environment: IPSO Jacques Cousteau oceanic acidification oceans
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 7, Day 6: La Mer? Merde!
The ghastly news in the IPSO report on our oceans has brought forth a number of articles. Time magazine notes:
But while news of the Earth’s impending doom can sometimes seem exaggerated, there’s one environmental disaster that never gets the coverage it really deserves: the state of the oceans. Most people know that wild fisheries are dwindling, and we might know that low-oxygen aquatic dead zones are blooming around the planet’s most crowded coasts. But the oceans appear to be undergoing fundamental changes — many of them for the worse — that we can barely understand, in part because we barely understand that vast blue territory that covers 70% of the globe.
That’s the conclusion of a surprising new report issued by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), a global panel of marine experts that met earlier this year at Oxford University to examine the latest science on ocean health. That health, they found, is not good. According to the authors, we are “at high risk for entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.” It’s not just about overfishing or marine pollution or even climate change. It’s all of those destructive factors working cumulatively, and occurring much more rapidly than scientists had expected. “The findings are shocking,” said Alex Rogers, the scientific director of IPSO. “We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children’s and generations beyond that.”
Lots of stuff about the ocean now, but not as much as I get when I ask for information on Anthony Weiner’s junk. Sigh.
Sent June 21:
As a kid growing up in America’s turbulent 60s, I remember vividly a certain man on television who was universally respected and trusted. And I don’t mean Walter Cronkite. Reading about the IPSO report on the terrifying decline in the health of our planet’s oceans reminded me of the late Jacques Cousteau. Remembering the diminutive Frenchman who showed us all the beauties of the undersea world, I wonder: what would he say about the acidified seas, bleached corals, ravaged fisheries and polluted ecosystems that humanity has left in its wake? After a few unprintable Gallicisms, I’m sure he’d embark on an activist campaign to persuade the world’s industrialized nations that it was time for them to show genuine leadership on climate change and carbon emissions. Long ago this eloquent and passionate explorer spoke to our current condition, saying “We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.”
Warren Senders
India Indian music music vocalists
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Mr. Chimanlal
Here is a male vocalist singing a pair of raga-based sort-of-khyal compositions. I’m not sure what relationship these songs have with the orthodox classical tradition. For that matter, the text as given on the disc label for the Bageshri doesn’t seem to match the mukhda he’s performing. (headscratch).
Mr. Chimanlal has a pleasant voice with a good upper register, and while he mostly eschews anything in the way of elaborate improvisation, he’s clearly got the technique. All of the 78s released on The Twin Records were part of the collection I purchased in Udaipur in 2000.
Anyway, here’s a song in Bageshri:
And a delightful item in Raga Bhimpalasi; in this one the written text matches the mukhda.
environment Politics: EPA SCOTUS
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 7, Day 5: As Predicted…
As expected, on June 20 the Supreme Court rejected the 8-state lawsuit against the utility companies, placing the ball once again in the EPA’s court.
In an 8-0 decision, the Supreme Court kills a global-warming lawsuit filed by eight states and environmentalists against the nation’s five largest electric power companies. The court says Congress and the EPA already have authority to make rules regulating greenhouse gases and courts need not get involved.
This one went to the LA Times:
So it’s unanimous: the EPA has the power to regulate greenhouse emissions and toxic pollutants, and the states do not. The lawsuit against major energy companies was always a long shot, and this ruling is hardly a surprise. What remains for us as citizens is to pressure our federal government to do its duty: preserve the environment for the sake of our children and their children for generations to come. If that doesn’t fall under the general welfare clause of the Constitution, nothing does — for absent a livable planet, all the corporate profits in the world won’t do anyone a bit of good. It is time for the EPA to live up to its mandate, and time for the Obama administration to abandon its timid and incrementalist energy policy. We need to move rapidly; the scientific consensus on climate change is overwhelming, and the danger of catastrophe is undeniable.
Warren Senders
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs Quawwali Urdu
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Mahomad Yacub and Fidai Premragi
Here are some early Quawwali performances, again part of the same collection of 78 rpm discs purchased in Udaipur in 2000.
Searching for “Mahomad Yacub and Fidai Premragi” yields only these videos; their names have faded into oblivion, at least until today.
Enjoy listening to two forgotten voices from an all-but-vanished world.
The handclaps on “Udhar the sab khudiwale” remind me of Philly Joe Jones’ famous on-the-fourth-beat rimshots, an association that in turn reminds me of just how narrow a demographic I actually occupy.
environment Politics: 2012 American exceptionalism assholes denialists idiots Republicans
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 7, Day 4: There Is A Reason The Biggest Tag In My Cloud Is “idiots.”
The June 19 issue of the Christian Science Monitor notes the Republican lineup is filled with denialist dingalings, although they describe it somewhat more politely:
There was a time when Republicans were at the forefront of efforts to investigate – maybe even do something about – the impact of human activity on global climate.
John McCain was an early and persistent supporter of cap-and-trade efforts to reduce the greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide) associated with climate change. So was Newt Gingrich, who went on to make a YouTube video ad – with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, no less – where he said, “Our country must take action to address climate change.”
Now, Republican presidential hopefuls seem to be racing in the opposite direction – disavowing their past support for policy measures on climate – even any sense that there’s a problem to be addressed.
Sheesh.
Sent June 19:
For all their fulsomely patriotic homilies, Republican presidential aspirants seem deeply reluctant to advocate anything that would restore America’s status as a leader in the world community. Instead, they offer tax cuts and an end to government regulation as universal panaceas, accompanying a vision of the future as myopic as it is dystopic. Since the climate-change crisis requires responsible action on multiple fronts, the GOP’s 2012 lineup prefers to deny that the problem exists, instead taking refuge in bizarre conspiracy theories and liberal-bashing tropes that play well to their anti-science, anti-tax base. A genuinely robust response to global warming is necessary to avoid catastrophic outcomes, and would give an enormous boost to our economy. The Republican platform? Stick our fingers in our ears, reject scientific expertise, and wait for free-market solutions to the laws of physics. Their version of American exceptionalism? We’re number one — when it comes to ignorance and irresponsibility!
Warren Senders
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs bhajan Marwari geet
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: M.L. Choudhury and Sunita Devi
Gradually moving through my complete collection of 78 rpm discs on Marwari Records, we come to the duet team of M.L. Choudhury and Sunita Devi, who perform a long piece in two parts. This is identified as a “Shiv Lila Bhajan.” I would welcome clarification of the nature of this music in the comments — any experts out there?
As always, I love, love, love that tiger!
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs Marwari geet
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Parvati and Party of Udaipur
More Marwari geets in the vivid low fidelity that appears characteristic of the output of “Marwari Records.” Parvati and Party get a nice groove going, and it is enjoyable to listen through the distortion to get a picture of what this music originally sounded like.
Lo-fi they may have been, but you’ve got to admit that Marwari Records had a damn cool label. I love the tiger, don’t you?
Listening to these 78 rpm discs is a wonderful experience. It’s like falling in love.
environment Politics: corporate irresponsibility extreme weather media irresponsibility United Nations
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 7, Day 3: Painful.
The June 18 issue of the China Daily sounds an alarm:
Christiana Figueres, the official responsible for overseeing United Nations organized climate negotiations in Bonn, has admitted that a gap in enforcing the emission reduction regime is already unavoidable. Even if countries are willing to sign up to new reduction targets in December, they will still require legislative ratifications by governments around the world, which is unlikely to be completed by 2012.
The discrepancy between the stance adopted by developed and developing nations makes reaching an agreement extremely uncertain. While poor nations have put a high priority on renewing the Kyoto Protocol, some industrialized countries, such as Japan and Canada, have voiced a clear intention to walk away and build up a new architecture for global emission cuts, and the United States, the world’s largest economy and carbon polluter, did not ratify the protocol in the first place.
But the time we have to save the planet from the disastrous consequences of global warming is fast ticking away.
I have been thinking long and hard on the nature of our collective insanity these days. Not much fun. It would be nice to have more music.
Sent June 18:
In the year 3000, as humanity continues its fight to recover from the effects of a huge increase in atmospheric carbon a thousand years before, scholars of ancient history will be baffled by the inability of the world’s nations to act in a timely fashion to avert a grave catastrophe. They will look back and wonder, noting that we had ample notice of the consequences of the greenhouse effect; ample time to change our energy infrastructure, keeping millions of years’ worth of fossil carbon in the ground instead of burning it. They will shake their heads in amazement at the failure of our communications systems — at the globe-spanning media that remained focused on trivialities and gossip rather than a civilizational threat requiring concerted action. For all the technological and cultural accomplishments of this time in human history, we will probably be remembered, and reviled, for what we failed to do.
Warren Senders
India Indian music music vocalists: 78 rpm discs Indian folk music Marwari geet
by Warren
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78 rpm Records of Indian Music: Dhirasen of Jodhpur
My wife and I were in Udaipur in 2000, and we discovered a tiny little out-of-the-way junk shop that just happened to have a big stack of old 78 rpm discs for sale. I picked up as much as I could carry. None of the names were ones I recognized; these were all regional songs in Rajasthani, Marwari and Urdu.
Here are two Marwari songs by a lady about whom I know nothing, Dhirasen of Jodhpur. The distorted sound is on the disc; Marwari Records was obviously not a top-of-the-line operation.
I find these recordings mysteriously evocative.
environment Politics: American exceptionalism Bangladesh Bonn Conference Industrialized nations
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 7, Day 2: We’re Number What?
The Bonn talks conclude today, June 17; Mexico and Papua New Guinea have a proposal on the table:
After years of incremental progress in U.N. climate talks, a proposal is on the table to change the rules.
The joint initiative from Mexico and Papua New Guinea is meant to break what some delegates call built-in deadlock, where a handful of nations — or even a single delegation — can stymie agreements.
The plan is to allow the 193 nations to adopt decisions by an “overwhelming” majority vote.
But the proposal faces Herculean obstacles from countries both large and small who jealously protect their power to influence, delay and ultimately block
I figured this was a good time to play the shame card, and I did it by exploiting the news that Bangladesh is amending its constitution to give its government the powers needed to address climate change. Unlike America, where we’re reluctant to admit that our government has any powers at all, unless it’s to bomb brown people or read our own citizens’ mail. Sheesh.
Sent June 17:
The appalling political stalemate on display at the Bonn Climate Conference is a demonstration of systemic failure on the part of our governing institutions; not just those of the United States, but of industrialized societies worldwide. The inability of the richest and most developed countries to take responsibility for the side-effects of their own successes is a grotesque object lesson for the rest of the world — especially those nations which have the most at stake in the battle against the effects of global heating. Nations like Bangladesh, which plans to amend its constitution to include a provision outlining the government’s responsibilities in addressing climate change. By seizing the initiative, the poorest and most vulnerable members of the international community have shamed the rest of the world. To be first of the nations where partisan gamesmanship has rendered meaningful policy essentially impossible is an especially tragic sort of American exceptionalism.
Warren Senders