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Sydney experiences "Armageddon" dust cloud...
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
It's not really Armageddon, but it feels like it, to the residents of Sydney.
The photographs and news reports flooding the Australian networks are truly horrific. Check out the photo below:
Sydney is under a huge dust cloud, and people are reporting it looks like Armageddon. Birds are falling dead out of the sky, it is raining mud, and people with breathing difficulties are advised to stay indoors and shut their windows.
I can't help but wonder how much of this is to do with the deforestation and desertification we have done to our world, and how much worse it will get before our leaders take climate change and earth damage seriously.
You can read more about the dust storm here: Dust storm chokes Sydney.
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Cluttercut - Be the change
7 comments:
It's a worry. I don't think this is the last time we will see something like this.
I wonder if that idiot 'Climate Change Skeptic' Senator is taking any notice.
I must say I wonder the same, with all the deforestation and land clearing whether this is related. I know dust storms have occurred before, but not this bad that I can remember,and ever since I saw the Age of Stupid I have seen 'extreme and unusual' weather conditions around the globe almost every day.
Alarm bells ringing. Anyone hear them?
CRIKEY- the verification word is DISASTWE .. a little too close...
Its a huge worry, our top soil blowing all over the place. When will we ever learn?
I hear those bells too mountain :(
If this is not a massive wake up call, I don't know what is. I wonder how many people actually have connected the dots back to their own actions that are causing climate change?
The book "Dead Mars, Dying Earth" by John e. Brandenberg springs to mind, but the circumstances look totally reversed. How much more of this will it take for our leaders to act?
Gav
Hi Nevyn - That idiot senator is probably pocketing nice BIG bribes from big oil, coal, and every other dirty business under the sun. The guy is crooked, I'd bet a LOT of money on it! No one could be that stupid. Surely!
Hi Mountainwildlife - My understanding is that the dust is topsoil that has blown across.
Winds increase when there are no barriers to slow them - e.g. when the trees have been taken out/felled.
Topsoil is more likely to blow up when the plant matter holding it in has been pulled up by overgrazing/lack of water/lack of trees through felling and cutting.
And there is now clear scientific understanding that removal of trees increases dryness and drought. Trees actually create moisture, locking moisture into the soil and creating stable cloud patterns and rainfall.
By clearing trees, overgrazing, removing plant matter from the soil by overgrazing and introducing non-native species, by diverting and tainting river systems, and by increasing wind speeds, humans have done everything they can to create such dust storms and lose topsoil.
So although there would have been dust storms in the past, as continued desertification and dryness increases, exacerbating climate change, the dust storms will get worse and more common.
It's not rocket science, really. It's just a matter of seeing the big picture.
Trouble with science, and society generally, and especially modern farming, is that we're GREAT at seeing all the little pieces up close (science is based on specialisation) but absolutely CRAP at seeing the big picture, and the interlocking systems and their management/healthy maintenance.
Hi Molly - I'm hearing the warning bells. This really scares me.
But what scares me more is that our politicians are too dumb to do anything serious about it now.
Australia will keep on supplying the world with coal. And if you burn the earth, well, I guess you get a burning earth.
Hi Gavin - Our leaders are NOT going to act. I've pretty much figured that out. It's up to us.
I'm about to post about the 1010UK movement, and how I'm working to get 1010NZ off the ground.
How about 1010OZ, Gavin? Are you interested? :-)
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