Daniel Salzler No. 1232
EnviroInsight.org Six Items December 15, 2023
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- COP28-The Climate Conference.World leaders may be struggling to reach a landmark agreement at COP28. But just outside the closed-door negotiations, the United Nations’ annual climate summit proved to be a bonanza of lucrative business deals, including for the oil and gas industry.
In a major boost to global efforts to mitigate climate change and adapt its worsening impacts on societies and economies, 37 countries joined the Freshwater Challenge – the world’s largest initiative to restore degraded rivers, lakes and wetlands and to protect vital freshwater ecosystems.
The countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and the Pacific were unveiled at a high level event with 15 Ministers hosted by the COP28 Presidency. They joined the six countries that launched the initiative at the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York – Colombia, DR Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Mexico and Zambia.
The champions and new members – including Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Chad, Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Fiji, France, Finland, Gambia, Germany, Iraq, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Slovenia, Spain, Tajikistan, Tanzania, UAE, Uganda, UK, USA and Zimbabwe – contain over 30% of the world’s renewable freshwater resources and are home to almost 2 billion people.
The Freshwater Challenge aims to ensure 300,000km of degraded rivers – equivalent to more than seven times around the Earth – and 350 million hectares of degraded wetlands, an area larger than India, are committed to restoration by 2030, as well as conserve intact ecosystems.
Healthy freshwater ecosystems are critical to mitigating and adapting to climate change. They are seen as the foundation for a water resilient future. Peatlands are the world’s largest terrestrial carbon store, while river sediment deposited on the sea floor can also sequester large quantities of carbon. Connected floodplains and healthy wetlands can reduce the impact of extreme floods and build resilience to ever increasing droughts. Source: Smart Water magazine
2. Oak Creek Watershed Council Updates and Ahievments 2023. Check it out at info@oakcreekwatershed.org
3. Upper Agua Fria Watershed December 5th Meeting Meeting Notes CORRECTION.
During the December 5, 2023 UAFWP Meeting, under Agenda Item 3: Black Canyon City Water Issues, clarification and correction was made to the following Agenda Item 3 from the November 7, 2023 notes.
“Black Canyon City Domestic Water Improvement District: Greg Watts (GW): Open Board position lately only advertised by word of mouth; letter of intent at October 24 meeting to serve from Randy Hrabina, former contractor and husband of office manager, Sarah Hrabina. Owner/user concern that now 2 couples on Board might make potential conflict of interest. November 4 rock thrown at office with alleged SS symbol and a sticker on wall. Hate Crime or diversion from state investigation prompted by complaints to Selena Bliss? Sheriff and FBI; Board voted for up to $5k to increase security. Ongoing concerns about audit, lack of action to GW request to extend public comment period in meetings.”
- The UAFWP is interested in water issues only, not organizational or administrative issues such as those included but not verified in the notes. Going forward, only well levels or pertinent well issues will be discussed at UAFWP Meetings.
- ‘Domestic’ is not in the District’s name.
- Randy Hrabina, the new Board Member, is a former BCCWID Operations Manager; Sarah Hrabina is not a Board member.
4. El Nino Knocking On Our Western Border. A ways off the west coast of California is a natural phenonom known as El Nino. Typically this is where warm water presents itself in a better-than-averge chance for an Arizona warm, wet winter. Will it happen? We will have to wait and see.
5. Climate Change Is Costing The US $150 Billion A Year. Every three weeks, the United States experiences an extreme weather event that produces $1 billion worth of damage, according to the latest US National Climate Assessment report, released earlier this month. Compare that to 40 years ago, when extreme weather episodes that cost an inflation-adjusted $1 billion happened once every four months on average.
As of November 8, there have been 25 weather and climate disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That exceeds last year’s count — even without data from the last two months of the year.
In total, extreme weather events cost the US $150 billion per year, due to direct impacts such as infrastructure damage, worker injuries and agricultural losses, the authors of the report estimate. And the cost of extreme weather events is expected to grow in the near term with a projected rise in sea levels and temperatures, the report states.
Included in this year’s tally are the devastating wildfires that took place in Hawaii over the summer. The damage from the wildfires, which took the lives of over 100 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, cost $5.6 billion, according to an estimate from the National Centers for Environmental Information, a division of NOAA.
Climate change is impacting the home insurance industry and damaging the housing market.
There are also important economic implications. For instance, the authors of the report cited separate research published in April by MIT’s Center for Real Estate, which found that property damage from hurricanes can result in higher mortgage delinquency rates as property owners become more financially stressed. The authors also cited research that found flooding and rising sea levels lower home prices and property values as more people relocate to areas that are less prone to flooding.
Hurricanes in the United States can also strain government budgets since they tend to lead to substantially higher social safety net disbursements, including unemployment insurance and public medical payments, according to research published in 2017 by Tatyana Deryugina, a finance professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The National Climate Assessment report’s estimate of the total annual cost of climate change in the United States takes those factors into account. It does not, however, take into account loss of life and health care-related costs.
$150 billion at glance
It may be hard to appreciate the value of $150 billion without anything to compare it to. That’s why CNN sought to find some meaningful examples.
The $150 billion annual cost of extreme weather in the damage to the US is:
- More than Morocco’s gross domestic product last year, according to World Bank Data
- About the net worth of Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, according to the Forbes Billionaires list
- Enough to cover approximately five weeks’ worth of Social Security payments for all recipients as of September, according to CNN estimates based on monthly Social Security Administration data
- More than what the US government distributed to the 41 million people who received food stamps in 2022, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture
- Equal to about 9% of the total student loan debt in the United States, according to the New York Federal Reserve’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit
6. Average Rainfall In Areas Of Arizona, This Year, As Of This Date.
Southern AZ
Town Inches
Bisbee 17.1
Chiricahua Nat Monument 18.7
Coronado Nat Monument 20.8
Douglas 11.8
Green Valley 12.9
Nogales 16.1
Organ Pipe Cactus Monument 9.3
Sierra Vista 13.0
Tombstone 13.2
Tucson 10.2
Western Ariona
Bullhead City 5.4
Kingman 8.0
Lake Havasu City 4.2
Parker 4.6
Yuma 3.3
Phoenix Area
Apache Junction 12.6
Mesa 8.7
Phoenix 7.2
Glendale (editors back yard) 4.6
Scottsdale 8.7
South Phoenix 7.5
Tempe 8.8
Central Arizona
Casa Grande 7.9
Globe 15.6
Greer 19.3
Jerome 17.7
Painted Desert Nat Park 10.0
Payson 19.8
Petrified Forest at Park 9.6
Prescott 16.5
Sedina 17.1
Show Low 15.7
Stewart Maaountain 11.9
Wickenburg 10.9
Northern Arizona
Canyon de Chelly 8.8
Flagstaff 20.5
Grand canyon Village 15.4
Page 6.9
Pipe Springs Monument 11.4
Williams 21.6
Source: U.S Centers for Environmental Information
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