Category: John James Newsletter

The John James Newsletter 9
27 August 2014.

The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago.
Chinese saying

Incredible rate of polar ice loss alarms scientists
A European satellite has shown ice sheets shrinking at 120 cubic miles a year in Antarctica and Greenland. “Our greatest concern is that loss of Arctic sea ice creates a grave threat of passing two other tipping points – the potential instability of the Greenland ice sheet and methane hydrates… These latter two tipping points would have consequences that are practically irreversible on time scales of relevance to humanity” (Morales, 2012).
http://climateemergencynews.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/incredible-rate-of-polar-ice-loss.html

Dangerous climate change: Myths and reality
From Climate Code Red.
A detailed and sensible report. “The stated purpose of international climate negotiations is to avoid “dangerous” climate change, but if conditions existing today are already sufficient to push our climate system elements past their tipping points and create “catastrophic” breakdown without any further emissions, what then can we do?”
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6hdzDj-9cy6YWJlVFF6Q2l3S3M

Vandalism
The Australian renewable energy industry has warned that it faces destruction if – as is now widely anticipated – the Abbott government decides it wants to drastically scale back the renewable energy target, or even close it to new entrants.
The head of the country’s largest listed renewable energy company warned that such an act of “economic vandalism” could force his own company to collapse within months, and many others would follow.
“We are talking about the destruction of an industry, with no apparent good reason. That is vandalism.”
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/australian-renewable-energy-industry-facing-destruction-94832

By comparison, this is what Australian research is capable of
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/unsw-aims-to-lift-solar-cell-efficiency-to-more-than-40-94774
And the hyper-destructive attack on a profitable part of Australian business
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/university-plea-to-abbott-dont-kill-australias-world-leading-solar-rd-63319

Putin close advisor and friend, Sergei Glaziev.
“We are now moving from the American cycle of capital accumulation to an Asian cycle. This crisis is challenging US hegemony. To maintain their leading position in the face of competition with a rising China and other Asian countries Americans are starting  a war in Europe. They want to weaken Europe, break up Russia, and subjugate the entire Eurasian continent. The US wants to start a chaotic war on this territory, embroil all Europe, devalue European capital, write off its public debt, under the  burden of which the US is already falling apart, write off what they owe to Europe and Russia, subjugate our economic space and establish control over the resources of the giant Eurasian continent. They believe that this is the only way they can maintain their hegemony and beat China.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39481.htm
and for another view
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39483.htm

China has lost 55% of its most valuable resource.
This is astounding data from Simon Black in Shanghai..
A study by China’s Ministry of Water Resources found that approximately 55% of China’s 50,000 rivers that existed in the 1990s have disappeared. More than 400 major cities in China are short of water, with some 110 facing “serious scarcity”.
Beijing and other northern cities get most of their water from underground aquifers. Over the last five decades, China has had to drill increasingly deeper to gain access to water. China is over-exploiting its groundwater by 22 billion cubic meters per year. More than 60% of China’s water is in the southern part of the country, but most of the usage is in the north and along the coastlines. When you consider that China has almost one fifth of the world’s population and is soon to become the world’s biggest economy, this is rapidly becoming a global problem.

The John James Newsletter 12
11 September 2014.

CO2 levels in atmosphere rising at record-breaking rate
The new figures for carbon dioxide show  the biggest year-over-year increase since detailed records were first compiled in the 1980s. The jump of nearly three parts per million over 2012 levels was twice as large as the average increase in carbon levels in recent decades.  We are seeing the growth rate rising exponentially.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/co2-levels-in-atmosphere-rising-at-recordbreaking-rate-un-report-warns-20140910-10ep7s.html

The Second Mystery around Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has largely gone unnoticed
Why hasn’t the United States been in the forefront of providing information about it? The implications of this
question are massive.

JOHN CHUCKMAN ESSAY: THE SECOND MYSTERY AROUND MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT MH370

Russia’s response to sanctions
While the West continues to press the “Russia is increasingly isolated” meme, it appears that Vladimir Putin is finding plenty of friends… most notably China. While threats of ‘asymmetric’ retaliation over European sanctions may have been enough to worry Europe’s leaders, the slew of news overnight regarding increased cooperation between China and Russia is likely more damaging to Western strategy.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-09/russias-response-european-capital-sanctions-one-word
And they agree to settle more bilateral trade in rouble and yuan.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/09/09/us-china-russia-idINKBN0H40X020140909

National Landmarks at Risk
A visual: Rising seas, floods, and wildfires are threatening the United States’ most cherished historic sites
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/impacts/national-landmarks-at-risk-from-climate-change.html

Did Certain Foreign Governments Facilitate the 9/11 Attacks?
A most fascinating investigation, particularly concerning 28 pages of by the intelligence committee of both houses of Congress, entitled “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001”.
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2014/08/28/did-certain-foreign-governments-facilitate-the-911-attacks/

Is this one pressing factor of the fighting in the Ukraine?
California-based Oakland Institute revealed that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, under terms of their 17 billion loan to Ukraine, would open that country to genetically-modified crops and genetically-modified organisms in agriculture…The US-Ukraine Business Council’s 16-member Executive Committee is packed with US agribusiness companies, including representatives from Monsanto, John Deere, DuPont Pioneer, Eli Lilly, and Cargill.

ISIS and Our Times by Noam Chomsky

Owl of Minerva’s View: ISIS and Our Times – By Noam Chomsky

Now, this is a thoughtful article that is worth reading  in full
How Empires End by Jeff Thomas
If there is any value in learning from the above process, it is the understanding that leaders will not be dissuaded from their aspirations. They will continue to charge ahead regardless of objections and revolts from the citizenry.

How Empires End

The John James Newsletter 13
13 September 2014.

Political Straightjacket By George Monbiot
If the ozone hole had been discovered ten years later, governments are likely to have done nothing.
By the mid-1990s, the doctrine of market fundamentalism had almost all governments by the throat. This extreme political doctrine – that governments must cease to govern – has made direct, uncomplicated action almost unthinkable. Just as the extent of humankind’s greatest crisis – climate breakdown – became clear, governments willing to address it were everywhere being disciplined or purged. Since then, this doctrine has caused financial crises and economic collapse, the destruction of livelihoods, mountainous debt, insecurity and the devastation of the living planet.
http://www.monbiot.com/2014/09/11/political-straightjacket/

Here’s How Global Warming Is Already Worsening Extreme Deluges in the US
Scientists predicted that climate change would increase the intensity and frequency of the worst deluges: and we’ve observed that happening. Now scientists are telling us that things are going to get a lot worse. After all, the Earth has only warmed one degree Fahrenheit in the past half-century, while we are on track to warm as much as ten times that this century if we continue to ignore the warnings.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/09/3564989/global-warming-extreme-deluges/

Hamas Rocket Launches Don’t Explain Israel’s Gaza Destruction
A very blurry 20-second video appears to show a rocket launch from what is identified as “Abu Nur” school. But it is deceptive. A black streak rises from the area of the school for a little more than a second of the video, but for the entire length of the video two voices declare repeatedly that they saw three rockets launched “from within the school”. Careful viewing of the footage reveals, however, that the apparent launch comes from outside the wall of the three-story school building rather than from within it. In three other cases of alleged rocket launches from schools, the IDF provides no visual evidence – only large red dots drawn on an aerial view of the schools.

Hamas Rocket Launches Don’t Explain Israel’s Gaza Destruction

Residents living nearer natural gas wells report more health symptoms, Yale study says
Respondents, who were not asked about fracking, reported more upper respiratory and skin symptoms over the past year when they lived less than a kilometer from a gas well, and fewer such symptoms when they lived more than two kilometers from a well.
http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2014/09/residents_living_nearer_natura.html

15,000 Australian businesses save $64m/year with solar
Businesses – ranging from dairy farmers through to wineries, supermarkets and offices – have now installed solar. They hgave have now invested almost $460 million in solar power systems across the country, helping them to collectively save about $64 million on their bills every year.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/graph-of-the-day-15000-businesses-save-64myear-with-solar-63088

Australian owned solar technology makes storage breakthrough
Novatec Solar – a company majority owned by Australia’s Transfield Holdings – has commissioned a solar thermal energy demonstration plant in Spain that is based on a new type of molten salt storage technology.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/solar-45884

A compilation of quotes from recent New York Times articles.
In Iraq, dissolved elements of the army will have to regroup and fight with conviction. Political leaders will have to reach compromises on the allocation of power and money in ways that have eluded them for years. Disenfranchised Sunni tribesmen will have to muster the will to join the government’s battle. European and Arab allies will have to hang together, Washington will have to tolerate the resurgence of Iranian-backed Shiite militias it once fought, and U.S. commanders will have to orchestrate an air war without ground-level guidance from American combat forces.
Destroying ISIS won’t create an effective and legitimate Iraqi state. It won’t restore the possibility of a democratic Egypt. It won’t dissuade Saudi Arabia from funding jihadists. It won’t pull Libya back from the brink of anarchy. It won’t end the Syrian civil war. It won’t bring peace and harmony to Somalia and Yemen. It won’t persuade the Taliban to lay down their arms in Afghanistan. It won’t end the perpetual crisis of Pakistan. It certainly won’t resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
All the military power in the world won’t solve those problems. Yet Obama is allowing himself to be drawn back into the very war that he once correctly denounced as stupid and unnecessary — mostly because he and his advisers don’t know what else to do. Bombing has become the administration’s default option.
Some officials and terrorism experts believe that the actual danger posed by ISIS has been distorted in hours of television punditry and alarmist statements by politicians, and that there has been little substantive public debate about the unintended consequences of expanding American military action in the Middle East.
The broad US air assault on Islamic State jihadists inside both Syria and Iraq will be considered an act of aggression by both countries..
Some American officials warn of the potential danger of a prolonged military campaign in the Middle East and there are risks that escalating airstrikes could do the opposite of what they are intended to do and fan the terrorism to American soil.
Rudderless and without a compass, the American ship of state continues to drift, guns blazing.

The John James Newsletter 14
19 September 2014.

Carbon and War
It has been estimated that the US military is responsible for five percent of TOTAL global greenhouse emissions. In the dialogue around stopping climate change, too much emphasis is being put on ethical consumerism. Does it really matter if we try to fly less if the US Air Force continues to burn one-fourth of the world’s jet fuel? We have to address the systemic causes of climate change: the most eco-friendly thing you can do is be anti-war.
http://www.countercurrents.org/ball140914.htm

The Retaliation continues – 1
China, Russia to build one of the largest ports in North Asia
The Port will be on Russia’s Sea of Japan coast as the latest step by Beijing and Moscow to bring their economies closer, and diversify from Western influence. The new seaport will be located just 18 kilometres from the Chinese border and will be capable of handling up to 60 million tons of cargo a year.
http://rt.com/business/186900-russia-china-huge-port/

The Retaliation continues – 2
Gazprom Limiting EU Gas: Cuts Poland Supplies By 24% In Past Two Days
suddenly the stakes for Russia, and thus Europe, just got all too real, as Putin will now have no choice but to really ramp up the retaliatory escalation, which following the food ban can only mean one thing: a staggered reduction in gas flow to Europe – see MAP.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-10/russian-retaliation-begins-gazprom-limiting-eu-gas-cuts-poland-supplies-20-past-two-

What is the paradox of increasing Antarctic sea ice really telling us?
This year could well see a new record set for the extent of Antarctic sea ice – hot on the heels of last year’s record, which in turn is part of a puzzling 33-year trend in increasing sea ice around Antarctica. This is an a scientific explanation.
http://theconversation.com/what-is-the-paradox-of-increasing-antarctic-sea-ice-really-telling-us-27503

Counting the Costs: Climate Change and Coastal Flooding
A landmark report exploring coastal flooding: the sleeping giant of climate change risks.
http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/coastalflooding

US school districts given free machine guns and grenade launchers Schools???
School police departments across the US have taken advantage of free military surplus gear, stocking up on mine-resistant armoured vehicles, grenade launchers and scores of M16 rifles. At least 26 school districts have participated in the Pentagon’s surplus program, which is not new but has come under scrutiny after police responded to protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, with teargas, armour-clad military trucks and riot gear.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/18/us-school-districts-given-free-machine-guns-and-grenade-launchers?CMP=ema_565

Opening of a poignant manifesto by Brandon Sloan
The world is coming to an end
The air is polluted, the oceans contaminated
The animals are going extinct, the economy’s collapsed
Education is shot, police are corrupt
Intelligence is shunned and ignorance rewarded
The people are depressed and angry
We can’t live with each other and we can’t live with ourselves
So everyone’s medicated
We pass each other on the streets
More people want 15 seconds of fame
Than a lifetime of meaning and purpose
Because what’s popular is more important than what’s right
Ratings are more important than the truth …..
http://dancingshoesprod.com/

The John James Newsletter 15
23 September 2014.

A trenchant warning
Fossil Fuels, Global Warming and Democracy – Dr Kevin Taft
Global warming requires political and state institutions to confront the interests of the fossil fuel industry and reduce its size dramatically. This poses a triple jeopardy for any government that depends heavily on fossil fuel production.
First, the government must overcome its own dependence on royalties.
Second, the government must simultaneously challenge a dominant power, the fossil fuel industry.
Third, the government must face both of these challenges where political and state institutions have been moulded to support a mineral economy.
Governments are unlikely to take on this challenge and survive.
When democracy is caught between the needs of global warming and the demands of the fossil fuel industry, global warming is ignored and democracy is sacrificed.
http://www.whitlam.org/the_program/perspectives

Libraries under threat – by Michael Wilding
The last years of the nineteenth century saw a concerted move to educate people, provide free schooling, free libraries and universities of quality and distinction; the twenty-first century seems to be running a policy of dumbing down and surveillance. How many centres of Learning still have libraries?
http://www.sydneyreviewofbooks.com/libraries-under-threat/

Warm water flowing into Arctic Ocean
Over 90 percent of Earth’s energy imbalance has been going into the oceans, almost unnoticed by people keeping track of the temperatures in the atmosphere. The warmer ocean water is going through the Bering Strait and into the Chukchi Sea, Barents Sea, East Siberian Sea and worst of all, the Laptev Sea.
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/warm-water-flowing-into-arctic-ocean.html
And see my post on the Gakkyl Ridge in the Laptev Sea
http://planetextinction.com/documents/Methane,%20the%20Gakkel%20Ridge%20and%20human%20survival.pdf

As everything is hotting up, both in CO2, in wars and in terror, I ask you to revisit the talk I gave in Katoomba in June last year. This is still relevant, indeed, more so as methane levels have been soaring all this year.

An interesting overview without the hyperbole
Russia Rejects Ukrainian Seperatists Bid To Join Russian Federation
Putin and Obama have regularly been in direct contact since February. Perhaps Putin’s declining to accept Ukrainian territory into Russia is part of an agreement between the two leaders in which Obama declines the urgings from his right for the US to provide weapons to the Ukrainian military. Maybe its a deal.
http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse200914.htm

Will this never stop?
Israeli bulldozers enter border area in southern Gaza
Israel has severely limited Gaza’s imports and exports since 2006, also imposing a no-go buffer zone ranging from 500 to 1,500 meters from the border, an area encompassing 17 percent of Gaza’s total land. The siege has led to frequent humanitarian crises for Gazans, and the UN and various human rights groups have repeatedly called on Israel to lift it.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=728502

A penetrating analysis of the war we cannot win
The Folly Of Obama’s “War” On ISIS
In truth, the whole thing is a giant, pathetic farce. There will be no coalition, no strategy, no boots, no ISIS degradation, no gain in genuine safety and security for the American homeland. This is an utterly misbegotten war against an enemy that has more urgent targets than America, but a war which will nonetheless fire-up the already boiling cauldron of Middle Eastern tribal, religious and political conflicts like never before. There is no name for what Obama is attempting except utter folly.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39731.htm

The John James Newsletter 16
27 September 2014.

On 23 September 2014 Kathy Jetnil-Kijner  addressed the Opening Ceremony of the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit with her new poem “Dear Matafele Peinem” written to her daughter.

United Nations Climate Summit Opening Ceremony – A poem to my Daughter

Who will feed China? or “How China will starve the world”
China is a leading importer of grain and it imports a staggering 60 percent of all soybeans entering world trade—and it looks like this will continue. The problem is not population growth, but China’s rising affluence, which is allowing its population to move up the food chain, consuming more grain-intensive livestock, poultry, and farmed fish.
http://www.earth-policy.org/blog/who_will_feed_china

China’s shrinking grain harvest
After a remarkable expansion from 90 million tons in 1950 to 392 million tons in 1998, China’s grain harvest has fallen in four of the last five years—dropping to 322 million tons in 2003. This drop of 70 million tons exceeds the entire grain harvest of Canada. China is the first major grain-producing country where environmental and economic trends have combined to reverse the historical growth in grain production. This decline in a country that is home to more than one fifth of the world’s people will affect all of us. Moving grain from the United States to China on the scale that is needed will likely involve loading two or three ships every day. The long line of grain-laden ships that may soon stretch across the Pacific will bring these two countries closer together economically, but could become a major foreign policy challenge.
http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2004/update36

On the ground it’s hard to tell friend from foe
Some of the weaknesses of the air war are already apparent since Isis had evacuated its leaders, fighters and heavy equipment from buildings that were targeted. Its fighters avoid large gatherings and mix with the civilian population. The shock effect of being bombed will be the less because the Syrian air force has long been bombing rebel-held cities and towns.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39783.htm

Struggle Against ISIS Shields US Oil Grab – Jean Shaoul
President Barack Obama and Hagel’s talk of going after the ISIS is a cover for their plans to overthrow Assad. But an additional issue at stake is the control of Iraq’s vast energy resources and the supply routes through its territory
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/09/23/iraq-s23.html

South Australia sets 50% renewable energy target for 2025
“We took action at the local level, passing the nation’s first dedicated climate change legislation and were the first State with a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We have demonstrated in South Australia that, with the right policies and incentives, and with strong leadership and clear goals, even highly ambitious targets can be achieved and surpassed” – Premier Weatherill,
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/south-australia-sets-50-renewable-energy-target-for-2025-2020

Has this become the only way?
The Coming Climate Revolt – Chris Hedges
“If the response of the corporate state is repression rather than reform then our strategy and tactics must be different. We will have to cease appealing to the system. We will have to view the state as antagonistic to genuine reform. We will have to speak in the language of … revolution. We will have to carry out acts of civil disobedience that seek to cripple the mechanisms of corporate power. The corporate elites, blinded by their lust for profit and foolish enough to believe they can protect themselves from climate change, will not veer from the path towards ecocide unless they are forced from power. And this means beginning a titanic clash between our corporate masters and ourselves.” http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_coming_climate_revolt_20140921