Geoengineering Series #12 - The Missing Sand

 In the starting post of the Geoengineering series I mentioned that the construction is one of the contributors to changing weather or climate. I don't mean the climate entirely, but locally. For instance, I didn't know what fog was until I was eighteen. There was a constant draft through the valley downwards the river stream. Then a big dam was built on the river and we got fog during the colder months, like late autumn, winter, and early spring. We also got inversion. Before, the only fog I ever saw was occasional small cotton-like cloud sitting on a more damp or depressed field - kinda cute and cheerful. So, I have my own minuscule personal experience how the construction affects the weather. 

The other more historical narration than personal experience is Venice. Venice was built on the oak trees from Karst and the woods from the Adriatic seashore (now Croatia and Montenegro). This was done centuries ago. The wood decays slower under the water then above it, and the more mineral rich water caused the wooden pillars to be petrified. The deforestation of the mentioned area caused the strong winter wind to blow much of the soil away, so the only places to grow some food were in the funnel-shaped sinkholes. The other reason was most probably breeding goats and sheep. People have built huge windbreaks out of stones that were to prevent the wind to blow them the roofs away as well as some soil. After WWII some 10.000 goats and sheep were slaughtered and the breeding of these animals was forbidden. The area was also reforested, but instead of oaks the pine trees were planted. It took some 50 years for the reforestation to take some real effect.  

So, it is obvious that construction of cities or other objects does have an effect on the weather patterns as it changes the natural shape of the area or natural habitat. Even the materials of the buildings have an impact, as some materials make the buildings hotter (like metal roofs and façades) or more shiny and hotter (large glass or solar panel surfaces). 

“Large-scale solar power plants raise local temperatures, creating a solar heat island effect that, though much smaller, is similar to that created by urban or industrial areas, according to a new study.” In that study the researchers found “that the temperatures around the solar power plant were 3-4 degrees Celsius higher than the nearby wildlands.” 

Construction 

Now, not much is built out of wood, clay or stone. Nowadays, every construction work needs sand, which is the key component of mixing the concrete. The sand from the desserts isn't suitable, because the grains are round and do not bind well. For construction the sand from the beaches and under the sea is used. In 2012 it was estimated that 40 billion tons of aggregates (sand and gravel) are being used annually. 75% of that was used for construction. I guess, the stolen sand wasn’t reported, so these might be just estimates. 

»sand that is extracted from the bottom of oceans, beaches, rivers and gravel beds consists of minerals and metals such as titanium, thorium, silicon and uranium, which play a more crucial role in our daily life than most of us can imagine.  These mineral and metal components are used to manufacture microchips, silicon chips and solar panels, build houses or aircrafts, and to produce cosmetics, abrasives, glass, plastics, and toothpaste.« (Illegal Sand Mining is a Thing and it’s a Problem) Now, we can add also the process of hydraulic fractioning.   

There are even such things as sand wars on this planet, even a documentary is made with this title, and sand is the most widely consumed natural resource, second to fresh water. Allegedly two dozen of Indonesian islands were erased since 2005 due to sand mining. We certainly can’t have the same sand as a sand island or a sand beach and the same sand as part of a bunch of skyscrapers or other buildings. Now, if the islands were erased or sank the sea currents there became different, and possibly the wind currents. But no problem, some sank and some new islands have risen out the ocean, which also create possible new wind and water currents. 

The missing sand not only erases islands, it also changes riverbeds. The UN found that the sand mining has its impact on biodiversity; land loses through erosion, change in water flows, water supply, infrastructure, climate, landscape (erosion), and decline of protection against extreme events. 

Rivers and Lakes 

Other way, besides building cities and other construction, stealing sand, by which humans are changing the weather is also diverting rivers or draining the marshes, directing the rivers or part of the rivers elsewhere, building dams, draining the aquifers or just abusing them, sometimes rivers can’t deliver the sand to the coast due to some construction work on their banks. Last year Slims River in Canada simply disappeared in 4 days and started flowing into another lake, supposedly due to the withdrawal of a glacier – a phenomenon called river piracy. This seems not to be Canada exclusive; it looks like a process in some other parts of the planet too where the rivers have up to 80% less water, like China, US, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Chile, Iran, Afghanistan, Africa (Nile). In 2017 it was reported that the source of the river Po (Italy’s longest river) has dried up. Seven lakes seem to undergo the same fate – completely drying up or drastic reduction of the amount of water. I don’t claim the list to be complete. Such processes can also mean the reduction of rivers’ and lakes’ inhabitants. 

The surface of the Earth has been ever changing, but the processes seem to go faster now, or does this only look so due to the access to information on Internet? Anyway, those bodies of water are quite big and those islands weren’t just the size of a buoy either, so we can expect their disappearance of the appearance of the new ones to have some effect on weather patterns. Like for instance solar power plants where birds drop dead from the sky, immolated. Has anyone thought out how it’s going to be after 1,000 or more years? 

Oceans 

Well, if we the humans already behave so recklessly on the land, we should at least leave the sky and the oceans intact. I guess that is a lot to ask. There is an oil spill as big as Paris in the East China Sea right now (Jan, 2018). And some volcanoes are active at the moment. While ocean has risen 27m in 100 years (21:09), it is predicted as something new that is yet to happen or just starting, and while some islands are supposed to sink there are already some patented methods to mitigate this. I don’t promote them here; I present them just to show that there are, so the readers can get the idea of the patents’ proposals. Most probably there are much more than just two of them. 

“The present invention provides a method of limiting sea level rise. In a first step heat that would otherwise cause thermal expansion of the ocean and resultant sea level rise is extracted to produce energy. The energy is used to convert a portion of the liquid ocean water to the gaseous elements hydrogen and oxygen by the process of electrolysis. The ocean level is reduced by the volume of water converted to gas. The hydrogen is captured for use as an energy source and is transported to a desert to be recombined with resident oxygen to produce energy and water for irrigation.” 

and: 

“The present invention provides a method of sequestering carbon dioxide and water in a desert environment. In a first step heat that would otherwise cause thermal expansion of the ocean and resultant sea level rise is extracted to produce energy. A portion of the energy is used to desalinate seawater. The desalinate water is pumped into a desert environment and vegetation is planted in the irrigated desert portion. The vegetation sequesters carbon dioxide. The seawater extracted for desalination further reduces sea level rise. Irrigation water moderates the day and nighttime temperature fluctuations of hot deserts. Lowering the daytime temperature increases the deserts potential to sequester water. The commercial and arable potential of the desert is augmented by the enrichment of its soil by composted vegetation, its irrigation and the moderation of its diurnal temperature fluctuations.” 

Of course, none of us is thousand or more years old to have seen it all. We’ve seen what has been happening in our surroundings mostly, and are adapted (as well as other beings) to the local weather, so we sense whatever is out of the normal weather pattern during our lifespan. We are not really adapted to the geoengineered weather or to the weather experiments conducted to mitigate the so called climate change cause, or done for some other reason. Maybe the MIMIC map comes in on handy to observe the precipitation and the wind as it affects the oceans as well or the Dutchsinse channel about the earthquakes if you are capable of listening to his rants.   

Sometimes it looks, like we behave that the oceans have no inhabitants. Or like the whole Earth has been turned into some giant lab. 

Leaving the Sky and the Oceans Intact 

This post is part of a series in Geoengineering Series in an effort to present idea that people should start understanding that the sky and the oceans should remain intact, as well as the Earth as a whole, thus also the mainland. But, because humans can’t just dismiss all the industry and construction, and all the rest, we can’t declare the whole Earth a national park, even if we would most probably be way better off by doing so. Even if it is already some 100 years or more too late it is still worth a try. The way I see it, is to give the sky and the oceans the legal status of a national park where chemical experiments with weather or anything else are officially not permitted and not-tolerated, including influencing tropospheric rivers by electromagnetic means. But to whom such a motion/demand in a petition form should be delivered to?  

Previous posts in Geonegineering Series:  

Geoengineering Series #11 – The Missing Trees 

Geoengineering Series #10 - Agendas 

Geoengineering series #9 - Legislation Regarding Geoengineering 

Geoengineering Series 8 – Photographic Intermezzo for the 1 -10% 

Geoengineering Series #7 – The Abuse of Struck and Unstruck Sound  

Geoengineering Series #6 – Modern vs. Ancient Weather Weapons  

Geoengineering Series #5 – Trading Geoengineered Weather?  

Geoengineering Series #4 - Poisoning the Garden of Eden  

Geonegineering Series #3 – Using Frequencies  

Geoengineering Series #3a – Using Frequencies (a frequencies table)  

Geoengineering Series #2 – Weather Modification Jobs  

Geoengineering Series #1 – Global Warming and Climate Change