permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Sea level rise
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:13:19 +1100
From: Don Miller <donmillernz@GMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

I now live on a Pacific island, and every morning I look out of my bedroom
window onto a massive new oil tank being built to cope with the increased
demand for liquid fossil fuel here.  The people could use bicycles, but they
prefer to use motor vehicles.  They could use sails on their boats, but they
prefer to use outboard motors.  Many expatriates drive Hummers as they are
cheap to bring in second hand from the US.

Tectonic movement may keep this particular island above the sea level but
their lack of concern for their neighbours is apparent.

Before last year I worked in Vietnam.  Vietnam is at great risk of losing a
high proportion of its highly productive delta rice land to sea level rise,
but when I was there they were boasting of the many new coal fired power
stations they were building.  My thoughts on sea level rise were not
appreciated at all by the authorities.  Electricity was more important than
global warming.  Development was all that mattered.

It will not work out.  The ability for man to be honest with himself/herself
is simply not there.  It is beyond the evolutionary imperatives that formed
our instincts and allowed us to reach this stage.  Those instincts are going
to drive us relentlessly and rapidly to destruction as they are no longer
appropriate for our survival.

As Don McLean so aptly phrased it:

"...They would not listen, they're not listening still.

Perhaps they never will..."



On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 5:34 AM, Greg at Licking Creek <lickingcreek@igc.org
> wrote:

> Friends,
>
> The potential impacts of climate change/global warming/climate chaos on
> food supplies and security are among the scariest impacts.
>
> The IPCC reported in 2001 that the Canadian Climate Centre's models
> predicted that temps in the lower Great Plains could rise by well over 10
> degrees F and that soil moisture could drop by 60 percent by the end of the
> century.  That's a desert, folks.  It's happening as we suck dry the Oglala
> and other aquifers, and as snow and ice pack is shrinking around the world.
>
> At the same time, rising sea levels are likely to wipe out significant
> percentages of our remaining coastal wetlands, coral reefs are in severe
> decline, and rising acidity in the oceans is harming or is likely to harm
> plankton that needs carbonaceous cells.
>
> We're shredding the food web, in my opinion.  For those who think that
> global warming is not happening or that human activity is not at all
> responsible, or that neither is proven, is it worth the risk?
>
> Peace and happy Thanksgiving,
>
> Greg Smith
> Mt. Rainier, MD
> Chesapeake Bioregion
> USA
> Earth
>
>
> At 07:33 PM 11/24/2009, you wrote:
>
> > And groundwater levels are dropping. Connection? Storm water systems?
> >
> > Pegi
> >
> > > Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:20:19 -0500
> > > From: jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM
> > > Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Sea level rise
> > > To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
> > >
> > > Hello BillE,
> > >
> > > Sea level can be monitored very precisely using satellite altimeters.
> > Over the last decade, average global sea level has increased ~ 3 mm/yr.
> > >
> > > Click on the following link to see a graph of how average global sea
> > level has changed 1994-2008.
> > >
> > > http://sealevel.colorado.edu/current/sl_noib_global_sm.jpg
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > BTW IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) just released a
> > new report on Climate Change: impact on agriculture and costs of adaptation.
> > The report can be downloaded via the following link:
> > >
> > > http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/pr21.pdf
> > >
> > > Joel Gruver
> > > School of Agriculture
> > > Western Illinois University
> > > jgruv@hotmail.com