Showing posts with label Barrowtown Pump Station. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barrowtown Pump Station. Show all posts

Thursday, November 18, 2021

Is The Fix in?

Worldwide (Map
November 18, 2021 - 255,235,950 confirmed infections; 5,128,300 deaths
November 19, 2020 – 56,188,000 confirmed infections; 1,348,600 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths
Total vaccine doses administered: 7,562,351,850

US (Map
November 18, 2021 - 47,424,000 confirmed infections; 767,450 deaths
November 19, 2020 – 11,525,600 confirmed infections; 250,485 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal
November 18, 2021 - 2,926,950 confirmed infections; 89,550 deaths
November 19, 2020 – 757,145 confirmed infections; 20,556 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

Daily Maverick

News blues

Anyone else notice that US news is reporting less about Covid and the devastation it is visiting upon humanity? Scanning US online news outlet shows US news favors America’s whackidoodle politics and politicians, the slow moving but nevertheless ongoing American coup/insurrection, the latest shootings in the US … and minimal coverage on Covid.
British news continues to cover Covid. From The Guardian:
A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe should serve as a warning that the US could also see significant increases in coronavirus cases this winter, particularly in the nation’s colder regions…
However, there is more cause for optimism as America enters its second pandemic winter, even in the face of likely rises in cases.
Evidence shows vaccine-conferred protection against hospitalization and death remains high several months after inoculation, vaccines for children older than 5 can reduce Covid transmission, and new antiviral medications hold the promise of making Covid-19 a treatable disease.
Read more >> 
Moreover, one study finds front-page stories about Covid-19 pandemic were sensationalist and unhelpful >>
***
The Lincoln Project:
Biden delivered  (0:59 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party  (2:18 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Abbotsford, a town is Canada’s province of British Columbia, is experiencing massive flooding with a death toll set to rise after…
Torrential rains pummeled swathes of western Canada’s British Columbia and Washington state in the US in recent days – dumping a month’s worth of rain in two days in some areas – causing floods and mudslides that swallowed stretches of highways and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. One person has been killed and several have been reported missing.
Abbotsford, one of Canada’s most intensively and diversely farmed areas, was among places hardest hit. Home to more than 1,200 farms, it supplies half of the dairy, eggs and poultry consumed by British Columbia’s 5.2 million residents.
Aerial footage showed several barns engulfed by flood waters
Read more >> 
And
… torrential rains and mudslides destroyed roads and left several mountain towns isolated. At least three people are missing. Some 18,000 people are displaced in the Pacific Coast province…
…The flooding is the second weather-related calamity to hit British Columbia in the past few months. A massive wildfire in the same region as some of the devastation destroyed an entire town in late June.
"These are extraordinary events not measured before, not contemplated before…”
That disaster could be the most expensive in Canadian history
Read more >> 
Not to dismiss or undermine that horror of such flooding and the “extraordinary events not measured before”….but… it is incorrect to write “These are extraordinary events not measured before, not contemplated before…”.
Warnings about such events both have been measured and issued before.
One issue? 
Warnings - from scientists, geologists, water and flood experts, etc. – for decades went unheeded. Why? 
Such warnings were at odds with the desires of people and systems hoping to generate huge wealth from the area. Judging by the numbers of farms and towns now affected, wealth was generated. The underlying geology and geomorphology, however, remained.

Recently, as events unfolded, Abbotsville officials …
reiterated their call for everyone to get out a few hours after Abbotsford said the Barrowtown Pump Station was in imminent danger of failing….
“The best thing we can do is monitor water levels and monitor the Nooksack River levels,” director of engineering David Blain said. “We’ll know what the situation could become should the pumps stop acting.”
But…
The long-term backstory on this area?
To understand the flood crisis currently gripping the Sumas Prairie area in eastern Abbotsford, you have to understand the history of the area, and the roles played by the Nooksack River and what was once Sumas Lake. You need to know why Barrowtown Pump Station exists. And you need to know why, if it fails (and maybe even if it doesn’t), the lake will return.
Read the backstory that details how, why, when, and who benefitted from not heeding the warnings >> 
Upshot?
We the People are in the thick of man-made disasters put in place by the mentality that “we can fix nature and make it work for us.
What’s required is the mentality that “we can learn from and work with nature to live physically and psychologically healthier lives.
In which direction are we heading?
Hmmm, COP(out) 26 answered that question.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…





Band o coots


In my neck of the woods? Best time of year on the beach. I enjoy it while I can....