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The world is facing a crisis bigger than any war on terror!! The decisions that are made now will impact the whole world's future. George Bush is making the wrong decisions for all of us and it will be us and our children who suffer! Bush has reversed all environmental bills passed uder the Clinton administration, he wants to re-start logging in Alaska, drill for oil in the Artic Refuge! This guy can not be trusted with the future of the world!! The world is giving us an alarm right now, we need to act, Bush is acting in the opposite way... he works with the slash and burn mentality... there is no going back once everything is cut down!

For those who think the war on terror is important, well, yes of course it is, but here also Bush fails! Why are we not examining the reasons why we have people prepared to suicide bomb etc.? Bush is hated through out the world and is proving to be the biggest recruiter for Al Qaeda! If you want homeland security get rid of him!

I call on all US citizens to vote AGAINST Bush for the sake of the world and the US! Even if you live abroad please vote because as the last election proved even one vote can make the difference! Thank you!

http://www.responsibletravel.com ... a good place to find great holidays!!!

The steep decline of the Pacific Ocean leatherback turtle has gone so far the species could be extinct within no more than a decade, conservationists fear.
A report by the US group Conservation International says leatherback numbers there have fallen by 97% in 22 years.

Five of the six other species of sea turtle are also at risk of extinction, though not necessarily as acutely.

Threats include fishing practices and the poaching of the turtles' eggs, but scientists say they can still be saved.

One in three dies

CI released its report on the plight of the Pacific leatherbacks at the 24th annual symposium on sea turtle conservation and biology, meeting in Costa Rica.

It says their numbers have fallen from about 115,000 breeding females to fewer than 3,000 since 1982.

James Spotila, professor of environmental science at Drexel University, said: "The Pacific leatherbacks currently face an annual mortality rate of up to 30%.

"That rate is clearly unsustainable, and without dramatic intervention we can expect to see them disappear in as soon as a decade."

Of the other species, the Kemp's ridley and hawksbill turtles are also both classified by IUCN-The World Conservation Union as critically endangered, the designation given to the leatherbacks.

Green, olive ridley and loggerhead turtles are classed as endangered, and only northern Australia's flatbacks are not thought to face extinction.

Roderic Mast, vice-president of CI and president of the International Sea Turtle Society, said: "On land, the canary in the coal mine warns humans of impending environmental danger.

"Sea turtles act as our warning mechanism for the health of the ocean, and what they're telling us is quite alarming. Their plummeting numbers are symptomatic of the ocean as a whole."

One particular threat to turtles is the practice of longline fishing, which involves the use of lines up to 145km (90 miles) long baited with as many as 8,000 hooks each.

Scientists are urging a dual approach to saving the turtles:

better protection and management for their nesting beaches, and control of land-based lights: the turtles mistake them for the Moon, walk towards them, and become stranded on the beach
more marine protection and safer fishing techniques - less than 0.5% of the oceans are formally protected, and inexpensive changes to fishing gear and practices could mean radical cuts in the mortality rate.
One promising development, CI says, is the investment of several million dollars over the next three years to consolidate a marine protected area stretching from Ecuador to Costa Rica.
The money is coming from four Latin American states, the United Nations Foundation, Unesco, and CI itself.

(From the BCC news website)

ONCE ANIMALS SUCH AS THESE ARE GONE WE CAN NEVER GET THEM BACK, THINK NOW!! THE WARNINGS ARE THERE!!!