My heart is heavy and I'm depressed because the smoke from the Canadian forest fires is in the ....

[Botany]

.... air here in Central OH. You can smell it, you can see it, and those fires are a result of
climate change from our use of fossil fuels. The areas that are burning now or have been burned
in Canada should never carry these kinds of fires because they should be covered with snow 4 to
8 months out of the year and the rest of the year the ground level should be really damp w/ferns,
moss, blueberries, rotting wood, lichens, and tons of swamps, lakes, creeks, rivers, and bogs.

[leftstreet]

1. DURec

[marmar]

2. definitely present in the Detroit metro area today

[geardaddy]

43. Here in Minneapolis, too.

Hazy and you can smell the smoke.

[MuseRider]

3. Last night the sky was really hazy

and the sun going down was as orange as I have ever seen it and it was so odd looking. I stepped out and it did not smell smoky but saw the report that it was smoke from the fires up North. I live in NE Kansas. The sky is a little hazy and laden with humidity. I do not know if we will see it again but I would not be surprised.

If I were to write down all the things that have changed out here on the farm it would scare anyone. My bird book now includes who is missing. Our state bird has not been seen in these parts for almost 10 years.

We have screwed it all up and anyone who ever had hopes that we would not were like me. I tried my best on my little piece of this earth and still has lost most everything that kept me here.

[markie]

5. I want to respond

but have no more words resulting from the overwhelming frustrations I feel... we all should be scared enough to act.... somehow there just aren't enough of us... we desperately need to vote every republican out and only vote in those willing to do the incredibly hard work it will take to turn things around...

the environment
human rights
women's rights
............


edit to say I loved working in Kansas and enjoying the prairies! it was a joy being there

[MuseRider]

8. That is kind of you to say.

Few people ever have much in the way of kindness and less understanding of this vast prairie land. I have the remnants of both areas on my farm, some tall grass and some short grass and am but 10 minutes from the Flint Hills. We farmers have been a large part of the problem. Not me in particular, my farm is smallish and I take care to use the least amount of chemicals that I can. Less than half my ground is farmable the rest is for me to play and plant trees and ....all the things that make, or made other farmers look at you like you are nuts. Not so much of that these days.

All I really meant to say was thank you. I appreciate people who actually know what it is like out here. The politics are terrible, especially right now, but the state is beautiful all in its own way.

Thank you!

[markie]

13. half of our work

was in Manhattan and my daughter and I would go to Konza Prairie and walk/run everyday.... the job was driving all the roads and so we got to know the area intimately

not great photos but it is what I have

[MuseRider]

15. Such a beautiful area!

I get so much information about plants, mostly wildflowers, from KState and their research teams.

I love the drive between Topeka and Manhattan. Also down 177, so beautiful.

Do you mind me asking why you were driving all the roads?

EDIT to add Thanks for the pictures!

[markie]

38. I spent 15 years

traveling the US, mapping and looking at demographics (info for statisticians) for gov't studies... this was a health study

[MuseRider]

40. That sounds really interesting!

I can imagine it was a really rewarding job.

[Scruffy1]

22. Born in Emporia. Went to school at KSU.

I remember the big Bluestem waving in the breeze. The clean air. The only sound was the birds and the wind. The Flint Hills are a treasure.

[MuseRider]

27. My farm is South of Topeka

not very far South but NOT Topeka. Here we are on the area where things change. Some years I have little bluestem and big bluestem. I doubt, given what is going on that I will ever again see the big blue here again, gotta wait and see I guess. Watching that grass blow in the Flint Hills is just amazing and just makes you stop and watch, like the ocean.

[Torchlight]

56. Sounds serious

Good luck.

[GP6971]

60. Hello! n/t

[Brother Buzz]

61. Hello, I Must Be Going

Hello, I must be going
I cannot stay, I came to say, "I must be going"
I'm glad I came but just the same I must be going, la-la!

[GP6971]

62. Lol...forgot about that one! n/t

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. We have it in Chicago, too.

Not a bad day here, just 80 degrees but it looks foggy out there. My windows are closed and I've been staying in.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Yep.

It was obvious was I took puppy to the dog park around one.
Didn't notice it at the golf course, but I was there very early. So, it built up over the morning.
Not like a couple weeks ago, but obvious.

[Botany]

7. The smoke today is higher and tinged with some pink and unlike the smoke a couple of weeks ago ....

... that was at ground level and you could push the smoke with tour hands but it is here
no doubt.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Reason Why I Noticed It...

...is the dog park is in a big forest preserve and there is farm fields all the way to the main road.
There are trees a mile or more away, and when looking at those the haze was apparent.
Looking across the park, which is only around 150 yards, it was much harder to tell.
But, without taking a step I could see out a couple miles, and it sure was hazy.
Like we said, nothing like the last bout, but there.

[greatauntoftriplets]

26. Last I heard, it isn't supposed to be as bad tomorrow.

[ProfessorGAC]

32. Good To Know

I hadn't heard one way or another.

[greatauntoftriplets]

34. I hope it does.

It doesn't do my allergies any good.

[mgardener]

9. We are getting it tonight

Till tomorrow night.
In northern NY

[roamer65]

10. A rainstorm just blew into my area of MI.

The squall brought in an extra helping of smoke. I thought I was gonna gag.

[brewens]

11. We can count on weeks of that every year here in Idaho toward the end of summer.

It is miserable, but at least we have low humidity.

I live for my morning walks. I hate it when the air quality gets bad, and I can't go.

[MiHale]

12. Northern Michigan smells here too..

[erronis]

14. Great Chevron Ad. They don't have many f's to give about us.

[markie]

39. most corporate

doesn't have f's to give about anything but bottom line... they care about us if it is the only way to make the money That's Capitalism

[twodogsbarking]

16. Had it in Pa a few wks ago. Tough for some people to breathe.

You get the taste in your mouth.

[captain queeg]

18. I drove from Eugene to Vancouver WA just north of Portland Friday.

As I got about to Portland there seemed to be a grey fog bank covering the horizon down to the ground. But it cleared up by the time I arrived. I know there are fires in BC but hasn’t really choked us yet. Might be the prevailg winds coming down the Columbia Gorge, but my sister is in BC now and says it’s clear. At any rate we had it bad in the Portland area 2 or 3 yrs ago. Don’t remember for sure but the air was choking from fires and it was hot. Didn’t even want to go outside.

[ShazzieB]

19. We've got this crap in the Chicago area, too.

Last edited Mon Jul 17, 2023, 03:16 PM - Edit history (1)

I haven't ventured outside yet today (although I'll need to soon), but the weather app I use is telling me the air quality is poor.

My heart is heavy, because my car is out of gas. I need to go fill it up, because it's my only way to get anywhere, but I feel guilty nonetheless.

If I could afford it, I'd gladly trade this clunker in for a hybrid. (Not an ev, because the infrastructure for charging around here is abysmal, and I live in an apartment complex, so I wouldn't even be able to charge at home.) I'd bet there are a lot of people like me who are in the same boat.

I wonder what would happen if the government would provide cash incentives for people who want to switch from a gas-fueled car to a hybrid or an ev? Or even a low interest auto loan program to make it easier to purchase a car. Better yet, provide grants to finance the creation of more charging infrastructure, so more people would be comfortable driving an ev. We can preach the evils of fossil fuels till we're blue in the face, but that won't change the fact that an awful lot of us really don't have a choice right now.

I might be able to get there a little quicker if I stopped donating to the political and other worthy causes I contribute to and put all that money into an eco-friendly car fund instead. I know that i should be grateful that I can contribute money to a few things, and I am, but it's just such a paradox! Do I stop making donations for a while in order to help save the planet, or do I keep contributing money to money to Democratic candidates who want to make laws to help save the planet and fix other things that need fixing while contributing to global warming by driving around in my fossil-fuel burning clunker? First world problems, lol.

One thing I'm not going to do is contact everybody I donate to and say, "Sorry, I am suspending all donations for the foreseeable future, because I need to save up for a car that will be less damaging to the earth." They wouldn't be pleased and rightly so. Besides, it's not their fault I'm in this pickle, and it's not up to them to get me out of it.

[greatauntoftriplets]

36. I'm in the same boat.

My place is a condo, but I doubt that the owners are eager for the special assessment that adding the necessary infrastructure would require.

[calimary]

63. I doubt the message would get through unless EVERY donor did that.

EVERY donor.

[ShazzieB]

64. Oh, I know,

Last edited Mon Jul 17, 2023, 06:39 PM - Edit history (1)

Believe me, I know. I just got caught up in my frustration for a moment there!

I think I'm going to edit that part of the post now, because looking at it today, I'm not crazy about the way it sounds.

[calimary]

67. But your main points are good!

[ShazzieB]

68. Thanks so much!

[progree]

20. IEA projects fossil fuel use will decline by only 12% by 2050 EVEN IF "stated policies" are followed

which is very unlikely:

Carbon targets seen off by a mile as ambitions fall short, Axios Generate, 6/9/23

... new analysis finds little reason to believe most countries will fulfill their aggressive emissions pledges.

Driving the news: The research in Science analyzed countries' net-zero commitments, assigning a "confidence score" of higher, lower, or much lower.

It's based on whether they're legally binding, have "credible" policy plans, and whether near-term policies put emissions on a downward path.

MORE: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/carbon-targets-seen-off-by-a-mile-as-ambitions-fall-short/ar-AA1ckVDO

and those fires are a result of climate change from our use of fossil fuels.

Yup. The most recent release by the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows solar and wind produced just 12 Exajoules on a planet consuming 624 Exajoules per year.



Taken from: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143033959#post14 (scroll to bottom half of post)

I did a little math exercise to see how much the WEO's "stated policies" scenario (shown in the above table) would reduce fossil fuel use by 2050, the last year in the table.

Fossil fuel supply from IEA WEO 2022. 2021 and 2050 under stated policies scenario, ExaJoules (EJ).

Subtracting "abated with CCUS" (CCUS=Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage) and subtracting non-energy use oil (since the table is titled World ENERGY Supply):

2021: 146 - 0 + 183 - 31 + 165 - 0 = 463 EJ . Total energy supply: 624 EJ. % of total energy that is fossil: 74.1%

2050: 147 - 3 + 197 - 42 + 111 - 1 = 409 EJ . Total energy supply: 740 EJ. % of total energy that is fossil: 55.3%

Total fossil supply for energy, % change in EJ from 2021 to 2050: -11.7%, or -12% rounded

So unless the world goes beyond the "stated policies" in the above table (a 7.5 fold increase in wind and solar exajoules), we'll reduce fossil fuel consumption by only 12% in 29 years (counting from 2021).

I think we're going to hit some serious resource limits before we get to 7.5-fold increase in solar and wind, and even if that is achieved (see this about resource intensity ), it only makes a small dent (12%) in the fossil fuel problem as explained just above.

The key graphic from the resource intensity link above (and this doesn't even mention the special minerals like cobalt and lithium among many others that are needed, as discussed in this CaspianReport video ):

Materials needed for different forms of power generation, tons per TWh of energy



See also a hint at the amount of storage required and its resource intensity to break away from fossil fuel back up. And that doesn't include the amount needed for electric vehicles.

Another example is the humble metal nickle:

EV Makers Confront the 'Nickel Pickle' 6/4/23
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016353383

And then there's the water requirement of lithium mining, often in arid areas...

For those who like watching a video version of the same message, see this DU posting --

Net Zero by 2050 is not happening - CaspianReport

[hermetic]

21. Aw, man...

This just sucks so damn much. Such beauty, lost for man's greed. Thanks for that gorgeous picture. I will save that one.

[TomDaisy]

23. we are the frogs slowly boiling to death in the pot

[MuseRider]

29. Well at least they (?) still have us to boil later

because I sure as hell do not have a lot of frogs anymore. Even last year our windows would be covered by those little guys eating the thousands of little bugs. No frogs, no little bugs either. I do hear a bull frog now and again but I live on a 3 acre pond that is essentially dying.

I have a farm. Half of it is wild with a lot of wildflowers. This year less wildflowers, less everything. It is a remarkable change from just last year.

[Hortensis]

24. Well, better people become aware and want to change,

and smoke will help. A lot of climate change results are invisible, hidden, killing people far away who need not be considered. But now local governments are issuing air quality warnings for children and others with respiratory problems.

Embrace the smoke as a much-needed alarm and change agent. Wonder to others about how soon fires will begin to sweep your state and its people, spreading information from authorities on the subject. No sensationalizing or defeatism that might turn people off, just...chat.

[TomDaisy]

25. Nicholas Bilton doesn't care.

[Stuart G]

28. Who is..... Nicholas Bilton,..... and what does he do or specialize in, & where does he come from?

[ancianita]

33. A fictional character. But Chevron, Exxon, BP and Shell are not.

https://www.leisurebyte.com/extrapolations-nicholas-biltons-punishment/

Instead, as about the very real Steve Donziger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Donziger

Check out how Chevron is an insurgent of our judiciary.

Oil giants have in recent years tried to deter environmental litigation by filing their own countersuits, aiming to outspend opponents into submission. These suits have targeted public officials and others who dare to bring cases against the industry.

The Chevron case represents an escalation — potentially opening the door to future cases in which judges give private law firms the authority to imprison corporate critics, without disclosing their corporate ties to industries that are trying to shut down dissent.

Last month, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the National Lawyers Guild filed a motion to dismiss the case in order “to avoid the miscarriage of justice and to refrain from setting a dangerous precedent for judges to be able to engage in judicial harassment and misconduct and appoint private prosecutors that are shielded from revealing a conflict of interest.”...

The company withdrew from Ecuador, and Chevron retreated to US courts to countersue people involved in Donziger’s case. Those proceedings were overseen by an industry-friendly judge from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Lewis A. Kaplan, a Clinton appointee, is a former corporate lawyer who as a jurist let an accounting giant’s executives off the hook in a high-profile fraud case brought by the Justice Department. Kaplan, who had investments in funds with Chevron holdings, suggested that the company could file a racketeering suit against Donziger.

Chevron took the hint: The company filed a civil case against Donziger, alleging that the multibillion-dollar judgment against the company had been secured through bribery and fraud. Backing the company’s claim was an Ecuadorian trial judge, who testified that he had been paid by Donziger to ghostwrite the eventual ruling against Chevron.

At the outset of Chevron’s countersuit, Kaplan expressed sympathy for the company. He ordered a sweeping worldwide injunction — which was later overturned on appeal — preventing enforcement of the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron. He asserted that the oil giant was a “company of considerable importance to our economy that employs thousands all over the world, that supplies a group of commodities — gasoline, heating oil, other fuels, and lubricants — on which every one of us depends every single day.”

He then ruled against Donziger, crediting the testimony of the Ecuadorian trial judge, who had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Chevron and would later recant some details of his testimony during a hearing at the World Bank.

When Chevron sought to recoup more than $800,000 in legal fees from Donziger, he refused to follow a court order requiring him to turn over his computer and cell phone, asserting that it would violate confidentiality protections for his clients. In response, Kaplan fined Donziger $3.4 million — the “largest sanction in the history of New York courts,” according to ABA Journal. Kaplan put Donziger under house arrest and drafted criminal contempt of court charges against him.

Federal prosecutors, however, declined to prosecute Donziger, citing a lack of resources.

The judge then took matters into his own hands. He invoked an obscure rule to appoint a private law firm as a government prosecutor. To preside over the contempt case, Kaplan also handpicked a senior judge, Loretta Preska, who is affiliated with the right-wing Federalist Society and who recently ordered an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein to destroy files on the convicted sex offender....

https://jacobin.com/2020/07/steven-donziger-chevron

[TomDaisy]

49. please watch Extrapolations on AppleTV

[ancianita]

30. You're not alone, Botany.

Hoping that President Biden sees this ad.

[EarthFirst]

31. We have AQI alerts for tomorrow here in WNY...

150+ expected.

[wnylib]

37. I'm in western NY and can see a slight haze

right now when looking off in the distance. I checked the AQI and it was only 49. Thought it would be higher.

Soon as I saw on here yesterday that smoke had returned to the Midwest, I knew it would come here in a day or two.

[PatSeg]

35. Whoa, that Chevron ad is brilliant

[Demsrule86]

41. We don't have it in Norhern Ohio yet but likely will...sigh.

Just checked the weather and it is now 'unhealthy' until Tuesday.

[Botany]

42. It is still here in central OH

I woke to see it this AM. This is really depressing.

[Hope22]

44. Lake Erie is a fog of Smokey haze.......

[StClone]

46. Tennessee Warbler's unusual mid-summer Exodus

Here in Central Wisconsin, every few years around mid-July a lone male Tennessee Warblers will abandon its more northerly summer home and show up here (followed by the masses of females and first-year birds peaking in late August into mid-September). It is one of the most common warbler species and nests in the very area most affected by the drought, heat, and accompanying lightning-fueled fires in the Canadian wilds.

This year already, I have counted FIVE! birds first arriving on July 11. The best time to find them is on the NW winds of a cold front (different than the rest of the country we are in the 60s and 70s here), especially in mid-morning,.

Wildlife is being adversely affected by Canada's drought if I read these early migrants correctly.

The "Ten" as I affectionately call the Tennessee Warbler is a favorite bird of mine for a number of reasons. Here is a map of their nesting area. Compare it to the maps in the fire posts above:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tennessee_Warbler/maps-range

[Native]

47. And the fires are expected to burn all summer long, per Al Gore

in his recent interview with Topol.

[Botany]

51. Science who knew?

Ohio State University has Lonnie Thompson who has gotten millions and millions of data points
some of which go back 450,000 years showing the relationship between atmospheric CO2 and
global temps by looking at "Ice Cores" and I think his work influenced Al Gore too.

One of the old high school chemistry's basic know shit things was the universal gas laws and one
of them show the more CO2 you have in a body of gas the more heat it will hold. And that law is
over 200 + years old.

Columbus, OH is a smoke freak zone of smoke, haze, and strange rain where you couldn't see the
rain/storm clouds but you feel them thump bumpin' and then we had rain where you couldn't see the
clouds but the rain fell through the smoke in the atmosphere and brought down Dog only knows what
kind of chemical compounds baked in the Canadian fires.

We need to get those motherfuckers (the fires) out now.

[calimary]

48. It breaks my heart, too.

Dear God, we NEED our trees!!! NOW, more than EVER!!!

[Hela]

50. Pretty smoky in Central Indiana today, too.

If you look really carefully, you might see a few of the windmills that are usually very prominent from I-65 north of Lafayette.

[Marthe48]

52. The only difference between humans and other species

Is that humans know there's an expiration date. Even knowing, we do nothing. People keep having children, and cherish them, sacrifice for them, do all they can so the kids have a good life. But humans don't give a damn that they have destroyed the planet, with no thought of the future. My grandkids are going to suffer. Even everything my family did and does to keep our impact as small as possible, isn't enough. It is like trying to drain the ocean with a teacup. Humans will party, even through a population crash. They, we, will not change, because as long as we can find ways to adapt to the increasingly hostile conditions on this, our only planet, we won't give anything up that feeds us, shelters us, entertains us. Those of us who are woke enough to care will cry over the species going extinct, the humans dying as they try to find a new and safer home, and the ongoing destruction of more of forest, ocean, and sky. The rest of us will just throw more fuel on the fire.

[IronLionZion]

53. Meanwhile GOP is complaining Biden isn't drilling enough oil

[mjvpi]

55. Orange shadows. Welcome to the last 8 summers in Montana.

Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer and Smoke.

Totally apocalyptic feel to life. IT’s unfortunately appropriate. Climate change is real and we are far down the road.

It makes me want to curl up inside and have sexwith my airconditioner.

[H2O Man]

57. Recommended. (# 100)

[Torchlight]

58. K&R.

[dawn5651]

65. we are fast becoming the great burnt north...

[peacebuzzard]

66. I feel the heavy weight of sadness too, Botany.

Incredible the once great Canadian forests are succumbing to a planetary injustice inflicted by companies as depicted in the Chevron commercial.

[Rhiannon12866]

69. We get "air quality warnings" regularly here in Northeastern New York

There have been days that we can see a definite haze in the air. Not to mention the rain storms and the flood warnings we're also experiencing.