BUY SOME GLOBAL POLLUTION: VERY CHEAP

China's industrial revolution is causing massive pollution, and it is on course to overtake the filthy United States as the world's worst. Pollution has no borders. Therefore every time we buy cheap Chinese goods we are buying another chunk of global pollution, and asking for more. Global overheating is thus for sale in every High Street. Very cheap. Roll up, roll up!

MOST HABITABLE PLANET IN THE UNIVERSE FOUND

It is called Earth. As it was in 1790. Before we started burning the Black Stuff (that's fossil fuels, if you're new to this blog). Sadly, that planet no longer exists. Even more sadly, there isn't another one we can all go to. The problem is that Earth was invaded by aliens. Half were disguised as businessmen, but after two hundred years their voracious appetite for Black Stuff blew their cover at last. The other half were disguised as politicians, but so far their very clever camouflage (that voting for them is democracy) is holding up. Meanwhile Earth is becoming less habitable by the minute.

But if you clicked on the link to this post expecting to find something about Gliese 581c, then try this well-written article in the Daily Athenaeum, the paper of West Virginia University. Well said, that man. His four points near the end are, sadly, too true.

HUMAN-BEINGS CANNOT CHANGE THE CLIMATE

So someone said in a recent debate on 'climate change' (read climate ruin) on the New Zealand Herald's site (click here for the paper's homepage).

Really!?

What is the climate? It is the state of the sky. Can humans change the sky? Of course. The excretions from every exhaust-pipe and chimney-stack change it. The weather is an activity that takes place in the sky; the characteristics of a mixture have the characteristics of all its components; and we have changed the mix in the sky to one that has never before existed in the entire history of the planet. Only fools could think that that has had no effect on the climate and the weather. Ditto those who cannot see that there ARE weapons of mass-destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. They are called oil-wells. The excretions of countless oil-wells and coal-mines are turning the global sky into a WMD.

No, trumpet the fools, that is not true. No, no, that is not true. No, no, no that is not true. Yet every breath they take to utter that lie is a breath of changed air.

IS GLOBAL OVERHEATING WRITTEN ON CLOUDS?

A new satellite study aims to find out if the unsettling spread of 'night-shining' clouds is a sign of global overheating. Details in this Science Daily article.

SOLAR DEVICE THAT TURNS CO2 INTO FUEL?

If this thing can be made to work, and if we can build the vast numbers needed to remove 10 billion tonnes of carbon-dioxide from the sky annually, until we have wound the concentration back to 280ppm, which is what it was before we started burning black stuff, we will be OK.

IF and IF. Very, very big IFs. But watch that space.

SO-CALLED LIFE FUELS WILL KILL 10,000

Why can none of their addicts see that so-called 'bio' fuels (bio means life) are nothing to do with life. They still pollute, and, worse, they take food out of people's mouths, so they are nothing more than a blind attempt to keep the damn machines that mess up the planet.

As this
BBC report points out, the 10,000 who will still die from air-pollution if everyone used E85 would be fine if we changed to electric cars. And see this site for a comparison of CO2 generated by electric cars, which shows them far superior, even if the power comes from filthy coal-fired generation. They are also far cheaper to run, a point that has not been lost on the French Post Office, La Poste..

But ignore all that, because if you do--O goody, goody, goody!--you can carry on killing 10,000 people--three hundred times as many as were killed at Virginia Tech. Every single year. Without having to buy a gun. Just carry on using morifuels (mori means die).

THE EASY FIX FOR GLOBAL OVERHEATING?

The United Nations Security Council has now recognised global overheating as the greatest threat to global security, and it is a fact that the United States is the world's worst polluter. It is therefore obvious that the US must be recognised as an evil empire, that it must be attacked by the rest of the world, and for the global good reduced to carbon-free rubble.

;-) ;-) ;-)

EVEN THE US GOVT SAYS PEAK OIL COMING

This report by the US Government Accountability OFFICE was headed 'US Needs A Peak Oil Strategy.' It says that when peak oil will occur is hard to pin down, but the consensus of various studies is somewhere between now and 2040. The report has drawn praise for its un-biased, no-nonsense approach.

So we have yet another reason to stop using the black stuff ASAP. But, of course, no one of any consequence will take a blind bit of notice. Carry on as if the world has not changed. As if there will always be a succession of tomorrows just the same as all our yesterdays. Until it is far too late.

THE ESTARCAR AIMS AT THE AUTO X-PRIZE

If sufficient sponsorship can be found in time the EStarCar is to be entered for the prestigious X-prize. Click here for more details.

NEGOTIATE IPCCC TEXT BUT DAMN THE PLANET

The governments of over a hundred countries were prepared to work like galley-slaves for a week, then right through the night, to negotiate the text of the latest IPCCC report, but they they aren't prepared to negotiate the state of the planet and the quality of human life on it (see the BBC's news item, which includes a link to a PDF of the IPCCC's report).

In spite of some gerrymandering and watering-down the report makes clear that global overheating is already having a demonstrable, serious, negative impact on the climate of the entire planet, that the damage is lasting, and that the consequences will be dire. Between the lines it is clear that we have gone well past the point of no-return.

The stark truth is that the best conditions for human civilisation have gone. The worst are on the way. There is no good future for the human race. Increasingly, life will become nasty, brutish and short. Billions will die.

India encapsulates the state of the world. Its economy is booming, its technology is racing ahead, it is becoming a global power. But its environment and climate are going backwards. A vital example is that the Ganges is shrinking as the glaciers that feed it melt away. The tension between the forward and backward movements is inexorably rising, as if they were tied together by an enormous, unbreakable, rubber rope. Ultimately the regression that man is forcing on the planet will snap backwards his progress in economy and technology.

But don't worry about it, politicians. Just worry about hanging on to power at the next election. Don't worry about it, bureaucrats. Just worry about the next pettifogging committee meeting about regulatory trivia. Don't worry about, businessmen. Just worry about your market share and the size of your profits and bonuses. Don't worry about it car-owners. Just worry about getting from A to B regardless of the poison pouring from your exhaust-pipes.

Everybody, please continue to ignore clean solar-cell/fuel-cell technology, because that will keep their prices high and thus keep them unaffordable. Instead, please keep using planet-trashing technologies to the hilt, thus keeping their prices low. In short, please keep being murderous, suicidal fools. Carry on being the lemming-generation.

If you want to do something for this tattered planet and its polluted sky, click here. The EStarCar doesn't cost megabucks and decades to develop, it doesn't pollute the sky, its body can have whatever shape and function you want, it can be manufactured by small teams in small premises than can be rapidly multiplied all over the planet, most of it can be recycled (except for such things as tyres and rubber door-seals), and being alloy it will last decades longer than the heavy, rusting planet-trashers made by the Big Iron carmakers. Their bottom line is money and greed. This car's bottom line is the planet, which means life and the quality of life.

THE AMAZON FACES MORE DEADLY DROUGHTS

That headline, on the BBC's website, should strike a chill of fear into every sentient human being. Sadly, few will notice, few will care, and nobody will do a blind thing about trying to stop the slow death of the largest portion of the Earth's lungs.

IS GLOBAL OVERHEATING OVERPLAYED IN THE MEDIA?

Perhaps, but far better overplayed than under, because the fight against it is being so underplayed as to be virtually non-existent. And with the quality of life of the whole human race at stake, plus the vitality of the whole biosphere, any 'overplaying' is entirely appropriate.

But every do-nothing politician, business, vehicle owner, coal-merchant, oil-baron, etc., is certainly guilty of grossly overplaying power, money, stupidity and ignorance. By their sins of omission and comission they militate against everyone who wants to do something. They thwart them at every turn by carrying on gearing things for profligate planetary ruin instead of the continuance of optimal human life.

FAR TOO BUSY FOR THE PLANET!

It sounds crazy, and it is; it beats all the insanities that human beings commit against themselves. But 'too busy for the planet', combined with the insane addiction to the black stuff, is why virtually no one is doing anything effective about global overheating and climate ruination. Certainly not the rich and powerful.

A rich man who was asked recently to spend a couple of hours considering investing in the EStarCar said he had too much on his plate. That includes preparing to sail round the very planet he does not have time to bother his stupid head with. He should look down at his feet, consider what supports them and consider whether its state of health has anything to do with his.

Insanity varies with the cube of wealth...

Wordsworth was right:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we have in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours
And are upgathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not...

EARTH'S NEGATIVE NEWS GETS WORSE AND WORSE

Yet another authoritative study shows that we have really messed up this planet for human habitation, and that there is a lot worse to come, as this media summary shows, backed by the NOAA report on which it is based).

Salient excerpts from the media summary make grim reading:

'Oceans worldwide absorbed approximately 118 billion metric tons of carbon between 1800 and 1994 according to a report published last year by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and NOAA, resulting in increased ocean acidity, which reduces the availability of carbonate ions needed for the production of calcium carbonate structures. In the past, changes in ocean acidity have triggered mass extinction events. According to a study published in the September issue of Geology, dramatically warmer and more acidic oceans may have contributed to the worst mass extinction on record, the Permian extinction. During the extinction event, which occurred some 250 million years ago, about 95% of ocean's life forms became extinct. The same fate could befall modern day marine life.'

'A draft U.N. report obtained by Reuters on Thursday said warming is expected to turn the planet a bit greener by spurring plant growth, but crops and forests may wilt beyond mid-century if temperatures keep rising. That report, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will be released on April 6.'

'The conclusions are negative for agriculture: it appears that the global warming process has produced damages to almost every commonly grown grains over 20 years. The damages are estimated at $5 billion.

'Warming temperatures from 1981 to 2002 cut the combined production of wheat, corn, barley and other crops by 40 million tonnes per year.'

SETTING CARBON CAPS IS INSANE

We do not set the maximum amount of carbon-dioxide and methane etc., that the atmosphere can take. The planet does. And we were told at the big scientific conference in London at the beginning of 2005 that 400ppm is it--and that 'there is no safe increase' from the 380ppm that we were then at. Which means we have reached the planet's cap. Any figure dreamed up by brain-damaged politicians is therefore irrelevant, and dangerous (because it looks like useful action), and very stupid.

Setting 'carbon caps' is like a doctor telling a cancer patient that he has to have a certain amount of cancer. Just live with it, sir. And die.

DOOM AND GLOOM MERCHANTS

The pushers of the black stuff, the coal and oil peace-criminals, actually sell climate-ruin, disease, death, smog and solar-dimming, Doom and gloom.

RUIN NOT CHANGE; OVER-HEATING NOT WARMING

An old, wise, Roman saying says, 'When men cannot change things they change words', and Winston Churchill said, 'We build our houses then our houses build us.' The words we choose for things are very important, because they shape our thinking on them and generate our actions, or lack of action.

'Climate-change' and 'global-warming' sound so comfortable, so non-threatening. After all, a change is as good as a rest, variety is the spice of life, we are taught by advertising to thirst for the new. and everyone wants to be warm.

The truth is that we have climate-ruin and global-overheating. We have turned the sky into a weapon of mass-destruction; we are the cancer afflicting the planet.

IPCC AND THE MET OFFICE SCIENTIST

BBC News put a very revealing article beside the latest IPCC report, which makes even more gloomy reading than what the IPCC said. The IPCC report is of course a much tugged-at piece, a climate camel assembled by a committee, a throttled-back compromise. But Dr Vicky Pope, Head of the Climate Programme at the UK Met Office's prestigious Hadley Centre, puts things very plainly: 'Man-made climate change is established beyond reasonable doubt and further climate change is inevitable.'

'The latest climate models predict similar possible global average temperature changes to models used five or 10 years ago, ranging from 1.6-4.3C (2.9-7.7F) in the current best estimates using a mid-range emissions scenario.

'However, we are much more confident about these ranges. Using Hadley Centre models we have even been able to start to assign probabilities to more dangerous high temperature changes at the upper end of this range that could arise if climate turns out to be very sensitive to increased greenhouse gases.'

Which means they are not sure. And the actual readings are tracking along the top of the official predictions, which means we are veering towards the worst scenario, certainly not the best nor even the head-in-the-sand middling stuff. Because in a world hooked on the black stuff you can forget the mid-range scenario. So prepare for the worst (which on-the-edge computer models put at 10-14C round 2100).

SYDNEY, GLACIERS, GREAT BARRIER REEF DOOMED

The bad news on this ruined planet keeps coming at an accelerating pace. This week alone we have already been told that the world's glaciers are melting three times faster than they were in the 1980s, that Sydney is headed for almost permanent drought and a temperature rise of 5 degrees Celsius above the new global average, whatever that will be, and that the IPCC says the Great Barrier Reef will become a dead zone.

IPCC SAYS GLOBAL DOOM INEVITABLE

Now, at last, the IPCC is it seems going to tell us that we have passed the point of no-return, as the quotations below from The Observer, London, dated January 22nd, make chillingly clear.

'Global warming is destined to have a far more destructive and earlier impact than previously estimated, the most authoritative report yet produced on climate change will warn next week.

'A draft copy of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows the frequency of devastating storms will increase dramatically. Sea levels will rise over the century by around half a metre; snow will disappear from all but the highest mountains; deserts will spread; oceans will become acidic, leading to the destruction of coral reefs and atolls; and deadly heatwaves will become more prevalent.

'The impact will be catastrophic, forcing hundreds of millions of people to flee their devastated homelands, particularly in tropical, low-lying areas, while creating waves of immigrants whose movements will strain the economies of even the most affluent countries.

'The really chilling thing about the IPCC report is that it is the work of several thousand climate experts who have widely differing views about how greenhouse gases will have their effect. Some think they will have a major impact, others a lesser role. Each paragraph of this report was therefore argued over and scrutinized intensely. Only points that were considered indisputable survived the process.

' "This is a very conservative document -- that's what makes it so scary," one senior UK climate expert said.

'Although the final wording of the report is still being worked on, the draft indicates that scientists now have their clearest idea so far about future climate changes, as well as about recent events. It points out that: twelve of the past thirteen years were the warmest since records began; ocean temperatures have risen at least 3km beneath the surface; glaciers, snow cover and permafrost have decreased in both hemispheres; sea levels are rising at the rate of almost 2mm a year; cold days, nights and frost have become rarer while hot days, hot nights and heatwaves have become more frequent.

'And the cause is clear, say the authors: It is very likely that [man-made] greenhouse gas increases caused most of the average temperature increases since the mid-20th century, the report says.

'To date, these changes have caused global temperatures to rise by 0.6 degrees Celsius The most likely outcome of continuing rises in greenhouses gases will be to make the planet a further 3 degrees hotter by 2100, although the report acknowledges that rises of 4.5 to 5 degrees could be experienced. Ice-cap melting, rises in sea levels, flooding, cyclones and storms will be an inevitable consequence.

'The report reflects climate scientists' growing fears that Earth is nearing the stage when carbon dioxide rises will bring irreversible change to the planet.'

Really? As anyone with half an eye can see we have already passed that stage.

Underlining the point is the resetting of the Doomsday Clock, which now says global-overheating is as serious a threat to the human race as nuclear weapons. The clock now say it's five minutes to midnight. More than a tad optimistic obviously, but tick, tick, tick...