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Comparing carbon footprints: Daytona 500 wins the prize
Dinah Voyles Pulver, Dayton Beach News-Journal
Daytona 500: 10,853 tons of carbon dioxide
This includes the race cars, their hauling trailers, fan vehicles driving an average of 300 miles, with 50/50 split between sedans and light trucks, such as sport utiiities and pickups; recreational vehicles driving an average of 300 miles; and asssuming the fuel of a Beechcraft Kingair for the 400 aircraft, flying an average of 750 miles. It doesn’t include hotel rooms.
Carfax 250, 2007: 4,850 tons of carbon dioxide …
Superbowl, 2006 500 tons of carbon dioxide
The estimate by Oak Ridge National Laboratories for the Detroit game did not include 70,000 fans transportation and housing. …
(16 February 2008)
Accompanying text at at the News-Journal.
Klima in Gefahr: Eine interaktive Grafik
Sueddeutsche Zeitung
Der Mensch verändert das Klima auf gefährliche Weise. Davor warnen Umweltschützer und Klimaforscher seit Jahren. 2007 endlich ist diese Tatsache auch im Bewusstsein von Politikern angekommen. Industrie und Verkehr, Landwirtschaft und Haushalte verändern den Wärmehaushalt der Erde empfindlich.
(January 2008)
German-language coverage of climate change (Klimawandel). Click on graphic of sunlight falling on the earth to see some well-designed graphics. -BA
Drought-stricken Georgia, eyeing Tennessee River, revives old border feud
Patrik Jonsson, Christian Science Monitor
Georgia already owns most of the 88-mile spine of Lookout Mountain, a fabled frontier promontory that overlooks Chattanooga, Tenn.
But now the Peach State wants more, even the 1.6-square-mile nook that makes up the town of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., just north of the town of Lookout Mountain, Ga. Actually, it’s not really this crag that Georgia wants, but access to the Tennessee River that flows below it. Tapping the Tennessee could slake Atlanta’s thirst as drought strains the megacity.
But the push to correct what Georgia senators – all 52 of them – call a 190-year-old surveying mistake is forcing a confrontation between two sometimes rival states.
Georgia wants to move the entire border northward by more than a mile along a line from just west of Lookout Mountain to near McCaysville, Ga. That appropriation (or land grab) of more than 50 square miles would transform longstanding relationships along one of America’s fuzziest stretches of border.
“If you came up with a deed … that shows that’s really your property, most people would pursue it, especially if there was a little gold mine on it,” says Georgia state Rep. John Meadows and member of the legislature’s natural resources committee. “I’m not going to lie to you: I want water out of the Tennessee River.”
… Some see the legislation as a publicity stunt. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue eased watering restrictions for landscapers the same week the legislation was introduced.
Tennesseans say that Atlanta has grown pell-mell at the expense of other Southern states and that the drought reveals Georgia’s lack of planning.
“The real issue is the use and conservation of water and responsible land management,” says Tennessee state Sen. Andy Berke.
(15 February 2008)
Border Water Shortage Causes Conflict
The Trumpet (Philadelphia Church of God)
Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over,” an old western saying goes. At least the last half of that statement is holding true as 40-plus Texan farmers, ranchers, and irrigation district officials ready themselves to take their incessant water war with Mexico to the next level.
The roots of the Texas-Mexican water dispute go back to the 1944 Mexican Water Treaty, which determined how water from the Colorado, Tijuana and Rio Grande drainage basins would be divided between Texas and Mexico. … As compensation for this water debt, the United States delivers 1.5 million acre feet of water to Mexico annually from the Colorado River.
But currently, drought and overuse are sucking the Rio Grande dry. Meanwhile, the population of the Rio Grande valley has doubled from 1.1 million to 2.2 million since 1970. Mexico violated the water treaty and shorted the Texans on Rio Grande water from 1993 to 2002. This water shortage prompted the 40-plus Texan farmers, ranchers and irrigation district officials to sue the Mexican government for $500 million in damages.
Mexico finally made up its water debt in September 2005, but many Texan farmers are still worried about the future. “If Mexico doesn’t pay any penalty, it’s easier for them to do it again,” Ray Pruitt, president of Texas Citrus Mutual, said.
…This conflict portends a future of potential conflict between Mexico and the United States over water. The problem of diminishing rainfall in some parts of the region, in addition to a shrinking Rio Grande, will only be aggravated by growing demands for water by large population centers along both sides of the border.
A growing demand for water at a time when supplies are diminishing creates the perfect atmosphere for conflict. It wouldn’t be the first time water has been the source of conflict between two parties. After all, there isn’t a more precious commodity to human life than water.
God promises multiple times throughout the Bible that obedience to Him results in rain in due season, when and where it is needed. But today we see historic droughts gripping the southeastern United States and the Rio Grande Valley. At the same time, the Midwest and Great Lakes regions are beset by flooding.
(12 February 2008)
As the last paragraph indicates, the Trumpet features a religious interpretation of events. It has previously covered peak oil, as noted before.
The magazine traces its heritage to the “Plain Truth” magazine under Herbert W. Armstrong (About the Trumpet). The Plain Truth magazine had 8 million circulation in the late 80s. -BA
