The John James Newsletter 140
1 October 2016
2016 was the warmest on record, and next year is on track to be even warmer. Our most immediate concern is sharply reduced crop yields in multiple places simultaneously that could raise food prices with devastating effect in already-fragile regions such as Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Compromised access to food and water greatly increases the prospect for famine, epidemics, and war
John Brennan, Director CIA
The earth is not dying, it is being killed. and the people who are killing it have names and addresses
Utah Phillips
Atmospheric CO2 levels are now so high that you have to go back about 3 million years into the Pliocene to find similar ranges. During that time, the world was some 3C warmer; oceans were 8 to 25 metres higher, and the world was a dramatically different place
West Antarctic glaciers have ‘passed point of no return’
Together, all six glaciers contained enough ice to raise global sea levels by 1.2 metres. They drained ice sheets which held ice equivalent to several more metres. Its retreat will also influence adjacent sectors of the West Antarctic ice sheet which could triple this contribution to sea level.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2014/05/13/west-antarctic-glaciers-have-passed-point-of-no-return/
Antarctic ice sheet history and role in rapid sea level rise
Antarctic ice has a history of sudden partial collapse, in fits and starts. The fastest flow of Antarctic icebergs closely matched a period when global sea levels rose by 5 metres a century over a period of 350 years. Antarctica last year lost about 160 billion tonnes of ice to the ocean, compared with about 30 billion tonnes per year during 1992-2001.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2014/05/30/antarctic-ice-sheet-history-suggests-role-in-rapid-sea-level-rise/ What on earth is happening to Antarctica’s sea ice? Across all lines of evidence a picture of dramatically changing Southern Ocean westerly winds has emerged. Rising greenhouse gases and ozone depletion are forcing the westerlies closer to Antarctica, and robbing southern parts of Australia of vital winter rain. https://theconversation.com/record-high-to-record-low-what-on-earth-is-happening-to-antarcticas-sea-ice-66114
Kashmir: six weeks of defiance and grief
At least 8,500 people have been injured in the unrest since July when the violence broke out. 5,000 have been injured by pellet guns that fire hundreds of tiny steel pellets per round. Srinagar’s hospital is filled with victims. Nearly 500 people have been treated for serious eye injuries.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/08/kashmir-story-defiance-grief-160821113602572.html
Asia’s coastal typhoons are gaining power
Typhoons that have slammed into the coasts of east and southeast Asia have become more violent, by 15% over the last four decades, the proportion of storms of category 4, with winds at 200 kilometres per hour, and category 5, with gusts of more than 250 kph, has at least doubled and may have tripled.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/09/13/asias-coastal-typhoons-are-gaining-power/
Internal ‘clock’ makes some people age faster and die younger – regardless of lifestyle
Study could explain why even with healthy lifestyles some people die younger than others, and raises future possibility of extending the human lifespan.
A high-resolution record of Greenland mass balance
Greenland Ice Sheet lost one trillion tons of water due to melt during the four-year period from 2011 through 2014. That’s about double theloss during the 1990s through mid-2000s. Subsequently, Greenland’s contribution to sea-level rise also doubled, meaning that Greenland alone contributed 0.75 mm of sea-level rise every year in 2011-14.
https://guymcpherson.com/climate-chaos/see-how-far-weve-come/
A recent tipping point in the Arctic sea-ice cover
Abrupt and persistent increase in the seasonal cycle since 2007
http://www.the-cryosphere.net/7/275/2013/tc-7-275-2013.html
Growing Instability in Africa’s Top Two Oil Producers
“The Nigerian political system has essentially been designed to divvy up oil rents. So when those oil rents disappear, the system begins to really grind to a halt.”
https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/africa/growing-instability-africas-top-two-oil-producers-1094
Russia attacks a US-led intelligence facility in reprisal for the Deir Ezzor attack against Syrian forces
Moscow chose to target the Aleppo region (“semi-secret”) Operations Room in the immediate wake the Pentagon’s decision to order the US airstrikes against Syrian government forces involved in combating the ISIS-Daesh terrorists in Deir Ezzor.Does it create a precedent? It constitutes a potentially dangerous watershed in the evolution of the war on Syria,
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45558.htm
US airstrikes on Syrian troops were ‘intentional,’ lasted nearly 1 hour
Sixty-two Syrian soldiers were killed and over 100 were injured, according to the Syrian military. Assad said they were “intentionally” targeted. “It was not an accident by one airplane; it was four airplanes which kept attacking the position of the Syrian troops for nearly one hour or maybe a little bit more than one hour,”
https://www.rt.com/news/360248-assad-ap-intentional-us-airstrikes/
High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse steered the course of history
Was Blitzkrieg, then, largely the result of the Wehrmacht’s reliance on crystal meth? “The invasion of France was made possible by the drugs. No drugs, no invasion. When Hitler heard about the plan to invade through Ardennes, he loved it [the allies were massed in northern Belgium]. But the high command said: it’s not possible, at night we have to rest, and they [the allies] will retreat and we will be stuck in the mountains. But then the stimulant decree was released, and that enabled them to stay awake for three days and three nights. Rommel [who then led one of the panzer divisions] and all those tank commanders were high – and without the tanks, they certainly wouldn’t have won.”
Turkey’s State of Emergency and the March to One-Man Rule
http://lobelog.com/turkeys-state-of-emergency-and-the-march-to-one-man-rule/#more-35983
Watch Bacteria Invade Antibiotics And Transform Into Superbugs
A film of bacteria evolving a thousand times more drug-resistant than their ancestors. In the time-lapse video, a white bacterial colony creeps across an enormous petri dish plated with vertical bands of successively higher doses of antibiotic.
First They Jailed the Bankers, Now Every Icelander to Get Paid in Bank Sale
Because Icelanders took control of their government, they effectively own the banks. Iceland remains the only European nation to recover fully from the 2008 crisis. Iceland even managed to pay its outstanding debt to the IMF in full — in advance of the due date. Meanwhile, US banking criminals were rewarded for their fraud and market manipulation with an enormous bailout at the taxpayer’s expense.
Laos Authorities Help Smuggle Exotic Wildlife for Kickbacks
The office of the Laos prime minister collaborated with three major trafficking organizations to move millions of dollars worth of animal body parts across borders, killing hundreds of tigers and rhinos and more than 16,000 elephants.
US to Fail Paris Emissions Pledge Without ‘Fundamental Change’
The country is so far behind in emissions slashing that even if it implemented a slew of new clean energy programs now, it could still miss its 2025 target by nearly 1 billion tons. In the Paris accord, the US pledged to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels.
No models show Australia meeting its Paris climate pledge
A string of independent modelling exercises show current policies will not achieve the emissions reductions committed to in Paris.
The UN Is Sending Thousands of Refugees Back Into a War Zone
Kenya’s plan to close the world’s largest refugee camp involves forced repatriations of Somalis. Why is the UN helping?
Wildfires Increasingly Consuming Siberian Forests,
Russia’s Siberian forests, hit with a severe drought this summer, are increasingly being consumed by wildfires that are consistently underestimated by the government. The fires have destroyed 2 million hectares.
Climate-Related ‘Hot Blobs’ Spreading and Killing Marine Life Worldwide
Off US West Coast, millions of sea stars dissolved, their arms breaking free and wandering off. Hundreds of thousands of ocean-feeding seabirds tumbled dead onto beaches. Twenty times more sea lions than average starved in California. By year’s end, whale deaths hit a staggering 45.