Its Time To Consider The Future of Children on Planet Earth

Canada warming at twice the global rate, leaked report finds.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-warming-at-twice-the-global-rate-leaked-report-finds-1.5079765

Canada is on average experiencing warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, with Northern Canada heating up at almost three times the global average, according to a new government report.

The study — Canada's Changing Climate Report (CCCR) — was commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada. It says that since 1948, Canada's annual average temperature over land has warmed 1.7 C, with higher rates seen in the North, the Prairies and northern British Columbia.

In Northern Canada, the annual average temperature has increased by 2.3 C.

While the increased warming in the Arctic is not yet fully understood, snow and ice play a critical role in reflecting the sun’s radiation and heat. But scientists say the retreat of glaciers and disappearing sea ice both contribute to a feedback loop of warming, which is one of the factors contributing to Canada’s disproportionate temperature increase.

The report suggests the majority of warming felt in Canada and around the globe is the result of burning fossil fuels.

THE EARTH'S OCEANS AND THE CRUISE SHIP INDUSTRY

https://www.tocsinmag.com/post/the-earth-s-oceans-and-the-cruise-ship-industry

DO MOST PEOPLE NOT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING?

Every day on this planet, there are people flying all over the world, visiting here, visiting there just because they can. They are called tourists. 

Every time one person flies from where they live to somewhere they want to go (not where they HAVE to go) that person generates more than 20% of the greenhouse gas in that one flight than their internal combustion car emits in one year. This number is based on a North American based average.  Keep in mind, even if you own an electric car, you are still generating greenhouse gases, this gas created through the manufacturing of your vehicle and from the generation of the electricity used to power the car, particularly if this electrical power is generated by coal or natural gas powered power-plants. Even hydro electric dams create greenhouse gases through their building process. Materials like concrete, earth moving machines, trucks, portable generators, burning, etc.

According to some estimates, there are roughly 20,000 planes in use around the world, serving three billion passengers annually. By 2040, more than 50,000 planes could be in service, and they are expected to fly more often. The total worldwide ocean cruise capacity at the end of 2018 was 537,000 passengers and 314 ships. Annualized total passengers carried worldwide was 26.0 million passengers (a 3.3% increase over 2017) and almost 6 times the population of New Zealand or equivalent to the population of Australia. 

However, I digress. My curiosity is aroused by what I perceive to be disinterest by what seems to be a majority of people in the dire warnings of impending climate doom by climatologists, environmentalists and scientists.

I think people who choose ignorance fall into 5 categories in regard to warnings of future global calamity for the last remaining homo race on this small planet:

• People who just choose to ignore these warnings as not having credibility. IE Climate change deniers.
• People not wanting to know or pretend that everything really is OK 
• People frightened of these warnings and choosing not to believe them? 
• People who believe an invisible man who lives in the sky is going to save the pure of heart and thought so why bother doing anything.
• People with plenty of money who just want to enjoy all the earth has to offer with little to no thought of their effect on the planet; IE cruise ships, constant overseas vacations, unlimited consumerism and so on.

Most people in the western world are very comfortable in their own little worlds. If retired and with money in the bank, they think very little of the environmental ramifications of the cruises they go on or the extended travel trips to exotic parts of the world they undertake.  

WHY ARE THERE NO ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES IN THE TOP TEN LIST OF GREEN COUNTRIES

In the top ten of greenest countries in the world today, there is not one English speaking country. The closest is New Zealand at number 11. The United States does not even appear in the top 20.  The Donald Trump /  Right-wing Evangelical Republican factor.

The top of the eco-chart is Finland. According to the 2016 EPI report, Finland’s ranking "stems from its societal commitment to achieve a carbon-neutral society". It adds: "Finland’s goal of consuming 38 per cent of their final energy from renewable sources by 2020 is legally binding, and they already produce nearly two-thirds of their electricity from renewable or nuclear power sources.

The 20 most environmentally-friendly countries
Finland - EPI rating: 90.68
Iceland - 90.51
Sweden - 90.43
Denmark - 89.21
Slovenia - 88.98
Spain - 88.91
Portugal - 88.63
Estonia - 88.59
Malta - 88.48
France - 88.2
New Zealand - 88
United Kingdom - 87.38
Australia - 87.22
Singapore - 87.04
Croatia - 86.98
Switzerland - 86.93
Norway - 86.9
Austria - 86.64
Ireland - 86.6

Luxembourg - 86.58

In the world or places of polluted countries, Delhi is in a league of its own. Half an hour of sightseeing is enough to leave you with a sore throat. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the average concentration of PM 2.5 particles in the Indian city is 150 micrograms per cubic metre of air. PM 2.5 refers to fine particles (2.5 micrometres or smaller in diameter) produced by combustion, including motor vehicles, power plants, forest fires, and some industrial processes. By comparison, London's average is 16. 

But what of the most polluted countries? Pinpointing them is a little more problematic. The WHO tracks air quality at 1,622 locations in 92 countries - but all are urban areas. So while Pakistan, Egypt and Mongolia are among the most polluted countries according to the map below, this only refers to pollution in its cities. Air quality in the Karakoram mountain range or the Gobi Desert will, of course, be pristine. Similarly, Russia appears to be among the worst performing countries - but its ranking is based only on air quality in Moscow. 

FIDDLING WHILE ROME BURNS

Are a majority of we humans fiddling while Rome burns?  Don't know the meaning to this phrase? Read on. 

The definition in broad terms is: To occupy oneself with unimportant matters and neglect priorities during a crisis.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Fiddling while Rome burns'?

The source of this phrase is the supposed story that Nero played the fiddle (violin) while Rome burned, during the great fire in AD 64. However, there are two major flaws with the story. Firstly, there was no such instrument as the fiddle (violin) in first century Rome. If Nero played anything during the Rome fire, it was probably the lyre.

Secondly, the story may be completely false and Nero may very well not have neglected his duty at all. Nero died four years later, and we should remember that history is written by the victors. The historian Suetonius records the Nero was responsible for the fire and that he watched it from a tower while playing an instrument and singing about the destruction of Troy. Others record this story merely as a rumour.

By modern-day standards Nero certainly appears a bizarre character, but that doesn't make this story true. Roman scholars differ over interpretations of events surrounding the fire. The rivalries and conflicting accounts, even those in contemporary reports, make the 'fiddling' story uncertain.

In modern times, a majority of us inhabitants of planet Earth are occupying ourselves with trivial matters, neglecting the important issue:GLOBAL WARMING! 

The past five years have been the five warmest since record-keeping began in the late 1800s. The Earth has experienced 42 straight years (since 1977) with an above-average global temperature, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Based on five separate data sets that keep track of the Earth's climate, the global average temperature for the first 10 months of 2018 was about 1.8 degrees above what it was in the late 1800s. That was when industry started to emit large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Australia experienced record summer heat in January of this year. The town of Port Augusta reached the hottest day since record-keeping began in 1962 with a temperature of 121F or 49.5C.  The heat was so intense it caused bats to fall from trees, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases being released into the atmosphere by industry, transportation and energy production from burning fossil fuels are enhancing what's known as the planet's natural greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent among all greenhouse gases produced by human activities, attributed to the burning of fossil fuels.

The atmospheric carbon dioxide level for March was 411.97 parts per million and continue to rise. It has now reached levels in the atmosphere not seen in 3 million years.

That's an increase of 46% from just before the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, when CO2 levels were around 280 parts per million. Levels began to rise when humans began to burn large amounts of fossil fuels to run factories and heat homes, releasing CO2 and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

Scientists say to keep a livable planet, we need to cut the level to 350 parts per million.

A consequence of higher temperatures is the melting of the polar ice caps, which is causing sea levels to rise. The world's oceans have risen about an inch in the past 50 years due to melting glaciers alone, a study published this month in the journal Naturefound.

The Earth's glaciers are now losing up to 390 billion tons of ice and snow per year, the study suggests.  Global warming has caused over 3 trillion tons of ice to melt from Antarctica in the past quarter-century and tripled ice loss there in the past decade, another study, released in June  2018 revealed

Where do we go from here?  Maybe. See the following link. 

https://www.drawdown.org/

Should We Be Worried About Global Warming?

Anthrax Outbreak In Russia Thought To Be Result Of Thawing Permafrost

Russia is fighting a mysterious anthrax outbreak in a remote corner of Siberia. Dozens of people have been hospitalized; one child has died. The government airlifted some families out because more than 2,000 reindeer have been infected.

Officials don't know exactly how the outbreak started, but the current hypothesis is almost unbelievable: A heat wave has thawed the frozen soil there and with it, a reindeer carcass infected with anthrax decades ago.

Some scientists think this incident could be an example of what climate change may increasingly surface in the tundra. The place where the outbreak is occurring is called the Yamal Peninsula. It lies high above the Arctic Circle at the top of the world. It's so cold there, the soil — called permafrost — is frozen solid, more than 1,000 feet deep in some places, or about the height of the Empire State Building.  

"The soil in the Yamal Pennisula is like a giant freezer," says Jean-Michel Claverie at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. "Those are very, very good conditions for bacteria to remain alive for a very long time."

In this case, the bacteria were anthrax, and more than 75 years ago, they killed a reindeer. The carcass got covered in a thin layer of permafrost, Russian officials think. For decades, it lay there frozen. Then this summer, a heat wave hit and a thicker layer of permafrost melted, and the reindeer's carcass rose to the surface, the theory goes. As it warmed up, so did the anthrax.

Russian officials say they're working hard to get the outbreak under control. They're vaccinating reindeer and burning the carcasses of dead animals.

There's likely to be more cases of anthrax resurfacing, says Birgitta Evengard, a microbiologist at Umea University in Sweden. That's because climate change is causing the temperature in the Arctic Circle to rise very quickly.

"It's rising about three times faster in the Arctic than in the rest of the world," she says. "And that means the ice is melting and the permafrost is thawing."

In the early 20th century, there were repeated anthrax outbreaks in Siberia. More than a million reindeer died. Now there are about 7,000 burial grounds with infected carcasses scattered across northern Russia.

"It's not that easy to dig in the permafrost to bury these animals," Evengard says. "So they are kind of very close to the surface."

That means anthrax outbreaks in Siberia could occur every summer, she says. And it's not just anthrax that could be a problem.

People and animals have been buried in permafrost for centuries. There could be bodies infected with all kinds of viruses and bacteria, frozen in time. She says scientists are just starting look for it.

"So we really don't know what's buried up there," she says. "This is Pandora's box."

For example, researchers have found pieces of the 1918 Spanish flu virus in corpses buried in mass graves in Alaska's tundra. There's also likely smallpox and the bubonic plague buried in Siberia.


So the question for researchers is: Could these pathogens — like anthrax — ever be reactivated?  READ ON......

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/14/thawing-siberian-permafrost-soil-risks-rise-anthrax-prehistoric/

TIME TO RETHINK THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE

Canada warming at twice the global rate, leaked report finds.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-warming-at-twice-the-global-rate-leaked-report-finds-1.5079765

Canada is, on average, experiencing warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, with Northern Canada heating up at almost three times the global average, according to a new government report.

The study — Canada's Changing Climate Report (CCCR) — was commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada. It says that since 1948, Canada's annual average temperature over land has warmed 1.7 C, with higher rates seen in the North, the Prairies and northern British Columbia.

In Northern Canada, the annual average temperature has increased by 2.3 C.

While the increased warming in the Arctic is not yet fully understood, snow and ice play a critical role in reflecting the sun’s radiation and heat. But scientists say the retreat of glaciers and disappearing sea ice both contribute to a feedback loop of warming, which is one of the factors contributing to Canada’s disproportionate temperature increase.

The report suggests the majority of warming felt in Canada and around the globe is the result of burning fossil fuels.

The Future of Planet Earth and Chidren

Are you a parent? Or a grandparent? Or an uncle or aunt? 

If none of the above, do you care about children and the future of children on this planet?  This planet has been through a great deal over the millenniums. Earthquakes, hurricanes, ice ages, droughts, rising and lowering oceans, tsunamis, meteor showers and more. The earth has survived through all manner of catastrophes and will continue to do so. The big questions is; will humans survive? 

Approximately 70,000 years ago, during the Toba catastrophe, scholars estimate the Homo sapiens population may have dropped to as low as between 1,000 and 10,000 individuals. Now there are over 7.0 billion of us. We are in some ways like a giant ant nest but unlike an ant nest we are not working together for the common good. And, the common good must include planning for the future and modifying our behaviour to ensure the survival of our species. The future for people is the children of today and the children yet to be born. The planet will probably be around for the next 5 billion years and will do just fine without humans. We humans cannot do without the planet. 

The planet earth is Plan A for us. There is no Plan B. Not yet and not in the near future. Some day maybe but we have to survive to reach that some day. 

Greanwold’s Green World for Families and Kids.

Website: www.greanwold.com
Greanwold Blog: www.greanwoldfoundation.blogsopt.ca
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Thanks

Greanwold and Friends.

THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY

Oxfam says the wealth of worlds richest 1% is now equal to the other 99%. 

The richest 1% now have as much wealth as the rest of the world combined, according to Oxfam. It uses data from Credit Suisse from October 2016  for the report, which urges world leaders  and world business leaders to take action on inequality.

These 8 Men Control Half the Wealth on Earth

https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/meet-the-8-men-who-control-half-the-worlds-wealth.html

Every 10 seconds, a child dies from hunger. Poor nutrition is responsible for nearly half of all deaths in children under the age of 5—about 3 million children die each year because their bodies don't have enough of the basic nutrients they need to function and grow.

Now read this.

 http://www.businessinsider.com/outrageous-ways-the-super-rich-spend-their-money-2015-7/#they-can-fly-luxury-underwater-planes-1

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WE NEED TO SET A BETTER EXAMPLE FOR OUR KIDS

We need to set a better example for our kids - and the world

A girl holds on to a fence at a transit camp housing migrants and refugees in Slavonski Brod on Nov. 4. Canada has good record and reputation for human rights and should show leadership in such international issues as the refugee crises, columnist Farid Rohani writes.