West Virginians Still Not Drinking Their Water/Duke Energy's Crimes On Display

UPDATE: 4-1-14: FREEDOM INDUSTRIES HEADS TO COURT AMID QUESTIONS ON ‘INSIDER’ PAYMENTS

But it doesn't end there:

President Of Company That Tainted West Virginia’s Water Wants To Be Paid During Bankruptcy

Typical, out of touch arrogance. No caring about the water poisoned, the fact that people still aren't drinking it, the lost wages and business of those effected by it, the sick children, etc. He so needs to go to prison. At least there he can get bread and water- hopefully from the tap.

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Non physical scarcity. They have water, but they can't drink it. The media is not reporting this story anymore. Yet, the people of West Virginia live it everyday.

As we recognize World Water Day on March 22, we not only need to recognize the plight of over one billion in our world who have no water access but also the plight of those who have water but through political and corporate corruption cannot use it. We need a true shift of priorities in our world in order to save ourselves. The fox has been in charge of the hen house for far too long. What is happening in West Virginia and in other states in the US where coal has killed the water is something that must be reported everyday.

We simply cannot survive in a world where dirty energy exists. If this area had solar/wind energy providing its electricity there would be no need for these toxic chemicals and no spill would have taken place. This is the price of dirty energy combined with political cronyism and privatization of our water and it is a price too great in order for a few to profit over the many while destroying this Earth!

Clean water is a human right for ALL OF US and our rivers are not sewers there for the use of those who care more about profits than people!

Also see:

Local Reporter Puts Smug Freedom Industries President In His Place/Updates on West Virginia Chemical Spill

West Virginia Chemical Spill Declared Federal Disaster

Keep fighting for clean water, West Virginia.

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Duke Energy also continues to break the law. Why are these companies still in business?



NC Says Duke Energy Illegally Pumped Water From Coal Ash Ponds Into Cape Fear River

This was no accident. People need to be doing prison time. Why are our waterways that are our life not considered as important as our lives?



WHY?

Also see:

Duke Energy Poisons More Water With Their Coal Ash

UPDATE 3-24-14:

DUKE ENERGY'S'SWEETHEART'POLLUTION DEAL UNDONE

North Carolina regulators said Friday that they have asked a judge to withdraw a proposed settlement that would have allowed Duke Energy to resolve multiple cases of environmental abuse by paying a $99,000 fine with no requirement that the $50 billion company clean up its pollution.

The consent order that the state's Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) scuttled had been meant to settle violations for groundwater contamination leeching from coal ash dumps near Charlotte and Asheville, N.C. Critics had called the deal too lenient.

The order had been reached in July 2013, well before a massive February 2014 spill in Eden, N.C., coated 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic sludge and focused attention on Duke's long history of polluting groundwater with its leaky, unlined, open air coal ash ponds.

The state only took legal action against Duke after a coalition of environmental groups represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed notice that they planned to sue Duke under the Clean Water Act for its pollution. The administration of North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory — who himself spent 29 years in the employ of Duke Energy and has benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the company, its employees and their spouses — used its authority under the act to file state violations against Duke and then quickly negotiated the consent order, a move environmentalists say was intended to shield the company from far-harsher penalties it might have faced in federal court.

But now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the DENR and the SELC, which had brought the original Clean Water Act suit against Duke last year, are joining a suit against the energy giant to get it to clean up some of its coal ash contamination.

Coal ash is the byproduct of burning coal for industrial power generation and contains concentrated amounts of toxic metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, as well as aluminum, barium, boron, and chlorine and varying amounts of radioactive uranium, thorium and potassium. The toxins have been linked to cancer, heart damage, lung disease, respiratory distress, kidney disease, reproductive problems, gastrointestinal illness, birth defects, impaired bone growth in children and behavioral problems, according to waste assessments done by the EPA (PDF).

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Again, we need to see some people going to prison. Government officials who benefited from these companies should be first to go. Also, this is not about political parties this is about corruption in the coal industry which effects as we can see all states and is endemic in both parties in those states.

World Water Day- March 22, 2014

Water is our most precious resource. We cannot survive without it- yet over a billion people on our planet struggle daily to have it while many of us take it for granted. March 22nd yearly is a day set aside to remind the world of how precious and important this resource is to our lives. This year I will be walking for water and donating to an organization that works to dig wells in developing areas with a need for access to water.



Water has never been more at risk globally than it is now. The proliferation of pollution, privatization, dams, scarcity both physical and non-physical added to the effects climate destruction are bringing due to more severe droughts and floods tells us that we must now work to conserve and to also speak out for renewable energy sources that do not waste water. Our energy structure as it stands now is simply unsustainable in a world where population increases in concert with increasing resource depletion place us in a very urgent situation for our future.

This World Water Day, make a pledge to conserve, donate, or spread the important truth about how precious our water resources are to our survival.

WATER IS LIFE-EVERYDAY.

Other entries on World Water Day here:

World Water Day 2013

World Water Day 2012

World Water Day 2011

World Water Day 2010

World Water Day 2009

World Water Day 2008

World Water Day 2007

This entry will have information and links about World Water Day 2014 added to it through Saturday, March 22nd.

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2014 Theme: Water and Energy

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Water Is Life supports this initiative:

100K World Water Day



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World Water Day 2014: The World's Thirstiest Places

Take action on World Water Day:

Tell Congress to Demand the World Bank Stop Funding Global Water Privatizers and Keep Public Water in Public Hands

Global Thirst For Energy Threatens Water Supplies



March 22 is World Water Day: Pray For the Healing of Our Waters

Water is sacred.

World Water Day 2014: When Water Is Death

The quality of our water is a statement about the quality of humanity.

World Must Use Renewables To Avoid/Water/Energy Crisis

To differ a bit personally from the title of this article- we ALREADY have a water/energy crisis. The LAST THING we need is more tarsands excavation!



We need to see more smiles of children having access to clean water. We can see that if we get off the fossil fuel/chemical merry go round and do what is morally right for civilization!

Clean water is worth more than all the gold in the world when it comes to preserving our planet and our lives!

Fossil Fuel Giants Guzzling World's Water as Poor Go Thirsty: UN 'Great political clout' of energy industry trumps those in need of drinking water

Where the rubber meets the road on the nexus of energy and water.

Water In The Anthropocene

Scientists Sound Alarm On Climate

UPDATE: April 6, 2014 is one for the climate history books. 402 ppm of CO2 was recorded at Mauna Loa. This is the highest-ever daily reading posted by Scripps at Keeling Curve. Carry on...

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Typhoon Haiyan from space. NEW NORMAL? What is normal about this? About hundreds of millions of refugees with no homes, no food, no water, no way to grow food? What is normal about perpetual war? Do people really see how SERIOUS this all is?

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Scientists Sound Alarm on Climate

By Justin Gillis

"Early in his career, a scientist named Mario J. Molina was pulled into seemingly obscure research about strange chemicals being spewed into the atmosphere. Within a year, he had helped discover a global environmental emergency, work that would ultimately win a Nobel Prize.

Now, at 70, Dr. Molina is trying to awaken the public to an even bigger risk. He spearheaded a committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society, which released a stark report Tuesday on global warming.

The report warns that the effects of human emissions of heat-trapping gases are already being felt, that the ultimate consequences could be dire, and that the window to do something about it is closing.

“The evidence is overwhelming: Levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising,” says the report. “Temperatures are going up. Springs are arriving earlier. Ice sheets are melting. Sea level is rising. The patterns of rainfall and drought are changing. Heat waves are getting worse, as is extreme precipitation. The oceans are acidifying.”

In a sense, this is just one more report about global warming in a string going back decades. For anybody who was already paying attention, the report contains no new science. But the language in the 18-page report, called “What We Know,” is sharper, clearer and more accessible than perhaps anything the scientific community has put out to date.

And the association does not plan to stop with the report. The group, with a membership of 121,200 scientists and science supporters around the world, plans a broad outreach campaign to put forward accurate information in simple language.

The scientists are essentially trying to use their powers of persuasion to cut through public confusion over this issue.

Polls show that most Americans are at least somewhat worried about global warming. But people generally do not understand that the problem is urgent — that the fate of future generations (not necessarily that far in the future) is being determined by emission levels now. Moreover, the average citizen tends to think there is more scientific debate about the basics than there really is.

The report emphasizes that the experts have come to a consensus, with only a few dissenters. “Based on well-established evidence, about 97 percent of climate scientists have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening,” it says.

That is not the same as claiming that all questions about climate change have been answered. In fact, enormous questions remain, and the science of global warming entails a robust, evolving discussion.

The new report walks through a series of potential consequences of planetary warming, without asserting that any is sure to happen. They are possibilities, not certainties, and the distinction is crucial for an intelligent public debate about what to do. The worst-case forecasts include severe food shortages as warming makes it harder to grow crops; an accelerating rise of the sea that would inundate coastlines too rapidly for humanity to adjust; extreme heat waves, droughts and floods; and a large-scale extinction of plants and animals.

“What’s extremely clear is that there’s a risk, a very significant risk,” Dr. Molina said by telephone from Mexico, where he spends part of his time. “You don’t need 100 percent certainty for society to act.”

End of excerpt

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“You don’t need 100 percent certainty for society to act.”

Truth. 97% certainty is more than enough and it cannot be said too many times that the public's continued reliance on getting their information about this from mass media and politicians bought by the fossil fuel industry and those only using it to gain political points will only delay that action and make those possibilities certainties.

There is absolutely no doubt that the effects of our forcing upon this planet over the last century and a half are now manifesting themselves in ways that are not only threatening our survival and ability to live sustainably but already effecting it now.

This is the current intiative put forth by the AAAS to clear up the confusion in the public that there is still scientific debate regarding anthropogenic climate change:

What We Know

Excerpt:

"The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest non-government general science membership organization and the executive publisher of Science, a leading scientific journal.

Its mission is “advance science for the benefit of all people.” Its goals include providing a voice for science on societal issues and promoting the responsible use of science in public policy. There may be no more pressing issue intersecting science and society than climate change and the What We Know initiative was born in response to that reality.

The What We Know initiative is dedicated to ensuring that three “R’s” of climate change communicated to the public.

The first is Reality — 97% of climate experts have concluded that human-caused climate change is happening.

The second is Risk — that the reality of climate change means that there are climate change impacts we can expect, but we also must consider what might happen, especially the small, but real, chance that we may face abrupt changes with massively disruptive impacts.

The third R is Response — that there is much we can do and that the sooner we respond, the better off we will be.

The What We Know initiative will include outreach to scientists, economists, community leaders, policy makers and the public at large over the following months via meetings and media outreach.

To guide the What We Know initiative, AAAS convened a group of prominent experts in climate science to address the fact that many Americans still erroneously believe that the scientific community is divided on the issue and that Americans are largely unaware of the full spectrum of climate risks – both what is likely to happen and what might happen — that human-caused climate change presents to Americans now and in the future."



Week ending March 17, 2014

Keeling Curve

The public perception that science is still divided on this is erroneous. The fact that humans are now altering the climate system of our planet thus producing more extreme events across a wider area of our planet is fact. There is no disputation that CO2 is a heat trapping gas and that the burning of fossil fuels is the fingerprint along with deforestation, land use changes and agricultural practices. Our rapacious rate of consumption of fossil fuels, water, forests and all resources is now catapulting us into a new epoch of history where our actions are already affecting our ability to live and will see devastating consequences taking place in future generations.

We are already seeing this come to pass in the Arctic where as I have reported previously, methane feedbacks are now occurring. There is no more time to waste on political bickering and using this urgent planetary crisis as a football just to gain votes with no substance. Without a habitable world nothing else matters. Unless we all join together as one human species to see the truth and see our part in telling it and taking action the ecosystems that are our life support will fail us.

I am grateful that this initiative has been implemented especially in regards to alerting the public to this most urgent reality apart from the political, ideological and economic factors that seek to inhibit solutions in a timeframe expedient enough to forestall catastrophe. Make no mistake, we are playing with fire when it comes to moving slowly regarding the effect our consumption has had and will continue to have on our only home if we do not act now. This then means heeding the warnings of scientists and those who see the danger and the effects taking place that the continued excavation and burning of fossil fuels presents.

As also will the continued rapacious consumption, pollution and disregard for our global water sources, especially in light of increased populations in correlation with more severe and frequent effects of droughts, floods, storms, ocean acidification, sea level rise and glacial melt that have been amplified as a result of the greenhouse effect.

The picture above shows that we have now surpassed 400PPM of CO2 in our atmosphere. 450 is game over as far as reversing effects. You do the math and try to understand that our current trajectory is not in the right direction. It will take unparalleled moral courage to go in the direction we need to go. This is why listening to the scientists instead of politicians with an agenda is absolutely imperative at this point in time in order to see our children with a world they can inhabit. I truly don't know how much more plain this can be.

Our Carbon Debt Our Moral Duty

This is a debt our children will hate us for leaving them. They also have every right to do so if we fail them.



Response of AGW deniers, politicians, those who think they don't need to change, those who make $$$$$$ by exploiting this Earth and basically anyone who thinks this information is put here just to take up space. Guess what- doing and or thinking that changes nothing about REALITY.

International Day Of Rivers

Celebrating International Rivers (In pictures)

Day Of Action Defending World Heritage Rivers

snip

"Governments the world over have taken legal measures to protect particularly unique and valuable natural and cultural treasures in perpetuity. The establishment of national parks is one mechanism that has resulted in an estimated 6,500 protected areas in countries across the globe. Yet even these protected areas face destructive large dams. With more than 500 dams now planned in the Balkans, for example, our friends at River Watch are organizing to “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” against dams planned in national parks in Albania, Macedonia and Slovakia. The question has been posed: If we can’t stop destructive dams in our national parks, then where can we draw the line?

International Rivers will be taking action on March 14 to profile the threats to rivers and related ecosystems that are designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Of the nearly 1,000 sites of “outstanding universal value” in the World Heritage system, several are directly threatened by large hydropower projects.

The World Heritage Committee meets annually to, among other business, review and consider sites to include on its “In Danger” list, a designation that aims to mobilize attention and resources to address imminent threats. International Rivers has provided evidence to the Committee, comprised of 21 member-states, on threats to river-dependent World Heritage Sites. Two sites under clear and immediate threat in 2014 are the Three Parallel Rivers site in China and the Lake Turkana Basin in East Africa.

Three Parallel Rivers is a 17,000-square-kilometer site featuring upper reaches of the Yangtze (Jinsha), the Mekong (Lancang) and Salween (Nu) rivers, which run roughly parallel in deep gorges along 300 km. Inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2003, the area is considered one of the richest temperate regions in the world for biodiversity and today is still a relatively undisturbed ecological zone. China has revived plans to build up to 13 dams on the Nu River, which would significantly change the scenic and ecological value of this World Heritage Site. The Committee has requested that China update the Site’s status for review at its 2015 meeting.

Kenya’s Lake Turkana is the largest desert lake in the world. Inscribed in 1997, this World Heritage site has supported hominids for 2 million years, and is today the life-source for a quarter million people, abundant crocodiles and fish, and some 350 species of birds. Ethiopia is poised to begin filling the Gibe III Dam on the Omo River – the source for this lake – with potentially disastrous hydrological consequences.

This year I’ll be joining in a Day of Action for Rivers that will send a message to World Heritage Committee members in time for their June meeting in Qatar: Alert the world to the risks these sites face, and grant them World Heritage “In Danger” status. If you aren’t already joining an action on March 14, then consider organizing embassy and consulate visits in your own metropolitan area. Visit our website to get a list of the 21 voting nations on the World Heritage Committee and briefing kits for the full range of activities for the International Day of Action for Rivers.

Whether you pump your fist in the air, bring your hands together in prayer, or go knocking on consular doors, do find a way to join into the International Day of Action for Rivers on March 14. The fate of the world’s rivers are in our hands!

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Speak out to protect your rivers. They are our lifelines.



Mega Dams Economically Unviable-Oxford Report

India's Dam Building Bonanza

Rivers globally are being choked due to the proliferation of huge mega dam projects under the guise of "green" energy. This is a misrepresentation as we see these mega projects not only costing more in $$$$ but also in environmental damage to indigenous lands, displacement, pollution and diversion of rivers that effects agricultural output. To stand up for our rivers means to also stand up for sensible solutions and our indigenous communities globally.

Scientists: Earth Has A Secret Reservoir of Water

'Ringwoodite' points to water deep within Earth

Late Melbourne scientist Ted Ringwood's theories appear to have been validated with the discovery of a sample of Ringwoodite from deep beneath the Earth's surface.

One hundred and fifty years ago, in Journey to the Centre of the Earth, French science-fiction forerunner Jules Verne pictured a vast sea that lay deep under our planet's surface.

Today, that strange and haunting image has found an unexpected echo in a scientific paper.

That particular zone in the Earth, the transition zone, might have as much water as all the world's oceans put together.

Graham Pearson, University of Alberta

Writing in the journal Nature, scientists said they had found an elusive mineral pointing to the existence of a vast reservoir deep in Earth's mantle, 400 to 600 kilometres beneath our feet.


The brown diamond that yielded the ringwoodite sample. Photo: Richard Siemens/University of Alberta It may hold as much water as all the planet's oceans combined, they believe. The evidence comes from a water-loving mineral called ringwoodite that came from the so-called transition zone sandwiched between the upper and lower layers of Earth's mantle, they said. Analysis shows a whopping 1.5 per cent of the rock comprises molecules of water.

The find backs once-contested theories that the transition zone, or at least significant parts of it, is water-rich, the investigators said. "This sample really provides extremely strong confirmation that there are local wet spots deep in the Earth in this area," said Graham Pearson of Canada's University of Alberta, who led the research. "That particular zone in the Earth, the transition zone, might have as much water as all the world's oceans put together."

Ringwoodite is named after Australian geologist Ted Ringwood, who theorised that a special mineral was bound to be created in the transition zone because of the ultra-high pressures and temperatures there. A piece of this mineral has been a long-sought goal. It would resolve a long-running debate about whether the poorly-understood transition zone is bone-dry or water-rich. But until now, ringwoodite has only ever been found in meteorites. Geologists had simply been unable to delve deep enough to find any sample on Earth.Good fortune, though, changed all this.

In 2008, amateur gem-hunters digging in shallow river gravel in the Juina area of Mato Grasso, Brazil, came across a tiny, grubby stone called a brown diamond. Measuring just three millimetres across and commercially worthless, the stone was acquired by the scientists when they were on a quest for other minerals. But the accidental acquisition turned out to be a bonanza. In its interior, they found a microscopic trace of ringwoodite – the very first terrestrial evidence of the ultra-rare rock. snip

"In some ways it is an ocean in Earth's interior, as visualised by Jules Verne ... although not in the form of liquid water," Keppler said in a commentary also published by Nature. The implications of the discovery are profound, Pearson suggested. If water exists in huge volumes beneath Earth's crust, it is bound to have a big impact on the mechanics of volcanoes and the movement of tectonic plates."One of the reasons the Earth is such a dynamic planet is the presence of some water in its interior," Pearson said. "Water changes everything about the way a planet works."

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Incredible find. There is still so much we have to yet learn about Earth. I have no doubt there is water at the center. In the early stages of Earth's development bombardments by meteors and comets formed the oceans we see around us. It is very likely to me that these relentless bombardments sent water deep into the Earth. Could it be a world within a world?

“Is the Master out of his mind?' she asked me.
I nodded.
'And he's taking you with him?'
I nodded again.
'Where?' she asked.
I pointed towards the centre of the earth.
'Into the cellar?' exclaimed the old servant.
'No,' I said, 'farther down than that.”

― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey To The Centre of The Earth-All Editions

Also see: Where Did Earth's Water Originate

Repost for International Women's Day: Women -The Caretakers of Our World In a World of Water and Climate Injustice

Women Lack Access To Safe Drinking Water

Access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation is one of the most important factors regarding economy, health and education in the developing world. And yes, it is also a factor regarding men but for women who suffer from cultural inequality in these areas of the world and who are charged with the rearing of children, farming, household duties, etc. this becomes a much more crucial issue for them and especially for their children. We are now also experiencing more frequent and severe drought, glaciers globally melting faster than predicted that threaten water supplies for billions, landgrabbing and more corporate ownership of the resources necessary for survival and conflicts that threaten access to water and land.

Even now as we enter the 21st Century and eclispe the heights of technological genius we still have not found a way to provide safe drinking water to all our people on Earth even though three quarters of this Earth is covered by it. I say, a world in which three quarters of it is covered with water yet sees its people dying of thirst is a world that has lost its way. Where will this century take us in regards to water issues? Climate? We are certain to see technological advances that go beyond our comprehension in our zeal to "perfect" ourselves and make our world more convenient for the uses we in our arrogance deem necessary to control it. However, in doing so will we lose focus on the one word we need to work on: Humanity? Feeding our people, providing them with water, health, education, opportunity and dignity. These should be the goals that transcend centuries and egos. Please, let it be.

Women and Water: Scarcity, Access and Sanitation.



This is about lack of access to water because of non physical scarcity/pollution that causes disease and preventable death as well as lack of sanitation that affects education and health. The UN Millenium goals for safe drinking water have been met but still fall short. Millenium goals on sanitation however are much harder to reach, but work is being done. This is also a human rights issue and bridging the gap between rich and poor. It will take the global community joining together to solve this crisis and recognizing the rights of women which is a huge part of the solution.

___ Some solutions:

SOLUTION: Declare water to be a global human right.

SOLUTION: Hold chemical and oil companies accountable for their pollution and the toxification of our water globally.

SOLUTION: Stop drilling in our water.

SOLUTION: Fight the privatization of our global water supplies.

SOLUTION: Support sustainable agriculture that conserves water (drip irrigation) and lessens the use of pesticides and fertilizers.

SOLUTION: Speak out about the lack of sanitation because it needs to be known. Support NGOS working to bring dignity to people.

SOLUTION: Support efforts to decrease the emissions that add to the global warming that is bringing about the glacial melt and more frequent droughts and floods that threaten water supplies.

Also see:

The Water Crisis Looms Large Over Our World

Water Facts

WHO: Water, Sanitation And Health

The crisis of sanitation is now even more acute than water access.
The Global Water Crisis- What you can do.

Addition 3-8-14:



We are mothers, lovers, fighters, caretakers, farmers, innovators, diplomats. We are the world. And we are more impacted by climate change/water scarcity in this world and therefore also more passionate about preserving this world's beauty and resources for future generations.

Women and Climate Change

Excerpt:

"Family nutrition is directly affected by a woman’s ability to farm. Women farmers grow more than half of all the food in developing countries, and up to 80 percent in parts of Africa, generally in the form of small-scale crops for household consumption. Climate change has already begun to affect agricultural production and, consequently, women’s livelihoods and their ability to support the nutritional needs of their families. Extension efforts need to reach women, who often do not have access to information that would help them make better decisions about how to adapt to climate change.

Women are also the primary collectors of wood for fuel and water for household use. As climate change exacerbates desertification, these resources will become increasingly scarce, and make these tasks more difficult and time-consuming. This may directly affect girls’ ability to attend school, as household chores consume more of their time.

Women are also highly vulnerable to climate change-related natural disasters, and, as recent research has shown, face a significant risk of disaster-related fatalities. Following the 2004 tsunami in Asia, Oxfam International reported that three-quarters of the fatalities in eight Indonesian villages were women and girls. In the second most affected district in India, Cuddalore, the proportion of female fatalities was nearly 90 percent. Furthermore, many of the daily challenges facing women farmers in the developing world, such as the difficulty of accessing credit, tools, training, and technical advice, only increase their vulnerability to climate change."

The solutions to both the climate and water crises lie not in technological fixes that only seek to profit those investing in them. The solutions lie in the ingenuity, passion and wisdom of those who work the land (both men and women) and understand not only our physical relationship to the Earth but our spiritual bond as well. Food sovereignty, food security, water access, defeating the scourge of poverty all hinge on education and inclusion of girls and women in their communities in policy making and leadership. A better world is possible but only if humanity and true equality are at its core.

To all women who struggle for equality and justice I stand with you as your sister in the fight for a better world.

(To my mother who left me and this world too soon who taught me to love, be my own person and speak truth- Thank you- you are always in my heart.)

Methane Levels Continue to Destabilize Arctic- Yet Silence

Disclaimer: I want to add this disclaimer to cover any posts here regarding Methane feedback. I absolutely DO NOT support the geoengineering of our atmosphere through spraying of chemicals as a solution to climate destruction. This could well tip our atmosphere even further with unknown consequences. ANY references to it on ANY sources I link to here are not supported by me. I have added certain sources simply to illustrate and inform regarding the real concern we must have with methane feedback- which can be addressed though initiatives to decrease of CO2/methane emissions such as a ban on fracking as well as through sustainable agriculture, afforestation, renewable energy and financial incentives not tied to markets but that hold markets accountable. Thank you. UPDATE 3-24-14:



A Siberian Heat Wave is Breaking Kara Sea Ice In March, So is it Time to Start Thinking about Hot Arctic Rivers?

UPDATE 3-22-14:

Feedbacks in the Arctic



"This is more a climate report than a weather report; yet, the extreme weather that did hit the U.K. recently and that is forecast to hit large parts of North America next week may make more people realize that action is needed now. So, please share! At the moment, a large part of Russia is experiencing temperature anomalies at the highest end of the scale, i.e. more than 36°F (20°C) warmer than average past records."

End of excerpt.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE??

Do the words tipping point bring it home? We have now surpassed 400PPM in our atmosphere...WRONG DIRECTION!

Permafrost thaw exacerbates climate change

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UPDATE 3-3-14:

Massive Methane Concentrations Over The Laptev Sea



"As illustrated by above image, the weather is getting more extreme and there is a clear pattern, i.e. the Arctic has been wamer than it used to be, while parts of Asia and North America have been colder than they used to be. This decreases the temperature difference beteen the areas to the north and to the south of the jet stream, which in turn decreases the speed at which the jet stream circumnavigates the globe, resulting in the jet stream becoming more wavier and increasing opportunities for cold air to descend from the Arctic and for warm air to enter the Arctic. In short, the situation in the Arctic is getting worse, increasing the danger of large methane releases from the Arctic seafloor. This spells bad news for the future..."

End of excerpt


To be totally honest I find it amazing that this important news doesn't illicit even one comment. I feel as if I am reporting and updating on this and it is just going out into the ether. It's bad enough the media is totally ignoring this. However, I suppose people on the whole won't care until this entire system breaks down to the point of no return and then it will be too late. (?) Let's just keep reporting on the Oscars caring more about the dresses and the "selfies."

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High methane levels over the Arctic Ocean on February 17, 2014

Excerpt from link:

Above image shows IASI methane readings over the last day or so, when levels as high as 2223 ppb were recorded.

Where does the methane come from?

On above image, methane shows up prominently along the faultline that crosses the Arctic Ocean from the northern tip of Greenland to the Laptev Sea. This indicates that the methane originated from the depths of the Arctic Ocean, where sediments contain large amounts of methane in the form of free gas and hydrates, which have become destabilized.

High methane concentrations have persistently shown up over the Arctic Ocean since October 1, 2013. On January 19, 2014, levels as high as 2363 ppb were recorded over the Arctic Ocean, as illustrated by the image below, from an earlier post.

[ from earlier post, click on image to enlarge ]

Below is a comparison of methane readings for the week from February 9 to 16, 2014, compared to the same period in 2013.

[ from earlier post, click on image to enlarge ]

The above comparison shows that there is a lot of methane over the Arctic Ocean that wasn't there last year.

Furthermore, high methane readings show up where currents move the sea ice out of the Arctic Ocean, in areas such as Baffin Bay. This indicates that methane that is released from the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean appears to be moving underneath the ice along with exit currents and entering the atmosphere where the sea ice is fractured or thin enough to allow the methane to pass through."





Salinity levels are also important.

"As the salinity levels of the water on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean increased, the ice that had until then held the methane captive in hydrates on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean started to melt. Indeed, the areas in the Arctic Ocean where the high methane releases occurred on January 14, 2014 (top image) show several practical salinity units (psu) increase since October 1, 2013."

End of excerpt.

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Methane Feedback and Abrupt Climate Change: How Far Are We From It?

Methane Feedback and Abrupt Climate Change, cont.

As outlined previously on this blog the precipitous drop in Arctic sea ice we have been seeing is now causing methane seepage from the depths of the Arctic Ocean. This indicates positive feedbacks that threaten to catapult the Earth into abrupt climate change are now happening. However, we see little if no mention of this even by many environmental organizations and definitely not by the media or this government. They all continue to push their pet causes to either collect donations or push their political agendas for votes. It is very disconcerting to think that even those who claim to be concerned about addressing climate destruction don't seem to be as concerned as they should be now. It is a given that those who become wealthier from selling doubt and lies would ignore this or try to discredit it. However, to see it being ignored and even challenged as untrue by those who certainly know it is true is not only disconcerting but curious.

The previous entries written here about it contain much information to explain how it all works and that abrupt climate change is something that we should all be concerned about. I am baffled by what appears to be the lack of real concern about methane feedbacks in the Arctic by those who claim this to be a planetary emergency. Is it because this is so intense in its possible scope that even those who fight denial are in denial about this? Concentrations of CO2 reached 400PPM last May and have been hovering at that mark ever since. Last year was the 37th consecutive year of above average temperature. We are seeing the trend of more frequent and extreme events pertaining to the hydrologic cycle in concert with rising CO2 concentrations that bring about these feedbacks covering a greater percentage of the globe affecting agriculture, water, social systems and life itself.

Yet, methane seems to be the greenhouse gas that is OK to forget in placing CO2 above it all instead of making the connection between them, even though studies show that methane emissions from shale gas production "undercuts the logic of its use as a bridging fuel over coming decades, if the goal is to reduce global warming.” Yet, the Obama administration and other "leaders" of all political stripes support an "All Of The Above" energy policy that includes fracking of natural gas shale and tarsands ( and though there is rightful vociferous rejection of the Northern leg of the Transcanada/Keystone pipeline, the Southern leg from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast went online in January 2014 with little protest even from some of the same organizations not supporting the Northern leg. This is one inconsistency of the environmental movement that we need to change.) This policy and using it to score political points over the moral imperative is also counterproductive to the goal of keeping us below the threshold of catastrophic climate effects. Using it as a "bridge" to clean renewable energy sources we already have the FULL CAPACITY to initiate is also immoral. I would dare say as well then that Washington DC is also a large producer of methane and it stinks.

Methane gas from methane clathrates (as has been discussed here) has been suggested as a possible cause for rapid global warming events as has happened in Earth's past. The years from 1999 to 2007 saw record thawing of permafrost in Alaska and Siberia (Alaska just experienced its warmest January on record.) Anthropogenic sources of methane are landfills, biomass burning, agriculture (particulary rice) and converting forests to grow monoculture crops for ethanol and biofuels, even down to proliferation of mega dam building which releases methane from organisms in sediments. As a result, we humans have acquired the ability to affect concentrations of other gases in the atmosphere. Methane like CO2 traps heat in the atmosphere and increased methane emissions increase the temperature of the atmosphere.

Also, because warmer climates hold more water vapor through methane emissions humans can indirectly increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere as well that is all related to the control knob, CO2. Methane production also occurs by changing the level of the water table. We can directly affect the soil’s ability to act as a source or sink of methane. Warm weather and water-logged soil as we are now also seeing in Britain for example with these intense floods will act as a producer thus increasing feedbacks. This is now also the explanation for its seepage in the Arctic where sediments have been held for centuries in the frozen abyss that is now warming at a pace three times faster than the rest of the globe.

Now, I am not saying CO2 is not important. It is the driver of climate change and its concentrations on land, sea and in air are now bringing the world to a place unseen by humans in all of our existence. However, methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas in the short term and its releases due to melting due to burning fossil fuels and other destructive habits is the very spark that can lead the Earth to abrupt climactic shifts on a timescale that we are not prepared to deal with!

Therefore, I hope those reading this take a look at all the information provided at the link posted above. These extreme events in concert with the jet stream becoming more erratic (Arctic amplification) give us a limited time in which to truly take this seriously. There is no time for political initiatives to beg the EPA to push "new plants" alone to decrease their carbon emissions. It must be EVERY SECTOR and it must be now and it must include leaving all fossil fuel reserves currently in the ground there. There is also no more time to continue to use this human crisis as a way to boost individual egos or to give praise to those who claim to be our saviors by throwing their billions at the very corrupt individuals in Congress who enabled this and continue to profit from it! The time for expecting those in government agencies in league with polluters to have an attack of conscience about this is over.

We will not get another chance to do this right. We may already have crossed the tipping point and keeping this information hush hush in order for both political sides to keep their business as usual in an election year is immoral on all counts. This supercedes elections, egos and revenge. This is about telling the truth and starting a global WW2 effort to shut down the cause(s) before irreversible damage is done to the ecosystems that give all species life. But what do I know. I'm just one little person shouting this into the void because I love my son and I want him to have a habitable world.

That requires connecting ALL of the dots before it is too late and having the moral will to make it right.

Do we? Old Arctic Ice Is Disappearing and Taking the Rest of the Ice With It



Methane Microbe May Speed Up Warming

Ready Or Not.- Abrupt Climate Changes Worry Scientists Most

"An expert panel at the National Academy of Sciences is calling for an early warning system to alert us to abrupt and potentially catastrophic events triggered by climate change.

The committee says science can anticipate some major changes to the Earth that could affect everything from agriculture to sea level. But we aren't doing enough to look for those changes and anticipate their impacts.

And this is not a matter for some distant future. The Earth is already experiencing both gradual and abrupt climate change. The air is warming up slowly, and we're also seeing rapid changes such as the melting Arctic ice cap.

Anthony Barnosky, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, says abrupt change is the bigger worry.

"When you think about gradual changes you can kind of see where the road is and know where you're going," Barnosky said at a news conference unveiling the report Tuesday. "When you think about abrupt changes and threshold effects, the road suddenly drops out from under you. And it's those kinds of things we're suggesting we need to anticipate in a much more comprehensive way."

End of excerpt

Arctic Seafloor Methane Releases Double Previous Estimates

NASA Satellites See Arctic Surface Darkening Faster