Relief Agencies Being Overwhelmed

Earth Change Report - Issue 020 November 30 07

From the desk of Publisher/Editor Michael Knight.

Earth Change Report is not about being sensational when it comes to researching and reporting on earth changes.

While this newsletter focuses on "abrupt" change - sudden changes that are increasing in frequency - it takes this position from a science- and fact-related perspective.

Does science, and do the statistics support the contention that we now live in a world where changes are happening more frequently and with greater severity?

Yes.

For example - from Oxfam in Great Britain – a summary of this year’s climatic disasters.

"Climatic disasters are on the increase as the Earth warms up – in line with scientific observations and computer simulations that model future climate.

"2007 has been a year of climatic crises, especially floods, often of an unprecedented nature.

“They included Africa’s worst floods in three decades, unprecedented flooding in Mexico...

Right: An aerial view of Guanajuato in Mexico shows the devastated region where victims are being assisted by the Red Cross.

"The number of people affected by disasters has risen from an average of 174 million a year between 1985 to 1994 to 254 million a year between 1995 to 2004.

"There has been a six-fold increase in floods since 1980. The number of floods and wind-storms have risen from 60 in 1980 to 240 last year.
Left: Red Cross workers delivering relief items in Nayarit, Mexico.

"(there have been) massive floods in South Asia and heat waves and forest fires in Europe, Australia, and California.

"By mid November the United Nations had launched 15 ’flash appeals’, the greatest ever number in one year.

CARE Australia reports that "Monsoon weather and floods are affecting more than 20 million people across South Asia in what has been described by the UN as ‘the worst flooding in living memory’. Photo Bangladesh 2007 Jamil Ahmed/CARE"

"CARE is providing emergency relief in some of the most seriously affected regions."

CNN reports that A magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck Thursday in the Caribbean just off the coast of Martinique, setting off shaking that triggered a reading of a strong earthquake in California, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Earth Change Report subscribers span the world. Some live in places which so far have been relatively unaffected by disasters and cataclysms.

This means complacency may be the only danger we face. At least for now.Read the confession further on).

Some are also psychic - they see or know in advance that they should move.

After a Near Death Experience James foresaw a major earthquake in San Francisco - and moved. (Click here or on image to learn more/order DVD).

Consider the people of Bangladesh who were recently warned that Cyclone Sidr was heading their way. Thousands ignored the warning because a previous warning had not resulted in any serious damage.Thousands then lost their lives, and the survivors are right now battling starvation, disease, and - would you believe it - water shortages.

But there are people who are becoming aware - waking up, considering the future, planning to make changes - and at the same time, helping others to see the big picture as well.

I have been corresponding with a friend in Indonesia for several years. His country is in my opinion right in the hot zone of earth changes.

There are many volcanoes there, lots of earthquakes lately, and of course tens of thousands lost their lives in the Banda Aceh tsunami.

I asked Sunarta to write something for ECR and he took the challenge.

His grasp of English is much better than my understanding of Indonesian. But his English is nowhere near perfect. However, what we writers call "voice" comes through loud, clear, and verty sincerely.

Therefore, I have not edited what he has written to make it 'proper English.'

It's about the message, not the messenger.

(You may changing the words or sentences to become more English :-) )

As you asked for my opinion of Climate Change.

Although my English writing is not so well, but I try the best as I could.

So many day I figure it out to write some think regarding the Climate Change and evantually the Earth Change.

I try to start with the recent event which is occurred near by my area, particularly 300km eastern of my city where I'm living, It's Kuningan.

It's never happened before as long our history record that we have reported hurricane strikes followed by snow.

Yes absolute snow in tropical island, while in my city there also had storm strikes with speed 73km/hour.

Obviously I'm located in Java island of Indonesia, west side of Bali island.

Not too long ago there is the twister on coastline of Bali island as well, this is never happened before.

Instead many active volcanoes roaring their activities, movements of tectonic plates what we called the ring of fire.

New disaster almost in every month strikes at almost every corner in my country.

All of these events starting from the first major catastrophic of tsunami in Aceh several years ago which had 250,000 people end their lives.

One of active volcano which is in intense monitoring also located between Kuningan and Bali since couple months ago it's called mount Merapi and also mount Anak Krakatau.

People around these area are too weak to do some think for them selves.

Many thing make them like this, sort of their cultures, their "beliefs, and the goverment theirself running out the bugdet for handling sort of this kind of problems.

In fact the goverment have not ready been facing those events and the event to come, yet.

You may using search engine with quote Indonesia Volcano. And a lot of active volcanoes reported which is even me, my self did not realize it happend around me.

In August 10 minutes past midnight I have my personal experienced of being tremble by Earth Quake, although it's only 4,6SR, but it is the first time in my life as well as my parent.

Feels scary. The roof creates sound, like low frequency due to the movement.

As you said Michael. be well.

Love,

- Sunarta.

And this from Brett in South Africa:-

Hi there Michael

"I am not sure if you have been watching the weather or the news in this part of the far south, but last week was the biggest floods that has taken place in the last 200 years according to some sources.

"In the past this kind of rainfall has taken place every 3 to 6 years and now it has happened the last 3 years in a row... That is no mere co-incidence. Check out the following news bulletins.

"Keep up the great work."

-Brett.

South Africa Nov 23:"As rescue personnel in the Overberg and Southern Cape brace themselves for a third day of torrential rain which has already 'wreaked absolute havoc', the southern Karoo could be next in line for widespread flooding.

"Power failures, road closures, water-filled houses and the evacuation of residents have plagued the areas already battered by rain. On Wednesday, more than 200 homes had been damaged by rain, and scores of people evacuated."

How Much Of This Is Caused By The Approach Of Planet X?


This is a Greenpeace web site animation of the North Pacific Gyre - circulating ocean currents.

"It has been estimated," says Greenpeace, "that over a million sea-birds and one hundred thousand marine mammals and sea turtles are killed each year by ingestion of plastics or entanglement."

Who knows how accurate those numbers are. Most organizations with a vested interest in their own agenda either inflate or deflate the numbers for public consumption as a matter of course.

Case in point - the global estimate of AIDs victims was suddenly cut in half this week - coincidentally just a few days before World AIDS Awareness Day. Like - we should believe they've got a grip on the problem? No way.

And it's the same with the pollution of our oceans. Out of sight, out of mind is the way such things are handled.

"As suggested by the name, the island is almost entirely comprises human-made trash.

"It currently weighs approximately 3.5 million tons with a concentration of 3.34 million pieces of garbage per square kilometer, 80 per cent of which is plastic.

"Cleaning up the Patch will likely cost billions of dollars and, as an approximation, be more difficult than vacuuming every inch of the United States."

Should we be surprised then that undersea volcanoes are becoming more active? Personally, I see that as one way in which Nature is doing what it can to clean itself up.

But there are other side effects as well.

London, Nov 28: " A new study has found out that volcanic eruptions might lead to an increase in global sea level."

Meanwhile, back in the jungle (USA)- "A predicted sea level rise of greater than 3 feet could inundate the Delta and flood portions of west Stockton by the end of the century unless levees protecting the city are strengthened, experts say."

The Delta and Stockton are inland from San Francisco. The Delta is as much as 28 feet below sea level.

Having Said All That - Let Me Say This

A short power outage is enough to make you realize how well you are not prepared. Especially if you wake up in the early morning and the house is pitch black.

Imagine. Only one flashlight that works.

The five gallon water container is empty because we tipped it out and didn’t refill it – it was taking up “too much room” in the laundry.

All but one of the decorative oil-fired lamps in the house is empty (they might be a fire hazard) – and we’re not sure which one has the oil in it.

Ahh…but we do have candles here and there. Good job.

And there’s enough pressure in the water system to flush the toilet once….uh oh…that could’ve waited.

Good! There’s enough pressure left to half fill the kettle.

But what are we going to boil it on? We have two (yes two) yard sale RV gas stoves. But neither of them is yet connected to a gas bottle.

And it seems like more trouble than it’s worth just now to get into my saddle bags and haul out the solid-fuel “Carricook” that burns a pellet of some sort which will heat baked beans in a few minutes, or boil water in no time.

Instead, we remember we also have a big gas fired unit that we also picked up at a yard sale.

It’s the sort of thing that pumps out a huge flame. People use them for boiling those big turkey pots or down at the beach to cook those crabs they have hunted for in the super-polluted mud of Puget Sound. Yuk!

Sitting in the dark in the tack room (the smoker’s haven) sipping a hot cup of tea provides time to reflect on one’s real state of readiness.

It’s almost an embarrassment.

Fortunately, the one flashlight we had in the house is one of those shaker models with LED bulbs. It won’t go flat, and it throws sufficient light when stood on its tail end to enable one to find the pipe and tobacco and proceed with the morning ritual.

I’ve left Judith in the house in candle light, both of us grateful that we have a wood fire insert which holds its embers overnight and can be rebuilt quickly in the morning. A smoky unit though, and certainly not a cook stove like those good old units that can make you completely independent when it comes to heating and cooking.

I recall a hunting shack I used to use way back when. It had such a stove.

Very useful for frying venison back straps or slow cooking a hind quarter stuffed with garlic slivers. Put it in the oven when you leave the hut in the morning and when you come back (with another deer on your back of course) you have a perfect meal waiting for you.

Or…if you’re not using the oven for cooking…light a candle or two, sit back in a rickety old chair, listen to the rain on the roof gradually turning to snow, take your boots off, open the oven door and stick your feet in there. Nice and warm indeed.

There’s also a peacefulness associated with being temporarily without power. The freezer isn’t humming. The fluorescent lights aren’t buzzing. Daylight is not competing with those sodium “security lights” that sit outside – their function is, I have sometimes thought, simply to give burglars a better shot at not tripping over stuff as they come and go. (Not that there’d be any ‘go’ if they came to my place. The “Beware of the Dog” sign is not about a Chihuahua).

Ritual and reminiscing completed, I return to the house and Judith and I go through our files and get out our list of the First One Hundred Things To Disappear.

I clipped this from George Ure's UrbanSurvival.com web site - but he in turn got it elsewhere.

This one was apparently drawn up by a survivor of the Sarajevo war. But it is relevant to any crisis situation, from a mere short-term blackout to something like an economic depression (which is looming in front of us by the way; George Ure can explain the why and when) to any sort of natural disaster.

Feel free to copy clip and paste for your own use as well....

100 Items to Disappear First

1. Generators (Good ones cost dearly. Gas storage, risky. Noisy...target of thieves; maintenance etc.)

2. Water Filters/Purifiers

3. Portable Toilets

4. Seasoned Firewood. Wood takes about 6 - 12 months to become dried, for home uses.

5. Lamp Oil, Wicks, Lamps (First Choice: Buy CLEAR oil. If scarce, stockpileANY!)

6. Coleman Fuel. Impossible to stockpile too much.

7. Guns, Ammunition, Pepper Spray, Knives, Clubs, Bats & Slingshots.

8. Hand-can openers, & hand egg beaters, whisks.

9. Honey/Syrups/white, brown sugar

10. Rice - Beans - Wheat

11. Vegetable Oil (for cooking) Without it food burns/must be boiled etc.,)

12. Charcoal, Lighter Fluid (Will become scarce suddenly)

13. Water Containers (Urgent Item to obtain.) Any size. Small: HARD CLEAR PLASTIC ONLY - note - food grade if for drinking.

(No idea what happened to 14 and 15...they disappeared....)

16. Propane Cylinders (Urgent: Definite shortages will occur.

17. Survival Guide Book.

18. Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.)

19. Baby Supplies: Diapers/formula. ointments/aspirin, etc.

20. Washboards, Mop Bucket w/wringer (for Laundry)

21. Cookstoves (Propane, Coleman & Kerosene)

22. Vitamins

23. Propane Cylinder Handle-Holder (Urgent: Small canister use is dangerous without this item)

24. Feminine Hygiene/Haircare/Skin products.

25. Thermal underwear (Tops & Bottoms)

26. Bow saws, axes and hatchets, Wedges (also, honing oil)

27. Aluminum Foil Reg. & Heavy Duty (Great Cooking and Barter Item)

28. Gasoline Containers (Plastic & Metal)

29. Garbage Bags (Impossible To Have Too Many).

30. Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels

31. Milk - Powdered & Condensed (Shake Liquid every 3 to 4 months)

32. Garden Seeds (Non-Hybrid) (A MUST)

33. Clothes pins/line/hangers (A MUST)

34. Coleman's Pump Repair Kit

35. Tuna Fish (in oil)

36. Fire Extinguishers (or..large box of Baking Soda in every room)

37. First aid kits

38. Batteries (all sizes...buy furthest-out for Expiration Dates)

39. Garlic, spices & vinegar, baking supplies

40. Big Dogs (and plenty of dog food)

41. Flour, yeast & salt

42. Matches. {"Strike Anywhere" preferred.) Boxed, wooden matches will go first

43. Writing paper/pads/pencils, solar calculators

44. Insulated ice chests (good for keeping items from freezing in Wintertime.)

45. Workboots, belts, Levis & durable shirts

46. Flashlights/LIGHTSTICKS & torches, "No. 76 Dietz" Lanterns

47. Journals, Diaries & Scrapbooks (jot down ideas, feelings, experience;Historic Times)

48. Garbage cans Plastic (great for storage, water, transporting - if withwheels)

49. Men's Hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers,etc

50. Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient)

51. Fishing supplies/tools

52. Mosquito coils/repellent, sprays/creams

53. Duct Tape

54. Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes

55. Candles

56. Laundry Detergent (liquid)

57. Backpacks, Duffel Bags

58. Garden tools & supplies

59. Scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies

60. Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc.

61. Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite)

62. Canning supplies, (Jars/lids/wax)

63. Knives & Sharpening tools: files, stones, steel

64. Bicycles...Tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc

65. Sleeping Bags & blankets/pillows/mats

66. Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered)

67. Board Games, Cards, Dice

68. d-con Rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, Roach Killer

69. Mousetraps, Ant traps & cockroach magnets

70. Paper plates/cups/utensils (stock up, folks)

71. Baby wipes, oils, waterless & Antibacterial soap (saves a lot of water)

72. Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc.

73. Shaving supplies (razors & creams, talc, after shave)

74. Hand pumps & siphons (for water and for fuels)

75. Soysauce, vinegar, bullions/gravy/soupbase

76. Reading glasses

77. Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers)

78. "Survival-in-a-Can"

79. Woolen clothing, scarves/ear-muffs/mittens

80. Boy Scout Handbook, / also Leaders Catalog

81. Roll-on Window Insulation Kit (MANCO)

82. Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, Trail mix/Jerky

83. Popcorn, Peanut Butter, Nuts

84. Socks, Underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras)

85. Lumber (all types)

86. Wagons & carts (for transport to and from)

87. Cots & Inflatable mattress's

88. Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc.

89. Lantern Hangers

90. Screen Patches, glue, nails, screws,, nuts & bolts

91. Teas

92. Coffee

93. Cigarettes

94. Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc,)

95. Paraffin wax

96. Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc.

97. Chewing gum/candies

98. Atomizers (for cooling/bathing)

99. Hats & cotton neckerchiefs

100. Goats/chickens (funny)

From a Sarajevo War Survivor:

Experiencing horrible things that can happen in a war - death of parents and friends, hunger and malnutrition, endless freezing cold, fear, sniper attacks.

1. Stockpiling helps. but you never no how long trouble will last, so locate near renewable food sources.

2. Living near a well with a manual pump is like being in Eden.

3. After awhile, even gold can lose its luster. But there is no luxury in war quite like toilet paper. Its surplus value is greater than gold's.

4. If you had to go without one utility, lose electricity - it's the easiest to do without (unless you're in a very nice climate with no need for heat.)

5. Canned foods are awesome, especially if their contents are tasty without heating. One of the best things to stockpile is canned gravy - it makes a lot of the dry unappetizing things you find to eat in war somewhat edible. Only needs enough heat to "warm", not to cook. It's cheap too, especially if you buy it in bulk.

6. Bring some books - escapist ones like romance or mysteries become more valuable as the war continues. Sure, it's great to have a lot of survival guides, but you'll figure most of that out on your own anyway - trust me, you'll have a lot of time on your hands.

7. The feeling that you're human can fade pretty fast. I can't tell you how many people I knew who would have traded a much needed meal for just a little bit of toothpaste, rouge, soap or cologne. Not much point in fighting if you have to lose your humanity. These things are morale-builders like nothing else.

8. Slow burning candles and matches, matches, matches