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Geoff has written for publications as diverse as PC User and The Northern Star His weekly columns have been a source of humour and inspiration for tens of thousands of readers and his mailbox is always full.
Here you can find his more recent contributions.

  • THE JOHN JAMES NEWSLETTER NO 35

    The John James Newsletter 23

    31 October 2014. 

    Ebola Is Now ‘Aerostable’ And Can Remain On Surfaces For 50 Days

    The information was contained in a 33-page report released Oct. 24 by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. It states “preliminary studies indicate that Ebola is aerostable in an enclosed controlled system in the dark and can survive for long periods in different liquid media and can also be recovered from plastic and glass surfaces at low temperatures for over 3 weeks.”

    http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-story-changes-ebola-is-now-aerostable-and-can-remain-on-surfaces-for-50-days?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-story-changes-ebola-is-now-aerostable-and-can-remain-on-surfaces-for-50-days

    and

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40096.htm

    If Ebola batters US, we are not ready 

    To assess America’s ability to deal with a major outbreak, the AP examined readiness in training, manpower, funding, emergency room shortcomings, supplies, infection control and protection for health care workers. The results were worrisome. Supplies, training and funds are all limited. And there are concerns that health care workers may refuse to treat Ebola victims.

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EBOLA_US_HEALTH_CARE_PREPAREDNESS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-29-12-25-52

    CIA Mouthpiece Lets Slip On Russian ‘Aggression’

    Since the beginning of its observer mission at the end of July, the CIA has not recorded any movement of military equipment or units from Russia into Ukrainian territory.

    http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/10/29/cia-mouthpiece-lets-slip-on-russian-aggression.html

    15 Signs That We Live During A Time Of Rampant Government Paranoia

    The US has become the nation of the “permanent emergency”.  There has been at least one “state of emergency” in effect in this country since 1979. Almost everyone is considered to be a criminal.  Nearly one out of every three Americans has a file in the FBI’s master criminal database.

    http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/15-signs-that-we-live-during-a-time-of-rampant-government-paranoia

    Another record year for big solar – but where is Australia?

    Figures released on Tuesday, along show that at the end of September the US was leading the big solar stakes with 407 utility-scale plants, amounting to a total installed capacity of 7.08GW. China comes in a close second with 245 plants, totalling 6.5GW; followed by Germany, with 281 plants and 3.46GW total installed utility-scale capacity.

    http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/graph-day-another-record-year-big-solar-australia-66409

    Economic Collapse? How Will The Stock Market React To The End Of Quantitative Easing?

    This market binge has been solely fueled by reckless money printing by the Federal Reserve.  It is not backed up by economic fundamentals in any way, shape or form. And now that quantitative easing is ending, many are wondering if the party is over.

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/economic-collapse-how-will-the-stock-market-react-to-the-end-of-quantitative-easing/5410316?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=economic-collapse-how-will-the-stock-market-react-to-the-end-of-quantitative-easing

    Nearly 25 million food insecure in Sahel

    The dramatic rise in insecurity over the last year has forced a tremendous number of people to seek fed, housing and health care. There’s a big difference between negative coping mechanisms that would include taking out a loan that must be repaid from profits from the following year’s harvest, eating seeds that should be saved for next year’s planting, and reducing the number of daily meals from three down to two, or even one. “It becomes a very slippery slide very quickly”.

    http://worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=100769

    Resolving Key Nuclear Issue Turns on Iran-Russia Deal

    The key to the new approach is Iran’s willingness to send both its existing stockpile of low enriched uranium (LEU) as well as newly enriched uranium to Russia for conversion into fuel for power plants for an agreed period of years.

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40083.htm

    The Stark Facts of Global Greed, a Disease as Challenging as Climate Change

    A stunning 95 percent of the world’s population lost a share of its wealth over the past three years. Almost all of the gain went to the world’s richest 1%. The gains seem almost incomprehensible. The world’s wealth grew from $224 trillion to $263 trillion in three years. The world’s richest 1%, who owned a little under $100 trillion in 2011, now own almost $127 trillion. For every four dollars they possessed just three years ago, they now have five. From New York to Kenya and Indonesia, the rich are pushing people out of the way to acquire land and build luxury homes. The “winner-take-all” attitude is breaking down society everywhere.

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40084.htm

    Bogotá: Improving Civic Behavior 

    A unique and surprising story of two mayors, Antanas Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa, who have changed behaviour patterns in the Colombian capital, bringing Bogotá out of a negative spiral of violence and chaos and remaking it as something of a visionary role model for other megacities.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lOkLNIT3gI

    French clash with Islamists in Mali

    France’s intervention in Mali was designed to retake control of northern towns that had been overrun by separatists and rebels linked to al Qaeda in 2012 after a coup in the capital Bamako. It has since evolved into a 3,000-strong counter-terrorism mission stretching from Mauritania to southern Libya.

    http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/french-soldier-killed-with-20-islamists-in-fierce-clash-in-mali-30703877.html

  • It is Time to Act: 2 Degrees is the Limit

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    It is Time to Act: 2 Degrees is the Limit

    Message on Climate Change to World Leaders

    Human-induced climate change is an issue beyond politics. It transcends parties, nations, and even generations. For the first time in human history, the very health of the planet, and therefore the bases for future economic development, the end of poverty, and human wellbeing, are in the balance. If we were facing an imminent threat from beyond Earth, there is no doubt that humanity would immediately unite in common cause. The fact that the threat comes from within – indeed from ourselves – and that it develops over an extended period of time does not alter the urgency of cooperation and decisive action.

    The world has agreed to limit the mean temperature increase to less than 2-degrees Centigrade (2°C). Even a 2°C increase will carry us to dangerous and unprecedented conditions not seen on Earth during the entire period of human civilization. Various physical feedbacks – in the Arctic, the oceans, the rainforests, and the tundra – could multiply a 2°C temperature increase into vastly higher temperatures and climate disruption. For this reason many scientists and some countries advocate for 1.5°C or even stricter targets.

    To give up on the 2°C limit, on the other hand, would be reckless and foolish. We would abandon our remaining chance to stay within a safe operating space for humanity and that of millions of other species. By holding the 2°C limit, we would retain the global option to adopt an even more stringent emission reduction limit in line with evolving scientific knowledge and technological capacities.

    The 2°C limit, or an even stronger target, can be met through long-term national strategies and concerted global cooperation. All countries must commit to a deep decarbonization of their energy systems, shifting from high-carbon energy (coal, oil, and natural gas) to low-carbon energy of various kinds (e.g. wind, solar, nuclear, carbon capture and sequestration, known as CCS). Low-carbon electricity plus massive gains in energy efficiency and the electrification of vehicles, heating and cooling systems of commercial as well as residential buildings can lead to a dramatic reduction of carbon-dioxide emissions alongside a growing economy. Changes in lifestyle patterns and urban planning can make another important contribution. The many co-benefits of decarbonization with the deployment of sustainable energy, information and communication technologies will include cleaner air and water, enhanced biodiversity, and security of domestic renewable energy resources. Targeted efforts are also required to decarbonize key industries. Finally, countries need to curb greenhouse gas emissions resulting from agriculture, livestock, and land-use change, such as deforestation. They must also manage and restore ecosystems to ensure they can serve as a significant net sink for greenhouse gas emissions.

    The technological transition during the first half of the 21st century is within reach, especially in light of massive advances in knowhow in recent years. In many parts of the world and in some contexts, solar and wind power are already at “grid parity.” Large-scale deployment of electric vehicles, carbon-capture and sequestration, next-generation nuclear power plants for those countries deploying nuclear power, and other low-carbon energy technologies are all within reach. They can be pushed to commercial readiness and large-scale deployment through concerted public and private programs of research, development, demonstration, and diffusion (RDD&D) on a global scale.

    We have nearly exhausted the Earth’s carbon budget, which measures the cumulative emissions of CO2 that will likely keep the planet within the 2°C limit.  Only through a drastic reduction of carbon emissions between now and 2050, en route to a zero-net emission economy in the second half of the century, can we meet the challenge of remaining below 2°C. Yet, deep decarbonization can be accomplished.  As President John F. Kennedy said a half-century ago, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills …”

    In our time, humanity again must choose, this time to save our planet from shortsightedness, greed, and apathy to avoid catastrophic climate change. This time too, we must organize and measure the best of our energies and skills to stay within 2°C. We call upon you, world leaders, to recognize the gravity of the situation, and to call upon all of us to rise to the occasion. We owe nothing less to ourselves, to future generations, and to Earth itself.

    Founding Signatories:

    (* denotes members of the SDSN Leadership Council)

    Irene Agyepong, Regional Director, Health for Greater Accra*

    Belay Begashaw, Director, Columbia Global Center, Nairobi*

    Frances Beinecke, President, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)*

    Joseph Bell, Hogan Lovells, Washington*

    David Berry, Founder, Joule Unlimited*

    Joshua Castellino, Dean, Law School, University of Middlesex*

    Madhav Chavan, Co-founder and CE-President, Pratham, India*

    Sir Partha Dasgupta, Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Bineta Diop, President, Femmes Africa Solidarité*

    Achim Dobermann, Director, Rothamsted Research*

    José María Figueres, CEO, Carbon War Room*

    Maria Freire, President and Executive Director, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH)*

    Michael Gerrard, Professor, Columbia University Law School

    Jennifer Gross, Member of the Board, Gross Family Foundation

    Zakri Abdul Hamid, Chair, International Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)*

    James Hansen, Former Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies*

    Tom Heller, Executive Director, Climate Policy Initiative*

    Pavel  Kabat, Director, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)*

    Joan  Kaufman, Director, Columbia Global Centers East Asia

    Geoffrey Kent, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Abercrombie & Kent Group of Companies*

    Niclas Kjellström-Matseke, Managing Director, Novamedia Swedish Postcode Lottery*

    Israel Klabin, Founder and Executive Director, Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development*

    Felipe Larraín, Director, Centro Latinoamericano de Políticas Económicas y Sociales (CLAPES-UC)*

    Richard Layard, Director. Well-Being Programme Centre for Economic Performance London School of Economics*

    Frannie Léautier, Partner and Chief Executive Officer, Mkoba Private Equity Fund*

    Yuan Lee, Former President, Academia Sinica and Nobel Prize Laureate*

    Klaus Leisinger, President, Stiftung Globale Werte Allianz*

    Gordon Liu, Director, Peking University China Center for Health Economic Research (CCHER)*

    Jane Lubchenco, Oregon State University, Corvallis*

    Arun Majumdar, Energy Initiatives Lead, Google Inc*

    Michael Mann, Professor and Director of the Earth System Science Center, Pennsylvania State University

    Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General, IUCN*

    Dirk Messner, Director, German Development Institute

    Shahid Naeem, Director, Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability*

    Claude Nahon, Executive Vice President for Sustainable Development, EDF*

    Rebecca Nelson, Professor, Cornell University*

    Cherie Nursalim, Executive Director, GITI Group*

    Ikenna Onyido, Founder and Director, Centre for Sustainable Development, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria*

    Mari Pangestu, Minister of Tourism and Creative Industries, Indonesia*

    George Papandreou, Former Prime Minister, Greece*

    V (Ram) Ramanathan, Professor, SCRIPPS Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, California

    Srinath Reddy, President and Executive Director, Public Health Foundation of India*

    Irwin Redlener, Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Earth Institute, Columbia University

    Aromar Revi, Director, Indian Institute for Human Settlements*

    Angelo Riccaboni, Rector, University of Siena, Italy*

    Johan Rockström, Executive Director, Stockholm Resilience Center*

    Cynthia Rosenzweig, Professor, Earth Institute, Columbia University*

    Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, Earth Institute, Columbia University Director of the SDSN*

    Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

    Josette Sheeran, President, Asia Society*

    Will Steffen, Adjunct Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian University

    Lord Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor, Chair of Grantham Institute, London School of Economics

    Pavan Sukhdev, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, GIST Advisory*

    Jatna Supriatna, Chairman, University of Indonesia Research Center of Climate Change

    John Thwaites, Chair, Monash Sustainability Institute*

    Lena Trenschow-Torell, Chairman, MISTRA*

    Laurence Tubiana, Professor, Sciences Po (Paris) and Columbia University, Co-Chair of the SDSN Leadership Council*

    Ted Turner, Chairman, Turner Foundation, Inc. and Turner Enterprises Inc.*

    Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson Group*

    Virgilio Viana, Director General, Amazonas Sustainability Foundation*

    Martin Visbeck, Chair in Physical Oceanography, GEOMAR – Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel & Kiel University*

    Robert Watson, former Chair of the IPCC

    E.O. Wilson, Emeritus, Harvard University

    Xue Lan, Professor and Dean, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Co-Chair of the SDSN Leadership Council*

    Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Professor, New York University*

    Soogil Young, Professor, KDI School of Public Policy and Management*

    Hania Zlotnik, Former Director, UN Population Division*

    Signatories:

    To be added

  • Sunday Assembly – ‘live better, help often, and wonder more’

    Sunday Assembly – ‘live better, help often, and wonder more’

    Cameron Reilly and Chrissy Dunaway at Sunday Assembly - Jo Stevens
    Cameron Reilly and Chrissy Dunaway at Sunday Assembly – Jo Stevens

    Church is about God isn’t’ it?

    Or so I thought until a few weeks ago when I first attended the Brisbane Sunday Assembly.

    I’d read a little of Alain De Botton’s 2013 book “Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion”, but still wondered what a god-free ‘church’ would be like, and why you would want one in the first place.

    I put these questions to Anne Reid, who I had met when she was the Secular Party candidate in Griffith in the 2013 election. Anne invited me along to the Brisbane Sunday Assembly to see for myself.

    Anyone stumbling into a meeting of the Sunday Assembly for the first time could be forgiven for thinking they were in a church. The group meets in a school hall but so do a lot of religious groups these days.

    The meeting commenced with music provided by a live band (clapping and singing along), followed by a reading, a key speaker, a word of testimony, more singing, and some silent contemplation.

    Brisbane Sunday Assembly - Photo by Jo Stevens
    The congregation is much like any other Sunday gathering

    This structure was familiar to me from my past life in a Protestant community church. The similarities stop however with these outwards trappings.

    The songs were not hymns: on the day I attended, songs included Cat Stevens’ ‘Peace Train’ and John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. The reading was not from the Bible: it was a poem titled, “A Square Deal” by iconic Australian, CJ Dennis. The key speaker was not a minister or priest, but a professor of quantum physics (and the custodian of the world famous Pitch Drop Experiment) at the University of Queensland. Professor Andrew White did not present us with a sermon or a homily; instead, he gave an amusing and accessible overview of an aspect of his work.

    This is certainly not church as I had known it.

    In the final segment of the meeting, Chrissy Dunaway, one of the founders of Brisbane’s Sunday Assembly, explained why, as an atheist, the concept and practice of Sunday Assembly are important to her. Brought up in the Mormon Church in the United States she came to a point where she could no longer accept the religious dogma and she left. Her mother, she said, characterised her life after Mormonism is a being like “a ship without a rudder” and that, she said, was a fair description of how she had felt. Ms Dunaway said that what she had been looking for was a philosophy and a supportive community; the very things that she had lost when she had left the church.

    The concept for Sunday Assembly began just one year ago with UK comedians, Sanderson Jones, and Pippa Evans. They say on their website that, “they wanted to do something that had all the best bits of church, but without the religion, and awesome pop songs.” In the short time that has followed, Sunday Assembly groups have been established in a number of UK and US cities, as well as in all mainland Australian capital cities. The Brisbane Assembly attracted over 200 people to its first meeting and around 100 people routinely attend its monthly meetings.

    Grant Richards, well known in Brisbane as “Grant, the polite guy,” told me that he first encountered Sunday Assembly as an invited speaker. Once homeless himself, Grant is the founder of Signal Flare which runs barbecues and raises funds for the homeless. Sunday Assembly and Signal Flare have since developed an ongoing relationship, with Sunday Assembly helping at barbecues and providing clothes and toiletries and other essentials for homeless people living in and around Brisbane and Ipswich.

    Asked if he is happy with the non-theist basis of Sunday Assembly, Grant said, “I love the community spirit here, and the three point philosophy: ‘live better, help often, and wonder more.’” Adding, “It is awesome, it’s the community coming together to celebrate life.”

    Brisbane Sunday Assembly
    The ritual is familiar to those brought up in a church

    Commenting on the Assembly’s work with Signal Flare, Ms Reid said that some people think that charity is the province of the churches, “but I have been openly atheist for some time, and I have been involved in a lot of charity work.” “In that [charity] scene,” she said, “the question is always about what church you belong to. The assumption being that only the religious do charity work. I would very much like to change that perception”.

    Ms Reid considers that in the future Sunday Assembly could provide a base for the many overseas students she meets. Such students, she said, are often in need of a community in Australia, and they are frequently drawn to the churches for support. She thinks that it could be important to have non-religious organisations available to these students to help them navigate the basics of living in a foreign country without the associated belief system.

    Both Ms Reid and Brisbane Sunday Assembly President Cameron Reilly said that criticism of Sunday Assembly has mostly come from other atheist organisations which consider it is too similar to a church. Ms Reid said this was a pity because, “atheists come in all ‘makes and models’ and all outlets of atheist expression should be encouraged.”

    Mr Reilly said, “We really do like people, and we like community, and we want to help other people. This criticism that atheists should not get together as a community just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me”. He added that the structure of the meetings is intentionally similar to a church service, “we deliberately take what we think are the best parts of religion, because it works. What a lot of people are looking for is a community and that sense of knowing your neighbours, and having a group of people you care about, that care about you…that you share some common interests with”. “The thing with Atheism,”.” he said, “is that it tends to be a solitary thing. You may be part of a music group, or a sports group, but nothing that really talks about how you live your life, about how you support one another in times of need; what your philosophy is. I think there are a lot of us that are yearning for something like that.”

    De Botton says much the same thing in ‘Religion for Atheists’: “For too long non-believers have faced a stark choice between either swallowing lots of peculiar doctrines or doing away with a range of consoling and beautiful rituals and ideas.”

    I asked Mr Reilly whether Sunday Assembly will create its own rituals to mark life events, such as births, marriages, and deaths. He said that he and his partner have a baby due in 3-4 weeks, and they have been talking about how Sunday Assembly will welcome this new life. “Those sorts of rituals are an important part of the human experience and an important part of being a community: celebrating and supporting people through major life events.”

    Sunday Assembly meets each month. For more information on their meeting times and events, see the Sunday Assembly website or look them up on Facebook.

    For Signal Flare’s next event see their Facebook site.

    I’d like to thank Jo Stevens for providing the images that accompanying this story.

  • Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Climate Change

    Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Climate Change

    by Robert Hunziker / April 20th, 2014

    Carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere and absorbed by the ocean may be invisible to the naked eye, but it is extraordinarily visible in its effect, as will be chronicled herein, and it shows up in the weirdest places.

    Burning oil, gas, and coal spews tons upon tons upon tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, and similar to blowing up a balloon too much, the earth’s atmosphere can only hold so much before bad things start popping.

    Are you sitting?

    Imagine Baffin Bay in the Arctic Sea in the middle of winter, but ice is not able to thicken and form, like it always does, because of the disrupting interference of methane powerfully bubbling up from within the water. This happened in December 2013.1 Along those same lines, whenever gas blocks mass, it is worthy of inclusion in Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

    Additionally, two particularly huge and troubling ocean-to-atmospheric methane outbursts were recorded in the Arctic Ocean on February 24, 2014, an event that most likely hasn’t occurred over the past 45 million years. This is also worthy of Ripley’s because whenever an event happens once in 45 million years, it automatically qualifies.

    In Siberia, methane vents have increased in size from less than one meter (3+ feet) in diameter in the summer of 2010 to one kilometer (over ½ mile) in diameter in 2011. Trees are tipping over and dying as permafrost thaws as methane overpowers the countryside. These events indubitably qualify for inclusion in Ripley’s Believe it, or Not, Climate Change.

    Because of methane venting in Siberia, natural gas transported from Russia to Europe is at risk as the infrastructure is subject to total disruption. “We are on the cusp of a tipping point in the climate. If the global climate warms another few tenths of a degree, a large expanse of the Siberian permafrost will start to melt uncontrollably.”2  This highly probable event pre-qualifies for Ripley’s, and it is likely to go to the very top of the list very quickly once all hell breaks loose.

    Along those lines, “Experts say methane emissions from the Arctic have risen by almost one-third in just five years, and that sharply rising temperatures are to blame.”  ((David Adam, environment correspondent, Arctic Permafrost Leaking Methane at Record Levels, Figures Show, The Guardian, January 14, 2014))

    According to reports by researchers at Australian National University and the British Antarctic Survey, in parts of Antarctica the summer ice melt is at its highest level in 1,000 years. 3   This once-in-a-1,000-year event certainly merits inclusion in Ripley’s.

    Speaking of Antarctica, the collapsed Antarctic Larsen B Ice Shelf qualifies for Ripley’s in spades: “It was like the smashing of glasses at the throw of a stone,” according to geophysicist Douglas MacAyeal’s statement at an International Glaciological Society meeting in Beijing, Chain Reaction Shattered Huge Antarctica Ice Shelf, Nature, August 9, 2013.

    “Scientists monitoring daily satellite images… watched in amazement as almost the entire Larsen B Ice Shelf splintered and collapsed in just over one month. They had never witnessed such a large area… disintegrate so rapidly.” 4

    Larsen B is the tenth major Antarctic ice shelf to collapse in recent times. The Larsen B, stable for 12,000 years, the size of a small state, suddenly collapsed within weeks. This certainly qualifies for inclusion in Ripley’s, with an asterisk, signaling danger: watch out ahead for disintegrating ice sheets. The Larsen B event is, at the least, comparable to Manhattan disappearing in a few weeks.

    All eyes are on the Pine Island Glacier, which is 2/3rds the size of the UK. It may be next to go, and because knowledgeable scientists claim it is a “goner,” it must be included in Ripley’s.

    “Pine Island Glacier will raise the ocean ½ inch, but there’s a bigger reason for including it on the Ripley’s list, according to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Pine Island Glacier has “… reached a point of no return. The Pine Island Glacier, if it is unstable may have implications for the entire West Antarctica Ice Sheet.” 5

    Scientists have an especially keen eye on Pine Island Glacier because it has a greater net contribution of ice to the sea of any other ice drainage basin in the world. The loss of Pine Island Glacier alone might raise sea level by half an inch, but if the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreats, this would raise sea level by more than 10 feet.  6

    As for comparison/contrasting the size of West Antarctica, the massive Antarctic Ice Sheet (the ‘mother of all ice’), which covers an area bigger than the continental U.S., contains 85% of the world’s ice and could raise sea levels by over 200 feet, which, fortunately, would likely take centuries to collapse, maybe.

    Plankton, which forms the base of the marine food chain, may be on the verge of disappearing completely.7 The prospective loss of the base of the marine food chain qualifies, without any hesitation, for Ripley’s Believe it, or Not. How could it not?

    Peruvian ice that took 1,600 years to accumulate has completely melted over the past 25 years. 8 Absolutely, any time 1,600 years of ice accumulation can be whisked away in a short time span of 25 years, it qualifies for Ripley’s.

    According to the University of Zurich, the Alps have lost ice mass equivalent to a three-story building, or 32 feet on average, over the past decade. This barely qualifies for Ripley’s, but a three-story building of ice mass loss is considerable.

    The world’s glaciers are melting like crazy: How else would it have been possible, way back in 1991, for Ötzi the Iceman, who lived 3,300 years ago, to suddenly appear on the scene?

    “In 2012, the contiguous United States (CONUS) average annual temperature of 55.3F was 3.2F above the 20th century average, and was the warmest year in the 1895-2012 period of record for the nation. The 2012 annual temperature was 1.0F warmer than the previous record warm year in 1998.”  9 This one-hundred-year temperature record belongs in Ripley’s simply because it is a 100-year record.

    If Greenland’s ice melt goes “exponential,” which, according to some scientists, appears to be happening, this more than qualifies for Honorable Mention in Ripley’s, since Greenland contains the ice equivalent of 23 feet of sea level rise.

    According to James Hansen, PhD (adjunct professor, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University): “So, what are the shapes of the ice sheet mass loss curves for Greenland and West Antarctica? Is there evidence that they may be exponential? … The picture may begin to be clearer within the next several years. The problem is, by the time the data record is long enough to be convincing, it may be exceedingly difficult or impossible to prevent sea level rise of many meters.” 10

    Ninety-eight percent (98%) of Greenland’s ice surface experienced melting over July 8-15, 2012, a period of seven days, an astonishing feat considering this included the frigid high-altitude zones where temperatures seldom exceed the freezing mark. 11  Considering the fact that only 40-50% of Greenland’s surface ordinarily turns slushy every summer, a 98% thawing of the surface in a stunningly scant 7 days time is indeed worthy of Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

    According to Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf, professor of Physics of the Oceans, Potsdam University, Germany, speaking at the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media (2013): “We still potentially are underestimating the instability of the ice sheets… IPCC has greatly revised its estimates of how unstable the Greenland ice sheet is.”

    The rate of warming of the Pacific Ocean over the past 60 years is 15 times faster than at any time over the past 10,000 years. 12 Anything that happens once in 10,000 years belongs in Ripley’s, no argument there.

    And, according to NASA and NOAA, “In 2013 ocean warming rapidly escalated, rising… over three times the recent trend.” This fact gives the warming trend of the Pacific a full Ripley’s listing as well as an Honorable Mention. The repercussions are serious enough to warrant a dual listing as the new facts insinuate a faster demise for coral reefs, of which 20% are gone whilst 50% are on the verge of total collapse!

    The dramatic increase in warming should push coral reef collapse over the edge sooner than forecast by Alex Rogers, PhD, professor of Conservation Biology, University of Oxford and scientific director, International Programme on the State of the Ocean, who says: “The changes we thought would happen in the future… We’re actually seeing them now.” 13

    Here’s the final Ripley’s Believe it or Not Climate Change (“issue”): United States’ energy policy is energy independence by 2035 by fracking to death and possibly including the XL Keystone Pipeline running along the top of the graveyards.

    But, Scotland, which is already 40% renewable energy, has a national energy policy of 100% renewables by 2020, thereby achieving renewable energy independence 15 years ahead of U.S. fracking exploitation!

    Post Script: “In reality, Republicans have long been at war with clean energy. They have ridiculed investments in solar and wind power, bashed energy-efficiency standards, attacked state moves to promote renewable energy and championed laws that would enshrine taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuels while stripping them from wind and solar.” 14

    • Readers can listen to an interview with Robert Hunziker about banning Earth Day on Life Elsewhere Radio, WMNF 88.5fm, go to: www.WMNF.org at 9:00 P.M. EST on Monday, April 21. — DV editor
    1. Arctic News, December 15, 2013 [↩]
    2. Michael Marshall, Major Methane Release is Almost Inevitable, New Scientist, February 21, 2013 [↩]
    3. Nerille J. Abram, et al, Acceleration of Snow Melt in an Antarctic Peninsula Ice Core During the Twentieth Century, Nature Geoscience 6, 404-411, doi: 10.1038/ngeo1787, March 4, 2013 [↩]
    4. NASA, Earth Observatory, World of Change/larsenb [↩]
    5. G. Durand, et al, Retreat of Pine Island Glacier Controlled by Marine Ice-Sheet Instability, Nature Climate Change, doi: 10.1038/nclimagte, January 12, 2014 [↩]
    6. Giant Antarctic Glacier Beyond Point of no Return, Research Says, PHYS ORG, Jan. 12, 2014 [↩]
    7. Stephanie L. Hinder, et al, Multi-Decadal Range Changes vs. Thermal Adaptation for North East Atlantic Oceanic Copepods in the Face of Climate Change, Global Change Biology, Vol. 20, Issue 1, January 2014. [↩]
    8. L.G. Thompson, et al, Annually Resolved Ice Core Records of Tropical Climate Variability Over the Past ~ 1800 Years, Science, Vol. 340, No. 6135, May 24, 2013. [↩]
    9. National Temperature and Precipitation Analysis, National Climatic Data Center, April 22, 2014 [↩]
    10. James Hansen and Makiko Sato, Update of Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Loss: Exponential? December 26, 2012 [↩]
    11. Andrew Freedman, Record 2012 Greenland Melt Challenges Climate Models, Climate Central, June 18, 2013 [↩]
    12. Yair Rosenthal, et al, Pacific Ocean Heat Content During the Past 10,000 Years, Science, Vol. 342, No. 6158, DOI: 10.1126, November 1, 2013 [↩]
    13. State of the Ocean, OneWorld Video (UK), August 2011 [↩]
    14. Jeff Goodell, American author: Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future (Houghton Mifflin). [↩]

    Robert Hunziker (MA, economic history, DePaul University) is a freelance writer and environmental journalist whose articles have been translated into foreign languages and appeared in over 50 journals, magazines, and sites worldwide, like Z magazine, European Project on Ocean Acidification, Ecosocialism Canada, Climate Himalaya, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Comite Valmy, and UK Progressive. He has been interviewed about climate change on Pacifica Radio, KPFK, FM90.7, Indymedia On Air and World View Show/UK. He can be contacted at: rlhunziker@gmail.com. Read other articles by Robert.

    This article was posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2014 at 11:14pm and is filed under Climate Change, Energy, Oceans/Seas, Oil, Gas, Coal, Pipelines,

  • Scripps Lecture to Explore Crossroads of Science and Religion

    Scripps Lecture to Explore Crossroads of Science and Religion

    Free public Rosenblatt Lecture scheduled April 2 by expert on science teaching and evolution-creation debate

    Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego
    Join Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego for a lively presentation at the hotly debated crossroads of science and religion. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education and an internationally known expert on the evolution-creation controversy, will present “In the Beginning: Science, Religion, and Origins” during the annual Richard H. and Glenda G. Rosenblatt Lectureship in Evolutionary Biology.

    The event is scheduled for 3 p.m. on April 2, 2013, at the Robert Paine Scripps Forum for Science, Society and the Environment (Scripps Seaside Forum) on the Scripps Oceanography campus (8610 Kennel Way, La Jolla, CA 92037). The event is free and the public is invited. Seating is available on a first come, first served basis.

    During the presentation Scott will address the origins of life, Earth, and the universe, topics pondered by religions around the world.

    “Science, as a relatively recent actor on the intellectual stage, also considers these topics, coming up with answers at variance with those of most religions, including Christianity,” says Scott. “How do these two approaches differ? Are there similarities? And is there an uncrossable divide between the two? The answer is not just philosophically interesting, but directly relevant to decisions being made about what to teach in public school science courses.”

    In her current position, Scott oversees the National Center for Science Education, a not-for-profit membership organization of scientists, teachers, and others who seek to improve the teaching of science, evolution, and climate change. A former college professor, Scott is regularly featured in news reports regarding science teaching.

    Four years ago Scientific American named Scott “one of 10 outstanding leaders involved in research, business, or policy pursuits that have advanced science and technology.”

    She authored the book Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction and co-edited Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong for Our Schools, in addition to many articles in science journals.

    In addition to holding several honorary degrees, Scott has been honored with several prestigious awards from a long list of scientific organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, and the California Science Teachers Association Distinguished Service Award.

    # # #

  • Air system risks commuters’ lives

    Air system risks commuters’ lives

    Date
    March 4, 2013

    Jacob Saulwick
    Transport Reporter

    View more articles from Jacob Saulwick

    Follow Jacob on Twitter Email Jacob

    Successive governments have put cost before safety, writes Jacob Saulwick.

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    Wynyard Station: 010313: SMH News: 1st of March 2013: Image shows fire crews and City Rail staff attending a fire incident in a tunnell adjacent to Platform 4 at Sydney’s Wynyard Station which saw the line closed temporarily but re-opened before the afternoon peak hour. Photo by James Alcock

    Emergency workers at Wynard station last week after a cable short-circuited and sent smoke into the station. Photo: James Alcock

    What’s the value of a human life?

    That’s the question RailCorp and its predecessors have been chewing over for more than 20 years as they have debated internally, but never told the public about, crucial infrastructure that would make Sydney’s underground train system safer.

    The biggest project, and potentially one of the most rewarding, is a ventilation system to direct fresh air into the 80-year old rail tunnels.

    But the cost, probably $1 billion now, has stopped governments installing what would be a largely unseen backstop for the hundreds of thousands of people who move through crowded, aged, inadequate stations every day.
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    Fairfax has obtained hundreds of pages of reports and briefing notes that reveal a behind-the-scenes debate that goes to the heart of safety in Sydney’s public transport system.

    The documents reveal how close the bureaucracy was to approving a ventilation system for tunnels and underground stations more than a decade ago, before official opinion turned swiftly against ventilation.

    More people than ever are using the underground stations but still the O’Farrell government has no concrete plans for big upgrades to stations such as Town Hall and Wynyard, built to meet the needs of a city 80 years younger and smaller.

    If ever there was a trigger to do something about safety it was the ”Blue Rattler” exercise of 1997.

    On May 23, police, ambulance and rail operators ran an overnight test acting out what would happen if a bomb went off on a train between Town Hall and Wynyard.

    The procedure had little publicity, though police superintendent John Laycock told The Daily Telegraph it had been a success.

    ”The response times by all the emergency services were good,” he said. The exercise was, in fact, a disaster.

    All 40 passengers would have died in the smoke and confusion. Had it been a real train in peak hour, more than 1000 people could have perished. Rescue officers would also have died.

    ”During the exercise it was found that with no smoke extraction system in place that all passengers on the train would have been asphyxiated,” the report on the exercise said.

    What Blue Rattler showed was that if anything serious went wrong in the underground, what was most likely to kill people was the absence of fresh air.

    The ”whole of [the] tunnel relies on the movement of trains within the tunnel to provide air,” the report said. ”If no movement of trains, no air. In the event of another train(s) being halted the occupants of the train(s) would also face a serious hazard.”

    In Sydney’s underground – as with most old rail tunnels – there is no in-built method to clear smoke and provide air.

    Newer tunnels, such as those built for the airport and Epping to Chatswood lines, have smoke management systems, though, in a test exercise in 2001, it took the operator of the airport line’s ventilation system 20 minutes to turn it on.

    But the most heavily used part of Sydney’s train system – the CBD underground – does not.

    By September 1998, rail authorities had a report by consultant Stephen Grubits saying the underground presented an intolerable level of risk. On Grubits’ measure (deaths by train accidents per 100 million passenger kilometres), the risk of travelling was 0.648. The risk in the British and French rail systems was 0.026. If Sydney installed a smoke management system the risk would fall to 0.070, Grubits said.

    So a smoke management system became the unstated policy, though a debate continued about whether it was better to build it through shafts providing natural ventilation or mechanical vents.

    By 1999 the board of the old Rail Access Corporation had agreed to issue tenders by 2001 for a system to be built in stages: first North Sydney, then around Circular Quay, then the eastern suburbs line from Bondi Junction to Redfern, then under the city through Town Hall and Wynyard.

    By early 2001, detailed costings had been prepared into what was expected to be about a $150 million system. A report, dated April 18, even named firms expected to do a large part of the work.

    But within months, the project was on the heap. The Rail Infrastructure Corporation, since folded into RailCorp, had commissioned a separate report by consultants DNV to look again at the risk.

    The DNV report argued the risk of a big fire or chemical release was lower than the Grubits report said. The report said the smoke management system did ”not meet the criteria for effective use of resources”.

    Confronted by the opposing reports, authorities brought in international fire expert Arnold Dix to ”resolve the contrary advice”.

    Dix, a lawyer and professor of engineering, interviewed all the players. His report queried the methodology DNV used. He highlighted long-standing problems in the communication systems and the ”extreme trip hazards” that would confront passengers leaving a train in an emergency.

    He said train drivers and guards were not well enough prepared to take control in an emergency. And the capacity of Town Hall and Wynyard stations even then was exceeded in the afternoon peak.

    But ultimately he said the money would be better spent elsewhere. The ”risk of an incident occurring, which would require a smoke management system, is currently extremely low in the Sydney underground”, said his final report, delivered in December 2001.

    That was not the end of the matter. The Rail Infrastructure Corporation, State Rail and RailCorp embarked on a series of smaller safety improvements recommended in the Dix report. And, nervous about the implications of backtracking on a safety project it had previously advocated, the board of the RIC requested a peer review of DNV’s low risk assessment.

    That review, completed in May 2002 by engineering consultants R2A, criticised the DNV approach, which extrapolated the chance of a tunnel fire in Sydney from overseas fire statistics ”which occurred outside tunnels and did not result in a large number of fatalities”.

    The R2A report said the risk to passengers from fires was ”undesirable” but the cost of a smoke management system could not be justified.

    Now Dix, the man whose report allowed the railways to avoid building the ventilation system in 2001, has changed his mind. Interviewed last week, he expressed regret for a recommendation that might have let the authorities off the hook.

    ”All modern railways, full stop, have got ventilation systems that allow you to control the flow of air if something was to go wrong,” he said. ”All of them. Sydney doesn’t … at the moment it doesn’t. And it should.

    ”These are the most important and stressed stations in Australia and Sydney as a city needs effective safe public transport. This is at the heart of delivering effective, safe public transport.”

    Correction: The original version of this story said the Dix report was delivered in 2011.
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