Drought

Not Just Another Drought

June 7, 2021 Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights. Educate! Climate Change, Drought, Environment, Food and Agriculture

The American West is having a drought. So, what else is new? And, that's just the point. The American West has been in an extended drought since 2000, so far the second worst in the last 1200 years. Here is the key quote from the National Geographic article cited above: In the face of continued climate change, some scientists and others have suggested that using the word "drought" for what’s happening now might no longer be appropriate, because it implies that the water shortages may end. Instead, we might be seeing a fundamental, long-term shift in water availability all over the West. That is what climate scientists have been warning about all along. The problems we are now experiencing are not just cycles or fluctuations—although those continue to be important—but rather, permanent changes in the climate (that is, on any timeline that matters to humans).

Ten Days Of Climate Extremes

August 31, 2020 Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News. Educate! climate crisis, Drought, extreme heat, Fires, Flood, Hurricane, Tropical Storms

Pick almost any slice of time in the recent past and you can find clues to how climate change is jacking up dangerous weather extremes. In the 10 days after the potential global heat record in Death Valley, an unusual lightning storm blasted California with more than 11,000 lightning strikes that sparked hundreds of fires; more heat records were set in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; unprecedented flooding in Asia washed away villages and threatened China's Three Gorges Dam; and twin hurricanes threatened the Gulf of Mexico, with Hurricane Laura generating a storm surge as high as 11 feet that pushed far inland along the Texas and Louisiana coast.

Tree Rings And Weather Data Warn Of Megadrought

April 18, 2020 Tim Radford, Climate News Network. Educate! climate crisis, Drought, Food and Agriculture, Megadrought, Water

London – Climate change could be pushing the US west and northern Mexico towards the most severe and most extended period of drought observed in a thousand years of US history, a full-blown megadrought. Natural atmospheric forces have always triggered prolonged spells with little rain. But warming driven by profligate human use of fossil fuels could now be making a bad situation much worse. The warning of what climate scientists call a megadrought – outlined in the journal Science – is based not on computer simulations but on direct testimony from more than a century of weather records and the much longer story told by 1200 consecutive years of evidence preserved in the annual growth rings of trees that provide a record of changing levels of soil moisture.

The Iran Floods and U. S. Sanctions

April 21, 2019 Jan Oberg, Counterpunch. Educate! Drought, Flooding, Iran, Sanctions

You have certainly not heard much about this in the West. And it didn’t get a fraction of the media attention (and none of the hundreds of millions of Euro pledges by the perversely rich) that the Notre Dame fire did. However, if disastrous floods had hit 28 out of 31 provinces and affected 10 million people in some European country or in the US, I believe you would have heard about it from Day One. But now it is Iran. Only the Iranians. The situation is disastrous but not so much because thousands have died. Rather, because floods of this magnitude are likely to have terrible long-term consequences for agricultural and other production, infrastructure, energy production, transport and daily lives (see pictures below and on the links).

Climate Change, Drought And Day Zero In Cape Town

February 12, 2018 Leonie Joubert, Climatenewsnetwork.net Educate! Climate Change, Drought, South Africa

CAPE TOWN, 7 February, 2018 – Day Zero is real. The Day Zero concept means that Cape Town’s utility managers will switch off water to residential buildings and businesses, and continue to supply only critical services such as hospitals, and also the communal taps in slum neighbourhoods where people already collect their water in buckets every day. This means most people in the suburbs will have to collect their daily 25l (0.88 cubic feet) water ration from 200 new distribution points. People have been warned that the military and police are on standby to manage any civil unrest. The fear is that the entire economy will grind to a halt, as businesses and schools shut down, lacking water to drink or to flush toilets. Households are currently asked to stick to a daily limit of 50l, but enforcement is difficult. The city says significant numbers of households, mostly wealthier ones, still massively exceed this figure.

Scientists Warn Of Permanent Drought For 25% Of Earth By 2050

January 4, 2018 By Jake Johnson, Commondreams.org Educate! Climate Change, Drought, Environment

In a new study that adds to the lengthy and ever-growing list of potential consequences of global climate inaction, scientists warn that around a quarter of the Earth could end up in a permanent state of drought if the planet warms by two degrees Celsius by 2050. "Our research predicts that aridification would emerge over about 20-30 percent of the world's land surface by the time the global mean temperature change reaches 2ºC," said Manoj Joshi, one of lead researchers of the study, which was published on Monday in the journal Nature. Scientists have for years linked widespread and more intense droughts to human-caused climate change. The only way to avoid these conditions is to limit global warming to 1.5ºC, Joshi concluded. "The world has already warmed by 1ºC," added Dr. Su-Jong Jeong, a researcher from China's Southern University of Science and Technology.

Right To Life And Water: Drought And Turmoil For Coke And Pepsi In Tamil Nadu

May 27, 2017 Keith Schneider, www.circleofblue.org Resist! Coca Cola, Drought, Pepsi, Water

By Keith Schneider for Circle of Blue - TIRUNELVELI, India – Just after dusk on a warm mid-January evening, attorney DA Prabakar greeted several visitors on the dimly lit street in front of his home here in southern India. The air was desert-dry and dusty in this rain-scarce river city. All of Tamil Nadu, from Chennai in the north to this city of 500,000 residents near India’s southern tip, has wilted in the state’s worst drought in 140 years. The Thamirabarani River, which runs through the city and is famed for its steady flow even in dry years, meandered through a sickly progression of shallow ponds and mudflats. All of Tamil Nadu, from Chennai in the north to this city of 500,000 residents near India’s southern tip, has wilted in the state’s worst drought in 140 years. A lawyer with decades of courtroom experience, Prabakar was in high spirits despite the wearying dry spell. The law office on his home’s ground floor is a hive of legal activism. He explained that the next morning the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court would consider motions in his high-profile “public interest litigation,” a judicial complaint filed last summer that temporarily halted the city’s Coca-Cola and PepsiCo bottling plants from drawing water from the Thamirabarani.

Climate Change As Genocide; Inaction Equals Annihilation

April 23, 2017 Michael Klare, www.tomdispatch.com Educate! climate crisis, Drought, Famine, Genocide

By Michael Klare for Tom Dispatch. Not since World War II have more human beings been at risk from disease and starvation than at this very moment. On March 10th, Stephen O’Brien, under secretary-general of the United Nations for humanitarian affairs, informed the Security Council that 20 million people in three African countries -- Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan -- as well as in Yemen were likely to die if not provided with emergency food and medical aid. “We are at a critical point in history,” he declared. “Already at the beginning of the year we are facing the largest humanitarian crisis since the creation of the U.N.” Without coordinated international action, he added, “people will simply starve to death [or] suffer and die from disease.”

Looming Megadroughts In Western US

October 11, 2016 Oliver Milman, www.theguardian.com Educate! Drought, United States

By Oliver Milman for The Guardian - Warming temperatures and uncertain rainfall mean if more isn’t done to slow climate change, droughts lasting 35 years could blight western states, study says. The harsh drought currently gripping California may appear trivial in the future as new research shows that the south-west US faces the looming threat of “megadroughts” that last for decades. California is in its sixth year of drought, which was barely dented by rains brought by the El Niño climate event and sparked a range of water restrictions in the state.

Californians Are Changing The Water Landscape

February 28, 2016 Peter Spotts, www.csmonitor.com Create! Climate Change, Drought, Water

By Peter Spotts for Christian Science Monitor. NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. — For Carrie Wassenaar, a modest single-story house for sale a half a mile from the Burbank-Bob Hope Airport had the landscaping she was looking for in a home: tidy green lawns front and back, and trees, including an iconic orange tree. The greenery virtually sealed the deal for the Wisconsin native before she ever stepped through the front door. Today, the animation producer’s front yard is a part of the California water revolution. Instead of a lawn, it now sports a thick layer of mulch dotted with newly planted, drought-tolerant shrubs and tall grasses, watered by a buried drip-irrigation system. A large, shallow depression in the yard acts as a micro reservoir where water can pool and seep into the sandy soil below, eventually to reach a vast aquifer beneath the San Fernando Valley.

Nestlé To Be Sued For Californian Drought Crimes!

February 23, 2016 Staff, www.ewao.com Resist! California, Drought, Nestle

By Staff of Earth We Are One - The Story of Stuff Project, a campaign group, has just announced the pursuit of legal action towards Nestlé. The lawsuit is over the extraction of groundwater in California as Nestlé has been doing, illegally, for its arrowhead brand. This is considered to be a key contributor to the drought crisis within the state. Outraged citizens had made generous donations to The Story of Stuff Project, enabling them to film a mini-documentary titled: This Land is Our Land.

Newsletter – Black August, End Neo-Slavery, Resist

August 30, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Arctic drilling, Carbon, Drought, Environmental racism, Fight for 15, Finance and the Economy, Fracking, Gas, Guaranteed basic income, Hurrican Katrina, Iran, Japan, Jeju Island, Korea, Living Wage, Minimum Wage, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Oil, Okinawa, Peace, Political Prisoner, Prison, Prison Labor, Private Prisons, Racism, Solar Energy, Sustainable energy, TISA, TPP, TTIP, Wars and Militarism, Wind, Worker Cooperative, Youth imprisonment

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - Black August is coming to an end as we commemorate the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As many head back to school, a full season of actions are being planned for the fall to stop the corporate takeover of our communities and world and the push toward neo-slavery. There is a lot of resistance going on. We hope that you have an opportunity this summer to relax and build up your energy for the many actions that are being planned for the fall. If you go to a park, there is one more thing you can do: take a moment to think about the people who inhabited the land before it became a park.

California Businesses Save Water In Style With #DroughtNotDrab

August 20, 2015 Sara Aminzadeh, www.ecowatch.com Create! California, Drought, Environment, Water

By Sara Aminzadeh in EcoWatch - As the drought continues, Californians are stepping up to conserve water, and collectively exceeded Gov. Brown’s 25 percent reduction mandate in June 2015. Nonetheless, water-intensive lawns and other hallmarks of an English garden-style landscape still remain a huge draw on our state’s dwindling water supply. Outdoor watering accounts for about half of residential water use in urban areas, and up to 80 percent in hot, dry inland areas. Reducing outdoor water use is a key focus of state conservation enforcement efforts, particularly in areas of the state that failed to meet the emergency water conservation mandate. Research from the Pacific Institute suggests that Californians could reduce outdoor water use by 70 percent by landscaping with low water-use plants, saving water and money.

Yes Men: ‘Skip Showers For Beef’

July 26, 2015 Derek Markham, www.treehugger.com Strategize! Climate Change, Drought, Food and Agriculture, Water

By Derek Markham on TreeHugger. Los Angeles, CA - It's admirable that people want to conserve water at home, especially in light of the severe droughts that are affecting many areas, but the amount of water used in homes pales in comparison to that used by industry. While residential water use is but a small slice of the pie (~14%), the meat and dairy industry is said to account for some 47% of all water used in the state of California. And of course, we all want to do our part to help the beef and milk producers continue to guzzle water, so a couple of smart fellows have come up with a great solution, which allows people to have their beef (and milk) while sacrificing a bit of personal hygiene for the good of industry.

Protesters Tell Nestle To Stop Bottling Water

May 23, 2015 Charles Davis, www.takepart.com Resist! California, Capitalism, Drought, Water

"They’re just ruining our planet,” said Patty Shenker, speaking outside Nestlé’s water bottling facility in Los Angeles. “They’re completely destroying our planet for profit, and we’ve got to stop them.” Shenker, 63, was wearing an orangutan mask—“Animals can’t live without water any more than we can,” she said—and was one of more than 50 people who came out on Wednesday to protest that the world’s largest food and beverage company was continuing to bottle California’s water despite the state facing one of the worst droughts in 1,200 years. As The Desert Sun reported in March, Nestlé Waters North America bottled 591 million gallons of California water in 2011, when the current drought began; by 2014, it was bottling 705 million gallons, an increase of 17.5 percent. The newspaper also found that Nestlé’s permit to pipe the water for its Arrowhead brand from its mountain spring source and transport it all through the San Bernardino National Forest expired in 1988.

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