Author: JohnJames

The John James Newsletter 42
24 January 2015

The best scientists in the world are telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger. The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.
President Obama’s State of the Union address

Trolling Russia
Israel Shamir is a Russian-born Jew and Israeli citizen. This is a tantalising analysis.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40751.htm

Russia signs military cooperation deal with Iran
Defence minister Hossein Dehqan states that Iran and Russia had a “shared analysis of US global strategy, its interference in regional and international affairs and the need to cooperate in the struggle against the interference of foreign forces in the region.”
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Russia-signs-military-cooperation-deal-with-Iran/articleshow/45954724.cms

QE warfare is pushing world financial system out of control
Since the GFC of 2008 the world’s combined public-private debt has increased by 20 per cent, and most governments have been engaged in competitive currency devaluations. The world is dangerously unanchored with true currency wars. The central banks may have bought exactly what they most feared by trying to keep growth buoyant at all costs with so much created debt they may have turned a good deflation into a really bad one.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11358316/Central-bank-prophet-fears-QE-warfare-pushing-world-financial-system-out-of-control.html

The coming era of unlimited — and free — clean energy
In Germany, Spain, Portugal, Australia, and the Southwest United States, residential-scale solar production has already reached “grid parity”, so it costs no more in the long term to install solar panels than to buy electricity from utility companies. The prices of solar panels have fallen 75 percent in the past five years and will fall further so within at decade, it will cost a fraction of fossil fuel-based alternatives.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/09/19/the-coming-era-of-unlimited-and-free-clean-energy

Is Barack Obama Actually Trying To Help ISIS Take Over Syria?
That headline sounds crazy, right?  It must be untrue, right?  Well, read on, because you might be absolutely shocked by what you learn.  The Obama administration has used al-Qaeda fighters and other radical Islamic groups to topple governments such as Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/is-barack-obama-actually-trying-to-help-isis-take-over-syria Coalition For A Democratic Syria

A Small and Shuffling Life
George Monbiot’s passionate evocation of our past – a beautiful read.
http://www.monbiot.com/2015/01/19/a-small-and-shuffling-life/

GM crops to be fast-tracked in UK
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/13/gm-crops-to-be-fast-tracked-in-uk-following-eu-vote?CMP=EMCENVEML1631

Humans Have Brought World’s Oceans to the Brink
We have profoundly decreased the abundance of both large (e.g., whales) and small (e.g., anchovies) marine fauna. Such declines can generate waves of ecological change that can alter entire ocean ecosystem. There are factory farms in the sea and cattle-ranch-style feed lots for tuna; Shrimp farms are eating up mangroves. Stakes for seafloor mining claims are being pursued with gold-rush-like fervor, and 300-ton ocean mining machines and 750-foot fishing boats are now rolling off the assembly line.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/16/humans-have-brought-worlds-oceans-brink-major-extinction-event

Nice and dirty – the importance of soil
As much as 95 percent of our food comes from the soil, but 33 percent of global soils are degraded, and we may only have 60 years of nutrient-rich top soil left – it is not a renewable resource. Africa is especially hard hit.
http://worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=101019
and
http://www.thisisafricaonline.com/Perspectives/Why-Africa-s-degraded-soils-will-cost-the-continent-dearly

Formation-flying satellites link up to create giant virtual telescope in orbit
The European Space Agency project depends on a level of precision never before achieved in orbit. By flying small satellites in formation, virtual telescopes of incredible power and sensitivity will help astronomers to observe the sun. One of the satellites will point its instruments towards the Sun while the second will place itself between the first craft and the sun with a disc to occlude it for a long-lasting total solar eclipse.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/17/formation-flying-satellites-space-telescopes-esa-proba-3?CMP=ema_565

Saudis to build world’s first large scale solar powered desalination plant
The plant, to supply Al Khafji City in the north-east of the country, will produce 60,000 cubic metres of water a day. It is due to be commissioned in 2017. Desalination is a costly, energy intensive process that is usually powered by fossil fuel baseload plant
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/saudis-build-worlds-first-large-scale-solar-powered-desalination-plant-82903

Drone Strikes Killed at Least 874 People in Hunt for 24 Terrorists
Drone strikes in Pakistan killed as many as 221 people, including 103 children, in the hunt for just four men. Obama’s secret Kill List selects individual targets for assassination and requires no public presentation of evidence or judicial oversight.
http://us.sputniknews.com/us/20150120/1013514542.html

Off the Charts
2014 is the 38th consecutive year with above average global temperatures.
http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/2014-hottest-year-on-record-globally

3 Minutes to Midnight
Experts on the board said they felt a sense of urgency this year because of the world’s ongoing addiction to fossil fuels, procrastination with enacting laws to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow efforts to get rid of nuclear weapons
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/01/22/doomsday-clock-ticks-forward-climate-change-nuclear-weapons-push-humanity-closer

How Whales Change Climate
The astonishing story of how whales keep the oceans alive – and alter the composition of the atmosphere.
http://www.monbiot.com/2015/01/10/how-whales-change-climate/

Yemen: understanding Houthi motives is complicated
Yemen is a cornerstone of the US counterterrorism program. The Houthi group claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo killings. For most Yemenis the group is capable of reshaping the complex political landscape of the poorest country in the Arab world. Since September they have occupied some of the country’s most important infrastructure, including the presidential palace and sea ports.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/19/understanding-houthi-motives-complicated-essential-yemen-future
It is considered to be al Qaeda’s deadliest branch with the greatest global reach.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/rebels-battle-soldiers-near-yemens-presidential-palace-1421650439

Saudi Arabia declares all atheists are terrorists
A series of new laws define atheists as terrorists, in order to clamp down on all forms of political dissent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-declares-all-atheists-are-terrorists-in-new-law-to-crack-down-on-political-dissidents-9228389.html

The John James Newsletter 9
27 August 2014.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The John James Newsletter 15
23 September 2014.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The John James Newsletter 16
27 September 2014.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The John James Newsletter 17
1 October 2014.

“Always know that indifference is a militant thing. It batters down the walls of cities and murders the women and children amid the flames and the purloining of altar vessels. When it goes away it leaves smoking ruins, where lie citizens bayonetted through the throat. It is not a children’s pastime like mere highway robbery.”
Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage.

Archbishop Tutu on Climate Change – well worth passing on to your friends (and others!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlh_ptOljkg#t=203

Mapping Global Carbon Emissions – for graph lovers!
The latest report on global carbon emissions released this week revealed that emissions will likely reach 40 billion tonnes this year. Growth continues to match the worst-case scenario modelled by the IPCC of between 3.2 and 5.4C by 2100.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/graph-of-the-day-mapping-global-carbon-emissions-95259
Do your own graph annually and see we could reach 2C in the next 20 years. This does not include Global Dimming (the almost equal amount of latent heat held in the system that is not yet affecting temperatures) nor any catastrophic tipping points (such as the sudden collapse of the ice sheets or eruptions of methane).

China announces targets on carbon emission cuts
The State Council announced that China is going to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent compared with the level of 2005. However, with the expected doubling of GDP  this means the emissions in 2020 would be roughly the same as emissions now. For the world’s dirtiest economy standing still is not a reduction.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/26/content_12544181.htm

Solar to be world’s main energy source by 2050
Due to the rapid cost reductions achieved by PV, the IEA is now more bullish on the contribution the technology can make to global electricity and represents a big increase on previous roadmaps because things have changed so quickly,
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/iea-solar-worlds-main-energy-source-2050

Interview with Deputy Defence Minister of Russia – Dmitry Rogozin
Valuable insight into the other side. Click on the “translate” icon 4th from the right for English subtitles.

Teach the Truth!!
‘Little rebels’ protest against changes to history curriculum
After a conservative school board proposed dramatic changes to promote patriotism and downplay civil unrest in an advanced course, hundreds of students and teachers joined a growing protest against censorship of education
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/-sp-colorado-ap-history-curriculum-protest-patriotism-schools-students?CMP=ema_565

Hong Kong citizens urged to continue protests as police withdraw
In the past mass protests had police approval and emphasised that demonstrations would not affect everyday life. This time they really don’t care. Beijing may have put itself in a corner and may not be able to back down.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/29/hong-kong-citizens-protests-police-withdraw?CMP=ema_565

Iran says it will strike if Islamic State nears border
Military commander warns of attacks ‘deep into Iraqi territory’ unless militants keep their distance.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-says-it-will-islamic-state-if-it-nears-border/

The John James Newsletter 18
14 October 2014.

The Effects of Child Abuse: The Roots of Human Violence
You cannot understand or oppose the violence of the world without understanding its true source… http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39835.htm

From Pol Pot to ISI – John Pilger
As Barack Obama ignites his seventh war against the Muslim world since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I am not surprised by the disregard of memory and history, yet again. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39897.htm

Greenpeace: TWO bits of incredible news!.
India’s Supreme Court just scrapped over 200 coal mining licences. This includes almost all licences issued in the past 17 years!
http://ecocidealert.com/?tag=coal-mining-licences

Reservoir at 5 Percent Capacity
Climate Change to Leave Sao Paulo’s 20 Million Without Water By November? Regardless of politically-motivated denials, water rationing is the most accurate way to describe what many Sao Paulo residents have been experiencing for 9 months now under a regime of systemic drought that just grows steadily worse with time.
http://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/

Volkswagen’s New 300 MPG Car Not Allowed In America Because It Is Too Efficient
http://thespiritscience.net/2014/05/25/volkswagens-new-300-mpg-car-not-allowed-in-america-because-it-is-too-efficient/

China coal consumption down 23% as more funds dump fossil fuels
The amount of coal used to generate electricity in China fell by nearly one-quarter in the month of August, according to new data – a blip on the global coal consumption radar that could soon become the norm, as the Chinese government commits to a 2014 target of slashing thermal coal imports and more and more major international funds join the fossil fuel divestment movement.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/china-coal-consumption-down-23-as-more-funds-dump-fossil-fuels-40314

11 charts that will help you understand climate change
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/11-wonktastic-charts-will-help-understand-climate-change-64967

35,000 Walruses Forced To The Beach and Global Warming
As sea ice recedes amid warming oceans, Pacific walruses crowd onto beaches to rest and forage for food. The walruses are telling us what the polar bears have told us and what many indigenous people have told us in the high Arctic.
http://www.countercurrents.org/lazare021014.htm

Iraq’s Economy Collapsing Under Pressure of Security Crisis:
One of the untold stories of the fighting in Iraq is the effect it is having upon the country’s economy: Almost two million internally displaced people, the loss of agricultural land in northern Iraq, foreign investors being scared off, the decline in trade, the collapse of several internal markets, and depleted financial reserves.
http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/iraqs-economy-collapsing-under-pressure.html\

Putin shrugs off damage from Western sanctions: –
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday shrugged off the negative impact of Western sanctions, saying they will only encourage Russia to build closer ties with China, India and Latin America. He called them “utter silliness” that hurt Western business and offered an opportunity for others to expand in the Russian market.
http://www.journalnow.com/business/national_international_ap/putin-shrugs-off-damage-from-western-sanctions/image_788f5f66-8e76-50e6-b6ea-cc42f10cb6d5.html

The Government’s Duty is to Protect the Public Interest – James Hansen
The United States was founded on the “self-evident” concept that all people have equal rights. Our Constitution’s purpose to “provide the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” implies obligations to the young and unborn. The Constitution assures that all people have “equal protection of the laws” and cannot be deprived of property without “due process” of law. These basic rights have global relevance because of substantial commonality of our Constitution with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We aim to file a case against the government based squarely on these fundamental rights.
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2014/20141004_GovernmentDuty.pdf

Is this the death of Australia’s renewable energy industry?
The Abbott government says it “supports” renewables, but new data shows investment has ground to a halt, the country’s biggest renewable companies are facing massive write downs, and the world’s biggest investors are preparing to abandon the country.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/is-this-the-death-of-australias-renewable-energy-industry-83477