Dry Planet

A Future of Thirst: Massive Worldwide Water Crisis Lies on the Horizon

The next time your throat is as dry as a bone and the Sun is beating down, take a glass of clean, cool water.

Savour it. Sip by sip.

Vital and appreciated as that water is, it will be even more precious to those who will follow you.

By the end of this century, billions are likely to be gripped by water stress and the stuff of life could be an unseen driver of conflict.

So say hydrologists who forecast that on present trends, freshwater faces a double crunch -- from a population explosion, which will drive up demand for food and energy, and the impact of climate change.

World maps showing water resources, energy consumption and regional hydroelectric potentional

/AFP World maps showing water resources, energy consumption and regional hydroelectric potentional

"Approximately 80 percent of the world's population already suffers serious threats to its water security, as measured by indicators including water availability, water demand and pollution," the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in a landmark report in March.

"Climate change can alter the availability of water and therefore threaten water security."

Already today, around 768 million people do not have access to a safe, reliable source of water and 2.5 billion do not have decent sanitation. Around a fifth of the world's aquifers are depleted.

Jump forward in your imagination to mid-century, when the world's population of about 7.2 billion is expected to swell to around 9.6 billion.

By then, global demand for water is likely to increase by a whopping 55 percent, according to the United Nations' newly published World Water Development Report.

More than 40 percent of the planet's population will be living in areas of "severe" water stress, many of them in the broad swathe of land that runs along north Africa, the Middle East and western South Asia.

Yet these scenarios do not take into account changes in rainfall or snowfall or glacier shrinkage caused by global warming.

- Wetter or drier -

As a very general rule, wet countries will get wetter and dry countries will get drier, accentuating risk of flood or drought, climate scientists warn.

But whether people will heed their alarm call is a good question.

"When seismologists talk about an area at risk from an earthquake, people generally accept what they say and refrain from building their home there," says French climatologist Herve Le Treut.

"But when it comes to drought or flood, people tend to pay less attention when the warning comes from meteorologists."

Water squabbles in the hot, arid sub-tropics have a long history. In recent years, the Tigris, Euphrates and Nile have all been the grounds for verbal sparring over who has the right to build dams, withhold or extract "blue gold" to the possible detriment of people downstream.

End of excerpt.



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It has been stated many times on this blog and I will state it again: The global water crisis is the most crucial urgent crisis mankind is now facing on our planet. Without water there is no food, no life. As we now see the effects of anthropogenic climate change taking effect upon a greater portion of the Earth this is now becoming known firsthand by people who up until now would never think about water. Water is the one resource mankind has taken most for granted and we are now paying for it.

Aquifer depletion in India, Asia, Africa and right here in the US (the Ogalalla aquifer) is putting our ability to sustain ourselves at risk. Rainfall pattern changes ( places like India, Pakistan etc. have already seen this regarding monsoons as well as much of the world with more extreme rainfall in quicker time spans) amplification of evaporation rates, more severe and prolonged droughts, glacier melt affecting access to water resources for millions, sea level rise as well as increased building of dams and acidification of our oceans are all factors as well as our own wasteful consumptive habits that are now bringing the Earth to a place where the habitability of the human race and other species is clearly in danger.

Case in point: Water Extraction Boosts California Earthquake Risk (San Andreas Fault)

Will our relentless thirst bring on the big one? Also then, would this not also apply to our rapacious depletion of fossil fuels from our Earth as we dig deeper to satisfy our addiction? It has never been more imperative than it is now for all of us to become aware of the reality the global water crisis presents in our lives today and the role we play in it. Like the climate crisis it is not a far flung crisis that we have time to ignore. For the last eight years I have been doing my best on this blog to bring that reality to as many people as possible. Please pass it on. The future is now the present. A world without water (and yes, that is possible when you consider physical scarcity as well as lack of access due to climate change) in places where it is needed most to grow food is a slow death for biodiversity and our oceans. This is real and it is serious.

Also, be wary of the motivations of governments making the water crisis a focal point. Geopolitical advantage regarding water resources (as we are now seeing regarding natural gas) may well also lead to more conflict. I sincerely doubt altruistic motivations on their part in whole regarding this crisis. One need only look at the current situation in the Ukraine and the other regions regarding competing for hegemony regarding natural gas resources and in the Arctic where the melting sea ice is actually facilitating their geopolitical motivations to control the very resource exacerbating this crisis.

Look beyond the barriers we place up in order to prolong facing reality. Conserve, speak out for those less fortunate and against the privatization of our water resources and those dirty energy sources wasting and poisoning our water and above all cherish the lifeblood of our Earth. This crisis like the climate crisis will not be solved without humanity at its core. We truly are running out of time.

Also see:

Facing The Freshwater Crisis

1 In 10 People To Face Water Scarcity If Greenhouse Gas Emissions Continue

Global Water Shortages Grow Worse, Nations Have Few Answers

Global Threat To Food Supplies As Wells Dry Up

Source of Life Running Out

Drop In US Underground Water Levels Has Accelerated: USGS

The Root Causes Of Violence In Syria: Climate Change & Water

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Good Blog Posts-Environment

My post can also be found here. Thank you!

Update: Collapse Of Parts of West Antarctica Ice Sheet Has Begun

UPDATE:5-20-14: Doubling of Antarctic ice loss revealed by European satellite

It was also the European model that predicted Hurricane Sandy exactly.

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How does it feel to be the generation watching the beginning of the extinction of the human species? Even though these glaciers may not totally melt for a couple more centuries the rise in sea level brought by them now is already affecting coastlines and that means affecting us. So the next time you hear anyone say humans aren't pushing this or that "Antarctic ice is increasing" you will know they are lying to you by omission by design. There is a difference in land ice and sea ice in Antarctica and the dynamics of that is not known nor cared about by the Rush Limbaughs of the world.

This isn't about your politics or your portfolios. This is about survival. As we all know when faced with imminent harm to ourselves/danger to our lives and especially our children (ever see a mother defend her child?) and those we love we humans go into preservation mode in an attempt to save our lives and especially the lives of those we love. That mechanism is part of our DNA. This is one hell of a time to forget that.

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Scientists Warn of Rising Oceans From Polar Melt

A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists reported on Monday. If the findings hold up, they suggest that the melting could destabilize neighboring parts of the ice sheet and a rise in sea level of 10 feet or more may be unavoidable in coming centuries.

Global warming caused by the human-driven release of greenhouse gases has helped to destabilize the ice sheet, though other factors may also be involved, the scientists said.

The rise of the sea is likely to continue to be relatively slow for the rest of the 21st century, the scientists added, but in the more distant future it may accelerate markedly, potentially throwing society into crisis.

“This is really happening,” Thomas P. Wagner, who runs NASA’s programs on polar ice and helped oversee some of the research, said in an interview. “There’s nothing to stop it now. But you are still limited by the physics of how fast the ice can flow.”

Two scientific papers released on Monday by the journals Science and Geophysical Research Letters came to similar conclusions by different means. Both groups of scientists found that West Antarctic glaciers had retreated far enough to set off an inherent instability in the ice sheet, one that experts have feared for decades. NASA called a telephone news conference Monday to highlight the urgency of the findings.

The West Antarctic ice sheet sits in a bowl-shaped depression in the earth, with the base of the ice below sea level. Warm ocean water is causing the ice sitting along the rim of the bowl to thin and retreat. As the front edge of the ice pulls away from the rim and enters deeper water, it can retreat much faster than before.

In one of the new papers, a team led by Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine, used satellite and air measurements to document an accelerating retreat over the past several decades of six glaciers draining into the Amundsen Sea region. And with updated mapping of the terrain beneath the ice sheet, the team was able to rule out the presence of any mountains or hills significant enough to slow the retreat.

“Today we present observational evidence that a large sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet has gone into irreversible retreat,” Dr. Rignot said in the NASA news conference. “It has passed the point of no return.”

snip

Scientists said the ice sheet was not melting because of warmer air temperatures, but rather because relatively warm water that occurs naturally in the depths of the ocean was being pulled to the surface by an intensification, over the past several decades, of the powerful winds that encircle Antarctica.

And while the cause of the stronger winds is somewhat unclear, many researchers consider human-induced global warming to be a significant factor. The winds help to isolate Antarctica and keep it cold at the surface, but as global warming proceeds, that means a sharper temperature difference between the Antarctic and the rest of the globe. That temperature difference provides further energy for the winds, which in turn stir up the ocean waters.

snip

Richard B. Alley, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University who was not involved in the new research but has studied the polar ice sheets for decades, said he found the new papers compelling. Though he had long feared the possibility of ice-sheet collapse, when he learned of the new findings, “it shook me a little bit,” Dr. Alley said.

He added that while a large rise of the sea may now be inevitable from West Antarctica, continued release of greenhouse gases will almost certainly make the situation worse. The heat-trapping gases could destabilize other parts of Antarctica as well as the Greenland ice sheet, potentially causing enough sea-level rise that many of the world’s coastal cities would eventually have to be abandoned.

“If we have indeed lit the fuse on West Antarctica, it’s very hard to imagine putting the fuse out,” Dr. Alley said. “But there’s a bunch more fuses, and there’s a bunch more matches, and we have a decision now: Do we light those?”

End of excerpt

(Bolding my emphasis)


A NASA animation shows glacier changes detected in the highly dynamic Amundsen Embayment of West Antarctica.
Publish Date May 12, 2014

Also see:



West Antarctic Ice Sheet Stability

Water In The Anthropocene

Satellite Data Shows Sea Level Rise

Update: Mysterious Cluster Of Birth Defects In Washington State- Is It The Water?

UPDATE:5-20-14:

Changes in confirmed plus borderline cases of congenital hypothyroidism in California as a function of environmental fallout from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown

"The findings support research that the fetal thyroid gland is particularly vulnerable to adverse health effects from radiation exposure. The fetal thyroid, the first glandular structure to appear in the human embryo [20] begins to concentrate iodine and produce thyroid hormones by the 70th day of gestation. Proper brain development is dependent upon adequate thyroid function [21].

This report addressed doses to California fetuses from the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant. While official US government data includes a limited number of measurements of radioactive iodine concentrations in air, water, or other environmental media, most of the highest levels were found in the western US. Our use of gross beta concentrations in air is less specific, as gross beta includes multiple beta-emitting radioactive chemicals, not just iodine, but also Cesium-137 and other radioisotopes. Our finding that the actual vs. expected ratio in California airborne beta in the month after Fukushima fallout arrived were over four times greater than in non-western sites (10.53 vs. 2.55 times above the expected) supports the understanding that the western and Pacific US received the greatest exposures, raising risk of subsequent adverse health effects. Measuring deciduous teeth for concentrations of Strontium-90, taken up late in pregnancy and after birth, is used to measure exposure. Studies of Sr-90 from atom bomb test fallout, the Chernobyl meltdown, and near reactors in the US and UK have provided valuable data on actual doses to humans [22-28].

More studies on potential adverse health effects to the thyroid gland, in areas proximate to and far from the Fukushima plant, are urgently needed. Japan’s Fukushima Medical College is tracking local children under age 18. The project has already documented the presence of a thyroid nodule or cyst in 43.6% of 94,426 of these children [29]. It has also diagnosed 44 thyroid cancer cases since March 2011 out of 178,000 children 0 - 18 tested an annual rate of over 12 cases per 100,000 persons vs. an expected annual rate based on the analysis of the Japan Cancer Surveillance Group of 0.15 per 100,000 in 2005 [30]. This is a remarkably high Standardised Incidence Ratio of 80. More suspected child cancers have not yet been confirmed [31].

Studies should not be limited to the Fukushima area because doses in distant locations may be lower. Fallout from the meltdown crossed the Pacific Ocean and reached the US west coast in five [5] days, eventually circling the entire northern hemisphere. Thus, many were exposed to relatively low doses of Fukushima radioactivity—which nonetheless pose a risk to human health. In its last two reports on the topic, the Committee on Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) concluded a linear no-threshold dose response exists between radiation and health risk, and upheld the heightened sensitiveity of the fetus and infant [32,33]. Stewart and others demonstrated a near-doubling of childhood cancer mortality risk after exposure to in utero pelvic X-rays during pregnancy [34-36]. The US Institute of Medicine and National Research Council estimated as many as 212,000 Americans developed thyroid cancer after fetal/infant/ childhood exposure to relatively low-dose radioactive I-131 from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests over the Nevada desert [37,38].

5. CONCLUSION Although less than three years have elapsed since the meltdown, health effects of low-dose exposures from fallout should be analyzed, especially for those in the earliest stages of life. Health status measures after March 2011 such as infant deaths, neonatal deaths, birth defects, stillbirths, low-weight births, premature births, and cancers in the first year of life can be analyzed. Short-term findings of the young can serve as a warning about potential long-term adverse health effects on populations of all ages."

End of excerpt

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Didn't know these tests were being performed? Well why would you? The US media is doing a terrific job of blacking out any news regarding Fukushima and its potential after effects. The downplaying of the effects of Fukushima in the US is now beyond suspicious. It is downright criminal. Do these findings in any way have a link to the cluster of birth defects in Washington state? I would think those charged with finding the answers would at least be questioning this. Of course, as with the fossil fuel and chemical industries the nuclear industry is constantly given cover as well by governments and the media. To me it is insidious how this is being swept under the rug and how their minions now come out to downplay the effects of the Fukushima implosion as if it were a firecracker that went off rather than a complete meltdown.Add the potential for after effects of this to the clear danger of what is happening at Hanford and you have a potential for consequences that the parties in play obviously do not want us privy to. Thankully not all are easily silenced.



Doctors Unsure What's Behind Dramatic Increase in Birth Defects In Rural Washington

"As state and federal officials document the alarming rise of deadly birth defects in rural Washington, health experts are at a loss when it comes to pinpointing the source of the problem.

In the three years prior to January 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found there had been 23 cases of anencephaly – a birth defect in which a child is born without parts of their brain or skull – reported in three Washington counties: Benton, Franklin and Yakima. This rate of 8.4 cases per 10,000 live births quickly attracted the attention of health officials, especially since it’s four times the national average

Anencephaly wasn’t the only severe birth defect confirmed by the CDC, however. Three cases of spina bifida were also uncovered, a condition that involves the failure of a baby’s spine and brain to develop properly.

Since the publication of the report last year, another eight or nine cases of anencephaly and spina bifida have been reported by Susie Ball, a counselor at the Central Washington Genetics Program.

The most worrisome aspect of the whole situation isn’t simply the increased rate of the defects, but the fact that no one is quite sure what’s causing the problem. According to a report by NBC News, the CDC inspected the medical records of hundreds of individuals, looking for disparities between mothers whose children suffered birth defects and those whose children were fine.

Despite examining disease history, the types of medication taken, the source of the water used by mothers, and other factors, the research ultimately yielded disappointing results.

“No statistically significant differences were identified between cases and controls, and a clear cause of the elevated prevalence of anencephaly was not determined,” the CDC report stated.

While some experts, such as the CDC’s Jim Kucik, speculate that the cluster of defects could simply be an unfortunate coincidence, others pointed out that since the investigation did not include interviews of the mothers due to lack of funds, crucial information could have been missed."

End of excerpt

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"crucial information could have been missed."... You think?

This is alarming to me. Take a look at this:



Possible New Leak at Hanford Nuclear Waste Site



Do they truly think that radioactive leaks underground recognize barbed wired fences?

This is the US Fukushima!

Believe the government about this? Highly radioactive waste has been leaking for years into groundwater and the Columbia River and yet the government says no contamination to humans from leaks? Do they really think we are that stupid? Hanford is also located in Benton County, Washington. Benton county along with Yakima and Franklin counties are the three counties where this cluster is located. Yet, even this report filed by the CDC never even mentions it. They talk about pregnant women getting the required amount of folic acid. Now, even if these women did not get enough folic acid would it alone have had the effect it has had as I am sure there are women who are pregnant in every other county in Washington needing folic acid and yet we aren't seeing this in any other county (at least not being reported.) Also, don't pregnant women in general need this information because folic acid deficiency can be found in every state?

Counties in Washington State

I also took a look at a report filed by the Washington State Dept. of Health that stated the following : "Residential address during pregnancy used to determine use of public or private well water supply." The address only? Were actual tests done on the water? They remand that responsibility to the residents!

Twenty three cases of anecephaly between January 2010-January 2013 with 8.4 cases for 10,000 births. The national average is 2.1 per 10,000 births and I think that is even too high. How many babies are born in the US every year? Take that number adding 2.1 for every 10,000 births and it is obvious that the human species is hellbent on destroying itself.

When I first read about this I have to admit my mind first went to Fukushima. There is no doubt there are effects from Fukushima also impacting the states along the West Coast: Professor: Concerns Fukushima is impacting Alaska;“Unusual animals showing up dead… Seals with unknown disease… first cases of avian cholera” — NOAA: ‘Rare whale beachings’ in Alaska under investigation — Japan Paper: Mysterious sea creatures found one after another along coast (PHOTOS). I even thought it could be the increased use of pesticides, particularly the herbicide glyphosate (Round Up) which has been found to effect the brains of fish. It could be one or all of these. The point here is that I believe we are once again seeing a blackout of the elephant sitting in the room.

Our waterways nationwide are contaminated with poisons, pesticides nuclear waste, oil, coal slurry, plastic. The excrement of our greed, excess and apathy. Hanford is staring us in the face and it is time we start asking questions. How unlikely is it that it has absolutely nothing to do with it? There is a slight chance, but as you read through this and watch the video I think that chance becomes slimmer.

On Mother's Day we pay tribute to the one woman in our lives who sacrificed so much for us and who loves us unconditionally. No mother should have to see her baby born without a cranium or a spine. No mother should have to worry about the water she drinks. No mother should have to live with the constant fear that her baby will be born stillborn because we decided that the water she was ingesting or the air she was breathing was not as important as the profit made from poisoning it! I am going to keep on looking for information on this story and will be adding it here. There are too many other toxic legacies left behind by us to simply relegate this to coincidence and we should care about finding answers.

Also see: 50 Reasons We Should Fear the Worst from Fukushima

Because you need to know what the media and the government will not tell you to be aware in order to protect those you love and speak out for change.

Ocean Acidity Is Dissolving Shells Of Tiny Snails Off U.S. West Coast

Ocean acidity is dissolving shells of tiny snails off U.S. West Coast

A NOAA-led research team has found the first evidence that acidity of continental shelf waters off the West Coast is dissolving the shells of tiny free-swimming marine snails, called pteropods, which provide food for pink salmon, mackerel and herring, according to a new paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Researchers estimate that the percentage of pteropods in this region with dissolving shells due to ocean acidification has doubled in the nearshore habitat since the pre-industrial era and is on track to triple by 2050 when coastal waters become 70 percent more corrosive than in the pre-industrial era due to human-caused ocean acidification.

The new research documents the movement of corrosive waters onto the continental shelf from April to September during the upwelling season, when winds bring water rich in carbon dioxide up from depths of about 400-600 feet to the surface and onto the continental shelf.

"Our findings are the first evidence that a large fraction of the West Coast pteropod population is being affected by ocean acidification," said Nina Bednarsek, Ph.D., of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, the lead author of the paper. "Dissolving coastal pteropod shells point to the need to study how acidification may be affecting the larger marine ecosystem. These nearshore waters provide essential habitat to a great diversity of marine species, including many economically important fish that support coastal economies and provide us with food."

The term "ocean acidification" describes the process of ocean water becoming corrosive as a result of absorbing nearly a third of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from human sources. This change in ocean chemistry is affecting marine life, particularly organisms with calcium carbonate skeletons or shells, such as corals, oysters, mussels, and small creatures in the early stages of the food chain such as pteropods. The pteropod is a free-swimming snail found in oceans around the world that grows to a size of about one-eighth to one-half inch.

End of excerpt

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When we connect the dots of the food chain and see where it ends we understand just how important it is to relay information about ocean acidification. I don't only think of this as a food chain but also as the web of life. When we deplete, pollute and acidify our oceans to the point where more rungs on the food chain ladder are affected- so will we also be effected as part of that web. Without our oceans we don't have marine life and we don't have humans.

Do you ever wonder what it is like to be a snail and to have your shell dissolve? How about acid dissolving your own skin? How do you think it feels for fish swimming in these waters with increased acidity and in many cases depleted oxygen? Do you ever connect the dots to ponder the domino effect of placing your key in your SUV ignition and starting it? If you don't I think perhaps it is time to do so. Fossil fuel burning, deforestation, energy generation, land use all tied to our rate of resource consumption is now having a detrimental effect on the ecosystems that support all life.

Of course, in our busy distracted lives we rarely have time to contemplate our place in this world. However, when you consider the enormous amount of species that share this planet with us and that our actions our now endangering their very lives and in turn our own how can you not care about that? It really is all connected.

Also see:

The Oceans Warmed Up Sharply In 2013

The Ocean Is Broken

Thousands of Starfish Melting On the Ocean Floor Off Pacific West Coast

Oceans In Critical Shape From Cumulative Impacts

Ocean Acidification Poised To Radically Affect Arctic

Rising Acid In Oceans Is Worsening Industry Toxins

Our Oceans Have Acidified More In Last 200 Years Than The Previous 21,000 Years

Oceans-Celebrating The Source Of All Life On Earth

Reefs At Risk

California Drought Getting Worse- Linked to Global Warming

Native Americans Speak Out Against Tarsands

Updated April 28th. It is all connected.



And where was Obama? In Malaysia pushing the TPP. Our voices being heard has never been more needed!

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California Drought Linked To Global Warming

By SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — While researchers have sometimes connected weather extremes to man-made global warming, usually it's not done in real time. Now a study is asserting a link between climate change and both the intensifying California drought and the polar vortex blamed for a harsh winter that mercifully has just ended in many places.

The Utah State University scientists involved in the study say they hope what they found can help them predict the next big weird winter.

snip

The United States just came out of a two-faced winter — bitter cold and snowy in the Midwest and East, warm and severely dry in the West. The latest U.S. drought monitor says 100 percent of California is in an official drought.

The new study blames an unusual "dipole," a combination of a strong Western high pressure ridge and deep Great Lakes low pressure trough. That dipole is linked to a recently found precursor to El Nino, the world-weather changing phenomenon. And that precursor itself seems amplified by a build-up of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, the study says.

It's like a complex game of weather dominos that starts with cold water off China and ends with a devastating drought and memorable winter in the United States, said study author Simon Wang, a Utah State University climate scientist.

Wang was looking at colder water off China as a precursor to an El Nino. The colder water there triggers westerly winds in the tropical Pacific. Those westerly winds persist for several months and eventually push warmed up water and air to the central Pacific where an El Nino forms, Wang said.

An El Nino is a warming of the central Pacific once every few years, from a combination of wind and waves in the tropics. It shakes up climate around the world, changing rain and temperature patterns. Wang saw the precursors and weather event coming months before federal weather officials issued an official El Nino watch last month.

Then Wang noticed the connection between that precursor — cold water off China, Vietnam and Taiwan — and the recent wild winter. He tracked similar combinations of highs and lows in North America. And he found those combination extremes are getting stronger.

Wang based his study, soon to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, on computer simulations, physics and historical data. It is not as detailed and doesn't involve numerous computer model simulations as more formal attribution studies. Still, Wang said his is a proper connection.

Wang compared computer simulations with and without gases from the burning of fossil fuels. When he included carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use, he got a scenario over the past few decades that mirrored what has happened, including this past weird winter and other worsening dipole conditions. When he took out the greenhouse gases, the increasing extremes actually went down — not what happened in real life.

"We found a good link and the link is becoming stronger and stronger," Wang said.

End of excerpt



The Explosive Growth Of California's Drought In One Chart

It didn’t seem possible, but California's drought just got worse. On Thursday, the U.S. Drought Monitor released new data that show every single inch of the state is now experiencing some form of drought.

Since mid-March, a sliver of California on its southeastern border was the lone drought holdout for the state. Even then, that section of the state was still considered abnormally dry according to the Drought Monitor. The section finally tipped into drought this week, and for the first time in 15 year-history of the Drought Monitor, the entire state is now in drought.

The growth of the drought is clearly on display in the graphic above. While some form of drought covered much of the state through 2013, this winter led to an explosion of drought across the entire state. Extreme drought covered roughly a quarter of the state in early January 2014. But by mid-January, the percentage of the state in extreme drought jumped to nearly 65 percent as winter rains and snows failed to materialize and hot weather baked the state.

snip

A persistent blocking ridge of high pressure is what kept California hot and dry all winter, which is typically the state’s wet season. What little snow that fell in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which acts as a natural reservoir through spring, declined precipitously in the past 10 days and could create further drought woes for the state. Melting snow can also contribute to tumultuous wildfire seasons by drying out the ground and vegetation that can feed blazes. That’s a daunting prospect for Californian’s and visitors to Yosemite National Park with last year’s Rim Fire still fresh on their minds.

Though parts of the state are receiving rain and snow on Friday, it’s unlikely to dent the drought. And with the rainy season basically done until late fall, the prospects for relief are scarce. That means drought conditions are likely to persist or could even worsen through the summer.

End of excerpt

In California drought, big money, many actors, little oversight

This can no longer be just about the money!

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As the dots continue to be connected we see the drought getting worse to the point where 100% of California is now in moderate to extreme drought. What will it take? A mass exodus of climate refugees from California as has already happened in Syria due to their current climate change induced drought and civil war? Think it can't happen here?

Humans also aren't the only species at risk:

California drought putting fish, birds and tree species at risk, scientists say

By Edward Ortiz

California’s drought is imperiling tricolored blackbirds, large trees and native fish, with some of the affected species already on the state’s endangered list and others likely headed there because of rapidly declining numbers, scientists say.

“The problems created by the drought are just a harbinger of things to come,” said Peter Moyle, a professor at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, which hosted a daylong Capitol summit Friday on economic and environmental costs of the drought.

“Native fishes and the ecosystems that support them are incredibly vulnerable to drought,” Moyle said. “There are currently 37 species of fish on the endangered species list in California – and there is every sign that that number will increase,” he said.

Eighty percent of those species face extinction by the year 2100 if present trends continue, Moyle said.

Native fish are able to weather natural drought years, but the development of the state’s water system has created the equivalent of perpetual drought conditions for many species, he said.

The state has 47 animal species on its endangered list, another 36 listed as “threatened,” plus six that are candidates for inclusion on one of the lists, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

One species that could end up on the candidate list is the tricolored blackbird, said Robert Meese, of UC Davis’ Department of Environmental Science and Policy.

“The tricolored blackbird may not be on the endangered list yet, but the drought is definitely having an effect,” Meese said. “The birds have not been reproducing.”

Reproduction declines have been noticed since 2007, before the drought, Meese said, but recent counts have shown even steeper declines. A statewide survey of tricolored blackbirds, known for their red shoulder patch with a bright white stripe, was recently concluded and the results are due out in three weeks.

“I suspect that survey will be on the order of 120,000 birds,” Meese said. “That is less than half of what was seen in 2011, and about 75 percent less than what was seen in 2008.”

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The day this Earth goes silent with the song of birds we will know it is finished. This is beyond sad and criminal. I believe it is one reason why man continues to be out of balance- because we have forgotten our connection to all other species and that we are just one among millions. Saving water is a matter of survival for ALL LIFE. We are constantly told we need to stop burning fossil fuels, but like spoiled children we continue to do what we know will bring on the silence. This is not just a human crisis and it is arrogant to say that. This is about all species on Earth. Once the chain is broken it is only a matter of time before it all unravels.



Don't be silent.

Also see:

California Drought: San Joaquin Valley Sinking As Farmers Race To Tap Aquifer

California Drought: 17 Communities Could Run Out of Water Within 60 To 120 days/Updates

The "Polar Vortex" Freezing Us Today Due In Part To Global Warming

1 In 10 People To Face Water Scarcity If Greenhouse Gas Emissions Continue

World Bank Wants Water Privitized, Despite Risks

WORLD BANK WANTS WATER PRIVATIZED, DESPITE RISKS

The World Bank Group pushes privatization as a key solution to the water crisis. It is the largest funder of water management in the developing world, with loans and financing channeled through the group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). Since the 1980s, the IFC has been promoting these water projects as part of a broader set of privatization policies, with loans and financing tied to enacting austerity measures designed to shrink the state, from the telecom industry to water utilities.

But international advocacy and civil society groups point to the pockmarked record of private-sector water projects and are calling on the World Bank Group to end support for private water.

In the decades since the IFC’s initial push, we have seen the results of water privatization: It doesn’t work. Water is not like telecommunications or transportation. You could tolerate crappy phone service, but have faulty pipes connecting to your municipal water and you’re in real trouble. Water is exceptional.

Private sector priorities

“Water is a public good,” Shayda Naficy, the director of the International Water Campaign at Corporate Accountability International (CAI), told me, “for which inequality has to fall within a certain range — or it means life and death.” When the private sector engages in water provision, greater disparities in access and cost follow.

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It is criminal to privatize water as water is a natural substance free to all who inhabit the Earth. Privatizing this exceptional resource brings social, economic and environmental stress to regions already afflicted with water scarcity as well as decreases in water quality as profits are used to benefit the company not the users. It brings thirst and death to the poor in developing countries who cannot afford it. Water should never be an elitist commodity only for the rich to exploit.

The World Bank has been involved in the privatization of water for years even while it now touts being concerned about climate change. The two are not mutually exclusive-you cannot say you are concerned about climate change while pushing privatization of water resources...unless of course, you are using climate change to benefit yourself through water privatization. Subsistence farmers depend on access to water in order to grow food and live. Water is the life blood of our world. To seek to keep it accessible only to those who can afford your price especially in an age of extreme drought and climate change when more are at risk is evil in the extreme.

"No problem can be solved with the same level of consciousness that created it." Albert Einstein.

Dried Up, Sold Out (How the World Bank’s Push for Private Water Harms the Poor)

We the people must continue to fight for water access to all, free of corporate interference.

Remember, who controls the water then controls the seeds and then your life.

NEVER FORGET COCHABAMBA.





Take Action:

Tell the World Bank: Divest From Private Water

Make no mistake. This is a war.

Fifty Years On, Rachel Carson Still Speaks To Us

Breaking the waves: Carson in 1962. Photo: Getty Images

Fifty years on, we should celebrate the sea writings of Rachel Carson

Fifty years on, we should celebrate the sea writings of Rachel Carson

With Silent Spring, Rachel Carson helped to launch the modern ecology movement – but it is her sea trilogy that captures her spirit.

BY JOHN BURNSIDE PUBLISHED 14 APRIL, 2014 - 17:24

It is 50 years since Rachel Carson died, her indomitable spirit finally exhausted by a long struggle with cancer and by a necessary but disheartening battle against the smear campaigns, misinformation and outright lies of the chemical industry she had challenged in her book Silent Spring. In 1964, it must have seemed that she had died victorious: the blanket spraying of DDT had ceased and a new wave of environmental awareness had taken hold, first in the United States and then worldwide. Indeed, many date the beginnings of the modern ecology movement to 1962, when Silent Spring first appeared, and although far too many compromises have been made since then a strong current of committed “dark green” or deep ecological thinking has developed out of her work and that of others.

The irony is that Carson would probably not have considered her role as anything like as important as has been made out (she saw herself as a nature writer who, somewhat unwillingly, got caught up in an environmental campaign), and in terms of her place in literary history the success of that campaign overshadowed the work she would have considered more her own – the great “sea trilogy”, comprising Under the Sea Wind (1941), The Sea Around Us (1951) and The Edge of the Sea (1955). The commercial success of these books drove a concerned public to seek Carson out as a spokesperson on DDT, which led to Silent Spring. Yet it is the sea trilogy that ought to stand as her true legacy and finest achievement, both artistic and scientific, for it was in these books that she set a standard for nature writing that has rarely, if ever, been surpassed.

A marine biologist by education and employment, Carson was never far from the sea and treasured the shore, the ever-shifting line between land and water, as a place where we sense “that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its surroundings”. It was that intricacy – a sense of continuity, rather than connectedness; of inter-animation, even – that she sought to convey in her writing, an intricacy that offers us an intimation of meaning, however difficult it may be to pin down.

“The meaning haunts and ever eludes us,” she writes, in the concluding lines of the trilogy, “and in its very pursuit we approach the ultimate mystery of Life itself.” As the origin of that life, the sea became, inevitably, a source of infinite study and infinite wonder – a word that features strongly in her work, along with unashamed invocations of “mystery” and “beauty”. Yet in spite of, or perhaps because of, her commitment to such seemingly unscientific experiences, she never forgot to ground them in rigorous observation.

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Rachel Carson was my first inspiration at twelve years old. It is because of her writing and her love of life and concern for the world we were making then that I became aware of the responsibilty we all have to be good stewards of this planet. For what we do to her we do to ourselves. I celebrate her life but am sad at what she would think of how we have totally abused our oceans. She wrote of them so beautifully relaying to us that a true understanding of ourselves can only occur when we look to the sea. Thank you Rachel Carson for opening my eyes so young.