Earth ChangesS


Umbrella

The weather prophets should be chucked in the deep end

Boris Johnson
The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 23 Jun 2013 05:23 UTC
Homeowners lumbered with useless swimming pools know precisely who they should blame

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© Myimagefiles / AlamyOutdoor swimming pools in Britain: something of a gamble
The great thing about flying into London is that you get bags of time to see the countryside below. The congestion at Heathrow is so bad that many passengers circle above the Home Counties for half an hour, allowing themselves to be penetrated by the splendours of Surrey while their planes spew thousands of tons of CO2 into the upper air.

You can observe the way we live in the peri-urban world: the golf courses, the landfill sites, the pleasant whorls of detached houses; and over time the embourgeoisement of the British people has added an amenity that the Romans first introduced to this island. Look down on southern England, and you see the little winking ultramarine oblongs of the swimming pools - perhaps the greatest triumph of hope over experience in the history of English domestic architecture.

In Roman times, a swimming pool was a sign of taste, style and affluence, and in some of the biggest Romano-British villas you can see where Roman nobs frolicked and enjoyed the pleasures of water and nakedness. These days it would be fair to say that a swimming pool is a luxury - but not an unheard-of luxury. In the past 10 years there have been plenty of middle-class punters who have decided that they want a touch of Beverly Hills about their homes - and I know why they did it. They thought it would be nice for the kids and the grandchildren. They thought it might conceivably add to the value of their homes. In their secret hearts they hoped, forgivably, that it might provoke the envy of their neighbours.
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Ice Cube

Global warming? No, actually we're cooling, claim scientists

Hayley Dixon
The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 08 Sep 2013 04:56 UTC
A cold Arctic summer has led to a record increase in the ice cap, leading experts to predict a period of global cooling.

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© ALAMYMajor climate research centres now accept that there has been a “pause” in global warming since 1997.
There has been a 60 per cent increase in the amount of ocean covered with ice compared to this time last year, the equivalent of almost a million square miles.

In a rebound from 2012's record low, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia's northern shores, days before the annual re-freeze is even set to begin.

The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year, forcing some ships to change their routes.

A leaked report to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seen by the Mail on Sunday, has led some scientists to claim that the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century.

If correct, it would contradict computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming. The news comes several years after the BBC predicted that the arctic would be ice-free by 2013.
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Cloud Lightning

SOTT Focus: Fire and Ice: The Day After Tomorrow

Laura Knight-Jadczyk
Signs of the Times
Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:07 UTC

Comment: To better set the tone of the new perspective that SOTT is taking, and in consideration of the current state of the planet, we are re-running this prescient article written by Laura Knight-Jadczyk back in 2007. We hope that our readers realize that what is happening on Earth in the Cosmic sense, is far more important than politics.

You can get the politics here, too, but it is no longer our focus. There has been a One World Government running the show for many years now, the conflicts are just the "bread and circuses" they use to control the masses.

Political change may still happen, but it is no longer possible for it to prevent Earth Changes that are significant and cataclysmic. If the only thing that happens is global cooling, that, alone, can bring about the deaths of billions of people. Global warming, on the other hand, would have been a boon to mankind. But that was all a fraud, a distraction, a cruel game played by psychopaths on you, humanity.

So, read on and see what it is that is on our minds: preparing you for what is to be - what is already happening.


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© UnknownMoonrise over a glacier
A few months ago a member of the SOTT Forum posted a link to the following article about investigations into climate change. I wasn't too sure what the contradictory term "Tropical Ice Cores" meant, but the article seemed to explain all that:
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Bizarro Earth

Rare twin storms batter Mexico, 40 dead


Channel News Asia
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 22:32 UTC
Mexican Storm
© AFP/Pedro PardoResidents attempt to leave the flooded area in Acapulco, Guerrero state, Mexico, after heavy rains hit the area.
Acapulco: Mexico reeled Monday from the rare one-two punch of major storms on opposite coasts that triggered floods and landslides, killing at least 40 people while stranding tourists in Acapulco.

The Pacific coast was still being battered by the remnants of tropical storm Manuel, which continued to dump rain after dissipating, while hurricane Ingrid hit the northeast with tropical storm force before being further downgraded.

Thousands of people were evacuated as the two storms set off landslides and floods that damaged bridges, roads and homes across the country.

Water rose to almost 10 feet (three meters) in parts of the Pacific resort of Acapulco, cutting off the main highway to the city and marooning tens of thousands of Mexican and foreign beach-goers.

The last time Mexico was hit by two tropical storms in the span of 24 hours was in 1958, officials said. Never had it been struck by a hurricane and another storm at the same time, forecasters said.
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Snowflake Cold

German Professor: IPCC in a serious jam... "5AR likely to be last of its kind"

P Gosselin
No Tricks Zone
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 16:59 UTC
Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt
© www.kaltesonne.deProf. Fritz Vahrenholt
And: "Extreme weather is the only card they have got left to play."

So says German Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, who is one of the founders of Germany's modern environmental movement, and agreed to an interview with NoTricksZone. He is one of the co-authors of the German skeptic book "Die kalte Sonne", which took Germany by storm last year and is now available at bookstores worldwide in English under the title: The Neglected Sun.

In Germany Prof. Vahrenholt has had to endure a lot heat from the media, activists, and climate scientists for having expressed a different view. But as global temperatures remain stagnant and CO2 climate sensitivity is being scaled back, he feels vindicated.
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Question

Terror grips Bhaktapur folk as birds drop dead in Nepal

Ishworkaji Khaiju
The Himalayan Times
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:50 UTC
No need to conduct avian flu tests: Official

Bird flu fear has gripped Bhaktapur people, again. The ominous signs started haunting the locals after crows and pigeons on flight dropped dead at Chnwaga Ganesh of Bhaktapur Municipality-17.

The Bhaktapur Bird Flu Control Section has asked locals to bury dead pigeons and crows well, without bothering to conduct avian influenza tests on the samples.

Who will be responsible if they catch 'bird flu' after burying the birds? This is the question local people like Tulasha Shrestha are asking.

Shrestha says the section's instruction to locals - to bury the birds on their own - has terrified the locals further. According to Shrestha, a crow dropped dead in front of her house yesterday evening. She says pigeons have died in her neighbour Indrabhakta Rajlabat's house.
Locals fear that bird flu will make inroads into Bhaktapur, again.
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Eye 2

Pet snakes becoming a danger to humans and wildlife in USA


wildlifeextra.com
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:37 UTC
Born Free USA calls for national crackdown; reports growing numbers of pet snake incidents and inconsistent regulation on ownership, seriously endangering public and environment
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Apart from being a danger to humans, snakes have become a major threat to native wildlife. In Florida, Burmese pythons (like this one, one of the largest caught) that were released have been breeding and are now considered a pest.

Incidents involving "pet" snakes in the USA causing injury or death to humans, or escaping and putting communities and the environment in danger, are on the rise, according to Born Free USA, a leader in animal welfare and wildlife conservation. On the heels of the latest incident reported this week in Florida where a 60 pound family dog was killed by a 10 foot long snake - the 58th snake incident tracked by Born Free USA this year - the organization is calling for a nationwide crackdown on keeping of snakes as pets.

Born Free USA's exotic animal incidents database (www.bornfreeusa.org/database) has tracked more than 600 incidents involving reptiles in less than a decade and an astounding number of them, nearly 75%, involved snakes. The organization has been monitoring incidents involving exotic and wild animal escapes and attacks including reptiles, big cats, and primates and sees a steady rise in snake ownership - particularly deadly boa constrictors and pythons.
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Heart - Black

600 vultures killed by elephant poachers in Namibia

Claire Salisbury
news.mongabay.com
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 13:06 UTC
As the illegal poaching of African elephants and rhinos reaches epidemic levels, other species are also suffering catastrophic losses as a direct result of poachers' behavior. A recent incident in July, where a poisoned elephant carcass led to the death of 600 vultures near Namibia's Bwabwata National Park, has highlighted how poachers' use of poison is now one of the primary threats to vulture populations. Poachers poison carcasses to kill vultures, since large flocks may give away the location of poaching activity, attracting the attention of law enforcement officials.

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© André Botha.Rueppell's vulture (Gyps rueppellii).
"By poisoning carcasses, poachers hope to eradicate vultures from an area where they operate and thereby escape detection," explains Leo Niskanen, Technical Coordinator, IUCN Conservation Areas and Species Diversity Programme. "The fact that incidents such as these can be linked to the rampant poaching of elephants in Africa is a serious concern. Similar incidents have been recorded in Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia in recent years".

African vultures are highly imperiled, and are under pressure from a range of factors, including habitat loss as well as poisonings. Drastic population declines over the last 30 years have resulted in many species being classified as threatened by the IUCN. On average, the number of vultures in West Africa has dropped by 42% during this time, with Rueppell's vulture (Gyps rueppellii) suffering losses of up to 85%.
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Attention

Colorado flood victims urged 'get out now'


Sky News
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 09:37 UTC
Vehicles submerged
© Sky NewsVehicles submerged in floods along the Sough Platte River near Greeley
Rescuers will not return for families who refuse to evacuate immediately as more rain threatens to swell floods, officials warn.

Thousands of people trapped by floods that swept through towns in north Colorado have been warned to leave or risk weeks without food, electricity and running water.

Authorities have carried the message into canyon communities and towns where stranded residents eager to escape the Rocky Mountain foothills used every means possible to attract the attention of rescuers.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle warned National Guard helicopters and truck convoys would not go back for people who insisted on staying.
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Cloud Precipitation

From extreme drought to extreme rainfall in 24 hours: Six dead, 500 unaccounted for in devastating Colorado flash-floods

Mark Leberfinger,
AccuWeather.com
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 09:31 UTC
colorado flooding
© Cliff Grassmick APRailroad tracks at 9th Street, East of Airport Road, continue to be flooded in Longmont, Colo, on Sept. 14, 2013.
As many as six people are reported dead after historic flooding in Colorado.

At least 482 people remained unaccounted for in Larimer County, Colo., the county's sheriff Twitter feed announced Sunday morning. In Boulder County, there were 431 entries on the county's unaccounted-for list at 9 a.m., local time, but they were reduced to 212 entries by 3 p.m., representing 326 people, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said.

At least one person was killed in a collapsed home due to the flooding. Another life was taken on the 200 block of Linden in Boulder, Boulder Emergency Management officials reported. A third person was found dead in Fountain Creek, Colorado Springs police said. The fourth person died in Boulder, authorities told The Associated Press.
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