The New Normal Temperatures

The Map Room: The New Normal Temperatures.

NOAA calculates the normal, or average temperature, based on a rolling 30 year average.  It’s updated every 10 years, so here’s the new “normal” – the map above shows the temperature change from the “old” to the “new” normal.

…the map shows the increase in degrees Fahrenheit between the 1971-2000 and 1981-2010 normal minimum temperatures for January.

Flooding Around the World

A Chinese man pushes a makeshift drum raft while a child sit on it in a flooded street in Xianing city in central China’s Hubei province on Wednesday.

via Flooded Chinese river at highest level since 1955 – USATODAY.com.

Flooding in China over the past two weeks has left more than 170 people dead or missing and forced out residents in regions along the Yangtze River.

Trains trapped by landslides, roads blocked, 18 villages flooded when levees failed.  No, not along the Mississippi River in the US – this is along the mighty Yangtze in China.  Rains and flooding are  predicted to continue.

 

 

 

No More Fish in the Sea

via Information is Beautiful: Plenty More Fish In The Sea? | News | guardian.co.uk.

It’s hard to imagine the damage over-fishing is wrecking on the oceans. The effects are literally invisible, hidden deep in the ocean. But there is data out there. And when you visualise it, the results are shocking.

Why aren’t we seeing the effects of the overfishing ?  Because there are more and larger boats, and more and more “farmed” fish in the markets.

Read the article, and you’ll never look at seafood the same way again.

The Other China: Life on the Streets, A Photo Essay | Newgeography.com

 

 Chengdu street dentist

The Other China: Life on the Streets, A Photo Essay | Newgeography.com.

Migrants from rural China lack the proper paperwork (hukou) to enjoy the benefits of city life.  They, like poor immigrants to rich nations around the world, suffer multiple indignaties as they try to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Nicolas Marino is a 33 year-old architect and photographer currently based in Chengdu, China. For the last 6 years he has chosen a bicycle as means of transport to reach the most remote regions of the world where he focuses most of his documentary work. Some of his journeys include a 10.000km ride from Tehran to Shanghai and several trips around remote and rural China where he has now cycled over 8000km.

Marino’s photos illuminate the shadowy culture of China’s poorest city-dwellers.

Acid Runoff

via 20 tons of acid spill into drinking water source — Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 — English Window to China New.

A CHEMICAL spill into the Xin’an River, a major source of drinking water for east China’s Zhejiang Province, has led five water utility companies to stop drawing water from the river and triggered panic buying in the provincial capital.

A tanker truck carrying carbolic acid broke down and was hit by another truck.  The estimated 20 tons of spilled acid was then swept into the river by heavy rains.

Of course people panicked, and stores quickly sold out of bottled water.  The Xin’an River supplies drinking water for several cities in Zhejiang Province.

The chemical leak comes just days after China’s Deputy Environment Minister Li Ganjie said that many of the country’s major rivers were so polluted they did not even meet the standards needed for agricultural irrigation.

It’s A New World in Tennis

 

 

China’s Li Na Wins French Open Women’s Title – WSJ.com.

China’s first Grand Slam Champion won the French Open today.  With 1.3 billion people, there are bound to be a few more champions there who are not yet on the tennis world’s radar.  But I’m sure it won’t be long before they are.

When Time ran an article in 2006 about China’s tennis program, Na Li merited 1 sentence.  Both she and the tennis program have come a long way.  Congratulations!