This morning I was thumbing through a newly arrived book: Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society, published by the eminent scientific publishing house, Springer, edited by Peter T. Bobrowsky and Hans Rickman. This book is a collection of scientific papers presented at a workshop under the aegis of the International Council for Science. In the introduction, we read:

The International Council for Science recently recognized that the societal implications (social, cultural, political and economic) of a comet/asteroid impact on Earth warrants an immediate consideration by all countries in the world.

Wow! You think? You mean it's not just us here at SOTT (and a few others on the net) who are keeping track of the increasing number of Fireballs and Meteorites that suggest we are passing through rather dangerous areas of space, or that maybe Something Wicked This Way Comes?

Yes, it seems so. In the chapter entitled "Social Perspectives on Comet/Asteroid Imact (CAI) Hazards: Technocratic Authority and the Geography of Social Vulnerability" we read:

Until quite recently, research into comet and asteroid hazards was focused on establishing the scale and scope of past impacts, credible estimates of their recurrence, and models for physical impact scenarios. ... CAI hazards have moved well beyond the realm of ungrounded speculation and apocalyptic visions. The results represent more than just new findings. They revolutionize, or are about to revolutionize, some basic understandings about the Earth, its history, biological evolution and future. Although human life has had a tiny place in the story so far, our longer term fate seems to be challenged by these forces and may be decided by them.

No kidding.

In a chapter entitled "Social Science and Near-Earth Objects: an Inventory of Issues", we read:

It would have been ridiculous, not too long ago, to admit openly that you were thinking about asteroids and comets slamming into the Earth. Such events could mean the end of the world as we know it - TEOTWAWKI as millenialists call it - and that kind of talk is often ridiculed. ...

Respectable people are pondering the issues. For example, S. Pete Worden, who is a Brigadier General in the US Air Force and Deputy Director for Command and Control Headquarters at the Pentagon, has said that he believes "we should pay more attention to the 'Tunguska-class' objects - 100 meter or so objects which can strike up to several times per century with the destructiveness of a nuclear weapon."

I located the General's comments and they are now in the SOTT database. It seems that the above is not all the general said. In fact, he states quite unequivocally:

I can show people evidence of real strikes inflicting local and regional damage less than a century ago. Even more compelling are the frequent kiloton-level detonations our early warning satellites see in the earth's atmosphere. ... Within the United States space community there is a growing concern over "space situational awareness."

The general was writing back in 2000. "Less than a century ago." That would be after 1900. He said that there were "real strikes inflicting local and regional damage" since 1900?!

Did I miss something? Did all of us miss something?

It was a warm, clear afternoon in the capital. The bustle of metropolitan commerce and tourism filled the streets. Small sailing vessels dotted the sheltered waters within sight of the government buildings, riding on a soft southerly breeze. The Sun sparkled on the gentle swells and wakes, lending a luminous glow to the poppies and tulips nodding in the parks along the water's edge. All was in order.

But suddenly, the sky brightened as if with a second, more brilliant Sun. A second set of shadows appeared; at first long and faint, they shortened and sharpened rapidly. A strange hissing, humming sound seemed to come from everywhere at once. Thousands craned their necks and looked upwards, searching the sky for the new Sun. Above them a tremendous white fireball blossomed, like the unfolding of a vast paper flower, but now blindingly bright. For several seconds the fierce fireball dominated the sky, shaming the Sun. The sky burned white-hot, then slowly faded through yellow and orange to a glowering copper-red. The awful hissing ceased. The onlookers, blinded by the flash, burned by its searing heat, covered their eyes and cringed in terror. Occupants of offices and apartments rushed to their windows, searching the sky for the source of the brilliant flare that had lit their rooms. A great blanket of turbulent, coppery cloud filled half the sky overhead. For a dozen heartbeats the city was awestruck, numbed and silent.

Having recently written a review of New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection by dendrochronologist Mike Baillie of Queen's University, Belfast, Ireland, I decided to go deeper into the subject. Over the past few weeks a whole case of books I ordered have been arriving and getting piled on my desk after a quick thumb-through... so much to do, so little time.

In the meantime, a friend of mine (who is a climate scientist at a major U.S. research facility) turned me on to an interesting find, a paper addressed to the European Office of Aerospace Research and development, dated June 4, 1996, entitled: "The Hazard to Civilization from Fireballs and Comets" by S.V.M. Clube. (For the uninitiated, Clube is an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford).

In this short (4 pages) letter and summary statement, Clube writes (emphases in the original, make of them what you will):

Asteroids which pass close to the Earth have been fully recognized by mankind for only about 20 years. Previously, the idea that substantial unobserved objects might be close enough to be a potential hazard to the Earth was treated with as much derision as the unobserved aether. Scientists of course are in business to establish broad principles (eg relativity) and the Earth's supposedly uneventful, uniformitarian environment was already very much in place. The result was that scientists who paid more than lip service to objects close enough to encounter the Earth did so in an atmosphere of barely disguised contempt. Even now, it is difficult for laymen to appreciate the enormity of the intellectual blow with which most of the Body Scientific has recently been struck and from which it is now seeking to recover.

I just finished reading this one and all I can say is: Wow! This was an intense book! Not a long one, either - just 208 pages including appendices. It's tight and economical with no wasted words or idle rambling around. Every example and temporary diversion is crucial to the central argument which is - brace yourself for this one - Mike Baillie (yeah, a real scientist and not a crackpot), is saying that the Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in human history, said to have killed possibly two thirds of the entire population of Europe, not to mention millions all over the planet, probably wasn't Bubonic Plague but was rather Death By Comet(s)!

Oh yeah! That's far out, isn't it?

Maybe not. Baillie has the scientific evidence to support his theory and his evidence actually supports - and is supported by - what the people of the time were saying: earthquakes, comets, rains of death and fire, corrupted atmosphere, and death on a scale that is almost unimaginable. Most people nowadays are not really aware of what happened just 660 years ago. (Hmmm... the inquiring mind immediately wonders what might happen when we hit 666 years after?! That would be 2012...)

Some time ago I wrote about Climate Change as being probably the most pressing problem facing humanity today. It is so pressing that I am convinced that possibly 90% of the human race - over 6 billion people - could be at risk of certain death in the very near future - like within twenty years - if this matter is not addressed adequately and appropriately very, very soon by our "glorious leaders" who seem to have little on their mind other than blowing up innocent people.

But then, that war-mongering has a hidden agenda behind it: to grab and hold resources.

But rest assured that the intent is not to grab and hold those resources for you and me; it is to get them for the "elite," that 6% of humanity that is on the top of the heap and intends to stay there regardless of the fact that those genes should never be passed on.

Well, the Climate Change Confusion factor is heating up.

Channel 4 recently broadcast a special on the "Climate Change Swindle," that was intended to "expose the myths about climate change that have been promulgated in order to hoodwink the world into accepting the man-made theory of global warming."

As far as it went, this special wasn't too bad. However, it didn't really tell the whole story which is that, yes, Climate Change is real and a serious threat, but not for the reasons given.

As it happens, one of the experts included in the presentation has now announced that he was badly mis-quoted, or quoted out of context, and he is back-pedaling like mad.

Keep in mind that this is really just a distraction, something to keep the masses busy so that they don't see the real agenda: that it is intended that they should be "left out in the cold" because they didn't act to get rid of corrupt leaders in time to do anything to prepare for what is coming.

To make the point, let's look at this little debacle a bit more closely.