Mississippi Levees Breached in 23 Places

A Shrinking World Series

‘We are seeing a historic hydrological event taking place with unprecedented river levels occurring.’ —Brian Pierce, meteorologist, National Weather Service.

Mississippi river surges over at least 23 levees and another 30 barriers are at risk, as the Midwest floods move south.

In 1993, devastating floods, sweeping down Missouri and Mississippi rivers, surged levees and destroyed communities from St. Louis to northern Louisiana.

Mississippi River floodwaters engulf a farm about 15 miles north Quincy, Ill. after the south portion of the Indian Graves levee breached. (Tribune photo by Michael Tercha / June 18, 2008). Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Midwest Flood Victims Feel Misled by Feds

“They all told us, `The levees are good. You can go ahead and build,”‘ said Parks, who did not buy flood coverage because her bank no longer required it. “We had so much confidence in those levees.”

“People put all their hopes in those levees, and when they do fail, the damage is catastrophic,” said Paul Osman, the National Flood Insurance Program coordinator for Illinois. “New Orleans is the epitome; a lot of those people didn’t even realize they were in a floodplain until the water was up to their roofs.”

“We reported to the president in ’94 that the levee system was in disarray, the levees were not high enough to take care of any potential problem. People didn’t understand their flood risk and there wasn’t good co-ordination across federal, state and local governments,” said Gerald Galloway, a professor of engineering and flood control expert.

“The same thing applies today,” Galloway said. “It’s amazing that in the face of [Hurricane] Katrina and now this particular challenge that we continue to relearn the same lessons.”

Galloway’s recommendations to improve the levee system were basically ignored. He said that he’s experiencing much the same response now from officials as in 1993.

Related Links:

• Floods
• China “Frankenstein”
• Midwest Flood Victims Feel Misled by Feds
• More levees at risk from surging Mississippi as Bush tours flood areas

• Drought (Index Page)
• In Spain, Water Is a New Battleground
• California ‘Mojavefied’ by 2011?
  

• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

.

Could California Turn to Desert by 2011?

Bets are on!

Schwarzenegger declares statewide drought

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought in California after two years of below-average rainfall. “We have a serious drought,” said Governor Schwarzenegger on Wednesday.

“For the areas in Northern California that supply most of our water, this March, April and May have been the driest ever in our recorded history,” Schwarzenegger said. “As a result, some local governments are rationing water, developments can’t proceed and agricultural fields are sitting idle.”

“We must recognize the severity of the crisis we face, so I am signing an executive order proclaiming a statewide drought and directing my Department of Water Resources and other entities to take immediate action to address the situation.”

The executive order enables water officials transfer water around California swiftly dealing with unusually dry conditions that are destroying crops, affecting water quality and creating extreme fire hazards across the state, one of the nation’s top farming regions.

To enlarge, right click on the image and select View Image

“Mr Schwarzenegger warned that conditions could be even worse next year if there was another dry winter. The governor wants voters to approve a $12 billion bond to fund delta, river and groundwater improvements, conservation and recycling efforts, and reservoirs. But legislators have not agreed to the plan despite ongoing negotiations with the administration.” USA today reported.

“This drought is an urgent reminder of the immediate need to upgrade California’s water infrastructure,” Schwarzenegger said. “There is no more time to waste because nothing is more vital to protect our economy, our environment and our quality-of-life.”

[Note: Gov Schwarzenegger’s statement is fundamentally flawed and factually incorrect because “to protect our economy,” i.e., business as usual, results in the destruction of “our environment” and therefore harms “our quality of life.”]

Related Links:

• Drought Index

• Failing Ecosystems
• State of the World
• Future Scenarios
• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
  
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle

• Giga Trends
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix
• Tipping Point
• Topsoil
• Drying Aquifers, Sinking Cities

• The Economy
• Energy
• Food Security
• Future in the Making: A Shrinking World

[Nothing short of a catastrophic ecosystem collapse would make humans change their unsustainable lifestyles!]

Freshening of deep Antarctic water could prove catasterophic

Scientists have detected changes in salinity of the antarctic water that could drmatically change the ocean currents and the world’s climate.

They found that salty, dense water that sinks near the edge of Antarctica to the bottom of the ocean about 5 km (3 miles) down is becoming fresher and more buoyant.

The Antarctic “bottom water” is responsible for the great ocean conveyor belt, a system of currents that move throughout the Southern, Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans distributing warm water around the globe.

The edge of the remaining part of an ice shelf in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica photo taken on March 4, 2008. REUTERS/Mariano Caravaca/Handout

“The main reason we’re paying attention to this is because it is one of the switches in the climate system and we need to know if we are about to flip that switch or not,” said Rintoul of Australia’s research arm the CSIRO.

“If that freshening trend continues for long enough, eventually the water near Antarctica would be too light, too buoyant to sink and that limb of the global-scale circulation would shut down,” he said earlier today.

the great ocean conveyor belt delivers warm water into the north Atlantic, making Europe warmer than it would otherwise be. The slowing down or stopping of these currents could result in catastrophic changes in the world’s climate.

“We don’t see any evidence yet that the amount of bottom water that’s sinking has declined. But by becoming fresher and less dense it’s moving in the direction of an ultimate shutdown.” Report

The Thermohaline Circulation (THC)

The thermohaline circulation (THC) is the global density-driven circulation of the oceans. Derivation is from thermo- for heat and -haline for salt, which together determine the density of sea water. Wind-driven surface currents (such as the , ) head polewards from the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, cooling all the while and eventually sinking at high latitudes (forming North Atlantic Deep Water). This dense water then flows into the ocean basins. While the bulk of it upwells in the Southern Ocean, the oldest waters (with a transit time of around 1600 years) upwell in the North Pacific (Primeau, 2005). Extensive mixing therefore takes place between the ocean basins, reducing differences between them and making the Earth’s ocean a global system. On their journey, the water masses transport both energy (in the form of heat) and matter (solids, dissolved substances and gases) around the globe. As such, the state of the circulation has a large impact on the climate of the Earth.

The thermohaline circulation is sometimes called the ocean conveyor belt, the great ocean conveyer, the global conveyor belt, or, most commonly, the meridional overturning circulation (often abbreviated as MOC). (Source: wikipedia)

Project Vulcan

Vulcan’s list of top U.S. polluters by county (million tons of CO2 per year)

[Note; most of the data presented by Vulcan is about 6 years old.]

1. Harris, Houston, Texas, 18.625
2. Los Angeles, L.A., Ca., 18.595
3. Cook, Chicago, Ill., 13.209
4. Cuyahoga, Cleveland, Ohio, 11.144 [Hope T.S., the dishonest attorney, chokes!]
5. Wayne, Detroit, Mich. , 8.270
6. San Juan, Farmington, N.M., 8.245
7. Santa Clara, San Jose, Ca., 7.995
8. Jefferson, Birmingham, Ala., 7.951
9. Wilcox, Camden, Ala., 7.615
10. East Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, La., 7.322
11. Titus, Mt. Pleasant (!), Texas, 7.244
12. Carbon, Jim Thorpe, Pa., 6.534
13. Porter, Valparaiso, Ind., 6.331
14. Jefferson, Steubenville, Ohio, 6.278
15. Indiana, Indiana, Pa., 6.224
16. Middlesex, Boston metro area, Mass., 6.198
17. Bexar, San Antonio, Texas, 6.141
18. Hillsborough, Tampa, Fla., 6.037
19. Suffolk, New York metro area, N.Y., 6.030
20. Clark, Las Vegas, Nev., 5.955

CO2 maps zoom in on greenhouse gas sources

New analysis by Purdue researchers of greenhouse gases shows that the emissions are greater in the southeastern United States than was previously thought. In this image, the amount of red represents the increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from previous estimates, and the blue represents a reduction in atmospheric CO2. Purdue assistant professor Kevin Gurney says the difference appears greatest in winter months when there are more emissions and less vertical air movement. (Purdue University image/Kevin Gurney)

About Project Vulcan

The Vulcan Project is a NASA/DOE funded effort under the North American Carbon Program (NACP)to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at space and time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past. The purpose is to aid in quantification of the North American carbon budget, to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks, and to support the demands posed by the launch of the Orbital Carbon Observatory (OCO)scheduled for 2008/2009. The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory has also made it a valuable tool for policymakers, demographers and social scientists.

Related Links:

• Pittsburgh, Los Angeles have worst U.S. air pollution

EPA Sued Over GHG Pollution

The states of Massachusetts, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks. The lawsuit came one year after the Supreme Court ruled that the agency had the power to do so.

Main Entry: 18 States Sue EPA Over GHG Pollution
Original Report: 18 states sue EPA over greenhouse gas pollution

The $500-a-barrel professors!

What should I believe?

My professor says if peak oil were true and the price of oil reached even $500 a barrel, our living standard would decline by about 11 percent, but there would be great opportunities for us to get wealthier. He also says global warming is a hoax, despite all the goings on. What should I believe?

Sheila W.

FEWW Says:

Hello Sheila

Are you by any chance at University of California, Davis? Ask your professor how long, say, the McDonalds chain could stay in business if they were to raise the price of their Big Mac to $20 a throw (the content has already been adjusted to account for the $100-a-barrel oil), or kept the price steady, but shrunk the bun down to the size of a silver dollar and filled it with dime-sized, bacon-thin burgers, while the punters income stayed the same. Could they really stay in business and get wealthier under those circumstances?

Peak oil is a natural phenomenon; it’s NO hoax. Unfortunately, the “caballeros” of peak oil have caused lots of unnecessary confusion by disseminating false, or unreliable data. Peak oil was initially predicted to occur in 2000; it was then postponed to 2010, 2006, 2005 and 2010 again!

Unfortunately, Global Warming, too, is a stark reality. The opinions concerning Global Warming normally fall into seven broad categories:

I. How could global warming be true if it goes against my future plans, or interests? Besides, my boss [professor, president/vice president/government’s chief scientists] says there’s no such thing!

II. Global Warming is a natural, cyclical phenomenon and has nothing to do with human activity or carbon emissions, and there is absolutely zilch we can do to stop it. So, enjoy life while you can. [The government’s ‘star chamber’ advisers, scholars, ‘experts’, airline owners, oil company executives, unscrupulous journalists… fall into category I and II above.]

III. Global Warming or whatnot, the Church and believers shall be saved from the coming great tribulation by Rapture. [Most of the lawmakers fall into this category!]

IV. Don’t know who or what to believe! If the bloody scientists can’t make up their minds, how could you be sure what’s really happening?

V. Global Warming is an Al Gore thing. He won the presidency, but handed it over to the other guy. How could you possibly trust him or believe anything he says? [Note: Unlike Internet :), global warming was NOT invented by Al Gore!]

VI. Global warming must be the result of human activity because never before have we had so many people driving, flying and using so much stuff on this planet. [NO evidential proof, so it may be a strawman argument!]

VII. Scientific evidence backed by observational data clearly show global warming is caused by human activity. This is the view shared by thousands of “non-aligned” scientists globally.

For anyone who still doubts anthropocentric [human-caused] global warming, but is willing to learn, the issue should be hammered home in relation to the state of Earth’s failing ecosystems. There’s a direct relationship between human activity, climate change and the eminent collapse of ecosystems.

Ecosystems Responsible for Provisioning Services:

1. The capture fisheries are rapidly declining due to overharvest.
2. Production of wild food is declining due to overharvest, deforestation, change of land use…
3. Production of wood fuel is declining.
4. Genetic resources are being lost through extinction, and crop genetic resource loss.
5. Biochemicals, natural medicine and pharmaceuticals are being lost through extinction and overharvest.

6. [Alarming] global shortages of water for drinking, irrigation and industrial use is reported globally.

Ecosystems Responsible for Regulating Services:

7. Air quality regulation system. The ability of the atmosphere to cleanse itself is declining.

8. Climate regulation system. Negative impact of regional and local cause are exponentially overwhelming the climate regulation system.

9. Erosion regulation. Soil degradation is increasing globally.
10. Water purification and waste treatment. Water quality is declining.
11. Pest regulation. The use of pesticides has degraded the natural control systems.
12. Pollination. The numbers of pollinators are declining globally.
13. Natural hazard regulation. Vast areas of natural buffers like wetlands and mangroves have disappeared.

Cultural services
14. Spiritual and religious values. The researchers have documented “rapid decline in sacred groves and species”.
15. Aesthetic values. The quantity and quality of natural lands have declined.

If you find the scientific evidence of Global Warming too confusing, or can’t understand the data, consider this: Based on the facts concerning the collapsing ecosystems and on the balance of probability, is it more, or less likely that Global Warming is anthropogenic?

See also:

• Collapsing Ecosystems
• FAQ
• 500 Weather-Related Disasters A Year

Best Wishes

FEWW Moderators

Why NASA Doctors Ozone Hole Data?

White Elephant Update:

Fire Earth has made several attempts to contact NASA to find out why they are doctoring the Antarctic ozone hole data. NASA has not responded.

There is a general consensus of opinion among the Fire Earth contributing members concerning the reasons why NASA is doctoring the ozone hole data. Here are some answers to the 64 billion dollar question why the white elephant is misbehaving:

1. White House has ordered NASA to doctor the Data. NASA is under immense political pressure to assure the world community that all is well [sic], everything is under control [sic] and there is no longer any need to worry about the ozone hole [despite all evidence to the contrary!]

2. The ozone hole phenomenon is bad news for corporate business. It flies directly in the face of technology and technological “achievements.”

3. The ozone hole is a huge burden, an undesirable “cost” that NASA and the Government won’t internalize. [Therefore it’s being swept under the rug.]

4. NASA would put itself in a bad light if it continues to report the bad news, which is getting even worse.

5. If you can’t fix it, don’t bloody well talk about it.

6. NASA is under enormous pressure to prove Montreal Protocol has been “a resounding success,” despite the fact that Antarctic ozone hole is enlarging!

7. NASA is suppressing the Antarctic ozone hole data at the behest of the Australian and New Zealand governments [and others] for political, monetary and socioeconomic reasons.

8. Hiding behind lies, disinformation and abstractions.

9. Other additional reasons.

 

NASA: The Conjuring Continues

NASA Continues Doctoring Antarctic Ozone Hole Data

NASA has now re-doctored its Antarctic ozone level for September 15, 2007 (see the new graph below, which was posted on NASA Ozone Hole Watch on Sept. 19, 2007 and compare it with their previous graph posted here yesterday). The doctored and re-doctored data serve to obfuscate the overall size and development of the Antarctic ozone hole.

The Fire-Earth estimate for the area covered by the Antarctic ozone hole on September 16, 2007 is 28.5 million km² (NASA’s figure is 24 million km²). This means the size of the Antarctic ozone hole was increasing on September 16, 2007 rather than decreasing as indicated by NASA.

Conclusion

The Antarctic ozone hole on September 16, 2007 covered an estimated area of 28.5 million km² (about 19% larger than the doctored data released by NASA) and was growing. The largest ozone hole ever reported by NASA covered an area of 26 million km² on September 24, 2006.

NASA: Not Another Shameful Admission

NASA re-doctored data (again!) after they were exposed by Fire Earth yesterday!

(See previous posts.)

NASA’s minimum ozone figure of 173 DU (Dobson Units) for September 15 (see updated graph above) remains wildly inaccurate and misleading. Fire Earth estimate for the minimum ozone on September 15 is in the range of 95-105 DU.

The minimum stratospheric temperature, which is marked at 183K, may have been doctored to account for the sudden rise in the minimum ozone on September 15.

NASA is under enormous pressure to prove Montreal Protocol has been “a resounding success,” despite the fact that the Antarctic ozone hole keeps on growing!

“The goal now is to ensure that CFCs and other emissions continue to fall to below the levels that produce an ozone hole,” said Goddard’s Anne Douglass, the deputy project scientist for Aura. “This won’t happen until about 2070.”

The taxpayers and their representatives (as if they had anything to do with anything) are reminded that at least 95% of all NASA ‘scientific’ activities could be carried out accurately, honestly and responsibly at a fraction of their enormous current budget (and without involving Google.com).