The John James Newsletter 118

14 May 2016

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me

Dudley Field Malone

I’d rather be pessimistic and doing something than being pessimistic and not doing anything at all

Justin Marshall

Russia helped liberate Palmyra, fully cleared it of mines and unexploded ordinance, and, finally sent her best musicians to  present a concert in the ancient theatre to render homage to those who were tortured and murdered by Daesh

The Saker

The Killer Seas Begin 

If we continue burning fossil fuels, we will turn the world’s oceans into a mass extinction engine. The global injustice by wealthy individuals like the Koch Brothers, Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffet are the real monsters of the climate crisis. Without any accountability they have done everything they can to ensure that we, the people of an ailing Earth, have less and less power to get out of this worsening nightmare. We are in the most important struggle for survival that the human race has ever undertaken

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/05/12/the-killer-seas-begin-mass-marine-death-off-chile-as-ocean-acidification-begins-to-take-down-floridas-reef/ 

DO READ THIS TO THE END

The dumping of billions of tons of toxic carbon is turning the oceans blood-red and is unleashing the mass extinction machine that contributed to four of the five great die offs in Earth’s deep history. Off the southern coast of Chile a massive algae bloom (red tide) spread over a region where sea surface temperatures were ranging between 1 and 3 C hotter than normal.

Coral structures are being completely dismembered from acidification, as in this section of the Florida Reef

Great Barrier Reef: devastating images tell story of coral colonies’ destruction

Images taken from around Lizard Island reveal the rapid death of coral across thousands of kilometres of the reef. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/12/great-barrier-reef-devastating-images-tell-story-of-coral-colonies-destruction 

28% of US bees wiped out this winter

One in three bites of food we eat is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees. If we want to produce apples, cucumbers, almonds, blueberries and lots of other types of food, we need a functioning pollination system.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/11/bee-colony-deaths-environmental-problems 

Polling Shows Sanders, Not Clinton, Most Formidable Against Trump

As forces in both major parties have begun to mobilize against a Trump presidency, a new national poll out Tuesday reveals the most surefire way to derail the GOP frontrunner: Nominate Bernie Sanders.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/10/new-polling-shows-sanders-not-clinton-most-formidable-against-trump 

Israel close to signing gas agreement with Turkey

Turkey wants to consume half of the quantity of gas in the Leviathan gas reservoir, starting in 2020. In the second stage, gas may be transported from Turkey to Europe through a pipeline.

http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-close-to-signing-gas-agreement-with-turkey-1001122833 

Terrorists Have Drones thanks to the US

86 countries have drones, 19 of them armed. Now ISIS wants them too. Is it too late to stop the unmanned arms race?

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/28/terrorists-have-drones-now-thanks-obama-warfare-isis-syria-terrorism/ 

Fear This Man

To spies, David Vincenzetti is a salesman. To tyrants, he is a savior. How the Italian mogul built a hacking empire. The editor and co-founder of Mamfakinch, a pro-democracy website created in Morocco during the Arab Spring, Almiraat was one of his country’s most outspoken dissidents and someone accustomed to cryptic emails

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/26/fear-this-man-cyber-warfare-hacking-team-david-vincenzetti/ 

Once, most Jews viewed Israel as the anti-Semite’s best friend

The symbiotic relationship between Zionism and anti-Semitism Recognising the racial roots might allow us to understand modern Israel better, and why it is incapable of extending a hand of peace to the Palestinians.

http://www.redressonline.com/2016/05/once-most-jews-viewed-israel-as-the-anti-semites-best-friend/ 

The 4th Largest Economy In The World Just Generated 90% Of The Power It Needs From Renewables

That’s a big deal. On May 8th, at 11 a.m. local time, the total output of German solar, wind, hydropower, and biomass reached 55 gigawatts (GW), just short of the 58 GW consumed on Sunday morning.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/05/09/3776629/germany-renewable-generation/ 

Monsanto Takeover? Corporate Control of Food Supply Continues

Mergers like Bayer’s rumoured takeover of Monsanto would make it even harder for farmers, consumers and communities to build a vibrant, sustainable food system.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/12/monsanto-takeover-corporate-cabals-control-food-supply-continues 

Spiralling global temperatures

The animation presents global temperature change 1850-2016. The pace is immediately obvious, especially recently.

http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/files/2016/05/spiral_optimized.gif 

Sea ice may be largely gone by September.

And massive temperature anomalies across the Arctic just above the stores of methane clathrates and affecting the great ice sheets of Greenland. Over the past year temperature anomalies over the Arctic have been higher than any other part of the world. Arctic sea ice is collapsing and even higher temperatures are forecast next week.

http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/arctic-sea-ice-gone-by-september-2016.html

Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World

Masters of Mankind (Full text, Part 1). The “vile maxim” to which the “masters of mankind” are dedicated: “All for ourselves and nothing for other people” — a doctrine known otherwise as bitter and incessant class war.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176137/tomgram%3A_noam_chomsky%2C_the_challenges_of_2016/#more 

and Part 2 The Costs of Violence

http://lobelog.com/the-costs-of-violence/#more-34183  

The New Normal: Cold War 2.0

Hybrid War – from “responsibility to protect” to color revolutions, from currency attacks to stock market manipulations.

http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20160506/1039193968/nato-cold-war-escobar.html 

Why Middle Eastern Leaders Are Talking to Putin, Not Obama

Russia’s less dominant militarily but more willing to act, and that has changed the dynamics in the region.The Russians are seen as willing to use power to affect the balance of power in the region, and the US is not.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/putin-obama-middle-east-leaders-213867 

The Panama Papers – Secrets of the Super Rich

How the rich and powerful exploit the system. The money trail includes $12 Trillion Looted from Developing Countries. Authoritarian regimes account for over $11 trillion of this.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44612.htm 

Di Natale positions the Greens as a formidable election force 

The Greens are now well and truly part of the political furniture, with a presence at all levels in Australia politics for more than 30 years. The party has 11 federal MPs, as well as an additional 23 MPs in most Australian parliaments.

https://theconversation.com/experience-and-di-natale-position-the-greens-as-a-formidable-election-force-58048 

Carbon taxes, emissions trading and electricity prices

The Australian elections: Making sense of the scare campaigns

https://theconversation.com/carbon-taxes-emissions-trading-and-electricity-prices-making-sense-of-the-scare-campaigns-59088 

Japan now has more electric car charge points than petrol stations

Japan is speeding ahead of the rest of the world, blissfully free of the range anxiety that afflicts plug-in drivers elsewhere.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/10/japan-electric-car-charge-points-petrol-stations 

Bakken wells and ethane emissions

The gas at issue is ethane, a hydrocarbon that ranks third behind carbon dioxide and methane as a driver of the global warming.

https://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2016/05/bakken-wells-drove-sudden-reversal-global-decline-ethane-emissions 

Saudi officials were supporting 9/11 hijackers, 

First serious public split revealed among commissioners over the release of the secret ‘28 pages’ that detail Saudi ties to 2001 terrorist attacks. The 2004 final report was largely an exoneration of Saudi Arabia, which was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/12/911-commission-saudi-arabia-hijackers?CMP=twt_gu 

Memories of Jack Lang and Gough Whitlam? Read John Perkins on being an Economic Hitman

Dilma Rousseff Calls for Mobilizations to Overturn Coup

Social movement leaders have pledged to remain in a state of permanent mobilisation. Widespread protests are expected on Thursday. In 2015 it was reported that US intelligence agency involvement in the parliamentary coup. An article in Pravda explains that over the past few years, the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have become a significant geopolitical threat to the interests of the US and creating a new world reserve currency. Venezuelan journalist Jose Vicente Rangel alleged US intelligence agencies have sent 500 agents to Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba, with the sole purpose of destabilising their governments.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44639.htm 

Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff: Impeachment is a coup

“When an elected president is suspended because of a crime she hasn’t committed, it is not impeachment but a coup”.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/brazil-dilma-rousseff-impeachment-coup-160512142444759.html 

US activating missiles in Europe despite Russia warning 

Moscow accuses Washington of trying to neutralize its nuclear arsenal and buy enough time to make a first strike on Russia.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/05/11/465080/NATO-US-Missile-Europe-Bell 

Turkey begins operation in Syria to establish buffer zone

Ankara is seeking to establish a safe zone in the 98-kilometer stretch in northern Syria, ostensibly to shelter Syrian refugees

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/05/11/465017/Turkey-Syria-military-operation-Jarablus-Kilis-Daesh 

Air pollution kills more people than AIDS and malaria combined

About 3.5 million deaths a year are caused by indoor air pollution while another 3.3 million are caused by outdoor air pollu

http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/fact-air-pollution-kills-more-people-than-aids-and-malariation. 

Canadian teen William Gadoury’s discovery of Mayan city  

Gadoury claims to have found that the location of Mayan cities correlated to the position of stars in the civilisation’s galaxies.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/canadian-teen-william-gadourys-discovery-of-mayan-city-debunked-as-junk-science-20160511-gosa26.html 

The world’s oldest axe shows the cut and thrust of academia

https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-oldest-axe-shows-the-cut-and-thrust-of-academia-59228 

US gov’t sent $2bn in military gear to cops since ’06 

More than 7,000 military trucks and hundreds of mine-resistant armored vehicles have been given to police, along with over 400 helicopters and 56 airplanes.

https://www.rt.com/usa/342686-usa-police-military-weapons-gear/ 

The Militarization Of America’s Police

Despite Obama’s pledge to demilitarize the police 2014 and 2015 were peak years for shipments of surplus military gear to local police departments across America.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-11/militarization-americas-police-despite-obama-promises-war-weapon-spending-soared-201 

Call on Russia to help create the world’s largest marine sanctuary!

Hunters have already massacred thousands of endangered whales in Antarctica’s Ross Sea, now massive industrial fishing fleets want to devastate the area. But if 24 countries agree, this pristine ocean can become the world’s biggest marine protected area. 23 are finally on board, 1 isn’t — yet.

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/protect_the_ross_sea_gl_reblast_loc/?bxKWefb&v=76117&cl=9980198101 

The John James Newsletter 117

7 May 2016

I am asked how can I bear to immerse myself in such news, and continue to do so for years.

To explain: the Newsletter is my personal spiritual journey, my sadhana.

I have learned that if I remain attached to an outcome, any outcome, I create personal suffering.

The Newsletter trains me every day to remain in the witness. I see the outline of our future, I am deeply involved in making it better with all my heart, yet I aim to be unattached to the outcome.

In this way, I do not burn out nor does my passion flag.

I believe the only way we will be able to effectively deal with the crises that are coming is to be deeply involved in the world while at the same time not holding on to any expectations.

Sharing reality without attachment is The Way.

– – – – – – – –

The only freedom which counts is the freedom to do what others think to be wrong. There is no point in demanding freedom to do that which all will applaud. 

Lord Chief Justice Halisham

The system is based on paralyzing people with fear, so we stay stuck in the Death Economy. Instead we must replace that with a Life Economy of love and courage and the knowledge that we can change how corporations and politicians act.

John Perkins

Arctic Sea Ice is Falling off a Cliff and May Not Survive The Summer

The dreaded Blue Ocean Event appears more and more likely to happen during 2016. Arctic region ice loss exceeds the same day last year by 360,000 square kilometers and  melting is now two and half weeks ahead of melt rates during the 2000s.

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/05/02/arctic-sea-ice-is-falling-off-a-cliff-and-it-may-not-survive-the-summer/ 

Global trail of murder and corruption dogs Australia’s newest defence contractor

Multiple allegations of corruption in jurisdictions across the globe, as well as murder in Malaysia and Taiwan.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2016/04/28/dcns-history-of-murder-and-corruption                     

Millennials Poll Shows Sanders’ Revolution Reshaping US Electorate

“He’s not moving a party to the left. He’s moving a generation to the left,” Sanders remains the most popular presidential candidate for so-called millennials between the ages of 18-29, 54% of whom view him favorably, compared to 31% against.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/25/millennials-poll-shows-sanders-revolution-reshaping-us-electorate 

Young Bernie Sanders Supporters are a “Mobilized Force That Could Change the Country”

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/28/noam-chomsky-young-bernie-sanders-supporters-are-mobilized-force-could-change 

Are EU and Russia on the path to Normality?

Relations are on their way back to normal, slowly but surely. Neither the US nor certain East European states can halt the process

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/eu-and-russia-path-normality/ri14144 

Researchers have stumbled upon a battery breakthrough that could change energy storage forever

The gel electrode went through 200,000 charge cycles over three months without losing any capacity or power. For reference, batteries typically die after 5,000 to 7,000 cycles.

http://www.techinsider.io/researchers-make-breakthrough-on-battery-storage-2016-5 

New Record Set for World’s Cheapest Solar, Now Undercutting Coal

Developers bid as little as 2.99 cents a kilowatt-hour to develop 800 megawatts of solar-power projects. That’s 15% lower than the previous record set in Mexico last month.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-03/solar-developers-undercut-coal-with-another-record-set-in-dubai 

Incumbents’ tariff war on rooftop solar accelerates “death spiral”

Low tariffs, and an absence of market signals rewarding the benefits of local generation, will encourage communities to quit the network. Will the incumbents ever learn?

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/act-lifts-2020-target-to-100-renewable-energy-as-australia-stalls-86177 

The Race to End Fossil Fuel Based Vehicle Emissions is On

While Tesla Model 3 to hit 500,000 Preorders, Dutch Motions to Ban Petrol, and Shell’s Shilling for Biofuels. Shell and Volkswagon banded together to promote biofuels as a ‘bridge fuel’ to EVs in a rather obvious bid to kill the electric car.

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/04/29/the-race-to-end-fossil-fuel-based-vehicle-emissions-is-on-tesla-model-3-to-hit-500000-preorders-dutch-motions-to-ban-petrol-and-shells-shilling-for-biofuels/ 

The Largest Evaporation of Wealth in Modern History 

The Chinese have among the highest savings rates in the world. But 75% of their wealth is in real estate. They’ve overinvested in one illiquid and bubbly asset that they wrongly believe can only go higher. But when prices break down, it will devastate consumer demand and reverberate around the world. Price to income ratios in the top cities are off the charts.

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/04/13/china-overinvestment-in-housing-turns-into-largest-evaporation-of-wealth-in-history/  

 Ocean Freight Index Collapses to Record Low

The amount it costs to ship containers from China to ports around the world, a function of the quantity of goods to be shipped and the supply of vessels to ship them, just dropped to a new historic low.

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/04/17/china-ocean-freight-index-collapses-to-record-low/ 

Perilous’: Bureau of Meteorology boss Rob Vertessy exits with climate warning

Australia faces a “perilous” water security future from climate change even as the Turnbull government eyes budget cuts to water programs and CSIRO. Reservoirs in the Murray-Darling basin are now close to their lowest levels since the Millennium Drought and Tasmania is facing “serious” issues”

http://beta.smh.com.au/environment/perilous-bureau-of-meteorology-boss-rob-vertessy-exits-with-climate-warning-20160429-gohwu6.html 

Gripped By Climate Disruption, World On Brink Of Global Water Crisis

Unless action is taken soon, water will become scarce in regions where it is currently abundant—such as Central Africa and East Asia—and scarcity will greatly worsen in regions where water is already in short supply. The Middle East and North Africa could become uninhabitable.

http://www.countercurrents.org/fulton040516.htm 

Global water shortages to deliver ‘severe hit’ to economies

By 2050 shortages could strip 14% off GDP in the Middle East, central Asia could lose close to 11% and east Asia about 7%.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/03/climate-change-water-shortage-middle-east-asia-africa-world-bank 

Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya’s Sarin to Syrian Rebels

A report from British intelligence of a secret agreement in 2012 between the Obama Administration and the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to set up a sarin gas attack and blame it on Assad so that the US could invade

http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse010516.htm 

Two of the world’s top three insecticides harm bumblebees

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/28/two-worlds-top-three-leading-insecticides-harm-bees-study-shows 

TTIP Leaked Documents Show Obama Killing Paris Accord Against Climate Change

248 pages of leaked TTIP negotiating texts show that the American negotiating position allows “No place for climate protection” and, though “We have known that the EU position was bad, now we see the US position is even worse. The effects of TTIP would be initially subtle but ultimately devastating by disregarding environmental protection and public health concerns.”

http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse020516.htm 

TTIP risks to health & environment, ‘US pressure on EU’ revealed in secret docs leaked by Greenpeace

The  trade deal would badly affect public health, people’s rights, internet privacy and the environment. The TTIP is “about a huge transfer of power from people to big business,”

https://www.rt.com/news/341591-greenpeace-leak-ttip-deal/ 

US losing military edge to Russia, China

Russia and China have recently test-fired state-of-the-art intercontinental ballistic missiles with supersonic warheads that can evade even the most complex of missile defense systems. Beijing had successfully flight-tested its DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle which can fly at 5 times the speed of sound and deliver nuclear warheads around the world in less than an hour.

http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/05/01/463464/Russia-China-US-military-DFZF-ICBM/ 

In 1933 Zionists signed a deal with Hitler: The Transfer Agreement 

The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine documents the agreement between  Jews and  Hitler to help create a Jewish state in Palestine, in return for an end of a global boycott of Nazi Germany that had threatened to bring it down in its first days of power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transfer_Agreement 

Fires in Nepal

As of April 11,  1.3 million hectares of forest cover in Nepal has been destroyed by wild fires, with huge losses to property.    “The fire situation is out of control. If prolonged dry conditions continue, we will have a state of emergency in the coming days.”

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/smoke-and-fires-in-nepal 

China’s BYD, world’s biggest EV maker, takes on Tesla in Australia

The E6 is described as a “high-riding, all electric people mover”, with a battery pack of 75kWh, a range of 300kms, and a purchase price of around $80,000.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/chinese-50646 

As Climate Disruption Advances, UN Warns: “The Future Is Happening Now”

Each month I shake my head in disbelief at the rapidity at which anthropogenic climate disruption is occurring. Each month I think, “It can’t possibly keep happening at this incredible pace.” But it is.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35860-as-climate-disruption-advances-un-warns-the-future-is-happening-now 

Baghdad state of emergency as protesters storm parliament

“This is an end to the political system put in place after 2003i. A big part of the blame for this is on America, which left Iraq without solving this crisis it created.”

http://www.smh.com.au/world/baghdad-state-of-emergency-as-protesters-storm-parliament-20160430-goj4j2.html

Illusion Meets Reality in the Green Zone

The temporary takeover of the Iraqi parliament building in the fortified Green Zone by followers of Muqtada al-Sadr was a demonstration  of current fractures in Iraqi politics and a recurring American misconception about the application of military force on behalf of political objectives.

http://lobelog.com/illusion-meets-reality-in-the-green-zone/#more-34068 

“Nature Won’t Wait”: Break Free 2016 Begins with UK Coal Mine Occupation

The action in Wales marks the start of  an international civil disobedience campaign spanning six continents. “Continuing to dig up coal is a red line for the climate that we won’t allow governments and corporations to cross,”

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/03/nature-wont-wait-break-free-2016-begins-uk-coal-mine-occupation 

Turnbull’s first budget ignores climate change, dumps clean energy

Climate change, prime minister Malcom Turnbull once said, is the ultimate long-term problem that needs to be acted on urgently. But in his first budget as government leader, the issue does not exist.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/turnbulls-first-budget-ignores-climate-change-dumps-clean-energy-54770 

Solar-powered drones will stay in the air for weeks, track whole populations – Snowden 

“The goal is to deploy solar-powered drones that can loiter in the air for weeks without coming down. Once you can do that you monitor, unblinkingly, the emanations of every laptop, smartphone, and iPod, you know  where a particular device is in what city, what apartment each device lives in, where it goes at any particular time, and by what route,”

https://www.rt.com/news/341712-snowden-us-drones-surveillance/ 

Nuclear Waste Leaking at ‘American Fukushima’ in Northwest

Nine reactors operated at Hanford, and though they are now decommissioned, the reactors have left behind 56 million gallons of radioactive waste. That a place so tainted with radioactive material could become parkland was at one time a positive sign.

http://www.newsweek.com/hanford-nuclear-reservation-radioactive-waste-454808 

Hoverboards Are Finally Here. Are ‘Flying Soldiers’ Next?

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/02/hoverboards-are-finally-here-are-flying-soldiers-next/ 

What is Closed Loop Agriculture?

A farming practice that recycles all nutrients and organic matter  back to the soil that it grew in. This preserves the nutrient and carbon levels within the soil and allows farming to be carried out on a sustainable basis.

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-04-26/what-is-closed-loop-agriculture 

Dry farming in California

Irrigation has even been banned in parts of Europe to preserve the quality of certain grape varieties. But in California, where irrigation is now the norm, dry farming has become a forgotten art.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/05/dry-farming-california-drought-wine-crops 

Chernobyl: Thirty Years Later

Chernobyl’s  radionuclides will decay to insignificant amounts after 10 half-lives. For strontium-90, this amounts to about 290 years, for cesium-129 some 300 years. Some of the highly toxic and carcinogenic radionuclides will take an eternity to degrade. The half-life of uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years, of plutonium-239 some 24,000 years, and of iodine-129 15 million years.

http://lobelog.com/chernobyl-thirty-years-later/#more-34083 

John James Newsletter Number 116

Give me control of a nation’s money, and I care not who makes its laws.

Mayer Rothschild

All creatures are required by nature to make constant effort. Effort is a fundamental requirement for survival. Yet we try to make life uniformly easy, so our ability to survive is compromised

Hilary James

Make your words soft and sweet – you never know when you have to eat them

Prince Bandar bin Sultan

Controlling social interaction = the end of free thought = the political aim of FaceBook

Just imagine these tools being used for political repression rather then for commercial profit!

The company is slowly removing the reasons for leaving its site – whether it’s to book a taxi, watch video content, make phone calls, pay for things or read news articles. And the Facebook experience is sanitised, shielding users from the big bad internet with strict rules about what content it deems appropriate. Facebook already uses artificial intelligence to personalise your newsfeed, identify you in photos and translate your posts. The company has built technology that can recognise objects – even different dog breeds – in photos and videos.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/23/facebook-global-takeover-f8-conference-messenger-chatbots 

Washington Launches Its Attack Against BRICS

Having removed the reformist President of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Washington is now disposing of the reformist President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. It is no different from “Iranian nukes,” Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction,” Assad’s “use of chemical weapons,” or in Rousseff’s case merely insinuations.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/04/22/washington-launches-its-attack-against-brics-paul-craig-roberts/ 

Confessions of a Panama hitman

Today two and a half billion people live below the poverty level, on less than $2 a day, seven out of 10 people live in countries where inequality is greater than it was 30 years ago, less than 5% of the world’s population lives in the United States but consumes about 25% of the world’s resources, and less than 1% of those 5% dictate U.S. policies, as well as those of most other countries. There is no way to describe this system other than as a total failure. Some economists refer to it as a Death Economy because it is based on debt, fear, militarization, and the extraction of the resources that support it – on consuming itself into extinction.

http://johnperkins.org/latest-news/confessions-of-a-panama-papers-hit-man 

Experimental Solar-Powered Plane Completes Journey Across The Pacific

“By attempting the first solar flight around the world, pushing back the boundaries of the possible, going into the unknown, and taking on a project deemed impossible by industry experts, Bertrand Piccard and [alternating pilot] André Borschberg want to support concrete actions for sustainability and show that the world can be run on clean technologies.”

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/24/475473222/experimental-solar-powered-plane-completes-journey-across-the-pacific 

Battery-Free Computer Sucks Power Out Of Thin Air

A quarter-sized computer could change everything from wearables to architecture.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3059141/this-battery-free-computer-sucks-power-out-of-thin-air 

Rooftop solar on every Australian household “no issue at all” for grid

Australia could install solar PV on every suitable residential rooftop in the country without causing any problems for the running of the national grid Australia would introduce legislation like that recently adopted by San Francisco, where all new-build houses are now required to have a PV system installed.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/74077 

China debt levels reach record high

The IMF drew attention to the rising debt problems. It estimated that more than 15 percent of total commercial lending in China was “potentially at risk,” meaning that banks faced a loss of 4.9 trillion renminbi, an amount equivalent to 7 percent of GDP. Others estimate that the stock of non-performing loans may be even higher.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/26/chin-a26.html

Support for the TTIP has fallen sharply in Germany and the US 

Many Germans fear the deal will lower standards for products, consumer protection and the labor market.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-usa-trade-idUSKCN0XI0AT 

RSPO Orders Palm Oil Company To Stop Work In Shipibo Territory In The Peruvian Amazon

The order was issued after the community filed a formal complaint for the destruction of over 5000 hectares of their ancestral forest lands. It cites the devastating impacts on the rivers and forest ecology on which their subsistence livelihood depends, the destruction of community dwellings and the restrictions on community members who wish to access the forest.

http://www.countercurrents.org/fpp260416.htm 

We Already Know 2016 Will Be the Warmest Year on Record—and It’s Only April 

March was the 11th consecutive month of a new record warm global monthly temperature, the longest streak since NOAA records began in 1880

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/20/record_temperatures_again_in_march.html 

Paris Agreement Pledges Must Be Strengthened to Limit Warming to 2°C 

https://www.climateinteractive.org/analysis/deeper-earlier-emissions-cuts-needed-to-reach-paris-goals/ 

How half our brain keeps watch when we sleep in unfamiliar places

Like some animals, the interhemispheric brain asymmetry that happens on the first night in humans might act as a security guard to protect them from danger.

https://theconversation.com/how-half-our-brain-keeps-watch-when-we-sleep-in-unfamiliar-places-57975 

Fear and Loathing in the Arabian Nights

Washington has been threatening Riyadh to freeze Saudi assets all across the spectrum if the House of Saud does not “cooperate” in the oil price war against Russia.

http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20160420/1038343321/us-saudi-arabia-petrodollar.html 

Defending Democracy To the Last Drop of Oil

The Sauds are furious that Obama has refused to attack Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Syria’s Assad regime. They are also angry as hornets that the US may allow relatives of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudi royal family.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44519.htm 

Hoover-Era American Plan For War Against Britain and Canada Uncovered

Its aim was to dismember the British empire on the grounds of “competition and interference with American foreign trade. It was envisaged that British, Australian, New Zealand and Indian forces would quickly overwhelm American bases in the Philippines and Guam. Out of concern that British forces might take the American-run Panama Canal, Plan Red called for a U.S. naval and air assault against British possessions in the Caribbean, including the seizure of Jamaica, the Bahamas and Bermuda.

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p121_HNAC.html 

World War III Has Begun

If Russia and China do not disengage from the Western system and exile their neoliberal economists, they will have to go to war in order to defend their sovereignty.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44531.htm 

The Rising Capitalists are changing North Korea

It could take decades, but country may well be at an important juncture in its history, one that might catalyse the slow erosion of repressive rule and a brighter future for its people.

https://newmatilda.com/2016/04/22/the-rising-capitalists-changing-north-korea/ 

EU dropped climate policies after BP threat of oil industry ‘exodus’

Oil giant warned industry would pull out of EU if laws to cut pollution and speed clean energy take up were passed, letter obtained by the Guardian reveals. This document paints a disturbing picture of the degree to which global corporations subvert the democratic process, influence the commission and threaten the vital transition to a cleaner, greener Europe.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/20/eu-dropped-climate-policies-after-bp-threat-oil-industry-exodus 

How US covered up Saudi role in 9/11

the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.

http://nypost.com/2016/04/17/how-us-covered-up-saudi-role-in-911/ 

US Out to Rob Latin America of Its Huge Natural Resources

The Bolivian president accused Washington of trying to rip off and humiliate South American countries under the guise of the war on drugs.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Evo-US-Out-to-Rob-Latin-America-of-Its-Huge-Natural-Resources-20160425-0022.html

To See the Real Story in Brazil, Look at Who Is Being Installed as President — and Finance Chiefs

Look at who is going to take over Brazil’s economy and finances once Dilma’s election victory is nullified. Two weeks ago, Reuters reported that Temer’s leading choice to run the central bank is the chair of Goldman Sachs in Brazil, Paulo Leme. Today, Reuters reported that “Murilo Portugal, the head of Brazil’s most powerful banking industry lobby” — and a long-time IMF official — “has emerged as a strong candidate to become finance minister if Temer takes power.” Temer also vowed that he would embrace austerity for Brazil’s already-suffering population: He “intends to downsize the government” and “slash spending.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44523.htm 

The John James Newsletter 115

23 April 2016

The many stories during this week show we are now reaping the whirlwind. The seeds 

were plated by greed and watered by apathy. Over the past 18 months global warming 

has hit us – savage, unstoppable and uncaring – and will now continue to the bitter end. 

Climate change isn’t just a steady linear progression to some different kind of planetary state: we now live with a climate system that can blink out entire ecosystems in a matter of weeks or months. This should be frightening.

Kim Cobb

If we don’t halt population growth, with justice and compassion, it will be done for us by nature, brutally und without pity—-and will leave a ravaged world.

Henry Kendall

Climate Change is Bleaching the Great Barrier Reef Out of Existence

Sea surface temperatures and temperatures within the top 50 meters of water over the Great Barrier Reef rose to 3-4 C above average during the Summer and Fall. These record temperatures lasted for weeks in some regions

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-23.60,4.04,431 

Kiritimati: The Largest Coral Atoll In The World Lost 80% Of Its Coral To Bleaching

they support about a quarter of all marine species, and provide support to livelihoods of 500 million people. There’s been nothing like the current die-off in Kiritimati in the 7,000 years of ancient coral history there.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/04/12/3768723/coral-bleaching-christmas-atoll/ 

“This will change the Great Barrier Reef forever”

From Cairns to the Torres Strait, the once colourful ribbons of reef are a ghostly white. I’d expect to see about half of those corals die in the coming month or so. What we’re seeing now is unequivocally to do with climate change. The government has not been listening to us for the past 20 years. It has been inevitable that this bleaching event would happen, and now it has.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-28/great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching-95-per-cent-north-section/7279338 

A Hothouse Summer is Coming and We’d Better Get Ready

We have never seen Winter heat like this before over Western North America. This creates a heightened risk of seriously severe Summer extreme weather events ranging well into the far north. Similar situation in Western Russia and North-Central Siberia.

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/04/19 

Who Benefits in Yemen

Saudi Arabia decided to go to war in Yemen because it feared the Houthi takeover of the country would give Iran, its chief regional enemy, a foothold on its vulnerable southern underbelly. The Saudis also demonstrate they could project their military power in the region to aid in their quest for leadership of the Arab world.

http://thecipherbrief.com/article/middle-east/who-benefits-exhausting-war-1089 

Time to re-read Naomi Kline and John Perkins

Debate on royal commission into banking reveals the sell-off of Australian democracy

Businesses and political interests are now one and the same. Are we a democracy ruled by the people as represented by government, or a corporatocracy where government is the political arm of big business?

https://theconversation.com/royal-commission-into-banking-debate-reveals-the-sell-off-of-australian-democracy-57555 

US firms knew about global warming in 1968 – what about Australia? 

By the late 1970s, The Canberra Times began running prominent stories about the possibility of sea-level rise and other climate impacts. A November 1977 article warned that relying only on coal-fired power would flood cities.

https://theconversation.com/us-firms-knew-about-global-warming-in-1968-what-about-australia-57878 

Consensus Affirmed: Virtually All Climate Scientists Agree Warming Is Manmade

Almost 97% of climate scientists agree that the planet is warming due to human activity, according to a peer-reviewed paper published in Environmental Research Letters. The study is a “consensus on consensus.”

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/14042016/climate-change-consensus-affirmed-global-warming-manmade-scientists 

Loneliness is killing us 

Severe loneliness in England blights the lives of 700,000 men and 1.1m women over 50, and is rising with astonishing speed. Social isolation is as potent a cause of early death as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is twice as deadly as obesity.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/14/age-of-loneliness-killing-us 

‘Worse things in store’: Steaming hot world sets more temperature records

The most abnormally hot regions of the world last month included Australia, which set a record with minimum temperatures almost 2 degrees above the average for 1961-90, while the Arctic region was about 3.3 degrees above average

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/worse-things-in-store-steaming-hot-world-sets-more-temperature-records-20160419-goaf58.html 

Which homes will be swamped by rising sea levels

Australians can see on a map how rising sea levels will affect their house just by typing their address into a website. And they’ll soon be able to get an estimate of how much climate change will affect their property prices and insurance premiums, too.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/15/climate-change-website-reveals-which-homes-will-be-swamped-by-rising-sea-levels 

The Australian site

http://coastalrisk.com.au/ 

What it is like to be a bee: insects can teach us about the origins of consciousness 

Whether insects can feel and sense the environment from a first-person perspective, sometimes called “phenomenal consciousness”.

https://theconversation.com/what-it-is-like-to-be-a-bee-insects-can-teach-us-about-the-origins-of-consciousness-57792 

The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the US: A Scientific Assessment

Climate change is a significant threat to health. This scientific assessment examines how climate change is already affecting human health and the changes that may occur in the future.

https://health2016.globalchange.gov/ 

Rethinking Armageddon

The First Nuclear Age was characterized by the Cold War era bipolar international system. While a few other states their arsenals were small compared to the two superpowers. The world is far different today. On the one hand, both the US and Russia have far smaller nuclear arsenals than they did while new nuclear powers have emerged with advanced conventional precision capabilities.

http://csbaonline.org/publications/2016/03/rethinking-armageddon/ 

Canberra’s Evolving Security Policy

http://thecipherbrief.com/article/asia/canberra%E2%80%99s-evolving-security-policy 

US-Russia Tensions Flare In Baltic Sea

The six years since Obama’s empty pledge to reduce nuclear weapons have seen a vast intensification of US-led aggressive military operations aimed at consolidating American hegemony and weakening Russia and China in key geostrategic regions. As part of the ongoing bombardment of Iraq and Syria, carried out under the pretext of combating terrorism, Washington recently sent nuclear-capable B52 bombers to its Middle East bases, bringing them well within range of Iran and Russia itself.

http://www.countercurrents.org/shilton190416.htm 

Cyber Threats are going to get worse.  

The number of nations with the ability to conduct cyber operations is expanding, because the tools to get inside a network, to steal data, and to do damage are increasingly available on the black market. So, smaller countries, which don’t have the resources to develop their own capabilities, can now simply go out and buy them.

http://thecipherbrief.com/column/strategic-view/cyber-threats-only-getting-worse-1092 

Solar panels that generate power, rain or shine

A team in China says it has found way to make solar panels work effectively in both rain and shine, by coating them with a layer of electron-rich graphene that can generate electricity from both sunlight and from salt ions in rain water.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/solar-panels-that-generate-power-rain-or-shine-66401 

Building cool cities for a hot future

As higher urban temperatures occur at the scale in which people actually live – the building, the street, the block – the implications for our health and well-being are profound.

https://theconversation.com/building-cool-cities-for-a-hot-future-57489 

University of Melbourne wants to install 1.8MW of solar PV across campuses

The CEFC said it would loan up to $9.1 million to accelerate the installation of energy efficiency technologies. The voltage optimisation equipment – which controls and corrects incoming power voltage to increase building energy efficiency – is expected to produce the biggest energy saving, reducing consumption by more than 4GWh per annum.

http://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/university-of-melbourne-calls-for-tenders-to-install-1-8mw-of-solar-pv-across-campuses/ 

How to build a city fit for 50℃ heatwaves

Expect an air conditioning boom. This will cost a lot both to build and to operate, and we’ll have to come up with systems specially designed for extreme temperatures.

https://theconversation.com/how-to-build-a-city-fit-for-50-heatwaves-49560 

Coalition wants to build 1.2GW coal plant, using climate funds

The Turnbull Coalition government has kicked off its informal re-election campaign by repeating its desire to build a massive coal fired power station in north Queensland, only this time it proposes to use climate funds to help pay for the project.

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/coalition-wants-to-build-1-2gw-coal-plant-using-climate-funds-73755 

Modelling shows move to 100% renewable energy would save Australia money

Estimated cost of moving all electricity, industry and transport onto renewables by 2050 would be $800bn, a saving of $90bn

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/19/modelling-shows-move-to-100-renewable-energy-would-save-australia-money 

Australia’s carbon emissions and electricity demand are growing: here’s why

The proportion of emissions from electricity fell, largely due to falling demand and less electricity produced by coal. But over the last year demand grew by 2.5%, nearly all of this supplied by coal.

https://theconversation.com/australias-carbon-emissions-and-electricity-demand-are-growing-heres-why-57649 

Saudi Royal Family Blackmail US

The Saudis are telling the US they’ll wreck the economy, if a bill is passed that would remove the unique and exclusive immunity the royal family enjoy in the US against being prosecuted for their having financed the 9/11 attacks.

http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse180416.htm 

and

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44501.htm 

Obama in the Arab Lions’ Den

http://lobelog.com/obama-in-the-arab-lions-den/#more-33895 

9/11 court row reveals Saudis and Americans trapped in a most unhappy marriage

The facts of 9/11 as far as we know them

http://www.smh.com.au/world/911-court-row-reveals-saudis-and-americans-trapped-in-a-most-unhappy-marriage-20160422-gocmzm.html 

Dinosaurs in decline long before asteroid catastrophe

while dinosaurs flourished from about 220m years ago, with species arising faster than they went extinct, about 140m years ago their success started to stall. Eventually, about 90m years ago, 24m years before the asteroid hit, the dinosaurs entered a long-term decline, with species going extinct faster than new ones emerged. That could have left the dinosaurs more vulnerable to extinction when the six-mile-wide disaster struck.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/18/dinosaurs-in-decline-long-before-asteroid-catastrophe-study-reveals 

Is Hillary Clinton Above the Law?

We might as well have had an in-place mole at the highest level of our government.

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/04/17/is-hillary-clinton-above-the-law/ 

Most powerful Indian Ocean storm

Tropical Cyclone Winston, which smashed into Fiji in February, was the strongest storm ever recorded in the southern hemisphere and Tropical Cyclone Fantala has been spinning north of Madagascar, generating winds of 278 km/h and 300 mm of rain an hour.

World’s First Climate Refugees Ask For Australia’s Help 

Last month, the schools closed on a group of islands off Papua New Guinea’s coast. Climate change has claimed their crops, and large portions of the low lying atolls. A square meal is increasingly rare.

https://newmatilda.com/2016/04/20/sea-walls-sea-worlds-first-climate-refugees-ask-australias-help/ 

Scientists have to pay for advertisement to get Great Barrier Reef crisis in Queensland paper 

Climate Council pays for full-page advert as expert says the Courier Mail, Queensland’s biggest newspaper, is not covering coral bleaching properly

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/21/scientists-resort-to-advertising-to-get-great-barrier-reef-crisis-in-queensland-paper 

The John James Newsletter 114

16 April 2016

In the darkest hours of existence we grasp tight, no matter how illusory, to the starry gleams of hope

Milton

Washington’s game plan for Iraq was to shock and terrorise the entire country, deliberately ruin its infrastructure, do nothing while its culture and history were ransacked, and then make it ok with an unlimited supply of cheap household appliances and imported junk food

Naomi Klein

My job was to encourage world leaders to promote US commercial interests. In the end, those leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensured their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire to satisfy our political, economic, or militarily needs. In turn, they bolster their political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. The owners of US engineering and construction companies become fabulously wealthy.

John Perkins

Most of World Bank’s Private Investments Linked to Tax Havens

Poor countries are cheated out of an estimated US$100 billion in taxes a year by companies using offshore havens and other tax-dodging tricks. The World Bank is complicit in promoting tax havens with the majority of its private investments going to companies with offshore accounts,

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Most-of-World-Banks-Private-Investments-Linked-to-Tax-Havens-20160411-0017.html 

Banks Are Making Huge Profits from Tax Havens

The five banks reported more than US$5 billion in profits in 2015 thanks to their offshoring money in tax havens

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Oxfam-Banks-Are-Making-Huge-Profits-from-Tax-Havens-20160316-0008.html 

US corporations have $1.4tn hidden in tax havens

Analysis of the 50 biggest US businesses claims Apple has $181bn held offshore, GE $119bn and Microsoft $108bn

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/14/us-corporations-14-trillion-hidden-tax-havens-oxfam 

Panama Papers: How the Seychelles saved Syria

A seemingly insular regime harnessed the tools of globalisation to ensure its survival. Three Syrian companies close to the government – Maxima Middle East Trading, Morgan Additives Manufacturing and Pangates International – used the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca to create shell companies in the Seychelles to avoid the increasing pressure of global sanctions. This paid for fuel that kept Syria’s Air Force in the air.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/04/seychelles-saved-syria-160407085452247.html 

Confessions of a Panama Papers Hit Man

Let us not be distracted. Let us instead focus on the super rich who finance the political campaigns that support their interests, promise lucrative consulting jobs when politicians leave office, and hide their fortunes in tax havens.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/12/confessions-panama-papers-hit-man 

Tigers Are Now Extinct In A Country Where They Used To Thrive

Six years after 13 countries pledged to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2020, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) declared tigers “functionally extinct” in Cambodia. The US could has an estimated 5,000 tigers in captivity, 95% owned by individuals. It has no system to monitor how many there are, who owns them, when they’re sold or traded.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/04/07/3767502/countries-acting-on-tiger-population/ 

England’s last golden eagle likely died of natural causes

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/14/englands-last-golden-eagle-feared-dead 

Wireless Electric Vehicle Charger With 20 kW Capacity & 90% Efficiency

the ORNL equipment could shorten the time needed to boost a battery back up to 80% range from 8 hours or more to as little as 3 hours. That could even make it suitable for applications away from home, such as shopping malls.

http://cleantechnica.com/2016/04/14/wireless-ev-charger-with-7-kw-capacity-90-efficiency-developed-at-ornl/ 

Hunt wants Australia to lead world in battery storage

“Solar and storage together are the future of electricity. That’s a huge direction in Australia and we are the world’s leading household solar nation. Now we want to be number one in the deployment of battery storage.” http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/hunt-wants-australia-to-lead-world-in-battery-storage-98694

Fracking’s Total Environmental Impact Is Staggering

A new report details the sheer amount of water contamination, air pollution, climate impacts, and chemical use in fracking in the US. For the past decade, fracking has been a nightmare for our drinking water, our open spaces, and our climate.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/04/14/3768993/environment-america-fracking-report/ 

The Greenland Summer Melt Season Just Started in April

melt season that usually starts as May rolls into June and has never iniated before May 5th just began on April 11 That’s 24 days ahead of the previous record and more than a month and a half ahead of the typical melt start.

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/04/12/the-greenland-summer-melt-season-just-started-in-april/ 

Greenland sees record-smashing early ice sheet melt 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/13/greenland-sees-record-smashing-early-ice-sheet-melt-climate-change 

Global warming may be far worse than thought, cloud analysis suggests 

Climate change projections have vastly underestimated the role that clouds play, meaning future warming could be far worse than is currently projected. A doubling of C02 could result in a global temperature increase of up to 5.3C – far warmer than the 4.6C older models predict.The analysis of satellite data found that clouds have more liquid rather than ice, than has been assumed. Clouds with ice crystals reflect more solar light than those with liquid, stopping it reaching and heating the Earth’s surface, which means that models showing future warming are misguided

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/07/clouds-climate-change-analysis-liquid-ice-global-warming 

Arctic ice loss

Since 2003, Greenland has lost more than 272 Tkg of ice a year, and that affects the way the Earth wobbles in a manner similar to a figure skater lifting one leg while spinning. On top of that, West Antarctica loses 124 Tkg and East Antarctica gains about 74 Tkg, helping tilt the wobble further. They all combine to pull polar motion toward the east

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/09/melting-ice-sheets-changing-the-way-the-earth-wobbles-on-its-axis-says-nasa 

Pope Francis—Overturning the Concept of “Just War”

The “just war” is obsolete as the massive civilian casualties undercuts the moral ground for conceiving any war as just.

http://lobelog.com/pope-francis-overturning-the-concept-of-just-war/#more-33810 

The Dictator of the Vatican

Francis’s “People’s Pope” persona has always belied an autocratic temperament that is coldly efficient at achieving his aims.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/08/the-dictator-of-the-vatican-pope-francis-amoris-laetitia-divorce-communion/ 

A Harbinger of the End of the Fossil Fuel Era

Coal production as Peabody Energy Declares Bankruptcy, as an end becomes more and more visible in an ongoing global coal industry collapse and retrenchment. In three of the world’s largest coal producing and consuming regions (India, China, and the US) production, imports and exports are down. In the US, coal production has fallen by more than 50% since 2008.

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/04/13/a-harbinger-of-the-end-of-the-fossil-fuel-era-coal-production-exports-plummet-as-peabody-energy-declares-bankruptcy/ 

4 Things to Know About the Peabody Energy Bankruptcy

In the last couple of years, more than 50 coal companies have declared bankruptcy. Activists in the US have halted the construction of more than 150 new coal-fired power plants since the early 2000s.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/04/13/4-things-know-about-peabody-energy-bankruptcy 

Here’s What Science Has To Say About Convincing People To Do Something About Climate Change

The best way to motivate people to support action to limit climate change is to explain the dangers of not taking action. While that may not seem surprising, it is only recently that the immorality of inaction have been a key focus of top US politicians.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/04/12/3768314/climate-action-risk-morality/ 

Youth Homelessness Matters Day

Of the 105,000 Australians that are homeless, more than a quarter are under 18. Most are fleeing family breakdowns or domestic violence. Yet the Abbott/Turnbull government cut millions from the support services so that hundreds are turned away every day. Homelessness should have no place in Australia.

https://www.facebook.com/SenatorLudlam/photos/a.10150326711144470.368416.17351204469/10154174922334470/

LSD’s impact on the brain revealed in groundbreaking images

The brain scans revealed that trippers experienced images drawn from many parts of their brains as regions once segregated spoke to one another. Further images showed that other brain regions that usually form a network became more separated in a change that accompanied users’ feelings of oneness with the world, an “ego dissolution”.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/11/lsd-impact-brain-revealed-groundbreaking-images 

Australia could be world leader in solar-powered electric vehicles

With an already high penetration of residential solar PV systems in Queensland and South Australia and the emergence of home battery technologies, there is an exciting opportunity for Australia to be a market leader in electric vehicles powered by solar energy,

http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/utilities-say-australia-could-be-world-leader-in-solar-powered-electric-vehicles-74096 

Radioactive boars run wild around Fukushima reactors

Communities in northern Japan are being overwhelmed by radioactive wild boars which are rampaging across the countryside after being contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/radioactive-boars-run-wild-around-fukushima-reactors-xfmh3gfxx 

Extreme 409.3 Parts Per Million on April 10

Simply put, a rapid atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gasses is swiftly pushing the Earth well outside of any climate context that human beings are used to. The influence of an extreme El Nino on the world ocean system’s ability to take down a massive human carbon emission together with signs of what appears to be a significantly smaller but growing emission from global carbon stores looks to be setting the world up for another record jump in atmospheric CO2 levels during 2016.

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/04/11/hothouse-gas-spikes-to-extreme-409-3-parts-per-million-on-april-10-record-rate-of-atmospheric-co2-increase-likely-for-2016/ 

Arctic ‘heatwave’ hits the North Pole

Storm Frank causes temperatures to soar by 60°F taking the icy region close to melting point

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3379988/Arctic-heatwave-hits-North-Pole-Temperatures-soar-60-F-bringing-icy-region-close-melting-point.html 

45.8°C in Bhubaneswar south India shatters all time heat records

While April is just half way through and temperatures are setting new records every other day, peak summer months may bring more harsh weather to several cities of East India.

http://www.skymetweather.com/content/weather-news-and-analysis/heatwave-grips-bhubaneswar-temperature-breaks-heat-record/ 

The John James Newsletter 113

10 April 2016

I am so proud of these young people. I hope they will be successful for all of us

Blogger

Historic Victory in Court

The US District Court in Oregon, in a ruling that may reverberate in history, denied the request of the US and co-defendants (American Petroleum Institute, National Association of Manufacturers, and the American Fuels and Petrochemical Association) to dismiss our case. Your homework assignment for the weekend is to read Judge Coffin’s ruling, which includes the rationale for his decision. It will warm your heart and may restore some faith in our government.

http://csas.ei.columbia.edu/2016/04/08/historic-victory-in-court/ 

Background

Youths sue US government over climate inaction

Young people across the country are suing several government agencies for failing to develop a climate change recovery plan, conduct that amounts to a violation of their constitutional rights, says their lawyer Julia Olson. Their futures are at stake, “Climate change is the biggest issue of our time,”

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/4/youth-sue-governmentforclimateinaction.html 

Important

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2015/20150812_FINAL_HANSEN_DEC_FOR_US_DISTRICT_OREGON_9pm.pdf 

Our Children’s Right to a Viable Future

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2016/20160309_OurChildrensRightToAViableFuture.pdf 

Judge Coffin’s ruling

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2016/20160408_CourtOrder.pdf

Wouldn’t it be grand if we could do the same here? Is there any way the law could be our friend in Australia?