Saturday, May 25, 2013

Obama's Arctic Strategy Sets Off A Climate Time Bomb



Obama's Arctic Strategy Sets Off A Climate Time Bomb

US National Strategy for the Arctic Region prioritises corporate 'economic opportunities' at the expense of everyone else

One week ago, the Obama administration launched its National Strategy for the Arctic Region, outlining the government's strategic priorities over the next 10 years. The release of the strategy came about a week after the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President at the White House Complex hosted a briefing with international Arctic scientists.

Despite giving lip service to the values of environmental conservation, the new document focuses on how the US can manage the exploitation of the region's vast untapped oil, gas and mineral resources in cooperation with other Arctic powers.

US hinges success of Arctic strategy on diminishing sea ice

At the heart of the White House's new Arctic strategy is an elementary but devastating contradiction between what President Obama, in the document's preamble, describes as seeking "to make the most of the emerging economic opportunities in the region" due to the rapid loss of Arctic summer sea ice, and recognising "the need to protect and conserve this unique, valuable, and changing environment."

Despite repeated references to "preservation" and "conservation", the strategy fails to outline any specific steps that would be explored to mitigate or prevent the disappearance of the Arctic sea ice due to intensifying global warming. Instead, the document from the outset aims to:

"... position the United States to respond effectively to challenges and emerging opportunities arising from significant increases in Arctic activity due to the diminishment of sea ice and the emergence of a new Arctic environment."

In other words, far from being designed to prevent catastrophe, the success of the new strategy is premised precisely on the disappearance of the Arctic summer sea ice.Z

The document identifies three main US objectives in the region: advancing US "security interests" by increasing US military and commercial penetration "through, under, and over the airspace and waters of the Arctic"; pursuing "responsible Arctic region stewardship" by continuing to "conserve its resources"; and strengthening international cooperation to advance "collective interests" and "shared Arctic state prosperity" - all the while, somhow working to "protect the Arctic environment."

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Anyone who has been paying attention and isn't blinded by partisan politics to what is happening in the Arctic has pieced this puzzle together already regarding why we are not seeing action on the climate crisis.

As was already covered:

Ocean Acidification Poised To Radically Effect Arctic

Arctic Melting Tipping Point That Should Matter To You

The Arctic, Humanity's Barometer

Major Loss In Arctic Sea Ice Volume-It Does Effect You

And here:

Our Carbon Debt, Our Moral Duty

To continue to allow politicians and corporations in these countries involved (and that includes the Harper Govt. in Canada) to control our fate and the fate of our children by being totally indifferent to the moral consequences of their folly and false choices is irresponsible and immoral.

Please read the information at the links provided and consider the other information that will be added here. Where profit and control is concerned there is no such thing as Obama, Bush or any of them really being on your side. Only this time they are exacerbating a global catastrophe. What will wake people up? An ARCTIC WAR? Russia already planted their flag. DO you really trust that what has happened in the Middle East cannot happen here?

It is time to ask yourself : WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO DO TO SAVE HER AND YOURSELF?

What of the species that live there and the indigenous people who have survived there for centuries?

America's First Climate Refugees..." It's Happening Now...The Village Is Sinking"

Let them drown so Shell can get at the oil?

Is this what we've become?

State Department Gives Favorable Assessment Of Keystone XL (written by a Transcanada Rep)

Let's keep pumping tar sands exacerbating the very melting that will facilitate drilling and sucking up more oil to keep the positive feedbacks going... after all, GOLD IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN LIFE, no? How many Hurricane Sandys will it take? How many famines?

And you thought John Kerry was different?

Arctic Council Fiddles While Region Melts



China Eyes Arctic Riches As It Obtains "Observer" Status On Arctic Council

Ice is melting away at a record-breaking rate in the Arctic, exposing valuable natural resources and opening up new shipping routes. Measurements taken last August found levels of Arctic sea ice were at their lowest levels since satellites began measuring the ice in 1979.

China doesn't own any Arctic territory - in fact, its northernmost point is more than 1,400km south of the Arctic Circle. But it's nevertheless taking a strong interest in the region, building a physical presence there and using diplomacy and trade ties to gain a foothold.

China’s actions in the region have paid off as it, along with five other non-Arctic states, have been granted permanent observer status to the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum of eight countries with Arctic territory.

Gaining observer status does not allow China any voting rights on the Arctic Council. But it does give it sway in an increasingly important region. Not only does the shrinking ice have climate implications; warming temperatures at the poles have raised the possibility of access to as much as 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

end of excerpt

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Militarization Of The Arctic-"We Have To Rethink How War Is Fought"

By John Robles

As the Arctic ice continues to melt and resources slowly begin to be available the West has decided to begin the militarization of the Arctic zone in a bid to gain control over the precious resources. In an interview with the John Robles of the Voice of Russia Agenta Nordberg, Vice Chair of the Swedish Peace Council gives her views on the issue and also comments on the militarization of Sweden, Norway and the North and the NATO expansion into “neutral” areas.

Robles: I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about NATO, in the Arctic, in particular, can you tell our listeners about the radar installations and satellite communications equipment they have set up in Norway and in Scandinavia?

Norberg: Well, I’m not a technician but I can tell you that recently it was published: a book the Satellite War by Bård Wormdal – a journalist at Norwegian radio. And it was a very important book, it was published in 2011.

I invited him to Stockholm in October when we had a day about the Arctic and the situation in the Arctic and what he says is you have to change your whole idea of how war is conducted. War is conducted via satellite and via radar installations.

And for instance, to make it clear, to understand what we should understand is: that the war on Libya, the former year, was conducted via satellite from Svalbard. This is very dangerous because, this island, the Svalbard Islands are a peace area undersigned by 14 different nations but Norway has allowed the United States of America to deploy radar installations, and in connection with the satellite they are conducting war. This is a quite new understanding of how war is conducted.

Robles: NATO and the US, they claim that their missiles, that are now surrounding Russia and their radar installations all over the world, that these are somehow a defensive shield.

Norberg: You have to differ between all these: the national missile defense, they call it. The Vardo radar close to the Russian border is one installation, and there are also those in Poland and in Turkey, and they will also be deployed in Romania it is a missiles shield. It is one thing.

The other thing are all the other radars and satellites which are informing the pilots and the war planes how to bomb and where to bomb. I have a globe here in front of me and it is almost all covered by US radar installations for different purposes. So, you have this national missile shield, which they claim is for defense, and it is an offensive weapon. It can be used as defensive but it can as well be used as an offensive weapon. And one of those radars are installed just outside the Russian border in Vardo.

I’ve been rather surprised when I’ve met Russian scientists and visitors in Stockholm, last year in October, I arranged a seminar as I mentioned about the Arctic, and the Russian representative, he didn’t agree with me that this was a dangerous situation. The only one who agreed with me was Bård Wormdal, the journalist who had written the book Satellite War.

There seems to be lack of understanding about the installations surrounding the Russian border, that is my opinion. And I think it is rather dangerous.

Robles: Why did the Russian expert disagree with you?

Norberg: Because he said that the Vardo radar is not dangerous, and I disagreed with him. And also Bård Wormdal disagreed with him.

This Vardo radar, a few kilometers outside Russian border, is rather dangerous because it is in the missile defense system, so called missile defense system. So, I think he was not aware of this. We disagreed rather strong on this matter and that’s why I’m very happy that you called me so I can tell this.

Robles: There hasn’t been much news about that. Now, as far as NATO and the Arctic in the north and Scandinavia and Canada, can you give us some details about NATO’s plans and their current activities, especially in the Arctic, as it is opening up, and resources are becoming available that were not available before?

Norberg: Then I think I will drift back to Sweden because during the last years, starting with 2007, there’ve been huge war maneuvers on the Swedish and Norwegian soil, with all NATO, and specifically the American State participating in huge maneuvers in the north.

They were called for instance: Nordic Air Meet in 2007 where a lot of countries took part, and then in 2009, it was Loyal Arrow: history’s largest air maneuver in the northern part of Sweden and Norway, and also Finland was the area. And then it continued with the Cold Response №1, a winter maneuver in the northern part of Sweden and northern Norway. And it continued in March 2012 with the Cold Response №2 with 16,500 soldiers from 15 different countries. And then after this you had last autumn a huge maneuver in the north called Nordic Air Meet №2.

So, there are ongoing military war games and some Russian military has protested, specifically against Cold Response №2.

Nobody in Sweden would have known about this unless 5 Norwegian personnel crashed into Kebnekaise, a mountain in the northern Sweden, we would never have known about these 16,500 troop military maneuver.

So, it is ongoing, not on daily basis, but certainly every year it is about two huge maneuvers in the north, and even in the south, in the Baltic. And this should be highlighted I think.

Robles: Now… Sweden as I understand is a neutral country, one point: how does Sweden officially explain that they allowed these installations? And do you think all these maneuvers are designed to intimidate Russia or to try to exercise sovereignty on the Arctic? And in that regard, what moves have they made to try to establish their own sovereignty over Arctic areas that were in dispute?

Norberg: Well, when we drift to Arctic I think there are two things going on here. When they are interviewed, those who are in charge of these maneuvers, they always answer that this is for the Arctic. They openly express this. These maneuvers are for the Arctic and the resources which will be available when the ice is melting.

Agneta Nordberg is Vice Chair of the Swedish Peace Council, Member of Steering Committee in International Peace Bureau(IPB) and on the board of directors Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

Images of ColdResponse2:







I fear that once the Arctic is truly opened up we as a species will once again fail to do what is right in understanding our place and the consequences of our actions and more will die for our love of money. I hope I am proven wrong.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Drop In U.S. Underground Water Levels Has Accelerated:USGS



Drop In U.S. Underground Water Levels Has Accelerated:USGS

By Environment Correspondent Deborah Zabarenko

(Reuters) - Water levels in U.S. aquifers, the vast underground storage areas tapped for agriculture, energy and human consumption, between 2000 and 2008 dropped at a rate that was almost three times as great as any time during the 20th century, U.S. officials said on Monday.

The accelerated decline in the subterranean reservoirs is due to a combination of factors, most of them linked to rising population in the United States, according to Leonard Konikow, a research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

The big rise in water use started in 1950, at the time of an economic boom and the spread of U.S. suburbs. However, the steep increase in water use and the drop in groundwater levels that followed World War 2 were eclipsed by the changes during the first years of the 21st century, the study showed.

As consumers, farms and industry used more water starting in 2000, aquifers were also affected by climate changes, with less rain and snow filtering underground to replenish what was being pumped out, Konikow said in a telephone interview from Reston, Virginia.

Depletion of groundwater can cause land to subside, cut yields from existing wells, and diminish the flow of water from springs and streams.

Agricultural irrigation is the biggest user of water from aquifers in the United States, though the energy industry, including oil and coal extraction, is also a big user.

The USGS study looked at 40 different aquifers from 1900 through 2008 and found that the historical average of groundwater depletion - the amount the underground reservoirs lost each year - was 7.5 million acre-feet (9.2 cubic kilometers).

From 2000 to 2008, the average was 20.2 million acre-feet (25 cubic kilometers) a year. (An acre-foot is the volume of water needed to cover an acre to the depth of one foot.)

One of the best-known aquifers, the High Plains Aquifer, also known as the Oglala, had the highest levels of groundwater depletion starting in the 1960s. It lies beneath parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, where water demand from agriculture is high and where recent drought has hit hard.

end of excerpt

Also See:

Ogallala Aquifer In Texas Panhandle Suffers Big Drop

Wow, a 19 foot drop in one year! This is totally unsustainable. Irrigation practices as well as what is being grown is also key in conserving water. And this is part of the problem we see in the US with farmers also now having to fight corporations for water for fracking. Fracking needs to be BANNED. There is nothing good about it.

For Farms in the West, Oil Wells Are Thirsty Rivals

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If you think this is only happening in Africa, Asia and the Middle East you are mistaken. We here in the U.S. are just as vulnerable to water scarcity and its effects as anyone else on this planet. Millions living in developing countries have been dealing with this for decades. Does it have to happen to the US before anything gets done?

How much hydro fracking will be allowed in the US when coming to the choice of having energy or food? Will solar panels look better when bread costs 20 dollars a loaf and our entire water supply is toxic as our climate has truly reached the point of no return?

There is one main message here beyond climate change, mismanagement, old infrastructure, political stalemate, privatization, pollution, etc...

WE HAVE GOT TO CONSERVE WHAT WE HAVE OR WE WON'T HAVE IT ANYMORE.

You can only dig so deep.







The Midwest Drought that is now in its third year has subsided a bit in some areas but is still extreme in states over the Ogallala aquifer as shown by the drought map above. This is a serious issue that we should be seeing on our news and on every front page of every newspaper. This concerns not only the present but the future of our national water supply and our ability to feed ourselves and the world! In twenty years time or perhaps even sooner this aquifer will be dry.

Millions of people will be without drinking water or water for agriculture. No food, no economy, no life. It is a fool's errand to continue thinking that with a rising population added to the reality of climate change that is part of what is now happening in the Midwest which is worse now than the dustbowl (because we are also not seeing replenishing of snowpack particularly in the Rockies that feed rivers) that we can use this water at its current pace living only in the here and now.

We all know this is real and that it needs to be addressed. Above all the graphs and technical jargon however, it comes down to us to have the foresight and vision as people who care about the present and future to have the moral courage to do what is right. Make no mistake about it, this does touch all of us economically, socially, and spiritually.

What will we do when the well runs dry? We won't need to find out if we act now.

* Conserve

* Call for Sustainable Agriculture practices to be employed with an end to subsidies to industrial agriculture that strips land and force feeds us GM monoculture seeds and chemicals that strip soil nutrients

* Demand political will on all levels to address this as it should be addressed in supporting biodiversity and climate change initiatives

* Support alternative energy initiatives to wean us off fossil fuels that use huge amounts of water

. And, work with nature and listen to the land. We as a species have become arrogant in our pursuit to dominate nature when we are just one part of her. When we remember this and put that respect into action we can make it whole again. But we are running out of time and water to wake up to our own participation in this crisis.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Without Water, Revolution



Without Water, Revolution

By Thomas Friedman

Excerpt:

"You can’t imagine the war here continuing for another year, let alone five. But when you feel the depth of the rage against the Assad government and contemplate the sporadic but barbaric sect-on-sect violence, you can’t imagine any peace deal happening or holding — not without international peacekeepers on the ground to enforce it. Eventually, we will all have to have that conversation, because this is no ordinary war.

THIS Syrian disaster is like a superstorm. It’s what happens when an extreme weather event, the worst drought in Syria’s modern history, combines with a fast-growing population and a repressive and corrupt regime and unleashes extreme sectarian and religious passions, fueled by money from rival outside powers — Iran and Hezbollah on one side, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar on the other, each of which have an extreme interest in its Syrian allies’ defeating the other’s allies — all at a time when America, in its post-Iraq/Afghanistan phase, is extremely wary of getting involved.

I came here to write my column and work on a film for the Showtime series, “Years of Living Dangerously,” about the “Jafaf,” or drought, one of the key drivers of the Syrian war. In an age of climate change, we’re likely to see many more such conflicts.

“The drought did not cause Syria’s civil war,” said the Syrian economist Samir Aita, but, he added, the failure of the government to respond to the drought played a huge role in fueling the uprising. What happened, Aita explained, was that after Assad took over in 2000 he opened up the regulated agricultural sector in Syria for big farmers, many of them government cronies, to buy up land and drill as much water as they wanted, eventually severely diminishing the water table. This began driving small farmers off the land into towns, where they had to scrounge for work.

Snip

"Then, between 2006 and 2011, some 60 percent of Syria’s land mass was ravaged by the drought and, with the water table already too low and river irrigation shrunken, it wiped out the livelihoods of 800,000 Syrian farmers and herders, the United Nations reported. “Half the population in Syria between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers left the land” for urban areas during the last decade, said Aita. And with Assad doing nothing to help the drought refugees, a lot of very simple farmers and their kids got politicized. “State and government was invented in this part of the world, in ancient Mesopotamia, precisely to manage irrigation and crop growing,” said Aita, “and Assad failed in that basic task.”

Young people and farmers starved for jobs — and land starved for water — were a prescription for revolution. Just ask those who were here, starting with Faten, whom I met in her simple flat in Sanliurfa, a Turkish city near the Syrian border. Faten, 38, a Sunni, fled there with her son Mohammed, 19, a member of the Free Syrian Army, who was badly wounded in a firefight a few months ago. Raised in the northeastern Syrian farming village of Mohasen, Faten, who asked me not to use her last name, told me her story.

She and her husband “used to own farmland,” said Faten. “We tended annual crops. We had wheat, barley and everyday food — vegetables, cucumbers, anything we could plant instead of buying in the market. Thank God there were rains, and the harvests were very good before. And then suddenly, the drought happened.”

What did it look like? “To see the land made us very sad,” she said. “The land became like a desert, like salt.” Everything turned yellow.

Did Assad’s government help? “They didn’t do anything,” she said. “We asked for help, but they didn’t care. They didn’t care about this subject. Never, never. We had to solve our problems ourselves.”

So what did you do? “When the drought happened, we could handle it for two years, and then we said, ‘It’s enough.’ So we decided to move to the city. I got a government job as a nurse, and my husband opened a shop. It was hard. The majority of people left the village and went to the city to find jobs, anything to make a living to eat.” The drought was particularly hard on young men who wanted to study or marry but could no longer afford either, she added. Families married off daughters at earlier ages because they couldn’t support them.

Faten, her head conservatively covered in a black scarf, said the drought and the government’s total lack of response radicalized her. So when the first spark of revolutionary protest was ignited in the small southern Syrian town of Dara’a, in March 2011, Faten and other drought refugees couldn’t wait to sign on. “Since the first cry of ‘Allahu akbar,’ we all joined the revolution. Right away.” Was this about the drought? “Of course,” she said, “the drought and unemployment were important in pushing people toward revolution.”

end of excerpt.

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In this article Thomas Friedman gets to the heart of the Syrian people and the plight they face. This article intertwines all of the main crises we see globally that we ignore at our peril. At the core, our reticence to give the proper attention to the environmental factors that have catapulted Syria into this civil war.

As we continue to move further away from addressing the root causes of these crises we will see the Earth plunged deeper into this chasm.

The greatest outrage of this is that it did not have to happen. However, this is an all too familiar tale on the global stage where you see the intersection of politics, greed, globalization, terrorism and climate change.

Political leaders need to be aware of one stark truth: People when pushed to the brink because the very essence of their lives is taken from them, WILL rightfully revolt.

To see such suffering amongst the Syrian people or any people because they are denied water, land, food, education is a human rights abuse and in this case a war crime. All parties to this civil war that continue to escalate the downfall of Syria based solely on profit motives and political/religious hatred are also war criminals.

In this age of more frequent drought where water and food are going to be strained as population increases our perceptions and priorities need to shift in order to survive the world we are making. We are leaving an entire generation of world citizens behind and continuing to perpetuate the cycle of war and hatred by placing hegemony over humanity.

These are the stories we need to see regarding this civil war. This is also the reality of climate change.

However, notice the US government also makes no mention of this in their talk of what is happening here. No mention of the drought. The water. Climate change at all. That is because these countries involved in one way or another regardless of what "side" they are on seek the same thing... control of the resources that bring them power and profit at the expense of all of us with the Syrian people now as pawns. The people of Syria deserve better and honestly at this point if revolution is all that is left to make this truth known then we are failing each other.

Also see:

Syrian Refugees Hit 1 Million

These people are climate refugees.

Edit:

I found this, and hope this is still going on in Syria: Water For People And Peace

I also recently posted about a reported seizure by "rebels" of the largest hydropower dam in Syria. Hard to assess at this point as well what "rebel" really means. It is obvious water is being used as a weapon in this war and that to me in unconscionable.

Rebels Seize Syria's Largest Hydropower Dam

Another World Water Day Gone

We see another World Water Day pass us by. The theme, Water For All, signifies that though some progress has been made we are woefully behin...