Extinction is Forever : Canada Lynx

Endangered by Global Warming : Canadian Lynx

• Scientific Name: Lynx canadensis
• Range: Canada and Northern U.S.
• Status:” Threatened” under ESA
• Global warming impacts: Warm spells affect duration and texture of the snowpack, which changes hunting dynamics between the lynx and showshoe hare.
• Implications: The lynx-hare relationship is key to sustaining plant communities of boreal (northern) forest ecosystems.

More on Canadian Lynx

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service originally listed the Canada lynx as threatened primarily because of habitat loss and overtrapping.

The lynx and its main prey, the snowshoe hare, are adapted to deep snow cover. Lynx hunting success (and therefore prey availability) has a great deal to do with snow conditions. The hare is the primary herbivore of the boreal forest. Too many or too few hares will have a profound impact on vegetation structure and composition, which in turn may jeopardize food and shelter needs for countless forest birds and other animal species

Take action and spread the word at the Environmental Defense Fund website:

http://www.edf.org/warmingwildlife

Tags: extinction, environmental defense fund, global warming, canada lynx, boreal forest

Extinction is Forever : Leatherback Turtles

Endangered by Global Warming : Leatherback Turtles

• Record Holders: Leatherbacks are the largest of all sea turtles and are the deepest divers of any reptile species, reaching documented depths greater than 4,000 feet.
• Ocean Wanderers: Leatherbacks have the broadest range of any sea turtles and can be found in temperate and tropical oceans around the planet.
• Jellyfish Explosion: Experts believe that declining sea turtle numbers as responsible for a population explosion of jellyfish, the leatherbacks' principal diet.
• Flooded Beaches: Rising sea levels and stronger tropical storms threaten breeding beaches and nests.
• Warming Nests: Hotter sand means hotter nests, resulting in lower hatching rates and fewer males.

More on Leatherback Turtles

Leatherbacks were listed as endangered in 1970 and confront multiple threats from humans, from unintentionally being caught in fishing nets to intentionally being harvested for meat. Their estimated numbers are down to 26,000 – 43,000 nesting females, a dramatic decline from the 115,000 estimated in 1980.

We need Congress to act by passing a national cap on America's global warming pollution. This is the first critical step in slowing and reversing the threat of global warming.

Take action and spread the word at the Environmental Defense Fund website:

http://www.edf.org/warmingwildlife

Tags: extinction, leatherback turtles, global warming, habitat loss, jellyfish bloom

Help Push Climate Bill Through House

Stop Global Warming

We have a chance to pass climate legislation this year. The longer we wait to cut our global warming pollution, the harder it will be to solve this crisis. Please take action to support a final push to victory in the House.

Please visit Environmental Defense Action Fund website and take action to let your elected representatives know where you stand. Do not stop there, take the following steps to help push the bill through the House.

1. Spread the Word: We must show our strength in numbers to those who want to defeat climate change legislation. Please ask your friends to stand with us and help make climate action a top priority. You can use our tell-a-friend form on the website or you can simply email this url to your friends and family: http://action.environmentaldefense.org/campaign/cap_globalwarming_now
   
   
2. Call Your Representative: Dial the Capitol Hill switchboard -- (202) 224-3121 -- and ask for your Rep's office. Tell the office staff that you are a voter back home and that you support the American Clean Energy and Security Act because it will create jobs, unleash our clean energy future, free us from foreign oil, and cut America's global warming pollution. When you're done with the Capitol Hill office, please look up your member at http://www.house.gov/ and find the phone numbers for home district offices -- let the staff back home know what you think, too.
   
   
3. Facebook/Twitter It: Use your social networks to spread the word. Below are Facebook & Twitter length blurbs you can post right now:
   

• Facebook: The House is schedule to vote this Friday on Waxman-Markey, the most important climate bill of our lives. Take action today, and urge your Representative to vote YES! http://bit.ly/lyaXR Then, please share with your friends!
  
  
• Twitter: RT @EnvDefenseFund: House scheduled to vote on most important climate bill of our lives Friday. Tell them to vote YES - http://bit.ly/KzR9A

Here are five positive issues addressed by the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Use these for your own blog post or email to your friends and family.

1. It sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions at 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% by 2050. These cuts are in line with what scientists say are necessary to prevent the threat of run-away global warming.
2. It establishes a program to reward innovation and spur investment in clean energy technologies and new manufacturing jobs.
3. It promotes clean energy by requiring that 20% of electricity comes from a combination of renewable sources, such as wind and solar, and energy efficiency by 2020.
4. It provides an incentive for other countries without a cap on carbon to limit their emissions, by allowing the president to impose fees on carbon-intensive imports from nations that haven’t adopted their own greenhouse gas cap (starting in 2025).
5. It is our single best chance to pass a climate bill this year and may be our only chance to solve the global warming crisis.

So, take action or whistle in the dark when the lights go out.

Tags: take action, carbon cap, clean energy, climate bill, global warming, edf

100% Recycled, Wildflower Embeded Paper

Now, here is a great idea!

Plantable Paper

Plantable paper is 100% post-consumer waste paper embedded with wildflower seeds. After the announcement is read, invitation noted, thanks accepted or birthday celebrated, you plant the paper and, voilà, wildflowers grow.

• Bird's Eye
• Clarkia
• Black Eyed Susan
• Poppy
• Catchfly
• Snap Dragon

They have a full selection of business and greeting cards, invitation and thank you cards, stationery with matching envelopes.

Do it Yourself : Plantable Paper

You may use toilet paper, paper grocery bags, junk mail, tissue paper, napkins or paper towels, construction paper or phone book pages. Gather your seeds, your paper and check out the directions on eHow. Tricia Goss gives step by step directions on how to make plantable paper. What a wonderful activity for children.


Good News!

This is how we should all be looking at recyclable materials. How may we recycle, reuse, repurpose materials that are now considered "waste." Whether you craft it yourself or purchase it online, be on the lookout for this Plantable Paper, a totally green replacement for paper cards.

Tags: plantable paper, wildflower embedded paper, diy plantable paper

Extinction is Forever - Sugar Maples

Endangered by Global Warming : Sugar Maples

• New England Icon: The sugar maple is a New England icon. For centuries, the trees' sap has provided a livelihood for generations of farmers, and maple syrup has become a $65 million per year industry.
• Warmer Seasons: Warmer winters and earlier springs have led to earlier and shorter "sugaring" seasons, the period when the trees' sap is running, and is putting a strain on this industry.
• Winter Freeze: During cold winters, sugar maples "recharge" themselves by letting the sap freeze from the inside of the tree out. They need these hard freezes to thrive, and warmer winters resulting from global warming will leave the trees vulnerable to pests.
• Vibrant Falls: The sugar maple is also the source of the brilliant autumn reds that make them the jewels of New England's fall landscape. Fall tourism is worth billions to New England.

In a new online campaign launched by Environmental Defense Fund, you can learn about the threat of global warming through the prism of seven "ambassador species" living plants and animals already feeling the heat.

Please visit EDF, take action and spread the word. It only takes a minute or two and YOU can make a difference.

Tags: global warming, extinction, sugar maples endangered

Extinction is Forever - Monarch Butterflies

Endangered by Global Warming : Monarch Butterfly

• Broad Range: The monarch spends at least part of its life in all of the lower 48 states.
• Miraculous Migration: They carry on one of the most spectacular seasonal migrations of any creature on Earth - and it takes multiple generations to complete.
• Habitat Threats: Climate change is threatening both their wintering grounds in Mexico (due to wetter mountain winters) and their summer breeding grounds (due to hotter, drier summers in eastern U.S. and Canda).
• Small Critter, Big Loss: Because of the monarch's vast migration, their decline could have seriously negative impacts on the pollination of plants across the country.

It may not yet ring true for many Americans, but the warming planet is already changing habitat for countless species – in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

For most species threatened by global warming, other human activities over many years have already pushed them to the brink. One of the great tragedies is that after so many years of trying to right these wrongs, global warming threatens to reverse our conservation gains.

Here's the brutal truth: If we don't take action now to dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, these and hundreds of thousands other species are doomed.

Take action and spread the word at the Environmental Defense Fund website:

http://www.edf.org/warmingwildlife

Tags: extinction, monarch butterfly, global warming, habitat loss

Not a Paper Cup $19.95

The Rainforest Site will preserve 2290.0 sq. ft. of land for each Not a Paper Cup purchased.

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Let us consider the elegant aesthetic of a simple white take-out cup -- pure utility, no frills -- a veritable blank canvas for the thoughts of an early morning commute. Now contemplate that same concept, but better! Imagine all the trees you'll save...

• Double-walled ceramic for perfect insulation
• Snug-fitting silicone lid withstands temperatures to 446 Fahrenheit (230 Celsius)
• Keeps your beverage warm longer than a paper cup
• Environmentally friendly
• Microwave and dishwasher safe
• Holds 16 oz.
• 6" T x 4" dia. at top (15.2 x 10.2 cm)
• Imported

Shop Green!

Plastic Taking Over Pacific Ocean

The plastic that is thrown out a window today, finds it way to the creek and then the river and, finally, the ocean.

Mussels have microscopic bits of plastic in their blood. Seabirds starve to death because their bellies are full of trash instead of fish. Seals are pooping out bits of colored plastic. Hermit Crabs live in plastic bottle caps rather than shells. Birds are building nests out of drinking straws, ear swabs and plastic twine. (Message in a Bottle, May/June 2009, Sierra Magazine).

The Garbage Patch (western Pacific gyre) is now estimated to be 2-3 the size of Texas, with some estimates as high as 5 million square miles. That is 1-1/2 the size of the continental USA! The Garbage Patch has been encountered 500 miles of California and 200 miles off the coast of Japan. There is now evidence of an eastern Pacific gyre.

The answer: cut off plastic at the source. Manufacturers and distributors of these plastic parts will have to become responsible. We may see the end of Styrofoam containers in restaurants, plastic lids and straws may disappear from McDonald's, and runoff laws may tighten for cities.

Whether it will enough and timely is another question entirely. What can you do? Stop using plastic. Buy ceramic coffee mugs and steel liquid containers and keep at home, in your car, and at work. Do not reuse plastic bottles as BPAs may be released into the drink. Shop for alternatives to plastic storage containers, especially when used for storing food or drink for children.

Tags: take action, garbage patch, pacific trash gyre, plastic kills