New Brunswick’s coastline is becoming a major casualty of climate change, a new study suggests. Canadian scientists say global warming is causing a rise in sea-levels, eroding some of the province’s coastal areas and triggering a gradual rise in storms. The intensity of storm surges also seems to be increasing, meaning the massive amounts of rain and flooding that hit the Shediac area six years ago could be more than a freak occurrence. The government officially declared the flooding a disaster. ‘The melting of ice in the polar regions and the warming of the ocean — called thermal expansion — is the single largest contributor over the next century of sea-level rise,’ Real Daigle of Environment Canada told CTV.ca. Daigle and a team of researchers worked on the study for three years, closely watching the Shediac coastline and others. The study, called ‘Impacts of Sea-Level Rise and Climate Change on the Coastal Zone of Southeastern New Brunswick,’ can be found here. The report also argues that climate change is just one of two major factors contributing to rising sea-levels. ‘We have something on our coast called crustal subsidence. In other words, we’re […]
Washington Thou Shalt not Murder. Thou Shalt Not Covet thy neighbor’s Wife. Thou Shalt not … Drink Bottled Water? Rooted in the notion that clean drinking water, like air, is a God-given resource that shouldn’t be packaged and sold, a fledgling campaign against the bottling of water has sprung up among people of faith. And though the campaign is at a relative trickle, and confined mostly to left-leaning religious groups, activists hope to build a broad-based coalition to carry the message that water should not be available only to those who can afford it. Cassandra Carmichael, director of eco-justice programs for the National Council of Churches, said she has noted an increasing number of religious groups that consider the bottling of water a wrongful — perhaps immoral — act. ‘We’re just beginning to recognize the issue as people of faith,’ Carmichael said. In October, the National Coalition of American Nuns, a progressive group representing 1,200 U.S. nuns, adopted a resolution asking members to refrain from purchasing bottled water unless necessary. Likewise, Presbyterians for Restoring Creation, a grass-roots group within the Presbyterian Church (USA), launched a campaign last May urging individuals to sign a pledge […]
WASHINGTON — In a Nov. 29 Washington Post op-ed piece, the well-connected Saudi analyst, Nawaf Obaid, warned that the Kingdom would provide aid to Iraqi Sunnis if American forces withdrew from Iraq. The Saudi Press Agency quickly issued a statement from an unnamed ‘official source’ saying that Obaid’s op-ed ‘does not represent any official Saudi authority.’ Obaid’s op-ed had, in fact, stated that the opinions he expressed were ‘his own and do not reflect official Saudi policy.’ To underline the truth of that, the outgoing Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, terminated Obaid’s consultancy with the Saudi Embassy. Yet despite this public repudiation, it has subsequently become apparent that Obaid’s views do reflect official Saudi policy, at least to some extent. The New York Times on Dec. 12 reported that Saudi King Abdallah told Vice President Cheney during the latter’s recent visit to Riyadh that the Kingdom, ‘might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in any war against Iraq’s Shiites if the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq.’ In fact, this may already be taking place informally. The Washington Post reported (also on Dec. 12) that, ‘Young Saudi men have joined the Sunni insurgency as foreign […]
OSLO — The world’s oceans may rise up to 140 cms (4 ft 7 in) by 2100 due to global warming, a faster than expected increase that could threaten low-lying coasts from Florida to Bangladesh, a researcher said on Thursday. ‘The possibility of a faster sea level rise needs to be considered when planning adaptation measures such as coastal defences,’ Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research wrote in the journal Science. His study, based on air temperatures and past sea level changes rather than computer models, suggested seas could rise by 50-140 cms by 2100, well above the 9-88 cms projected by the scientific panel that advises the United Nations. A rise of one metre might swamp low-lying Pacific islands such as Tuvalu, flood large areas of Bangladesh or Florida and threaten cities from New York to Buenos Aires. ‘The computer models underestimate the sea level rise that has already occurred,’ Rahmstorf told Reuters of a rise of about 20 cms since 1900. ‘There are aspects of the physics we don’t understand very well.’ Sea level changes hinge on poorly understood factors such as the pace of the melt of glaciers […]
Frequently dismissed as cranks, their fussy eating habits tend to make them unpopular with dinner party hosts and guests alike. But now it seems they may have the last laugh, with research showing vegetarians are more intelligent than their meat-eating friends. A study of thousands of men and women revealed that those who stick to a vegetarian diet have IQs that are around five points higher than those who regularly eat meat. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers say it isn’t clear why veggies are brainier – but admit the fruit and veg-rich vegetarian diet could somehow boost brain power. The researchers, from the University of Southampton, tracked the fortunes of more than 8,000 volunteers for 20 years. At the age of ten, the boys and girls sat a series of tests designed to determine their IQ. When they reached the age of 30, they were asked whether they were vegetarian and their answers compared to their childhood IQ score. Around four and a half per cent of the adults were vegetarian – a figure that is broadly in line with that found in the general population. However, further analysis […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
