Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Sacred Sites Update--Peacemaker's Sanctuary Onondaga Lake

The deluge of rain last week overwhelmed Central New York's lakes, rivers and streams, including Onondaga Lake  and the Peacemaker's Sanctuary  The water level of the lake was as high as I have ever seen it. USGS 04240495 ONONDAGA LAKE AT LIVERPOOL NY WATER LEVEL. 

Fortunately last Thursday I hd enough sense to go to the lake and check on  the benches. The seat of the far bench was covered with water and although its legs are heavy metal it was beginning to float.

The  water had not rise enough to cover the closer bench.


I dragged both benches to higher ground. I should say that I floated and guided the far bench to higher ground.



It will probably not be until Labor Day weekend that the water levels will have subsided enough to return the benches to their normal locations.

Monday, August 9, 2021

UN Report on Climate Change--BLEAK GETS BLEAKER

 The United Nations released today its most recent climate assessment, IPCC | Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis concluding that climate change is accelerating faster than expected and some changes are irreversible, or may take centuries to reverse.

Here are some some of the report's key findings:

A.1 It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.

A.2 The scale of recent changes across the climate system as a whole and the present state of many aspects of the climate system are unprecedented over many centuries to many thousands of years.


B.1 Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.

B.2 Many changes in the climate system become larger in direct relation to increasing global warming. They include increases in the frequency and intensity of hot extremes, marine heatwaves, and heavy precipitation, agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions, and proportion of intense tropical cyclones, as well as reductions in Arctic sea ice, snow cover and permafrost.

B.3 Continued global warming is projected to further intensify the global water cycle, including its variability, global monsoon precipitation and the severity of wet and dry events.

B.4 Under scenarios with increasing CO2 emissions, the ocean and land carbon sinks are projected to be less effective at slowing the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere.

B.5 Many changes due to past and future greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible for centuries to millennia, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets and global sea level.

The hope for change cast by the UN and others is admirable, however, given that we cannot even agree that climate change is real and we cannot rally to stop life threatening events like Covid-19 there is not much of a chance that anything will be done.

Climate change is accelerating and as I have been saying for years it continues to be underestimated.

Life extinction events are ahead of us. 




Monday, August 2, 2021

Western Forest Fires to Be Gone by 2030

 A new study in Ecosphere predicts that the forest fires currently ravaging the western states may be of the thing of the past by 2030.

Why?

Because so much will be burned up during the remainder of this decade that there will not be much left to burn. To read the Study. Does hot and dry equal more wildfire? Contrasting short- and long-term climate effects on fire in the Sierra Nevada, CA

So Sad