Blue Ecology

Michael Blackstock speaks on World Water Day, March 22, 2012

Michael Blackstock will be doing a water-related poetry reading at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC, on World Water Night, 7 pm, March 22, 2012 (room SB 301). 

14,000 London Aquatics Centres per day needed for the world

Yes, on Oct 31st, 2011 there will be  a population of 7 billion human water users in the world. The  UN suggests that each person needs 20-50 liters of safe water for drinking and sanitation, per day.

Doing that math for 20 liters/pp/day = 140 billion liters of water needed each day in the world for drinking and sanitation.

To put that in perspective, as you watch the 2012 Summer Olympic's aquatic events, you will now know it would take the equivalent of at least 14,000 London Aquatics Centres worth of safe water each day, for humanity. 

 The Blue Ecology vision discussed on this blog is a means towards sustainable survival, with dignity.

 

China and water

Pay attention, close attention to what is going on in China.  They have massive cultural, engineering, and geo-politcal water interests.  For example about a third of their water is sourced in the Himalayan water towers, thus China and India's, among others, geo-political interests.

Here are four  articles to get you started: overview, water pricing, Tibet and south to north project.

The China Dialogue is a good site to keep up to date. 

 



 

 

State of the Oceans, and Oceaness

I am very worried about dire warnings expressed in the recent IPSO report on the state of our Oceans.  The seas and oceans are the life breath of our planet.

My recent book "Oceaness" is a poetic exploration of water, encouraging a Blue Ecology vision, which is a new human attitude towards water.  It costs nothing to change our attitudes.

The Pacific Institute has a good introduction to climate change.

 

UN Ocean Stresses Report (2011): Sight and Blindness

We see the ocean but we are blind to its pain.  Furthermore, we are blind to the pain we cause, and fatally perhaps, ultimately to the pain we self inflict.

In the June 20th, Rogers and Laffoley, Oceans report, our scientists share what they see happening to the Oceans, and plead to humanity's blindness as follows:

"Technical means to acheive the solutions to many of these problems already exist, but current societal values prevent humankind from addressing them efectively.  Overcoming these barriers is core to the fundamental changes needed to achieve sustainable and equitable future for the generations to come and which preserves natural ecosystems of the Earth..."

Perplexing, is humanity's minor excuse making and rationalizing of short term "fouling-the-nest-behavior"; it is ultimately a naive way to save face in the long term:  saving face, perhaps, in front of the next generation, despite the growing evidence that fouling the nest is a tragic flaw or error.   Aristotle, in Poetics, first described Hamartia, and Peter Struck elucidates as follows:

"The character's flaw must result from something that is also a central part of their virtue, which goes somewhat awry, usually due to a lack of knowledge...A truly tragic hero must have a failing that is neither idiosyncratic or arbitrary, but is somehow more deeply imbedded -- a kind of human failing and weakness."

We see the trees(information) but are blind to forest (knowledge).  We see the waves (information and weak signals), but not the storm (internalized knowledge about our actions).

So I completely agree with Rogers and Laffoley's main conclusion that: it is human attitudes towards water and oceans that needs to change, and that is why I focused on developing the Blue Ecology vision.

BP Oil Spill Song

“Top Kill Oil Spill”

 By Michael D. Blackstock

 

11 lost souls drift in oil plumes

swirlin’ around Davey Jones’ locker

Just BP patient, we don’t know how to stop’er

Robots cutin’ a blow-out preventer in the gloom

 

Top kill oil spill washed down onto Louisiana

Slick’s just about a mile from TexarKana

In the Gulf; golf balls, oil and oil booms

This damn leak ain’t goin’ nowhere soon

 

Gas phantoms circle, while robot’s blades spin

Way down at the Deepwater horizon, in the din

Forty two days on now, at about 1472 meters down

Live video feeds the dead to the greed and hapless Crown

 

Top kill oil spill washed down onto Louisiana

Slick’s just about a mile from TexarKana

In the Gulf, golf balls, oil and oil booms

This damn leak ain’t goin’ nowhere soon

 

BP’s plan A, gave way to B,C,D, and E

Oil, smoke and dispersant travel the sea

Pledges and promises give way to skimming and burning

Cajun shrimp fade into history, replaced by fisher’s yearning

 

Top kill oil spill washed down onto Louisiana

Slick’s just about a mile from TexarKana

In the Gulf, golf balls, oil and oil booms

This damn leak ain’t goin’ nowhere soon

 

Ocean’s blue ecology stained by crude technology

BP’s reputation, stained by a naïve ideology

This oil may seem, a drop in the bucket

But this drunk’s not hit rock bottom yet

 

Top kill oil spill washed down onto Louisiana

Slick’s just about a mile from TexarKana

In the Gulf, golf balls, oil and oil booms

This damn leak ain’t goin’ nowhere soon

 

New Orleans is sinking again

How are the fish goin’ to win?

Zyedco and Texaco, uptown and downtown

We need to all pitch in, or we all fall down 

One of the world's highest water users, adopts water meters!

Congratulations to the City Council of Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada!  I applaude your recent decision (March) to install water meters in all city residences by 2013.  Kamloops city residents use an average of 790 Litres/Person/Day (a seasonal range of 430-1800 of L/P/D), and that has to change. Water awareness will increase, as the Kamloops residents equate their behavior to their water meter bills.  There is a lot of technology out there to help them keep thier current lifestyle: i.e rain sensors for automatic sprinkler systems, rain barrel collection systems and the plain-and-simple hose nozzle.

I challenge Kamloops to relinquish its current status of the "one of the world's highest water users" by 2013.  I live in Kamloops and I will do my part.  

 Here is a look at water use statistics for Kamloops's neighbouring city, Kelowna.

Update: Implementation of water meters  underway.

references:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/28375517/Kamloops-City-Hall-Universal-Water-Meter-Recommendation-Report-March-16th-2010



http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=757

http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/auth/english/maps/freshwater/consumption/domestic

http://poliswaterproject.org/sites/default/files/PricingPrimer_1.pdf

Drought

Drought, it can be confusing, in these times of climate change and variability. Is a ten day dry stretch drought? Is a month without rain, drought? How do we know when a weather occurence is outside normal variability? What periods of time are the historical norms baed on, for average percipitation, in your area? How long have climatologists been measuring climate data in your area, in order to know what is normal or a drought? Lots of questions hey, but we need to explore these to assess climate variability, and we need to know the progression of drought from meterological==>agricultural==>hydrological.

The US National Drought Mitigation center provides a good discussion on drought and its phases of progression
( see http://drought.unl.edu/whatis/concept.htm ).

Your national weather service will provide you historical normals and they should show the period of recording from which they base their calculations. For instance, you can review Environment Canada's historical data for Kamloops as an example. Each weather station has a different recording period, depending on when the station was established (see example: http://www.climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca/climate_normals/stnselect_e.html ).

For longer term studies of climate variability, the field of dendrochronology offers proxy weather station data, by analyzing tree rings, cross dating known climatic events, and then retrodicting back in time. This is a science based way of looking back centuries and tyring to get a longer time span to define climate normals. Some good research resources on this are: www.treeflow.info and http://climate.arm.ac.uk/publications/tree_rings.pdf . Pollen, spore, fossil and charcoal analysis, are other forms of climate proxy analysis, where cores of mud or soil are taken and then timelines are reconstructed by crossdating known events with what is found at certain levels of the core. Indigenous peoples oral history also offers clues to what was normal or when catasrtophic events such as drouhgt, fire or flood occured. Ethnographers apply a crossdating process to these as well.

Critical thinking related to climate interpretation is a good habit, so we can anticipate and identify outlier climate events and react accordingly. Drought is something that creeps up on you, and the natural human reaction of denial, plays a critical role. We fear thirst and drought. Thus, early warning and weak signal detection systems, which are trusted and tested, are critical to drought monitoring. Blue ecology promotes critical thinking in relation to water ecology.

Drought in paradise, drought in Hawaii: see http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/drought/

Drought in China: see http://ncc.cma.gov.cn/influ/en_hljc.php

Drought in Cuba

Drought in USA: see http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

Drought in Canada: see http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/drought/nlplmr_e.htm

Drought Peace River: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Drought+grips+Peace+River+region/3415228/story.html

Underground water

Ever wonder about water underground? What is an aquifer? An aquifer is not an underground river (see defintion here: http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1186/html/gen_facts.html ), and it is a significant source of drinking water and irrigation water. Agriculture uses about 70% of our freshwater, for instance. Read about the ground water crisis in California here: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-16-californias-water-woes-worsen/ . Did you know that ground water travels about 1/9000 th the speed of water flowing overland? So, in a mid summer drought, if it rains, you won't see the percolated water in streams or rivers immediately, as there is a delay.  This delay is called lag, and it is a crucial concept when we are anticipating underground water flows.

Lag is important to account for in a drought situation.  A long unseasonal dry period may be occuring, but the river may seem near normal for awhile, since it is being fed underground by water from rain a few months ago, seeping slowly into the system.  There is lag between rainfall and the resulting feed into the river. So, the river may appear near normal for awhile, but it will reach low flow once the pre-drought seepage is done.

If there is a chemical spill on the ground, how long will it be before the chemical(s) leaches into the soil and reappears in a lake or river?  It depends on the coarseness and permeability of the substrate.  The time between the spill and reappearance is the lag period.  Pollution from a mine tailings pond or oil sands tar pit, will seep into the soil, and the full polluting effect may not be seen for some time, there is a lag.

Blue ecology studies the rhythm of water flows, and focuses, as a priority, on how our interventions effect the quality, quantity and rythm of flow.  Lag is one characteristic of flow that has important implications for quality and quantity analysis.