AnimalSports: 2014

Excessive Drought-Floods In California-Abrupt Climate Change

Flash Floods In California

For those of you actually paying attention to our Earth and her response to our continued waste and folly even in the face of disaster this is a classic example of what has been happening around the world in response to climate change. We have added 7% more moisture to our atmosphere due to fossil fuel burning, deforestation, industrial agriculture and other destructive actions. We have seen this exact reaction in Asia, Africa, Europe, etc... Severe drought followed by deluges that do nothing to replenish the water lost through heightened evaporation. Yet, there is not one mention of this on my local news and I still read articles that say that even though these extreme conditions will now become commonplace and more severe than this people on the whole aren't really worried about it. Matter of fact I just read an article today saying that even though this drought will now enter its fourth year people on the whole in California still aren't conserving water as they should be. I just then have to ask myself- what is wrong with people?

We continue to see extreme severe events occurring globally- massive snowstorm in Buffalo NY recently as one example followed by warm temperatures causing flooding, storms and flooding in Europe and Asia, severe drought in South America and Africa, continued melting of ice in Arctic, methane increases, accelerated melting in Antarctica, more storm activity in the Pacific with huge temperature swings and abnormal jet stream activity as 2014 is on track to be the warmest year on record. Climate is changing all around us affecting our ability to live-yet we continue to sit patiently waiting for some obscure UN meeting to "save" us?

We do see more rejection of the fossil fuel death trap with more people protesting at pipeline sites (although they don't get nearly as much attention as the chosen partisan spokespeople who never really hold politicians accountable.) We are going to need to see a lot more however if we are to ever break the chokehold it has on our lives. You would think the fact that the world is now in the grips of experiencing the fallout of our destructive actions over the past century it would bring about an epiphany. California needs not inches but many feet of water to even get close to where they were. That won't happen without snowpack-or that epiphany. It all really does at times just leave me wondering what it is that has to happen for that to come on a scale great enough to save us. But of course, it is now the Holiday season and shopping for all that "stuff" seems to be way more important than what making it is doing to the true gift we have been given.

Also see:

Hard California Rains Provide Little Relief From Record Drought

Rain Pounds California Causing Mudslides/Floods

Warm Arctic Winds Rip Polar Vortex In Half

Hotter, Wilder, Dirtier: Earth's Climate Change By The Numbers

Sanitation For Health and Life -We Can't Wait

World Toilet Day alert: Feces-contaminated water used by 1.8bn people

Almost 2 billion people use excrementally polluted water, which poses not only a global health risk, but also flushes away $260 billion out of the world economy annually, according to a report published on World Toilet Day.

Regardless of the billions of dollars spent on sanitation and investments in water, 1.8 billion people are exposed to contaminated water, a report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Water agency said Wednesday.

"If people don't invest in sanitation the costs are going to be incredible and health is going to be a big issue," Bruce Gordon, WHO’s water and sanitation coordinator, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Extraordinary efforts need to be made now to take it to those remaining pockets of people who don't access water and sanitation.”

Most of the funds often neglect rural areas, where one in seven people, the reports says, still take their private business outdoors. It contaminates the water and leads to such diseases as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery and typhoid.

"Water and sanitation and hygiene are fundamental pre-requisites to have in place not only for development, but to stop outbreaks of diseases like Ebola or cholera," Gordon said.

What’s more, sanitation troubles often mean a lack of privacy and safety for women. One out of three women around the world lacks access to safe toilets, UN noted.

A resident uses a floating public toilet on the Ciliwung river bank in Jakarta (Reuters/Beawiharta)

However, in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa open defecation remains a cultural norm.

"People enjoy that social event," said Jack Sim, the founder of the World Toilet Organization. "But they have to understand that the contaminated water ... eventually comes back as diseases to kill the children and to make people sick."

Nevertheless, the report also outlined some progress in the last two decades. Over 2 billion people have gained access to clean water, and a little bit less gained access to improved sanitation.

This development resulted in the decline in the number of children dying from diarrheal diseases – that is, from 1.5 million in 1990 to just above 600,000 in 2012.

End of excerpt

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It truly mystifies me how we as humans can always find money to make war. More people also have cell phones in this world than toilets. Some may not see this as important - but then they have toilets. The toilet is not just a porcelain God to sit on while you read the latest newspaper. It is a symbol of health, education, human rights and dignity- especially for young girls whose lives in poor rural countries are transformed through just having a safe place to take care of their needs. Toilets save lives. So on this World Toilet Day remember how lucky you are to have those things you take for granted every other day of the year...and pay it forward.

Also see:

World Sanitation Day

World Toilet.org

It's World Toilet Day- And It's No Laughing Matter

World Toilet Day Quiz-Are You An Expert On The Loo?

Also as this is World Toilet Day let us not forget the cholera outbreak in Haiti that the UN refused to take responsibility for. It is one thing to designate days for caring, quite another to actually put actions into them. Haiti is a stark example of why these days are necessary. Please UN and other organizations- don't designate special days to make yourselves look benevolent and caring and then forget the reason behind it besides your own image. Real people are dying out here.

Cholera Outbreak In Haiti

Only 1/4 of Haitians have access to private toilets. This is a human failure. There should be no prejudice or intolerance regarding access to basic needs. How many more years will it need to be said?

Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain

On the morning of December 3, 1984, a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal exploded releasing 45 tons of methyl isocyanate. The result was over a half million people exposed with 20 to 25,000 said to have died s a result of it. Thirty years later the groundwater is still contaminated and people are still dying with children being born with defects. To this day, DOW Chemical, the new owner after purchasing Union Carbide has refused to take responsibility for the clean up and has covered up for Union Carbide's crime. Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide was also given coverage by DOW and the US govt and recently died at 92 in Florida having escaped justice and responsibility for this tragedy.

Bhopal- A Prayer For Rain is a movie opening today that seeks to relay the events surrounding this epitome of corporate greed and irresponsibility. This is not just a story about the leak however, but the circumstances we see corporations constantly taking advantage of in order to further their own profits at the expense of those who are poor and desperate. This is about unbridled greed, apathy and the corporate mindset that makes them anything but people.

This is also the first time this environmental catastrophe has been relayed via a movie and I for one hope it is a success in bringing forth the truth and in bringing justice to the thousands who still live in Bhopal suffering the effects of this thirty year tragedy. Groundwater contamination is still present especially when monsoons hit. Their story must be seen and heard and justice must be done. DOW Chemical didn't seem to have any problem with accepting Union Carbide's assets- it then as present owner is just as responsible for its liabilities. While they enjoy billions in profits for poisoning this Earth with toxic chemicals and now toxic GM seeds those poor who have no where else to go are living with a nightmare everyday. This is not justice.

Bhopal Medical Appeal

This is a wonderful organization helping people with the effects of the Bhopal tragedy... As DOW Chemical DARES to makes ads regarding the "Human Element" of their business as they ignore the suffering of the people.

Court Decision Requires Dow Chemical To Respond To Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Justice For Bhopal

There is no Humanity without Justice!

Reliving The Wrath Of Hurricane Sandy

Reliving the wrath of Hurricane Sandy

My tears fell like rain. This day etched in my memory forever.

1 yr

Athens: Heavy Rains Bring Chaos To Greek Capital- It's Raining All Over The World

This is now their new normal:

Floods hit Tenerife, Canary Islands killing five and dispclacing hundreds:

Powerful flash flood in Switzerland... The Alps are melting as are the majority of glaciers around the world:

The US Midwest:

Swedish Town "Like Venice" After Heavy Rain

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Extreme drought and floods globally more severe and recurrent/common. Have we already gone too far?

As CO2 emissions continue to rise bringing the planet to record warmth and we continue to take water for granted as we deforest more land just what is the disconnect? If you have ever been sick to the point where you had to change the way you do things in your life in order to preserve your health, it becomes much more clearer just how important it is to do the same for your only home. I will never understand the human mind and its seeming propensity for self destruction.

Also see:

Climate Change Plays Havoc With World's Weather

São Paulo running out of water as rain-making Amazon vanishes

São Paulo running out of water as rain-making Amazon vanishes

Dry conditions have delayed planting of the 2014-2015 soybean crop, threatening Brazil's goal to reach an output record for a third straight year.

Ironically, soybean production, as well as cattle ranching and logging, are responsible to a great deal of Amazon deforestation, scientists say.

RISING DEFORESTATION
Deforestation jumped by 29 percent in the last officially recorded period, between August 2012 and July 2013, marking the first increase since 2008.

A survey produced by INPE using satellite imaging showed that the Amazon lost 5,891 square kilometers, or 2,275 square miles, of forests in that period, an area almost five times the size of the city of New York.

With fewer trees, the Amazon's capacity to work as a water pump, absorbing moisture from the Atlantic Ocean and releasing millions of liters of humidity into the air, is being reduced, scientists say.

Brazilian meteorologist José Marengo, who has contributed to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, coined the term "flying rivers" in the 1990s to describe air currents that carry water vapor - rising from the Amazon and blocked to the west by the Andes mountains - to central and southeast Brazil and all the way to northern Argentina.

About 20 billion tonnes of vapour evaporate from the Amazon region every day. A big Amazonian tree, with a crown measuring 20 meters, can evaporate up to 300 liters a day, compared with one liter evaporated by a square meter of ocean, according to Nobre.

In January and February this year, when rain is usually abundant in central and southern Brazil, the flying rivers failed to flow south, according to data from INPE's Center for Weather Forecasts and Climate Research.

"What's happening now highlights the importance of preserving and replenishing the Amazon if we want to prevent São Paulo from becoming a desert," Nobre said. (Reporting By Adriana Brasileiro; Editing by Laurie Goering)

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What do u think will happen if a city of 21 million runs out of water? Use your imagination.

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Transpiration: Transpiration- The Water Cycle

Transpiration is the process by which moisture is carried through plants from roots to small pores on the underside of leaves, where it changes to vapor and is released to the atmosphere. Transpiration is essentially evaporation of water from plant leaves. Transpiration also includes a process called guttation, which is the loss of water in liquid form from the uninjured leaf or stem of the plant, principally through water stomata.

Atmospheric factors affecting transpiration

The amount of water that plants transpire varies greatly geographically and over time. There are a number of factors that determine transpiration rates:

Temperature:Transpiration rates go up as the temperature goes up, especially during the growing season, when the air is warmer due to stronger sunlight and warmer air masses. Higher temperatures cause the plant cells which control the openings (stoma) where water is released to the atmosphere to open, whereas colder temperatures cause the openings to close.

Relative humidity: As the relative humidity of the air surrounding the plant rises the transpiration rate falls. It is easier for water to evaporate into dryer air than into more saturated air.

Wind and air movement: Increased movement of the air around a plant will result in a higher transpiration rate. This is somewhat related to the relative humidity of the air, in that as water transpires from a leaf, the water saturates the air surrounding the leaf. If there is no wind, the air around the leaf may not move very much, raising the humidity of the air around the leaf. Wind will move the air around, with the result that the more saturated air close to the leaf is replaced by drier air.

Soil-moisture availability: When moisture is lacking, plants can begin to senesce (premature ageing, which can result in leaf loss) and transpire less water.

Type of plant: Plants transpire water at different rates. Some plants which grow in arid regions, such as cacti and succulents, conserve precious water by transpiring less water than other plants.

End of excerpt

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Higher temperatures and humidity combined with increasing deforestation are altering the water cycle of this region and causing an evaporation of water. This is grade school science and yet people seem to have become unable to remember the balance we need in order to live. Like our bodies when we over-stress them the Earth reacts the same way. We need to be planting trees not cutting them down. Sao Paulo, California, Australia, and yes, West Africa where the Ebola virus began are all areas water stressed due to excessive human behavior. It is time to connect the caring for the body the same as caring for the Earth. The Amazon is the lungs of our planet. Would you cut your own lungs out thinking you have any chance of continuing to breathe?

Also on edit, Brazil should also stop deforesting land to plant MONSANTO GMO seed to benefit corporate profits and start thinking about sustainable agriculture that feeds the soil and its people.

Also see:

Brazil Drought Crisis Leads To Rationing and Tensions

Extreme Drought Causes Environmental Crisis In Colombia

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Now look at this example that we should all follow. When you give more than you take and work with nature, you prosper and so does Earth and our water:

How A 20-Something Persuaded Thousands Of Kenyan Farmers To Save Their Land By Growing Trees

We Are Water

Incredible capturing of the face and soul of water. Hope it touches you as it did me.

Robbie Crawford Arts

Water loves. Water heals. Water is life.

How corporations took over a basic human right

Daniel Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood" (Credit: Paramount)

Water is the new oil: How corporations took over a basic human right

So what does this look like globally?

Pretty dire. I think there are three main issues facing the planet in terms of our water supplies and a global water crisis. One is climate change, one is pollution and one is groundwater over-extraction. Basically, we have the same amount of water on Earth as we’ve had in the time of the dinosaurs, and a lot of people don’t realize that. The problem is that what has changed is where water is located. So climate change moves water, pumping groundwater moves water. But people are not so movable. You just can’t pick up Los Angeles and move it to wherever the water has gone when this year’s snowpack disappears.

“Water shortage” is a sort of misnomer. What we’re losing are our water storage systems. So we’re losing our glaciers, which are called our freshwater banks, and we’re losing our fossil water, which takes thousands and millions of years to be replenished. One of those places is in the United States: the Ogallala Aquifer is disappearing. Also, in Northern India there’s an aquifer that’s been depleted so much they’re experiencing epidemic fluoride poisoning right now, because when you get to the bottom of those aquifers you find pollutants that have settled there over time. They’re naturally occurring minerals that have settled there.

Then there’s also the problem of pollution. Twenty percent of the world right now does not have access to clean water. Twenty percent of the world also happens to live on less than a dollar a day. And it’s interesting to look at how much those two groups overlap. When people don’t have water, what you get is social instability, basically, and that 20 percent may have been living next to the same river since the beginning of time, but suddenly that river is polluted and they get sick and die when they drink it. So what happens is that corporations see water pollution as sort of a boon for them because as water gets more polluted, it gets more expensive to drink and then you get even more of a divide between the rich and the poor over who gets clean water and who doesn’t.

And one last thing with climate change. I think people don’t really understand a lot about how it works. They say, “Oh, the glaciers are melting so we’ll have more water.” But the problem is that water is just rushing into the ocean. So you have to think of climate change as this giant saltwater-making factory, almost. It’s just like sending water to the ocean. And we couldn’t build enough giant dams to stop all that water, and if we did it would cause all sorts of other problems. It’s the same thing with the way we do agriculture. It’s like we’re pumping out these fossil aquifers mainly for agriculture and that’s where the world’s breadbaskets are. But when we do that, that aquifer also becomes polluted and salinated and runs to the ocean. So there’s an enormous amount of water that we’re just throwing away in this sense.

End of excerpt

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I am at a point in my life where my health is giving me some challenges. There are those on this planet who deal with challenges every day to their health and very lives due to lack of access or quality of water. If we care anything about health we need to understand what is happening to our global water supply. I have not been well of late but I still care about this most important issue. Please take this seriously and take action- and be grateful for your own health.

Thank you.

2014 Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Sixth Lowest On Record

2014 Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Sixth Lowest On Record

Arctic sea ice coverage continued its below-average trend this year as the ice declined to its annual minimum on Sept. 17, according to the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Over the 2014 summer, Arctic sea ice melted back from its maximum extent reached in March to a coverage area of 1.94 million square miles (5.02 million square kilometers), according to analysis from NASA and NSIDC scientists. This year's minimum extent is similar to last year's and below the 1981-2010 average of 2.40 million square miles (6.22 million square km).

"Arctic sea ice coverage in 2014 is the sixth lowest recorded since 1978. The summer started off relatively cool, and lacked the big storms or persistent winds that can break up ice and increase melting," said Walter Meier, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"Even with a relatively cool year, the ice is so much thinner than it used to be," Meier said. "It's more susceptible to melting."

This summer, the Northwest Passage above Canada and Alaska remained ice-bound. A finger of open water stretched north of Siberia in the Laptev Sea, reaching beyond 85 degrees north, which is the farthest north open ocean has reached since the late 1970s, according to Meier.

While summer sea ice has covered more of the Arctic in the last two years than in 2012's record low summer, this is not an indication that the Arctic is returning to average conditions, Meier said. This year's minimum extent remains in line with a downward trend; the Arctic Ocean is losing about 13 percent of its sea ice per decade.

End of excerpt

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As this trend continues (and it will continue) as we continue to rapaciously burn fossil fuels thinking we can still do so because we are putting up a few solar panels as if that alone even properly addresses the moral dilemma we face with our addiction- we will see the results of our folly coming full circle within the next 15 years. This is why I scoff at the UN and governments that send their so called "leaders" to speak and speechify telling us about the urgent crisis we face- and then putting forth meager mediocre political measures that do not come close to addressing this crisis.

I could not even begin to document all of the extreme events that have happened globally even within the last month. 450 villages under water in Pakistan/Kashmir. Floods in Spain, Greece, China, Denmark, Australia, Serbia again, (Video here: Serbia flood,the US... severe drought in Central America, Africa, the US with extremes felt on every continent. Heatwaves and floods more severe, more prevalent and daily. World Heritage sites under threat, forests on fire (Amazon fires burning due to deforestation seen from space.) To say we have not passed a tipping point is to be in the deepest denial a human can engage in.

The Arctic is not waiting for politics to catch up with science and for humans on the whole to get beyond their pettiness.

CO2 Emissions Set To Reach New 40 Billion Ton Record High in 2014

You want to continue playing politics with this? You want to continue denying what is happening right in front of your eyes? You want to keep looking at this as only an economic opportunity for a chosen few as opposed to a moral threat to our existence? Well, we don't have anymore time for any of that. The Arctic IS melting. It IS affecting jet stream patterns that are affecting weather events and making them more extreme. The ice IS getting thinner. It is opening up more ocean which is then precipitating more positive feed-backs which increase temperature and moisture in our atmosphere. There is no more time to waste on the art of persuasion on the few who will never change their views.

This is a direct threat to our global water supply (California now knows this well as whole towns are now waterless) as well which then effects agriculture which then effects our ability to survive. We have already set ourselves up to see a 2 -4 degree centigrade rise in temperature by century's end. That will render Earth uninhabitable for humans and many other species.

But hey, I'll post the next report as well and post more pictures and speak more truth about this as politicians, NGOs and AGW deniers who seem to want to do nothing but go at each other continue the bread and circuses routine while getting in their speeches and photo ops continuing to argue and speechify us into non existence thinking money is the only way to solve anything.

This Is What Addiction Looks Like

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Also see:

Arctic Ice Extent Fifth Lowest On Record

Arctic Ocean Leaking Methane At Alarming Rate

Arctic Ice, Oceans, Climate and the Human Condition

Arctic Melting-Tipping Point That Should Matter To All Of Us

And:

Arctic Sea Ice Decline

"In the Arctic, temperature has increased at twice the rate as the rest of the globe, and could increase by another 8°C (14°F) by the end of this century. The warming atmosphere along with new weather pattern extremes is causing Arctic sea ice to melt at an alarming rate—12% per decade—that suggests the Arctic will be ice-free by 2030. The impacts of dwindling ice cover in the Arctic are far-reaching, from species endangerment to enhanced global warming, to the weakening or shut-down of global ocean circulation."

End of excerpt

Earth Surface During August 2014 Was Hottest Ever Recorded

All I can is, it is going to be a hard fall for humanity.

Humanity Is The Key

What comes to your mind first when you see this picture? :

Does it make you sad? Does it make you wonder where this child is from? Does it make you wonder why this child is thirsty? Does it make you want to give this child water?

What is the difference then between that picture and this one?:

The answer: Humanity. The difference is that people saw that child above, asked those questions and took the action necessary to see him with the liquid of life. Humanity. So simple, yet so forgotten.

No child should ever have to cry because they do not have water... or food... or shelter... or peace.

I have been taking a break from writing here because I find it hard of late to write because of the current state of our world. Constantly reporting about the climate disasters, lack of water access, state of water and the total lack of adequate attention to it all by those who only use the misery of others for their own gain etc. can take it's toll on a sentient soul. To see that the top picture is more prevalent than the bottom is simply unacceptable in a world where humanity is said to thrive.

I haven't given up, but I look around and see so many children touched by poverty, war, disease, hunger and I feel as though my writing here has then been totally ineffectual. I feel as though it has fallen on deaf ears. I hope I am wrong and I hope that when you look at the picture above it lights a spark within you to turn it into the bottom one. That is all I have ever aimed to do with this blog.

Thank you.

Brazil Drought Crisis Leads to Rationing and Tensions

Cracked ground in an area which used to be underwater at the Jaguari dam. The dam is part of the Sao Paulo's Cantareira system of dams. Photograph: Nelson Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

Brazil Drought Crisis Leads to Rationing and Tensions

From his front door to the banks of the Cantareira reservoir, José Christiano da Silva used to stroll only a hundred metres when he first moved to the area in 2009. Today, amid the worst drought in São Paulo's history, he must now trek a kilometre across the dried-up bed before he reaches what's left of the most important water supply for South America's biggest city.

"It's frightening to look at," says the retiree, standing on cracked mud. "In the past, we'd already be under water here." After the driest six months since records began 84 years ago, the volume of the Cantareira system has fallen to 10.7% of its capacity, raising alarms for the nearby urban population of 20 million people and the most important economic hub on the continent.

The drought, affecting Brazil's southeast and central regions, has prompted rationing in 19 cities, undermined hydropower generation, pushed up greenhouse gas emissions and led to squabbles between states vying for dwindling water resources.

Supplies are usually abundant. Brazil has 12% of the world's freshwater and less than 3% of the world population. Apart from the arid northeastern Cerrado, its cities are normally more likely to be plagued with floods than droughts. With big rivers like the Amazon and Paraná, the country generally meets 80% of energy needs with hydropower.

But this year, the rain fronts that are normally carried south from the humid Amazon have largely failed to materialise and temperatures have been higher than usual, prompting the authorities to scrabble to tap new sources and reduce demand. "It has been a terrible year. The last rainy season was drier than the dry season," Mauro Arce, São Paulo's water resources secretary, told the Guardian. "This is a crisis and we are responding with technical measures and the support of consumers."

In São Paulo city, that has meant financial incentives to encourage residents and businesses to reduce consumption, the reduction of water pressure by 75% at night (which in effect means a cut for those – often the poor – living in high areas) and tapping alternative supplies. In neighbouring cities, like Gaurulhos, more draconian measures are in place with some neighbourhoods only able to get water one day in three.

Tensions have emerged between cities, and between those who want water for energy and those who need it for drinking, food and sanitation.

São Paulo has tussled with Rio de Janeiro over the use of the Rio Jaguari, a river that runs across state borders and is used by the latter for hydropower plants and to dilute sewage in the absence of adequate treatment plants. São Paulo, which is downstream, has tapped this river to partially recuperate the Paraiba reservoir system despite the protests of its neighbour and admonitions from the federal government.

End of excerpt

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California is not the only place on Earth suffering from the effects of climate destruction and the ensuing jet stream changes due to Arctic ice loss along with increasing ocean temperatures. As I also posted here only several months ago the extreme drought in Colombia as well is also causing an environmental crisis with thousands of wildlife deaths. Deaths that are just as important as human deaths and more so because without them we cannot survive. Yet, we don't see these pictures nor hear these stories on our nightly news. Now nightly fear-mongering with new boogeymen and the posturings of men looking to flex their muscles in a show of elevated testosterone are all we now see. All we see as the Earth that sustains us is withering away...

As I stated previously many times water is the lifeblood of this Earth NOT OIL. Waste and misuse are two main reasons why we see it becoming scarcer (both physical and non physical scarcity) but also due to the amplification of the hydrologic cycle through burning fossil fuels which is leading to atmospheric forcings bringing uneven distribution of rain in areas that once knew it (look at changing monsoon in India) and flooding where it does no good to those areas needing it. As this becomes more frequent and severe we will see more water wars as it takes over as the new oil because people will be HUNGRY. People including myself have been warning others as to the consequences of our continued pushing off of this catastrophe thinking water will last forever. It isn't about the total amount of water on Earth- it is about what we are DOING TO IT to change the distribution and quality of and access to it that is the truly urgent matter.

I try very hard to bring this reality and to explain how dire this situation is over and over again. I think as sentient beings we should care about bringing this truth forward and also doing what we can to conserve and preserve the resources that give us life. However, it is getting harder to do so when you see AGW deniers misinforming simply for political reasons- and also see NGOS and others in the so called "climate movement" spreading hope around like candy as if it isn't as bad as it really is. For example: One group is holding one of their "leader trainings" in Rio in Brazil this fall. A training that trainees have to fly to as they stay in the vacation city in the hotels that actually have water... Just once, how about having "training" in a city truly effected by the CO2 emissions of flying - perhaps in Bosnia or Japan? Have the "trainees" stay in a hotel with no amenities and have to deal with the stench of dead cattle all around them and walk on the cracked dry ground where nothing lives- instead of getting to sit in a cozy conference room swooning over the keynote presenter they will finally get to meet as they try to convince themselves they are part of the solution... I know all about this too because I was once one of them and can tell you- it isn't helping... Not when you see more dire reports and reality showing you that much more is needed.

The only thing that will do any good now is each of us taking it upon ourselves to unplug from the fossil fuel machine and to support massive afforestation/reforestation/sustainable agriculture (especially in urban areas) and put humility before ego in all matters regarding this. Of course, that would also mean overcoming greed, selfishness, hubris, ego, corruption and politics and yes, that might be a bit of an inconvenience for some totally attached to their materialistic and egocentric obsessions... God forbid we suffer a little bit of "inconvenience" to provide a habitable world for those to come eh?...Is there also any hope of vanquishing all of that and having that global moral epiphany on a global scale within the next five years? What do you think?

From where I sit I see not only the fossil fuel industry as culpable in this crime against nature and humanity- but also governments that continue to sit on their hands supporting them and those propping them up for political reasons and giving us false hope instead of real action. The Earth is now dying before our eyes. Sitting around a table trying to prove you are smarter or a hero or to prolong this to ensure the highest profit on your "investments" isn't going to save it or us at this point. Water is becoming more scarce and the poor of this world are the most affected by it. The last thing we need now are the rich on all sides making this only about their political aspirations and "green banks" using the same disaster capitalism that brought this upon us to tell us we can fix this while supporting the very industries exacerbating it!

I cry for the people of these countries who now see all they cherish either being dried up to blow away in the wind or carried away in the flood. I am exasperated because I am a citizen of the world who does care but being poor myself can only use my words and my voice to support them and the way I live to ease my burden on this Earth. I am disillusioned and outraged at governments only giving this lip service and agencies that continue to do nothing but talk without doing anything close to substantial to address this global crisis.

If you search this blog you will see entry after entry about the devastation wrecked upon this world by our folly. So if at this point it has not outraged and moved you to understand what really needs to be done beyond all the PR, conferences, politics and soft sell I have one question: What more do you need to see?

Hope is great but we need TO MOVE. No water= no food= agricultural and economic collapse.

This video is dated 2012-and it hasn't gotten any better.

Also see:

Brazil Drought: São Paulo Could Run Dry in Less Than 100 Days

Drought Preparedness In Brazil

Rising Ocean Temperatures Prime Amazon For Fire
Once a century droughts are now 1 in every 5 years.

World Ocean Temps Spike to +1.26 Positive Anomaly as Antarctic Polar Amplification Ramps Up

Dry Planet

Central California Residents Rely on Bottled Water As Wells Run Dry

Central California Residents Rely On Bottled Water As Wells Run Dry

Extreme drought conditions have become so harsh for the Central Valley community of East Porterville, many of its residents dependent on their own wells have run out of water.

Roughly 300 homes have received a three-week supply of bottled water after Tulare County officials discovered their wells had gone dry.

In all, county officials distributed 15,552 1-gallon bottles of water, and have been filling a 2,500-gallon tank with nonpotable water so residents can flush toilets and bathe.

And the problem could be worse because many believe the number of people whose wells have gone dry is "grossly underreported," said Michael Lockman, manager of Tulare County's Office of Emergency Services.

If it wasn't for a local nonprofit group, county officials probably wouldn't have known that the residents were in dire need of water because they didn't ask for help, said Denise England, senior administrative analyst with the county's Water Resources Department.

"It was really surprising," she said.

County officials say East Porterville residents are typically very private, and for whatever reason, distrust the government.

Lockman said some residents fear their landlord will evict them because their well went dry or are afraid the county's Department of Child Support Services will take their children away because they no longer have water -- a rumor the county has been working to dispel, he added.

End of excerpt

A section of Lake Oroville is nearly dry on August 19, 2014 in Oroville, California.(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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So it begins...The bottled water companies stealing this water in the first place must be LOVING THIS. Now look at all the extra plastic people can contribute to the oceans! All because they couldn't accept the truth of the situation before them and CONSERVE their water.

I am more concerned for our ecosystems and the animals that live in these locations now than the selfish consumptive humans who think that now that they have sucked it all out through wastefulness because they ignored the warnings they can rely on bottled water that was sucked out from someone else's aquifer. Again, how many Hollywood celebrities still have their huge Olympic sized pools filled with water? How much fracking continues to go on?

Mark my words, this will come to shots being fired somewhere along the way. People just do not seem to have what it takes to care about anything but themselves. This is a very sad situation that could have been avoided. People don't want to hear things like that though because they think you are just fear-mongering or over dramatizing. To them I would say - open your eyes!

The very events predicted years ago regarding the effects of climate destruction juxtaposing with waste and apathy are now happening. The Ogalalla aquifer is also running out fast. Within the next twenty years we will see a dire dire situation regarding water access in the US if we don't get our heads out of our __ and do something.

Fracking is killing us and yet politicians in both politcial parties continue to support it - and the kicker in all this is that those very people now using bottled water because their wells have run dry will actually still vote for these very politicians supporting the actions killing their water and climate. Absolute insanity.

Water police on patrol in drought-scarred Los Angeles

Car 54 where are you? Watch out for the Water Police now... unless of course you are a fracker working for an oil company that gives political donations to the Governor or a multi-national food company that steals it for profit...

Also see:

Drought Monitor- Sept 2, 2014

Severity Of California Drought In Disturbing Photos

Scientists: The American Southwest Faces A Mega-drought

Fracking Is Making California's Drought Worse

Massive Glacial Melt and Sea Level Rise-Antarctica

It’s All About Fresh Water — Rapid Sea Level Rise Points To Massive Glacial Melt in Antarctica

It’s all about fresh water. In this case, massive freshwater outflows from the vast glaciers covering Antarctica.

This week, a new scientific report published in the Journal Nature found that from 1992 through 2012 freshwater outflow from Antarctica’s massive glaciers exceeded 400 gigatons each year. An immense flood of cold, fresh water. One that helped push sea levels rapidly higher around the Antarctic continent.

But with glacial melt on the rise and with mountains of ice now inexorably sliding seaward, these freshwater flows may just be the start of even more powerful outbursts to come. And such prospective future events have far-ranging implications for sea level rise, global weather, sea ice, human-caused climate change, and world ocean health.

Flood of Fresh Water Drives More Sea Level Rise Than Expected

The researchers discovered the tell-tale signature of this vast freshwater flood through chemical analysis of the seas surrounding Antarctica. The analysis pointed to a broad and expanding fresh water layer over-riding a warmer, saltier current issuing in from the Southern Ocean.

Since fresh water is less dense than salt water, the freshwater layer expands at the ocean surface causing sea levels to rise more rapidly. Meanwhile, the heating of the deep ocean surrounding Antarctica is thought to result in additional thermal expansion of the water column.

Snip

More Evidence of Large-Scale Melt

The study comes on the back of other recent findings showing that warm water invasion at Antarctic glacier bases had led to more rapid than expected melt and destabilization. In May, two NASA studies showed that a broad section of West Antarctica had destabilized and was sliding at an ever more rapid pace toward the ocean (see reports here and here). These findings held stark implications for global sea level rise as large ice regions of Greenland and West Antarctica, containing enough water to raise seas at least 15 feet, are likely already in a state of irreversible collapse.

Snip

This intensifying glacial melt and associated freshwater cap expanding out from the pole has implications — not just for sea level rise, but for sea ice, weather, and world ocean system health.

Impacts For Sea Ice

Large outflows of glacial fresh water may well be involved in the recent observed expansion of sea ice in the zone surrounding Antarctica (see recent related study). Fresh water serves as an insulative cap on the ocean surface preventing warm water from entering the top layer from below. The warm, salty water, in the Antarctic instead pools near the bottom or at the base of the great ice sheets.

Fresh water also freezes at a higher temperature than salt water. So sea ice in an expanding freshwater zone around Antarctica would have naturally higher resiliency even to the rising temperatures now occurring due to human-caused warming. Eventually, however, human heat forcing would overwhelm the ice, but not before a period of related, localized negative feedbacks.

Snip

For global weather, such events have major implications. Regional cooling in the zone of freshwater outflow would juxtapose regional warming in the southern hemisphere meridional zones. This temperature differential would increase with the strength of the fresh water outflow and the rising intensity of the human-driven warming. The result would be a powerfully intensified storm track. Both the intensified storm track and increased atmospheric moisture loading due to human warming would result in much more powerful weather events than we are currently used to and the potential for catastrophic storms would drastically increase.

End of excerpt

Also see:

Antarctic glacier loss appears unstoppable

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One of the main red herrings used by the AGW denier crowd now is that Antarctica ice is increasing which means global warming is a hoax. It is a glaring example not only of their political predisposition to misinform but also their total lack of understanding of science and how the Earth works. The current condition of planet Earth is dire. Our continued preoccupation with political back and forth to defend the greed, arrogance, ignorance and hubris of humanity is suicide. It is no small task that we must now undertake to secure even a few years of human survival beyond this century if that.

Hope is a light that is fading though still glimmering. However, as a species we continue to squander every chance we get to prove we are above ego, pettiness and selfishness. The water of our world is now over-fished, over polluted, radiated, toxic and in many places unfit for human consumption or consumption by other species. The continued use of fossil fuels only makes the challenge all the more harder to overcome.

This is about a collective shift in consciousness. However, is that possible now? Even with the dire news that continues to be made known about the effects of our consumption the globe as a whole sits and waits... and denies. The message Mother Earth is sending us is one of urgency. She is warning us of the calamity unfolding before our eyes as we continue to wear blinders.

We can no longer afford to answer the warnings with business as usual measures. Doing the same things expecting a different result is indeed insanity. It is also the stubbornness of humanity in thinking we are not the problem. Desperate times call for drastic measures. This is not the time for one day marches with glitter signs that seek no specific and necessary demands. This is not the time for the same "leaders" who exacerbated this crisis to control the "solutions." People need to rise up in great numbers and be willing to take this to the source of the crisis. Us and our drug dealers.

There have also been reports that "Peak Oil" is not as peak as was once thought. This would then mean if true that the predisposition of humans to be lazy, visionless and slaves to comfort and convenience will certainly be the end of us. The continued fracking of our water, the burning of fossil fuels, destructive agriculture and the continued warmongering of those who are being charged with caring about our environment dictate unequivocally that a new political and economic model is essential to our continued survival on this planet. However, without that shift in us there is no model that can be sustained.

As the Arctic and Greenland continue its melt march and Antarctica continues to exemplify the effects of human ignorance and arrogance we see humanity on a collision course with itself. These events are not just about the physical limitations of our Earth but the moral limitations of the human spirit taking hold. It will surely be a sad epitaph if we continue to ignore these warnings simply because we are too proud to look in the mirror.

Zero Emissions Day

This is what I will doing on September 21st as thousands continue to support the fossil fuel agenda by flying and busing to a march in NYC that is little more than a street fair in the fight for this planet. This also does not have to be just one day. It isn't for me. Make a pledge to yourself as well as a sentient human being who cares about this world and those species that live on it to make this something you do more than one day. It can be done. It must be done. We must transcend politics. We must be responsible and those who continue to destroy the ecosystems of our world must finally truly be held accountable.

Also see:

Collapse Of Parts of West Antarctica Ice Sheet Has Begun

Satellite Data Shows Sea Level Rise

Water Scarcity /Climate Change Through 2095

Water scarcity and climate change through 2095

Which means continued use of fossil fuels through fracking, tarsands, off shore oil drilling and also NUCLEAR must stop NOW. All climate policies that deem to keep water use and waste as part of its plan is a policy doomed to failure in a world of increased population that needs to be fed and sustained.

This article also mentions the year 2095...2095? Will we last that long?

63 trillion gallons of groundwater lost in drought, study finds

If You Think the Water Crisis Can't Get Worse, Wait Until the Aquifers Are Drained

Newsflash to California: YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF WATER.

Sucking aquifers dry by drilling deeper and deeper combined with fracking may also be bringing on earthquakes:

Study FInds Link Between Drought-Earthquakes

Millions Of Dollars Of Spilled Wine Lost

And this:

The Elevation of Western U.S. Is Rising Due to Drought

California is now seeing towns without water at all and talk of migrating people out. However, where is the real urgency? People are painting their lawns green to continue living in their bubbles of denial instead of demanding real solutions as fracking continues without punishment for their waste. Farmers are hiring dowsers, or "water witches" to locate water using copper sticks... Really? Celebrities just dying to get on the PR bandwagon are dumping ice water over their heads to get attention (there is a difference between donating to a cause discreetly because you really care or just using it as a PR fad to get attention for yourself, especially during a severe drought.) And I am SURE that there are many celebrities living there who have yet to empty out their huge Olympic sized swimming pools. Wildfires, droughts, floods, sea level rise, ocean acidity, loss of the monsoon, accelerated ice loss... DO people really not see the urgency of this crisis on a global basis?

Well, we better see it now. Water is the greatest challenge in relation to climate destruction. Agriculture is the main target of changes being seen in the hydrologic cycle due to amplification of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Simple equation- no water = no food.

On this blog previously I have tried to express my concern for the human race in regards to the effects of water scarcity specifically as it relates to climate destruction. I am truly getting to the point where the human race, or at least the apathetic among it do not have my concern. The Earth is in trouble and it is because of our wastefulness, apathy and consumption practices that are not only accelerating the tipping point of our climate but of humanity in total. Ignorance is no longer an excuse.

I do not know the words to use anymore to express the utter urgency of the situation we find ourselves in. I do know this: marches alone will not solve it unless those marching actually start living as they claim we should all be living and are willing and prepared to take it as far as it needs to go. We will also not address this properly by continuing to appease the very institutions precipitating this and looking to them to fix it.

Climate policies currently do not take into effect feed-backs particularly in regard to water sources globally. Look now at the Middle East for example which is a tinder box. Water is central to this battle and will most certainly be a factor in wars of the future- with natural gas also being at the forefront. Our voracious consumption and the continued appeasement of political and corporate corruption can no longer be sustained if we are to survive beyond this century.

Hundreds of sea-floor methane plumes spotted by sonar

We're Stuck With the Global Warming "Hiatus" Myth for Years to Come

(Note in regard to this article: Anyone pushing a warming hiatus is ignorant. Whether warming is atmospheric or in the oceans which sequester it- it is still WARMING and the ocean will give up that excess heat and it will be brutal. It is a scandal for people and the media to continue pushing this myth as if it has any merit whatsoever.)

The Coming ‘Instant Planetary Emergency’

Greenland Ice Melting At Record Speed

"Incredible" rate of polar ice loss alarms scientists

A New Frontier for Fracking: Drilling Near the Arctic Circle

(More insanity)

So again, if California is any sort of example of how the world is going to handle this global crisis in years to come particularly in regards to water- we are doomed. We can't keep hitting the snooze button whenever the alarm sounds. Eventually you have to wake up and face the day, especially if you want civilization to make it to 2095.

Also see:

New Coal Plant Rules Do Not Go Far Enough To Address Climate Destruction

Scientists Sound Alarm On Climate

1 In 10 People To Face Water Scarcity If Greenhouse Gas Emissions Continue

Arctic Ocean Leaking Methane At Alarming Rate

Changing Our Global Approach To Farming Is Key To Our Survival

"Pacific Ocean Now Dead From Fukushima Radiation"

While all we see in the media is news of war the Pacific Ocean is dying.

We need media coverage and a stop to the lying!

Props to those who care enough about our ecosystems and oceans to bring us the truth.

I will continue to pass on what I find as well.

Fukushima reactor 3 meltdown was worse than estimated: Tepco

BY KAZUAKI NAGATA

STAFF WRITER

AUG 6, 2014

ARTICLE HISTORY

PRINT SHARE

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that its new estimate shows that all the fuel rods in reactor 3 at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant apparently melted down and fell onto the bottom of the containment vessel.

In November 2011, the company had said it believed only about 63 percent of reactor 3′s fuel core had melted.

The utility updated its estimate as part of an effort to probe unclear points about the triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 plant caused by a megaquake and monstrous tsunami in March 2011.

The revised estimate is based on the finding that an emergency cooling system, known as HPCI, of reactor 3 stopped working six hour earlier than previously thought, and that the meltdown had also started more than five hours earlier.

Tepco had previously said that the HPCI had shut down at 2:42 a.m. on March 13, 2011. But further investigation over the past year determined that the HPCI appeared to have lost its cooling function about at 8:00 p.m. on March 12.

According to the new estimate, all the melted fuel penetrated the pressure vessel, fell onto the bottom of the containment vessel and melted about 68 cm into the concrete.

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please pass this on. This is devastating. People must know.

Also see:

Fukushima Fallout-We Need To Be Concerned

TEPCO Plans To Dump Radiation In Pacific Ocean

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Fukushima operator to decontaminate toxic water, dump into Pacific

THIS MUST STOP NOW.

Typhoon Halong Lashes West Coast "Unprecedented" Rains

Red-level Weather Alert As Typhoon Halong Lashes Southern Japan

Hundreds of thousands of residents in southern Japan have been advised to leave as the typhoon with heavy showers batters the country’s southwest, from Kyushu to the Kii Peninsula on Saturday.

“We’re asking residents to stay on high alert over landslides and to evacuate as early as possible when advised by local officials,” Hiroshi Sasaki, the agency’s chief forecaster, told a news conference.

Evacuation orders have already been issued in Yamaguchi Prefecture, part of the Chugoku region, and Tokushima and Kochi on Shikoku, affecting some 2,700 residents from more than 1,300 households.

In Mie prefecture, in central Japan, some 300 kilometers west of Tokyo, the cities of Yokkaichi and Suzuka in northern Mie have issued evacuation instructions to some 512,000 residents, city officials and local media said.

“We are strongly urging our residents to evacuate, while we are hurriedly setting up temporary shelters across the city,” a Yokkaichi official said, according to the South China Morning Post.

The Japanese weather agency’s chief forecaster, Satoshi Ebihara, said at a news conference that the levels of torrential rain monitored in Mie were already “unprecedented.”

“We are in an abnormal situation where serious danger is imminent,” Ebihara said.

End of excerpt

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Once again Fukushima gets a reprieve from a direct hit. Let's hope with the media blackout surrounding Fukushima that we would even be told should that happen.

Fukushima Diary

For all updated news on Fukushima you are not getting on mainstream media this is a credible source.

More on Typhoon Halong:

Heavy Rainfall and High Seas Brought by Typhoon Halong

Growing beast ... Typhoon Halong is shown southwest of Japan yesterday. Source: AFP / EUMETSAT 2014 Source: AFP

Effects Will Become More Obvious As Japan's Climate Changes

A 10% increase in rainfall by end of century means more severe flooding...not advantageous for any nuclear power plant.

4 Billion Gallons of Mining Waste Pour Into Pristine B.C. Waterways

Video: Watch 4 Billion Gallons of Mining Waste Pour Into Pristine B.C. Waterways

First Nations, environmentalists and just about everyone else are aghast at the severity of the toxic spill from a tailings pond.

On August 4 the tailings pond of the gold and copper open-pit Polley Mine, operated by Imperial Metals Corp., breached and sent billions of gallons of metals-laden silt and water into waterways awaiting the return of the salmon.

RELATED: Horrific Toxic Spill in B.C. Called Another Exxon Valdez

The mess has only just begun to wreak its environmental havoc, with campgrounds evacuated, a local emergency declared and a fishing ban imposed, among other immediate effects. Long-term damage is not yet known, and Imperial officials say they have no idea why it happened.

But company president Brian Kynoch told CBC News that the tailings pond isn’t so bad and that he would even consider drinking it.

RELATED: Pour Him a Tall One! Mining Exec Insists He'd Drink Water From Tailings Pond

Imperial has been given a deadline for dealing with the situation, the Vancouver Sun reported in a story with extensive video as well.

The jarring footage below from flyovers would seem to belie that notion. The first one was posted by Global BCTV and the second, a half-hour long, is raw footage taken by the local government.

End of excerpt

Mount Polley Mine tailings pond breach is one of the worst in the world: Experts

VANCOUVER – At this point it is unclear just how far reaching the damage is and just how much it will cost to clean up the mess.

Environmental experts say it’s one of the worst tailings pond breaches in the world.

When the pond burst it sent millions of cubic meters of sludge and water cascading through the natural landscape.

It caused massive damage to everything in its path.

The government says it’s really too early to know how long the cleanup will take and how much it will cost.

But we can compare it to a tailings pond breach in Tennessee in 2008. Officials there anticipated the cleanup would take six months, but within that time, they only managed to cleanup three per cent of the destruction.

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the rate noted in the above article it would take approximately TWENTY YEARS or more to clean up the destruction caused by this tragedy. The company as it is in collusion with the government will more than likely just get a fine and then not have to clean it up in total leaving citizens responsible. I really do not know what else to type. The same words have been typed over and over and over again on this blog. All I can do looking at this is cry. Notice they claim "they have no idea how it happened" even in light of this: Firm that designed original Mount Polley tailings dam says it warned of growing size.

And then the usual line from the company head:

"But company president Brian Kynoch told CBC News that the tailings pond isn’t so bad and that he would even consider drinking it."

I will however, say this in response to the quoted sentence above: I dare you Bryan Kynoch, you soulless ass, I want to see you DRINK THAT WATER IN PUBLIC. So sick of these rich arrogant nature killers saying things like this to validate their ecocide and not following through.

Toledo Bearing Full Brunt of Lake Erie Algae Bloom

UPDATE: 8/5/14: Toledo’s Contaminated Water: Here’s What Went Wrong

Ban has been lifted but personally I would give it a couple days before using it for drinking and cooking. I would also demand transparency in testing and how the water is being processed now. This isn't the end considering retiscince of authorities to regulate fertilizer runoff and the fact that climate change is here to stay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A sample glass of Lake Erie water is extracted near the City of Toledo water intake crib on Sunday.
Photograph: Haraz N Ghanbari/AP

Toledo Bearing Full Brunt of Lake Erie Algae Bloom

By Laura Arenschield

The night before Toledo officials warned people not to drink the municipal tap water, Jeff Reutter opened a federal website to check on the algae bloom in western Lake Erie.

The picture didn’t look bad, at first, to Reutter, an expert on toxic algae who is the director of the Ohio Sea Grant College Program. The algae covered Maumee Bay, but the bloom was significantly smaller than the one in 2011 that stretched past Cleveland, ruining summer beach trips for families along the Lake Erie coast.

A closer look gave Reutter pause, though. The most-intense parts of the bloom seemed to have settled right at the mouth of the Maumee River.

“It’s at the greatest concentration right in Maumee Bay,” Reutter said yesterday. “And, unfortunately, that’s where the Toledo water intake is” for the city’s Collins Park Water Treatment Plant.

Early Saturday morning, Toledo officials confirmed Reutter’s fears. Tests at the plant showed levels of the toxin microcystin in Toledo’s drinking water that were above the 1 part per billion that the World Health Organization deems is safe to drink.

Boiling water concentrates that toxin, so a simple boil alert wasn’t an option.

By 2 a.m. Saturday, Toledo had issued a warning that ultimately affected more than 500,000 people: Don’t drink water from the taps. Don’t even cook with it.

Microcystin can cause nerve and liver damage in people and animals. Symptoms can include diarrhea, vomiting, cramping and dizziness.

It was the second time that algae toxins had contaminated a public drinking-water system in Ohio. In September, about 2,000 people served by a water-treatment plant in Ottawa County, in northwestern Ohio, were without safe tap water for drinking or cooking for two days.

Reutter said the bloom over Maumee Bay now is “exactly the same situation” as the bloom that polluted water in Ottawa County last year. The wind patterns have kept it concentrated near where Toledo collects its water rather than spreading it throughout Lake Erie.

“There’s no problem over at Marblehead or any of the islands or Cedar Point or Cleveland,” Reutter said. “But the Toledo area is really getting the full brunt of this right now.”

Adults affected by the warning still can use the water for bathing. The World Health Organization allows up to 20 parts of microcystin per billion parts of water for bathing. Tests at the Toledo plant showed water there had levels as high as 2.5 parts per billion.

George Zonders, a spokesman for Columbus’ public utilities, said it is unlikely that toxic algae could shut down the drinking-water supply here because Columbus gets its water from more than one source. The city is installing a $70 million treatment system in 2016 that will, in part, help deal with algae toxins.

Municipalities treat algae toxins with carbon. The toxins latch on to the carbon, and the combined particles are then removed from the water.

Algae flourish in warm, shallow waters, which makes Lake Erie — the shallowest of the Great Lakes — an inviting home. The algae feed on phosphorus, a key component of the fertilizers farmers spread over fields.

Studies at the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg University in Tiffin have found a direct link between farming and high levels of phosphorus in watersheds, Laura Johnson, a research scientist there, said yesterday.

“We know it’s coming from agricultural runoff. But in reality, when we think about why these farms are leaking phosphorus, that part of the story is far from clear and far from simple,” Johnson said.

Heavy rains can wash fertilizers from fields into the streams and rivers that feed lakes. Overflowing sewers, failed septic systems and runoff from lawn fertilizers also contribute to phosphorus in the watershed.

Ohio has no laws requiring farmers to limit the amount of phosphorus on their fields or that force farmers to reduce runoff. But lawmakers this past spring took a step toward tackling the algae problem when they offered farmers voluntary training before they use commercial fertilizers on their fields. snip Reutter said scientists and public water and health officials are concerned because the algae bloom in Maumee Bay is likely to spread on Lake Erie. Algae problems typically get worse in September and October when the water is warmer than in the spring.

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perfect storm... warmer temperatures, heavier rainfalls, increased run off of nitrogen fertilizers combined with poisons like ROUNDUP combined with dysfunctional leadership killing our water. I think it is safe to say that Lake Erie is dying. The water quality has been declining as we see increases in fertilizer run off and heavier precipitation events in this area of the country and flooding due to an amplification of the hydrologic cycle through anthropogenic global warming. It really just at this point makes me cry to see all of this happening now. We are killing our only home and making it uninhabitable and our water dying will surely be the end for us. Sounds too depressing? Not sunny enough with enough sugarcoating? Don't want to read it? Too bad. I'm angry and I am frightened thinking of what we have unleashed by our greed, apathy and incessant placation and arrogance and I won't apologize for that. WATER is our lifeblood and a world without it is no world for humans. I suppose we will have to learn that fact the hard way.

This satellite image provided by NOAA shows the algae bloom on Lake Erie in 2011 which according to NOAA was the worst in decades.
Photograph: AP

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also see:

Friday Night: Tests Come Back At Almost Three Parts Per Billion

Climate change brings mostly bad news for Ohio: Big algae bloom in Lake Erie, very dry 2015 forecast

Farming practices and climate change at root of Toledo water pollution

Great Lakes Going Down?

More Tests Needed on Toledo Water Before Supply Can Be Restored/Empties Bottled Water

Between the West Virginia poisoning in the beginning of this year (which BTW saw a slap on the wrist to Freedom Industries paying a fine of only $11,000 after poisoning the water supply of over 300,00 people, the coal ash spill in North Carolina courtesy of Duke Energy that got them a slap on the wrist as well, the shut offs in Detroit, the extreme drought in California, the algae toxins in Toledo and the myriad effects of fracking in 36 states, the bottled water industry must be in Nirvana. Make no mistake about it, the privatization of our national water supply is something companies like Nestle are salivating over. Things that make you go hmm....

World Faces Water Crisis By 2040

Report: World Faces Water Crisis By 2040

The world will face “insurmountable water crises” by 2040 if it does not move away from water-intensive power production. Two new studies released this week predict the world will have to choose between drinking water and energy demand in the next three decades.

The two studies—“Capturing Synergies Between Water Conservation and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the Power Sector” and “A Clash of Competing Necessities”—have been published by researchers from Denmark’s Aarhus University, Vermont Law School and the CNA Corporation, a non-profit research and analysis organisation.

“It’s a very important issue. Water used to cool power plants is the largest source of water withdrawals in the United States,” says lead study author Paul Faeth, Director of Energy, Water, & Climate at CNA Corporation in a press release on the two new reports. “The recommendations in these reports can serve as a starting point for leaders in these countries, and for leaders around the world, to take the steps needed to ensure the reliability of current generating plants and begin planning for how to meet future demands for electric power,” says Faeth.

The reports suggest there has been a three-fold population increase in the past century and a six-fold increase in water consumption globally. If trends in population and energy use continue, it could leave a 40 per cent gap between water supply and demand by the year 2030, the reports say.

End of excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With all due respect to those who have performed this study, I would say the world is already facing a water crisis. By 2040 it will be a CATASTROPHE. No matter what continent you look at water is becoming scarcer, more polluted and more in demand due to dirty and radioactive energy sources especially with India, China and other developing countries driving more cars and with oil consumption actually climbing in the US outpacing China. Seems the message regarding the consequences of our addiction are falling on deaf ears until catatastrophe strikes and it is too late? We humans have now precipitated the greatest crisis we will face in this century.

Take a look around and everywhere you now see wars being fought in places where natural gas is plentiful and water not so much. Population increases, climate destruction, corruption, greed, waste all culminating in the perfect storm of human extinction... Oh my, did I just type the words human extinction? Yes, I did. Think it isn't possible?... think again. With extinction rates now 1,000 times faster than they would be without human influence it is inevitable that at some point it will hit us and with the added stresses of water loss, loss of access and poisoning it to the point that even if you have it you really don't have it- humans cannot survive on this planet on the trajectory we are traveling on for too much longer. Water Is Life is not a cliche'd phrase- it is a FACT.

Our oceans are in peril already from using them as a toilet bowl. Garbage gyres, overfishing, radiation, oil, fertilizers, poisons, all coming together to the point of extinctions in our oceans along with the added stess of acidification due to the burning of fossil fuels increasing calcification. Water is a part of the dirty energy cycle from beginning to end. From extraction to sale. In a world of drought that is not only illogical it is immoral. This is also why the current Obama "All Of The Above" energy policy is a betrayal to our water present and future. Is it really worth it to bring about the end of humanity all because we couldn't wean ourselves off oil for a few fleeting hours of electricity when there are better ways of doing it to preserve our lifeblood? This is not a question of your politics or anything else about you- it is a question of our ultimate collective survival... and it is now in peril.

Imagine one day in say 2025, you wake up and go into your shower where you stand every morning from ten to twenty minutes using more water in that time than a family in Africa uses in a week. You turn the faucet on and nothing comes out and it isn't because of a glitch. You don't have anymore because the aquifer was sucked dry by "frackers" and climate destruction has amplified the hydro logic cycle to the point where your area is not getting enough rain to replenish what you sucked out and evaporated.... or sucked out by NESTLE or some other corporation that thinks it owns it because you were too distracted to see them steal it right out from under your feet. Imagine going to a grocery store and not seeing any food-because there is no water to grow it or process it or it's so exhorbitantly expensive you still go hungry. Imagine a day when you have to be the one taking huge buckets down to your local bay or water source if there is one (in my case ewwww) in order to hope you can get enough water to even meet the needs of your children let alone yourself and hope that you aren't robbed or worse on your way back by those desperate for water ... and after using it hoping your children don't get sick or die. Imagine the governments of the world have now managed to kill off much of the populations in the areas where water is scarce to now own it all- at a VERY HIGH PRICE to those who remain alive and war is now perpetual and brutal- all for a drink of water. These are not scenarios from some far away place and time. They are all happening now.

There really is no other way to phrase it- unless we stop wasting and polluting water and find ways to provide electricity that are not water intensive- we will run out of water to grow food, to drink, to live. And if you think this can't happen, just look at California. There are talks already of perhaps having to migrate people out of California because of the intense drought they are still enduring- mostly let's face it of their own making in league with the effects of climate destruction that is now on track to affect agriculture and water sources globally at an accelerating pace. The longer we continue to play politics with this and give credence to those who deny facts the more we slip into the abyss.

This crisis is not something that "could" or "might" happen- it is happening NOW. In the end it comes back to the same main precept: MORAL COURAGE and putting your present fleeting selfish wants behind the needs of all collectively now and in the future. It is about humanity. It is about respecting the lifeblood. Do we have the capacity as a whole to do that? Or will it take that final catastrophe to wake us up?

Also see:

Dry Planet

World Bank Wants Water Privatized-Despite Risks

1 In 10 People To Face Water Scarcity If Greenhouse Gas Emissions Continue

Oceans In Critical State From Cumulative Impacts

Our Carbon Debt, Our Moral Duty

Water In The Anthropocene