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USDA

Senate

Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
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- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
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- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
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- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)

Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)

Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)

Senate Hunger Caucus

House

Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA)
*=House Organic Caucus member
B=Blue Dog Democrat

Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI)
Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA)
*=House Organic Caucus member

P=Congressional Progressive Caucus

Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC)
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus

House Organic Caucus
Congressional Progressive Caucus

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Water News & a Word on Middle-East Water Rights

by: Asinus Asinum Fricat

Tue Dec 30, 2008 at 12:20:34 PM PST


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This is my last Water News diary for the year and I'd like to take the opportunity to remind all the fighting I/P posters that the Middle East, where a few great waterways are the major source of water for a large area of dry lands spanning a number of national borders, the scarcity of water has played a central role in defining the political relationships in the region for thousands of years. Its ideological, religious, and geographical disputes go hand in hand with water-related tensions and it is becoming abundantly clear that the incoming administration of Barack Obama will have to deal swiftly with the powers of the region as the water crisis is not limited to the Jordan basin, but extends throughout the Middle East, encompassing also the watersheds of the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates. Because of water's preeminent role in survival (Israel depends on fresh water resources originating in the occupied territories for about one-third of its total supply) the parched and volatile Middle East must be dealt with because the fact is that the region is running out of water. The people who have built their lives on what was once a reliable source of fresh water are now seeing a shortage of this vital resource impinge on all aspects of their increasingly fragile relations.  
Asinus Asinum Fricat :: Water News & a Word on Middle-East Water Rights
Disastrous news: Tennessee Ash Flood Larger Than Initial Estimate:

Tennessee -  A huge spill of coal ash from The Kingston Fossil power plant near the Emory River in Harriman, Roane County, Tennessee deposited traces of thallium, lead, and other toxic substances in the river. Source

Ancient Water Source Vital For Australia:

SYDNEY - An ancient underground water basin the size of Libya holds the key to Australia avoiding a water crisis as climate change bites the drought-hit nation. Australia's Great Artesian Basin is one of the largest artesian groundwater basins in the world, covering 1.7 million sq kms (656,370 sq miles) and lying beneath one-fifth of Australia. Source

All sewage in Beijing to be reused within three years:

China - The Beijing Sewage Association said that all wastewater processed in the Chinese capital's sewage treatment plants will meet the requirements for re-use within the next three years. Source

Cool news! River Torrens stormwater harvesting to green parks:

AUSTRALIA - Conservation Minister Jay Weatherill of the Australian state of South Australia announced a $3.5 million plan to harvest rainwater and recycle it in a bid to ease the strain on aquifers along the Torrens River. Source

Crazy news: Lake drinks a lot of water
:

CALIFORNIA - The city of San Diego in California's San Diego County, despite being so short of potable water that it's close to mandatory water conservation, spends at least $140,000 annually to pump about 53 million gallons of drinking water into Chollas Lake for fishing. Just fishing. Source

African Ministers Say Share Water To Combat Hunger:

Libya - African states lack the resources to deal with climate change alone and must share water better to feed growing populations, said government ministers said at a water conference in Sirte, Libya. Source

An African Development Bank loan of 40.55 million dinars:

Tunisia - The African Development Bank approved a loan of 40.55 million dinars (roughly $30 million) to help support Phase 2 of Tunisia's Water Investment Project from 2009-14. Source: in French

Troubled Three gorges Dam in China:

China - Rising water levels in China's giant Three Gorges Dam have triggered dozens of landslides in recent months, damaging houses, land and infrastructure worth millions of dollars, state media said on Thursday. Source: in French

                                         Photobucket

Scientists: act now on Gulf of Mexico's Dead Zone:

United States - U.S. scientists have issued a report urging immediate government action to reduce urban and Midwest farm runoff blamed for feeding an 8000-square-mile "dead zone" that has grown alarmingly off the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico. Source

And some good news: UA student hopes to grow his career, and lettuce, hydroponically:

ARIZONA - Josh Scott, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Arizona's McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship in Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, is staking his future on hydroponics, a method of growing crops in a water solution containing nutrients. Source

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I'll try and find the English version of the dam story, it is incredibly sad and (4.00 / 2)
it's turning out exactly as environmentalists predicted years ago: it's an unmitigated disaster! Dozens of slides have been reported and the Chinese authorities are content to say that "it was expected in our calculations"!

Sic Transit Gloria Locavore!



Here's an item from my neck of the woods... (4.00 / 2)
From The Daily Astorian, on climate change and Oregon's disappearing salmon  -

Jim Martin isn't at all sure how next Wednesday's weather may shape up, either. He is certain, however, of the potential impact of global warming on the fisheries of Oregon and the rest of the Pacific Northwest.

The former director of fisheries for the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department, Martin now works as conservation director for Pure Fishing's Berkley Conservation Institute. During his 30-year career with ODFW, Martin spent six years as chief of fisheries and three years as salmon adviser to Gov. John Kitzhaber. He also led the team that developed the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds, a state conservation plan to address endangered species and clean water issues in Oregon.

Last March, Martin and National Wildlife Federation global warming expert Patty Glick co-authored and released "A Great Wave Rising: Solutions for Columbia and Snake River Salmon in the Age of Global Warming," the latest report to warn that global warming's effects are under way - and that the worst has yet to come.

By the time Martin and his partner had completed the project, their conclusions were identical to those of the EPA and the Independent Scientific Advisory Board to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries). "Climate change," Martin said in summary, "has the potential to be very, very damaging to salmon, steelhead, and trout species in the Pacific Northwest."



We have the same problem here, not many wild salmon left. (4.00 / 2)
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