Should we replace fast melting glaciers with vast, human-made reservoirs?

Global warming is melting the great Rocky Mountain glaciers at an astonishing rate - these massive fresh water reservoirs feed some of the largest rivers in the world, the Mackenzie, the Athabaska, the North and South Saskatchewan, the Columbia - and these great rivers support the bread basket of the this country - and the world. We need to act now to guarantee these rivers continue to flow beyond the next generation.

These great glaciers may melt away to nothing in our children's life time - but using technology we have now - we can guarantee that water and food - in essence civilization - will continue - despite the end of the natural fresh water sequestering by glaciers that civilization has relied on hitherto. 

Aside from feeding us and the world (via the Great Canadian Plains (that produce 26 million metric tons of wheat each year), these great reservoirs will also produce massive amounts of hydroelectricity.

This could be - should be - an international project - like the the international space station. China for example has much experience on this kind of scale - lessons learned from the massive Three Gorges Dam project.

These new dams would need to be the largest such structures in the world. In order that they serve our needs over the next epoch - these bodies of water must be large enough to create micro-climates - weather patterns that will produce rain water at a rate that will sustain current flow rates.

The Map below shows the Fraser River watershed, while not a candidate area that is likely to garner much political support - because it is quite populated and we have invested vast sums in dam construction there already - but a good area map that can illustrate the scale of project I'm thinking is necessary.


Fraser River Drainage Basin

Fraser River watershed (626 × 480 pixels) - via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser_River

If the people of this period of over-consumption-economics wish to leave a legacy that is not the end of civilization - this is one highly effective, and sustainable way they can do that. This great project will define the Canadian Identity and propel us into a leadership position in the sustainable energy economy future.

Scientists predict the great rocky mountain glaciers - like the Columbia Ice Field - filled by 6 different glaciers, and which is the source of the North Saskatchewan River, the Athabaska River, the Fraser River, and the Columbia River - will be completely melted in 300 years¹.

But that estimate may be too optimistic - new evidence is beginning to reveal that the glaciers have already reached a 'tipping point' - their rate of melting is now accelerating beyond the rate predicted by the climate modeling alone.²

Hydrological functioning with-in the glacial systems, that we didn't understand until very recently is showing that run off from yearly snow melt is adding to a bottom, slippery layer that is a characteristic of all glaciers, which is causing these mountains of ice to slide down from their high-mountain perches more quickly than in cooler periods of history - resulting in more and more ice moving down to lower - and warmer - elevations faster.

Add to that unforeseen effect, the build-up of dirt on the surface of the glacier - deposits of fine dust particles (the core of every snow flake) - is building up on the surface of glaciers that melt all their winter snow every summer - are now causing light energy from the sun to heat the glaciers rather than reflecting off them.

Add to that - mean temperatures are rising faster near the poles (now +2 degrees in the last century), faster than in more temperate regions (+1). Apparently, the Poles are acting to mediate the mean temperature of the planet - and therefore the poles are warming more quickly than anywhere else. Greenland for example is melting off much much faster than the climate models predicted.


Therefore I submit, we must begin to plan to build large scale damming systems to capture massive amounts of glacial run-off water, starting with the worlds most polar located glaciers, and do so in time so that we can capture a large portion of the last of 50,000 years of sequestered fresh water - which scientists predict will happen to the northern most ice with-in the next 50 - 100 years.

There is just enough time to do it if we start now: twenty years of research, planning, public consultation, design; forty years to build - a massive global construction project in the inhospitable, undeveloped far north; and twenty years to fill the reservoirs - what will be in fact - new fresh water inland seas, on the scale of the volume of all the Great Lakes.

I'm not talking about filling valleys here and there as we have done extensively in the Kooteney - I'm talking about filling whole water sheds - a project that compares to the scale of the Panama Canal's construction - times a thousand.


Where?

The Rocky Mountains are made up of two distinct mountain ranges, separated by what geologists call The Rocky Mountain Trench. There are three such trenches, one mainly in the USA and two in Canada. The Fraser River Drainage Basin represents the southern most Canadian Rocky Mountain Trench and includes the source glaciers for the Athabaska, Columbia, Fraser and Saskatchewan rivers.

To the north of the Fraser River Drainage Basin, is - for an example of the scale I'm thinking about - an area drained by the Liard River. The Liard River Basin, or a similar, Northern Rocky Mountain Trench feature, perhaps something to the south of that, or the entire Tintina Trench - but I'd settle for the Liard Plateau.
(But it is such a unique natural treasure we are just beginning to explore it is an unlikely political candidate as well.)

Tintina Trench - Canadian Geographic Magazine


Liard River Basin Map - Wikimedia



I'm thinking we should flood a portion of Northern Rocky Mountain Trench in order to create an inland freshwater sea - on the order of magnitude of five times the volume of Great Bear Lake.

Indigenous Nations and Settlers in the area would have to change their economies - from what I assume is fishing, trapping, hunting, tourism, logging, mining - to mainly fishing and tourism. But they should keep in mind that as the glaciers go, so goes the rivers, and the habitat of all on Turtle Island who rely on them.

The people who live in the prospective areas chosen should be the starting point in the planning and research about this - and objectively they should embrace the project - as their economies are going to have to change anyway.

For Indigenous Nations to get out from under the heel of the imperial settler culture, they must embrace the future - there is no going back. In order for their culture to  flousih and grow they must help choose the best, most sustainable path forward. Stop the toxic oil pipelines cutting across their lands for example - and embrace a version of this proposal.


Global warming is going to increase the amount of water in the air generally, this will cause and increase in rain fall (where that rainfall will be, is difficult to predict, but mountain caused precipitation functioning is fairly well understood at this time).

These great glaciers may melt away to nothing sooner than we think - but using technology we have now, and by acting now - we can guarantee that water and food - in essence civilization - will continue - despite the end of the natural fresh water sequestering by glaciers.

____________

Images:

Tintina Trench - via Canadian Geographic Magazine - July/August 2007 - http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/ja07/feature_tintina_trench.asp

Liard River Basin Map (448 × 500 pixels) - via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liard_River


References:

1 - "The Big Melt Down: Columbia Icefield, Canada" - http://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/baumanpr/geosat2/Big_Melt_Down/Big_Melt_Down.htm

2 - National Geographic -TVO | National Geographic: Extreme Ice - showing again March 24, 2012 on TVO (part of Water Week), watch TVO Trailer (1:12) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCe5dh7dwq4
[EDIT: that was a post by TVO from last year, top listed in search yesterday]

Bonus!
National Geographic's "Extreme Ice" is up right now! (despite National Geographic's misguided copyright fetish)


Via Craig Keithley's Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvqqQVW9xzM
[Updated March 22, 2018]



mh

U.S. Drought Monitor 12 week .GIF - June 12 to August 28, 2012

U.S. Drought Monitor 12 week .GIF - June 12 to August 28, 2012




The Drought Monitor is a project of:

• Joint Agricultural Weather Facility (U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) 
• Climate Prediction Center (U.S. Department of Commerce/NOAA/National Weather Service) 
• National Climatic Data Center (DOC/NOAA)

Drought Monitor - http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/



mh

UV-Index readings 'off the scale' this summer

Editor's Note - 18 July 2012: The EPA maps included in this post are updating URL's, the map images that I posted here, and the copy written about them, was about forecast UV levels for Monday, July 16, 2012. When I published the images I thought I was getting an image that would remain static - but it turns out these are 'light-box' URL's - the image addresses get re-newed daily, a new image is added each day to the image address showing each day's forecast UV-Index highs. There is an archive of the data that was used to make these EPA maps, at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - (see links and data below).

I've been noticing that the sun has been rather 'hot' this summer, as in it feels like your skin is burning as soon as you walk outside.

Last week's sizzling temperatures in the U.S. worked their way across the border into Toronto on a couple of days - but luckily we've had some periodic respite through this period, unlike our friends to the south.

Look at today's UV-Index predictions from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - look at Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico. Twelve ?!!  I didn't know the UV-Index went up to 12!



Environment Canada is predicting "9 or very high" for noon today.

I thought the polar ozone holes were diminishing since we got the chlorofluorocarbons out of the fridges and air conditioners ... oh wait - we didn't!

We did start using more pumps, pour-ons and roll-ons instead of sprays; and we did start slathering our skin with UV blockers that likely cause skin cancer themselves --- but with the refrigerators and the air-conditioners, they still need chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) to work. 

With those sources, we just started recycling them - so when your A/C (or your refrigerator) stops working well, and you call in the professional HVAC person, they're now supposed to make sure the old Freon (Dupont's trademark name for CFC's) that is still in the machine doesn't escape while they're fixing it --- or when they're replacing old machines they're supposed to collect all the old Freon and store it in a canister and re-use it.


Since those laws were passed all talk in the Popular Press about the antarctic ozone hole seems to have gone away - and since that law was passed the number of residences with A/C has likely quadrupled. According to Canadian Federal Government's Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE) study, from 1990 to 2007 energy use for air conditioning in residences in Canada tripled.

"2007 Survey of Household Energy Use (SHEU-2007) -- Summary Report"

II. Survey findings 

Air conditioning and other cooling methods

According to Natural Resources Canada’s Energy Use Data Handbook Tables,13 from 1990 to 2007, the energy consumed in the residential sector for space cooling almost tripled (increasing by 266 percent). Furthermore, there was a noticeable increase in the penetration rate of air conditioning systems in Canadian households. Because of this, SHEU-2007 collected information on the characteristics and use of residential air conditioning systems.

Add five more years of expanding use to that figure.


Now it's not the hole in the ozone layer over the arctic polar region that we need to worry about; it's the hole over North America! 

And check out the colours in the Legend on the EPA UV-Index contour map below - it looks like they had to add colours after the Index started to regularly pass the red (presumably the highest UV climatologists thought they'd need 10 years ago was "9", which they descided to colour red - as in fire, hot, death. Red is always the top end of any scale of heat or intensity.

But look at the scale, "0", on the far left, is dark blue - no UV to speak of - "9" is red - we all know the warnings we get through the media on days like today, 9 is always accompamied with the phrase, "very high" --- and at the extreme far end of the scale is light blue "15". Signifying... the end of times? When we all turn blue? ..I guess... .



We've 'burnt' through this scale with our recent and increasing, predilection for energy sucking 68 degree rooms when it's 100 degrees outside.

We need a new scale.

No, we need a new life - this one isn't working.



References:

Map Images: 
United States Government, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), UV Index | SunWise | US EPA - www.epa.gov/sunwise/uvindex.html

Government of Canada, Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE) "2007 Survey of Household Energy Use - Summary Report - OEE": http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/publications/statistics/sheu-summary07/air-conditioning.cfm?attr=0

Wikipedia, "Ozone depletion": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion

Environment Canada, Toronto Island Weather Office: http://text.weatheroffice.gc.ca/forecast/city_e.html?on-128&unit=m
(open link in new tab for full screen size)

Environment Canada, Toronto Island, loaded at 6:00 am edt 16 July 2012

US Dept of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service, Archive of UV Index bulletins - June 28, 1994 - present -  http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/uv_index/uv_archive.shtml

Forecast data for July 16, 2012 (File: "uv.2012071512.uvbull 15-Jul-2012 19:25 3.4K" - released on July 15, 2012) - forecast values shown below are the subject matter of this article - http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/uv_index/Bulletin/uv.2012071512.uvbull 

MON JUL 16 2012
CITY               STATE  UVI       CITY               STATE  UVI
ALBUQUERQUE          NM    12       LITTLE ROCK          AR    11
ANCHORAGE            AK     4       LOS ANGELES          CA    11
ATLANTIC CITY        NJ     9       LOUISVILLE           KY    10
ATLANTA              GA    11       MEMPHIS              TN    11
BALTIMORE            MD     9       MIAMI                FL    10
BILLINGS             MT    10       MILWAUKEE            WI     9
BISMARCK             ND    10       MINNEAPOLIS          MN    10
BOISE                ID     8       MOBILE               AL    11
BOSTON               MA     9       NEW ORLEANS          LA    12
BUFFALO              NY     9       NEW YORK             NY     9
BURLINGTON           VT     9       NORFOLK              VA    10
CHARLESTON           WV     9       OKLAHOMA CITY        OK    11
CHARLESTON           SC    11       OMAHA                NE    10
CHEYENNE             WY    11       PHILADELPHIA         PA     9
CHICAGO              IL    10       PHOENIX              AZ    11
CLEVELAND            OH     9       PITTSBURGH           PA     9
CONCORD              NH     9       PORTLAND             ME     9
DALLAS               TX    11       PORTLAND             OR     7
DENVER               CO    11       PROVIDENCE           RI     9
DES MOINES           IA    10       RALEIGH              NC    10
DETROIT              MI     9       SALT LAKE CITY       UT    11
DOVER                DE     9       SAN FRANCISCO        CA    10
HARTFORD             CT     9       SAN JUAN             PU    12
HONOLULU             HI    12       SEATTLE              WA     8
HOUSTON              TX    12       SIOUX FALLS          SD    10
INDIANAPOLIS         IN    10       ST. LOUIS            MO    10
JACKSON              MS    11       TAMPA                FL    11
JACKSONVILLE         FL    11       WASHINGTON           DC     9
LAS VEGAS            NV    11       WICHITA              KS    10

 


mh

Have you ever seen the wind?

Tornado in Pupping

Via BoingBoing - Mar 9, 2011:"Slow dust devil lifts plastic sheets off of a strawberry field" by Mark Frauenfelder.

Via Youtube user: etschi123.



mh

Video: Snowing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada - January 8th, 2011 - 8 AM

This is the first good snowfall of the winter here in Toronto.

This is Jones Avenue, Leslieville, in the south-east of Toronto - on the eastern Don River Delta - looking south out my bay windows towards Queen Street. There is about 2 cm on the ground; Environment Canada Toronto Island Weather Office is calling for 5-10 cm as of 7:31 AM EST.

Down here by the shore of Lake Ontario we could get more than that due to local climate created by the combination of the City of Toronto and the Great Lake, which is ice-free at this point.





mh

Late Monday night, in the early hours of the Winter Solstice, a Full Moon - Total Lunar Eclipse

The Winter Solstice arrives on Tuesday, December 21, and with it, in the early morning hours, a Total Lunar Eclipse of the Full Moon that will be visible across North America. A astronomical three-scoop sundae if you will.

Starting at 01:33 AM EST (Monday, Dec. 20th, at 10:33 pm PST) the moon will begin to move into the earth's shadow and will remain in 'total eclipse' for 72 minutes, and completely emerge from the shadow at 05:01 ET.

The 'can't miss' phase is between 1:33 and 2:41. The eclipse will begin at 1:33 - this is breath taking - the moon begins to be eaten as an arch much bigger than the arch of the edge of the moon begins to show along one edge, slowly crawling across the disk minute by minute. At 2:41 AM EST - the full effect will happen - you have to be outside for this moment - the normally white light reflecting off the moon will wink out entirely and the eerie, yellow-y aura will fill the evening.

Something changes in the air; if you're with friends or family, all the better. There is something hard-coded into our DNA that happens at this moment, people will stare in awe, some will laugh, some will try to organize things that don't need organizing...

(click on image to see larger)

As for cloud cover, well, have a look for yourself, the forcast is not good. (but there's a 75 % chance they'll be wrong)

;)

Update: December 20 2010 - 07:27
They were wrong!(and Now they're right)

Environment Canada Weather office:
Toronto Island [ Ontario ]
Forecast

Issued: 5:00 AM EST Monday 20 December 2010

Monday:
Cloudy. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this morning. High minus 3.

Tonight:
Clearing. Low minus 9.

Tuesday:
Cloudy with sunny periods. Clearing late in the afternoon. Wind becoming north 20 km/h early in the evening. High minus 3.


Environment Canada Satellite Image Animation - December 17th (12:15) to 19th (22:45), 2010




See the NASA page, Solstice Lunar Eclipse.

Environment Canada - Satellite Images Animation.

Micheal Holloway's FilterBlogs @ Youtube,
michaelholloway111's Channel



mh

No Frigging Way!! The Metrodome roof collapsed!!! Video.

My favourite Twin Cities, Minneapolis - St Paul got 17.1 inches of snow in a storm that lasted over Friday and Saturday, December 10 - 11.

That's 43.43 centimetres!

From: Minnesota Public Radio:

Dome Buster: 5th biggest snowstorm for Metro

Posted at 2:47 PM on December 12, 2010
by Paul Huttner





mh

Canada, US Midwest gets it's own Catagory 3 Hurricane (Strong Extratropical Cyclone)

A week ago, (October 25 - 27, 2010) this system developed over the Great Lakes lowlands and the Midwest. I've been seeing large events like this develop periodically, especially in the months where we change from fall into winter, or winter into spring.

Look as the size of this thing! And the speed! And apparently the air pressure dropped REALLY low under the centre of the event - like happens in a Category 3 hurricane!



The climatologists at NASA call this a "Strong Extratropical Cyclone". The name they use seems to indicate it's pretty unusual.

As I say here at FilterBlogs; Climate change = Various Weather. How's this for "Various"?

via:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD...

via:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/bad...

via:
http://www.misscellania.com/miss-cell...

And ultimately,

via BoingBoing.



mh

First Earth - Ecological Architecture: Earth, Water and Straw, solid as concrete, builds strong communities

After some articles are 'put to bed' at FilterBlogs they get a Posthumous Longtail Aperitif; links to related articles published after my original post.

Fight Club (1999) first 10 minutes is a great representation of the consumerism that I talk about in this article. As an educational piece about how to better engineer cities, I thought this would be great use of the Internets ability to connect things: unfortunately Youtube has software that blocks this stream and disallows the embed no matter what use it is intended for. A great example of how DRM doesn't work and how ACTA, the international trade agreement that this censorship is a part of effects the fair use of content in situations where the content is intended to enlighten and educate, to act as an example, a cultural artifact - all of which are elements that are supposed to be exempt from the ACTA provisions, but which get caught up in a copy right fetish of protectionism in the current Zeitgeist.

Here's the Youtube refusal of my up-load request - after they've taken my up-load by the way - in other words, they now have my user generated content, but refuse to fulfill their end of the application/user agreement as they are required to as per the law.

Of coarse this is an algorythm that is parsing ones and zeros, the DRM protocals that Youtube is instituting to keep the dieing dinosoars old media happy are at fault.

Image:

I thought I was about to watch another discussion of architecture and sustainability. And, with the title First Earth, an obvious play on the Dark Green environmental movement's group "Earth First", I was sure I was in for an hour of rhetoric and hyperbole.

I was wrong.

Youtube user The Red Pharmacy has posted the film "FIRST EARTH - Uncompromising Ecological Architecture", a 12 part series, in ten languages, which argues that the ancient techniques of mud brick construction can help create sustainable economies that are good for the planet, our communities and ourselves - and that work better in many ways, than concrete or wood-frame construction.

SunRay Kelly's 'cob house' near Portland Oregon


I've seen other films on building techniques and global warming. The societies of architects around the world are quite progressive on this topic. They've been telling us for some time now that the buildings we live and work in, are really inefficient and a big part of our unsustainable economy. A stat that has been making the rounds: 40% of the greenhouse gases we release every day are the result of buildings; complex structures, artificial environments which require hot and cold feed water, sewage systems, lighting, heating, air conditioning and cooling.

Several large scale projects have built in the last ten years that have used high tech to make large office towers more efficient and cheaper to run; architects designing towards a more sustainable model and encouraging developers, though economy, to pursue the coarse. Architects found that bringing in new vectors into the design process, like efficiency, has had an unexpected side effect - buildings designed to work with the environment around them became more people friendly at the same time!

First Earth talks about how 'cob building techniques', or adobe construction that use earth water and straw as building materials, are so hands on, so human, and so hard wired to our ancient experience that the technique unveils many new starting points toward sustainability solutions, while at the same time solves the great psychological disorder of modern times - the alienation of the individual in a soul-less, commodified cookie cutter urban architecture. Every cob home or piece of cob 'urban furniture' is absolutely individual - like a vase one might make at night-school pottery class, and because the building process is labour intensive and low tech, it 'causes community' wherever it is applied.

Instead of going super high tech, elite, leading edge to solve sustainability issues, cob building addresses the issue from the other way round. Using common earth, the essence of the biosphere, cob builders use their hands and feet as tools and simply pile cob balls one on top of the other, and walls begin to be!

This is part 9 of 12 of "FIRST EARTH - Uncompromising Ecological Architecture"; it describes the grand vision. Watch this as a primer and I'm sure you'll want to go to part 1 and watch the the whole thing.

A must see.






mh

"The Internet of Things" video from IBM

This is worth watching.

"The Internet of Things" can describe a super high efficiency economy. A way off the oil tit, and a way forward for the de-industrializing first world with-in the new global economy (re: China, India).





mh

Utne Reader points to this "Thingy"

Utne Reader pointed me to this interactive graphical representation of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Disaster in the Toronto Star (pic). It was produced by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Yay! Open government, for the people, rather than to the people).

I've placed the oil spill over London UK, where it belongs perhaps - or over the United States Congress who approved near shore drilling last year - with the approval of the Obama White House.

(Obama has to choose his fights - the systemic collossus he is up against represented by corrupt representatives and senators is the product of a dieing epoch - imho - I would nationalize the banks and big oil.)



BP is also not interrupting a Live Feed of the spill that LiveStream is running 24/7 - WKRG.com Live Oil Spill Cam. I expect the feed comes from a wireless connection to BP's underwater subs, or perhaps a feed back to HQ from the ships they have on site. Either way good on them for that openness - transparency is worth a try I think.

Watch live streaming video from wkrg_oil_spill at livestream.com

On the other hand they are managing the play... Camp grounds near Galveston Texas are being rented by BP (Mother Jones: "It’s BP’s Oil") so pictures of oil soaked wildlife and fat little boys and girls won't start popping up everywhere. It will happen anyway by the way BP. The asemetric vectors around drilling in the Gulf may spell the end of near shore drilling and speed our investment towards wind solar and a super efficient post classical industrial infrastructure.

The dinosaurs are going down fighting, but mother earth keeps slapping 'em down! :)



mh

New NASA Movie: Arctic Sea Ice Extent: 1978 - 2009

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) put together all the data they've ever collected via satellite and produced a motion picture graphic.

They've put it up at YouTube. Here's an embed, "Arctic Sea Ice timelapse from 1978 to 2009"



In 2007 I posted a similar mpeg animation, derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI).

I like the DMSP mpeg4 visualization, but the NSIDC visualization has five extra years data. And, most importantly I think, the new one is better 'tuned'; it better represents what a viewer on the ground would see; James Bay at the bottom of Hudson's Bay Canada becomes ice-bound every year (so far), as does the Alaskan Archipelago.

You can download the file by clicking on the earth satellite view. It's 2.9 MB, opens in a blank tab and pops up your download management system. The 'movie' is from NASA and will play in any player as long as you have mpeg4 codecs.

My StatCounter account shows I've gotten a lot of visits to the movie; people like to see the data like that. Very effective imho.



mh

El Niño Cycle Showing early Results in the Boreal Forest, North/Central Canada

The Winnipeg Free Press is reporting that Manitoba's Winter Roads network in the centre/north part of the province is thawing four weeks early this year:

This year's mild winter has forced the Manitoba government to close its winter road system earlier than usual. Some of the roads, which are used to transport goods to remote communities, were open for less than a month.

To put this in a geo-context, here's an image of a Google Map of the northeast quarter of the North American Great Plains and the Great Lakes Lowlands. Chicago is near the bottom of the map; the red Google marker indicates Wrong Lake Manitoba, which is 300 km north of the capital Winnipeg.

*where singer songwriter Neil Young played in his first band*

A group of Truckers is stranded near Wrong Lake in the north east of the province.

Again from the Winnipeg Free Press:

At least half a dozen semi-truck drivers are stuck in the mud and one 52-year-old driver has been airlifted to safety after an early spring thaw left the freight haulers stranded on a winter road near Bloodvein First Nation.

The province shut down the seasonal transport road linking many northern First Nations last Wednesday, after warm temperatures made maintaining the vital winter routes impossible. A convoy of trucks was dropping off loads of groceries and gravel crushers to the Island Lake communities of Garden Hill and St. Theresa Point at the time of the closing, and didn't depart for Winnipeg until late Friday evening.

[...]

Earlier this week the Manitoba government asked for Ottawa's help to airlift critical goods to northern communities after the early shutdown of the winter road system. About half of the winter roads opened by Feb. 1, with the rest opening Feb. 12. Normally, the road system -- temporary routes created over frozen swamps, muskeg and even lakes -- is open for about eight weeks.

[,,,]

A state of emergency has been declared by two northern First Nations -- Shamattawa and Red Sucker Lake -- that depend on goods arriving on winter roads.

Northern Grand Chief David Harper, of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, expects other communities to soon call states of emergency. His organization is assessing the communities to find out how much their supplies fell short this year.

Harper said the winter roads are used to truck in non-perishable food and building supplies, as well as fuel to heat homes and operate vehicles, boats and planes.

MKO is supporting the province's call for the federal government to help alleviate costs to fly in urgently needed goods.

Why this Year?

Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) released some climate data they've crunched.


In this map, surface temperature data from 1951 - 1980 is compared with data collected for 2000 - 2009. These data points are really good - GISS is error-ing way on the conservative side here.

*since the 'teabaggers' or 'teacuppers' or here's a new one, 'teapotters' (tempest in a), have made carbon emission climate change denial-ism one of their psycho-babble talking points*

By choosing recent data as the base line in this map, we are confident in the arctic numbers - which are sparse from earlier; the long range bomber developed during WW ll changed that. The data source is likely the military installations placed there as part of the DEW LINE early warning system against a Soviet Nuclear attack (GISS doesn't say - it's a secret).

Notice the red spot above the Alaskan archipelago. Scientists have recorded data that describes El Niño and La Niña effect in the Pacific that sees surface temperatures in the Ocean radically change, which in turn changes weather patterns over the Pacific. When those patterns are forced into The Rocky Mountain chain by the spinning of the planet they run up the west coast of North America. When they reach Alaska they fork - some continues north into the arctic and some spills east and south into the North American Great Plains and the North American Boreal Forest (including northern Manitoba).

The other northern hot spot on the GISS map is at the top of the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf stream, just north of Great Britain. We don't know yet if this 'turning over; effect recorded in the Pacific Ocean happens in the Atlantic but scientists have measured ocean currents called "The Thermohaline Circulation" (Wikipedia). In the Atlantic the current follows a similar path as the Gulf Stream (a weather pattern) - up the east coast of North America turning east just south of Newfoundland and then across the ocean south of Greenland and Iceland to Great Britain and north to the hot spot on the map.

GISS says this year is an El Nino year once again; from "2009: Second Warmest Year on Record; End of Warmest Decade" published 01/21/10.

El Niño and La Niña are prime examples of how the oceans can affect global temperatures. They describe abnormally warm or cool sea surface temperatures in the South Pacific that are caused by changing ocean currents.

Global temperatures tend to decrease in the wake of La Niña, which occurs when upwelling cold water off the coast of Peru spreads westward in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. La Niña moderates the impact of greenhouse-gas driven warming, lingered during the early months of 2009 and gave way to the beginning of an El Niño phase in October that's expected to continue in 2010.

An especially powerful El Niño cycle in 1998 is thought to have contributed to the unusually high temperatures that year, and Hansen's group estimates that there's a good chance 2010 will be the warmest year on record if the current El Niño persists. At most, scientists estimate that El Niño and La Niña can cause global temperatures to deviate by about 0.2°C (0.36°F).

Also see a recent article in FilterBlogs: "Al Gore's Polemic against Global Warming Denialists a Brilliant Reality Check".


Thank you:

Image of truck on melting winter road, Winnipeg Free Press

Map of Manitoba Winter Roads Network, Winnipeg Free Press

Ten Year World Heating Map, NASA/GISS

Wikipedia Map of Ocean Currents, The Thermohaline Circulation




---> *an aside, a segue, me talking to myself :)*
mh

18 degrees in Toronto is Officially a Summer Day

I usually don't let myself even think of spring until after half way through March. We regularly get snow in the second week of this month and that usually marks the last snow. This year it's been over 10 C for over a week now.

Today the 17th day of March, Summer came.



For you Americans, that's 64 degrees Fahrenheit.



mh

Al Gore's Polemic against Global Warming Denialists a Brilliant Reality Check

Drop what your doing and read this from the New York Times Feburary 27 2010, an Oped. piece written by former Vice President Al Gore.

A better round up of the forces at work in US and Global Politics around the paramount issues of Global Warming, Deregulation and Global Restructuring of the Economy I have not read.

Well done Mr Gore!

Snippet courtesy The New York Times

Op-Ed Contributor

We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change

By AL GORE
Published: February 27, 2010

It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.

Of course, we would still need to deal with the national security risks of our growing dependence on a global oil market dominated by dwindling reserves in the most unstable region of the world, and the economic risks of sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas in return for that oil. And we would still trail China in the race to develop smart grids, fast trains, solar power, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources of energy — the most important sources of new jobs in the 21st century.

But what a burden would be lifted! We would no longer have to worry that our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands. We could instead celebrate the naysayers who had doggedly persisted in proving that every major National Academy of Sciences report on climate change had simply made a huge mistake.

Read the rest...



mh

People Like to Talk About the Weather Using Twitter Lists (updated - new links)

After some articles are put to bed at FilterBlogs they get a "Posthumous Longtail Aperitif" - links to related articles that were published after the original post. Towards a better user experience for you, the reader:

1) GIGAOM, Feb. 23, 2010, "Yahoo Adds Twitter Firehose, Tweet Integration Coming" "Yahoo will include real-time tweets on its News, Finance, Entertainment and Sports pages." writes GIGAOM's Liz Gannes.

2) Backwards in time; Laurie Sullivan at Online Media Daily broke the story that Twitter was about to announce a monetization strategy: Online Media Daily Tuesday, Feb 22, 2010 "Twitter Ad Platform 'Imminent'" by Laurie Sullivan.

"..#Snowpocalypse2 is a direct-democracy, real time, user generated News Feed. You will find people's stories, pictures, video's uploaded as they're happening or soon after."

In Twitter, The Great Washington DC Snowstorm of February 6th 2010 is known as #snowpocalypse2. It's really popular - as are all weather stories - in any media.

A picture of FilterBlogs post on the December 19th 2009 Washington snow storm known in Twitter as #Snowpocalypse(1).

Today I had a look at my StatCounter and the second Washington snowstorm in as many months, #Snowpocalypse2, has caused an avalanche - a four fold increase in traffic - twigging on key words in my earlier post on #Snowpocalypse(1).

Most of these are hits are from Google searches for "Washington + Snowstorm + February".



When an F4 Tornado hit Elie Manitoba in 2007, I wrote a piece that attracted a 19 fold increase in search 'pings'. People were looking for pictures and video of the destruction in which fortunately, no was was killed.

Here's a ScreenPrint32 picture of my blog post that reported on the blog post that created a huge buzz in 2007. (In this case the media that is the message is the media and the message... :)

The reason I'm getting these 'pings' is because I posted a blog on the Washington #Snowpocalypse showing how my Twitter timeline was acting as a news ticker. I follow 5 people from the Washington area in Twitter and I watched as the Washingtonians invented the hashtag #snowpocalypse.

Now #snowpocalypse2 is a Twitter list where you can find great links to user generated photographs and video taken during the storm. Thus #Snowpocalypse2 is a direct-democracy, real time, user generated News Feed. You will find people's stories, pictures, video's uploaded as it's happening, or soon after.

A bit of tension too! People calling out to friends and neighbours for help!! Like "Bring food, beer, scotch and a shovel to dig your way IN!"

In December 2009 #snowpocalypse(1) happened and a spontaneous, fun snowball fight turned into a stand off with a Washington police officer who drew his sidearm on snow-ballers (the zero tolerance officer has been reassigned to desk work).



This time, with handy cams and i-phones rolling teams formed, flags poled and even armoured divisions recruited (4-wheel drive pick-up trucks), Washingtonians fought a flag snowball game that included 300 snow-ballers. This is a video I watched, now posted to Youtube, through the Twitter list #snowpocalypse2.



The use of lists is really starting to be understood by everyone in Twitter, and as more people use them the better Twitter lists get - because we begin to group subjects... ..like #snowpocalypse2! You should go!


More snow is expected in the Washington area today, February 9th 2010.

No iceballs now! :)


Update 2/9/10 @ 4:30 AM EST More snow is falling in Virgina and DC 3" by one Tweet.

A new list has been started in Twitter by the Alpha Geeks, Tim O'Reilly's term. Stowe Boyd calls them "Edglings": early adopters of new technology.

New Twitter List is #snowpocalypse3.



Props to:

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky or @znmeb twigged me to the news feed possibilities of Twitter back on Janurary 6, 2010 in his post, "The Twitter Streaming API — How It Works and Why It’s A Big Deal".

John Battelle (@johnbattelle) published a really interesting piece, also in January - I think under the heading "Signal from Noise" - on how he was tracking news stories on Twitter with a keyword search algorithm he created.

John Battelle (John Battelle's Searchblog) reported the application spotted three news items world wide that later went viral - in less than a month.

I tried for a hour to find the piece but I could not; maybe you can. If so, please let me know in comments or email - michaelholloway111(at gmail dot)com. Thanks.



mh

Washington Snowstorm 3'' from Record Set in 1932

@stoweboyd reports from Twitter that the Washington D.C. area snowstorm has dropped 15" by 7:45 AM.

And it doesn't look like that storm is going anywhere, according to my read of the weather data from the University of Wisconsin ssec visualization portal:






mh

Snow last night puts Toronto blogger in x-mas mood

It didn't snow much, but the flakes gently falling last night reminded me of winters before the warming. The farmers Almanac says it's going to be a cold one this year. Average temperatures seem lower than we've been used to in Toronto over the last ten years.






mh

Oil - Photographs from Alberta to Azerbaijan: Essick, Helbig & Burtynsky

The absolutely magnificent grandeur of the Alberta Tar Sands Project demands you take a step back in order to take it all in, way back, and way up Rusty, way up.

Here are some aerial photographs of the Alberta Tar Sands Project that I was able to find on the web, created by three different photographers: Essick, Helbig & Burtynsky

(All images can be enlarged by clicking them.)

Peter Essick

Peter Essick, working for National Geographic, created these and many more - which appear at the National Geographic site.




And to compare...

Louis Helbig

Beautiful Destruction - Alberta Tar Sands Aerial Photographs

Kristin Reimer and Louis Helbig flew their 1946 Luscombe Bush Plane east to west across Canada. One of their destinations was Fort McMurray and the Alberta Tar Sands which Louis wanted to photograph from the sky. They've put up a public gallery.








Louis Helbig has several gallery exhibits up coming. Right now Snapdragon Gallery in Ottawa Ontario, Canada has hung the walls: A solo exhibition, 'Beautiful Destruction – Alberta Tar Sands Aerial Photographs', December 10, 2009 - January 6, 2010. 791 Bank Street (at Third Ave).

Edward Burtynsky

"Edward Burtynsky: Oil"

Lastly, St. Catharines, Ontario born Artist Edward Burtynsky's ten year project titled, "Edward Burtynsky: Oil" just finished showing at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washihton DC.

The Galleries biographical essay reads,

"This exhibition, premiering in the capital city of the United States in Fall 2009, represents a look at one of the most important subjects of our time by one of the most respected and recognized contemporary photographers in the world."

Unfortunately the exhibition being taken down as I write. Luckily though the Galleries web exhibition is still up and I was able to catch some examples to show here.



Consumption realtime montage







Nicholas Metivier Gallery Toronto. "Edward Burtynsky: Oil" (October 8 to 31, 2009) in Toronto at 451 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5V 1K4 - phone: 416-205-9000 -
(I'm sure they can help you)

("Edward Burtynsky: Oil" was made possible with the generous support of Scotiabank Group. The exhibition was organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 500 Seventeenth Street NW Washington, DC 20006 (202) 639-1700. HASTED HUNT KRAEUTLER Gallery New York is the exclusive representative for Edward Burtynsky in the United States. Thanks for the screen shots.)




mh

Peak Oil as Metaphor in Star Trek - Voyager Series

Just watched Star Trek Voyager episodes "Demon" (May 6, 1998) and "Course: Oblivion" (March 3, 1999). The two episodes were written separately and Course Oblivion was broadcast a year later. It's not until more than half way through that you realize your watching "Demon" Part ll. Another brilliant bit of writing from Jeri Taylor (- and those other guys who wrote DS9).

For those unfamiliar with the story line of the series the Star Ship Voyager has been hurtled into the "Delta Quadrant" by a vastly superior life form known only as "The Caretaker". The journey home is the series nine-year story arch.

Four years into their journey, some seventy years from home, Captain Janeway is forced to set Voyager down on a 'demon class' planet for fuel. A silvery liquid lays in pools everywhere on the surface of the 500⁰ Kelvin planet - it contains elements that can fuel Voyager's engines. The 'silver liquid' also has a strange quality, the ability to mimic anything it comes in contact with - including the crew.

Two members of the crew doing a preliminary exploration of the planet are copied by the fluid and are mistaken for 'real' by the crew of Voyager. Soon though the originals are found, with slow leaks in their spacesuits, and near death. The ship is now sinking into the 'mimetic fluid' under the ship forcing Captain Janeway to use any means necessary to escape. Her efforts hurt to doppelgangers now in sickbay, thus Janeway discovers she can negotiate with the mimetic fluid outside - through the dopplegagers inside. A new life form has been born and it wishes to continue, just as humans do. Negotiations ensue and a deal with the 'planet' is struck: fuel in exchange for DNA samples of the entire crew.

Que the music and role the credits, the magnificent Voyager lifts off, the doppelganger crew left on the surface waving goodbye.


Continuing the story, the second of the two episodes titled "Coarse: Oblivion" takes place ten months and eleven days later story time, broadcast ten months later.

Everything is going swimmingly and thanks to the new 'enhanced warp drive' Voyager is now a little over two years from earth - then things begin to go terribly wrong. Soon the officers discover that they, the crew and the ship are all made of the bio-mimetic fluid - from the Demon planet they encountered almost a year earlier - and it is beginning to lose cohesion; the ship and the crew are beginning to disintegrate.

And this is the point of this essay.



Captain Janeway decides - in a conscious denial of the available facts - that in order to maintain the purpose of Voyager - the zietgiest - the reason for continuing, that the mission cannot change. In a consultation with her 'Number One' Commander Chakotay, Janeway says,

"The way I choose to look at it is this: if everything about us was duplicated, that includes our memory engrams, the emotional centres of our brains; so if you feel something, if you remember something, if you believe something...."

And Later to the crew:

"Duplicate or not I'm still the person I was yesterday; and so are all of you, and that means we're going to do everything we can to complete our mission, which is to reach earth."

I don't know that the writers (Bryan Fuller and Nick Sagan), had this in mind when they wrote 'Coarse Oblivion, but I think the choice Janeway is faced with reflects the conumdrum America finds itself in today regarding the oil economy.

The present coarse is no coarse at all, but it seems at one point, it's the only one we've got. When Janeway finally does turn around, recognizing her folly, a nearby oasis turns into great disappointment - they are turned away by a belligerent alien space force. The scene spot-lights Voyagers weakness at a crucial time in a cruel universe.

Trapped in a neurotic psychosis for too long Voyager now has no way out. In a gallant run back to the Demon planet using their enhanced warp drive, Voyager disintegrates at high warp, disassembling in a liquid implosion.

(Boy now that I write it out, maybe Bryan Fuller and Nick Sagan did have that in mind when they were writing the episode.)

Image courtesy: ex-astris-scientia.org



mh