ROTHERA BASE, Antarctica — Thriving only in near-freezing waters, creatures such as Antarctic sea spiders, limpets or sea urchins may be among the most vulnerable on the planet to global warming, as the Southern Ocean heats up. Isolated for millions of years by the chill currents, exotic animals on the seabed around Antarctica — including giant marine woodlice and sea lemons, a sort of bright yellow slug — are among the least studied in the world. Now scientists on the Antarctic Peninsula are finding worrying signs that they can only tolerate a very narrow temperature band — and the waters have already warmed by about 1 Celsius (1.6 Fahrenheit) in the past 50 years. ‘Because this is one of the most rapidly warming areas on the planet and because the animals are so temperature sensitive…this marine ecosystem is at higher risk than almost anywhere else on the planet,’ said Simon Morley, a marine biologist at the British Antarctic Survey at Rothera. ‘A temperature rise of only 2-3 degrees (Celsius) above current temperatures could cause these animals to lose vital functions,’ he said. In warmer waters, laboratory studies show that clams and limpets lose the ability […]
If I were a Palestinian Publication Date: 5 January 2009 Author: STEPHAN A. SCHWARTZ Source: The Schwartzreport Link: I have been following the Palestinian-Israeli relationship essentially all of my life, at various times, a private person, a journalist, a government official, and a futurist. Over that time it has become a ghastly kabuki, played again and again – a cultural meatgrinder. A possibly offensive image, which I use deliberately. I won’t go over the details; we all know the chorus. Watching what is going on now I just wish reality could be edited. All of this death, and injury goes nowhere. So how can this murderous ritual be ended? Can we finally agree that it will not be by any of the strategies tried over the last half century? That said let me state my goal: a functioning prosperous Palestinian state, in alliance with a prosperous Israel. When I think about this, it seems to me the power lies with the Palestinians. If I were a Palestinian leader, particularly if I had any secret aspirations to become my people’s historical person, this is the strategy I would pursue: I […]
President Barack Obama may find it harder to increase renewable energy than his predecessor during a financial crisis that has sidelined Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and other financiers of alternative power, investors said. New loans to harness the wind, sun and biodegradable waste will need extra government backing in a deepening recession, said Clayt Tabor, finance director at Midwest Wind Finance, a wind-farm developer in Minneapolis. Obama’s goal to double U.S. renewable- energy by 2012 may take years longer because even fully funded projects take at least three years to develop, he said. Obama, more supportive of clean energy than George W. Bush, may struggle to shift quickly from coal-burning plants that spew global-warming gases. In Bush’s last three years, solar and wind production doubled, helped by easier financing and tax breaks that attracted loans from Lehman, now bankrupt, and insurer American International Group Inc., later taken over by the government. ‘The project-development cycle is three to five years, so you can’t just stop and start on a dime in a tough environment, said Brian Redmond, managing director of CP Energy Group LLC, a Boston-based renewable-energy advisory firm, in an interview. The new president repeated his […]
Large earthquakes have rumbled along a southern section of the San Andreas fault more frequently than previously believed, suggesting that Southern California could be overdue for a strong temblor on the notorious fault line, a new study has found. The Carrizo Plain section of the San Andreas has not seen a massive quake since the much-researched Fort Tejon temblor of 1857, which at an estimated magnitude of 7.9 is considered the most powerful earthquake to hit Southern California in modern times. But the new research by UC Irvine scientists, to be published next week, found that major quakes occurred there roughly every 137 years over the last 700 years. Until now, scientists believed big quakes occurred along the fault roughly every 200 years. The findings are significant because seismologists have long believed this portion of the fault is capable of sparking the so-called Big One that officials have for decades warned will eventually occur in Southern California. ‘It’s been long enough since 1857 that we should be concerned about another great earthquake that ruptures through this part of the fault,’ said Ken Hudnut, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena who was not involved […]
On Jan. 21, former U.S. intelligence official Russell Tice appeared on MSNBC’s ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermannn’ and broke a sobering bit of news that, sandwiched between Obama’s inauguration and sweeping executive orders, went largely ignored by the media: Under the Bush administration’s notorious warrantless spying program, not only did the NSA eavesdrop on millions of Americans, it turns out it specifically targeted ‘U.S. news organizations, reporters and journalists.’ As Olbermannn put it, ‘non-terrorist Americans, if you will.’ ‘It has taken less than 24 hours after the Bush presidency ended for a former analyst with the National Security Agency to come forward to reveal new allegations about how this nation was spied on by its by its own government,’ Olbermannn said on Wednesday night. ‘Russell Tice has already stood up for truth before this evening as one source for the revelation in 2005 by the New York Times that President Bush was eavesdropping on American citizens without warrants ¦ tonight, the next chapter for Mr. Tice — a chapter he feared to reveal while George Bush occupied the Oval Office.’ The contents of the exclusive interview, if not surprising, were chilling nonetheless. Tice, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
