Tag: food

The US megadrought won’t just end – it will change the land forever

Patterns of drought and deluge are common throughout history, but human-driven climate change is disrupting these cycles, making it more difficult to predict exactly how the current megadought in south-western North America will end

An abandoned pomegranate orchard during a droughtGetty Images/Bloomberg Creative/ David Paul Morris
An abandoned pomegranate orchard during a drought
Getty Images/Bloomberg Creative/ David Paul Morris

The current drought began when Kent Norman was just 2 years old. Farming is in his blood. His family has worked the land in Stockton, California, for generations. But the last two decades have created one of the most severe droughts in the region history: Over the course of his life, south-western North America has become drier than it has been in more than 1000 years.

LINK: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2344912-the-us-megadrought-wont-just-end-it-will-change-the-land-forever/

WINTER WHEAT CROP IN POOR SHAPE AMID DROUGHT

WINTER WHEAT CROP IN POOR SHAPE AMID DROUGHTOnly 28% of the U.S. winter wheat crop is in good or excellent condition, one of the worst starts for the crop in years, said the USDA’s Crop Progress report on Monday. Three-quarters of winter wheat land is in drought, including nine of every 10 acres in Kansas, the top wheat producing state.

By comparison, at this point in 2021, 45% of the U.S. crop was in good or excellent condition and in 2020, 43% rated as good or excellent. Brownfield Ag News said this year’s rating of 24% was the lowest since 1992, when it was 23%.

Wheat is a hardy crop grown in a wide range of climates and soils but best suited to temperate regions with annual rainfall of 12 to 36 inches. In the United States, the central and southern Plains are the heart of winter wheat production. Winter wheat is sown and sprouts in the fall, lies dormant during the winter and is harvested in late spring and summer.

In its first listing of winter wheat condition this fall, the USDA said 22% of wheat in Kansas was in good or excellent condition. In Oklahoma, the corresponding rating was 11% and in Texas, it was 4%.

Nationwide, 35% of winter wheat rated as poor or very poor, compared to 21% one year ago.

LINK: https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/winter-wheat-crop-in-poor-shape-amid-drought

World close to ‘irreversible’ climate breakdown, warn major studies

Key UN reports published in last two days warn urgent and collective action needed – as oil firms report astronomical profits

LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/27/world-close-to-irreversible-climate-breakdown-warn-major-studies

What is solarpunk and can it help save the planet?

The solarpunk aesthetic depicts nature and technology in harmony
The solarpunk aesthetic depicts nature and technology in harmony

Lush green communities with roof top gardens, floating villages, transport fuelled by clean energy and hope-filled sci-fi tales. Imagine a world in which existing technologies are deployed for the greater good of both people and the planet.

LINK: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57761297

How the US Military is Preparing for Climate Change – The Green Line – Ep 1

How the US Military is Preparing for Climate Change - The Green LineWhilst debates around Climate Change still rage on US TV, the US Military has been quietly preparing for the now inevitable. Planners are now acutely aware of just how quick Climate Change is coming down upon us, and how dramatically it will change the geopolitics of the planet. What wargames are the military running in preparation for this? Which theatres do they project to be the most impacted? and is the US ready for a worst-case scenario? We ask our panel of experts. On the panel this week: – Sharon Burke (Ecospherics/Fmr White House) – John Conger (Center for Climate and Security/Fmr White House) – Larry Wilkerson (Fmr Chief of Staff to Colin Powell) This is Part 1 of our special 5-Part Series focusing on The Geopolitics of Climate Change This Production was Brought to you by The Red Line and Mission Climate Project

LINKS:

https://theredline.libsyn.com/how-the-us-military-is-preparing-for-climate-change-the-green-line-ep-1

https://www.theredlinepodcast.com/post/how-the-us-military-is-preparing-for-climate-change

Living in the Time of Dying

Living in The Time of Dying is an unflinching look at what it means to be living in the midst of climate catastrophe and finding purpose and meaning within it. Recognising the magnitude of the climate crisis we are facing, independent filmmaker Michael Shaw, sells his house to travel around the world looking for answers. Pretty soon we begin to see how deep the predicament goes along with the systems and ways of thinking that brought us here.

Featured in this documentary are Professor of Sustainability and founder of the Deep Adaptation movement Jem Bendell, award winning journalist and author of “The End of Ice” , Dahr Jamail, Dharma teacher and author of Facing Extinction Catherine Ingram and Stan Rushworth, a Native American Elder, teacher and author who brings an especially enlightening viewpoint to these questions.

While it becomes clear that catastrophic climate change is now inevitable it also opens up a whole new set of questions: How exactly did we arrive at this point? What new choices can we make now re how to live our lives and what actions make sense at this time. The people interviewed in the documentary, all highly regarded and well known spokespeople on the issue, argue it’s too late to stop what is coming but in no way is it too late to regain a renewed, life giving relationship with our selves and our world.

‘Forever chemicals’ detected in all umbilical cord blood in 40 studies

Studies collectively examined nearly 30,000 samples over the past five years in ‘disturbing’ findings

‘Forever chemicals’ detected in all umbilical cord blood in 40 studies
Biobank, tube containing umbilical cord stem cells. Photograph: Bsip Sa/Alamy

Toxic PFAS chemicals were detected in every umbilical cord blood sample across 40 studies conducted over the last five years, a new review of scientific literature from around the world has found.

The studies collectively examined nearly 30,000 samples, and many linked fetal PFAS exposure to health complications in unborn babies, young children and later in life. The studies’ findings are “disturbing”, said Uloma Uche, an environmental health science fellow with the Environmental Working Group, which analyzed the peer-reviewed studies’ data.

“Even before you’ve come into the world, you’re already exposed to PFAS,” she said.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse

The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse
Time to bunker down… if you’ve got the cash. Photograph: Terravivos/Observer Design

Tech billionaires are buying up luxurious bunkers and hiring military security to survive a societal collapse they helped create, but like everything they do, it has unintended consequences

LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff

 

Ozark Magic with Brandon Weston

OZARK MAGIC WITH BRANDON WESTON

https://sittingnowpodcast.podbean.com/e/ozark-magic-with-brandon-weston/

This week Ken and Mark venture into the deepest wooded mountains of the Ozark region to discover the hidden magic contained within. Our spirit guide on this quest is author of ‘Ozark Folk Magic’, and ‘Ozark Mountain Spell Book’, Brandon Weston.

This week we discuss: How does one acquire ‘The Power’, Plant magic, the myths and monsters of the region, just how do you pronounce ‘Appalachian’ and much more.

Joining me on his cunning throne this week is Mar(c)k™ Satyr

Main theme by Simon Smerdon (Mothboy)

Music bed by chriszabriskie.com

Check out Brandon’s book over at Llewellyn BooksBrandon Weston Bio:

My work is a living tradition. It’s the work that Ozark healers have been doing for hundreds of years. You can see many different cultures and traditions represented in Ozark folkways. These beliefs and practices, much like the Ozark people who created them, are a mixture of many places, beliefs, and ways of life. Specific folk traditions that have had a great influence on Ozark folkways include the European Cunning craft, Cajun/Creole folk medicine including the path of the Traiteur, Pennsylvania German Braucherei often also called Powwowing, Indigenous healing practices from the diverse nations of the Southeastern US, West African folk traditions by way of Southern Rootwork, Hoodoo, and Conjure, and even Central/South American Curanderismo. An important aspect of my research includes looking into all the traditions that have had such a great impact upon Ozark folkways. In looking at where these traditions intersect, we can start to understand so much more about the lives and practices of our ancestors. While you can look at Ozark folkways and see the fingerprint of all these traditions, remember that these practices remain unique to this specific area and should be approached with that mindset. ​I’m an Ozarker through and through. This is the land where I was born, the land where my parents and my grandparents were born, as well as many more of my ancestors before that. In this way, my work is my own, the spirits I honour are my own, and while my work may be seen as a part of the larger tapestry of Southern folk magic, there are many practices that are unique to me as I have learned them. I hold true to all these traditions that I’ve been taught and those that have been Spirit led.​

Download

Handle with Care

A photo taken from the International Space Station by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman Sept. 2, 2014.
A photo taken from the International Space Station by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman Sept. 2, 2014.

A group of climate scientists warn that the potential for humanity’s mass extinction has been dangerously underexplored. On this week’s On the Media, we hear how facing our planet’s fragility could inspire hope, instead of despair, and a physicist explains how creation stories are essential for understanding our place in the universe.

Luke Kemp [@LukaKemp], a Research Associate at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, on a new study that says we need to put more attention on the possibility of human extinction and other climate catastrophes. Bryan Walsh [@bryanrwalsh], editor of Vox’s ‘Future Perfect,’ also explains why our brains have a hard time processing catastrophes like climate change. Listen. Charles Piller [@cpiller], investigative reporter for Science Magazine, on his six month investigation into how faulty images may invalidate groundbreaking advancements in Alzheimer’s research. Listen. Guido Tonelli, a particle physicist at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, on the importance of creation myths, and what scientists can tell us about the fragility of the universe.

LINK: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-handle-with-care