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Posted by feww on September 9, 2010
Download large image (7 MB, JPEG) Image acquired July 19, 2010
Download large image (9 MB, JPEG),. Image acquired August 11, 2010
Download large image (9 MB, JPEG). Image acquired September 7, 2010. Click images to enlarge.
Above images, which span a 50-day period, were taken by MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite on July 19, before lower Indus flooded, August 11, and September 7, when floodwater reached the Manchhar Lake.
“These images use a combination of infrared and visible light to increase the contrast between water and land. Water ranges in color from electric blue to navy. Vegetation appears bright green. Bare land ranges in color from pink-beige to brick red. Clouds appear pale blue-green.” Full caption available at Flooding in Pakistan.
Flooding has destroyed about 4 million hectares (10 million acres) of farmland in Pakistan, reports say.
Related Links
Posted in collapse, Collapse Mechanisms, Collapsing Cities, first wave of collapsing cities, pakistan collapse | Tagged: Indus River, Manchhar Lake, pakistan flooding, Pakistan Flooding Satellite Images, Sindh Province | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on July 12, 2010
“Rising seas from global warming, coming after years of coral reef destruction, are forcing thousands of indigenous Panamanians to leave their ancestral homes on low-lying Caribbean islands.” —Report
Carti Sugdub an island in an archipelago off Panama’s northeastern coast, home to 32,000 semi-autonomous Kuna people, has become mostly uninhabitable as as rising sea, storms and high tides combine to submerge it in ankle-deep water for most of the year. More…
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Posted in collapse, Collapsing Cities, rising global temps, rising sea, rising sea levels | Tagged: Carti Sugdub, Collapse Headlines, Human Impact on Nature, Panama islanders | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on July 11, 2010
Have warned:
Forecast the first wave of collapse
And presaged the extinction of the Energy Dinosaurs:
Our energy models have forecast with high degree of accuracy the rate and timeline of the collapse.
Photo-like image of Gulf of Mexico was captured by MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite on July 9, as oil floated across the region around the Mississippi River Delta. “Beyond the area where the Sun’s reflection would have appeared, however, oil may make the water surface look unusually dark rather than bright. The dark arc in the water east of Timbalier Bay may also be oil; it is consistent with oil locations identified with radar images of the area captured on July 8.“ Source: NASA E/O. Click image to enlarge. Download large image (5 MB, JPEG)
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Posted in collapse, Collapse Mechanisms, Collapse Survivors, Collapsing Cities, collapsing ecosystems | Tagged: BP Oil Disaster Satellite Images, energy dinosaurs, Gulf Oil Disaster, Oil Slick in the Gulf of Mexico, The 6th Great Extinction | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on June 16, 2010
“… the battle we’re waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens.” Obama said.
“And in the coming weeks and days, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that’s expected to stop the leak completely.”
President Barack Obama addresses the nation from the Oval Office at the White House in Washington in this television frame grab June 15, 2010.
REUTERS/Reuters TV
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Posted in collapse, Collapsing Cities, deepwater drilling, Deepwater Horizon, Deepwater Horizon Oil Slick | Tagged: Gulf of Mexico oil Spill, Gulf Oil Disaster, Obama on BP Oil Spill, Obama Speech | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on May 29, 2010
The initial explosion from Tungurahua volcano ejected a large plume of ash, lava, fumes and tephra to a height of about 10km (33,000 feet) a.s.l.
The latest eruption was the volcano’s most significant activity since 2006 when up to a 1,000 homes were destroyed, killing at least 8 people.
Tungurahua is located about 135 kilometers (84 miles) south of Quito, the capital city of Ecuador (Group D – see map).
Collapse Survivors Note:
Volcanic explosions could play a major role as significant mechanisms of collapse and ultimately depopulation of the planet.
Map of Volcanoes. Background Map: University of Michigan. Designed and enhanced by Fire Earth Blog. Click image to enlarge.
Related Links:
Posted in collapse, Collapse Mechanisms, Collapsing Cities | Tagged: causes of collapse, Guayaquil, human depopulation, Pacaya, Tungurahua Volcano | 3 Comments »
Posted by feww on May 26, 2010
Flooded areas near the village of Swiniary, Central Poland , Monday. At least 14 people have been killed, thousands of others and tens of thousands of livestock evacuated. Photo: AP. Image may be subject to copyright.
Widespread flooding along the Vistula River in southeastern Poland. Astronaut photograph ISS023-E-50542 was acquired on May 22, 2010.
Gulf Oil Spill:
Climate:
Posted in Climate Change, collapse, Collapsing Cities, environment, survivors | Tagged: BP top kill, Endgame, Gulf Oil Disaster, poland flooding, post collapse | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on May 23, 2010
The blog Moderators believe that in less than a decade from now the total human population on Earth will fall below 200,000 people.
Most of the ‘survivors’ would be highly evolved, ethical and altruistic humans with the ability to overcome the immense difficulties they will have inherited . . .
Nevertheless, the Moderators believe by identifying the major man-made obstacles that stand in the way, they could, for their part, help to keep the flow of life on this planet uninterrupted.
The Moderators
Posted in collapse, Collapse Mechanisms, collapsing ecosystems, Man-made Planetary Cataclysms, Planetary collapse | Tagged: Collapsing Cities, life on earth, life or death | 6 Comments »
Posted by feww on May 1, 2010
We learn about the importance of diversity when it comes to other species, but we are denied the same knowledge when it come to learning about humans.
We are en-shackled by the global economy, a prison made by the monetary system. All of our other nightmares are the derivatives of the system.
In a nutshell …
1. Our rulers have imposed upon us a method of doing things, a system of exponentially expanding human ecological footprint called economy, which is destroying the planet.
2. We have been prevented from researching, developing and ultimately opting for alternative lifestyles, sustainable means of running our everyday lives, with zero impact on the planet.
3. Coupled with the economy, an inseparable part of it in fact, is an energy policy that demands more and more fossil fuels, the production and consumption of which is destroying not only the climate, but the very air we breathe, land and water we feed from.
4. We have been hoodwinked into electing an incompetent and ill-meaning President, who’s trying to secure a second term in office by way of appeasing the giant corporations that have no concern other than maximizing their bottom line.
5. Some of those giants strap us inside vehicles that were made by other giants, keeping each and everyone of us locked in on the wilderness of freeways, polluted roads and streets, so that we would burn the gas they sold us, going nowhere, several hours a day, each day.
6. We are blindfolded. How can anyone find out that the road map the giants have sold us goes nowhere and the destinations marked on them are non-existent? The answer is they can’t.
7. Disasters like the growing oil spill in the Gulf momentarily awaken us to the truth. Even then, our realization of truth is ephemeral. The giants’ spin machine (our politicians), their agents of disinformation (the media) and other dark forces of information suppression (the Internet Mafia), prevent us from seeing, hearing, experiencing and ultimately making the right decisions by ourselves.
8. By all means then sue the giants. But don’t stop there because the Administration, media and the Internet Mafia deserve equal reaction.
9. Knowledge and information forms the basis of our decision-making process. Access to up-to-date information and knowledge of alternative points of view can make the difference between whether WE and therefore our civilization survive, or becomes extinct.
10. A major mechanism of evolution is learning… Learning is facilitated by feedbacks. But the social feedback and all other feedbacks lines are short-circuited, corrupted, and converted into loops that come back to the same point over and over again. The giants have retarded the evolution of of human species. When species cease to evolve, they become extinct. Right now the odds are heavily stacked against the survival of ‘Google Civilization.’
Related Links:
Serial No 1,651. Starting April 2010, each entry on this blog has a unique serial number. If any of the numbers are missing, it may mean that the corresponding entry has been blocked by Google/the authorities in your country. Please drop us a line if you detect any anomaly/missing number(s).
Posted in collapse, Collapse Mechanisms, Energy and Climate Bill, energy dinosaurs, Google Conspiracy, Obama administration | Tagged: BP lawsuit, Disinformation, ecological collapse, Google Civilization, gulf oil spill | 3 Comments »
Posted by feww on April 30, 2010
In a nutshell …
1. The rulers have imposed upon us a method of doing things, a system of exponentially expanding economy, that is destroying the planet.
2. We have been prevented from researching and developing alternative lifestyles, means of running our everyday lives with zero impact on the planet.
3. Coupled with the economy is an energy policy that’s destroying not just the climate, but the very air, land and water we breathe and feed from.
4. We have been hoodwinked into electing an incompetent and ill-meaning President, who’s trying to secure a second term by way of appeasing the giant corporations that have no concern other than maximizing their bottom line.
5. Some of those giants force us to chain ourselves inside vehicles that were made by other giants, keeping each and everyone of us locked in on the wilderness of freeways, polluted roads and streets, burning the gas they sold us, going nowhere, several hours a day, each day.
What we would expect our elected President [he was elected because the only other option allowed would have been tantamount to total moral failure] to say how he would now stop the oil plunder that is pushing the Gulf States to the verge of collapse, as each minute passes by. Instead, here’s what he had to say:
“The administration’s offshore oil and gas plan proposes a thoughtful, scientifically grounded process for determining which new areas on the outer continental shelf are appropriate for exploration and development, and for assessing the potential risks and benefits of development in areas that are being explored,” the White House said in a statement.
The Obama Administration said it planned to work closely with the Congress and state governors to assign new areas for offshore oil and gas drilling.
6. How can anyone find out that our road map is faulty and the destination non-existent? The answer is they can’t. Only disasters like the growing oil spill in the Gulf can momentarily awaken us to the truth. Even then our realization of reality is ephemeral. The heavy spin machine (our politicians), the agents of disinformation (the media) and other dark forces of information suppression (the Internet mafia), prevent us from seeing, hearing and experiencing.
7. By all means then sue the giants. But don’t stop there because the Administration, media and the internet Mafia deserve equal reaction.
8. Knowledge and information forms the basis of our decision-making process. Access to up-to-date information and knowledge of alternative points of view can make the difference between whether WE and therefore our civilization survives, or becomes extinct.
Related Links:
See Update: Are things as bad as they look …
Serial No 1,645. Starting April 2010, each entry on this blog has a unique serial number. If any of the numbers are missing, it may mean that the corresponding entry has been blocked by Google/the authorities in your country. Please drop us a line if you detect any anomaly/missing number(s).
Posted in collapse, Collapse Mechanisms, collapsing fisheries, Energy and Climate Bill, environment | Tagged: BP lawsuit, Disinformation, Google Conspiracy, Obama administration, White House on drilling | 1 Comment »
Posted by feww on April 3, 2010
Serial No 1,529. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.
A joint request by Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri and the the state’s Emergency Management Agency to amend a federal major disaster declaration has been approved by the President, declaring the entire state a disaster area. (Source: AP)
Janet Napolitano, Department of Homeland Security Secretary, took a helicopter tour of Rhode Island on Friday, witnessing the extent of damage to the waterlogged state.
The ultimate cost of damage in RI could reach a billion, or more, at a time when the state has a budget deficit of nearly a quarter of a billion, with an unemployment rate of near 14 percent.
Related Links:
Posted in collapse, disaster, High Energy Strategy, Rhode Island, Unemployment | Tagged: Climate Chaos, Don Carcieri, extreme rain, Janet Napolitano, Major Flooding, Rhode Island, storm | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on March 30, 2010
As for the Angkor civilization …
The Earth Institute at Columbia University (EICU) believes they may have the answer to at least one part of that question. Drought and deluge seem to have driven the ancient Khmer civilization to collapse.
Kudos to EICU for identifying at least one of the probable causes of collapse of the ancient Khmer Empire. And we are convinced they can do a lot more to explore the role of the above-mentioned factors in the looming collapse.
The following is a public release by the EICU:
Evidence suggests changing environment can bring down a civilization
Decades of drought, interspersed with intense monsoon rains, may have helped bring about the fall of Cambodia’s ancient Khmer civilization at Angkor nearly 600 years ago, according to an analysis of tree rings, archeological remains and other evidence. The study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may also shed light on what drives—and disrupts—the rainy season across much of Asia, which waters crops for nearly half the world’s population.
The temple of Angkor Wat, Cambodia (aerial photo). The religious complex of Angkor Wat was center of a civilization that depended for irrigation on a vast network of canals, embankments and reservoirs. Credit: Charles J Sharp
Historians have offered various explanations for the fall of an empire that stretched across much of Southeast Asia between the 9th and 14th centuries, from deforestation to conflict with rival kingdoms. But the new study offers the strongest evidence yet that two severe droughts, punctuated by bouts of heavy monsoon rain, may have weakened the empire by shrinking water supplies for drinking and agriculture, and damaging Angkor’s vast irrigation system, which was central to its economy. The kingdom is thought to have collapsed in 1431 after a raid by the Siamese from present-day Thailand. The carved stone temples of its religious center, Angkor Wat, are today a major tourist destination, but much of the rest of the civilization has sunk back into the landscape.
“Angkor at that time faced a number of problems—social, political and cultural. Environmental change pushed the ancient Khmers to the limit and they weren’t able to adapt,” said the study’s lead author, Brendan Buckley, a climate scientist and tree-ring specialist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “I wouldn’t say climate caused the collapse, but a 30-year drought had to have had an impact.”
Scientists led by Buckley were able to reconstruct 759 years of past climate in the region surrounding Angkor by studying the annual growth rings of a cypress tree, Fokienia hodginsii, growing in the highlands of Vietnam’s Bidoup Nui Ba National Park, about 700 kilometers away. By hiking high into the mountain cloud forests, the researchers were able to find rare specimens over 1,000 years old that had not been touched by loggers. After extracting tiny cores of wood showing the trees’ annual growth rings, researchers reconstructed year-to-year moisture levels in this part of Southeast Asia from 1250 to 2008. The tree rings revealed evidence of a mega-drought lasting three decades—from the 1330s to 1360s– followed by a more severe but shorter drought from the 1400s to 1420s. Written records corroborate the latter drought, which may have been felt as far away as Sri Lanka and central China.
The droughts may have been devastating for a civilization dependent on farming and an irrigation system of reservoirs, canals and embankments sprawling across more than a thousand square kilometers. The droughts could have led to crop failure and a rise in infectious disease, and both problems would have been exacerbated by the density of the population, Buckley says.
The study also finds that the droughts were punctuated by several extraordinarily intense rainy seasons that may have damaged Angkor’s hydraulic system. During a normal monsoon season, Angkor’s hydraulic network could have handled heavy downpours, but after extended droughts, the system may have been vulnerable to massive siltation and clogging, the study suggests. Layers of coarse debris and other sediments found blocking some canals appear to have been laid down suddenly. In other spots, apparently sudden erosion cut canals as much as 8 meters below the surrounding landscape, potentially destabilizing the hydraulic system. Archeologists have found additional evidence that canals were rebuilt and rerouted to cope with water shortages.
In compiling the longest tropical tree ring record to date, researchers found that the third-driest, and the driest, years in the last 760 years occurred back to back in 1402 and 1403, about three decades before Angkor’s fall. The second driest was 1888, which coincided with the 1888-1889 El Niño, a cyclical warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean. By correlating known El Niño cycles measured with modern instruments, researchers have documented how the cyclical warming and cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean brings rain to some places and drought to others. The authors of the current study and other researchers suggest that El Niño, possibly abetted by longer, decades-long cycles across the Pacific basin, may have played an important role in shutting down the monsoon rains in this region, creating withering droughts in the past. Some scientists suspect that warming of the global climate may intensify these cycles in the future, raising the possibility of alternating Angkor-like droughts and destructive floods that could affect billions of people.
Similar studies suggest that abrupt environmental changes may have pushed other ancient civilizations over the edge, including the Anasazi people of the southwestern United States; the Maya people of Central America, and the Akkadian people of Mesopotamia. There is some evidence that other once-powerful kingdoms in what is now Vietnam and Myanmar may have fallen during the late 1700s, following extreme dry and wet periods.
“Both human society and the erth’s climate system are complex systems capable of unexpected behavior. Through the long-term perspective offered by climate and archaeological records, we can start to identify and understand the myriad ways they may interact,” said study coauthor Kevin Anchukaitis, a tree ring scientist at Lamont. “The evidence from monsoon Asia should remind us that complex civilizations are still quite vulnerable to climate variability and change.”
Related link: An audio slideshow follows the researchers in their search for ancient trees to unlock the workings of the Asian monsoon.
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/videos/watch/108
Related Links:
Posted in Angkor civilization, capitalism, collapse, drought and deluge, human impact | Tagged: Ancient Khmer, Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Climate Change, climate impact, Earth Institute, exponential growth economy, Google Civilization, Preah Pithu, suppression of evolution through disinformation | 4 Comments »
Posted by feww on December 20, 2009
The worst December snowstorm since 1909 covered NE US under up to 20 inches of snow.
Washington: The West Wing of the White House is seen buried under heavy snowfall December 19, 2009. Credit: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas. Image may be subject to copyright.
The snow storm has wreaked havoc affecting areas from North Carolina to New England, with blizzard conditions reported in Washington, DC.
Transportation throughout the Mid-Atlantic have all but come to a virtual stop.
In Newton, Massachusetts, Police Department reported that as of 11 p.m. on December 19, 2009 a snow emergency would be in effect for the city of Newton.
Snow blanketed most of Europe. Airports were shut in many countries and roads were made impassable as snow covered the continent. The Channel Tunnel was closed after 6 of their trains broke down allegedly due to “cold weather,” with thousands of passengers stranded.
As snow blanketed most of Europe, cities and motorways in France faced major disruption. Photo: AFP. Image may be subject to copyright.
Related Links:
Posted in Climate Change, collapse, Europe Snowfall, human enhanced natural hazards, US snowstorm | Tagged: channel tunnel, Climate Chaos, eurostar, Mid-Atlantic snow storm, nor'easter, snow storm, Washington blizzard | 16 Comments »
Posted by feww on November 25, 2009
Why don’t scientists report the short term impact of the climate change? What’s happening now? What’s going to happen next year, in 2 years, 3 years and 5 years from now?
Like them or not, you can’t live without them. Polar bears are ‘canaries in ice’; they tell you how much time you have left. Photo Credit: Dan Crosbie
Perhaps they have the best of intentions. Perhaps they don’t! Perhaps they want to give the governments a last chance to act. But that’s not the job of scientists.
In February 2005 our colleagues at MSRB postulated that the ‘Point of No Return’ would be reached by about June 2006.
Unless global energy consumption is reduced rapidly—by mid 2006—to levels below 60EJ/year (6E+19 joules/year), the runaway positive feedback loops that are destroying Earth’s ecosystems including ozone holes, global heating, extreme climatic events, toxic pollution, resources depletion, unethical conduct, war, and disease pandemics would reach the point of no return, overwhelm our life support systems and render most of our population centers uninhabitable by as early as 2015, possibly earlier, according to our dynamic energy models.
And argued:
Failure to rein back global energy consumption to levels below 60 exajoules by June 2006 would render the concept of sustainable management redundant (it seems highly unlikely that post industrial civilization would voluntarily sacrifice its perceived privileges and values in favor of sustaining life on Earth).
Then in November 2007 colleagues at EDRO revealed that, based on their models, about 20 percent of the world cities could collapse partially or completely by as early as 2012, citing a list of probable mechanism that would accelerate the collapse.
[About 20 percent of the] world’s cities [could] collapse completely or partially by or before 2012 in the first wave of collapse. The collapse would be caused by a combination of failing ecosystems, human-enhanced environmental catastrophes; failing infrastructure; food, water and fuel shortages; infectious disease; war, civil conflict and other dynamics. Following the first phase of collapse, massive waves of human migration from the affected areas create a domino effect that causes the collapse of the remaining population centers shortly after.
Now 26 ‘experts’ who have authored a new report [Update] called The Copenhagen Diagnosis have urged world governments to cap rising greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 or 2020 [thanks for the 5-year grace period] to avoid the deadliest impacts of climate change. Ironically, many of these authors were on the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and they in 2007 effectively downplayed the sea level rises, limiting the upcoming disaster to between 18 cm and 59 cm (7-24 inches) by 2100 [they were completely surprised when melting of Greenland and Antarctica ice accelerated.]
Current sea-level rise underestimated: Satellites show recent global average sea-level rise (3.4 mm/yr over the past 15 years) to be ~80% above past IPCC predictions. This acceleration in sea-level rise is consistent with a doubling in contribution from melting of glaciers, ice caps, and the Greenland and West-Antarctic ice-sheets. —The Copenhagen Diagnosis
In a joint statement the group citing catastrophic factors including the Arctic sea ice retreat in summer and accelerated melting of Greenland ice sheets and Antarctica said:
Climate change is accelerating beyond expectations.
Richard C. J. Somerville, Professor Emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, and a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report said:
Carbon dioxide emissions cannot be allowed to continue to rise if humanity intends to limit the risk of unacceptable climate change.
Arguably the most prominent member of the group Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Director of the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, Chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and a longstanding member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said:
This is a final scientific call for the climate negotiators from 192 countries who must embark on the climate protection train in Copenhagen.
The report doesn’t tell us what the members think about the short term impact of climate change. Colleagues at EDRO do! In a recent conversation
EDRO estimated that climate change could directly affect about half the population in the UK in the next 3 to 5 years.
Related Links:
The Copenhagen Diagnosis, 2009: Updating the world on the Latest Climate
Posted in collapse, Copenhagen Diagnosis, energy consumption, global change, melting of glaciers, sea level rise | Tagged: 2012, canary in ice, canary on ice, Climate Change, CO2 Emissions, Collapsing Cities, Global Catastrophe, greenhouse gas emissions, Greenland ice, IPCC predictions, the Copenhagen Diagnosis | 3 Comments »
Posted by feww on December 10, 2008
As 99.98 percent of human effort goes to destroying Earth’s life support services, the planet experiences anthropogenic antiphase!
Original Entry:
Related Links:
Posted in Climate Change, collapse, first wave of collapsing cities, Food scarcity, Water pollution | Tagged: antiphase, collapsing ecosystems, Food Crisis, human impact, restore ecosystems | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on June 7, 2008
Posted in Canada, cancer-causing, carcinogens, cause of death, Chemical hazard, chemical pollution, children, China, Climate Change, collapse, energy, environment, food, Global Warming, health, new zealand, politics, Tourism, Travel | Tagged: biological weapons, bullies, DDT, dioxins, head-banging animals, health, hormone disrupter, Hutt Valley, Israel, Marlborough Girls' College, mind-altering, mind-altering drugs, New Zealand Poisoning Syndrome, pack mentality, PCBs, pollution, rape, top-secret, Tourism, tourist, Tourist Deathtrap, Travel, Waikato | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on May 16, 2008
The last 4 aftershocks have strengthened in magnitude from 4.3 to 5.5 Mw. Is there another major shock in the making?
This map shows the predicted (theoretical) travel times, in minutes, of the compressional (P) wave from the earthquake location to points around the globe. The heavy black lines shown are the approximate distances to the P-wave shadow zone (103 to 140 degrees). (Caption: USGS)
The shadow zone is the area of the earth from angular distances of 104 to 140 degrees from a given earthquake that does not receive any direct P waves. The shadow zone results from S waves being stopped entirely by the liquid core and P waves being bent (refracted) by the liquid core.
Did you know?
Through measuring how P and S waves travel through the earth and out the other side, a seismic wave shadow zone was discovered in about 1910. From the lack of S waves and a great slowing of the P wave velocity (by about 40%) it was deduced that the outer core is made of liquid. The shadow zone also defined the diameter of the core.
[If the outer core was not made of liquid, Earth could probably breakup into several pieces as a result of a v. large earthquake! FEWW]
Text and image: USGS.
Posted in Beijing, beijing olympics, China, Chinese, civilization, clean water, coal mining, collapse, Collapsing Cities, energy, environment, health | Tagged: aftershock, breaking news, China quake, Earth, Earthquake cluster, Earthquakes, epicenter, globe, liquid core, mainshock, Muyu Township, P wave, S wave, seismic wave, shadow zone, Sichuan, usgs | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on March 2, 2008
Fu Ying, China’s Ambassador to the UK [Toast at CBBC Cocktail Reception, Marsh’s Office – 2008-1-8 )
It will probably be one of the largest in the world. The figures I hear are daunting: Beijing is expecting over 5 million visitors . . .
Athletes and officials: 17,000
Journalists: 30,000
Volunteers: 100,000
“Local” Impact
Duration of games: 16 days (8-24 August 2008 )
Visitors water consumption: 8-10Gl (gigaliters)
Drinking water: 0.5Gl
Food: 120million kg
Waste produced (municipal and industrial) : 10billion kg
Additional stress exerted on the sinking ground: 478Pa (nominal stress on an area of 225km²)
Beijing: Heavy air pollution has resulted in widespread smog. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Global Impact
Number of visitors: 5,000,000 (see the above statement by Fu Ying, China’s Ambassador to the UK)
Total amount of fuel consumed (Traveling to and from Beijing): 687 million liters
CO2 produced: 1.5mmt (million metric tons of CO2)
Related Links:
Posted in Beijing, collapse, Collapsing Cities, environment, Olympics, pollution, sinking cities | 3 Comments »
Posted by feww on October 15, 2007
MSRB concurs with the overall conclusion of the University of Victoria report that the only way to stabilize the temperature is by total elimination of industrial emissions.
However, according to our model, even with the total elimination of industrial emissions effected immediately the temperature would stabilize above 3.2oC probably by 2025.
Further, their timeline appears to be too optimistic. According to our model the global warming “tipping point” occurred in mid 2006, beyond which all changes are irreversible [in the short run.] We expect to experience catastrophic climatic events starting by 2009-2010. By as early as 2015, we believe dramatic ecosystems collapses including ozone holes, global heating, extreme climatic events, toxic pollution, depletion of food and natural resources, unethical conduct, war and disease pandemics would result in the depopulation of most of our population clusters.
The world entered a double exponential* phase in 1980, when Earth’s “torching energy,” exceeded 9.51 terawatts {q[torch] > 9.51TW.} According to MSRB model the countdown toward the Earth’s “Terminal Energy” had started. The q[torch] for the first half 2007 averaged at 16.8TW. See http://msrb.wordpress.com/2007/08/25/the-point-of-no-return/ and http://msrb.wordpress.com/stop-burning-earth/
*[Note: Double exponential functions grow even faster than exponential functions.]
Apart from the obvious political reasons, most climate models are fundamentally flawed because they (i) use tired old formula to “predict” the future changes based on empirical analysis, (ii) base their calculations on the “official” data, (iii) are “one-dimensional” and therefore unable to model accurately or forecast the behavior of sophisticated, highly interdependent systems such as Earth’s ecosystems.
The best [and the only intelligent] course of action on global and national levels would be an immediate “powerdown” to the “safe” energy consumption levels of about 60EJ, while allocating most of the resources to creating low-energy communities that provide food, shelter, education and safety for as many people as possible.
The Management School of
Restorative Business (MSRB)
Related Links:
http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12775&print=true
Zero emissions needed to avert dangerous warming
16:56 11 October 2007
NewScientist.com news service
Catherine Brahic
Only the total elimination of industrial emissions will succeed in imiting climate change to a 20C rise in temperatures, according to omputer analysis of climate change. Anything above this target has been identified as “dangerous” by some scientists, and the limit has been adopted by many policymakers.
The researchers say their study highlights the shortcomings of governmental plans to limit climate change.
A warming of 20C above pre-industrial temperatures is frequently cited as the limit beyond which the world will face “dangerous” climate change. Beyond this level, analysis suggests the continents will cease to absorb more carbon dioxide than they produce. As the tundra and other regions of permafrost thaw, they will spew more gas into the atmosphere, adding to the warming effect of human emissions.
The end result will be dramatic ecological changes, including widespread coastal flooding, reduced food production, and widespread species extinction.
Established model
In January 2007, the European Commission issued a communication stating that “the European Union’s objective is to limit global average temperature increase to less than 20C compared to pre-industrial levels”.
Andrew Weaver and colleagues at the University of Victoria in Canada say this means going well beyond the reduction of industrial emissions discussed in international negotiations.
Weaver’s team used a computer model to determine how much emissions must be limited in order to avoid exceeding a 20C increase. The model is an established tool for analysing future climate change and was used in studies cited in the IPCC’s reports on climate change.
They modelled the reduction of industrial emissions below 2006 levels by between 20% and 100% by 2050. Only when emissions were entirely eliminated did the temperature increase remain below 20C.
A 100% reduction of emissions saw temperature change stabilise at 1.50C above the pre-industrial figure. With a 90% reduction by 2050, Weaver’s model predicted that temperature change will eventually exceed 20C compared to pre-industrial temperatures but then plateau.
Stark contrast
The researchers conclude that governments should consider reducing emissions to 90% below current levels and remove what is left in the atmosphere by capturing and storing carbon (see Chemical ‘sponge’ could filter CO2 from air).
There is a stark contrast between this proposal and the measures currently being considered. Under the UN’s Kyoto protocol, most developed nations have agreed to limit their emissions to a minimum of 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. What happens beyond this date is the subject of ongoing debate and negotiation.
The European Union nations have agreed to limit their emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, and support dropping global emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by 2050.
“There is a disconnect between the European Union arguing for a 20C threshold and calling for 50% cuts at 2050 – you can’t have it both ways,” says Weaver, who adds: “If you’re going to talk about 20C you have got to be talking 90% emissions cuts.”
Vanishing point
Tim Lenton, a climatologist at the University of East Anglia in the UK, agrees that even the most ambitious climate change policies so far proposed by governments may not go far enough. “It is overly simplistic assume we can take emissions down to 50% at 2050 and just hold them there. We already know that that’s not going to work,” he says.
Even with emissions halved, Lenton says carbon dioxide will continue building up in the atmosphere and temperatures will continue to rise. For temperature change to stabilise, he says industrial carbon emissions must not exceed what can be absorbed by Earth’s vegetation, soil and oceans.
At the moment, about half of industrial emissions are absorbed by ocean and land carbon “sinks”. But simply cutting emissions by half will not solve the problem, Lenton says, because these sinks also grow and shrink as CO2 emissions change.
“People are easily misled into thinking that 50% by 2050 is all we have to do when in fact have to continue reducing emissions afterwards, all the way down to zero,” Lenton says.
Journal reference: Geophysical Research Letters ( DOI: 0.1029/2007GL031018 )
Fair Use Notice: See Article 107, CHAPTER 1, TITLE 17 of U.S. Copyright Code
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