Scientists are warning that an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Northern Ireland is on the verge of disintegration, even though it is now the middle of the southern hemisphere’s winter. The European Space Agency says new satellite pictures show that the Wilkins shelf – the largest to be threatened so far – is ‘hanging by its last thread’. Extending for approximately 5,600 square miles, it has been held in place by a thin ice bridge connecting it to an island, but this is now fracturing. The shelf, which lies near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula, had not been expected to collapse until the early 2020s. It provides further evidence that the planet is warming more quickly than predicted. Scientists are stunned that it is continuing to melt in the depths of winter, and believe that warm water is welling up from the ocean to attack it from underneath. So far seven shelves on the peninsula have collapsed due to climate change. On Friday, President Bush – who last week told the G8 summit ‘Goodbye from the world’s greatest polluter’ – defied a 2007 ruling by the US Supreme Court to take action on global […]
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are private companies with deep ties to the government. Fannie Mae was created during the Depression as part of the New Deal as a way to revive a collapsed housing market by providing mortgage guarantees to low- and middle-income Americans. Today they own or guarantee a mind-boggling $5 trillion in loans far more than any other lender, which is why the fear that they could go under has been so nerve rattling. ‘If they were to go out of business, most of middle America would not be able to get a mortgage,’ said Howard Shapiro, an analyst for global adviser Fox-Pitt, Kelton. Even if you haven’t heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, there’s a good chance, if you’re a homeowner, they own your loan. Here’s how it works: After a bank gives you a mortgage, it often packages it with other mortgages and sells it, most often to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. If Fannie and Freddie were to fail, analysts say mortgage rates would soar, mortgage lending would grind to a halt and borrowers of all kinds would pay higher rates sinking the economy […]
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration on Friday rejected regulating greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, saying it would damage the U.S. economy and cause too many job losses. In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection Agency made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people’s health, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and Congress. The White House on Thursday rejected EPA’s conclusion three weeks earlier that the 1970 Clean Air Act can be both workable and effective for addressing global climate change. Instead, EPA said Friday that law is ‘ill-suited’ for dealing with climate change. ‘If our nation is truly about serious regulating greenhouse gases, the Clean Air Act is the wrong tool for the job,’ EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson told reporters. ‘It is really at the feet of Congress.’ This contrasts sharply with the tone of statements President Bush made at the just-concluded G-8 summit of leading industrialized nations in Toyako, Japan. The United States at that meeting joined other summit partners in embracing a policy declaration to seek a 50 percent reduction in […]
NEW YORK — They own or guarantee $5 trillion worth of mortgages – nearly half of all the country’s outstanding home loan debt-and they’re crashing. Big time. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are struggling with an investor loss of confidence so great that, while they’re unlikely to go under, they could conceivably see their ability to function impaired. That would wreak yet more havoc on an already wrecked housing market- making loans tougher to come by and possibly pushing hundreds of billions of dollars in cost onto U.S. taxpayers. How could the companies end up in such awful straits? Given the way they were created and run, a better question might be: how could they not? The two companies are so-called government-sponsored enterprises, created by Congress in 1938 (Fannie) and 1970 (Freddie) to help more Americans buy houses. Their mandate is to maintain a market for mortgages – buying loans from banks, repackaging them as bonds, and selling those securities to investors with a guarantee that they will be paid. This makes lending more tempting for banks because Fannie and Freddie take on risks like missed payments, defaults and swings in interest rates. But […]
An Anglican bishop has said he is prepared to convert to Roman Catholicism after the General Synod voted to allow women bishops. The traditionalist Bishop of Ebbsfleet has asked the Pope, as well as Catholic leaders in England and Wales, to help him and his parishes defect to Rome. The Right Reverend Andrew Burnham said objectors within the Church of England were feeling ‘shipwrecked’. He said: ‘We are floating in the water looking for someone to rescue us.’ A Church of England group is drawing up a code of practice to reassure critics after the Synod vote earlier this week. The Synod voted in favour of consecrating women and against safeguards demanded by traditionalists opposed to the move. Following the vote the Vatican said the result would create an ‘obstacle’ to reconciliation between Anglicans and Catholics. The Roman Catholic church does not ordain women. Writing in the Catholic Herald the bishop called for ‘magnanimous gestures from our Catholic friends, especially from the Holy Father, who well understand our longing for unity and from the hierarchy in England and Wales’. ‘Most of all we ask for ways that allow us to bring […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
