Global Warming- Dogs, Cows, and Beckham

I haven't had any pieces yet on global warming. No point rehashing all of the data here, but there have been 3 interesting news pieces relating to it in the past week.

1. The Iditarod Race in Alaska- the start of the 1,100-mile race will move 30 miles north to Willow from the traditional site in Wasilla because of a lack of snow on the regular trail.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=4114190

2. A Sweedish University is spending > $500,000 to study the methane-rich belches of cows. Yes, in case you haven't heard, it's estimated that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas problem.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/22/AR2008012202348.html

3. David Beckham- the British-born soccer phenom now playing in the US, is responsible for 163 tons of carbon dioxide yearly. He may have the largest carbon footprint in human history ("that's what she said").

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7712508?MSNHPHMA

P.S. For those of you don't know about the history of the Iditarod. It was a race that was started in 1973 to commemorate a heroric effort in 1925.

In January of 1925, a diptheria epidemic threatened Nome, and the nearest quantity of antitoxin was in Anchorage. A 20-pound cylinder of serum was sent by train 298 miles from the southern port of Seward to Nenana, where it was passed just before midnight on January 27 to the first of twenty mushers and more than 100 dogs who relayed the package 674 miles from Nenana to Nome. The dogs and mushers had to battle extreme temperatures ranging between -50 and -60 degrees F. Many suffered frostbite on the historic race against time. The Norwegian Gunnar Kaasen and his lead dog Balta arrived in Nome on February 2 at 5:30 a.m., just five and a half days later. Only about 100 people died. They saved the town of Nome from extinction. The two became media celebrities, and a statue of Balto was erected in Central Park later that year.