St Louis airport to ban all smoking, controversy

The St. Louis Dispatch via USA Today reports on the controversy versus the city and the county over how the 2011 smoking ban will affect Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Mayor Francis Slay's smoking ban for the entire city of St. Louis will take effect on January 2011; and this will extend to the airport's smoking lounges (picture right).

Slay noted [on his blog] that the airport is a "political hybrid," in that it is in St. Louis County but owned by the city. But the decision on smoking, Slay said on his blog, belongs to the city, "as owner of the facility."

St. Louis County counselor Patricia Redington said the smoking lounge exemption is clear in the county ordinance.

But, she added, "If the city hands out citations to smokers in the lounge, the city's authority to do so will be an issue between the city and the people who are charged and will not be the county's concern."

Read the full story: A smoke-free St. Louis airport may pit city against county

Photo of Lambert Intl smoking lounge from Bridge and Tunnel club website

KLM tests first passenger flight fueled with renewables

Reuters video reports on the first passenger airplane flight using renewable fuels.

KLM Dutch Airlines flight which circled the skies over The Netherlands used a 50/50 mix of biofuel and traditional fuel. Although it carried passengers it was still a test flight.

Watch the report below:

South African baboons raid and eat tourists' car food

The Associated Press reports on the South African baboon "gang" who are opening tourists' cars and eating the food inside.

On Tuesday, a troupe of 29 baboons raided four cars outside Simon's Town, a small coastal neighborhood [in Cape Town]. A baboon dubbed "Fred," (background in pic left) the leader of the group, opened unlocked doors and jumped through windows to search for food.

He ransacked a bag in the back seat of a red car as a couple panicked about their passports. A girl screamed nearby as a baboon hopped into her car through a back window. Others climbed on car roofs and hoods, looking for ways inside.

Many of those who stopped to watch the raid had their own cars broken into by other baboons.

Read the full story: Furry felons rob S African tourists, steal food

Photo by AP

Global warming's dire effects

Reuters video reports on the trickle-down effects of global warming from melting glaciers to drought.

Lima, Peru is the driest city on earth because of the rapid decline of the glaciers that supplied rivers and other water sources, according to the report.

Australia is also experiencing a seven-year drought, the longest on record and no end in sight.

Watch below:

Small cars = high MPG and less emissions

The Daily Green has a slide show and review on eight small cars that have high MPG or are electric.

Look at pictures and reviews of cars from MINI (picture right), Fiat, and Smart among others.

Read the full story: Eight microcars transforming the American road

Photo from MINI

Sculpture around NYC

Frommer's website has info about free outdoor sculpture viewing in and around New York City.

Besides obvious scupltures such as the Statue of Liberty:

There are whimsical, lifelike ones such as Taxi! by J. Seward Johnson (Park Ave. at 47th St.) and Commuters by George Segal (Port Authority Bus Terminal, 42nd St. & 8th Ave.). Kids get a kick out of Alice in Wonderland by Jose de Creeft (Central Park, Conservatory Water, near E. 72nd St.), Cat by Fernando Brotero (Park Ave. at 79th St.), and, of course, the Lions by Edward Clark Potter (New York Public Library, Fifth Ave. at 42nd St.)

And for art outside Manhattan they suggest the Noguchi Museum & Garden (picture above).

Read the full story: Expose Yourself to Art: Outdoor Sculpture In & Around New York City

Photo by George Hirose

Antarctic cruise ship stuck in ice

The Associated Press reports on the tourist ship stuck in ice near Antarctica.

A Russian icebreaker, taking more than 100 tourists, scientists, and journalists on a cruise around Antarctica is trying to free itself from ice in the Weddell Sea.

The Weddell Sea is the place that early antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance became infamously stuck and crushed in during his quest to reach the South Pole in the 1910s.

The Captain Khlebnikov icebreaker was near Snow Hill Island in the Weddell Sea, German Kuzin of the Fareastern Shipping Company told Russia's Vesti 24 television. He said neither the ship nor the passengers faced any risks.

The ship was trying to move slowly through the ice, but the winds were too light to break up the ice pack, he said. An Argentine official said the ice would delay the ship's return by three to six days.

Read the full story: Ship with 100 tourists stuck in Antarctic ice

Photo by Associated Press

Kayaking down restored California river

Fresno Bee reporter Mark Grossi reports on his kayak trip down the newly restored waters of Central California's San Joaquin River.

The Friant Dam, that had caused the river to be mostly dry for "the last several decades," has been releasing more water since October 1 due to a federal restoration project, thus making a boat trip possible.

The river's green section from Friant Dam to Gravelly Ford is familiar to many boaters. Officials continuously release water from the dam for riverside property owners, and the river never died here.

But 38 miles downstream at Gravelly Ford, the flow dwindles to nothing in most years. Now, with extra water flowing, that stretch is waking from a half-century of slumber. West of Kerman, the San Joaquin is a gorgeous desert river meandering around cobble islands -- piles of large stones -- as screeching swallows fly in every direction.

Read the full story: Trip tests waters of revived San Joaquin

Photo by Mark Crosse / The Fresno Bee

Visit new Natural Wonders

Forbes via MSNBC reports on new Natural Wonders to see.

Chosen by a committee of the United Nations' Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, World Heritage sites, recommended by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), are natural and cultural areas recognized for their universal value to humanity. The selection process involves extensive field work by conservation experts who have, in most cases, dedicated their lives to studying the natural world.

Included are Italy's Dolomite mountain region, China's Mount Wutai, and Spain's Tower of Hercules among others.

There is also a nice slide show featuring other sites including The Bay of Fundy (pictured above) that is located between Maine, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Read the full story: The world's New Natural Wonders

Photo by Cheryl Forbes / Lonely Planet

Michigan ends state park fees

The Detroit Free Press reports on the new Michigan bill that ends state park fees to be replaced by a $10 car registration surcharge.

Motorists would pay the extra fee instead of paying $24 for an annual state park sticker or $6 for a daily permit. Also, boaters no longer would pay fees at 838 access sites.

Park officials could check license plates to see whether motorists paid the fee; violators could be fined up to $100.

Out-of-state residents would continue to pay $29 for an annual permit and $8 for a daily pass.

Read the full story: Senate passes bill to end park fees, add surcharge

Photo montage by Michigan Department of Natural Resources website

Rate transit and walking options

Ecolocalizer reports on the web site that let's you rate the "walkability" of places in your neighborhood.

Walkscore rates a neighborhood’s walkability on a 1 to 100 scale based on a number of criteria such as proximity to restaurants and grocery stores. Now, they’ve added a transit rating which takes into account a neighborhood’s public transportation options!

Read the full story: Walk Score's new transit rating

Photo from Ecolocalizer

Endangered fish comic

It's the latest Arctic Circle comic strip by Alex Hallatt on The Daily Green blog

For more Arctic Circle's click here

Board the train to a National Park

National Parks Traveler reports on visiting East Coast parks via train.

Look for tips on what trains and parks to visit near Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and Washington D.C. among others.

Washington, D.C. Among the easiest NPS areas in the country to reach by train are those in the nation's capital. Once you arrive at Union Station you don't even need to leave the building to make a connection to the city's Metro system—or you can just walk from the station to some key sites. Even if you aren't traveling by train, the food court in the lower level of Union Station, together with several restaurants elsewhere in the building, offers a variety of choices for reasonably priced meals.

This is a series and NPS will also have trips for Central and Western regions soon.

Read the full story: Visiting National Parks by train - Eastern U.S.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Kansas bison preserve to lure tourists

USA Today reports on the Kansas bison preserve that hopes to lure tourists.

Leaders from the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong City hope the 20 [bison] will be the beginning of a herd of about 100 that will roam the public parkland in the Flint Hills for all to see. They hope it is the beginning of much — a new tourist attraction, a new start for a species that once dominated the Flint Hills, and a new window for people to see the unique beauty of one of the continent's rarer ecosystems.

"Some of the beauty of our grasslands is a little more subtle," said Kristen Hase, chief of natural resources for the Flint Hills preserve. "This is going to be a big bang, basically."

Read the full story: Kansas preserve hopes bison will be a "big bang" for tourism

Photo by Travis Morisse / The Hutchinson

Nuclear waste found in Rio Grande

The Los Angeles Times reports on the nuclear waste runoff found in New Mexico's river Rio Grande.

More than 60 years after scientists assembled the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, lethal waste is seeping from mountain burial sites and moving toward aquifers, springs and streams that provide water to 250,000 residents of northern New Mexico.

Isolated on a high plateau, the Los Alamos National Laboratory seemed an ideal place to store a bomb factory's deadly debris. But the heavily fractured mountains haven't contained the waste, some of which has trickled down hundreds of feet to the edge of the Rio Grande, one of the most important water sources in the Southwest.

Read the full story: Toxic waste trickles toward New Mexico's water sources

Photo by Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Deforestation caused Peruvian natives decline; study

Reuters reports that deforestation caused the decline of Peruvian natives called the Nasca according to a new study.

The Nasca people, famed for the lines that depict animals or geometric shapes most clearly visible from the air, became unable to grow enough food in nearby valleys because the lack of trees made the climate too dry, scientists said.

The report, led by Cambridge University in England, said that the findings showed a need for more action now to protect the world's arid lands.

Read the full story: Deforestation sped demise of Nasca in Peru: study

Photo from Thomson Reuters