verse,
Decried “billions more for war, but no more for the poor.”
Lowery’s closing words: “turn to each other, not on each other,”
“Tanks beaten into tractors.”

More than a million drawing future breath, watching
Time for applause, but then quiet, breathing, eyes closing, opening
Oratory fades, thoughts turn to walking, boarding, travelling
Back to daily life
Something has changed, but what?
We make the answer

David Floyd

If you’ve been by in the last couple of days you may have noticed that the usually colorful blog has become a somewhat starker landscape (where did all the pictures go?!) that is not unlike my actual view out the potting shed window at the moment.  While the blank blog is experiencing technical difficulties (help is on the way!), Blithewold is resting under a blanket of snow.  Here are a few gray and white snow day pictures from my walks around the property yesterday that will have to tide us over until all the other colors on the property (and the blog) come back.  Please stand by!

An endangered population of killer whales in Washington state and southern British Columbia is accumulating extremely high levels of PCB’s, DDT, dioxins, pesticides, and other pollutants because it feeds mainly on Chinook salmon tainted from industrial activity, according to a new study. iStockPhotoPeter Ross, a researcher at Canada’s Institute of Ocean Sciences, said Chinook salmon ingest the chemical compounds as they feed in polluted near-shore waters of the Pacific Ocean. As a result, the endangered southern population of killer whales — which feeds around Washington’s Puget Sound and Vancouver Island — has levels of PCB’s 6.6 times higher than levels in a killer whale population in less polluted waters 200 miles to the north, according to the study, published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. The southern population now consists of only 83 whales, and its members have the highest concentrations of PCB’s ever recorded in an animal in the wild. Such levels have been shown to suppress the immune systems of marine mammals and may be playing a role in the decline of the killer whales, Ross said.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, then you’ve read about the work Lori DiBiasio has done in promoting Frank’s Law.  We just received word that the RI General Assembly now has official designated this H5074 for consideration.  In particular, it would require:

31-15-18. Keeping a three foot passing distance when passing a bicycle. — (a) A
person operating a motor vehicle, when approaching a bicyclist, shall insure the safety and
protection of the bicyclist by leaving a reasonable and prudent distance between the vehicle and the bicycle. A three foot (3′) passing distance between the motor vehicle and passing bicycle shall be deemed to be reasonable and prudent. When impossible to achieve the three foot (3′) passing distance, then the vehicle shall reduce its speed to ten (10) to twenty (20) miles per hour below the posted speed limit.

A failure to keep a three foot (3′) passing distance when passing a bicycle would carry an $85 fine.  While the fine is likely to be a marginal deterrent, hopefully, having a law on the books like this would allow for the RI Attorney General to prosecute cases where cyclists are struck by automobiles.

Now would be a good time to contact your reprentatives and suggest they support this bill.

February 13, 20097:00 pm

Tired of the snow?  Tired of riding alone at home on your trainer?  Interested in helping out a local bicycle non-profit?  Then save the date of Feburary 13th.  Recycle-a-Bike is hosting a roller race.

Besides becoming the first black president, Barack Obama may well be the greenest. He says he wants to "green up" the energy economy. Some people who want to help him do that came to the Green Inaugural Ball Monday night which was one of four environmentally-themed events scheduled for inauguration weekend.

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President Barack Obama mentioned environmental issues prominently in his inaugural address, promising to play a leading international role in fighting global warming, to develop renewable energy and wean the U.S. from foreign oil, and to encourage Americans to end profligate consumption of natural resources. While the speech did not set forth specific proposals, it signaled a 180-degree turn from the environmental and energy policies of the Bush administration. “With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to... roll back the specter of a warming planet,” the 44th president said. Indicating that the move to renewable energy will be a centerpiece of his economic program, Obama warned that “each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet,” adding, “We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place... We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.” The new president repeatedly called on Americans to sacrifice and act responsibly, including more wisely using natural resources. “And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty,” Obama said, “we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. “

Hundreds of California Brown Pelicans from Baja to Washington state have been found dead or sick far from their coastal home. One pelican was found in New Mexico, wandering in the snow at an elevation of 7,000 feet.

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A sharp decline in air pollution in Europe has led to a “massive decline” in fog, haze, and mist, which in turn has contributed to significant temperature increases in the past three decades, according to a new report. Using data from 342 continental weather stations, Robert Vautard of France’s Atomic Energy Commission and other researchers determined that the number of “low-visibility” events in Europe — defined as visibility under 8 kilometers (5 miles) — has dropped by 50 percent since the 1970s. Smog and haze cool the surface of the earth by blocking sunlight, and the decline in the pall of pollution has contributed to 10 to 20 percent of the . 5 C (.9 F) warming that Europe has experienced since the 1970s, according to the report in the journal Nature Geoscience. The new research highlights a phenomenon known as “global brightening,” in which skies over Europe, the U.S., and other industrialized regions have cleared as pollution has decreased. Thirty years ago, smog may have masked the extent to which greenhouse gases were warming the planet, and cleaner skies will mean higher temperatures, researchers say.

The clearing of Indonesia’s rainforest for palm oil plantations is having profound effects – threatening endangered species, upending the lives of indigenous people, and releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. BY TOM KNUDSON

High 28 FLow 14 F It is hard to believe that this is the scene yet again on a Sunday morning! The birds are fighting for food and the snow is flying. At least it is my weekend off so... Layanee DeMerchant

In northern areas, skunks pass through a winter sleep (not a real hibernation) similar to that of the bears, and which can last 75-100 days. -- All You Need to Know About Skunks I'm smelling fresh skunk as I type,...

President Bush worked to preserve coal's position as the biggest source of electricity and to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas. The result is an environmental legacy of buried streams in the coalfields of Appalachia and polluted waterways in the Rocky Mountain West.

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I happened to find a Euphorbia in early October, 2008 and thought I would just try one as a house plant. I did not pay any attention to the plastic label that said "Diamond Frost" and "Annual Euphorbia" or "AWARD...

Renewable energy advocates hope Congress will pass a law this year requiring that a percentage of the nation's electricity come from environmentally friendly sources. Colorado was one of the first states to pass such a requirement; and those who worked on it have some advice for the feds.

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A small Ohio bolt maker has found new life. Demand for its product shrank due to a drop off in construction, but now the company has become a leading supplier of bolts for the wind turbine industry. President-elect Barack Obama will visit the company Friday to plug his alternative energy plan.

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A study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that hunting, fishing and plant gathering can speed up rates of species evolution, which may have negative effects on plant and animal populations. Study author Chris Darimont explains why.

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An increase in rainfall has accelerated the rate of melting of glaciers along the Antarctic Peninsula, which in turn is adding to rising sea levels worldwide, a leading British glaciologist says. David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey says that rain is becoming more frequent during the summer in the northern half of the Antarctic Peninsula, which has warmed faster than any other place on earth, with average annual temperatures rising 5.4 F since 1951. The Sheldon Glacier — located below the Antarctic Circle at 67°30’ and rarely subjected to rain and warm temperatures several decades ago — has retreated 1.2 miles in the last 20 years. Vaughan said 87 percent of the 400 glaciers along the peninsula are now in retreat and that more frequent rains hasten the melting and fracturing of the glaciers. The biggest concern of glaciologists, Vaughan said, is that with a warming trend sweeping down the Antarctic Peninsula, larger, more southerly glaciers — such as the Pine Island Glacier — are already showing signs of melting, which will add to global sea level rises that could surpass three feet this century.