Restores arid coastlines to forest to induce rainfall using treated waste water from Europe.
Introduction to Operation OASIS
The massive waste water problem that currently pollutes our bathing waters costing £billions to process throughout the world can be used to irrigate and reforest desert coastlines to induce rainfall.
Our aim is to use the return ballast capacity of super crude carriers which currently transport sea water half way around the world at great financial and environmental cost. This ballast is discharged into the sea, often introducing invasive marine species which affects the stability of indigenous species of flora and fauna.
The E.U. is legislating against this practice and tanker operators will be forced to seek an alternative.
Operation OASIS offers an exciting opportunity for ballast water. Transporting treated waste water to irrigate and reforest arid coastlines to induce rainfall has to be the way forward.
One tanker loaded with 300000 cubic meters of treated waste water would support 57 hectares of forest for a whole year.
Reclaiming deserts to enable people to feed themselves and grow great forests will offset the carbon emissions from shipping.
With global food shortages upon us we are already feeling the strain on our pockets in the developed world and renewable resources are in rapid decline. Drought is affecting all major food producing countries and wells are running dry. Water scarcity poses major problems for us and our children. We need to act fast in order to avert a major global catastrophe.
When the mighty river Amazon dries up and it's fish stocks die it is time to take stock on how we manage our fragile environment. For more detailed information visit our website and forum at: http://www.operationoasis.com
Figure 1 – UK Areas potentially at risk of soil erosion 3
Soil degradation involves both the physical loss (erosion) and the reduction in quality of topsoil associated with nutrient decline and contamination. It affects soil quality for agriculture and has implications for the urban environment, pollution and flooding.
Currently, 2.2 million tonnes of topsoil is eroded annually in the UK and over 17% of arable land shows signs of erosion1. This POSTnote examines the nature and extent of soil degradation in the UK and the
challenges and opportunities for soils in a changing climate.
Eroded soil can be deposited on roads and other infrastructure leading to significant clean-up costs. It can also silt up reservoirs and harbours, reducing the lifetime and adding to the maintenance costs of these structures and put pressure on aquatic life. The costs of damage to agricultural soil in England and Wales have been estimated as £264 million a year and the costs of treating water contaminated with agricultural pollutants as £203 million a year7. As illustrated in Box 2, changes in local land management practices can greatly influence soil erosion by water.
Soil organic matter Organic matter is vital for the physical, chemical and biological functioning of soils. Around 18% of the organic
matter present in arable topsoils in 1980 had been lost by 1995. One of the reasons for this was that grasslands were ploughed for arable use. Some experts consider that the amount of organic matter in some soils may now be reaching such low levels that crop production may not be sustainable in the long term. As organic matter declines,
so does the soil structure, so that the soil becomes more susceptible to physical erosion. Steps being taken to address loss of organic matter from soils include recycling farm manures, sewage sludge, and composted green wastes in soils. However, injudicious application of
these organic materials may lead to diffuse water (nitrate and phosphate) pollution, and air pollution (odour and ammonia). The challenges in future are to maintain and where possible enhance soil organic matter while minimising the polluting effects of applying organic materials.
It has been estimated that 44% of arable land in the UK is at risk of water erosion4. Around 20% of upland peat, shallow, and rocky soils (shown as ‘upland’ on Figure 1) are currently eroding5. An equivalent area of lowland peat is affected by commercial extraction, with impacts for the amount of carbon stored in it (see Box 1). Soil erosion by water in the UK results in loss of productive soil and nutrients in the immediate vicinity (‘on-site’). Further away (‘off-site’), eroded soil can block water courses and drains, affect fisheries, and increase the risk of flooding. http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/POST-PN-265.pdf
Indigenous waste water can be used to support a pilot project, sufficiently large enough to demonstrate both micro and macro climate change resulting from established vegetation and irrigation. Dubai has effluent backed up in road tankers waiting to be emptied. A single skinned redundant tanker could be converted to treat this effluent anaerobically and supply methane gas to the national grid. Thames water is already converting waste water into methane which it feeds directly into the gas mains of London. The effluent that comes from anaerobic treatment is rich in the very nutrients required to terraform desert into tropical rainforest and support agroforestry based practices. After all, desert sand is soil with all of the organic material stripped out by wind and rain erosion. Furthermore the biosolids from anaerobic treatment is 100% safe, containing zero pathogens that pose risk and is exactly what the soils of the Middle East and Africa are lacking. Egypt believe it or not is currently selling timber products from forest grown by using indigenous waste water in what was once an arid desert. Had they have had the foresight to have planted their forest directly on the coastline. Operation OASIS would be a global project by now. The West is thinking to itself that deserts pose no risk to us and they are so wrong. The dryer these vast regions become ultimately means that more water will fall in other regions and we are already seeing devastating flash floods and massive storm damage. We need to bring the global climate back into stability. Of course nature will do this all by itself once we have unleashed it's full wrath upon the Earth. The dinosaurs managed it and I am sure we will surpass those.
Plant a Coastal Forest on an Arid Coastline to induce rainfall in some of the driest regions on Earth!
Andrew FletcherOriginator of Operation OASIS "I Welcome all invitations"
Yes this is achievable using treated waste water, delivered free of charge using the return ballast capacity of super tankers. Does anyone know of a contact who could initiate the planting of a new coastal forest ion an arid coastline? The potential of developing fertile land from sand is enormous. More profit will be generated from the land than from oil! Clouds will not stop at the forest, they will migrate across the land and in doing so lower temperatures. Mankind has excelled in removing vegetation from coastlines. It is time that we excelled in replacing it if we are to address climate change.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHhXqzk7LhE
How can we quench everyone's thirst? The answer to this question is complex but never unsolvable! It falls from the sky and tastes divine compared to mains water which is contaminated with chemicals including fluoride and chlorine. Take the drinks test, place a filter jug out in the rain and compare it's taste with the water from your tap. This is how we now harvest rainwater: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEzhdUhPFn4
What can be done to improve the lives of people affected by water scarcity and contaminated drinking water? When rain does occur in these regions it rapidly vanishes from the soil due to run off. Water quickly becomes contaminated and rendered dangerous to drink. Unless we encourage peoples to take control of water and mange it responsibly by harvesting this precious life giving requirement for life to sustain people during the dry season, business as usual will continue to cause untold deaths and unimaginable suffering. We have a surplus of used IBC plastic storage tanks that could be put to good use for capturing rainwater and keeping the water safe. These can be buried safely in the soil to keep the water stored clean. Plastic drinking bottles filled with water and left in strong sunlight can kill all pathogens in the water, rendering it safe to drink. Polythene / plastic sheets can be used to channel water into storage containers from roof's and the ground and could suffice to gather and store sufficient water to keep a family alive through the dry season. The cost for this system is negligible.
Harvesting rainwater would help to afford aquifers to replenish.
According to WHO, Water scarcity affects one in three people on every continent of the globe. The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses.
Almost one fifth of the world's population (about 1.2 billion people) live in areas where the water is physically scarce. One quarter of the global population also live in developing countries that face water shortages due to a lack of infrastructure to fetch water from rivers and aquifers.
Water scarcity forces people to rely on unsafe sources of drinking water. It also means they cannot bathe or clean their clothes or homes properly.
Poor water quality can increase the risk of such diarrhoeal diseases as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery, and other water-borne infections. Water scarcity can lead to diseases such as trachoma (an eye infection that can lead to blindness), plague and typhus.
http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/water/water_facts/en/index2.html
More about what we can do to restore rainfall in arid coastal regions by delivering treated waste water as ballast in returning bulk shipping to restore coastal forests in some of the driest coastal regions: http://operationoasis.com
Please help others by sharing this video.
Andrew K Fletcher
Human waste could be the next weapon in the fight against climate change.
Australia produces almost a third of a million tonnes of ‘biosolids’ – the solid waste left over after sewage treatment – per year. Large heaps are stockpiled round Australia’s cities when they could be helping to lock up our carbon emissions as well as building more fertile soils, Professor Nanthi Bolan of CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment and University of South Australia announced in CleanUp 2013 in Melbourne today.
“Our research shows that if applied to agricultural soils or revegetation projects, biosolids – as well as increasing soil fertility and boosting plant growth – can lock up carbon,” Prof. Bolan says.
“Biosolids contain nitrogen and other nutrients for crop growth, organic matter to improve soil structure, and non-degradable forms of carbon that will stay in the soil for a long time.
“Currently Australia stockpiles about 70,000 tonnes of biosolids a year from its major urban sewage works. This is a huge and valuable resource that is presently largely unused. America, for example, produces 7.5 million tonnes of biosolids a year.”
Prof. Bolan says that because Australian biosolids are generally low in toxic heavy metals – compared with some other countries round the world – they are particularly suitable to be incorporated into agricultural soils.
“The big issue with biosolids is the cost of transporting them to where they will be used and spreading them on the soil. Our research indicates this can be offset not only by the boost to fertility and soil organic structure – but also by its ability to increase carbon retention in the soil.
“In other words you could earn carbon credits by using treated human waste as a soil improver – which would pay for part of the cost of transporting and distributing it.”
Biosolids contain the major nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, but also micronutrients and trace minerals which are increasingly lacking in the modern Australian diet, and whose lack is now linked to a number of important lifestyle diseases: “By recycling our waste through agriculture, we could in fact be helping to improve the nutritional quality of Australian food, conserving scarce nutrients and improving public health.”
Prof Bolan says that the amount of carbon that can be locked up depends on several variables – how the biosolids were stabilised at the sewage works, the type of crop they fertilise, and the levels of iron and aluminium in the soils, which combine with, and consequently lock up, the carbon in biosolids.
“Up to 30% of biosolids can consist of non-degradable carbon – and we need to encourage the use of the right sorts of processes in our sewage works to maximise this.
“If you used biosolids for tree crops or for landscape revegetation it would then lock up more of the mobile carbon for a much longer time than an annual crop like wheat or canola.
“Some people may not like the idea of using human waste in the food system, but in reality we have done this for thousands of years – and modern biosolids are far cleaner and safer than untreated waste.
“At a time when fertilisers are becoming ever more costly and soils degraded, biosolids offer a major source of low-cost nutrients and a source of better soil quality. However the major barrier till now has been cost associated with transport and spreading.
“The big benefit they offer may be carbon lock-up – and with any form of carbon trading scheme in Australia we could use carbon credits to subsidise this form of soil improvement from an underutilised resource, and use our poo as another way to combat global warming.”
Prof Bolan says that with many resources – including some plant nutrients – expected to peak in the 21st century owing to demand from a growing world population, it makes sense to recycle everything of value – including our own waste.
River run-off: Sediment on Madagascar's reefs is expected to increase by a further 54 to 64 per cent if 10 to 50 per cent of remaining natural forest cover is removed(Source: robas/iStockphoto)
Any benefit tropical reefs gain from reduced sediment loads caused by a drier climate will be offset by increased sedimentation due to deforestation, Australian scientists have found.
In research published in today's Nature Communications they argue that reafforestation schemes in developing countries would be more effective at protecting reefs from sedimentation damage than other climate change mitigation programs.
The team, led by Joseph Maina from Macquarie University, looked at how a warmer climate would impact sedimentation levels on Madagascar's coral reefs.
They simulated river flow and sediment supply in four river systems adjacent to Madagascar's major coral reef systems under a range of climate change and land use change scenarios.
Sedimentation and poor water quality reduce corals' ability to recover from bleaching events and other temperature related stress, and result in a deterioration in reef structure and reduction in the complexity of the ecological communities that depend on the reef.
Sedimentation levels are affected by the amount of soil removed from the hinterland then transported in rivers.
"Madadascar was used because it covers a wide range of climates from the wet north of the island to the dry south, representing a range of environments, soil types and topographies found in the global tropics," explains Dr Jens Zinke from the University of Western Australia's Oceans Institute.
"The findings are applicable to other regions such as East Africa, the Pacific and Australia."
Their research found that by 2090 all four river systems in Madagascar are likely to experience increased temperatures and rainfall declines due to climate change, resulting in decreased river flows and sediment loads impacting the reefs.
Natural erosion control
Since human settlement, removal of the natural forest cover has increased sediment supply by up to five times pre-settlement levels, so the researchers also looked at the impact reafforestation would have on reducing sediment loads being carried to the reef.
They found that sediment supply is expected to increase by a further 54 to 64 per cent if 10 to 50 per cent of remaining natural forest cover is removed, but could be reduced by up to 68 per cent if the same amount of natural forest is restored.
"Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution," says Zinke.
"In the drier south-west of the island where large-scale clearing has already occurred, a much larger effort is needed to create an impact.
"In the wet, mountainous north-east where the steep terrain has resulted in less land clearing, increasing cover by only 10 per cent will have a huge benefit."
But reducing land cover in the same area by only 10 ti 20 per cent will have a disproportionately large impact, he adds.
"While this study didn't take into account the impacts of rising sea surface temperatures on coral reefs, it is clear that focusing on regional land management practices will certainly help mitigate against the impacts of climate change in this region."
Extreme impacts
How applicable the model outcomes from Madagascar will be to other reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is uncertain, says marine ecologist Dr Britta Schaffelke, from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).
"To my knowledge there are no quantified climate predictions regarding rainfall along the GBR apart from general predictions that climate change will make weather patterns more extreme," she comments.
"If additional land was cleared there is a high likelihood that sediment loads would increase on top of this, which would increase turbidity in the marine environment. But there is no information on what is a more important driver of future sediment runoff, extreme weather or changes in land use and ground cover.
"It would be very interesting to do a similar study for the GBR catchment," she says.
ICS airs concerns over ballast water management convention (Aug 3 2012)
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has called on the IMO to address critical issues concerning the imminent implementation of the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention.
Despite delays by governments with respect to ratification, the 2004 BWM Convention is expected to enter into force within the next two years.
ICS director of regulatory affairs, David Tongue, explained: “Shipping companies represented by our member national associations have serious concerns about the availability of suitable ballast water treatment equipment, the robustness of the type approval process and, above all, the difficulties of retrofitting tens of thousands of existing ships within the time frame established by the BWM Convention.”
In a submission to the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), which meets in October, ICS has requested that the issue of fixed dates for the retrofitting of expensive new equipment by large numbers of ships, perhaps as many as 60,000, needs to be addressed urgently. ICS said that a serious discussion is needed at IMO before the Convention enters into force.
In particular, in view of the bottlenecks that will be created when the Convention enters in force, with many ships having to be retrofitted either before their next special survey, or their next intermediate survey, ICS has proposed that the IMO should modify the BWM Convention’s requirements so that existing ships should not be required to be retrofitted with treatment equipment until their next full special survey.
In view of the pressures on shipyards that will need to fit the equipment, this would smooth out implementation over a five-year timeline around the date of entry into force of the Convention, rather than two, or three years, as at present.
Moreover, in order to make it possible for other ships to be retrofitted within the required time frame, ICS has proposed that ships approaching their fourth special survey should be exempted from the equipment requirements.
Tongue added: “Given that the costs of fitting the treatment equipment may be in the order of $1 to $5 mill a ship, it does not make economic sense for older ships approaching the end of their lives to incur this huge expenditure. However, the impact on the environment of exempting them would be negligible since these ships will still be required to perform deep water ballast exchange at sea for the two, or three remaining years that most of them will continue to operate.”
In the event that IMO does not accept the suggestion that ships should not be required to retrofit until their next five-year renewal survey, ICS suggested that ships over 18 years old should be exempted from the equipment requirements.
In practice, changes to the BWM Convention cannot be adopted until after it enters into force, but given the importance of ensuring smooth implementation ICS saw no reason why IMO cannot agree provisional changes with respect to detailed implementation in advance.
In a separate submission, ICS has requested that IMO considers modifying its current draft guidelines for type approval of equipment and for ballast water sampling and analysis that will be used by port state control, so that as far as possible they are comparable with those recently adopted by the US.
Tongue said: “A large proportion of the fleet will have to comply with the US requirements, which cannot be changed. For the sake of global uniformity we think it would be helpful if the relevant IMO Guidelines can be modified.”
A most important consideration, according to ICS, is that the US standards for type approval of equipment, under its Environmental Verification Program, are far more robust than the IMO equivalent.
Some of the equipment, already approved in line with original IMO standards, has already had to be withdrawn because it has been demonstrated not to deliver the agreed IMO ‘kill standard’ for removing unwanted marine micro-organisms.
The International Chamber of Shipping,
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Inside Out East:
Monday October 13, 2003 http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/east/series4/great_storm.shtml
THE GREAT STORM
Reporter uncovers the full story
In 1703, a catastrophic hurricane
ripped across East Anglia. It was the worst storm in British history
and killed 8,000 people. But could global warming make tomorrow's
weather even more violent? Inside Out
investigates.
It is 300 years since villages from Northamptonshire to
Suffolk were decimated by 'The Great Storm'. But only now is the full
story emerging.
The first complete account of the
impact of the storm on the East of England has just been written by Martin
Brayne.
The hurricane on 26 November 1703 tore across East Anglia,
ripping up everything in its wake.
Unlike today's storms, when we have advanced warning
and can prepare for the worst, the poor souls of 1703 had no idea what
was about to hit them.
TORNADO & HURRICANE
FACT FILE
Hurricanes
originate in the Tropics.
A storm featuring winds of over
74mph is often referred to as a hurricane.
A hurricane is a fierce rotating storm with an intense
centre of low pressure. In south-east Asia they’re known as
'typhoons' and in the Indian Ocean, 'cyclones'.
In
1998, Hurricane Gilbert produced 160 mph winds, killing 318 people,
and devastating Jamaica.
The
United Kingdom is actually the World’s most tornado-prone nation.
Wind
speeds in tornadoes can vary from 72 to almost 300 mph. Fortunately,
only 2 percent of all tornadoes have winds greater than 200 mph.
Men and animals were lifted into the air
Winds and rain lashed the entire country and floods were
reported almost everywhere.
Winds of up to 80mph killed 123 people and destroyed more
than 400 windmills - many of which caught fire due to the friction of
their wildly-spinning sails.
Daniel Defoe, who travelled the country afterwards assessing
the damage, reported that men and animals were lifted off their feet and
carried for yards through the air and that lead roofs were ripped from
one hundred churches.
The Robinson Crusoe author reported seeing a tornado which
"snapped the body of an oak".
15,000 sheep were drowned in floods near Bristol and 800
houses were completely destroyed.
At Cambridge, falling masonry wrecked the organ of St
Mary’s church, newly installed at a cost of £1,500 - and King’s
College Chapel was badly damaged - pinnacles were toppled and much of
the fine late medieval stained glass ruined.
Author
Martin Brayne has written a full account of the storm
The death
of a fleet - and a lighthouse
Some 8,000 sailors perished as the storm decimated the
British fleet. Hundreds of vessels were lost, including four Royal Navy
men-of-war.
One ship at Whitstable in Kent was lifted from the sea
and reputedly dropped some 250 yards in land.
Famously also, Henry Winstanley had the misfortune to
be in the wooden lighthouse which he had designed on Eddystone Rocks of
Plymouth on 26 November, and was killed.
What has the future in store?
While the events of 1703 may seem safely tucked away in
the depths of history, more recent events
have also savaged the British
Isles.
In 1987, winds gusting up to 115mph cut a swathe of destruction
across London and the Home Counties. There were 19 deaths and the storms
caused an estimated £1bn of damage.
While not quite on the scale of the 1703 storms, this
kind of extreme weather is enough to convince some people that the global
warming is about to unleash a natural disaster of Biblical proportions
on the South of England.
Predictions by the Climate Research Unit at the University
of East Anglia put global sea level rises between 12cm and 67cm by 2050.
Many
ships were lost in 1703
Parts of East Anglia as well as parts of the south
east could end up under water
The threat of rising sea levels is compounded by the fact
that the UK is gradually tilting. The south east of the country is sinking
while the north west is rising.
This could make any future storms - and the resulting
flooding - even more devastating.
Martin Brayne says: "Rising sea levels caused by
global warming, together with increased amount of building on low-lying
coastal areas, mean that a storm as severe as the Great Storm would have
even more devastating effects, [though] the Thames Barrier would protect
London."
What can be done?
"By sharing technologies, experience and resources,"
says BBC Meteorologist Helen Willetts, "We can hopefully lower the
greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the threat of global climate change.
"Choose clean energy options where available, such
as wind, solar and wave power, these do not emit greenhouse gases and
are renewable.
"Individually, we can recycle material, insulate
our homes, take public transport and think about energy efficiency in
the home."
And it is clear that whatever can be done, should be done.
One thing is for certain, nobody wants to experience the
horrors of 1703 again!
Destroyed houses at Hallsands (beneath the cliffs) and Trout's Hotel and the Coastguard Cottages (on the cliff)
Hallsands is a deserted village and beach in south Devon, England, in a precarious position between cliffs and the sea, between Beesands to the north and Start Point to the south.
The early history of Hallsands is unknown, but a chapel has existed
there since at least 1506. The site of the village was located at a cave
known as Poke Hole, and probably was not inhabited before 1600.[1] The village grew in size during the 18th and 19th centuries, and by 1891 it had 37 houses, a spring, a public house called the London Inn, and a population of 159. Most residents of Hallsands at that time depended on fishing for a living, particularly crabfishing on the nearby Skerries Bank.
Hallsands in 1885.
In the 1890s, following a scheme proposed by Sir John Jackson, it was decided to expand the naval dockyard at Keyham, near Plymouth,
and dredging began offshore from Hallsands to provide sand and gravel
for its construction. Soon, up to 1,600 tons of material was being
removed each day, and the level of the beach began to drop, much to the
alarm of local residents.[2] The Board of Trade
agreed to establish a local inquiry in response to protests from
villagers, who feared that the dredging might destabilise the beach and
thereby threaten the village. The inquiry found that the activity was
not likely to pose a significant threat to the village, so dredging
continued.[3]
By 1900, however, the level of the beach had started to fall. In the
autumn storms that year, part of the sea wall was washed away. In
November 1900, villagers petitioned their Member of Parliament complaining of damage to their houses, and in March 1901 Kingsbridge Rural District Council
wrote to the Board of Trade complaining of damage to the road. In
September 1901 a new Board of Trade inspector concluded that further
severe storms could cause serious damage and recommended that dredging
be stopped. On 8 January 1902 the dredging licence was revoked. During
1902 the level of the beach recovered; however the winter of 1902
brought more storms and damage.
On 26 January 1917, a combination of easterly gales and exceptionally
high tides breached Hallsands' defences, and by the end of that year
only one house remained habitable. The villagers' fight for compensation
took seven years.
Present Day
Hallsands in 1992
The site of the old village at South Hallsands, is closed, although South Hams District Council has built a viewing platform, which is accessed from Trout's Apartments (formerly Trout's Hotel) in South Hallsands.
The beach at North Hallsands, known locally at the time as
"Greenstraight", is the only one remaining at Hallsands as the beach
beside the village no longer exists having been removed in 1917 by the
storm.
There are two houses that remain intact, although in summer the
owners spend much time repairing the damage the easterly winds have
caused over the winter.
In May 2012, an access road, viewing platform and two houses were
affected by a 200 tonne landslide, leading to the houses being evacuated
and the affected area cordoned off by police [4]. There was further damage to remaining houses at the site.
As parts of Central America and the U.S. Southwest endure some of the worst droughts to hit those areas in decades, scientists have unearthed new evidence about ancient dry spells that suggest the future could bring even more serious water shortages. Three researchers speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on Dec. 5, 2011, presented new findings about the past and future of drought.
New research indicates that the ancient Mesoamerican civilizations of the Mayans and Aztecs amplified droughts in the Yucatán and southern Mexico by clearing rainforests to make room for pastures and farmland. (Credit: Kayvon Sharghi, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)
Pre-Columbian Collapse
Ben Cook, a climatologist affiliated with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City, highlighted new research that indicates the ancient Meso-American civilizations of the Mayans and Aztecs likely amplified droughts in the Yucatán Peninsula and southern and central Mexico by clearing rainforests to make room for pastures and farmland.
Converting forest to farmland can increase the reflectivity, or albedo, of the land surface in ways that affect precipitation patterns. "Farmland and pastures absorb slightly less energy from the sun than the rainforest because their surfaces tend to be lighter and more reflective," explained Cook. "This means that there’s less energy available for convection and precipitation."
New climate modeling shows that widespread deforestation in pre-Columbian Central America corresponded with decreased levels of precipitation. This image shows how much precipitation declined from normal across the region between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E. It was during this period of time that the Mayan civilization reached its peak population and abruptly collapsed. (Credit: Ben Cook, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies) › Larger image
Cook and colleagues used a high-resolution climate model developed at GISS to run simulations that compared how patterns of vegetation cover during pre-Columbian (before 1492 C.E.) and post-Columbian periods affected precipitation and drought in Central America. The pre-Columbian era saw widespread deforestation on the Yucatán Peninsula and throughout southern and central Mexico. During the post-Columbian period, forests regenerated as native populations declined and farmlands and pastures were abandoned.
Cook's simulations include input from a newly published land-cover reconstruction that is one of the most complete and accurate records of human vegetation changes available. The results are unmistakable: Precipitation levels declined by a considerable amount -- generally 10 to 20 percent -- when deforestation was widespread. Precipitation records from stalagmites, a type of cave formation affected by moisture levels that paleoclimatologists use to deduce past climate trends, in the Yucatán agree well with Cook's model results.
The effect is most noticeable over the Yucatán Peninsula and southern Mexico, areas that overlapped with the centers of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and had high levels of deforestation and the most densely concentrated populations. Rainfall levels declined, for example, by as much as 20 percent over parts of the Yucatán Peninsula between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E.
Cook's study supports previous research that suggests drought, amplified by deforestation, was a key factor in the rapid collapse of the Mayan empire around 950 C.E. In 2010, Robert Oglesby, a climate modeler based at the University of Nebraska, published a study in the Journal of Geophysical Research that showed that deforestation likely contributed to the Mayan collapse. Though Oglesby and Cook's modeling reached similar conclusions, Cook had access to a more accurate and reliable record of vegetation changes.
During the peak of Mayan civilization between 800 C.E. and 950 C.E., the land cover reconstruction Cook based his modeling on indicates that the Maya had left only a tiny percentage of the forests on the Yucatán Peninsula intact. By the period between 1500 C.E. and 1650 C.E., in contrast, after the arrival of Europeans had decimated native populations, natural vegetation covered nearly all of the Yucatán. In modern times, deforestation has altered some areas near the coast, but a large majority of the peninsula’s forests remain intact.
"I wouldn't argue that deforestation causes drought or that it's entirely responsible for the decline of the Maya, but our results do show that deforestation can bias the climate toward drought and that about half of the dryness in the pre-Colonial period was the result of deforestation," Cook said.
Northeastern Megadroughts
Sediment cores from Piermont Marsh and other locations in the Hudson River Valley show major droughts have occurred in the Northeast. Credit: Dorothy Peteet, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies › Larger image The last major drought to affect the Northeast occurred in the 1960s, persisted for about three years and took a major toll on the region. Dorothy Peteet, a paleoclimatologist also affiliated with NASA GISS and Columbia University, has uncovered evidence that shows far more severe droughts have occurred in the Northeast.
By analyzing sediment cores collected from several tidal marshes in the Hudson River Valley, Peteet and her colleagues at Lamont-Doherty have found evidence that at least three major dry spells have occurred in the Northeast within the last 6,000 years. The longest, which corresponds with a span of time known as the Medieval Warm Period, lasted some 500 years and began around 850 C.E. The other two took place more than 5,000 years ago. They were shorter, only about 20 to 40 years, but likely more severe.
"People don't generally think about the Northeast as an area that can experience drought, but there's geologic evidence that shows major droughts can and do occur," Peteet said. "It's something scientists can't ignore. What we’re finding in these sediment cores has big implications for the region."
Peteet's team detected all three droughts using a method called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. They used the technique on a core collected at Piermont Marsh in New York to search for characteristic elements -- such as bromine and calcium -- that are more likely to occur at the marsh during droughts.
Fresh water from the Hudson River and salty water from the Atlantic Ocean were both predominant in Piermont Marsh at different time periods, but saltwater moves upriver during dry periods as the amount of fresh water entering the marsh declines. Peteet's team detected extremely high levels of both bromine and calcium, both of them indicators of the presence of saltwater and the existence of drought, in sections of the sediment cores corresponding to 5,745 and 5,480 years ago.
During the Medieval Warm Period, the researchers also found striking increases in the abundance of certain types of pollen species, especially pine and hickory, that indicate a dry climate. Before the Medieval Warm Period, in contrast, there were more oaks, which prefer wetter conditions. They also found a thick layer of charcoal demonstrating that wildfires, which are more frequent during droughts, were common during the Medieval Warm Period.
"We still need to do more research before we can say with confidence how widespread or frequent droughts in the Northeast have been," Peteet said. There are certain gaps in the cores Peteet's team studied, for example, that she plans to investigate in greater detail. She also expects to expand the scope of the project to other marshes and estuaries in the Northeast and to collaborate with climate modelers to begin teasing out the factors that cause droughts to occur in the region.
The Future of Food
New modeling demonstrates that parts of Africa will be among the areas hardest hit by changes in agricultural productivity due to droughts driven by climate change. Here women in Senegal take a break from crushing millet. Credit: Molly Brown, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center › Larger image Climate change, with its potential to redistribute water availability around the globe by increasing rainfall in some areas while worsening drought in others, might negatively impact crop yields in certain regions of the world.
New research conducted by Princeton University hydrologist Justin Sheffield shows that areas of the developing world that are drought-prone and have growing population and limited capabilities to store water, such as sub-Saharan Africa, will be the ones most at risk of seeing their crops decrease their yields in the future.
Sheffield and his team ran hydrological model simulations for the 20th and 21st centuries and looked at how drought might change in the future according to different climate change scenarios. They found that the total area affected by drought has not changed significantly over the past 50 years globally.
However, the model shows reductions in precipitation and increases in evaporative demand are projected to increase the frequency of short-term droughts. They also found that the area across sub-Saharan Africa experiencing drought will rise by as much as twofold by mid-21st century and threefold by the end of the century.
When the team analyzed what these changes would mean for future agricultural productivity around the globe, they found that the impact on sub-Saharan Africa would be especially strong.
Agricultural productivity depends on a number of factors beyond water availability including soil conditions, available technologies and crop varieties. For some regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers found that agricultural productivity will likely decline by over 20 percent by mid-century due to drying and warming.
The film begins with high-angle
shots of flooded countryside, possibly Mr. Starling's own farm. A car is
stopped at the edge of flood water that lies across the road. Shots of
the Wash flooded between Suspension Bridge and Welney Village. This is
the area where the New Bedford River, the Old Bedford River and the
River Delph, all man-made drains, run parallel and within a few yards of
each other. Osiers and farm buildings rise above the flood waters. A
panning shot shows a deserted bicycle and broken fences. The tops of the
banks of the drains are sometimes visible above the flood waters. There
is a long shot of a steam pumping station alongside the New Bedford
between Pymoor and Welney. Smoke is pouring from the chimney, suggesting
that the station is at full capacity. Men stand on a sandbag jetty
surveying the flood waters. Flood water pours through a gap in the bank
and the men stand by, helpless. There are scenes of the flooding
alongside the London to Kings Lynn railway line. A man watches the
floods and there are shots of the flooding and of a road from the
railway line. This may be where the railway line and a road cross at
Station Farm, Ten Mile Bank. There are shots of the flood showing
submerged farm buildings and the water level up to the lower windows of
the houses. The flood water is pouring through the banks and over the
road. This may be at Hilgay, where the River Wissey burst its banks. Men
and troops are laying sandbags and there are brief night shots of the
flood patrol. In daylight, there are further shots of the Pymoor to
Welney Road and of the river bank, by Mr. Starling's farm. Residents
gather by the edge of the flood, in front of houses. A military vehicle
crosses the flood. There are further shots of the banks, re-inforced
with brushes made from brushwood. A pumping sub-station is
semi-submerged. There are shots from inside a larger pumping station and
the film shows large pipes pumping the water into the river. There are
individual pumps alongside the road. The final scenes show the damage
lift by the floods. Pools of flood water remain and the land appears
devastated, with debris lying around. There are many dilapidated farm
buildings, brick structures as well as wooden ones. The final, brief
scene shows tow boys on the beach.
Background Information:
Claude Starling farmed at Primrose Hill Farm, Pymoor. Local men
formed groups to patrol the banks of the drains at night to give and
early warning of and breaches.The winter of 1947 was harsh and heavy
snow fell, lying on the ground until March. The thaw was sudden and
combined with rain and high spring tides. This meant that the Denver
Sluice and other sluice gates where the river was still tidal, could
only be opened for short periods. The water couldn't get away. This was
probably the most serious flooding known in the Fens. The Ouse Washes
flooded on March 13th and the River Ouse at Ely burst its banks at Ely,
flooding house and Ely Station. The railway was flooded to the North of
Littleport. Many people had to by evacuated from their homes. On 16th
March 100 mph gales were recorded. These brought down telegraph wires
and trees. By March 20th waters were rising by 12 inches an hour. Some
of the floods water remained lying on the land for two months.
Saturday, 14 April 2012
The stark contrast of the Ungorogoro crater against the surrounding arid landscape begs the question as to how this remarkable oasis attracts so much rainfall.
In recent years the crater has suffered from severe droughts, followed by biting insects population explosions.
It is the forests that draw in the rainfall that feeds the lake and sustains the varied wildlife permanent residents.
Recent vegetation management (makes me shudder thinking about it) has been achieved using fires? Mankind does not need to show nature how to manage vegetation. The evidence that we as a species are the anything but able to manage vegetation is reflected in the massive expanses of arid and semi arid regions that border the deserts we have helped to create.
The Northern Parks of Tanzania is one of the last great refuges of the
overland safari. Here our guests travel from camp to camp with a
driverguide and a private safari vehicle, deploying their time along the
way as they see fit. This tends to provide a much greater sense of
adventure and a broader experience, since visitors are exposed to the
whole of life between and through the parks, rather than being
restricted to the areas immediately around the camps. It is a slightly
more arduous experience, but should ultimately prove to be more
rewarding for the more adventurous visitor.
Vehicles descending into the Ngorongoro Crater
7. Maasai interaction
Another real highlight of a Tanzania safari
into the Northern Parks is the opportunity to interact with the local
Maasai people. Many Tanzania camps have Maasai walking guides and some
have a much deeper relationship with the local villages. Walking, hiking
and trekking in the fabulous volcanic landscapes of Ngorongoro in the
company of genuine Maasai warriors is a real privilege, one which
substantially broadens and enriches the safari experience.
Maasai guide from Olduvai Camp in Southcentral Serengeti
The Midlands and south-west England are at risk of slipping into drought status, the Environment Agency warns.
The government agency expects drought to spread west across the country following the recent dry weather.
It comes amid reports that rivers are at their lowest levels since 1976, with a severe lack of rainfall not seen since the drought of 1921.
From Thursday, hosepipe bans are due to come into force in parts of south-east England and East Anglia.
Those areas are already officially in drought, while that status was declared in South and East Yorkshire earlier this week.
Two years of lower-than-average winter rainfall has meant rivers across the country have not been replenished.
The past week's hot weather saw 1mm or less fall across the whole country, the Environment Agency said in its latest Drought Management Briefing on Friday.
"Without substantial rainfall, the risk of drought could spread to parts of the West Midlands and south-west England," a spokesman said. Streams 'drying' "It's important that we all use water wisely and use less of it. The amount we use at home and in our businesses has a direct affect on the amount of water available in rivers and for wildlife."
East Anglia saw two-thirds of the normal rainfall for March, with most falling in the first week. Wales had just 27% of its average monthly rainfall.
Turn off taps while brushing teeth, shaving or washing
Reuse bath water for house plants or the garden
Collect water for plants while waiting for water to run hot
Store water in a fridge to avoid running taps for cool water
Wash fruit and vegetables in a bowl instead of under a tap
Wash cars using a bucket, or just keep headlights, mirrors and windows clean
Most areas received less than half the long-term projections for average rain.
Two-thirds of rivers are at an "exceptionally" low level, while all rivers are experiencing below-normal flows.
The agency said small streams and ponds were drying up in Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and Herefordshire, affecting wildlife and fish.
Farmers in East Anglia are unlikely to be allowed to draw water from the ground or rivers to irrigate crops. Some are reporting crop reductions of between 20-50%, in vegetables like onions and carrots.
Extra capacity is being found in other areas of the country.
Environment Agency water resources head Trevor Bishop told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the situation was becoming more serious.
"If we see a continuation of dry weather, which is now very likely, these conditions will probably extend further westward over the next couple of months. Infrastructure investment "Our rivers are really important, but also the water is needed for our businesses, people, the economy and for farmers. It's all very reliant on the winter rainfalls, to replenish the natural resources.
"For two years in a row, that simply hasn't happened at sufficient levels."
In recent months, the agency has had to move fish from where river levels are lowest.
Despite the drought, Mr Bishop said water companies were investing in reservoirs, desalination plants and schemes to move water around the country.
Water companies in England and Wales leaked more than 3.3bn litres a day in 2010/11, according to the regulator Ofwat.
Demand for water stands at around 17bn litres a day, according to industry body Water UK.
OPERATION OASIS
Andrew K Fletcher – Originator, Operation OASIS We are turning Our Planet
Earth into a giant desert!
The time for talking is gone!
We need to act now if we are to
avert catastrophic Climate
Change!
Image credit: NASA Earth
Observatory
We have farmed the land and failed! Food and fuel prices are out of control, crops are failing and fossil fuels are being exhausted.-
Are drought and famine acceptable failures?
Deserts are expanding! People are forced to abandon their land. Pollution is the consequence of our consume-and-dump-mentality.
.
Flash floods and forest fires are becoming all too familiar as uneven distribution of rainfall wreaks havoc. Erosion of top soil spills into rivers and pours into the ocean along with
wastewater from our toilets. If business as usual remains unchecked our very survival is
threatened and we are destined to go the way of the dinosaurs!
Ethiopia Somalia Droughts
Why did the rains fail?
As the originator of Operation OASIS and a dedicated environmental engineer, I would like you to understand that we have the capacity to change our direction. But first, I need you to understand why the rains failed again in Ethiopia and Somalia.
When forests and vegetation is stripped from the coastlines of a continent clouds are prohibited from crossing onto the land due to heated air or thermals, rising from the
exposed hot arid desert sands.
Operation OASIS
The Key to Unlocking the huge potential of deserts is to manage water and soil sustainably until coastal trees and vegetation induce rainfall.
The problem is that deserts are devoid of renewable water and aquifers are salty and depleted.
We must connect the worlds arid coastlines with the wastewater we discharge into our oceans and rivers, to transform them into productive rainforests and agroforestry Using the shipping supply chain which ships around 5 billion tonnes of sea water as ballast each year
Slide 4 Operation OASIS is an economical,
sustainable solution that recycles
wastewater from our sewage to reforest
and restore arid coastal soils
www.neilshawphotography.com
To restore arid lands we will need an endless supply of billions of tonnes of salt free water and organic matter to build soil structure so that it has the capacity to retain water.
Sewage and wastewater has all of the components required to succeed Developed and developing countries are all guilty of pouring billions of tonnes of treated and raw sewage
into the oceans and rivers every single day.
We eat the fish that lives in it and we frequently bath in someone else’s end products so why not clean up the coastlines and restore the deserts instead?
Pipeline: Super Tankers are set to
become the Environment’s Allies
A Super tanker has to take on ballast water in order to return back to a desert port. Discharging sea water ballast has introduced invasive marine species which have devastated fish stocks. Ballast Sterilization plant is set to add $billions to the cost of fuel and there is no guarantee that it will be effective. It is akin to closing the stable door when the horse has already bolted
The OASIS pipeline is already in place!
Super crude oil tankers transport around 100,000 tonnes of sea water back to desert coastal waters and discharge it into the sea! This waste of fuel and resources is ludicrous!
Substitute the sea water for treated waste water and we can feed the starving millions by enabling them to grow their own food while they help to convert the arid lands into lush
fertile tropical rainforests.
Slide 6 Tankers Frequently Visit Torbay 6 were
counted on the day that this photograph
was taken in 2011
With Treated waste water irrigating deserts we will sustain forestry and agriculture without making any significant changes to routine trading practices. We therefore eliminate the pollution from the coast of the donor countries and the ballast pollution at the coast
of the recipient countries.
This feasible and sustainable approach has the potential to arrest
climate change when scaled up.
We have seen what happens when we
get it wrong
We seldom see what happens when we get it right with desert reclamation projects.
Gunter Pauli, Darwin, Willi Schmidt, Harry Hart and many others have observed increased rainfall following reforestation.
Gunter reported a 10% increase in rainfall after land was reforested in Columbia.
He stated that investing in this land was more financially rewarding than investing the same money in Microsoft from the Onset. The Ascension Island example from Dr Wilkinson is difficult to ignore.
So why is it so difficult to be heard?
Slide 8
Thermal Barrier and Coastal air currents
During the daytime exposed land heats up rapidly. The hot air rises and cool air blows in from the ocean. At night the opposite occurs. The wind direction reverses and blows
offshore as the warm ocean air rises and cooler air from the land is drawn towards the ocean.
Arid coastlines heat up rapidly in the day. Thermals rise high into the atmosphere forming an effective barrier against incoming clouds and moisture. Fog rolls around the coast but cannot
cross onto the land during the hot daytime.
Clouds roll along arid coastlines and release precipitation over densely vegetated areas.
We are seeing more flash floods as a result of uneven rainfall distribution.
Logically, if less rain is falling in one region, more rain must fall in another.
Slide 9 Introduction to Thermal Barrier
Fog hugging the coast
of Mexico
I have filmed the Thermal Barrier in Paignton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoO-OAvEdPQ
A Narrow strip of trees as wide as a dual carriageway running perpendicular to the coast on a hot day is sufficient to draw in the fog bank stuck on the coastline during the summer.
The heated concrete coastal road and treeless areas prevent the fog from crossing over at any other point. One side of the hot concrete coastal road is bright sunshine, the other side
is engulfed by dense fog. In Mexico and many other desert regions it is common for banks of fog to remain over the sea and hugging the coastline.
What would happen if the thermal barrier was moved inland by planting coastal forests?
Not Rocket Science is it?
Slide 10 Fog in the Namib desert
frequents the coast
but cannot move inland
We have been using nets to catch coastal fog for thousands of years mimicking the action of trees. Today fog nets are used in many regions where water is scarce.
If fog nets were used to surround land irrigated with waste water, they would provide a workforce and animals with perfectly safe potable water by recycling the evaporated
waste water.
The Hadley Cell (Air currents in Africa)
Hot dry air circulates from the coast to the
equator
Rainfall is deposited in the densely vegetated land
Applying irrigation at the north coast will feed the Hadley Cell to increase rainfall in sub Saharan countries
The Hadley Cell circulates air from the north and south coasts to the equator, relieving all precipitation over the central African Green Belt.
The air that moves over the desert is dry but it could be wet. If we introduce billions of tonnes of
treated waste water to the coastline of North Africa
The clouds we create, together with the incoming moisture from the sea drawn in by trees and moist soils, will be pulled into the Hadley Cell and migrate towards the Sub Saharan regions, shielding the sun from the land as they travel on this atmospheric conveyor belt cooling
the climate and blotting out the sun.
A Pocket Full Of Acorns
Where do we get the trees from?
Where do we get the labour from?
How do we get the land to plant the trees?
This simple project was conceived to demonstrate the economy of scale when planting trees by mobilizing and motivating people to obtain permission to transform unproductive
land into biodiversity rich woodlands, through all media outlets. The objectives of the project were to show how large scale reforestation can be achieved on a very small budget by engaging people on a volunteer basis to gather native tree seeds and saplings to plant directly
into the soil on permitted land or to germinate seeds and grow them in containers at home until permission is obtained.
Involving the people and communities in any country is essential for successful land restoration projects because once the public have been engaged in planting trees and observed the results from their labour, they inevitably become guardians for the new woodlands and forests and regularly visit the reclaimed land.
Kennels Road Paignton Planting 1994
The Kennels Road planting took place in 1994 Permission to use the Pocket Full Of Acorns approach was granted following huge media coverage and all was achieved on a shoestring
budget.
Kennels Rd Paignton Today 2011
Cost: £0.00
This Is the same stretch of road today
Cockington 5 acre Planting 1994
In Cockington we now have a rich biodiverse 5 acre woodland thanks to Dominic Ackland at Devon Coast and Woodland Trust. This soil was full of stones and very difficult to dig so was turned over to nature.
A Pocket Full Of Acorns helped to restore this land.
The very young, together with the very old came armed with spades, saplings and seeds following a call in the local newspapers. Today this woodland is 15 feet tall and teaming with life.
Cockington Planting Today 2011
The trees planted for free now dwarf the gates of the same barren unproductive land. The rich diverse soil has fungi, and trees have self seeded .
We are planning to use this approach to stabilise the coastline of East Anglia, where properties and farmland are falling into the sea at an alarming rate.
The Governments plan is to let nature take its course and sacrifice communities. Properties in this region can be purchased for a £1.00
We are also talking to Spain’s Government to Implement a Pilot Demonstration in Spain's Arid Coastline.
Slide 17 The new woodland soil is now rich with leaf litter and humus. The unproductive
stony farmland is just a memory
The barren farmland where topsoil was washed away is now full of rich organic humus from broadleaf deciduous trees.
Insect, bird and animal droppings have triggered natural soil restoration and seed dispersal.
With a little help, nature can restore the destruction that we have caused without humans having to perish before it happens. My question to everyone in this room today is when can we make this happen?
Paolo Lugari and his team at Las Gaviotas in Colombia started regenerating the rainforest in 1984. Gunter and Paolo met for the first time that same year. This video offers some insights and background with exclusive video footage presenting the case of Gaviotas by Gunter. This is a prime case of The Blue Economy, zero emissions and social development, working only with what is locally available, generating social capital. For info please look at http://www.zeri.org
