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FAIR USE NOTICE FAIR USE NOTICE: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for scientific, research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

Read more at: http://www.etupdates.com/fair-use-notice/#.UpzWQRL3l5M | ET. Updates
FAIR USE NOTICE FAIR USE NOTICE: This page may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for scientific, research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

Read more at: http://www.etupdates.com/fair-use-notice/#.UpzWQRL3l5M | ET. Updates

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Frightening and Amazing Photos From Those Enduring Sandy's Wrath


Environment  

Sometimes you just have to see it to believe it.

As Hurricane Sandy pummels the East Coast, people who still have power and internet connections have taken to all forms of social media to show the storm's effects and how they're coping. Mashable reported earlier today that on Instagram "users are uploading 10 images per second with the hashtag #Sandy alone." A number of photos have gone viral today, but many of them are fake photos meant to dupe folks (you can see the fakes here).
While some images have given a few moments of levity to an otherwise instense and scary day, many more capture the horror that millions are facing right now as the first reports of fatalities from Sandy in the continental U.S. are begining to be reported. Below is a collection, including some by brave AlterNet staffers in New York. We'll continue to update this as the storm progresses. 
Ray Wert of Gawker posted this picture of the south end of Stone Street in lower Manhattan.
This photo from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey shows water innudating a PATH station in Hoboken, New Jersey. 
This one is from AlterNet's Kristen Gwynne, taken in New York City by Houston St. of FDR Drive underwater.

This building in New York City on 8th Ave between 14th and 15th Streets show the entire front of the buildling blown off. The photo is by @MegRobertson.
This one below is posted by @HobokenGirlBlog of lower Manhattan. 
Instagram user nicksummers caught this picture of the lights out in the Village in NYC.
Things looks scary in Brooklyn as well. Here's a shot from Instragram user doorsixteen of Plymouth St. and a flooded park in the DUMBO neighborhood. 
Here's one from earlier on Monday as the storm neared Virginia, posted to Flickr Creative Commons by doxella.
On Facebook Dan Cuellar posted this photo showing the devastation in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Further afield Instagram user factsoffishing posted this picture with the caption, "Lake Erie is looking nasty now & #Sandy is just getting started. Wave are predicted to be 22ft tonight."

More photos coming soon -- we're updating this continuously.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Scenes of 'Dust Bowl Days' Return As Oklahoma Storm Causes Highway Pileup



Year of high temps and record drought portends climate future for once fertile croplands

- Common Dreams staff 
Dramatic video footage and eye witness accounts from Oklahoma on Thursday tell the story of a scene right out of the Depression-era 'Dust Bowl days' as a massive wind-swept cloud of 'reddish-brown' dirt made invisibility impossible on a stretch of Interstate-35 between Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Mo.

 
(Photo By The Ponca City News, Rolf Clements) 


The mid-western states have experienced some of the highest temperatures on record this year and a severe drought has devastated corn crops and turned once thriving fields to brown. Scientists make direct connections between these trends and the growing impact of climate change fueled by human-caused climate change.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Jodi Palmer, a dispatcher with the Kay County Sheriff’s Office, told the Associated Press. “In this area alone, the dirt is blowing because we’ve been in a drought. I think from the drought everything’s so dry and the wind is high.”




“You have the perfect combination of extended drought in that area ... and we have the extremely strong winds,” said Gary McManus, the Oklahoma associate state climatologist, also speaking with AP.

“Also, the timing is bad because a lot of those farm fields are bare. The soil is so dry, it’s like powder. Basically what you have is a whole bunch of topsoil waiting for the wind to blow it away. It’s no different from the 1930s than it is now.”
Experts have warned for year about the impact of top soil erosion caused by an over-reliance on industrial farming practices, including heavy use of chemical fertilizers.
As science journalist April Kelsey, writing for Suite 101, explains:
The chemical fertilizers and pesticides commercial farmers rely on to produce high single-crop yields kill many of the essential microorganisms and insects that aerate and build the soil, while heavy farming machinery destroys soil structure through compaction. Chemicals also leach water from the soil, making it salty and acidic and leaving crops vulnerable to drought. Dry and damaged soil erodes much faster than healthy soil.
Experts estimate that 66 percent of U.S. soil degradation and erosion has resulted directly from these kinds of agricultural practices. The corn fields of the U.S. Midwest are "an area of particular local concern," where as much as 75 percent of the topsoil has been lost to erosion.
A report by Bloomberg this week, headlined Warming climate sends US corn belt north, described how large agribusiness giants—the same companies that have fueled the great monocultures and destructive farming practices in mid-western—are already making large investments further north to prepare for the dwindling ability of now debilitated croplands further south.

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