'Next two weeks will be very difficult' due to snow melt, European official says

Sofia, Bulgaria - Much of Europe is still covered in snow and ice, but some areas are already seeing deadly flooding amid concerns that it will get worse before it gets better.

Swollen rivers in Greece and Bulgaria burst their banks Tuesday, leaving dozens of homes underwater, as Bulgarian officials declared a day of mourning for eight people confirmed killed after a dam collapse nearly washed away their village.

Bulgaria's civil defense agency warned that two other, bigger dams were also on the brink of spilling over and residents were urged to prepare for an evacuation. Authorities have started a controlled release of water from the dams to prevent overflow.

Europeans across the continent have been battling more than a week of extreme weather. Thousands are still trapped by snow in remote, mountain villages in the Balkans. Hundreds - most of them homeless - have died after temperatures hit as low as minus 33 Fahrenheit; and authorities now face flooding caused by melting snow.

A day after the dam burst, the Bulgarian government declared a day of mourning, and streets in the village of Bisser were covered with sticky mud as people returned to their water-logged homes.

The frigid temperatures and snowfall that began in Eastern Europe last week have reached Western Europe, snarling airport traffic in Britain and turning Rome white.

It finally got really cold in Europe. Rome and the Netherlands recorded the lowest temperatures in 27 years and kids were making snowmen outside the Vatican. But the sudden arctic freezing last week in Ukraine, Hungary, and the Balkan states that steadily crept up the continent also took a toll, with 131 reported dead in Ukraine alone.

For those who are paying strict attention left and right, 2010 will be remembered as the year in which a major threshold was crossed and the door closed behind it. It is the humble opinion of the editors that the dice have been thrown and the destiny of the planet sealed.

The signs were there:

• The absolute disregard of governments for the rights of air travelers and citizens and the open arrogance of the imposition of Orwellian measures
• The continuation of ever more absurd fake-terror tricks to scare the people into compliance
• The increasingly violent anger of the masses on the streets as a result of the economic pressure and other forms of abuse from the top
• The great ease with which the global media took over, diluted and distorted the aspirations of political truth seekers via the Wikileaks show, and the obvious omission of Israel from such 'leaks'
• The all too timid opposition of the world to such crimes against humanity as the genocide aboard the Mavi Marmara
• And the ongoing imperial campaigns of western powers in the Middle East and Asia

Particularly disastrous was the chain reaction ignited by BP's ecocide in the Gulf of Mexico - courtesy of corporate psychopathy and the complicity of our governments - this festering wound might yet contribute significantly to tipping the global climate into an Ice Age by disrupting ocean currents and, in turn, wind currents. The Gulf Loop current is reportedly already broken, disrupting the northern Jet Stream and bringing yet another harsh winter to most of the northern hemisphere.

It is admittedly speculative to blame the meters of snowfall in the US and Europe this winter on the Gulf oil spill, but if you're looking for concrete in-your-face evidence of the unprecedented scale of the disaster, just ask the thousands of local residents and oil spill workers living along the coast of the Gulf from Texas to Florida.

But the oil in the Gulf of Mexico is only one factor. We believe we are witnessing the beginning of a dramatic episode of human history linked to climate change within the solar system. We see it in signs ignored by most: comets, fireballs and changes in the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, somewhat symbolically, the Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean is trembling violently, setting off so many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that we've lost count. The potential for disaster is horrific, as events in Japan have recently shown. Human infrastructure is fragile and a direct hit on a key facility - like the Fukushima nuclear power plant - can effectively erase all prospects of normal human life across whole areas. Indeed, Fukushima is turning out to be 2011's 'oil spill', one which at this point looks even darker than the one in the Gulf of Mexico.

But as we ponder the present and what remains of our future, let's back up and recapitulate 2010... Connecting the Dots has been dormant for a while and there's much to catch up on!

In February 2004, The UK Observer reported that a study commissioned by the Pentagon predicted that food riots would result from abrupt climate change. The grim document described how the planet would reach the edge of anarchy and countries would threaten each other with nuclear weapons to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. "Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life," the analysis concluded. "Once again, warfare would define human life."

The Pentagon paper is remarkable for several reasons. Through it we see how the United States establishment understands that the real threat we are facing is climate change, not the manufactured threat of 'terrorism'. But a more frank admission is that 'climate change' is an abrupt phenomenon - not relatively gradual as most proponents of man-made global warming insist when they refer to computer models that chart rises in temperatures over a time-frame of several decades. The report specifically states that Britain will plunge into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020.

The real threat of a sudden transition to an ice age took on new urgency last summer when a study published by the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics suggested that BP's greed in the Gulf of Mexico may have caused the Gulf Loop current's complete separation from the Gulf Stream in mid-June 2010. This critical oceanic artery is a significant factor holding back a thick layer of snow and ice from descending upon the northern hemisphere. Should the Gulf Stream significantly weaken or cease to flow northwards altogether, Britain - along with whole swathes of northern America and Europe - would indeed be plunged into a 'Siberian' winter.

The latest satellite data establishes that the North Atlantic Current (also called the North Atlantic Drift) no longer exists and along with it the Norway Current. These two warm water currents are actually part of the same system that has several names depending on where in the Atlantic Ocean it is. The entire system is a key part of the planet's heat regulatory system; it is what keeps Ireland and the United Kingdom mostly ice free and the Scandinavia countries from being too cold; it is what keeps the entire world from another Ice Age. This Thermohaline Circulation System is now dead in places and dying in others.

This 'river' of warm water that moves through the Atlantic Ocean is called, in various places, the South Atlantic Current, the North Brazil Current, the Caribbean Current, the Yucatan Current, the Loop Current, the Florida Current, the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Current (or North Atlantic Drift) and the Norway Current.

According to a study produced in July 2010 by high-level scientists in both Italy & the United States, the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico has been broken, blocking the normal flow of warm water to the Atlantic Ocean and towards Western Europe. Since the end of the last Ice Age, these warm water currents have produced a relatively mild climate in that area, despite the region's high latitude (distance from the Equator).

Date-Time:
Monday, February 06, 2012 at 10:10:24 UTC

Monday, February 06, 2012 at 06:10:24 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
9.874°N, 123.070°E

Depth:
15 km (9.3 miles)

Region:
NEGROS - CEBU REGION, PHILIPPINES

Distances:
60 km (37 miles) NNW of Dumaguete, Negros, Philippines

82 km (50 miles) WNW of Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines

94 km (58 miles) SSE of Bacolod, Negros, Philippines

578 km (359 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines

In stark contrast to the mild winter conditions across much of North America, Europe is currently in the grips of its worst cold snap in at least six years. Arctic air has been spilling out of Siberia into Eastern Europe, bringing more than a foot of snow to Istanbul and temperatures as low as -30ºC (-22ºF) in several neighboring countries.

The brutal cold has killed at least 163 people in central and eastern Europe, many of them homeless. In Ukraine, where the death toll now stands at 101, nearly one thousand people have been hospitalized due to frostbite and hypothermia. Temperatures in some parts of the country dropped as low as -33ºC (-27ºF) on Thursday.
In the mountains of Serbia and Bosnia, some 11,000 villagers remain stranded in their homes after several weeks of heavy snow made roads all but impassable. With over 2 meters (6.5 ft) of snow on the ground, emergency helicopters have begun to airlift food supplies and evacuate villagers in need of medical care. The BBC reports that snow fell across the region almost daily since early January, with more expected over the weekend.

Flood waters rose Monday in parts of Queensland but residents of a threatened town in the Australian state were thrown a lifeline with news that the levee on a swollen river might hold.

Thousands of Australians have been forced to abandon their homes as a record deluge sweeps through areas still reeling from last year's devastating flooding, with St George, in Queensland's south, under most threat Monday.
Many of its residents fled Sunday evening to evacuation centres in nearby Dalby or the state capital Brisbane, although some 400 stayed to help limit the damage despite a mandatory evacuation order.

Local mayor Donna Stewart said the Balonne River in St George, flooding for the third time in less than two years, had reached 13.48 metres (44 feet) and was expected to keep rising until at least Tuesday night.