by Sherwood Ross
Global Research, January 24, 2009
If America ever is going to stop making aggressive war, Americans will first have to get into contact with reality. That’s because U.S. administrations for the past century have periodically frightened the public out of their collective wits.
And a frightened nation is a malleable nation, one whose people are susceptible to being led into any struggle. There’s usually been some evil outside force lurking to take away what we have. There was the “Red Scare” during the Wilson administration and Joe McCarthy’s terror during the Truman and Eisenhower years. President George W. Bush gave fear a new twist with his “War on Terror” in which innocent nations were illegally invaded and tens of thousands imprisoned and hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed. In his speech of September 20, 2001, Bush claimed terrorists attacked America because they “hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”
Those who believe this whopper will never deal with the reality that we might just be hated throughout the Middle East because the CIA at Eisenhower’s behest overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953. Or that we might be hated for taking Israel’s side in its ongoing efforts to displace the Palestinians. Or for taking Iraq’s side in its war of aggression against Iran and supplying it with poison gas. Or for subsequently waging an illegal war of aggression against Iraq. The idea that Muslim extremists attacked America out of envy lacks any connection to reality, especially when much of the Arab world has long made known its vehement opposition to U.S. support of Israel.
The Bush regime fanned the fears of Islamic terrorism in the American mind by making it appear the 2001 anthrax attacks that shut down Congress were staged by Muslims. One anthrax envelope read “Death to America! Death to Israel!” Bush press agents leaked stories that the attack emanated from the Middle East when, in fact, it originated at a U.S. biowarfare complex in Maryland under management of George W. Bush, commander-in-chief. This lie helped rush through the Patriot Act and opened the door to a $50 billion spending spree to develop new bioweapons, although experts say the U.S. is under no threat of such attack. Meanwhile, we have real influenza epidemics that kill thousands every year that must be prevented and scientists who tell us they no longer are getting the money to fight. What do you call a country that ignores realities and arms itself against fantasies? Try lunatic asylum.
Down through the years our politicians have shamelessly advanced themselves by playing on the public’s fears. George W. Bush is only the most recent culprit. Presidential campaigner Jack Kennedy, for example, in 1960 falsely warned Americans of a “missile gap,” i.e., that we lagged behind the Soviets in our ability to deliver nuclear weapons. These fears were encouraged by the military-industrial complex to pump up spending on atomic bombs and their delivery systems. Late in his life, the eloquent General Douglas MacArthur came to this realization: “Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear---kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of a grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant funds demanded.”
In the past eight years, the Big Lies have flown thick and fast. Americans today suffer from a “master race” delusion akin to what Germans believed in the 1930s. The Neocon’s “New American Century” philosophy posits the U.S. is ordained (Bush believed by god) to provide leadership and spread democracy around the globe. In this vision, America is the self-appointed policeman for the planet. Delegates to Republican National Conventions only have had to hear the phrase “United Nations” to jeer. This poisoning of the public mind could make it difficult for President Obama to use the UN effectively just as it made it easy for Bush to sell his “preventive war” doctrine.
Americans have been conditioned to think the U.S. is always in the right and its enemies are always in the wrong. A prime example: the POW/MIA flags that flutter over public buildings everywhere. Americans believe the Vietnamese held hundreds of U.S. prisoners after the war ended. If so, why couldn’t the Pentagon with its spy satellites that can spot a wooden nickel from 60,000 feet ever find and rescue them? By claiming they refused to live up to its obligations, the Vietnamese are made to look like the bad guys even though we waged a war of aggression in their country and bombed their cities, not the other way around.
I’m not saying there were no POWs being held illegally, only that the issue has been framed to inflame the public out of all proportion to reality. Today, it’s the U.S. that imprisons “ghost” POW/MIAs. Only the victims are Arabs and Muslims. General Paul Kern, who headed an Army inquiry, told the Senate in 2004 the CIA may be keeping up to 100 “ghost detainees” at Baghdad’s infamous Abu Ghraib. And it has been disclosed that the U.S. under Bush/Cheney operated a string of secret prisons where the Red Cross is denied entry. Isn’t that illegally holding POW/MIAs? To accuse others of crimes you are committing raises the suspicion that your own charges may not be true. It also suggests you might be deluded.
Again, there’s our rationale for every defeat. They’ll tell you at any veteran’s post we lost in Viet Nam only because “our boys fought with one hand tied behind their backs” and not because their foes were worthy---when we dumped more tons of bombs on Viet Nam than we did on all of Europe in WWII. Such myths are dangerous.
Recall Hitler told Germans they didn’t lose WWI because they were outfought but because they were “sold out by Jews and the Communists” that made peace behind their backs. So they should fight a new war. Millions of people the world over saw through Bush’s lies about Iraq being in league with 9/11 terrorists and possessing WMD. The war was condemned by the Vatican and termed “illegal” by the UN Secretary-General. But Congress bought the lie that Saddam Hussein, with his $5 billion military budget, threatened America with its $300 billion military budget, and voted to attack. Why could the rest of the world see reality when Americans could not?
Americans have repeatedly subscribed to policies of aggressive war based on lies and delusions engineered by their own chief executives. An Obama presidency will not restore peace unless such falsehoods are first exposed and expunged from the American psyche. Time to open the asylum’s doors and windows and let in the fresh air and sunshine.#
Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based public relations consultant who formerly worked for the Chicago Daily News and wire services. Reach him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11999
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Antarctica is warming, not cooling: study
Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:15pm EST
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
ROTHERA BASE, Antarctica (Reuters) - Antarctica is getting warmer rather than cooling as widely believed, according to a study that fits the icy continent into a trend of global warming.
A review by U.S. scientists of satellite and weather records for Antarctica, which contains 90 percent of the world's ice and would raise world sea levels if it thaws, showed that freezing temperatures had risen by about 0.5 Celsius (0.8 Fahrenheit) since the 1950s.
"The thing you hear all the time is that Antarctica is cooling and that's not the case," said Eric Steig of the University of Washington in Seattle, lead author of the study in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.
The average temperature rise was "very comparable to the global average," he told a telephone news briefing.
Skeptics about man-made global warming have in the past used reports of a cooling of Antarctica as evidence to back their view that warming is a myth.
Cooling at places such as the South Pole and an expansion of winter sea ice around Antarctica had masked the overall warming over a continent bigger than the United States where average year-round temperatures are about -50 Celsius (-58.00F).
The scientists wrote that the Antarctic warming was "difficult to explain" without linking it to manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels.
Until now, scientists have generally reckoned that warming has been restricted to the Antarctic Peninsula beneath South America, where Britain's Rothera research station is sited.
Temperatures at Rothera on Wednesday were 2.6 C (36.68F).
WEST ANTARCTICA
"The area of warming is much larger than the region of the Antarctic Peninsula," they wrote, adding that it extended across the whole of West Antarctica to the south.
Rising temperatures in the west were partly offset by an autumn cooling in East Antarctica. "The continent-wide near surface average is positive," the study said.
Antarctica's ice contains enough frozen water to raise world sea levels by 57 meters (187 ft), so even a tiny amount of melting could threaten Pacific island states or coastal cities from Beijing to London.
West Antarctica "will eventually melt if warming like this continues," said Drew Shindell, of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who was one of the authors. A 3 Celsius (5.4 F) rise could trigger a wide melt of West Antarctica, he said.
Greenland is also vulnerable. Together, Greenland and West Antarctica hold enough ice to raise sea levels by 14 meters.
"Even losing a fraction of both would cause a few meters this century, with disastrous consequences," said Barry Brook, director of climate change research at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
Ten ice sheets on the Antarctic Peninsula have receded or collapsed since the 1990s. The Wilkins sheet is poised to break up, held in place by a sliver of ice 500 meters (1,640 ft) wide compared to 100 km in the 1950s.
Other scientists said that the study did not fully account for shifts such as a thinning of ice sheets in West Antarctica.
"This warming is not enough to explain these changes," said David Vaughan, a glaciologist for the British Antarctic Survey at Rothera, by an iceberg-strewn bay. He said the thinning was probably linked to shifts in the oceans.
The Nature study compared temperatures measured by satellites in the past 25 years with 50-year records from 42 Antarctic weather stations, mostly on the coast. Scientists then deduced temperatures back 50 years.
(Editing by Richard Balmforth)
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE50K5BM20090121
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
ROTHERA BASE, Antarctica (Reuters) - Antarctica is getting warmer rather than cooling as widely believed, according to a study that fits the icy continent into a trend of global warming.
A review by U.S. scientists of satellite and weather records for Antarctica, which contains 90 percent of the world's ice and would raise world sea levels if it thaws, showed that freezing temperatures had risen by about 0.5 Celsius (0.8 Fahrenheit) since the 1950s.
"The thing you hear all the time is that Antarctica is cooling and that's not the case," said Eric Steig of the University of Washington in Seattle, lead author of the study in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.
The average temperature rise was "very comparable to the global average," he told a telephone news briefing.
Skeptics about man-made global warming have in the past used reports of a cooling of Antarctica as evidence to back their view that warming is a myth.
Cooling at places such as the South Pole and an expansion of winter sea ice around Antarctica had masked the overall warming over a continent bigger than the United States where average year-round temperatures are about -50 Celsius (-58.00F).
The scientists wrote that the Antarctic warming was "difficult to explain" without linking it to manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels.
Until now, scientists have generally reckoned that warming has been restricted to the Antarctic Peninsula beneath South America, where Britain's Rothera research station is sited.
Temperatures at Rothera on Wednesday were 2.6 C (36.68F).
WEST ANTARCTICA
"The area of warming is much larger than the region of the Antarctic Peninsula," they wrote, adding that it extended across the whole of West Antarctica to the south.
Rising temperatures in the west were partly offset by an autumn cooling in East Antarctica. "The continent-wide near surface average is positive," the study said.
Antarctica's ice contains enough frozen water to raise world sea levels by 57 meters (187 ft), so even a tiny amount of melting could threaten Pacific island states or coastal cities from Beijing to London.
West Antarctica "will eventually melt if warming like this continues," said Drew Shindell, of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who was one of the authors. A 3 Celsius (5.4 F) rise could trigger a wide melt of West Antarctica, he said.
Greenland is also vulnerable. Together, Greenland and West Antarctica hold enough ice to raise sea levels by 14 meters.
"Even losing a fraction of both would cause a few meters this century, with disastrous consequences," said Barry Brook, director of climate change research at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
Ten ice sheets on the Antarctic Peninsula have receded or collapsed since the 1990s. The Wilkins sheet is poised to break up, held in place by a sliver of ice 500 meters (1,640 ft) wide compared to 100 km in the 1950s.
Other scientists said that the study did not fully account for shifts such as a thinning of ice sheets in West Antarctica.
"This warming is not enough to explain these changes," said David Vaughan, a glaciologist for the British Antarctic Survey at Rothera, by an iceberg-strewn bay. He said the thinning was probably linked to shifts in the oceans.
The Nature study compared temperatures measured by satellites in the past 25 years with 50-year records from 42 Antarctic weather stations, mostly on the coast. Scientists then deduced temperatures back 50 years.
(Editing by Richard Balmforth)
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE50K5BM20090121
Spanish wind power sets new record
Fri Jan 23, 2009 12:17pm EST
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's booming wind parks set a new record for power generation late on Thursday, national grid operator REE said.
REE temporarily logged output of 10,923 megawatts, beating a previous maximum of 10,880 MW set on April 18 last year.
Spain's government has encouraged the development of renewable energy in recent years to cut greenhouse emissions -- which are far above levels permitted by the Kyoto protocol -- and reduce its heavy dependence on imported fuel.
Wind parks have the capacity to produce about 16,000 MW and the government forecasts that 20,000 will be installed by 2010. Wind power lobby groups say that figure could rise to 40,000 MW by 2020.
In comparison, Spain's aging nuclear power plants have an installed capacity of 7,800 MW and produce a constant 7,300 MW when working normally.
The government has pledged it will commission no new nuclear plants, but has said it may extend the current reactors' working lives depending on the conclusions of safety and feasibility reports being prepared by the CSN watchdog.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE50M1ZD20090123
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's booming wind parks set a new record for power generation late on Thursday, national grid operator REE said.
REE temporarily logged output of 10,923 megawatts, beating a previous maximum of 10,880 MW set on April 18 last year.
Spain's government has encouraged the development of renewable energy in recent years to cut greenhouse emissions -- which are far above levels permitted by the Kyoto protocol -- and reduce its heavy dependence on imported fuel.
Wind parks have the capacity to produce about 16,000 MW and the government forecasts that 20,000 will be installed by 2010. Wind power lobby groups say that figure could rise to 40,000 MW by 2020.
In comparison, Spain's aging nuclear power plants have an installed capacity of 7,800 MW and produce a constant 7,300 MW when working normally.
The government has pledged it will commission no new nuclear plants, but has said it may extend the current reactors' working lives depending on the conclusions of safety and feasibility reports being prepared by the CSN watchdog.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE50M1ZD20090123
U.S. industrials see green in Obama stimulus plan
Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:05pm EST
By Scott Malone - Analysis
BOSTON (Reuters) - Diversified U.S. manufacturers including General Electric Co and United Technologies Corp could be among the first companies to benefit from U.S. President Barack Obama's proposed $825 billion stimulus, but likely will not feel any effects until late this year.
The program, which Obama said on Friday could be approved by mid-February, is intended to create or save 3 million to 4 million jobs and help the United States pull out of a year-long recession.
One goal of the plan is to spur investment in energy-saving technologies, which could boost demand for windmills, electric-grid components and other heavy equipment.
Executives at both GE and United Tech this week cited the stimulus as a factor that could boost their results, though the companies and investors agree that it will be some time before they start to see sales related to the program.
"We think it could help us by the second half of the year and more realistically could help us in 2010," said Keith Sherin, GE's chief financial officer.
But the world's largest maker of jet engines and electricity-producing turbines is not factoring stimulus-related spending into its 2009 financial planning.
"We don't have anything that we're specifically counting on from the stimulus," Sherin said in an interview.
Obama's proposal includes $550 billion of government spending and $275 billion of tax cuts.
NOT JUST WATCHING WASHINGTON
Both conglomerates generate about half their sales outside the United States, so they are not just looking at Washington's efforts to spark the ailing economy.
"Based on the intensive global stimulus efforts underway today, we still expect a modest recovery in the latter part of 2009," said Greg Hayes, CFO of United Tech, the world's largest maker of elevators and air conditioners, on a conference call with analysts.
For example, executives with Hartford, Connecticut-based United Tech said sales at their Otis elevator unit could start to pick up as China's stimulus plans take effect.
Analysts agreed the program could directly spark demand for wind mills, solar panels as well as energy-saving devices.
"It's more than two or three quarters away in terms of when it will have a material impact, but it's definitely helpful to the GEs of the world out there that supply power generation products," said Morningstar analyst Daniel Holland. "They'll be one of the first ones that end up seeing the benefits of it."
United Tech's Hayes said the U.S. stimulus could in particular boost demand for products made by its Carrier air conditioner, Fire and Security and Otis elevator units.
"We actually are optimistic that we will get a little bit of a bump just from those particular programs," Hayes said.
Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE has been in talks with the Obama administration about its plans, Sherin said.
"We've been carefully working with the administration about what can help the country create more jobs and what can help us with renewable energy and energy independence and what can help us with health care productivity, things that are part of the administration's new platforms," Sherin said.
Investors see opportunity for GE and United Tech in the stimulus, though they agree it will be some time before they feel it in terms of revenue.
"Maybe beginning in the fourth quarter when a contractor starts to subcontract for some equipment from GE or (United Tech) they would begin to see that at least go into their backlog, which is always a good indicator of future business for them," said Douglas Ober, CEO of Adams Express Co in Baltimore, Maryland, which counts GE and United Tech among its top holdings. "I suspect that the bulk of funds that they might see would not hit till 2010."
(Reporting by Scott Malone, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE50M6GX20090123
By Scott Malone - Analysis
BOSTON (Reuters) - Diversified U.S. manufacturers including General Electric Co and United Technologies Corp could be among the first companies to benefit from U.S. President Barack Obama's proposed $825 billion stimulus, but likely will not feel any effects until late this year.
The program, which Obama said on Friday could be approved by mid-February, is intended to create or save 3 million to 4 million jobs and help the United States pull out of a year-long recession.
One goal of the plan is to spur investment in energy-saving technologies, which could boost demand for windmills, electric-grid components and other heavy equipment.
Executives at both GE and United Tech this week cited the stimulus as a factor that could boost their results, though the companies and investors agree that it will be some time before they start to see sales related to the program.
"We think it could help us by the second half of the year and more realistically could help us in 2010," said Keith Sherin, GE's chief financial officer.
But the world's largest maker of jet engines and electricity-producing turbines is not factoring stimulus-related spending into its 2009 financial planning.
"We don't have anything that we're specifically counting on from the stimulus," Sherin said in an interview.
Obama's proposal includes $550 billion of government spending and $275 billion of tax cuts.
NOT JUST WATCHING WASHINGTON
Both conglomerates generate about half their sales outside the United States, so they are not just looking at Washington's efforts to spark the ailing economy.
"Based on the intensive global stimulus efforts underway today, we still expect a modest recovery in the latter part of 2009," said Greg Hayes, CFO of United Tech, the world's largest maker of elevators and air conditioners, on a conference call with analysts.
For example, executives with Hartford, Connecticut-based United Tech said sales at their Otis elevator unit could start to pick up as China's stimulus plans take effect.
Analysts agreed the program could directly spark demand for wind mills, solar panels as well as energy-saving devices.
"It's more than two or three quarters away in terms of when it will have a material impact, but it's definitely helpful to the GEs of the world out there that supply power generation products," said Morningstar analyst Daniel Holland. "They'll be one of the first ones that end up seeing the benefits of it."
United Tech's Hayes said the U.S. stimulus could in particular boost demand for products made by its Carrier air conditioner, Fire and Security and Otis elevator units.
"We actually are optimistic that we will get a little bit of a bump just from those particular programs," Hayes said.
Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE has been in talks with the Obama administration about its plans, Sherin said.
"We've been carefully working with the administration about what can help the country create more jobs and what can help us with renewable energy and energy independence and what can help us with health care productivity, things that are part of the administration's new platforms," Sherin said.
Investors see opportunity for GE and United Tech in the stimulus, though they agree it will be some time before they feel it in terms of revenue.
"Maybe beginning in the fourth quarter when a contractor starts to subcontract for some equipment from GE or (United Tech) they would begin to see that at least go into their backlog, which is always a good indicator of future business for them," said Douglas Ober, CEO of Adams Express Co in Baltimore, Maryland, which counts GE and United Tech among its top holdings. "I suspect that the bulk of funds that they might see would not hit till 2010."
(Reporting by Scott Malone, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE50M6GX20090123
"Green" tech a money saver in global downturn: U.N.
Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:44pm EST
By Thin Lei Win
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Business should use the global downturn to forge ahead with green technologies that will save hard pressed firms money as well as the planet, a U.N. environment agency said on Thursday.
Proven and commercially available technologies can cut buildings' energy use by 30 percent without a significant increase in investment cost, said Angela Cropper, deputy executive director of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).
"Now is the time to pick up the pace in our efforts to address both climate change and economic development," she told a climate change business forum in Bangkok.
A 2008 UNEP report found venture capital and private equity investment in sustainable energy rose 34 percent in the second quarter of 2008 from the same period in 2007.
Although the report was released last July before the credit crisis really bit, some executives backed Cropper's call for more green innovations in the business world.
Teresa Au, head of HSBC's corporate sustainability in the region, said the bank's climate sustainability products, such as financing for green equipment, had done very well in the second half of 2008 despite the credit crunch.
Cropper said micro-finance could also help developing countries pursue environmentally friendly policies. In Bangladesh, small loans have allowed female entrepreneurs to install solar panels and bring electricity to 100,000 homes.
"Adaptation is not only big ticket items," Cropper said. "It can also be done and it has to be done in household and community levels."
With 11 months to go before climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, where a successor to the Kyoto Protocol may be hammered out, speakers at the Bangkok forum were optimistic about the year ahead.
They pointed to South Korea's $38 billion plan to invest in green projects, and President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to double the output of renewable energy in the United States within three years.
Nevertheless, many embattled Asian firms are looking to cut their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, some of which benefit environmental causes, said Richard Welford, chairman of CSR Asia, a Hong Kong-based consultancy on sustainable business practices.
Environmentalist Sunita Narain opposed government bailouts for troubled car companies, who have received billions of dollars from the U.S. taxpayer.
"If you are really serious about green business, give bailouts perhaps to bus companies or putting money into rail works instead of roadworks," she said.
(Editing by Darren Schuettler and Jon Boyle)
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50L53M20090122
By Thin Lei Win
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Business should use the global downturn to forge ahead with green technologies that will save hard pressed firms money as well as the planet, a U.N. environment agency said on Thursday.
Proven and commercially available technologies can cut buildings' energy use by 30 percent without a significant increase in investment cost, said Angela Cropper, deputy executive director of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).
"Now is the time to pick up the pace in our efforts to address both climate change and economic development," she told a climate change business forum in Bangkok.
A 2008 UNEP report found venture capital and private equity investment in sustainable energy rose 34 percent in the second quarter of 2008 from the same period in 2007.
Although the report was released last July before the credit crisis really bit, some executives backed Cropper's call for more green innovations in the business world.
Teresa Au, head of HSBC's corporate sustainability in the region, said the bank's climate sustainability products, such as financing for green equipment, had done very well in the second half of 2008 despite the credit crunch.
Cropper said micro-finance could also help developing countries pursue environmentally friendly policies. In Bangladesh, small loans have allowed female entrepreneurs to install solar panels and bring electricity to 100,000 homes.
"Adaptation is not only big ticket items," Cropper said. "It can also be done and it has to be done in household and community levels."
With 11 months to go before climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, where a successor to the Kyoto Protocol may be hammered out, speakers at the Bangkok forum were optimistic about the year ahead.
They pointed to South Korea's $38 billion plan to invest in green projects, and President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to double the output of renewable energy in the United States within three years.
Nevertheless, many embattled Asian firms are looking to cut their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, some of which benefit environmental causes, said Richard Welford, chairman of CSR Asia, a Hong Kong-based consultancy on sustainable business practices.
Environmentalist Sunita Narain opposed government bailouts for troubled car companies, who have received billions of dollars from the U.S. taxpayer.
"If you are really serious about green business, give bailouts perhaps to bus companies or putting money into rail works instead of roadworks," she said.
(Editing by Darren Schuettler and Jon Boyle)
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50L53M20090122
Drought, heat killing trees in western N.America
Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:45pm EST
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trees in the western United States and Canada are dying twice as quickly as they did just 30 years ago, with rising average temperatures almost certainly to blame, researchers reported on Thursday.
These thinner and weaker forests will become more vulnerable to wildfires and may soak up less carbon dioxide, in turn speeding up global warming, they said.
The U.S. and Canadian researchers from a variety of agencies and universities studied trees in old-growth forests for more than 50 years to document the die-off, which they say is beginning to outpace replacement by new trees.
Warmer temperatures may be encouraging pine beetles and other organisms that attack trees, the researchers said. That, along with the stress of prolonged droughts, may be accelerating death rates.
"Average temperature in the West rose by more than 1 degree F (half a degree C) over the last few decades," said Phillip van Mantgem of the U.S. Geological Survey, who helped lead the study.
"While this may not sound like much, it has been enough to reduce winter snowpack, cause earlier snowmelt, and lengthen the summer drought."
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said they found trees of various species, ages and sizes are dying faster at every elevation.
"Wherever we looked, mortality rates are increasing," Nathan Stephenson of the USGS told reporters in a telephone briefing.
'CARBON SOAKS'
Forests are usually called "carbon soaks" because plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, removing carbon from the atmosphere. But when trees die or burn, this carbon is released back into the atmosphere.
So a dying forest adds to the carbon that in turn helps warm the planet's surface.
The findings fit in with other studies and with changes that have become obvious -- such as the 3.5 million acres (1.4 million hectares) of pine forest that has been destroyed by mountain pine bark beetles in northwestern Colorado.
Thomas Veblen of the University of Colorado said new regulations may be needed to help the forests survive.
"We need to consider developing land-use policies that reduce the vulnerability of people and resources to wildfires," Veblen said.
"Activities include reducing residential development in or near wildland areas that are naturally fire-prone and where we expect fire risk to increase with continued warming."
Mark Harmon, a professor of forest ecology at Oregon State University, said the overall mortality rates are low but they add up.
"We may only be talking about an annual tree mortality rate changing from 1 percent a year to 2 percent a year, an extra tree here and there," Harmon said in a statement.
"Forest fires or major insect epidemics that kill a lot of trees all at once tend to get most of the headlines. What we're studying here are changes that are much slower and difficult to identify, but in the long run extremely important."
(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Will Dunham and John O'Callaghan)
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50L5UQ20090123
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trees in the western United States and Canada are dying twice as quickly as they did just 30 years ago, with rising average temperatures almost certainly to blame, researchers reported on Thursday.
These thinner and weaker forests will become more vulnerable to wildfires and may soak up less carbon dioxide, in turn speeding up global warming, they said.
The U.S. and Canadian researchers from a variety of agencies and universities studied trees in old-growth forests for more than 50 years to document the die-off, which they say is beginning to outpace replacement by new trees.
Warmer temperatures may be encouraging pine beetles and other organisms that attack trees, the researchers said. That, along with the stress of prolonged droughts, may be accelerating death rates.
"Average temperature in the West rose by more than 1 degree F (half a degree C) over the last few decades," said Phillip van Mantgem of the U.S. Geological Survey, who helped lead the study.
"While this may not sound like much, it has been enough to reduce winter snowpack, cause earlier snowmelt, and lengthen the summer drought."
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said they found trees of various species, ages and sizes are dying faster at every elevation.
"Wherever we looked, mortality rates are increasing," Nathan Stephenson of the USGS told reporters in a telephone briefing.
'CARBON SOAKS'
Forests are usually called "carbon soaks" because plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, removing carbon from the atmosphere. But when trees die or burn, this carbon is released back into the atmosphere.
So a dying forest adds to the carbon that in turn helps warm the planet's surface.
The findings fit in with other studies and with changes that have become obvious -- such as the 3.5 million acres (1.4 million hectares) of pine forest that has been destroyed by mountain pine bark beetles in northwestern Colorado.
Thomas Veblen of the University of Colorado said new regulations may be needed to help the forests survive.
"We need to consider developing land-use policies that reduce the vulnerability of people and resources to wildfires," Veblen said.
"Activities include reducing residential development in or near wildland areas that are naturally fire-prone and where we expect fire risk to increase with continued warming."
Mark Harmon, a professor of forest ecology at Oregon State University, said the overall mortality rates are low but they add up.
"We may only be talking about an annual tree mortality rate changing from 1 percent a year to 2 percent a year, an extra tree here and there," Harmon said in a statement.
"Forest fires or major insect epidemics that kill a lot of trees all at once tend to get most of the headlines. What we're studying here are changes that are much slower and difficult to identify, but in the long run extremely important."
(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Will Dunham and John O'Callaghan)
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50L5UQ20090123
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