Global Warming: An Exclusive Look at James Hansen’s Scary New Math [Time]

How can NASA physicist and climatologist James E. Hansen, writing in the New York Times today, “say with high confidence” that recent heat waves in Texas and Russia “were not natural events” but actually “caused by human-induced climate change”?

[...]

In the paper, which Time.com confirmed has been peer-reviewed, the authors show that extreme outliers of more than three standard deviations above the mean temperature covered between six and thirteen percent of the globe during the years 2003 to 2008. If they were normally distributed and similar to the climactic record, that should have been just a 0.1-to-0.2 percent frequency of an extreme heat event. (That’s about exactly as often as a perfect bell curve predicts they would occur.) Hansen dubs this difference a “three-sigma anomaly,” for the Greek-letter symbol for standard deviation. And in the world of statistics, these anomalies represent a stunning 10-fold increase in extreme weather events.

An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces [Think Progress]

A degree by degree explanation of what will happen when the earth warms [Berrens] (repost)

Game Over for the Climate [NY Times]

Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil... [horrible, horrible things] If this sounds apocalyptic, it is.

Shale Gas: The View from Russia [Club Orlov] Shale gas is a lie.

Report warns of weather satellites' 'rapid decline' [USA Today]

Predicting the weather is tricky enough. Now a new government-sponsored report warns that the USA's ability to track tornadoes, forecast hurricanes and study climate change is about to diminish.

[...]

That means the number of instruments monitoring Earth's activity is expected to decline from a peak of about 110 last year to fewer than 30 by the end of the decade.

Peak Wood [Energy Bulletin]

Since the general problem (if not the specifics) is such a common one, allow me to explain with an example from our own history: the end of the Bronze Age, the beginning of the Iron Age, and a crisis we might today call, "Peak Wood."

Study: Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' increases 100-fold [MSNBC]

The amount of plastic trash in the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" has increased 100-fold during the past 40 years, causing "profound" changes to the marine environment, according to a new study.

[...]

"We can't clean it up. It's just too big. You'd have to have the entire U.S. Navy out there, round the clock, continuously towing little nets. And it's produced so fast, they wouldn't be able to keep up," he said.

Ebbesmeyer said in 10,000 years scientists might find a layer of plastic in the ground and use this as evidence of "the plastic people."

Europe in turmoil as France and Greece reject austerity [CBC] Yawn.

Food Stamps In Crosshairs Of Republicans' Plan To Save Military [Huffington Post]

A Rebellious World or a New Dark Age? On the History of the US Economy in Decline [Noam Chomsky]

I’ve kept to domestic issues, but there are two dangerous developments in the international arena, which are a kind of shadow that hangs over everything we’ve discussed. There are, for the first time in human history, real threats to the decent survival of the species.

One has been hanging around since 1945. It’s kind of a miracle that we’ve escaped it. That’s the threat of nuclear war and nuclear weapons. Though it isn’t being much discussed, that threat is, in fact, being escalated by the policies of this administration and its allies. And something has to be done about that or we’re in real trouble.

The other, of course, is environmental catastrophe. Practically every country in the world is taking at least halting steps towards trying to do something about it. The United States is also taking steps, mainly to accelerate the threat. It is the only major country that is not only not doing something constructive to protect the environment, it’s not even climbing on the train. In some ways, it’s pulling it backwards.

And this is connected to a huge propaganda system, proudly and openly declared by the business world, to try to convince people that climate change is just a liberal hoax. “Why pay attention to these scientists?”

We’re really regressing back to the dark ages. It’s not a joke. And if that’s happening in the most powerful, richest country in history, then this catastrophe isn’t going to be averted -- and in a generation or two, everything else we’re talking about won’t matter. Something has to be done about it very soon in a dedicated, sustained way.

"Welcome to the Anthropocene" by Globaïa [Youtube; 3:02]

Forbes recently posted the dumbest peak oil article ever written. Now, just two weeks later, they're taking a dramatically different position (written by a different asshole):

Peak Oil is Here: Now What?

So, again assuming that this analysis is correct, we seem to have come to the end of the age of cheap oil. At least, cheap oil in the sort of volume that we are used to using. This is pretty much the same as what everyone says will happen when we get to peak oil so we can I assume say that whatever will happen with peak oil should be happening now?

Which is, erm, what? Sure, the countries of Europe and North America are looking a little tired in their economic growth. But then they are still trying to escape from the effects of a near meltdown of the financial system. Something that is known to cause recessions and reduce growth.

On the other hand the global economy looks just fine. Growth continues, poor countries continue to get richer, we’re still in the middle of the greatest reduction in poverty in the history of our species.

So what is it that is supposed to happen when we run out of cheap oil and why is it that whatever it is isn’t happening now?

Damn, I sure wish I could pummel these assholes in the nutsack when they post this shit. "What's supposed to happen?" you ask, dick? Well, I would expect countries in Europe and North America to look a little tired in their economic growth, caused by a near meltdown of their financial system, since CREDIT is the thing that must melt away first before the reality of our economic world can be exposed. Dumbass.

This turn of propaganda from "peak oil will never happen" to "peak oil is so far in the future that it won't matter; technology will fix it" to, now, "peak oil is here, but won't cause us the least bit of trouble" is very interesting to me. Compare to climate change: "humans can't change the climate; the climate isn't changing" to "the climate is changing, but it doesn't have anything to do with human activities; plus it could be a good thing" to ... whatever shit they come up with next.

Edit: The first comment in the article is really good:

What next? “(the world’s economies) are still trying to escape from the effects of a near meltdown of the financial system.” The meltdown occurred as oil price peaked at $148 a barrel. That had a lot to do with the crisis. It will happen again, and again. Imagine a drunk passed out under a table — each time he tries to stand up, he bumps his head on the table and falls back down. The drunk is of course, the world’s economy addicted to oil for growth, the table top is the price of oil at which the economy cannot grow.

Scientists: Extinctions Just as Damaging as Climate Change [Mother Jones]

"Some people have assumed that biodiversity effects are relatively minor compared to other environmental stressors,” says lead author David Hooper of Western Washington University. "Our new results show that future loss of species has the potential to reduce plant production just as much as global warming and pollution."

Bolivian Soldiers Walked Into This Spanish Power Company, Hung A Flag And Seized Control [AP]

Russia warns on missile defence deal with Nato and US [BBC]

Russia says it is prepared to use "destructive force pre-emptively" if the US goes ahead with controversial plans for a missile defence system based in Central Europe.

Chomsky: U.S. and Europe ‘committing suicide in different ways’ [Raw Story]

Greece opens detention camp for immigrants as election looms [Reuters]

The once-obscure far-right Golden Dawn, which wants to deport all immigrants, is among the parties that has benefitted most from the mood among voters, and is expected to win its first seats in parliament.

[...]

On Sunday, the first 56 immigrants were brought to the Amygdaleza detention camp in western Athens, a police official said. Dozens more are expected at the camp in the next few days, which can house up to 1,000 people, the official said.

Amygdaleza is the first of about 50 camps that Greek officials say will be built by mid-2013. It consists of dozens of containers that were originally set up to house people hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes.

Insight: Falling home prices drag new buyers under water [Reuters]

More than 1 million Americans who have taken out mortgages in the past two years now owe more on their loans than their homes are worth, and Federal Housing Administration loans that require only a tiny down payment are partly to blame.

That figure, provided to Reuters by tracking firm CoreLogic, represents about one out of 10 home loans made during that period.

It is a sobering indication the U.S. housing market remains deeply troubled, with home values still falling in many parts of the country, and raises the question of whether low-down payment loans backed by the FHA are putting another generation of buyers at risk.

America's poorest county: Proud Appalachians who live without running water or power in region where 40% fall below poverty line [Daily Mail]
A little preview of what's to come.

He-Men and Virginity Pledges? Obama Administration Quietly Endorses Absurd Anti-Sex Curriculum [AlterNet]

The administration has succumbed to the political pressure of social conservatives, allowing ideology to prevail over the health and well-being of the nation's youth.

Reposting an article from Disinfo.com. I do not normally do this but I noticed that the link was not only broken but led to the wrong address. I am putting up the body of the text from the Disinfo.com story here and a working link for anyone who is interested in this topic.

A Pakistani human rights lawyer says over 2,800 of the 3,000 people killed over the past seven years in non-UN-sanctioned US assassination drone strikes in Pakistan were civilians, Press TV reports.

Shahzad Akbar, the director of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, told Press TV on Saturday that only 170 of the people killed in the aerial attacks on the northwestern tribal belt of Pakistan have been identified as militants.

That means that “over 2,800 people were civilians, whose identities are not known, and they have just been killed on suspicion of being militants,” he added.

US President Barack Obama publicly confirmed for the first time in late January that drone aircraft have struck targets inside Pakistan. Obama said “a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA”, the acronym for Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Pakistan contends that the drone strikes are counterproductive. “We are of the firm view that these are unlawful, counterproductive and hence unacceptable,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said on January 31.

The link to the PressTV story that spurred Disinfo.com story

PressTV:  US drone raid kills three in NW Pakistan
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/238685.html

Could Iran Wage a Cyberwar on the US? The US is trying to come up with more cheap excuses to attack Iran. This is much better than the "weapons of mass destruction" that weren't in Iraq because they will, indeed, find computers in Iran. They can dig them out of the rubble and photograph them.

Countries Losing Steam on Climate Change Initiatives

It turns out that right now, just about everything is conspiring to make it harder to clean up the world's energy supply.

Nuclear power produces very little carbon dioxide, but it is on the ropes after the Fukushima meltdowns in Japan. New methods for extracting natural gas from underground make that fossil fuel much cheaper than low-carbon fuels.

And don't forget the economy.

"What's happened across the industrialized world is the governments are feeling poor these days," says David Victor at the University of California, San Diego. "So they are a lot less willing to put money into loan guarantees, production tax credits and feed-in tariffs and other policies that have historically been the big drivers of very low-emission technologies like nuclear and wind."

After Backlash, Ethanol Industry is Thriving

"Ten years ago, we were using about eight times as much corn to feed livestock and poultry as we were to make ethanol. And now we're using more corn to make ethanol. So it's a dramatic change," he says.

Five years ago, the federal government projected that in 2012, ethanol production would use up 30 percent of the nation's corn supply. Last year, it used 40 percent.

But that huge growth didn't come about because of E-85, the ethanol blend that starred in political speeches and TV commercials. It happened because ethanol makes up about 10 percent of almost every gallon of gasoline sold in this country. You use it every time you fill up your tank.

My old piece-of-shit tractor won't run on any gasoline with ethanol in it; I have to use this site to find somewhere that has ethanol-free.

Home Run for Peak Oil [Raise the Hammer]

Today, more than the recent past, the peak oil denial industry is making heroic efforts at sidelining peak oil by describing it as controversial. Calling it controversial is an effective way of discrediting the concept, and ignoring its troubling implications for the global economy and human society.

Making sure that there is no full public discourse on why oil prices rise anytime there is the slightest tremor of economic recovery, in lockstep with equities, dragging up all other commodities with oil, peak oil denial is based on a single premise. This basic premise is contrary to fundamental laws of physics - that finite geological resources, of oil, will somehow last forever.

Human Overpopulation Threatens Our Survival [Care2]

Not everyone agrees that 9 billion people are too many for Earth to sustain. But there is no arguing with the assertion by Roger Martin, Chair of Population Matters, in that Guardian article: “Indefinite population growth is physically impossible on a finite planet — it will certainly stop at some point.”

We may be nearing that point. The Independent reported that an “environmental assessment by the conservation charity WWF and the Worldwatch Institute in Washington found that humans were now exploiting about 20 per cent more renewable resources than can be replaced each year.”

That was six years ago. Things have only gotten worse.

Rio Summit Must Address Population Growth - Scientists [AFP]

“The 21st century is a critical period for people and the planet,” the Royal Society, the world’s oldest science academy, said in a report ahead of the June 20-22 UN gathering.
Demography, it said, can no longer be sidelined or treated as separate from the environment or the economy.

“The world now has a very clear choice,” said leading British scientist Sir John Sulston, who led the report.

“We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption, to reframe our economic values to truly reflect what our consumption means for our planet and to help individuals around the world to make informed and free reproductive choices.””Or,” he said, “we can choose to do nothing — and to drift into a downward vortex of economic, socio-political and environmental ills, leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future.”

Map of Domestic Drone Authorizations [Google]

5 New Lies That The Federal Reserve Is Telling The American People [The Economic Collapse Blog] This article is rather hysterical, like most pieces on that blog; however, there's a great list of past statements by Bernanke predicting a rosy future, all a relatively short time before the 2007-2008 banking crisis. It really goes to show you just how full of shit he is and how you can't trust anything he says.

Also, check out this post on immigration from Mexico to the USA in the "recession" community.

911 IS A JOKE: Detroit citizens no longer rely on police as self-defense killings skyrocket [The Daily]

Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own.

An update on global net oil exports: Is it midnight on the Titanic? [Energy Bulletin]

My thesis is that US oil industry continues to make a serious mistake by providing, in my opinion, wildly unrealistic scenarios for US and global crude oil production. For example, ExxonMobil has run ads stating that we won’t see a global production peak for decades to come, while Daniel Yergin tells us that the worst case is an “Undulating Plateau” many decades from now.

Unfortunately, since global annual crude oil production has been flat to down since 2005, the “Undulating Plateau” seems to arrived slightly ahead of schedule.

Why David Goldman is Wrong About Imminent Population Collapse [The Bent Angle]

Gil Bailie of The Cornerstone Forum is touting a new book by David Goldman, “How Civilizations Die.” Goldman claims the world is in a steep demographic decline whose consequences will be catastrophic.

Most are clueless on the underground economy. [One Improved Unit Blog; with links to primary sources]

Across the United States baby formula is one of the most shoplifted items, often being stolen in huge quantities. A recent story in the local rag about a couple stealing 86 cans of baby formula from a local box store caught my eye, not because of anything within the story itself but because of the woefully ignorant comments made by readers.

[...]

Most comments about this story assumed the theft would be used in the cutting or cooking of illegal drugs.

Jailed for $280: The return of debtors prisons [CBS Money Watch]

Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff's deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP.

[...]

Under the law, debtors aren't arrested for nonpayment, but rather for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise showing "contempt of court" in connection with a creditor lawsuit.

The Overarching Issue of the Century [Population Press]

It has become increasingly apparent over the past half-century that there is a growing tension between two seemingly irreconcilable trends. On one hand, moderate to conservative demographic projections indicate that global human numbers will almost certainly reach 8 to 9 billion by mid-21st century, only two generations from the present. On the other, prudent and increasingly reliable scientific estimates suggest that the Earth's long-term sustainable human carrying capacity, at what might be defined as an "adequate" to "moderately comfortable" developed-world standard of living, may not be much greater than 2 to 3 billion. It may in fact be considerably less, perhaps in the 1 to 2 billion range, particularly if the normative life-style (level of consumption) aspired to is anywhere close to that currently characterizing the United States.

Feeling peaky: The economic impact of high oil prices [Economist]

Furthermore some potential substitutes for, or new sources of, oil (such as biofuels and tar sands) are a lot less efficient, in the sense that they require significant amounts of energy simply to produce. To the extent that this equation (energy return on energy invested, or EROI) is deteriorating, that must surely have an effect on economic growth.

“What is the minimum EROI that a modern industrial society must have for its energy system for that society to survive?” ask Carey King and Charles Hall in a recent paper*. The academics’ answer: “Complex societies need a high EROI built on a large primary energy base.”

The Grinding Halt: Reality Falls to Bits and Pieces [The Automatic Earth]

Efforts by fiscal and monetary authorities to sustain growth by further debt accumulation may produce some short-term benefit. Sadly, these interludes fade quickly as the debt becomes more destabilizing. The net result of increased indebtedness then becomes the opposite of what policymakers intend when they promote economic growth by either borrowing funds for increased government expenditures or encourage consumers to borrow with artificial and temporary incentives.

[...]

It seems obvious that "the grinding halt" will be reached sooner in Greece, Spain, Italy et al than it will in America. Selling Treasuries, therefore, will be easy for the US for a while to come. Increasingly easy even. A lot of money will be looking for a safe haven. America will be perceived as that safe haven, simply because it is the least worst option. The US dollar will rise substantially because of this, as well as the fact that most international debt is denominated in US dollars, which will greatly raise demand.

Talk of hyperinflation is, as a consequence of this, greatly exaggerated. The American government is as addicted to credit as any government is, and its continuing access to bond markets will make printing money a non-issue, since it would only serve to raise interest rates.

The American Anti-Renaissance: Overpopulation and a Declining National Dream [Blog Critics Politics]

[I]t is surprising that one glaring recurrence regarding human development is largely overlooked or denied outright by many in contemporary America. It is the simple fact that nations with larger populations tend to be more impoverished, with negatively correlating rates of healthcare access and educational opportunities.
Unfortunately, despite being a solidly first world superpower, the United States is no exception to this rule. It stands as the third most populous country on Earth, coming in only behind China and India. During the twentieth century, it did not double, or even triple, but quadrupled in size. Should this trend continue over the course of the twenty-first century, America will be home to more than one billion people by its end. The results of this demographic explosion are readily apparent: low wage and high unemployment rates, public school systems with almost comic student to teacher ratios, and government assistance programs so heavily utilized that severe cuts are often needed to sustain them.

Forget GDP: The Radical Plans to Go Beyond Growth [Fiscal Times]

Gross domestic product – and the very idea of growth that it is meant to measure – is under attack these days by a small, radical group of academics who are calling for a shrinking of the world’s developed economies through voluntary reductions in production and consumption. This kind of contraction, they argue, is needed to preserve environmental resources and rebalance inequalities between developed and emerging economies.

To these proponents of “degrowth” – who will be holding a conference in Montreal next month – GDP is a failed economic indicator ready to be consigned to the scrapheap of history. “A fixation on economic growth is at the root of our environmental issues and social inequalities,” reads a press release for the conference.

Biodiversity vs. human population growth [Ecological Problems]

The continued increase in human population is having negative effect on our planet's biodiversity. The equation is pretty simple - more people need more space to build houses and industries and this means reduced habitats for many plant and animal species.

Habitat loss due to increase in human population is not the only reason for the ongoing biodiversity loss. People are also the main factor behind other environmental issues that have direct impact on biodiversity loss such as climate change, pollution and deforestation.

Human population growth wouldn't have been accompanied with such big biodiversity loss if people were to care more about our environment, and our planet in general. We take everything for granted and this is really our biggest problem.

People forget that we cannot survive without animals and plants and that the nature has created this perfect mechanism of dependence among all species in our planet. To nature every species count (from smallest to biggest), to humans not so much. We believe everything exists only to serve our needs and this is the attitude that could get us in serious trouble.

People need to become much more aware of the current environmental issues, they need to realize that our environment is degrading rapidly, and that we cannot survive all alone, without ecosystems rich with plants and animals.