Author: Geoff Ebbs

First They Jailed the Bankers, Now Every Icelander to Get Paid in Bank Sale

Iceland is paying each Icelander from the proceeds of cleaning up the banks.

The Iceland government is paying its citizens from the proceeds of the nationalization of the second largest bank in the wake of its tough reaction to corruption in the banking sector. The Arctic nation jailed its crooked bankers after the Global Financial Crisis instead of bailing them out. It is now distributing the windfall to the citizens as it continues to clean up the banking sector.

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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.

http://embols.com/2016/09/07/first-they-jailed-the-bankers-now-every-icelander-to-get-paid-in-bank-sale/

4 October, 2016
Water shortages widespread as northern summer ends

A water carrier returns from distributing water to a thirsty population in Mombasa, Kenya

Over thirty countries around the world reported water shortages in the last week. From permanent and life threatening water shortages in Mombasa Kenya through imminent disaster in Pakistan to the ongoing drama of finding enough water for Northern Florida the fragility of water supplies is increasingly in the news. Falling water tables cause failures in crops and municipal water supplies, droughts render large dams useless and nations turn increasingly to deeper aquifers and desalination.

http://www.nation.co.ke/business/Mombasa-water-shortage-to-persist/996-3399106-tw1jc7/

Biting water shortage in Mombasa County is expected to persist up to 2019/2020 after completion of the construction of Mwache Dam, a multi-purpose project in Kwale.

http://dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/03-Oct-16/the-impending-water-shortage

At a time when there are credible organisations that predict that Pakistan is expected to face a severe water shortage by 2025, building dams should have been a priority of the government along with other development projects.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/573742/alert-water-shortage-came-sowing.html

Farmers in the Cauvery basin, who are staring at losing their standing crops, blame the government for not alerting them on time that they should not go in for sowing this season. They say neither the Water Resources nor the Agriculture department officials visited their villages to guide or advise them.

http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/20161002/officials-hope-deep-aquifer-can-ease-looming-water-shortage

CLERMONT — For the past three years, south Lake County officials have debated and analyzed how they will provide water to a skyrocketing population.

Water experts caution south Lake now has less than three years to find an alternative water supply before withdrawals from the Upper Floridan Aquifer begin impacting lakes, wetlands and springs

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1099148/water-rationing-on-koh-samui-as-reservoirs-dry-up

SURAT THANI – Water zoning is being introduced on the holiday island of Koh Samui, with rationing of tap water to households and businesses. The extreme water shortage has forced large hotels to buy water trucked in from outside to serve their guests. The island is experiencing its worst water crisis in 10 years due to an extended drought, Thai media reported on Friday

4 October, 2016
The Cage redefines nomenclature for the uber-wealthy

Who is the one per crore?

Philip Adams is interviewing Brooke Hamilton in repeat as I type. Listen here. They are discussing the theft of wealth by those running the neo-liberal agenda. Both broadcasters keep referring to “the one percent”.

One percent of the world’s population is 70 million people. There are many more millionaires than that in the world, so the 70 million wealthiest people in the world represent a serious pile of gold bars but they are not the ones calling the shots.

The one per lakh, on the other hand, is the 70,000 people who control wealth beyond what you or I can imagine. A lakh is the Vedic name for our 100,000.

In the number system used across South Asia, the next order of magnitude that gets a name is the Crore. The Crore is ten of our million, or 100 lakh, it is written, 1,00,00,000. The Vedic system uses commas ever two orders of magnitude after the first three.

The one per crore, then, is the 700 people who actually control the wealth. The Rothschilds, the British Royal Family and so on. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have probably made it into this particular elite, the oil sheiks and major arms dealers will be in there as well.

The Cage, therefor has decided to talk about the one per crore and the one per lakh when appropriate and use the one percent when we specifically want to refer to the very wealthy 70 million who are stinking rich, but who are really just ordinary people with a lot of money.

30 September, 2016
Climate chaos outpaces all predictions

Hundreds of scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners have published an open letter to governments pointing out that recent data indicates climate chaos is happening much faster than predicted and major economic and political disruption is inevitable.

The 375 scientists openly criticise major world leaders for ignoring climate change and thereby risking significant harm to large sections of humanity.

Hillary Clinton, for example, has not mentioned climate change once since receiving the endorsement of Bernie Sanders.

Top scientists warn of ‘real, serious, immediate’ climate threat

375 of the world’s top scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners, published an open letter: the evidence is clear that humans are causing climate change. The seas are rising, the oceans are warming, the lower atmosphere is warming, the land is warming, ice is melting, rainfall patterns are changing and the ocean is becoming more acidic. These facts are incontrovertible. No reputable scientist disputes them. It is the truth. Despite these facts, the letter reports that the US presidential campaign has seen claims that the earth isn’t warming, or it is only a natural warming, or that climate change is a hoax. These claims are false. The claims are made by politicians or real estate developers with no scientific experience. These people who deny the reality of climate change are not scientists.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/sep/21/375-top-scientists-warn-of-real-serious-immediate-climate-threat

Greenland Ice Sheet

Melt area in 2015 exceeded more than half of the ice sheet on July 4th for the first time since the exceptional melt events of July 2012, and was above the 1981-2010 average on 50 of 92 days. The length of the melt season was as much as 30-40 days longer than average in some areas.

http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/greenland_ice_sheet.html

Much of Greenland is rising far more rapidly than thought

This means 19 cubic kilometres more ice is falling into the sea each year, an increase of about 8% on earlier figures. The faster rebound is thought to be the result of hotter, more elastic mantle rocks under eastern Greenland, a remnant from 40m years ago when the island passed over the hot spot that now powers Iceland’s volcanoes.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/21/greenlands-huge-annual-ice-loss-is-even-worse-than-thought

NASA: Earth is warming at a pace ‘unprecedented in 1,000 years’

Records of temperature that go back far further than 1800s suggest warming of recent decades is out of step with any period over the past millennium. This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average global temperature peaking at 1.38C above levels experienced in the 19th century. Just five more years of C02 emissions at current levels will virtually wipe out any chance of restraining runaway climate change.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/30/nasa-climate-change-warning-earth-temperature-warming

What Factors Determine Earth’s Climate?

https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/faq-1-1.html

Hillary Clinton ‘dropped climate change from speeches after Bernie Sanders endorsement’

While the presidential candidate talks regularly about her plan for the US to become a “clean energy superpower”, in recent months she has rarely made reference to the planetary crisis that necessitates it. On Monday, when she launched her pitch to millennials online, she could find no room for an issue that will affect that voting cohort more than any other.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/20/hillary-clinton-dropped-climate-change-from-speeches-after-bernie-sanders-endorsement

27 September, 2016
Superbugs make it into UN General Assembly

Harvard Medical School demonstration of bacteria mutating to overcome antibiotics

World leaders have finally taken heed of the evidence that mutant bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics threaten the basis of modern medicine. The General Assembly of the United Nations last Wednesday discussed the crisis, recognising that the impact potentially threatens major outbreak of disease in humans population and the collapse of global food production. Antibiotics are regularly fed to industrially farmed animals to reduce the diseases rampant in the crowded and unhygienic conditions in which meat is produced. A recent experiment at Harvard Medical School graphically demonstrates the speed at which bacteria mutate to overcome resistance to anti-biotics.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/21/because-were-running-out-time-world-leaders-finally-commit-tackling-superbug-scourge

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/08/492965889/watch-bacteria-invade-antibiotics-and-transform-into-superbugs

‘We’re Running Out of Time,’ World Leaders Finally Commit to Tackling Superbugs

We are losing our ability to treat infections. It threatens our whole ability to handle patients and our ability to grow enough food. “It’s clear that if we don’t begin to reverse it now, it’s going to be much harder in the future”. Antibiotics are overused when they are taken for viral infections like colds and flu, and when they are given as growth promoters in animals and fish.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/21/because-were-running-out-time-world-leaders-finally-commit-tackling-superbug-scourge

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/08/492965889/watch-bacteria-invade-antibiotics-and-transform-into-superbugs

27 September, 2016
Indonesian fires responsible for 100,000 deaths

Indonesia is the sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world

Indonesian agribusiness interests are responsible for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths from the after effects of smoke from last year’s forest fires, according to a report released by Harvard University this week.

This time last year, the smoke haze from the fires blanketed South East Asia, diverting aircraft and causing illness in countries from Malaysia to the Philippines and New Guinea.

The Harvard University study identified the tiny smoke particles, less than 2.5mirons in diameter as reaching deep into the lungs and bloodstream of humans, causing a long list of ailments such as decreased lung function, heart attack, aggravated asthma, and premature death.

The 2015 fires caused widespread disruption at the time

Agricultural fires in Indonesia linked to 100,000 premature deaths

Fires associated with palm oil and timber are mostly to blame. Smoke haze from agricultural fires may have caused more than 100,000 premature deaths across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore last fall

https://thinkprogress.org/indonesia-fires-linked-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-deaths-9ea759a4fcdb#.kx7vuz4tx

http://www.monbiot.com/2015/10/30/nothing-to-see-here/

27 September, 2016