It's a chilling story, one that, if true, has existential implications for life on Earth. The Guardian reports that rich nations have "given up" on reaching a new climate treaty until 2020.
Ahead of critical talks starting next week, most of the world's leading economies now privately admit that no new global climate agreement will be reached before 2016 at the earliest, and that even if it were negotiated by then, they would stipulate it could not come into force until 2020.
The eight-year delay is the worst contemplated by world governments during 20 years of tortuous negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions, and comes despite intensifying warnings from scientists and economists about the rapidly increasing dangers of putting off prompt action.
...Postponing an operational agreement until 2020 would be fatal to hopes of avoiding catastrophic climate change, according to scientists, economists and green campaigners.
Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), and one of the world's foremost authorities on climate economics, told the Guardian: "If we do not have an international agreement whose effect is put in place by 2017, then the door to [holding temperatures below 2C] will be closed forever."
The story comes just one day after the World Meteorological Organization released a report warning that man-made emissions of greenhouse gases have reached a record level and the rate of increase is accelerating.
The IPCC, WMO, NOAA, NASA and other science bodies are all speaking with one voice, all sounding the alarm, all warning that the exit door is closing and virtually no key decision maker is listening. These leaders are writing the future of our kids and grandkids and generations to follow. The worst part is it's quite possibly indelible.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
The Rise of a New Confederacy or Peering Into the Soul of Stephen Harper
Do you ever have trouble figuring out just what makes an authoritarian git like Stephen Harper tick? An article from In These Times entitled "New Confederacy Rising" offers some helpful insights into why the radical, fundamentalist Right seem so bizarre. They don't just act nuts, they are nuts.
What has recently come to the fore within the Republican Party, but has been building within it for decades as the religious right’s influence has grown, is a new Confederacy: a nation within a nation, certain of the degeneracy of the usurper “United States,” hostile toward its institutions of education and government, and possessing a keen sense of its own identity as a victimized, righteous remnant engaged in spiritual warfare. As Michele Bachmann put it when explaining her position as a tax accountant for the IRS, she took a government job because she wanted to infiltrate “the enemy.”
...For the pragmatic and progressive America that grew out of secularized higher education, truth has a provisional, this-worldly orientation. It’s more evolutionary than eternal in character—a fluid body of knowledge and interpretation, subject to revision and expansion.
For the Confederacy that now dominates the GOP, truth is solid and fixed and divinely embedded in the structure of the universe. Humanity’s responsibility is to accept and believe the truth rather than test ideas against actual experience. The Confederacy’s obsession with “originalist” interpretations of the Constitution—a twin of biblical literalism—is the classic example: truth must be eternal, universal.
Pragmatists and progressives defer to experts and professionals. They expect truth claims to be supported by evidence that emerges from research and testing. They put their faith in this process, and in the communities of inquiry—the disciplines—legitimized by secular institutions of higher education.
The new Confederacy rejects that process wholesale. Its leaders and authorities are the spiritual descendants of the conservative Christians and charismatic radio preachers who broke away from religious modernism in the 1920s and 1930s. For these leaders and their followers, faith justifies—and verifies—itself. You don’t believe an idea because it’s true. It’s true because you believe it.
What has recently come to the fore within the Republican Party, but has been building within it for decades as the religious right’s influence has grown, is a new Confederacy: a nation within a nation, certain of the degeneracy of the usurper “United States,” hostile toward its institutions of education and government, and possessing a keen sense of its own identity as a victimized, righteous remnant engaged in spiritual warfare. As Michele Bachmann put it when explaining her position as a tax accountant for the IRS, she took a government job because she wanted to infiltrate “the enemy.”
...For the pragmatic and progressive America that grew out of secularized higher education, truth has a provisional, this-worldly orientation. It’s more evolutionary than eternal in character—a fluid body of knowledge and interpretation, subject to revision and expansion.
For the Confederacy that now dominates the GOP, truth is solid and fixed and divinely embedded in the structure of the universe. Humanity’s responsibility is to accept and believe the truth rather than test ideas against actual experience. The Confederacy’s obsession with “originalist” interpretations of the Constitution—a twin of biblical literalism—is the classic example: truth must be eternal, universal.
Pragmatists and progressives defer to experts and professionals. They expect truth claims to be supported by evidence that emerges from research and testing. They put their faith in this process, and in the communities of inquiry—the disciplines—legitimized by secular institutions of higher education.
The new Confederacy rejects that process wholesale. Its leaders and authorities are the spiritual descendants of the conservative Christians and charismatic radio preachers who broke away from religious modernism in the 1920s and 1930s. For these leaders and their followers, faith justifies—and verifies—itself. You don’t believe an idea because it’s true. It’s true because you believe it.
The Sky is Falling - US Generals Warn America in Real Danger if Military Spending is Cut
A US Marine Corps general is the latest stuffed tunic to warn of dire consequences to America if the Pentagon's budget is cut. Corps Commandant General James Amos says he's sure that something sort of awful will befall the American military from budget cuts.
“We as a nation don’t even know, or have not got a sense of appreciation for, the impact that sequestration’s going to have on the Department of Defense,” Amos said, leaning in to drive home his point. “I don’t think we understand the magnitude of the impact that sequestration would have."
I would love to hear these generals explain how, with defence expenditures greater than every other nation on the planet combined, they have made such a total botch up of America's conflicts in/with Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea. When was the last time these bozos actually won a war? That's "won" in the sense of achieving their government's pre-conflict objectives?
It strikes me that, when you've had plenty of chances but have struck out every time, you don't get to bitch if someone wants to burst your bloated budget. And you certainly don't get to scare the hell out of the public with vague threats of danger that doesn't exist. And, if that's the best you can do, maybe you should just turn in your stars and take a serious interest in golf.
“We as a nation don’t even know, or have not got a sense of appreciation for, the impact that sequestration’s going to have on the Department of Defense,” Amos said, leaning in to drive home his point. “I don’t think we understand the magnitude of the impact that sequestration would have."
I would love to hear these generals explain how, with defence expenditures greater than every other nation on the planet combined, they have made such a total botch up of America's conflicts in/with Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea. When was the last time these bozos actually won a war? That's "won" in the sense of achieving their government's pre-conflict objectives?
It strikes me that, when you've had plenty of chances but have struck out every time, you don't get to bitch if someone wants to burst your bloated budget. And you certainly don't get to scare the hell out of the public with vague threats of danger that doesn't exist. And, if that's the best you can do, maybe you should just turn in your stars and take a serious interest in golf.
Propaganda Busting - Social Security
Anyone who follows American politics will have heard the Right's endless demands for "entitlement reform." They argue that Social Security is on the verge of insolvency and therefore payouts need to be trimmed. After all, how can you maintain insane tax cuts for the rich if you have to pay the poor?
The Brookings Institute has a telling contradiction of the Right's favourite fairy tale. The article points out that while Social Security indeed went "cash negative" last year, the private pension industry has been cash negative for 25-years. It also explains that while contributions to Social Security were less that payouts last year, the system also receives revenues from its investments, revenues that left the Social Security agency with a comfortable surplus.
The Brookings Institute has a telling contradiction of the Right's favourite fairy tale. The article points out that while Social Security indeed went "cash negative" last year, the private pension industry has been cash negative for 25-years. It also explains that while contributions to Social Security were less that payouts last year, the system also receives revenues from its investments, revenues that left the Social Security agency with a comfortable surplus.
Greenhouse Gas Increases Accelerating.
The operative word is "accelerating." The World Meteorological Organization reported today that,
"the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2010 and that the growth of the buildup is accelerating."
"The increase between 2009 and 2010 was above the average for the last two decades. “Between 2009 and 2010, its atmospheric abundance increased by 2.3 parts per million — higher than the average for both the 1990s (1.5 parts per million) and the past decade (2.0 parts per million),” the WMO states.
The report tracks several other gases, including methane, a potent greenhouse gas that’s again on the rise after a temporary period of “relative stabilization” between 1999 and 2006.
“Scientists are conducting research into the reasons for this, including the potential role of the thawing of the methane-rich Northern permafrost and increased emissions from tropical wetlands,” the WMO notes."
It seems everybody, even Canada, acknowledges the need for sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions yet with emissions not only increasing but the rate of increase accelerating they're heading full throttle in the opposite direction. Can you find Easter Island on the map? That's right, it's smack in the middle between Gloucester and Nepean.
"the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2010 and that the growth of the buildup is accelerating."
"The increase between 2009 and 2010 was above the average for the last two decades. “Between 2009 and 2010, its atmospheric abundance increased by 2.3 parts per million — higher than the average for both the 1990s (1.5 parts per million) and the past decade (2.0 parts per million),” the WMO states.
The report tracks several other gases, including methane, a potent greenhouse gas that’s again on the rise after a temporary period of “relative stabilization” between 1999 and 2006.
“Scientists are conducting research into the reasons for this, including the potential role of the thawing of the methane-rich Northern permafrost and increased emissions from tropical wetlands,” the WMO notes."
It seems everybody, even Canada, acknowledges the need for sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions yet with emissions not only increasing but the rate of increase accelerating they're heading full throttle in the opposite direction. Can you find Easter Island on the map? That's right, it's smack in the middle between Gloucester and Nepean.
Climate Change Isn't Happening If You Can't Learn About It
How else can you explain the extraordinary efforts of the Harper regime and its US Congressional counterparts to suppress climate change information getting to the public.
As chronicled in The Guardian recently, Steve Harper has been using spending cuts to undermine groups such as Climate Action Network Canada, a NGO that once served to coordinate some 80 other organizations even as Harper broke his own commitments to continue $1.4-billion in government subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.
Now, south of the line, Congress has vetoed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's efforts to create a National Climate Service akin to the agency's National Weather Service. The telling part is that the NOAA wasn't asking for any new funding.
"...in a political climate where talk of the earthly kind of climate can be radioactive, the answer in last week’s budget deal was “no.” Congress barred NOAA from launching what the agency bills as a “one-stop shop” for climate information.
"Demand for such data is skyrocketing, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco told Congress earlier this year. Farmers are wondering when to plant. Urban planners want to know whether groundwater will stop flowing under subdivisions. Insurance companies need climate data to help them set rates."
"...with data spread across agency offices and Web sites, people are “often confused where to go for climate information,” said Mary Glackin, the NOAA deputy undersecretary heading up the proposal. The new service would streamline delivery, she said, and make it easier for people to find information, such as seasonal growing outlooks and drought, wildfire and flood forecasts.
The proposal has drawn wide-ranging support. NOAA’s administrator from 2001 to 2008 under Bush, Conrad C. Lautenbacher, urged Congress to approve it this year. So did scientific, weather and industry groups, including the Reinsurance Association of America, which represents huge firms that backstop home, car and life insurance companies.
Franklin W. Nutter, president of the RAA, said insurance companies are increasingly relying on the predictions of a changing future that NOAA provides. “It’s become clear that historic patterns of natural catastrophes — hurricanes, tornadoes, floods — are not good predictors of future risks,” he said. In other words, the future’s looking rougher."
As chronicled in The Guardian recently, Steve Harper has been using spending cuts to undermine groups such as Climate Action Network Canada, a NGO that once served to coordinate some 80 other organizations even as Harper broke his own commitments to continue $1.4-billion in government subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.
Now, south of the line, Congress has vetoed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's efforts to create a National Climate Service akin to the agency's National Weather Service. The telling part is that the NOAA wasn't asking for any new funding.
"...in a political climate where talk of the earthly kind of climate can be radioactive, the answer in last week’s budget deal was “no.” Congress barred NOAA from launching what the agency bills as a “one-stop shop” for climate information.
"Demand for such data is skyrocketing, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco told Congress earlier this year. Farmers are wondering when to plant. Urban planners want to know whether groundwater will stop flowing under subdivisions. Insurance companies need climate data to help them set rates."
"...with data spread across agency offices and Web sites, people are “often confused where to go for climate information,” said Mary Glackin, the NOAA deputy undersecretary heading up the proposal. The new service would streamline delivery, she said, and make it easier for people to find information, such as seasonal growing outlooks and drought, wildfire and flood forecasts.
The proposal has drawn wide-ranging support. NOAA’s administrator from 2001 to 2008 under Bush, Conrad C. Lautenbacher, urged Congress to approve it this year. So did scientific, weather and industry groups, including the Reinsurance Association of America, which represents huge firms that backstop home, car and life insurance companies.
Franklin W. Nutter, president of the RAA, said insurance companies are increasingly relying on the predictions of a changing future that NOAA provides. “It’s become clear that historic patterns of natural catastrophes — hurricanes, tornadoes, floods — are not good predictors of future risks,” he said. In other words, the future’s looking rougher."
America - Segregation is Back
The United States has been wrestling with racial segregation for decades and, while considerable progress has been made in some areas, plenty remains to be fixed. But a new form of segregation is on the rise - wealth segregation. The gap between rich and poor is more than statistical.
A study by Brown University finds that income segregation is quickly rising in the US. It found that, in 1970, only 15% of Americans lived in communities that would be considered "affluent" or "poor." By 2010 those percentages had doubled. "Affluent" was defined as neighbourhoods in which the median income was 150% or more higher than the median income of their metropolitan areas. "Poor" was a neighbourhood with a median income 67% or less than the median of its metropolitan area. The rest lived in neighbourhoods of mixed income.
In other words, the rich are far more likely today to live with their own kind as are the poor. The report's authors found that the isolation of the rich today is much more intense than the evolving isolation of the poor.
“The increasing concentration of income and wealth in a small number of neighborhoods,” the two authors note, “results in greater disadvantages for the remaining neighborhoods where low- and middle-income families live.”
In 1991, Robert Reich defined the trend as the "succession of the successful."
While gated communities have become fairly commonplace, they're now being superceded by gated municipalities with their own schools, fire, police and utilities services. Within these muni-bubbles, the affluent essentially take care of themselves, free of the burden of supporting the less fortunate. It is a money-saving option for those with all the money. It also undermines social cohesion which, as argued here many times, is going to be one of the most critical factors in meeting the looming challenges of the 21st century. This is not the moment in time for America to embrace a "let them eat cake" mentality.
A study by Brown University finds that income segregation is quickly rising in the US. It found that, in 1970, only 15% of Americans lived in communities that would be considered "affluent" or "poor." By 2010 those percentages had doubled. "Affluent" was defined as neighbourhoods in which the median income was 150% or more higher than the median income of their metropolitan areas. "Poor" was a neighbourhood with a median income 67% or less than the median of its metropolitan area. The rest lived in neighbourhoods of mixed income.
In other words, the rich are far more likely today to live with their own kind as are the poor. The report's authors found that the isolation of the rich today is much more intense than the evolving isolation of the poor.
“The increasing concentration of income and wealth in a small number of neighborhoods,” the two authors note, “results in greater disadvantages for the remaining neighborhoods where low- and middle-income families live.”
In 1991, Robert Reich defined the trend as the "succession of the successful."
While gated communities have become fairly commonplace, they're now being superceded by gated municipalities with their own schools, fire, police and utilities services. Within these muni-bubbles, the affluent essentially take care of themselves, free of the burden of supporting the less fortunate. It is a money-saving option for those with all the money. It also undermines social cohesion which, as argued here many times, is going to be one of the most critical factors in meeting the looming challenges of the 21st century. This is not the moment in time for America to embrace a "let them eat cake" mentality.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Harper EnviroShill Kent Calls Opposition "Treacherous"
According to Harper's greasy EnviroShill, Peter Kent, two NDP MPs who went to Washington to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline were "treacherous."
"One of the opposition parties has taken the treacherous course of leaving the domestic debate and heading abroad to attack a legitimate Canadian resource which is being responsibly developed and regulated," Kent told reporters.
The Regime obviously believes that it alone is entitled to speak on issues abroad and others failing to keep their mouths shut are treacherous. Neither Kent nor Harper will comment on the remark. Swine, both of them.
"One of the opposition parties has taken the treacherous course of leaving the domestic debate and heading abroad to attack a legitimate Canadian resource which is being responsibly developed and regulated," Kent told reporters.
The Regime obviously believes that it alone is entitled to speak on issues abroad and others failing to keep their mouths shut are treacherous. Neither Kent nor Harper will comment on the remark. Swine, both of them.
We're Causing Climate Change. It's Here and It's Going to Keep Getting Worse.
So, it's official. The latest IPCC report is out and it does link man-made global warming directly to the climate change we've been experiencing. The report also concludes that man-made global warming will lead to a continuation of severe storm events of increasing intensity and frequency; cyclical droughts and floods, and sea level rise. In other words, bad as the weather has been the past several years, it's going to worsen for the foreseeable future - i.e. your lifetime, your kids' lifetimes and your grandkids' too.
It won't be the same everywhere. What's happening is still often unpredictable. Some regions will get inundated with rain when they don't need it and then suffer drought when they do. Other regions are simply drying up. Most places will be getting hotter, some a lot more so than others. Only now are we beginning to appreciate that, for the past many centuries, we've been living in a meteorological Eden with quite moderate temperatures, precipitation patterns and storm events. Now we're shifting into what, contrasted to our benign climate of the past, is considered extreme.
Take the American and Canadian mid-west, the heartland regions, the Great Plains, the prairie. When Europeans showed up they had no way of knowing this vast region was enjoying a protracted and abnormal "wet" period. There was a reason it was all grassland but we didn't twig to it. Prairie grasses dominated instead of boreal forest because its normal climate state featured extended, severe drought cycles. Some are now understood to have lasted up to 60-years at a stretch. The absence of forests in an otherwise heavily forested continent ought to have been a giveaway but we didn't get it. Oopsie!
Europeans stumbled upon an area ideal for agriculture. Easy to plough under. Flat. Ample (for the time) precipitation. Enormous stocks of freshwater in huge aquifers. Good growing season. And so we transformed it into our grain belt and for a good, long time it fed us and plenty of others abroad. We built communities and then cities along the breadth and width of the region although, blessedly, the populations remained fairly small.
The Americans fell for it hardest. They populated not only their prairie but even their deserts. Masses flocked to the southwest for the dry heat always assuming that hot and dry though it was there was still plenty of water for their needs. Another oopsie!
And it's hardly better in the US southeast. McClatchey Newspapers last month reported that Florida, Georgia and Alabama are locked in a fierce dispute over water rights. Unable to come to agreement about sharing their watersheds, the states are each pressuring the Army Corps of Engineers to come through, even threatening to sue the Corps if they don't get their way.
The Corps said it's trying to steer clear of picking sides in the regional squabble.
"We don't own the water — the water is owned by the states," said Rob Holland, a spokesman for the Corps' regional office in Atlanta. "We encourage the states to resolve their problems, but we can't solve them for them."
..."The drought in the Southeast is far more widespread," said Mike Hayes, the director of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. "People wonder, 'Can I ask my neighbor for water if they are in the same boat?' Other natural disasters, like hurricanes and floods, bring people together. Drought, if people aren't careful, can really set one sector against another sector and can create chronic tension."
But in the historically water-rich South, the battle over dwindling water sources already has turned nasty.
Georgia's congressional delegation is pushing legislation that would give all states the power to suspend the Endangered Species Act during extreme droughts, a move that would cut short Florida's claims to extra water.
"While they're worrying about an endangered species of mussels in Apalachicola, we're worried about the endangered people," Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said Thursday.
The turmoil of the US southeast illustrates how the future impacts of climate change can compound problems in "me first" societies where inequality is embraced as a bulwark against supposedly tyrannical socialism. It is why winning the battle against inequality - of wealth and opportunity - is a pressing concern. Adapting to what's coming is going to require the most cohesive societies possible and inequality fractures that cohesiveness.
Bad as the water problem is in the southeast, conditions are worse in the US southwest. A new report examining tree rings has found that megadroughts lasting upwards of 50-years and extending from New Mexico as far as Idaho can be found as far back as the second century.
Paleoclimatologist Connie Woodhouse, a co-author of the study that will be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, said scientists have wondered if the severe Western droughts that occurred between 900 and 1400 were unique.
The new tree ring record indicates they weren't -- and could occur again. “There is no good reason that we shouldn’t expect to have those,” Woodhouse said.
The southwest is currently reeling from a sustained, severe drought. In Texas, where governor Rick Perry denounces the very idea of man-made global warming and prays for rain instead, horse owners, unable to provide either feed or water to their animals, are simply abandoning them to face starvation.
Even once ever-soggy Britain worries about droughts continuing into next year.
The latest drought scenarios follow some of the driest weather since the Met Office records began in 1910, with rainfall in much of central England below 60% of the average for the last year, and much lower than that in some pockets. The mild, dry weather has continued into November in much of the UK, though regions in the north and west have become much wetter and colder.
The Met Office has told government emergency planning groups that there is only a low risk of an exceptionally dry year, however the European Centre for Medium Range Forecasting expects above average pressure over the next few months, which would usually lead to lower rainfall.
In a new approach, Thames Water, the country's biggest water supplier, said it was planning what is thought to be the first poster campaign showing customers the local river their water comes from in a bid to persuade more of them to help protect it while levels are low. Posters showing a pretty-looking stretch of the Kennet will be put up around Marlborough and Swindon in December as part of the push.
It won't be the same everywhere. What's happening is still often unpredictable. Some regions will get inundated with rain when they don't need it and then suffer drought when they do. Other regions are simply drying up. Most places will be getting hotter, some a lot more so than others. Only now are we beginning to appreciate that, for the past many centuries, we've been living in a meteorological Eden with quite moderate temperatures, precipitation patterns and storm events. Now we're shifting into what, contrasted to our benign climate of the past, is considered extreme.
Take the American and Canadian mid-west, the heartland regions, the Great Plains, the prairie. When Europeans showed up they had no way of knowing this vast region was enjoying a protracted and abnormal "wet" period. There was a reason it was all grassland but we didn't twig to it. Prairie grasses dominated instead of boreal forest because its normal climate state featured extended, severe drought cycles. Some are now understood to have lasted up to 60-years at a stretch. The absence of forests in an otherwise heavily forested continent ought to have been a giveaway but we didn't get it. Oopsie!
Europeans stumbled upon an area ideal for agriculture. Easy to plough under. Flat. Ample (for the time) precipitation. Enormous stocks of freshwater in huge aquifers. Good growing season. And so we transformed it into our grain belt and for a good, long time it fed us and plenty of others abroad. We built communities and then cities along the breadth and width of the region although, blessedly, the populations remained fairly small.
The Americans fell for it hardest. They populated not only their prairie but even their deserts. Masses flocked to the southwest for the dry heat always assuming that hot and dry though it was there was still plenty of water for their needs. Another oopsie!
And it's hardly better in the US southeast. McClatchey Newspapers last month reported that Florida, Georgia and Alabama are locked in a fierce dispute over water rights. Unable to come to agreement about sharing their watersheds, the states are each pressuring the Army Corps of Engineers to come through, even threatening to sue the Corps if they don't get their way.
The Corps said it's trying to steer clear of picking sides in the regional squabble.
"We don't own the water — the water is owned by the states," said Rob Holland, a spokesman for the Corps' regional office in Atlanta. "We encourage the states to resolve their problems, but we can't solve them for them."
..."The drought in the Southeast is far more widespread," said Mike Hayes, the director of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. "People wonder, 'Can I ask my neighbor for water if they are in the same boat?' Other natural disasters, like hurricanes and floods, bring people together. Drought, if people aren't careful, can really set one sector against another sector and can create chronic tension."
But in the historically water-rich South, the battle over dwindling water sources already has turned nasty.
Georgia's congressional delegation is pushing legislation that would give all states the power to suspend the Endangered Species Act during extreme droughts, a move that would cut short Florida's claims to extra water.
"While they're worrying about an endangered species of mussels in Apalachicola, we're worried about the endangered people," Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said Thursday.
The turmoil of the US southeast illustrates how the future impacts of climate change can compound problems in "me first" societies where inequality is embraced as a bulwark against supposedly tyrannical socialism. It is why winning the battle against inequality - of wealth and opportunity - is a pressing concern. Adapting to what's coming is going to require the most cohesive societies possible and inequality fractures that cohesiveness.
Bad as the water problem is in the southeast, conditions are worse in the US southwest. A new report examining tree rings has found that megadroughts lasting upwards of 50-years and extending from New Mexico as far as Idaho can be found as far back as the second century.
Paleoclimatologist Connie Woodhouse, a co-author of the study that will be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, said scientists have wondered if the severe Western droughts that occurred between 900 and 1400 were unique.
The new tree ring record indicates they weren't -- and could occur again. “There is no good reason that we shouldn’t expect to have those,” Woodhouse said.
The southwest is currently reeling from a sustained, severe drought. In Texas, where governor Rick Perry denounces the very idea of man-made global warming and prays for rain instead, horse owners, unable to provide either feed or water to their animals, are simply abandoning them to face starvation.
Even once ever-soggy Britain worries about droughts continuing into next year.
The latest drought scenarios follow some of the driest weather since the Met Office records began in 1910, with rainfall in much of central England below 60% of the average for the last year, and much lower than that in some pockets. The mild, dry weather has continued into November in much of the UK, though regions in the north and west have become much wetter and colder.
The Met Office has told government emergency planning groups that there is only a low risk of an exceptionally dry year, however the European Centre for Medium Range Forecasting expects above average pressure over the next few months, which would usually lead to lower rainfall.
In a new approach, Thames Water, the country's biggest water supplier, said it was planning what is thought to be the first poster campaign showing customers the local river their water comes from in a bid to persuade more of them to help protect it while levels are low. Posters showing a pretty-looking stretch of the Kennet will be put up around Marlborough and Swindon in December as part of the push.
Herman Cain, Save Your Campaign. Shut Up!
Like Rick Perry, Herman Cain's worst political enemy is his mouth. Once he opens that, gibberish pours out, decidedly unpresidential gibberish.
Herman has told the world that China is a threat because it is actively seeking nuclear weapons, oblivious to the fact China has had a nuclear arsenal for a scant half a century. Then the pizzaman couldn't explain whether he supported the Libyan opposition that had ousted Muammar Gaddafi. The best he could come up with was a rambling, incoherent explanation that Obama hadn't handled it right and he would do better.
Herman Cain apparently realized his Libyan gaffe had been serious so he wasted no time setting the record straight by claiming the Taliban and al-Qaeda are about to become part of the new Libyan government.
"Do I agree with siding with the opposition? Do I agree with saying that Gaddafi should go? Do I agree that they now have a country where you've got Taliban and al-Qaida that's going to be part of the government?"
I don't know, Herman, do you?
Herman has told the world that China is a threat because it is actively seeking nuclear weapons, oblivious to the fact China has had a nuclear arsenal for a scant half a century. Then the pizzaman couldn't explain whether he supported the Libyan opposition that had ousted Muammar Gaddafi. The best he could come up with was a rambling, incoherent explanation that Obama hadn't handled it right and he would do better.
Herman Cain apparently realized his Libyan gaffe had been serious so he wasted no time setting the record straight by claiming the Taliban and al-Qaeda are about to become part of the new Libyan government.
"Do I agree with siding with the opposition? Do I agree with saying that Gaddafi should go? Do I agree that they now have a country where you've got Taliban and al-Qaida that's going to be part of the government?"
I don't know, Herman, do you?
Thursday, November 17, 2011
When They Preach Austerity, They're Just Screwin' With You
Western leaders weren't listening in 2006 and 2007 when genuine "thinking" economists like Krugman and Stiglitz were warning that their house of cards was about to collapse. Even self-proclaimed economists like Harper ignored them and later said no one could see the collapse of 2008 coming. No one who couldn't be bothered to listen.
And they're not listening now - on either side of the Atlantic. Genuine economists are warning this is no time for austerity crackdowns. You don't go the austerity route, they warn, until your economy is back on its feet. Premature cutbacks will only worsen the situation.
Now, it seems, the Euros are coming to realize these guys are right - austerity doesn't pay off.
"...suddenly, as investors’ fears mount that many euro area nations are about to tip into recession, even countries like creditworthy France are finding it much more expensive to borrow money in the open market. And with that development comes a dawning realization: that austerity, rather than making it easier for them to pay down their higher debts, could make it harder — and more expensive."
Ireland should have been the miners' canary. The Irish government slashed spending and benefits and all it got for it was even higher costs on government bonds. Austerity measures both undermined economic activity and increased the government's cost of borrowing. Brilliant, eh?
And they're not listening now - on either side of the Atlantic. Genuine economists are warning this is no time for austerity crackdowns. You don't go the austerity route, they warn, until your economy is back on its feet. Premature cutbacks will only worsen the situation.
Now, it seems, the Euros are coming to realize these guys are right - austerity doesn't pay off.
"...suddenly, as investors’ fears mount that many euro area nations are about to tip into recession, even countries like creditworthy France are finding it much more expensive to borrow money in the open market. And with that development comes a dawning realization: that austerity, rather than making it easier for them to pay down their higher debts, could make it harder — and more expensive."
Ireland should have been the miners' canary. The Irish government slashed spending and benefits and all it got for it was even higher costs on government bonds. Austerity measures both undermined economic activity and increased the government's cost of borrowing. Brilliant, eh?
A Call to Arms - The Case For Fighting Back Against the Northern Gateway Pipeline
Rafe Mair, writing in The Tyee, makes a powerfully compelling argument for British Columbians to do whatever it takes to stop Harper and Alberta from imperiling our province's coastline with tar sands supertanker traffic.
It's not a matter of if there's an accident, it's only a matter of time and it's only a question of how often and how much devastation will be inflicted on British Columbia. Mair predicts that British Columbians will turn out en masse to stop this monstrosity and warns that we must be prepared to go to jail for it. But he adds that if enough of us stand against it there won't be remotely enough cells to hold us.
Something else there won't be. There won't be a provincial government willing to risk the electoral blowback of sitting back as hundreds, probably thousands of its voters are bused off to jails for their beliefs. It's one thing to throw reprobates behind bars. It's another matter all together to imprison previously law-abiding, upstanding citizens for acting as their collective conscience dictates.
I personally have no experience of this sort of civil disobedience. But there's always a first time for just about everything.
While I have framed this as a British Columbia issue, it's actually a national issue. If you're not from BC you need to ask yourself if you're prepared to sit by and let Harper do this to your Canada? Are you willing to take a stand against this? I also hope that a good many of the Keystone XL dissidents throw their support behind the effort to kill off the Northern Gateway. If we're going to stop a despot like Harper and his tar sands patrons, we're going to need all the help we can get.
Please read Rafe Mair's column. Then follow this link to see an interactive graphic of what will happen to the British Columbia coast when the tanker accidents begin. If you haven't experienced the Hecate Strait it's really difficult to convey just how violent and treacherous those waters can be and how rapidly the strait can go from calm to outright fury. I nearly drowned there, saved only by being able to keep bailing until a sudden storm just as suddenly passed. I have seen a very large yacht whose deck and cabin had been peeled back like a sardine tin from just one wave. As noted by EnergyBC, storm waves of 20-30 metres have been recorded in that strait. Now try to visualize a wall of water 100-feet in height. "Of particular concern is the rapidity within which the seas can increase, often within hours." I have lived to tell you that is no exaggeration. And yet Harper and his home province think it's just dandy for heavily laden supertankers to ply those waters? To hell with them.
---
By the way, the Hecate for whom the strait is named was the Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, ghosts and necromancy. Her name was slapped on that strait for very good reason. Liberal Supporter kindly drew my attention to the 2008 Canadian/US Coast Guard report on the Tanker Exclusion Zone for the BC coast.
So how do they figure out the Tanker Exclusion Zone? Brace yourself. The TEZ line defines an area off the BC coast where a disabled tanker would likely drift ashore before rescue tugs could reach it in "unfavourable weather conditions." Yet that fiend Harper is content to have 220 tankers transiting directly across that zone, rolling the dice, every year.
It's not a matter of if there's an accident, it's only a matter of time and it's only a question of how often and how much devastation will be inflicted on British Columbia. Mair predicts that British Columbians will turn out en masse to stop this monstrosity and warns that we must be prepared to go to jail for it. But he adds that if enough of us stand against it there won't be remotely enough cells to hold us.
Something else there won't be. There won't be a provincial government willing to risk the electoral blowback of sitting back as hundreds, probably thousands of its voters are bused off to jails for their beliefs. It's one thing to throw reprobates behind bars. It's another matter all together to imprison previously law-abiding, upstanding citizens for acting as their collective conscience dictates.
I personally have no experience of this sort of civil disobedience. But there's always a first time for just about everything.
While I have framed this as a British Columbia issue, it's actually a national issue. If you're not from BC you need to ask yourself if you're prepared to sit by and let Harper do this to your Canada? Are you willing to take a stand against this? I also hope that a good many of the Keystone XL dissidents throw their support behind the effort to kill off the Northern Gateway. If we're going to stop a despot like Harper and his tar sands patrons, we're going to need all the help we can get.
Please read Rafe Mair's column. Then follow this link to see an interactive graphic of what will happen to the British Columbia coast when the tanker accidents begin. If you haven't experienced the Hecate Strait it's really difficult to convey just how violent and treacherous those waters can be and how rapidly the strait can go from calm to outright fury. I nearly drowned there, saved only by being able to keep bailing until a sudden storm just as suddenly passed. I have seen a very large yacht whose deck and cabin had been peeled back like a sardine tin from just one wave. As noted by EnergyBC, storm waves of 20-30 metres have been recorded in that strait. Now try to visualize a wall of water 100-feet in height. "Of particular concern is the rapidity within which the seas can increase, often within hours." I have lived to tell you that is no exaggeration. And yet Harper and his home province think it's just dandy for heavily laden supertankers to ply those waters? To hell with them.
---
By the way, the Hecate for whom the strait is named was the Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, ghosts and necromancy. Her name was slapped on that strait for very good reason. Liberal Supporter kindly drew my attention to the 2008 Canadian/US Coast Guard report on the Tanker Exclusion Zone for the BC coast.
So how do they figure out the Tanker Exclusion Zone? Brace yourself. The TEZ line defines an area off the BC coast where a disabled tanker would likely drift ashore before rescue tugs could reach it in "unfavourable weather conditions." Yet that fiend Harper is content to have 220 tankers transiting directly across that zone, rolling the dice, every year.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Dear Alison, You Can Shove Your Tar Up Your Ass As Far As I'm Concerned, Just Keep It Out of BC
Alberta's premier, Alison Redford, complains that public policy is shaping Canada's energy future. Well Alison, so what? What's so damned toxic special about Alberta bitumen that it should be exempt from public policy?
Now that the Keystone XL pipeline proposal is temporarily delayed, Alison is foaming at the mouth for the Northern Gateway pipeline to carry her province's shit across British Columbia's mountain ranges and into our fjord for tanker shipment to Asia. She knows without a troublesome pipeline through some stranger's backyard she's stuck with a load of useless crap. And trust me, Alison, when it comes to Alberta and British Columbia, we're strangers. We know you'll go the "stranger" route when something goes wrong in the treacherous waters around Kitimat and a load of that toxic sludge contaminates those pristine waters and coastline.
We know it's not oil you're selling, Alison. We know it's the pitch our natives once used to seal the bottom of their canoes. We also know the stuff you run through those pipelines is heavily laced with abrasives, corrosive chemicals, toxins, even carcinogens. We know the stuff literally 'eats' pipelines. We know that pipelines and seismically active regions are a bad mix. We know that oil tankers have no business navigating the waters around Kitimat. We know that nobody - not the Feds, not Enbridge, not the government of Alberta - is going to maintain the extensive, fully-manned emergency ships and equipment that'll be needed immediately if there's a tanker wreck in those waters. We know that Alberta is getting all the money and we'll be taking all the risks. We know Alberta bullshit when we get a whiff of your breath.
There's a basketful of very good reasons the Americans don't want that pipeline, Alison. And British Columbia has all those reasons and a great many more for saying "no" to the Northern Gateway. There's going to be war.
Now that the Keystone XL pipeline proposal is temporarily delayed, Alison is foaming at the mouth for the Northern Gateway pipeline to carry her province's shit across British Columbia's mountain ranges and into our fjord for tanker shipment to Asia. She knows without a troublesome pipeline through some stranger's backyard she's stuck with a load of useless crap. And trust me, Alison, when it comes to Alberta and British Columbia, we're strangers. We know you'll go the "stranger" route when something goes wrong in the treacherous waters around Kitimat and a load of that toxic sludge contaminates those pristine waters and coastline.
We know it's not oil you're selling, Alison. We know it's the pitch our natives once used to seal the bottom of their canoes. We also know the stuff you run through those pipelines is heavily laced with abrasives, corrosive chemicals, toxins, even carcinogens. We know the stuff literally 'eats' pipelines. We know that pipelines and seismically active regions are a bad mix. We know that oil tankers have no business navigating the waters around Kitimat. We know that nobody - not the Feds, not Enbridge, not the government of Alberta - is going to maintain the extensive, fully-manned emergency ships and equipment that'll be needed immediately if there's a tanker wreck in those waters. We know that Alberta is getting all the money and we'll be taking all the risks. We know Alberta bullshit when we get a whiff of your breath.
There's a basketful of very good reasons the Americans don't want that pipeline, Alison. And British Columbia has all those reasons and a great many more for saying "no" to the Northern Gateway. There's going to be war.
The Goldman Technocrats Take the Throne in Europe
Did Goldman Sachs play a key role in Europe's fiscal meltdown and are Goldman Sachs alumni now moving into top positions in the most unstable Euro nations? Apparently so. This one's a true eye-opener.
"According to its detractors, the European network of influence woven by American bank Goldman Sachs (GS) functions like a freemasonry. To diverse degrees, the new European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, the newly designated Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Monti, and the freshly appointed Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos are totemic figures in this carefully constructed web.
"Draghi was Goldman Sachs International’s vice-chairman for Europe between 2002 and 2005, a position that put him in charge of the the “companies and sovereign” department, which shortly before his arrival, helped Greece to disguise the real nature of its books with a swap on its sovereign debt.
"Monti was an international adviser to Goldman Sachs from 2005 until his nomination to lead the Italian government. According to the bank, his mission was to provide advice "on European business and major public policy initiatives worldwide". As such, he was a "door opener" with a brief to defend Goldman’s interest in the corridors of power in Europe.
"The third man, Lucas Papademos, was the governor of the Greek central bank from 1994 to 2002. In this capacity, he played a role that has yet to be elucidated in the operation to mask debt on his country’s books, perpetrated with assistance from Goldman Sachs. And perhaps more importantly, the current chairman of Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency, Petros Christodoulos, also worked as a trader for the bank in London.
:Two other heavyweight members of Goldman’s European network have also figured large in the euro crisis: Otmar Issing, a former member of the Bundesbank board of directors and a one-time chief economist of the European Central Bank, and Ireland’s Peter Sutherland, an administrator for Goldman Sachs International, who played a behind the scenes role in the Irish bailout."
"...In Europe, on the other hand, Goldman Sachs has worked to accumulate a capital of relationships. But unlike its competitors, the bank has no interest in retired diplomats, highly placed national and international civil servants, or even former prime ministers and ministers of finance. Goldman’s priority has been to target central bankers and former European commissioners.
"Its main goal is to legally collect information on initiatives in the near future and on the interest rates set by central banks. At the same time, Goldman likes its agents to remain discreet. That is why its loyal subjects prefer not to mention their filiation in interviews or in the course of official missions.
"These well-connected former employees simply have to talk about this and that secure in the knowledge that their prestige will inevitably be rewarded with outspoken frankness on the part of those in powerful positions. Put simply they are there to see "which way the wind is blowing," and thereafter to relay exclusive information to the bank’s trading rooms."
Just keep telling yourself that nothing's changed, the oligarchy hasn't taken over, they don't really hold the levers of power, we don't need protest movements like Occupy.
The Danube Runs Dry
The UN recently issued a report warning of the effects of global warming on the world's major river systems. Increased evaporation, drought and irregular rainfalls are expected to leave water levels chaotic. Even Europe isn't immune. Drought this summer hit the Danube, Europe's second biggest river system, and closed much of it to navigation.
"Problems on the long waterway are literally coming to the surface. In Prahovo, a harbour in Serbia, due to the low water level, the rusty bows of German ships from the Second World War can be seen pointing skywards. The Germans scuttled a fleet there in the summer of 1944 to prevent ordnance coming into the hands of the advancing Russians and partisans. There are still 22 German vessels on the Serbian riverbed and more than one hundred on the Romanian side.
"Problems on the long waterway are literally coming to the surface. In Prahovo, a harbour in Serbia, due to the low water level, the rusty bows of German ships from the Second World War can be seen pointing skywards. The Germans scuttled a fleet there in the summer of 1944 to prevent ordnance coming into the hands of the advancing Russians and partisans. There are still 22 German vessels on the Serbian riverbed and more than one hundred on the Romanian side.
"It is an inheritance that you are normally unaware of. Experienced captains have been navigating around them for decades. In the same way as they have also been slaloming around the shallows and guarding against dropping their anchors in one of the eight areas in Serbia where the river possibly conceals unexploded bombs from the NATO airstrikes in 1999.
"...Due to the low water, cargo vessels with a draught exceeding 1.70 metres can hardly progress. They face a seven-hundred-kilometre stop-and-start journey along dry, yellow riverbanks to the Black Sea. Tens of them have run aground on sandbanks, hundreds of cargoes face delay or have been transferred to trains and trucks."
In Romania, this cruise ship ran aground. The passengers were offloaded and bused to Bucharest.
"The Romanian Transport Ministry has recently asked the Government for EUR 1 million (RON 4 million) to unblock the 257 ships that are blocked on the Danube as water levels have dropped in recent days, and to remove the “risk situation”. The Ministry didn’t specify what method will be used to do so."
We'd better get used to it. This is the new normal and that means we're all going to have to spend an awful lot of money on climate change adaptation. Sooner or later you have to pay the piper.Father Knew Best - Not Really.
It seems our European cousins are coming to grips with the utter madness of the past. Along the Atlantic coast and in the Baltic sea thousands of tonnes of chemical weapons littering the seabed are close to corroding through.
"Nobody knows exactly how many discarded chemical weapons are hidden in the waters around Europe. For instance, in the Baltic, where after World War II the Allies dumped munitions originating from German arsenals, there are at least 40,000 tonnes, of which at least 13,000 tonnes contain poisonous substances. A sixth of this amount would be sufficient to kill all life in the Baltic for a hundred years.
"Not a reassuring idea, for anyone who knows that mustard gas, chloropicrin, phosgene, diphosgene and arsenic compounds are packed in cases and drums that will rust through sooner or later. No one knows when this will happen, but it is certain to.
"Ten years ago, the Russian scientist Aleksander Korotenko predicted that somewhere between 2020 and 2060 the corrosion will have progressed so far that the poison will start to leak out. Sixteen percent is sufficient to wipe out all life in the Baltic."
The best thing the Euros have going for them is that these discarded weapons will release their toxins gradually and over a very wide area. That's about the best that can be hoped for. The weapons are now far too dangerous to attempt to recover. That would pose an unacceptable risk of a major poison discharge.
"Nobody knows exactly how many discarded chemical weapons are hidden in the waters around Europe. For instance, in the Baltic, where after World War II the Allies dumped munitions originating from German arsenals, there are at least 40,000 tonnes, of which at least 13,000 tonnes contain poisonous substances. A sixth of this amount would be sufficient to kill all life in the Baltic for a hundred years.
"Not a reassuring idea, for anyone who knows that mustard gas, chloropicrin, phosgene, diphosgene and arsenic compounds are packed in cases and drums that will rust through sooner or later. No one knows when this will happen, but it is certain to.
"Ten years ago, the Russian scientist Aleksander Korotenko predicted that somewhere between 2020 and 2060 the corrosion will have progressed so far that the poison will start to leak out. Sixteen percent is sufficient to wipe out all life in the Baltic."
The best thing the Euros have going for them is that these discarded weapons will release their toxins gradually and over a very wide area. That's about the best that can be hoped for. The weapons are now far too dangerous to attempt to recover. That would pose an unacceptable risk of a major poison discharge.
A Few Good Men
Canada may be a Pacific Rim country just not, perhaps, to our corporate news media. There's a lot happening in the South-Asia/East Asia arc involving China, India, the United States and, most recently, Australia. Too bad Canadians hear so little of it.
Washington has now reached a deal with Canberra to deploy a permanent force of 2,500 US Marines to Australia. The message is clear.
China has issued its own ominous warning to Australia about the price it may have to pay.
India, meanwhile, has been bumping shoulders with China in the South China Sea where India has joined with Vietnam to collaborate on a resource venture in territory that China claims as its own. India's new "blue water" navy has already stated its goal of establishing sea control from the Bay of Bengal to the Kuril Islands which, quite coincidentally, blankets China's entire coastline.
The Chinese media has released new criticisms of India's military buildup. The People's Daily says India's policy is three dimensional.
"One, India needs to exaggerate the ‘threat perception’ in order to justify its defence budget and arms purchases at a time when the economy is slowing. Two, India is adopting a ‘containment’ policy toward China. Three, India hopes to gain US’s military and political support. "
And, as if tensions with India weren't enough, now China is said to be facing a showdown with a joint US-Philippine resource venture in the South China Sea.
"Tensions over the oil-rich and strategically important South China Sea have escalated as Chinese state media accused the US and the Philippines of planning a ''grab'' for its resources.
Washington has now reached a deal with Canberra to deploy a permanent force of 2,500 US Marines to Australia. The message is clear.
"...Obama said the US was "stepping up its commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific", not excluding China.
"The main message that I've said, not only publicly but also privately to China, is that with their rise comes increased responsibility," he said.
"It is important for them to play by the rules of the road."
China has issued its own ominous warning to Australia about the price it may have to pay.
"The Global Times, a newspaper produced by the Communist Party-controlled People's Daily group, has been much more bellicose, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing.
"An editorial warned it was "certain" that if "Australia uses its military bases to help the US harm Chinese interests, then Australia itself will be caught in the crossfire".
India, meanwhile, has been bumping shoulders with China in the South China Sea where India has joined with Vietnam to collaborate on a resource venture in territory that China claims as its own. India's new "blue water" navy has already stated its goal of establishing sea control from the Bay of Bengal to the Kuril Islands which, quite coincidentally, blankets China's entire coastline.
The Chinese media has released new criticisms of India's military buildup. The People's Daily says India's policy is three dimensional.
"One, India needs to exaggerate the ‘threat perception’ in order to justify its defence budget and arms purchases at a time when the economy is slowing. Two, India is adopting a ‘containment’ policy toward China. Three, India hopes to gain US’s military and political support. "
And, as if tensions with India weren't enough, now China is said to be facing a showdown with a joint US-Philippine resource venture in the South China Sea.
"Tensions over the oil-rich and strategically important South China Sea have escalated as Chinese state media accused the US and the Philippines of planning a ''grab'' for its resources.
"The South China Sea is a potential flashpoint between the US and China as the two powers seek to assert their diplomatic, economic and security interests in Asia, the fastest growing region in the world.
"The US has leapt on nervousness among smaller Asian nations about China's growing military might and bellicose diplomacy to reassert its long-standing role as an anchor of security in Asia, even as its economic importance wanes."
Did a Fanatic Fire on the White House?
There's a warrant out for Oscar Romero Ortega, suspected of firing a couple of shots at the White House Friday evening. According to BBC News there is evidence one round hit a White House window and two bullet casings have been recovered on the grounds.
Evidence links Ortega as the possible shooter. So who is this guy and what would drive him to grab an AK-47 and fire on the White House. Here's his description:
"Mr Ortega is described as a white Hispanic male of medium build, with several distinguishing tattoos - including three dots on his right hand, his name across his back and the word Israel tattooed on his neck."
Update:
Police have arrested Oscar Romero Ortega-Hernandez near Indiana, Pa. Secret Service agents in Pittsburgh were said to have tracked down the 21-year old Idaho man.
Evidence links Ortega as the possible shooter. So who is this guy and what would drive him to grab an AK-47 and fire on the White House. Here's his description:
"Mr Ortega is described as a white Hispanic male of medium build, with several distinguishing tattoos - including three dots on his right hand, his name across his back and the word Israel tattooed on his neck."
Update:
Police have arrested Oscar Romero Ortega-Hernandez near Indiana, Pa. Secret Service agents in Pittsburgh were said to have tracked down the 21-year old Idaho man.
F-35 In Free Fall?
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| Look, It's a Turkey - Sitting in Front of a Turkey |
The way things are going, the F-35 may save Canada from getting F-35'd. Every couple of weeks I Google F-35 to harvest the latest litany of gaffes, setbacks and blunders surrounding Lockheed's vaunted Joint Strike Fighter.
The U.S. is watching potential foreign orders turn all wobbly. The Pentagon is counting on those sales to keep its own unit costs for the F-35 in some manageable range. Already the Pentagon has cut the number of F-35s it'll buy but that was in order to keep the overall cost from bursting through projected costs. In other words, it will buy fewer airframes but at greater unit cost - standard Pentagon sleight of hand.
So, how desperate is the Pentagon to flog the F-35 overseas? Plenty desperate as India recently discovered. The US offered the fighter to the Indian Air Force. The offer was said to reflect America's new defence partnership with India. But, when Indian authorities looked into what was behind the unsolicited American offer they discovered the real reason was panic over collapsing overseas sales. The Pentagon wanted Indian orders to bolster the programme.
"...the analysts' "discovery" is that the US has desperately sought Indian participation in the JSF's development as the program faces unaffordable rising costs, with a price tag estimated at $150 million per aircraft. In sum, the JSF has become a white elephant and, hopefully, cross breeding it with the Indian black elephant might just about make its uncertain progeny probably airworthy as a beast of burden.
"The tragi-comic episode exposes an aspect of the US-India "partnership" hardly glimpsed by Indian pundits, namely, the desperate need for the US to conjure up an ideology-driven relationship that enables it in real terms to boost its exports to the Indian markets - the latter being one of the few world markets today enjoying growth prospects of around 7-8% in its gross domestic product (GDP)."
Meanwhile The Guardian reports that the US Marine Corps, scheduled to be a big buyer of the F-35, has inked a deal to acquire all of Britain's now mothballed, second generation Harrier jump jets.
"Speaking to the NavyTimes, Rear Admiral Mark Heinrich, chief of the US Navy's supply corps, said buying the Harriers made sense because many of the jets had been recently upgraded, and the US already had pilots who could fly them.
"We're taking advantage of all the money the Brits have spent on them," he said. "It's like we're buying a car with maybe 15,000 miles on it. These are very good platforms."
But, fellas, if you buy those 74-Harriers from the Brits, how are you going to scrape up extra money for that brand new F-35? It sure sounds as though "The Corps" isn't holding its breath waiting for Lockheed's wunderplane to show up in USMC hangars.
In Ottawa, the Harper government has shown its standard cavalier disregard of facts and still insists Canada will get the F-35 for between $70-80 million a copy even though the current estimated US and foreign price is pegged at $150-million. Hey, what's 150 times 65? Gee, that's only $250-million shy of a trillion dollars for an airplane that makes no sense whatsoever. Then again we'll need that extra $250-mill to cover the costs of replacement aircraft for fighters lost in service. So, let's just call it an even trillion bucks. A TRILLION Freaking Dollars for an airplane that'll probably be obsolete by the time it finally shows up in Canadian Air Force hangars? Really?
In Washington, DefSec Panetta is warning Congress that the F-35 programme could well be on the block if the supercommittee opts for across-the-board budget cuts that hit the US military. Congress may not get it but it sure sounds as though the US Marine Corps has seen the writing on the wall. Semper Fi.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Guardian Exposes Harper's War on the Environment
Steve Harper said he'd put Canada on the map and he has, in spades. Harper has drawn plenty of world attention to Canada. Regrettably, it's uniformly bad.
The Guardian has chronicled Harper's devious schemes to gut environmentalism in Canada, beginning with extensive spending cuts. It would be one thing if that Born Again bastard was man enough to admit what he's doing and defend his actions. But the lard-assed authoritarian with his beach blanket bingo hairdo simply lies about what he's up to behind the backs of the Canadian people.
As the newspaper points out, Harper is slashing budgets at Environment Canada even as he's determined to squander $30-billion on dodgy fighter aircraft.
The Guardian has chronicled Harper's devious schemes to gut environmentalism in Canada, beginning with extensive spending cuts. It would be one thing if that Born Again bastard was man enough to admit what he's doing and defend his actions. But the lard-assed authoritarian with his beach blanket bingo hairdo simply lies about what he's up to behind the backs of the Canadian people.
As the newspaper points out, Harper is slashing budgets at Environment Canada even as he's determined to squander $30-billion on dodgy fighter aircraft.
"Among the first acts of the Harper government was to cut our funding to zero," said Hannah McKinnon of the Climate Action Network Canada(CAN Canada), an environmental NGO that used to get some government funding prior to the 2006 election.
CAN Canada has obtained some funding from its more than 80 member civil society organisations. It acts as the coordinator on climate issues, and once worked with government to improve programmes and policies for the benefit of all Canadians. Now has become the de facto watchdog on government promises and actions to tackle climate change.
Instead of actions, the Harper government makes promises and pushes propaganda that the economy is more important and that protecting the environment comes at too high a cost, she said. The only action being taken is at the local and provincial level, McKinnon added.
"If there is a need to reduce the federal budget deficit, why is Canada continuing to give the oil and gas industry 1.4 billion dollars (1.3 billion U.S.) in subsidies every year?" she asked.
Harper promised to end these government subsidies in 2009. The International Monetary Fund, the International Energy Agency, the United Nations and many others have called for an end to such subsidies to the world's most profitable industry.
"Canada can't afford to pay scientists but we can line the pockets of big oil? That is totally backwards," McKinnon said.
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