Planetary Ruin

Singer Sheryl Crow and environmentalist Laurie David have been traveling across America on a two-week Stop Global Warming College Tour, which winds up today at George Washington University. Crow and David (co-producer of the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and wife of “Curb Your Enthusiasm’s” Larry David) have been touting their cause and chronicling their travels in a rather idiosyncratic blog. Here, on Earth Day, are a few excerpts:

David (4/10, Dallas): I am jogging outside in 40 degree freezing cold . . . 70 degrees in January and 40 degrees in April. That is exactly why Sheryl Crow and I are in a biodiesel bus going thru the Southeast visiting college campuses to talk about the urgency of this issue and how everyone . . . everyone . . . has to start doing something. I would write more, but I have to go run warm water over my hands and thaw out from my run.

Crow and David (4/18, Nashville): Our other surprise was a visit by former Vice President Al Gore who sat and talked with us on the bus about what he hopes to see happen in this country as the stop global warming movement catches fire. Having the former Vice President visit was like having your dad show up for Father’s Weekend at the sorority house. We were giddy with excitement and proud to show him our home away from home.

Crow (4/19, Springfield, Tenn.): I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming. Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating. One of my favorites is in the area of forest conservation which we heavily rely on for oxygen. I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don’t want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required.

Crow (4/19): I also like the idea of not using paper napkins, which happen to be made from virgin wood and represent the height of wastefulness. I have designed a clothing line that has what’s called a “dining sleeve.” The sleeve is detachable and can be replaced with another “dining sleeve,” after usage. The design will offer the “diner” the convenience of wiping his mouth on his sleeve rather than throwing out yet another barely used paper product. I think this idea could also translate quite well to those suffering with an annoying head cold.

Crow (4/19): This next idea I have been saving but I will share it with you if you promise not to steal it. It is my latest, very exciting idea for creating incentive for us all to minimize our own personal carbon footprints. It’s a reality show. (I feel pretty certain NO ONE has thought of this yet!) Here is the premise: the contest consists of 10 people who are competing for the top spot as the person who lives the “greenest” life. This will be reflected in the contestant’s home, his business, and his own personal living style. The winner of this challenging, prestigious, contest would receive what??. . . . a recording contract!!!!!

David (4/20, Charlottesville): Sheryl couldn’t be with me tonight because of a previous commitment [Crow traveled to New York for a show that wasn't part of the tour] but luckily rock stars have rock star friends. Tonight, I spoke outside the gorgeous Charlottesville pavilion, in front of a couple of thousand slightly inebriated college men (there to see the wonderful Robert Randolph and the Family Band) who were forced to sit through the opening act . . . me. Truly, it was one of the most challenging 20 minutes of my life. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw guys yawning, I heard kids saying “where’s the music?” and I think I heard the “b” word. I rushed through the speech and when I walked off the stage I immediately burst into tears. Not because I took anything personally but because it was so clear how much work is still to be done. Tonight served as a stark reminder that social change is a journey and I learned tonight that not every stop is going to be easy.

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The weather forecast for Saturday’s global warming rallies in Grand Rapids and Holland calls for snow and cold rain and temperatures in the 40s — about 10 degrees below normal.

For some, this might make global warming a tough sell.

“I’ve thought of that,” said Lisa Locke, associate director of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council, which is organizing the three Grand Rapids “Step it Up” rallies.

“I think that’s an easy excuse, but if we’re really reasonable about it, we’re not talking about individual weather on individual days,” Locke said. “We’re talking about something much larger, on a global scale, which science has been tracking for decades.”

WMEAC is organizing rallies at three locations in Grand Rapids, among more than 1,300 rallies that day around the country. The Web-organized event was the idea of environmental activist Bill McKibben.

A rally also is scheduled at Centennial Park in Holland.

The goal is to send a message to Congress, “to let them know the extent of the concern in their communities for this issue, and the fact that really strong, aggressive initiatives need to be taken to make a significant difference.”

Environmentalists want Congress to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent in the U.S. by the year 2050.

Scientists and environmentalists warn that global warming could change the character of Michigan: lowering water levels and raising water temperatures, altering the kinds of crops that will grow and leading to new invasive species.

The changes could be avoided with reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, they say.

At least some of the past century’s 1-degree rise in global temperatures is due to the atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases that are the byproducts of power plants, automobiles and other fossil fuel-burning sources, scientists say.

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President George Bush is coming under unprecedented pressure from Tony Blair and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to agree to tough new international measures to stop global warming accelerating out of control.

The measures are contained in a strongly worded draft communiqué for June’s G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany - obtained by The Independent on Sunday - which warns that “tackling climate change is an imperative, not a choice”. It adds that if “resolute and concerted international action” is not “urgently” taken, global warming will become “largely unmanageable”.

The United States and Canada are resisting key elements of the draft, but Mrs Merkel is determined not to water it down. She is backed by the Prime Minister, who is ringing Mr Bush weekly to try to persuade him to change his position.

The draft warns that “global warming caused largely by human activities is accelerating” and that it “will seriously damage our common natural environment and severely weaken [the] global economy, with implications for international security”.

It says climate change has already progressed so far that the world will “have to face severe impacts” from it, even if immediate action is taken. But it adds that these will become predominantly unmanageable if the rise in temperature is not kept at 2C or below - the maximum increase that most scientists agree can be tolerated.

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At least 23 people died Saturday and many more were missing after a flash flood swept over a popular waterfall in southern Thailand, officials said.

The tragedy took place at about 2:00 pm (0700 GMT) at the Sairung waterfall in Trang province, some 700 kilometres (434 miles) south of Bangkok.

“At least 23 people were confirmed dead and we have learned that more bodies are coming,” a local hospital official said, adding that she did not know how many people were missing.

Most of the victims were women and children, she said.

A senior provincial official said 23 people were killed and at least 24 were missing several hours after the accident, while police major general Kachorn Siriwan, in Trang province, said earlier at least 14 people were still missing.

“People were enjoying the waterfall and suddenly a flash flood swept over,” the police officer said.

The Nation English language daily said on its website that tourists at the waterfall were caught off-guard by the flood and many failed to “get out of the waterways in time.”

Several injured tourists were stranded on rocks and trees waiting for rescue workers, the Nation said.

Local reports also said the area had been hit by heavy rains since Thursday.

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It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world’s harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive’s inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London’s biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: “There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK.”

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world’s crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, “man would have only four years of life left”.

No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that bees’ behaviour changes near power lines.

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a “hint” to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: “I am convinced the possibility is real.”

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