Well, just because I haven't had time to breathe doesn't mean that the Doom has slowed down. Au contraire- the world is getting weirder, scarier, and darker faster than anyone could keep up, let alone me in my own weird mental state (kind of like Nebraska but a little more desolate and with more vicious wolverines chasing me).
So. To sum up:
Cocaine-fueled terrorists took Mumbai for a few days, Americans ignored it and ate turkey and trampled a part-time Wal-mart employe to death in their frenzy to buy more crap made in China, and now residents of Kashmir are worried about potential retaliation. "I have asked my children to pay attention and be vigilant if shelling starts," said one woman.
Riots in Nigeria killed at least 400, and Thailand is "Feeling like a country on brink of civil war".
In economic news, Ford would like 9 billion dollars please, to stay in business, and we are officially in a recession. Bush is "sorry" that the financial crisis is hurting Americans.
As we turn to the environment, Venice is so flooded that fools are surfing in Saint Mark's Square, the Wilkins Ice Shelf is breaking off of Antarctica,
and the UN Comittee on Climate Change just warned ""Further expansion in the same style will generate global threats of really great intensity - huge droughts and floods, cyclones with increasingly more destructive power, pandemics of tropical disease, dramatic decline of biodiversity, increasing ocean levels," said Mr Nowicki.
"All these can cause social and even armed conflict and migration of people at an unprecedented scale."
So.
Happy Tuesday!
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Climate migrants- now.
This is just another phenomenon that was predicted to start being a problem- just not yet. But here it is.
"“Floods,” he tells me. “In my village. Village underwater.” Finally the penny drops – he’s not just an economic migrant, he’s also a “climate migrant.”
Few countries in the world are more acutely threatened by climate-related disasters and climate change than Bangladesh. The country (70 percent of which consists of flood plain) is already sinking – within the next two decades Bangladesh may lose as much as 20 percent of its land to rising sea levels and melting Himalayan glaciers. This is not good news in a country of 150 million people - even a relatively moderate 10 or 20 centimeters rise in sea level could displace millions within the next 15 years. Population density is already high, with approximately 1045 Bangladeshis crammed into each square kilometer of land.
Following last year’s scientific breakthrough (and the publication of the IPCC climate change report), it’s no longer possible for anyone to deny that global warming is happening. It’s also pretty clear that the biggest polluters are not poor countries like Bangladesh, but wealthy nations like the United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada. " LINK to great short NYT piece with wonderful photos.
"“Floods,” he tells me. “In my village. Village underwater.” Finally the penny drops – he’s not just an economic migrant, he’s also a “climate migrant.”
Few countries in the world are more acutely threatened by climate-related disasters and climate change than Bangladesh. The country (70 percent of which consists of flood plain) is already sinking – within the next two decades Bangladesh may lose as much as 20 percent of its land to rising sea levels and melting Himalayan glaciers. This is not good news in a country of 150 million people - even a relatively moderate 10 or 20 centimeters rise in sea level could displace millions within the next 15 years. Population density is already high, with approximately 1045 Bangladeshis crammed into each square kilometer of land.
Following last year’s scientific breakthrough (and the publication of the IPCC climate change report), it’s no longer possible for anyone to deny that global warming is happening. It’s also pretty clear that the biggest polluters are not poor countries like Bangladesh, but wealthy nations like the United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada. " LINK to great short NYT piece with wonderful photos.
So damn awful. Floods in India.
"At least 198 people have been killed in India and neighboring Bangladesh and 19 million driven from their homes in recent days, according to government figures." LINK
"We are tip-toeing into the most enormous crisis."
"Experts in food production say Ghoramara is a symbol of the dramatic combination of factors which mean the world is heading for extreme food shortages in the coming decades.
...when I visited Ghoramara there was powerful evidence that soil erosion caused in part by farming and the rising surrounding sea level caused by global warming were gradually making the island disappear.
The factors which are impacting on food production include soil erosion caused by intensive farming, and global warming which could reduce the yield of staple grains or make weather patterns less predictable for farmers.
The relatively new phenomenon of bio-fuels - for example, the production of ethanol from corn which can be used to supplement petrol - may take a huge proportion of the output of the big grain farms in the American Midwest." LINK
...when I visited Ghoramara there was powerful evidence that soil erosion caused in part by farming and the rising surrounding sea level caused by global warming were gradually making the island disappear.
The factors which are impacting on food production include soil erosion caused by intensive farming, and global warming which could reduce the yield of staple grains or make weather patterns less predictable for farmers.
The relatively new phenomenon of bio-fuels - for example, the production of ethanol from corn which can be used to supplement petrol - may take a huge proportion of the output of the big grain farms in the American Midwest." LINK
Wonderful, sad, furious article. Read this.
"...Reality takes time to sink in, but it is happening. Comments such as "in the years to come this issue will dwarf all the others combined. It will become the only issue" and "40 years from now George Bush will not be remembered for Iraq, but will be remembered in near apocalyptic terms. He'll be the denier-in-chief who failed to acknowledge, much less confront, the coming ecological catastrophe" are no longer considered outlandish...
...It is dawning gradually on the Northern countries that anything less than equal rights to the atmosphere will not take the negotiations anywhere. There is a realisation that time is running out fast...
...A 2003 report commissioned by the Pentagon warned that nuclear arms will proliferate as people fight for resources as a result of global warming. "Every time there is a choice between starving and raiding, humans raid." Pointing out that "disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life", it cautioned the Bush administration that climate change could "challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately". "
LINK
...It is dawning gradually on the Northern countries that anything less than equal rights to the atmosphere will not take the negotiations anywhere. There is a realisation that time is running out fast...
...A 2003 report commissioned by the Pentagon warned that nuclear arms will proliferate as people fight for resources as a result of global warming. "Every time there is a choice between starving and raiding, humans raid." Pointing out that "disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life", it cautioned the Bush administration that climate change could "challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately". "
LINK
Christ. Ok, granite countertops are definitely out.
""People have found it easy to just walk into the forest and start mining," Mr Saldhana said.
The first quarry we visited was north of the city near Mount Shivaganga.
The workers there were completely without protection for their hands, feet or eyes, and spent their days splitting blocks with hammer and chisel.
Their pay is around £1.50 ($3) a day.
Twelve migrant workers slept in one room. Most were once farmers who had been driven from their land by drought.
The following day we travelled south of Bangalore and walked into a granite quarry where old women and children were breaking rocks. "
LINK
The first quarry we visited was north of the city near Mount Shivaganga.
The workers there were completely without protection for their hands, feet or eyes, and spent their days splitting blocks with hammer and chisel.
Their pay is around £1.50 ($3) a day.
Twelve migrant workers slept in one room. Most were once farmers who had been driven from their land by drought.
The following day we travelled south of Bangalore and walked into a granite quarry where old women and children were breaking rocks. "
LINK
Drought affects Indian wildlife refuge
"The world-famous Bharatpur bird sanctuary in western India is facing a shortage of birds because of severe water scarcity, officials say.
Migratory birds visiting the area in Rajasthan state are down to only about 100 compared to some 10,000 last year."
LINK
Migratory birds visiting the area in Rajasthan state are down to only about 100 compared to some 10,000 last year."
LINK
I can't say it any better than this FARK headline
Recipe for disaster: 1) The world's two most populated countries 2) The glaciers that feed their rivers 3) Global warming
Himalayan glaciers receding, rivers drying up, hydroelectric energy plants failing, drought, irregular rainfall, etc etc. Follow the link for a very concise and worrying story from the Christian Science Monitor.
Himalayan glaciers receding, rivers drying up, hydroelectric energy plants failing, drought, irregular rainfall, etc etc. Follow the link for a very concise and worrying story from the Christian Science Monitor.
India wins! Oh, wait, they lost. Bye Lohachara, we hardly knew ye.
In a surprise upset, India now can claim the loss of the first inhabited island to sink beneath the rising ocean. Tuvalu, long thought to be a frontrunner in this contest, has indeed lost islands already, but the island of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people is now officially the first inhabited island out.
"Refugees from the vanished Lohachara island and the disappearing Ghoramara island have fled to Sagar, but this island has already lost 7,500 acres of land to the sea. In all, a dozen islands, home to 70,000 people, are in danger of being submerged by the rising seas. " from The Independent.
Elsewhere, "Papua New Guinean authorities are trying to convince thousands of Polynesians to abandon their homes " because rising seas threaten the Carteret Islands.
In the USA, the small Arctic village of Shishmaref is being engulfed. Inhabited for 4,000 years, the remaining indiginous population have petitioned the US Government to move the remaining buildings of their village away from the coastline, even as the coastline gets closer to the buildings. "Soon this entire village will be relocating to the mainland - making the people of Shishmaref the first refugees of global warming."
Well, it seems that that was typical American vanity, imagining that the first climate refugees would be American citizens. India beat us to it, and so did Vanuatu. Papua New Guinea, too.
Hey, you know what, it's not that bad- we're still number one when you look at carbon dioxide emissions! USA! USA! USA!
"Refugees from the vanished Lohachara island and the disappearing Ghoramara island have fled to Sagar, but this island has already lost 7,500 acres of land to the sea. In all, a dozen islands, home to 70,000 people, are in danger of being submerged by the rising seas. " from The Independent.
Elsewhere, "Papua New Guinean authorities are trying to convince thousands of Polynesians to abandon their homes " because rising seas threaten the Carteret Islands.
In the USA, the small Arctic village of Shishmaref is being engulfed. Inhabited for 4,000 years, the remaining indiginous population have petitioned the US Government to move the remaining buildings of their village away from the coastline, even as the coastline gets closer to the buildings. "Soon this entire village will be relocating to the mainland - making the people of Shishmaref the first refugees of global warming."
Well, it seems that that was typical American vanity, imagining that the first climate refugees would be American citizens. India beat us to it, and so did Vanuatu. Papua New Guinea, too.
Hey, you know what, it's not that bad- we're still number one when you look at carbon dioxide emissions! USA! USA! USA!
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