Friday, September 06, 2013

Come Back To The Sea



Take a few moments to appreciate the beauty and splendor of our world of water.

Reflect on its importance to all of our lives regardless of labels.

We are all one in water and we must do better in caring for it.

No more Fukushimas!

Out Of Sight Out Of Mind: Carcinogenic Chemical Spreads Beneath Michigan Town



Out Of Sight Out Of Mind: Carcinogenic Chemical Spreads Beneath Michigan Town

No, this is not the plot for a new horror film. This horror is a reality. A carcinogenic cloud spreading its toxic tentacles towards a town and its water supply. Put there by other humans seeking profit to poison this planet. Now, years later those people gone, those buildings demolished, yet the memory of what they did remains. This is what first frightened me as a young child so many years ago. This is what I read Silent Spring for and what awakened me at such a young age to a world I could not understand. A world where such human horrors were commonplace and accepted.

I am posting this because it must be known. As we now once again stand on the precipice of what could become a world war in the Middle East, we ignore the chemical threats here in the US. I concede that yes, any chemical attack on innocents is an atrocious crime that should see accountability. So why are those who suffer the relentless poisoning of chemical companies for profit not thought about? Our world is under chemical bombardment 24 hours a day every day. We breathe it, we eat it, we wash in it. It is in our wombs affecting our unborn children! And yet, governments including the US government sit and pontificate as if they hold some moral high ground when looking to bomb other countries for what they allow to slowly happen to their own citizens daily. However, as we see in this case it would appear that citizens without great wealth are treated differently than others.

I surely thought that by the time I reached this age the human race would have learned its lesson. That we would have seen the true horror we unleashed and reign it in. That we would listen to the voices of reason and understand that life and the water that sustains it is more important than fleeting gold. How many more aquifers and water supplies in this country have been contaminated by the relentless pursuit of profit over life with time being our enemy?

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Excerpt from article:

"When state and federal environmental officials visited the tucked-away town of Mancelona, Mich., 15 years ago, their presence surprised local residents. “My heart and most of my life has been spent here in Antrim County,” said Gary Knapp, a long-time resident. “And I knew nothing of its environmental problems.” While removing metal contamination from local groundwater, officials had stumbled upon one of the nation’s largest plumes of an industrial solvent called trichloroethylene, or TCE. Drinking-water wells tap into this aquifer, so the state asked the town’s help in preventing the chemical from flowing out of people’s taps. “People were helpless, frustrated and angry,” said Knapp, who was recruited by the state to start a regional water authority. Fifteen years later, the underground plume of the carcinogenic chemical is now six miles long and continues to grow. Over the past decade, new wells have been built and millions of dollars have been spent to ensure the 1,390 residents of Mancelona – known for its deer-hunting contests and bass festivals – aren’t drinking toxic water. But the TCE swirling beneath this remote, low-income town continues to vex state officials and residents as it creeps toward new wells that Knapp and others dug to replace tainted ones. The plume is another industrial scar in Michigan – one that is seemingly not going away. “There’s no silver bullet to take care of this thing,” said Scott Kendzierski, director of environmental health services at the Health Department of Northwest Michigan. “It’s just a monster.” Used in large volumes by an array of industries, TCE is one of the most widespread contaminants in U.S. water supplies. Its use has declined substantially over the past 15 years but widespread contamination remains." ~~~~~~~~~~

A small town's industrial legacy

Though hours away from where the Rust Belt tightens across southern Michigan, Mancelona historically has had more in common with the economies of Flint, Detroit, Lansing and Saginaw than its tourism-dependent neighboring towns in the northwestern Lower Peninsula. For decades, three factories employed most of Mancelona. One by one they closed, the most recent in 2009, leaving unemployment and economic stagnation behind. But one left something more toxic.

From about 1947 to 1967, Mt. Clemens Metal Products Company used the solvent TCE as a degreaser during the manufacture of car parts. Workers dumped it near the building when they were done with it, according to officials with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The chemical slowly seeped into the porous, sandy soil, contaminating the aquifer.

The plume – now polluting 13 trillion gallons of groundwater – is advancing northwest at a rate of about 300 feet per year. It has reached the Cedar River, which flows to a chain of lakes that wash into Lake Michigan.

In Mancelona’s groundwater, TCE concentrations as high as several hundred parts per billion have been detected in the center of the plume. The federal drinking water standard for the chemical is 5 parts per billion.

Used in large volumes by an array of industries, TCE is one of the most widespread contaminants in U.S. water supplies.

In addition to polluting water, TCE can be inhaled as a vapor in buildings.

Its use has declined substantially over the past 15 years, said James Bruckner, a University of Georgia professor who specializes in TCE research. But widespread contamination remains. Michigan alone has about 300 TCE-contaminated sites, and about 60 percent of the nation’s Superfund sites contain the chemical. Many large, miles-long TCE plumes remain in aquifers, particularly near military bases and their contractors. The Mancelona plume is the largest known one in the Great Lakes region and one of the largest in the country, said Janice Adams, a senior geologist with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

There is no longer any sign of the manufacturing plant responsible for dumping the chemical. The old Mt. Clemens Metal building has been torn down – leaving an empty lot scattered with nappy weeds, broken rebar and torn plastic fencing. The toxic aquifer is an “orphan site”, Adams said, because the company went bankrupt before the water contamination was discovered.

snip

“This will be left for our children”

There are no current plans to clean up the plume.

In 2008, the Michigan DEQ came up with three options to tackle the problem: the first two would have extracted the water, cleaned it and pumped it back underground. But pumping the water out would take decades and cost up to $34 million, too much for the state, Adams said. “If this existed in a large metro area, like Detroit or Lansing or Grand Rapids, it would have gotten more attention a long time ago. It’s a small community that’s been neglected.” –Gary Street, Freshwater Future The state instead chose to focus on monitoring the plume and replacing the tainted water. The state has spent $17.8 million to expand the countywide water system.

“It’s the magnitude of the problem. If you look at how much we’d have to pump out to keep up, it’s mind-boggling,” DeYoung said. “They ran the numbers years ago and it’s just not feasible right now.”



TCE contamination has now reached Cedar River which drains into the Lake Michigan watershed which serves the drinking water needs of millions of people.

Health Hazards Of TCE

Have we forgotten?



If the true price of progress is to sacrifice all that makes our Earth thrive is it worth it?

Sunday, September 01, 2013

The Root Causes Of Violence In Syria: Climate Change And Water: But Let's Bomb The Hell Out Of Them Anyway

HOW CLIMATE CHANGE WORSENED VIOLENCE IN SYRIA



In all of the saber rattling and propaganda from governments in a rush to more war that will only result in more suffering these two words, climate change are deliberately being left out of the discussion and the media coverage. Yet, the drying of the Fertile Crescent and the results of it cannot be ignored in discussing what led Syria into the civil war that has now culminated into a tragedy leading us to the precipice.

Refugees Hit 1 Million

How did this happen if so many care so much?

A humanitarian disaster of immense proportions and yet, silence. Why? Because once again the politics takes precedence over the human. Based on all media sources and the actions of Syria's government Assad is an unfit and cruel leader who wields absolute power and we have seen that as exhibited by the accounts of those living there. Unfortunately, the "rebels" taking up arms are no better. Composed of entities seeking only the same power (and face it, probably backed by the CIA and other covert organizations) the people continue to suffer and the announcement by SOS John Kerry that the US is giving support to these "rebels" does nothing to end this suffering. In the face of news of a chemical attack in the suburbs of Damascus August 21st we now see a rush to war by the US once again dismissing the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded. Military solutions to humanitarian crises are the antithesis to each other.

However, this is a scenario being played out all over the Arab world and the similarities leave one who can connect the dots wondering just what and who is at the crux of it. Ghadhafi in Libya is gone, but now we see instability and war in Mali as arms from Libya made their way conveniently into these other countries which brought in the very elements now needing "cleansing" by the same Western powers that always seem to be in the forefront as well as the same alliance (Iran, China, Russia) on the other side. There is much money to be made in arms dealing and in fomenting wars just like this and banks (that state they are "too big to fail") that deal in it for governments and contractors make huge money from it as well. It is literally the buying and selling of humanity for profit. The effects of climate change in this region are now sewing the seeds for terrorism and being conveniently ignored by those on all sides profiting from it.

For those who are not aware there is also a geopolitical race going on for resources due to new technologies (drone warfare as an example,) climate change (particularly drought in this region of the world affecting agriculture, prices and water) terrorism and competition between developed powers and those emerging like China and Iran. This is making a battlefield out of the world as they compete for these resources particularly natural gas using any means necessary to thwart the progress of the other. And make no mistake about it, climate change is playing a part in this geopolitical battle.

In Syria as in the entire Fertile Crescent drought and water shortages have been causing people in the thousands to be displaced as food and water become scarcer and deserts expand. This leads to the people rising up to demand action and in places in the Arab world that see strong footholds over power, this then leads to civil war and what we now see culminating in Syria with alliances aligning to take advantage of the circumstances to achieve their own geopolitical agenda at the expense of the people caught in the middle.

Syria is endemic of the failure of humanity to care for its people.

As far as the political end to this Assad is not a leader that the people of Syria deserve. Nor do I see these "rebels" as being much better. Perhaps and I know this is idealistic, but perhaps if just once we looked at these humanitarian disasters from a humanitarian point of view rather than a political one we just might be able to find a way to heal people instead of making the rift wider. We must beware of all sides in this because it would seem none of them are truly looking out for the human solution to this.

I fear many more will die as people continue to be used as pawns on this geopolitical chessboard. I find it disgusting to see that these crises continue to kill so many innocents all due to the fact that greed, ideology and religious intolerance have overcome common decency. A humanitarian crisis deserves an humanitarian response. What has transpired in Syria is a warning of what extreme climate change will bring to this world and how it will spiral out of control as long as the wrong people are in positions of leadership that do not have the consciousness to deal with it.

The international community should have seen what was transpiring in Syria long before this most current tragedy. I fear that as climate change gets more of a foothold in the world in places most vulnerable conflict over resources particularly water will be commonplace. Bombing and status quo political solutions must give way to 21st Century thinking that seeks to eliminate the root causes of these tragedies to avoid them. In a world where humanity actually took precedence over the chest beating ego driven political maniacs of this world we might stand a chance. That is the world we should be striving for and the world the people of Syria and all of us need to see in order to save ourselves.


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Also see:

Without Water, Revolution

How Climate Change Primed Syria For War

Syria, Water, Climate Change And Violent Conflict

Did Climate Change Cause The Syrian Uprising?

Excerpt:

A new study on the Arab Spring and Climate Change, finds evidence to suggest that it was not merely a coincidence that the Syrian revolution began just as the entire country was still struggling to survive after the worst drought ever recorded.

Between 2006 and 2011 nearly 60% of Syria experienced the worst drought ever, turning much of the country’s farmland into barren dust bowls, and resulting in a series of severe crop failures.

Due to the devastating drought and subsequent lack of food and water in rural areas hundreds of thousands fled to the cities, where existing problems were only exacerbated by the influx of new mouths to feed.

End of excerpt.

Syria: Climate Change, Drought And Social Unrest



Peak oil, climate change and pipeline geopolitics driving Syria conflict

Climate Change And The Syrian Uprising

SHAHRZAD MOHTADI

Two days short of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak's resignation, Al Jazeera published an article, headlined "A Kingdom of Silence," that contended an uprising was unlikely in Syria. The article cited the country's "popular president, dreaded security forces, and religious diversity" as reasons that the regime of Bashar al-Assad would not be challenged, despite the chaos and leadership changes already wrought by the so-called Arab Spring. Less than one month later, security forces arrested a group of schoolchildren in the Syrian city of Dara'a, the country's southern agricultural hub, for scrawling anti-government slogans on city walls. Subsequent protests illustrated the chasm between the regime's public image -- encapsulated in the slogan "Unity, Freedom and Socialism" -- and a reality of widespread public disillusion with Assad and his economic policies.

Among the many historical, political, and economic factors contributing to the Syrian uprising, one has been devastating to Syria, yet remains largely unnoticed by the outside world. That factor is the complex and subtle, yet powerful role that climate change has played in affecting the stability and longevity of the state.

The land now encompassed by Syria is widely credited as being the place where humans first experimented with agriculture and cattle herding, some 12,000 years ago. Today, the World Bank predicts the area will experience alarming effects of climate change, with the annual precipitation level shifting toward a permanently drier condition, increasing the severity and frequency of drought.

From 1900 until 2005, there were six droughts of significance in Syria; the average monthly level of winter precipitation during these dry periods was approximately one-third of normal. All but one of these droughts lasted only one season; the exception lasted two. Farming communities were thus able to withstand dry periods by falling back on government subsidies and secondary water resources. This most recent, the seventh drought, however, lasted from 2006 to 2010, an astounding four seasons -- a true anomaly in the past century. Furthermore, the average level of precipitation in these four years was the lowest of any drought-ridden period in the last century.

While impossible to deem one instance of drought as a direct result of anthropogenic climate change, a 2011 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regarding this recent Syrian drought states: "Climate change from greenhouse gases explained roughly half the increased dryness of 1902-2010." Martin Hoerling, the lead researcher of the study, explains: "The magnitude and frequency of the drying that has occurred is too great to be explained by natural variability alone. This is not encouraging news for a region that already experiences water stress, because it implies natural variability alone is unlikely to return the region's climate to normal." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming will induce droughts even more severe in this region in the coming decades.

It is estimated that the Syrian drought has displaced more than 1.5 million people; entire families of agricultural workers and small-scale farmers moved from the country's breadbasket region in the northeast to urban peripheries of the south. The drought tipped the scale of an unbalanced agricultural system that was already feeling the weight of policy mismanagement and unsustainable environmental practices. Further, lack of contingency planning contributed to the inability of the system to cope with the aftermath of the drought. Decades of poorly planned agricultural policies now haunt Syria's al-Assad regime.

End of excerpt.



A warning for the future. We dismiss climate change at our peril.

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Please give to Medicins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) if you wish to directly help the Syrian people.

Cruise missiles will not solve this.

Another World Water Day Gone

We see another World Water Day pass us by. The theme, Water For All, signifies that though some progress has been made we are woefully behin...