thepete.com
This whole Santorum Vs. Obama’s faith thing got me so angry I drew three Ballpoint strips this week. This is the last one (for now) and Billy swears again. If you have read other Ballpoint Adventures, you know that Billy and Barbie really don’t swear that much. So, you know when they do, it means I’m really REALLY PISSED about something. :) See, because, whether or not you believe Global Warming is manmade or if Climate Change is really happening, IT’S STILL GOOD TO CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. WHAT ARE YOU? AN IDIOT? I’m SO TIRED OF HAVING THIS DISCUSSION.
Tag Archives: environment
Ballpoint Adventures for February 21, 2012: Billy Knows What Rick Santorum doesn't!
See, this is the shit that makes me so mad. Santorum is letting his faith in a magical being decide how to be a leader. This makes me crazy with anger because I base my life decisions, not on a mythical being but on facts. Since there are no facts proving God’s existence, I look at facts that do exist, like how our climate is changing and how protecting the environment is good because we LIVE in it. FUCK. IDIOT.
Hurricane/Tropical Storm #Irene Spews Sediment from Connecticut River
NASA’s Flickr page has some amazing photos–not just of space, but of the Earth–including this one showing all of the sediment churned up by hurricane Irene. It’s done quite a bit of damage to local ecosystems and was probably something most folks didn’t think about happening. I know I didn’t.
I wonder how far that damage will end up going. Click through to the Flickr page for a LOT more explanation of the pic and what it could mean for local ecology!
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A map of the proposed Keystone XL, also called Tar Sands, pipeline.
It could carry crude oil some 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast in Texas.
A friendly and safe new source of oil for the U.S. or an environmental disaster waiting to happen?
Nice! It’ll deliver oil all the way from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico where it can be spilled and pollute some more! >_<
Come on, kids! Let’s come up with some better, more imaginative solutions to our energy problems. Gah! You’d think the last 100 years of great ideas didn’t happen!
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This photo has been popping up on the lower right corner of my dash today. Someone put a comedic caption to it. Ha ha ha. Look at that silly dolphin using a shopping bag.
It’s estimated that around 100,000 marine mammals die each year due to plastic litter in the North Pacific. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to measure between the size of Texas and the continental United States; the North Atlantic Garbage Patch is hundreds of kilometers across. Most plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which comes from petroleum, and cannot biodegrade. They are affected by photodegradation, meaning they eventually break down into tiny synthetic granules because of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, but they are not thought to degrade fully. This means that, on top of all the other trash and waste polluting the ocean, these microscopic bits of plastic are ingested by marine animals all over the world. That’s when they’re not mistaking plastic bags for food, or playing with them, and getting them stuck in their digestive tract until it slowly kills them.
So, yes. Hilarious.
People on Tumblr post snarky comments about a dolphin with a shopping bag on its fin while completely missing the sad, fucked up irony? I can’t imagine!
Oh wait, yes I can. Well said, Mockingnerd!
– Download as PDF –
What's Really In That Tampon? from Mother Jones
What’s Really In That Tampon? from Mother Jones
Holy cats, I don’t know how women deal with this! From the above linked MoJo article:
When my period hits, I usually snag the cheapest disposable product in the feminine hygiene aisle of my nearest Walgreen’s. But then I read on the Sierra Club’s website that the tampons and pads in my bathroom cabinet are not only clogging up US waterways and landfills, but they may also contain materials that could harm my body.
Slate’s Green Lantern investigated the environmental impact of period supplies and found out that of the 62,415 pounds of total trash one US woman throws out doing her menstrual years, “pads, plugs, and applicators” only account for about 250 to 300 pounds of the garbage. Still, the individual plastic packaging on my pads isn’t exactly helping to decrease my personal landfill load. Same goes for the 16,800 tampons I’m expected to use in my lifetime, though the non-applicator kind are marginally less wasteful…
Sheesh. Here’s another problem the doesn’t seem to have much of an alternative. But hey, God gave us this planet to abuse, right? I just want to know what we’re supposed to do when we’re knee-deep in “plastic applicators”??
– Download What’s Really In That Tampon? from Mother Jones as PDF –
Earth's Hottest Year just might explain Sharpest Drop in Oldest, Thickest Arctic Sea Ice
Earth’s Hottest Year just might explain Sharpest Drop in Oldest, Thickest Arctic Sea Ice
Exclusive: Scientists track sharp drop in oldest, thickest Arctic sea ice: 2010 melt season ends, likely setting the record for lowest volume @ National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) via Climate Progress
NOAA reports 2010 hottest year on record so far: Summer 2010 the second warmest on record; hottest August in RSS satellite record* @ NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center via Climate Progress
Environment correspondent Richard Black @ BBC News ~ ‘Rapid’ 2010 melt for Arctic ice – but no record
Just more evidence to be ignored by those in power.
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ATTN: ATLANTIC OCEAN: Jealous of the Pacific Ocean’s Giant Plastic Garbage Patch? Now You’ve got One, too!!
Science Editor Steve Connor @ The Independent ~ Now Atlantic is found to have huge ‘garbage patch’
A huge expanse of floating plastic debris has been documented for the first time in the North Atlantic Ocean. The size of the affected area rivals the “great Pacific garbage patch” in the world’s other great ocean basin, which generated an outcry over the effects of plastic waste on marine wildlife. (…)
via paulmalouf
I’m going to give up soon.
Just saying.
Sharks in the *Potomac*? Oh yeah, Climate Change is here.
From WashingtonPost.com:
Willy Dean was on the Potomac River in a 22-foot skiff Tuesday morning when he realized there was something both abnormal and enormous in his net. It was a deadly 8-foot-1 bull shark, a 300-pound-plus killer that had likely been feasting on cownose rays at Cornfield Harbor, just off the shores of Point Lookout State Park.
Awww, yeah!! Sharks in the Potomac! Next, I’m sure we’ll hear from the Republicans how Al Qaeda is recruiting sharks to travel up the Potomac to threaten the White House.
>_<
I wouldn’t put anything past those idiots.
But political stuff aside, this is nice and messed up. I sure am glad so little money is being spent on combating Climate Change! I’m sure terrorists are a MUCH bigger threat to the USA than bizarre changes in nature like sharks swimming up rivers they normally don’t. Combine this with rising sea levels and we’ll have a real mess on our hands!
Good Point from Underpaid Genius: Worldwide Heatwave: Not In The News Though
The world is gripped in an unprecedented heatwave. The recent East Coast weather pattern has led to 10 days of over 90º F temperatures.
This is a worldwide phenomenon, which is beling largely unreported by the papers here in the US. Here’s a May 30 2010 Guardian piece on the Indian heat wave:
Record temperatures in northern India have claimed hundreds of lives in what is believed to be the hottest summer in the country since records began in the late 1800s.
The death toll is expected to rise with experts forecasting temperatures approaching 50C (122F) in coming weeks. More than 100 people are reported to have died in the state of Gujarat where the mercury topped at 48.5C last week. At least 90 died in Maharashtra, 35 in Rajasthan and 34 in Bihar.
And it’s even worse in Africa and West Asia, as reported by Jeff Masters on 24 June:
Extreme heat wave sets all-time high temperature records in Africa and Middle East
A withering heat wave of unprecedented intensity and areal covered has smashed all-time high temperatures in four nations in the Middle East and Africa over the past week. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Chad, and Niger all set new records for their hottest temperatures of all time, and several other Middle East nations came within a degree of their hottest temperatures ever. The heat was the most intense in Iraq, which had its hottest day in history on June 14, 2010, when the mercury hit 52.0°C (125.6°F) in Basra. Iraq’s previous record was 51.7°C (125.1°F) set August 8, 1937, in Ash Shu’aybah. It was also incredibly hot in Saudi Arabia, which had its hottest temperature ever on Tuesday (June 22): 52.0°C (125.6°F), measured in Jeddah, the second largest city in Saudi Arabia. The previous record was 51.7°C (125.1°F), at Abqaiq, date unknown. The record heat was accompanied by a sandstorm, which caused eight power plants to go offline, resulting in blackouts to several Saudi cities.
In Africa, Chad had its hottest day in history on Tuesday (June 22), when the temperature reached 47.6°C (117.7°F) at Faya. The previous record was 47.4°C (117.3°F) at Faya on June 3 and June 9, 1961. Niger tied its record for hottest day in history on Tuesday (June 22), when the temperature reached 47.1°C (116.8°F) at Bilma. That record stood for just one day, as Bilma broke the record again on Wednesday (June 23), when the mercury topped out at 48.2°C (118.8°F). The previous record was 47.1°C on May 24, 1998, also at Bilma.
Three countries came within a degree of their all time hottest temperature on record during the heat wave. Bahrain had its hottest June temperature ever, 46.9°C, on June 20, missing the all-time record of 47.5°C (117.5°F), set July 14, 2000. Temperatures in Quatar reached 48.8°C (119.8°F) on June 20. Quatar’s all-time record hottest temperature was 49.6°C (121.3°F) set on July 9, 2000. It was also very hot in Kuwait, with temperatures reaching 51°C (123.8°F) in the capital on June 15. Kuwait’s all-time hottest temperature was 51.9°C (125.4°F), on July 27,2007, at Abdaly. According to Essa Ramadan, a Kuwaiti meteorologist from Civil Aviation, Matrabah, Kuwait smashed this record and had Asia’s hottest temperature in history on June 15 this year, when the mercury hit 54.0°C (129.2°F). However, data from this station is notoriously bad, and each year bogus record highs have to be corrected, according to an email I received from weather record researcher Maximiliano Herrera. Asia’s hottest temperature in history will very likely remain the 53.5°C (128.3°F) recorded at MohenjuDaro, Pakistan on May 26 this year.
Commentary
We’ve now had six countries in Asia and Africa that have beaten their all-time hottest temperature record during the past two months. As I discussed in my blog about Pakistan’s May 26 record, Southeast Asia also had its all-time hottest temperature in May, when the mercury hit 47°C (116.6°F) in Myinmu, Myanmar on May 12. All of these records are unofficial, and will need to be certified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). According to Chris Burt, author of Extreme Weather, setting four national heat records in one month is not unprecedented—in August 2003, five countries (the UK, France, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein) all broke their all-time heat records during that year’s notorious summer heat wave. Fortunately, the residents of the countries affected by this week’s heat wave are more adapted to extreme high temperatures, and we are not seeing the kind of death tolls experienced during the 2003 European heat wave (30,000 killed.) This week’s heat wave in Africa and the Middle East is partially a consequence of the fact that Earth has now seen three straight months with its warmest temperatures on record, according to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. It will be interesting to see if the demise of El Niño in May will keep June from becoming the globe’s fourth straight warmest month on record.Not an especially great record to set.
The facts are pretty clear: high temperatures in all parts of the world, and months of hottest temperatures ever.
The oceans are warmer than ever too, so expect — along with drought — an increase in hurricane and typhoons.
But why isn’t the global heat wave newsworthy? Why does the Washington Post run a story on the heat wave there, and not talk to one climate scientist? They had like 8 reporters working on the story, but no one could call NOAA?
It’s fodder: reading about someone’s German Shepherd suffering from the DC heat is fun, in a way. But having someone thread the needle about global temperature at at all time high — hot enough to kill tens or hundreds of thousands of people, if things continue — is nowhere to be found.
There’s this thing called “the tipping point” where the ocean will run out of space for more CO2. I wonder if we’ve passed that. I also wonder if there are other “tipping points” where once there’s less than a certain amount of ice on the planet (or less than a certain number of cool areas on the planet) hot “dominoes” will begin to fall for the entire planet.
It’s a real shame that our “experts” are morons and our leaders and the media care only for themselves.
– Download Good Point from Underpaid Genius: Worldwide Heatwave: Not In The News Though as PDF –