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So…here we are, only a year away from 2020 and contemplating another year in the struggle for survival. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we’ve got about 12 years to turn this climate change thing around and that’s just to avoid catastrophe, never mind guaranteeing a healthy planet in the future. Such a catastrophe could well involve the extinction of human beings, which would reveal just how dumb we are. Is there anything more stupid that the most intelligently-evolved species on the planet could do than commit mass suicide?

Barbarism and Extinction

I am astounded at the tenacity, resilience and persistence of folks such as climate scientist James Hansen who, on behalf of future generations, have been shouting about the environmental threat since the late 1980s. And, since those days of his Congressional testimony Hansen, who worked for many years at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has courageously spread the word about climate change to fulfill part of NASA’s mission statement: To Understand and Protect the Home Planet.

Indeed, this was part of the mission statement of NASA until 2006 when those fateful words were quietly and very symbolically removed. Organizations such as the Union of Concerned Scientists were very disturbed about this development, noting at the time that research and funding opportunities related to earth science and climate change would be much harder to justify with NASA’s new focus solely on space exploration. Some may say it’s a bloody good job that we are learning more about life on other planets and how we can get there, given that a privileged bunch of us may have to flee this one at some point in the not-to-distant future. And, given the inequalities inherent in our current economic order, it will be only the rich that are saved.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Decades of Denial and Stalling Have Created a Climate Crunch

December 1, 2018

Decades of Denial and Stalling Have Created a Climate Crunch

Firefighters spray water on a 2013 bush fire in Australia

In a 1965 speech to members, American Petroleum Institute president Frank Ikard outlined the findings of a report by then-president Lyndon Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee, based in part on research the institute conducted in the 1950s.

“The substance of the report is that there is still time to save the world’s peoples from the catastrophic consequence of pollution, but time is running out,” Ikard said, adding, “One of the most important predictions of the report is that carbon dioxide is being added to the earth’s atmosphere by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas at such a rate that by the year 2000 the heat balance will be so modified as possibly to cause marked changes in climate beyond local or even national efforts.”

Many scientists were reaching similar conclusions, based on a body of evidence that had been growing at least since French mathematician Joseph Fourier described the greenhouse effect in 1824. In the 1950s, Russian climatologist Mikhail Budykoexamined how feedback loops amplify human influences on the climate. He published two books, in 1961 and 1962, warning that growing energy use will warm the planet and cause Arctic ice to disappear, creating feedback cycles that would accelerate warming.

The predictions have proven to be accurate, and evidence for human-caused global warming has since become indisputable.

What happened? Over the ensuing decades, the fossil fuel industry didn’t try to resolve what it knew would become a crisis. Instead, it worked to downplay and often deny the reality of climate change and to sow doubt and confusion. Knowingly putting humanity — and countless other species — at risk for the sake of profit is an intergenerational crime against humanity, but it’s unlikely any perpetrators will face justice.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Global Cooling is Real – Major Temperature Low 2046?

November 27, 2018

Global Cooling is Real – Major Temperature Low 2046?

While NASA has now confirmed that the outer atmosphere is getting cooler, it seems desperately insane for people to keep denying the possibility the Global Cooling is taking place rather than Global Warming when the former brings famine and the latter brings economic expansion as civilizations rise. The rise of Rome was due to global warming as was the case after the Dark Age when they call that the Medieval Warming Period which was 950 to 1300AD.

The concern from just a technical model perspective is that the warming period we have had post-1600 and the low of the Little Ice Age has not exceeded that of the Medieval Warming Period. If we simply look at this chart from a technical perspective, it appears more that we are in a grand downtrend for the past 6,000 years. This is deeply concerning for we tend to have these periods where civilization turns downward. It would be very nice if we just had authoritative research funded to explore Global Cooling to save society rather than this nonsense of Global Warming just to raise money for politicians who NEVER get enough.

In Australia, with one week from summer, it is still snowing on Victoria. In fact, one of the top NASA scientists has broken camp and warned that the surface temperature of the sun has collapsed so much, he fears a new Ice Age is upon us. Meanwhile, this has been the COLDEST Thanksgiving in 150 years!

What we must understand is this has gone beyond just breaking records for one-day events. This time around, it’s not just the severity of the cold that’s getting to people. It’s also the DURATION! The most reliable computer model projections have shown that the Arctic air has moved all the way down into Texas.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Debunking One “Global Cooling” Argument

November 21, 2018

Debunking One “Global Cooling” Argument

Preface: Our approach is to build bridges in the climate debate (see the postscript, below). But one of our duties as investigative journalists is to debunk unscientific claims, from whichever side they come from. This article helps to debunk one particular recent claim about global cooling.

Numerous websites have claimed that a new scientific paper by a high-level NASA scientist proves that the Earth is entering into a planetary cooling period.

Specifically, the paper says that reduced solar activity will likely lead to a substantial cooling in the Earth’s thermosphere … a layer of the atmosphere high above the Earth.

Should run out and buy warmer clothes?

Even though I studied environmental science at a good university as an undergraduate, I had no idea whether a cooling thermosphere would mean:

(1) It will get cooler down here on the surface of the Earth (the bottom portion of the atmospheric layer called the “troposphere”)

(2) There is no correlation

(3) As one wannabe “expert” proclaimed on the Internet, a cooler thermosphere will lead to a warmer climate on the surface

So Washington’s Blog asked one of the co-authors of the study, Dr. James Russell to help us understand what the study means …

Russell is a Professor of Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and Co-Director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Hampton University in Virginia. He received his PhD in “aeronomy” – the physics and chemistry of the upper atmosphere of planets – from the University of Michigan, and served as head of the Chemistry and Dynamics Branch and the Theoretical Studies Branch in the NASA Langley Atmospheric Sciences Division.

Dr. Russell told us:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘Mini Ice Age’ Looms As NASA Scientist Warns Lack Of Sunspots Could Bring Record Cold

November 16, 2018

‘Mini Ice Age’ Looms As NASA Scientist Warns Lack Of Sunspots Could Bring Record Cold

“The sun is entering one of the deepest Solar Minima of the Space Age,” wrote Dr. Tony Phillips just six weeks ago, on September 27, 2018. The lack of sunspots on our sun could bring about record cold temperatures, and perhaps even a mini ice age.

Our sun was not expected to head into a solar minimum until around 2020, but it appears to be heading in that direction a little early which could prove to be bad news for warm weather lovers.

But a prolonged solar minimum could mean a “mini ice age.” The last time there was a prolonged solar minimum, it did, in fact, lead to a mini ice-age which was scientifically known as the Maunder minimum

SHTFplan.com’s Mac Slavo writes that sunspots have been absent for most of 2018 and Earth’s upper atmosphere is responding, says Phillips, the editor of spaceweather.com.

“The bad news,” according to Phillips, is:

“It also delays the natural decay of space junk, resulting in a more cluttered environment around Earth.”

“It could happen in a matter of months,” says Martin Mlynczak of NASA’s Langley Research Center on the cold snap that may be coming.

“If current trends continue, it could soon set a Space Age record for cold,” says Mlynczak. “We’re not there quite yet,” he said. However, “months” is not all that far away.

Data from NASA’s TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) satellite shows that the thermosphere (the uppermost layer of air around our planet) is cooling and shrinking, literally decreasing the radius of the atmosphere. This reduction of solar activity could result in a global cooling phase.

“The thermosphere always cools off during Solar Minimum. It’s one of the most important ways the solar cycle affects our planet,” said Mlynczak, according to The New American.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

NASA Now Says They See a Cooling Trend – Not Warming

November 14, 2018

NASA Now Says They See a Cooling Trend – Not Warming

“We see a cooling trend,” Martin Mlynczak of NASA’s Langley Research Center said in late September. “High above Earth’s surface, near the edge of space, our atmosphere is losing heat energy. If current trends continue, it could soon set a Space Age record for cold.” …

…. Ron Turner a Senior Science Advisor to NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program, said at the time that this solar cycle was “among the weakest on record,” noting that in the 23 solar cycles since recording began in 1755, there were very few solar maxima weaker than that recorded in 2014.

As a consequence, scientists are predicting one of the coldest periods ever recorded for our upper atmosphere – and that means cooler temperatures down here, too.

“We’re not there quite yet,” Mlynczak said about the anticipated record low thermosphere temperatures, “but it could happen in a matter of months.” …

Solar Minimum – Biggest Decline Maybe Ever

October 1, 2018

Solar Minimum – Biggest Decline Maybe Ever

The sun is entering perhaps one of the deepest Solar Minima in thousands of years. Sunspots have been absent for most of 2018. This is really alarming. Since the start of 2018, there have been totally spotless days for weeks. The sun’s ultraviolet output has sharply declined and this is not going to end well.

We can see that this decline in Solar Cycle #24 has been a rapid decline that is twice as fast than any previously. Already the the upper atmosphere is losing heat energy. NASA has conceded that if the current trend continues, this could become a dramatic cold period far worse than many people suspect. The Global Warming crowd is leading the world down a dangerous path because they have been paid $1 billion to create fake research in order to raise taxes as they have been doing in Europe and Canada. Our computer us projecting a very serious decline in sunspot activity. This will be the backdrop to the rise in agricultural prices we see between 2020 and 2024. Of course, thanks to the Global Warming people, it will be too late to prepare.

2016-18 Big Chill – NASA Confirms Global Cooling?

September 16, 2018

2016-18 Big Chill – NASA Confirms Global Cooling?

What I find really distasteful is how the media is so corrupt that all they want to do these days is to manipulate us into mindless drones. All we hear is Global Warming and they seem to be paid to push this just as they have done in Canada to tax each house $1,000+ to solve Global Warming? It should come as no surprise that the very same news source they have used for their Global Warming pitch has reported the greatest global two-year cooling event of the last century just occurred. Their data from February 2016 to February 2018 showed that the global average temperatures declined 0.56°C. The last two-year decline was 1982-1984 with a drop of 0.47°C, which took place during their favorite stint to justify global warming era. (see NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (dataset accessed 2018-04-11 at https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/).

Then we have the Global Warming crowd trying to dismiss the Big Chill claiming it is really Global Warming causing an increase in volatility of temperatures. Here we go again with FAKE NEWS data. The global temperatures are by no means becoming more volatile and if you run the data through a standard measurement we use in markets to gauge volatility, you are immediately confronted with the monthly global average temperatures since 2000 is only about 65% of what it was from 1880 to 1999. They simply refuse to just accept that there are cycles to EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, in South Australia has seen temperatures plunge 10 degrees making this the coldest September morning in 23 years and coldest morning this late in the year in more than 50 years of records. This corresponds to the snow in Africa confusing the animals completely. It would be nice if the news just reported the news for perhaps we just might prepare like Joseph warned the Pharaoh. With all this FAKE NEWS, they may with hindsight be responsible for the deaths of millions if we have a famine without preparation.

Climate, politics and the narrow vision of futurists

August 14, 2018

Climate, politics and the narrow vision of futurists

Most people know the tale of the blind men and the elephant. Each describes a part of the elephant. The elephant is said to be like a pillar by the blind man touching the elephant’s leg. The one touching the elephant’s tail says the elephant is like a rope and so on.

Now, let’s substitute so-called futurists for blind men in this tale and you get something even less reliable. Futurists are the soothsayers of our age. Of course, futurists have eyes to see at least. But they, like the blind men, almost never see the whole picture.

And, in this case they are giving us a description of something that is not even there for them to examine. The future doesn’t exist. It’s a mere concept. Unlike the blind men, futurists aren’t really describing part of a whole.

Typically, they imagine the future as a more magical version of the past where all kinds of new powers are made available to the individual: the ability to transmit emotions and memories through a worldwide “brain-net,” 3D-printed human organs based on our own DNA that replace damaged or diseased ones, re-creations of loved ones who have passed away with which we can interact as we did when they were alive.

Naturally, some futurists put the first humans on Mars in the 2030s. NASA apparently has a contest for 3D-printed designs of habitats suitable for humans on Mars. The idea that colonizing Mars will enhance the chances that humans will survive well into the future is already part of the culture. (Wait a minute! You mean really bad stuff could happen on Earth in our benign technology-laden future. But I digress.)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

30 Years Ago Global Warming Became Front-Page News – and Both Republicans and Democrats Took It Seriously

June 19, 2018

30 Years Ago Global Warming Became Front-Page News – and Both Republicans and Democrats Took It Seriously

June 23, 1988 marked the date on which climate change became a national issue.

In landmark testimony before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Dr. James Hansen, then director of NASA’s Institute for Space Studies, stated that “Global warming has reached a level such that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause-and-effect relationship between the greenhouse effect and observed warming … In my opinion, the greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now.”

Hansen’s testimony made clear the threats posed by climate change and attributed the phenomenon to human exploitation of carbon energy sources. Its impact was dramatic, capturing headlines in The New York Times and other major newspapers. As politicians, corporations and environmental organizations acknowledged and began to address this issue, climate change entered into the political arena in a largely nonpartisan fashion.

Yet despite decades of public education on climate change and international negotiations to address it, progress continues to stall. Why?

One reason for the political inaction is the gaping divide in public opinion that resulted from a deliberate — and still controversial — misinformation campaign to redirect the public discussion on climate change in the years following Hansen’s testimony.

Just as Predicted

Four years after Hansen testified to Congress, 165 nations signed an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They committed themselves to reducing carbon emissions to avoid dangerous disruption of the Earth’s climate system, defined as limiting future temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius. The signatories have now held 25 annual UNFCCC conferences dedicated to developing goals, timetables and methods for mitigating climate change, the most consequential of which are encompassed in the Paris Agreement of 2015.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Troubled Gas Firm Drops Request to Dodge Drilling Limits Near New Mexico’s Methane Hot Spot

June 3, 2018

Troubled Gas Firm Drops Request to Dodge Drilling Limits Near New Mexico’s Methane Hot Spot

New Mexico resident Don Schreiber on his ranch next to oil and gas equipment

Back in 2014, this corner of northern New Mexico made international headlines when NASA researchers discovered a persistent methane plume the size of Delaware. Two years later, they pinned one of the main sources of this methane “hot spot” to natural gas wells, pipelines, storage tanks, and processing plants in the San Juan Basin. A second peer-reviewed study last year confirmed those findings.

On Friday, state regulators were scheduled to hear Hilcorp’s request to amend the state’s well spacing regulations, which would have allowed the company to drill more wells or target different formations than the rules currently allow.

“The effect of that would be that rather than having a public hearing process where each of those items is heard, that entire process would be done away with and it would only require the local Oil Conservation Division official,” said Don Schreiber, a rancher who lives in the San Juan Basin and had opposed the rule change. “His name is Charlie Perrin and the oil company could just walk in and say ‘Charlie, we want to drill some wells or recomplete some wells and just sign right here.’”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Yellowstone geyser erupts for fifth time in months, prompting fears of an eruption

May 15, 2018

Yellowstone geyser erupts for fifth time in months, prompting fears of an eruption

Does the USGS, NASA, and other government agencies know more than they are leading people to believe when it comes to the Yellowstone supervolcano?

(INTELLIHUB) — The largest active geyser in the world has erupted for the fifth time this year, prompting the general public to wonder if an eruption of the supervolcano is imminent.

Scientists from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have been trying to quell peoples fears that the magma chamber may explode by producing a series of information and awareness videos explaining how everything should be okay for the time being.

@USGSVolcanos issued the following tweet on Sunday: “#Steamboat #Geyser in @YellowstoneNPS erupts for [the] 5th time in 2018, just before 4 AM on May 13. Steamboat also had frequent eruptions in the 1960s and early 1980s. No implications for volcanic activity, but good implications for viewing some spectacular geysering this summer!” (typos corrected)

Seismic record from Norris museum showing Steamboat eruption starting just before 4 AM local time on May 13.

Temperature record (UTC time) from Steamboat geyser. Spike at about 10:00 UTC (4:00 AM local time) records hot water from the eruption passing by the temperature sensor.

✔

#Steamboat #Geyser in @YellowstoneNPS erupts for 5th time in 2018, just before 4 AM on May 13. Steamboat also had frequent eruptions in the 1960s and early 1980s. No implications for volcanic activity, but good implications for viewing some spectauclar geysering this summer!

10:22 AM – May 13, 2018

Plus, University of Utah Seismograph Station sensor readings indicate an uptick in activity which may be acting as a red flag indicator to people in-the-know.

But at the same time, NASA has been working on a plan to drill into the molten magma chamber and pump water into it in an effort to stop such an eruption from occurring, one that could send the world into a nuclear winter scenario.

Withal, some scientists fear the current activity may go hand-in-hand with the recent activation of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano and volcanoes located in the Pacific Northwest.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Ignorance and Greed: Trump’s War on the Environment

March 5, 2018

Ignorance and Greed: Trump’s War on the Environment

Under Donald Trump, the environment has been the hardest hit of any sector of society, carried out by executive actions, the overturning of Obama-era regulations, and the enactment of new rules via cabinet review. This assault is occurring just as NASA reports that we’ve just had another near-record year of global warming. It’s insanity, and a classic example of willful ignorance. Trump, EPA director Scott Pruitt, and other officials simply choose not to inform themselves lest their position on climate change, which is based entirely on self-interest, be undermined. Since these people only know what Fox News and the fossil fuel industry tell them, they probably are unfazed about portents such as the three-year drought that has brought Cape Town, South Africa, to “Day Zero” when the water pipes will be shut off and water strictly rationed.

Behind the rules changes lies a telling fact: Trump does not have a science adviser—a director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House. But since he has no interest in science, he evidently sees no reason to learn from or defer to anyone who does. The president’s science adviser typically advises on everything from outbreaks of disease to global warming and nuclear weapons. By leaving empty a position all previous presidents have filled, Trump is sending a message that he is not merely a climate-change denier but also a science denier. Only one person sits in the OSTP office: a Silicon Valley financier.

As has been widely reported, the resignations, retirements, and constraints placed upon government scientists crimp the executive branch’s preparedness for what is to come. As just one example, geologists in the interior department are being systematically constrained from presenting their research at major conferences.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

NASA Admits Pole Shift is Close: Here’s What You Can Do to Prepare

February 2, 2018

NASA Admits Pole Shift is Close: Here’s What You Can Do to Prepare

With all of the horrific weather anomalies, and the increase in earthquakes and volcanoes over the past six months…pronouncing themselves especially just in the past week…there is a cause for concern. In the article, “Earth’s Magnetic Poles Show Signs They’re About to Flip – Exposing Humans to Radiation and Planet-Wide Blackouts,” written by Kastalia Medrano of Newsweek, NASA finally admits to a long-time fear – the Earth’s poles are close to shifting.

Here is an excerpt from that article:

“Historically, Earth’s North and South magnetic poles have flipped every 200,000 or 300,000 years—except right now, they haven’t flipped successfully for about 780,000 years. But the planet’s magnetic field is at long last showing signs of shifting. NASA”

…

“That devastation could arrive through multiple avenues. The combination of powerful space particles, like unfiltered solar rays, cosmic rays and ultraviolet B rays (the stuff your sunscreen bottle warns you about), would smash through our battered ozone layer and lead us the way of the dinosaurs.”

Why Is This Happening?

As you will read, the earth’s molten core of iron and nickel is beginning to leach out, affecting the magnetism of the entire earth. Nothing about wildlife was mentioned in the article, but I point out this could very well explain some of the strange and bizarre behavior we have been witnessing regarding animals worldwide.

So, what can we do about such a thing? I highly recommend reading the article. It explains that with a magnetic shift we could see radiation levels increase around the globe, and several scientific firms suggest that parts of the planet could become uninhabitable, and at least inhospitable.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

New NASA Study Solves Climate Mystery, Confirms Methane Spike Tied to Oil and Gas

January 17, 2018

New NASA Study Solves Climate Mystery, Confirms Methane Spike Tied to Oil and Gas

Global map of percent changes in acres burning

Over the past few years, natural gas has become the primary fuel that America uses to generate electricity, displacing the long-time king of fossil fuels, coal. In 2019, more than a third of America’s electrical supply will come from natural gas, with coal falling to a second-ranked 28 percent, the Energy Information Administration predicted this month, marking the growing ascendency of gas in the American power market.

But new peer-reviewed research adds to the growing evidence that the shift from coal to gas isn’t necessarily good news for the climate.

A team led by scientists at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed that the oil and gas industry is responsible for the largest share of the world’s rising methane emissions, which are a major factor in climate change — and in the process the researchers resolved one of the mysteries that has plagued climate scientists over the past several years.

Missing Methane

That mystery? Since 2006, methane emissions have been rising by about 25 teragrams (a unit of weight so large that NASAnotes you’d need over 200,000 elephants to equal one teragram) every year. But when different researchers sought to pinpoint the sources of that methane, they ran into a problem.

If you added the growing amounts of methane pollution from oil and gas to the rising amount of methane measured from other sources, like microbes in wetlands and marshes, the totals came out too high — exceeding the levels actually measured in the atmosphere. The numbers didn’t add up.

It turns out, there was a third factor at play, one whose role was underestimated, NASA‘s new paper concludes, after reviewing satellite data, ground-level measurements, and chemical analyses of the emissions from different sources.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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