New Google Earth Imagery for SW Idaho

This Google Earth Blog today provided a kml file for fresh new Google Earth Imagery.

I noticed that a big section of SW Idaho including the Snake River starting at Grandview to Weiser, the Boise River to Lucky Peak Dam, the Payette River to Horseshoe Bend, and a small part of the Weiser River is included.

Lucky Peak Reservoir, Idaho Gigapan

I shot another Gigapan (190 telephoto images) looking over Lucky Peak Reservoir on the same day as Arrowrock Dam. (April 20, 2013)
http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/161001
The small image below can be viewed full screen. The Gigapan page link above provides thumbnail snapshot views that will zoom in to some interesting features. Use the full screen option in both views to see the highest definition and quality. You can also view these Gigapans in Google Earth and on Google Maps.


 

Arrowrock Dam Boise River Idaho Gigapan

I uploaded this 260 telephoto stitched image of the Arrowrock Dam to my Gigapan site. You can zoom in on the photo to see fine details. Use the "full screen" option to see the highest quality.http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/160997

There is study plan to raise the level of the dam 70 more feet to store more water above Boise. Do you agree that this needs to be done? Below is a link to an Idaho Rivers United opinion.

http://www.idahorivers.org/news/?id=416

Barry Lopez - French Pete Rally Protest in Eugene, Oregon on November 18, 1969

Read Barry Lopez article  in Outside Online titled "The Case for Going Uncivilized."  

I lived in the Eugene Area and knew Barry Lopez during the late 1960s and  1970s.  I was also involved with many other community members and students in the French Pete Rally Protest in Eugene, Oregon on November 18, 1969.

Barry describes this protest in the article and explains that "The Wilderness Act had stripped the Forest Service of the power it once had to designate wilderness areas, turning it over instead to Congress, where citizens had the right to actively participate in the process."

"The industry, of course, never got the timber in French Pete, but the fight against corporate greed, ethical compromise, special-interest land management, and excessive development hasn’t ended. We enlighten each other; we heal our wounds; and the young take to the walls yet again—with great courage, great effort, great faith. Then, for a few more years, we feel blessed."

I found this additional  interesting quote in a book titled "Drawing lines in the forest: creating wilderness areas in the Pacific Northwest" by Kevin R. Marsh about the French Pete protest.  "Protests in Eugene to preserve French Pete from logging gave that community a national reputation for environmental activism. Bob Wazeka compared Eugene's role in the wilderness movement of the 1970s to the role of Paris as the center of the Western literary world of the 1920s."
http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Lines-Forest-Weyerhaeuser-Environmental/dp/0295990112

"Mother of All" Human Caused Atmospheric Water Vapor Feedback Amplifying Mechanism.

"Stick a Fork in it!" (See Dr. Andrew Dessler quote below.)

Is it way too late to control a "human caused water vapor feedback amplifying mechanism" that results in a wetter atmosphere and increasingly unprecedented storms on earth?

Future and general universal and temporal knowledge about overall climate change and global warming on Earth may be generally unpredictable given our current state of scientific knowledge, however many rigorous studies provide very strong evidence that human causes are at least partly responsible and therefore could be mitigated somewhat if public pressure and political will were aligned to this end.  We have had decades of forewarning about this problem and the human caused results are increasing without significant solutions being formulated by our political leaders.

This recent article hosted by the Guardian by John Abraham and Dana Nuccitelli titled "Global warming is moistening the atmosphere" provides details about a long term study that provides scientific evidence that "Human-caused global warming is causing the upper troposphere to become wetter."

One quote at the bottom of the article is attributed to Dr. Andrew Dessler;

Because of water vapor’s importance as a greenhouse gas, the water vapor feedback occupies a central role in the climate system. Over the years, our understanding of this process has increased steadily, and this paper is a very useful contribution. It nicely demonstrates that the observations of upper tropospheric moistening are unlikely to have arisen without the increase in carbon dioxide from human activities. At this point, I think it would be fair to say, “stick a fork in it, the water vapor feedback’s done.”

Another review of this article and interesting comments are available via this Daily Kos  post by Lefty Coaster titled. " Global Warming is increasing moisture in Earth's atmosphere driving Mother of all Feedback Loops"