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Pacific Institute:Extreme Weather Events Will Increasingly Affect US Water Supply
With global warming, there is an increased risk of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves,” according to the Congressional testimony of Heather Cooley, senior research associate of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California. Cooley’s testimony was provided to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming for the hearing on Climate Change and Extreme Events on Thursday, July 10.
“Floods and droughts are a natural part of the climate system, but we are seeing a growing body of scientific analysis indicating it is likely that climate change will vastly increase stresses on our water systems,” Cooley testified. “We are essentially ‘loading the dice’ and increasing the probability that these types of events will increase in frequency and intensity.”
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Cooley made several recommendations for mitigating the impact of extremes on communities and water supplies, citing the need for water conservation, improved weather-monitoring efforts, and better planning and preparedness for floods and droughts. In addition to her remarks, she presented written testimony to the Select Committee addressing the need for adaptation to be a central element of all climate-change policy.
Such adaptation measures include:
-Water managers must re-evaluate engineering designs, operating rules, contingency plans, and water-allocation policies, including taking into account their energy and greenhouse-gas implications.
-New water infrastructure must be designed and built incorporating expected climate change over the expected life of the project.
-Water and energy issues must be better integrated, and water agencies should partner with other agencies to seek combined solutions to water, energy, and greenhouse-gas problems.
“Climate change will have a significant impact on freshwater resources, affecting availability, timing, reliability, and quality,” Cooley testified, “and water conservation and efficiency are particularly attractive adaptation options.”
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This will be the greatest environmental challenge of the 21st century. We must plan now. With global warming, there is an increased risk of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heat waves,” according to the ... more -
Global report card of green countries/US falls short
A global report card on nations doing the most, and least, to clean up the environment.
...the EPI is the best measure we have of how nations are faring in the battle to save the environment, and the findings are striking. As one might expect, the overall rankings place small, wealthy Scandinavian societies at the top, and poor, war-torn African nations at the bottom. But one big surprise is that size is no excuse for poor performance; big and small nations occupy both the top and bottom ranks. And bigger surprises come when you compare nations with peers of similar income, or with neighbors. In the following pages, you'll find chapters on the best—and worst—nations in every income group: the rich, the middle class and the poor.
China in particular has long argued that it is too poor to afford the Western luxury of environmental awareness. The EPI exposes this claim to be bogus. China ranks last among 15 nations in its income group (the fifth decile), behind Vietnam. If Colombia, the group's leader, can afford environmental concern, why can't China?
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In its environmental priorities, the United States is in some ways remarkably similar to China, the EPI reveals. Like China, the United States scores poorly among countries in its income class (the top 10 percent), ranking third from the bottom, due in large part to terrible scores for emissions, which are heavily weighted in the index because of their contribution to global warming. And like China, the weak U.S. emissions scores are due in part to reliance on coal. In the EPI, the United States scores 38 on carbon emissions from electricity generation, compared with an average of 68 for countries of similar wealth. That statistic lowers the U.S. score in emissions per capita, which Yale puts at 56, far below the peer-group average of 74.
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Again, it comes down to moral and political will. Trying to excuse the lack of it by stating anything else is simply bogus. Even in Kenya people are turning to solar and they hardly have an economy to speak of. So the US, China, and other rich countries will be exposed for the morally bankrupt leadership they have all at the expense of this planet and its people just to make gold bars that will serve no purpose without a planet. A global report card on nations doing the most, and least, to clean up the environment. ... more -
What's your water footprint?
Water conservation can begin with your dinner plate. Sure, it looks like merely a hamburger with cheese, a baked potato and a cup of coffee.
But look at it in terms of water: ● It took about 464 gallons of water to produce that quarter pound of beef, ● 108 gallons to produce a potato, ● 37 gallons to make 1 ounce of cheese ● and 37 gallons of water to create your 8-ounce cup of coffee.
This concept of calculating how much water goes into the production of food or other items is called "virtual water." Instead of seeing only the item in front of you — say, a ribeye steak — you look at where it came from, how the cattle was raised, how many gallons of water were used in irrigation to produce the feed the cattle ate, how many gallons of water were used to create the fertilizer and pesticides used in raising the feed corn, how much water was consumed by the actual animal, how many resources went into getting that animal from the ranch to the slaughter house to the packing plant to the store to you.
As food and energy costs continue to rise, and concern about the effects of global warming increases, many consumers are looking at choices differently. Our community consolidates car trips to save gas and plans meals based on coupons and sales instead of convenience.
Water is a prized resource in our part of the world and we face huge policy questions as communities in Arizona continue to grow in size and population. We must come to terms with how we use this priceless and limited commodity.
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"I think people at the global level are talking about this with global trading in food, but it's only now becoming a local issue," said Pat Gober, the co-director of the Decision Center for a Desert City at Arizona State University. "If somebody in Phoenix consumes a hamburger it's not consuming much of Phoenix's water, but it's consuming Brazil's water, or wherever the beef was raised. It's the globalization of our food supply.
"Food as a way of conserving water," said Gober. "I think it's an important thing to think about."
How much water do you really use?
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When adding up all of the water you use in just one day to shower, drink, cook, clean, eat, prepare food, and for sanitation, not to mention recreation, pools, sprinklers, watering lawns, washing cars, washing clothes, etc., it is astounding to see the total. And the impacts of that use are felt globally.
http://www.waterfootprint.org can help you calculate your water footprint and give you information about how to bring it down. It is only when we begin to look beyond the dinner plate and the tangible items to see what goes into them that we become more aware and more enpowered in our choices. And that can have a positive global effect, especially now as not only 45 % of our country is in some stage of drought, but much of our world. Water conservation can begin with your dinner plate. Sure, it looks like merely a hamburger with cheese, a baked potato and a cup of c... more -
Drought Threatens The Lives of Millions In Ethiopia
This is heartbreaking. Not only because this is happening to children, but because it is totally preventable. There are no longer any words to express my outrage at what is going on in this world. I cannot fathom the total lack of tolerance, intelligence, and planning on the part of governments. I cannot tolerate the absolute disregard for human beings by other human beings, and the conditions we exacerbate still knowing full well what is causing them with the ability to stop them. How does one who cares so deeply for the children of this world read something like this and not feel helpless?
These poor people are kept in total poverty for the benefit of organizations like The World Bank, and yes, even the UN, and I find it appalling. For all of the talk we hear year after year after year about eradicating poverty, famine, and water scarcity and pollution which are causing the diseases plaguing the developing world, we get little to no results in addressing it. For all of the money thrown at it we get little to no results.
This is simply so pervasive and so overwhelming in scope that it is beyond human comprehension. We as a species will never be able to live down what we have done to despoil not only this planet but our own species and those that have no voice. And the children... the innocent children who have known nothing but hunger, disease, and despair. What of them? Where is their hope? Where is their food? Where is their water? Where is the education to show them how to plant and build a life for themselves instead of depending on The World Bank and other bloodsucking organizations that loan them money they can never repay back thus keeping the cycle of poverty and inequality going round? Are they to now only be the focus of the media just to get ratings?
All I can say is, thanks to organizations like Doctors Without Borders these children will at least have a chance to get proper medical care and food. I have come to conclusion however, that governments around this world for all their talk are simply too corrupt, selfish, and inadequate to address the crises we face adequately with the moral fortitude necessary to conquer them.
NO CHILD IN THIS WORLD SHOULD GO HUNGRY OR THIRSTY. And to think we have all we need to make sure that doesn't happen but yet it still does is a shameful reflection on all of us.
More at http://water-is-life.blogspot.com
WATER IS LIFE. This is heartbreaking. Not only because this is happening to children, but because it is totally preventable. There are no longer any ... more -
An Inconvenient Truth: Two years later
It has been two years since An Inconvenient Truth was released. These were my thoughts on it after seeing it for the first time:
I had a front row seat in a packed theatre to see Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth last night. I can describe it in two words: a journey. It is Al Gore's journey of heart, soul, spirit, and mind through a lifetime of stewardship and also growth. For as much as this movie is a clarion call to all of us to now take our own journey for our planet, ourselves, and our children, it is also Al Gore's reckoning with himself. He lays his soul bare to warn us of the consequences of our inaction now regarding this crisis, because it relays to the events in his own life in the past that brought him to this point as well.
The scenes showing his early years in Congress, his son's car accident, the 2000 election (yes, I cried here,) and the very poignant scenes of him with his sister Nancy who died of lung cancer revealed to me a man not doing this out of any selfish political intent, but of a man who is telling you, the viewer, that even he has had to experience loss and near loss in his life in order to realize what he lost and how much of a part he played in it. I think those scenes were shown in direct correlation to this climate crisis and his message that we must not make the same mistake now with our planet.
Will we look back years from now regretting that we continued the very behavior that is contributing to this crisis even knowing what it is doing to our planet? Or will we take the necessary steps to change our ways and heed the warnings before it is too late? That is the question of this movie and there is no alarmism whatsoever in the presentation of the solutions we have at our disposal. Mr. Gore relays the facts starkly, calmly, and at times humorously, and clearly lays out what we can do to mitigate this crisis. And the scientific consensus cannot be denied that we as a species are contributing to it and it is having a definite effect on our world.
His statistics on Co2, invasive species, species loss, ice cap melting, population growth, etc., intertwined with footage from around the world showing the effects of the statistics he showed was all very well presented and backed up. I also never got the impression that any of this is about him in any other sense than him using himself as an example of someone who had to reach the bottom in order to reach for the top.
I laughed, I cried, and I saw before me on the screen a man who has surely come full circle with who he is and what his mission is, and that is handing that mission and truth to us. He says he is not a hero, and frankly, I didn't see a hero in this movie and that is a good thing. Heroes have a tendency to be placed on pedestals and forgotten. I saw something much more. I saw a prophet, a missive, and a trailblazer who has full faith in our abilty to save our planet. And we must not let our planet down, and that also includes those in government and the corporate world whose indifference to this issue can no longer be tolerated.
more at the link It has been two years since An Inconvenient Truth was released. These were my thoughts on it after seeing it for the first time: ... more -
Applying Gandhi's Ideas To Climate Change
At what was once a Capuchin monastery on the Hudson River, the Zen archers were out in force on Friday. They were members of a New York City group celebrating 10 years of study with a retreat at what’s now the Garrison Institute, a New Agey organization that tries to meld contemplation and action.
The idea of the Zen archery is to combine intention and action, focus and carry-through. Physical action slows. The archer and the bow become one. The art becomes artless. The archer evolves through perseverance and discipline. Or so they say.
It’s not much of a stretch to go from the visiting Zen archers to the institute’s own initiative, an ambitious program next month to look at how the ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi relate to current environmental issues, particularly climate change.
Central to Gandhi, after all, was the notion that the truth, power and moral force of a movement are inseparable from the truth, power and moral force of its actors.
Hence Gandhi nonviolently freeing India from the greatest empire of his time, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. overturning segregation in the South, Nelson Mandela ending apartheid — intention wedded to action, focus leading to carry-through, evolution resulting from perseverance and discipline. Like the Zen archers, it may seem way too abstruse and exotic for the short attention span of modern life, but then, maybe not.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/nyregion/30towns.html At what was once a Capuchin monastery on the Hudson River, the Zen archers were out in force on Friday. They were members of a New Yor... more -
Yes You Can Rescue A Rainforest
Half a century after most of Costa Rica's rainforests were cut down, researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute took on a project that many thought was impossible - restoring a tropical rainforest ecosystem. When the researchers planted worn-out cattle fields in Costa Rica with a sampling of local trees, native species began to move in and flourish, raising the hope that destroyed rainforests can one day be replaced.
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That quality-of-life issue is drinking water. It's in scarce supply where forests have been destroyed, since without tree roots to act as a sort of sponge, rain water runs off the hillsides and drains away.
Erosion is also out of control. "You might drive on a dirt road one year, and then come back the next to find it's a gully over six feet deep," says Leopold. "It's a very serious problem."
Does the experiment's success mean that rainforests will one day flourish again? Fully rescuing a rainforest may take hundreds of years, if it can be done at all.
"The potential for the forest being able to come back is debatable," Leopold says, but the results are promising.
"I'm surprised," he said. "We're getting an impressive growth of new forest species." After only ten years, plots that began with a few species are now lush forests of hundreds. Who knows what the next few decades - or centuries - might bring?
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The will to bring back what was lost is hope in action.
Half a century after most of Costa Rica's rainforests were cut down, researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute took on a project t... more -
Americans curbing gas consumption
With the combination of a falling dollar and rising gas prices, Americans may finally be seeing the light regarding gas consumption. So while high gas prices are tough on working Americans, could high gas prices be a blessing in disguise to move people to more sustainable life choices and demanding cleaner choices at the pump? Are higher gas prices causing you to alter your current lifestyle? With the combination of a falling dollar and rising gas prices, Americans may finally be seeing the light regarding gas consumption. S... more
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The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right To Water
Maude Barlow is co-founder of the Blue Planet Project and a very vocal advocate for clean water for all. Her new book (The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water) lays out three main plans that must be instituted in order for our planet to avert a catastrophe regarding this crisis that according to the UN should be our top priority which include: Water conservation, water justice, and water democracy. We must as a global community see beyond the borders to the moral courage necessary to conserve and share this precious resource, as well as working on a treaty like the one we hope to see regarding the climate crisis that sets goals for conservation, sharing of resources, providing technology necessary to developing countries that helps them with conserving through agriculture, infrastructure, and basic education. And most importantly, declaring access to clean water a human right.This along with the climate crisis is the most crucial environmental issue we will face in this century. For me it is the most crucial because without water there is no life. Maude Barlow is co-founder of the Blue Planet Project and a very vocal advocate for clean water for all. Her new book (The Global Wate... more
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Drain On The Mediterranean: Rising Water Usage
A Turkish lake three times the size of Washington DC has completely vanished in 15 years. Just how much of this planet can the human race totally destroy in the next 15 years? The global water crisis is another topic that is not seen as "sexy" or newsworthy. However, it is the most crucial environmental crisis we now face. Without water we have no life. And at the current pace of population growth combined with waste and the effects of climate change, more people in all regions of this world will have no water, which means no food, no way of life, no sustainability. It is amazing to me how we keep tripping over the elephant in the room to concentrate on the peanuts. A Turkish lake three times the size of Washington DC has completely vanished in 15 years. Just how much of this planet can the human r... more
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