Venice's devastating floods are the 'canary in a coal mine' for coastal cities worldwide
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As climate change causes sea levels in Venice — and across the planet — to inch higher, scientists say catastrophic floods could become more severe and more frequent.
You seem to blame all this on the US, and suggest a simplistic remedy, but it is a very big planet out there and a majority of those other nations are not doing their fair share in cleaning up their own air.
The US has made great strides in reducing emissions in the last few decades, but the truth remains that we are in an interglacial period for the time being and will continue to warm.
When you get down to it, cleaning up the atmosphere is a world wide goal. But who knows...perhaps another ice age could be just around the corner.
The US has made great strides in reducing emissions in the last few decades,
Yes Greg, the US has made great strides. Led by California, the us has been leading the world in reducing emissions since the 60s. Now, however, we have a President who has pulled out of the climate accords, opened up anwar to drilling, supported coal power, relaxed cafe standards, and is actively working toward thwarting California's efforts to keep America leading the world toward a cleaner future.
The Climate Accords, Steevie....where we (USA) pay (bribe) other nations to please don't pollute, so they can perhaps get around to not polluting some day in the future....in they get around to it...and if they feel like it?
The way it went with the Paris accord, is that the funding is voluntary. There are over 190 nations that have signed on. We had no reason to pull out. We were not forced to pay.
Here is a great article from the BBC explaining this:
The UK has paid about £400m into the fund so far, and Japan nearly half of its pledged amount. However, this does not necessarily paint the same picture if you take the population size of the countries into account. According to the Green Climate Fund's tracker, the US pledge amounts to just over $9 (£7) a person. Sweden's pledge represents almost $60 (£47) per person, the highest out of any country. The UK has proposed almost £15 a person. India and China have not put forward any cash into the Green Climate Fund.
China has made available significant funds for a different fund to help developing countries combat climate change.
While I totally agree that it is China and India were left alone for years, they are not being left alone now. And China for sure could afford to pay some more. But 3 billion dollars in the scheme of things is next to nothing for us. I do agree that Europe should be paying much more than they have.
The issue here is one of thinking locally but act globally, since this is affecting the whole world at this point. And yes I would like to see more spent here, but instead, we are actually cutting back on clean water regulations and that affects us directly.
First of all this is an op/ ed. I can find another op/ed that would make a good argument the other way.
The Paris accord is voluntary. The goals could have been renegotiated, instead of just pulling out. But it does make for a good show for his supporters.
I watch news from the Philippines almost every night. A couple of months ago, there was a concerted effort to clean up Manila Bay, a highly polluted waterway. Thousands of tons of plastics and other trash was cleaned from the beach and on the water in a few days. Unfortunately, the beaches are loaded with trash again. Much of it is not new, just stuff that had been in the water for long periods of time and washed up. It is a very long process to clean all of it up, if they ever do.
Filipinos put everything in plastic, even store owners pour contents of a soda bottle into a plastic bag with a straw for the customer. They still get refunds on bottles, so the store owners want to keep the bottles.
Your president has stated, repeatedly, that he loves coal. What else would you do with it? They don't use it to power locomotives anymore but I guess he could bring those back. He always loved the smell of the coal smoke wafting past the windows as he shot bison from the train. Perhaps a new Tesla model with a coal powered on board generator? A hybrid.
The gondola and boats brought another dynamic to Venice's problems. When I was there one of the issues being discussed was how the water was eroding the structures at an accelerated rate due to lapping of water against them. It's a beautiful city that has be ruined by tourism, imo.
I wonder how many more changes in weather patterns and the environment have to happen before some understand and accept the danger enough that it moves them to act.
I wonder how many more changes in weather patterns and the environment have to happen before some understand and accept the danger enough that it moves them to act.
We've been reducing carbon emissions for decades, yet we are told that things are getting worse.
And what is really going to stop "Mother Nature" from doing her thing ?
Maybe we can do something like they did in the movie ….. The Core (2003) …..to cool down the core of the planet and create a big ice cube to offset the warming above ?
It was to restart the rotation of the core, not to cool it down. It was accomplished by a series of nuclear explosions of the separated parts of the ship Endeavor.
I'm so glad I got to see Venice while it's still there. The Grand Canal was about maybe a foot or two below the doors of the palaces. To have thigh deep water in St. Mark's Square like in the pictures would put entire first floors of the buildings on the canals under water. I'm afraid for Venice.
They are used to flooding but this is not a normal pattern and why you rightly point out that Venice should be worried.
I'm also glad I was able to see beautiful Venice. I'm someone partial to old architecture so this was a special treat for me. Honestly, I love traveling all over Europe just to see the buildings and structures. One area I visited in Germany allowed me to see the buildings damaged by the war. It was impactful.
I never used a gondola when I was there because the stench from the canals made me queezy. I loved St Marks square even though the local cops took me in for throwing two of them in the water.
I was 17, thin and blonde which Italian men loved. A bunch of them ganged up on me offering me anything I wanted. I began to back up trying to distance myself from them. Suddenly two men were behind me and grabbed my arms. I threw my arms back out of instinct with enough force to throw the men off balance and then I heard a double splash. It would seem that two Italian police were trying to stop me from backing up to the edge of a canal so I wouldn't fall in myself. I wasn't arrested but they took me in to find out where I was staying so that someone from the hotel could come get me.
When I was in Europe the first time, the only "trouble" I almost got myself into was in Madrid. I was out taking pictures, and saw an interesting building that had an open gate leading to a courtyard, so I went in and started taking pictures. Two cops rushed over to me and I knew I was in trouble. I didn't know it was the main police station and the Spanish are still sensitive about the Loyalists who fought Franco in the civil war. (Apparently, from the news, there is still discontent there.) When they found out I was a Canadian tourist, and I gave them each a few Canadian cigarettes, they let me go.
I was very drunk and lost in VENICE, by myself in November trying to find my way back to the Hotel I couldn't remember the name of, atv 3 am
in November.
I saw something I thought I recognized, so I climbed along the jagged edge of buildings along side the canals, that did stink, even in cooler weather.
Needless to say, I fell in to the stinkin canal, cops were called as they thought I was a burglae, not just a stupid drunken American who couldn't find his way back to where he couldn't remember where he was staying.
Now I'm soaked and freezing getting interrogated by Venetian blind police who didn't speak much English, but I could spell spaghetti , so luckily, a patron of the bar I had been in stumbled upon us, and we stopped at his flat, burned some hash under glass, then looked for a few more hours till I got home at dawn, then freezing, fell asleep in my Hotel bath.
I will give this a yawn followed by a do some damn research.
According to LiveScience , the rise in sea-level isn't the only thing that has Venice's famous canals rising every year because the city is subsiding.
Previous studies had suggested the city's subsidence had stabilised but it has been claimed that the city is tilting to the east.
Scientists tracked the elevation of Venice and its surrounding lagoons over a ten year period and have said that on average, the city is sinking up to two millimetres every year.
It's thought the subsidence is due to plate tectonics as the Adriatic plate, on which Venice sits, is subducting beneath the Apennines Mountains and causing the city and its environs to drop slightly in elevation.
Exceptionally high tides in Venice occurs once every four years, on average.
However minor flooding in the city happens around four times a year and usually within the winter months.
High water can sometimes last only for a few hours but it is dependent on which part of the island is hit by floodwaters.
In 2018 the waters reached a height of 156cm in October after flooding across Italy.
So it is the highest it has been since 1966. Want to blame climate change on that one as well? Since they state Venice is sinking about 2 millimeters every year that would make the 1966 flood easily the worst.
Yes, we have to do something to reduce man made pollution; but since the left won' even discuss the one thing that will actually work (population control) it is a lost cause.
Yes, we have to do something to reduce man made pollution; but since the left won' even discuss the one thing that will actually work (population control) it is a lost cause.
Both sides have their own denials regarding population control. The right doesn't respect those who want to exercise population control by making a personal choice, a pro choice.
What methods are you proposing from the right to control the population other than the inhumane method of hanging blacks, caging kids and shooting desperate immigrants?
Shakespeare had an idea way back then. He wrote "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". Science fiction comes up with good ideas. How about putting a whole lot of rockets upside down on one side of the planet and when they're on the sunny side blast the planet into an orbit a little farther from the sun?
What methods are you proposing from the right to control the population other than the inhumane method of hanging blacks, caging kids and shooting desperate immigrants?
Who the hell mentioned abortion? Abortions have not stopped population growth.
It would take a world law- one man, one woman, one kid, no exceptions. That would be enforced until the world population drops down to a sustainable level. Population sizes for each country would be based on their technology level, geography, water availability, etc.
It will never happen. The greed level alone will keep the world population growing so they can be always more consumers.
What methods are you proposing from the right to control the population other than the inhumane method of hanging blacks, caging kids and shooting desperate immigrants?
Hanging blacks was a Democrat thing first and foremost. Caging kids was Obama. Sorry, those illegal immigrants are part of the problem. Unsustainable population sizes cause lack of resources, war, and disease which shifts low skilled labor to developed countries. But congrats on jumping the fucking shark on the response.
What methods are you proposing from the right to control the population other than the inhumane method of hanging blacks, caging kids and shooting desperate immigrants?
That was particularly nasty, uncalled for, and completely false.
My comment is completely true. Under this Administration and the alt right republicans the policies put in place have caged children, contemplated shooting immigrants and want to celebrate the south's past of hanging blacks.
Keep peddling that talking point that it was the democrats of today that are racist. Everyone who has taken the time to educate themselves about the history of this country knows that the parties switched beliefs and platforms back in the late 1800's early 1900's.
At this point, I have no idea what the hell the republicans stand for that could be remotely considered good and honorable.
Truth be told, I think it's a sad situation. I am embarrassed for anyone who could align themselves with the republican party of today.
(CNN) President Donald Trump suggested shooting migrants in the legs in order to slow them down after they crossed the southern border during a March meeting in which he called for a shutdown of the entire US-Mexico border, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The Times -- in an excerpt from the book "Border Wars: Inside Trump's Assault on Immigration" that cites interviews with more than a dozen White House and administration officials directly involved -- reported that Trump had moved on from the idea by the end of what the paper described as a "frenzied week of presidential rages." But he had also pivoted to removing staff who had opposed him, an idea largely advocated by White House aide Stephen Miller in his push for greater influence on immigration policy. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the report.
The meeting included Miller, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then-Customs and Border Protection chief Kevin McAleenan, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and other senior staff, according to the paper.
"You are making me look like an idiot!" Trump shouted during the meeting, adding in a profanity, multiple officials in the room told the Times. "I ran on this. It's my issue.''
The Times report is a look into how complicated the tense issue of immigration is for an administration that has so far failed to fulfill the President's signature campaign promise of building a wall along the southern border. Migration over the southern border has been at the root of much of Trump's most frenzied rhetoric, including referring to migrants who enter the country illegally as an "infestation" and an "invasion."
Nielsen tried to reason with Trump, explaining that closing the border would not bar migrants from applying for asylum, but he remained steadfast, according to the Times.
Kushner also tried to reason with the President.
"All you care about is your friends in Mexico," the President responded, people in the room told the Times. "I've had it. I want it done at noon tomorrow."
White House advisers persuaded Trump to extend the deadline to the following Friday, pushing Mexican officials to apprehend more migrants and urging Republican lawmakers and Chamber of Commerce officials to convey to Trump the negative repercussions of closing the border, the Times reported. Kushner and other West Wing officials emailed Trump about Mexico's increased apprehensions of migrants before they could reach the US, according to the paper.
Miller told Trump that advisers continually citing legal constraints, such as Nielsen, were part of the problem and that the administration should instead focus on rejecting migrants at the border, The Times reported.
By the middle of the week, Trump appeared to have abandoned the idea and floated to Nielsen the option of imposing tariffs, the paper reported. The Times reported that it was later that week that Trump offered McAleenan a pardon if he were sent to jail for having border agents block asylum seekers from entering the US in defiance of US law.
"The President was frustrated and I think he took that moment to hit the reset button," then-acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan told the Times of that week in March. "The President wanted it to be fixed quickly.''
Keep peddling that talking point that it was the democrats of today that are racist.
Not peddling anything. Just not letting you get away with peddling your bull. it WAS Democrats--not Republicans--who did that shit, Look it up if you don't believe me.
BTFW, where are the policies you claimed came from the GOP about shooting immigrants? You claimed it--so PROVE it instead of ignoring my challenge and deflecting.
The truth regarding the tRump and his administration is particularly nasty, and uncalled for, and deplorable.
My best hope for America is that sometime in the next 25 years, Democrats will finally get over the fact that their chosen candidate somehow lost a sure thing to Trump, accept that fact, and move on with their lives.
it WAS Democrats--not Republicans--who did that shit, Look it up if you don't believe me.
Look up the actual facts and stop trying to gaslight. Those racist Democrats left the party over civil rights and became the new face of the GOP and the religious right. The non-racists stayed Democrats, and the GOP gathered all the assholes.
The right wingers constantly throw this bullshit out there, they constantly get corrected, but their Fox brainwashing is so ingrained they think repeating falsehoods somehow makes them true.
As you should also be aware if you ever read any genuine news sources, Trump suggested shooting illegal immigrants in the legs, building an alligator filled moat ... they weren't GOP policies, just your President's grand illegal ideas. If you aren't aware of these things, you really need to find more credible things to read.
Look up the actual facts and stop trying to gaslight. Those racist Democrats left the party over civil rights and became the new face of the GOP and the religious right. The non-racists stayed Democrats, and the GOP gathered all the assholes.
That statement is a lie. Tell me how many Southern Democrats joined the GOP. Tell me how many Southern Democrats kept running AND wining elections in the South long after the CRA.
Don't try pissing on MY leg and tell me it's raining--I ain't buying your bullshit.
I get tired of being asked for proof for the same issues over and over by folks on the right. It's not my job to repeatedly do your research for you. If you refused to read it the first 3 times, why waste my time posting it yet again?
You and several others in here are famous for doing this. Maybe it works for Fox News addicts and Trump fans, but it doesn't work on intelligent people.
What part of "civil rights" in my earlier comment did you fail to grasp? You know, that huge movement in the 1960s that led to the GOP being the party of racists? And of course the religious right is a whole other debacle, thanks in part to Phyllis Schlafly, may she rot in hell.
After that, the majority of the South still continued to vote Democratic because it thought of the Republican party as the party of Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction. The big break didn’t come until President Johnson, another Southern Democrat, signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.
I know you're fact-averse, but I don't understand why you so proudly boast about your willful ignorance. I'd think you would be embarrassed.
I wonder why so many right wingers have never taken history or civics classes ... apparently that's the only way they can keep their delusions, by refusing to learn about reality. It's the same thing that leads them to get their news from only Fox. But it explains why Trump's lies don't bother them; truth isn't important to them and if they refuse to tell the truth, why would they expect Trump to?
"Although the phrase "Southern Strategy" is often attributed to Nixon's political strategist Kevin Phillips, he did not originate it but popularized it. In an interview included in a 1970 New York Times article, Phillips stated his analysis based on studies of ethnic voting:
"From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. " - Republican strategist Kevin Phillips
The perception that the Republican Party had served as the "vehicle of white supremacy in the South", particularly during the Goldwater campaign and the presidential elections of 1968 and 1972, made it difficult for the Republican Party to win back the support of black voters in the South in later years. In 2005, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman formally apologized to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ), a national civil rights organization, for exploiting racial polarization to win elections and ignoring the black vote.
Anyone who imagines that all the bigoted white Christian Southern Democrats who used to rule the south and fought the civil rights act and fought to preserve the status quo of segregation, whose ancestors fought to conserve the status quo of slavery, all just moved out of their States or died off and were replaced over a span of just fifty years by look-a-like white Christian Republicans who would never do such things in a million years and consider themselves the party of Lincoln, should have their heads examined. The people haven't changed, only their party affiliation has and the Republican party is now the party of proud wannabe confederates, the KKK, white nationalists and wannabe Nazis. Those claiming anything different have their heads in the sand and are in=gnoring reality.
Now, I'm not saying all Republicans are white nationalists, ex-Southern Democrats (aka Dixiecrats), KKK members or Nazis. Most Republicans are not. But virtually every one of those types of people I've seen or talked to express their loyalty to the Republican party and to Donald Trump, so it's quite obvious to anyone with a functioning brain that there is a safe space within the Republican party for those white nationalists and other bigots who feel angered at the Democrat party for being so inclusive and because they see a diverse America as a better, stronger America.
Calm down. You are going to put your health at risk if you keep blowing your top. There's a cure.......dump the trump. You'll feel so much better afterwards.
My comment said "contemplates shooting immigrants" and I believe Tess provided you proof of trump's contemplation.
You know, that huge movement in the 1960s that led to the GOP being the party of racists
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You can quote AL the bullshit you want, but it DAMN sure doesn't explain how or why so many Democrats CONTINUED to be elected in the South for DECADES.
Or why the South voted for two Democrats for presidents well after the CRA passed.
Bunch of ignoramuses think virtually the entire South turned from Democrat to Republican BUT CAN NEVER BACK THAT SHIT UP.
Bunch of ignoramuses think virtually the entire South turned from Democrat to Republican BUT CAN NEVER BACK THAT SHIT UP.
No one said that. There are many Democrats in the South still, millions of them just happen to be black. But if you're referring to the old white racist 'Dixiecrats', then yes, virtually all of them changed party or died off. Trying to remove their beloved statues to American traitors really got their attention though, as we saw in Charlottesville. If you're still trying to pretend the Republican party isn't currently making a safe space for bigots, white nationalists and white supremacists then perhaps you need to take a look at the line of folk always waiting to get into Trumps rallies. I've seen the range from proud confederate defending, Putin loving traitors to diabetic hags with t-shirts asking Trump to grab them by the pussy.
So you imagine there are some confederate flag waving Southern Democrats fighting to keep their local planned parenthood open and fighting for their local Democrat party voting for the many black Democrat legislators? You really imagine those folk who fought to keep segregation, fought against the civil rights act and voting rights act would continue to call themselves Democrats after the Democrat party crafted the 1964 civil rights act and were the majority party who passed it in both the house and the Senate and then a democrat President signed it into law? You believe those confederate flag waving bigots who waved their flags along side Nazis who were flying swastika flags chanting "Jews will not replace us!" are really by day pink knit hat wearing Democrats?
I'll admit that there could be some old party racist Southern Dixiecrat who may never have gotten around to changing party affiliation, but I rather doubt it. The racist duck call was blown by Trump and whatever left-over xenophobic racist Dixiecrats might have been left in the Democrat party all flocked to Trumps side.
No one said it was overnight, it has been a forty year molting, but as you can see, the Red Butterfly that emerged from that cocoon in the late 1990's has confederate flags on its wings, votes Republican and supports Donald Trump. Lamenting the slow shift doesn't defend against the facts on the ground today. They are DEEPLY red States all those districts that used to be Dixie blue exist no longer, now the only blue counties are the predominately black communities. So did all those rural whites who used to vote Dixiecrat sell their land and move? Of course not. So looking at the map today it is undeniable that those areas are DEEP Red now and have been for the last two decades. I'm not sure why you're arguing something that is so blatantly obvious.
Because it's the honest truth and you know it and is backed up by clear evidence. All I've seen from the right to dispute it is some election results in the 60's and 70's that showed Dixiecrats still winning seats in the South for a time. Like I said, it wasn't overnight that the switch happened, a lot of them were set in their ways and it took time for the Republicans to chip away at them until they were able to convince the old racist Dixiecrats that the Republican party better suited them. It's why it was called the "Southern strategy" and not the "Southern Insta-flip". It took the better part of 30 years to complete the shift, and anyone denying the deep red power in Southern States given them by white Christian majorities, the same white Christian majorities that used to dominate the South with Dixiecrat blue who are now virtually all Republican red, either has an ulterior motive for denying the obvious, or should be getting government subsidies for their mental disability.
Democrats held power in much of the South until 2010
Nonsense. By 2000 Gore got none of the Southern States electoral college votes and even though Republicans didn't complete their total take over until 2010, they were very much in control long before that.
" Republicans gradually began doing better in presidential elections in the South starting in 1952 , Republicans did not finish taking over Southern politics at the nonpresidential level until the elections of November 2010." " Republicans control all 22 of the other legislative bodies in the former Confederacy , and all but one in a border state."
Just down the coast from Donald Trump's weekend retreat, the residents and businesses of south Florida are experiencing regular episodes of water in the streets. In the battle against rising seas, the region – which has more to lose than almost anywhere else in the world – is becoming ground zero.
I'm in no danger of flooding by either Lake Erie or the Niagara River, but the levels of both are high. Also the wind has been crazy around here lately...read this....
In the daytime, or at night when they shine the coloured lights on it? I grew up in Ontario about a 3/4 hour drive from the falls, and have seen it many times.
The picture I saw was daytime. I bet the colored lights made it an over the top wow factor. I am going to try to find more picture. Thanks for the heads up.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Not going to make a damn bit of difference to those on the right until the water rises to their lower lip...…
And I honestly doubt that even then, they will admit that it was a problem that could have been avoided.
You seem to blame all this on the US, and suggest a simplistic remedy, but it is a very big planet out there and a majority of those other nations are not doing their fair share in cleaning up their own air.
The US has made great strides in reducing emissions in the last few decades, but the truth remains that we are in an interglacial period for the time being and will continue to warm.
When you get down to it, cleaning up the atmosphere is a world wide goal. But who knows...perhaps another ice age could be just around the corner.
Yes Greg, the US has made great strides. Led by California, the us has been leading the world in reducing emissions since the 60s. Now, however, we have a President who has pulled out of the climate accords, opened up anwar to drilling, supported coal power, relaxed cafe standards, and is actively working toward thwarting California's efforts to keep America leading the world toward a cleaner future.
The Climate Accords, Steevie....where we (USA) pay (bribe) other nations to please don't pollute, so they can perhaps get around to not polluting some day in the future....in they get around to it...and if they feel like it?
We cannot lead or affect change without a seat at the table Greg. That's the climate accords. What about the rest of it?
9mm,
The way it went with the Paris accord, is that the funding is voluntary. There are over 190 nations that have signed on. We had no reason to pull out. We were not forced to pay.
Here is a great article from the BBC explaining this:
Important points:
Which countries have pledged the most?
US - $3bn (£2.3bn)
Japan - $1.5bn (£1.2bn)
UK - $1.2bn (£931m)
France - $1bn (£776m)
Germany - $1bn (£776m)
Source: Green Climate Fund
The UK has paid about £400m into the fund so far, and Japan nearly half of its pledged amount. However, this does not necessarily paint the same picture if you take the population size of the countries into account. According to the Green Climate Fund's tracker, the US pledge amounts to just over $9 (£7) a person. Sweden's pledge represents almost $60 (£47) per person, the highest out of any country. The UK has proposed almost £15 a person. India and China have not put forward any cash into the Green Climate Fund.
China has made available significant funds for a different fund to help developing countries combat climate change.
It was a bad deal for the US and put us at a competitive disadvantage.
While I totally agree that it is China and India were left alone for years, they are not being left alone now. And China for sure could afford to pay some more. But 3 billion dollars in the scheme of things is next to nothing for us. I do agree that Europe should be paying much more than they have.
The issue here is one of thinking locally but act globally, since this is affecting the whole world at this point. And yes I would like to see more spent here, but instead, we are actually cutting back on clean water regulations and that affects us directly.
Our governor already put him in his place regarding climate change.
Dean,
First of all this is an op/ ed. I can find another op/ed that would make a good argument the other way.
The Paris accord is voluntary. The goals could have been renegotiated, instead of just pulling out. But it does make for a good show for his supporters.
So... The answer, then, is to build coal fired power plants here? To lower our standards? Is letting other countries lead us making us great again?
What's noticed is that the top polluters, China, India and probably the Philippines are not in the top 5 of donors.
Why would the US pick up the tab for countries that will probably simply pocket those donations?
I watch news from the Philippines almost every night. A couple of months ago, there was a concerted effort to clean up Manila Bay, a highly polluted waterway. Thousands of tons of plastics and other trash was cleaned from the beach and on the water in a few days. Unfortunately, the beaches are loaded with trash again. Much of it is not new, just stuff that had been in the water for long periods of time and washed up. It is a very long process to clean all of it up, if they ever do.
Filipinos put everything in plastic, even store owners pour contents of a soda bottle into a plastic bag with a straw for the customer. They still get refunds on bottles, so the store owners want to keep the bottles.
Your president has stated, repeatedly, that he loves coal. What else would you do with it? They don't use it to power locomotives anymore but I guess he could bring those back. He always loved the smell of the coal smoke wafting past the windows as he shot bison from the train. Perhaps a new Tesla model with a coal powered on board generator? A hybrid.
So... Your great deal maker can't handle it?
We are going to continue with our strides despite Trump trying to derail them.
There's always a silver lining - the gondola drivers can now go pretty well everywhere in Venice, so it could be a boon for them.
The gondola and boats brought another dynamic to Venice's problems. When I was there one of the issues being discussed was how the water was eroding the structures at an accelerated rate due to lapping of water against them. It's a beautiful city that has be ruined by tourism, imo.
I wonder how many more changes in weather patterns and the environment have to happen before some understand and accept the danger enough that it moves them to act.
We've been reducing carbon emissions for decades, yet we are told that things are getting worse.
And what is really going to stop "Mother Nature" from doing her thing ?
Maybe we can do something like they did in the movie ….. The Core (2003) …..to cool down the core of the planet and create a big ice cube to offset the warming above ?
I would like to see your scientific facts as to what weather patterns have changed, by what means, and to what extent.
It was to restart the rotation of the core, not to cool it down. It was accomplished by a series of nuclear explosions of the separated parts of the ship Endeavor.
I'm so glad I got to see Venice while it's still there. The Grand Canal was about maybe a foot or two below the doors of the palaces. To have thigh deep water in St. Mark's Square like in the pictures would put entire first floors of the buildings on the canals under water. I'm afraid for Venice.
They are used to flooding but this is not a normal pattern and why you rightly point out that Venice should be worried.
I'm also glad I was able to see beautiful Venice. I'm someone partial to old architecture so this was a special treat for me. Honestly, I love traveling all over Europe just to see the buildings and structures. One area I visited in Germany allowed me to see the buildings damaged by the war. It was impactful.
I never used a gondola when I was there because the stench from the canals made me queezy. I loved St Marks square even though the local cops took me in for throwing two of them in the water.
WHAT??? Please tell us the story!!!
I was 17, thin and blonde which Italian men loved. A bunch of them ganged up on me offering me anything I wanted. I began to back up trying to distance myself from them. Suddenly two men were behind me and grabbed my arms. I threw my arms back out of instinct with enough force to throw the men off balance and then I heard a double splash. It would seem that two Italian police were trying to stop me from backing up to the edge of a canal so I wouldn't fall in myself. I wasn't arrested but they took me in to find out where I was staying so that someone from the hotel could come get me.
LOL. Good story.
The only reason I was on a tour there was because my parent thought that I couldn't get into any trouble in a place as large as Europe lol.
When I was in Europe the first time, the only "trouble" I almost got myself into was in Madrid. I was out taking pictures, and saw an interesting building that had an open gate leading to a courtyard, so I went in and started taking pictures. Two cops rushed over to me and I knew I was in trouble. I didn't know it was the main police station and the Spanish are still sensitive about the Loyalists who fought Franco in the civil war. (Apparently, from the news, there is still discontent there.) When they found out I was a Canadian tourist, and I gave them each a few Canadian cigarettes, they let me go.
St Marks Square with the nrabid npigeons !
.
I was very drunk and lost in VENICE, by myself in November trying to find my way back to the Hotel I couldn't remember the name of, atv 3 am
in November.
I saw something I thought I recognized, so I climbed along the jagged edge of buildings along side the canals, that did stink, even in cooler weather.
Needless to say, I fell in to the stinkin canal, cops were called as they thought I was a burglae, not just a stupid drunken American who couldn't find his way back to where he couldn't remember where he was staying.
Now I'm soaked and freezing getting interrogated by Venetian blind police who didn't speak much English, but I could spell spaghetti , so luckily, a patron of the bar I had been in stumbled upon us, and we stopped at his flat, burned some hash under glass, then looked for a few more hours till I got home at dawn, then freezing, fell asleep in my Hotel bath.
My old man was not impressed.
Cool town though, I think ?
I will give this a yawn followed by a do some damn research.
So it is the highest it has been since 1966. Want to blame climate change on that one as well? Since they state Venice is sinking about 2 millimeters every year that would make the 1966 flood easily the worst.
Yes, we have to do something to reduce man made pollution; but since the left won' even discuss the one thing that will actually work (population control) it is a lost cause.
Both sides have their own denials regarding population control. The right doesn't respect those who want to exercise population control by making a personal choice, a pro choice.
What methods are you proposing from the right to control the population other than the inhumane method of hanging blacks, caging kids and shooting desperate immigrants?
Shakespeare had an idea way back then. He wrote "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers". Science fiction comes up with good ideas. How about putting a whole lot of rockets upside down on one side of the planet and when they're on the sunny side blast the planet into an orbit a little farther from the sun?
That might be a good idea........ Where should we put those rockets......China?!!
Are you following me? I'm flattered.........
Meh - most of what I post on this site is provocative and meant to illicit a reaction or god forbid thinking outside of the box.
So - the point I'm making is that both sides hold hypocritical positions and beliefs on a variety of topics.
And who should pay for them? America?
Nah - I'm sure the Donald will find some way to extort or bribe some country to foot the bill.
Mexico?
Only in your fevered imagination.
What about all of those who weren't black?
Why should the US pay the bills and finance the whole thing.
Oh okay. Rock on.
Who the hell mentioned abortion? Abortions have not stopped population growth.
It would take a world law- one man, one woman, one kid, no exceptions. That would be enforced until the world population drops down to a sustainable level. Population sizes for each country would be based on their technology level, geography, water availability, etc.
It will never happen. The greed level alone will keep the world population growing so they can be always more consumers.
Hanging blacks was a Democrat thing first and foremost. Caging kids was Obama. Sorry, those illegal immigrants are part of the problem. Unsustainable population sizes cause lack of resources, war, and disease which shifts low skilled labor to developed countries. But congrats on jumping the fucking shark on the response.
Your response is based on fake talking points.
So it should be easy for you to prove them wrong.
I won't hold my breath waiting.
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Why would I waste my time trying to convince someone who peddles fake talking points that they are peddling fake talking points? What a silly request.
That was particularly nasty, uncalled for, and completely false.
Except that Trump is caging immigrant kids and conservatives advocated shooting at refugees attempting to approach our southern borders...
Bullcrap.
My comment is completely true. Under this Administration and the alt right republicans the policies put in place have caged children, contemplated shooting immigrants and want to celebrate the south's past of hanging blacks.
Show me the policy put forth by the Administration to simply shoot immigrants.
Fuck that crap about the South. Remember that it was DEMOCRATS who did the majority of that kind of stuff---like Jim Crow laws and such.
remember how the Democratic Party ostracized the Southern Democrats and left them?
Me neither--because it didn't happen.
Keep peddling that talking point that it was the democrats of today that are racist. Everyone who has taken the time to educate themselves about the history of this country knows that the parties switched beliefs and platforms back in the late 1800's early 1900's.
At this point, I have no idea what the hell the republicans stand for that could be remotely considered good and honorable.
Truth be told, I think it's a sad situation. I am embarrassed for anyone who could align themselves with the republican party of today.
The truth regarding the tRump and his administration is particularly nasty, and uncalled for, and deplorable.
The 'president' has advocated shooting at refugees attempting to approach our southern borders.
New York Times: Trump suggested shooting migrants in the legs
By Caroline Kelly , CNN
Updated 9:30 PM ET, Tue October 1, 2019
Yes, he was one of those "southern" democrats aka a republican in disguise. What's your point?
You've been provided facts often enough to show you why the racist democrats left the democratic party and became the new GOP.
It really gets tiresome seeing people post the same lies over and over, after the truth has been pointed out to them.
Trump's use of misinformation has been adopted by his base so they can try to confuse people; pathetic.
Not peddling anything. Just not letting you get away with peddling your bull. it WAS Democrats--not Republicans--who did that shit, Look it up if you don't believe me.
BTFW, where are the policies you claimed came from the GOP about shooting immigrants? You claimed it--so PROVE it instead of ignoring my challenge and deflecting.
My best hope for America is that sometime in the next 25 years, Democrats will finally get over the fact that their chosen candidate somehow lost a sure thing to Trump, accept that fact, and move on with their lives.
Yet MORE Democratic revisionist history. Byrd remained a Democrat until his death.
Tell me, how does a "Republican in disguise " get to be the Secretary of the Democratic Caucus? Or get to be the Democratic MAJORITY Whip?
Your characterization has to be one of the best fairy tales out there.
Look up the actual facts and stop trying to gaslight. Those racist Democrats left the party over civil rights and became the new face of the GOP and the religious right. The non-racists stayed Democrats, and the GOP gathered all the assholes.
The right wingers constantly throw this bullshit out there, they constantly get corrected, but their Fox brainwashing is so ingrained they think repeating falsehoods somehow makes them true.
As you should also be aware if you ever read any genuine news sources, Trump suggested shooting illegal immigrants in the legs, building an alligator filled moat ... they weren't GOP policies, just your President's grand illegal ideas. If you aren't aware of these things, you really need to find more credible things to read.
That statement is a lie. Tell me how many Southern Democrats joined the GOP. Tell me how many Southern Democrats kept running AND wining elections in the South long after the CRA.
Don't try pissing on MY leg and tell me it's raining--I ain't buying your bullshit.
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Exactly the sort of response I would expect from someone who gets called out and can't or won't support his positions.
When you post bullshit, you shouldn't be surprised when thinking people reject it.
I get tired of being asked for proof for the same issues over and over by folks on the right. It's not my job to repeatedly do your research for you. If you refused to read it the first 3 times, why waste my time posting it yet again?
You and several others in here are famous for doing this. Maybe it works for Fox News addicts and Trump fans, but it doesn't work on intelligent people.
I have researched it. A handful of Democratic politicians changed parties. BFD.
The vast majority remained Democrats. As evidenced by the fact that they continued to run and win as Democrats for decades.
Unless you can actually post something to the contrary, it is easy to see who is telling the truth here.
What part of "civil rights" in my earlier comment did you fail to grasp? You know, that huge movement in the 1960s that led to the GOP being the party of racists? And of course the religious right is a whole other debacle, thanks in part to Phyllis Schlafly, may she rot in hell.
LMFAO!
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Wow, what a compelling argument!
I know you're fact-averse, but I don't understand why you so proudly boast about your willful ignorance. I'd think you would be embarrassed.
I wonder why so many right wingers have never taken history or civics classes ... apparently that's the only way they can keep their delusions, by refusing to learn about reality. It's the same thing that leads them to get their news from only Fox. But it explains why Trump's lies don't bother them; truth isn't important to them and if they refuse to tell the truth, why would they expect Trump to?
They'd have to pull their arms out of Trump's ass before they could do either - they're too busy massaging his prostate.
"Although the phrase "Southern Strategy" is often attributed to Nixon's political strategist Kevin Phillips, he did not originate it but popularized it. In an interview included in a 1970 New York Times article, Phillips stated his analysis based on studies of ethnic voting:
The perception that the Republican Party had served as the "vehicle of white supremacy in the South", particularly during the Goldwater campaign and the presidential elections of 1968 and 1972, made it difficult for the Republican Party to win back the support of black voters in the South in later years. In 2005, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman formally apologized to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ), a national civil rights organization, for exploiting racial polarization to win elections and ignoring the black vote.
Anyone who imagines that all the bigoted white Christian Southern Democrats who used to rule the south and fought the civil rights act and fought to preserve the status quo of segregation, whose ancestors fought to conserve the status quo of slavery, all just moved out of their States or died off and were replaced over a span of just fifty years by look-a-like white Christian Republicans who would never do such things in a million years and consider themselves the party of Lincoln, should have their heads examined. The people haven't changed, only their party affiliation has and the Republican party is now the party of proud wannabe confederates, the KKK, white nationalists and wannabe Nazis. Those claiming anything different have their heads in the sand and are in=gnoring reality.
Now, I'm not saying all Republicans are white nationalists, ex-Southern Democrats (aka Dixiecrats), KKK members or Nazis. Most Republicans are not. But virtually every one of those types of people I've seen or talked to express their loyalty to the Republican party and to Donald Trump, so it's quite obvious to anyone with a functioning brain that there is a safe space within the Republican party for those white nationalists and other bigots who feel angered at the Democrat party for being so inclusive and because they see a diverse America as a better, stronger America.
wfe fish.
Calm down. You are going to put your health at risk if you keep blowing your top. There's a cure.......dump the trump. You'll feel so much better afterwards.
My comment said "contemplates shooting immigrants" and I believe Tess provided you proof of trump's contemplation.
next......
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You can quote AL the bullshit you want, but it DAMN sure doesn't explain how or why so many Democrats CONTINUED to be elected in the South for DECADES.
Or why the South voted for two Democrats for presidents well after the CRA passed.
Bunch of ignoramuses think virtually the entire South turned from Democrat to Republican BUT CAN NEVER BACK THAT SHIT UP.
No one said that. There are many Democrats in the South still, millions of them just happen to be black. But if you're referring to the old white racist 'Dixiecrats', then yes, virtually all of them changed party or died off. Trying to remove their beloved statues to American traitors really got their attention though, as we saw in Charlottesville. If you're still trying to pretend the Republican party isn't currently making a safe space for bigots, white nationalists and white supremacists then perhaps you need to take a look at the line of folk always waiting to get into Trumps rallies. I've seen the range from proud confederate defending, Putin loving traitors to diabetic hags with t-shirts asking Trump to grab them by the pussy.
It's impossible to back something up to someone who is allergic to facts.
C'mon pill heirs of their communities \!
Statement is false.
What a huge surprise!
As a long time sufferer of that particular allergy, I am sure you have loads of experience ignoring the facts.
I have no retort as the fish removed my comment.
So you imagine there are some confederate flag waving Southern Democrats fighting to keep their local planned parenthood open and fighting for their local Democrat party voting for the many black Democrat legislators? You really imagine those folk who fought to keep segregation, fought against the civil rights act and voting rights act would continue to call themselves Democrats after the Democrat party crafted the 1964 civil rights act and were the majority party who passed it in both the house and the Senate and then a democrat President signed it into law? You believe those confederate flag waving bigots who waved their flags along side Nazis who were flying swastika flags chanting "Jews will not replace us!" are really by day pink knit hat wearing Democrats?
I'll admit that there could be some old party racist Southern Dixiecrat who may never have gotten around to changing party affiliation, but I rather doubt it. The racist duck call was blown by Trump and whatever left-over xenophobic racist Dixiecrats might have been left in the Democrat party all flocked to Trumps side.
No one ever has a credible explanation as to why Democrats continued to dominate the South for decades.
That's o k, I realize there isn't any credible explanation as to why Democrats kept winning when all the racists switched to the GOP.
No one said it was overnight, it has been a forty year molting, but as you can see, the Red Butterfly that emerged from that cocoon in the late 1990's has confederate flags on its wings, votes Republican and supports Donald Trump. Lamenting the slow shift doesn't defend against the facts on the ground today. They are DEEPLY red States all those districts that used to be Dixie blue exist no longer, now the only blue counties are the predominately black communities. So did all those rural whites who used to vote Dixiecrat sell their land and move? Of course not. So looking at the map today it is undeniable that those areas are DEEP Red now and have been for the last two decades. I'm not sure why you're arguing something that is so blatantly obvious.
And I am not sure why you are perpetrating a lie.
Because it's the honest truth and you know it and is backed up by clear evidence. All I've seen from the right to dispute it is some election results in the 60's and 70's that showed Dixiecrats still winning seats in the South for a time. Like I said, it wasn't overnight that the switch happened, a lot of them were set in their ways and it took time for the Republicans to chip away at them until they were able to convince the old racist Dixiecrats that the Republican party better suited them. It's why it was called the "Southern strategy" and not the "Southern Insta-flip". It took the better part of 30 years to complete the shift, and anyone denying the deep red power in Southern States given them by white Christian majorities, the same white Christian majorities that used to dominate the South with Dixiecrat blue who are now virtually all Republican red, either has an ulterior motive for denying the obvious, or should be getting government subsidies for their mental disability.
Democrats held power in much of the South until 2010.
I guess by that time, enough Southern Democrats you claim switched parties had died off, finally allowing a Republican takeover.
I get tired of people who seem to think the South is nothing but a bunch of redneck, uneducated hick racists
Sure, there were and are racists in the South---and everywhere else, too.
I'm not stupid enough to believe that being a racist determines what political party you belong to.
Nonsense. By 2000 Gore got none of the Southern States electoral college votes and even though Republicans didn't complete their total take over until 2010, they were very much in control long before that.
" Republicans gradually began doing better in presidential elections in the South starting in 1952 , Republicans did not finish taking over Southern politics at the nonpresidential level until the elections of November 2010." " Republicans control all 22 of the other legislative bodies in the former Confederacy , and all but one in a border state."
Great read on how Miami is investing millions in the fight against rising seas.
Miami’s fight against rising seas
IN DEPTH
GRAND CHALLENGES
Just down the coast from Donald Trump's weekend retreat, the residents and businesses of south Florida are experiencing regular episodes of water in the streets. In the battle against rising seas, the region – which has more to lose than almost anywhere else in the world – is becoming ground zero.
Maybe Miami should import some engineers from Holland.
As long as the Floridians remember that "Putting Your Finger in the Dyke" is NOT a sexual statement.
It is when you don't use the proper spelling...........DIKE.
LOL. I know. That cartoon surprised me.
Watch how fast Trump embraces climate change when his precious resort is threatened by it.
He already has in Ireland.
Tell me, is is the course paying for the sea barriers itself; or is it foisting the cost on the Irish tax payers?
If global warming is such a large concern why was the larger plan for sea barriers rejected by the Irish government?
I had forgotten all about that.
Sea level is only rising about a tenth of an inch a year. People can move gradually out of the water's way.
Tell that to the tens (hundreds) of millions of people who will have to move.
And storm surge is much higher than 1/10th of an inch.
"The city that floats" doesn't seem very floaty.
I'm in no danger of flooding by either Lake Erie or the Niagara River, but the levels of both are high. Also the wind has been crazy around here lately...read this....
Wind storm moves iron scow in Niagara Falls
One of the most incredible photos I once saw was when the Falls iced over.
In the daytime, or at night when they shine the coloured lights on it? I grew up in Ontario about a 3/4 hour drive from the falls, and have seen it many times.
The picture I saw was daytime. I bet the colored lights made it an over the top wow factor. I am going to try to find more picture. Thanks for the heads up.
Yet again a comment I posted, made sure it was posted, disappeared. Anyway, here it is again - the frozen Niagara Falls lit up at night.
All I can say is....WOW! Thank you for posting that picture. Nothing beats Mother Nature and lights.
Climate change is a myth. The people of Venice just need to pretend that the oceans aren't rising.
Trump is a climate denier except when it affects his real estate.
His application should have been denied with a simple note....You can't claim global warming when you don't believe in it.