And a separate data check by the same scientists, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center, along with other experts, revealed no meaningful statistical trends supporting recent claims of “global cooling.”

The October monthly snapshot of global climate trends from the agency reveal the variability of the climate system, and the reality of short-term cooling and warming trends in different regions of the planet.

While the snapshots cover too short a time-frame to be useful in drawing conclusions about climate trends over decades, they do reveal a dynamic climate system. They also show evidence of the effects of regional phenomena, such as the periodic warming of the tropical Pacific known as El Nino.

One of the October reports showed that the average combined land and ocean surface temperature was 58.13 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.03 degrees above the 20th century average.

For the land surface temperature average alone, it was also the sixth warmest October, at 50.18 — 1.48 degrees above the 2oth century average. For ocean surface temperature alone, it was the fifth warmest October, at 61.5 degrees — 0.90 degrees above the 20th century average.

But while warming trends were strongest across Alaska and northern and eastern Russia, October was cooler than average in the continental United States, along with parts of northern Australia and southern South America.

October, in fact, had the third coolest average temperature ever recorded for that month in the continental U.S. — 50.8 degrees, a full 4 degrees below the 20th century average.

El Nino might have helped drive cooler temperatures in the middle U.S., said Deke Arndt, climate monitoring branch chief at the National Climatic Data Center, according to preliminary modeling.

It was also the nation’s wettest October on record, with average precipitation in the continental U.S. of 4.15 inches, 2.04 inches above the 2oth century average, despite persistent drought in the West.

How to make sense of such a conflicting welter of climate facts?

The real trends only begin to emerge when they are averaged across the entire planet, and many decades.

But recently, some climate-change skeptics have claimed to see cooling on the planetary scale as well. They point to an apparent cooling trend since 1998 as evidence.

But a recent check by scientists at NOAA, along with statisticians who analyzed climate trends for the Associated Press, found no true “cooling” of the planet is underway. Read the Associated Press story.

The trouble, they say, is that zeroing in on temperature fluctuations over a few years, or even a single decade, can give a false impression of climate changes over many decades.

When year-to-year variability of the climate is put in its proper context, the forecast remains grim: a strong warming trend that, despite the expected, short-term variations in temperature, shows no sign of abating.

“The 10 years that will make up this decade will be much warmer than the 10 years that made up the ’90s, which in itself was a really warm decade,” said Deke Arndt, climate monitoring branch chief for the National Climatic Data Center.

But he doesn’t blame those who think they see a cooling trend.

“It’s kind of the climate version of losing the forest for the trees,” he said. “If you focus in on the details, you lose the context in which the data’s occurring. It’s easy to do that. We all get trapped into doing that. But when you step back and look at the time series, it’s apparent what is going on.”

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Wrong, says the producer of a new film about the tiny, hovering creatures — at least if you’re another hummingbird.

Naturalist Tom Kaminski’s new film, being shown Saturday in Mission Viejo, does of course include a wealth of stunning footage of, yes, adorable hummingbirds. But it also exposes the birds’ dark side: their fights over territory, complete with “rules of engagement,” their petty jealousies, their attacks on other animals — “self-centered and anti-social,” Kaminski calls them.

“They will, like other birds, mob predators,” he said. “That is the only time you see hummingbirds cooperate about anything.”

Featherweight fights are common, he said.

“You see them drill their bills into the heads of other hummingbirds, into their necks, or actually landing on the backs of other hummingbirds to pull it off the feeder,” he said.

Kaminski’s film also details how hummingbirds hover — with rapid-fire, figure-8 wingbeats — and explodes a few hummingbird myths: for instance, that they are single-mindedly focused on finding red flowers. In reality, he said, abundance and taste of nectar come before color on the hummingbird priority list.

The 57-minute film, “Hummingbirds: Beauty and the Beast,” shows all 16 U.S. species, and 57 hummingbird species in all, plus 17 species of other birds.

Kaminski will host hourly showings of the film from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at Wild Birds Unlimited, 24481 Alicia Parkway, Mission Viejo, and will answer questions in between.

DVDs of the film also are available on Amazon.com and the Avian Video Center, he said.

(Images from film of Anna’s hummingbird head and of the same species feeding on flower courtesy, Tom Kaminski.)

View excerpt on Youtube: Click here to view the embedded video.

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The company showed off its new “sort line” to business and community leaders in a public demonstration Wednesday, although it’s been operating for a few months to give technicians a chance to get “the bugs out,” said Bill Bixler, district manager at the company’s Irvine Transfer and Processing Center.

“Now it’s fully up and running, and processing at a full rate,” he said.

Human sorters have been at work at the center for years, painstakingly separating bottles, cans, cardboard and other recyclables from the waste stream.

They managed about 8 tons of trash an hour, Bixler said.

With the new machine, he said, “we estimate we can do 15 tons an hour. We’re looking at about 30 tons a year, 120 tons per day.”

Two fully automated features allow the machine to rapidly pick apart trash.

An optical system can distinguish types of trash destined for recycling — paper, bottles, cans — then uses bursts of air to shoot them into the right bins, arranged along a conveyor belt.

The other system specializes in cardboard. Big pieces pass over a special screen and head for their container; small bits fall through the screen and onto a belt for further processing.

Bixler said the company decided to install its second automated sorter — the first was in El Cajon — because of state recycling mandates as well as growing interest among business owners and consumers in recycling (known as “diversion” in the trash business, as in diversion from landfills).

“Customers are asking for, governments are asking for greater diversion,” Bixler said. “This is one way we’re able to provide it, and are able to reduce landfill use. Cities, multi-family housing units: everyone is much more interested.”

As for the human sorters, Bixler says it isn’t a case of people being replaced by automation. No one has lost a job because of the new machine.

“We’re actually using the same number of sorters,” he said. “We’re able to sort about three times as much material.”

And who is better at sorting — human or machine?

“The sensors are a better recovery system,” he said. “But people still play a very important role.”

(Photo of new sort line in operation courtesy Waste Management Inc.)

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But what about air-quality regulators?

Graphic from computer model showing drop in 2060 ozone levels with widespread use of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles courtesy Shane Stephens-Romero. Expressed in parts per billion; the more green and blue, the lower the ozone.

The exciting world of pollution-control bureaucracy might not be for everyone, but UC Irvine scientists have high hopes for their newly devised computer model, which forecasts likely air-pollution levels decades in the future.

Plug in your favorite perameters — say, ozone pollution levels in coastal Southern California in 2060 if 75 percent of the driving public uses hydrogen fuel-cell cars — and out pops the answer: 10 percent less ozone pollution than even a metropolis full of advanced gasoline engines would produce.

“In terms of greenhouse gases, you see incredibly dramatic reductions — more than 60 percent,” said one of the model’s creators, UC Irvine doctoral student Shane Stephens-Romero.

The model, described in a paper published online this month in Environmental Science and Technology, was mainly designed as a tool for regulators — those at the state Air Resources Board, for instance, who must try to forecast the likely effects of new pollution laws in order to hit mandated targets.

But the scientists plan to make the model available to the public within a year on the Web. They are also developing versions for school children and college students.

“There will be some interactive elements,” said UC Irvine professor Scott Samuelsen, director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center and the principal investigator on the project. “They can put in what they believe is possible, and see what the ramifications are. They can role play, as if they were a legislator or an agency regulator.”

While it’s hard to imagine the model making much of a dent in the popularity of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, the scientists hope it will be a learning tool — and, just maybe, ignite public interest in the real-world intricacies of air-quality control.

The model was developed with the help of automakers such as Toyota, Honda, GM, Hyundai and Nissan, as well as energy companies such as Air Products and Chemicals Inc. and Linde North America Inc., the scientists said.

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The new D7E tractor would be used to bury trash at the landfill if OC Waste and Recycling decides to buy one in the coming fiscal year. Officials from the waste agency watched the demo, along with Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell and members of the South Coast Air Quality Management District board.

Campbell even took a turn driving the tractor (right, photo courtesy OC Waste spokeswoman Julie Chay).

Caterpillar is conducting similar demonstrations at its dealerships across the country.

The tractors, according to Caterpillar, yield 10 to 30 percent greater fuel economy using diesel-electric power; OC Waste also recently received a grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District of just over $1 million to rebuild heavy equipment and cut harmful emissions.

The tractors, which cost $750,000 to $800,000, would be paid for out of the waste agency’s operating funds, Chay said, possibly with the help of grants.

(Photo of Caterpillar D7E courtesy, Caterpillar.)

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The two men, who work in an on-site shop making casks used to store spent nuclear fuel rods but who are both now on stress leave, are seeking unspecified damages from Southern California Edison, the owner of the San Onofre plant.

“People are afraid to raise concerns for fear of retaliation,” said Richard Busnardo, of Oceanside, a facilities manager and one of the men who filed complaints.

Edison officials declined to comment on the complaints, saying they considered the matter to be in litigation.

But the plant’s chief nuclear officer, Ross Ridenoure, released a statement Tuesday reinforcing Edison’s commitment to safety.

“We actively promote a safety conscious workplace where employees are encouraged to bring forward safety concerns without fear of retaliation,” his staetment said. “An independent assessment of San Onofre’s safety programs, conducted in July 2009, found that our employees are responding positively to this effort.”

Mike Mason, left, and Richard Busnardo outside the San Onofre nuclear plant. Register photo by H. Lorren Au.

The men’s complaints appear to offer a glimpse into the culture of the troubled nuclear plant, which remains under scrutiny by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission because of questions about procedural violations in recent years, including low-level safety concerns.

The plant has been visited repeatedly by NRC inspectors since problems were reported beginning in 2007.

The troubles began with an improperly soldered joint, prompting the precautionary shutdown of a reactor, as well as a faulty diesel generator. In March 2008, a loose battery connection was found that left some safety systems inoperable for four years.

In public meetings, NRC officials have raised concerns about San Onofre, questioning whether the plant is making sufficient progress in problem-solving and “human performance” issues.

Neither the public nor San Onofre employees have been placed in physical peril because of the problems, NRC officials have said.

Declining performance

“I would say the plant’s performance declined during 2008 and 2009,” said NRC spokesman Victor Dricks. The problems, he said, “are of concern to the NRC, although they are not safety significant.”

He said the agency is aware of the men’s complaints and is following up, but declined to comment further.

The allegations, if true, suggest deteriorating working relationships at the nuclear plant.

The current situation began when Busnardo, 57, and  Mike Mason, 55, of Lake Elsinore, supervisor of the fabrication plant for the casks, raised concerns over an employee they contend had knowingly violated plant welding procedures.

The man is identified in their complaints only as ”Mr. Welder” to protect his identity.

The two men say that they recommended firing Mr. Welder after he admitted to an outside auditor that he knew he was welding a piece of equipment incorrectly, but continued with his welding job anyway. Management overruled them, instead temporarily suspending the man.

Mason and Busnardo say they filed a notice of “willful violation” against the man in early October 2008 — the reason, they allege, that plant managers retaliated against them.

Previous violations

San Onofre employees had been accused of a number of “willful violations” by the NRC the previous January, including falsification of records by one contract employee whose job included fire patrols. The employee recorded making hourly patrols for five years, but did not actually make them, and was banned from the plant.

Busnardo alleges that the management at San Onofre did not want any more “willful violation” notices to be filed.

The two contend that the managers accused Mason and Busnardo of running an “out of control” operation with a history of violating procedures.

The men responded with an e-mail to managers calling attention to what they considered management retaliation, and referring to a culture of fear at the San Onofre plant among employees. They say their shop was exemplary and did not violate procedures.

The men said they tried to “hold employees accountable for their actions,” and for that “suffered loss of productivity, loss of reputation, unfair smears…”

“The company has retaliated against two workers whose credibility is difficult to question because they’ve been recognized as loyal and, in fact, leading managers for nearly three decades,” said their attorney, David Marshall.

Public confrontation

At a public meeting on San Onofre’s safety culture earlier this month in Dana Point, Busnardo raised the issue of retaliation.

“We have people in the plant that are afraid to raise concerns for fear of retaliation, and that scares me,” Busnardo recalls saying.

One manager later characterized Busnardo as unhappy with new standards while talking to reporters, his complaint says.

They contend that managers told them they should not have filed the willful violation notice, suggesting that was the reason for actions taken against them.

These included issuing a stop-work order for their shop, barring Mason and Busnardo from management meetings, cutting Mason’s responsibilities as supervisor and giving unfairly negative reviews of the shop as well as Mason’s performance.

Busnardo also accuses San Onofre managers of improperly “excoriating” him for reporting the welding incident, denying him promotion, unfairly denigrating his performance at the public meeting, and denying him a chance to interview for his own position after changing the terms of the position.

“There’s nothing more important than the safety of the workers at the plant,” Busnardo said. “The plant’s got to have an open and collaborative work environment. People have got to be able to raise concerns without fear of retaliation.”

(Register photo of San Onofre nuclear plant by Leonard Ortiz.)

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Berries or small fruits in almost any yard or park will draw the waxwings, especially if there are tall trees nearby, from which these sleek birds with their black masks can swoop down.

Their winter numbers can vary wildly, making the birds rare and hard to find some years. But this year is a good year for waxwings in Orange County – in fact, one expert says, better than average.

They’re the Cirque de Soleil of birds, almost always appearing in gregarious flocks and known for berry-based acrobatics. Naturalists have reported waxwings passing a berry to one another along a telephone line until one decides to gulp it down.

They’re also known to toss berries in the air and catch them before eating them, as shown in the accompanying photo of a waxwing eating fruit from a crab tree in Maine.

It is said that their fondness for berries can sometimes go awry, with hilarious results. In late winter, the story goes, older berries might ferment, and waxwings that feed on them appear to get drunk – becoming wobbly as they try to perch on branches.

Scientific name: Bombycilla cedrorum
Sources: Biologist Douglas R. Willick; “Lives of North American Birds,” by Kenn Kaufmann; “The Birds of Orange County, California: Status and Distribution,” by Robert A. Hamilton and Douglas R. Willick.
Next week: Toyon
Photo by: Robert F. Bukaty, Associated Press

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But consider what Patrick Mitchell, author, former Earth First activist and clean-water advocate sees when he looks at the same pile, and you begin to understand why some people are labeled “visionaries.”

Mitchell, who hired on at the ranch in June, wants to use the tons of manure produced there to make electricity — a thrumming, thriving methane plant that would burn horse and cow manure to provide power.

“We believe it would produce enough energy to power not only the ranch, but nine other residences,” he said.

And that’s only part of the transformation Mitchell has in store for the ranch — if he can find the funding.

Carbondale is named for an old west town that once thrived on the same site, and Mitchell wants to turn this sleepy 3.5 acres of boarding stables with just under 60 horses into a kind of tourist destination, a portal to the Cleveland National Forest with a focus on the history of Silverado Canyon.

“It really can be a gateway to one of the county’s most famous recreational opportunities,” he says. “This is kind of the last of the western towns.”

But Mitchell is facing a horse race of his own. The ranch’s owner, Dana Judd, has put Carbondale up for sale.

The ranch will go to the highest bidder, not the most visionary, and those who have shown interest so far, Mitchell says, have decidedly different ideas.

“The people who have looked at it want to change it” into a more commercial operation, he said — “green grass, English-style jumpers.”

He wants to see it keep its old-time Orange County style.

“This is another example of a jewel of the county in the Santa Ana Mountains I’d like to see preserved,” he said.

Mitchell lives in Lake Elsinore with his wife and two children, but has a long history tied up with Orange County’s most pressing environmental issues. His wife, Shannon, a Native American, grew up with horses, but Mitchell admits he’s a “novice” in the horse business.

“Get me on a horse and I hang on for dear life,” he said.

In the 1990s, he belonged to Earth First, a “direct action” environmental group, and once chained himself to a fence to protest the building of a toll road through Laguna Canyon.

Since those confrontational days, his environmental efforts have struck a mellower tone. For awhile he worked at the Discovery Museum in Santa Ana, turning a portion of the grounds into a garden of Orange County native habitat.

Later, he was a naturalist for the Santa Ana Parks, Recreation and Community Services Agency, and wrote a book about recreational opportunities on the Santa Ana River called “Santa Ana River Guide.”

Now he’s taken his fascination with Orange County history and its native environment to Silverado.

He says he has a sponsor, who wants to remain anonymous, willing to commit just under $1 million to the project. But there’s a catch: Mitchell must find one or more investors to put up a matching million.

He sees the ranch as a recreational and educational experience for visitors, especially children.

“We could give kids from the city of Anaheim and Santa Ana an opportunity to come here and see how things were a long time ago,” Mitchell said.

And the green part of his agenda, he hopes, would set an example for other horse properties, which can run afoul of environmental regulators because manure is difficult to control and can find its way into nearby waterways.

“I’ve fallen in love with the place,” Mitchell said as he walked the grounds this week. “I can sit here and envision what it was like 120 years ago, and what it will be like in 20 years. I just don’t think there are many places like this left.”

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Coyotes are known for their ability to adapt to human presence. It’s best not to encourage them by offering food. They’re also known to leap tall fences and, sometimes, to prey on pets.

Send your Orange County wildlife pictures to pbrennan@ocregister.com. We’ll post the best of them here.

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That isn’t all good news. Much of the growth is in the form of non-native weeds, which hog nutrients and crowd out the native plants the park is meant to preserve.

And only a year after some 90 percent of the park was burned, it is once again primed for ignition.

“Our biggest concern is repeated fire,” said Ken Kietzer, a district environmental scientist for State Parks who is monitoring the park’s recovery. “There is enough fuel that, should a spark fly in that park, it could burn again.”

The possibility that the park will be hit by fire again worries ecologists. Although Southern California’s drought-tolerant native plants are adapted to periodic wildfire, they can disappear if fires come too frequently.

“That is really a terrifying thought, because as these other native species are just on the verge of recovery, if they get hit again by fire, they’re not coming back,” Kietzer said.

But the news isn’t all bad, either. Kietzer said park scientists are seeing regrowth of rare black walnut trees, which in some cases are sprouting from burned-out stumps.

Oaks are coming back, too, along with coastal sage scrub, Orange County’s best known native plant community.

Endangered least Bell’s vireos, meanwhile, have been “tenacious,” Kietzer said. Although their preferred streamside vegetation was burned, the birds were stubbornly nesting in non-native mustard — not their usual choice.

There were also signs that cactus wrens and California gnatcatchers were returning to the park, although much of their habitat is skeletal.

Deer and bobcats have come back, and, most likely, mountain lions, he said; in the spring, wildflowers sprang up, especially those that take advantage of burned landscape and are known as fire-followers.

“We’ll see some of that again, I think, this spring,” Kietzer said. “If we do get winter rains that are predicted, that will be nice for park visitors.”

Bottom line, he said: “We’re seeing recovery, but there are threats there.”

Read O.C. Register package on Freeway Complex Fire anniversary.

(Register photo of springtime resprouting of charred black willow at Chino Hills State Park by Bruce Chambers.)

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