The title may sound like the first line of a joke, but this is about the environment.
Environmental Destruction is No Joke
The following brief dissertation is not a joke, but there is a joker in the narrative. See if you can spot him.
Theodore Roosevelt: President of the United States 1901-1909
“Teddy” was an avid outdoorsman, as well as an author, explorer, naturalist, conservationist and soldier. Having lead the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American war, he returned home as a war hero. He was elected governor of the state of New York and then as William McKinley’s vice president. Subsequent to McKinley’s assassination, Roosevelt became the 25th president. Upon entering the Oval Office, he went straight to work on the environment. In addition to setting aside 230 million acres of public land as a sanctuary from the forces of modernity, he created the United States Forest Service, and established:
150 national forests
51 federal bird reserves
4 national game preserves
5 national parks
Theodore Roosevelt, at the age of 42, was the youngest person to become US president.
Richard Nixon: President of the United States 1969-1974
Nixon, who started out practicing law, saw active duty in the US Navy Reserve during World War II, and became a career politician. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. From 1952 to 1960 he served as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice president. In 1968 he was elected the 37th US president. In 1970 he created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) whose purpose, among several others, was to enforce air-pollution laws. The law’s intention was to reduce the emission of six common pollutants:
Particles
Ozone
Lead
Carbon monoxide
Nitrogen dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Richard Nixon was the only US president who left office by resignation.
Donald Trump: President of the United States 2017 – 20??
Before he became a presidential aspirant, the real-estate developer and reality television personality, Donald Trump, tweeted (2012), “The concept of global warming was created by, and for, the Chinese, in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” Since entering the Oval Office, in one year’s time he presided over events covered in the following headlines:
Order Aims to Expand Offshore Drilling (April)
Interior Department Scrubs Climate Change Website (April)
Trump Budget Proposes Steep Cuts for Environment (May)
US Pulls Out of Paris Climate Agreement (June)
Mining Health Study Halted; Climate Advisory Panel Disbanded (August)
Trump EPA Poised to Scrap Clean Power Plan (October)
Interior Department Proposes Largest-Ever Oil and Gas Lease Auction (October)
Trump Unveils Plan to Dramatically Downsize Two National Monuments (December)
Trump Drops Climate Change from List of National Security Threats (December)
Donald Trump, at the age of 70, was the oldest person to become US president.
By his own admission, Donald Trump is a joker. Trump told Fox & Friends:
“Well, I think the climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change. I’d be — received environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China. Obviously, I joke. But this is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change. They burn everything you could burn; they couldn’t care less. They have very — you know, their standards are nothing. But they — in the meantime, they can undercut us on price. So it’s very hard on our business.”
Politico.com is the source for the above Fox & Friends transcript from an interview on 1/18/2017.
(Scroll to bottom of blog space for other credits)
But first… AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:
Credits
Published material written by Gene Stone (“Surviving Trump”)
Nationalgeographic.com news piece by Michael Greshko, Laura Parker and Brian Clark Howard
The global community of Wikipedia contributors
1909 Oval Office photograph source is whitehousemuseum.org
Caracature of Theodore Roosevelt attributed to artist “Donkey Hotey”
Caracature of Richard Nixon appeared on a Dutch bubble gum card by “Tribetton”
Caracature of Donald Trump attributed to artist Alan Davis
Joker cards copied from Google image search for “Jokers on classic playing cards”
Official video of Bob Dylan’s Jokerman (Infidels – 1983) is posted on YouTube. Video producers – George Lois and Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman. Music producer- Mark Knoppfler
FEATURED IMAGE SOURCE: news.nationalgeographic.com
The National Geographic website ran a story on October 16 about the extraordinary attributes of the tenth named storm of the year, Ophelia. The author, Elaina Zachos, wrote:
”Cyclonic winds kicked up dust from the North African Sahara, spraying sand into the English sky. From there, the desert dust scattered the sun’s rays into longer wavelengths, giving the sky an eerie, somewhat-apocalyptic hue.”
Source: World News Now
Ophelia, What Went Wrong?
It was an event for the record books, but the records weren’t about casualties, wind speed, rainfall, storm surge. The big story was not one of how many people lost power or were displaced. Headlines did not focus on the cost of damages. The notably weird phenomena generated by Ophelia included Ireland’s first severe weather alert in history. In addition, an unusual spate of wildfires were spawned by the powerful winds that fanned the Iberian Peninsula. The Portuguese and the Spaniards could not recall ever seeing such events before, nor had they ever heard of such from their parents and grandparents.
The scientific discussions mostly concluded that the warmer Atlantic must be the culprit. Ah…climate change rears its head once more! The topic just won’t go away.
It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature (but OK if she wants to fool us)
It occurs to me that, if Mother Nature happened to be a “real person” she might have a sense of humor. If so, she might, from time to time, play around with our heads, to make us wonder what’s really going on. In normal social interaction, that could prompt some to launch a counter punch, i.e. to “get back” at Her, in a sense. Well, human meddling with the environment isn’t the right way to respond. This brings up a recollection of an old TV commercial that was very silly, having to do with Mother Nature. It actually has nothing to do, whatsoever, with Hurricane Ophelia, or with weird weather. I just thought I’d give readers something to ponder, and perhaps make you laugh. Enjoy!
The Tubbs and Atlas (as well as several other small fires) fires began on October 8th. The death toll climbed to 44 today. It is likely to continue rising, as several people are unaccounted for. The fire completely destroyed thousands of homes.
Fire Weather
We do not know exactly how the fire started. However, weather conditions certainly made things a lot worse. First of all, relative humidity averaged 10%-20% below normal for this time of year. These anomalies have been present since late September, most likely caused by the abnormally strong North Pacific High. High pressure systems promote subsidence (sinking air), which helps dry out the atmosphere. Subsequently, the bone dry conditions result in easier combustion of twigs, plants and trees.
The other, and possibly more dangerous weather factor resulting from the North Pacific High was strong winds. The sea level pressure gradient (difference in pressure) determines the strength of the wind. Sustained winds measured 20-30 mph with higher gusts. Winds spread embers to unburnt areas and also ventilate the flames, providing more oxygen to for combustion.
Upwind from the fires are the both the Mendocino and Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges. As a result, winds from the northeast ride down the southwest slopes these ranges, increasing fire potential. Gravity helps increase the wind speed and the fact the air is sinking leads to lower humidities.
Winds have died down and the fires are becoming more contained. Luckily, rain is in the forecast, too. A cold front will com through overnight on Thursday. The latest GFS forecasts 0.1″-0.15″ of rain. After this brief respite, a ridge will build back in early next week.
The bottom line is the problems could continue. Hot temperatures next week could aggravate an already serious situation -Jim Roemer
On this Earth Day, think how absolutely absurd that the administration wants to shut down the EPA; more or less. The Nixon administration implemented the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 40 years ago. Its purpose is to help protect citizens from such things as acid rain and ozone.
I recently saw at the Sarasota Film Festival this movie. It was very powerful to me. Did you know some of the facts, below?
Following international river conservationist, Mark Angelo, RIVERBLUE spans the globe to infiltrate one of the world’s most pollutive industries, fashion. Narrated by clean water supporter Jason Priestley, this groundbreaking documentary examines the destruction of our rivers, its effect on humanity, and the solutions that inspire hope for a sustainable future.
Through harsh chemical manufacturing processes and the irresponsible disposal of toxic chemical waste, one of our favorite iconic products has destroyed rivers and impacted the lives of people who count on these waterways for their survival. RIVERBLUE brings awareness to the destruction of a some of the world’s most vital rivers through the manufacturing of our clothing, but will also act as a demand for significant change in the textile industry from the top fashion brands that can make a difference.
Jim Roemer
See the Trailer at the Bottom of the Page
CAN FASHION SAVE THE PLANET?
One of the first and most frequent questions that people ask us is, “Where can I buy clothes made in an ethical and eco-friendly way?” Fashionheroes.eco is our way to help answer that. Fashion Heroes has been started to offer a place for people to speak up about sustainable fashion, to learn more about brands that are taking steps in the right direction and to see how we can all participate to make wise choices in fashion, for the better of all people and the environment!
To find out more about some great brands and companies taking steps in the right direction, visit us at www.fashionheroes.eco
It’s time for us to demand that the clothes we wear are made in an ethical and environmentally sustainable way. Why start with denim? Because we all have and love our jeans, so let’s be the next, cleaner, Jeaneration!
* Over 1.2 billion jeans are produced annually worldwide.
* Approximately 450 million pairs of jeans are sold in the US per year, with over 70% of denim fabric production China, Indonesia and other Asian markets.
* According to Levis, 1 pair of 501 jeans takes 920 gallons of water to make. That’s a lot of water!
So why jeans? Because by focusing on one item we can make a difference.
What we buy does affect the lives of the people making them and just as we wouldn’t want our children to drink the toxic waste from jeans manufacturing, we can’t accept that for the children of those who are making what we buy. And let’s face it, the water from those rivers goes into the ocean and winds up in our water sources too.
There is hope! There are great companies out there who have designed several methodologies of jeans processing, some using laser and some using nano-technology, that is much less harmful to rivers and the people who use them. We will keep you posted with this information through our blog!
There has been a lot of talk by forecasters winter has been much warmer than anticipated. But few have discussed the lack of U.S. snow cover, a warming planet nor the record breaking positive QBO index as key reasons.
The lack of U.S. snow cover and what we call a very positive QBO index has been responsible for the collapse in natural gas. In addition, the planet continues to warm and environmental hazards are nothing new. Almost all forecast firms blew the winter forecast for a cold one. In addition, the atmosphere has NOT acted like a weak La Nina but at times a weak El Nino helping to prevent any lasting cold. There have been some winters when a late contra-seasonal rally in natural gas occurred when March was cold?
When the QBO is negative and winds some 20-30 miles up blow from east to west and not west to east as they have been now, this can allow blocks over the Arctic circle, Alaska, etc. to get well established for at least 3-5 weeks and create force a polar vortex south into the country. However, the record strong westerly phase of the QBO tends to weaken blocks and prevents any continuous trend of cold weather. This has been the primary reason that natural gas prices have collapsed 25% the last few weeks.
The present positive QBO phase tends to result in a cold March, and natural gas traders will be watching for that. However, for now a warming planet, the oceans and lack of snow cover, makes any major rally in natural gas prices from cold late winter weather, probably unlikely. One can see below the March historical temperature forecast for the U.S. when the QBO is positive. Often, a reversal from the warm winter by March. However, this is not written in stone due to a warming planet and lack of snow cover, but a cold snowy March could be the rule in some areas. Also, our feeling is that the MJO, discussed in earlier blogs will also allow colder risks and could possibly put a platform in the natural gas market. Neverthless, I do not think the present weather pattern is cold enough to allow for any significant rally in natural gas with the winter of 2016-17 again being warmer than normal.
In the meantime—some occasional weak cold blasts in the eastern U.S. and possible snow events will be the rule in the near future. The biggest cold we see presently is over eastern Europe into Russia with temperatures well below normal and a possible influence on the gasoil market in London.
(see link above of QBO definition)
QBO and March Temps from our exclusive software called Climatech
HELPING YOU MAKE THE BEST INVESTMENT DECISIONS BASED ON THE WEATHER
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