Making Rivers Come Alive...My Struggle To Live

As Waste Goes Out, a Dying River Returns to Life

I had to post this because it is so inspirational. A river deemed dead brought back to life by the people who saw its sacredness and its ability to bring life back to them.

"Kerala’s Kuttamperoor is once again ready to defend communities against floods, aid fishermen

It’s a rebirth for the Kuttamperoor river, a tributary of Pampa and Achencoil rivers. The river, a natural inter-connecting reverine system, is getting a new lease of life thanks to a drive for removing the accumulated waste.

A stretch of about 5 km of the river, flowing along the Budhanoor panchayat in Alappuzha district, has been cleaned up. Thick layers of water weeds and waste dumped into the river for more than a decade were removed. A scheme for cleaning up of the river, about 12-km long, had been drawn up several years ago, but could not be taken up due to lack of proper funding.

The project was implemented under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. About 200 workers were engaged for the work during a two-month period, generating 30,000 man days. An amount of Rs.72 lakh was spent on the project,” P. Viswambhara Panicker, Budhanoor panchayat president, told The Hind.

Waste materials such as plastic bottles and containers and food refuse dumped by unscrupulous catering units had turned the river into a watery grave for flora and fauna. Once the natural flow was obstructed, the polluted water infiltrated into drinking water resources, including wells along the river, rendering the water non-potable. Wells had dried up in many adjoining areas,” Mr. Panicker said."

In Kerala 700 People Worked 70 Days To Revive a River Considered Dead For Over a Decade

"Kuttemperoor river, after being subjected to years of severe pollution and illegal sand mining, had almost vanished into obscurity until last year, when an initiative vehemently led by the Budhanoor gram panchayat in Alappuzha district did the unimaginable!

The river, which is a tributary for both Pamba and Achankovil rivers, was once known to be close to 12km in length and almost 100m in width, and had been the source of drinking water for the residents of Budhanoor. Apart from providing irrigation for acres of paddy fields, the river had also been a route that was used by local traders for transporting their goods.

Interestingly, the river has donned the savior role many times during the monsoons when Pamba and Achankovil rivers overflowed, by taking in the excess water and thus thwarting floods at different places.

The extent of joy we felt when a boat took people for tour after the revival of the river is something we can’t explain. A river that didn’t even have enough water to be called by the name, it was an impossible dream transformed into reality,” Reshmi says."

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The extent of joy they felt in seeing this river alive again is the joy we should all feel in seeing all our waterways revived. These people proved it can be done and I am joyful for them. I hope you will pass this story on to others to share the hope and joy we can all feel in working and fighting to save our water, land and ourselves in the process.

This story also gives me hope as I now fight Stage IV ovarian cancer. I was diagnosed almost two months ago and have been in chemo treatments since. The prognosis was once a death sentence. However, there are now ways to fight where I can prolong my life for five to ten years.

It is why I have not been here for a while, but I still try on good days to keep up with what is going on in the world where positive stories are rare. However, just as the people of Kerala decided they would not allow their life to die, I too feel the same about beating this cancer.

It is not easy and I still have a long way to go. We don't know what the future holds, but I do believe we can have a hand in crafting it by seeing through obstacles and persevering through love.

I don't know when I will be able to post here again, but wanted readers to know I appreciate your support and will always care about this Earth and those who need this life blood- water to sustain their lives just as I now fight for mine.

The story of this river and the people determined to save it is one of hope for that which was once dead to live again. As we all can. As our Earth can.

Planning For An Island's Demise

Planning For An Island's Demise

(The picture at this link is not the future, it is now.) After reading this article it is hard to trust anything any organization is telling us in regards to their false hope. Question is, once these islands are swallowed by the rising seas just how outraged will we as a species be as a whole? Measure the reaction in tandem with the action to prevent it and you see the main reason besides rising greenhouse gasses for their demise.

As glaciers continue to melt and extreme weather continues to rage across the globe we see starkly what our future and present are. FRESHWATER SOURCES ARE IN DANGER GLOBALLY and that includes the US. We have been warned countless times that to continue to have a response that is not equal to the urgency of the crisis would be like putting a band aid on a broken leg.

We pushed the moral imperative to the backburner. We made politics more important than doing what is right and necessary. We forgot that this crisis goes beyond anything our egos place in front of it as a wall.

Will you mourn for the people of Kirabati? The answer to that question is the crux of this crisis.

Keep Talking...

We humans are so good at talking aren't we? For years we have been talking about how urgent we need action on climate destruction. Yet, for all the talk, all the ego, all the PR campaigns, the movies, all the politics, all the empty meetings we need to face this fact: we are closer than ever to destroying the very ecosystems that give us life. Air, water, oceans, forests, species, all under dire threat from human intervention.

So tell me, just how long do we wait for this great epiphany that is to come? What exact percentage of our world's forests have to be destroyed? How many people have to die from lack of water? How toxic does the Earth have to get? How many more have to die in extreme climate events? We humans as a whole are still in mass denial.

Take for instance Brazil. I see media ads for the Olympics that depict Brazil as a golden land. Truth is, it is rife with poverty, drought, political instability and now Zika virus which may be made worse by extreme climate as well as genetic God playing. The GREED that breeds this denial and disconnection continues unabated. For all of the lambasting of the political side in denial of climate destruction the truth really is that many on all political sides are in denial.

They all continue to prop up their political Gods while continuing to pontificate without telling the real ugly truth that we have brought our only home to a place where it is starting to break down... and for all the talk, we just cannot pull ourselves away from that which is destroying her.

I haven't posted here in several months (you can peruse the countless posts here on water and climate destruction) mainly because I am observing all this and while doing what I can on my own realizing the ugly truth: we are done.

The time for false hope is over. The time for talk is over. It is time to prepare for what is here and what is to come. May the fates be with us... but then again, do we really deserve that?

CO2 Earth Weekly

Rate of Environmental Degradation Puts Life on Earth At Risk

My heart is BREAKING.

NASA/Water In Space

"Once again, astronauts on the International Space Station dissolved an effervescent tablet in a floating ball of water, and captured images using a camera capable of recording four times the resolution of normal high-definition cameras. The higher resolution images and higher frame rate videos can reveal more information when used on science investigations, giving researchers a valuable new tool aboard the space station. This footage is one of the first of its kind. The cameras are being evaluated for capturing science data and vehicle operations by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama."

I think this is amazing. Water is alive.

Climate Change Drying Up One of World's Largest Lakes

Climate Change Is Drying Up One of The World's Largest Lakes

By Emily Johnson

“When I started fishing I only used a raft,” says John Mame. That was 12 years ago. Now he serves as chairman for the Impressa Beach Management Unit, which regulates the fish markets.

“Then from there I got a boat, some many nets, I got my crew members. Then from there, I was able to put my children in school. But now, problem. No water, few water, yeah? No fish. You go to the lake, no fish. I don’t know where they are.”

He laughs, looking downward. “Maybe there are thieves, what what, I don’t know.”

An 180-mile shining ribbon that cuts neatly across northwestern Kenya, Lake Turkana is a vital source of life for more than 1.2 million people. It occupies an arid region bordering Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia that is famously known as the “cradle of mankind,” because the oldest known fossils of early humans were unearthed there.

But the lake—once so vast that some still know it as the Jade Sea—is disappearing. A combination of global warming and water resources projects have caused the inland sea to shrink. And according to paleoanthropologist and conservationist Richard Leakey, it's already too late to save it."

snip

“It’s going the way of the Aral Sea,” Leakey said at a press conference in Nairobi in November, referring to the dried-up lake that straddled Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan before the rivers that fed it were siphoned for agriculture. The current head of the Kenya Wildlife Service and the leader of the team that discovered the “Turkana Boy” skeleton in 1984, Leakey knows the Turkana region well and has been warning of this for years.

“It’s too late to be talking of this now,” he said. “The dam is built. It’s done.”

According to a Human Rights Watch report released in October, Lake Turkana is suffering under a deadly two-pronged assault. Climate change is driving up temperatures, which increases evaporation, and changing precipitation patterns even as development projects across the border in Ethiopia are diverting water from the Omo River, which supplies 90% of the lake’s water."

End of Excerpt

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"Already too late to save it." Will that be our epitaph?

This article shows the essence of what climate change is doing to our world. For me, it shows the moral and ethical price we are all also paying. Just how upset would you be to see this entire culture borne in what is known as the cradle of civilization go extinct? In the end, it is our respect for Earth and these cultures that will decide our answers to that question. Our choices show our character. To allow these cultures to die out shows a dark side of humanity that truthfully tears at my soul.

I can't express how important it is for you to read this article and look at the pictures... and not just read it, but put yourself in the place of these desperate people who are doing all they can to preserve their lives and culture against an insidious enemy that so many of us in the West still take for granted.

The need for education regarding climate change is crucial in Africa and related to that is accountability for water diverted away from people who need it. Dams only cause problems related to water flow and environmental/agricultural damage and in essence create the very gases we need to reign in to mitigate the droughts being experienced in almost 40% of this world. The people of this region need alternate ways to create electricity such as solar power. It is imperative in order to maintain equality in water distribution and to help ensure that levels do not go any lower.

How much more of this will have to be reported on before we get it? This is a global catastrophe in the making unless we act now in order to provide developing countries with alternate energy sources to lift pressure off of water resources! Also, overpopulation and education that seeks to address this crisis at the roots needs to be discussed seriously. When is the world going to tackle this on a level that truly addresses the underlying causes as a whole instead of just putting band aids on it- and that includes the UN. We are making our planet unsustainable for human life.

Shouldn't that be enough to know to move us along a bit faster?



Lake Chad Is Dying

My entry from eight years ago.

African Mapping Highlights Risk Of Drought and Flooding

My entry from nine years ago.

It isn't as if we didn't know about this.

Flint Michigan Water Crisis Epitome of Government Incompetence

Update 1/27/16:

"Nobody Cares":Flint Family Says Lead Pipes Must Go

Flint Drinks Lead Laden Water: Republicans Attack Clean Water Act

"To poison all the children in an historic American city is no small feat. Even international terrorist organizations haven't figured out yet how to do something on a magnitude like this. But you did."


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Update: 1-26-16:

Lead Poisoning Strikes Another US Town

A lead poisoning scandal has struck a second US town, with schools closed in Sebring, Ohio Monday and the water treatment plant operator accused of falsifying reports.

Initial tests found elevated lead levels in 28 homes and one school in the midwestern village of about 4,400 people, Ohio's environmental protection agency said. It is not clear how long lead has been leaking from the town's pipes.

The agency said in a statement it has "reason to suspect that the operator falsified reports" and has asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency's criminal division for help with the investigation.

The Ohio agency did not specify what kind of reports it was referring to. A spokesperson for it was not immediately available for comment.

The Ohio case comes as a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate how the city of Flint, Michigan exposed 100,000 residents to lead poisoning after cutting water treatment costs.

Officials are accused of ignoring months of health warnings about foul-smelling water, even as residents complained that it was making them sick.

End of excerpt

The answer to the question how many other towns is this happening in seems to be coming to light. This is beyond criminal!

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Update: 1-21-16:

How You can Help Flint Michigan Residents

Governor Snyder Apologizes For Flint Water Crisis

Lansing, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said he has failed Flint residents but pledged to take new steps to fix the city's drinking water crisis, starting with committing millions in state funding and deploying more National Guard members.

The second-term Republican, who devoted most of his annual State of the State speech Tuesday night to the emergency in Flint, also pledged greater transparency. He said he would release on Wednesday his own emails regarding Flint's water, which became contaminated with too much lead when the city switched its water source in 2014 as a cost-cutting measure.

"I'm sorry most of all that I let you down," Snyder, whose administration is engulfed in criticism, said in the 49-minute address, as hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside the Capitol. "You deserve better. You deserve accountability. You deserve to know that the buck stops here with me. Most of all, you deserve to know the truth, and I have a responsibility to tell the truth."

End of excerpt

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So he apologizes and says he is sending more bottled water and National Guard? That is supposed to appease those who have lost loved ones and who have been dealing with this toxic disaster for two years? Politicians are the problem and the true toxin in our society. Particularly on the whole Republicans (of course Democrats have their fair share as well) who seem to think apologizing for a crime is enough after they have done all in their power to precipitate the situation! Snyder needs to resign today along with a few others. How many more disasters do we the people have to be subjected to because of incompetence and greed while those guilty get away with it with just an apology? I also have some advice for the people of Michigan... Pay more attention and stop voting these criminals into office!

As Water Problems Grew Officials Belittled Complaints From Flint

Flint Water Crisis Reveals Limits of Running a Government As a Business

This article explains in more detail how the politics of this led to this water tragedy.

Also for those who think this article wasn't politically polarizing enough who then belittle citizens like myself who do this from our hearts and because we care about the state of our global water resources a reminder: I don't get any money or remuneration doing this. I don't get paid to post on Twitter. I don't do this for notoriety. I do this because water is the most important resource in our lives that gives us life and people of all politics and backgrounds are taking that for granted.

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Flint Michigan Water Crisis

By Brad Devereaux | bdeverea@mlive.com

FLINT, MI — The plight of Flint residents who depend on the city water system has been a scary and uncertain one: water with high lead levels, among other problems, that went unchecked while residents drank and bathed.

As news of the dangerous situation came to light, officials took corrective steps and Gov. Rick Snyder apologized for the state's role in allowing the crisis to happen.

However, critics complain the response that includes a plan to switch to a safe system and door-to-door bottled water deliveries by the Michigan National Guard and others, was too little and too late.

How Michigan failed its residents:

While under the authority of a state-appointed emergency manager, the decision is made in 2013 for the city of Flint to stop buying water from the city of Detroit in favor of a new pipeline project from Lake Huron. On the day Flint joined the new pipeline effort, Detroit notified the city it would stop selling it water as of April 2014, forcing Flint to find a new water source.

The choice was made in mid-March of 2014 to get water from the Flint River and the switch to the new source was made on April 25, 2014. Complaints about the water smelling and tasting bad poured into City Hall.

About four months later, bacteria was found in the water, prompting a boil notice. The city notified residents that trihalomethanes in the water led to a violation of the Safe Water Drinking Act.

City officials called for Flint to stop using the river as its water source and Emergency Manager Darnell Earley said in January 2015 he was hiring a consultant to try to improve water quality.

Flint in January 2015 turned down Detroit's offer to provide water again. City officials said they were working with the state to address the problem.

Environmentalist Erin Brockovich gave her opinion in January 2015, calling for accountability for local, state and federal officials.

A city-hired consultant reported in February 2015 that Flint's water was safe to drink despite sediment and discoloration. The city announced it was meeting guidelines for trihalomethanes.

Despite proposed investments meant to help Flint's water system, the council voted in March to reconnect to Detroit water. However, the city remains under the authority of a state-appointed emergency manager and the switch back to Detroit water does not happen.

A Virginia Tech professor announced claims on Sept. 2, 2015, that the corrosive water was causing lead to leach into the water.

Testing data obtained Sept. 19 shows 10 percent of homes tested in the city saw an increase in lead after the switch to the Flint River. Infants and children in Flint are testing with higher levels of lead in their blood since the switch, a Hurley Medical Center doctor's study shows.

Genesee County officials declared a public health emergency Oct. 1, 2015, urging residents not to drink water straight from the tap.

End of excerpt. See more at link.



The timeline here spans over two years that the citizens of Flint have been drinking and bathing in toxic water while government agencies and politicians continue to play with their lives. This is the epitome of ignorance and criminality. Water is still looked upon as expendable as a topic of political importance and I dare say, human importance.

How many children have already been poisoned by lead intake? How many already made ill by it? How much did these officials know, when did they know it and why didn't they move faster considering the plethora of complaints from people who were already experiencing illness from the tainted water? I also cannot help but wonder were this happening in a more upscale city if this would have been handled differently. It is no secret that water justice and justice in general is exclusive to certain people in this country.

What many fail to understand is that this is a crime. Yet, I can believe not one official will have to deal with any consequences from deliberately poisoning people. We see too many examples of poor and people of color who have to continually be subject to this type of response. It needs to stop and people in positions of power need to go to jail for betraying the trust they swore to uphold and for willingly allowing constituents to suffer all for the almighty dollar. Bottled water alone is not going to solve this problem. The SOURCE of the pollution both in this water and in our politics on the whole must be investigated as well and remedied. We need accountability now.



How many more cities is this happening in unbeknownst to us?

Melting/Changes Transforming Arctic

New Climate Records Transforming Arctic

The latest report on the Arctic by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finds dwindling sea ice and temperatures as much as 3C (5.4F) above average are disrupting walrus and fish populations and having major impacts on the ecosystem.

snip

SAN FRANCISCO – After decades of rising temperatures, Arctic conditions have reached new heights again this year, the latest assessments show, signaling dramatic changes for the Arctic and its inhabitants under relentless global warming. Walrus populations in the Pacific Arctic have plunged as dwindling sea ice forces them to haul out onto land in crushing crowds, and the Arctic’s small native fish may stand little chance against large competitors moving northward as polar waters warm up.

These and other threats to Arctic biodiversity and resources were detailed in the 2015 Arctic Report Card, released Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco. The report is a peer-reviewed, multinational research collaboration involving 72 researchers from 11 countries that has been produced by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) annually since 2006.

“The impacts of the persistent warming trend over 30 years are clearly evident,” said Kit Kovacs, a biodiversity researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute.

A number of new climate records were set this year. Winter air temperatures over Arctic lands were the warmest since measurements began in 1900. Between October 2014 and September 2015, temperatures were 1.3C (2.3F) above average, amounting to a 3C (5.4F) gain since the beginning of the 20th century, primarily due to human-driven climate change.

End of excerpt

Also see:

Russia Warming 2.5 Times Faster Than Rest Of World

Warm Arctic Storm To Hurl Hurricane Force Winds at UK And Iceland

More Signs Of Gulf Stream Slowdown As Floods Devastate Cumbria England



Worldwide Extreme Floods Sep-Dec 2015 (And this doesn't even cover all of it.) Happy New Year. (?)

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So while people are standing in Times Square in NYC and the world over once again this New Year's Eve with their lighted balls and fireworks in a vain attempt to escape and deny reality, that reality of the world we have all made continues to make itself known and will continue to do so in 2016. I really hope that 2016 gives us some hope, but I am not as hopeful as I once was.

COP 21 was called "historic" by politicos even though it once again was sponsored by fossil fuel companies and once again kicks the can down the road to 2020 touting "working towards" a 2 degree C limit that has already been surpassed when taking into account amplification and cumulative effects. The only voices being heard at these conferences are the elitists who have once again ignored the poorest who are suffering most from the effects of this crisis as well as voices like mine who have been writing and warning of this for years.

Indigenous rights were written out of the final charter and there was really no adequate plan regarding our oceans, water scarcity, agriculture, refugees, nor any sort of true climate justice and intense global effort to decarbonize at a pace consistent with the abrupt changes we have put into motion. Carbon trading and REDD are simply mechanisms to once again allow polluters to pollute while holding indigenous peoples hostage.

Therefore, for 2016 the grassroots that were out there in mass outside that fake conference hall are the ones who will now save this world and us. Politicians have already clearly shown what side they are on and it isn't ours. The Arctic is proof of that as they now also work to control its resources at the expense of our ecosystems.

Make no mistake, Syria and the Middle East are a huge part of this as well. Climate change and geopolitical policy are tied together in this but of course that was conveniently ignored in Paris as well.

I therefore hope above all that this coming year is one of TRUTH. The lack of it is bringing the human race to a crossroads we could have avoided otherwise and making a world our children do not deserve.

Also see:

Arctic Melting-_Tipping Point That Should Matter To All Of Us

Major Loss In Arctic Sea Ice Volume- It Does Affect You

The Arctic-Humanity's Barometer

Ocean Acidification Poised To Radically Affect Arctic

Arctic Strategy Sets Off Climate Time Bomb

Arctic Ice, Oceans, Climate and the Human Condition

Arctic Ocean Leaking Methane At Alarming Rate

Effects Of Arctic Amplification Being Ignored