Unless climate action is taken, global warming will pose a substantial threat to human health in the coming decade. Read more right here folks: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/index.html 

This (http://www.miamiherald.com/331/story/607868.html) is hardly surprising given the rampant habitat destruction that’s still going on in Florida.

Among the latest findings from the ongoing research into non-aquatic songbirds in the Northeast is this: the presence of mercury in non-aquatic songbirds. The data on Bicknell’s Thrush provide the most comprehensive information to date on mercury in a strictly terrestrial, insect-eating songbird. The results from this new study show that songbirds in mountain forests are accumulating mercury.

Visit the Vermont Institute of Natural Sciences home at http://www.vinsweb.org/cbd/MES/ for more information.

I see – all the time, by the way – top soil cascading off home construction sites ine old valley. And it’s not just soil, either: try rocks, gravel, shrubs, turf, even trees washing down hillsides. The Little Nescopeck Creek used to run jet black from the crud washing into its sub-surface trainage pool (old anthracite mining tunnels).

Construction crews might very well be obeying erosion and sedimentation regs, but something’s not going too well.

A mile or so from where I sit, construction-boosted runoff is so strong that an entire bank of the Little Nescopeck is eroding away. The soil-colored water downstream is just part of the big show visible from an upstream road bridge.

The townships, boroughs – even the county and state – need specific rules for development in order to protect other homeowners and to keep sediment out of the Nescopeck and other waterways.

The top scientists in the world have concluded that climate change is likely happening and that there is a 66 percent level of certainty that it is human caused. It is already affecting our lives and most important, even if society addresses it as a crisis today, we can expect its effects to dramatically change ecosystems worldwide for the next hundred years because carbon dioxide will remain at high levels in the atmosphere for at least that long.

 How much we will have to adapt is still a question. Now I understand why people don’t want to believe this (political persuasion tools?), but I do. That requires me as a citizen journalist to examine its impacts and to report on what is the biggest environmental issue in my lifetime, the century and perhaps more than a millenia.

Read U.S. Sen. Larry  Craig’s folk history of U.S. Forest Service forest management right here: http://voices.idahostatesman.com/2008/07/16/rockybarker/craigs_alternative_forest_history Then enjoy a good hearty laugh.

We’ve all heard the stories of what’s happening to Wild Pennsylvania:

-        Too many deer;

-        Not enough acres protected;

-        Suburban sprawl;

-        Flooding exacerbated by the sprawl;

-        Air pollution

-        Water pollution;

-        The demise of wild brook trout fisheries.

Pick a favorite species that’s native to the Commonwealth and chances are it’s one of those that conservation groups consider to be in trouble.

-        Consider the wood thrush: A forest-interior songbird that must have large, unbroken tracts of wooded countryside in which to nest productively;

-        Consider the missing element in the state’s natural diversity: critters with big teeth.

Consider the fragmented nature conservation movement in Pennsylvania:

- One group focused on birds, another on mammals, a loose coalition of people interested in insects, especially butterflies

- Local land trusts focused on preserving small parcels through working with conservation-minded property owners (and doing outstanding work).

- The shrinking and death of aquatic habitats.

Incredibly, no single conservation organization in Pennsylvania today has stepped forward to advocate the truly landscape-scale, science-based conservation models it will take to restore the full spectrum of Wild Nature to the Commonwealth.

Be green. Or greener. You know, the ubiquitous term for caring a little more about the world one lives and plays in and doing your part to alleviate the climate change crisis.

Simple enough, right?

Well yeah, for the most part, it was.

But in the end, was it about making me feel good or really helping Mother Earth? And what did I really accomplish?

First, the easy stuff.

With one click of the mouse, I purged a file on this computer. Saving the Earth, check. I hurt my arm patting myself on the back. After months of “collecting” - and by that I mean emptying into my stomach - hundreds of glass bottles, aluminum cans and plastic bottles, I hauled them all to the recycling center.

There were about a dozen people at the Butler Township center that Saturday morning. It felt good. Determined not to mess with the thermostat - no heat or air - I persevered. Sometimes, it took an extra layer of clothing. Sometimes, a few extra blankets. A small price for not melting glaciers and not drowning polar bears.

On vacation - let’s not talk about those cross-country flights – I was hoping for a gas miserly Toyota Prius like the one my brother-in-law Tony is now driving. I laughed.

Those really are the choices these days, aren’t they? I would rent the Prius and skip the gas-hog SUVs. Saving gas and bucks are something we all can agree on.

There’s no doubt more than a few folks care about our environment. Witness the steady stream of visitors to Lehigh Gorge State Park and floaters on the Lehigh River. Witness the seemingly endless stories and fights about trout, coyotes and white-tailed deer. But if caring about the environment even a little means more money and better health, well, all the more reason to get on board. That’s the pitch that the green movement should be making.

Forget Save the Earth. Try Save Yourself.

More than anything I did, it was the things I began to notice that started to influence me. Do we really need all that packaging in a box of cereal? Five bowls of whole-grain cereal and I’m left with a heavy plastic bag and a cardboard box. Throw a quick meal in the microwave and you’re left with plastic and cardboard.

Not to mention hunger.

Disappointed with my progress - blue about being green? – I’d like to read what an “expert” thinks.

Dr. David Maehr died in a plane crash a few weeks ago. Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen offers a fond rememberance of the scientist here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/carl_hiaasen/story/586105.html

Save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil mongers. Bush and McCain. They’re bad news. Wildlife is more important than money and oil. Americans are greedy. Most care more about themselves than other life and the planet. Junk those big Hummers and trucks, buy more hybrids. We need to rely on wind power and other eco-friendly non-oil resources. Shut down the oil refineries. Raise anarchy on oil companies and the government. Have scientists design some electric magnetic pulse machine to shut down all motor vehicles.

Save the wildlife and planet. America is no more than greed and power. Shame on all you rich oil supporters and Americans who support oil drilling. Shame on you. National parks and wildlife refuges are for wildlife, not oil drilling. The Arctic Refuge is not for drilling. It’s for wildlife, not oil mongers.