Global warming.

[marduk]

yeah hopefully next winter wont be as fricking cold as this one and my fuel bills will be less

[Beagle]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16435425/

NEW ORLEANS - A new report by scientists studying Louisiana’s sinking coast says the land here is not just sinking, it’s sliding ever so slowly into the Gulf of Mexico.

The new findings may add a kink to plans being drawn up to build bigger and better levees to protect this historic city and Cajun bayou culture

Uh-oh, bad news here.

I found this link perusing Bruces' article.

[Beagle]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070104/sc_ ... rmest_dc_4

LONDON (Reuters) - This year is set to be the hottest on record worldwide due to global warming and the El Nino weather phenomenon, Britain's Meteorological Office said on Thursday.

Great!!

[Minimalist]

Meanwhile.....

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2054654.ece

The world's largest energy company is still spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund European organisations that seek to cast doubt on the scientific consensus on global warming and undermine support for legislation to curb emission of greenhouse gases.

Data collated by a Brussels-based watchdog reveals that ExxonMobil has put money into projects that criticise the Kyoto treaty and question the findings of scientific groups. Environmental campaigners say Texas-based Exxon is trying to influence opinion-makers in Brussels because Europe - rather than the US - is the driving force for action on climate change.

"ExxonMobil invests significant amounts in letting think-tanks, seemingly respectable sources, sow doubts about the need for EU governments to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Olivier Hoedeman, of the Corporate Europe Observatory. "Covert funding for climate sceptics is deeply hypocritical because ExxonMobil spends major sums on advertising to present itself as an environmentally responsible company."

It has long been known that the oil giant, which in 2005 recorded an all-time record for quarterly income, has spent millions of dollars to fund climate sceptics. Exactly how much is unknown but some estimates suggest $19m (£9.7m) since 1998.

[Beagle]

Good article - I was gonna go back and get it in a bit.

[daybrown]

"God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helples, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set them above their betters."
There is an alternative, pre-historically responsible for the "Golden Age of Peace", but re-emerging with the empowerment of women.

The faith in the Great Mother Goddess. Consider the problems a demagogue would have trying to rile up a mob or an army by claiming that *he* speaks in "Her" name. If you know anything of the alpha male psychology, you know it just wont work for him. Which is why the tryant father gods were invented.

The proliferation of "wicca" goes on unseen because the women dont feel the need to erect monumental spaces for worship. Natural monuments, like sacred groves are more to their liking. The icy frigidity of patriarchy is breaking down, and we see its factions fight with each other, not understanding how they are all being disempowered as women take over.

There was a similar phenomena when the ice age ended and global warming began. The more consitent weather permitted the evolution of grains, like wheat descending from einkorn which still grows in the Taurus mtns. IIRC, it was Sass, in his economic analysis of history, "The Substance of civilization" who noted that when the hominids shifted from alpha male hunter/warrior lifestyles to agrarian villages, the amont of land needed to support a group shrank by a factor of *500*.

It was only in the late bronze age, when new lands to put to the plow were no longer available that the rising populations again turned to the warrior classes to increase their resource bases. But now, after 5000 years of warfare, the brave heart, strong right arm sword in hand... no longer cuts it.

Smith & Wesson guarantee equal rights for women. Increasing numbers of the smarter women are figuring that out, leaving only the stupid for the warrior classes to breed with. They now suffer what Nietzashe called "the rancor of the powerless". The terrorism that results is a futile attempt to stop the evolution, this global warming, of female empowerment.

The only places we see this still going on is in the most mysogenistic cultures and religions.

[Bruce]

http://enewschannels.com/2006/12/14/enc513_061011

My journey has been a long and thoughtful one. “Listen” the elders said. “Listen to the Silence”.
What does that mean? It took me many years to figure it out. When I heard stories from Grandfather Wallace Black Elk that described his reality I sat in awe and listened. Then I began to act on what I heard. I began to believe this reality was possible, and my life transformed. Could animals and trees and rocks really speak. If Grandfather could have two-way conversations with rocks and beavers, what does that mean? When he hears the trees singing what amazing world does he inhabit? When he honors the rocks in the sweat lodge, calling them stone people, when he uses sage to cleanse the aura of a person, place or thing - what do these things mean? When Grandmother Bertha Grove, Ute Elder picked up a glowing hot rock from the fire and handed it to her son, when she read the smoke rising from the fire and prescribed a remedy for a skin disorder that the medical doctors couldn’t treat - what was happening? After many years, many experiences and much listening and pondering I had what many call an epiphany. I got it:

The Native American way of life, their understanding, their experiences are not a religion nor a belief system - they are manifestations of the true conscious, loving interconnected, abundant nature of the universe. They are symbols of what can be. If we pay attention we can find clues to laws that we can integrate into our own lives and boldly use them to transform our systems into systems that enhance our humanity, our beauty, our spirits. The giveaway so prevalent amongst native cultures became a symbol to me of the abundant universe. So this is what those Baxters were resonating to when they gave most of their wealth away. If we live in an abundant, loving, interconnected universe why would we hoard money? If we knew, if we trusted that there would be food tomorrow - would there be? If we are loved by this conscious universe wouldn’t it care for us?

[Beagle]

Cool Bruce

[Beagle]

"God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helples, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set them above their betters."
There is an alternative, pre-historically responsible for the "Golden Age of Peace", but re-emerging with the empowerment of women.

The faith in the Great Mother Goddess. Consider the problems a demagogue would have trying to rile up a mob or an army by claiming that *he* speaks in "Her" name. If you know anything of the alpha male psychology, you know it just wont work for him. Which is why the tryant father gods were invented.

The proliferation of "wicca" goes on unseen because the women dont feel the need to erect monumental spaces for worship. Natural monuments, like sacred groves are more to their liking. The icy frigidity of patriarchy is breaking down, and we see its factions fight with each other, not understanding how they are all being disempowered as women take over.

There was a similar phenomena when the ice age ended and global warming began. The more consitent weather permitted the evolution of grains, like wheat descending from einkorn which still grows in the Taurus mtns. IIRC, it was Sass, in his economic analysis of history, "The Substance of civilization" who noted that when the hominids shifted from alpha male hunter/warrior lifestyles to agrarian villages, the amont of land needed to support a group shrank by a factor of *500*.

It was only in the late bronze age, when new lands to put to the plow were no longer available that the rising populations again turned to the warrior classes to increase their resource bases. But now, after 5000 years of warfare, the brave heart, strong right arm sword in hand... no longer cuts it.

Smith & Wesson guarantee equal rights for women. Increasing numbers of the smarter women are figuring that out, leaving only the stupid for the warrior classes to breed with. They now suffer what Nietzashe called "the rancor of the powerless". The terrorism that results is a futile attempt to stop the evolution, this global warming, of female empowerment.

The only places we see this still going on is in the most mysogenistic cultures and religions.

http://www.philipcoppens.com/oldeurope.html

One scholar, the already cited Marija Gimbutas, has highlighted the importance of Old Europe. So much so, that many consider her to have gone too far. She interpreted Old Europe as a civilisation of the Goddess, a concept which has taken on a life of its own in the modern New Age industry, extending far beyond anything Gimbutas herself could ever have imagined. Bernard Wailes stated how Gimbutas was "immensely knowledgeable but not very good in critical analysis... She amasses all the data and then leaps to conclusions without any intervening argument... Most of us tend to say, oh my God, here goes Marija again". But everyone agrees that her groundwork is solid, and it is from that which we build.
Gimbutas dated the civilisation of Old Europe from 6500 to 3500-3200 BC. It was at that time that the area was overrun by invading Indo-Europeans. The local population could do two things: remain and be ruled by new masters, or migrate, in search of new lands. It appears that the people of Old Europe did both: some went in search of a haven to the south, on the shores of the Aegean Sea, and beyond. Harald Haarmann has identified them as being responsible for the rise of the so-called Cycladic culture, as well as Crete, where the new settlers arrived around 3200 BC.
For Gimbutas, the difference between Old Europe and Indo-Europe was more than just one people invading another. It was the difference between a goddess-centred and matriarchal and the Bronze Age Indo-European patriarchal cultural elements. According to her interpretations, Old Europe was peaceful, they honoured homosexuals and they espoused economic equality. The Indo-Europeans were warmongering males. And it’s that conclusion with which many have great difficulty, for nothing is ever as distinct as that.

This one is up your alley Daybrown.

[Minimalist]

Old Europe was peaceful, they honoured homosexuals and they espoused economic equality.

Sounds like Massachusetts?

[Beagle]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... c-ice.html

A huge Canadian ice shelf 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the North Pole has disintegrated, leaving a large floating island of ice stranded 30 miles (48 kilometers) offshore, scientists reported yesterday.

The entire 25.5-square-mile (66-square-kilometer) Ayles Ice Shelf broke free from the northern coast of Ellesmere Island on August 13, 2005 (map of Canada).

"It's like a cruise missile came down and hit the ice shelf," Vincent said. "It no longer exists."

Real Estate speculation in northern Canada may not be out of the question.

Two pages.

[Minimalist]

Bush thinks global warming needs more study.


Or, rather, the oil company execs tell him what to say.

[Digit]

I've given up hope on the whole idea Min. Those who believe that GW is man made always want some one else to deal with it, over here that's the US, India and China, and India and China cry foul because they want the same standard of living as us, and they want it now.
Always assuming that GW is down to HSS it's obvious not every one wants to join the club, and if history and science eventually proves that we are not guilty, we will look pretty stupid, so what ever the cause, it may be both of course, I think we will achieve more if we concentrate on amelliorating the effects.
The 'greenies' blame the undoubted warming that we are experiencing on green house gases. (Duck Roy!), that on its own is incorrect, it is due to more heat accumulating in the atmosphere than is being lost to space. The source of that heat is irrelevant.
Volcanoes, green house gases, forest fires, domestic and industrial heating, and friction from every moving part all add to the total, any sensible attempt to control heat build up in the atmosphere needs to look at the whole picture.
Over here we consume vast amounts of fossil fuelled energy just to produce plastic bags for supermarkets, whilst adding further heat to the atmospher burning paper products that could, with much less energy expediture, be used to produce heavy paper bags for the same task, and so on, and so on.

[Bruce]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0104/p03s03-ussc.html

The earliest records for the NAO appear in Scandinavian archives that date back centuries, researchers say. The phenomenon swings between two states. When the NAO is positive, a large region of high pressure appears over the central Atlantic, while a large area of low pressure settles over southern Greenland. Each of these features are stronger than usual, leading to more-severe Atlantic storms that travel on a more northerly track than usual. This leads to wet, mild winters in the Eastern US and northern Europe. When the NAO goes negative, the high and low pressure areas weaken and shift south. Storms are weaker and travel more directly west to east.

The NAO can have wide-ranging ecological effects - from changes to the location, frequency, and intensity of storms and wildfires to shifts in crop and fisheries yields. And it can have a profound effect on energy demand. Energy analysts note that crude oil and natural gas prices have eased, partly because of the mild winter so far.

-15 F this morning. Had another 6" of snow yesterday. I think I know where all that snow from vanishing glaciers goes.
Good article on North Atalntic oscillation, El Nino's counterpart.

[Forum Monk]

-15 F this morning. Had another 6" of snow yesterday. I think I know where all that snow from vanishing glaciers goes.
Good article on North Atalntic oscillation, El Nino's counterpart.

Bruce - Im in Ohio - it was 59 last night at midnight! These strong El Ninos have always treated us well. Got a friend who lives in Trinity CO. He sent me pics with 4 ft of snow at his front door! Thank goodness for you guys it is a cycle that will soon be over.