Elaine Meinel Supkis
The entire planet is seeing droughts and floods as global warming causes more and more difficulties. The hurricane in the Americas has barely begun, it usually gins up at the beginning of August and the worst storms come in September. I also wonder why people do dumb things during heat waves like not use umbrellas or hats.
A second killer typhoon hits China.
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes agoBEIJING - Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Kaemi caused a levee in southern China to collapse, threatening to inundate an area that's home to 20,000 villagers, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday.
The storm, which weakened to a depression, killed at least eight people and left 18 others missing as it battered China's southeast and forced the evacuation of more than 640,000 residents. Heavy rain was forecast through Thursday.
The violent tropical storm season is off to a good start, isn't it? China's usually comes before our own. The dry winds over the Sahara have to really heat up as it does as summer progresses, and it causes the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean to evaporate into the atmosphere, creating storm cells. The upper atmospheric winds have to be just right for these to turn into hurricanes. Every year, we are on pins and needles, wondering if we will be hit by these errant storms. America still hasn't recovered from last year. Many oil and gas wells still under repair and of course, New Orleans lies in ruins, probably for good.
Droughts are devastating many tropical and temperate regions this year.
Tue Jul 25, 12:44 PM ETFOZ DO IGUACU, Brazil (Reuters) - The worst drought in 20 years has reduced South America's Iguazu falls to a trickle and tourists may have to wait until October to see water gushing over the cliffs again, officials said.
Considered one of the world's natural wonders, the huge thundering Iguazu Falls dwarf North America's Niagara Falls and rival in size Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in southern Africa.
But the river feeding the falls is parched. Only about 80,000 U.S. gallons per second are tumbling over the fall's jagged rocks, far below the normal flow of 350,000 to 400,000 gallons (1.3 million to 1.5 million liters).
The entire Amazon basin is draining rapidly down. The natives who struggle to live there are suffering because it is harder to find fish and game since all are draining away along with the water. People can't travel great distances in jungles easily but they use canoes on the wide, mostly placid rivers and now this is increasingly impossible. And as the forest canopy drops its leaves because plants are conserving their water, leaves being notorious water loosers, ask any palo verde or mesquite tree with their super tiny leaves! And this brings in more sunlight to the forest floor which means more vines and weeds will grow, making passage for humans and mammals increasingly difficult. This drying up of the Amazon is alarming many people.
By AARON C. DAVIS, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 20 minutes agoSACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gripped by a 10th straight day of 100-degree heat, California sweated out the possibility of more blackouts Tuesday as the number of suspected heat-related deaths climbed to at least 56 and the rotting carcasses of thousands of dairy cows and other livestock baked in the sun.
Some communities faced their third day without electricity as the record-breaking temperatures strained transmission equipment.
Humans and livestock live in 100+degree temperatures in many desert climates. They adapt to it by evolving dark skins, wearing the right clothing and breeding animals hardy for dry, hot conditions. Behold the camel! Ships of the desert!
Click on image to enlarge.
People in Paris in hot sun, none of whom are wearing any hats.
Speaking of clothing, I can see here in my own part of the world as well as in pictures, virtually no one, NO ONE wears hats anymore! I am a hat lover. I wear lots of hats and love hats. Also, people strip down so the sun shines on their bare bodies which is bad! No! Why did all Saudis wear loose robes that cover everything? Eh? The sun beats down on one's flesh, one becomes roasted. Even my dumb chickens figured that out and they hide under the truck or the shade of trees, panting, when it is hot.
The northern Mediterranean basin is drying out.
DROUGHT: IN 10 YEARS RAIN -10 PCT. RIVER LEVEL - 20 PCT.
(AGI) - Rome, Jul 26 - In 10 years, from 1994 to 2004 Italy registered a 10 pct. decrease of rainfalls and the level of its main rivers fell by 20 pct. The water situation in Italy is deteriorating and we'll increasingly have to cope with emergency situations, like the current drought. This is the situation described by the control body of water resources and waste presenting the report on the national water services today in Rome. A critical situation if one thinks that the level of river Po went down to 341 cubic metres/sec in July 2005, whereas during the precedent 10 years the average of the same months was 990.91 cubic metres/sec. There are about 53 bn cubic metres of water available in Italy every year compared to a demand of 54.3 bn cubic metres/year. A negative balance considering that every Italian consumes 200 litres daily plus 182 litres of mineral water per year. (agi) -
261452 LUG 06
The Sahara desert used to be rolling savanah when homosapiens evolved into humans. Even as it dried out, the tribal humans contracting more and more towards the Nile Valley, it still rained a good deal on the north shores of Africa. Now it is dry, very dry. The Euphrates Valley was a green paradise. It is all dust now, look at any pictures of our invasion, it looks increasingly like Saudi Arabia.
Now the desert belt is moving up Italy and Greece as well as Spain and Portugal. Last year, just before the worst hurricanes hit America, I blogged about the many forest fires in dry Portugal. Well, it is even drier, now. We live in an oil/water culture that has been abusing both resources and now both are kicking us back in the shins as good water is getting more and more difficult to access, pollution problems and of course, our reckless burning of oil is making water more polluted (look at the pretty colors when it runs down the street during rainstorms! Like a rainbow---oil slick!).
Click on image to enlarge
Asian women still use umbrellas.
People are pig headed. We want puffy, fluffy hairdoes. We want to wear baseball caps that don't protect the back of the neck. We think umbrellas are for sissies. I think this is all too silly. If we insist on desertifying our planet, we better begin practicing being Lawrence of Arabia.
Did you see this article? http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2006/07/oh_my_god.htm
"The vast Amazon rainforest is on the brink of being turned into desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate, alarming research suggests. And the process, which would be irreversible, could begin as early as next year.
Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down."
Posted by: Iowan | July 26, 2006 at 12:56 PM
Yesterday, a local weatherman in North San Diego county pointed out that the local ocean water reached 76 degrees in places. He said that was warm enough to sustain a huricane. That's somewhat unbelievable... Huricanes in California?
Posted by: shirt | July 26, 2006 at 02:02 PM
Wow. I remember the ocean off California, used to surf there 40 years ago. Brrr. The Atlantic was much warmer and the Gulf of California, a bathtub. Indeed, that is Gulf water temperatures!
As for the Amazon, an SF writer, K.Dick (?) wrote about a man a hundred years hence, time travels to Brazil and finds himself stranded in the Amazon DESERT. Due to pollution causing global warming.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | July 26, 2006 at 03:15 PM
Yes. The rain forest wasn't named the rain forest because they couldn't think of anything else to name it.
The changes that have occurred in the last 35 years are the killer.
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Hello to Akamaru.
And I wear hats a lot - mainly to protect my dye job. I cannot STAND the sun on my head.
Posted by: D.F.Facti | July 26, 2006 at 07:49 PM
Facti, tell Arthur it is a pain to reply at his wonderful blog. I read it every day, though. And I love you all, even the cat, don't tell Arthur that, though.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | July 26, 2006 at 08:42 PM