Vacation Dreaming: Global Warming and Saving Oregon's Mt. Hood

I just returned from vacation in the Pacific Northwest. While I know that Cindy Sheehan and supporters in Camp Casey (outside the President's Texas ranch, protesting the Iraq War) are all the news this week, my mind hasn't yet left the environmental beauty of Oregon and Washington.

So here is a round-up of a few recent environmental stories:

This story, from The Oregonian newspaper on August 14, exemplifies the best of bipartisan efforts to save our environment...."Congressmen Greg Walden (R-OR) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) are now about to discover all that lies below the green treeline of the mountain visited by 4.5 million people every year.....

The Hood River Republican and the Portland Democrat, whose districts meet in the middle of Mount Hood National Forest, will leave Monday for a four-day, 41-mile trek around the mountain on the Timberline Trail. The two will carry 35-pound backpacks and the burden of crafting a plan to protect Hood while more and more people flock there to ski, sightsee, hike, mountain bike, camp and fish." Be sure to read the rest of the story at the link.
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Then, there's the AP story, via the August 16 New Mexican newspaper..."The northerly winds that sustain the Pacific Coast's marine ecosystems have returned, but their arrival came about four months late _ too late for fish and birds that couldn't survive the unseasonably warm waters....

The winds usually start blowing in March or April, but when they didn't arrive this spring, researchers saw the effects up and down the coast _ higher ocean temperatures near the shore, very little plankton, a drop in groundfish catches and a spike in dead seabirds on beaches....

Some researchers suspect that global warming--the rise in temperatures blamed on emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide--might have played a role in delaying the winds."
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And finally, again from AP, this time via Yahoo News yesterday, " 'Anyone doubting the effects of human activity on global climate change should talk to the people it affects in Alaska and the Yukon,' U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Wednesday.

Fresh from a trip to Barrow, America's northernmost city, McCain said anecdotes from Alaskans and residents of the Yukon Territory confirm scientific evidence of global warming. 'We are convinced that the overwhelming scientific evidence indicated that climate change is taking place and human activities play a very large role,' McCain said.

McCain, accompanied by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lindsey Graham, (R-SC), spoke to villagers in Canada whose spruce trees are being attacked by the northward spread of spruce beetles....

'I don't think there is any doubt left for anyone who actually looks at the science,' Clinton said. 'There are still some holdouts, but they are fighting a losing battle. The science is overwhelming, but what is deeply concerning is that climate change is accelerating.' "
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I promise to bring you up to speed tomorrow about Cindy Sheehan, Camp Casey and 1,600 nationwide candlelight vigils that started last night to protest the Iraq War.

But please...I need just one more day dreaming of the pristine waterfalls, clean air and green, green forests of the Pacific Northwest. And to pray that Americans honor and preserve our natural resources.