• Adverse birth outcomes associated with open dumpsites in Alaska Native Villages

Lynn mentions SWAN

• "Solid Waste Alaska Network, Solid Waste Management (SWM) for Alaska Native Villages." http://www.ccthita-swan.org/main/index.cfm

I thought I had referred folks to SWAN which is a highly useful discussion site and resource. My apologies because it is very well done. The site is sponsored by CCTHITA (Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska)

But I found this about Alaska's ladybugs, including an anatomy diagram. The color is more like what I recall (not the bright red of the eastern ladybugs).
The species ladybug eyespot (fig. 1) eats aphids in Alaska that do significant damage to flowers and vegetables. http://www.alaska.edu/opa/eInfo/index.xml?StoryID=118

2008-07-21 Steve took a picture, here at whatdoino, Bugs, Boleta, Barbecue, and a Tacky Green Russula

[see previous bug projects,
• Students, bug your teachers, please
• Science project — insects

Lost Ladybug Project Turns Kids Into Scientists

All Things Considered, July 5, 2008
Calling all kids! Cornell University wants you to find and photograph ladybugs. John Losey, a professor of entomology at Cornell University, hopes children will help document ladybug populations around the
country. Some native species are dwindling, while exotics are on the rise. To participate in the project, go to the Lost Ladybug Project Web site or send an e-mail to ladybug @ cornell . edu

Site Search Tags: bugs, insects, ladybugs, Cornell.edu, science+project, whatdoino-steve

"Science in the News" is produced daily by Sigma Xi as a service for its members and the public. It highlights science and technology news stories appearing in the mainstream media. The accompanying Web links provide access to the full text of the articles on the Web sites of the individual media outlets from which they are taken. For more about the service, visit American Scientist Online.

If you experience any problems with the URLs (page not found, page expired, etc.), we suggest you proceed to the Science in the News section of American Scientist Online, which mirrors the daily e-mail update.

June 30, 2008

Arctic Could See First Ice-Free Summer This Year
from ABC News

The distinct possibility that the North Pole could be free of sea ice -- for the first time in recorded history -- may become a cold reality this summer.

The Arctic's thick, resilient multiyear sea ice (frozen sea surface), which usually accumulates and lasts through the annual melting season, has started to give way to thinner, vulnerable first-year ice.

Satellite data gathered by the ... National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that young sea ice, which is no more than about 60 inches deep and much more susceptible to melting away, now makes up only 72 percent of the Arctic ice sheet. Using that estimate, scientists at the center see a 50 percent chance that ice at the highest point in the Arctic will melt by the summer's end.
http://snipurl.com/2qgra
see previous Where is... Bethel ice pack

1. Where is… transport hub of the world « Grassroots Science
2. How low can it go? Arctic meltdown « Grassroots Science
3. Animated Arctic ice retreat for 2007: watch the melt rushing by « Grassroots Science
4. Arctic ice pack difficult to “heal” massive Beaufort fractures « Grassroots Science

Sea of Trash
from the New York Times Magazine

Off Gore Point, where tide rips collide, the rolling swells rear up and steepen into whitecaps. Quiet with concentration, Chris Pallister decelerates from 15 knots to 8, strains to peer through a windshield blurry with spray, tightens his grip on the wheel and, like a skier negotiating moguls, coaxes his home-built boat ... through the chaos of waves.

... A 55-year-old lawyer with a ... private law practice in Anchorage, Pallister spends most of his time directing a nonprofit group called the Gulf of Alaska Keeper, or GoAK (pronounced GO-ay-kay).

... In practice, the group has, since Pallister and a few like-minded buddies founded it in 2005, done little else besides clean trash from beaches. All along Alaska's outer coast, Chris Pallister will tell you, there are shores strewn with marine debris, as man-made flotsam and jetsam is officially known. Most of that debris is plastic, and much of it crosses the Gulf of Alaska or even the Pacific Ocean to arrive there.
http://snipurl.com/2nmjt
see previous Where is… duckie invasion

Arctic Volcanoes Found Active at Unprecedented Depths
from National Geographic News

Buried under thick ice and frigid water, volcanic explosions are shaking the Arctic Ocean floor at depths previously thought impossible, according to a new study.

Using robot-operated submarines, researchers have found deposits of glassy rock—evidence of eruptions—scattered over more than 5 square miles of the seabed.

Explosive volcanic eruptions were not thought to be possible at depths below the critical pressure for steam formation, or 2 miles. The deposits, however, were found at seafloor depths greater than 2.5 miles.
http://snipurl.com/2qgu2

Initially, both myself and landlord were concerned about the color and amount of light that we would get out of the change, but check out the pictures below.  They are taken without a flash and are unedited.

Display area before                                                           Display area after

Conference room before                            Conference room after

I want to personally thank Willy of the Light Doctor for his patience and great service as well as Lee from Puget Sound Energy for his commitment to the environment and financial subsidy to make this project happen.

I think we have significantly improved our lighting, saved energy, and helped the environment at the same time.  To me, that is part of what being the leader of meaningful recognition is all about!

Just heard my first this year, so off to report it. See http://ykalaska.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/frogs/

[my mother used to read Bartholomew the Beaver to me (all the time I guess) which has this still delightful refrain in it.
Ruth Dixon [a.k.a., Ruth Marjorie Barrows], Bartholomew the Beaver, 1952. Elf Books (Rand-McNally)]

Site Search Tags: frogs, wood+frogs, alaska, schoolchildren

Beautiful Bethel beaches (Sadowski & Froehlich) is the same city that refused to ban the little fly-by-nights a couple of years ago because a few folks ordering delivery lunch wanted them. This is the same public works that ordered new dumpsters that are too tall for folks to use, especially children. This is the same landfill, adjacent to the giant septic pond unlined sewage lagoon, which for years did not use daily cover; the same dump/pond which feeds the gulls and the ravens all year round.

see related entries--

• solid+waste
• Manuals Available to Assist Communities with Solid Waste Planning and Education
• Take ugly butts home
• Interim rural solid waste management IV
• Toilets and Trash sanitation in the frontier
• Solid waste management in emergencies
• SWMP flying anuk
• Trash money available SWMP
• SWMP EPA grants
• Trash into electricity-- Tactical biorefinery

China targets plastic bags http://link.latimes.com/r/0Q7X8Z/A75RX/S1MZ9L/6245/NPR1J/LE/h
By Mark Magnier
A ban on the thinnest goes into effect in June. Some wonder how effective it will be.

Earth Matters: Bags don't have to be ubiquitous
Mona Blaber | The New Mexican1/25/2008 - 1/26/08

Last summer, I decided to go bag-neutral. Armed with a mountain of sacks from previous purchases, I vowed never to take another bag.

It went well until I actually bought something. I walked into a salon intending to buy just a brush and walked out with a brush, two jumbo bottles of shampoo and conditioner and one plastic bag. Before the day was out, I slipped up again, forgetting until it was too late that a Subway sandwich means a plastic bag unless you speak up.

Plastic bags are convenient and difficult to avoid; conservation groups estimate that between 80 billion and 100 billion are given to consumers every year in the United States. Those 100 billion bags require about 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture and take up to 1,000 years to break down. Standard plastic bags don't biodegrade. They photodegrade, ... Even when properly disposed of, the sacks can fly away and sully the landscape. In South Africa, where they're now banned, they're so ubiquitous as litter they're called the national flower...

The industry also argues that plastic bags are more environmentally friendly than paper, because paper uses trees and requires more energy in manufacture and transport, which is true, according to a study by the Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment. That's the point: If we use our own bags, we don't need either. Paper and plastic both use precious resources and energy, contributing to carbon emissions and climate change. [...]

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/HealthandScience/Bags_don_t_have_to_be_ubiquitous

Old shipping crates reborn as Taloyoak garbage bins
Last Updated: Friday, January 25, 2008 CBC News

A Nunavut community has found an innovative use for discarded wooden crates from barge shipments: make them into badly needed garbage bins for residents... Covers on the new bins prevent ravens and dogs from getting into people's garbage, a major problem... [...]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/01/25/tal-boxes.html?ref=rss

Powered by Zoundry

My ears perked at this because in Bethel I "normally" pay 40 cents or so per kwh, with the Power Cost Equalization subsidy that the state legislature (who meets in usually cheap Juneau) sometimes provides. Businesses in Bethel pay quite a bit more.

Some Juneau people have been concerned enough at the sudden increase in electrical rates to request a declaration of emergency.

Mr Nels Anderson, Jr. on the Nushagak (our sister rivershed) has very good ideas to consider in this APRN interview. Dillingham's rates are only slightly less than Bethel's.

Phillip Munger at Progressive Alaska reprints Mr Anderson's letter to Gov. Palin which stresses that the crisis in Alaska power rates is not just in Juneau.

I am hoping that our Rural elected leaders, regional organizations, state-wide organizations will insist that village energy needs be considered along with Juneau. Juneau does have a serious problem but all of our villages do as well.

Read more about Mr Anderson and his letter here http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/04/

• E-mail the Governor
• [N.B. Thimk] How effective will Alaska windfall rebates be?

How much do you normally pay for electricity?

• Bethel

0.39/kwh plus something called "customer charge" (flat $10.98) plus 6% sales tax

For 390 kwh (about the very least usage possible) costs $172.19 Power cost equalization knocks off $0.2162 or $84.32 for final total of $87.87

• Dillingham

31 cents/kwh plus $9 surcharge

Powered by Zoundry

Site Search Tags: Dillingham, Nushagak, Bethel, Juneau, electricity, rates, APRN.org, energy, cost+of+living

Senate Bill 289 would allow middle-income Alaskans to get grants and loans to make their homes more energy efficient. The bill is sponsored by Senator Lyman Hoffman of Bethel.

This will certainly be of help to many homeowners and to landlords such as Sen. Hoffman. I'm not so sure it can be effective in existing rental housing if landlords aren't interested in upgrading. Bethel has no minimum standards for housing safety, even though it collects taxes on rentals. Thus, even "new" housing -may never become more economic for tenants [moldy or lacks insulation or is packed with electrical heating tape because the rehabbed ASHA (Alaska State Housing Authority) buildings don't have reality-based pipe systems (this is a cold region, folks, without standards for the flush-haul system of water delivery and sewage pick-up)]

True Voices left an interesting comment at an APRN.org story on the Alaska senate bill to give rebates to make middle-income homes "greener".

I hope that this bill will also help in moving up or move away from the ever eroding river banks... very old wiring, old paper style plywoods, all windows cracked & drafty, etc. And can’t QUALIFY to fix or get a livable dwelling, still trying to be independent.

The comment is a succinct summary of what many face. If communities must be moved, the entire community is best moved together (the Davis Inlet to Natuashish incremental move had problems, especially for the older people, Remaining Innu of Davis Inlet feeling Abandoned). But TrueV points out what many individuals also face-- imminent house collapse. The "home equity mortgage" bad loans do not work in many parts of the rural areas (housing may be expensive but it isn't worth much as collateral). Older people in rural and frontier areas frequently don't have excess/any retirement income. As in Bethel, there may not be any elder housing for 100s of miles (not even for assisted living or nursing homes). Weatherization and rehab funding often works best for situations outside of rural and remote places, with greater population density and civic resources.

The regulations written for emergency housing and relocation at the federal level (e.g., assistance from USDA Rural Development or Natural Resources Conservation Service) haven't yet been translated into terms that allow rural areas to receive funding. For example, Homeland Security and Army Corps money might be applied if a highway collapse cuts off a town from its grocery stores. But we haven't yet pointed out how collapsed stairways or river channel siltation also does the same thing, to the same proportion of people, even though the groceries are hunted. Electrical systems are critical homeland infrastructure-- whether on a household or a city basis; the relative impact is the same. The applied funding and expertise isn't. The long-term costs of not attending to adequate housing are so much more than the short-term expenses.

Thus, house by house a community melts into the river and initiates a constant family by family move into ever more crowded homes, ready themselves to collapse.

It may "take a village" to raise a child-- a future citizen to assume statewide, national, and global responsibilities. But we don't have genuine communities when older people must leave home or be trapped in substandard conditions.

How ever did the simple realization that a stitch in time saves nine become the regulatory: don't call us if it's less than a 500 million dollar or 500 thousand population crisis?

Site Search Tags: USACE, Army+Corps, energy, weatherization, elderly, relocation, erosion, FEMA, HUD, opinion, APRN.org, emergency, USDA, NRCS, legislation, aging+in+place, climate+change, Davis+Inlet, Innu, Canada, Natuashish, note+bene

“While the United States government is immune for legal liability for the defalcations alleged herein, it is not free, nor should it be, from posterity’s judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task,” the judge wrote. “This story — 50 years in the making — is heart-wrenching. Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system with respect to these outfall canals which was known to be inadequate by the corps’s own calculations.”

Though the ruling spotlighted many missteps by the corps over the years, it made little of other possible factors, including culpability of former local officials overseeing levees and drainage, and particularly their rejection of the corps’s original plan for floodgates on the drainage canals that so devastated the city. [emphasis added]

http://www.chinmusicpress.com/books/doyouknow/voices/news/ 2008/02/nyt_of_course_the_suit_was_thr.html

Site Search Tags: NOLA, Katrina, preparedness, self-reliance, lessons+learned, FEMA, Army+Corps, Newtok

from the great Bringing Health Information to Communities (see sidebar, BHIC)

A new Web page that addresses emergency and disaster preparedness and special populations has been added to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Enviro-Health Links to selected Web sites featuring emergency preparedness for special populations. This includes people with disabilities, people with visual or hearing impairments, senior citizens, children, and women. Links to information in languages other than English are also provided.

• Special Populations: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness
  http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/outreach/specialpopulationsanddisasters.html

* Disabled
* Seniors
* Hearing Impaired
* Visually Impaired
* Women and Gender
* Pregnancy
* Children
* Diabetes
* Native Americans
* Foreign Language Materials
* Información en Español
* Guidance for Organizations and Governments
* Guidance for Employers
* Law and Policy
* Lessons Learned from Prior Disasters
* Searches from the National Library of Medicine

See related resources
Top 50 reading list for emergency managementFederal toolkit to promote local pandemic preparedness

Site Search Tags: BHIC, NLM, NIH, handicapped, accessible, planning, disaster, Katrina, elderly, readings, reference+materials

Her topic was global warming. She has kindly posted her speech at http://delciedavis.blogspot.com/2008/01/state-speech.html. Pay her a visit. I hope we hear more from her and other students.

Site Search Tags: Mekoryuk, student, global+warming, LKSD

click to enlarge

I mentioned this in a comment at Where is... Bethel ice pack but the images are important. One of the significant aspects to this on-going event is that it indicates the lengthy homeostatic process-- that is, adjustments by the physical environment to environmental change are not immediate. The lack of a land-fast sea ice will have consequences for the cultural and biological systems. Last year the city of Barrow had large-scale erosion and storm damage.

Eventually a new homeostasis will be reached but it may be difficult for the day to day living. I think this image of a relatively small phenomenon helps to comprehend the enormity of the environmental systemic change we are undergoing. [Let's hope. Governing bodies, one of our collective means of adapting to change, haven't responded in the previous decade(s)]

If anyone can express this better than I can (or interpret the images better) please do. Does anyone know if the energy involved in the ice pack has been compared to the energy involved in hurricane Katrina?

In December 2007, a massive fracture of the Beaufort Ice pack was observed west of Banks island. The image above clearly shows this fracture.

This is the daily image of the ice fractures (from NOAA via Environment Canada)

Read the story here

• http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/01/15/science-beaufort-ice.html

David Barber, a climate scientist with the University of Manitoba, said the central ice pack normally moves away from the coast during the winter as coastal ice expands and pushes it into the sea. But usually when this occurs, there is enough old ice in the central ice pack to resist the coastal ice.

That's not the case this year, said Barber, who noted coastal ice pushed by high pressure systems has sent the central ice pack deep into the Beaufort Sea and towards Siberia, creating a massive fissure.

Related posts
Animated Arctic ice retreat for 2007: watch the melt rushing by
Where is Bethel… 2040
Where is… breakup freezeup

Site Search Tags: ice+pack, Arctic, Barrow, Beaufort+Sea, Katrina, NOAA, Environment+Canada, CBC, satellite, Prudhoe, Mackenzie, Melt+Rush, polar, sea+ice, climate+change

Our poles are melting, temperature and weather patterns are changing. Those are facts. Whose fault it is, man made or natural is almost irrelevant. The important thing is that we take action to prepare for the unavoidable consequences of climate change NOW.

Past climate changes have happened quick, the most recent having taken only about a decade. We have seen weather patterns change over the last few years, lost a bunch of ice, witnessed massive amounts of species going extinct and see a slow-down of the ocean's conveyor which regulates temperature patterns around the globe. My gut feeling is to say that we are in the midst of climate change. Whether it's caused by CO2, an active sun or any other cause is not the issue. The issue is... we can't change, avert or avoid it so we have to figure out how to deal with it and survive it's effects.

The focal point of all the issues surrounding climate change is energy. More specifically, present and future energy. The energy we currently use, which most say changes the climate, and the energy we will need in the future to supply more people and to stave off the effects of a changed climate. We need cleaner fuel now, not only because of pollution or the fact that we are running out, but because we will need much more fuel in the future.

The world economy is currently dependant upon CO2 emitting fossil fuels and we won't just be able to throw a switch to convert to another source so we have to start now. We have to stop spending billions fighting over the remaining oil. No matter who owns it, we will use it up. As demand increases and supply dwindles it will become more expensive and economic factors will dictate that we replace it. If we're lucky, mankind will be reasonable enough to spend more money finding new energy sources than fighting over obsolete ones. That's a long shot but there's always hope.

We will need more energy and there is no denying that burning oil and coal pollutes our planet. We have 2 choices if we want to survive as a species.

1. Come up with more, preferably cleaner energy.

2. Shrink our global population to a size that our current energy supply can sustain.

The first is preferable but considering our primitive human nature, the second is more probable. Let's let common sense overpower human nature and strive towards option 1.

Think about it. There are many sources of energy, known and yet to be discovered that we can use. Wind, water, tidal, and solar are clean technologies that we have explored and can improve. We have started tinkering with ways to use the Earth's magnetic field. There is gravity and countless types of cosmic rays that we haven't even tried to harness yet. Nuclear has been around for decades and if it doesn't blow up on you, it is extremely clean.

My suggestion, no, my demand is that mankind stop it's economic and religious squabbling and start taking the action we need for our survival as a species. It will be impossible to get mankind to act as one, but someone has to start. If the US trimmed it's government and military to a minimum, keeping enough troops and nukes to sustain sovereignty, we could save billions and use it to develop energy sources.

That scenario might even be good for the economy. Imagine all of the workers needed to make electric cars or cosmic ray powered toasters. Besides, whoever discovers a technology usually has a lead when it comes to selling it's usage or the products it spins off.

New energy won't solve global warming but it will help us deal with it better. Right now it's the only option we have so let's get on it!

Ron
http://moreron.wordpress.com

A new technique is to make use of my del.icio.us account regularly to add newsclips specifically for this web log. Check the new sidebar entry (or for Microsoft Internet Explorer users, check somewhere near the bottom) called FYI brief newsclips of relevance which presents the last 5 or so found items. Clicking the title or a specific item will take you to the entry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seeing like an Inuit family: The relationship between house form and culture in northern Canada
Peter C. Dawson (pages 113-135)

Abstract:
In his classic essay Seasonal Variations of the Eskimo, Marcel Mauss argued that a strong relationship exists between the spatial organisation of traditional Inuit house forms and the social morphology of the families they shelter. These observations anticipate later works in anthropology that examine how cultural processes are reflected in, and sustained by, the built environment. Such ideas are important when considering the effects of post-war housing programs on Inuit families in the Canadian Arctic. During the 1960s, attempts were made to restructure the routines of Inuit families through Euro-Canadian architecture and home economics classes. Recent ethnographic observations of Inuit households in operation, however, reveal that many continue to use their houses in traditional ways. By doing so, Inuit families are attempting to adapt to dwellings designed around another culture’s concept of homemaking and family life. Mauss’s ideas are therefore a poignant reminder of the need to take cultural factors into account when developing aboriginal housing policy.

• http://www.fss.ulaval.ca/etudes%2Dinuit%2Dstudies/v30(2)Dawson.html

Scientists discover new key to flu transmission
06 Jan 2008 18:00:16 GMT Source: Reuters
By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Flu viruses must be able to pick a very specific type of lock before entering human respiratory cells, U.S. researchers said on Sunday, offering a new understanding of how flu viruses work.... Shape difference may explain why humans can get bird flu from a bird and not pass it along easily to other humans, he said.

So far, the bird flu virus has found a way to bind only to the cone-shaped structures in human upper airways. The virus has already killed 216 people and infected 348 people in 14 countries, according to the World Health Organization.

But the study found that the most infectious human flu viruses bind with the umbrella-shaped receptors in the upper respiratory tract. [...]

• http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03267645.htm

EID Journal Home > Volume 14, Number 1–January 2008 Avian Influenza Virus (H5N1) Replication in Feathers of Domestic Waterfowl
Yu Yamamoto, Comments to Author Kikuyasu Nakamura, Masatoshi Okamatsu, Manabu Yamada, and Masaji Mase

Abstract
We examined feathers of domestic ducks and geese inoculated with 2 different avian influenza virus (H5N1) genotypes. Together with virus isolation from the skin, the detection of viral antigens and ultrastructural observation of the virions in the feather epidermis raise the possibility of feathers as sources of infection.

• http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/14/1/149.htm

Global Patterns in Seasonal Activity of Influenza A/H3N2, A/H1N1, and B from 1997 to 2005: Viral Coexistence and Latitudinal Gradients Brian S. Finkelman, Cécile Viboud, Katia Koelle, Matthew J. Ferrari, Nita Bharti, Bryan T. Grenfell

Abstract
Despite a mass of research on the epidemiology of seasonal influenza, overall patterns of infection have not been fully described on broad geographic scales and for specific types and subtypes of the influenza virus. Here we provide a descriptive analysis of laboratory-confirmed influenza surveillance data by type and subtype (A/H3N2, A/H1N1, and B) for 19 temperate countries in the Northern and Southern hemispheres from 1997 to 2005, compiled from a public database maintained by WHO (FluNet). Key findings include patterns of large scale co-occurrence of influenza type A and B, interhemispheric synchrony for subtype A/H3N2, and latitudinal gradients in epidemic timing for type A. These findings highlight the need for more countries to conduct year-round viral surveillance and report reliable incidence data at the type and subtype level, especially in the Tropics.

• http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001296

Can We Turn Garbage Into Energy? The pros and cons of plasma incineration. By Brendan I. Koerner Updated Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2008

• http://www.slate.com/id/2181083/fr/rss/

This is a really good questions and answer--
Should We Throw Hazardous Waste Into Volcanoes? An answer to the Explainer's 2007 Question of the Year. By Daniel Engber Posted Friday, Jan. 4, 2008

• http://www.slate.com/id/2181280/fr/rss/

Last year's leftover question was good, too Can soap get dirty, or is it self-cleaning because it's soap? Bar soap is good, even if Local health agencies and inspectors are sometimes more wary of [public] bar soap. They either ban it outright or suggest that the bar be placed on a draining rack to dry out between washings. (The gooey bars are more likely to harbor germs.) And they have a link to a new resource for handwashing, Hand Hygiene Resource Center of the Saint Raphael Healthcare System, in New Haven, Connecticut

• Revised Fire Hazard Rulings
  http://www.handhygiene.org/Fire_Hazard_Issues.asp

Plastic bags are killing us By Katharine Mieszkowski

The most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, the lowly plastic bag is an environmental scourge like none other, sapping the life out of our oceans and thwarting our attempts to recycle it.... Dr. Richard Bailey, executive director of the institute, is most concerned about the bags that get waterlogged and sink to the bottom. "We have a lot of animals that live on the bottom: shrimp, shellfish, sponges," he says. "It's like you're eating at your dinner table and somebody comes along and throws a plastic tarp over your dinner table and you."

... The plastic bag is an icon of convenience culture, by some estimates the single most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, numbering in the trillions. They're made from petroleum or natural gas with all the attendant environmental impacts of harvesting fossil fuels. One recent study found that the inks and colorants used on some bags contain lead, a toxin. Every year, Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags after they've been used to transport a prescription home from the drugstore or a quart of milk from the grocery store. It's equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of oil. [...]

• http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/08/10/plastic_bags/?acquire

Site Search Tags: cultural+factors, anthropology, Inuit, housing, relocation, erosion, archaeology, aboriginal, virus, garbage, solid+waste, waste+to+energy, recycle, soap, handwashing, hands, Slate.com, HazMat, hand+rub, hand+gel, Purell, hygiene, newsclips, del.icio.us/hlthenvt, Salon.com, trash

Chch to switch off lights for climate
By ARWEN HANN - The Press | Tuesday, 01 January 2008

On Saturday, March 29 [deadline] Christchurch will join cities around the world to take a stand against one of the planet's biggest threats - climate change.... Cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, Chicago and Manila will switch off their lights for one hour to mark the first global Earth Hour. Christchurch is the first New Zealand city to join the initiative.

• http://www.stuff.co.nz/4341620a11.html

Earth Hour - 2007
We invited Sydneysiders - businesses and individuals - to turn off their lights for just one hour, Earth Hour - 7.30pm to 8.30pm on 31 March 2007 - as a ...
earthhour.smh.com.au/

See the difference you can make - Earth Hour 2008
Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to ...
www.earthhour.org/

Make Earth Hour happen in your town. Learn how to organize Earth Hour in your town or local community.

This is a world-wide project in partnership with World Wildlife Foundation and the Sidney Morning Herald newspapers. Let me know which Villages, schools, communities will be participating and I'll list your efforts here.

Site Search Tags: deadline, global, lights, energy, happening

Call for Papers: deadline, January 30, 2008

To promote science, innovation, and education in western Alaska, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Bristol Bay Campus and the Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Association (WAISA) is hosting the Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference and Forum (WAISC) from April 4–7, 2008. WAISC is western Alaska's first regional science conference and is attracting participants from UAF, UAA, Alaska Energy Authority, Bristol Bay Native Association, City of Dillingham, and Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation.

WAISC offers a fantastic opportunity to support region science and education in western Alaska. There are many ways to become involved, including sponsoring an event or session of this dynamic conference. This conference will highlight local efforts that provide a more interdisciplinary approach to scientific inquiry and resource management.

Site Search Tags: Dillingham, UAF, conference, resource+management, BBNA, Bristol+Bay

I've mentioned several potential problems here, which I hope get discussed --

• Where is Bethel endemic malaria
• Briefs 3 Winter ticks invade Yukon elk
• Robins and West Nile or Officials give tips on dealing with dead birds
• FYI hantavirus and About this site — Cama-i (welcome)

Another strong possibility might be dengue fever. Parts of Maui, for example, have been under mosquito control measures and health alerts. Dengue fever is another mosquito-borne disease, but of aedes mosquitoes, not the anopheles mosquitoes which carry malaria. Does anyone know the abundance and proportion of our mosquito genera? We have culex mosquitoes ("West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes such as this one, Culex pipiens, also known as the northern house mosquito.") There is a catalog of The mosquitoes of Alaska [pdf file] but published in 1961 and new ones are found ( http://tinyurl.com/2835kf)

The reasons for the dramatic global emergence of DF/DHF as a major public health problem are complex and not well understood. However, several important factors can be identified.

1. First, major global demographic changes have occurred, the most important of which have been uncontrolled urbanization and concurrent population growth. These demographic changes have resulted in substandard housing and inadequate water, sewer, and waste management systems, all of which increase Ae. aegypti population densities and facilitate transmission of Ae. aegypti-borne disease.
2. In most countries the public health infrastructure has deteriorated. Limited financial and human resources and competing priorities have resulted in a "crisis mentality" with emphasis on implementing so-called emergency control methods in response to epidemics rather than on developing programs to prevent epidemic transmission. This approach has been particularly detrimental to dengue control because, in most countries, surveillance is (just as in the U.S.) passive; the system to detect increased transmission normally relies on reports by local physicians who often do not consider dengue in their differential diagnoses. As a result, an epidemic has often reached or passed its peak before it is recognized.
3. Increased travel by airplane provides the ideal mechanism for infected human transport of dengue viruses between population centers of the tropics, resulting in a frequent exchange of dengue viruses and other pathogens.
4. Lastly, effective mosquito control is virtually nonexistent in most dengue-endemic countries. Considerable emphasis in the past has been placed on ultra-low-volume insecticide space sprays for adult mosquito control, a relatively ineffective approach for controlling Ae. aegypti.

• http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/dengue/

We don't do any mosquito control now except burn Pics inside houses (negatively affects human health so the outdoor mozzies get us faster) and provide sheltered breeding areas such as trash and tires. Mosquitoes may also bring heartworms which affect dogs. And how can we forget flies and SWMP flying anuk?

There is pandemic and avian influenzas--

[while the current Arctic and sub-Arctic regions may result in a lower population density of birds and their shed viruses (and also people) it is the lower density and not the “Arctic” per se which affects the infection rate of the virus. However, the lower density may be only of the birds. Other research [cited here, flu viruses survive tundra ponds and here, Frozen fecal bird flu types] has shown that the viruses may survive in ponds between breeding seasons (over winter) and thus might accumulate or become more concentrated in numbers. As we know from disease ecology and biocultural anthropology, the disease process involves several factors besides presence and abundance of the infective microorganism. mpb]

While snow blindness may be less likely, cataracts from exposure to more sunlight (getting out on water without sunglasses) and skin cancers may compensate. Elk may move in, but so might chronic wasting disease. If winters are warmer, then indoor air pollution may drop with decreased wood stove and oil furnaces.

I'm sure Steve will have lots of other skin-crawly things to discuss (and to prepare for).

Site Search Tags: APRN.org, Talk+of+Alaska, mosquitoes, disease, climate+change, global+warming, ticks, malaria, West+Nile, dengue+fever, trash, dogs, cervid+wasting, Hawaii, flies

I am inviting all Alaskans to become involved in the state budget process by participating in a web survey.

Voices Across Alaska: State Budget Priorities is an opportunity for all Alaskans to provide your opinion on how the state’s projected budget surplus should be saved and invested. Surveys will be accepted through 5 p.m. on December 3, 2007.

The survey is limited to a few choices about where to stash the surplus. Click here to take the brief survey.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=SdLawkgxb2H6o7oAkmv2ZA_3d_3d

But a lot of people initially saw the invitation as I did-- asking for input on the budget itself. There are some really good ideas from commenters at APRN.org. Governor seeks statewide feedback on how to spend new oil revenue There are so many things unfunded in rural Alaska that any "surplus" should play catch-up. [e.g., scientific support for the Unorganized Borough; comprehensive assessment of environmental change and community impacts; access to affordable health care; decent elder support such as elder-run senior centers and assisted living housing; Governor's public involvement coordinator; etc.] APRN comments will be open for 45 days so add yours there. Maybe the Governor's office will read those, too.

[oo]
From The Sunday Times December 2, 2007 Webwise: Dealing with disaster Scared of terrorism or bird flu? The internet can tell you what the real risks are and how to cope with them Robbie Hudson

[oo]
Spike in Disease Doesn't Always Mean an Epidemic Despite Fears Over Rising Numbers, An Increase in Incidence May Be Good By Roy Richard Grinker Special to The Washington Post Tuesday, October 30, 2007; HE04

[oo]
50 years on: The Keeling Curve legacy By Helen Briggs Science reporter, BBC News Mauna Loa Curve (BBC) It is a scientific icon, which belongs, some claim, alongside E=mc2 and the double helix. Its name - the Keeling Curve - may be scarcely known outside scientific circles, but the jagged upward slope showing rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere has become one of the most famous graphs in science, and a potent symbol of our times.

[oo]
Clogged by plastic bags, Africa begins banning them Several African countries have taken bold new measures to tackle the region's severe waste-management problems. By Sarah Simpson | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the November 30, 2007 edition
Bags are a local hazard, too. Officials give tips on dealing with dead birds

[oo]
A tale of pigs, people, and a shared germ By Stephen Smith Globe Staff / November 12, 2007 The past couple of decades have yielded repeated - and lethal - reminders of how animals can make people sick. Think apes and AIDS, mosquitoes and West Nile virus [pigs, ducks, people and influenza]. The latest example: pigs and MRSA, the bacterium that in recent weeks has infected schoolchildren and caused custodians to scour emptied classrooms, dousing any trace of the germ.

[oo]
Q&A: Bird flu James Sturcke and David Batty explain the background to the virus and how Britain is responding to the threat of a pandemic Monday November 12, 2007 Guardian Unlimited

[oo]
Children's books to help fight bird flu, Posted Wed Nov 7, 2007, ABC.net.au
Australia's quarantine watchdog has turned to children's books to help stop the spread of bird flu into the country. The Australian Quarantine Inspection Service has commissioned two Torres Strait women to write and illustrate a book called My Sick Pelican. The book will be circulated through Torres Strait schools to help children identify sick birds.

Site Search Tags: solid+waste, trash, schoolchildren, Gov+Palin, Australia, preparedness, pandemic, statistics, deadline, FAQ, Britain, Alaska, APRN.org, BBC, epidemiology, pigs, MRSA, disease+ecology, carbon

Part 2*** From a follow-up to the newslist discussion about anthropology and climate change--

Q. "So...what can we do to solve this problem? Can we think like engineers?"

Please, don't. Not even anthropological engineers. For example, see this --

• American and Dutch Coastal Engineering: Differences in Risk Conception and Differences in Technological Culture Wiebe E. Bijker, Social Studies of Science, 2 2007; vol. 37: pp. 143 - 151. http://sss.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/37/1/143.pdf [pdf file]

Yes, a focus on problem solving is needed, but an integrated focus (biocultural anthropology, human ecology, human biology, archaeological anthropology, a.k.a. anthropology). Engineers as a whole do their work well, but often fall down precisely when it comes to defining the correct problem.

The University of Alaska must model the billions of extra dollars needed to replace existing infrastructure despite missing data sets. The study was completed recently and based upon the infrastructure definitions provided by the state's FEMA equivalent (the division without a single social scientist).

How accurate are the infrastructure database? I have the notes from the communities themselves going back to 1995 when I first got to Alaska. There was then the overdue need to consider environmental change in building landfills or airports. I could glance at the landscape and tell what is going on because I took soils and geology courses and did fieldwork on changes in historical human terrains.

Since 1992 at least, the engineers have been in charge in Alaska (and northern NM) for solutions to rural / tribal "environmental health" and change. How many unsanitary dumps did we as tribal staff have to consider just within the northern NM Pueblos? I ask the Indian Health Service sanitarian and 10 days later I get a call from the Bureau of Indian Affairs hydrology engineer who wants to know how many dumps there are because they got an inquiry from IHS.... We in the Pueblos (with a planner from the engineering department in Albuquerque and a PE formerly with Singapore megaprojects) were forced to re-write the EPA/BIA's integrated solid waste planning manual as an archaeology field manual.

I have the notes from 1993 when EPA said the money we needed for clean drinking water in the Pueblos had to go to Alaska for their more serious issues. In Alaska we were promised a "honey bucket museum" by the Governor and not a better honey bucket. I've seen where and how that money was spent (the same out-of-date technology they put in New Mexico, only at 5 times the cost). A million-dollar anuk house (compressed air pumped through an open tub of sewage) not only doesn't reduce widespread strep and RSV and MRSA and hep but the building materials fall apart in the sea air inside of 10 months (just like the tribal council said).

I listen between the lines of what Alaska Natives say to the government men. I listen to what fellow G-men and women tell me when the communities aren't around. I listen when my neighbors and friends and co-workers ask questions.

Without anthropological insights the USDA NRCS soils engineers cannot fathom the problem. The US Army Corps of Engineers cannot fathom the problem AND they can only do what they are told by Congress and Senator Stevens. The IHS and HUD engineers couldn't even fathom the idea that 20 year old lagoon technology wasn't appropriate in 1980 and isn't today. The housing development engineers moving one house at a time couldn't fathom the problem in Labrador and can't in Newtok (the 2007 external coordination is USACE COE).

The problem today within Anthros as an organization is that it seems to think like engineers. That's why the on-going disaster of Katrina and the Mississippi Delta is replicated in the Yukon and Kuskokwim and Kobuk and Nushagak Deltas (or maybe vice versa as my experience antedates Katrina.)

It isn't rocket surgery to know what needs to be done. It is good old fashioned (natural science) [pdf file] four-field anthropology. There isn't another technical field which has the capability of integrating what is known and needs to be known to plan the future. This is as true of 2007 AAA as it was in 1985 (or in 1976,* see William W. Kellogg and Margaret Mead)

At the Women and Anthropology Group (University of Auckland, 1987) we identified three reasons for including anthropology in national policy discussions:

we have resources and expertise to help develop the vocabulary and appropriate context for consideration of this topic by the public

we have specific information on how humans adapt or fail to cope, especially relevant to New Zealand (and the Pacific)

we should raise issues relevant to expertise from other disciplines which we feel are important (e.g., ethics of emigration and immigration policy)

... In general, discussions of [environmental disasters] have focussed on technical issues and narrow aspects of social systems, not comprehensively on people nor on issues of human relations. Policy has been planned with a bias towards rosy pictures of success. The anthropological input is needed to balance such images and to provide accurate information for informed decisions to be made.

Culture affects the technology and expertise which is applied to the problem. Culture affects how we as a people accept or reject environmental change and disasters.

Culture affects how we drive the conception of the assessment, preparation, and modelling of disasters (even those of post-9/11 and privacy)--

The American practice focuses on predicting disasters and mediating the effects once they have happened, in brief: on flood hazard mitigation. [Bijker]

This seems like the governmental use of the term mitigation in Alaska or Louisiana. It is unlike that of environmental assessment (National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA). In Environmental Impact Study / Assessment, one mitigates the probable impacts beforehand, by redesigning the project or by compensatory land purchases, etc. The FEMA folks seem to mitigate the damage only after the fact.

Why build a revetment for static communities when our communities should be dynamic constituents of nonlinear systems? That is, boreal living, human or beastie, requires a non-sedentary and continuously changing situation. Alaska humans have been “stuck” in place. The environment they subsist with does not.

We need an integrated human systems analysis.

The professor is at best ill-informed on the subject. His desire to strip away race and greed and other "secondary" issues in our understanding of the broken levees is horribly misguided. We need to understand all the elements of the problem, not just global warming, because, again, the floods of NOLA could have been prevented.

Rebuilding bad design, as you say, is not a great option. But the Dutch don't have bad design. Why do we have to?
http://www.chinmusicpress.com/books/doyouknow/voices/news/ 2007/07/hartford_safe_in_ivory_tower_p.html

Therefore, don't send engineers or engineered thinking. Send phone cards so at least one of us can speak with the engineers, with Governor Palin, and Uncle Ted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Notes, citations, further reading

• http://sss.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/37/1/143.pdf [pdf file]
• http://iser.uaa.alaska.edu/Home/ResearchAreas/climatechange.htm
• An Alaskan Challenge: Native Village Sanitation (May 1994)
  http://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk1/1994/9401_n.html
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/hlthenvt/232312089/in/set-72157594265830625/

http://www.canoe.ca/NationalTicker/CANOE-wire.Innu-Resettlement.html [retrieved 2002 via Wotanging Ikche and Native American News Copyright c. 1996-2002
"RE: Innu Relocation in Labrador botched Planning"
http://www.nanews.org/archive/2002/nanews10.049] and also available from http://cf.groups.yahoo.com/group/IlnuNetNews/message/1313

• http://www.chinmusicpress.com/books/doyouknow/voices/news/
  Voices of New Orleans
• http://www.aaanet.org/gad/history/062kroeber.pdf [pdf file]
  The Place of Anthropology in Universities

* And still raising Cain, see the silly "1975 ‘Endangered Atmosphere’ Conference: Where the Global Warming Hoax Was Born"
http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2007/2007_20-29/ 2007-23/pdf/50-55_723.pdf which begins ""Global Warming” is, and always was, a policy for genocidal reduction of the world’s population."

• Kellogg, William W., and Margaret Mead 1977
  http://13c4.wordpress.com/2006/01/12/the-anthropology-of-human-survival/

http://13c4.wordpress.com/2006/02/20/new-zealand-after-nuclear-war/
(1987) Anthropologists see their role in the following ways:

1. We would like to facilitate discussion taking a more holistic approach to the problem of society after [environmental disaster]. So far, discussion on the aftermath ... has centred primarily on discussing individual components of the system, such as transport, communication, etc. We would like to approach the subject by making human beings the centre of our arguments. Anthropologists are possibly the only members of the scientific community who regularly discuss issues from the viewpoint of general human adaptability and everything which acts upon it.

2. We would like to bring into the discussion subjects that relate specifically to our own field of expertise, such as adaptive strategies, cultural adaptation, transmission of culture, the demographic consequences of changing social structure, and archaeological evidence concerning constraints on societies reliant on low level technology.

3. We would like to facilitate discussion of some of the more difficult ethical problems such as migration and the possible racial consequences. We would like to look at the possible effects on interpersonal relationships

• Part 1**
  http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/anthropology-climate-change-war-environment-1
• http://aprn.org/2007/08/07/talk-of-alaska-subsistence-management/
• http://www.chinmusicpress.com/books/doyouknow/voices/news/2007/07/hartford_safe_in_ivory_tower_p.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AAA Opposes U.S. Military’s Human Terrain System Project http://www.aaanet.org/blog/PR_110707.htm

AAA Executive Board Releases Ad Hoc Commission Report on Engagement of Anthropology in US Security/Intelligence Communities (CEAUSSIC) November 28th, 2007 http://www.aaanet.org/PM_112807.htm

Site Search Tags: anthropology, ISER, UAA, Ted+Stevens, NOLA, Katrina, sciencing, systems+analysis, analytical+anthropology, Palin, preparedness, erosion, APRN.org, ADN.com, Margaret+Mead, nuclear+winter, Unorganized+Borough, YKAlaska, disaster, Landrieu, Murkowski, Corps+of+Engineers, USDA, Congress, disaster, thimk

Background*
Part 1**
Part 2*** [separate post]

* Background

I think there is a need for anthropological perspective in any issue of human existence.

It is a sad irony that the discipline (science) which is most comprehensive and fundamental (science is a human activity and the basic science of human activity is anthropology) has often seemed through its profession association to be narrowly focussed and consequently irrelevant.

Last month, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) accompanied the chairwoman of the Disaster Recovery subcommittee, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) to another hearing, in Anchorage, about the few places in Alaska designated for US Army Corps of Engineers environmental management [sic].

The anthropologists are about to have their annual conference in Washington DC and will be exercised about the U.S. Army recruiting anthropologists (Human Terrain Systems). On the other hand, Barack Obama is hip to Margaret Mead "Obama demonstrated that he understood the reasons why America for decades (think of the Bay of Pigs invasion) has made gravely serious national security decisions based on laughably inaccurate intelligence."

Meanwhile, none of our western Alaska or Mississippi deltas is taken seriously. "Rush Limbaugh adds Alaskan to polarizing efforts."

The best the state of Alaska has done so far is issue an official pass to a non-existent mass disease shelter in the region's pandemic preparedness exercise this year (flu shot clinic).

I think if Governor Palin actually had a scientific advisor to her environmental sub-cabinet especially from rural Alaska or if Landrieu and Stevens could earmark enough funding out of the millions for the Corps mission in Alaska to pay for scientific support for the Unorganized Borough [over half of Alaska's area, 970,500 km² (374,712 square miles), an area larger than France and Germany combined], this actually would be more effective than the endless photo-op and news stories about polar bears without ice.

How do we bring attention to the need for comprehensive analysis, assessment, and action on environmental change? No one would think of building a levee without an engineer, why are we doing relocation and reconstruction of communities -- in Alaska and Louisiana / Mississippi -- without a human scientist / human ecologist (anthropologist)?

[This analogy would work better if I didn't already know that someone in DC thought of managing emergencies with a horse show announcer.] At the very least we need to aggregate the existing knowledge that we know full well must be included, whether for a northern or a southern delta.

It may not be a direct plus for NOLA-- my records precede Katrina and I read Voices of New Orleans. If all the people and power and money there can't get trailers that the Feds are allowed to inspect -- but I think the imaginative scale in Alaska would be easier to actually test many of these concepts and approaches.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Part 1

Earlier this month, in a forum of environmental anthropologists, an interesting summary of the discussion about global warming climate change was posed by Alan R. Beals, Ph.D. --

Perhaps I have pushed technological change because I don't like to think
about the social and cultural changes that lie ahead. In the worst case, we will be asking people whose houses flooded or burned to take in large numbers of refugees from the Netherlands or Bengal. With the economy in shambles, with the capitalist means of production in ruins, one wonders what will happen and how anthropologists might contribute to the reconstruction of culture and society across the world.

The future is now -- massive upheavals of people/cultures, increasing over the next 2 weeks to 20 years. Not since the advent of sedentism (television and local schooling) has there been such biocultural changes. The immediate refugees are Alaskans.

What is described in this paragraph was also the scenario 20 years ago (another climate disaster modelling and planning). Then anthropologists in this country mostly refused to be involved. There was a session at the 1985 DC AAA meeting, which almost didn't proceed because it was "unethical" for anthropologists to speak with those in policy areas and because even speaking about issues of humanity would cause the calamity to occur. ( "[Audience: What the hell…! Talking about the unthinkable makes it inevitable!]" ) Despite the interest by the rest of the world in the climate change models and our most telegenic representatives, there was no news coverage through the AAA press office.

Back to 2007 --

The rest of you are expected to pay the Billion(s) dollars [model estimates, limited as they are, are a minimum of an extra $3-6 Billion, over the required $32b, for climate change alone] for the 65,000 some displaced persons in 200+ communities that the (state, federal, tribal equivalents) Corps of Engineers or the USDA NRCS or EPA or Homeland Security or HHS or the churches want to spend building their ideas of homes. (However, they discuss only 3 or 4 communities to relocate not the 200+ in actual need.)

None of the people who will be spending your money have any inkling of biocultural adaptation or biocultural systems.
* I think there is one archaeologist with the Corps (Alaska)
* USDA NRCS bans anthropologists (the Big Book of Jobs says Anthropology "does not meet minimum educational requirements" for working with communities and natural resources)
* there isn't a single social scientist with the state agency charged by Governor Palin for disaster mitigation and planning (homeland security)

They will not come to the temple. They don't even see the temple, despite its periodic statements of dogmatic purity. In fact, there is no longer a need to go to anthropology. The new anthropology-- in business, medicine, social services, and even academia-- is now the derivative stakeholders and community-based participatory research (CBPR). Motorola, ATT, and IBM long-ago took over "culture change" +. Even lawyers are recognized as better qualified than anthropologists--

"Yochai Benkler, a Harvard Law School professor and the author of the already well revered book “The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom,” has some incredible observations of interest to anyone wondering about participatory media or participatory research. Or… participatory anything."

In 1985 -- there was a call at the AAA for anthropologists to recognize "that the most important decisions are made by a very few people, Need to de-isolate the experts and specialists" -Nader
http://13c4.wordpress.com/2006/01/12/the-anthropology-of-human-survival/

In 2007 --
22 years later at this year's meeting, the organization once again resolves that war is bad for anthropologists and other living things and draws up the list of heretics. It seems as I grow older that Anthropology (USA) insists on becoming ever more orthodox, parochial, ethnocentric. Therefore the issues which desperately need anthropological insight [the missing experts] must proceed without.

Perhaps someone can spare a minute to think about the value of anthropological relevance vs. isolation +

Back to the wilderness and your money --
Like the AAA "Commission’s work did not include systematic study of the HTS project", we also have no systematic study of environmental change in Alaska. There have already been some efforts to compare Katrina to Alaska, in the fight over money and resources. But the truly ugly and nonsensical ("race") battle is coming.

Perhaps someone would stop by Sen. Stevens, Sen. Landrieu, and Sen. Murkowski, while in DC, and explain the need for a natural science A-word where people and their environment are concerned? Please?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ footnote

"As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy. Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. ``I think all of us have to really take stock of what we already are willing to give up, in terms of anonymity, but (also) what safeguards we want in place to be sure that giving that doesn't empty our bank account or do something equally bad elsewhere.'' "