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Western Antarctic ice chunk collapses
by Seth Borenstein

A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday.

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years.

This is the result of global warming, said British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan.

Because scientists noticed satellite images within hours, they diverted satellite cameras and even flew an airplane over the ongoing collapse for rare pictures and video.

"It's an event we don't get to see very often," said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. "The cracks fill with water and slice off and topple... That gets to be a runaway situation."

While icebergs naturally break away from the mainland, collapses like this are unusual but are happening more frequently in recent decades, Vaughan said. The collapse is similar to what happens to hardened glass when it is smashed with a hammer, he said.

The rest of the Wilkins ice shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut, is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice. Scientists worry that it too may collapse. Larger, more dramatic ice collapses occurred in 2002 and 1995.

Vaughan had predicted the Wilkins shelf would collapse about 15 years from now. The part that recently gave way makes up about 4 percent of the overall shelf, but it's an important part that can trigger further collapse.

There's still a chance the rest of the ice shelf will survive until next year because this is the end of the Antarctic summer and colder weather is setting in, Vaughan said.

Scientists said they are not concerned about a rise in sea level from the latest event, but say it's a sign of worsening global warming.

Such occurrences are "more indicative of a tipping point or trigger in the climate system," said Sarah Das, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

"These are things that are not re-forming," Das said. "So once they're gone, they're gone."

Climate in Antarctica is complicated and more isolated from the rest of the world.

Much of the continent is not warming and some parts are even cooling, Vaughan said. However, the western peninsula, which includes the Wilkins ice shelf, juts out into the ocean and is warming. This is the part of the continent where scientists are most concern about ice-melt triggering sea level rise.

If events like this scare you, and they should, then do something about it…

The Alliance for Climate Protection recently unveiled the We campaign, which they say will ultimately be the largest mobilization campaign ever on global warming. Please be sure to check out the new website http://wecansolveit.org, and great video clip:
http://www.wecansolveit.org/anthem

You can also watch Al Gore talk about the campaign in this clip from the CBS show 60 Minutes: http://www.wecansolveit.org/cbs

The Washington Post ran a great article talking about the campaign’s launch. Here is an excerpt:

"In an effort to broaden the campaign’s appeal, the alliance has already forged working partnerships with groups including the Girl Scouts and the United Steelworkers of America. One of its early ads will feature the unlikely alliance of clergymen Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton sitting on a couch on Virginia Beach, talking about their commitment to address climate change."

You can read the entire article and forward it to a friend here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/30/AR2008033001880.html

Please ask your friends to join the effort by clicking here:  http://wecansolveit.org/page/invite/thankyousignup

You can also visit their online Action Center and get involved: http://wecansolveit.org/action

The world’s scientists are calling for immediate and urgent action on global warming. The good news is that we have the science, technologies and policies necessary to stop it. What’s needed is action by concerned people like you and me.

That’s why I’ve joined with Al Gore and others across the country and around the world who want to halt global warming.

We’re on the verge of being over one million strong and I’m asking you to join us. Please click here today to become part of the solution to global warming:

http://wecansolveit.org/onemillion

We need to come together and demand our leaders take the steps necessary to ensure our children and their children have a positive future. That’s why I’m asking you to get involved today:

http://wecansolveit.org/onemillion

Together, we can stop global warming.

Earth Day 2008 will be the biggest yet! From the national Mall in Washington, D.C., to thousands of events from Togo to Buenos Aires, plus 1,000 college campuses and religious partnerships, join millions of people around the world who will participate in our Call for Climate! Learn more at ww2.earthday.net

Demand that your government take bold, swift and fair action to tackle climate change. In the US, be part of one million people who will call Congress at 202-224-3121 on Earth Day, April 22, 2008. Ask for your Representative or Senator and ask them to take tough and fair action on climate change. We are demanding a moratorium on coal burning, renewable energy, building efficiency, and protection for the poor and middle class in the new energy economy.

Also at ww2.earthday.net you can sign the Earth Day Network’s Sky Petition asking Congress to lead us out of the climate crisis with the boldness and courage that the crisis requires. As the home of the world’s boldest innovators, the world’s strongest economy, and one of its leading democracies, the United States Congress must champion the effort to solve global warming or risk losing our economic future and our democratic principles. Demand that Congress act now to cap greenhouse gas emissions and stop global warming by implementing the following:

1. Impose an immediate moratorium on the building of all new conventional coal-fired power plants, and require a phase out of 30 percent of existing coal plants by 2030.

2. Require that all utilities generate 30 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.

3. Require that all new buildings, renovations and developments immediately reduce fossil-fuel energy consumption by 50 percent, and that all new buildings become ’carbon neutral’ by 2030.

4. Protect the poor and middle class from unfairly bearing the cost of solving the climate crisis.

The flagship event for this year, Earth Day on the Mall in Washington D.C., will feature world-class talent and speakers in order to mobilize hundreds of thousands behind the Call for Climate! The Roots, Chevy Chase, The Commons, Tom Friedman, Government Mule, Erykah Badu, James Hansen and Ed Begley will all be there and you should be too! Walk, bike, row or take public transportation to this free event for the entire family!

Additionally, the major events in seven other US cities organized by Earth Day Network and Green Apple Festival will feature A-list entertainment to help bring out crowds for Earth Day, including the Chicago Aphrobeat Orchestra, Menudo, the Neville Brothers, Ziggy Marley and Mickey Hart (The Grateful Dead). Check out ww2.earthday.net to find out more!

In the U.S. listen for the Earth Day Network’s Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) on Call for Climate! on a radio station near you -- Chevy Chase, Kevin Bacon, Andre Agassi and Zach Brach have lent their talent to these announcements urging listeners to join the Call for Climate! This Earth Day, we can change the forecast for global warming. Plan on being part of the biggest movement worldwide. Call your leaders, come to an event, and sign the petition at ww2.earthday.net .

Todd is a friend on our MySpace page and recently shared his experience attending Barack Obama’s church...

"My name is Todd, and I live in Chicago. I am a white guy. For the sake of admitting my biases, I am a liberal. My preferred candidate for president was John Edwards, but if Obama is my party’s nominee, I will not be disappointed. That being said, I am taking this time to write a response to an email I recently received about Barack Obama, or more to the point, Barack Obama’s church. The email states that Barack Obama’s church (Trinity Unity Church of Christ) has a non-negotiable commitment to Africa and that you will only be welcomed there if you are black.

"According to the church’s mission statement, they do in fact have a strong commitment to Africa. Such a statement can be taken a number of ways, though I suspect it is quite benign. Most likely, his church’s commitment to Africa is a call to ’remember our roots and be proud of being black.’ Their mission statement is heavy on the black community, but what do you expect? They’re a black church in a black neighborhood. All Christian congregations experience Christ differently, and this has been so since 33 AD. I do not see anything wrong with applying Jesus’s teachings to your personal struggles. The paradox of the black church is that they try to project individual struggles into endemic, representative struggles for the entire black community. It is both a source of strength and of weakness. It helps draw them together as a community, but at the same time there is always an accompanying charge of racism or exclusivity. But what community shouldn’t be closer? These are the people in your neighborhood, who will take you to work when your car dies. We remember, for instance, the story of stone soup.

"At the same time, I do not think twice about seeing a Greek Orthodox church; a Russian Orthodox church; the church down the street that offers a sermon in Polish every Sunday; or the Horeb House of Worship, an Indian-Christian church that shares the building with my mostly white Presbyterian church. Say, did anyone ever ask Huckabee how many black people go to his church?

"The more serious charge in the email was that one can only join Barack’s church if he is black. Realizing I had to put my money where my mouth is, I decided to attend worship there and see for myself. So last Sunday I made the 15 mile trek down to the Trinity Unity Church of Christ. I was going to be very disappointed if they did not let me in after all that trouble! We elected to go to the 7:30 a.m. service and parked in the neighborhood near the church. When we got to the front door, I took a deep breath. The moment of truth! We opened the door and went inside… and nothing happened. The greeters greeted us, handed us bulletins and smiled. It was all pretty normal.

"We walked into the sanctuary and sat on the back pew. The lady in the pew in front of us turned and told us we could not sit there. Was there some sort of segregated seating arrangement, I wondered? No. According to the woman, ’That pew is where the ushers sit.’ As we walked to another pew, I looked around and saw very few white people. I would estimate that the congregation was 99 percent black, though the 11 a.m. and the 6 p.m. services may have different make-ups.

"We moved to a different pew and sat. In the few minutes before the service started, several people welcomed us. When the service began, the pastor asked that all the visitors stand and be welcomed. We stood, and more people came over to welcome us. I was hugged a couple of times, and many people shook my hand. The pastor told us we were welcome and said, ’If there is anyone here who does not have a church home, we ask that you make us your home. If you already have a church home, we hope you will take our prayers and blessing back to them.’ I noticed that there were several visitors that day -- I would say that 10 were black and six were white. I also noted that the pastor did not say, ’All of you are welcome to join except for the white people.’

"The sermon was about learning to take pride in what you are doing for the greater glory of God, along with the stern statement that nothing in life comes free. We have to work for it. But, he also talked about how, as a community, we have an obligation help keep each other on the right path. The pastor told of his upbringing in Georgia, and how his father had explained that the black community there conducted itself largely along the same moral and ethical code as the West African villages from which many of the people there had emigrated. Everyone in the village was Aunt So and So or Grandmother So and So. When you spoke to an adult, it was ’No, sir’ or ’Yes, Ma’am.’ When one of your friend’s parents met you for the first time and asked, ’Who are your people,’ you did right to explain which church you went to and what they stood for. That was how they knew you were not going to be a bad influence on their kid.

"Then there was a performance by the children’s choir, numbering around 100 kids of various ages, and a group of dancers performed an interpretive dance to the music. The dancing was a little too charismatic for my taste, but to each his own.

"The pastor asked us to pray in silence for a while. The man sitting next to me took my hand and asked if there was anything that I would like to pray about. I told him about the upcoming decision regarding my tenure at work, and he told me he would pray about it. I asked him, and he told me of his son, Dierre, who was about to ship out to Iraq. He said he would appreciate my prayers for him. And so we prayed.

"After the offering, the pastor talked briefly about an editorial in the Chicago Tribune that labeled Trinity Unity as ’a bunch of crackpot black supremacists.’ He said that if any of us wanted to respond to that charge or invite the columnist to attend service and see for himself, that the address for letters to the editor was in the bulletin. As I recall, none of the churches I ever attended were subjected to negative editorials in the daily paper. Yet, aside from some peculiarities, such as church dancers, everything seemed pretty much like any other Christian service I’ve attended. I was welcomed, told to put my faith in God, reminded of the sacrifice of Jesus, asked to help keep others in the flock on the path of virtue, urged to be a better person, and invited back the next week."

All Americans need to listen and hear what Obama has to say. Please forward this message to everyone you know.

Thanks!

The Obama campaign projections showed the most likely outcome of Tuesday's elections will be that Clinton gained 187 delegates and Obama gained 183. That's a net gain of 4 delegates out of more than 370 delegates available from all the states that voted. If you add these numbers to the CNN figures, the total pledged delegate count now stands at Obama 1,348 and Clinton 1,197. However, if you compare these numbers to all the networks and news agencies, you will see minor differences because each organization has different projections.

Now let's look at superdelegates, delegates that are not determined by voting in state primaries and caucuses, and are not pledged to either candidate. There are 796 superdelegates, which mostly include currently elected democratic officials from the Senate and House, Governors, Mayors and others like Al Gore. Many have already publically endorsed candidates but most have not yet done so. According to CNN, Obama has been endorsed by 199 superdelegates and Clinton has 238. AP has Clinton with 241 superdelegates and Obama 202. Either way, that leaves more than 350 superdelegates uncommitted, a large enough bloc to swing the nomination should they band together.

If we add the committed AP superdelegates to the projected numbers we have going, that would put Obama with 1,550 and Clinton with 1,438. The number needed to win the nomination is 2,025. Twelve contests remain with 611 pledged delegates up for grabs starting tomorrow (Saturday) in Wyoming, followed by Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Guam, Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico. With the contests so close, even if she wins every state that is left, more than likely Clinton will not be able to pick up more than 60 percent of these delegates. Of the delegates that are left, 60 percent would be about 367 delegates, putting her at 1,805. If Obama wins all these states and earns the 60 percent, his total would then be 1,917. So unless either candidate wins the final states by a landslide, which is very unlikely, the 350 uncommitted superdelegates will determine the Democratic nomination.

A couple of more wrenches in the works are Michigan and Florida, which together have 366 delegates. These states lost all their delegates for holding primaries outside of the Democratic National Committee-approved timeframe. They moved them up on the calendar and the party didn't like it. There is talk about trying to figure a way for their delegates to be seated at the convention. It would be difficult to accept the current numbers of pledged delegates from the primaries held, because neither candidate campaigned in these states. As it stands, Clinton won both states, with 55 percent of the general vote in Michigan and 50 percent of the vote in Florida. Obama only had 33 percent of the Florida vote and his name wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan. They also may decide to redo their primaries or maybe hold caucuses. Whatever they decide to do, it will have a hugh impact on the election.

Not only does Barack Obama have great environmental ideas and positions, he inspires people to take action, which is truly needed if we are going to defeat global warming. Obama also has the best chance of beating McCain, giving environmentalists the best hope for change! That's why PURPOSE endorses Obama. Check out our blog to find out why we made the charismatic leader from Illinois our choice.

PURPOSE Blog

Please forward this to all your friends. If we all stand united, we cannot fail! Thanks for your support.