Saturday, July 30, 2016

Sizzling Midwest Previews a Hotter Future Climate

From:  Inside Climate News

Friday, July 29, 2016

Is the DNC eating its young?



    Ah, the Democratic National Committee -- they have just overstepped their mandate.  Again.

      Ever since the Repubs blatantly stole the 2000 election for George W. Bush and his posse of snobby elites, we've totally come to expect all sorts of flat-out shameless hanky-panky from the Grand [snake-Oil] Party.  But to see hanky-panky coming from the Dems as well?  Not so much.  Those were our guys, playing for the home team, supporting the salt of the earth, defending the working class.  We used to think that the Democratic Party was above that kind of stuff.


      Now we've got the DNC fudging up elections from New York to California just like they were GOP corporate-fascist shills riding into town on elephants instead of donkeys.  Who would have thought? 

      "But give us an example, Jane," you might say.  Here's a good one.  The guy in charge of voting in San Diego has just admitted that ballots cast for Bernie Sanders have been changed to ballots cast for Hillary Clinton -- and they were changed by using White-Out.  Yes, you read that correctly.  White-Out.  Really?  http://sourceplanet.net/politics/sanders-ballots-covered-with-white-out-confirmed/

      And then there is the strange case of Congressman Alan Grayson, the people's choice for Senate in Florida.  Grayson does all the things that we Democrats love -- stuff like supporting America's working class and keeping Wall Street from throwing us out of our homes.  Booyah for him!  But does the DNC support him?  Hell, no.  That would be too obvious.  Instead it supports his rival in the primary, Patrick Murphy.  Even President Obama is now campaigning for Murphy.  Huh?  http://trofire.com/2016/07/20/dem-establishment-afraid-alan-grayson-potus-makes-campaign-ad-opponent/

      Murphy used to be a Republican until he re-registered as a Democrat in order to run against Grayson.  No wonder the DNC loves Murphy!



     Not to mention all those WikiLeaks e-mails detailing how the DNC eats Bernie Babies for lunch.  http://observer.com/2016/07/wikileaks-proves-primary-was-rigged-dnc-undermined-democracy/

      And now we are going to be stuck with either a Clinton Dynasty for president or Donald Trump.  Greatest nation in the world?  I think not.

       But by far the worst of all this Democrat hanky-panky is that the DNC apparently is now eating its young -- happily chomping down on the Millennials like they were gummy bears or Fritos.  All we had to do was watch its convention to know that.  Bon appetite, DNC.  https://news.vice.com/article/new-york-lawsuit-voter-registration-problems-primary

     And now the Millennials also hate you, DNC -- as well they should after the DNC has done everything it can to disenfranchise the "Bernie Babies".  But twenty years from now, when the Democratic National Committee is some sort of decrepit non-relevant dinosaur and all alone, only then will it be sorry that it ate its young.  http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/14/dont-call-him-bernie-anymore-the-sanders-sell-out-and-the-clinton-wars-to-come/  

PS:  The DNC isn't the only one to be eating its young these days.  Congress, NATO, bankers, Israeli neo-colonialists, US-backed ISIS, Exxon, etc. are also really good at eating our young too.  Did you know that Exxon was aware of the dangers of climate change as far back as 1968?  To these elites, our children are just so many gummy bears.  http://usatoday.ddns.net/news/brave-pols-take-the-right-stand-20-lawmakers-demand-human-rights-and-justice-for-palestinian-children

PPS:  In early August, I'll be attending the American Bar Association convention in San Francisco.  Which reminds me that a hecka lot of young lawyers newly minted from law school are Millennials too -- and they are devoted to upholding the Constitution.  So, DNC, you had better watch out.  And, GOP, you too have been warned.  No more free lunch for either of you.  http://www.americanbar.org/calendar/annual.html

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        Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

The global philosopher: Who should pay for climate change?

From:  BBC

Most climate scientists think the world is getting warmer and that humans are at least in part responsible. Almost every country in the world has pledged to make efforts to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere in order to prevent dangerous "interference with the climate system". But exactly how to do this raises interesting questions about fairness.

To discuss them, we put Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel in a state-of-the-art digital studio - connected to 60 people in 30 countries. Here producer David Edmonds outlines three key puzzles.

Who is responsible?

We have been pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in ever increasing quantities since the industrial revolution. Some countries in the developed world are, of course, responsible for the bulk of this. Since 1850 the US and the nations which are now the EU have been responsible for more than 50% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

 MORE

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

This heat wave was planned in a board room.

From:  350 Org 

Last Friday, President Obama and various national and local government agencies issued statements about an impending heatwave, directing people to stay inside, drink plenty of water, and watch for signs of heat stroke. Over the weekend, 26 states issued heat advisories, and press swarmed to public parks to photograph people sunbathing and cooling off in fountains. All across the country people are mopping their brows and greeting each other with looks of exhausted recognition. It’s too hot.

Heatwaves are familiar —  we like to think of them as intense and uncomfortable, but temporary. Except this year’s heat wave is something more. It covers nearly all 50 states, and is occurring simultaneously with heat waves in Europe, China, and the Middle East [Kuwait broke the record temperature for the Eastern Hemisphere at 129.4 degrees this week]. It follows on the heels of a hot streak in India last year that is responsible for 2500 deaths. According to NASA, every month of 2016 is the hottest on record, and this last week has been no exception. And even with all the government warnings, somewhere around 6-8 people have died due to heat this week in Arizona and Detroit, and we’ve got at least one more day of scorching temperatures. 

This intensified heat wave is part of the unfolding crisis of climate change, and all the impacts — the wildfires, the drought, the crop failures, the public health emergencies — were choices. The people dying today from climate impacts were killed in a board room 20 years ago by executives who decided that it was worth it to squeeze another few decades of profit out of the fossil fuel industry.  MORE



For the first time, forecast predicts hotter-than-normal in every square inch of the USA

From:  USA Today

, USA TODAY  
7:50 a.m. EDT July 26, 2016

For the first time on record, every square inch of all 50 states is forecast to see above-average temperatures for the next three months, according to a forecast map from the federal government's Climate Prediction Center.

An entire forecast map awash in the red and orange colors of unusually warm temperatures for a 3-month period is unprecedented, according to Dan Collins, a meteorologist with the prediction center. Typically parts of the map register blue, depicting the likelihood of cooler-than-normal air, or white for equal chances of cool and warm.

The archives for the center's climate predictions go back to 1995, Collins said. MORE

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Wildfire shifts could dump more ice-melting soot in Arctic

From: Science News

6:00am, April 18, 2016

In some areas, black carbon emissions from blazes will double, simulations predict

FIRE STARTER  Wildfires will spew more soot into the air in many regions by the end of the century, new research predicts. That soot could darken Arctic ice and accelerate melting.

Raging wildfires could burn away efforts to reduce Arctic-damaging soot emissions. Soot produced by burning fossil fuels and plants, also called black carbon, can cause respiratory diseases and greenhouse warming, and can accelerate the melting of ice.

Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns will shift where and how fiercely wildfires burn and spew soot, new simulations show. Outside of the tropics, fire seasons will last on average one to three months longer during the 2090s than they do currently, researchers report online April 8 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. Soot emissions from wildfires will as much as double in regions that border the Arctic and counteract projected reductions in soot from human activities, the researchers predict.

“Humankind would do well to proactively develop adequate land and fire management strategies to have at least some control on future wildfire emissions,” says study coauthor Andreas Veira, an earth system scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg.



 MORE


 

Get all your outdoors work done by 2030, before it's too hot to work outside

From:  Deseret News 

Compiled by Sarah Anderson, For the Deseret News
Published: Mon, July 25, 2016, 8:10 a.m. MDT

United Nations research indicates rising temperatures may cost the global economy more than $2 trillion by 2030 in reduced productivity, as well as cut down working hours in the poorer areas of the globe.(, Adobe Stock)

By 2030, we may have a new reason to call in sick to work — research suggests that by then it will be too hot to work in parts of the world, particularly for those whose jobs consistently expose them to the heat.

Bloomberg stated that United Nations research indicates this heat onslaught may cost the global economy more than $2 trillion by 2030 in reduced productivity, as well as cut down working hours in the poorer areas of the globe. With low-paid and heat-exposed professions such as construction and farming taking the brunt of it, Quartz noted.

Forty-three countries are expected to see a fall in their gross domestic product from heat stress, in particular Asiatic countries such as China, Indonesia and Malaysia, as Tord Kjellstrom, a director at the Health and Environment International Trust, told Bloomberg. India and China’s GDP losses alone could total $450 billion in 2030, Kjellstrom added. MORE

Monday, July 25, 2016

Breaking : Complete List of Wikileaks DNC Email Dump

From:  NewsFeed 

By July 24, 2016


 
Last Friday (heroes) Wikileaks released nearly 20,000 hacked emails from approximately 7 high-ranking DNC officials.
Wikileaks released the documents just days before the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, set to kickoff Monday.
The hacked emails revealed the DNC’s plot to take down Bernie Sanders and collusion between liberals and the mainstream media (Trump was right, again).
The list was compiled by “Reddit” Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump supporters 
DNC member killing horses for insurance money.
https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/emailid/578
MORE

Where in the World Is Climate Change Denial Most Prevalent?

From:  NY Times 

Results from a question about views on climate change from a 2014 global report . Credit "Global Trends 2014" report, Ipsos MORI

Though climate change is an unusually divisive issue among Americans, a report shows that the United States is the country where the topic is most widely debated by politicians and the public, as the graphic above shows.
In a report published in 2014 by Ipsos Mori, a market research group in the United Kingdom, 16,000 people in 20 countries were asked questions in an online survey about several topics, including climate change. In addition to the United States, respondents came from Britain, Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, and elsewhere.
According to the report, the United States had more climate change deniers among their respondents than any other country. Britain and Australia each also had a large percentage of respondents who said they did not agree with the notion of human-caused climate change.  MORE

Climate change denial

From:  Wiki 


 2013 finds that only 2 of 10885 reject man-made global warming.[1]
(James L. Powell)
Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is part of global warming controversy. It involves denial, dismissal, unwarranted doubt or contrarian views about facts and science about climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its impacts on nature and human society, or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions.[2][3][4] In the global warming controversy, some deniers do endorse the term, but other often prefer the term climate change skepticism[3] whereas scientists think it "inappropriate to allow those who deny [anthropogenic global warming] to don the mantle of skeptics"; in effect, the two terms form a continuous, overlapping range of views, and generally have the same characteristics: both reject, to a greater or lesser extent, mainstream scientific opinion on climate change.[5][6] Climate change denial can also be implicit, when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action.[7] Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism.[5][6]
Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a "denial machine" of industrial, political and ideological interests, supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming.[8][9][10] In the public debate, phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism.[11] The labels are contested: those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as "skeptics", but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and, regardless of evidence, persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming.[5]
Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change,[12][13] the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial, hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate.[14][15][16] Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none.[17][18]
The climate change denial industry is most widespread in the United States, where the official Senate Environmental Committee is chaired by James Inhofe, who famously called climate change “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” and claimed to have debunked it in 2015 when he took a snowball with him and threw it on the Senate floor.[19] Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of CO2 emissions.[20] Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby, the Koch brothers, industry advocates and libertarian think tanks, often in the United States.[15][21][22][23] More than 90% of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks.[24] The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $900 million.[25] Between 2002 and 2010, nearly $120 million (£77 million) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change.[26] In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network (SPN), an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks, had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation.[27] Investigative journalists have revealed internal documents showing that since the late 1970s, oil companies were aware that burning oil and gas could cause climate change and global warming. Despite this evidence, oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades, leading to comparisons of this strategy to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies.[28][29]  MORE

Scientific opinion on climate change

From:  Wiki

The scientific opinion on climate change is the overall judgment among scientists regarding the extent to which global warming is occurring, its causes, and its probable consequences. This scientific opinion is expressed in synthesis reports, by scientific bodies of national or international standing, and by surveys of opinion among climate scientists. Individual scientists, universities, and laboratories contribute to the overall scientific opinion via their peer-reviewed publications, and the areas of collective agreement and relative certainty are summarised in these respected reports and surveys.[1]
The scientific consensus is that the Earth's climate system is unequivocally warming, and that it is extremely likely (meaning 95% probability or higher) that this warming is predominantly caused by humans. It is likely that this mainly arises from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels, partially offset by human caused increases in aerosols; natural changes had little effect.[2][3][4][5]
National and international science academies and scientific societies have assessed current scientific opinion on global warming. These assessments are generally consistent with the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report stated that:
  • Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as evidenced by increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, the widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.[6]
  • Most of the global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human activities.[7]
  • Benefits and costs of climate change for [human] society will vary widely by location and scale.[8] Some of the effects in temperate and polar regions will be positive and others elsewhere will be negative.[8] Overall, net effects are more likely to be strongly negative with larger or more rapid warming.[8]
  • The range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.[9]
  • The resilience of many ecosystems is likely to be exceeded this century by an unprecedented combination of climate change, associated disturbances (e.g. flooding, drought, wildfire, insects, ocean acidification) and other global change drivers (e.g. land-use change, pollution, fragmentation of natural systems, over-exploitation of resources).[10]  

Global mean land-ocean temperature change since 1880, relative to the 1951–1980 mean. The black line is the annual mean and the red line is the 5-year running mean. Source: NASA GISS


The temperature record of the past 2000 years from several different proxy methods.

Some scientific bodies have recommended specific policies to governments and science can play a role in informing an effective response to climate change. Policy decisions, however, may require value judgements and so are not included in the scientific opinion.[11][12]
No scientific body of national or international standing maintains a formal opinion dissenting from any of these main points. The last national or international scientific body to drop dissent was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists,[13] which in 2007[14] updated its statement to its current non-committal position.[15] Some other organizations, primarily those focusing on geology, also hold non-committal positionsMORE

How the Penny Dropped on Climate Change for Australia

From:  Wiki 

Climate change has been a major issue in Australia since the beginning of the 21st century.[1] In 2013, the CSIRO released a report stating that Australia is becoming hotter, and that it will experience more extreme heat and longer fire seasons because of climate change.[2] In 2014, the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia's climate that highlighted several key points, including the dramatic increase in Australia's temperatures (particularly night-time temperatures) and the increasing frequency of bush fires, droughts and floods, which have all been linked to climate change.[3]
Since the beginning of the 20th century Australia has experienced an increase of nearly 1 °C in average annual temperatures, with warming occurring at twice the rate over the past 50 years than in the previous 50 years.[4] Recent climate events such as extremely high temperatures and widespread drought have focused government and public attention on the impacts of climate change in Australia.[5] Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10–20% since the 1970s, while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s.[6] Rainfall patterns are expected to be problematic, as rain has become heavier and infrequent, as well as more common in summer rather than in winter, with little or no uptrend in rainfall in the Western Plateau and the Central Lowlands of Australia.[7] Water sources in the southeastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas (rising demand) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought (diminishing supply). At the same time, Australia continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions.[8] Temperatures in Australia have also risen dramatically since 1910 and nights have become warmer.[9]
A carbon tax was introduced in 2011 by the Gillard government in an effort to reduce the impact of climate change and despite some criticism, it has successfully reduced Australia's carbon dioxide emissions, with coal generation down 11% since 2008-09.[10] The Australian Government under Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been criticised for being "in complete denial about climate change".[11] Furthermore, the Abbott government repealed the statistically effectual carbon tax on 17 July 2014 in a heavily criticised move.[12] The renewable energy target (RET)–launched in 2001–has been heavily modified and somewhat butchered under Abbott's government.[13] However, currently under the government of Malcolm Turnbull, Australia has attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference and adopted the Paris Agreement. This agreement includes a review of emission reduction targets every 5 years from 2020.[14]
The federal government and all state governments (New South Wales,[15] Victoria,[16] Queensland,[17] South Australia,[18] Western Australia,[19] Tasmania,[20] Northern Territory[21] and the Australian Capital Territory[22]) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions, in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change. Sectors of the population are actively campaigning against new coal mines and coal-fired power stations because of their concern about the effects of global warming on Australia.[23][24][25] There is expected to be a net benefit to Australia of stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq.[26]
The per-capita carbon footprint in Australia was rated 12th in the world by PNAS in 2011, considerably large given the small population of the country.[27]  MORE

Benzene — #1 In "Top 10 Toxic Ingredients Used By The Fossil Fuel Industries" Series

From:  Planet Save

December 6th, 2013
by

1. Benzene

Benzene is a well-established carcinogen with specific links to leukemia,  breast and urinary tract cancers. Exposure to benzene reduces red and white blood cell production in bone marrow; decreases auto-immune cell function (T-cell and B-cells); and, has been linked to sperm-head abnormalities and generalized chromosome aberrations.

Benzene is one of the largest-volume petrochemical solvents used in the fossil fuel industry. It is a major component in all major fossil fuel production: oil, coal, and gas.

People are exposed to it from a variety of fossil fuel-based sources: inhaling automobile exhaust and gasoline fumes; industrial oil and coal combustion; and, of growing concern, the release of fracking waste.


MORE

Sunday, July 24, 2016

California wildfires: Hundreds flee homes near Los Angeles

From:  BBC

Helicopters are dropping water on the flames near Santa Clarita


Fast-moving wildfires have forced hundreds of people to leave their homes in mountains north of Los Angeles, California, the authorities say.

The fires had covered an area of 20,000 acres by Saturday evening, sending a pall of smoke across parts of Los Angeles County.

About 300 people have been evacuated near the city of Santa Clarita.

Public swimming pools in Pasadena and Glendale closed because of smoke and falling ash.  MORE

2016 is (predictably) set to be the hottest year on record

From:  The Verge


on
The high temperatures in the first half of 2016 have also correlated with low sea ice coverage in the Arctic. Five out of the first six months of the year set records for having the smallest monthly coverage of Arctic sea ice since satellite observations of the region began in 1979. Now, during the peak summer melt season — when the Arctic ice is melted away by the Sun — the ice coverage is about 40 percent less than it was in the late 1970s and early 1980s, according to NASA.  MORE

Friday, July 22, 2016

Iraq sweats in near-record heatwave

From:  BBC

Note:  Watch for more articles on Global Warming.  

Government offices have been shut and streets have emptied in Iraq as summer temperatures hit 53C (127F), nearing the highest recorded in the country.

The heat has been compounded by chronic power shortages, depriving homes of electricity for large parts of the day.

The conditions have placed a particular strain on Iraqis displaced by an assault on Falluja, a UN official said.

Average temperatures in June were the highest recorded worldwide - a rise attributed to greenhouse gas emissions.  MORE

The Solution to ISIS

"In the 19th century, the international community came together to declare slavery an affront to our common humanity. Today, governments, civil society and the private sector must unite to eradicate all contemporary forms of slavery, including forced labour. Together, let us do our utmost for the millions of victims throughout the world who are held in slavery and deprived of their human rights and dignity."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Message for the International Day
for the Abolition of Slavery
2 December 2014


Proposal to End The Invasion of Western States by an
Invading Force Masquerading as a Faith

Marriage as defined by the adherents of ISIS is slavery. Young girls and women are delivered into the condition in which the 'husband' controls their actions and property by marriage in which they have no choice. Enslaved by this form of 'marriage' which violates the actual rules set down in the Koran, they are forced through threat of inhuman punishments to carry out duties which they do not freely choose. Boys as young as five are being trained to kill anyone who does not adhere to their 'faith.' 
 
There is little or no recourse in the laws of the forces which have adopted these practices and errant systems of law, which are not in agreement with the Koran and in any case individuals are required to follow the law of the nation in which they are resident. No exception should have been made for adherents of the ISIS.
 
Using this mischaracterization of 'marriage' ISIS has created the means for culturally invading nations which offer plunder to be stolen. The plan follows the tactics used by Edward Bernays, admitted to in his book, “Propaganda.” A perusal of the Manifesto for Women provided by the leadership of ISIS dispels any doubt as to the horrors awaiting women so enslaved. See Sections from Manifesto on Women, issued by ISIS. 
 
Taken in its totality the invasion targets the benevolence and freedom of the nations being invaded as a covert act of war, using women and children as the battering ram behind which participating men hide. 
 
The claim what is practiced is a religion serves also to hide the transfer of wealth, exploited from women and their tethering children, which are essential to carrying out the take over of free people in the Western Nations.

Therefore be it resolved:
Because slavery and human trafficking is prohibited across Europe and most of the Western World and ISIS hinges on the enslaving women and exploiting their labor, which is then consumed by their supposed 'husbands,' who are, in fact their owners, we call for the following steps to be taken to end this threat to the civilized world. 
 
All men and women living in Western Nations shall sign a binding contract guaranteeing they do and will honor the equal and separate human and legal rights of women in accordance with the laws for that Nation. Having so affirmed then the participating Nation shall limit political asylum to those willing to also affirm and guarantee performance. 
 
All men seeking political asylum in Western Nations with a wife and or children, shall be denied entry unless and until they sign a binding contract guaranteeing they will honor the equal and separate human and legal rights of women usual for that Nation. 
 
All single men seeking political asylum in Western Nations shall affirm by binding agreement they will honor the separate and equal human rights of women usual for that Nation. 
 
The penalty for violating this agreement will be loss and transfer of all holdings, property, funds and other assets, to the woman held in slavery and the expulsion of the man from the Nation to his originating location. 
 
The assets will be rendered to the woman, who by this decree be legally divorced and have full and complete custody of all children of the marriage. 
 
Any attempt to harass, harm, or otherwise violate the rights of the divorced woman or the children by either the former owner or anyone acting in his stead will result in a life sentence with no parole in an institution able to ensure escape is impossible. All assets owned or held by such individuals will be forfeited.
 
In the case such parties attempt to hide assets with extraterritoriality services for the seizing of assets will be made available by a foundation set up for the purpose, privately funded.