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Oil sands will pollute Great Lakes, report warns
The environmental impacts of Alberta's oil sands will not be restricted to Western Canada, researchers say, but will extend thousands of kilometres away to the Great Lakes, threatening water and air quality around the world's largest body of fresh water.
In a new report, the University of Toronto's Munk Centre says the massive refinery expansions needed to process tar sands crude, and the new pipeline networks for transporting the fuel, amount to a "pollution delivery system" connecting Alberta to the Great Lakes region of Canada and the U.S.
It warns that the refineries will be using the Great Lakes "as a cheap supply" source for their copious water needs and the area's air "as a pollution dump."
The report, which is being released today at a conference at the university, says that as many as 17 major refinery expansions around the lakes are being considered for turning the tar-like Alberta bitumen into gasoline and other petroleum products. While not all will be undertaken, enough of them will be to have a regional environmental impact.
Proposed pipeline and refinery projects around the lakes are expected to lead to total investments of more than $31-billion (U.S.) by 2015, spending similar in scale to expenditures at many oil sands projects. For this reason, the report says the various projects, when taken together, threaten to "wipe out many of the pollution control gains" achieved around the lakes since the 1970s.
The massive expenditures are needed because typical refineries can't process heavy crude derived from tar sands without costly upgrades.
"This expansion promises to bring with it an exponential increase in pollution, discharges into waterways including the Great Lakes, destruction of wetlands, toxic air emissions, acid rain, and huge increases in greenhouse gas emissions," it says.
Most of the projected spending is on the U.S. side of the lakes. Only one major refinery project has been announced for the Canadian side, but that expansion, at a Shell refinery in Sarnia, was put on hold in July because of surging costs.
However, two big Canadian companies, TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. with its Keystone project, and Enbridge Inc., with its Alberta Clipper project, are vying to build pipelines to bring crude from the tar sands to U.S. refineries around the lakes.
The report says the environmental effects in Alberta from tar sands development - from dying ducks caught in tailings ponds to massive carbon dioxide emissions - are well known, but the implications for the Great Lakes "are less well-understood and less extensively explored."
Policy makers around the lakes, in both Canada and the U.S., are largely unaware that the tar sands will lead to massive industrial development in their region, and consequently have no strategy to minimize the environmental impacts, it says.
Some of the harshest criticism is for the Ontario government, which it characterizes as "remarkably unengaged" over how tar sands oil will affect the province and "doesn't seem to even be asking the key questions, let alone contemplating the possible policy answers."
There has been one major dispute in the U.S. over a tar sands-related refinery expansion, at a British Petroleum facility at Whiting, Ind. The company proposed a $3-billion refinery modernization that would raise discharges of two pollutants by about 35 per cent and 54 per cent respectively. But it backed down and pledged not to increase the pollutants after a public outcry. The environmental impacts of Alberta's oil sands will not be restricted to Western Canada, researchers say, but will extend thous... more -
Ninja Of the Sea "They're Watching"
Box jellyfish actively hunt their prey. They are known to be the only jellyfish with an active visual system, consisting of 24 eyes located on the center of each side of its bell.
The eyes occur in clusters on the four sides of the cube-like body. Sixteen are simply pits of light-sensitive pigment, but one pair in each cluster is surprisingly complex, with a sophisticated lens, retina, iris and cornea, all in an eye only 0.1 millimeters across.
the lenses on these eyes have been analyzed and could form distortion free images.
Pollution fuels the advancement of creatures who thrive from it..Many of which cannot coexist comfortably around humans or other wildlife. leading to a drop in fish activity resulting in dead zones beneath the waves. As of which provide extreme refuge to these ninja like predators of the seas
p.s
I've never swim in the blue ocean water of the topical regions these and many other species of underwater origin exist, but had always hoped to. I wonder if it'll ever be possible now Box jellyfish actively hunt their prey. They are known to be the only jellyfish with an active visual system, consisting of 24 eyes lo... more -
Living the Life! (Who,What,When,Where,and WHY!)
"To many new home buyers, the idea of single family homes is much more exciting, than the condominium or townhouse living. In the U.S., the most common in real estate is the single family homes: be it a small house, bungalow or a large mansion. What attracts new home buyers to single family homes is that no matter how much square footage there is, it is all yours with your own piece of land and privacy.Your home may be a small one, but it is your kingdom, and no one can interfere with the way you want to live your life. There is a freedom to decorate and paint it to reflect your sense of style, and to chill in the backyard cooking barbecue with friends and family."
This sounds amazing but, who is able to obtain these so called small homes . With what do they apprehend the necessary resources and where do they come from.The real clincher is WHY! are there obscene amounts of deforestation and animal relocation. When everyday on my way home from work to my wife and son i drive past houses that would make me proud to provide my family with. Yet NO ONE is even living there and I'm forced to rent a piece with money i could be using even though is not much towards a home, not a camp site, and all the trees that died to be turned into frames and walls miss their lives moving with the breeze.
p.s
What if some crazy looking creature came and sawed you up. Removing your skin, exposing your bones, using them to burn and build homes. "To many new home buyers, the idea of single family homes is much more exciting, than the condominium or townhouse living. In the... more -
Environmentalists slam Bush "fox-in-henhouse" plan
A Bush administration plan to let U.S. agencies decide for themselves whether their actions put wildlife at risk is drawing fire from environmental groups, which say this is like letting a fox guard a hen house.
The Interior Department, one of two federal agencies pushing for this policy change, rejects the environmentalists' critique, saying the new rule would cut bureaucratic red tape and free government scientists for more important work.
But a coalition of conservation groups sees the move as an attempt to gut the Endangered Species Act.
"This is exactly the fox guarding the hen house," Michael Daulton of the National Audubon Society said. "It's a scary proposition to think about agencies with no wildlife expertise at all making decisions about the fate of species, potentially leading to extinction."
The 35-year-old Endangered Species Act is meant to protect threatened wildlife by relying on the best available science, the environmentalists noted. Government scientists must now consult with agencies on projects that could put species at risk.
The rules change could take scientists out of the equation, the conservation coalition maintained.
Audubon, which aims to protect birds, was among more than 120 groups that joined to flood the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service with 100,000 negative comments about the plan on Friday.
This flood of paper was timed to coincide with the end of an official "public comment" period on the proposed rule change, which ends on Tuesday. After that, it is unclear when or whether the rule will be adopted.
'HAIL MARY PASS'
"This proposed rule change is obviously a Hail Mary pass to industry friends in the final days of the Bush administration and it will fail," said Janette Brimmer, a lawyer with Earthjustice.
A Hail Mary pass is a desperate last-minute play in American football.
At the heart of the matter is the notion of dropping a requirement for U.S. agencies -- from the Transportation Department to the Army Corps of Engineers -- to consult with scientists before they take on projects that could threaten wildlife on the Endangered Species list.
As the Interior and Commerce departments wrote in their plan, released in mid-August with little fanfare: "We propose to add language that action agencies are not required to consult on those actions for which they determine their action will have 'no effect' on listed species or critical habitat."
These two agencies set a 30-day public comment period, which was extended for an additional 30 days. Conservation groups urged a 120-day period for comment from the public and Congress, and said comments should be allowed by fax and e-mail in addition to paper letters, the only form now accepted.
"The abbreviated timeline and restrictive commenting options raise serious concerns that the Department of the Interior is attempting to rewrite a bedrock environmental statute without allowing for anything approaching adequate public involvement," the environmental groups said in a letter to the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service.
Chris Paolino, an Interior Department spokesman, said scientific consultation occurs in the planning phase of federal projects, and that these scientists do not simply "rubber stamp" government efforts.
The aim of the proposed rule change, Paolino said by telephone, "is to streamline the process a little bit, remove red tape where we can and remove the backlog of consultations that had developed over the last 30 years and allow for those projects where there's an accepted 'no negative impact' to an endangered species to move forward."
The Bush administration has been widely criticized for its record on endangered species. Since President George W. Bush took office in 2001, 58 species have been added to the list, compared with 522 during the eight years of the Clinton administration and 231 in the four-year presidency of George H.W. Bush, the current president's father. A Bush administration plan to let U.S. agencies decide for themselves whether their actions put wildlife at risk is drawing fire from ... more -
John McCain: The Nuclear Option
Building 45 new nuclear plants in this country is insanity and will doom the waterways of this country and put our national security at risk. For a candidate who also talks about fighting the 'war on terror' as well, how could this thought even be entertained in the world we live in? Nuclear energy is not safe, it is not CO2 free, and I am truly getting tired of John McCain talking about what he really knows nothing about. He was on a nuclear submarine that didn't get blown up so that is how he assessed nuclear power is safe? Does he even understand the process of how the uranium is extracted and the toxic pollution it causes to our waterways and land? Does he understand how the toxic waste causes cancer? Does he understand the radioactivity of the waste? The immense amount of water nuclear uses? (Not good in a country now experiencing droughts, especially in the US Southwest) The cost in dollars and in potential lives?
My one message to him and yes, Obama as well who has now flip flopped to say he too engages nuclear is: STOP LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. The strides being made in solar, wind, and geothermal are here and now. We could take the money their congressional subsidies give out for their nuclear pipedreams and repower this country! I will make a pledge that should John McCain be corronated I will call the White House every day regarding this issue and 'clean coal.' And I will do the same if it is Obama.
It is unconscienable to me that they could ever want to foist this antiquated unsafe energy source on us just to appease backers and the lobbyists who get the subisidies from Washington Dc. The nuclear option must be out of the question. It is antiquated. It is unsafe. It is toxic. It wastes water. It is expensive. It puts our national security at risk, and will take too much time in light of the reports coming from peer reviewed scientists regarding the current state of our world. Why don't these candidates ever pick up a report instead of a poll to craft their policies? Building 45 new nuclear plants in this country is insanity and will doom the waterways of this country and put our national security a... more -
Drowned Forests and Damned Lives
Drowned Forests and Damned Lives is a 32-minute video report that explores the Orang Asli’s struggle against the Kelau Dam project in Pahang state, Malaysia.
Said to be an irrational project, the project will be placed on the Kelau river in Pahang, flooding approximately 1,540 hectares of vegetation within the Lakum Forest Reserve. A 44km pipeline will also be constructed, to transfer water to the more populated state of Selangor.
Two Orang Asli villages are facing involuntary resettlement for the dam.
There is a considerable amount of controversy surrounding the resettlement, as peacefulsocieties.org remarks in an April 2008 review of the film:
The basic fact is that the Chewong village, like the Temuan, does not need to be moved—the people do not need to be resettled. The project will not flood their lands. The height of the dam has now been reduced, so even the Temuan community is 16 meters above what is called the “danger level” of the proposed reservoir. The Chewong village is high above that. Since their communities will not be flooded, why are the Orang Asli threatened?
The answer is that the Orang Asli lands will become lakefront property after the dam is constructed—too valuable to allow it to remain in the possession of the Temuan and the Chewong. The Sultan of Selangor built an expensive lakefront lodge above another reservoir. The argument made by the government that the Temuan and Chewong villages need to be resettled for their own safety is simply not valid.
There are a number of other controversies surrounding the dam project, including the legality of the Environmental Impact Assessment (against which a civil suit was filed); and, among others, the matter of whether or not the dam is even necessary.
Drowned Forests and Damned Lives
Drowned forests and damned lives was produced by the Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) as part of a campaign against the construction of the Kelau Dam. Drowned Forests and Damned Lives is a 32-minute video report that explores the Orang Asli’s struggle against the Kelau Dam project in ... more -
Science Saturday (Top Three!)
Hi Currentaholics.
For my first weekly Saturday Top Three, I decided to go with the theme of science!
So here are tele's top three science articles for Saturday:
# 1 - 2008 ozone hole larger than last year http://current.com/items/89397455_2008_ozone_hole_large... from WorldPeaceTV.
-- Anyone remember this being a big problem in the 80's? I guess we need to hold off on using hairspray again...hehe just kidding. Seriously though, that hole is getting larger, bigger than 2007 but smaller than 2006. The article also says that this could be a natural occurance, so check it out!
#2 - Robogirl - the 'most human-like robot ever created' http://current.com/items/89397269_robogirl_the_most_hum... from bmltv.
-- Check out that video! That is just WEIRD! This article is about a Life-like, Life-size, robot based on a 5 year old girl. All I can think of are: Commander Data, The Terminator, and CARPOOL!
#3 - Electronic cigarettes! http://current.com/items/89396363_electronic_cigarettes... from DeliaTheArtist.
-- Yea, thats exactly what it sounds like, metal pipes! This article is about a new kind of cigarettes that are allowed legally to be smoked indoors, in restaurants. I don't even smoke, never tried -- only 2nd hand, but involuntarily -- but I am finally a little tempted ... I think. Hi Currentaholics. For my first weekly Saturday Top Three, I decided to go with the theme of science! ... more -
2,500 evacuated after W.Pa. chemical leak | AP | 10/11/2008
Authorities in western Pennsylvania evacuated about 2,500 people due to a hazardous mile-long cloud from a corrosive material leak at a chemical plant.
Butler County emergency officials said the leak at the Indspec Chemical Corp. plant in Petrolia was reported shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday. Plant manager Dave Dorko said a material called oleum similar to sulfuric acid overflowed from a tank and instantly evaporated into the air.
Freda Tarbell, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said authorities were concerned about the potential for respiratory damage and skin burns. She said a team with the federal Environmental Protection Agency had gone to the area from Wheeling, W.Va., to monitor air quality.
Authorities went door-to-door to warn the 2,500 people living in a three-mile radius around the plant to evacuate because of the cloud. Tarbell said the air would be monitored through the night and residents would probably be able to return home Sunday morning.
About 250 people went to shelters in nearby Karns City, North Washington and Bruin, and officials said the rest likely went to stay with relatives. Red Cross officials said they expected to shelter only 50 to 100 people overnight in the close-knit community.
Dorko said all 30 employees of the plant, which produces a bonding agent for the tire industry, were evacuated and no one was injured. Authorities said three residents were taken to hospitals with apparent respiratory problems, but officials said it was unclear whether they were related to the leak.
The dense cloud was reported moving slowly west close to the ground late Saturday night. No further evacuations were planned, but residents in the cloud's path were told to remain inside, close doors, windows and vents, shut down any system that draws air from the outside and put out any fires in fireplaces. Authorities in western Pennsylvania evacuated about 2,500 people due to a hazardous mile-long cloud from a corrosive material leak at ... more -
Despite some hurricanes, region's drought persists
BUFORD, Ga. (AP) -- The banks of Lake Lanier look about the same as last year: Closed boat ramps, parched soil and lonely islands peeking above the surface that should be covered by a dozen feet of water.
Epic drought forced officials across the Southeast about a year ago to impose severe water restrictions and warn that Atlanta, ground zero for the dry conditions, could be just months from running short of water. BUFORD, Ga. (AP) -- The banks of Lake Lanier look about the same as last year: Closed boat ramps, parched soil and lonely islands peek... more -
Mexican pot cartels sully U.S. forests, parks - msnbc.com
National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals used to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said.
The grow sites have taken hold from the West Coast's Cascade Mountains to federal lands in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Seven hundred grow sites were discovered on U.S. Forest Service land in California alone in 2007 and 2008 — and authorities say the 1,800-square-mile Sequoia National Forest is the hardest hit.
Weed and bug sprays, some long banned in the U.S., have been smuggled to the marijuana farms. Plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams, and the water has then been diverted for miles in PVC pipes.
Rat poison has been sprinkled over the landscape to keep animals away from tender plants. And many sites are strewn with the carcasses of deer and bears poached by workers during the five-month growing season that is now ending.
"What's going on on public lands is a crisis at every level," said Forest Service agent Ron Pugh. "These are America's most precious resources, and they are being devastated by an unprecedented commercial enterprise conducted by armed foreign nationals. It is a huge mess."
The first documented marijuana cartels were discovered in Sequoia National Park in 1998. Then, officials say, tighter border controls after Sept. 11, 2001, forced industrial-scale growers to move their operations into the United States.
Millions of dollars are spent every year to find and uproot marijuana-growing operations on state and federal lands, but federal officials say no money is budgeted to clean up the environmental mess left behind after helicopters carry off the plants. They are encouraged that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who last year secured funding for eradication, has inquired about the pollution problems.
In the meantime, the only cleanup is done by volunteers. On Tuesday, the nonprofit High Sierra Trail Crew, founded to improve access to public lands, plans to take 30 people deep into the Sequoia National Forest to carry out miles of drip irrigation pipe, tons of human garbage, volatile propane canisters, and bags and bottles of herbicides and pesticides.
"If the people of California knew what was going on out there, they'd be up in arms about this," said Shane Krogen, the nonprofit's executive director. "Helicopters full of dope are like body counts in the Vietnam War. What does it really mean?"
(cont. below) National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pocke... more -
Housing estate wins Stirling design prize
A contemporary housing estate for a "post-Thatcherite Britain" has won the 2008 Stirling Prize for architecture.
Accordia, in Cambridge, was one of six developments shortlisted for the Royal Institute of Architecture (RIBA) prize, and the first housing estate to win it.
Its architects received the £20,000 prize at a ceremony in Liverpool.
The judges said Accordia, on a brownfield site near the city centre, won because it is "not afraid of communal aspirations and aesthetics".
It also impressed the panel with good size, well-proportioned rooms in its houses and flats.
"This is high-density housing at its very best," the judges said. A contemporary housing estate for a "post-Thatcherite Britain" has won the 2008 Stirling Prize for architecture. ... more -
ABC deems Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection advert too 'controve...
Tell me now who really runs these networks. Controversial is merely a replacement for TRUTHFUL. It is a KNOWN FACT that oil lobbyists buy policy in Washington DC. The Iraq invasion is about OIL. Exxon can pull in billions of dollars in profits on the backs of working Americans all the while denying that global warming is manmade and that isn't controversial? Coal, which kills is not controversial? So, what is to be done about this BS? We can't even get a good enough boycott going in this country anymore to make these networks feel it where they should feel it: in their ratings and in their wallets. Well, I am boycotting ABC, all of their affiliates, and Disney and their products. Anyone who wants to join in please feel free because unless we do something networks will continue to get away with this blatant bias. This is not a political issue it is a moral issue. This is not about some ridiculous political grudge against Al Gore. This even goes beyond Al Gore. THIS IS ABOUT THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THIS PLANET! This is about truth. ABC has now shown it has no morals and should be treated as such. And yes, I'm angry. Outrageous so many others aren't.
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From the article:
The ABC network has refused to air an advert produced by Al Gore's environmental group, ruling that its charge of US government favouritism to the oil industry is too "controversial" for television.
The TV commercial, part of the WE campaign run by Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, was submitted for airing after this week's presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain - both of whom have vowed to limit greenhouse gas emissions if elected.
But ABC concluded that the advert violated its internal policy against "controversial" content during network-sponsored programmes, network spokeswoman Julie Hoover told the Guardian.
"All of our advertising is reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and the context of this particular ad was determined not to be acceptable per our policy on controversial issue advertising," Hoover said.
The WE campaign has since attracted more than 170,000 supporters to an online petition drive asking ABC to reconsider its decision.
The script of the advert is similar in tone to political speeches made by Obama and McCain during the election season. An unseen narrator states that climate change can be combated through wind and solar power as well as "end[ing] our dependence on foreign oil".
Over an image of a young child playing with blocks, the narrator continues: "So why are we still stuck with dirty and expensive energy? Because big oil spends hundreds of millions of dollars to block clean energy. Lobbyists, ads, even scandals. All to increase their profits, while America suffers."
An ABC email published on the blog of Grist magazine stated that the advert was rejected due to its split-second shot of the US Capitol building.
"Per our guidelines, national buildings may be used in advertising provided the depictions are incidental to the advertiser's promotion of the product or service," the email stated. "Given the messages and themes of this commercial, the image of the Capital [sic] building is not incidental to this advertising."
Cathy Zoi, chief executive of the WE campaign, called ABC's decision "outrageous" in light of US networks' frequent airing of adverts from Chevron, Exxon Mobil and other oil companies.
"As our country faces deep economic problems, we need to be able to have an honest debate about the root causes of our problem," Zoi wrote in an email to supporters of Gore's group on Wednesday. Tell me now who really runs these networks. Controversial is merely a replacement for TRUTHFUL. It is a KNOWN FACT that oil lobbyists ... more -
Army suspends relocation of Ft. Irwin tortoises
The Army's National Training Center at Ft. Irwin on Friday suspended its effort to move California desert tortoises off prospective combat training grounds and onto nearby public lands because the animals are being hit hard by coyotes. The Army's National Training Center at Ft. Irwin on Friday suspended its effort to move California desert tortoises off prospecti... more
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marijuana, the next threat to the enviroment?
Calif. - National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said.
Lets be responsible. Calif. - National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most pollu... more -
Warm welcome for house powered by hydrogen fuel cell
From the outside, the house at the bottom of Stocking Street looks no different from any other in the cul-de-sac. But step around the back and a purpose-built shed hums with the latest in green technology - a state of the art hydrogen fuel cell.
Today the house in Lye, near Stourbridge in the West Midlands, will be opened as the first permanent hydrogen-powered home connected to the national grid. The refrigerator-sized fuel cell unit will produce 1.5kW of electricity and 3kW of heat for the occupants of the house, with any excess power being fed into the national grid. From the outside, the house at the bottom of Stocking Street looks no different from any other in the cul-de-sac. But step around the ... more -
2008 ozone hole larger than last year
The 2008 ozone hole – a thinning in the ozone layer over Antarctica – is larger both in size and ozone loss than 2007 but is not as large as 2006.
Ozone is a protective atmospheric layer found in about 25 kilometres altitude that acts as a sunlight filter shielding life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays, which can increase the risk of skin cancer and cataracts and harm marine life.
This year the area of the thinned ozone layer over the South Pole reached about 27 million square kilometres, compared to 25 million square kilometres in 2007 and a record ozone hole extension of 29 million square kilometres in 2006, which is about the size of the North American continent.
The depletion of ozone is caused by extreme cold temperatures at high altitude and the presence of ozone-destructing gases in the atmosphere such as chlorine and bromine, originating from man-made products like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were phased out under the 1987 Montreal Protocol but continue to linger in the atmosphere.
Ozone hole extension during the last 10 years
Depending on the weather conditions, the size the Antarctic ozone hole varies every year. During the southern hemisphere winter, the atmosphere above the Antarctic continent is kept cut off from exchanges with mid-latitude air by prevailing winds known as the polar vortex – the area in which the main chemical ozone destruction occurs. The polar vortex is characterized by very low temperatures leading to the presence of so-called stratospheric clouds (PSCs).
As the polar spring arrives in September or October, the combination of returning sunlight and the presence of PSCs leads to a release of highly ozone-reactive chlorine radicals that break ozone down into individual oxygen molecules. A single molecule of chlorine has the potential to break down thousands of molecules of ozone.
Julian Meyer-Arnek of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), which monitors the hole annually, explained the impact of regional meteorological conditions on the time and range of the ozone hole by comparing 2007 with 2008.
"In 2007 a less concentric and larger polar vortex led to an early onset of the ozone destruction in the sunlit parts of the polar vortex," Meyer-Arnek said. "Therefore, we saw an ozone hole formation in the beginning of September 2007 which corresponded to the average behaviour of the years 1995-2006."
"In 2008 a more concentric polar vortex led to a delay of the onset of the ozone destruction of about one week. The preconditioning of the polar chemistry was about the same for both years, although in 2008 the temperatures were slightly below the 2007 temperatures leading to slightly improved formation of PSCs," he continued.
-------------------more at link---------------I'm wondering if this is a natural progression....something that the earth needs to do every 1000 years or so. Earth is a 'living organism' and can need to do some drastic things in order to survive. Like make certain species extinct that are harming it. Oh wait a minute...aren't humans doing this? The 2008 ozone hole – a thinning in the ozone layer over Antarctica – is larger both in size and ozone loss than 2007 but is not as la... more -
'Bailout the hungry,' activists tell World Bank
In my opinion the World Bank has precipitated much of this crisis.They have been giving loans to countries in the third world at exhorbitant rates that they cannot pay back. This only perpetuates the cycle of poverty and hunger and keeps them enslaved to the system. There must be a way to provide assistance to small rural farmers in developing countries to be able to have the tools necessary to grow natural food for their people without the intererence of all of these foreign markets and speculators causing the prices to also be out of the range of affordability for the people who need them the most.
Any conference regarding food or any crisis surrounding it must also include discussion of the global water crisis. You cannot grow food without water, and in many areas of the developing world especially in Asia and Africa water is a resource that is becoming harder and harder to come by due to mismanagement, waste, pollution, climate change, privitization, and population increases.There is also too much power concentrated with organizations like the World Bank and the corporations they are in collusion with. When you have a central bank controlling everything, it appears more people have nothing.
This food crisis could be addressed much more effectively if there was more regulation regarding loaning these countries money in regards to the rates they are charged on top of the loan along with other stipulations that make their contracts hard to fulfill ( such as agreeing to loan money to lay water pipes on the stipulation that their water will be privitized.) How about forgiving all third world debt for a start? That in and of itself would free up funds that could then be used for sustainable development (solar and wind etc.) in these countries and allow people to gain access to small loans such as those provided by the Grameen Bank to start people in their own businesses. Making their own income not accountable to some World Bank that seeks to run their lives and tell them they must plant genetically modified foods to make their benefactors like Monsanto more profit would also ease much poverty in these areas and start people on the road not only to sustainability but life. Isn't that freedom?
I don't claim to be an expert on any of this nor to have the answers. I do know however, that the food and water crises we now find ourselves in the midst of is the most important thing in concert with the climate crisis that all ties in together that we now face in this century, and we need new answers as the old ways do not appear to be working any longer. It is simply unconscienable to me that with the billions upon billions of dollars we have in this world to spend on bailing out greedy bankers, wage illegal wars, and continue to support corrupted systems that actually perpetuate these crises, that we can't find some of those funds along with some compassion and political will to for once do the right thing. No child in any country should have to die because some pencil pusher in a government organization or a world leader a world away is holding back the food that child needs because of political or economic expedience.
Feed the people, and give them water. There is more than enough. What we need to do now is find that moral and political strength to do it and do it equitably. It shouldn't be hard if you have a heart and a conscience.
OK, getting down off my soap box now. ;-) In my opinion the World Bank has precipitated much of this crisis.They have been giving loans to countries in the third world at exhor... more -
Palin does not even know basics of Alaska energy
John McCain famously said of his VP pick, “She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.” Almost as famously, Palin turns out to know almost nothing about energy, and what she does know is mostly wrong (see “Sarah Palin is the fungible candidate“).
The AP reported Thursday that Palin doesn’t even know “whether the government bans oil exports — especially from her state’s North Slope fields”:
A questioner at a town hall-style meeting in Wisconsin said he had heard that at least 75 percent of the oil drilled in Alaska was being sold to China and said, if true, he would like to know why.
“No. It’s not 75 percent of our oil being exported,” Palin said, suggesting some of Alaska’s oil, in fact, may be going abroad but not that much.
“In fact,” she added, “Congress is pretty strict on, um, export bans of oil and gas especially.”
Uhh, no. As the AP explains:
No Alaska oil has been exported since 2004, and little if any since 2000, according to the Energy Information Administration and the Congressional Research Service.
And Congress has never imposed outright bans on oil exports. Congress prohibited exports of Alaska oil in 1973 when the Alaska oil pipeline was built. But that ban was lifted in 1996 when there were large volumes of Alaska oil coming down from the North Slope and U.S. demand was soft.
The Alaska ban has never been reinstated.
D’oh! John McCain famously said of his VP pick, “She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.” Alm... more -
Drought in southern Australia declared ‘worst on record’
If you want to know what the U.S. southwest faces in the coming decades if we don’t reverse greenhouse gas emissions trends quickly, just look to Australia:
David Jones, the head of climate analysis at the Bureau of Meteorology, said the drought affecting south-west Western Australia, south-east South Australia, Victoria and northern Tasmania “is now very severe and without historical precedent”.
Dr Jones said Victoria had had “the driest multi-year period on record, but also by far the hottest….”
He said temperatures were running at about one degree “above any previous comparable drought. That is substantially hotter, and that one degree is a global warming signal.”
He said the data suggests that for every one degree of warming, there is a 15 per cent decline in run-off, or river flow, in the Murray Darling Basin….
He said a similar drying pattern had been observed in Europe’s Mediterranean, and the south-west in the USA….
The highlighted point is key. Previously, droughts around the world were either cold-whether droughts or warm-weather droughts. In the future, virtually all droughts will be hot weather droughts, which are obviously the worst kind.
He said the current dry was at the extreme end of what the climate models had predicted.
Most of the major predicted climate impacts the planet is now experiencing are at the extreme end of what the models had predicted (see “Are Scientists Overestimating — or Underestimating — Climate Change, Part I“).
Here is more on Australia’s astonishing drought:
He said the rainfall deficiencies were the largest on record.
“If you look at Victoria, where the effect has been particularly severe, in the last 12 years we have now missed out on two years of rainfall, which is an extraordinary result,” he said.
“Across Victoria as a whole, if you add up how much rainfall has been missed in 12 years, it is now up around 1300mm or four feet of rainfall, a very, very large rainfall deficit….”
The most dramatic effects have been felt by Melbourne.
Melbourne recorded its driest September on record.
“If one looks at the history of data we have for Melbourne, we have rainfall records going 150 years. We simply have not seen anything like what we currently have, not even close,” he said.
The previous longest dry for Melbourne was the six years from 1979 to 1984.
“Starting in 1997 we have had 11 years, nearly 12 years” of dry conditions.
The shape of things to come for us. The time to act is yesterday. If you want to know what the U.S. southwest faces in the coming decades if we don’t reverse greenhouse gas emissions trends quickly, j... more -
Drink a Cup of Peace
I brought the idea to my fellow friends, Muslims and Christians, and I said we should make a co-op selling our coffee but as well as spreading peace in the world.
They were all so happy so we called it Mirembe, which means peace, Kawomera, which means that even our coffee must be of quality.
Then we made that cooperative.
— JJ Keki, founder & director, Peace Kawomera
That’s the “story” behind Mirembe Kawomera Coffee, stemming from JJ Keki’s dream. JJ Keki is a Ugandan coffee farmer who hit the streets, asking Muslim, Christian and Jewish neighbors to put aside their idealogical differences and create a great coffee with an even better cause.
In addition to the specialness of their message, these farmers also economically needed to gather and form a collective that could help them keep pace in an ever-changing market. With the help of Laura Wetzler from the US organization Kulana, this possibility became actualized.
At this point, Peace Kawomera Cooperative has over 750 members. Because of the collective power, they now sell directly to Thanksgiving Coffee Company and receive 4 times what they previously made. This has started a chain reaction in their community, as farmers are able to send their children to school, save money and reinvest.
It’s positive news indeed that something as simple as a cup of coffee can break down religious barriers and help a Ugandan community thrive. I brought the idea to my fellow friends, Muslims and Christians, and I said we should make a co-op selling our coffee but as well as s... more
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