Thursday, August 12, 2010

eKos: Mississippi Delta Will Drown by 2100 w/o Action

by FishOutofWater

All efforts to save the Mississippi river delta and the bayous, barrier islands and near-sea-level marshes of the Gulf of Mexico coastline will fail if sea level rise caused by warming oceans doesn't stop. Katrina and the BP oil spill are the first 2 catastrophes of many that can be expected as the delta drowns by 2100.

Above, modified satellite images show the river's delta plain as it appears today (top) compared with how much of the region might be submerged by 2100 due to a combination of trapped sediment and rising seas.

Channelization of the Mississippi starved the delta of sediment, allowing large areas to slowly sink into the Gulf. Now, sea level rise caused by  glacial melting and thermal expansion of sea water is rapidly removing large areas of coastline.



continued at Daily Kos...

Final Update #8: Gulf Recovery in Editorial Cartoons - Helping the Helpless

by JekyllnHyde

Crossposted at Docudharma and The Stars Hollow Gazette

John Sherffius
John Sherffius, Comics.com (Boulder Daily Camera)

NOTE: Please Read This

I checked more thoroughly than I typically do for my long weekly diary but I'm still getting one HTML error.  Sorry but I have no option but to post this diary in piecemeal fashion.

Thanks for your patience.



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Gulf Recovery: Dispatches, Day #2

by Project Gulf Impact

Yesterday we spent the day indoors (thankfully) at Louisiana State University interviewing professors from schools across campus. We spoke with experts that represented a range of disciplines, from toxicology to ichthyology. Despite their diverse set of backgrounds, we heard one message loud and clear: our future is uncertain. The need for funding for rigorous research, for both today and years to come, is crucial. As we continue to fight traditional media's assertion that the oil is gone, the situation in the Gulf grows more dire.

When asked what message the scientists and professors wished to convey to the world, they unanimously answered: “the oil spill is not over.”

wave_action_2



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Gulf Recovery-Genocide by Oil

by Oke

We have had many battles over the years. We've fought for educational opportunities, recognition by the Federal government, protection of our homelands from coastal erosion and hurricanes, and we're now preparing for the impact of the massive oil spill.  The BP Deepwater Disaster threatens the health  and long-term survival of the United Houma Nation communities. Spread throughout six parishes of Southeastern Louisiana, our history, culture, and livelihoods are deeply tied to water. We are a resilient people and will do everything we can to preserve our way of life.

The Houma Nation, a 17,000 member tribe, is spread out over several parishes in Southeast Louisiana.
Not even Hurricane Katrina could endanger what BP's carelessness has brought, the biggest fight to survive floating right up to their shores.

Just as the thick oil cuts off oxygen and nutrients needed for the survival of all living things from plankton to plants, the oil is seeping into the fibers of the Houma life and culture.



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Gulf Recovery: Feature or Bug?

by Meteor Blades

By Bill McKibben

[I am posting this diary because Bill McKibben is right now giving a speech and unable to post it himself - MB.]

The question to ask about the spill in the Gulf is: are we dealing with a one-off accident, a mistake, a bug? Or is it environmental destruction really the essential business model of the fossil fuel industry?

If the answer is bug, then we need to concentrate on one kind of solution: better regulations to make sure oil wells don’t leak, and that if they do companies pay for the damage. And we surely need to do that—it’s a no-brainer (which unfortunately doesn’t preclude the fact that the Congress may not do it. We need a new word for something any other human institution would automatically do, but the Senate will punt). It’s basically straightforward, the kind of thing technologically sophisticated societies are good at.

But what if the BP spill is just one tiny part of the daily ongoing destruction that comes from the fossil fuel business? That’s my contention.



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Gulf Recovery: It's a CRUDE CRUDE world

by citisven

Now that the hole in the ocean floor has allegedly been plugged and no more oil is gushing into the Gulf waters, the time has come to assess the damage and determine how to best allocate money and resources to minimize negative long term effects on the natural ecosystem, wildlife, and coastal residents and industries.

As with many environmental catastrophes, much of their impact cannot be truly measured until years later and in-depth studies of a complex web of cause and effect. Therefore, I think it's premature for either doomsday scenarios or celebrations of nature's instant miracle cleanup. What we can and should do, however, is to remember that the BP gusher in the Gulf and all its yet to be determined effects was not an isolated incident: as long as we don't fundamentally change the way we use energy, these "accidents" are going to continue to happen.  



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There's No Planet B

by aaraujo

Stephen Hawking, British astrophysicist, says the human race must expand into outer space in the coming century or face possible extinction. The renowned scientist said he fears mankind is in great danger and its future "must be in space" if it is to survive, The Daily Telegraph reported Sunday.

War, resource depletion and overpopulation threaten the existence of the human race as never before, he said, advocating colonizing space to continue human existence.

"Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space," Hawking said.

http://www.thirdage.com/...



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RECOVERY: SF Breaks Ground on High Speed Rail's "Grand Central"

by greendem

Construction began Wednesday with a groundbreaking ceremony for the Transbay Transit Center, San Francisco's new state-of-the-art, multi-modal transportation hub designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. Scheduled to open in 2017, this landmark glass-and-steel structure will connect the city and the Bay Area via 11 public transit systems.  Notably, the Transbay Transit Center will be the San Francisco station for California High Speed Rail and the first new high-speed rail station in the United States.  Conceived as "the Grand Central of the West," the building is designed in the spirit of the great train stations of the world. The highly sustainable and accessible building is distinguished by dramatic light-filled spaces and a 5.4-acre rooftop park.



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BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 79

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #80 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV # 294 -  BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Gulf Watchers Overnight/peraspera

Rules of the Road

  • We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
  • Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
  • Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!



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Open thread for night owls: Heat wave

by Meteor Blades

By Meteor Blades

From the beginning of the environmental movement, the biggest pushback has always been presented in terms of the economy. That's been true whether it's cod fishermen taking too big a catch in the Grand Banks, monocrop farmers sucking fossil water out of the Ogallala aquifer faster than it can be replenished, oil companies trashing indigenous land in Ecuador or loggers whacking massive segments of rain forest in the Amazon or Indonesia. When environmental advocates speak up about these matters, the first cry is invariably: what about the jobs? Not that jobs are unimportant. But too rarely is a case made for environmentally sound jobs and practices that can replace the ones causing the demolition of a particular eco-system, large or small.

The truth is that the environment and the economy are not two separate entities. They are inextricably intertwined with each other.

We're currently witness to another example of how climate change will have that intertwined effect. In Russia. Of course, what's happening there right now may only be weather, not a climate trend. We won't know for certain for a while yet. But the omens aren't good. And it's not just Moscow smog, a few dead people, ruined crops and some burned barns and homes. Here's what Isabel Gorst and Catherine Belton at the Financial Times had to say about it (subscription only):

Russia has begun counting the economic toll of the worst heatwave since records began as economists warned that the wildfires and disastrous summer harvest could wipe as much as 1 per cent off the country’s economic growth.

The record-breaking heatwave has destroyed grain crops across Russia, ruining close to a third of the country’s forecast harvest, while wildfires raging in the Moscow region have spread noxious smog over the capital, forcing businesses to close and many to flee the city.

Alexander Morozov, chief economist at HSBC, said the combined impact of the heatwave on agriculture and general economic activity could reduce Russia’s gross domestic product growth by about 1 per cent this year, a cost to the economy of about $15bn (€11bn, £9.5bn).

An estimated 10 to 13 per cent decline in Russian agricultural output this year would cost about 0.6 per cent of GDP, Mr Morozov said. Weather-related disruption to industrial production and the retail and services sector could account for a further 0.4 per cent decline.

Russia has been slowly climbing out of its worst recession since the late '90s, but Morozov says the impact of the drought and fires could stifle that recovery in the current quarter.

You don't have to live on a low-lying island or a coastal plain to be the target of bad effects from climate change. You don't have to be one of the millions who depend on drinking water from shrinking glaciers to be in the crosshairs. Anywhere. Everywhere.

= = =

At Daily Kos on this date in 2007:

There has to be an Orwell Corollary to Godwin's Law, one that says any discussion of today's Republican Party will invariably lead to comparisons with 1984.  That's the easy place to run when trying to sum up the miasma of misdirection and jingoism that passes for Republican speech.  But, damn it, when the candidates insist on treating the utterances of the Ministry of Truth as a textbook, what can you do?

Orwell

Freedom is Slavery

Giuliani

"Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."

 



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