Climate Change; DON'T KILL AFRICA

Mother Earth is mic-checking US.

THANK YOU to those there speaking out for climate justice!

The people united will never be defeated.

World Bank out of climate finance!
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The fact is that climate justice is the farthest thing from the minds of industrialized nations in putting together a climate pact that resembles anything regarding true climate justice and moral courage. Greed, selfishness, geopolitics, intolerance ( yes I can believe a part of this is based on just not wanting to help people of color along with the poor and women) all things that have rotted the governments of these nations to their core. And Americans, our government is one of them. This government and this administration along with others have failed future generations on a huge scale by continuing to serve the status quo that now sees our planet teetering on the edge.

Instead of progress, we get obstruction. Instead of solutions, we get deception. Instead of food sovereignty and recognizing the Rights of Mother Earth, we get MONSANTO and BP. Instead of respecting the science, we get political rhetoric delivered by those so far removed from the reality of what climate change is doing to those who had nothing to do with making it. There is no other way any more to say this. The planet is warming. The effects are real. They are affecting our ability to provide food, water, and sound social structures to MILLIONS of people globally, with climate migration not some distant delusion but a present humanitarian crisis.

When you have the people relegated to the streets and arrested for seeking merely to be able to survive, you know who really runs this show. This is the epitome of what OWS is about. The environmental effects of the actions of the 1% have now insured us that the world our chldren and grandchildren will live in will be unlike the world we pictured and lived in.They are not on the side of working for real solutions that bring justice and equality that in turn brings food sovereignty, clean water, social justice and respect for the processes of our planet that we must now work with in order for our species to survive.They are climate criminals intent on using this crisis for their own profit at the expense of all of us as this is killing people and will kill Africa and many others in this world if allowed to go unchecked any longer.

Therefore, I stress again my belief that they should all be held accused of human rights abuses and abuses against Mother Earth and dealt with accordingly and the people must now take into their hands the work they refuse to do. Our survival depends on us. If anything this will hopefully inspire more people to see the truth and to understand this is a real and present danger to our continued survival. It's time to GET IT DONE.

To Kill A Continent

Article that hits the nail on the head about the mechanisms involved in the schemes being put forth by industrialized nations, the World Bank and other entities in looking to use this planetary emergency as a way to profit from it without really doing anything to address it. And that includes our water.

Occupy movement calls for climate justice in Durban-COP17

I stand with the indigenous peoples in Durban and those Occupying Durban speaking out for Climate Justice Now!

We need caps on greenhouse gases that do not strip indigenous and poor people of their cultures, traditions and livelihoods and give them local control of their forests and their water. No REDD mechanism will accomplish what needs to be done now. It needs to be taxed at the source to spur transition, sustainability and responsibility. We need caps that are offset by sustainable agricultural practices, reforestation, agroecology, CO2 sequestration in soil that can remove up to 40% of emissions from our atmosphere and to preserve biodiversity plus a massive move to renewable energy sources.

There are currently more developing nations doing this than rich ones. Where the hell is their moral center? Do they have one? Obviously not. We need to hold polluters accountable through a revenue neutral carbon tax and or the financial markets to a financial transaction tax (and yes again I know try passing that here in the U.S.) that makes up for them using our commons as a sewer and use those funds to bring about the energy transition necessary to stave off catastrophe.

We need all countries to participate in this, even if those binding caps are tied to their GDP instead of the same across the board or even if developing nations that do not only participate in sequestration and reforestation. Those countries that are not polluting but experiencing the effects more pronounced should not have to pay the same as the large polluters! However, those countries like the U.S. and now China which has surpassed the U.S. emissions wise (and yes I know that in part is due to them manufacturing the crap we buy here in the U.S.) should stop acting like children and playing politics and be responsible for what they have and continue to put up in the atmosphere. Personally, I think the retiscense doesn't just stem from politics or ideology, but from the fact that so many cannot admit their own culpability in this. Well, the Arctic isn't going to wait for you any longer and people are dying now.

Any failure here is a failure of and for humanity. Water is an integral part of this because of the effects of climate change regarding floods, droughts, crop failures, sea level rise, glacier melt. Africa is the hardest hit continent to date, with all other continents feeling the effects of this as well, particularly Australia. The IEA tells us that we only have about five years to get our act together to avoid dangerous irreversible climate change and every scientic organization in the world has verified the science and the corrolation between these evnts and human forcings on our planet. I have posted about some of these events, but they don't begin to scratch the surface of the extreme weather and climate events we have seen this year, last year and in climate models for the last fifty years.

I personally believe we have reached tipping points regarding Arctic ice melt and will see an enhancement of the positive feedback loop which makes it even more imperative to take action to decrease greenhouse gases at the source. So please, do all you can as an individual to walk light on this planet and respect our water. Demand renewable energy and an end to the destructive practices that are exacerbating this crisis. If we do not stand together as humanity, we will fall. This will not be easy, but this is our planet and it is worth fighting for!

Water Is Your Life

In writing about water the effects of pollution, waste, privatization and climate change are the primary topics of discussion. And rightfully so because in this world we live in we are seeing more and more abuse of water as population increases and as the commoditization of water takes away its identity relinquishing it to nothing more than a commodity like any other. However, there is so much more to this elixir of life than just to be used as an instrument of our greed or the waste receptacle of it. Water isn't just a part of our lives, it is our lives. It is us.

Have you ever noticed that while walking by the banks of a river the water moves in sync, the sun glimmering off the top of it as if it has a life all its own? Have you ever thought that perhaps there was more to this than just gravity? That perhaps the water is alive and responding to life as we do? Our bodies are inexplicably linked to water. Over 70% of our bodies is water as is the Earth. When we thirst, it is water we crave. When we seek comfort, it is the warmth or cooling of water that sets our souls aright. When we seek sustenance, it is water that grows it, prepares it and cooks it. Water is our life and it lives and breathes as an organism of our Earth just as we do.

Is it any wonder then that our Earth is so out of balance and as a result so are we? For we on the whole have abandoned the special bond of life we share with water. We kill it with toxic chemicals and pollution. We clog its arteries with garbage, oil, plastic. We take all its wonder for granted. We waste it thinking it will always be there when we need it. And we are now paying for it with our health and our lives as it too suffers. There is for sure a much deeper connection to this mysterious wonderful fluid and I believe that until we delve deeper into that connection we will never truly know the secret of life. So, is it possible to transfer our energy to water and vice versa?

Consider this:



While many remain skeptical and cite that this work on water is not peer reviewed, I can understand and agree with the concept that pollution has the ability to change the crystalline structure of water in a way where it actually conveys the water's "pain" just as it's crystalline structure changes with the opposite effect. In India, Hindus believe that the Ganges even as polluted as it is can be made clean again through positive thought and prayer. We have not even begun to scratch the surface regarding the study of water and its properties and how they react to different stimuli. And Emoto's work actually borders on the study of Noetic sciences as well imo... that thoughts have structure and can affect the physical when strong enough. It is very interesting study regarding the connection between us, our thoughts and the elements that give us life regardless of whether or not you think it is possible. After all, we are water and water is us.

And seeing this is sad as well considering the condition of so many of our waterways globally. If you look at the Yamuna River as an example using this concept it would be considered dead. And we did it. I do pray for a higher consciousness to take hold of us before it is truly too late.

So in writing about pollution, wastefulness, climate change and the selfish greedy attempts by those who do not understand this special bond who undermine the true reason water exists in tandem with humanity, we must always strive within our hearts to connect ourselves to it. It is then and only then that we will realize that to kill it kills the life that burns within our souls and in turn our future existence on this planet.

Blessed Thanksgiving: Be Thankful For Water

On this thanksgiving day as every day, I am thankful for family, friends, those I love and my health as well as this planet, particularly the seed and water. I am thankful for its beauty; it's grace; its healing; its spiritual comfort; its power and its ability to provide for our survival.

And on this day I am also aware of the billion plus people on our planet who still do not have access to this fundamental right. So I am thankful that whenever I turn on a tap, it is there. Whenever I thirst, it is there. Whenever I need comfort, it is there. Whenever I need healing, it is there.

However, we abuse this precious gift through polluting it, toxifying it, hoarding it, wasting it and taking it for granted. And as we are seeing water has now become a force of destruction to also be reckoned with because of it. I hope for the coming year then that we will truly see a time coming when this resource that is there for all of us will be there for all of us and more will come to understand just how much we need to be thankful for it and the life it brings.

Blessed Thanksgiving to all.

Enjoy the video.

Human Forcings On Climate Already A Factor In Mediterranean Droughts

NOAA: Human Forcings On Climate Already A Factor In Mediterranean Droughts

Wintertime droughts are increasingly common in the Mediterranean region, and human-caused climate change is partly responsible, according to a new analysis by NOAA scientists and colleagues at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). In the last 20 years, 10 of the driest 12 winters have taken place in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

“The magnitude and frequency of the drying that has occurred is too great to be explained by natural variability alone,” said Martin Hoerling, Ph.D. of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., lead author of a paper published online in the Journal of Climate this month. “This is not encouraging news for a region that already experiences water stress, because it implies natural variability alone is unlikely to return the region’s climate to normal.”

The above is from a news release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “NOAA study: Human-caused climate change a major factor in more frequent Mediterranean droughts.”

It’s a bombshell for three reasons. First, this NOAA team has not always found a human cause for extreme weather events, as Climate Progress discussed here. Second, the study found that global warming is already driving drought in a key region of the world: Climate change is harming a great many people now. Third, the analysis provides important confirmation of climate predictions that human-caused emissions would lead to drying: “The team also found agreement between the observed increase in winter droughts and in the projections of climate models that include known increases in greenhouse gases.”

This comes on the heel of the USGS study, that, despite its flaws still found, “The decrease of floods in the southwestern region is consistent with other research findings that this region has been getting drier and experienced less precipitation as a likely result of climate change.”

And these studies amplify the piece I had in the journal Nature this week that argued drying and Dust-Bowlification driven by climate change — and the impact on food insecurity — are probably the gravest threats the human race faces in the coming decades.

The fact that the NOAA analysis confirmed the climate models predictions of drying is especially worrisome because the climate models project a very dry future for large parts of the planet’s currently habited and arable land in the coming decades:

More at the link
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And in turn this will lead to water and food wars (especially now with corporations buying up land in developing countries to grow corn for fuel) since without potable water you can't grow food, or have proper sanitation which leads to more diseases. Would like to be around to hear what theusual detractors will tell their children and grandchildren when they ask them why they did nothing to address this because they didn't care enough about them.



Cyprus was the first country in the EU to run out of water and experience the meaning of "peak water." Overuse of aquifers with declining rainfall are now making the people here appreciate what they have much more. Desalination is all the Greek south has now, and it is costly both economically and for the environment. But these technological bandaids cannot compensate in the end for understanding the importance of this and doing all we can to conserve water. As the video claims, even though the Turkish north of Cyprus will be getting water piped in from Turkey through a new pipeline, Turkey can simply change that at any time. Turkey is also experiencing drought as well and with more dams being built to provide hydropower in areas of drought ( which I think is so wasteful when the sun is so prevalent) it only makes matter worse. It really does all come down to us.

Why The Earth May be Running Out Of Clean Water

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Why The Earth May Be Running Out Of Clean Water

Earlier this month, officials in the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu had to confront a pretty dire problem: they were running out of water. Due to a severe and lasting drought, water reserves in this country of 11,000 people had dwindled to just a few days' worth. Climate change plays a role here: as sea levels rose, Tuvalu's groundwater became increasingly saline and undrinkable, leaving the island dependent on rainwater. But now a La Niña–influenced drought has severely curtailed rainfall, leaving Tuvalu dry as a bone. "This situation is bad," Pusinelli Laafai, Tuvalu's permanent secretary of home affairs, told the Associated Press earlier this month. "It's really bad."

So far Tuvalu has been bailed out by its neighbors Australia and New Zealand, which have donated rehydration packets and desalination equipment. But the archipelago's water woes are just beginning — and it's far from the only part of the world facing a big dry. Other island nations like the Maldives and Kiribati will see their groundwater spoil as sea levels rise. Texas, along with much of the American Southwest, is in the grip of a truly record-breaking drought — even after days of storms in the past month, Houston's total 2011 rainfall is still short of its yearly average by a whopping 2 ft., or 60 cm. Australia has experienced severely dry weather for so long, it's not even clear whether the country is in a state of drought, or more worryingly, a new and permanent dry climate that could forever alter life Down Under. "Climate-change impacts on water resources continue to appear in the form of growing influence on the severity and intensity of extreme events," says Peter Gleick, one of the foremost water experts in the U.S. and head of the Pacific Institute, an NGO based in Oakland, Calif., that focuses on global water issues. "Australia's recent extraordinary extreme drought should be an eye-opener for the rest of us."
(See photos of the world's water crisis.)
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Water is being used as a commodity by those who do not understand its true intrinsic value. We need to stop fracking it, stop polluting it, stop disturbing its flow, stop wasting it, stop damming it and stop thinking it will last forever.

Tuvalu is a lesson.

Lake Eries' Toxic Algae Bloom Seen From Space

Lake Erie's Toxic Algae Bloom Seen From Space

Toxic algae is sucking the oxygen out of Lake Erie.

The lake is currently undergoing one of the worst algae blooms in decades, turning the water a scummy bright green. According to NASA, blooms like this did occur in the 1950's and 60's, but now phosphorus from farms, sewage, and industry have fertilized the waters.

After the 60's, increased regulations and improvements in agriculture and sewage treatment limited the phosphorus and helped to control the blooms. However, the shallower Western basin near Detroit has been more susceptible to the algae than other deeper areas.

The exact reason behind the bloom is a bit unclear, but scientists believe it could be linked to increased rainfall and, believe it or not, mussels. It seems the types of mussel, zebra and quagga that have invaded the lake feed on phytoplankton instead of algae, making it even easier for the blooms to occur, according to NASA.

While the algae doesn't directly kill fish, it's still not good. As the algae dies, it's broken down by bacteria which uses oxygen from the water. This oxygen removal creates areas where fish can't survive. In addition, if consumed, it can also create flu-like symptoms in people or even kill pets.

Former Vice President Al Gore spoke Thursday in Detroit on the matter, associating climate change with the algae problem. "We're still acting as if it's perfectly OK to use this thin-shelled atmosphere as an open sewer. It's not OK," he said. "We need to listen to the scientists. We need to use the tried and true method of using the best evidence, debating and discussing it, but not pretending that facts are not facts."

While in the past, some have criticized Gore, claiming that he's made exaggerated statements about the environment, yesterday's speech drew upon some pretty hard scientific evidence, leading many leaders at the International Joint Commission to listen a bit more intently.

This past summer, an algae bloom spread across a beach in China, dying everything in its path "a shocking bright green."

End of excerpt



Video of Al Gore's plenary speech at the Great Lakes Biennial
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The conditions we see in Lake Erie now are a call to action. It is said that the condititons in Lake Erie usually dictate the future for the other four. After expending so much time and effort to make such inroads in cleaning up the mistakes of the past, it would be a true tragedy to see it all reversed.

Water levels in the lakes are important as well in regards to maintaining their health. Water levels have been down and with Lake Erie being the most shallow of them all, this too (water evaportation due to increasing temperatures) can have an effect on algae blooms as well as overflows due to less but more extreme rainfalls that move fertilizer downstream.