Thursday 29 May 2008

When a countries administration says Global Warming is a fact...

Then there MUST be a problem, and whose administration says this? George Bush’s!!! The Bush administration released a climate change assessment on Thursday -- four years late and pushed forward by a court order -- that said human-induced global warming will likely lead to problems like droughts in the US West and stronger hurricanes. See HERE for the details of how climate change has affected water, agriculture and biodiversity in the U.S. already and what future predictions are, and in the washington Post, see HERE.

The Western areas of the U.S. will face especial problems due to a growing demand for water coupled with a drop in water supplies as the mountain snows and reservoirs dwindle.

As Anthony C. Janetos, director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute of the University of Maryland and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said, "People imagine all these ecological impacts are in some distant future, they’re not in some distant future. We’re experiencing them now.” As if to echo that point, below is pictured Amy Hosch at her brother-in-law's home after a tornado struck in Parkersburg, Iowa.

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Darfur, how can we sit and watch this happen?

A new wave of murder, rape, and displacement is ravaging Darfur. The Sudanese government's brutal ethnic militia -- the Janjaweed -- are once again burning schools and villages in a campaign that has left 300,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless. Not only has the international community failed to intervene effectively, but it has consistently cut deals with Sudan's genocidal government that have sold out Darfur's victims and produced one failed peace agreement after another. The Darfurian people are often excluded from any say in what are literally life and death decisions for them. They have been brutalized by their own government, isolated from peace talks and lack the resources to engage in advocacy on their own behalf. Any fair and lasting resolution to the crisis in Darfur must reflect the priorities of these Darfurian civilians.

Wednesday 21 May 2008

Can there be any greater abuse of creations resources

than the one use plastic shopping bag?

Millions of barrels of oil are shipped from the oilfields to make these wretched items and transported to the factory that produce them, many being produced in Asian factories. The bags are then shipped to the country and the company they have been ordered from and then distributed around the companies stores.

Once there they are handed out to the customer who (indirectly) pays for them, uses them once and then throws them out, usually paying for them to be put into landfill, but still millions pollute our towns, villages and countryside, rivers, streams, oceans and seas, killing and maiming land and sea creatures.

Is there any greater example of societies disregard for the Earth's resources than this? Please refuse them and take, if at all possible, cloth bags with you when you shop.

If you would like details of what is happening in the UK and further afield then please left-click here. It is the Plastic Bag Watch site and well worth a visit.



There is an answer to these things, please play the video.

Tuesday 20 May 2008

Please remember Somalia in your prayers...


Soaring food prices, a devalued currency and drought mean millions of people in Somalia cannot feed themselves, the United Nations said on Monday and the crisis will get much worse if April-June rains fail or are well below average, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said.

Somalia, a country of nine million people, already imports more than half its grain needs but soaring commodity prices and a weakening currency have made those staples 375% more expensive than a year ago, yes 375%! As a result many households did not have enough money to meet basic needs, said the FAO's Somalia Adviser, Cindy Holleman, in the statement.

Drought in parts of the country and poor rainfall in others meant domestic food production was also likely to be well below normal. "If the mid-April to June rains are significantly below normal, the Somalian currency continues to lose value, food prices increase further and civil insecurity worsens, we could see as many as 3.5 million people facing an acute food and livelihood crisis or humanitarian emergency conditions by the end of this year," Holleman said.

She said the number of people in Somalia needing aid had increased by 40 percent since January. A million more could be affected by the end of the year, especially if the rains fail. The security situation was another threat. The number of Somalis fleeing the capital Mogadishu, one of the world's most dangerous and heavily armed cities, increased by 20 percent since January to 855,000, the statement said.

The country has more than 1 million internally displaced people, the UN body estimates, and has called for $18.4 million to help Somalis but received only a quarter of that sum.

Saturday 17 May 2008

The Cree prophecy

Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then will you find you cannot eat money

Friday 16 May 2008

The world species numbers are dropping like flys

The World Wildlife Funds (WWF) see here Living Planet Index tracks some 4,000 species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians globally. It shows that between 1970 and 2007 land-based species fell by 25 percent, marine by 28 percent and freshwater by 29 percent and add to that the fact that marine bird species have fallen 30 percent since the mid-1990s.

Scientists see the loss of plants, animals and insects as the start of the sixth great species wipe out in the Earth's history, the last being in the age of the dinosaurs which disappeared 130 million years ago. Did you notice that fact in the first part in this paragraph, it's not simply animals that are at risk, no, its plant life as well! Scientists point out that most of the world's food and medicines come initially from nature, and note that dwindling species put human survival at risk.

Put into plain english, World Biodiversity has plummeted in the last 35 years and yet we are still consuming resources as though we had three planets to support us. Globally we are using at least 25% more resources than the Earth can possibly replenish in one year. But never mind, one can still buy an airline ticket cheaper than the cost of a cup of coffee at the airport lounge... Nero playing the violin while Rome burned has nothing on this.

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Well, if you can...



then to cycle is a good thing!

Saturday 10 May 2008

So what can we do about food security? (see lower post)

Well it would help if we in the UK didn't throw 1/3 of the food we buy away. See here

Food security; at last governments have noticed

In the US there has been a backlash against rising world food prices and the use of biofuels, see here and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has summoned world leaders to an emergency summit in June to put forward ways of dealing with the world emergency, see here.

For years now environmentalists have been calling for action on food security. This was linked to rainforest destruction, rapidly rising oil prices as we passed Peak Oil, rising world populations, water shortages and severe weather events due to the Climate Chaos caused by Global warming. Now, on top of this, we have the world financial crisis.

And the cause of all these probems? Easy to answer, the riches of the 'developed' world have been gained by squandering the worlds resources and ignoring the poor, hungry and sick of this world until their plight was too late.

I have no doubt that once again, Jesus weeps...

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Don't forget the economy but just look at the weather!


The global land surface temperature was the warmest on record for March, 3.3°F above the 20th century mean of 40.8°F. Temperatures more than 8°F above average covered much of the Asian continent. Two months after the greatest January snow cover on record on the Eurasian continent, the unusually warm temperatures led to rapid snow melt, and March snow cover extent on the Eurasian continent was the lowest on record!

The global surface (land and ocean surface) temperature was the second warmest on record for March in the 129-year record, 1.28°F above the 20th century mean of 54.9°F. The warmest March on record (1.33°F above average) occurred in 2002.
Although the ocean surface average was only the 13th warmest on record, as the cooling influence of La NiƱa in the tropical Pacific continued, much warmer than average conditions across large parts of Eurasia helped push the global average to a near record high for March.

Despite above average snowfall levels in the U.S., the total Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent was the fourth lowest on record for March, remaining consistent with the spring conditions of the past two decades, in which warming temperatures have contributed to low snow cover.

Last year, in the UK, the Midlands had a rainfall figure of 189% and even in the 'sunny' SE we had a figure of 169%.

The term 'Global Warming' is wrong, it sounds sort of comfortable, what is happening is 'Climate Chaos'.

The change in the weather is to ever more extremes. Extremes of heat and cold, floods and drought, deluges and blizzards, hurricanes and tornados. Violence fed by the greater warmth in the atmosphere — this is one of the most feared aspects of Climate Chaos. It will upset weather patterns, it will add more heat to the atmosphere which means more energy in weather systems which means ever more extremes of weather.

This is shown by the Burmese cyclone a photo of a fraction of the devastation is above. Its death toll has risen, as I write this, to 62,000 people now feared dead. Witnesses spoke of the homelessness, hunger and disease now threatening the worst-affected areas. I have no doubt that the 62,000figure will increase and that the full number of those lost may never be known. They need our prayers and our aid, and God's creation needs our physical help.