Warming Heat
Filed Under Cloud gazing, Environment, Weather | Leave a Comment
Another nasty package on the highly-movable climate-change-train as a new study (once again) signals earth is moving beyond heat — revealing the crazy Russian heat wave last year most-likely wouldn’t have happened without global warming.
Abstract from the research posted at PNAS:
We estimate that climatic warming has increased the number of new global-mean temperature records expected in the last decade from 0.1 to 2.8.
For July temperature in Moscow, we estimate that the local warming trend has increased the number of records expected in the past decade fivefold, which implies an approximate 80 percent probability that the 2010 July heat record would not have occurred without climate warming.
(Illustration found here).
Joe Romm at Climate Progress on the study: Again, this extreme event ended Russian grain exports for year. So the increase in extremes very much threatens food security if we don’t act soon to reverse emissions trends.
In other words, gird thy loins, or learn how to re-eat foodstuffs.
Romm also notes the study from PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) is a “bombshell” because NOAA did a flawed analysis just a few months ago that found no connection between global warming and the record-smashing (heat).
Wiggle room is shrinking for deniers.
And another anti-denial nail was driven home this past week — the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which was supposed to slash holes into the very heart of climate change, released a report ‘confirming‘ the bad news the earth is indeed burning alive.
From former ‘skeptic‘ Richard Muller, the chair of the Berkeley study, in the Wall Street Journal:
We discovered that about one-third of the world’s temperature stations have recorded cooling temperatures, and about two-thirds have recorded warming.
The two-to-one ratio reflects global warming.
The changes at the locations that showed warming were typically between 1-2ºC, much greater than the IPCC’s average of 0.64ºC.
…
When we began our study, we felt that skeptics had raised legitimate issues, and we didn’t know what we’d find.
Our results turned out to be close to those published by prior groups.
We think that means that those groups had truly been very careful in their work, despite their inability to convince some skeptics of that.
They managed to avoid bias in their data selection, homogenization and other corrections.
Global warming is real.
Perhaps our results will help cool this portion of the climate debate.
How much of the warming is due to humans and what will be the likely effects?
We made no independent assessment of that.
Just watch the weather reports, Richard.
Despite Muller and his study, some people are still hard-headed wrong — read a good view of fallout from the Berkeley study on the hardcore denial crowd at DeSmogBlog, and follow the links.
Paul Krugman, in his New York Times column last week, took to task another study, this one from the American Petroleum Institute (and one can guess its point of view), which is the core of the GOP’s economic proposals — pollution makes for more jobs.
Republicans, however, don’t even understand their own shit.
Money bits:
But does this oil-industry-backed study actually make a serious case for weaker environmental protection as a job-creation strategy?
No.
…
Moreover, even if you take the study’s claims at face value, it offers little reason to believe that dirtier air and water can solve our current employment crisis.
All the big numbers in the report are projections for late this decade.
The report predicts fewer than 200,000 jobs next year, and fewer than 700,000 even by 2015.
You might want to compare these numbers with a couple of other numbers: the 14 million Americans currently unemployed, and the one million to two million jobs that independent estimates suggest the Obama plan would create, not in the distant future, but in 2012.
More pollution, then, isn’t the route to full employment.
But is there a longer-term economic case for less environmental protection?
No.
Serious economic analysis actually says that we need more protection, not less.
…
As the study’s authors say, finding that an industry inflicts large environmental damage compared with its apparent economic return doesn’t necessarily mean that the industry should be shut down.
What it means, instead, is that “the regulated levels of emissions from the industry are too high.”
That is, environmental regulations aren’t strict enough.
Republicans, of course, have strong incentives to claim otherwise: the big value-destroying industries are concentrated in the energy and natural resources sector, which overwhelmingly donates to the G.O.P.
But the reality is that more pollution wouldn’t solve our jobs problem.
All it would do is make us poorer and sicker.
And the planet gets warmer and warmer while ignorant dickheads fiddle.
Yap Forum
Filed Under Bullshit, Media, Politics | 1 Comment
The MSM in the US has gotten worse and worse — the whole outfit wasn’t pretty to begin with and the ugly is getting worse — and CBS News should know better.
A whole shitload of people don’t deserve any kind of forum, much less on national TV.
On Sunday, nit-twits appeared all over the tube, bat-shit crazy people who shouldn’t even be allowed to face a third-grade gym class, much less pretend they have any kind of sense.
The media in this country sucks.
(Illustration found here).
CBS‘ Face the Nation took the cake — Bob Schieffer should be way-ashamed of himself.
First, pure-crazed Michele Bachmann blubbered that President Obama was an asshole for pulling US troops out of Iraq — seemingly without a clue that it was all (and ‘all‘ means all) George Jr.’s doing, both going and getting out.
Michelle muttered: If you look at every time we’ve deposed a dictator, the United States has always left troops behind to be able to enforce the fragile peace.
In this case, once we’re finished in Iraq, we’ll have more troops in Honduras than we’ll be leaving behind in Iraq.
Schieffer tried to explain to the mind of Michele that the Iraqi people don’t want the US in their country.
Mickey wouldn’t have anything to do with that, replying in a nasty, condescending and racial retort: Well again the — the problem is we’ve — we’ve put a lot of deposit into this situation with Iraq.
And to think that we are so disrespected and they — they have so little fear of the United States that there would be nothing that we would gain from this, that’s why I’ve called on President Obama to return to the negotiating table. The — the Obama administration has said they’ve gotten everything they wanted. They got exactly nothing.
I believe that Iraq should reimburse the United States fully for the amount of money that we have spent to liberate these people.
And ‘to liberate these people,’ and talk about a shit-faced bullshitter — the Iraqi people didn’t ask to be invaded and losing between 100,000 to a million people in the event don’t make them America lovers.
And to follow-up knuckle-headed Michele was Rick Santorum, one of more useless-clueless twits on either side of the political spectrum.
Schieffer also asked Trick-Rick about Obama’s action via Iraq.
Santorum, like Michele, revealed a zero understanding of the last decade: And I think that’s the reason people were so upset that, you know, we’ve lost — in many respects we’ve lost control and lost the war in — in Iraq, because we have Iran having broadened its sphere of influence. And we see what’s — what’s going on.
‘What’s going on?’ — this ain’t no Marvin Gaye song, Rick.
And one of the worse, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, appeared on CNN and continued to exhibit that cold, self-centered sense that oozes from any GOPers pores.
Mush-faced McConnell says firefighters and police ain’t that important, in fact, there ain’t nothing more important than politics.
Via Raw Story:
CNN’s Candy Crowley reminded the Kentucky Republican that a recent Gallup/USA Today poll found that 75 percent of Americans supported President Barack Obama’s plan to provide additional money for teachers, police and firefighters.
“Republicans helped not break a filibuster, if you will, in a procedural vote,” Crowley explained.
“You basically got rid of that jobs bill which would have given money to the states, designed to hire or retain fireman, policeman and teachers. When we look at the polling, 75 percent of Americans supported that and yet, the Republicans were against it.
So, how do you justify that in your mind?”
“Well, Candy, I’m sure that Americans do,” McConnell remarked.
“I certainly do approve of firefighters and police.
The question is whether the federal government ought to be raising taxes on 300,000 small businesses in order to send money down to bail out states for whom firefighters and police work.
They’re local and state employees.”
“The question is whether the federal government can afford to be bailing out states. I think the answer is no.”
Crowley then noted the Republican party appears as going against the will of the American people in several areas, including the most-heinous tax on the rich, and an infrastructure bill upcoming in the Senate.
Mitch responded:
“Yeah, these bills are designed on purpose not to pass,” McConnell asserted.
“I mean, the president is deliberately trying to create an issue here.
Look, the American people don’t think, I’m sure, that it’s a good idea.
Four out of five of the so-called millionaires are business owners, over 300,000 small businesses in our country that hire people.
I don’t think the American people think that raising taxes on business, small business in the middle of this economic situation we find ourselves in is a particularly good idea.”
Indeed — out of step with the vast majority of US peoples.
And to prove it, last Friday the Senate knocked-down two jobs bills, one from Obama (blocked by every GOP senator), the other jibbed-up by the GOP (blocked by Democrats) — McConnell again played the politics-is-all-there-is card, and spun the spin:
“It’s hard to understand why Democrats would block this bipartisan effort to protect jobs — a provision of the president’s bill,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a statement after the vote.
“I’ve said a number of times in recent days that the president doesn’t want Congress to pass his jobs bill; he wants to blame Republicans and use it on the campaign trail.”
Nothing but ugly air.
Even has-been Republicans are yapping bullshit — Condi Rice, touting her new mempior, No Higher Honor, defended the horror that is Iraq and George Jr.’s ‘freedom agenda.’
Via the UK’s the Telegraph:
In an interview with the magazine (Newsweek) on Monday Miss Rice also claims that Mr Bush’s decision to invade Iraq under his “freedom agenda” facilitated the revolutions of this year’s Arab Spring.
“There is both a moral case and a practical one for the proposition that no man, woman or child should live in tyranny,” she said.
“Those who excoriate the approach as idealistic or unrealistic missed the point. In the long run, it is authoritarianism that is unstable and unrealistic”.
Once again, either clueless, or just don’t give a shit — sometimes hard to tell the difference.
Oil — Fuel or Food
Filed Under Bullshit, Economy, Energy, Environment | Leave a Comment
Yesterday, I put another $20 worth of gas in the old Jeep with local pump prices still the same as its been the last couple of months — $3.99 a gallon for regular.
Still high, but steady, though, horrifying for some US peoples, who will spend a record $490 billion on gas by year’s end — $100 billion more than last year — which will put a crunch on daily living.
From a report by the New American Foundation (via USA TODAY): “Significant numbers of people told us they’re cutting back on food,” says Lisa Margonelli, the foundation’s director of energy policy.
And a Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday notes the national average at $3.47 a gallon was up 5 cents, while here in California, the average is $3.82, also up a nickel.
(Illustration found here).
And the root of gas — oil — is acting weird again.
From liveoilprices: ICE Brent crude oil futures for December 2011 delivery ended the week’s trading session at $109.65 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.
Meanwhile, WTI was also acting crazy: US Light crude oil futures for December 2011 delivery ended the week’s trading session at $87.40 a barrel on the NYMEX.
Nothing stays the same — except for oil companies.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips will reap billions more than they did in the third quarter of 2010 because of higher oil prices.
Brent crude — the European benchmark that companies use to price the other crudes and refined products they produce — rose 46 percent from the third quarter of last year to an average of $112.09 a barrel.
That increase, the result of unrest in the Arab world, is likely to boost earnings at Exxon and ConocoPhillips by more than 30 percent, and by about 80 percent at Chevron, compared with a year earlier.
Chevron’s profit is expected to see a bigger leap because the bulk of its production consists of oil and internationally traded liquefied natural gas, which sell at more profitable levels than cheaper natural gas extracted and sold in the U.S.
In total, the three oil giants are forecast to earn about $20 billion in net profits in the third quarter. ConocoPhillips is scheduled to report earnings on Wednesday; Exxon on Thursday, and Chevron on Friday.
And that’s ‘net profits‘ — nothing heavy.
Beyond Bad
Filed Under Bullshit, Economy, Finance, Orwellian | Leave a Comment
Another brick in the wall: In the midst of a seemingly worldwide occupation-movement, science may have confirmed the protesters’ worst fears.
Reportedly, about 147 super-connected corporations — out of 43,000 studied in recent research — carry disproportionate power over the global economy.
This from NewScientist on research by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich into transnational corporations — TNCs — that’s good, but disheartening:
“Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it’s conspiracy theories or free-market,” says James Glattfelder.
“Our analysis is reality-based.”
Greed always gathers the nefarious.
(illustration found here).
Also from the NewScientist piece on the study’s findings (h/t: War in Context):
The work, to be published in PloS One, revealed a core of 1318 companies with interlocking ownerships.
Each of the 1318 had ties to two or more other companies, and on average they were connected to 20.
What’s more, although they represented 20 per cent of global operating revenues, the 1318 appeared to collectively own through their shares the majority of the world’s large blue chip and manufacturing firms – the “real” economy – representing a further 60 per cent of global revenues.
When the team further untangled the web of ownership, it found much of it tracked back to a “super-entity” of 147 even more tightly knit companies — all of their ownership was held by other members of the super-entity — that controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network.
“In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network,” says Glattfelder.
Most were financial institutions.
The top 20 included Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Goldman Sachs Group.
Why does this shit sound so freakin’ familiar.
Conflict Blowback Comedy
Filed Under War & Politics | Leave a Comment
Although Moammar Gadhafi was one of the great-cruel assholes of a generation, watching him all bloody, getting slapped around by Libyan freedom fighters, makes for a disconcerting scene — this world doesn’t sugar-coat violence in reality.
Thus, which brings this from Cornell University government Professor David Patel: “I really want to know what Bashar Al-Assad of Syria is thinking tonight. The people surrounding Qaddafi are dead because they went down with the sinking ship. They could have turned their guns and overthrown him, and Al-Assad is thinking the same thing tonight,” Patel said.
Indeed: Al-Assad should be way-thinking about his nasty, long and skinny neck.
(Illustration found here).
Gadhafi is only the latest in a long, long line of rulers who’ve met their fate via the hands of his own countrymen — and in this techno-crazed era, a terrible end can be frozen for all time by a smart phone, i.e., Saddam’s ‘public‘ hanging.
In a so-far non-violent Occupy Wall Street, that 1 percent plastered on a million signs should reflect heavily on at least one small chapter of human history — the French Revolution.
This whole thing could get bat-shitcrazy, and, yeah, I’m talking to you, Koch brothers!
However, Gadhafi and the Arab Spring aside, the news item that popped my eyeballs this morning is a most-terrible blowback for US troops — and reveals whether America is still an animal civilization.
And it’s also shitty that this information comes first from the foreign press and not our own oafish MSM.
From Aljazeera English:
As the war in Afghanistan passes its ten-year mark, sexual assault runs rampant within the ranks, with an estimated one in three female service members raped during their service, according to at least one peer-reviewed study.
This is in a military where women comprise more 11 per cent of active duty service members deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and more than 15 per cent of the total military, with at least 200,000 active duty women currently serving.
This epidemic also affects men: 60 per cent of women serving in the National Guard and Reserve, along with 27 per cent of men, are estimated to have experienced Military Sexual Trauma (MST).
Perpetrators rely on a chain of command that appears to offer virtual impunity for sexual assaults committed against lower-ranking service members.
A civil lawsuit has been filed against Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates, charging that under their watch the military failed to adequately and effectively investigate rapes and sexual assaults within the ranks.
However, like Rummy once blubbered: “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
One cold-ass fish.
The big nut in the story is prosecution rates of sexual assault in the military remains at eight per cent vs a 40 per cent prosecution rate for sexual assault charges in civilian courts — which is a sorry record in itself.
And as one female officer says: “No one right now is holding commanders accountable.”
Which could include a shitload of wrongdoings that nobody has been held accountable — hear me again, Koch brothers!
And Gadhafi’s demise reflects the real-true US blowback on armed conflict where young men and women are killed, maimed or raped without a tear being shed from the exact people who put these Americans in harms way.
Jason Ditz at antiwar.com:
In the ultimate reflection of the Obama Administration’s carefree attitude toward entering wars, a chuckling Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on television today mocking the death of long-time Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, barely restraining her delight while declaring “we came, we saw, he died.”
Hahahahaha!