Home » Posts tagged 'water' (Page 20)
Tag Archives: water
Waking up to the Water – An ecocentric vision of human identity in the 21st Century | The Dark Mountain Project
Life is all about information. Whether you are a plant, a tree, a chimp or a human, all living things are continually influenced by information from the past. The more useful the information we can get, the better able we are to solve our problems in the present in order to survive. Through the process of natural selection, such information has come to reside not only in the DNA of lifeforms but in some species it has also evolved to be, maintained externally in the form of culture. As a group’s knowledge and understanding of the world are handed down from generation to generation, our interactions with the world scrape away our ignorance, bit by bit, so that eventually we are better able to solve our problems, or else we and our ideas die.
However, not all ignorance gets scraped away by the cold, harsh truth of nature but is instead protected in order to continue to confer considerable power onto an individual, ideology, institution or civilisation that is built around that vision, which they therefore insist must be maintained at all costs. Although we should never underestimate the stubbornness of ignorance, history has shown us that eventually there comes a time when such powers and such visions must adapt or die as the inaccuracies of their vision lose out either to competitors whose perspective is more accurate, reliable and more useful; or they lose out at their own hand as their analysis of reality is fundamentally flawed, unreliable and less useful to solving the problems that life can present – ours is but one of many civilisations since 8000 BC that have risen and fallen by first exploiting nature and then by suffering the weaknesses that over-exploitation brings and the ensuing reduction in resilience to what may once have been minor threats that ultimately lead to collapse.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Back-To-The-Future Agriculture: ‘Farming Like the Earth Matters’ | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community
It is easy to forget that once upon a time all agriculture was organic, grassfed, and regenerative.
Seed saving, composting, fertilizing with manure, polycultures, no-till and raising livestock entirely on grass—all of which we associate today with sustainable food production—was the norm in the “old days” of merely a century ago. And somehow we managed to feed ourselves and do so in a manner that followed nature’s model of regeneration.
“Farming like water and soil and land matter. Farming like clean air matters. Farming like human health, animal health and ecosystem health matters.”
We all know what happened next: the plow, the tractor, fossil fuels, monocrops, nitrogen fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, feedlots, animal byproducts, e. coli, CAFOs, GMOs, erosion, despair—practices and conditions that most Americans today think of as “normal,” when they think about agriculture at all.
Fortunately, a movement to rediscover and implement “old” practices of bygone days has risen rapidly, abetted by innovations in technology, breakthroughs in scientific knowledge, and tons of old-fashioned, on-the-ground problem-solving.
Three International Water Conflicts to Watch – Geopoliticalmonitor.com
Three International Water Conflicts to Watch – Geopoliticalmonitor.com.
China-India: The Brahmaputra River
The Brahmaputra River is a 2,900 km river that originates in Tibet and flows through India’s Arunachal Pradesh state before merging with the Ganges and draining into the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh. It is considered an important resource in all three countries that it flows through: for energy-hungry China, it provides hydroelectricity; and for India and Bangladesh, a key agricultural lifeline in otherwise overpopulated and arid region.
The Brahmaputra River is particularly important to the agricultural industry in India’s Assam plains, and worries have arisen recently regarding a series of hydroelectric plants that China is in various stages of construction on its Tibetan plateau. Some experts believe that these projects will reduce the flow of the Brahmaputra in India, compounding an already tenuous water situation in the affected areas.
While there is no comprehensive bilateral treaty in place for the sustainable management of the Brahmaputra River, some steps have been taken recently by the Modi and Xi Jinping governments, mainly in the form of an information sharing agreement for hydrological data. But until cooperation becomes more entrenched, the Brahmaputra River remains a potential source of friction between two of the world’s preeminent rising powers.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Three Survival Essentials
The Three Survival Essentials.
Yes, I said your survival plan. The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan. It’s not a plan until you write it down. Only then can you look at the whole plan at once and see what’s missing. As we already know, the three survival essentials are clothes, water, and food. We require all three at all times. We require all three no matter what disaster befalls us.
1) Clothes
You and your family can live quite comfortably and survive the elements easily with no clothes at all – if you live in Polynesia. But, here in the United States of America the weather is far too extreme for that. For those of us in the mountains, we would freeze to death in one winter’s night without clothing. For those of us in the desert, we would suffer burns in one summer’s day. For those of us on the plains I need only say bees. For those of us in the forests; poison ivy anyone? thorns? For those on the beaches; seen any broken glass lately?
Think about where you live. Think about the physical hazards your clothing protects you from. Now think about living outside in that environment for weeks without shelter. What type of clothing do you need to face both natural and man made hazards? No one else can tell you what is “best” for where and how you live because only you live there. But, I can offer some things for you to consider.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
“It’s Very Extreme” – Drought & Drug Cartels Drain California’s Aquifers At Record Rate | Zero Hedge
“It’s Very Extreme” – Drought & Drug Cartels Drain California’s Aquifers At Record Rate | Zero Hedge.
“If there’s no water for people to live, and you don’t have the basic necessities of life, your population is going to leave,” warns the emergency services manager of one California town, warning that as the drought continues (and is not set to ease anytime soon), “you could see the economy of this area just decimated.” But as farmers face the catastrophe with “water levels dropping at an incredibly rapid rate in some places – like 100 ft a year – 10 times expected,” there is another drain on the dry state’s water sources. As The FT reports, “Marijuana cultivation is the biggest drought-related crime we’re facing right now,” with up to 80 million gallons of water per day stolen by heavily armed marijuana cartels.
…click on the link above to read the rest of the article…
UN officials ‘shocked’ by Detroit’s mass water shutoffs | Al Jazeera America
UN officials ‘shocked’ by Detroit’s mass water shutoffs | Al Jazeera America.
Surrounded by a frenzy of cameras, Detroit resident Rochelle McCaskill explained her predicament to a team of United Nations officials on Sunday: The numbers simply didn’t add up.
Out of her $672 monthly disability check, McCaskill spends $600 rent, she said, leaving her unable to pay the city’s water bills, which have skyrocketed to more than twice the national average.
“They need a category for those of us who cannot pay,” said McCaskill, whose water was shut off this summer as part of a wave of disconnections that, block by block, have left thousands of city residents without running water.
The city turned off McCaskill’s water despite the fact that she had been paying down her $540.10 water bill in increments and that she suffers from MRSA, a contagious infection that the NIH considers a “serious public health concern” and requires frequent bathing.
…click on the link above to read the rest of the article…
Water crisis squeezes Sao Paulo state – Americas – Al Jazeera English
Water crisis squeezes Sao Paulo state – Americas – Al Jazeera English.
Itu, Brazil – The state of Sao Paulo is on the cusp of an unprecedented water crisis stemming in part from one of the worst droughts in decades, leaving millions scrambling to find clean water sources.
On Friday, the city of Sao Paulo recorded its hottest temperature in more than 71 years, and 70 cities in the state are facing extreme drought, with 30 cities already on some sort of water rationing.
The problem stems from a lack of water at the Cantareira, a complex of reservoirs and small dams built in the 1970’s that are the primary source of water for more than 10 million people in the state.
The water levels at the Cantareira are now below four percent, the lowest in recorded history, and estimates on when it could totally dry range from November to March of next year.
…click on the link above for the rest of the article…
