playing with nature, nature bites back

from Time to Move the Mississippi, Experts Say:

Like many major rivers, the Mississippi has tributaries, which feed water into it, and distributaries, which carry water away from it as it nears its mouth. Its tributaries include the Missouri and Ohio Rivers; one way or another, every stream, storm drain and parking lot from the Rockies to the Appalachians drains into the Mississippi.
...
Until people interfered with its flow, the Mississippi’s path to the gulf silted up naturally over time; water flow slowed and the river bed lost its capacity to carry a big flood. When next the big flood came, the river would suddenly turn one of its distributaries into its new main stem.

This kind of switching has occurred roughly every 1,500 years, geologists say, and since about 1950 the river has been ready for a change — to the Atchafalaya. The Corps of Engineers prevents that from happening with an enormous installation of locks, dams and power stations near Lettsworth, north of Baton Rouge and about 100 miles northwest of New Orleans.
...
People involved in the proposal recognize that the lower Mississippi is “a working landscape” that must continue to function, said James T. B. Tripp, a lawyer for Environmental Defense and a member of the Louisiana Governor’s Commission for Coastal Restoration.

“One of the major obstacles to doing any of this pre-Katrina was the navigation industry,” he said. “As a result of Katrina, everyone’s thinking has become more flexible. Katrina brought all that home: how vulnerable this economic infrastructure has become. So there is a greater readiness today to think more boldly about how we can manage the river in a way that will help restore and build wetlands.”
...
“Is it practical? Yes,” he said. “Will it be expensive? Yes. But when you look at the alternatives it’s very cost effective,” particularly in an era of rising sea levels.
...
But there is a growing recognition that the cost of not acting will be high as well.

Along the Louisiana coast, in the delta plain along the river and the oaky woods along Chenier Plain to the west, much of the land is only a few feet above sea level. If seas rise as expected by two or three feet, or more, in the next century, and if the muddy sediments that form this landscape continue to compact and subside, land loss will only accelerate.

Coastal erosion is not just a matter of concern for the communities that are being, bit by bit, washed out to sea. Coastal erosion is a major issue: it affects the power of storms and their ability to reach further inland; it affects entire ecosystems as salt water filters into bodies of fresh water; it affects major industries such as shrimping and the movement of oil & natural gas. The article mentions rising sea levels on several occassions as a cause for lost coast land. The fact is, thanks to the permanent diverting of the Mississippi in the first place, land is being lost at a dramatic pace simply due to coastal erosion. Rediverting the mighty Mississippi again seems like another dangerous move (as in 'two wrongs don't make a right'), but perhaps it would be enough.

Little Girl, 3 Million Years Old, Offers New Hints on Evolution - New York Times

from Little Girl, 3 Million Years Old, Offers New Hints on Evolution:

If the fossil Lucy, the most famous woman from out of the deep human past, had a child, it might have looked a lot like the bundle of skull and bones uncovered by scientists digging in the badlands of Ethiopia.

The paleontologists who are announcing the discovery in the journal Nature today said the 3.3-million-year-old fossils were of the earliest well-preserved child ever found in the human lineage. It was estimated to be about 3 years old at death, probably female and a member of the Australopithecus afarensis species, the same as Lucy’s.

An analysis of the skeleton revealed evidence of a species in transition, the scientists said in interviews yesterday.

On the 6 & 1/2 day of Creation, God created Australopithecus afarensis.

iran 'n iraq

This is for those who think that US troops must stay in Iraq to keep it stable and out of the grasp of Iran's influence.

from Juan Cole's Informed Comment (09/13/06):

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad had something of a lovefest at their press conference on Tuesday. Ahmadinejad expressed his complete support for the Iraqi parliament, political process and government. The Iranians always sound just like the Bush administration when they talk about political progress in Iraq. Ahmadinejad also offered help with security affairs.

Al-Maliki declined to associate himself with American charges that Iran is fomenting turmoil in Iraq, saying that there were no obstacles to security cooperation between the two countries.

Iran and Iraq will cooperate in pumping petroleum from oil fields traversed by their common border, and in its refining. One such project could be online within a year. These fields are far from the Sunni Arab areas, and Iran would help with security, so that they could help the government escape the economic blockade the guerrilla movement has placed on the northern Kirkuk fields, which generally cannot export through Turkey because of pipeline sabotage.

So let's see, Iran is cooperating, helping, or supportive when it comes to Iraq's: parliament, government, political process, security affairs, pumping of petroleum, and securing oil feilds. Oh, and in a Sept. 14 post, Cole notes that "Iran and Iraq have announced cooperation in agricultural projects."

Remind me again, why are we in Iraq?

*emphasis mine

The Real Link Between 9/11 and Iraq (Finally) Revealed

from The Real Link Between 9/11 and Iraq (Finally) Revealed, a good look at where things stand including these sad facts:

*At least 3,438 Iraqis died by violent means during July (roughly similar numbers died in June and August), significantly more than the 2,973 people who died in the attacks of September 11, 2001.
...
*By the beginning of September, 2,974 U.S. military service members had died in Iraq and in the Bush administration's Global War on Terror, more than died in the attacks of 9/11.
...
*Last week, the U.S. Senate agreed to appropriate another $63 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where costs have been averaging $10 billion a month so far this year. This brings the (taxpayer) cost for Bush's wars so far to about $469 billion and climbing.
...
While the various New York memorial constructions can't get off (or into) the ground, due to disputes and cost estimate overruns, what could be thought of as the real American memorial to Ground Zero is going up in the very heart of Baghdad; and unlike the prospective structures in Manhattan or seemingly just about any other construction project in Iraq, it's on schedule. According to [Australian journalist] Paul McGeough, the $787 million "embassy," a 21-building, heavily fortified complex (not reliant on the capital's hopeless electricity or water systems) will pack significant bang for the bucks -- its own built-in surface-to-air missile emplacements as well as Starbucks and Krispy Kreme outlets, a beauty parlor, a swimming pool, and a sports center. As essentially a "suburb of Washington," with a predicted modest staff of 3,500, it is a project that says, with all the hubris the Bush administration can muster: We're not leaving. Never.
...
*A sideline record in the War on Terror: Afghanistan's already sizeable opium crop is projected to increase by at least 50% this year and would then make up a startling 92% of the global supply. ... (Meanwhile, according to the Washington Post, the investigation into the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden has hit a record low. His trail has gone "stone cold… U.S. commandos whose job is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden have not received a credible lead in more than two years.")

*emphasis mine

push back

from Subverting Democracy with the Big Lie:

If representative government were alive and well in America, President Bush would not have dared to give the speech he made Monday on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. In a blatantly partisan screed, the president ripped off a nation’s mourning for the 9/11 victims in order to justify his totally unrelated and disastrous invasion of Iraq.

The president’s shameless remarks on this solemn occasion were so rife with egregious distortions of fact and logic as to beg ridicule, let alone refutation by a free press, a sturdy political opposition party and an informed public. Sadly, those three essential pillars of a free society have been subverted by five years of willful presidential exploitation of our fears, mocking the Founding Fathers’ historic dream of a government accountable to the public.

The model for this administration is the opposite of Jeffersonian democracy, and instead increasingly invites comparison with the madness that destroyed Rome, Germany and the Soviet Union: Authoritarianism that thrives on stoking paralyzing fear of the barbarians at the gate. “We are in a war that will set the course for this new century and determine the destiny of millions across the world,” Bush said, justifying his Iraq quagmire while sidestepping the fact that Islamic extremism, as well as 15 of the 19 hijackers, was most clearly nurtured by Saudi Arabia, the bizarre oil theocracy with intimate ties to the Bush dynasty, but not former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
...
Peel back the lies and hyperbole from Bush’s speech and you are left with one pressing concern: If this “war on terror” is really so important to the worldwide battle for freedom, why have we allowed this democracy-mocking demagogue to lead us through it?

more bad news

from Alarmed Scientists Warn: Even in Winter, Arctic Ice Melting:

The vast expanses of ice floating in the Arctic Sea are melting in winter as well as in the summer, likely because of global warming, NASA scientists said Wednesday.
...
And if the ice continued to melt at the current rate, Comiso said, it could have profound effects on all life in the Arctic and other consequences around the world.

Particularly hard hit would be the polar bears, which live on the ice, he said. Sea ice also provides oxygen-rich cold water needed for the growth of phytoplankton. A decline in the number of the tiny plants could have a cascading effect on the food supply of fish and crustaceans, seals and the other marine mammals.
...
It's not impossible that the sea ice could recover in coming years, [NASA researcher Claire] Parkinson said.

"The possibility is there that the Arctic will recover, but that is not as likely as that it will continue to decrease," she said.
...
The loss of Arctic sea ice has global effects, scientists say.

Sea ice is made of frozen ocean water, and when it melts, it doesn't raise the ocean's level as do melting glaciers and ice sheets. But less sea ice means a smaller area of ice to reflect radiation away from Earth, and the dark, open water absorbs heat. Both phenomena could accelerate the world's warming, scientists say.
...
"If you asked me five years ago if it was human activity (causing global warming) versus natural variability, I was a fence-sitter," [Mark Serreze, senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.] said.

"The magnitude of the changes is starting to rise above the noise of natural variability. There is a continuing trend. What we see in the Arctic is part of a much larger picture. We hate to say, 'We told you so.' But we told you so."

10 ... 9 ... 8 ...

from World has 10-Year Window to Act on Climate Warming - NASA Expert:

A leading U.S. climate researcher said on Wednesday the world has a 10-year window of opportunity to take decisive action on global warming and avert a weather catastrophe.
...
"I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change ... no longer than a decade, at the most," [NASA scientist James] Hansen said at the Climate Change Research Conference in California's state capital.

If the world continues with a "business as usual" scenario, Hansen said temperatures will rise by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 7.2 degrees F) and "we will be producing a different planet".

On that warmer planet, ice sheets would melt quickly, causing a rise in sea levels that would put most of Manhattan under water. The world would see more prolonged droughts and heat waves, powerful hurricanes in new areas and the likely extinction of 50 percent of species.
...
"We cannot burn off all the fossil fuels that are readily available without causing dramatic climate change," Hansen said. "This is not something that is a theory. We understand the carbon cycle well enough to say that."

can they do anything right?

from Average Slice of Prosperity is Thin:

Read all about it. The numbers say the U.S. economy has been robust over the last two years. The only problem is that the numbers don't equate to Herbert Hoover's 'a chicken in every pot.'

Your chicken is most likely a McNugget.

Since 2003, despite an economic expansion fueled by increasing worker productivity (longer hours), median pay for American workers has declined 2 percent relative to inflation.

So, who's doing well?

Reports The New York Times, "Wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government began recording data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960s."

I care

from Even a Bag-Lady Can Teach Bush About Human Rights:

At the last count, Bush has discreetly claimed the authority to disobey 740 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the constitution.

This state of affairs has gradually developed since the days of the Depression, when Roosevelt used the economic crisis to gain more power for the executive branch. Before the Thirties, legislation had been precisely drafted so as to minimise interpretations by the executive branch. Now the executive branch can ignore anything it wants and only consults Congress when it needs a law to bypass the remaining obstacle to total and unfettered power - the Supreme Court.

You may think I exaggerate, but the facts speak for themselves. The majority of Americans cares not one jot for the constitution and lawyers and politicians are content to set aside any of the revered articles whenever it suits them. Nobody complains. There are no demonstrations on Massachusetts Avenue, no mass rallies in Central Park in defence of the constitution.

"It is paradoxical," says American author Paul Craig Roberts, "that American democracy is the likely casualty of the 'war on terror' that is being justified in the name of expansion of democracy." Quite.

I care. I vote. I speak my mind and try to inform others of the Truth. I give money to people and organizations who believe that the Constitution is not an antiquated impediment to the consolidation of money and power but, rather, a flawed but vital foundation for a nation that values its citizens and the public good. I do this because I believe - in the face of the lies and fear-mongering, torture, terror, and aggressive war of Bush and his administration - I still believe in human decency, in treating others as I wish to be treated, and in loving God and loving my neighbors, all of them, as I love myself.

*emphasis mine

about sums it up

from Why Are We Suddenly At War With "Islamic Fascists"?:

The Administration is aware that Americans are not sufficiently afraid, and that clear thinking will be its demise.

and the beat goes on

from A Civil War, but Not Ours:

With each passing day this week, the death toll has mounted - more Iraqi deaths, more American deaths.

The only people, inside Iraq or out, who are seriously suggesting that circumstances are improving - or that they might improve anytime soon - are members of the administration and their dwindling circle of apologists.

Do the president and his aides really believe what they are saying?

If so, they are fools.