Heat Wave in the Indus Valley, June 2007
Source NASA Earth Observatory
When I began preparing materials for use with the course on World Water Resources in the autumn, I copied a NASA space photograph of the Indus Valley (not the one above), encompassing Pakistan and large portions of its neighbors India and Afghanistan. Of necessity, India and especially Pakistan will be central topics in the course, but I did not anticipate the catastrophic flooding that has accompanied the summer monsoonal rains of 2010. Control of the waters of the Indus is one of the longest activities of civilization, for the residents of Mohenjo-Daro and Harrapa, civilizations which flourished almost 5,000 years ago, used the Indus to irrigate their fields and feared its droughts and floods. The current flooding is but one season in an almost constant effort of people to make a livelihood from a beautiful but punishing environment.
Sumer Flooding in the Indus Valley, 3 August 2010
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
Meanwhile, rains have cooled Moscow somewhat, but peat fires remain a problem. This morning's New York Times has a good piece on peat fires. Along with an explanation of why those fires are so smoky, it also examines how a decision some years ago to drain bogs and mine the peat to use as fuel in electrical generating plants is partially to blame for the smoky fires, dangerous to health, of the extraordinarily hot summer of 2010.
Near the Potomac River, in Loudon County, VA a few kilometers northwest of the Fairfax County boundary, the real estate speculator Donald Trump is redeveloping a golf course. Today's Washington Post reported on the massive tree clearance on that roughly 325 hectare site. The spokesperson for Trump was quoted as saying "The trees threatened the shoreline. Many of the trees, ... stress and eroding (sic) the soil." I guess those trees are like the forest trees claimed by other public relations flacks to create air pollution and acid rain. Loudon County, and its neighbor Fairfax County should encourage widespread cutting of trees, deforestation, in order to protect the environment!
