Earth Be Warm - Ice Be Gone - Strange Be Found

RAPID COLONIZATION BENEATH VANISHING ICE
Montana Stream Access Still Under Attack

.. From beneath the Weddell Sea ice shelves comes a community of creatures straight out of your most vivid nightmares. Reuters reports about new Antarctic expedition.
.. Of the hundreds of animals discovered beneath what was previously over 5,000 square miles of ice are the possible 19 new species: 15 possible new species of shrimp-like amphipods and four possible new species of cnidarians, organisms related to coral, jellyfish and sea anemones.
.. The region has been characterized as one of the world's most pristine deep sea environments.
.. The ice shelves were at least 5,000 years old and collapsed in two stages over the last dozen years. One crumbled 12 years ago and the other followed in 2002. Global warming is seen as the culprit behind the ice shelves' demise.
.. Thick settlements of fast-growing animals called sea squirts, which look like gelatinous bags, which apparently started colonizing the area only after the ice shelves collapsed.

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.. Senate Bill 78, and House Bills 424 & 642 in the Montana Legislature are causing a stir. The access to streams in Montana is still under attack. K. Durham, in New West spells it out for those folks still unaware of the crisis. The current battle is not only about access but it challenges the concept that citizens of Montana own the water. This is a nasty grab by the wealthy.

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.. Speaking of the wealthy, read how the ultra wealthy are doing in Big Sky, Montana, (and elsewhere,) in the report by The Independent News & Media Limited. We leave you with a description of THE YELLOWSTONE CLUB:

The highest-end "destination club" in the world, is a private holiday resort set in 13,400 acres of countryside in the Montana mountains. By winter, The Yellowstone is a powder skiers paradise; by summer, there's a Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course, together with some highly regarded riding, walking and fly-fishing.

There are fewer than 300 members, recruited on an invitation-only basis. Their identities are a closely guarded secret, though regulars are rumored to include Bill Gates, Dan Quayle, and Brad Pitt. With an entry fee of $250,000 (£130,000), plus annual subscriptions of around $10,000. And you'll need to buy a house within the resort at somewhere between $2m and $155m.