Two stranded dogs on the roof of a flooded building in Kale township, Myanmar: photo by Lynn Bo Bo/EPA, 3 August 2015
Locals use makeshift raft and rubber inner tube as a means of getting
through flooded road in Kale township of Sagaing Region, Myanmar on
Monday. Myanmar president declared four regions (Sagaing, Magway Regions
and Rakhine, Chin States) as disaster zones: photo by Lynn Bo Bo/EPA, 3 August 2015
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz compared global warming believers to ‘flat-Earthers’: photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters, 2 August 2015
Ask the goats
Ted is right.
Zed is dead.
The earth is flat.
Its head is square.
It has a wee
wistful
oily malevolence, and will
eat an insect
for money.
American Geek
is a lying language.
Ask the dogs
if the weather's
the same
as it ever was.
Ask the goats.
Goats run away from their pen after firefighters freed them as the Rocky fire approaches, in Lower Lake: photo by Justin Sullivan via Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2015
Goats run away from their pen after firefighters freed them as the Rocky fire approaches, in Lower Lake: photo by Justin Sullivan via Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2015
Ted Cruz expresses 'full out denial' of global warming during forum: Republican presidential candidate said the debate was a device used
by liberals to appease ‘environmentalist billionaires and their campaign
donations’: Ben Jacobs in Washington for The Guardian, 2 August 2015
Republican
presidential candidate Ted Cruz has stated that he doesn’t believe in
the science behind global warming. In a forum hosted on Sunday evening
by Freedom Partners, a key cog in the political network of the Koch
Brothers, the Texas senator stated that “the data and facts don’t
support” that global warming is occurring.
The moderator of the forum described Cruz’s stance as “full out
denial”. The Texas senator did not disagree with that characterisation.
Cruz has previously compared those who believe in global warming to “flat-Earthers.”
Cruz also criticised the new regulations,
set to be unveiled by the Obama administration on Monday, to cut carbon
dioxide emissions from power plants. To the Republican presidential
candidate, these new rules were a sign that the Democratic party had
abandoned union members for “California environmentalist billionaires
and their campaign donations”, in a clear reference to hedge fund mogul
and environmentalist Tom Steyer.
In
denying global warming, which Cruz saw as a Trojan horse used by
liberals to impose “massive government control” on the economy, the
Texas Republican distinguishes himself from many others in the GOP
field. Earlier, 2016 rival Marco Rubio also attacked the new
regulations, although the Florida senator was loth to address the
science behind global warming. In contrast, other Republicans, like
former Florida governor Jeb Bush, have acknowledged that the planet is
getting warmer.
However, Bush did have some fierce words for the Obama
administration’s plans on Sunday. “I think it’s a disaster. It’s typical
of the Obama administration, taking the power he doesn’t have,” he told
the audience at the Freedom Partners forum. He added that he thought
the regulations were both “unconstitutional” and “a job killer”.
Research
by the federal government shows that the rate of global warming has been
steady and unchanging in recent years and that 2014 was the warmest
year on record.
Wildfires in droughty California threaten thousands of acres, #RockyFire only 5% contained. (Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty): image via reportedly @reportedly, 3 August 2015
Flames
from the Rocky fire approach a house on Friday, in Lower
Lake: photo by Justin Sullivan via Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2015
Over 10,000 villagers washed out in Irrawaddy Division #Burma #Myanmar: image via he Irrawaddy @IrrawaddyNews, 3 August 2015
Over 10,000 villagers washed out in Irrawaddy Division #Burma #Myanmar: image via he Irrawaddy @IrrawaddyNews, 3 August 2015
#Myanmar UN warns Myanmar flood toll to increase as rains lash region. Photo @ye_aung_thu #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 2 August 2015
#Myanmar UN warns Myanmar flood toll to increase as rains lash region. Photo @ye_aung_thu #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 2 August 2015
#Picture of the day: Deadly floods hit #Myanmar: image via euronewst @euronews, 3 August 2015
UN warns: #Myanmar flood toll likely to incr | Disaster in Rakhine, Chin, Magwe, & Sagaing: image via The Myanmar Times @TheMyanmarTmes, 3 August 2015
#Myanmar: Hundreds dead, millions displaced as monsoon rains heap misery on Asia Photo @ye_aung_thu #AFP: image via Stephanie Beauge @sbeaugeafp, 3 August 2014
#Myanmar: Hundreds dead, millions displaced as monsoon rains heap misery on Asia Photo @ye_aung_thu #AFP: image via Stephanie Beauge @sbeaugeafp, 3 August 2014
As fires ravage CA the most concerning is the #rockyfire: image via Christina Salvo @ABC7Christina, 3 August 2015
#Wildfires rage across swathes of California. Photo Josh Edelson #AFP: image via Stephanie Beauge @sbeaugeafp, 2 August 2014
President Barack Obama set the stage on Sunday for the release of the nation’s most ambitious environmental regulation in decades — a crackdown on power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions that the administration hopes will put the U.S. in striking distance of achieving a global agreement to combat climate change: photo by AP, 2 August 2015
“Environmentalist billionaire” is an improbable animal. All this comes from a man who’s on the take already for tens of millions of dollars from Wall Street billionaires—that recognized species of criminals who find ways to make a killing off the disasters caused by a collapsing global climate.
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteThe debate is over. I think, even the goats would agree. Maybe not the men who stare at them; there are blackholes and there are assholes. Sometimes , I think, they are the same.
Yes, yes, alas, yes.
ReplyDeleteThings are out of control.
No, that can't be. Or actually, yes.
Fire and flood. Heaven only knows what things are like in the low-lying areas of Burma right now.
Fires out of control, but not to worry, says the spokesperson for the friendly corporate conglomerate Everything's Under Control, Just Trust Us, Inc. So pack up the kids, jump in the car, fill that thirsty tank and buy in for summer fun right now!
The Rocky Fire 100 miles north of here has simply exploded and exploded and exploded, no matter the thousands of firefighters and billions of gallons of precious water thrown at it.
The grand strategy was to "contain" the fire within a vast space of dry tinder forest land between two major state highways.
Lots of luck with that grand plan, little man.
The weather changed, cooled down, grew humid -- under "normal conditions" that would have done the trick.
"Normal conditions", a rapidly fading memory. This is a tinderbox, period. It hasn't rained in, like forever.
Under new-normal conditions, the conditions the Republican party hasn't yet noticed, all bets are off.
Evey weapon available to the terminally hubristic lilliputians, who are accustomed to believe any problem can be solved if enough costly modern-day machinery is mounted against it, has been flung into the path of this raging beast.
But 3,145 fire personnel, 285 fire engines, 72 fire crews, 4 air tankers, 19 helicopters, 57 bulldozers and 40 watertenders later, on Monday afternoon, this fire, which has a will of its own, leapt over highway 20 in Lake County, swallowing up 50 acres in a matter of minutes, eliminating a "natural break" that would have helped slow the progress of a firestorm now enveloping more than 62,000 acres over a swath of land in three counties, and growing by the moment..
The official statements are not so reassuring any more.
Likewise the reports from mainstream media, whose job is to excite, then reassure. E.g.:
"The fire [has] continued to make runs faster than crews had expected.
"More resources and help poured in Monday as the challenges of protecting homes and saving lives mounted by the hour five days after the fire began. Land near Highway 20 is only burned in some spots, proving how effective the fire break has been. But now that it has jumped the highway, the safeguard is no longer reliable.
"'I've been a firefighter for almost 20 years and I've heard 30-year and 40-year firefighters say that this is unprecedented," said firefighter Steve Kaufmann.'"
This morning's ashen update from state fire authorities:
"The fire has crossed Hwy 20 in multiple spots and is expected to have significant activity. Firefighters are working aggressively to build control lines and sustain perimeter control. Residents are urged to stay vigilant and adhere to any changes in evacuations and road closures. Terrain is steep and rugged with limited access. In total, all evacuations impact over 13,118 citizens living in over 5,530 residences. Resources continue to respond from in and out of the state."
Dogs, cats, goats, deer, birds, and every other living thing are now on their own, inside the cauldron.
Meanwhile, what water's left down here is weeping out of rich people's privileged automated sprinklers every morning, just before dawn, hidden from plain sight, keeping the lawns a sparkling denial-green, the color of money.
The global warming reality is beginning to resemble Mt. Vesuvius, and the Pompeians are either continuing to play poker in the bars or hunkering down at water's edge, hoping it will just go away. The Republican lineup looks like the roundup of the usual suspects, each one sleazier than the next, and the Democrat lineup, well, it's less egregious looking from the outside, but there's old "entitled," and a lovely, noisy radical barking from next door... The world's beginning to look like Méliés' moon with the rocket in its eye...
ReplyDeleteNot sure where you are but stay safe Tom.
ReplyDelete