Sinister 'hunger stones' with dire warnings have surfaced as water levels drop(businessinsider.com) |
Sinister 'hunger stones' with dire warnings have surfaced as water levels drop(businessinsider.com) |
>> Also, because of a dam on a tributary of the Elbe, it's seen more often now than it used to be — although the current river levels are still exceptional.
[1] https://www.npr.org/2018/08/24/641331544/drought-in-central-...
https://www.sciencealert.com/sinister-hunger-stones-dire-war...
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/03/ancient-tsunami-warnin...
"If you see me, you will weep. So low was the water in 2018."
In fact I found this study that proves that history does repeat.
https://www.clim-past.net/9/1985/2013/cp-9-1985-2013.pdf
Thankfully, due to technological advancement though - it is nowhere near as damaging as it once was - in fact now these are barely a blip on the radar on human life. In times past, it is easy to forget that a simple drought halted all commerce, caused great famines, and without transportation and local food sources available, people were dying.
Just take a look at the history and see the trend lines for the evidence of improvement that advancements like electricity and internal combustion have given us:
https://ourworldindata.org/famines
Here's one for technology!
Great! Hope you're not wrong. The vast majority of people who are in the best positions to know think you are.
Do you believe in Venus?
Is this some weird Czech euphemism?
I spend a lot of time in Guatemala at Lago Atitlan. Only the white people live at water level, the indigenous generally live up higher given the ever changing water line. Probably a combo of white colonialists 'know better' mindset + more $$ so it's not as much as a big deal (waterfront premium as a vacation versus subsistence home).
Too bad we repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
"If you see me, you will weep. So barren was our ocean in 2018."
If only, the Reef is likely irreversibly dying by now.
Any other applications?
Obviously it's not record-breaking now is it? They were here before and left a warning in stone.
The cause of the current drought is record levels of heat. Despite statistically high levels of rain fall, the temperature of the region is so high that the rivers are drying up anyway.
[1]: Report about draught from Czech meteorological agency, http://www.chmi.cz/files/portal/docs/tiskove_zpravy/2018/TZ_...
Climate science is much more complex than isolated data points such as a local temperature or river level, and to counter multivariate studies with anecdotal reductionism is the tool of demagogues.
And given that the stones explicitly warn of catastrophe associated with the drought it doesn’t seem like a too common occurrence.
(Also, on an unrelated note, it’s important not to confuse drought (for which there’s precedence) with global warming and recent heat waves (for which there isn’t precedence). The two are probably connected but they’re not the same.)
Why the unrelated note? Why assume I am an idiot?
Methinks science has taken a backseat to rhetoric, regardless of the substance of the story.
http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/content/news/Lake-Superi...
The lake was also getting dirty. Actually saw a documentary the other day on how this has only gotten worse. Some terrible pictures of how the lake looks at certain times of the year.
--
There are periodic 'outbreaks' where the bacteria (I think I don't know it might be some other organism) cover the lake and kill it even further. It's very sad.
If you don't know the history, it was actually white Americans that decided it would be a great idea to bring in non-native fish to turn the lake into a fishing tourist destination. Ended up killing the ecosystem. Combined with a growing population moving to towns around the lake instead of the high farmlands, waste dumping straight into the lake, and very little ecosystem left to clean itself up I'm afraid the lake is in dire need of help.
There was a study recently by the Rotary that examined possible solutions and they came up with building hydro power (the lake sits a a high elevation with a natural 'dam'; it's almost perfectly setup already for this). I forget the mechanism but somehow this was one ID'ed as a top opportunity to clean up the lake, I assume since it would generate revenue.
The problem is corruption and $$$. Everyone has their hand out and there are countless examples of past efforts of small and large scale projects failing for lack of organization and corruption.
I think estimates for the hydro plant was low couple hundred million. It seems so doable especially right now (leverage China vs. Israel/US/Taiwan).
Except for the corruption.
Not sure if I believe this is a bright side or a dire warning: there is a loud and coordinated attack on the CIGIC even in US media big papers are publishing opinion pieces. It's disgusting to me given all that CIGIC has accomplished.
But the potential bright side is clearly the corrupt power class is very worried and maybe with the protection of a few US politicians and Israel CIGIC can fully clean house and Guatemala can continue to improve.
Anyways sorry about this reply again, I started to write a short reply and couldn't stop I'm sure you're not interested but I clearly am lol
For example, regular and reliable temperature records only go back to the late 1800s, so any “record breaking” temperature just means it hasn’t happened since 1888 or whatever.
This thread spun off into pedantry when you used the phrase "record breaking drought".
I know that there have been record breaking temperatures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_European_heat_wave comments that in Germany "Both April and May set new temperature records as the warmest April and May since modern record-keeping began in 1881."
Note the 'modern record-keeping' associated with 'new temperature records', and that those records are only 150 years old.
It's certainly true that there are older weather records. 10.1023/A:1005505113244 describes weather journals including one which covers the drought of 1540, which was "the most outstanding" one of the last half of the 1000s. 10.1007/s10584-014-1184-2 is "Based on more than 300 first-hand documentary weather report sources" from that time, to describe the 11-month-long Megadrought of 1540.
So, who are you quoting when you use the phrase 'record breaking drought', and what definition are they using?
I’m calling it “unrelated” because I’m giving you the benefit of doubt — in other words, I don’t assume you’re an idiot. But, on the other hand, this is a fairly common confusion that was repeatedly made by the press and otherwise informed people over the course of the summer. So it’s not that unrelated. (And just to clarify, those people still aren’t idiots. But they’re wrong.)
Edit: oops the rest of my comment contradicted my first part.
Quoting the article on which this comment is being made.
The phrases are: 1) "They are known as the "hunger stones," and they were chosen in the past to record low water levels", 2) "As Europe wilts in the sweltering, record-breaking harshness of summer 2018", 3) "with water levels hitting record lows in Europe".
The last two provide links where I think it's clear that they refer to modern record keeping, eg, daily measurements of temperature, rainfall, water depth, etc.