You don't hear many Canadians concerned about how our plans to flood world markets with high-carbon bitumen will affect the little brown people of the Third World. Out of sight, out of mind, I suppose.
Justin Trudeau, prime minister 'Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead' never mentions what bituminous energy may portend for those in the poorest and most vulnerable countries that are already getting hammered by climate change. Not a peep. He sure as hell isn't going to admit responsibility.
Our privileged indifference might change when climate change reaches grandma or the young ones, when it lands on our doorstep. However that's the fate we invite. That's the future we bequeath to the grandkids.
The climate crisis is making people sicker – worsening illnesses ranging from seasonal allergies to heart and lung disease.
Children, pregnant people and the elderly are the most at risk from extreme weather and rising heat. But the impact of the climate crisis – for patients, doctors and researchers – is already being felt across every specialty of medicine, with worse feared to come.
"There’s research suggesting that our prescription medications may be causing harm because of changing heat patterns,” said Aaron Bernstein, a pediatric hospitalist who is the co-director of the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at Harvard University.
“There’s evidence that extreme weather events are affecting critical medical supplies so we can’t do things as we normally would do because IV fluids aren’t available.
“And there’s evidence that extreme weather events are knocking out power more and more, and that is a huge issue for providing care in healthcare facilities.”You didn't really think we were getting out of this scot-free did you? No, sweetheart, sooner or later everybody pays.
How do I kill thee? Let me count the ways.
You really should read the article to get the full flavour of what awaits us but here are a few areas of concern, lethal concern.
Allergies; pregnancy and newborns; heart and lung disease; children under five; dehydration and kidney function; skin disease and cancer; digestive illness; infectious disease; mental health; neurologic disease; nutrition decline and trauma from severe weather events including smoke inhalation.
That sounds like a basket of fun, doesn't it? It's just one gawddamn thing after another, eh?
But our leaders, the petro-pimps? They won't take responsibility for this. It'll be treated as an 'act of god.' Only it's not. This an act of man. You can go back a generation or two to get your baseline. Pretty much everything since then, the difference, is rooted in fossil fuels. Sucks, eh?
The next boom will be the sale of water. Canadians will become very, very rich from its sale so says Brian Giesbrecht. There is never ending absurdity from people in Alberta. At least the Globe and Mail also has a letter posted in today's paper regarding it.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Brian Giesbrecht....a retired Judge, who posted his hype in papers in Alberta this morning...August, 14, 2019. "the melting of ice in our Canadian North is a good thing for Canada. Canada exports huge amount of water to the United States and all over the world. Whole lakes are shipped in every direction by means of our vast and efficient agricultural system. And the world is a better place because of it." He goes on to say, "Canadians should begin to look at water as a commodity - the blue gold that it is. And our water - our blue gold- can make us rich." Make who rich? This indicates Mr. Judge Brian doesn't know the first thing about what is happening in the North. Although our resources are large, from 1971 to 2004 the freshwater supply decreased in southern Canada, where 98% of the population lives. Over the same period, water yield, or the average annual renewable freshwater supply, fell by 9%. Annually, this represents an average loss of 3.5 billion cubic meters, the equivalent of 1.4 million Olympic-sized swimming pools—almost as much water as was supplied to Canada's entire residential population in 2005.
Water yield is the result of precipitation and melted ice that flow over and under the ground, eventually reaching rivers and lakes. For most of the country, water yield peaks in the spring as snow and ice melt and precipitation increases, whereas demand for water increases in the summer. The Mendocino Cannabis Policy Council, along with the Emerald Growers Association, has polled numerous cannabis cultivators about their water usage.Using Fish and Wildlife numbers, which most farmers consider too high, six gallons a day for the peak growing season of 150 days of summer means 900 gallons per plant, which is the same as a 3.75-pound plant for 240 days in our 1:1:1 formula, which would require about two gallons per eighth-ounce. If there were 400 sun-grown plants in an acre, 26,000 plants need 65 acres. If one were allowed to grow 400 plants per acre using 900 gal per plant it would need 360,000 gal per acre per season or 1.1 acre feet water. One doesn't have to wonder why the City of Medicine Hat has reduced the watering of Parks and green spaces.