Saturday, February 15, 2014

Native Americans Speak Out Against Keystone XL Pipeline

UPDATE: 4-28-14:

Cowboy / Indian Alliance

Starting on Earth Day, April 22 and going through April 26, Native Americans, ranchers and Americans of all stripes came to Washington DC to stand up for our sacred land, water, and air. This is a photo compilation by activist and photographer Jenna Pope who always does incredible work. I admit I have days where I feel like giving up regarding this. However, seeing these pictures displaying such resolve and commaraderie has renewed my sense of hope that humanity will triumph.


By Jenna Pope

REJECT THE TARSANDS! SAVE OUR SACRED WATER!

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1-22-14



The Lakota Sioux tribe fears if the pipeline ruptures it could pollute the Cheyenne River and Ogallala aquifer The pipeline would carry crude from Canada's oil sands to the Gulf Coast refineries. But some Native Americans say they're worried an accident could pollute their sacred waters. Diane Eastabrook reports from the Black Hills of South Dakota. Al Jazeera America News Daily AM, Noon, & PM

For some reason Al Jazeera removed the original report.



They say if they have to they will stand to block construction. I stand with them. Should the Northern leg be approved it will be devastating to our water sources, health, land and climate. The Southern leg to the Gulf is already reportedly online! Politicians are not going to do what needs to be done because they are too beholding to their benefactors regardless of the words they say, Obama included. His "All Of The Above" energy policy exacerbates climate change which is also effecting water. You cannot tout such a policy and claim "climate change is a fact" with a straight face. This is why I stand with indigenous people against this and with them regarding their devotion to Earth. It is because they are sincere and truly love this land and do not have political motives. This is not just about climate destruction. This is also about respecting our water and the culture of our country. It is about preserving Earth for our present and future.



You Shall Not Pass!

Excerpt:

"An alliance of Native American communities has promised to block construction of the northern leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which, if approved by President Barack Obama, would carry crude tar sands oil from western Canada through the US to Texas.

In a joint statement entitled ‘No Keystone XL pipeline will cross Lakota lands,’ Honor the Earth, the Oglala Sioux Nation, Owe Aku, and Protect the Sacred declared their support for resistance action against energy corporation TransCanada’s building of the parts of the pipeline planned to cut through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska before meeting with a constructed line in Kansas. The existing line would then move the crude tar sands through Oklahoma and into Texas for refineries on the Gulf Coast.

"We stand with the Lakota Nation, we stand on the side of protecting sacred water, we stand for Indigenous land-based lifeways which will NOT be corrupted by a hazardous, toxic pipeline,” the groups said in the statement.

The groups said the Lakota Nation – a sovereign governmental body – is ready to step up.

“KXL will NOT cross their treaty territory, which extends past the reservation boundaries. Their horses are ready. So are ours.”

Information on this will be ongoing on this blog.



Tuesday, February 11, 2014

The Battle Of Britain -Period Of Consequences

UPDATE 2-22-14:



Science: One Big Greenhouse: May 28, 1956

Note: The following article appeared in Time Magazine in May of 1956. Excerpt from 1956 article in TIME Magazine:

(Bolding my emphasis)

"During the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), teams of scientists will take inventory of the earth’s CO2 and observe how it shifts between air and sea. They will try to find out whether the CO2 blanket has been growing thicker, and what the effect has been. When all their data have been studied, they may be able to predict whether man’s factory chimneys and auto exhausts will eventually cause salt water to flow in the streets of New York and London."

End of excerpt

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In the streets of New York and London. And even back then, governments refused to listen- and now we have seen that salt water in the streets of New York and London.

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UPDATE 2-15-14:

Fierce Storms Continue

River Levels Rise As Rain and Wind Sweep In



Extreme Weather Hits Hard Worldwide





Swamped Villagers Summon Wartime Spirit As Thames Floods

UK floods: Flood-hit areas in for 'long haul', says David Cameron





“The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.”

― Winston Churchill

This quote stated by Winston Churchill was in reference to a war, a battle Britain fought not too long ago for its existence against an evil enemy. It required a new found strength and courage to defeat unlike any before it. Britain now as well as the world faces a new battle, yet one that is also for our very existence. It is relentless, fierce, destructive and knows no boundaries. The courage and will required to defeat this enemy of our own making will require a strength even stronger than what Winston Churchill referred to in that famous quote. For the period of consequences we have now entered is unlike any seen before by the human species. An energy force so great made stronger by our folly that its effects now spread from pole to pole at a pace we can no longer outrun. This battle now raging in Britain is climate destruction made more destructive by political hubris and those so detached from reality as to think this is normal.

Met Office Scientist Says Climate Change To Blame For UK Storms

“All the evidence suggests that climate change has a role to play”

Dame Julia Slingo, Met Office chief scientist




January rainfall for S. England since 1910 (Met Office data) 2.8 standard deviations from the mean

Of course, once again we hear the same sad redundant chorus from those so arrogant to think they have no impact on this planet with their wasteful living as to continually use the red herring that an isolated flood happened in the 1600s flooding the same area with the same amount of rain. Do they honestly at this point in time expect people with a brain to think, eyes to see and those who have already experienced these consequences to not understand the true reason why anthropogenic climate destruction is so urgent now? Floods that happen 1-100 years means NOT EVERY YEAR. Not every FIVE YEARS. Not even EVERY TEN YEARS.

The pace of the climactic shifts and extremes we are now seeing on a more frequent basis covering a greater percentage of our planet is not normal and is not natural. The period of consequences we face as we now watch our world becoming warmer (despite some cold and snow on your street today) are consequences that have been brewing as we continually sit year after year in our pompous self importance thinking that nothing we do effects the planet or any other species that inhabits it.

Britain now as the rest of the world has a choice to make. Do they ignore these signs and continue with business as usual as more of their country drowns under the weight of their denial or do they wake up to the reality that is rising around them? For unlike the Battle of Britain that raged 74 years ago, this one is not going away. You can't shoot this enemy from the sky. Its attacks go to the very heart of what gives us the will to live. A hundred years from now when future generations look back on this Battle of Britain what will they say? Will they say that those living then were part of the greatest generation or the perpetuators of our own demise?

This is no time to engage in political stalling so that this can be excused as just a dredging issue or this or that to excuse it away. The bottomline is that the FACTS regarding what has been happening regarding our continued forcing upon this planet and these consequences have been known for decades and yet governments globally have REFUSED to shore up infrastructure and prepare for it. DO YOU THINK IT MIGHT BE TIME NOW?

Record 75 Foot Waves In Cornwall

London's Thames Breaches Banks As Wave Of Storms Pound Europe

Aerial Footage Of Thames Floods

Accustomed to Floods, but ‘Nothing Like This,’ in Southern England

“There have always been floods,” said Nancy Walker, 80, the oldest native resident of Muchelney, “but nothing like this.”

The flood of a century, officials have called it — again.

“They said it was a once-in-a-lifetime flood last year, but this year is worse,” said Elizabeth Nightingale, a retired doctor who has lived in the village for 34 years.

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...