8 Comments

1. 

   zip on February 25, 2023 at 1:49 pm

   Hello Panopticon

   1.Yes the drought and warming is keeping the minds here in France very busy. From Macron to numerous ministers. There will be a big plan for water management with numerous measures and an emphasis on austerity. At the same time, a commission has been set up to design models and indicate what the consequences will be with a 4-degree temperature rise!

   Christophe Bechu the minister of ecology stated
   “Preparing our country for 4°C means anticipating a lot of changes. At 4°C, two thirds of ski resorts in the Alps will have no snow, (…) we will have five times more drought, (…) much more intense heat wave periods”. The minister brought together the central directorates of his ministry, including energy and climate, and risk prevention, along with Météo France, the Environment and Energy Management Agency, the Centre for Studies and Expertise on Risks, Environment, etc.

   An additional serious problem that after agriculture, cooling of thermal reactors is the biggest consumer. Already, plants have to be shut down with regularity due to too low water levels and too high water temperatures. 80% of the 54 reactors are now cooled by river water, most of them by ‘ rain rivers’. Moreover, hydro_generation declined by 25% last year due to drought…;

   Macron who opened the major agricultural fair in Paris today gave guarantees for agriculture and food independence He stated “We must all “pay attention to this resource that is becoming scarce (…) it is the end of abundance, we must move towards frugal behaviour in our practices”.

   In short, very serious issues hammered into the public on a daily basis 🙂

   2. About the Enaira, I found some articles. Remains omplex in a chaotic country with a failed state. Elections are not going to change that.

   3. About Suriname today an interesting article on oilprice. It gives a good insight into the technical problems oa with the unwanted bycatch of gas at off-shore oil fields and the financial risks involved.
   The ‘oil boom’ is disappearing further and further behind the horizon for Suriname.

   https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Surinames-Oil-Boom-May-Not-Materialize-Until-2027.html

   • 

     Panopticon on February 25, 2023 at 6:59 pm

     Thanks for the links, Zip.

     Re France, Macron’s words about this being the end of the age of abundance ring in my years – and now he has used that same word again about water. You wonder how much real understanding lies behind those statements:

     “”The nation needs to do regarding water as has been done in the field of energy, a form of sobriety plan. That is to say that we must all — citizens, industrialists, services, local authorities, farmers — pay attention to this resource which is becoming rare. This is what I said at the end of the summer, it is the end of abundance,” the French leader declared.”

     https://www.euronews.com/2023/02/25/macron-says-it-is-the-end-of-water-abundance-as-he-opens-french-agricultural-show

2. 

   VPK on February 25, 2023 at 2:04 pm

   Read Dr. James Hansen book Storms of My Grandchildren over a decade ago and apparently what he forecasted is coming into being today. Not good at all.
   Dr. Guy McPherson also feels the planet is in Hospice care and judging from the events we are seeing maybe sooner then later…
   Enjoying summertime temperatures today….hope you do also, wherever you may be.

   • 

     Panopticon on February 25, 2023 at 7:02 pm

     Vince, these winter heatwaves are eerie – mainland Europe in the New Year; now northern India and eastern US. The UK achieved its hottest winter temp in 2019:

     “The UK has experienced its warmest winter day on record, the Met Office has revealed. Temperatures in Kew Gardens, south-west London, reached 21.2C (70.2F).”

     https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/26/uk-hottest-winter-day-ever

3. 

   Rain on February 25, 2023 at 11:04 pm

   I remember water restrictions, but Australia is no stranger to long megadroughts and “water austerity”. The 2000s, were the worst in my lifetime, but even with abundant water *now* all these years later. …the enforcement of those then “new” habits during that decade persist long after the ’emergency’.

   “Odds and Evens” laws based on your street number for outdoor water usage, and every highway and main road signs displaying reservoir level warnings instead of speed limits! No home car washing, and commercial car-washes could only operate by reusing 24 hour max water limits, so people lined up to get the ‘freshest’ water first thing in the mornings. Saturation public service announcements on fixing leaking taps and ads for timer ‘drip’ garden watering systems.
   Laws against watering outdoors gardens during daytime hours, and neighbours reporting their neighbours for breaking the rules.

   White goods like washing machines, dishwashers etc have ever since had 2 ratings, one for energy efficiency, and one for water efficiency.

   Subsidies for installation of “half-flush” toilets, and “water-saving” shower heads and taps, extraordinary fines for “excess water use”. People filling in their swimming pools, city fountains replaced with rockeries and sculptures. The list goes on.

   We *learned* new habits with carrots and sticks.

   Hopefully it won’t be too painful for Europe?

   • 

     zip on February 26, 2023 at 12:57 pm

     hello Rain,

     What interests me is whether the restrictive measures have led to less consumption even in the somewhat longer term and whether the price of water has increased?

     One of the problems here in France is the lack of maintenance. Once the pipes were laid…. in my village, by the way, only in 1971, before that everyone drew water from the two wells. But now after 50 years, nobody really knows exactly how and where those pipes run. So in case there? is a leak somewhere, the water pressure is simply increased.

     That leads to huge drinking water loss. The average efficiency of drinking water distribution networks is estimated at nearly 80%. Leakage is therefore around 20%: for every 5 litres of water distributed, 1 litre of water returns to the natural environment without passing through the consumer. Leakage losses thus represent nearly one billion m3.

     To completely renew the once constructed network is prohibitive. It is actually the same problem as can be seen on all kinds of once constructed networks from roads, railways to electricity

     • 

       Rain on February 26, 2023 at 2:31 pm

       I hear you zip 🙁
       Some of our infrastructure is poorly maintained, but not water/waste management, in my local city.
       The oldest parts of the big coastal cities have issues where they were laid before WW2.
       During the 2000s drought, we had deliberate reduction in mains pressures during the daytime hours, staggered around regions in 2-hourly blocks. Eg. My district had 10am-12 noon every other day, when having a shower or running a washing machine etc was a futile exercise. Enough pressure to slowly fill a kettle for a cuppa was about all you would get. Every last water meter was replaced, easy to check yourself if there is any leakages. If numbers are ticking over on the display, no matter how slowly, you have a leak somewhere on your property. The district “nodes” (little boxes) on street corners (instead of fire hydrants – our fire hydrants are underground accessed through panels in the roadside)) are under constant monitoring by some kind of “remote” computer system. Occasionally, I’ve been woken up in the small hours with the water company coming out to repair a leak.

       Always was a dry low rainfall country below the tropic line, rainwater tanks are now standard on new builds.

       A popular poem we are all taught in primary school, “My country”…written in 1905 or thereabouts… has the lines
       I love a sunburnt country
       A land of sweeping plains
       Of rugged mountain ranges
       Of droughts, And Flooding Rains”

       As a child, I remember it hadn’t rained in 4 years, when it suddenly started raining at school, we all ran outside dancing in the rain coming down. Some of the littlest kids were terrified, they had never seen rain before! That’s how I got my nickname from my dad, “Rain” short for ‘little rainsinger’.

       I guess as a country, we learned .. the hard way..over a century or more since the convicts, about water, and fire prevention.

       It’s well maintained too. Quarterly water bills, with mains inspections every quarter. Power lines and connections get inspected every 6-12 months too. I just got my letter today, demanding their regular routine access to any power/water/sewer infrastructure bordering, or, on my property.

       I pay enough in local government taxes, so it better well be maintained!! 🙂

4. 

   Rain on February 27, 2023 at 1:54 am

   Just to add, Australia is lucky with its demographics and geography – despite its extreme climate from even before ‘global warming’ was ever coined. It is a small population within a very large land mass. Roughly the same size as mainland USA, which also covers more than the total of UK, Scandinavia, and all of western, southern and central-eastern Europe up to Russian borders with plenty left of space left over.

   With only 25 million population – and almost half (12 million) in just 2 large cities, and another 10 million in 3 more mid-size cities – ie. approximately 80% of the population in just 5 cities separated by huge distances. Perth in western Australia, is the planet’s “most isolated city”. I remember landing there in my youth and thinking of staying as my ‘forever home’, until one day I ventured into the hills for th spring wildflower season surrounding the city with gorgeous long-distance views – and turned in a full circle and realised it was at least 4,000 kms from anywhere else! LOL Visiting family on the eastern side would have been a once every 2-3+ years trip with that distance. I may as well have moved to London! LOL In the years I worked for the fed govt, and travelled extensively – I always hated the long flights to Perth – always sending us plebs on the cheapest overnight ‘redeye’ 🙂

   About 1/4 to 1/3 of the total land mass concentrated in the Eastern third is agricultural land – through the long, wide Murray-Darling river basin. We not only feed ourselves well, but much of the world as well – or used to, LOL!! until the last 3 years with the worst La Nina system ever known – but no food shortages for us yet, despite rising inflation due to FF transport costs and so on — but agricultural exports $$ are well down, with whatever spare, going to our nearest neighbours in the Pacific as Foreign AID.

   Even with demographics, we also have an ageing population too, but previous governments recognised that back in the 1990s — and planned ahead for it economically, and because it was staged and phased in gradually over 20+ years it didn’t cause much protest like we see in France at the moment. Along with immigration – in the 1970s, we took in more Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees arriving on leaky boats than the US or any other country. They are now large 3rd and 4th generation communities.

   I just arrived home from visiting the local GP medical clinic for my annual blood tests, and the list of GPs are all Middle-Eastern or South Asian doctors – and one Eastern-European woman who I usually see 🙂 Before I found her, I saw a young Dutch guy doctor, who got stuck here with his wife and young kids while on family holiday during CoVID, and decided to stay on 🙂

   What we call OTDs (Overseas Trained-Doctors) have to work in the public health system in “specified regions of doctor shortage” – for 5 years, before they can get residency/citizenship and move private if they so wish.

   We don’t take so many boatloads of immigrants now of course – we are turning back the leaky refugee boats too like everywhere else — but certain skilled ones, even agricultural labourers from *anywhere* get through the visa paperwork pretty quickly now CoVID is over — while we aren’t anything like ‘saints’ in treating our migrant workers — relatively speaking, they get a far better deal than those in western Europe or the US. And I was surprised when international airports opened again, the thousands of international students along with ‘gap year’ kids arrived in droves again with their backpacks.

   and still – at the last census, 40% of the population were either born overseas or first generation of parents born overseas. Our most popular non-official national anthem – “I Am Australian” has a chorus line “We are one, but we are many – And from all the lands on earth we come….”

   Soo..with all that, our infrastructure for water/waste is pretty solid –

   roads are awful, housing, transport, rail, and various services and power infrastructure is patchy.
   Some good, some bad, and some areas are really struggling badly – but appears to be a priority for the current governments. This year at least.

   Not sure it will last though – but as I read on energyskeptic recently – the whole world wants to be up there in “Last Nations Standing” League Table – when the inevitable collapse comes, and perhaps Australia may have a better chance than others to be one of those?