Climate Change- Pay now or pay later.

With the extremists on the right still screaming that climate change is a myth perpetuated by ‘libruls’, our government is still sitting on it’s proverbial hands.

Inaction on this front could become very, very costly. It’s the pay me now, or pay me a lot more later scenario. There is a new report out (pdf) that attempts to lay out what American’s will end up paying if we don’t get in gear and make sizable changes in how we deal with climate change NOW. From the Union of Concerned Scientists:

If global warming emissions continue to rise unabated, we will see growing costs related to climate change. This fact sheet reports some of the projected damages—to our coasts, our health, our energy and water resources, our agriculture, our transportation infrastructure, and our recreational resources—that will occur in states and regions throughout the United States.

Here in Cali’s San Joaquin Valley, we already see the effects of climate change on agriculture, our number one job creator. The state is literally running out of water. Actually, it’s been running out of water for years..decades even. We are now rationing water, which means the farmers are not getting enough water to plant all of their farmland.

This means fewer jobs and less food just for starters. From the MSNBC writeup in Feb of this year:

Federal water managers said Friday that they plan to cut off water, at least temporarily, to thousands of California farms as a result of the deepening drought gripping the state.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said parched reservoirs and patchy rainfall this year were forcing them to completely stop surface water deliveries for at least a two-week period beginning March 1. Authorities said they haven’t had to take such a drastic move for more than 15 years.

*snip*

Farmers in the nation’s No. 1 agriculture state predicted it would cause consumers to pay more for their fruits and vegetables, which would have to be grown using expensive well water.

“Water is our life — it’s our jobs and it’s our food,” said Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the farm bureau in Fresno County. “Without a reliable water supply, Fresno County’s No. 1 employer — agriculture — is at great risk.”

The drought would cause an estimated $1.15 billion dollar loss in agriculture-related wages and eliminate as many as 40,000 jobs in farm-related industries in the San Joaquin Valley alone, where most of the nation’s produce and nut crops are grown.

Any move by the Fed worsens the problem here in the valley. The state has already started rationing to all cities and farming areas. The Governator and the state assembly can not, for the life of them, come to an agreement on how to deal with the problem of not enough water. Fuckers are dancing around the problem and playing politics at the same time. From the Mercury-News link:

Democrats and Republicans have tangled over water issues for years, pushing off decisions while conditions have worsened for farmers, water districts and wildlife. The trouble is especially acute in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the water conduit for two-thirds of the state’s residents.

Federal courts and agencies have ordered severe reductions in pumping to protect the delta’s collapsing ecosystem.

During negotiations, lawmakers have disagreed over protection of water rights, mandatory conservation standards for cities, groundwater monitoring of private water supplies, who should make water decisions in the delta and how to pay for the infrastructure and restoration efforts requested by lawmakers.

So, we are damned if we do, damned if we don’t solve this problem. How do you feel about paying 10 bucks for a pound of broccoli, or any other veggie or fruit grown here in Cali? The price hikes also hit the dairy and beef farmers as they are having a hard time finding feed for their cattle and cows at a price that doesn’t bankrupt them. Guess what..they pass the costs on to us, the consumer.

Because the less we grow, the more you will pay for what is grown. The citizens of Cali are now paying exorbitant rates for their suburban water needs, plus higher food prices.

Sucks don’t it? And the shit hasn’t even hit the proverbial fan yet..not by a long-shot.

This post is part of the Blog Action Day on Climate Change.
 Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Regarding the Live Earth sponsors…

One..lol..is Chevy. Does anyone else see the irony in this? They are one of the 3 sponsors for the online webcast.

The same manufacturer that lobby’s their fucking ass off against clean air, and better cafe’ standards for our vehicles. They fight us tooth and nail to switch to alternative methods of powering the all-mighty automobile…

But aside from a little hypocrisy there, it was, contrary to the reichwingers I read today whilst surfing…a big success. Every venue, and I watched them all, was filled with Giants stadium packed like sardines. So anyone on the right that didn’t actually watch it can kiss my sweet ass. The LAT has a decent writeup about it here.

The band Nunatak from Antarctica performed live from..Antartica. The band’s performance of their self-written song “Would You Do It All Again” was beamed into the stadium from the scientists’ (and part-time musicians’) research station on the frozen continent. The band performed in fingerless gloves, parkas and knit caps from atop a glowing icecap in sub-zero weather with a pale pink Antarctic sky as their backdrop.-It was freaking awesome.

There was plenty of recycled materials used to build the stage and backdrops, like recycled vehicle tires. They also bombarded the crowds with constant messages about the 7 simple things they can do to make our world a better place for everyone. It was quite well done and quite constant..perhaps I would of hated it if I was at the concert, but it wasn’t very distracting online…but that WAS the point of the concerts..awareness.

LIVE EARTH’S GREEN HOSTING

AISO.Net is the only 100% solar powered data center in the world. We have been serving clients worldwide for 10 years. Our specialty is web site hosting and suppling dedicated servers for our clients applications. We are currently the only public data center that is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council and was featured in Inc. Magazines’ Top 50 Green Companies. Solar panels power our office and data center. Our data center was built to environmentally friendly standards using 100% recycled products when ever possible. All network and server hardware is fully redundant with 24×7-automated systems monitoring to ensure the highest possible uptime. Using solar panels to power our data center and network, AISO.Net is the first and only 100% completely solar powered web hosting company providing web site hosting, e-commerce, domain name registration, dedicated servers and co-locate servers. Proving our commitment to be the best, most reliable eco-friendly hosting company in the world. We are doing everything we can do to be totally responsible and being the industry leader in environmental web hosting. We are very excited about our membership in the U.S. Green Building Council, showing the world that AISO.Net truly cares about our environment.-Isn’t that neat? I had no fucking idea folks!

I wanted to see Roger Waters..don’t ya know, they held him till the end of the NYC show. But that’s ok, I thought it was well worth the wait.

Anyone else watch some of it?

Tags: Live Earth, Climate Change, Concert for Climate Crisis