Green Group discussion

The Great Barrier Reef is severely threatened as a living body - climate change to blame.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30...

Dorian hit the Bahamas - aerial photos of damage.
https://edition.cnn.com/us/live-news/...

We were told the airport was six feet under water.

For those who take note of what His Holiness has to say: Pope Francis says we are in a climate emergency caused by human exploitation of nature.

https://www.ecowatch.com/pope-francis...

Ireland plans tree planting to combat climate change.

https://www.ecowatch.com/ireland-plan...

Pope Francis and the Ireland planting were good news.

Good news caused by bad news.

NASA shows us images made from a cubesat transmitting data inside Dorian.
A cubesat is a small cheap satellite, originally made to teach students how to get started building satellites. Like a raspberry pi for coders. So relatively, these are cheap and quick to make, something you wouldn't mind losing inside a hurricane.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.ph...

More from Dorian in the Bahamas. Terrible that so many are missing and so many homes are destroyed.

https://www.independent.ie/world-news...

Absolutely devastating news from the Bahamas. This was the most powerful storm ever to strike the nation, and it stayed there for two days. Dorian has not hit the American coast nearly so badly as was feared, and is heading for Nova Scotia.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0907/107...

Here is a particularly good look at Bahamas from BBC, with excellent interactives. Look for the photo over a strip of land a year ago, overlaid with today. There's a good graphic about how hurricanes form and what levels cause what damage. And video clips from the scene.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-can...

Last night, Sky News showed us a police station and a medical centre which were pretty much obliterated.

Some wise minds are looking at how to stabilise the shrinking glaciers. These are extreme suggestions.

https://singularityhub.com/2019/09/05...

Oil storage was caught up in Dorian: a major oil spill looks like contaminating both sea and aquifer water if not cleaned up fast.
Due to the airport and harbours being wrecked, just about everything in and out has to travel by helicopter.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/hurricane...

The buildings in the Bahamas were built to withstand a category 4 hurricane. I wonder if it ever occurred to anyone a category 5 storm would destroy everything. It was probably done for cost purposes. The money saved in building lower grade buildings was probably only a percentage of what rebuilding everything will cost. Many buildings in the Southeast US were built to withstand 111 mph winds to minimize storm damage. When Dorian got to Nova Scotia the winds were still around 100 mph.

Agree on probable savings. But, if roads, power, comms, water and food and other supplies are devastated, just having a house / police station / medical centre isn't enough for the populace. Good start, all right.

Without shelter the people have no where to stay. They need shelter the first night, even if it has no power. That means they need immediate help the second the storm stops. Some of these people are injured, or ill, and need to be in some kind of protective covering.

This is Puerto Rico all over again. The only difference is that there are cruise ships carrying out shipping chores the moment the storm stopped. Not everyone is going to leave the island. Anyone staying needs their own shelter they can operate from. There are still houses in Puerto Rico that tarp roofs.

You can only bring minimal supplies to the shelters. It does no good to have large amounts of people in temporary shelters where the plumbing facilities are overwhelmed the day after the storm passes. All kinds of medical situations start the moment the storm is over. Diabetics need insulin on a daily basis. Anyone using oxygen or dialysis needs immediate attention. Little children need food immediately. If the medical buildings, police, power is out, and the only buildings of focus are the shelters they need to be immediately set up as emergency care centers.

People need immediate help after a storm, the more intact the structures are to house people the more attention can be focused to other problems. It would appear that the days of supplying housing that isn't category 5 in the Caribbean is numbered. The other option is to put most people in disposable trailers that can be replaced with new trailers as soon as the storm is over. Large military forces can do this kind of work quickly and efficiently. The only thing stopping them is the cost. Who is going to pay for it. It the same problem that prevents pot holes from being fixed because the price of fixing them has increased along with the increasing values of everything else, such that it is no longer affordable to fix the pot hole. You can extrapolate that to bridges, highways, underground pipes. There are hidden costs to ever increasing property, building, and service costs on a never ending spiral. The cost is that they don't get fixed, either on a regular, timely basis or in the event of an emergency.

There are large cities in the US with lead pipes as part of their public water supply that needed to be replaced long ago. The money stops it from happening. The problems with Newark's lead pipe water supply was big news and had been for a month. That is it was until Dorian arrived. Then it took a back seat. Without a storm or any other weather disaster those people have to have bottled water trucked in and distributed everyday. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/26/754537...

Making profits after massive storms is about as predatory as one can get. The storms just bring the problems to light for only as long as the news cares to report them. Damage from storms up to 10 years ago still hasn't been fixed in New Orleans, Houston, North Carolina, New York, Florida. But it becomes old news and the reporting fades away, making it seem like everything is okay. That is a good example of fake news. This is a continuing problem that isn't going away.

There is a growing population of people who have been displaced by storms, some more than once, who are having psychological problems coping with the obliviously increasing size of the daily storms, even when they come nowhere near them. And when they are repeatedly struck by storms, even without physical damage there is still a psychological toll on their lives.

Lots of Bahamians were evacuated to Florida, where they would be at risk from the next storm, so I see your point.
Britain has been sending troops and aid right away. I am not sure what sources of income the islands had other than tourism; that won't be returning for some time.
And yes, companies and agencies will be looking for lots of money to rebuild.
Disaster Capitalism

A number of people had moved to Houston after Katrina, seemed like a safe place until 50 inches of rain turned it into a major flood zone for a few days. Even a mountain top or hillside can be liable to temporary flooding if the rainfall rate exceeds the run off rate.

Greenpeace activists were highlighting a shipment of Polish coal and asking Poland to reduce its dependency on coal. Police boarded their vessel and detained them.

https://www.independent.ie/world-news...

On the other side of the world...

" Typhoon Faxai slammed ashore near the city of Chiba shortly before dawn, bringing with it wind gusts of 207kmh, the strongest ever recorded in Chiba, broadcaster NHK said. " (Japan.)

https://www.independent.ie/world-news...

Kenyans say they have a drought every two years.
This is a short video interview.

https://www.independent.ie/videos/vid...

In case anyone needed confirmation that we are living in an age of oil wars:
https://gizmodo.com/drone-attack-on-o...

Film clip from Associated Press.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQefB...

Geoengineering is not new. Only the name is new. We have been geoengineering the planet for hundreds of years now. It is just that the results were all bad. Large scale global farming, complete transformation of natural shorelines all around the world, endless emissions into the atmosphere, are all examples of geoengineering. Which shows it does work but believing that adding raw chemicals to the air or water will fix anything like it was a giant fish tank will only work if we are rebuilding a biogeo function that we have corrupted. Leaving the corrupted system in place and splashing it with dead technology is not going to make anything better. It will however put money into bank accounts.

Reports are coming in around the world that the monsoon seasons are seeing less rainfall while outside of the monsoon season there is more rainfall. At the same time there is more rainfall around the world. Perhaps real geoengineering would be looking how to adapt our uses of natural resources to the changing weather conditions instead of trying to make things go back to a way we aren't going to see for a long time. Until we understand we do not rule this planet, things are not going to change.

Straightening rivers is geoengineering. But a big enough river will find its own channel.
Beyond Control: The Mississippi River's New Channel to the Gulf of Mexico

The UN tells us that nature-based solutions, such as tree planting in judicious places, will benefit us in short and long term.

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-an...

" Heatwaves, droughts and coastal storms are just three examples in which forests defend us from extreme weather, but there are far more. Carefully planted tree species can act as firebreaks, keeping trees next to farmland can protect crops from the erosive forces of intense rain, and forests can alleviate inland floods due to the sponge-like way they absorb water.
The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on land and climate change notes that land surface air temperature has risen nearly twice as much as the global average. Forests therefore play a critical role on the front lines of our efforts to guarantee resilience in a climate changing world. "

University of California divesting its investments and pension funds from fossil fuels.

https://www.ecowatch.com/university-o...

New York is permitting students to leave school this Friday to join the climate strike.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/ny...

Singularity Hub suggests the five areas we could invest in now, to reduce the harm caused by climate change. They include early warning systems for storms, food security etc.

https://singularityhub.com/2019/09/18...

NY Times has an article that says North America has 30 percent fewer birds than was here 50 years ago. Even common birds are down in numbers. I am in an underdeveloped region because industry and agricultural efforts have left the area over the years and never re-established the area. So I have seen increases in bird populations for the ones that are down in numbers. We are the exception to rule, everyone else is developing everything to the max, not happening here so the taxes keep on rising.

This just point out that the efforts that are needed have to be able to supply more than we are taking out, not just token percentage increases, that amount to nothing at the end of the day. While the article is looking over 50 years of birding records, this entire process has been running strong for 500 years now. Right now parts of Texas that has been flooded by earlier storms is expecting 5 to 10 inches in one day. Some areas have already had 40 inches. One way or another we are going to be changing our ways and it won't be on a schedule that is convenient for people and nothing else.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/sc...

I attended the climate march in Dublin yesterday. Thousands of marchers. Many of them carried group banners naming their location, school, workplace, government department or union.

Have you seen this - 250 media outlets globally have come together to give greater prominence to climate change issues.

https://www.theguardian.com/environme...
Covering Climate Now.

Following the Friday marches / school strikes around the world as dawn breaks.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/fridays-g...

https://jezebel.com/a-strike-against-...

The march in Dublin.

https://www.thejournal.ie/climate-str...

" In Dublin, more than 10,000 children and young people gathered in the city’s Custom House Quay, and many held signs criticising the current Government and their environmental policy, such as “I’ve seen smarter cabinets in Ikea” and “Save the sea Michael D”. There were others saying “There is no planet B”, “The dinosaurs also thought they had time”, and “I want a hot boyfriend, not a hot earth”.
The crowds chanted for about an hour, calling out: “climate justice now” while they were shepherded by stewards, parents and teachers in the sunshine to a rally in Merrion Square where they were addressed by a number of young speakers about the effects of global warming. "
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world...

And don't forget what got us into this mess.
Overpopulation.
https://www.ecowatch.com/reporters-cl...

Great to see all those people mobilizing their efforts. The concern started 50 years ago, but died out, now it is lit up again. Over population is an easy scapegoat. If we all changed our behavior, all this endless crap would end overnight.

The over population means that more land is taken away from nature and from its natural state. Every family raising six kids is raising six future car drivers and cellphone owners, in countries where these items are not generally available today but they will be in the future.

The state of the times in the country determines how families develop. Many of the countries were large families are common are still in the state of affairs that western countries were when they all had large families. Everyone has at least one family photograph that shows one family with a dozen or so brothers and sisters.

Ireland has committed to ending oil extraction off its coasts.

https://www.independent.ie/news/envir...

Natural gas will still be extracted for some time as a 'transition fuel' while we build enough clean energy.

Zimbabwe capital city shuts main water plant, shortages loom

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zi...

Wow, that's a complex situation. Thanks, Robert.

An Irish journalist working for NYT had to get Irish Embassy staff to help him in Egypt, when he was under threat, because the perception was that the Trump administration would not do anything to help the NYT journalists.

A free press and the ability to report science and events accurately are under great threat.
I don't know whether this site will work:
https://www.rte.ie/news/

Down the end under videos. Irish Embassy 'moved fast' over threat to journalist Declan Walsh.

Here is the print version:

" THE PUBLISHER OF the New York Times has said that Irish diplomats stepped in to prevent an Irish journalist from being arrested in Egypt, after a tip off from a US official that the Trump administration would not take any action to prevent him being detained.

Speaking to Brown University on “the growing threat to journalism around the world”, AG Sulzberger said that US authorities were going to “sit on the information” that Declan Walsh was about to be arrested.

When Irish authorities were alerted to the situation, diplomats went to his house within an hour and safely escorted him to an airport before he could be detained. "

https://www.thejournal.ie/irish-journ...

The changing climate conditions in Western US are allowing a fungal infection, Valley Fever, to spread out into areas it wasn't in before. While it is not infectious, the disease is spread by wind blown dust and can survive in the soil for long periods of time. It is heading northward from the southwest.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

Another lovely disease-spreading example that hits close to home here, attributed to global warming: western Michigan is now a "hot zone" for Eastern Equine Encephalitis. We live on the edge of the "high-risk area."

EEE threat grows in Michigan: 12 counties now considered high-risk

Scary times everywhere, I guess.

Here is what I have never been able to understand. Why is not this required of all horse owners:

https://thehorse.com/169028/vaccinate...

Am I missing something? My belief in regulatory policies and good governance only grows with time as I witness human irresponsibility. But it takes humans to make regulations and run a good government.

Hurricane Lorenzo: another record breaking Cat 5 storm.

https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-lo...

After being over land, Narda is heading back over the water, making for a possible comeback as a tropical storm again off Mexico. Another storm hugging the coast so it can cause increase rainfall on the land while still being fed energy by the water.

https://apnews.com/77fe83b064c547fcb6...

We're currently experiencing the tail of Lorenzo. Just rain, really, but a lot of that.

Seems it's the pre-tail of the storm if there is such a thing. Weather front, okay? All I know is rain on top of saturated ground and the high winds have yet to strike.

https://www.independent.ie/weather/se...

Look at the planned height of the new wind turbines.

https://www.independent.ie/news/envir...

" The new generation of giant offshore wind turbines will challenge public attitudes and test political commitment to renewable energy.

Turbines currently under testing are up to three times the height of the Statue of Liberty and nearly four times taller than the 70 metre turbines in Ireland's only offshore wind farm near Arklow.

Ireland is expecting a surge in offshore wind farms in the next decade with several major projects at various stages of development.

But an industry expert has warned the huge turbines cannot be installed to fixed points on the seabed in water greater than 50 metres deep, which makes them very visible from land. "

Lorenzo heading for Ireland.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/hurricane...

Looks like there could be a new circulation pattern setting up, The storms that used to normally head for North America on a northwesterly course can now start heading northward while in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean so when the eastward drift starts steering the storms, still intact, they move towards Europe.

Lorenzo moved across overnight and is now on the north coasts. The south and west got the worst effects. Dublin is quite sheltered being on the Irish Sea.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakin...