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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al Gore made an emotional return to Congress Wednesday to plead with lawmakers to fight global warming with moral courage while revealing nothing about whether he'll join the 2008 presidential race. The former vice president is a Democratic favorite for the presidential nomination even though he says he's not running. Fresh off a triumphant Hollywood appearance in which his climate-change documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," won two Oscars, Gore drew overflow crowds as he...

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Gore tells Congress of a "true planetary emergency"

08:58 PM EDT on Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer

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WASHINGTON ? Al Gore made an emotional return to Congress Wednesday to plead with lawmakers to fight global warming with moral courage while revealing nothing about whether he'll join the 2008 presidential race.

The former vice president is a Democratic favorite for the presidential nomination even though he says he's not running. Fresh off a triumphant Hollywood appearance in which his climate-change documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," won two Oscars, Gore drew overflow crowds as he testified before House and Senate panels about a "true planetary emergency."

He said the issue should not be partisan or political, but Gore faced skeptical Republicans who questioned his personal commitment to reducing energy usage and the science behind his film.

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The former vice president is a Democratic favorite for the presidential nomination even though he says he's not running. Fresh off a triumphant Hollywood appearance in which his climate-change documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," won two Oscars, Gore drew overflow crowds as he testified before House and Senate panels about a "true planetary emergency."

He said the issue should not be partisan or political, but Gore faced skeptical Republicans who questioned his personal commitment to reducing energy usage and the science behind his film.

"You're not just off a little, you're totally wrong," said Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the leading Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as he challenged Gore's conclusion that carbon dioxide emissions cause rising global temperatures.

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Author's disclaimer: Although the contents of this column are 100 percent true, it is for entertainment purposes only. If someone drowns or injures himself as a result of reading this column I am not responsible. It is their own damn fault.

On Tuesday we celebrated the Spring Equinox. It was also the day that I celebrated something much more spectacular than the common movements of our celestial bodies and the changing of the seasons. For the first time in my life, I made it through the winter without getting sick and I did it without one visit to the doctor, a stash of antibiotics or any changes to my diet. Oddly enough, I am quite convinced that the ancient torture technique of waterboarding is to thank for my healthiest of winters.

Fear not my good readers. Even though I have a beard, I did not join al Qaeda or the Taliban to find this out. Nor have I been whisked away to some secret prison in Syria or Eastern Europe to make this amazing discovery. I'm still as much a Patriot as Tedi Bruschi or Tom Brady.

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As environmental activists and politicians, including Al Gore, descend on

Capitol Hill this week to urge action on global warming, nearly all are touting

a business-friendly solution -- as are California regulators who are drawing

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Now that Al Gore has won an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth," he's headed to Capitol Hill today to perform before an even more important crowd: lawmakers who could pass legislation that would make energy unaffordable for many Americans.

Gore never considers the obvious moral objection to his agenda ?- its potentially catastrophic impacts on the world's poor. Stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is not even remotely possible unless China, India and other developing countries restrict their use of carbon-based energy.

Carbon dioxide, which Gore demagogically calls "global warming pollution" (it's plant food, after all), is the inescapable byproduct of most of the energy that fuels the world's economy.

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March 21: Former Vice President Al Gore makes a return to Capitol Hill to testify about global warming, while others talk about whether he might run for president again. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.Today show

WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Al Gore brings his push for government action on global warming to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, testifying in both the House and Senate.

His appearance comes as lawmakers consider legislation to curb emissions tied to global warming, and less than a month after his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Academy Award.

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As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart catches grief for suppressing wages, forcing suppliers to meet its demands and crushing competitors.

Size wields and takes great privileges. But the mammoth firm also has great potential to do the world a lot of good.

In 2005, Wal-Mart officials announced the corporation’s plan to draw 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources, reduce energy use in stores by 30 percent and slash fuel use by 25 percent in its fleet of trucks.

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TOKYO (AFP) — Japan aims to play a leading role in the post-Kyoto battle on global warming and will seek the full engagement of the USA and China, the world's top two polluters, officials said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will ask his cabinet ministers to develop a package of proposals to present to next year's Group of Eight summit of world leaders which Japan will host, they said.

Japanese government ministers will "discuss proposals on a new framework that will ensure participation by the United States and China, the world's largest greenhouse-gas emitters," a foreign ministry official said.

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"Back when people were saving Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the

giant redwoods, they didn’t even think about the southern forests.

Logging companies took countless millions of board feet of lumber from

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So bad that the chief executive of one of the nation's largest oil companies is on a 50-city tour trying to communicate what the industry is doing to expand oil production, respond to consumer frustration over energy costs, and deliver a message about bills being drafted in Madison and Washington, D.C.

John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil USA, on Tuesday used an appearance in Milwaukee, 29th on the 50-city tour, to praise efforts under way in Congress to enact a law restricting emissions of gases linked to global warming and criticize a state plan to tax oil company profits.

A favorability survey conducted last year by the Edelman public relations firm ranked the oil industry dead last, 20th of 20 industries surveyed.

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German recorder artist Verena W?sthoff will teach the 2007 "Winds and Waves Recorder Workshop" May 5-7 at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.

W?sthoff is an artist-in-residence at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. She will teach in collaboration with internationally known recorder players Frances Blaker, Letitia Berlin and Cl?a Galhano.

In its ninth year, the Oregon Coast Recorder Society's Winds and Waves workshop gives participants an opportunity to work on a wide variety of music from the recorder repertoire.

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Houston's Bayou City Art Festival will celebrate its 10th year in Memorial Park from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Sunday.

More than 300 visual and performing artists are expected to transform the park into a magical art colony, with juried art and multicultural music, dance and culinary delights.

The festival selected abstract impressionist landscape artist Michael McKee as its featured artist.

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At the rate my family drives our 2004 Volkswagen Passat, we generate 8,800 pounds of greenhouse gases (GHG) a year. On the other hand, roughly 11,000 pounds of GHGs are emitted per person during a round-trip flight between the United States and Europe.

According to a new Web site, http://www.drivinggreen.com/, we could offset that negative impact of our driving by contributing $32 to a fund used to finance projects designed to reduce gas emissions in agricultural pursuits, in this case capturing methane from Midwest manure pits. In addition to cutting GHGs in the atmosphere, the captured methane provides fuel for the farm. On this same scale, a flight from Pittsburgh to London (if there were one) could be offset with a $40 contribution per traveler.

In the years since the Kyoto Accord authorized carbon-offset programs, dozens of similar organizations have sprung up, offering ways individuals can support environmentally oriented projects designed to cut GHGs, energy consumption, global deforestation and other ecologically positive projects.

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LONDON -- If you could divide Europe's nations and regions into "red" and "blue" states on the American model, very few would be colored "red" -- Poland, some other East European countries, rural regions across the continent, etc. Most nations would be cheerfully "blue." But all Europe would be ''green.''

Green is the universal sign of conspicuous virtue, of concern for planet, of a new paganism that worships the goddess Gaia and treats the Earth as itself a single living organism.

Anyone who questions this newly fashionable faith is regarded as a dangerous heretic to be cast into the outer darkness. A minister in the British government suggested to the BBC that it should not allow air time to any scientists who doubted ''global warming'' (a minority of scientists but a distinguished group). Other high priests of the creed have called for "Nuremberg trials" of "climate change deniers."

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NEW YORK – Institutional investors joined a corporate chorus seeking to sink money into clean energy markets and called Monday for U.S. Congress to pass rules slashing output of gases linked to global warming.

The investors, including Merrill Lynch and Calpers, the largest U.S. public pension fund – which together manage nearly $4 trillion in assets – called on Congress to pass legislation aimed to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases 60 to 90 percent under 1990 levels by 2050.

“To tap American ingenuity and drive business to a leadership position in the low-carbon future, we need regulations to enable the markets to deploy capital and spur innovation,” Fred Buenrostro, chief executive officer at Calpers, said in a statement ahead of the announcement in Washington Monday.

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Is the Climate We Have Now the Best of All Climates for Earth?

March 20, 2007; Page A17

In their March 15 editorial-page commentary "A Future for Fossil Fuel," John Deutch and Ernest Moniz assume that measures to reduce CO2 concentration in the atmosphere would be worth some unspecified cost. We should not accept that. Scientists say that for millions of years the climate has cycled between hotter and colder (but they don't know why). Messrs. Deutch and Moniz should give convincing reasons why the climate we happen to have now is the best of all the climates, but they simply ignore...

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California's two giant public pension funds joined a coalition of institutional investors and corporate executives Monday to urge the White House and Congress to enact tough national curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.

The group, asserting that global warming threatens the financial health of the U.S. economy and companies, called for legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions by 60 to 90 percent below 1990 levels over the next five decades.

Officials also urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to require that publicly traded companies disclose the potential financial threats and their strategies to reduce emissions.

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Claire Meyer is a senior at Alton High School and lives in Godfrey. She is in this week's student spotlight because she is in many activities. These activities include: journalism, French Club, National Honor Society, chorus and a role in the musical "West Side Story." She is also involved in the Daughters of the Revolution and has received the Yale Book Award and a Citizenship Award.

Her parents are Dennis and Jeanne Meyer. She has two brothers, Ross and Theodore.

Here is more information on Claire:

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Over 250 Peninsula residents demonstrated their commitment to combating climate change Sunday by giving up a sunny afternoon to attend the launch of the Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign, a grass-roots effort to urge immediate action on global warming at a local level.

The families who came to Sequoia High School to hear speeches by Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, state Sen. Joe Simitian and other leaders didn't need to be convinced of the urgency of the global climate situation or their responsibility to do something about it. Many people arrived on bicycles, and nearly everyone raised their hand when asked if they had seen Al Gore's environmental documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

They came to be recruited as foot soldiers in the battle against public apathy. The Cool Cities campaign, which unofficially began in November, hopes to use residents' lobbying power to persuade every City Council in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Benito Counties to adopt the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

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More than 250 Peninsula residents demonstrated their commitment to combating climate change Sunday by giving up a sunny afternoon to attend the launch of the Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign, a grass-roots effort to urge immediate action on global warming at a local level.

The families who came to Sequoia High School to hear speeches by Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, state Sen. Joe Simitian and other leaders didn't need to be convinced of the urgency of the global climate situation or their responsibility to do something about it. Many people arrived on bicycles, and nearly everyone raised their hand when asked if they had seen Al Gore's environmental documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

They came to be recruited as foot soldiers in the battle against public apathy. The Cool Cities campaign, which unofficially began in November, hopes to use residents' lobbying power to persuade every City Council in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Benito Counties to adopt the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

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More than 250 Peninsula residents demonstrated their commitment to combating climate change Sunday by giving up a sunny afternoon to attend the launch of the Sierra Club's "Cool Cities" campaign, a grass-roots effort to urge immediate action on global warming at a local level.

The families who came to Sequoia High School in Redwood City to hear speeches by Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, and other leaders didn't need to be convinced of the urgency of the global climate situation or their responsibility to do something about it: Many people arrived on bicycles, and nearly everyone raised their hand when asked if they had seen Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

They came to be recruited as foot soldiers in the battle against public apathy. The "Cool Cities" campaign, which unofficially began in November, hopes to use residents' lobbying power to persuade every city council in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Benito counties to adopt the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

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BERLIN (AP) ? The United States objected to key parts of a discussion on climate change at a meeting between G-8 environmental officials and representatives from five influential developing nations, Germany?s environment minister said.

The conference ended with consensus on several points, including a general acceptance of the scientific explanation for the causes of global warming and that industrialized nations need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions more than mandated by current agreements, said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who hosted the meeting Saturday.

Officials also agreed that industrialized countries have been responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions in the past and for the need to help developing countries control their emissions today, Gabriel said.

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Oregon's Secretary of State Bill Bradbury was the lone elected official among teachers, retired military officials, a former Miss America and a country music singer getting trained to deliver Al Gore's Oscar-winning "An Inconvenient Truth" slideshow last fall.Former vice president Gore vowed to train 1,000 people to get the word out about the science behind global warming. By mid-April, Gore will have trained 1,000 volunteers in the United States and about 150 in Australia.Bradbury was among the...

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Over 250 Peninsula residents demonstrated their commitment to combating climate change Sunday by giving up a sunny afternoon to attend the launch of the Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign, a grass-roots effort to urge immediate action on global warming at a local level.

The families who came to Sequoia High School to hear speeches by Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, state Sen. Joe Simitian and other leaders didn't need to be convinced of the urgency of the global cli-mate situation or their responsibility to do something about it. Many people arrived on bicycles, and nearly everyone raised their hand when asked if they had seen Al Gore's environmental documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

They came to be recruited as foot soldiers in the battle against public apathy. The Cool Cities campaign, which unofficially began in November, hopes to use residents' lobbying power to persuade every City Council in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Benito Counties to adopt the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

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WOODSTOCK, N.Y., March 14 ? In a small community center on a placid night, 30 residents of this iconic left-leaning town in a corner of the Catskill Mountains gathered to plot a revolution.

There was no mention of drugs or sex or music, and few, if any, of those in the crowd of mostly baby boomers bore any resemblance to the flower children who flocked to the festival that turned ?Woodstock? into a bohemian brand name four decades ago. These residents? new countercultural project was environmental: a resolution to reduce net carbon emissions in all of Woodstock to zero ? yes, zero ? within a decade.

Forget for a second the question of whether such a goal is even feasible. In this crunchy town of art galleries and funky shops, where people get around on colorful bikes and storefronts post signs like ?hippies always welcome,? proponents say that if anyplace can reduce its carbon emissions to zero, Woodstock will be it.

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More than 250 Peninsula residents demonstrated their commitment to combating climate change Sunday by giving up a sunny afternoon to attend the launch of the Sierra Club's "Cool Cities" campaign, a grass-roots effort to urge immediate action on global warming at a local level.

The families who came to Sequoia High School in Redwood City to hear speeches by Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, and other leaders didn't need to be convinced of the urgency of the global climate situation or their responsibility to do something about it: Many people arrived on bicycles, and nearly everyone raised their hand when asked if they had seen Al Gore's environmental documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

They came to be recruited as foot soldiers in the battle against public apathy. The "Cool Cities" campaign, which unofficially began in November, hopes to use residents' lobbying power to persuade every city council in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Benito counties to adopt the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

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With the warm, summerlike weather over the weekend, Sandy Richter found an ideal spot to cool off Sunday.

She and her husband went to watch hundreds of amateur and professional bicyclists zip along the streets of downtown Visalia in what is known as a criterium, the race ending the two-day Quad Knopf Sequoia Cycling Classic.

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Global warming alarmists far and near are concentrating on carbon dioxide as an undesirable component from an undesirable American industry.

Kelly Decker, an ecosystem scientist at CSU, suggested in a Feb. 22 ?Your Turn? (?Changing our ways before warming tipping point?) that the sky is falling. So let?s take a closer look at this carbon dioxide scam.

The carbon dioxide (CO2) content in fresh air varies and is between 0.03 percent (300 PPM) to 0.06 percent (600 PPM) around the globe. The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health limits brief exposures to 3 percent and considers concentrations exceeding 4 percent as ?immediately dangerous to life and health.? Please do your math: 3 percent = 100 times 0.03 percent. In her article, Kelly Decker said that 0.0375 percent (375 PPM) is a great threat.

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BERLIN (AP) The United States objected to key parts of a discussion on climate change at a meeting between G-8 environmental officials and representatives from five influential developing nations, Germany's environment minister said.

The conference ended with consensus on several points, including a general acceptance of the scientific explanation for the causes of global warming and that industrialized nations need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions more than mandated by current agreements, said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who hosted the meeting Saturday.

Officials also agreed that industrialized countries have been responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions in the past and for the need to help developing countries control their emissions today, Gabriel said.

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Darkness to Light's Stewards of Children is a sexual abuse prevention training program designed for organizations and corporations that serve children and youth.

The training is open to all adults. The next session is from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. April 3 at Gulf Coast Kid's House, 3401 N. 12th Ave.

Cost is $15 and covers a light supper and all materials. Reservations are required as seating is limited. Details: 595-5800.

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Thomas Sowell: Global warming swindle: British documentary refutes hysteria

Thomas Sowell - Creators Syndicate

Monday, March 19, 2007

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The University of West Florida Japan House will present Japan Day: Hands on Culture from 1 to 4 p.m. Friday at UWF Japan House and International Center, Building 71.

The event is free and open to the public.

Programs will include origami, calligraphy, geography, arts and crafts, childrens games and play.

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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, March 14 — On the outskirts of this Persian Gulf boomtown, past an oil refinery and a water desalination plant, the foundations are being poured for an ambitious project that will house a research facility and perhaps even a power plant, all intended to take this oil-producing giant into the next energy wave.

Oil, however, will have nothing to do with it. The sun, the wind and hydrogen will.

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the fourth largest OPEC oil producer with about 10 percent of the known reserves, is seeking to become a center for the development and implementation of clean-energy technology.

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TOKYO - Hokuriku Electric Power Co.'s carbon dioxide emissions are expected to rise significantly following the suspension of its nuclear power plant in Shikamachi, Ishikawa Prefecture, halted after the discovery that the power provider had covered up a criticality accident in 1999.

The Hokuriku cover-up is not the first time such a scandal has hurt the nation's efforts to reduce the effects of greenhouse gases by relying on thermal power generation when nuclear plants were forced to suspend operations. Hokuriku Electric's misdeeds only adds fuel to those concerns.

CO2 emissions from power plants nationwide increased to 375 million tons in fiscal 2005 from 277 million tons in 1990. Hokuriku Electric's emission amounts to about 3 percent of the total at 11.38 million tons.

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Take Care of Earth's Warming Problem For Sake of God Execution Is No Solution Citizen Rights, War Discontinue War Insurance vs. House Payment Govt. vs. Private Insurance

Of all the critical problems confronting us today, the one that cries to be solved first is global warming. Scientists have proved that Earth's temperature is rising at an alarming rate because of the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

Global warming is, first, a theological problem. Earth does not belong to us, it belongs to God. Our Scriptures tell us that "the earth is the Lord's thee fullness thereof, the world and all that dwell therein" Psalm 24:1. Like a shepherd, we are to tend to Earth, not abuse and destroy it.

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At the rate my family drives our 2004 Volkswagen Passat, we generate 8,800 pounds of greenhouse gases (GHG) a year. On the other hand, roughly 11,000 pounds of GHGs are emitted per person during a round-trip flight between the United States and Europe.

According to a new Web site, greendriving.com, we could off-set that negative impact of our driving by contributing $32 to a fund used to finance projects designed to reduce gas emissions in agricultural pursuits, in this case capturing methane from Midwest manure pits. In addition to cutting GHGs in the atmosphere, the captured methane provides fuel for the farm. On this same scale, a flight from Pittsburgh to London (if there were one) could be offset with a $40 contribution per traveler.

In the years since the Kyoto Accord authorized carbon offset programs dozens of similar organizations have sprung up, offering ways individuals can support environmentally oriented projects designed to cut GHGs, energy consumption, global deforestation and a host of other ecologically positive projects.

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I'm a Democrat, and I enjoy your work. And I get very frustrated by those on the left who whine and are thin on the facts.

The global warming debate is unique to humanity. If those who advocate "wait and convince more scientists" are wrong, following their advice may affect hundreds of millions of people, with possibly many killed by famine and flooding. On the other hand, if the people who advocate doing something now are wrong, the worst is mostly economic. That's a price I'm more than willing to pay to hedge my bets to protect the millions of lives at risk, as well as the ecosystems and animal species facing extinction.

Following the advice of the vast majority of the world's atmospheric scientists sounds like a bet all humans should take.

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I was disheartened that The Reporter would give voice to someone who chose to write a piece as devoid of feeling as “We Are All Poorer for Having Known Her.”  

 Let me begin by saying that I am not‚ nor have I ever been a fan of Anna Nicole Smith. 

However‚ it seems to me that anyone with even an ounce of compassion would see an unhappy and exploited woman‚ gone much too soon. 

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Goldman Sachs has been one of the most aggressive firms on Wall Street about taking action on climate change; the company sends its bankers home at night in hybrid limousines.

--The New York Times, Feb. 25

Written without a hint of irony--if only your neighborhood dry cleaner sent his employees home by hybrid limousine--this front-page dispatch captured perfectly the eco-pretensions of the rich and the stupefying gullibility with which they are received.

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U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has joined Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., to

introduce the Lugar-Biden Climate Change Resolution, which calls for U.S.

participation in international climate change agreements.

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Bruce Springsteen was a no-show when the Library of Congress celebrated the Seeger family at Coolidge Auditorium on Friday night, but he wasn't missed. In fact, had the Boss turned up he might have had trouble getting a song in edgewise.

Speculation that Springsteen, who released "The Seeger Sessions" last year and has championed folk music legend Pete Seeger's repertoire on the road, would be a surprise guest at the concert, amounted to naught. But it's not as if the Seegers -- siblings Mike and Peggy, half brother Pete and four generations of kin -- were in need of another singer. In addition to the performers, the capacity crowd was only too happy to oblige Pete and Peggy whenever they called for vocal support, which seemed to occur every other song or so.

At 87, Pete still views each audience he encounters as a choir waiting to happen, though the desire to teach the world to sing seems to have something to do with Seeger family DNA. Peggy asked everyone to "point your voice at your shoes," in order to produce a properly moaning tone for a Mississippi River boatman's song; Pete played conductor, guiding the audience across the signature octave leap that opens "Over the Rainbow." He also amended the last verse of the pop classic so that it would end on an all-inclusive note -- a classic Seegerism.

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Even though it will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Miami-Dade County may join a program to buy and sell credit for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions on a stock market-like exchange.

Nonetheless, County Manager George Burgess and some influential county commissioners support the move, which they said would force the county to take emissions reduction more seriously.

The commission is set to vote today on joining the Chicago Climate Exchange, a national group that would require cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 1.5 percent this year, or 24,000 tons. By 2010, the target would be a cut of more than 35,000 tons, mostly from county cars, police cruisers, buses and garbage trucks.

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Britain's Channel 4 has produced a devastating documentary titled "The Great Global Warming Swindle." It has apparently not been broadcast by any of the networks in the United States. But, fortunately, it is available on the Internet.

    Distinguished scientists specializing in climate and climate-related fields talk in plain English and present readily understood graphs showing what a crock the current global warming hysteria is.

    These include scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and top-tier universities in a number of countries. Some are scientists whose names were paraded on some of the global warming publications being promoted in the media -- but who state plainly that they neither wrote those publications nor approved them.

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“Ukiyo-e,” referring to the Floating World of Japan, is a term that describes everyday aspects of life in Edo, or modern Tokyo, from the 17th to 19th century, and particularly the pleasurable lifestyle of geishas, kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, samurai, prostitutes and common people.

In Buddhism, “ukiyo” also translates to “the fleeting moment,” and as the end of March approaches, I think about the ephemeral quality of the beauty of Japan as the country anticipates the annual bloom of the cherry blossom, or “sakura,” which is their national flower. There are hundreds of varieties of cherry trees in Japan, most of which are light pink to pure white and bloom for just a week in the spring.

Japanese all over the country celebrate this gorgeous time of year of cherry blossom viewing with festivals and “hanami,” the centuries-old custom of picnics in parks, castles, temples and shrines full of these flowering trees, which resemble fluffy, dreamlike clouds from a distance, yet are delicate and intricate up close.

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I'm a Democrat, and I enjoy your work. And I get very frustrated by those on the left who whine and are thin on the facts.

This brings me to my reason for this letter: Global warming.

The global warming debate is unique to humanity. If those who advocate "wait and convince more scientists" are wrong, following their advice may affect hundreds of millions of people, with possibly many killed by famine and flooding. On the other hand, if the people who advocate doing something now are wrong, the worst is mostly economic. That's a price I'm more than willing to pay to hedge my bets to protect the millions of lives at risk, as well as the ecosystems and animal species facing extinction.

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Most revolutions don't happen overnight. They are a series of steps, sometimes smallsteps that gradually impinge on freedom. Sort of like cooking a frog by slowly increasing the temperature of the water until he is well done, never knowing what was happening around him, as opposed to the same frog being thrown into a pot of boiling water and jumping out.A recent U.N. climate meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, demonstrates that the same technique will be used against the producing democracies and re...

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Saskia Zinn and Ashley Lund, both 12, will present Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and staff members of Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman with letters written by New Moon readers and copies of the January/February issue, in which some of the letters were published.

?We want the government to actually read one of these issues [of New Moon magazine] and take some steps toward what girls want,? Saskia said. ?We thought it would make a big impact if they could do some things about issues girls want changed.?

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WASHINGTON – Residents of Virginia's largest county might soon see more vegetation growing on roofs and more green space in new neighborhoods as part of a multimillion-dollar initiative to combat global warming.

The changes are part of a new national program called Cool Counties, which Fairfax County is launching along with several partners: the Sierra Club; Washington state's King County, which includes Seattle; and Illinois' Cook County, which includes Chicago.

The program hopes to encourage each of the nation's more than 3,000 counties to do its part in reducing greenhouse gases, officials said Thursday.

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March 17, 2007 -- BRITAIN'S Channel 4 has produced a devastating documentary titled "The Great Global Warming Swindle." It has apparently not been broadcast by any U.S. networks, but is available on the Web.

Distinguished scientists specializing in climate and climate-related fields talk in plain English and present readily understood graphs showing what a crock the current global-warming hysteria is.

These include scientists from MIT and top-tier universities in a number of countries. The names of some were paraded on some of the global-warming publications that are being promoted in the media - but they state plainly that they neither wrote those publications nor approved them. One threatened to sue unless his name was removed.

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In the last 2 million years, the Earth has experienced at least 17 ice ages. Each one has been followed by a warming period. The Earth, in the last 1,000 years, has been warmer than it is now.

Eric the Red established a Viking settlement in Greenland in 986. Vikings raised cattle and grew crops there for 300 years. The sea levels did not rise nor were coastal communities flooded. The milder winters, longer growing seasons and more abundant food of global warmings have benefited man.

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