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| Room with a View |
Monday, February 16, 2015
Polar Vortex
The winter still has some punches left to give the northern hemisphere. I can imagine that many people have had enough. Perhaps they are even saying is this the "climate change everyone is talking about. It certainly doesn't feel like global warming to me." Bostonians are probably thinking this more than the rest of us as they continue to shovel themselves out of snowstorm after snowstorm.
Let's peek at some cause and effect towards this cold scenario happening before us. Actually, it most likely will be a cause and affect. We might have to get use to this as "northerners." As we watch our morning weather people give us the bad news, how many of us have noticed how the northern jet stream has taken a horrific dip deep down into the United States and Europe? As I am in my fifties I recall a much more stable jet stream which kept the cold up north and in check from creeping down to slam us with our snow and ice storms. The cyclone at the North Pole was held in check to a more or less circular pattern.
Here's what happened, the waters in the northern part of the Pacific and Atlantic have heated up. When the waters warm up the surface air above the waters begins to warm. We all know that warm air rises. The warm air continues to rise from the troposphere to the stratosphere, As this happens the cold air that use to be trapped up north begins to drop into the lower troposphere. As the cold air is forced into dropping by the warm air it has only one place to go and that is south. In the United States it is forced to the west side of the Rockies and then it is able to move east again. The Midwest and the northeast get slammed by cold air. As moisture creeps up from equatorial waters in the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico it meets up with the cold and you can have blizzard after blizzard. This may become the new normal for us all.
I'd like everybody to understand that due to the Earths axis at 23.5 degrees and Earth's rotation around the sun the North Pole does not get any sun several months a year. When there is no solar radiation to warm the North Pole just like at night time it gets cooler. Sometimes it gets down right cold and frigid. The warmer waters in the Alaskan Bay will continue to force cold air to visit us in the winter time. Let's get use to it folks this is "CLIMATE CHANGE!"
I do not believe that we as a society, culture or civilization will change voluntarily. It would we nice if we would, but we have become conditioned to our creature comforts that our addiction to oil, gas and coal have given us. We are constantly being bombarded with commercials and denialists saying that it's OK the way it is. The corporate giants are doing the thinking for us and we have been letting them. We are the cause behind warming the waters. The constant burning of fossil fuels day in and day out, decade after decade is the root cause for the changes you will be witnessing. Unless we put a pair of sunglasses big enough to cover our planets poles we must change or get use to what will become the status quo.
Mahatma Ghandi was once asked by a western reporter, "Mr. Ghandi, what do you think of western civilization?" Mr. Ghandi smiled at first and looked at the reporter and said, "I think it is a good idea." If we are so civilized let's start our changing together, voluntarily or mandated by law. Corporations buy lobbyists who buy congressman and senators on all party lines. Place your bets folks and lets get rid of these individuals, for the time is at hand.
Let's peek at some cause and effect towards this cold scenario happening before us. Actually, it most likely will be a cause and affect. We might have to get use to this as "northerners." As we watch our morning weather people give us the bad news, how many of us have noticed how the northern jet stream has taken a horrific dip deep down into the United States and Europe? As I am in my fifties I recall a much more stable jet stream which kept the cold up north and in check from creeping down to slam us with our snow and ice storms. The cyclone at the North Pole was held in check to a more or less circular pattern.
Here's what happened, the waters in the northern part of the Pacific and Atlantic have heated up. When the waters warm up the surface air above the waters begins to warm. We all know that warm air rises. The warm air continues to rise from the troposphere to the stratosphere, As this happens the cold air that use to be trapped up north begins to drop into the lower troposphere. As the cold air is forced into dropping by the warm air it has only one place to go and that is south. In the United States it is forced to the west side of the Rockies and then it is able to move east again. The Midwest and the northeast get slammed by cold air. As moisture creeps up from equatorial waters in the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico it meets up with the cold and you can have blizzard after blizzard. This may become the new normal for us all.
I'd like everybody to understand that due to the Earths axis at 23.5 degrees and Earth's rotation around the sun the North Pole does not get any sun several months a year. When there is no solar radiation to warm the North Pole just like at night time it gets cooler. Sometimes it gets down right cold and frigid. The warmer waters in the Alaskan Bay will continue to force cold air to visit us in the winter time. Let's get use to it folks this is "CLIMATE CHANGE!"
I do not believe that we as a society, culture or civilization will change voluntarily. It would we nice if we would, but we have become conditioned to our creature comforts that our addiction to oil, gas and coal have given us. We are constantly being bombarded with commercials and denialists saying that it's OK the way it is. The corporate giants are doing the thinking for us and we have been letting them. We are the cause behind warming the waters. The constant burning of fossil fuels day in and day out, decade after decade is the root cause for the changes you will be witnessing. Unless we put a pair of sunglasses big enough to cover our planets poles we must change or get use to what will become the status quo.
Mahatma Ghandi was once asked by a western reporter, "Mr. Ghandi, what do you think of western civilization?" Mr. Ghandi smiled at first and looked at the reporter and said, "I think it is a good idea." If we are so civilized let's start our changing together, voluntarily or mandated by law. Corporations buy lobbyists who buy congressman and senators on all party lines. Place your bets folks and lets get rid of these individuals, for the time is at hand.
Friday, February 13, 2015
Global Oil Use
Report: World short on time to fix climate change------ The latest report by the U.N. group responsible for assessing climate change says the world is running out of time to keep global warming from exceeding the 2 degrees Celsius limit (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) agreed to in 2010. If greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed sharply, and soon, climate experts say that by 2100, temperatures will rise between 3.7 and 4.8 Celsius (6.6 and 8.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times. China, the United States and Europe are the top emitters. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) cautions in the new report that there must be a "massive shift" to renewable energy to avert more massive heat waves, droughts and rising sea levels. The IPCC has said there is a 95 % probability that climate change since 1950 is mainly due to human activities rather than natural variations.
It does not appear that the leading greenhouse gas emitters will be slowing down in our near future. It seems apparent that their emissions will actually accelerate. The concern of a growing economy and a higher GNP out trumps what the future will hold. These governments must realize that the economic costs that higher temperatures (9 degrees) will bring will far outweigh the costs of changing over to renewable energies right now, "They have eyes but cannot see."
Producers of electricity expect an increase in demand as the years continue to fly by. The United States has switched over coal burning electrical producing plants to natural gas, but this is due to the cost and supply of natural gas and court cases brought about by the Sierra Club in the companies violation of the clean air act. The U.S. government has made no new meaningful mandates since that time in 1973. China and India are accelerating coal burning plants. Germany can be credited to having 25% renewable energy, but as they wean themselves off of nuclear energy they have increased their coal burning plants to produce electricity.
The U.S. government did enact laws for lower emissions on vehicles in the 1990's. Yet as we do this industry analysts predict the same amount of oil and gasoline use through 2050. The reason is due to more cars being on the roads. Globally, there are some 750 million cars on the road. China and India's desire for the corporate mono-culture means more cars will be on the road, using more oil. Our desire to walk and ride bikes or use public transportation has diminished greatly in the last 50 and 60 years. We need to return to these alternative means to transportation and embrace a new lifestyle. Perhaps fuel cell technology and hydrogen technology will assist us in the decade to come. People will have little desire for change as gasoline has so conveniently dropped to $ 2.20 a gallon from $ 4.00 per gallon. It seems certain corporations want us to continue in petroleum use. Our infrastructure is heavily if not totally invested to continue in this folly.
We can change. We must change.
Steve Newman / Earthweek
The Plain Dealer April 18th, 2014
It does not appear that the leading greenhouse gas emitters will be slowing down in our near future. It seems apparent that their emissions will actually accelerate. The concern of a growing economy and a higher GNP out trumps what the future will hold. These governments must realize that the economic costs that higher temperatures (9 degrees) will bring will far outweigh the costs of changing over to renewable energies right now, "They have eyes but cannot see."
Producers of electricity expect an increase in demand as the years continue to fly by. The United States has switched over coal burning electrical producing plants to natural gas, but this is due to the cost and supply of natural gas and court cases brought about by the Sierra Club in the companies violation of the clean air act. The U.S. government has made no new meaningful mandates since that time in 1973. China and India are accelerating coal burning plants. Germany can be credited to having 25% renewable energy, but as they wean themselves off of nuclear energy they have increased their coal burning plants to produce electricity.
The U.S. government did enact laws for lower emissions on vehicles in the 1990's. Yet as we do this industry analysts predict the same amount of oil and gasoline use through 2050. The reason is due to more cars being on the roads. Globally, there are some 750 million cars on the road. China and India's desire for the corporate mono-culture means more cars will be on the road, using more oil. Our desire to walk and ride bikes or use public transportation has diminished greatly in the last 50 and 60 years. We need to return to these alternative means to transportation and embrace a new lifestyle. Perhaps fuel cell technology and hydrogen technology will assist us in the decade to come. People will have little desire for change as gasoline has so conveniently dropped to $ 2.20 a gallon from $ 4.00 per gallon. It seems certain corporations want us to continue in petroleum use. Our infrastructure is heavily if not totally invested to continue in this folly.
We can change. We must change.
D.B. Clay & Ghost Writer Productions
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
A Chance at Life
We are veiled and intertwined in life with death. That which encloses and wraps our bodies is no longer living tissue. The outer layer of our skin is dead. We prize the look of our hair to attract others and bring them near. Yet it is not living tissue. We consume plants and animals after we take their lives. It is easy to see we are surrounded by death. Perhaps this is the reason why we accept it so readily.
The tiny planet which has given us life is but an oasis in space. We as a species desire to search the rest of the heavens for other life. Why search for what is already here. The biosphere is so diverse it boggles the mind. Life can exist in the coldest of cold. It exists in heat that would burn our own skin away. The lands and oceans of our planet are all we have. It is all that life has for millions of miles in any direction except where we call home.
Our greed for profit and more of more for we know not what, but feel we must have is consuming the planet. Other beings have lost their habitats as we continue to encroach upon their world on land and sea. We have become like locusts consuming anything in our path. We must find balance back in our lives. We must learn to respect other beings that share this planet with us.
Extinction has visited Earth many times in it's past. I've read that 99% of all species on this planet have become extinct. Scientists have numbered many as extinction level periods. We are currently in an extinction level event. We all must save what we can in our protection of life around us. Give back the lands and waters. Give back the habitat they use to call home. Death will come to us all, but why rush into what we know will come. Enjoy life's journey. Let other beings enjoy life's journey. Give them the same chance we all desire. The chance at life.
The tiny planet which has given us life is but an oasis in space. We as a species desire to search the rest of the heavens for other life. Why search for what is already here. The biosphere is so diverse it boggles the mind. Life can exist in the coldest of cold. It exists in heat that would burn our own skin away. The lands and oceans of our planet are all we have. It is all that life has for millions of miles in any direction except where we call home.
Our greed for profit and more of more for we know not what, but feel we must have is consuming the planet. Other beings have lost their habitats as we continue to encroach upon their world on land and sea. We have become like locusts consuming anything in our path. We must find balance back in our lives. We must learn to respect other beings that share this planet with us.
Extinction has visited Earth many times in it's past. I've read that 99% of all species on this planet have become extinct. Scientists have numbered many as extinction level periods. We are currently in an extinction level event. We all must save what we can in our protection of life around us. Give back the lands and waters. Give back the habitat they use to call home. Death will come to us all, but why rush into what we know will come. Enjoy life's journey. Let other beings enjoy life's journey. Give them the same chance we all desire. The chance at life.
Searching
Sand floating flakes falling from the sky
Each like a person waving goodbye.
They search for some answers and go their way
thinking of tomorrow but forgetting today
The choices they've made might not have been best
Our pain still exists not yet finding rest
But we too must make choices and we too must pay
For there is no forever
There is only what's now
If we search for tomorrow
Then we haven't learned how
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Polar Bears Moving Higher into Arctic as Ice Declines
Recent generations of polar bears have been observed moving higher into the Canadian Arctic in response to climate change and the melting of Arctic sea ice. Using DNA samples, U.S. Geological Survey researchers found that some clusters of polar bear populations have migrated over the past 15 to 45 years to islands off the Canadian Archipelago, where sea ice is more stable. Lead researcher Elizabeth Peacock says the bears have chosen those areas because they are " where the sea is more resilient to summer melt due to circulation patterns, complex geography and cooler northern latitudes." She and colleagues conclude that the regions closest to the North Pole could serve as a last refuge for the bears, which need the ice to travel, forage and mate. Arctic sea ice has declined in autumn by more than 9 PERCENT PER DECADE since 1979. Climate models predict that even the northernmost parts of the Arctic will BE ICE FREE BEFORE 2050.
" Arctic Time is Melting Away by 2050. That's only 35 more years." -D.B. Clay
Earthweek / Steve Newman
January 17, 2015 The Plain Dealer A2
" Arctic Time is Melting Away by 2050. That's only 35 more years." -D.B. Clay
Man Has 'Slapped Nature in the Face'
"I don't know if it (human activity) is the only cause, but mostly, in great part, it is man who has slapped nature in the face," he said. " We have in a sense taken over nature. I think we have exploited nature too much," Francis said, citing deforestation and mono-culture. "Thanks be to God that today there are voices, so many people who are speaking out about it."
Nicole Winfield / Huff Post 2-1-15
The Four Cardinal Virtues:
Prudence
Justice
Temperance
Fortitude
Use these virtues in your everyday being towards the planet and all our fellow beings that we share the planet with. Be one of the voices Francis talks about. I am not Catholic but I respect and admire this man.
Nicole Winfield / Huff Post 2-1-15
The Four Cardinal Virtues:
Prudence
Justice
Temperance
Fortitude
Use these virtues in your everyday being towards the planet and all our fellow beings that we share the planet with. Be one of the voices Francis talks about. I am not Catholic but I respect and admire this man.
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| Pope Francis on Climate Change: "Man has 'Slapped Nature' in the Face" |
Caption Contest Winner(s)!
Thanks to Jocelyn Lee & G Diddy for the great comments. Both are winners and will be receiving their prints shortly.
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