Missouri Floods Raise Concerns for the Gulf, Drinking Water

The Ohio and Mississippi River levels were falling Wednesday at the site where engineers blasted holes in a Missouri levee to relieve pressure. But unleashing torrents of water across 35 miles of farmland in what has already been a terrible flooding season could carry other consequences.

One risk, scientists cautioned, is fertilizer runoff from the flooded farm country along the Mississippi. As it moves downstream, they predicted it would contribute to the largest-ever summertime depletion of oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico, posing a substantial risk to marine life.

The concern is that the water is likely pulling up components of fertilizers-notably nitrogen and phosphorus-and washing them downstream toward the Gulf, helping slash oxygen to levels marine life can't survive, said Nancy Rabalais, a marine scientist who is executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium on the Gulf coast.

Those chemicals act as nutrients in the Gulf, intensifying the growth of microscopic plants. Microbes eat away at those plants. In the process, they consume oxygen, reducing it to levels that kill marine life.

View the Original article

Ignoring the Obvious: The Floods and Fires, the Droughts and Disasters Will Continue

By Al Jazeera
Common Dreams, August 12, 2010
Straight to the Source

You may know I've just returned from Niger. There, tens of thousandsof people are facing extreme hunger because of the droughts of the lasttwo years.

The rainy season is under way but the rains around thecapital of Niamey have been torrential and persistent. It's not what isneeded. The water is not nourishing the soil. It's washing away thecrops. It's washing away homes. It is destroying lives.

Thetrouble there comes as Pakistan struggles to cope with the worst floodssince the creation of the state. Millions of people are homeless. TheUN predicts the devastation will be worse than the Asian Tsunami, whichstruck several countries.

Torrential rain has swept throughChina. The official death toll is creeping up all the time. It is goingto be in the thousands. Mudslides have brought havoc to many placesacross the country's northwest.

In Russia's capital, Moscow,forest fires - started in scorching hot temperatures - have left theair quality so poor, the authorities are telling people who cannotleave the city to stay indoors.

In Greenland, a mass of ice hasbroken away from a glacier. Four times the size of Manhattan Island;it's the biggest iceberg in more than half a century. Scientists sayarctic ice is melting at record pace and 16 countries have recordedrecord temperatures this year.

Yet despite the evidence of floodsand flames, of drought and danger, there is no concerted internationalaction towards reaching an agreement on the best way to fight climatechange.

View the Original article