St. Maarten Private Eye

It's been a while I know, maybe some thought because I hadn't written a blog about it in a while that the issue had gone away, sadly I have to report negative to that thought. Climate Change is still with us, it''s going to be with us for the rest of our lives, and our children's lives too. How our grand children are going to do is anyone's guess right now, I think it's quite sure to be a different World than you reading this have grown up in.

The problem now is that Climate Change news is common, most people like myself who have been paying attention to the issue are resigned to the inevitability of it, it's happening now and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It's no longer a question of stopping it, it's too late, the only questions and challenges now are if we can slow it down and reverse it before it sets off a chain reaction that is unstoppable.

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Many people just don't understand the scientific rational behind the alarm and urgency expressed by the UN ICC, Al Gore and many others over Global Warming. When data is announced stating the earths average temperature has risen 1 degree over the past 50 odd years, their thoughts go to the everyday experiences we have with weather, so instead of 78 degrees, it will be 79, no big deal. If only it were that simple.

Average temperatures are representative of the globe as a whole. some places are 4 or 5 degrees hotter on average, some 3 or 4 degrees lower, weather is becoming more extreme, while 1 degree may not sound much, localized fluctuations of several degrees do, they mean more floods, droughts, severe winter storms, heat waves, hurricanes, tornados etc.

I am sure it is not necessary for me to point out how these things will affect food and crop production and prices, already hit by high oil and gas prices. Everything is connected, the GM modified seeds farmers plant are now mainly produced by a handful of suppliers like Monsanto and Du Pont, they must be shipped around the World. The farmer has to run his tractors and harvesters (oil) and fertilizer (oil and gas) prices have more than doubled in the past 2 years. Then it has to be trucked (oil) to the food or ethanol plants, turned into a huge variety of products (oil) and again trucked and shipped (more oil) all over the World.

With oil now trading around the $100pb mark, ethanol production is more attractive, which means crops and acreage previously for food are now going to produce biofuels instead, increasing food prices even more. Keeping in mind that the World's population is rapidly expanding at an unsustainable rate and demand for grain in rising, you should start to see the bigger picture.

It is necessary for me to mention how meats like beef and chicken are fed on corn and grains, or how overfishing is damaging and destroying breeding grounds around the World? Or how about the ocean currents may change or stop, about the rising acidity and garbage in the seas and in our soils and foods, rising sea levels, or the perma frost melting and releasing methane, or the rain forests being cut down?

There's lots more, it's overwhelming when you delve into the news and science behind it and the implications ahead, what can one person do? Not a lot sadly, I've been writing on SXM PE about climate change for about 2 years now and I've heard nothing to make me think any politicians or civil servants are aware of the issue, or care. Just over a year ago I helped make a video for SXM PE and it got mentioned on PJD2.. A reporter from PJD2 did question Roy about Climate change, no surprise that all Roy can come up with is possible 'long term plans' based on some companies maybe using 10-15% cleaner energy and selling carbon credits (also maybe) to the EU. I guess buying those new heavy oil generators was a good idea after all, more pollution is worth more carbon dollars

I featured Roy in a new video a few months ago about his and GEBE's plans to buy more heavy oil generators.

I have hope, that one day an inspiring local politician will come forward with a real policies for the island's energy and water, for it's environment and waste. New technologies are being researched and developed everyday, but if there is no political will or vision then their benefit is limited. GEBE should be leading the way, unfortunately it and it's puppet director is headed by a man with no vision.

Anyway, what can ya do?.... below is a mixture of stories that you may all find interesting. or not. :)

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If $15/bu wheat didn't catch your attention then how about $20/bu wheat?

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The wheat market moved into historic ground Friday in North Dakota and Minnesota, as short-term demand from mills pushed prices up to $20 a bushel at one elevator in an after-hours scramble.
Most elevators in northeast North Dakota and northwest Minnesota posted prices of $16.70 to $17.30 Friday, according to an Agweek survey; that's four times as high as a year ago and the highest figures ever seen...

If $15/bu wheat didn't catch your attention...

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UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica. If the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant rise in global sea level.

Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean - 14th February 2008

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Rises in the sea level around Antarctica in the past decade are almost entirely due a warming ocean, not ice melting, an Australian scientist leading a major international research programme said. The 15-year study of temperature and salinity changes in the Southern Ocean found average temperatures warmed by about three-tenths of a degree Celsius. Satellites also measured a rise of about 2 cms (about an inch) in seas in the southern polar region over an area half the size of Australia

Southern Ocean rise due to warming, not ice melts - 17th February 2008

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While raising average global temperatures, climate change could also bring more snow, harder rain, or heat waves, meteorologists say. Computer models based on climate data from nine countries indicate every place on the planet will be hit with extreme weather events, including coastal storms and floods.

Meteorologists See Future of Increasingly Extreme Weather Events - 1st February 2008

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Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company Friday — $40.6 billion US — as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from record-high crude prices at year's end. Exxon also set a United States record for the biggest quarterly profit, posting net income of $11.7 billion for the final three months of 2007, beating its own mark of $10.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005. The previous record for annual profit was $39.5 billion, which Exxon Mobil made in 2006.

Exxon sets record with $40.6 billion US annual profit - 1st February 2008

Exxon Oil Spill Case May Get Closure - 24th February 2008

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I recently reached overload on the number of conflicting claims I'd heard about ethanol, so I went digging. It quickly became obvious that ethanol suffers from both unhinged hype and deranged derision. The answer to the problem as currently framed is a rather unsatisfactory equivocation, but it does point to something far more exciting.

Making Sense of Ethanol and Related Fuels - 27th December 2008

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A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan - 5th February 2008

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A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems - 15th February 2008

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The head of the United Nations Environment Program made a startling prediction Friday: Between overfishing, pollution and above all rising ocean temperatures from global warming, we are "potentially putting a death nail in the coffin of the world fisheries." Scientists have already predicted dire consequences from overfishing alone, with up to 50% of major fish stocks reaching commercial extinction by mid-Century. With coral reefs bleaching and plankton threatened by acidifying oceans, the nurseries and lowest levels of the oceanic food chain are in peril.

Death Nail In the Coffin of World Fisheries - 23rd February 2008

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South Carolina may be experiencing the worst drought the region has seen since long before anyone thought to call the place Carolina.

S.C. Is Gripped By Its Worst Drought On Record - 25th February 2008

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"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is very unlikely that the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) will collapse in the 21st century. They predict a probability of less then 10 percent," says Klaus Keller, assistant professor of geosciences. "However, this should not be interpreted as an all clear signal. There can be a considerable delay between the triggering of an MOC collapse and the actual collapse. In a similar way, a person that has just jumped from a cliff may take comfort that pain in the next few seconds is very unlikely, but the outlook over the long term is less rosy."

Has An Ocean Circulation Collapse Been Triggered?- 25th February 2008

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Feel free to add related news links in comments below for other readers.

Caribdude

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