Posts Tagged ‘Business as usual’
Posted by feww on October 8, 2010
Polluting the earth day in day out, and expecting ‘miracles’
Business as usual in the world’s top GHG polluter, despite the evident consequences
Image of the Day:
Thought Hainan Was an Island!!
Original Caption: A woman walks in a water-flooded residence community after heavy rainfall in Haikou, capital of south China’s Hainan Province, Oct. 8, 2010. Haikou witnessed successive heavy rainfall for eight days and the rainfall flooded many roads and streets here. Local meteorological department forecasted that the rain won’t stop until Oct. 11. (Xinhua/Fu Yongtao). Image may be subject to copyright. More images…
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Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, Carbon Footprint of Your Dollar, extreme climatic events, extreme rain event, hainan | Tagged: Business as usual, GHG, top ghg polluters, world's top polluter | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on August 4, 2008
Fighting wildfires is big business! There would always be enough fuel for new blazes.
Wildfires: The Golden Fleecing of America
The Raw Facts
- Cost of fighting wildfire in California since July 1: $285 million [And it’s just the beginning!]
- Daily cost of fighting the fire [which should be allowed to burn out] : up to $13 million
- Cost of fighting California fires a decade ago: $44million a year
- Why aren’t the fires allowed to burn naturally? Need the unburnt fuel for next year’s fires!
- “There is no more fire season as we know it — the fire season is now all year-round,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in July while touring wildfires in N. California. “That means that we don’t have enough resources.“
Read more …
California Fires Update # 3
SISKIYOU COMPLEX STATUS: Southwest of Happy Camp, CA
- Start date: 6/21/08
- Cause: Lightning
- Estimated Size: 59,678 acres
- Percent Contained: 60%
- No. of Firefighters: 1,492
- Injuries to date: 8
Ukonom Complex Status:
- Start date: 6/20/08
- Cause: Lightning
- Estimated Size: 42,195 acres
- Percent Contained: 66%
- No. of Firefighters: 438
- Injuries to date: 6
Blue 2 Status
- Start date: 6/20/08
- Cause: Lightning
- Estimated Size: 6,846 acres
- Percent Contained: 52%
- No. of Firefighters: 400
- Injuries to date: 2
(Source)
Yolla Bolly Complex Fire Update
- Acres Burned : 72,367
- Crews: 10
- Cause: Lightning
- Date Started: June 20, 2008
- Percent Contained: 30%
Rich and Belden Fires FACTS (!)
- Rich Fire: 5,199 acres / 15% contained
- Belden Fire: 474 acres / 70% contained
- Costs for both fires: $2,591,500
- Incident Type : Wildland Fire
- Cause: Under Investigation
- Date of Origin: Wednesday July 29th, 2009
- Location: 20 miles west of Quincy, CA
- Total Personnel Committed: 1,065
- Size: 6,371 acres
- Percent Contained: 45%
Plumas County:
Rich Fire
Location: 20 miles west of Quincy
Administrative Unit: Plumas National Forest
Canyon Complex
Location: Various locations within the Plumas Forest
Administrative Unit: Plumas National Forest
Siskiyou County:
Bear Wallow Complex
Location: 14 miles west of Etna
Administrative Unit: Klamath National Forest
Panther Fire
Location: 15 miles south of Happy Camp
Administrative Unit: Klamath National Forest
Siskiyou Complex
Location: Southwest of Happy Camp
Administrative Unit: Klamath National Forest
Ukonom Complex
Location: 5 miles north of Somes Bar
Administrative Unit: Six Rivers National Fores
Trinity County:
Iron & Alps Complex
Location: Junction City
Administrative Unit: Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Lime Complex
Location: 5 miles west of Hayfork
Administrative Unit: Shasta-Trinity National Forest
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Posted in Climate Change, energy, environment, food, Global Warming, health, politics, Tourism, Travel | Tagged: Business as usual, California Fires, Canyon Complex, Plumas County, Rich Fire, SISKIYOU COMPLEX, Ukonom Complex, wildfire | 3 Comments »
Posted by feww on July 1, 2008
Posted in agirculture, air pollution, Climate Change, energy, food, Global Warming, health, politics | Tagged: Business as usual, economy, elephant in the room, environment, exponential growth economy, lifestyle, pink elephant | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on June 13, 2008
A Shrinking World Series
Could California Turn to Desert by 2011?
Water, water, my bloody kingdom for a drop of water. ~ King Conan
Water Emergency in Calif
As most of the croplands in the Central U.S. is submerged under floodwater, the heart of California’s farming area is feeling the heat. Gov. Schwarzenegger who proclaimed last week a drought in California, declared yesterday a state of emergency in nine counties in Central Valley.
“Just last week, I said we would announce regional emergencies wherever the state’s drought situation warrants them, and in the Central Valley an emergency proclamation is necessary to protect our economy and way of life,” Mr Schwarzenegger said.
“Central Valley agriculture is a $20 billion a year industry. If we don’t get them water immediately the results will be devastating,” he added. “Food prices, which are already stretching many family budgets, will continue to climb and workers will lose their jobs—everyone’s livelihood will be impacted in some way.”
“His declaration covers Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties and directs California’s Department of Water Resources to work with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to deliver more water through the State Water Project to where it is most needed.” Reuters reported.
Conservation Action:
- Water rationing is imposed in Long Beach, Roseville and the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.3 million people in the San Francisco Bay area.
- Water agencies serving about 18 million people throughout Calif have declared a water supply alerts.
- Officials are planning for reduced water use through this year because lower water supplies are anticipated next year.
- Schwarzenegger is asking lawmakers to back a “comprehensive solution” to expanding water and says he needs $11.9 billion bond to finance water projects. (Source)
Coyote Dry Lake, Mojave Desert. Image: Jeff T. Alu via Wikimedia. This file is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
Coyote Dry Lake is a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert located about 24 km northeast of Barstow, and north of Interstate 15 in southern California. The lake measures about 10 km long and about 6 km wide at its widest section.
California’s Last Chance: Do a U-Turn, or Turn to Desert!
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feww
Posted in Climate Change, energy, environment, food, Global Warming, health, politics, Tourism, Travel | Tagged: air soil and water pollutions, Barstow, Business as usual, calif., civilization, Climate Change, CO2, CO2e, Coastal areas, Collapsing Cities, conserve, Coyote Dry Lake, crops failure, Department of Water Resources, desertification, deserts, Drought, dying cities, economy, energy, environment, extreme fire hazards, food, Global Warming, government, health, Mojave Desert, onservation, politics, quality-of-life, recycling, Sacramento, Schwarzenegger, southern California, Water pollution, water quality, water shortages, water supply | 4 Comments »
Posted by feww on June 5, 2008
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.”]
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[Nothing short of a catastrophic ecosystem collapse would make humans change their unsustainable lifestyles!]
Posted in air soil and water pollutions, civilization, Climate Change, CO2, CO2e, Coastal areas, Collapsing Cities, conserve, economy, energy, environment, food, Global Warming, government, health, politics, Water pollution, water shortages | Tagged: Business as usual, calif., crops failure, Department of Water Resources, desertification, deserts, Drought, dying cities, extreme fire hazards, onservation, quality-of-life, recycling, Sacramento, Schwarzenegger, water quality, water supply | Leave a Comment »
Posted by feww on May 20, 2008
A Herculean task, significant impact on physical and biological systems globally, worst cases in 800,000 years
One species disappears every 20 minutes, UN Experts
“In my view, climate change and the loss of biodiversity are the most alarming challenges on the global agenda,” Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said at the opening of a U.N. biodiversity conference on Monday.
Some of the biodiversity of a coral reef. Reproduced under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, ersion 1.2 or any later version. (author: Richard Ling)
“In my view, climate change [Germany is the world’s 6th largest pollutor] and the loss of biodiversity are the most alarming challenges on the global agenda […] It will be a Herculean task to get the world community and each individual country on the right path to sustainability [still talking about ‘Tending Our Goats at the Edge of Apocalypse’] … The truth today is that we are still on the wrong track. If we follow this path we can foresee that we will fail to meet the target … Business as usual is no more an option if humanity is going to survive. Losing biodiversity is not just losing trees and species, it is an economic and security loss. [Thanks for reading our blogs, Mr Gabriel!]” (Source)
Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change
Significant changes in physical and biological systems are occurring on all continents and in most oceans, with a concentration of available data in Europe and North America. Most of these changes are in the direction expected with warming temperature. Here we show that these changes in natural systems since at least 1970 are occurring in regions of observed temperature increases, and that these temperature increases at continental scales cannot be explained by natural climate variations alone. Given the conclusions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report that most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely to be due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations, and furthermore that it is likely that there has been significant anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent except Antarctica, we conclude that anthropogenic climate change is having a significant impact on physical and biological systems globally and in some continents. (Source)
Instrumental Temperature record of the last 150 years. (Author: Robert A. Rohde) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License Version 2.5
Greenhouse gases highest in 800,000 years
Atmospheric greenhouse gases are now at the highest levels in 800,000 years, according to a study of Antarctic ice, which provides additional evidence that human activity is disrupting the climate.
“Shanghai at sunset, as seen from the observation deck of the Jin Mao tower. The sun has not actually dropped below the horizon yet, rather it has reached the smog line.” This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (Photo: Suicup; via: Wikimedia Commons. )
“We can firmly say that today’s concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane are 28 and 124 percent higher respectively than at any time during the last 800,000 years,” said Thomas Stocker, a researcher at the University of Berne. (Source)
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Posted in Climate Change, energy, environment, food, Global Warming, health, politics, Tourism, Travel | Tagged: anthropogenic, Biodiversity, biological impact, Business as usual, China, Climate Change, Collapsing Cities, coral reef, economic loss, Edge of Apocalypse, Failing Ecosystems, Future Scenarios, germany, Giga Trends, greenhouse gases, India, IPCC, Japan, lifestyle, Root Cause Matrix, Russia, security threat, Sigmar Gabriel, sustainability, Tending Our Goats, Thomas Stocker, Tipping Point, top 10 pollutors, UN, US | Leave a Comment »
Fire Earth 