It sure hasn't been cold here in southwestern Oregon! This winter we've had very little rain compared to most winters. Sorta like psuedo spring. I love the nice weather but I worry about drought. The same thing seems to be happening in California.

Meanwhile the fossil fuel shills just won't shut up. Any time I see an article on Der Spiegel about climate-related topics, those damn fools are on it like brown on poop, filling the accompanying blog with their science-bashing crap. Corporate propaganda never takes a vacation! We get it all the time, from every imaginable source, and we must condition ourselves to ignore it. After all, the only people worth hearing on this issue are the scientists. I never cease to be amazed by the arrogance of industry shills who have the bloody audacity to be arguing with actual experts on this subject. It really is outrageous, how those who've spent their lives studying climate science should have to come up against this sort of stridentl, aggressive, willful ignorance.

Fifty years ago, who could have anticipated the tyranny that the fossil fuel industry would come to represent? The bloated price we pay at the pump is the least of it, folks. Just think of the wars we keep fighting over oil! Think of the millions of deaths, worldwide: not only from all the innocents massacred in those wars, but from the pollution of cancer-causing chemicals contaminating our air and water! Think of the "eminant domain" property owners suddenly find themselves up against, with these industry hacks determined to steal their land! Think of the oil spills, the disasters, the earthquakes caused by fracking.... where does it end?!

And let's not forget another major culprit behind global warming: corporate farming! Both these industries pose a threat to our very existence. Our way of life is long overdue for an overhaul. - Aliceinwonderland

Aliceinwonderland ~ You sure are right about the same thing happening in California; and, I'm lovin' it. There is a present danger of drought; however, that is mostly for the south. We here in the north aren't too worried yet.

When you say, "...sort of strident, aggressive, willful ignorance," you pretty much describe the entire country. Currently, we are being conditioned to idolize this sort of irresponsible behavior. Science and education is the enemy. People are acting accordingly. I see it even amongst the more skilled and educated crowd. Ignorance and lack of respect for expertise is alive and prospering in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Finally...

Quote Aliceinwonderland:Our way of life is long overdue for an overhaul.

Brilliantly, ironically, and poetically said.

I hear that things are getting pretty dry in California these days. Reservoirs drying up. What ever happened to Hetch Hetchy? So, some groups want to restore the valley to it's original pristine greatness while risking the severity of droughts. And then there's the battle between the people who make a living from fish in the northern states (fish dying of lack of water taken by agribusiness) and the agribusinesses in the south who need to irrigate.

I wonder if they still have those signs along HWY 5 in California that say something like "Congress created wasteland"? I always thought these right-wing agribusiness welfare queens thought that God was the all powerful entity that we should thank for plenty of water and good weather and Satan was the entity that managed to foul things up. Maybe those signs should say "Satan created wasteland" or "Not-such-a-powerful God created wasteland".

Here in Chicago we had 18 below. As late as the late '80s we routiinely had 30 below before the wind was factored in about 5-10 days a year.

For every record low there are 10 record highs.

"chuckle" - If I don't know an exact figure (be it a number of years or whatever), I tend to go conservative. Better to under-guess than overestimate. And I love the blunt, take-no-prisoners title of Dylan Ratigan's book!

Anyway I vaguely remember reading the story behind the invention of the automobile. From my 21st Century perspective, it is crazy-making to learn how conscious the decision was, to develop gas-guzzling engines rather than utilizing available alternatives such as electricity, or other kinds of fuel (like hemp, as Marc keeps emphasizing). As always, that decision was based not on what's best for society, for the environment or for the world, but on the option with the greatest potential for monopoly and profit. And I shudder to think of all the carnage and destruction we have to thank those corporate hacks for, choosing fossil fuel over other options. That same motive was behind the decision to configure cities around individually owned vehicles rather than public transportation. In both cases, private profits trumped the interests of the people, the environment and ultimately, world peace & stability.

Long as we have corporations calling the shots, this is what we get. While we are kept dependent on their products, vulnerable to gouging and extortion (and in some cases, land theft), we are forced to deal with their industrial pollution, their disasters and catastrophes, along with a steady stream of needless, unnecessary wars. Because capitalism SUCKS. Thom Hartmann acknowledges that capitalism is psychpathic at its core, and says it needs to be heavily regulated. Personally, I think it should be phased out and replaced by something better. As history clearly shows, whatever regulations are in place to keep the greedy bastards under control wind up nullified sooner or later; thus we have these eighty-year cycles of boom & bust, boom & bust... With the world population growing ever more dense while technology keeps advancing, these cycles are growing deadlier with farther-reaching consequences. Time to leave capitalism in the dustbin of history where it belongs. - Aliceinwonderland

Quote Kend:propaganda DAnne there has been thousands of lies on the global warming side. I am not saying the climate hasn't been changing. It has been changing for millions of years. But suggesting fracking is causing earthquakes is propaganda at its best. It works thought you bought into it.

Kend ~ As usual it is YOU who are full of mistakes. I never said fracking causes earthquakes. I don't know that. It might. It damn sure contaminates underground drinking water. As far as I'm concerned, that's enough! I also said something is up with our climate and carbon emissions seems like a likely candidate. I also said no one knows for sure what the hell is going on. If your supposition is right, we very well may be headed toward another Ice Age. Not good for you! If I were you I'd bet on global warming. At least that is something you can do something about. If I recall my geography lessons correctly, in the last Ice Age Canada and most of the US was buried under an ice sheet thick enough to completely cover the Empire State building.

You're right about there being a lot of BS floating around about what is going on. However, the scientists I trust the most are the one's that admit they don't have a clue. At least they are being honest. It is FOX "News" and the Reich Wing Petroleum industry shills who are completely talking out of their ass and lying. I know that because they have nothing scientific to support their allegations. Like the Jet Stream they just blow hot air around. Just pure BS, well funded, and on steroids. Personally, I don't care either way. If you're right, you will be entombed below hundreds of feet of ice. If I'm right eventually my house might be covered by water. Since I'm over 70ft above sea level, that will take a long time. Wanna bet who's right now?

Effectively detoxifying our poisoned planet for the future of our children is the only issue of importance to me.

If our 1% ever decide to actually do something beside beat the "other" then, and only then, will I get involved.

I lost my mustard seed's worth of faith, and hope, when I became a "Baby Killer" for christ, country and the 1%. I have yet to see anyone generate the kind of effective action on a global, regional or national level required that will counter those trends Limits To Growth warned the world about in 1972.

Without an effective response, which was anticipated no later than 1975 by the MIT professors that authored that report, the only remaining action available to any of us is, at best, grossly unreliable and of such mythological proportions that none of the ancient gods, or current godesses, have a prayer of overcoming.

Excellent response. Thank you.

I sometimes wonder if the 1% have already prepared themselves to survive the consequences of our continued poisoning of our planet. If so, they clearly have no intentions of sharing, do they?

WOW 10-K... still out there burnin' rubber in minus-20 degrees!! I'm impressed.

Sorry DAnne. It was Alice that said fracking causes earth quakes. Relax we won't be covered in ice for at least 50 million years. You must really look after your self to worry about. We are close this year though. We have about 5 feet of snow in our yard. By the way I am down in Scottsdale AZ and can watch Fox News. They are a lot more fair than I hear you guys say. It's MSNBC that's way out there. I couldn't believe what that Harris lady said about the Romney family picture. Personally I thought it was way over the top. I hope they dont say things like that often.

Global Warming/Climate change is both cyclical and person made. Anyone who has followed this since 1987 when I first noticed it, already knows that it manifests as hotter, shorter Summers with more humidity, and colder longer Winters. Those who THINK that everything warms up all over the world is ignorant. That includes the hosts at CoasttoCoastam who think that because we're having just colder Winters and hotter Summers dispells the "myth". NOT SO! I graduateded in 1964... and already our Science Teachers were discussing the possibiity of Global Warming due to our use of coal and oil. Now, that's expanded to fracking for Natural Gas, which damages forever our water acquifers. Scientists who are ignorning or who are totally ignorant of these globally used processes, are lying to themselves.

My mother, long-since passed away, believed that the oil we're extracting, is the lubricant which slows down the harsh crunching of the plate faults that keep to a minium the great 'quakes which are now ravaging many countries on our Earth. I don't know that she's correct, but the things she was told while in the dream states she so often had, may have been harbingers (and those of several others' ways to warn of us what we are bring to bear on our own population). And that - combined with the dimming of the sunlight because of the never-ending chemtrails, may just bring to an end the humanity of our world, and the loss of all of our wildflife, the healthiness of our crops, and our streams of clear water. Perhaps even the loss of our natural pollination propaganders, the bees. What will happen to the millions of dollars we have all invested in Solar Energy, when the sunlight is so dim, it cannot charge the solar panels and their storage units? All of our investments will be totally non-funcional when the chemtrails dim to sunlight to the point wherein the Solar Panels cannot gather enough sunlight energy to charge the Solar Panels chargers? Omnsanto and their ilk may have ways to preent them and their offspring from being affected; but what about the rest of us? Are we just to become collateral damage for the rich elite who may have found ways to protect themselves from the chaos which is about to come? And if so, will they put their own children and grandchildren out in the fields to take up the slack for all the rest of us who have fallen victim to the plague of illnesses we are all beginning to suffer? Los Angeles clinics and doctors offices right now in L.A. are FULL of people and children who are suffering sore throats, sinus infections, gastrointestinal problems - and our pets are suffering, too. So... What about the wildlife? Must they also be sacrificed for an experiment gone terribly wrong? This is NOT the flu, folks. It's coming from geo-engineering. Why are our Senators and elected Members of Congress NOT acknowledging this experiment, and doing something about it? Are they exempt, too, from the illnesses which will eventually kill all the rest of us? We're drinking it, eating it, breathing it... If the humans and animals along with the trees and bushes and pollination purveyors to be sarificed for illegimate experiments? This is CRIMINAL. How can we fight something our representatives we vote for, not listen to our please? They're working fewer days per sessions than most of us must workin a regular year. Why are we paying them to be ignornat and absent? We are not the GOP who are seemingly being affected, so what is the secret they possess? Just fear and brain damage? Maybe so...

Am I the only one to notice that our weather has gone berserk in proportion to the use of WEATHER MODIFICATION so-called TECHNOLOGY by the military and corporations?

Back in the late 50's or early 60's I read a book , "The Hunting Hypothesis" by Ardrey. In it he questioned what would be the conditions to cause a contraction in the human population leading to possibly a different human sub-species development because the necessities of survival would promote this. His conclusion was that the present Holocene period has lasted considerably longer than previous inter-glacial ages and that might indicate a possibility of another ice age coming soon. He checked with a professor of meteorologic at the Univ. of Wisconsin in Milwaukee who was interested in the “switch-over" phenomena to such an ice age.

Since the study made by the Club of Rome about the same time indicated that the maximum population carrying capacity of the earth in creating food with approximately equal distribution of calories was just slightly in excess of nine billion population and that if an ice age did occur, the contraction if food crops growing on earth would be reduced to about one-third of present level, and the current growth in population on earth indicates that withing the next twenty-five or thirty years we well have reached that maximum population on earth, even with the increase in food production since the Limits of Growth was studied, there would be much civil disorder, revolutions, and wars, decimating the population of earth in a short time period.

The professor of Meteorology indicated that the time to achieve the switchk-over to an ice age is estimated to be between thirty five and fifty years.

I checkered the pale- weather estimates published and graphed in Wikipedia. The temperatures versus time had lots of peaks and valleys. The present era is at one of those peaks.

My studies of statistics, I taught statistics at night school and used statistics in the research laboratory where I worked, indicates to me that the average temperatures would have to increase considerably above the average of such peaks illustrated in the graph to indicate a change in the earth's temperatures. Also, my study of weakener statistics gives the average temperatures reported to be based on a thirty year running average calculation. This is a very small portion of the time effects of physical stability of the earth. The earth receives it heat from the radiation from the sun. The solar system, all the planets and asteroids are moving with the sun through space in orbit around the galactic center and traveling at about 320 miles per second. Since the energy of the sunk is created by the fusion of hydrogen into heavier elements and we know that there are clouds of hydrogen in space, when the solar system passes thorough a part of space that has a higher than current hydrogen content, it is possible that the sun would increase int accretion of hydrogen fuel and therefore increase in heat . If the solar system passes through a part of space that has a higher than current levels of heavy metals that poison the fusion reaction, the heat emitted by the sun would be reduced. We do not know these factors and at present can only surmise at to their effects, the time delays and those effects upon earths temperatures.

Wikipedia also gave estimates of the temperatures of the earth with the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere during the carboniferous period. It is estimated that the carbon dioxide content was about five times current concentrations, about 1500 Parts per Million compared with today's approximately 300 Parts per Million and the temperatures were not very significantly above current experience.

Having worked many years in research and trained in Chemistry and Physics,I am a skeptic when people assume a linear relationship between two selected assumed relationships. Linearity just does not occur in nature.

I am very much concerned about air pollution and the tendency of corporation management to ignore their contribution to poisonous, smog-filled air in their greedy search for short term profits. However, the assumed relationship between carbon dioxide and average earth temperatures is not proven in my analysis.

Nat Gas is worse than coal and leakage of methane is experienced at every level of the process including drilling, transporting it and storage. The Energy return on energy invested of shale oil/gas is 1:6. Traditional oil and natural gas wells are 1:100, but traditional wells are in terminal decline and a major oil discovery hasn't occured in 20-30 years.

"Shale oi and natural gas" is a retirement party for carbon not a new age" Arthur Berman, Geologist.

bobcox: Very interest. But, given that most of the Earth is a molten glob and the only thing that separates the surface from all that heat is roughly a 30 mile crust, I wonder how much the atmosphere in which we live is influenced by the radiation from below? Thank goodness that the earth's crust is a good insulator...like a pot holder.

About the only time we are acutely aware that there is a lot of heat underneath us is when volcanoes erupt... especially when super volcanoes erupt...which hasn't happened for something like 300,000 years. In fact, super volcanoes, although they don't occur very often, can actually cause extinction of the life forms on the surface of the Earth. When the world's largest super volcano ever erupts (Yellowstone Park in Wyoming) it will most likely wipe out all higher forms of life that dwells on the surface. And current studies of Yellowstone is rather alarming.

The subterranean creatures will probably survive to start the evolutionary cycle all over again. And we will all be the fossil fuels of the future.

Meteorites or comets may one day also hit the earth and we have already had some very close calls.

And, of course, either one of those possibilities may very well be superseded by man's pollution of the earth: Radioactivity from nuclear plant accidents or nuclear, chemical, or biological warfare or increased CO2 and carcinogens in our atmosphere and water supplies from industrial and automobile pollution.

That was very interesting what you said about passing through clouds of hydrogen increasing solar accretion, "feeding the furnace", so to speak. As hydrogen is the fuel of the sun's (and all the other star's) fusion. The fusion of hydrogen makes heavier more complex elements with the result of giving off energy in the form of various kinds of radiation. But the initial instance of the fusion reaction was a result of the compaction, through gravitational attraction, of these hydrogen clouds into an area so dense that the energy created ignited the fusion process.

But, the energy emitted by the fusion process would have the tendency of preventing any incoming hydrogen from reaching the process. So how could clouds of hydrogen fuel an already occurring fusion process? The sun, or stars, would move through these clouds of lighter hydrogen atoms repelling them by the radiation emitted from the process. Yes, the gravity of the Sun would pull things toward it but the outgoing energy would tend to repel. And although the gravitational force of the Sun is great..the gravitational forces of hydrogen atoms, combined with distance, are so miniscule compared to the out going forces of the energy emitted...I suspect that the sun would never actually be affected by hydrogen clouds. ie: they could not actually "feed the furnace" and so therefore could not increase energy reaching the earth.

The distant hydrogen clouds would, however, tend to block or obscure some of the energy traveling through space so that the recipient of that energy many light-years distant from the source would see less energy than if the clouds weren't there. But the mere 93-96 million miles between the Earth and Sun is miniscule compared to light-years distance of distant stars...and so therefore any hydrogen cloud that intersperses the Sun's energy between the Earth and the Sun would not have any affect at noticeably diminishing the energy from the Sun.

Some Nebula are gas clouds that obscure light from background sources (other stars) either by blocking (absorbing) that energy (eg: visible light as well as non visible energy) or by excitation (emitting energy as a result of excitation--ie: glowing). The Horsehead Nebula, near the belt of the constellation Orion, is an example.

But the phenomena known as Sunspots and monster Sunspots and the resulting flares may one day fry the Earth and destroy all it's inhabitants. Just ask Major Ed Dames...he'll tell you. That's why he moved to Tahiti. His remote viewing told him that the earth was going to receive a major monster flare-up that would fry the one side of the Earth facing the Sun at the time. He thought that Tahiti would be on the lee side of the flare. But, as so many religious people have sought refuge in caves thinking the end of the world was nigh, then red-faced re-emerging out of those caves, I believe that Major Ed Dames has re-emerged from his Tahiti cave once again.

It's been a long while since I listened to Art Bell or George Noory on Coast to Coast AM and haven't recently heard the ravings of people like Maj Ed Dames. But they were entertaining. Mel's hole in Oregon, I believe. Satanic voices from the world's deepest drilled hole in Siberia. The frantic caller and knocked off air from Satellite feed going dead. Some really good stuff there. Oh, yeah, and HAARP!

Although, I don't know of any scientific data that has indicated that major Sun flares has ever done major, immediate damage to life on this planet in the past except to affect genetic mutations over time.

Dweinstein003: Very interesting!
http://www.aspo2012.at/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Berman_aspo2012.pdf

bobcox and Palindromedary ~ Now that's what I want to hear--facts that make sense. One thing you both left out however, is perhaps the greatest external force on the solar system--the force imparted by the Galactic core. As the sun, planets and other stars move through space their movement is controlled by the Galactic core. These bodies don't just move in a consistent circular motion around the core; but, many oscillated up and down through the galactic center--as though at some time they were moving in a contrary trajectory and got trapped by the power field of the galactic core. They now move in a sine wave pattern that oscillates through the center of the galactic axis. When they reach their top perigee, some force--be it gravitational, magnetic, or something we haven't discovered yet--stops the motion of the bodies and reverses it. Imagine the power that stops even red giants and changes it's motion in space. That is a serious external influence on the entire solar system that should also be taken into account.

Quite frankly bobcox, I must agree with you and Palindromedary, analysing and understanding such a complex ecosystem as ours is no easy task. That is why I tend to trust the best informed amongst us; especially, when they admit they don't know.

"Liberal dips", Mr. Valentine? Perhaps you've stumbled into the wrong blog. I suggest you find something more appropriate to your level of comprehension (and maturity). We don't need reichwing trolls like you polluting this forum. - AIW

Mr. Valentine ~ Talk all you want, I'm getting a big kick out of it. So far, three posts and "0" facts without any arguments. So far we've stated more facts to back up your arguments then you. Criticise without facts all you want; but, be aware that you are just pushing around more hot air than that freak vortex on the North Pole. Say, perhaps you are the cause of Global Warming? Maybe if you neocons could all close your mouths for a couple of days the weather might return to normal.

Marc, to Mr. V: "Maybe if you neocons could all close your mouths for a couple of days the weather might return to normal". Hah-hah! MY turn for a belly laugh! - AIW

I came within a hair's breadth of flagging Mr. V. He's just a know-nothing troll, the perfect example to illustrate why I avoid so many blogs! I've had my fill of his ilk. They've nothing better to do than sling lame, sophomoric insults at each other and engage in pissing contests. I've got very little tolerance for that. The only thing that stopped me from flagging his ass was Marc saying he got a "kick" out of it. I figured it wasn't worth depriving Marc of a little entertainment. - AIW

Now, now. If Valentine wants to be an ass he has a right. We musn't try to be Big Brother.

Palindromedary ~ Are you kidding me? Someone with those credentials can't even support their own argument? If so we're all doomed. If you ask me though, I think you're on to something. But I don't think it's the same person. I think some dumb kid got the photo and the name off the web and is posing as such in order to boost his credibility; or, perhaps damage the credibility of the real person. Obviously he is void of credibility, or knowledge in.any other way. Perhaps Mark Saulys was right in his first suspicion that it is nothing other than another big oil shill. A sock puppet using the name of a government official. You might want to email the real Brian Valentine and let him know someone is masquerading in his name. It might just be a felony offense.

Good work!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl6K1slhXqc

Just Who Has Bailed On The Heartland Institute?
http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2012/05/just-who-has-bailed-on-heartland....

DAnneMarc..yes, I do too....but not too sorry...afterall...their idiotic position stands in the way of the survival of many of the species of planet Earth and making many humans suffer in the interim.