Tonight, I'm going to a take a slightly different approach. The subsequent segments will each contain action items, and I hope you'll follow through on each and every one. But the lead segment will not ask you to do anything particularly time-consuming.
In fact, it will not ask you to take any action at all, save one: It will ask you to bear witness.
Notice that I did not say that it will not be difficult.
[Editor's note: What follows includes graphic imagery.]
Tonight's EcoAdvocates edition includes posts by Aji on Welcome to Your New World. It's Hell., Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse on Obama's Bi-Partisan Critter Climate Change Recovery Plan, and boatsie on Countdown to 10.10.10: T-11 days. |
Welcome to Your New World. It's Hell.
By Aji
Global record high temperatures. Record Arctic ice melt. Wildlife destruction. Coral bleaching. Wildfires. Drought. Famine. Record monsoonal rains. Flooding. Epidemics. Food shortages. Death on a massive scale.
And that's only this year to date.
Come with me. Bear witness.
Record Heat
Two days ago, Los Angeles broke its own previous heat record, hitting 113 degrees - at the end of September. This summer, 37 states have set records for hottest "nighttime low temperatures."
We're not alone: 17 nations have set records for high temperatures this year. The highest was recorded in Pakistan on May 26: 128.3F. On July 29, even Finland reached a high of 99F. In India, hundreds died in a recent heatwave.
Here in the U.S., we could take a lesson from Indian writer Jug Suraiya:
"That's why we moan and bitch and bellyache," Suraiya explained in The Times of India newspaper. "Because by doing so we hope in our next incarnation, life will, in all senses of the term, be cool."
Arctic Melt and Warming Seas
Both land and sea surface temperatures this summer were nearly two full degrees above the last century's average. Because of the extreme heat, Arctic ice is melting at record rates; earlier this month, it reached its lowest level ever, in terms of both surface area and depth. In Alaska, the virtual disappearance of ice floes caused a "beaching" event in which thousands of walruses were crushed to death.
And it's not just Arctic waters. The increased temperatures have led to massive rates of ocean acidification, threatening underwater habitats, ecosystems, and wildlife around the globe. According to marine biodiversity expert Donald Potts, "It's going to change the dominant organism in the food chain, and there's a very real danger that it may short-circuit the food chains."
The heat is destroying already-endangered coral reefs at an alarming rate. Earlier this summer, the Philippines suffered the largest single coral bleaching event ever recorded - killing 95% of the region's coral. Additional bleaching events have occurred this year off the coasts of Thailand and Indonesia, in the Caribbean, and off the coast of Texas.
Wildfires
In parts of the U.S., the summer's extreme heat contributed to wildfires. Here in the Southwest, wildfires are not especially rare during the summer months - but in Detroit? And the fires in the U.S. were minuscule compared to those in Russia, which some experts are attributing to climate change.
The record heat, drought, and wildfires have killed as many as 15,000 Russian citizens (nearly half in Moscow alone). One-third of its wheat crop is gone, which will exacerbate existing food shortages in Russia and worldwide. And the country's economic losses are currently estimated at some $15 billion.
Drought and Famine
Despite occasional periods of localized monsoonal activity, the American Southwest remains in a drought of more than a decade's standing. And we're the lucky ones.
The consistent warming trend has created drought conditions all over the world – but most noticeably in Africa, in an equatorial belt known as the Sahel. For years, several countries in the Sahel have been wracked by drought, accompanied by that murderous spectre on horseback, Famine. While U.S. media seem to have relegated this to the status of "non-story," perhaps assuming that drought and famine are simply business as usual in Africa, a few international outlets have taken an occasional photo.
Aid groups warn that the situation in Niger is lethal:
More than seven million people in Niger face food shortages in a serious crisis because of a major shortfall in the crop harvest for 2009-2010, according to the UN.
. . .
Aid agencies warned yesterday that 10 million people are already facing severe food shortages, particularly in the landlocked countries of Chad and Niger, after a drought led to the failure of last year's crops. As many as 400,000 children are at risk of dying from starvation in Niger alone, according to Save the Children.
Monsoons and Flooding
This year's monsoons in the Sahel were expected, at last, to provide a small measure of relief from the drought. Instead, they battered the desiccated ground with flooding downpours, sweeping away people, animals, homes, villages.
Now, Niger's suffering is compounded. Meet three survivors in a relief camp. That is, assuming they still live.
And as I noted in an earlier diary:
It's not just Niger. Another 105,000 are reported homeless in Burkina Faso from new flooding. Several thousand more are homeless in Mali. In Southern Sudan, the BBC reports, roughly 57,000 have been forced to flee their homes, and more rain is expected.
Additional flooding in Europe and Asia caused large numbers of deaths, including landslides in China sparked by torrential rains. And the same jetstream anomaly that laid the groundwork for Russia's heat wave and wildfires led to the most extreme example of this summer's violent monsoonal weather: the Pakistan floods.
On August 24th, I wrote a particularly difficult diary on the situation in Pakistan. Then, I wrote the following:
Prior to this past weekend, some 600,000 residents of the southern Sindh Province had already sought shelter in relief camps. Within a 24-hour period over the weekend, another 150,000 were evacuated from the Sukkur area as floodwaters continued to rise.
In Sukkur, between eight and ten thousand people are sleeping in the mud. They have no choice; there is nowhere else to go.
Elders are starving; children dying of disease and dehydration. The relief effort is short of the number of helicopters needed to distribute aid. The intense heat, combined with feet of standing water, has created the perfect breeding ground for malaria, cholera, and innumerable other bacterial diseases: "As of August 18th, there had been an estimated 204,040 cases of acute diarrhoeal disease, 204,647 acute respiratory disease cases and 263,356 cases of acute skin diseases."
Nearly a week later, with overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and immune systems ravaged by starvation, those numbers are bound to be much higher.
More than a month later, little has changed. I'm going to leave you with the words of U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon:
The eyes see. The ears hear. Yet, somehow, the mind struggles to grasp the full dimension of this catastrophe.
Almost 20 million people need shelter, food and emergency care. That is more than the entire population hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Kashmir earthquake, Cyclone Nargis and the earthquake in Haiti — combined.
At least 160,000 square kilometres of land is under water — an area larger than more than half the countries of the world.
U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon
Now that you've seen Hell, are you sure that you don't want to take action?
Obama's Bi-Partisan Critter Climate Change Recovery Plan
by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
There are many species threatened by climate change impacts. Recently, thousands of walruses were forced to haul out to the Alaskan coast because their habitat of ice floes is melting. Aerial footage shows the danger of stampede killings as the thousands of walruses are crowded together. There is no sound in this video:
One important benefit of listing a species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is the mandated conservation recovery to prevent extinction of the species. In recent years, federal scientists have identified climate change as one of the major threats facing species in 59% of these endangered species recovery plans. However, the Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has generally rejected climate change as a threat sufficient to list species as threatened or endangered, such as the American pika. So, there is a bit of a rabbit-hole state where climate change may not be a sufficient ground for ESA listing, but it is a factor considered in recovery plans for those species who are listed.
However, the Obama administration has a new FWS conservation plan that addresses recovery of wildlife threatened by climate change impacts and essentially provides a form of end-run around this ESA rabbit hole. This new recovery plan applies to all species and thus enables recovery measures without the need to first obtain listing under ESA. This enables assistance to wildlife before they reach the status of threatened or endangered species. Moreover, while the plan provides recommendations and is not legally binding, it can also be used to save critters that did not qualify for listing under ESA, such as the American Pika, if the conservation entity operating in the area of the pika habitat decides to implement a recovery measure. In addition, the plan will have multiple data bases that might provide the evidence needed to obtain listing under ESA. Remarkably, even the GOP climate deniers appear to have a soft spot for critters: There was bipartisan support in the form of "substantial funding" for two components of this plan.
A few details about this plan (pdf file). The goal is to ensure sustainability of fish, wildlife, plants, streams and habitats threatened by climate change impacts. The FWS created a scientific team to identify animals vulnerable to climate change.
The U.S. Geological Survey will operate eight regional Climate Science Centers to record detailed measurements of rising temperature impacts on local ecologies, such as measurements on snow pack, soil moisture, and stream temperatures. The federal government will establish 21 Landscape Conservation Cooperatives or a "network of regional hubs for scientific research and information sharing" to enable FWS to work with states, federal agencies, tribes, non-governmental organizations, universities and others on regional climate change issues.
The plan creates a coalition of federal, state, local and international partners in the public and private sectors as well as stakeholders and citizens to join forces to find solutions.
Take-Action Items
Private citizens can be part of this coalition. The FWS suggests two projects where we can "become part of a nationwide network gathering data on climate change effects on plants and wildlife."
Project BudBurst and National Phenology Network are projects that enable the public to share and record online observations of "phenophases such as first leaf, first flower, and first fruit of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses."
Countdown to 10.10.10: T-11 days
by boatsie
With just 11 days to go, 10:10 global reports 99,330 sign ups in 152 countries! Partner 350.org reports 5127 Events in 174 Countries, and now notes there are events planned in each of the 50 states in the US!
10:10 Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, one of the countries already severely impacted by sea level rises and climate change, Bangladesh Information Gateway Limited (BIG) is making an huge public awareness campaign to promote the use of solar lamps in lieu of kerosene lamps traditionally used for lighting throughout the country. Kerosene lamps emit around 250 kg of CO2 per year; currently, nearly 65% of the population relies on kerosene lamps.
Action:
Stay tuned: In London, October 5 a special workshop
on the importance of working with your landlord or tenants outlines strategies to build cooperative relationships between landlords and tenants, and provides advise on cutting emissions in commercial buildings. A new 10:10 resource, the 10:10 tenant checklist will be distriubed and available on the 10:10 site soon afterwards!
In the Maldives, the low-laying country now best known for its underwater meeting for last year’s 350.org event, President Mohamed Nasheed writes:
As President of one of the world's most climate vulnerable countries, I want to thank you for your tireless work and offer my wholehearted support for the Global Work Party on 10/10/10.
I shall be working hard in support of 10/10/10, up on my roof installing solar panels donated by Sungevity. But my event is just one of dozens of activities planed in the Maldives and thousands worldwide in support of this campaign.
I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to continue working to ensure that the planet meets the sustainable goal of returning CO2concentrations to 350ppm.
For the Maldives, 350 is more than just a number: it is a passport to survival for our entire nation.
Actions
Sign up and find an event near you at 10:10 Global or 350.org
Make your own Posters
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EcoAdvocates is a new series initiated by Meteor Blades and Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, who are contributing editors. This series focuses on providing more effective political pressure and taking action on environmental issues.
Contributing writers provide a diversity of perspectives including wind/energy/climate change; water; agriculture/food; mountaintop removal mining/coal; wildlife; environmental justice; and indigenous/human rights/civil rights. Contributing writers include: Bill McKibben, Jerome a Paris, mogmaar, boatsie, Aji, rb137, Ellinorianne, faithfull, Oke, Jill Richardson, Patric Juillet, Josh Nelson, beach babe in fl, Ojibwa, Muskegon Critic, Desmogblog, A Siegel, gmoke, DWG, citisven, mahakali overdrive and FishOutofWater.