UNSG Calls Aral Sea “Shocking Disaster”

Serial No  1,534. If any posts are blocked in your country, please drop us a line.

As if he spent the last half century sleeping, UN’s Secretary General is suddenly awoken to the  “shocking disaster” of dying Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is an endorheic basin located in Central Asia shared between Kazakhstan  in the north and Uzbekistan, in the south.

Map of Aral Sea. Source: World Bank.

Once described as the world’s fourth largest lake, fed by two major rivers of Amu Darya in the south, and the Syr Darya in the north,  Aral Sea spanned an area of about  70,000 km² with a total volume of more than 1 trillion cubic meters  (1,000 cubic km) in 1960. The bountiful sea provided annual catches of about 50,000 tons without fail.  The scenic deltas of its major tributaries, dotted with dozens of smaller lakes, were rich wetlands and marshes teeming with life, covering an area larger than half a million hectares.

It reduced to a pond measuring about 8% of its original size in 2007, and split into three lakes: North Aral Sea, and the two heavily shrunk eastern and western basins of the South Aral Sea.

The south-eastern lake completely disappeared last year, leaving behind the south-western lake, now a thin strip of shallow water. (See image).

Aral Sea captured by MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite –  true-color image dated March 26, 2010. A plume of dust blows from the sediments of the South Aral Sea toward the southeast, along the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border. Northeast of the plume, two red outlines indicate hotspots associated with fires.The lakebed sediments, prone to forming dust plumes, have become a repository for salt, fertilizers, and pesticides and pose a threat to human health in the region. Source: Nasa/Modis website.

Two images of Aral Sea. L: 2008. R:1989.  Source: Nasa

This natural-color satellite image shows the Aral Sea on August 16, 2008. The colored contour lines show the approximate shorelines of the sea since 2000. The image is from the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The contour lines are based on MODIS data. The image documents the progress of a conservation plan to stabilize the North Aral Sea, and the continued decline of the South Aral Sea. Deeper, clearer waters are darker blue; shallower, murkier waters are greenish. Source: Nasa

Ban Ki Moon – In his Role as a Representative for Big Oil

“I was so shocked, [the dying Aral Sea is] clearly one of the worst environmental disasters in the world.”  Ban said after viewing the sea by helicopter, Reuters reported.

[You mean you lived for 67 years and made it it to the top of the UN without learning about the Aral Sea?]

UNSG is currently touring five former Soviet republics in Central Asia “that lie on some of the world’s biggest untapped oil, gas, uranium and gold reserves.” The report said.

Ban is now reduced to an agent for the oil industry using the old trick “poor people, rich resources, why not explore?”

“I urge all the leaders (of Central Asia), including President (Islam ) Karimov of Uzbekistan to sit down together and try to find solutions,” said Ban, before a meeting with the Uzbek leader.

“All specialized agencies of the United Nations will provide necessary assistance and expertise,” he said.

‘Experts’ surprised at coastal ice thinning

British Antarctic Survey Con Artists are Surprised!

Remember FEWW Forecast?

Thought for the Day: A 2009 Forecast

The most widely used phrase by “scientists” in 2009: “We were completely surprised!”

But never mind the “science” because these con artists are expressing surprise at the extent of the Antarctica and Greenland coastal ice thinning to get more cash and condoms.

Having analyzed of millions of NASA satellite laser images, or so they claim, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Bristol University researchers say they have discovered that the biggest loss of ice occurred when glaciers accelerated during their descent into the sea.

[Say, how long does it take to analyze each picture? Nearest minute would do!]

The British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera base (undated photo). Source: brisbanetimes.com.au. Image may be subject to copyright.

“We were surprised to see such a strong pattern of thinning glaciers across such large areas of coastline — it’s widespread and in some cases thinning extends hundreds of kilometers inland,” said the BAS lead con artist.

“We think that warm ocean currents reaching the coast and melting the glacier front is the most likely cause of faster glacier flow.”

“This kind of ice loss is so poorly understood that it remains the most unpredictable part of future sea level rise,” he rambled on.

The study reported 81 of 111 “fast-moving glaciers” in Greenland as thinning twice faster than the “slow-flowing ice sheets at the same altitude.

Meanwhile, another ‘scientist’ in the group was quoted as saying that [the study may not be worth the cost of flying a box of condoms to Antarctica because] “thinning of the ice in some areas could be caused by changes in snowfall, for instance, not the slide of ice toward the ocean.”

[This is the best of the British science, making two diametrically opposite propositions, and both in the same breath, or research paper, just to save face in case they were proven totally wrong.]

To save their well-paid jobs, they were quoted as saying that it was still too early to determine if the thinning had any effect on the sea level rises. [More money, time and free condoms are needed.]

Only if their study wasn’t so preposterous. Any more condoms anyone?

Related Links:

• Thought for the Day: A 2009 Forecast
• “We were completely surprised!”
• Antarctica base gets 16,500 condoms before darkness [Researching each other blind!]
• Hot? Try a dream job in a not-so-tropical location

“We were completely surprised!”

In Thought for the Day: A 2009 Forecast co-moderator TERRES said:

The most widely used phrase by “scientists” in 2009

“We were completely surprised!”

Surprised! (source: bp1.blogger.com). Image may be subject to copyright.

UN’s Ban Ki Moon: Pace of Climate Change “very serious and alarming.”

“The impact of climate change is accelerating at an ‘alarming’ pace and urgent action must be taken, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday.” Reuters reported.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks to a reporter after arriving in Vantas, Finland in this May 25, 2009 file photo. The impact of climate change is accelerating at an “alarming” pace and urgent action must be taken, Ban said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Lehtikuva/Sari Gustafsson. Image may be subject to copyright.

“What is frightening is that the scientists are now reviewing their predictions, recognizing that climate change impact is accelerating at a much faster pace,” Ban said, referring to the ongoing fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“This is very serious and alarming. That is why I have been urging that if we take any action, we must take action now regardless of where you are coming from. Rich and poor countries, we must address this issue together,” Ban said.

Relates Links:

• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• Marsification of Earth
• Earth’s Collapsing Life Support Systems

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle
• Giga Trends
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• 286W

• The Root Cause Matrix
• The Economy
• Collapsing Ecosystems

UN Hypocrisy: Kick the CO2 Habit!

“Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us … ” Ban Ki-Moon

How many billions of air miles do you and your staff at the UN [and all UN-affiliated organizations] fly each year? Pray tell us!

“Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions,” he said in the speech to reinforce this year’s World Environment Day theme of “CO2 Kick the Habit”.

Let’s start with the UN personnel

Unable to fight his addiction to CO2, [do as I say, not as I do] UN Chief Ban Ki-moon and his vast entourage flew to Rome [instead of establishing a video link from UN HQ in New York] to attend U.N. crisis summit on rising food prices at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) June 4, 2008. REUTERS/Nikola Solic. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

“Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit,” Ban said in a statement to mark World Environment Day, which is being marked by events around the globe and hosted by the New Zealand city of Wellington.

“Whether you are an individual, an organization, a business or a government, there are many steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. It is a message we all must take to heart,” he said.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, a “Destination Country” for White Slavery:

“We take pride in our clean [sic], green [sic] identity as a nation and we are determined to take action to protect it. We appreciate that protecting the climate means behavior change by each and every one of us,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Helen [Caligula] Clark. (Source)

Helen Clark, tell us why New Zealand gov. is spending tens of millions of dollars every year luring more than 2.5 million foreign tourists half way across the globe to destroy your “clean [sic], green [sic] identity [sic]?”

A visitor from Europe on a return flight to New Zealand produces 17.7 metric tons of CO2.

Are YOU addicted to UN HYPOCRICY?

Now goto:

UNEP Issues Some CO2 Reduction Snakeoil!

Related Links:

• Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ Advertising Campaign
• Stop New Zealand Committing Eco-Terrorism!
• Food Imports from New Zealand – Health Bulletin # 10. Outbreak of mystery bacterium, June 4, 2008

• UNEP Issues Some CO2 Reduction Snakeoil!

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UN planning to feed the world?

UN to draw up comprehensive plan to address world food crisis

30 April 2008 – UN News Center– The United Nations is aiming to have a comprehensive plan to tackle the global food crisis in place by the beginning of June, “around which the institutions and leaders around the world can coalesce,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said today.

Mr. Holmes is one of two coordinators, along with UN System Influenza Coordinator David Nabarro, of a new high-powered task force that was announced yesterday by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to organize responses to the global rise in food prices.

Speaking at a news conference today in Geneva, Mr. Holmes said that although the breadth and complexity of the issue needed to be recognized, there was no need to panic. “I think it is clear we can fix these problems. The solutions can be found; the solutions are there. They are very difficult, some of them, in the short term, but they can be done.”

The United Nations Office [Palace?] at Geneva (UNOG) is the representative office of the United Nations in Geneva. More than 1,600 super-privileged front-row individuals handsomely “earn their keep” here!

On the role of biofuel production in the current crisis, Mr. Holmes said: “It is something that needs a new look in present circumstances without wanting to fall in any sense into knee-jerk reactions of saying all biofuels are bad or good. We need to look at it in a careful, sophisticated and differentiated way, between different regions of the world and between different products.”

The Under-Secretary-General also said the crisis was not affecting every country in the same way. “For many countries and population groups it is inconvenient, a problem for their daily budget and their purses, but it is not a matter of life and death. In some places and for some groups, particularly those living on less than a dollar a day, that quickly could become a matter of life and death, or certainly of increased suffering and malnutrition.”

The UN’s action plan is to be in place in time for a meeting of UN agencies in Rome at the beginning of June. The task force is chaired by Mr. Ban and consists of the heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and other organizations which will be invited to join.

News Tracker: past stories on this issue

• Ban Ki-moon to lead task force to tackle global food crisis

Can the world’s poor sue Ban ki-moon, John Holmes and the rest of their lot if they don’t deliver?