Author: Geoff Ebbs

Louisiana floods latest five hundred year event

The massive floods in Louisiana that killed five people and made 20,000 homeless last week contained as much water as generally flows out of the Mississippi in three years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the USA will this week declare the floods as a one in five hundred year event. This is the eighth flood in the last fifteen months to fit that description. The National Weather Service has said that the levels of moisture in the air are at record levels, a direct result of a w

Eight floods this year have been categorised as only occuring once every 500 years

armer atmosphere due to increased carbon dioxide levels.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hdsc/aep_storm_analysis/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/16/louisiana-flooding-natural-disaster-weather-climate-change

23 August, 2016
Half the world’s population facing chronic water shortages

Water scarcity is spreading into wealthier nations

Israel’s Ben Gurion University, this week released a report showing that half the world’s population will face chronic water shortages in the next two decades.

The report indicates that one billion people already deal with water shortages on a daily basis. Evidence of this trend was confirmed in independent reports this week from cities as diverse as London and Miami. Thames Water this week announced a plan to create water from treated sewage to meet the demand of an increasing population from a water supply already at its natural limit. Water shortages in Florida, Syria, Israel, Kenya and Spain are also the subject of news stories in the last week.

In many cases, cities are dependent on groundwater from aquifers that no longer meet demand.

http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2016/8/12/ben-gurion-university-institute-tackles-water-shortage-hygiene-in-developing-countries#.V66LTDUYFYA=

http://www.citymetric.com/horizons/within-decade-london-could-be-facing-water-shortage-2339

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/northeast-florida-water-shortage-possible-if-action-not-taken/295338392

16 August, 2016
Peak Oil translates to peak debt

Energy consumption has flattened depriving governments of revenue

An analysis of global energy prices and production released by Gail Tverberg of Our Finite World last week indicates that the Peak Oil crisis of 2007 has now translated into Peak Debt depriving governments of revenue and leading to high disatisfaction levels with governments.

Her analysis shows that a number of factors have led to a short term energy glut and decrease in raw energy prices. They include: the production of non-conventional fuels, such as Coal Seam Gas, the release of Iraq’s vast oil supplies subsequent to the US invasion and subsidies for renewable energy

Regardless, domestic energy prices have risen, energy consumption per capita across the globe has plateaued and the debt per capita increased to the point where governments can no longer afford to provide traditional services, thereby leading to popular unrest.

She predicts a global economic collapse significantly larger than the global financial crisis of 2008 or the Great Depression of the 1930s.

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/09/an-updated-version-of-the-peak-oil-story/

16 August, 2016
Climate shift wiping out tropical and arctic ecosystems

Deserts will expand and the arctic disappear as a result of climate chaos

Data released last month by University of Exeter indicates that the climate is currently moving toward the poles at an average of 125km a decade and is accelerating. The implications are that Arctic ecosystems are disappearing with plants and animals being “simply pushed off the planet”

Also, an equatorial death zone is opening up, with the coral bleaching and mangrove death events of 2014 – 2016 a clear indicator of things to come.

There will be short term advantages as sub-tropical conditions allow the farming of sub-tropical crops in temperate climates, but the spread of deserts as arid conditions dominate southern Europe, southern Africa and Australia will quickly offset those advantages. Long term drought over the last decade has killed 66 million trees in California alone.

Map shows how Earth’s vegetation has changed since 1980s

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.81/full

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_528495_en.html

http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article85312432.html

16 August, 2016
Carp genocide plans worry locals

Corrnered carp gasp for breath

Scientists, environmentalists, anglers and the fishing industry have raised concerns about a fifteen million dollar plan by the Federal Government to kill Carp in the Murray Darling River system using a strain of the herpes virus.

An invasive species and bottom feeder that stirs up mud, carp now make up eighty percent of the bio-mass in Australian rivers. The plan is to release the virus at the end of 2018 in the expectation that it will kill the vast bulk of the carp within weeks.

Concerns range from the impact of the virus on native fish, to the impact on oxygen levels in the water of such a large volume of rotting fish. Adelaide University tests on the oxygen consumed by dead fish in 800litre tubs of water at 20 degrees Celsius have revealed that bacteria feeding on one dead carp can consume all the oxygen in the tank within 48 hours. The government hopes that community groups will volunteer to remove the dead fish from the river.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-14/herpes-carp-kill-in-river-murray-ecosystem-may-sap-oxygen/7731892

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-01/herpes-to-eradicate-carp-in-murray-river-pyne-says/7373736

16 August, 2016
Hot Brown Honey takes Edinburgh by storm

Hot Brown Honey is on tour in the UK

Australian cabaret troupe, Hot Brown Honey, has played to full houses and rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this week.

Mixing burlesque with comedy shot through with a powerful political message the show has been described as “gleefully challenging stereotypes of sex and race with a full grin, bared chest and raised middle finger.” Reviewers have noted that the artistic and technical mastery transcend both cabaret and satire. One reviewer described the performance at Edinburgh as “a show that never holds back, never apologises and never asks for permission to stand tall, proud and strong.”

The show has played this year at the Adelaide Arts Festival, Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Sydney Opera House.

http://www.thenewcurrent.co.uk/review–hot-brown-honey

http://hotbrownhoney.com

16 August, 2016