Category: Water

The world’s fresh water supplies are almost fully exploited.Almost al, 97 per cent, of the world’s water is salt. Of the fresh water in the world, two thirds is locked up as ice and snow (the cryosphere – to you and me, kid!). Globally, three quarters of the water that is used is used by agriculture. India, China and the United States, use more fresh water than is available. The water level in those nation’s aquifers is falling as a result.The current food crisis has come about largely as a result as the shortfall in available water begins to impact on the cost of irrigation. 

  • John James Newsletter 143

    John James Newsletter 143

    John James, author, healer and publisher
    John James, author, therapist and publisher

    The first war crime committed in any war of aggression is against the truth
    Michael Parenti    

    In 2015 the US imposed penalties on Volkswagen for emission violations of more than $13b. In revenge the EU imposed a $14.5b fine on Apple for unpaid taxes. The US now seeks penalties of $14b against Deutsche Bank for its part in the 2008 bubble. Shuttlecock?
    David Hungerford

    As the Philippines braces for its second major typhoon in five days, a Canadian glacier spawns a giant iceberg and eastern Australia mops up from a record wet spell, climate scientists can pick from a world of weird weather for the evidence that global warming is under way.
    Peter Hannam

    HOW CLOSE IS WAR? Each item indicates escalating and deliberate provocation by the US. 

    Pics of US jets painted in Russian colours 

    Photos showing US jets being painted Russian colours suggest plans to conduct false flag attacks in Syria and blame them on Moscow.

    https://www.rt.com/viral/362321-us-jets-russian-colors/

     

    Vladimir Putin knows who bombed the UN convoy

    Terrorist groups were behind the attack on the humanitarian convoy. We know that the US is well aware of this, but they prefer to blame Russia.

    http://theduran.com/vladimir-putin-knows-who-bombed-the-aleppo-un-convoy-now-hes-talking/

     

    Obama to discuss bombing Syrian military positions 

    Direct US military action in Syria, including airstrikes on Syrian military, radar and anti-aircraft bases, as well as arms depots, striking Syrian government forces could result in a direct confrontation between the US and Russia. Is Obama totally out of control?

    https://www.rt.com/news/362758-obama-syria-military-options/

     

    RAF Pilots Ordered To Shoot Down “Hostile” Russian Jets Over Syria

    As the US officially enters the Yemen military campaign, the UK appears willing to precipiate a catalytic event from which there is no going back. With relations between Russia and the West at post-Cold War lows and deteriorating fast, RAF pilots have been given the go-ahead to shoot Russian military jets when flying over Syria and Iraq, if they are endangered by them. The development comes with warnings that the UK and Russia are now “one step closer” to being at war. The Syrian government invited the Russians, but not  the British – well!!!

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-13/royal-air-force-pilots-ordered-shoot-down-hostile-russian-jets-over-syria

     

    Russia Reads US Bluster as Sign of War

    As US politicians and pundits have fun talking tough about Russia and demonizing President Putin, they are missing signs that Moscow isn’t amused and is preparing for actual conflict,

    https://consortiumnews.com/2016/10/11/russia-reads-us-bluster-as-sign-of-war/

     

    German Think Tank Warns Of Growing Nuclear War Danger

    All the ingredients are present in the eastern Baltic area for conflict escalating to nuclear. This is a “prescription for catastrophe.”

    http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/16/german-think-tank-warns-of-growing-nuclear-war-danger/

     

    Putin Throws Out the Old Nuclear Rules, Rattling Washington

    Washington and Moscow used to keep arms control separate from other crises around the world. But that era is over and the next president will have to decide how to deal with it.

    http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/16/putin-throws-out-the-old-nuclear-rules-rattling-washington-clinton-trump-arms-control/

     

    War between US and Russia Could Be Sooner than Later

    Barely noticed in a virtual media blackout are at least a half dozen significant developments that all indicate a nuclear war at any time. In response Russia has been preparing its citizens for potential nuclear war. 40 million Russian citizens, that’s near one-third of the nation’s total population, just completed an unprecedented nuclear war defence drill. Moscow ordered all Russian citizens, diplomats and students traveling, working or studying abroad to immediately return home. Members of Russia’s diplomatic corps were threatened with career demotions should they refuse to comply.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-between-us-and-russia-could-be-sooner-than-later-the-danger-of-a-nuclear-war/5551581

     

    Gorbachev says world at ‘dangerous’ point

    As tensions between Russia and the US have spiked over Syria, relations between Moscow and Washington – already at their lowest since the Cold War over the Ukraine conflict – have soured further in recent days as the US pulled the plug on Syria talks and accused Russia of hacking attacks. The Kremlin meanwhile has suspended a series of nuclear pacts, including a symbolic cooperation deal to cut stocks of weapons-grade plutonium.

    http://www.news24.com/World/News/gorbachev-says-world-at-dangerous-point-20161010

     

    MAD: The Nuclear Debate America Should be Having

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/mutually-assured-destructionmad-the-nuclear-debate-america-should-be-having/5550384

     

    Washington’s Global Economic Wars

    Washington has escalated its global economic war against major economic rivals and no longer confines itself to peripheral economic countries, but has declared trade wars against world powers that include Russia, China, Germany, Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, Cuba and the Donbas region of Ukraine. There is an increasingly thinner distinction between military and economic warfare.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/washingtons-global-economic-wars/5551800

     

    NSA whistleblower says DNC hack was not done by Russia, but by US intelligence

    The motivation of the hacker was concern over Hillary Clinton’s disregard of national security secrets when she used a personal email and consistently lied about it. NSA has all of Clinton’s deleted emails, and the FBI could gain access to them.  No need for Trump to ask the Russians for those emails, he can just call on the FBI or NSA to hand them over.

    http://theduran.com/nsa-whistleblower-says-dnc-hack-not-done-russia-us-intelligence/

     

    The War campaign

    This campaign is driven by a deep and bitter divide: whether to risk war with Russia, or not. Not since 1860 has a presidential election been affected by a basic divide between a War Party that is tremendously strong (Its candidate is Hillary Clinton, with Wall Street and Big Oil among its constituents) while Donald Trump speaks for a faction that sees the risk of war as just too dangerous.

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45677.htm

     

    AND OTHER NEWS …..

     

    Rodrigo Duterte interview: Death, drugs and diplomacy

    “We have three million drug addicts, and it’s growing. So if we do not interdict this problem, the next generation will be having a serious problem. If you destroy our young children, I will kill you. That is a very correct statement. There is nothing wrong in trying to preserve the interest of the next generation.”

    http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2016/10/exclusive-rodrigo-duterte-war-drugs-161015100325799.html

     

     

    A collapse in Arctic sea ice volume spells disaster for the rest of the planet

    Global warming drives a stunning collapse in sea ice volume.

    https://thinkprogress.org/watch-the-arctic-death-spiral-in-this-amazing-video-b63486b99383#.pka2svusq

     

     

     

    The Middle East and the Next Administration

    Osama bin Laden surely died happy. He devoted the last third of his life to creating animosity between the West and Islam and to driving a wedge between Saudi Arabia and the US. Today, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey are all estranged. And, as an unexpected bonus, so is Israel. The US is making enemies all over the Muslim world. And every day millions pay homage to the memory of Osama as they remove their shoes to pass through metal detectors and are stripped of their dignity by body-imaging devices at airports. Americans are less secure, less prosperous, and less free than as this century began. In life, Osama was transformative. In death, he continues to shape the world he left behind.

    http://lobelog.com/the-middle-east-and-the-next-administration/

     

    US Military Operations Are Biggest Motivation for Homegrown Terrorists

    A secret FBI study found that anger over US military operations abroad was the most commonly cited motivation for individuals involved in cases of “homegrown” terrorism, and identified no coherent pattern to “radicalization,” concluding that it remained near impossible to predict future violent acts.

    https://theintercept.com/2016/10/11/us-military-operations-are-biggest-motivation-for-homegrown-terrorists-fbi-study-finds/

     

    Hurricane Sandy-level flooding is rising so sharply that it could become normal 

    The US is already in the grip of significant environmental changes driven by warming temperatures. An analysis of past storms and models of future events as the planet warms has shown that Sandy-like floods have become three times more common in the New York area

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/11/hurricane-flooding-us-climate-change

     

     

     

    Millions Face Hunger by 2030 Without ‘Deep Transformation’ of Agriculture:

    Over 120 million people could be forced into extreme poverty by 2030 as a result of climate change on small-scale food producers. Abrupt changes would make adequate adaptation almost impossible with major declines in crop yields and increasingly high and volatile food prices. “In the longer run, unless measures are put in place to halt and reverse climate change, food production could become impossible in large areas of the world.” The report cites diversifying crop production, better integration of farming with the natural habitat, agroecology, and “sustainable intensification” as strategies to help small-scale farmers adapt to a warming world. The report notes that subsidies for fertilizers and pesticides hinder the progress of more sustainable, organic farming.

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/17/millions-face-hunger-2030-without-deep-transformation-agriculture-un

     

    Spiders can ‘tune’ their webs to sound out plucky potential mates 

    “They’re able to very closely change the tension of their webs … This means they have a mechanism for directly controlling both the tension and the stiffness of their silk fibres. [These mechanisms] allow them effectively to tune their web’s properties so that they can control how sensory information is getting to them in the middle of the web.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/21/spiders-tune-webs-plucky-mates-food

     

    Will “They” Really Try to Kill President Duterte?

    The hitless of the Empire reads like a catalogue of illustrious world leaders: from Patrice Lumumba (Zaire), Mohammad Mosaddegh (Iran), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Sukarno (Indonesia), Juvénal Habyarimana (Rwanda), Salvador Allende (Chile) to Muammar Gaddafi (Libya), Al-Basheer (Sudan) and Fidel Castro (Cuba), to name just a few. Some were directly assassinated; others were ‘only’ toppled, while only a handful of ‘marked’ leaders actually managed to survive and to stay in power. There were several grave crimes committed by almost all of them include: defending the vital interests of their nations and people, refusing to allow the unbridled plunder of natural resources by multinational corporations, and standing against the principles of imperialism. Simple criticism of the Empire has also been often punishable by death.

    http://journal-neo.org/2016/10/17/will-they-really-try-to-kill-president-duterte/

     

    Rodrigo Duterte interview: Death, drugs and diplomacy

    “We have three million drug addicts, and it’s growing. So if we do not interdict this problem, the next generation will be having a serious problem. If you destroy our young children, I will kill you. That is a very correct statement. There is nothing wrong in trying to preserve the interest of the next generation.”

    http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2016/10/exclusive-rodrigo-duterte-war-drugs-161015100325799.html

     

    Citigroup Chose Obama’s 2008 Cabinet, WikiLeaks Document Reveals

    One month before the presidential election of 2008, the giant Wall Street bank Citigroup submitted to the Obama campaign a list of its preferred candidates for cabinet positions in an Obama administration. This list corresponds almost exactly to the eventual composition of Barack Obama’s cabinet.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/citigroup-chose-obamas-2008-cabinet-wikileaks-document-reveals/5551327

     

    Coral biologist Charlie Veron: the rise and fall of the Great Barrier Reef

    Threats caused by humans, accelerated climate change and ocean acidification, have put the reef on the brink of complete collapse. He said, “it is unstoppable. If we wipe out coral we wipe out the life of the oceans”. This is symptomatic of everything we do. Its time to plan for the unthinkable.

    http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-charlie-veron-corals/7927724

     

    ‘Island of despair’: Australia intentionally torturing refugees on Nauru

    The cache of evidence details allegations of recurrent self-harm and attempted suicide, children being hit by teachers and threatened with machetes by peers, deficient medical care and persecution akin to that which refugees had fled in their homelands. The offshore processing regime was “explicitly designed to inflict incalculable damage on hundreds of women, men and children” as an act of deterrence, by isolating them “on a remote place from which they cannot leave, with the specific intention that these people should suffer harm”. Amnesty International said it had interviewed 62 refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru, and more than a dozen current or former contract workers who delivered services on behalf of the Australian government,

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/island-of-despair-australia-intentionally-torturing-refugees-on-nauru-says-major-amnesty-international-report-20161016-gs3sm4.html

     

    The Real Purpose Behind the “Liberation” of Mosul?

    When Mosul falls, Isis will flee to the safety of Syria. But what then? The entire Isis caliphate army could be directed against the Assad government and its allies – a scenario which might cause some satisfaction in Washington

    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mosul-offensive-isis-flee-iraq-syria-raqqa-bashar-al-assad-what-then-robert-fisk-a7365776.html

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  • Water spills into Kashmir war

    Water spills into Kashmir war

    Corpses of Kashmir resistance fighters
    KashmirGlobal photograph of corpses killed in border war

    Kashmir is mired in lockdown with strict curfews keeping residents in their homes without the use of telephones and internet as the ongoing territorial dispute between India and Pakistan escalates.

    India’s home minister has accused Pakistan of being a terrorist state and Pakistan’s defense minister has threatened to use nuclear weapons. India has also threatened to revoke the 56 year old Indus Water Treaty that governs the sharing of water from the Indus River that flows through Kashmir.

    Water is an increasingly scarce resource in the region as water tables fall due to pumping of ground water and Himalayan ice disappears.

    /glacial-melt-threatens-2billion/

    Why the India-Pakistan War Over Water Is So Dangerous

    As New Delhi and Islamabad trade nuclear threats and deadly attacks, a brewing war over shared water resources threatens to turn up the violence.

    http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/30/why-the-india-pakistan-war-over-water-is-so-dangerous-indus-waters-treaty/?wp_login_redirect=0

    How to Stop Kashmir from Spiraling into All-Out War

    Kashmir has again become the venue for a confrontation between India and Pakistan. Seeking to restore order, the authorities in Kashmir instituted curfews, shut down newspapers, internet and cellphone services.

    http://lobelog.com/how-to-stop-kashmir-from-spiraling-into-all-out-war/#more-36071

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/kashmirglobal/

  • Water shortages widespread as northern summer ends

    Water shortages widespread as northern summer ends

    Mombasa water carrier
    A water carrier returns from distributing water to a thirsty population in Mombasa, Kenya

    Over thirty countries around the world reported water shortages in the last week. From permanent and life threatening water shortages in Mombasa Kenya through imminent disaster in Pakistan to the ongoing drama of finding enough water for Northern Florida the fragility of water supplies is increasingly in the news. Falling water tables cause failures in crops and municipal water supplies, droughts render large dams useless and nations turn increasingly to deeper aquifers and desalination.

    http://www.nation.co.ke/business/Mombasa-water-shortage-to-persist/996-3399106-tw1jc7/

    Biting water shortage in Mombasa County is expected to persist up to 2019/2020 after completion of the construction of Mwache Dam, a multi-purpose project in Kwale.

    http://dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/03-Oct-16/the-impending-water-shortage

    At a time when there are credible organisations that predict that Pakistan is expected to face a severe water shortage by 2025, building dams should have been a priority of the government along with other development projects.

    http://www.deccanherald.com/content/573742/alert-water-shortage-came-sowing.html 

    Farmers in the Cauvery basin, who are staring at losing their standing crops, blame the government for not alerting them on time that they should not go in for sowing this season. They say neither the Water Resources nor the Agriculture department officials visited their villages to guide or advise them.

    http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/20161002/officials-hope-deep-aquifer-can-ease-looming-water-shortage

    CLERMONT — For the past three years, south Lake County officials have debated and analyzed how they will provide water to a skyrocketing population.

    Water experts caution south Lake now has less than three years to find an alternative water supply before withdrawals from the Upper Floridan Aquifer begin impacting lakes, wetlands and springs

    http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1099148/water-rationing-on-koh-samui-as-reservoirs-dry-up

    SURAT THANI – Water zoning is being introduced on the holiday island of Koh Samui, with rationing of tap water to households and businesses. The extreme water shortage has forced large hotels to buy water trucked in from outside to serve their guests. The island is experiencing its worst water crisis in 10 years due to an extended drought, Thai media reported on Friday

  • Rapid melting of glaciers threatens water supply of 2billion people

    Rapid melting of glaciers threatens water supply of 2billion people

    The Karakorum Glaciers
    Glaciers in Central Asia are melting fast as temperatures rise at double the speed to those at sea level.

    The rapid melting of glaciers in the so-called Third Pole located in the Himalayas and Central Asian mountains threatens the long term survival of billions of people across Central and Southern Asia.

    The melting is due to a 1.5 degree increase in surface temperature and will increase flows in the Mekong, Yellow, Yangtse, Ganges and Indus rivers over the next decade after which it will begin to slow again. The area is known as the Third Pole because it contains as much frozen water as the North and South pole.

    Glaciers on the Western side of the mountains appear to be unaffected to due increased precipitation being blown East from Europe.

    Local herdsmen in Western China are already being re-located as climate refugees due to the changes in the landsape caused by the increased volume of water, warmer weather and lack of snowfall.

     

    Crisis at the Third Pole

    At the top of the world a climate disaster is unfolding that will impact the lives of more than 1 billion people. The real worry is the melt will set off a chain of climate disasters like the recent epic floods in Pakistan and China, or unprecedented heatwaves in India, or increasing desertification across the region. And the deeper concern is that while scientists know the changes in the Third Pole will affect global weather patterns such as monsoons and the El Nino, they don’t know by how much. And in a region where tension between countries over shared water resources is becoming increasingly common, the environmental threat is likely to spark a political one.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-25/climate-change-the-third-pole-under-threat/7657672

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/third-pole-melting-down-but-may-not-diminish-fresh-water-supplies/

    https://www.thethirdpole.net/2016/09/02/studies-of-melting-glaciers-urgently-needed/

     

  • Untitled post 24259
    Map of rainfall shift
    Large bands of food producing areas will dry out

    The global shift in rainfall will see many current food producing areas suffer from drought or low crop yields by 2020 according to an article published in the journal Nature this week.

    While Europe, North America, Chile, West Africa and Australia are all headed for an overall reduction in rainfall, East Africa, Pakistan, western and northern China, Siberia and Alaska will be much wetter.

    It is expected that rainfall events will be much more chaotic and dramatic, leading to disastrous floods rather than increased food production.

    The food shortages resulting from this change will be compounded by disputes over the increasingly limited water supply.

    Time to Prepare for Food and Water Shocks

    A changing climate means less rain in regions where much of the planet’s food is produced. Future scenarios for water supply show that diminished water supplies will be apparent by 2020 and are expected to grow worse by 2030. Just like the retreat of glaciers and polar sea ice, now clouds and rain are retreating poleward. This will have huge implications for agricultural production, industrial and energy output, and municipal water provisioning.

    http://www.wri.org/blog/2016/07/clouds-head-poles-time-prepare-food-and-water-shocks

  • Volume of sewage surpasses world’s rivers

    Volume of sewage surpasses world’s rivers

    US Mayors drink treated sewage
    San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and officials drink purified wastewater April 27, 2015

    Humanity now produces two million tonnes of sewage every day, more than our own body weight, Canadian environmentalist, Maude Barlow, wrote this week. On an annual basis it is also more water than exists in all the rivers in the world, meaning that they are overloaded with our waste.

    An equally dramatic statistic is that we pump 1,600 million megalitres of ground water into the sea each year. Half of this is used in mining and one third of all water usage goes to the production of bio-fuels.

    This increase has not been gradual, the last twenty years have seen a huge acceleration in the consumption of water and the effects are now starting to be felt. Cities that rely on ground water are planning to drink treated sewage as the aquifers on which they have depended dry up.

    http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/water-as-a-commons-only-fundamental-change-can-save-us

    http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_27999661/california-drought-san-jose-mayor-drinks-recycled-sewage