Arctic Ice, Oceans, Climate And The Human Condition

As of this writing the Arctic ice continues its rapid melting (regardless of what parrots of denier websites claim) surpassing what was expected by scientists. Biodiversity continues to decrease as consumption increases. Strains upon our resources (particularly water) continue as population rises. Reports by the EIA state that energy consumption will increase by 56% by 2040. In other words, we the human species are affecting the Earth in ways we never have before. It is said we have entered a new epoch in history known as the Anthropocene Era where humans now control where this Earth goes based on our behavior. And yet, we still see no drastic action taking place on the part of governments including our own to aggressively address the crises that we face.

We are still debating, arguing and using politics as a crutch to not have to take action out of fear, complacency, comfort and greed. Environmental organizations tasked with holding governments accountable also play a partisan game that takes precedence over doing what is necessary. We already see that regarding the current administration. We have allowed politics and ego to take precedence over a true moral imperative with both sides seeming to find more pleasure in bickering over what is necessary regarding all of our survival and the survival of those to come than really doing something.

Which makes me wonder more times than I used to if we as a species are even capable of addressing crises such as what we now face with our climate. I really do not know how much clearer the warnings can be made: Humans are forcing the climate system as never before during our existence due to the overloading of our atmosphere and oceans with CO2 and other potent greenhouses gases like methane. This is pushing the hydrologic and carbon cycles beyond natural boundaries and leaving us living in a world where we are playing Russian Roulette with our very lives. We are in essence performing a scientific experiment without any regard for the precautionary principle or scientific ethics. Every day we continue to add to the CO2 pollution in our atmosphere is one more day in our future we can be assured we will see an exacerbation of this crisis.

NASA Video: This Is The US In 2100



Yet, we also hear nothing from deniers but that climate change stopped 16 years ago which was already debunked because well, the atmosphere isn't the only part of the world... unless of course, you are a cherry picker.

The Consensus Project

No Warming In 16 Years



Are the oceans not part of this world? If they have indeed been storing over 90% of CO2 emissions with us still seeing 2000-2010 as the hottest decade on record it is only a testament to the warming effect of greenhouse gases.

What we are also experiencing now are the time lag effects of the CO2 we have been emitting into the atmosphere for the last 100 plus years. This besides now seeing the effects of ocean acidification is not something to be dismissed, especially when using 16 years as a basis point when we have been seeing this much longer and warning of the effects since the 1800s.

What we have now put into motion should be the central concern, not quibbling over cherry picked points of reference skewing them to suit an agenda.

This is serious because what is now occurring globally is a direct reflection of what we have become and what we have forgotten about regarding our place on this Earth.

Each Degree Of Global Warming Might Ultimately Raise Global Sea Levels By More Than 2 Meters

NOAA Scientists Embark On Voyage To Assess Ocean Acidification

Biodiversity decline, record Arctic sea ice melt and loss, ocean acidification, drastic changes in jet stream affecting climate, aquifer depletion and peak oil are all leading us to our turning point as a species. Only 20% of current total fossil fuel reserves can be utilized to keep the world under the 2 degree C threshold that is said will bring upon us the tipping point.

Renewables Growing But World Still On Course To Smash 2 C-EIA

Warmer Conditions Cause Open Water Areas In The Arctic

There then appears to be no other answer to this at this point but civil disobedience against the status quo that is resolute in keeping business as usual regardless of the consequences and to disenthrall ourselves from the system we have built on greed where money means more than a sustainable planet.



On a brighter note I think we are beginning to see the signs of a shift in consciousness. The urgent question that needs to be asked however, is this shift happening at a pace that will outrun the pace of what we may now see as runaway climate change in this Anthropocene Era? I leave you to answer that.

Anti Fracking Activists In UK Arrested For Caring About Clean Water

Updates at this link: Frack Off



Sussex police have made several arrests at an oil drilling site near the village of Balcombe after local residents and anti-fracking activists attempted to block the delivery of machinery for a second day.

Activists said police removed people who had formed a human chain across gates to the rural West Sussex site where the energy company Cuadrilla, headed by the former BP chief Lord Browne, intends to start test drilling for oil next week.

A spokeswoman for Sussex police confirmed the arrests, believed to be of about nine people. It is understood the protesters also tried to blockade the gated entrance to the site on London Road using a tree.

On Thursday the protesters, who had gathered on the private road to the drilling site at the junction with London Road, had been warned by police that they would be committing an offence if they blocked trucks from entering. The alliance of environmentalists and local villagers succeeded in turning away at least one truck carrying parts for the drilling operation, which Cuadrilla says could result in controversial hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Sussex shale. Many camped overnight, but on Friday there was a heavier police presence, according to reports from campaigners.

"This morning there was quite a heavy police presence," said Andrew West from the campaign group Frack Off. "The trucks started to arrive again and a human chain was formed in front of the gates and the police have made the first arrests. People are really shocked it escalated so quickly."

This week the Environment Agency and the Department for Energy granted permits for oil exploration on the site to Cuadrilla, which also operates hydraulic fracturing rigs in Lancashire.

end of excerpt

Anti-Fracking Activists in UK Arrested

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Imagine this...Standing up to protect your land and water is a criminal offense, whereas toxifying that water that is a common as well as destroying forests, crops and anything else in their corporate path is not. Clearly the governments of the world in league with their corporate masters have gone certificably insane with greed.

Bravo for the people in Balcombe standing up and risking arrest for their children, their land and their water! I suppose all the "Royal Baby" media distractions haven't been able to mesmerize everyone.

And get ready, because as this becomes much more prevalent there WILL be more people standing up to protect their water despite the lies put out by the companies now looking to make profit off a totally UNNECESSARY form of energy that is anything but renewable or clean.

SAVE OUR WATER.

NUS Researchers Develop World's First Water Treatment Techniques Using Tomato And Apple Peels

NUS Researchers Develop World's First Water Treatment Techniques Using Tomato And Apple Peels

snip

The studies were conducted under the guidance of Associate Professor Suresh Valiyaveettil of the Department of Chemistry at the NUS Faculty of Science. The NUS team hopes that their water purification methods can benefit communities living in places where there is little electricity or resources to set up a water purification plant.

Scarcity of clean water

The scarcity of clean water is expected to worsen in the future due to over usage, lack of conservation methods and dwindling natural supply of clean water, even in countries with significant water resources.

Many hazardous pollutants enter the water supply through many channels, including waste disposal, industry effluent release or rain water drainage. Such pollutants need to be removed before the water can be consumed. However, most water purification technologies are not accessible to economically disadvantaged people around the world.

snip

Tomato peel: an efficient adsorbent for water purification

Tomato is the second most consumed vegetable in the world, with approximately 30 per cent consumed as processed products. The disposal of the tomato skin and its other fibrous materials is an economic waste for many food processing industries.

Mr Ramakrishna evaluated the effectiveness of tomato peel as an adsorbent by using different pollutants. He also studied the structure of the tomato peels to assess their efficiency as biomaterials to remove toxic metal ions and organic pollutants from water. In addition, factors such as the pH, nature and amount of adsorbent used for extraction were considered to establish the optimum conditions under which tomato peel could remove various pollutants from water.

His study revealed that tomato peels can effectively remove different contaminants in water, including dissolved organic and inorganic chemicals, dyes and pesticides, and they can also be used in large scale applications. The results were published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal RSC Advances in September 2012.

Apple peel: a biomass for water purification

In addition to tomato peels, Mr Ramakrishna also explored the viability of using the peels of apples for water purification, as apple peels are easily available as biowaste from food processing industries and they are biodegradable.

Similar to tomato peels, apple peels can also remove a range of dissolved water pollutants through the adsorption process. In order to enhance the ability of apple peels towards extraction of negatively charged pollutants, Mr Ramakrishna immobilised naturally occurring zirconium oxides onto the surface of apple peels. Zirconium loaded apple peels were found to be able to extract anions such as phosphate, arsenate, arsenite, and chromate ions from aqueous solutions. This method of water purification can also be used for large scale applications.

The findings are published in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces in May 2013.

Research findings to benefit communities living in remote villages

Both Mr Ramakrishna and Assoc Prof Suresh hope that the findings on the use apple and tomato peels for water purification can be applied to benefit economically and technologically disadvantaged farmers living in remote villages, who depend on contaminated ground water or local rivers for their daily water needs. They intend to work with non-governmental organisations to transfer their research findings and knowledge to benefit the people.

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I had also read something a while ago regarding banana peels as well. This could be a boon to developing areas where water is scarce. These are the solutions we need to see now.

What If Americans Only Had As Much Water As Families In Africa?

What If Americans Only Had As Much Water As Families In Africa?



What Is Your Water Footprint?

The average family in Africa gets by on only five gallons of water a day, according to this thought-provoking PSA video from bewaterwise.com, a project of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

The average American family (directly) uses 552 gallons of water a day, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Clearly, that is an inequality, and it may give U.S. consumers pause when it comes to wasting water.

End of excerpt.

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Our collective perception of what is valuable in this country needs a monumental shift.

House Republicans Propose Giving You Toxic Water And Dangerous Infrastructure

House Republicans Propose Giving You Toxic Water And Dangerous Infrastructure

I do not usually comment about Republicans because their total lack of morality and conscience gets my blood pressure up. Today however, I must make an exception because the bill they have proposed here is an abomination to all that is human. And for what? To assuage a political vendetta? It goes beyond my comprehension how people can be so morally bankrupt and riddled with hatred as to deliberately set out to kill their own people. That is exactly what this bill would do if passed.

Cutting 34% of the EPA budget and primarily all that has to do with clean water preservation and infrastructure as well as riders to prohibit passing of greenhouse gas rules? There is no justification for this especially at a time when water regulations are a must. Fracking waste, nitrogen pollution and run off, pesticides, aging infrastructure, effects of climate change such as floods, drought, storms all require funding and action.

However, I am not only angry at Republicans. I am angry at Obama because he came out and gave a speech stating that he recommended the EPA to go forward with greenhouse gas rules knowing Republicans would put up roadblocks thus stalling it. It is to me a classic political maneuver. Suggest something you know won't really be successful (even if you have the power to do more) but will ultimately make you look good by being able to point the finger while the goal you wanted to achieve is reached anyway. In this instance, continuation of the status quo allowing fracking and oil extraction under their "All Of The Above" policy.

I also find it curious that this bill was put out just days after confirming Gina McCarthy to head the EPA after waiting for over a hundred days to do it. Was this bill part of the compromise David Vetter said they came to in order for her to be confirmed? Let's face it people, politics is not about moral courage or doing the right thing. It is about compromise for the sake of those doing the wheeling and dealing not us.

If this bill is passed water safety is gone and the baby steps requested on climate change will more then likely not be taken on a scale or in a time frame needed for any sort of adequate results. But again, Obama must have known Republicans would put that rider in a bill to stop the EPA so where is his true executive action on climate change? This is what infuriates and frustrates me about the entire dysfunctional bought and sold political system of the USA which has now been renamed The United Corporate States Of America. Now all we will have is more partisan bickering back and forth while water and climate continue to suffer.

Rep Jim Moran walked out of the session of this bill, but he is only one person. Where are all the other representatives of any side with a conscience in joining him?

My question to anyone who voted for any of these people who now work to make this planet a hell on Earth for you and your children is this: What the hell were you thinking?

Global Threat To Food Supplies As Global Wells Dry Up

Global Threat To Food Supply As Global Wells Dry Up

BY JOHN VIDAL

LONDON – Wells are drying up and underwater tables falling so fast in the Middle East and parts of India, China and the United States that food supplies are seriously threatened, one of the world’s leading resource analysts warned on July 7.

In a major new essay, Lester Brown, head of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, claims that 18 countries, together containing half the world’s people, are now overpumping their underground water tables to the point — known as “peak water” — where they are not replenishing and where harvests are getting smaller each year.

The situation is most serious in the Middle East. According to Brown: “Among the countries whose water supply has peaked and begun to decline are Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. By 2016 Saudi Arabia projects it will be importing some 15 million tons of wheat, rice, corn and barley to feed its population of 30 million people. It is the first country to publicly project how aquifer depletion will shrink its grain harvest.

“The world is seeing the collision between population growth and water supply at the regional level. For the first time in history, grain production is dropping in a geographic region with nothing in sight to arrest the decline. Because of the failure of governments in the region to mesh population and water policies, each day now brings 10,000 more people to feed and less irrigation water with which to feed them.”

Brown warns that Syria’s grain production peaked in 2002 and since then has dropped 30 percent; Iraq has dropped its grain production 33 percent since 2004; and production in Iran dropped 10 percent between 2007 and 2012 as its irrigation wells started to go dry.

“Iran is already in deep trouble. It is feeling the effects of shrinking water supplies from overpumping. Yemen is fast becoming a hydrological basket case. Grain production has fallen there by half over the last 35 years. By 2015 irrigated fields will be a rarity and the country will be importing virtually all of its grain.”

There is also concern about falling water tables in China, India and the U.S., the world’s three largest food-producing countries. “In India, 175 million people are being fed with grain produced by overpumping, in China 130 million. In the United States the irrigated area is shrinking in leading farm states with rapid population growth, such as California and Texas, as aquifers are depleted and irrigation water is diverted to cities.”

Falling water tables are already adversely affecting harvest prospects in China, which rivals the U.S. as the world’s largest grain producer, says Brown. “The water table under the North China Plain, an area that produces more than half of the country’s wheat and a third of its maize is falling fast. Overpumping has largely depleted the shallow aquifer, forcing well drillers to turn to the region’s deep aquifer, which is not replenishable.”

The situation in India may be even worse, given that well drillers are now using modified oil-drilling technology to reach water half a mile or more deep.

End of excerpt

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I never thought I would see such times. I always thought that if people understood anything it was how important water was to our survival...

This is how the Arab Spring began. This is a big part of the civil war in Syria. This is what is the underlying basis for the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine... WATER. And it is now spreading to other parts of the world including the US. Farmers are having to fight multinational oil and gas companies to stop them from using water for fracking when we see severe persistent drought and decreases in food yield.

The lucrative hydro-power dam business that also affects agriculture combined with fracking and climate change effects as well as land-grabs and water privatization that see countries and companies grabbing land particularly in Africa to grow biofuels is pushing us to the breaking point as a species. I don't think the question is if that will happen now, but when. It is hard to look at all of this and not think we humans are just hard wired for self extinction.

Fukushima Radiation Spiking Suddenly- Media Blackout

Fukushima Spiking All Of A Sudden

"Perhaps you've heard that radiation levels of the water leaving the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear power plane and flowing into the Pacific Ocean have risen by roughly 9,000 per cent. Turns out, that's probably putting a good face on it.

By official measurement, the water coming out of Fukushima is currently 90,000 times more radioactive than officially "safe" drinking water.

These are the highest radiation levels measured at Fukusmima since March 2011, when an earthquake-triggered tsunami destroyed the plant's four nuclear reactors, three of which melted down.

As with all nuclear reporting, precise and reliable details are hard to come by, but the current picture as of July 10 seems to be something like this:

" On July 5, radiation levels at Fukushima were what passes for "normal," which means elevated and dangerous, but stable, according to measurements by the owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

" On July 8, radiation levels had jumped about 90 times higher, as typically reported. TEPCO had no explanation for the increase.

" On July 9, radiation levels were up again from the previous day, but at a slower rate, about 22 per cent. TEPCO still had no explanation.

" On July 10, Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) issued a statement saying that the NRA strongly suspects the radioactive water is coming from Fukushima's Reactor #1 and is going into the Pacific."

End of excerpt

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The Fukushima Daiichi power plant blew up two years ago. Only two years ago and yet we are continually given the impression there is nothing wrong. The biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl and the media treats it as if it were a firecracker.

I simply cannot comprehend what has happened to the human race. We seem to care more about what Kim Kardashian or Kate Middleton name their baby rather than one of the worst disasters to ever hit our globe and how it is effecting our lives!

The information in this report is alarming. It needs to be read and researched. People need to understand how much lying is going on in trying to seemingly cover up just how bad these leaks really are and that the water they stated was being contained is still leaking out into the Pacific Ocean.

NOAA animation of US West Coast

Take a look at this and tell me this doesn't alarm or at the very least concern you. Yet, not one word from our own government on this and how it is also effecting our own coastline. All I can say is, if you eat tuna, I would be much more inquisitive regarding where it comes from.

Between this, the Gulf ecocide and the huge amounts of toxins, poisons and greenhouse gases being absorbed into the oceans as well as the plastic cr** clogging up the gyres it is no wonder Mother Earth is rebelling against us.

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Fukushima Diary

Good source for truth.

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One good thing coming from this.

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But again, what are we not being told about contamination of our food and water?