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Ecological Internet is THE leading global, hard-hitting activist network providing information retrieval tools and action opportunities that achieve environmental protection outcomes. Together our network, of which you are a vital part, has achieved stunning success in 2007 — from Uganda to Guyana, Brazil to the Congo — the world’s rainforests are a bit safer because we exist. Few have done more to raise awareness regarding global heating. These efforts have depended for years upon the reliable generosity of network recipients for funding. It is time to once again ask Earth lovers to help us out.

Please make your tax-deductible gift to benefit the Earth now — perhaps $100 or what you can afford. Ecological Internet’s continued existence depends upon raising $75,000 by the end of the year. Information on securely and easily donating with a credit card and by check can be found there. We particularly desire recurrent donations, or tithes, which provide for a constant cash flow. Please give sooner, rather than later, as the first $10,000 in donations are being matched one to one; and once you have given, you will not be asked again this year.

TAKE ACTION! New York City’s (NYC) Department of Parks and Recreation is one of America’s largest destroyers of rainforests, reports New York based Rainforest Relief. Parks and other NYC and state agencies including the Department of Transportation (DOT) and NYC Transit use hundreds of thousands of board feet of tropical hardwoods per year. New York City’s use of ancient forest timbers comes at great expense to the Earth’s biodiversity, ecosystems, climate and prospects for achieving global ecological sustainability…

Please support Rainforest Relief’s and NY Climate Action Group’s campaign demanding that Mayor Bloomberg end NYC’s use of tropical hardwoods. In order to protect ancient forests, the people who live there, and global climate; NYC purchases of timbers derived from ancient forests must be stopped and an important precedent set that all industrial scaled ancient forest logging must end forever. TAKE ACTION!

Professor James Lovelock is making similar warnings as those found in this blog lately, that the rate of observable global heating appears to far exceed even the most pessimistic predictions [ark] made by the cautious, conservative and at times political IPCC climate science process. He expresses concern that the speed with which climate change [search] is progressing will lead to ecological and social crises as “6 to 8 billion people face diminishing food and water supplies in an increasingly intolerable climate”. Earlier this year the IPCC concluded that average global temperatures could rise by as much as 6.4C by the end of the century, with a rise of 4C most likely.

Yet Professor Lovelock believes even this quite substantial and dramatic rate of global warming understates the speed with which climate is changing now. IPCC predictions made earlier this year appear to be dramatically outdated already, as global heating impacts have revealed themselves in actuality rather than models. Troublingly Lovelock suggests this means that staggered, slow efforts to reduce emissions and promote sustainable development will fail due to sheer inertia and lack of time. He states “we are at war with the Earth and as in a blitzkrieg, events proceed faster than we can respond … For this reason alone, it is probably too late for sustainable development… implementing Kyoto or some super-Kyoto is most unlikely to succeed” largely because of climatic feedbacks.

Agence France-Presse: As California battles wind-whipped wildfires, vast areas of the United States are struggling with an epic drought that has millions of people fearing their taps could run dry. In the southeastern United States, farmers are struggling with failing crops, environmentalists warn of impending disaster and three states are locked in battle over the use of a rapidly dwindling manmade lake. "Nearly half of the Southeast is in extreme drought and water supplies have reached …

New York Times: A strange thing is happening at the edge of Poul Bjerge’s forest, a place so minute and unexpected that it brings to mind the teeny plot of land Woody Allen’s father carries around in the film "Love and Death." Its four oldest trees – in fact, the four oldest pine trees in Greenland, named Rosenvinge’s trees after the Dutch botanist who planted them in a mad experiment in 1893 – are waking up. After lapsing into stately, sleepy old age, they are exhibiting new sprinklings of green at …

Sunday Mail: MAJOR new research has found a direct link between land-clearing and climate change in Queensland. Scientists found that summer rainfall had decreased by up to 12 per cent and temperatures risen an average of 2C in the worst-affected areas in southern Queensland. University of Queensland and State Government scientists found land clearing was just as significant as greenhouse gas production in climate change. "The findings suggest the large-scale clearance of …

Sydney Morning Herald: THE Howard Government has been deeply embarrassed by the revelation that Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull proposed that Australia should ratify the Kyoto Protocol in a bid to defuse the issue electorally. Prime Minister John Howard and Mr Turnbull yesterday effectively confirmed a report of Mr Turnbull’s proposal - rejected by cabinet - by declining to deny it. Asked if he thought Australia should ratify Kyoto, Mr Turnbull said: "It’s not for me to express a personal …

New York Times: Why do I feel like I began my reporting career 30 years ago listening to the BBC World Service and I’m going to end it glued to the Weather Channel? I flew into Los Angeles last Monday – right through a gray-brown cloud of smoke from the forest fires burning in the hills east of the city. I couldn’t actually see the fires from the air, only the smoke billowing out of mountain caverns, like so many smoldering volcanoes. There was something wild and prehistoric about it. It looked like …

New York Times: Determined to lead the discussion on climate change among developing nations, the Indonesian government spent much of the past week recruiting countries to join it in pressing richer nations to provide incentives to reduce carbon emissions. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a direct plea on Wednesday at the start of a two-day gathering of 40 environment ministers near this capital, a precursor to the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Bali in December. …

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Greens leader Senator Bob Brown has continued to criticise the Howard Government for its opposition to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The Financial Review has reported that Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull urged Cabinet six weeks ago to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, claiming there would be no economic harm to Australia. Mr Turnbull has declined to comment on Cabinet discussions, but has not denied the report. Senator Brown says the Government refuses to …