Nova Scotia Disasters

[happyheini]

Dear Fred, I hope you are in a safe place. Sending good thoughts. Heini

[Elizabeth]

I've been thinking of all my family and friends around the province of Nova Scotia over the past few days - the rapidity of the rainfall and the amount caused unbelievable damage in large parts of the province. I'm hoping that Fred, living in Kings County, was among those feeling less of the brunt of the storm's wrath.

[kittykins]

I've been thinking of all my family and friends around the province of Nova Scotia over the past few days - the rapidity of the rainfall and the amount caused unbelievable damage in large parts of the province. I'm hoping that Fred, living in Kings County, was among those feeling less of the brunt of the storm's wrath.

Prayers for Fred and everyone! I hope all your friends and family are doing okay Elizabeth! I have been thinking that a lot of people would be there on holidays as so many people go to the Maritimes. That sure would be difficult especially as people would not really know the area well, being visitors!

[fred]

I chose my place well. It's up in the "mountains" but in a little valley so sheltered from the wind. The rain may wash out the driveway a little, but it can't accumulate here and even in violent storms rain tend to come straight down most of the time.
My cleaning lady live much closer to the flooding sites, near Windsor. and the child's body that was found was found not too many miles from her house, although her & her husband did quite well in their home. She has seen the helicopters going to & fro over the Avalon river, still searching.
So with the hurricane Fiona, and then the forest fires, and now the floods & the increasing heat, even the government is starting to understand that Global Warming is a real danger. They are making noises about cutting subsidies to Oil & gas companies at long last. It remains to see how serious they are going to be about it. It should have been done years ago.
I recall the movie "I Robot" with Will Smith & Bridget Moynahan. When it clear that the robots are attacking Will's character says to her, "Somehow 'I told you so' just doesn't cut it!"
Thanks for all the kind thoughts & prayers. but I'm fine here. Some rain has drenched my tomato plants, however, and all my expenses and efforts for the garden this year may be for nothing. My back is feeling better, mostly, and I've lost a lot of weight, so my health is improving. My you all be as well, and if you can, grow veggies!

[kittykins]

That's great Fred!

[Elizabeth]

Sorry about those tomatoes, Fred, but happy to hear that otherwise all is going well, despite all the challenges!

Part of the issue, in my opinion, is that people found all kinds of reasons to discount "global warming" when the term "climate change" might have had more buy-in. The warming of the oceans and the lands can be seen (and felt) now to be real but it may be too late to stop the inevitable

[fred]

It's too late to stop some things. I remember it was 6 or 7 years ago, at least, that we were tole that if we stopped all burning of carbon fuels right then, that we would still loose all the coral in the oceans,.. eventually and nothing we could do would stop that. It's quite certain that our lack of action during this time has only made things worse. I think we might save some coral in laboratories or move them northwards where the ocean temperature would more closely resemble what they are used to, but that's a large effort. There is a lot of life in those reefs and it'll be a great loss.

However, we'll have greater threats to worry about. How do we adjust our housing standards when hurricanes are more often hitting us with winds that could be 200 mph. and blowing tree trunks around. It may take some time, but when all the glaciers in the world have melted, including Antarctica, Greenland, and the Himalayas, that the oceans will rise about 120 feet. Nova Scotia will be an island. I may be a little early, but where I live now is somewhat higher than that.

About 4 years ago we had a hurricane with a 7 foot storm surge and an engineering professor when down to the dikes to see how bad it was. The water level was within a foot of the top of the dikes. They've since added 2 feet to the dikes level, but it's quite possible that they could be breached by any large hurricane that coincides with a full moon. There are 2 large septic ponds below that level behind the dikes, and a lot of prime farmland. Hopefully I won't be around to witness it. A great many others won't either.

I'm down to 233 lbs. as of this morning. 13 pounds to go to reach my "re-evaluation" point and a week or do off my diet. I may then continue to 200 lbs., or 210? I'll see. I'm hoping to do that by Oct.

Right now it's 27 deg. C outside and I'm going to try to get out on the e-bike and just ride for a while. The air smells great and after a long winter, biking in shirt sleeves is a real treat.

All the best to everybody. The web site is set for another year. Just my URL registration to go and that's set to automatic renewal.

[kittykins]

I'll admit that I struggle with the "climate change" or "Global Warming" ideas a lot, mostly because these storm events are not new. I remember being a kid in the Prairies in the 70's lying in front of a fan in 100 degree F temperatures. When you look up north the habitat for the polar bears is definitely affected by changes to their habitat. As for the talk of fossil fuels usage, I just don't know how our electrical system could handle everyone charging their vehicles if we switched to all electric. I suppose hybrid vehicles will be the rage and the best option. All electric has its downsides as well and makes us more vulnerable to attacks by enemies. I was in the GTA years ago when there was that complete power outage and it was very crippling (of course to go to a skating event in Thornhill). All electric vehicles would mean no isolated trips from NWO to out west, but by the time that happens perhaps I'll be too old anyway. However, it's problematic at best and will affect a lot of mobility for people. Btw, Thornhill was in a pocket and had power, so we made the event. Ever since then, I try to make sure my vehicle fuel doesn't get below half full. One never knows!! NWO is on the same power grid as Manitoba, so we were okay here. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to environmental issues, I just wonder how realistic it's going to be in the long run.

[fred]

Well, it's certainly real. Look at how late the lakes freeze over, and how early they thaw, and look at how many days, now, that the canal in Ottawa is open for skating each winter. When they simulate the world's climate on super computers and they specify the increased CO2 in the atmosphere, certain areas are designated for less rainfall which will make them deserts. Other areas will be getting even more rain, like Eastern North America, and we get floods. The areas getting less rain are experiencing forest fires now, just like the computer modelling predicted. People are dying.

The sad part is that it's taken a few decades for the system to respond to the Carbon pollution, (and methane; natural gas). So it will also take a while to respond to corrective measure that we take. Even if we stopped polluting the atmosphere today, we'd still be facing worse storms and weather issues for some time before the world wide climate system would respond to that and start to heal itself. It's important that we do it ASAP, because there are other tipping points in the future that we'd like to avoid.

It was an emergency ten years ago. Governments listened to the oil companies, and let them go full speed ahead. Nearly all countries have done nothing so far, to counter the problem. So it's much worse now.

When it kills enough people, I guess then they will stop burning carbon.

[kittykins]

Thanks for the explanation Fred. I'm still not 100% convinced, but I appreciate the info. I was talking to someone at my car dealer a couple of days ago and the fellow said there have been a lot of problems with hybrids. He thinks either go with fuel OR electric. I hope I never have to get electric. If so, my travelling days will be over. I hope they can work on fuel and other options to make things more environmentally friendly.