Colorado Flooding Breaking Records And Cutting Off Towns

Addition 9/26/13:

More Than 91 Million In Flood Damage

Article states this doesn't include private property. I would then suspect it also doesn't include damage to crops, loss of cattle and other animals due to fracking spills in flood waters. I would also assume even further this does not cover residual health effects on residents. This is the physical cost of climate change. The emotional toll is also one that is far greater and often overlooked.

Addition 9/15/13:

Colorado Floods Causing Fracking Spills

From Earth First! News

It appears that an unknown number of underwater frack wells are leaking into the flood waters tearing through Colorado. Although local activists have sent emails with photographs documenting toppled industrial tanks, there has been no response from media or authorities.

According to one activist, “There has been no mention of the gas wells on the Denver newscasts either last night or this evening although all stations have had extensive and extended flood coverage. You can see underwater wells in the background of some of the newscast videos, and yet the reporters say absolutely nothing.”

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My god, as if there wasn't enough catastrophe to hand around now we see a continuation of manmade hell on Earth with toxic fracking chemicals moving throughout the state in flood waters! We need to get this information out to people to alert them. It would appear the fossil fuel bought media will not do its job yet again.

Some energy policy! You will have energy, but it will kill you!



Also:

234 Remain Unaccounted For As Rains Make Return

"Our normal has changed."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"Biblical" Flooding In Colorado



Colorado Flooding Isolates Rocky Mountain Towns

Torrential rains continued to fall Friday in northern Colorado, where rescuers are struggling to reach dozens of people cut off by flooding in mountain communities. Three deaths have already been confirmed.

At least two people died in flooding in Boulder County. The body of one was found in a collapsed building by emergency crews searching door to door for victims in and around Jamestown. The other drowned elsewhere in the county, Cmdr. Heidi Prentup of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office said.

The body of a third victim, a man, was found by police on flood-watch patrols in Colorado Springs, about 100 miles to the south, officials said.

County Sheriff Joe Pelle said it was possible that more flood-related fatalities could emerge as emergency crews reached areas cut off by high water.

Downpours and scarring from recent wildfires sent walls of water crashing down mountainsides Thursday, forcing thousands to evacuate as rising water toppled buildings and stranded motorists in their cars, officials said.

The towns of Lyons, Jamestown and others in the Rocky Mountain foothills have been isolated by flooding. Residents have no power or telephone service.

Boulder County was hardest hit, with authorities instructing residents to stay off roads.

The Boulder Office of Emergency Management told residents to seek higher ground, boil their drinking water in some areas, and stay away from the water that it called "hazardous" because of its speed and possible contamination with sewage.

"There is water everywhere," said Andrew Barth, the emergency management spokesman in Boulder County. "We've had several structural collapses. There's mud and muck and debris everywhere. Cars are stranded all over the place."

snip

At least 6 inches of rain had fallen on the city of Boulder, northwest of Denver, and up to 8 inches were measured in the foothills west of the city, said Kari Bowen, a Weather Service meteorologist in Boulder.

Colorado Floods-Local Rain Totals

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My heart goes out to the people experiencing this. It is an horrific experience to see water rushing at you with such ferocity because there is nothing you can do to stop it. No water to drink though they flood. No power, sewerage treatment or access to the outside world. You would think you were reading about Sudan or some other area of the world where these events take place. For anyone to now state there isn't something more than natural variability to these events is lying to themselves.

Breaking News | Celebrity News | More ABC News Videos

Hail storm in Colorado just this August... Yes, August. This after previous extreme flooding shown here and intense wildfires.



Yet I also just read that the Congress is having a climate hearing next week. With all we see happening globally and the science backing it up we are just now at the hearing stage? A hearing that I am sure will also only serve as another partisan backbiting arena with nothing coming from it. Absolutely embarrassing. Do you think we might just be a bit beyond the "hearing" stage? We need to be preparing communities for these extreme disasters. We aren't nearly ready.

BUT LET'S JUST KEEP BURNING THOSE TAR SANDS.

Colorado's 1-100 Year Flood

Posted by: Dr. Jeff Masters, 3:43 PM GMT on September 13, 2013

Colorado's epic deluge is finally winding down, as a trough of low pressure moves across the state and pushes out the moist, tropical airmass that has brought record-breaking rainfall amounts and flooding. Devastating flash floods swept though numerous canyons along the Front Range of Colorado's Rocky Mountains Wednesday night and Thursday morning, washing out roads, collapsing houses, and killing at least three people. The flood that swept down Boulder Creek into Boulder, Colorado was a 1-in-100 year event, said the U.S. Geological Survey. A flash flood watch continues through noon Friday in Boulder. According to the National Weather Service, Boulder's total 3-day rainfall as of Thursday night was 12.30". The city's record rainfall for any month, going back to 1897, is 5.50", so this week's rainfall event is truly extraordinary. Some other rainfall totals through Thursday night include 14.60" at Eldorado Springs, 11.88" at Aurora, and 9.08" at Colorado Springs. These are the sort of rains one expects on the coast in a tropical storm, not in the interior of North America! The rains were due to a strong,slow-moving upper level low pressure systemto the west of Colorado that got trapped to the south of an unusually strong ridge of high pressure over Western Canada. This is the same sort of odd atmospheric flow pattern that led to the most expensive flood disaster in Canadian history, the $5.3 billion Calgary flood of mid-June this summer. The upper-level low responsible for this week's Colorado flood drove a southeasterly flow of extremely moist tropical air from Mexico that pushed up against the mountains and was lifted over a stationary front draped over the mountains. As the air flowed uphill and over the front, it expanded and cooled, forcing the moisture in it to fall as rain. Balloon soundings from Denver this morning continued to show levels of September moisture among the highest on record for the station, as measured by the total Precipitable Water (PW), which is how much water would fall at the ground if the entire amount of water vapor through the depth of the atmosphere was condensed. Four of the top eight all-time September highs for Precipitable Water since records began in 1948 have been recorded over the past two days:

1.33" 12Z September 12, 2013
1.31" 00Z September 12, 2013
1.24" 12Z September 13, 2013
1.23" 12Z September 10, 1980
1.22" 00Z September 2, 1997
1.21" 00Z September 7, 2002
1.20" 00Z September 13, 2013

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AGW deniers can now twist current slight rebounding of Arctic "extent" (while once again neglecting to mention it is the volume that counts) to indicate that all is now well because of one cooler season. It changes nothing about the trends already put into motion and the exacerbation of those trends due to continued burning of fossil fuels that create the intense moisture/downpours we are now seeing becoming more extreme in response to Arctic amplification. ~

Scientists:Hurricane Sandy Storm Surge Directly Affected By Climate Change

Scientists Weigh Climate Change Role in 2012 Weather

Willie Drye

for National Geographic

Published September 5, 2013

A sprawling global team of meteorologists who examined the marquee extreme weather events of 2012—including Hurricane Sandy, drought in the U.S. Midwest, and melting arctic ice—found that human-induced climate change was a factor in half of the dozen events they studied.

The scientists, who published their findings Thursday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society, acknowledged that determining how much influence climate change has on particular extreme weather events is an evolving science, and that better tools are needed to measure that influence.

"(W)hile climate models may indicate a human effect is causing increases in the chances of having extremely high precipitation in a region (much like speeding increases the chances of having an accident), natural variability can still be the primary factor in any individual extreme event," the authors said.

Thursday's report was written by 18 teams comprising 78 meteorologists from around the world.

Here are four of the major events analyzed by the meteorologists:

1. The devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. The authors were especially interested in how climate change affected Sandy's storm surge, which caused massive destruction on the coast of New Jersey and flooded parts of New York City. They concluded that the surge—a mound of water formed by a hurricane's winds and forward motion and pushed in front of the storm as it approaches landfall—was worse than it would have been in 1950 because sea level has risen in the past 60 years.

That rise in sea level has been attributed to warming temperatures and melting arctic ice. And that rise means that future storms less powerful than Sandy are likely to cause more damage than they would have decades ago.

2. The melting of arctic sea ice. Some computer simulations have predicted that arctic ice will disappear during the summer by the middle of this century. The report's authors said it is "extremely unlikely that the disappearance of arctic sea ice has been caused by natural climate variability."

3. Extreme heat and drought in the U.S. The authors said climate change had little to do with the drought in the central U.S. last year. But they added that climate change was a factor in the unusually warm weather that accompanied the drought. And climate change makes it much more likely that periods of extreme heat will happen. (Watch related video: Droughts 101.)

4. Unusually high rainfall in parts of Europe and elsewhere during 2012. The scientists reached a split decision about whether climate change was to blame for heavy rainfall in some places. Fluctuations in rainfall are normal, they said. But unusually warm sea water—which produces higher humidity and is linked to heavier rainfall—is likely caused by climate change.

End of Excerpt

Also see:

NOAA: Explaining Extreme Events Of 2012

Risk Of Sandy Level Flood In NYC Has Doubled Since 1950

Ice Melting Faster In Greenland And Antarctica

1 yr

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sandy Storm Surge





On the evening of October 29, 2012 all power was lost. All I could see were the sparks flying from power lines and transformers. The wind had started out slow but by then was at full force. This was only a part of what hit my town when Hurricane Sandy came. I will never forget the floods...and the wind...and being without any services for almost two weeks... and the reports of people being washed away in the floods ... and the fires... and the washing away of my childhood memories...and now the after effects. I still cry watching videos about it because I have never ever experienced anything like this and I have lived here all of my life. I also had never seen flooding where I live. However, Hurricane Sandy blew the bay into homes in my area five feet deep. After hours of wind and water pummeling us the calm left a shattered heap of trees, garbage and destruction.

A record sea surface temperature that also caused thermal expansion of the waters, record Arctic sea ice loss pushing the effects of Arctic amplification influencing fronts and the jet stream and the effects of two converging fronts caught in it causing Sandy to move slower combined with record melting in Greenland releasing huge amounts of energy into the atmosphere came down like a bomb. It also hit at high tide with a full moon. The Perfect Storm in a place where perfect storms are not supposed to happen.

And yes, the intensity and direction of this storm could have been much different if we were not treating the atmosphere and this crisis as if they do not matter. 65 billion dollars in loss with over 30,000 families still without homes with us being told by scientists that this will be our "new normal."... This isn't about your politics. This is about our lives.



This is not some far flung "theory". This is reality. This is happening now with the effects becoming more severe. It will only intensify as our use of fossil fuels continues. Sea level rise, warmer sea surface temperatures, warmer ocean temperatures, effects of sea ice loss all factor into these events becoming more extreme and that costs lives. It costs memories. It costs future stability for those who live on this planet.

Hurricane Sandy was a wake up call. Time to wake up.

Come Back To The Sea

Take a few moments to appreciate the beauty and splendor of our world of water.

Reflect on its importance to all of our lives regardless of labels.

We are all one in water and we must do better in caring for it.

No more Fukushimas!

Out Of Sight Out Of Mind: Carcinogenic Chemical Spreads Beneath Michigan Town

Out Of Sight Out Of Mind: Carcinogenic Chemical Spreads Beneath Michigan Town

No, this is not the plot for a new horror film. This horror is a reality. A carcinogenic cloud spreading its toxic tentacles towards a town and its water supply. Put there by other humans seeking profit to poison this planet. Now, years later those people gone, those buildings demolished, yet the memory of what they did remains. This is what first frightened me as a young child so many years ago. This is what I read Silent Spring for and what awakened me at such a young age to a world I could not understand. A world where such human horrors were commonplace and accepted.

I am posting this because it must be known. As we now once again stand on the precipice of what could become a world war in the Middle East, we ignore the chemical threats here in the US. I concede that yes, any chemical attack on innocents is an atrocious crime that should see accountability. So why are those who suffer the relentless poisoning of chemical companies for profit not thought about? Our world is under chemical bombardment 24 hours a day every day. We breathe it, we eat it, we wash in it. It is in our wombs affecting our unborn children! And yet, governments including the US government sit and pontificate as if they hold some moral high ground when looking to bomb other countries for what they allow to slowly happen to their own citizens daily. However, as we see in this case it would appear that citizens without great wealth are treated differently than others.

I surely thought that by the time I reached this age the human race would have learned its lesson. That we would have seen the true horror we unleashed and reign it in. That we would listen to the voices of reason and understand that life and the water that sustains it is more important than fleeting gold. How many more aquifers and water supplies in this country have been contaminated by the relentless pursuit of profit over life with time being our enemy?

~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt from article:

"When state and federal environmental officials visited the tucked-away town of Mancelona, Mich., 15 years ago, their presence surprised local residents. “My heart and most of my life has been spent here in Antrim County,” said Gary Knapp, a long-time resident. “And I knew nothing of its environmental problems.” While removing metal contamination from local groundwater, officials had stumbled upon one of the nation’s largest plumes of an industrial solvent called trichloroethylene, or TCE. Drinking-water wells tap into this aquifer, so the state asked the town’s help in preventing the chemical from flowing out of people’s taps. “People were helpless, frustrated and angry,” said Knapp, who was recruited by the state to start a regional water authority. Fifteen years later, the underground plume of the carcinogenic chemical is now six miles long and continues to grow. Over the past decade, new wells have been built and millions of dollars have been spent to ensure the 1,390 residents of Mancelona – known for its deer-hunting contests and bass festivals – aren’t drinking toxic water. But the TCE swirling beneath this remote, low-income town continues to vex state officials and residents as it creeps toward new wells that Knapp and others dug to replace tainted ones. The plume is another industrial scar in Michigan – one that is seemingly not going away. “There’s no silver bullet to take care of this thing,” said Scott Kendzierski, director of environmental health services at the Health Department of Northwest Michigan. “It’s just a monster.” Used in large volumes by an array of industries, TCE is one of the most widespread contaminants in U.S. water supplies. Its use has declined substantially over the past 15 years but widespread contamination remains." ~~~~~~~~~~

A small town's industrial legacy

Though hours away from where the Rust Belt tightens across southern Michigan, Mancelona historically has had more in common with the economies of Flint, Detroit, Lansing and Saginaw than its tourism-dependent neighboring towns in the northwestern Lower Peninsula. For decades, three factories employed most of Mancelona. One by one they closed, the most recent in 2009, leaving unemployment and economic stagnation behind. But one left something more toxic.

From about 1947 to 1967, Mt. Clemens Metal Products Company used the solvent TCE as a degreaser during the manufacture of car parts. Workers dumped it near the building when they were done with it, according to officials with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The chemical slowly seeped into the porous, sandy soil, contaminating the aquifer.

The plume – now polluting 13 trillion gallons of groundwater – is advancing northwest at a rate of about 300 feet per year. It has reached the Cedar River, which flows to a chain of lakes that wash into Lake Michigan.

In Mancelona’s groundwater, TCE concentrations as high as several hundred parts per billion have been detected in the center of the plume. The federal drinking water standard for the chemical is 5 parts per billion.

Used in large volumes by an array of industries, TCE is one of the most widespread contaminants in U.S. water supplies.

In addition to polluting water, TCE can be inhaled as a vapor in buildings.

Its use has declined substantially over the past 15 years, said James Bruckner, a University of Georgia professor who specializes in TCE research. But widespread contamination remains. Michigan alone has about 300 TCE-contaminated sites, and about 60 percent of the nation’s Superfund sites contain the chemical. Many large, miles-long TCE plumes remain in aquifers, particularly near military bases and their contractors. The Mancelona plume is the largest known one in the Great Lakes region and one of the largest in the country, said Janice Adams, a senior geologist with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

There is no longer any sign of the manufacturing plant responsible for dumping the chemical. The old Mt. Clemens Metal building has been torn down – leaving an empty lot scattered with nappy weeds, broken rebar and torn plastic fencing. The toxic aquifer is an “orphan site”, Adams said, because the company went bankrupt before the water contamination was discovered.

snip

“This will be left for our children”

There are no current plans to clean up the plume.

In 2008, the Michigan DEQ came up with three options to tackle the problem: the first two would have extracted the water, cleaned it and pumped it back underground. But pumping the water out would take decades and cost up to $34 million, too much for the state, Adams said. “If this existed in a large metro area, like Detroit or Lansing or Grand Rapids, it would have gotten more attention a long time ago. It’s a small community that’s been neglected.” –Gary Street, Freshwater Future The state instead chose to focus on monitoring the plume and replacing the tainted water. The state has spent $17.8 million to expand the countywide water system.

“It’s the magnitude of the problem. If you look at how much we’d have to pump out to keep up, it’s mind-boggling,” DeYoung said. “They ran the numbers years ago and it’s just not feasible right now.”



TCE contamination has now reached Cedar River which drains into the Lake Michigan watershed which serves the drinking water needs of millions of people.

Health Hazards Of TCE

Have we forgotten?



If the true price of progress is to sacrifice all that makes our Earth thrive is it worth it?

The Root Causes Of Violence In Syria: Climate Change And Water: But Let's Bomb The Hell Out Of Them Anyway

HOW CLIMATE CHANGE WORSENED VIOLENCE IN SYRIA



In all of the saber rattling and propaganda from governments in a rush to more war that will only result in more suffering these two words, climate change are deliberately being left out of the discussion and the media coverage. Yet, the drying of the Fertile Crescent and the results of it cannot be ignored in discussing what led Syria into the civil war that has now culminated into a tragedy leading us to the precipice.

Refugees Hit 1 Million

How did this happen if so many care so much?

A humanitarian disaster of immense proportions and yet, silence. Why? Because once again the politics takes precedence over the human. Based on all media sources and the actions of Syria's government Assad is an unfit and cruel leader who wields absolute power and we have seen that as exhibited by the accounts of those living there. Unfortunately, the "rebels" taking up arms are no better. Composed of entities seeking only the same power (and face it, probably backed by the CIA and other covert organizations) the people continue to suffer and the announcement by SOS John Kerry that the US is giving support to these "rebels" does nothing to end this suffering. In the face of news of a chemical attack in the suburbs of Damascus August 21st we now see a rush to war by the US once again dismissing the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded. Military solutions to humanitarian crises are the antithesis to each other.

However, this is a scenario being played out all over the Arab world and the similarities leave one who can connect the dots wondering just what and who is at the crux of it. Ghadhafi in Libya is gone, but now we see instability and war in Mali as arms from Libya made their way conveniently into these other countries which brought in the very elements now needing "cleansing" by the same Western powers that always seem to be in the forefront as well as the same alliance (Iran, China, Russia) on the other side. There is much money to be made in arms dealing and in fomenting wars just like this and banks (that state they are "too big to fail") that deal in it for governments and contractors make huge money from it as well. It is literally the buying and selling of humanity for profit. The effects of climate change in this region are now sewing the seeds for terrorism and being conveniently ignored by those on all sides profiting from it.

For those who are not aware there is also a geopolitical race going on for resources due to new technologies (drone warfare as an example,) climate change (particularly drought in this region of the world affecting agriculture, prices and water) terrorism and competition between developed powers and those emerging like China and Iran. This is making a battlefield out of the world as they compete for these resources particularly natural gas using any means necessary to thwart the progress of the other. And make no mistake about it, climate change is playing a part in this geopolitical battle.

In Syria as in the entire Fertile Crescent drought and water shortages have been causing people in the thousands to be displaced as food and water become scarcer and deserts expand. This leads to the people rising up to demand action and in places in the Arab world that see strong footholds over power, this then leads to civil war and what we now see culminating in Syria with alliances aligning to take advantage of the circumstances to achieve their own geopolitical agenda at the expense of the people caught in the middle.

Syria is endemic of the failure of humanity to care for its people.

As far as the political end to this Assad is not a leader that the people of Syria deserve. Nor do I see these "rebels" as being much better. Perhaps and I know this is idealistic, but perhaps if just once we looked at these humanitarian disasters from a humanitarian point of view rather than a political one we just might be able to find a way to heal people instead of making the rift wider. We must beware of all sides in this because it would seem none of them are truly looking out for the human solution to this.

I fear many more will die as people continue to be used as pawns on this geopolitical chessboard. I find it disgusting to see that these crises continue to kill so many innocents all due to the fact that greed, ideology and religious intolerance have overcome common decency. A humanitarian crisis deserves an humanitarian response. What has transpired in Syria is a warning of what extreme climate change will bring to this world and how it will spiral out of control as long as the wrong people are in positions of leadership that do not have the consciousness to deal with it.

The international community should have seen what was transpiring in Syria long before this most current tragedy. I fear that as climate change gets more of a foothold in the world in places most vulnerable conflict over resources particularly water will be commonplace. Bombing and status quo political solutions must give way to 21st Century thinking that seeks to eliminate the root causes of these tragedies to avoid them. In a world where humanity actually took precedence over the chest beating ego driven political maniacs of this world we might stand a chance. That is the world we should be striving for and the world the people of Syria and all of us need to see in order to save ourselves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also see:

Without Water, Revolution

How Climate Change Primed Syria For War

Syria, Water, Climate Change And Violent Conflict

Did Climate Change Cause The Syrian Uprising?

Excerpt:

A new study on the Arab Spring and Climate Change, finds evidence to suggest that it was not merely a coincidence that the Syrian revolution began just as the entire country was still struggling to survive after the worst drought ever recorded.

Between 2006 and 2011 nearly 60% of Syria experienced the worst drought ever, turning much of the country’s farmland into barren dust bowls, and resulting in a series of severe crop failures.

Due to the devastating drought and subsequent lack of food and water in rural areas hundreds of thousands fled to the cities, where existing problems were only exacerbated by the influx of new mouths to feed.

End of excerpt.

Syria: Climate Change, Drought And Social Unrest



Peak oil, climate change and pipeline geopolitics driving Syria conflict

Climate Change And The Syrian Uprising

SHAHRZAD MOHTADI

Two days short of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak's resignation, Al Jazeera published an article, headlined "A Kingdom of Silence," that contended an uprising was unlikely in Syria. The article cited the country's "popular president, dreaded security forces, and religious diversity" as reasons that the regime of Bashar al-Assad would not be challenged, despite the chaos and leadership changes already wrought by the so-called Arab Spring. Less than one month later, security forces arrested a group of schoolchildren in the Syrian city of Dara'a, the country's southern agricultural hub, for scrawling anti-government slogans on city walls. Subsequent protests illustrated the chasm between the regime's public image -- encapsulated in the slogan "Unity, Freedom and Socialism" -- and a reality of widespread public disillusion with Assad and his economic policies.

Among the many historical, political, and economic factors contributing to the Syrian uprising, one has been devastating to Syria, yet remains largely unnoticed by the outside world. That factor is the complex and subtle, yet powerful role that climate change has played in affecting the stability and longevity of the state.

The land now encompassed by Syria is widely credited as being the place where humans first experimented with agriculture and cattle herding, some 12,000 years ago. Today, the World Bank predicts the area will experience alarming effects of climate change, with the annual precipitation level shifting toward a permanently drier condition, increasing the severity and frequency of drought.

From 1900 until 2005, there were six droughts of significance in Syria; the average monthly level of winter precipitation during these dry periods was approximately one-third of normal. All but one of these droughts lasted only one season; the exception lasted two. Farming communities were thus able to withstand dry periods by falling back on government subsidies and secondary water resources. This most recent, the seventh drought, however, lasted from 2006 to 2010, an astounding four seasons -- a true anomaly in the past century. Furthermore, the average level of precipitation in these four years was the lowest of any drought-ridden period in the last century.

While impossible to deem one instance of drought as a direct result of anthropogenic climate change, a 2011 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regarding this recent Syrian drought states: "Climate change from greenhouse gases explained roughly half the increased dryness of 1902-2010." Martin Hoerling, the lead researcher of the study, explains: "The magnitude and frequency of the drying that has occurred is too great to be explained by natural variability alone. 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 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming will induce droughts even more severe in this region in the coming decades.

It is estimated that the Syrian drought has displaced more than 1.5 million people; entire families of agricultural workers and small-scale farmers moved from the country's breadbasket region in the northeast to urban peripheries of the south. The drought tipped the scale of an unbalanced agricultural system that was already feeling the weight of policy mismanagement and unsustainable environmental practices. Further, lack of contingency planning contributed to the inability of the system to cope with the aftermath of the drought. Decades of poorly planned agricultural policies now haunt Syria's al-Assad regime.

End of excerpt.



A warning for the future. We dismiss climate change at our peril.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please give to Medicins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) if you wish to directly help the Syrian people.

Cruise missiles will not solve this.

Floods Ravage Sudan And The World As We Sit Watching

As Floods Ravage Sudan Young Volunteers Revive A Tradition Of Aid

By ISMA’IL KUSHKUSH

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Their temporary headquarters are a beehive of young volunteers buzzing in and out of rooms, up and down stairs, carrying bags of donated food, medicine and large packets of plastic sheets.

“What happened to your house?” one volunteer asks on the phone, as others load aid on trucks or create maps and charts on laptops. “And where do you say you are? We’ll have a team out there soon.”

They are the members of Nafeer, a volunteer, youth-led initiative that responded swiftly to the humanitarian crisis caused by heavy rains and flash floods that struck Sudan this month.

The deluge has taken a heavy toll. Beyond the dozens of people killed, more than 300,000 people have been directly affected, with 74,000 homes damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations. The spread of diseases like malaria is also reported to be on the rise.

The impact of the heavy rains and floods has been felt in most of Sudan, including the camps for displaced people in the war-torn region of Darfur. In one case, six United Nations peacekeepers were swept away by a current. Four are still missing.

But the area around Khartoum, the capital, suffered the hardest blow. More rain is expected, and as the Nile and the Blue Nile rise to record levels, many fear the worst is yet to come.

“We saw that the heavy rains and floods were going to impact the lives of many, and we felt we had a social responsibility to help people,” said Muhammad Hamd, 28, a Nafeer spokesman. “The idea came out of a discussion on Facebook among friends.”

A “nafeer” is a Sudanese social tradition that comes from an Arabic word meaning “a call to mobilize.” The group’s formation was all the more important because the Sudanese government was slow to respond, some critics say.

“It was a weak response,” said Khalid Eltigani, the executive editor of Ilaf, a weekly newspaper. “The Nafeer youth broke the silence on the flood situation.”

Government officials said that the level of rain this year had surpassed their expectations, but they maintained that matters were under control.

“There is no need to declare a state of emergency,” said Sudan’s interior minister, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid.

Mark Cutts, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, described the situation as a “huge disaster,” which his agency called the worst floods in 25 years. Aid has arrived from United Nations agencies, Qatar, the United States, Japan, Egypt, Ethiopia and others.Z

The rainy season started late this year in Sudan, but when it arrived, it came with a vengeance.

“We can attribute this to climate change,” said Nagmeldin Elhassan of the Higher Council for Environment and Natural Resources, a government agency.

Mr. Elhassan, who has contributed to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, referred to studies that predicted what he called “incidents of frequent and intense droughts and incidents of high levels of rains” in the region and “shifts in rain patterns,” like later start dates of the rainy season.

Poor urban planning, however, may have also contributed to the immense damage caused by flash flooding, especially around Khartoum.

snip

“You have to imagine yourself in their place — no shelter, no food, no water,” she said. “You wouldn’t stand it.”

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Floods Kill Many People In Sudan





Thousands of people have died in extreme weather events in just the last five years. Yet, no international outcry over this. No outcry over the agriculture lost. The biodiversity. The lives. No urgent calls to do what is now necessary to prepare this world for what is coming now and in our future. We will see more events like this taking place as we continue to push the envelope of our climate system. We will continue to see more people in our world especially who live in poverty subjected to the worst of these catastrophes because of poor infrastructure, sewage and lack of preparation and the disease it brings as well as political stagnation, ideology and pride. This is indeed the greatest moral challenge of our time and yet, we continue to monopolize time needed to solve this squabbling with those in a minority who for their own arrogant selfish reasons would rather sit and massage their egos rather than see this reality.

And if we look at just the last couple of months we see these events happening more severely globally. However, it seems to now be treated as war is. People are becoming desensitized to the true urgency of the climate crisis because the media hides the truth. The media covers for those making profit from deception.

It is wonderful to see youth in Sudan taking up the call to provide aid in place of a government that is uncaring or overwhelmed by this. However, this is hardly enough to bring the aid truly needed.

Pakistan 2013

Late monsoons with extreme flooding and deluges as the Himalayas on the whole continue to melt.

This video is in Pakistani, but you only need eyes to see.



Russia's Far East Hit With Most Severe Flooding In 120 Years



China has been one of the epicenters of climate change with more severe and extreme flooding, drought and storms.



Colorado, US. Flooding, Hail storms, Wildfires





The Philippines as well has been hard hit by more severe storms:



Greece only a couple months ago.

Torrential rains hit Athens over only a few hours. This while another monster storm hits the Midwest in the US and heavy snows hit East China. Extreme weather globally is now being called the "new normal" but is anything but. Shifting weather patterns are now putting our global agricultural output in danger and causing economic and social upheaval particularly in poorer areas of the world. This is what obfuscation, political partisanship, ideology, warped political alignments and oil lies have brought us. We simply cannot afford to keep burning oil and thinking it has no effect on our environment and climate.

Take a look at this recent storm in Belgium:



Also see:

Days Of Torrential Rain In China

Alberta Flooding, India Monsoons, Flooding Lourdes

Central Europe Floods, Midwest Floods, Heatwaves, etc.

So are we to now continue on this road where these events are just "move along nothing to see here" to suit an elitist minority that cares more for their stock portfolios? Or are we going to come together as citizens of the world untied to arrogance, pride, biases and prejudices to open our eyes? To at the very least spread that tradition of aid?

Climate change is real and no temporary "lull" being pushed by the usual subjects for their own agenda can cover up the trend we have been seeing as the time lag effect of our folly now falls down upon us.

“There is no doubt that humans are changing the weather, mainly through changes in the atmospheric composition from burning fossil fuels. The resulting global warming is clearly evident in temperature increases, melting glaciers and Arctic sea ice, rising sea levels, and changes to more extreme rain storms. Stronger drought, heat waves and wild fires are also a result."

Kevin Trenberth, who studies the influence of climate change on extreme weather as head of the Climate Analysis Section at the USA National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Colorado River Releases Slashed To Historic Low

Feds Slash Colorado River Release To Historic Low

Sally Deneen

for National Geographic

Published August 16, 2013

A "No Fishing" sign sits improbably along a dry desert road in Nevada. The largest man-made reservoir in the U.S., Lake Mead, once extended this far—but the watery destination of anglers and boaters has shrunk so much that the lakeshore now is about a half-mile away. (View an interactive map of the region.)

The recession of the massive lake that straddles Nevada and Arizona is symbolic of a long-standing problem that just got a lot worse: The Colorado River's record-low flows and the shrunken reservoirs of lakes Mead and Powell (pictured above) for the first time have triggered big cuts in the amount of water allowed to flow downstream. The loss has prompted one alarmed official to float the idea that Western states ask for federal aid.

A new report has brought a sense of urgency to the slow-moving disaster represented by the shrinking Colorado River.

For days and weeks, water officials fretted that the federal Bureau of Reclamation's anticipated 24-month study would deliver bad news, and it did. The agency—a division of the Department of Interior that provides water and power in the West—announced today it would cut water released from Lake Powell's Glen Canyon Dam by 750,000 acre-feet next year. That's about enough water to serve 1.5 million homes.

"Unprecedented," said Scott Huntley, spokesperson for the Las Vegas-based Southern Nevada Water Authority, whose chief, Pat Mulroy, has mentioned the idea of seeking federal aid.

A business coalition warned of an "unprecedented water crisis within the next few years," thanks to the situation in lakes Mead and Powell, the latter of which straddles Arizona and Utah.

It's the first time in the history of the nearly 50-year-old Glen Canyon Dam that water going downstream would be cut. "This is the worst 14-year drought period in the last hundred years," said Upper Colorado regional director Larry Walkoviak in a press release.

Among the effects, said Gary Wockner of SavetheColorado.org, are negative impacts on fish, wildlife, and the ecosystem in the Grand Canyon. "The river is already severely endangered due to way too many dams and diversions," said Wockner. "The impact on the health of the Colorado River is unsustainable."

Las Vegas effectively has two straws into Lake Mead, which is roughly 300 miles (480 kilometers) downstream of Lake Powell, to get its water. One of those straws could stop working once the lake drops too far—somewhere between 1,050 feet (320 meters) and 1,075 feet (328 meters) above sea level, it's thought. Perhaps as early as autumn 2014, Lake Mead is expected to drop to 1,075 feet (down 25 feet from the current level).

Anticipating trouble earlier, the city's water authority has been busy installing a third straw to reach a deeper part of Lake Mead.

"It's essentially a race for us," Huntley said, as the lake "is going to drop more precipitously than seen in the past."

If things continue to worsen as climate change brings more evaporation and less rain over time, other issues will come into focus for the seven states and part of Mexico that rely on the Colorado River. Power production at Hoover Dam would stop if the water's elevation drops enough, for example.

"You won't be able to put water through the turbines," Huntley said. "You don't have enough really to be much more than a river at that point, as opposed to a storage reservoir."

(Related: "8 Rivers Run Dry.")

What the Report Means

"It's a kick in the pants or a blow to the head to make us pay attention to both short-term and long-term projections of supply and demand imbalances," Brad Udall said of the Bureau of Reclamation report. Udall is the director of the University of Colorado Law School's Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment.

Record drought and overuse of water from the meager Colorado River have taken a toll. Tree-ring reconstructions of stream flow suggest the past 14 years rank among the lowest stream-flow periods in 1,200 years, according to Udall and Michael Connor, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.

"Something very, very unusual is going on," said Udall, who suspects climate change is playing a part.

It's as if a giant sucked up an astonishing amount of water with a straw. Some 8.23 million acre-feet of water is supposed to flow each year into Lake Mead from Lake Powell to serve Nevada, Arizona, California, and Mexico, per long-standing interstate and international agreements. But the past 14 years have been tough.

"Basically, Mead has lost the equivalent of one entire year's worth of flow," Udall said. "It's missing 8 million acre-feet of water." (An acre-foot of water is equivalent to one acre with 12 inches of water on it.)

Lake Powell also is missing a year's worth (about 15 million acre-feet). Drought is the main culprit for Lake Powell, Udall said, while Lake Mead's issue is overuse.

The Colorado River Basin "is one of the most critical sources of water in the West," Connor said in written comments submitted to a Senate subcommittee hearing in July. The river and its tributaries quench the thirsts of 40 million people and nearly 5.5 million acres of farmland, plus seven national wildlife refuges, four national recreation areas, and 11 national parks.

end of excerpt.

Also See:

Climate Change Reflected In Lake Mead

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the article above regarding climate change reflected in Lake Mead the author is hopeful that snows will return and the river system can be saved. I too share that hope. However, after watching this play out over the last decade there is no doubt that climate instability has taken hold in this region of the country. Anyone paying attention knows of the increase in drought and wildfires in concert with the decreasing level of the Colorado River. I think we are now at the stage when we will see more people coming forward to do all they can to conserve and preserve this treasure. However, the question we now need to ask is will it be enough? Has it gone too far?

This is why it is so important to listen to scientific reports on these regions that for the most part have been correct and not get sidetracked by the noise of those who continually seek to deny this reality for their own selfish reasons. We must never see the day when the Colorado River can no longer support life. This goes so far beyond the vendetta of politically, ideologically and financially motivated special interests. This is about our heritage, our culture, the very heart of America. And this is not trite: This IS about our children and all species that share this life source with us.

"It's as if a giant sucked up an astonishing amount of water with a straw."

Yes, and dumped it on NJ, Missouri, Colorado...

The warnings of the past are now present. We still have time to listen, learn and act.

Also see:

Lake Mead Is Drying Up

The Greatest Water Crisis In The History Of Civilization: Coming To The American West?"

Colorado River- Running On Empty

Colorado River Reservoirs Could Bottom Out By Mid-century

Southwest Turns Anxious Eye To Shrinking Lake Mead

So All May Drink Wisely From The Colorado

Southwest Water Woes