lindseyandhaley: pollution

Showing posts with label pollution. Show all posts

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Singapore haze; Indonesia forest slash-n-burn

Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Rujun Shen from Singapore (Reuters.com, 5-21-14)

Smoke haze obscures building under construction, Singapore March 2014 (Tim Wimborne)

Singapore braces for worst smoke "haze" as Indonesia slashes-and-burns forests

Singapore is approaching its yearly "haze" [dense air pollution] season, when smoke from forest clearing in Indonesia chokes the air, with this year likely to be worse than 2013's record pollution thanks to lack of action in Jakarta and an expected El Nino weather pattern.

The prosperous city-state, which prides itself on its clean air, was shrouded in heavy smog from slash-and-burn clearances on the neighbouring Indonesian island of Sumatra last June which sent its air pollution index to a record high.

Is America better than Asia about polluting?

One year on, and an election-distracted government in Indonesia has still not ratified the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 2002 Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, and fires continue to burn in Sumatra.

That is despite outrage in Singapore as well as environmental groups putting pressure on Jakarta. Fires are used to clear land on plantations and can burn for weeks because of peat deposits below the surface.

There is also a growing likelihood of an El Nino weather pattern this year, meaning Singapore, as well as parts of Indonesia and Malaysia, could be set for months of intense haze with a knock-on effect on health and business, especially tourism. More

Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Scary LA: LIONS! Don't visit this summer

Xochitl, Ashley Wells, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; Ipagn28 (buzzfeed.com)

"I met some Los Angeles people once. I hated them." The Grumpy Guide to Life (Chronicle Books). See Grumpy Cat live, Monday, Aug. 4, 2014, 6:00 pm, at Kitson, Santa Monica Place, Ste. 120 and Aug. 5, 2014, 6:00 pm in Las Vegas, Nevada (shopkitson.com)

L.A. with its own Himalayan foothills (Nat'l Forest) just behind the megalopolis (buzzfeed)

Sightings of big cats in our "Central" (Griffith) Park have been confirmed near the Hollywood sign. They are peaceful but not safe for children or crouchers. (Burma Charwoodland/Firstfire53/flickr).

According to the last census, Los Angeles is the Most Densely Populated Urban Area in the US. At nearly 2,000 more people per square mile on average than New York, we can’t compare Manhattan to Culver City and call it a day.

"Entering a space of privilege and prejudice"

Where does anyone think the traffic comes from? It’s people, commuting from one place to another. It has already been pointed out that due to the lack of a center, people move from where they live to where they work or play. It is a great expanse to cover, and most of it is covered in concrete and asphalt, which facilitates travel. It is actually just much more evenly distributed in terms of density than east coast cities.

A dozen Southern California fires rage destroying Pendleton military base. Arson, sabotage, Pentagon incompetence, Santa Ana winds? Mother Nature avoiding violence? (scpr.org)

Post-Native Los Angeles, Old Mexico

What L.A. really is is BIG. It’s massive. It's not a metropolis but a megalopolis. It is widely spread out, spilling into neighboring cities and counties...

And there are A LOT of people there, too, distributed in hundreds of communities, living in any number of configurations, speaking hundreds of languages (the L.A. Almanac says 224). More

After the earthquakes and the toxic petroleum street spill, there were some fires.

Traveling up Beachwood Canyon to the old Hollywood sign, circa 1932 (weirdca.com)

Hollywood sign with 8-ft. long nocturnal predator lurking in the dark (Maya Sugarman)

On ridge above the lights of Los Angeles, a male cougar labeled P-22 made his way from the Santa Monica Mountains to Hollywood's Griffith Park -- an island of habitat surrounded by homes and freeways (Steve Winter/National Geographic/scpr.org)

Preliminary DNA evidence shows that P-32, one of three cubs recently born in the Santa Monica Mountains of the City of Los Angeles, is inbred (National Park Service/SCPR.org)

Not fit for cat food -- massive LA fish die off over the weekend. Rat poison runoff? (LAT)

Know why L.A. has so much smog? So the God can't see what we're doing down here.

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Cowboy-Indian Alliance: No tar sands! (video)

Ashley Wells, Xochil, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman (DemocracyNow.org, April 28, '14)

Cowboy-Indian Alliance protests Keystone XL pipeline in DC after Obama Admin delay

Thousands of people rallied in Washington, D.C., on Saturday calling on Pres. Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.

The protest was organized by the Cowboy Indian Alliance, a group of ranchers, farmers, and tribal communities from along the pipeline route who have set up the "Reject and Protect" encampment near the White House. The rally came a week after the Obama administration announced it had again delayed a decision on approval or rejection of the pipeline that would carry super-polluting tar sands oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast.

Neil Young protests Keystone XL pipeline

Gary Dorr of the Nez Perce Nation, an organizer of the Reject and Protect encampment, Art Tanderup, a Nebraska farmer and Cowboy Indian Alliance member who took part in the protest, and actress and activist Daryl Hannah, who has been arrested three times for protests against the Keystone XL discuss the continued resistance to the pipeline. More

Ralph Nader on TPP, GM Recall, Nuclear Power, and "Unstoppable" movement

Ralph Nader on "Unstoppable" movement

Ralph Nader has a new book, Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State. He points out the common concerns shared by a wide swath of the American public, regardless of political allegiances.

Japan, U.S. expand nuclear power programs

Both the Left and Right oppose mass government surveillance, nebulous business free trade agreements, our unreformed criminal justice system, and finally punishing the criminal behavior of bankers and Wall Street traders destroying the economy. Nader, who is a longtime consumer activist, also discusses the U.S. push for the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, General Motors’ new bid to escape liability for its deadly ignition defect, the revived nuclear era under Obama, and challenging U.S. militarism through the defense budget. More

Thursday, 27 February 2014

Mysterious RAIN storm sweeps through L.A.

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Shirley Jahad (KPCC FM, SCPR.org, Pasadena)

What would a wise person do, the Buddha asked, seeing danger here and safety on the further shore? In the Parable of the Raft he advises, build a raft (whatbettertime.org)

Weather (twitter.com/NWSLosAngeles)

A mysterious rainstorm swept through Los Angeles yesterday, concentrating in the foothill suburb of Pasadena, headwaters for the mostly concrete Los Angeles River. While there were no fatalities, it did lead to many collisions because the inhabitants of this desert megalopolis do not know how to drive in rain, sleet, or snow, which rarely is a problem.

(Oh no, it's raining!) The cause of the storm is unknown, probably a coincidence. These sorts of things just happen sometimes. A dancing flash mob was observed in Hahamongna in the vicinity of Devil's Gate Dam, but they did not expect flash flooding.

Snow in L.A. mountains (Oscars)

Their Native American ceremonial activities are not thought to be connected to either last night's showers or a second storm forecast for Southern California, which is expected to pass with more disruptions than the first rains. The region is now bracing for the larger of the two storms, which is expected to arrive on Thursday night and last through Saturday or Sunday.

Officials in the San Gabriel Mountains have called for mandatory evacuations in the Colby Fire area, according to the Glendora PD; water barriers have been erected to protect homes from potential mudslides.
Azusa officials ordered mandatory evacuations for residents on Ridge View Drive, below the Colby Fire burn area.
L.A. County Public Works announces road closures.
Glendora officials offered residents advice on how to prepare for potential mudslides and flooding on the city's website.
Nat'l Weather Service updated its list of alerts and advisories.

LA Rain: Full list of advisories

Nearly an inch of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles (five miles south of Pasadena), with the San Gabriel Mountains getting up to two inches of rain. The California Highway Patrol reports there were about 111 collisions in L.A. County between 5:00 and 9:00 am Thursday morning. That is more than double the total of a non-rain day.

The water can only be as clean as the land

LAX Airport did not suffer any major flight disruptions, but the showers caused the cancellation of more than 100 flights at SFO (San Francisco).

L.A. RAIN: Billions of gallons of polluted runoff likely to flow into the sacred ocean at Santa Monica Bay (Sadly L.A. gets plenty of rain, usually all at once, but it makes almost not effort to catch it, preferring instead to steal it from the north and neighboring states to the east).
Glendora's RED ALERT press release with mandatory evacuations:
Forecast: debris and mud flows
Storms fuel mudslide anxiety

Northbound California State Route 133 - Distances to Irvine Blvd, Route 241 Tolllway and Toll Plaza

Woman survives car crash off canyon

The National Weather Service says the second storm is expected in Southern California by tonight or early Friday morning. The forecast calls for rainfall of 3 to 6 inches in the foothills, and up to 8 inches in some areas. A high wind watch will also be in effect in the Antelope Valley until Friday evening. More

Friday, 22 November 2013

Climate chaos in Warsaw, Poland (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; DemocracyNow.org, 19, 11-22-13

Flooding in Thailand was one dramatic byproduct of climate chaos (latimes.com)

Environmentalists walk out of U.N. talks

"Carbon trading" is a false solution!

WARSAW - Negotiations at the U.N. climate summit COP 19 have entered their final scheduled day. Deep divisions remain between rich and poorer nations. Negotiators from nearly 200 countries have been meeting for the past two weeks trying to lay the foundation for a new global climate treaty to be agreed on at talks scheduled for Paris in two years. Yesterday, more than 800 members of various environmental groups disgusted with the lack of progress staged an unprecedented walk out of the talks.

US says NO to reparations for damage

Questioned by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman hours later, the U.S. special envoy for climate change and lead climate negotiator, Todd Stern, rejected calls for reparations to poor countries damaged by the carbon [methane, and other] emissions of the world’s biggest polluters.

What is the state of the talks? Guests Martin Khor, executive director of the South Centre, and Nitin Sethi, senior assistant editor at The Hindu discuss it. Sethi was responsible for leaking U.S. briefing papers on the climate negotiations before the summit began, revealing how U.S. negotiators at the climate talks are opposing efforts to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

US: We're not paying them damages!

According to the internal memo, the U.S. delegation is worried the talks in Warsaw will "focus increasingly on blame and liability" and that poor nations will be "seeking redress for climate damages from sea level rise, droughts, powerful storms, and other adverse impacts." More