flooding – 350orbust

The Obama Tar Sands Pipeline

June 3, 2013 by Christine

Is the Keystone XL pipeline really what President Obama wants to leave as his legacy, for future generations to remember him by – and curse him for?

[youtube=http://youtu.be/GVpK61CJt3E]

Meanwhile climate destabilization continues as unabated as our carbon dioxide emissions:

Czech PM Declares Emergency As Floods Threaten Prague: Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas declared a state of emergency for most of the nation on Sunday as swollen rivers caused by days of heavy rain threatened Prague’s historic center and forced evacuations from low-lying areas.Prague authorities limited public transport and planned to close underground stations in the center of the city as water from the Vltava River overflowed into picturesque areas popular with tourists. The main train line connecting the capital and the east of the country was also shut. Click here to read full story.

Floods Rage Through Central Europe.

Rising waters from the Danube, Ilz and Inn rivers have inundated parts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic after days of heavy rainfall. Emergency operations are under way to deal with record levels of flooding in some areas, as landslides have killed at least nine people, with many more still missing. Click here to see pictures.

Meanwhile it’s so dry and parched in Texas even the dead can’t rest quietly: …Across South Texas, the drought scorched front yards, dried up lakes and forced Corpus Christi into water restrictions. But one of the unexplored consequences has been the drought’s effect on cemeteries. Once serene sanctuaries, these final resting places now show signs of distress from too little rain.

Sections of Rose Hill Memorial Park where Matson’s parents are buried are patchworks of cracked dirt and weeds. In Seaside Memorial Park, where slain Tejano star Selena Quintanilla lies in rest, scattered live oaks that once provided shade have died and started to shed their bark. Click here for the full story.

As U of Ottawa climate scientist Paul Beckwith tweeted this morning:

At the present time we humans are behaving like brainless frogs. Frogs, it turns out, don’t remain in water being heated to the boiling point unless their brains have been removed.

Tom Toles Cartoon – click for larger display

Floods Hit Close To Home

May 30, 2012 by Christine

TB flood watch. Zachary K Larabees photo — Photo credit: Zachary K Larabee

The city of Thunder Bay and surrounding townships have declared a state of emergency this week because of flood conditions throughout the region after more than 100 millimetres of rain fell over the weekend. The problem of flooding was exacerbated when the city’s overworked sewage treatment broke down. Roads have been washed out, basements filled with up to five feet of filthy water, and schools have been closed.

Living in northwestern Ontario as our family does, Thunder Bay is one of our regional centers (the other one is Winnipeg, which is also prone to spring flooding, although not this year). I’m thinking about friends there, and hoping all is well despite the crisis. Although here in our corner of northern Ontario, we haven’t been hit with the massive flooding that Thunder Bay has, it can’t be emphasized enough how all of us are going to start paying a heavier and heavier price for global and local inaction on climate change. Extreme weather events, and the resulting flash floods, droughts, etc, are (and have already been) increasing exponentially. As Ontario’s Environment Commissioner said recently, “We have an infrastructure built for a climate we no longer have.”

Although we have changed the world’s climate significantly, we are not yet at the stage of catastrophic climate change. For the sake of our children, our global neighbours, and this beautiful planet, it’s time that Canadians speak up loudly and clearly that we are not willing to sacrifice our children’s future health and economic stability to keep the fossil fuel industry raking in their obscene profits. To find out how to create the political will for a sustainable climate, and become empowered to exercise your political and personal power, go to CitizensClimateLobby.org.

Here’s a video of the Thunder Bay situation:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoaAt8Gnf_U]

More links:

Environmental Commissioner: Ontario Not Prepared For Heavy Costs of Climate Change

U.S. EPA: Extreme Events: Climate Change And Health Effects

Floods Spark State of Emergency In Thunder Bay, Ont

Extreme Weather Costing U.S. Billions – When Does The Climate Change Lightbulb Go On?

September 9, 2011 by CPP

It’s been an exhausting and extreme year weather-wise across the U.S., as this pointed out in this Reuters article, Weather Disasters Keep Costing the U.S. Billions This Year. And yet, there is still resistance across that country and my own, furiously propped up by wealthy fossil fuel interests, to the scientific evidence pointing out people’s contribution, through our unrestrained burning of fossil fuels, to a warmer global atmosphere. A warmer atmosphere results in global climate instability, more extremes such as the floods, droughts, and wildfires that much of North America has been experiencing in 2011. Which just goes to show, as Saul Bellows, writer, and Nobel laureate (1915-2005) said:

“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”

All but about 100 acres of the 6,000 acre Bastrop State Park in Bastrop, Texas has been blackened by a wildfire. This video shot by Texas Parks and Wildlife on September 5 shows just how fast the fire moved through:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXvtzPJ7CdM]

Nearly 100,000 people were ordered to flee the rising Susquehanna River on Thursday as the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee dumped more rain across the Northeast, socking areas still recovering from Hurricane Irene and closing major highways at the morning rush. At Binghamton, N.Y., the wide river broke a flood record and flowed over retaining walls downtown:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI_BypPFeAc&NR=1]

Storms Sweep Through NEW YORK CITY August 19, 2011:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2YPbOkDcxg&feature=related]

More links:

Get involved in spreading the word! Moving Planet 350.org

Devastation in Pakistan is Unimaginable – But You and I Can Make A Difference

August 31, 2010 by Christine

U.S. Senator John Kerry has just returned from a trip to flooded Pakistan, and is shaken by what he saw. This is an excerpt from a posting on his Facebook wall:

I just got home to Massachusetts from seeing the floods in Pakistan — and what I saw there was as devastating and gripping as the last humanitarian crisis I emailed you about. Even as I sit here I’m shaken by the fact that this is Pakistan’s Katrina.

It’s not just that one fifth of the country – an area larger than all of New England, New York, New Jersey and Maryland combined – is submerged under historic flooding, or that with weeks left in the monsoon season, it could get even worse.

None of that captures what I saw and heard when our helicopter touched down. I went to Multan in the Punjab plains. This is no isolated hamlet, but an ancient city, a district capital with a population of over 1.5 million. And it’s inundated with water.

I spoke to the people, heard their stories, their desperation for food and water. They talked of the joy when they saw American Chinook helicopters – distinctive for their two big rotors – because they knew help was arriving. But the scale of the disaster hit me as I flew over the city and surrounding valley, mile after mile of Punjabi plains turned into a massive lake, this large city covered in water. Roads were washed out, vehicles abandoned, tall buildings turned into places of desperate refuge. Any flat surface high enough to escape the waters became a life-raft, often packed with people willing to bake in the hot sun rather than face the barrier of the flood-waters. The scene stretched on and on.

You can get a look at some of this – just get a small sense of it – watching this NBC News piece.

Senator Kerry goes on to encourage generosity in response to this disaster. I’ve posted some links on the bottom that enable you to do this, and if you are Canadian keep in mind our federal government is matching donations to Pakistan relief dollar for dollar. But please consider doing more than donating money; talk about the link between climate change and extreme weather events like this one with your friends and family. Lower your own carbon footprint, then join together with other members of your community to lower its carbon footprint. We are all in this together!

Donation links:

Interaction

MCC

The World’s Experiment With Catastrophic Climate Change Continues

August 9, 2010 by Christine

Russia, August 5:

Forest and peat bog fires have burned hundreds of homes, leaving thousands homeless in the hottest summer since records began 130 years ago, prompting leaders to declare a state of emergency in seven of the worst-hit regions.(Reuters)

As of July 30, the wildfires had scorched more than 25 million acres of grain – what Time Magazine reported as an area equivalent in size to the state of Kentucky. The fires, extreme heat and widespread drought have affected food prices throughout Russia, prompting the government to ban grain exports and declare a state of emergency in many parts of the country. Smoke from the fires has blanketed Moscow and other cities with a thick, toxic soup, causing some foreign diplomats to leave the country. The soil moisture in some portions of the country has dropped to levels one would expect only once every 500 years.

Recently Russian President Medvedev clearly drew the line between the extreme conditions Russia is experiencing this summer and climate change:

“What’s happening with the planet’s climate right now needs to be a wake-up call to all of us, meaning all heads of state, all heads of social organizations, in order to take a more energetic approach to countering the global changes to the climate.”

This is the same leader who, two months after Copenhagen, called the global-warming debate “some kind of tricky campaign made up by some commercial structures to promote their business projects.” Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace Russia commented on Medvedev’s dramatic change of heart:

“You don’t just throw comments like that around when you are the leader of the nation, and if you look at what is happening with this heat wave, it’s horrible. It’s clearly enough to shake people out of their delusions about global warming.”

Go to this link to view a dramatic video of people fleeing a Russian village over a road that’s on fire.

Pakistan, August 8:

Officials estimate that as many as 13 million people have been affected by the worst flooding in the country’s 63-year history. About 1,500 people have died, most of them in the north-west, the hardest-hit region.

These two unfolding disasters, involving excessive fire and water, are related to the extreme climate conditions that scientists project will become more frequent in a heating world. Are we ready yet to start addressing our part in the warming of the atmosphere? What will it take for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to change his mind on global warming? In the past, he called the Kyoto Protocol “a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations“. This summer, more than 100 communities in Saskatchewan declared a state of emergency after severe weather events. Provincial Fire Commissioner and Director of Public Safety recently said:

…while there have been forest fires and flooding in other years, 2010 is seeing an unprecedented number of events.

“When you start adding up all the events and the compressed time … this is remarkable,” he said.

2009 was a record summer for British Columbia fires. The British Columbia government spent over $400 million dollars fighting these forest fires and more than 2,105 square kilometers (210,579) of forests were burned.

It’s clear that the dangers of global warming that scientists have been warning us about are here now. We do not need to wait until the end of this century to experience climate driven catastrophes. Don’t wait for our leaders to take action – 350.org is calling for a people-powered movement to start pressing for change that can’t be ignored. What will you tell your children and grandchildren 20 years from now when they ask you what you did to help avert this disaster? Check out Bill McKibbon’s recent blog: We’re Hot As Hell and We’re Not Going to Take it Anymore: Three Steps to Establish A Politics of Global Warming.

Rising Temperatures, Rising Seas

December 5, 2009 by Christine

Today on CBC Radio’s National Science Show Quirks and Quarks the topic will be “Rising Temperatures, Rising Seas“. Sea levels have already risen 20 cm over the last 100 years, and are predicted to rise up to a meter over the next 100 years due to climate change. As the Quirks website states:

this increase in sea level would have vast impacts around the world, especially in heavily populated low-lying river deltas, like those in Bangladesh, China, southeast Asia, Egypt, the southern US and British Columbia.

Click here to listen to the program, or tune in to CBC One at noon today if you are in Canada.

If you haven’t already checked out the 350.org website to find or organize a Vigil for a Real Deal during the Weekend of Action December 11 – 13, do so now!