This idea is nothing new and it didn't really originate with Art Bell and Whitley Strieber. A NASA report from 2004 tells us "Andrew Marshall, a veteran Defense Department planner, recently released an unclassified report detailing how a shift in ocean currents in the near future could compromise national security."
In a 2003 report, Robert Gagosian cites "rapidly advancing evidence [from, e.g., tree rings and ice cores] that Earth's climate has shifted abruptly and dramatically in the past." For example, as the world warmed at the end of the last ice age about 13,000 years ago, melting ice sheets appear to have triggered a sudden halt in the Conveyor, throwing the world back into a 1,300 year period of ice-age-like conditions called the "Younger Dryas." It is also now known that the Gulf Stream weakened in 'Little Ice Age'
On 6 December 2005 Michael Schlesinger, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, leading a research team, said "The shutdown of the thermohaline circulation has been characterized as a high-consequence, low-probability event. Our analysis, including the uncertainties in the problem, indicates it is a high-consequence, high-probability event." See also: Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age.
There is another danger that comes with Global Warming: release of huge amount of methane from the methane clathrates buried in the arctic seabed, and even from other subterranean sources as the earth struggles to shift around and balance itself. Methane can contribute to Global Warming, but it is a highly unstable gas. Mostly it just stinks and can kill. Consider a September, 2006 report Methane gas leak kills miners in Ukraine which says:
Emergency Situations spokesman Ihor Krol said "an unexpected eruption of a coal and gas mixture" - later identified as methane - occurred early this morning at a depth of 3,500ft ... Methane probably emitted from rocks..."We learn from further research that a high number of mining accidents are the result of methane pockets either igniting or poisoning miners.
In short, if big bubbles of methane gas are released from the ground, if a flock of birds happen to be in the area, they could very easily die and fall to the ground within a few minutes.
Now, of course, methane itself is odorless, but it is a byproduct of organic decomposition and, as a consequence, is often associated with hydrogen sulfide, a "rotten egg" smell. If you can smell it, the level is probably unsafe.
Of course, there is a tremendous dispute about this with a whole raft of critics (some of them scientists with questionable loyalties) pooh-poohing the idea and continuing along the line of "it's all Global Warming" and if we concentrate on cutting emissions, over time, things will stabilize."
Not very likely.
Why do we think so?
Last month, for almost a week, the Gulf Stream ceased to flow northward to Europe. Go here: http://rads.tudelft.nl/gulfstream/ ... and scroll down to "Animations of the Gulf Stream velocities are here".
Click, and when the page loads, select "Last 26 weeks (Jan 23 21 bytes)" and observe. After the images load and the animation plays, you will see a short period of about a week between Dec 11th and 19th when the Gulf Stream actually stopped flowing toward Europe and flowed back South without completing its normal circuit.
Here are still images from the event:
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| ©rads.tudelft.nl |
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| ©rads.tudelft.nl |
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| ©rads.tudelft.nl |
Now, keeping those dates in mind, let's look at some headlines selected from the SOTT Weather Archive from the days during and after the temporary reversal of the Thermohaline current:
14 Dec 2006 Duck die-off in Idaho sparks fears
19 Dec 2006 Lewiston residents unnerved by dead crows
21 Dec 2006 Colorado reels under blizzard
26 Dec 2006 Christmas storm brings devastation
02 Jan 2007 Sections of Colo. Remain Buried in Snow
03 Jan 2007 Cherry Blossoms Bloom In Brooklyn
03 Jan 2007 Record snowfall buries Anchorage
04 Jan 2007 Warm winter wreaks havoc
04 Jan 2007 Scientists Say 2007 May Be Warmest Yet
05 Jan 2007 2 dead after strong storms, tornadoes rip through southern Louisiana
08 Jan 2007 Gas-like odour blankets Manhattan
08 Jan 2007 Ducks die en mass in Vietnam's southern province
08 Jan 2007 Dead birds shut down Austin
08 Jan 2007 Outgassing: The environmental "surge" you're not hearing anything about.
08 Jan 2007 NY gas smell shuts trains, forces evacuations
08 Jan 2007 Wacky warm weather throws birds and bees off balance
09 Jan 2007 Warm December Pushes 2006 to Record Year
10 Jan 2007 Are the dead porpoises on Scottish beaches more evidence of global warming?
10 Jan 2007 Freak tornado-like storm hits Barbados
12 Jan 2007 Storm Warnings Across UK
13 Jan 2007 Icy Weather Hits U.S. Midwest
13 Jan 2007 Record Cold, Snow in Southern California!
13 Jan 2007 Smelly Outgassing in Louisiana
13 Jan 2007 Staten Island: More Bad Smells - Outgassing?
14 Jan 2007 Powerful storm dumps ice and rain on central U.S
14 Jan 2007 Ice Storm lashes much of U.S. - 20 dead
15 Jan 2007 Near Hurricane Force Storm Batters Baltic States - 2nd time in 2 years for "once in a lifetime event"
17 Jan 2007 Schwarzenegger Seeks Disaster Aid For Freeze Ruined Crops
17 Jan 2007 Ice plays havoc with U.S. power grid
17 Jan 2007 Thousands Shiver As Storm Death Toll Hits 51
17 Jan 2007 Big freeze hits $1bn crop
17 Jan 2007 Wildfires Burn in Southern Australia
17 Jan 2007 Scores killed, crops devastated in harsh US winter weather
17 Jan 2007 Storms forecast to batter UK
17 Jan 2007 Warm Spell in Russia Wakes Up the Bears
18 Jan 2007 Snow in Malibu!!!
18 Jan 2007 Severe storms batter northwestern Europe
18 Jan 2007 Travel in Europe Disrupted by Wild Storm
19 Jan 2007 Hurricane Force Winds rip into eastern Europe
19 Jan 2007 Storm kills 27 in northern Europe
19 Jan 2007 Germany Limps Back To Life After Storm Claims 10 Lives - Wind Gusts Up to 202 KPH
19 Jan 2007 Killer of 29, Kyrill Hurricane Approaches Russia - "The Day After Tomorrow?"
19 Jan 2007 Experts Can't Find Source Of Mysterious NYC Odor
19 Jan 2007 Okla., Mo., and Texas Brace for Storm
19 Jan 2007 Icy Storm Blamed for 65 Deaths in U.S.
19 Jan 2007 Germans Told to Stay Indoors as Hurricane Nears
20 Jan 2007 Europe counts cost of storms as stricken freighter is beached
20 Jan 2007 New winter storm stalks Southern Plains
21 Jan 2007 Snow Storm Rolls Across Plains; 8 Dead
25 Jan 2007 Getting Colder in U.S. Northeast - Polar Plunge Underway
25 Jan 2007 Anchorage Hit with Twice Normal Snowfall
The 64,000 $ question: Is there a connection between the reversal of the Gulf Stream in December and the numerous reports of birds falling dead from the sky and the wild and deadly weather during the first half of January?
The next question is: Does this small example suggest what might happen if the now highly unstable Gulf Stream finally and completely stops flowing North to Europe?
Meanwhile, on Jan 23rd, President Bush told the American Congress "we must confront the serious challenge of global climate change". However, the main thrust of his speech was to ask that Congress and the American People give his war escalation plan yet another chance.
Now, even though Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) responded to this nonsensical speech in a very appropriate way, telling Bush that "The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military, nor does the majority of Congress," Senator Webb himself is probably not aware of the truly great danger that may be looming over all of us, rich and poor, in every country of the world. Just as Nero fiddled while Rome burned, the leaders of our world are acting as though they have unlimited time to play their political games.
The question is, will any of us survive the threat to our civilization that is inherent in a Global Warming that can turn into an Ice Age in an instant while Bush and other world leaders engage in endless arguments about wars and economics? The real enemy is not "over there," it is "out there," in terms of changes to our environment that we all need to understand as fast as possible. And here we mean, all people. When the Sword falls, the billionaire oil tycoons will suffer just as much, if not more, than the Third World subsistence farmer.
We desperately need to reach these people and inform them so that all of humanity can act together as one to bring this senseless war-mongering to a halt and work together to solve our mutual problems that threaten to destroy us more completely than any nuclear bomb ever could.
But here's the problem: through the distortion and outright censoring of events in America and the world, the US media, in concert with the Bush government, are denying the American people access to knowledge and awareness that would allow them to play a pivotal role in their own future and that of their children. How many Americans truly know how many of their fellow citizens are totally opposed to the actions of the Bush government? If you read the US media you would have no idea whatsoever. If you read the international press however, you get a much better idea. Consider the following images from the front page of a French regional paper for 25th January 2007:
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| The text reads: "America Says 'No' Increasingly isolated, George Bush has asked congress for 'another chance'. Less than one third of Americans are inclined to trust him. (click on image for large version) |
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| The text reads: "America against Bush. An ever increasing number of opponents of the Iraq war" (Click on image for large version). |
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This is the moment. Look at the Gulf Stream. Remember the movie "The Day After Tomorrow." Consider what happened within two weeks of a one week reversal of the Gulf Stream. It may not be that bad or that fast, but we can see from what we have already experienced that it will certainly be bad enough. Getting the information out to as many people as possible is going to require concentrated effort and funding. Once the people are fully aware of what is really going on, it is our belief that they will, en masse, do what is right and demand, in tones that cannot be refused, that our leaders take care of the most important business on our planet: preparing us for a massive, shift in climate that undoubtedly will happen much, much, much faster than anyone currently thinks possible.
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