Earth news

Baby Walruses Are Drowning Thanks To Global Warming

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Thanks to global warming, the animals in the Arctic are going through terrible times as their world disintegrates around them. The ice shelf is so broken up, baby walruses are are falling into the ocean and drowning because the remaining ice is where the water is too deep.

National Geographic:

Adrianne Appel
for National Geographic News
March 27, 2006
Melting Arctic ice may be putting walrus pups in peril, researchers say.

A team of scientists working in the Arctic Ocean in 2004 says it encountered nine Pacific walrus pups struggling alone in the water far from shore.

Typically walrus pups live on ice close to shore and are inseparable from their mothers.

Like baby penguins, baby seals or baby polar bears, they don't go into water until they lose their baby fluff and grow a coat of adult fur or feathers. If they fall into the ocean too early, they get too cold and die. Likewise, rain is bad for them, too.

"The baby walruses would swim up to the boat. It was heartbreaking,'' he said.

Not only is the ice thinner, it is further from the shoreline and is over deeper and deeper ocean which is hard on the walruses who use their tusks to pry urchins and other sea creatures off the ocean bottom. If the walrus nursery is too far from the feeding grounds, the mothers have to be away longer periods of time and the anxious babies crawl to the edge of the ice, calling their mothers because they are hungry and then the ice tips and breaks and into the ocean they fall.

The ocean is also rougher and waves suddenly wash over the ice when the wind blows and the heaving up and down of the ice sheet causes it to bunch and break, tumbling the little ones into the sea to die.

As we celebrate warmer weather down here, the distress in nature is growing. My maples are all dying. The ones that are over 50 years old are quickly giving up, virtually none of my maple giants that are over 200+ years old are alive and now the ancient oaks, some of which date from Columbus or earlier, are dying, too.

Scientists despair at getting the American government to issue any instructions on how to curb greenhouse gases. Guess we will learn the hard way, super hot isn't so super.

Culture of Life News Main Page

Geologists Believe San Andreas Is About To Blow

Elaine Meinel Supkis

This morning I noticed a small quake at the bottom of the Great California Rift Zone and two at the top end where it plunges into the Pacific. Then a third one hit a few hours ago, all in the same area, most ominously, at the very dangerous 10 kilometer depth. The inevitable is going to happen and not at some distant time.

Assoiciated Press:

It's the geologists, emergency planners and historians who seem to do most of the worrying, even in this year of heightened earthquake awareness for the 100th anniversary of San Francisco's Great Quake of April 18, 1906.

Several faults lurk beneath this region, including the San Andreas Fault on the west side of the Bay area, but geologists say the parallel Hayward on the Bay's east side is the most likely to snap next.

"It is locked and loaded and ready to fire at any time," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Tom Brocher.

For the last three months, I have watched with rising alarm as the plate that hosts Australia has jerked and jumped repeatedly with some pretty big earthquakes happening in places with little or no humans so no one except us earth watchers noticed this activity. Each time, more pressure was applied to the entire Pacific Plate and along the leading edge that is being driven under the shores of North and South America, scattered earthquakes have been increasing in frequency, a warning bell if there ever was one!

When the Great Boxing Day Quake happened, it was pretty quiet over on this half of the planet. Since then, tremors have been occuring such as the surprising one in the Gulf of Mexico that, again, wasn't noticed (except here!) even though it was very significant, showing that the stresses released by that great event last Christmas is causing things to happen even in quiet zones not known for earthquakes.

The San Andreas is due for a big blow out. It is nearly exactly the 100th anniversarly of that big event. Deep quakes can cause devastation but the really dangerous ones are the 10 km events because this is where the earth is freest to move suddenly, it won't bang up against much, this is the very top levels of the crust so a seemingly stable house can jump dozens of feet in seconds. One danger is driving vehicles suddenly going all over the place, for example.

The other matter at hand is water related: all water systems will fail. Period. There is no way to flex enough to handle a jump of say, 15 feet, for example. This is why storing water in earthquake proof containers is so important and to not park the containers on shelves but have them on the floor, strapped together if they are less than five gallon containers.

The other item one needs is fire extinguishers. I am a huge believer in them, grew up learning how to use them since we lived where there were no fire departments. Fires are a tremendous hazard after a quake and snuffing them out immediately is of highest importance, for if there is no water, there is no effective way of stopping them if they get launched.

Keeping a blanket and water in the car at all times is also very highly recommended. I do this because you never know, we live in blizzard territory! In the case of earthquakes, one might be trapped in a car for several days.

The Hayward Fault runs through one of the country's most densely populated areas; experts say 2 million people live close enough to be strongly shaken by a big quake.

It slices the earth's crust along a 50-mile swath of suburbia east of San Francisco, from exclusive hilltop manors overlooking the bay to Hayward's humble flatlands. It snakes beneath highway bridges, strip malls, nursing facilities and retirement centers, and it splits the uprights of the football stadium at the University of California, Berkeley.

"A lot of these structures are going to come down," said David P. Schwartz, chief of the USGS's Bay Area Earthquake Hazards Project. He spoke with one foot on either side of the fault, marked by a crack that snaked through a parking lot in Hayward's business district.

I used to live right off of Telegraph Ave in Berkeley. I was cooking eggs over easy for the others in our little commune one lovely morning when a quake shivvered past our house. I was annoyed briefly because when the eggs were being flipped, the stove suddenly shifted sideways and two of them fell outside the pan. Then things fell down on me and I realized this was an earthquake so I tried to bolt from the kitchen only the door of the old Victorian building was wedged shut.

My roomates had to bang it open and we all ran outside.

Like I said before, paranoia in California isn't crazy. The "aw, who cares!" attitude many short term residents take is foolish. My family has lived there a lonnnnng long time. We have been through more than one blow out. This is why they should not be treated as a joke. Look what happened to "The Big Easy." It is now "The Small Hard."

Culture of Life News Main Page

Volcanoes Are Dangerous For Scientists Studying Them

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The Raoul Island volcano suddenly blew out, killing a young naturalist who was taking temperature data. This is a reminder of all the geologists who have died, studying this very dangerous beast.

Associated Press:

A young conservation worker who was checking a volcano's crater lake when it unexpectedly burst to life, spewing mounds of ash and soot, most likely died in the eruption in the remote nature reserve, a conservation official said Saturday.

The eruption in one of Raoul Island's three main craters — the first there since 1964 — threw rocks and boulders into the air and buried the area around the lake in mud and ash up to 16 feet deep.

A rescue team was expected to set sail from New Zealand on Sunday to inspect the remote island and assess prospects for recovering the missing worker, who was part of a small team monitoring the nature reserve. By opting for a three-day sea trip, rather than flying, officials virtually ruled out finding the worker alive.

"He was at the exact epicenter of the massive destruction," said Conservation Minister Chris Carter after speaking to a rescue worker who had witnessed the devastation.

Wikipedia:

...one staff member, 33-year-old Mark Kearney, went missing, after a volcanic eruption at 8:21 am NZDT. He was on a routine mission to measure the temperature of the Green Lake. The other five staff members were evacuated by Mil Mi-17 helicopter that took off from Taupo at 11 am that morning, accompanied by a Piper PA-31 Navaho aircraft[1], and arrived in Auckland that night. While at the island, the helicopter undertook a 40-minute search for Kearney, but no sign was found. He is now presumed dead. A group of police, Conservation Department and scientific staff left on 18 March for the three-day boat trip to Raoul aboard the RV Braveheart to recover his body.

The father is philosophical about his son's probable death. He knew his child loved his work. I can see why. I grew up in the mountains, I live on a small mountain today. It is in the blood, so to speak. But mountains are dangerous.

Volcano World:

Raoul is a stratovolcano located in the Kermadec Islands. The volcano rises 8987 ft (2740 m) above the ocean floor. Raoul is roughly triangular in shape with an area of 29.25 sq km. The center of this island contains a caldera. This caldera is 2.05 miles (3.3 km) wide. A second crater lies in the rim of the cliffs that surround the island. These cliffs also encircle half of the nearby bay. A third crater lies east of the main island.

Raoul island is composed of material ejected from several eruption centers. Most of the early materials erupted from Raoul are andesitic tuffs. The Herald Islets in the east were the first to be active. A later eruption of pumice tuffs covers these andesitic tuffs. Raoul has erupted 14 times. It last erupted in 1965.

Just like oceans. Many people cluster on the edges of the restless sea and it is a very dangerous place, indeed. We try to forget this, thinking only of storms that have a long warning window of escape but the giant tsunami this last year is a reminder that the ocean is the sleeping dragon and volcanoes are, too.

This is all due to the sudden unleashing of the plate that Australia sits on. The entire outer edge of this plate has been set into motion, many earthquakes along its leading edge, this last year. As I warned a year ago, the volcanoes are all awakening across the planet due to the Great Boxing Day Quake and they will all be feeling irritable. This process will continue for at least five more years.

Here is the story of a narrow escape one young scientist had recently: Post Gazette:

As molten rocks the size of softballs rained down around him, geologist Michael Ramsey concentrated on advice he had heard from a survivor of a volcanic eruption seven years before.

Drop down. Protect your head.

Falling face down on a ridge that shielded him from the direct blast of the 12,000-foot volcano in Indonesia, the 33-year-old volcanologist from the University of Pittsburgh held his camera bag across the back of his head and tried to flick away the hot, glassy pebbles that pelted him and melted into his parka.Picture from Post-Gazette.com.

Unfortunately for this week's victim, there was no safety zone nearby. The famous Mt. St. Helen's eruption killed a number of people including the scientist who was monitoring it. My parents flew into the volcano a mere week earlier to see what was going on. They have been on or in many volcanoes. Seems that luck was always on their side.

Flying into volcanoes is very dangerous. Here is yet another example: Lava Grrl:

PHIVOLCS Scientists and PHIVOLCS former director died in a helicopter crash
****************************************************************************
From: Raymond Patrick R. Maximo
Message sent on 04/28/05 at 1:47am US Pacific Standard Time

28 April 2005

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) has
received official reports that the PHIVOLCS contingent aboard the helicopter
that crashed all have died. The PHIVOLCS contingent includes:

Name Position Age
1. Dr. Jessie A. Daligdig Associate Scientist, DOST 44 years old
2. Dr. Norman M. Tungol Chief SRS, GGRDD 40 years old
3. Mr. Dindo V. Javier SR Analyst, 41 years old
4. Mr. Orlando S. Abengoza SR Assistant 49 years old

This contingent was together with former PHIVOLCS Director Raymundo S.
Punongbayan, governor of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) and local
coordinator of Earthquake and Megacities Initiative (EMI), as part of an
investigation team for the assessment of natural hazards in Dingalan, Aurora
and Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija for the identification of possible safe sites for
the resettlement /rehabilitation of communities affected by the 2004
typhoons.

The institute is one with the grief and sorrow of their respective family
members and mourns this great loss to the Philippine scientific community.

A number of scientists were swept away by the tsunami last winter. Nature studies always have this element of danger because nature is dangerous as well as beautiful. We are all very grateful for the hard work all these scientists and others are doing for us.

We know our planet better thanks to their dedication. Our sympathy goes to the families who have lost loved ones, they died for us.

Culture of Life News Main Page

Wasting Water In Mexico/Saving Water In India--

Elaine Meinel Supkis

Mexico City used to be a floating garden filled with flowers and canals, the Venice of the New World. Now, like in Iraq, Mexico is draining the last drops of useable water fast. Meanwhile, in thirsty India, new ways of conserving water are being implimented as an experiment we can all learn from.

BBC News:

As Mexican President Vicente Fox prepares to open the 4th World Water Forum, the BBC's Claire Marshall looks at the severe water problems facing Mexico City.

Many in the city have just one hour of running water per week
With a population of more than 20 million people, and dwindling water supplies, the Mexican capital is a stark example of the severe water supply issues facing many of the world's rapidly developing mega-cities.

The parched ground crunches beneath your feet as you walk through the Texcoco area on the outskirts of the city. The bleached, cracked terrain stretches out in all directions. Nothing can grow here.

All over the world, people are leaving the land and heading into the megacities. Many countries have all their services and activities concentrated in one city. London and Paris are prime examples. This is the imperialist mode of city building, namely, all resources concentrate at the center of political power like Rome in its heyday.

Japan is one big mega city: Tokyo. China is much more diffuse but even there, the cities are mushrooming while the distant countryside is falling apart. In Japan, one is hard pressed to find any youthful people in the countryside. In Mexico, there is still a growing population so there isn't a total derth of young people in the countryside but the population explosion is slowing down.

The oldest cities on earth were in the Euphrates valley. It is now desert. It got really bad when oil was discovered and the population decided to live off of oil profits one way or another. The early cities of this valley were decked in green growing things, an earthly paradise so wonderful, the ancient Greeks decided the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the seven wonders of the world.

Now it is all dust and ashes.

In India, the same process is at work. Water is running out, industry eats a lot of water and pollutes farmlands and dries out everything. Soda and water bottlers are draining natural spring reserves all over the planet. The cycle of violent rain/drought which is afflicting even temperate zones such as where I live is not replentishing the underground reserves because the rain runs off too fast. 3" of summer thunderstorms=1/2" or less of a gentle rain or light snow. The real fillers of the underground reserves is snow, deep snow. As it melts slowly, it leaks into the ground via tiny gaps in the topsoil created by worms and tree roots, for example.

The desert in Arizona has a layer of caliche which is hard as rock. I used to have to pick axe my way through it when working in my mother's vegetable garden. I used to wheelbarrel the horse manure over to it and mix it with the hard desert soil. Making the garden very level was top importance because this kept in the water. Soaking the soil by the roots of each plant worked better than irrigation which causes the caliche to leach out and harden the ground all over again.

Here is an interesting solution:

Some 15 km from Kishangarh is the village of Tillonia.

Approaching it through the same arid landscape, you are suddenly confronted with lush green fields.

Here environmentalists have been working with local villagers to help recharge the groundwater by harvesting rainwater.

A network of pipes and drains transports rainwater to special pits and wells and eventually filters down into the ground.

I already do this on my mountain. Irritated with the drought/rain/drought cycle the warming planet is imposing on my environment, I have been steadily building drains, water catchment areas and terraces to capture as much water as possible. My well is an artesian well during wet years. I am building, this summer, a water catchment area that will take all the water from the varioius buildings and channel it into a pond that will have a soaking terrace next to is for overflows. I did this with some of the driveway run-off pipes and it works really well.

This doesn't harm the local stream that runs at the foot of my hillside. It depends on upwelling water rising through springs and clay water traps. The higher the hydration on my hillside, the better the spring runs and cutting back on flood waters means the stream won't turn ugly like it did last October when we got 7" of rain in one day and our roads were nearly washed away and houses were swept away in other mountain villages.

March 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Elaine Meinel Supkis

The first man (thanks to his Sherpa's guidance and wisdom) to conquer Mt. Everest is helping a consortium of ecology groups to sue the USA over global warming. Their latest petition to the UN is, American pollution is destroying many glacial parks in the USA as well as other lands.

From the BBC:

"The effects of climate change are well-documented and clearly visible in Glacier National Park," said the petition's lead author Erica Thorson from the International Environmental Law Project.

Globally, glaciers have lost an average 6m in height in 20 years
"Yet the US has not taken action to protect the world heritage of the park by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to its obligations under the World Heritage Convention."

Straddling the US-Canada border where the province of Alberta meets the state of Montana, Waterton-Glacier was the first region in the world to be declared an International Peace Park.

Of course, the UN just asked us to close Gitmo, too, and we just refused.

When the UN asks Iran to not make nukes, we yell "You have to do this because the UN ordered you," but whenever the UN says bleep to us, we yell, "Shut up! Go away! Blue helicopters!" In other words, we cherry pick what we want to obey, sort of like Cheney and Bush with the law in general. Commit a crime then have the cops collude to cover it all up again.

The Sagarmatha petition is supported by Everest pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary, who said: "The warming of the Himalayas has increased noticeably over the last 50 years... this has caused several and severe floods from glacial lakes, and much disruption to the environment and local people."

Yay, Sir Hillary! A great guy. He, like myself, watches with horror as Nepal falls apart. Like my family, he knew the royals who were machinegunned down so brutally (the story the evil uncle who is now king is total hogwash!) and he mourns the destruction of Nepal and the many stresses ripping it apart these days.

If the glaciers melt once and for all, all the great rivers that were the birthplace of many great civilizations, will dry up and become mere seasonal rivers like the ones in the desert. I remember how various rivers in Arizona like the Santa Rita would run year round, the Palo Verde used to have huge cotton woods lining the banks, all are dry as a bone now except during monsoon season.

And so it will be with the Ganges. The Colorado River still gets snow melt from the Rockies but human use causes it to dwindle until it is nothing coming out into the Gulf of California. The snows are failing in the Rockies just as they are failing in all the glacial mountains even as excess snow blankets other parts of the planet. This oddity is another sign, global warming's changes of the atmosphere are altering the amount of solar energy heating high elevations. Anyone who has lived above 9,000 ft like I have in my own childhood, knows that when the sun is out, it gets very hot very fast even though it is very cold. So long as one is in the sun, it is hot. Wind blows or walk in the shade and brrr.

Global warming seems to have concentrated moisture so where it rains, it really rains and elsewhere, the sun blazes down. From Mongabay.com:

U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.0 percent in 2004, from 6,983.2 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent in 2003 to 7,122.1 metric tons in 2004, according to Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2004, a report released today by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The 2004 increase is well below the rate of economic growth of 4.2 percent but above the average annual growth rate of 1.1 percent in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. Emissions of carbon dioxide and methane increased by 1.7 and 0.9 percent respectively, while emissions of nitrous oxide and engineered gases rose by 5.5 and 9.6 percent respectively. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell from 677 metric tons per million 2000 constant dollars of GDP in 2003 to 662 in 2004, a decline of 2.1 percent, meaning that American industry because more greenhouse gas efficient.

The release comes just over a week after a United Nations conference in Montreal where the United States refused to join any talks for imposing binding limits on emissions of greenhouse gases.

Many people are now suing the USA over our ridiculous overuse of fossil fuels. From Breitbart.com:

The people of the Arctic filed a landmark human rights complaint against the United States, blaming the world's No. 1 carbon polluter for stoking the global warming that is destroying their habitat.

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), representing native people in the vast, sparsely-populated region girdling the Earth's far north, said they had petitioned an inter-American panel to seek relief for Canadian and US Inuit.

Islanders, people living in any lowland ouside of Florida, people suffering from increasingly frequent droughts, everyone is beginning to sue our country because our actions are destroying their homes and their livelyhoods. It is destroying ours, too, only we are all acting like Cheney, being sour pussed about it and thinking it is everyone else's fault for being the the way when all we want to do is kill things for fun.

The lawsuits the North East started to stop the Midwest and South from burning a zillion tons of coal for airconditioning because it is killing our trees, killing our lakes and rivers and killing everything, we had to drop it because the Supreme Court thinks killing everything via pollution wasn't thought of by George Washington so it is OK. Gads.

Arrest the Supreme Court. Rats.

I am still very angry that my poor oaks and maples will have to endure yet another ozone alert summer, vicious droughts and wild storms dropping 7" of rain in a few hours time.

Art by Elaine Meinel Supkis

By Elaine Meinel Supkis

For some time, we arrogantly thought no one had to pay attention to Mother Nature. When the environmental movement was born, and I was part of it from day one, we used to say, "No one fucks with Mother Nature and lives." Well, many people thought they could fuck with Her and now She is moving literally Heaven and Earth. For She IS Heaven and Earth!

There was this commercial for margarine in the seventies where Mother Nature is sitting on a rock, reading to her woodland friends, the advertiser fools her into thinking margarine is butter and suddenly the sky darkens and there is thunder and she growls, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature." This is one commercial I really enjoyed only because of the ending.

The new is very bad today, all over the place so let's start with Mother Nature's business: the earth itself. From IRIS, earthquake maps

Yesterday, the entire planet gave a slight but significant shudder. Virtually every faultline creaked and groaned. Perhaps this is part and parcel with the churning of the somewhat irregular dense material in the center, it is moving faster than the next layer, the Mantle, so there is churning going on.The magnetic poles are near reversing and this will be an interesting experience for us, to say the least. We depend very much on which way the poles are set, you know.

Today, there was another heave of the Australian plate. 7.9-8.1 on the Richter scale. A significant earthquake. It occured in the zone where several similar quakes shoot just before Boxing Day. Already, a 6+ earthquake in the last fifteen minutes shook Chile. The Pacific Plate is being forcibly shoved by Australia. We all know what is going to happen eventually in the not far but really close future: California will have a blow out earthquake(s). It is not probable but inevitable. Everyone is sitting there, studiously trying to ignore this but yesterday, an alarmed scientist yelled about this, really to little avail. California will strengthen their building codes yet again, they announced.

Quite a number of victims of the hurricane are being located in California. Frying pan/fire.

From Yahoo:

Hurricane Katrina may serve as a wake-up call on climate change for developing nations, many of which are vulnerable to devastation from global warming, the World Bank's top environmental official said on Thursday.

Ian Johnson, the World Bank's vice president for environmentally and socially sustainable development, told Reuters the storm's heavy damage in the southern United States would have important implications for poorer countries.

"Just think of the catastrophic impact it's had in a country that's pretty well organized, pretty rich. Transfer that to a country that isn't and may not have the same level of capacity to deal with these sorts of things," Johnson said in an interview.

"Katrina is a terrible tragedy, but maybe it is a wake-up call to all of us to begin understanding what catastrophic events, what damage can occur," he added.

In addition to fostering talks on emissions and promoting clean energy products, Johnson said the World Bank is working with private industry to find ways to protect poor nations from the expected environmental shifts linked to global warming.

"There is a real sense that the train has left the station, and that there is going to be a pretty significant impact of climate change," Johnson said, adding the devastation in New Orleans had increased public sensitivity to these risks.

"Certainly in the press, it seems to have raised questions of the extent to which this is part of a global warming world," he said. "I do think that public opinion is thinking a lot about these issues."

The oceans are dying. The Gulf in particular, is dying rapidly. This summer has been a catastrophe for it. The cleansing hurricanes are helping but not enough for paradoxically, the flood waters, ripe with human waste and chemicals, are flooding into that basin where it will fester since the waters go in a counter-clockwise flow, the Gulf is a cul-de-sac. Even where powerful ocean floods flow like the mighty Gulf Stream, are deteriorating due to human pollution and waste and global warming.

From Xinhuanet:

Typhoon Khanun, the No. 15 strong tropical storm of this year, is expected to hit the central-northern parts of Fujian Province Sunday afternoon, according to weather forecasts.

Typhoon Khanun is approaching the province at a speed of 15 km per hour from the eastern sea region off Taiwan, and the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters has urgedall-out efforts to make preparations.

Typhoon Khanun has so far reached force 12 which is likely to further strengthen and will bring along heavy precipitation to the province, said the provincial weather station.

Liang Qiping, deputy governor of the province, urged officials in the province to work hard to mobilize the local people in making preparations to fight the upcoming typhoon.

The provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters has asked all the ships and vessels operating on the sea nearby toreturn or take shelters in ports before 18:00 Saturday and all the personnel working at the offshore breading fields to get onshore.

The headquarters also urged the people in mountainous areas to prepare against possible mountain torrents, mud-rock flows and geological disasters. Enditem

You won't see a thing about this in any American news format. At all. I have noted that this year, Asia has been positively ravaged by typhoons. We want sympathy and aid from the world and we are supposedly the richest, most powerful country.

We are not anymore.

Today, Beijing firmly announced the North Korean talks they sponsored that we recklessly walked out on, are resuming with the American team firmly in hand to sign the documents the Chinese have prepared for us. They desperately want to fix things with North Korea so they can secure this border. Now they can do it to their specifications because Americans can't drag their feet anymore. We are over the barrel, beggars at their gates.

Like me, they know that all Americans have to do to fix this is to tax themselves. But Bush won't and half the country won't and so we are being sold down the Yangtze River and toodle-loo, Uncle Sam.

From the BBC:

Humans were influencing the climate long before the Industrial Revolution, new research suggests.

Levels of methane rose steadily in the atmosphere in the first millennium, according to an analysis of gases trapped in ice beneath Antarctica.

Much of the greenhouse gas came from huge fires lit by humans as they cleared land for settlements and farming, researchers report in Science.

But natural climate change would have contributed to the emissions, they say.

Greenhouse gas emissions have risen to record levels over recent centuries but little is known about the atmosphere in pre-industrial times.

As the grazing herds of ice age beasts ran from raging fires set by humans, these fires literally drove them into extinction and humans had to scavange the last of the big creatures and domesticate them and fight to protect them from other humans, thus the herding societies were born. The dog, pig, sheep, cows and horses all were protected so they could remultiply. But in North America, there was domestication of only the dog and many animals were wiped out. The bison were able to survive and multiply only because humans deserted the open plains when the earlier herds were killed off and only reentered them around 5,000 years ago or less.

From the BBC:

Higher UK temperatures are causing soils to "exhale" large quantities of carbon dioxide, probably accelerating global warming, scientists report.

They base their assessment on a huge analysis of soil samples gathered from across England and Wales over 25 years.

The team says its findings, if extended to the whole of the UK, suggest some 13 million tonnes of carbon are being lost from British soils each year.

The Cranfield University group reports its work in the journal Nature.

The scientists say computer models used to forecast future climate trends will now have to be revised because the calculations on which they are based will be wide of the mark.

"Our findings suggest the soil part of the equation is scarier than we had thought," Professor Guy Kirk, of Cranfield University, told journalists at the British Association's Festival of Science in Dublin, Ireland.

"The consequence is that there is more urgency about doing something - global warming will accelerate."

You know, in the Carboniferous Age, a lot of carbon was manipulated by the earth. The oxygen levels soared as plants took over and insects finally evolved to eat them, huge insects, dragon flies 1000 times bigger than today, for example. The oxygen was so rich, so much carbon was "breathing" through the dense understory/soil which wasn't broken down by insects because they were still evolving to fill this new niche...A vast swampland. This is where our coal and oil comes from! This time.

From the BBC:

Scientists are only now starting to recognise the astonishing size reached by pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.

New discoveries in the Americas suggest some had wingspans of 18m (60ft).

But there was nothing ugly about the way they moved through the air, according to expert Dr David Martill, of the University of Portsmouth.

Their ability to utilise air currents, thermals and ground effects would astonish aeroplane designers, he said.

"Pterosaurs were beautifully engineered," he told BBC News.

"Their skeletons were exceedingly light: their bones were very thin and hollow, and those hollows were filled with an air-sack system. They'd also got rid of their reptilian scales and their wing membrane was very, very thin.

From another period of hyper-global warming/high oxygen/high carbon era. Gigantisim coupled with flying=rich atmosphere.

We know very little about the climate in the far past. We are only just beginning to understand from ice core samples what it was like only 100,000 years ago! Studies! We need more information. Alas, guess what Bush keeps cutting! Recently in the news was this story about how the born again boobies who worship Bush are now asserting dinosaurs existed with humans. They fight science tooth and nail, not understanding that understanding nature is a life and death issue. They imagine if they imagine a universe fit for a nursery school, it will magically do what they desire.

Money for atmospheric/planetary research! Ha. The Space Shuttle is being set back even further in time, the hurricanes ruining all sorts of things down there in Florida. Duh. We can't build space ports where Mother Nature plans to scour clean. And with global warming, all of Florida and the Gulf lowlands are history. Uninhabitable. People will live there, of course, but they are living on borrowed time, the lease on the land held by Mother Nature, running out rapidly.

In this war with Mother Nature, there will be only one winner. And She always wins. This is inevitable. This is why working with Her beats fighting Her.

By Elaine Meinel Supkis

As the earth flexes and shivers after the Great Boxing Day Quake, various parts are now responding to the rapid changes over in Asia and the Pacific Plate.

I got this email the other day from Marty Salo:
I have been looking at the greater quakes in this area. The recent quake in the Gulf of Mexico startled me a bit.
I have noticed over the last year or so, many earthquakes like to happen at 10.0 km. Whether under water or on land. It is like the earth's crust has this blanket on top that operates independent of the lower layers. Some of our nastiest quakes occur at this depth, the earth's blanket being shaken and tugged like Mother Nature is straightening out the bed.

The geology where this happened is interesting because it isn't all that prone to earthquakes. Just last week, I noted there was a much gentler earthquake right in New Orleans just when tornadoes were hitting that poor city! The New Madrid Fault has been shaking a bit, lately. As if it were trembling, waiting for something.
Indeed, many things will happen now. About 100 years ago, there was a rash of activity in the Caribbean. One volcano belched poison fumes
On 8th May 1902, Mt Pelée, in Martinique erupted. A glowing avalanche (pyroclastic flow) from the eruption destroyed the town of St Pierre and its 28,000 inhabitants. Only one person, a prisoner, survived.

In 1902, the Soufriere volcano in St Vincent erupted. The eruption began on 6th May, 1902 and continued until 30th March, 1903. 1,565 people were killed and extensive damage was done to agriculture in the areas around the volcano. The Soufriere volcano erupted again in 1979.Between 2001,Kick'em Jenny also showed signs of activity which placed the suronding islands on yellow alert.
The poor prisoner was rescued. He made his living thereafter, appearing at theaters and carnivals.

I was once cleaning out a theater's back rooms, back when I used to go on stage, and I found a huge banner which was tattered and very old. "The ONLY surivor of Mt. Pele! See him reenact historic event!" I used to dance the works of the trio of famous American modern dancers, the three women who created modern dance, Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller and Ruth St. Denis. St. Denis did this wonderful dance with 100 yds of silk, called "Mt. Pele Erupts" which I drew above based on a very old photo of this dance.

Since the volcanoes haven't killed thousands in recent memory, we tend to forget this daisy chain along the Caribbean/Atlantic subjunction zone.

In the last three days, the earthquakes have been not only greater in intensity but the ones along Central America have been very active, too. This leads into the San Andreas rift zone quakes. This rift has been onimously quiet the last year, a bad sign.

Obviously, the Pacific Plate is shoving against Central America which is, in turn, pinching the Caribbean Plate since the Atlanic, moving slower but just as relentlessly, has been having quite a few 5+ earthquake events this last six months. One can almost feel the earth bulging.

The Super Volcano is in the news today, too. This is the mega monster that heaves and sighs barely under the surface of the earth in Yellowstone. It has been slithering around just under the surface a lot lately. From National Geographic:
Molten rock flowing beneath Yellowstone has been causing the national park to rise and fall, scientists say.

Periodic uplifting and settling has occurred here over the last 15,000 years.

A new model helps explain the latest episode of rapid surface rise and increased geyser activity—from 1997 to 2003—in the volcanically active region in the western United States.
A number of gysers have either returned into action or new ones have appeared. The fact that the lava just under the surface has sighed back down except the caldera walls are still heaving upwards, only means it is alive, not safe at all. We can only guess at what is going on downstairs. The latest images show the caldera's many rings quite clearly and one can sense how the entire region breathes up and down with the lava's movement, it is stunningly huge. Perhaps one can say, it is directly affected by the California rift zone's own activities?

Geology is not only a very exciting field, there is so little we know and of course, understanding how the entire eco-interplanetary/interstellar systems coexist and interact is life and death for us humans! Which takes me back to all the cut backs in science that the GOP is increasingly imposing upon us. This is beyond stupid, it can be fatal!

Sir Edmond Hillary of Everest Fame Files Lawsuit Against The USA For Refusing To Save Glaciers

By Elaine Meinel Supkis

The first man (thanks to his Sherpa's guidance and wisdom) to conquer Mt. Everest is helping a consortium of ecology groups to sue the USA over global warming. Their latest petition to the UN is, American pollution is destroying many glacial parks in the USA as well as other lands.

From the BBC:

"The effects of climate change are well-documented and clearly visible in Glacier National Park," said the petition's lead author Erica Thorson from the International Environmental Law Project.

Globally, glaciers have lost an average 6m in height in 20 years
"Yet the US has not taken action to protect the world heritage of the park by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to its obligations under the World Heritage Convention."

Straddling the US-Canada border where the province of Alberta meets the state of Montana, Waterton-Glacier was the first region in the world to be declared an International Peace Park.

Of course, the UN just asked us to close Gitmo, too, and we just refused.

When the UN asks Iran to not make nukes, we yell "You have to do this because the UN ordered you," but whenever the UN says bleep to us, we yell, "Shut up! Go away! Blue helicopters!" In other words, we cherry pick what we want to obey, sort of like Cheney and Bush with the law in general. Commit a crime then have the cops collude to cover it all up again.

The Sagarmatha petition is supported by Everest pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary, who said: "The warming of the Himalayas has increased noticeably over the last 50 years... this has caused several and severe floods from glacial lakes, and much disruption to the environment and local people."

Yay, Sir Hillary! A great guy. He, like myself, watches with horror as Nepal falls apart. Like my family, he knew the royals who were machinegunned down so brutally (the story the evil uncle who is now king is total hogwash!) and he mourns the destruction of Nepal and the many stresses ripping it apart these days.

If the glaciers melt once and for all, all the great rivers that were the birthplace of many great civilizations, will dry up and become mere seasonal rivers like the ones in the desert. I remember how various rivers in Arizona like the Santa Rita would run year round, the Palo Verde used to have huge cotton woods lining the banks, all are dry as a bone now except during monsoon season.

And so it will be with the Ganges. The Colorado River still gets snow melt from the Rockies but human use causes it to dwindle until it is nothing coming out into the Gulf of California. The snows are failing in the Rockies just as they are failing in all the glacial mountains even as excess snow blankets other parts of the planet. This oddity is another sign, global warming's changes of the atmosphere are altering the amount of solar energy heating high elevations. Anyone who has lived above 9,000 ft like I have in my own childhood, knows that when the sun is out, it gets very hot very fast even though it is very cold. So long as one is in the sun, it is hot. Wind blows or walk in the shade and brrr.

Global warming seems to have concentrated moisture so where it rains, it really rains and elsewhere, the sun blazes down. From Mongabay.com:

U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.0 percent in 2004, from 6,983.2 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent in 2003 to 7,122.1 metric tons in 2004, according to Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2004, a report released today by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The 2004 increase is well below the rate of economic growth of 4.2 percent but above the average annual growth rate of 1.1 percent in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. Emissions of carbon dioxide and methane increased by 1.7 and 0.9 percent respectively, while emissions of nitrous oxide and engineered gases rose by 5.5 and 9.6 percent respectively. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell from 677 metric tons per million 2000 constant dollars of GDP in 2003 to 662 in 2004, a decline of 2.1 percent, meaning that American industry because more greenhouse gas efficient.

The release comes just over a week after a United Nations conference in Montreal where the United States refused to join any talks for imposing binding limits on emissions of greenhouse gases.

Many people are now suing the USA over our ridiculous overuse of fossil fuels. From Breitbart.com:

The people of the Arctic filed a landmark human rights complaint against the United States, blaming the world's No. 1 carbon polluter for stoking the global warming that is destroying their habitat.

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), representing native people in the vast, sparsely-populated region girdling the Earth's far north, said they had petitioned an inter-American panel to seek relief for Canadian and US Inuit.

Islanders, people living in any lowland ouside of Florida, people suffering from increasingly frequent droughts, everyone is beginning to sue our country because our actions are destroying their homes and their livelyhoods. It is destroying ours, too, only we are all acting like Cheney, being sour pussed about it and thinking it is everyone else's fault for being the the way when all we want to do is kill things for fun.

The lawsuits the North East started to stop the Midwest and South from burning a zillion tons of coal for airconditioning because it is killing our trees, killing our lakes and rivers and killing everything, we had to drop it because the Supreme Court thinks killing everything via pollution wasn't thought of by George Washington so it is OK. Gads.

Arrest the Supreme Court. Rats.

I am still very angry that my poor oaks and maples will have to endure yet another ozone alert summer, vicious droughts and wild storms dropping 7" of rain in a few hours time.

THE ETERNAL EMERGENCY<

Art by Elaine Meinel Supkis

By Elaine Meinel Supkis

For some time, we arrogantly thought no one had to pay attention to Mother Nature. When the environmental movement was born, and I was part of it from day one, we used to say, "No one fucks with Mother Nature and lives." Well, many people thought they could fuck with Her and now She is moving literally Heaven and Earth. For She IS Heaven and Earth!

There was this commercial for margarine in the seventies where Mother Nature is sitting on a rock, reading to her woodland friends, the advertiser fools her into thinking margarine is butter and suddenly the sky darkens and there is thunder and she growls, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature." This is one commercial I really enjoyed only because of the ending.

The new is very bad today, all over the place so let's start with Mother Nature's business: the earth itself. From IRIS, earthquake maps

Yesterday, the entire planet gave a slight but significant shudder. Virtually every faultline creaked and groaned. Perhaps this is part and parcel with the churning of the somewhat irregular dense material in the center, it is moving faster than the next layer, the Mantle, so there is churning going on.The magnetic poles are near reversing and this will be an interesting experience for us, to say the least. We depend very much on which way the poles are set, you know.

Today, there was another heave of the Australian plate. 7.9-8.1 on the Richter scale. A significant earthquake. It occured in the zone where several similar quakes shoot just before Boxing Day. Already, a 6+ earthquake in the last fifteen minutes shook Chile. The Pacific Plate is being forcibly shoved by Australia. We all know what is going to happen eventually in the not far but really close future: California will have a blow out earthquake(s). It is not probable but inevitable. Everyone is sitting there, studiously trying to ignore this but yesterday, an alarmed scientist yelled about this, really to little avail. California will strengthen their building codes yet again, they announced.

Quite a number of victims of the hurricane are being located in California. Frying pan/fire.

From Yahoo:

Hurricane Katrina may serve as a wake-up call on climate change for developing nations, many of which are vulnerable to devastation from global warming, the World Bank's top environmental official said on Thursday.

Ian Johnson, the World Bank's vice president for environmentally and socially sustainable development, told Reuters the storm's heavy damage in the southern United States would have important implications for poorer countries.

"Just think of the catastrophic impact it's had in a country that's pretty well organized, pretty rich. Transfer that to a country that isn't and may not have the same level of capacity to deal with these sorts of things," Johnson said in an interview.

"Katrina is a terrible tragedy, but maybe it is a wake-up call to all of us to begin understanding what catastrophic events, what damage can occur," he added.

In addition to fostering talks on emissions and promoting clean energy products, Johnson said the World Bank is working with private industry to find ways to protect poor nations from the expected environmental shifts linked to global warming.

"There is a real sense that the train has left the station, and that there is going to be a pretty significant impact of climate change," Johnson said, adding the devastation in New Orleans had increased public sensitivity to these risks.

"Certainly in the press, it seems to have raised questions of the extent to which this is part of a global warming world," he said. "I do think that public opinion is thinking a lot about these issues."

The oceans are dying. The Gulf in particular, is dying rapidly. This summer has been a catastrophe for it. The cleansing hurricanes are helping but not enough for paradoxically, the flood waters, ripe with human waste and chemicals, are flooding into that basin where it will fester since the waters go in a counter-clockwise flow, the Gulf is a cul-de-sac. Even where powerful ocean floods flow like the mighty Gulf Stream, are deteriorating due to human pollution and waste and global warming.

From Xinhuanet:

Typhoon Khanun, the No. 15 strong tropical storm of this year, is expected to hit the central-northern parts of Fujian Province Sunday afternoon, according to weather forecasts.

Typhoon Khanun is approaching the province at a speed of 15 km per hour from the eastern sea region off Taiwan, and the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters has urgedall-out efforts to make preparations.

Typhoon Khanun has so far reached force 12 which is likely to further strengthen and will bring along heavy precipitation to the province, said the provincial weather station.

Liang Qiping, deputy governor of the province, urged officials in the province to work hard to mobilize the local people in making preparations to fight the upcoming typhoon.

The provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters has asked all the ships and vessels operating on the sea nearby toreturn or take shelters in ports before 18:00 Saturday and all the personnel working at the offshore breading fields to get onshore.

The headquarters also urged the people in mountainous areas to prepare against possible mountain torrents, mud-rock flows and geological disasters. Enditem

You won't see a thing about this in any American news format. At all. I have noted that this year, Asia has been positively ravaged by typhoons. We want sympathy and aid from the world and we are supposedly the richest, most powerful country.

We are not anymore.

Today, Beijing firmly announced the North Korean talks they sponsored that we recklessly walked out on, are resuming with the American team firmly in hand to sign the documents the Chinese have prepared for us. They desperately want to fix things with North Korea so they can secure this border. Now they can do it to their specifications because Americans can't drag their feet anymore. We are over the barrel, beggars at their gates.

Like me, they know that all Americans have to do to fix this is to tax themselves. But Bush won't and half the country won't and so we are being sold down the Yangtze River and toodle-loo, Uncle Sam.

From the BBC:

Humans were influencing the climate long before the Industrial Revolution, new research suggests.

Levels of methane rose steadily in the atmosphere in the first millennium, according to an analysis of gases trapped in ice beneath Antarctica.

Much of the greenhouse gas came from huge fires lit by humans as they cleared land for settlements and farming, researchers report in Science.

But natural climate change would have contributed to the emissions, they say.

Greenhouse gas emissions have risen to record levels over recent centuries but little is known about the atmosphere in pre-industrial times.

As the grazing herds of ice age beasts ran from raging fires set by humans, these fires literally drove them into extinction and humans had to scavange the last of the big creatures and domesticate them and fight to protect them from other humans, thus the herding societies were born. The dog, pig, sheep, cows and horses all were protected so they could remultiply. But in North America, there was domestication of only the dog and many animals were wiped out. The bison were able to survive and multiply only because humans deserted the open plains when the earlier herds were killed off and only reentered them around 5,000 years ago or less.

From the BBC:

Higher UK temperatures are causing soils to "exhale" large quantities of carbon dioxide, probably accelerating global warming, scientists report.

They base their assessment on a huge analysis of soil samples gathered from across England and Wales over 25 years.

The team says its findings, if extended to the whole of the UK, suggest some 13 million tonnes of carbon are being lost from British soils each year.

The Cranfield University group reports its work in the journal Nature.

The scientists say computer models used to forecast future climate trends will now have to be revised because the calculations on which they are based will be wide of the mark.

"Our findings suggest the soil part of the equation is scarier than we had thought," Professor Guy Kirk, of Cranfield University, told journalists at the British Association's Festival of Science in Dublin, Ireland.

"The consequence is that there is more urgency about doing something - global warming will accelerate."

You know, in the Carboniferous Age, a lot of carbon was manipulated by the earth. The oxygen levels soared as plants took over and insects finally evolved to eat them, huge insects, dragon flies 1000 times bigger than today, for example. The oxygen was so rich, so much carbon was "breathing" through the dense understory/soil which wasn't broken down by insects because they were still evolving to fill this new niche...A vast swampland. This is where our coal and oil comes from! This time.

From the BBC:

Scientists are only now starting to recognise the astonishing size reached by pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.

New discoveries in the Americas suggest some had wingspans of 18m (60ft).

But there was nothing ugly about the way they moved through the air, according to expert Dr David Martill, of the University of Portsmouth.

Their ability to utilise air currents, thermals and ground effects would astonish aeroplane designers, he said.

"Pterosaurs were beautifully engineered," he told BBC News.

"Their skeletons were exceedingly light: their bones were very thin and hollow, and those hollows were filled with an air-sack system. They'd also got rid of their reptilian scales and their wing membrane was very, very thin.

From another period of hyper-global warming/high oxygen/high carbon era. Gigantisim coupled with flying=rich atmosphere.

We know very little about the climate in the far past. We are only just beginning to understand from ice core samples what it was like only 100,000 years ago! Studies! We need more information. Alas, guess what Bush keeps cutting! Recently in the news was this story about how the born again boobies who worship Bush are now asserting dinosaurs existed with humans. They fight science tooth and nail, not understanding that understanding nature is a life and death issue. They imagine if they imagine a universe fit for a nursery school, it will magically do what they desire.

Money for atmospheric/planetary research! Ha. The Space Shuttle is being set back even further in time, the hurricanes ruining all sorts of things down there in Florida. Duh. We can't build space ports where Mother Nature plans to scour clean. And with global warming, all of Florida and the Gulf lowlands are history. Uninhabitable. People will live there, of course, but they are living on borrowed time, the lease on the land held by Mother Nature, running out rapidly.

In this war with Mother Nature, there will be only one winner. And She always wins. This is inevitable. This is why working with Her beats fighting Her.

Earthquake and Volcanic Activity in the Caribbean

By Elaine Meinel Supkis

As the earth flexes and shivers after the Great Boxing Day Quake, various parts are now responding to the rapid changes over in Asia and the Pacific Plate.

I got this email the other day from Marty Salo:
I have been looking at the greater quakes in this area. The recent quake in the Gulf of Mexico startled me a bit.
I have noticed over the last year or so, many earthquakes like to happen at 10.0 km. Whether under water or on land. It is like the earth's crust has this blanket on top that operates independent of the lower layers. Some of our nastiest quakes occur at this depth, the earth's blanket being shaken and tugged like Mother Nature is straightening out the bed.

The geology where this happened is interesting because it isn't all that prone to earthquakes. Just last week, I noted there was a much gentler earthquake right in New Orleans just when tornadoes were hitting that poor city! The New Madrid Fault has been shaking a bit, lately. As if it were trembling, waiting for something.
Indeed, many things will happen now. About 100 years ago, there was a rash of activity in the Caribbean. One volcano belched poison fumes
On 8th May 1902, Mt Pelée, in Martinique erupted. A glowing avalanche (pyroclastic flow) from the eruption destroyed the town of St Pierre and its 28,000 inhabitants. Only one person, a prisoner, survived.

In 1902, the Soufriere volcano in St Vincent erupted. The eruption began on 6th May, 1902 and continued until 30th March, 1903. 1,565 people were killed and extensive damage was done to agriculture in the areas around the volcano. The Soufriere volcano erupted again in 1979.Between 2001,Kick'em Jenny also showed signs of activity which placed the suronding islands on yellow alert.
The poor prisoner was rescued. He made his living thereafter, appearing at theaters and carnivals.

I was once cleaning out a theater's back rooms, back when I used to go on stage, and I found a huge banner which was tattered and very old. "The ONLY surivor of Mt. Pele! See him reenact historic event!" I used to dance the works of the trio of famous American modern dancers, the three women who created modern dance, Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller and Ruth St. Denis. St. Denis did this wonderful dance with 100 yds of silk, called "Mt. Pele Erupts" which I drew above based on a very old photo of this dance.

Since the volcanoes haven't killed thousands in recent memory, we tend to forget this daisy chain along the Caribbean/Atlantic subjunction zone.

In the last three days, the earthquakes have been not only greater in intensity but the ones along Central America have been very active, too. This leads into the San Andreas rift zone quakes. This rift has been onimously quiet the last year, a bad sign.

Obviously, the Pacific Plate is shoving against Central America which is, in turn, pinching the Caribbean Plate since the Atlanic, moving slower but just as relentlessly, has been having quite a few 5+ earthquake events this last six months. One can almost feel the earth bulging.

The Super Volcano is in the news today, too. This is the mega monster that heaves and sighs barely under the surface of the earth in Yellowstone. It has been slithering around just under the surface a lot lately. From National Geographic:
Molten rock flowing beneath Yellowstone has been causing the national park to rise and fall, scientists say.

Periodic uplifting and settling has occurred here over the last 15,000 years.

A new model helps explain the latest episode of rapid surface rise and increased geyser activity—from 1997 to 2003—in the volcanically active region in the western United States.
A number of gysers have either returned into action or new ones have appeared. The fact that the lava just under the surface has sighed back down except the caldera walls are still heaving upwards, only means it is alive, not safe at all. We can only guess at what is going on downstairs. The latest images show the caldera's many rings quite clearly and one can sense how the entire region breathes up and down with the lava's movement, it is stunningly huge. Perhaps one can say, it is directly affected by the California rift zone's own activities?

Geology is not only a very exciting field, there is so little we know and of course, understanding how the entire eco-interplanetary/interstellar systems coexist and interact is life and death for us humans! Which takes me back to all the cut backs in science that the GOP is increasingly imposing upon us. This is beyond stupid, it can be fatal!