Coalition to Preserve Rock Art

Friday, February 13, 2009

Nine Mile Canyon Temporarily Saved

This is very good news. As I understand it, the proposed drilling around National Parks and other proposed areas contained little, if any, protection for Archaeological assets.

Hold on
Judge puts brakes on land plans
Tribune Editorial
Updated: 01/23/2009 06:15:08 PM MST

To paraphrase an old adage, "Act in haste, repent at your leisure."
The Bureau of Land Management under former President George Bush acted quickly to sell drilling leases on some of Utah's most scenic and culturally precious lands before the administration left office Tuesday. In its haste to make a gift of the leases to extraction companies, the agency even ignored a warning from the Environmental Protection Agency.
But a court appears about to force the BLM to repent of its blatant disregard for its mission to protect Americans' special and irreplaceable lands.
A U.S. District Court judge just days before Bush's departure acted prudently to halt the controversial sale of leases on 77 parcels near Arches and Canyonlands national parks, at Desolation Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument, the ancient art "gallery" of Nine Mile Canyon and other wilderness-quality lands. U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina issued a temporary restraining order to block the sale until he rules on a lawsuit brought by conservation groups arguing that drilling in the disputed lands would do permanent environmental damage, fouling the air and scenic vistas and destroying the rock art.
The unusual weekend ruling, coming just days before President Barack Obama took the oath of office, will probably keep these parcels off the auction block for the foreseeable future and could have even more widespread consequences.
In granting the restraining order,

Urbina stated that the BLM had failed to properly consider how drilling could affect air quality on more than 103,000 acres of sensitive public lands.
The EPA had advised the BLM to analyze the potential impacts of oil and gas drilling on the 77 parcels in order to meet federal clean-air laws. But the BLM didn't have time for that. Its mandate from the Bush administration was to open as many acres of the West as possible to drilling before Jan. 20.
But now the BLM regional management plans released last year covering nearly all the public lands the agency manages in Utah are in question. The processes and analyses used to designate the disputed parcels are the same as those used to designate all-terrain-vehicle routes and areas for drilling in all six plans.
If Urbina ultimately rules this BLM lease sale illegal, the management plans may be next. The Obama administration could then redo the plans to better protect Utah's public lands.

Cold weather - Could it have affected the Anasazi?

Very interesting article concerning the Anasazi Migration.

An explanation for recent cold weather
Posted: Thursday, Jan 8th, 2009

SAN LUIS VALLEY — While Al Gore and other like-minded politicians and environmentalists continued to warn the world that global warming is threatening to end civilization as we know it, winters in the Valley grew colder. And summer temperatures this year were below normal in many places, not just the Valley.

So what’s up?

A fierce debate among the scientific community has now resulted in some scientists questioning the global warming theory. In a recent article written Dec. 30 in Investor’s Business Daily, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month of October.  

Global thermometers stopped rising after 1998, and have plummeted in the last two years by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius. The 2007-2008 temperature drop was not predicted by global climate models.

Imagine that. The experts predict an increase in temperature and instead we see a decrease.

The cause? Sunspot activity, which has steadily declined since 2000, according to scientific observation. While a new sunspot cycle began last year, and the beginning of each cycle usually is marked by an increase in sunspot activity, 2008 was “eerily quiet,” observers say. In August no sunspot activity was noted at all, something that has not happened since 1913. When the sunspot cycle is active, it is not unusual to see 100 sunspots per month.

Rather than warming, could earth actually be entering a cooling cycle? From studies of cyclic weather patterns in the past, a good number of scientists say this is exactly what is happening. They cite data gathered on “the Little Ice Age,” which records seem to indicate lasted from 1250 A.D. to about 1850 A.D.

Could this explain the sudden exodus of the Anasazi (Ancient Ones) from Southern Colorado and other areas?

The Little Ice Age significantly cooled climates in most parts of the world. Temperatures were the coldest in the 16th and 17th centuries, then began to rise in 1850. NOAA statistics show limited solar activity during the Little Ice Age, but a notable in activity in recent times.

During the Little Ice Age, temperatures averaged form 1-1.5 degrees cooler, Celsius, (2-3 degrees Fahrenheit), than temperatures experienced only a few years ago. Decreased solar activity accounted for some of the cooling, but large volcanic eruptions also accounted for the cooling

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Mongolian Skulls at Stone Macaw Site

Exploring Rock Art in SE Utah

Mongolian Skulls

We spent a terrific 2 and 1/2 days with Bob and Sue Ludtke in the Bluff and Blanding areas of SE Utah. Bob and Sue were excellent hosts, with good knowledge of and experience in the area coupled with great patience. Unfortunately, we had to depart before the visits were finished, so we headed to Cortez. Along the way to Cortez, we visited the Stone Macaw panel in Montezuma Canyon (note the two macaws in the top right of the photo). A group of three professionals were recording the sunlight/shadow interactions on the panel, taking a photograph every 10 seconds, with the intention of producing a 20-second video. They became extremely excited as they watched and predicted the movement and the timing of the movement. Finally the shadow touched the top ring of the smaller spiral, and they were almost overwhelmed. However the highlight of this visit was that one of URARA's intrepid explorers, Wisconsin Jeff Allen, a distant cousin of the lesser known Indiana Jones, located 4 Mongolian skulls, one each of red, blue, green, and crystal color. One of the attached photos shows Wisconsin Allen with the red skull. Remember Indiana Jones took a full two hours of movie time to find one crystal skull and Wisconsin Allen found four skulls in less than 30 minutes. We will be doing more research on the Mongolian skulls, but we have been told that China is building a huge dam, and the excavation for the dam is yielding these skulls. The skulls are being sold to help finance the dam. An international connection for URARA.