The late great Albert Bartlett in his seminal presentation titled ; The Exponential Function said “One of the greatest shortcomings of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function”. Most people know the expression but don’t truly grasp it’s full implications. The “Feedback Loops” that the large NGO’s used to warn of, have now arrived en-masse, the silence from them on this topic is deafening.
We are now in the non-linear stage of the unraveling of the biosphere and we are witnessing cascading events that are and will domino across the entire biosphere at an ever accelerating rate. I will list below, with numerous corroborating evidence embedded, why I believe this is our last decade on this beleaguered planet. Personally I shall be very surprised if we are still here in 36 months after another three melt seasons in the Arctic and Antarctic. Having considerably less time than that is entirely plausible!
Previously I have written on this blog about the consequences of the loss of Arctic Sea Ice; “Losing the remaining Arctic sea ice and its ability to reflect incoming solar energy back to space would be equivalent to adding one trillion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, on top of the 2.4 trillion tons emitted since the Industrial Age, according to current and former researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.”
“At current rates, this roughly equates to 25 years of global CO2 emissions.” Cascading Consequences of the Loss of Arctic Sea Ice
It is entirely feasible that we will have entered that uncharted territory on or before the end of the 2020 melt season in the Arctic, assuming the melt season still has an end and the long predicted burst of methane from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf hasn’t already been ejaculated into the atmosphere!
President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’
All of the above information covers just 1 of 6 dozen feedback loops documented in this ‘Piece de Resistance’ Climate-Change Summary and Update
“New research shows that the loss of biodiversity can increase the risk of “extinction cascades,” where an initial species loss leads to a domino effect of further extinctions.The researchers, from the University of Exeter, showed there is a higher risk of extinction cascades when other species are not present to fill the “gap” created by the loss of a species. Even if the loss of one species does not directly cause knock-on extinctions, the study shows that this leads to simpler ecological communities that are at greater risk of “run-away extinction cascades” with the potential loss of many species.” The full peer reviewed paper is embedded here; Biodiversity loss raises risk of ‘extinction cascades’
The official UN statistic in 2010, which will be terribly conservative, states that we lose 150 to 200 species every day. Naturally it has accelerated in the subsequent 10 years. It stands to reason that sooner or later we will hit the point where the loss of keystone species will trigger the final cascade of extinctions. “What we are seeing today is a total disaster,” said Ahmed Djoghlaf, the secretary-general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. “No country has met its targets to protect nature. We are losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate. If current levels [of destruction] go on we will reach a tipping point very soon.” Protect nature for world economic security, warns UN biodiversity chief
“In fact, humans have caused the annihilation of 83% of all wild mammals and half of all plants, the authors of the report found.”
Humanity Has Killed 83% of All Wild Mammals and Half of All Plants
Complexity is our “Achilles Heal” as was pointed out by Arthur Keller in his presentation Collapse: The Only Realistic Scenario
This presentation on collapse is equally prescient;
Why Everything Will Collapse
On the October episode of Nature Bats Last on the Progressive Radio Network my co-host Professor Guy McPherson and I interviewed Robert Hunziker about the great unraveling we are all witnessing and are a part of.
In this subsequent article Robert discusses the inevitably of bio-sphere collapse! (How weird it is for me to write those words !!!!!! )
In next months episode we will re-interview Stephen Jenkinson sometimes known as “The Grief Walker” when we will continue our mission to have the conversations most shy away from.
I’ve embedded the interview with Robert Hunziker titled Biosphere Collapse? and a previous interview with Stephen Jenkinson can be found at the Nature Bats Last archive at PRN.FM
“Nothing will remain on earth, or under the earth or in the waters which will not be persecuted, disturbed and spoiled, and those of one country removed into another. And their bodies will become the sepulture and means of transit of all they have killed.~” Leonardo da Vinci
From the essay titled Abrupt, Irreversible Climate Change
Anyone paying attention would have seen the fires burning since the beginning of the Australian spring. Over 12 million acres of forests and wilderness have burned. All of the sequestered carbon has been released and the former carbon sinks no longer exists, nor will the overhead ‘Sky Rivers’ ever return, these are classic feedback loops. If you think the drought was bad before these fires you aint seen nothing yet. “Australia has been ravaged by fires since September. About 12.35 million acres have burned nationwide”. Thousands of koalas feared dead in wildfire-ravaged area north of Sydney
A quick search will tell you that a handful of Firefighters and a few other people have perished. The true mortality count is nearly half a billion earthling fatalities in Australia’s fires alone.
“Ecologists at the University of Sydney estimate around 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been killed, directly or indirectly, by the devastating blazes since they began in September”.Nearly 500 million animals killed in Australian bushfires, experts fear. Because we rarely count the non-human death toll we all underestimate the slaughter already underway.
This long drawn out collapse has been going on for a very long time, the collapse itself will be sudden and brutal. Make the most of every day, time is much shorter than most realise.
The temperature is rising, the grim reaper beckons;
To get the most from this article I urge the reader to invest time in checking out the embedded links because it is imperative in connecting the dots in such a complex system. That complexity is at the crux of my contention that time is infinitely shorter than most would realise.
I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.
Kevin Hester 
You put together some amazing information.
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Thank you Kevin for this sobering summary. Lest I stick my head back in the sand, reading this is a stark reminder of our limited time.
I wish everyone more love and kindness and a gentle as possible transition when it comes. Peace 2020
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Dear Kevin. I have checked twice a day for the last 26 days for a new message and here it is!! Thank you sincerely. To enable myself the honor of standing next to you and your 20 islanders, I have viewed you and Guy McPherson sitting on your couch, used Google Earth to locate your island, viewed your published aerial view of Rakino from the north besides reading every article that follows this. I have an important need for evidence with which to justify my subscription cancellation from a world affairs news source whose recent issue contains at least five errors on subjects of which I feel evidence- confident. After many years of appreciation for his insights, I find it difficult to disconnect, but to publish half-truths rather than avoid the subject is unacceptable. Change. You mention the fires in Australia. The Cal Fire agency in California mentions that professional firefighters describe how unusual the fire intensity is and from youtube videos I match that same intensity with the Australian fires to which Dane Wigington and Deborah Tavares provide evidence of why such intensity. Only rarely is there a report of the likeness of roasted (not simply burned) vehicles with melted aluminum rims like liquid flowing from the rims and Judy Wood pictures of 9-11. Back to this article, I am grateful for the referenced sources. Has there been any progress in getting an update from Phillese Todd because of her broad references to abrupt climate change?
Happy New Year. (Yeah, I know it’s past for you.)Most sincerely, David Bailey.
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Dane Wigington is a crackpot who thinks contrails from jet aircraft are nefarious spraying of chemtrails… lol
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This link talks about the billions of tons of CO2 added to the world total by these massive fires in 2019. And the loss of 500 million earthlings in OZ alone (not just our stupid species).
Australian Bushfires Coming Near You
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/30/australian-bushfires-coming-near-you/
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I think there are a few of us who’ve been anticipating this one.
There are two simple facts/formula that I’ve always thought were enough to seal our fate.
One is the energy required to melt a given quantity of ice will subsequently heat the same water to 80c.
The other that there is more carbon in the “permafrost” than all the known oil reserves and it’s ALL going to be released.
The sky down here today can only be described as “end of the world” grey, with not a leaf moving.
I weed my garden and split my wood.
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Hi shastatodd. From my reply to Kevin Hester you have made a declarative statement about “crackpot” Dane Wigington, no “I believe” or “it’s my opinion.” So I am immediately alerted that this is an emotional statement, especially without a whisper of evidence. In scientific matters it isn’t worth the space you took to compose it. It represents the usual immature tactic that if I don’t like the information I’ll attack the messenger. Just for starters, If you had said I have studied many of Wigington’s weekly Geoengineering Watch Global Alert News videos and paid attention to the spray patterns and his explanation that the patterns are not constant but are often missing, you might discover a few things: (a) if they are condensation patterns, jet aircraft do not stop their engines in flight and (b) if they are condensation patterns they do not spread out but condense and disappear (c) they do not remain visible for many minutes, even hours (d) commercial aircraft do not wander about the sky, they are very concerned about fuel consumption with direct travel to their destinations. Simple logic would immediately suggest that what I am seeing (if you have even looked up) is not condensation but something else. Also, “chemtrails” is not a technical term. Another significant detail is that Wigington provides pictures of modified aircraft with huge on-board tanks with pumps and spray nozzles under the wings. I am sensitive to the challenge of accepting evidence of aircraft visibly leaving spray patterns, but please allow carefully established documents to change your mind before exposing your lack of research.
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44south: Probably more than a few on this site anticipating something like this I would guess. The scary thing is that people just don’t notice…but they’ll notice this:
WEATHER IS NOW CLIMATE. I have the ‘holy shit!’ going behind my eyes right now on Friday 3Jan and it isn’t just because the so-called ‘leadership’ of the US is insane (but hasn’t it always been to one degree or another?) but this just in. READ!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0666-7.epdf?author_access_token=4M8-EcJtFxH_jmyWCAoz39RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OdMx1oJ3ZWa7BKzSg7sgojrZkS3XyaoGGEprx6mTbk-I7nzwcz-JiwcWUvc-q-6L4q6CtnA_imZNvKYWRoRWhHRJb6VkSFg-Fe06c24IhfwQ%3D%3D
sealintheSelkirks
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Hi Seal, actually the “one” I was referring to in “anticipating”, was Kevin’s post.
That someone in the doomosphere would call it. That we are now in the home straight and it’s down to the wire.
But yes the fires in Oz appear to have penetrated the clueless skulls in a way little else has.
The article you linked to was written in language guaranteed to give most a headache unfortunately.
And yea when I heard news of Mr Trump’s latest bit of international”diplomacy” an expletive did involuntarily leave my mouth!
Best of luck with what’s coming brother.
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Yeah, 44south, I got that. An expectation of total disaster that Kevin’s post proclaimed. UGH. Being the start of the last decade of existence…yeah, probably, and oh my what more can one say? And how does one…absorb that into your mind without screaming in anger and despair inside ones own skull? But I was also kind of thinking about other ‘ones’- the people that read this site and the ‘oof’ of feeling punched in the gut reading his post and following the links.
But I didn’t get the reply done more than that two-sentence paragraph for a couple of days and lost the thread of what I was also going to write. Watching OZ burn, people huddled on the beaches or in the ocean trying to avoid the heat from the fires. Waiting to be evacuated by the freaking Navy? I wondered if any of the OZ surfers I surfed with decades ago are among them? Then the weather/climate study popped up and I went that way.
The other night I threw in a cd I made from old cassette tapes of live performances of a rock & roll band I was part of in the late ’80s while in mormon Utah (a ‘returning’ student in my 30s Utah State University). I do that now and then, listen to old bands I’ve been in. The old song ‘It’s the End of the World and We Know It and I Feel Fine’ was one of the long jams those guitar boys liked to play back then. Hansen had already spoke to the US Congress about climate destabilization and there had been books written about Greenhouse Effect going back to the early 70s that I had read, and Silent Spring and Limits to Growth etc etc. And here we are and there has been nothing but worse in the three decades plus since.
Ya know what? I don’t feel fine. It’s a lot more real now than then though we were waiting for Reagan to start WWIII because he was a freaking loon like Trump is. Big sigh. But then we always let the song morph into ‘All Along the Watchtower’ and that’s what we are doing, watching the world burn from the tower…. I’m feeling a lot of sadness today.
___________
The article link I posted was a headache producer, no doubt of that. Either of these summaries may be easier for some to digest:
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/climate-change-is-affecting-us-in-ways-we-never-imagined/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/03/groundbreaking-study-finds-fingerprint-human-caused-climate-change-global-daily
_________
I’ve got too-warm sunshine in a light blue sky blazing through the window. It’s nearly 10C outside, what little snow is left on the ground is melting like mad, the not-frozen ground is turning to absolute gooey mud that sticks like fresh dog poop to boots, and it certainly is not acting like the depths of winter. It used to be -35C here this time of year, with feet of snow across the property. This is acting very much like the 2014/15 non-winter. There is less than 4 feet of snow (1.2M?) on the top of the Peak at my snowboarding hill and it’s melting off quickly also. Due to dangerous conditions and being horrible icy crap I have not grabbed a board and gone riding. The hill is taking a major financial hit again this year after being sold last Spring.
But tomorrow there is a wake/gathering happening on the terrain park slope up past the lodge (thin, icy, with just a couple rails sticking in the snow) and I will be going up for that. One of the local grommet boarder kids I knew (I’m the longest riding boarder on the hill and I talk story to the kids) who turned into a hot rider and pro snowboarder did himself suicide at Mammoth Mountain in California on Christmas Day. He was 26. Nobody knows why. I have a couple of stories to tell about him that might make people smile a bit. Wakes are for the grief of the living after all…and as a martial arts teacher/meditationist/grandson of a Buddhist Priest I have (for some reason) a non-religious ability to talk spirit to people who hurt…
___________
Best of luck back to you 44 south though I’m afraid it doesn’t have a lot of meaning anymore, ya know? As a species I think we’ve pretty much used up all the luck we had. Like all gambling, eventually the house wins. But I appreciate the sentiment!
Out I go to chainsaw up some firewood. Still have to keep the chores up. Do something fun every day.
sealintheSelkirks
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Yeah, it’s the daily chores and ongoing prep that keep me sort of sane and focused.
Sorry to read about the youngster offing himself. It’s everywhere now. My youngest girl can name about a dozen gone and she’s but 27.
Hard not to get mad as hell about damn near every aspect of this crazy world we’ve created.
Today I brought a bargain set of tyres for the old 4×4 extreme weather vehicle I recently acquired,a by product of the massive vehicle write off as a result of the hail storm.
The seller was anything but a fool. Wealthy retired,working on a microlight plane when I arrived.
Talk of hail turned to climate.
This guy is in complete and utter denial,full of the usual half truths and misconceptions.
Amiable and friendly… totally clueless on a deep and abiding level.
I shook his hand and said time, and not much of it, will tell.
What you gonna do?
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SealintheSelkirks.The old hippie mantra comes to mind ;Before enlightenment carry water,chop wood,after enlightenment carry water, chop wood….only now it’s morphed into;before extinction carry water,chop wood and after extinction,merge! All we are is dust in the wind brother.
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This was a very tough day. People up here are STUNNED by Jaeger Bailey’s suicide. Local 49N boarder kid is one of those rare people that come from nowheresville and gets famous but doesn’t turn into a egotistical dickweed doing it…and then freaking kills himself on Christmas Day.
Dead-deer-in-the-headlights stunned crowd in front of me when I stepped up to speak of him for him but to them and their pain.
Wakes are for the living. I tried to reach into their hearts today, and I think I succeeded.
I talked story this afternoon trying to break the ice smothering the centers of those there. You could feel and nearly see the energy of grief that was all through the crowd. It was physical and that’s not kidding, most are too closed off to feel it. And people don’t know how to talk at wake very well and it started off stumbling with the first two. It needed a storyteller so I did. My two linked stories got them crying and laughing both…and yeah I tend to talk like I write so I’m not short of words.
I talked two stories this afternoon to an all-age crowd of maybe 40 cold people standing on icy snow in blowing winds. It started snowing again about halfway through the gathering. The hill is ten miles up the road above Chewelah, a town of maybe 2,500 people, and I think something like this impacts harder because of the closeness a small mountain town/local ski area fosters.
This was an emotionally tough day.
Kevin, what will it be like when the entire flipping world is doing this I can’t imagine. And I’m horrified to understand that THAT scenario isn’t as far-fetched as the anti-science crowd thinks it is. What are those people going to do, the ones that ARE fucking incredibly stupid or pig-shit ignorant. They will react is blinding fear, yes? When it suddenly comes to their town and family and there isn’t a Navy standing off the coast to evacuate them because the Navy is busy rescuing their own families?
How am I going to react? I hope with grace.
sealintheSelkirks
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The cognitive dissonance is a mind fuck !! That people can block out runaway is a shock to me,it’s so fucking obvious. That’s a denial of it’s own.
Anyone who can’t get old fashioned ‘Climate Change’ is either stupid or pig shit ignorant
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Perhaps I am a heretic but I see no such thing as “the Failed Human Experiment”. What I see is a Successful Biological Experiment. We’re something great, something so powerful that we are able to do all lifeforms in, including ourselves. And we will do it, for the money. “That last moment belongs to us — that agony is our triumph.”
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A perfectly reasonable position to take, but one that begs the question..
What’s it all about,Alfie?
And did we do it for the money or the sex? The former being a means to the latter.
Or was it for power? The level of power that at least insulates one from another’s potential power over you?
Personally I don’t have any answers. I just try to remain open to any possibility. I have ingested enough psychedelic substances in the past to be certain that not everything is as it seems.
The concluded mind is the fatality flawed one.
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Hi Kevin and contributors. Having taken time to honor the many comments, I extend my thanks for the varied subjects. I would like to share an observation based on what I would identify as deceptive language and some modes of destruction not well identified. For example, we have been led to call these fires brush-fires. Paul Beckwith calls them forest fires. Is that deliberate under reporting? The intensity of fires around the world suggests there may be something in the air that is causing the fierceness, something that is planetary in its effects. Dane Wigington has laboratory analysis results of the air we breathe and which after being sprayed from jet aircraft settles to earth and acts as fire intensifiers, especially particulates of aluminum. Another matter basically avoided is the peculiar damage done to vehicles, how they are torched by temperatures not associated with fires. Scroll way down and note the same destruction in Australia as was apparent in California. Is there some connection, some common weapon involved?
While we are focused on climate change I suggest it would be wise to extend our attention to Virginia where the guaranteed rights of a people are being challenged by a state government that is in direct violation of the Federal and Virginia Constitutions relating to the Federal 2nd Amendment. To demonstrate their resistance, motivated Virginians have, by organization, established 2nd Amendment sanctuary counties, cities and towns that currently represent 87 of 95 counties. Other states are in process, most notably Tennessee. Enclosed are links to the proposed prime legislative bill, a legal pdf rebuttal, and may of counties with possibly more in process. Much detail available on search engines.
https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB16 Select: Virginia SB16 2020 Regular Session – Open:: 2020 Regular Session – Read: Summary.
https://gunowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GOA-VCDL-Response-to-Herring-AO-December-26-2019.pdf defines the legislative front of the oncoming controversy as well and as recently as I’ve seen [from VA resident and my friend]
https://vcdl.org Select https://vcdl.org to open – Scroll for county activity via pictures and a colored map of counties.
If we fail to maintain our freedoms, climate successes will certainly be compromised.
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David H:
I really have no idea why you posted gun rights on this climate blog. To put it bluntly, what we as a species are facing in environmental devastation, climate collapse, and/or nuclear war any of which happens first leads directly to the other two plus you have to add in 500 nuclear power plants going tits up when the grid goes down and spewing like Chernobyl and Fukushima and just layering the Northern Hemisphere with radioactive poisons; means the living will seriously envy the dead and will follow them quickly enough I’m sure. Or if some do live I shudder to think of what their children will be like with the toxic radioactive planet they will be born into. Birth defects and cancer is already bad enough as it is…until the grid goes down.
A book written a number of years ago by a history prof, with an introduction by right wing hero Newt Gingrich no less, tells the story of just three little bombs going off 100 miles up and EMP shutting down the entire county. It’s called ‘One Second After’ by Forstchen, and I noticed that there wasn’t one mention of melting down nuclear plants in the book. Just starving to death and cannibal attacks…
Has anybody done a study of probable downwind plume direction of every nuclear plant and/or used fuel rod repository in this country once the grid goes down?
What good are guns then except to maybe hold off for a short time very hungry people with forks and carving knives ready to crack your bones for the marrow? By that point of course the plagues will be racing through population centers. Typhoid, Cholera, Bubonic (the Black Death), everything you can think of will show up pretty damn quick.
As for guns to protect your freedom, the government never has had a problem with killing its citizens threatening its power (the power of the extremely wealthy elite). And, for the most part, it seems as though a majority of the people screaming 2nd Amendment are aiming those weapons at the people that are actively against the status quo, the corporations and the wealthy elite that own them. Pointing them at the environmentalists, the Native American tribes trying to save their land and water sources from pipeline poisoning, the anti-nuclear folk, the peace not war supporters, you know, them damned hippy freaks and leftie radicals that “want to take our freedom away.” Want Freedom Fries with that?
I’ve noticed that there hasn’t been one mass shooting at a Trump golf resort, or a board meeting of Exxon or a coal company or at FaceBlech or Google. Kinda makes one wonder about ‘give me liberty or death’ demands, eh? These people are actively taking away freedom and promoting death of the species but they seem to be immune…Hmmmmmm.
And I live in chriso-fascist land of Stevens County N/E Washington State where a State Representative from Spokane Valley to the south of me has stated that after ‘the’ crash anyone who does not bow down to their brand of Christianity…shoot all the males over 15″ so they can institute their Bible-based government. Just…wow scary psychos and there are a LOT of them around here.
And believe me, everybody has guns on the east side of the state. This ain’t Seattle. It’s a rare day that I don’t hear weapons being fired in the distance. And that includes fully automatic weapons fire. Look up the town of Marble up nearer to the Canadian border and read about that hell hole of religious fanaticism. I wonder how big their underground armory is?
And when it comes right down to it, the neoliberal rich that run the government have weapons no civilian ‘gun owner’ can ever hope to match. They’ve turned cops into soldiers with drones you can’t see before they blow your house up, microwave beam dishes on trucks that will burn under your skin and blind you, LRAD sound weapons that blow your head so badly you run away, and all the goddam weapons of war from Iraq to control the population. Again bluntly, you and your family don’t stand a chance against these forces.
Unless of course those peons in uniform desert first to run home and protect THEIR families. Or maybe they turn their weapons on the wealthy they are guarding to survive.
So, I’m just shaking my head at the spectacle of hope you posted is all I guess. I’m not given to optimism at this point.
sealintheSelkirks
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While preparing for todays episode of Nature Bats Last where Guy and I interviewed Stephen Jenkinson ,I planned to have relevant issues to discuss in the event of us losing him to intermittent signal issues he had experienced the previous day from Mexico. Live radio, you have to have a fall back position.
If we lost Stephen. I wanted to discuss the analysis that almost half a billion earthlings had been incinerated by these infernos.
Now I know the number is double what I thought going to air 8 hours ago !
That’s how extinction cascades pan out. The predicament is always worse than we knew a few hours ago.
The show hasn’t been uploaded yet but can be found shortly at the Nature Bats Last archive at PRN.FM and my website https://kevinhester.live/
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/1/6/21051897/australia-fires-billion-animals-dead-estimate?fbclid=IwAR3Mqd9nHcuBoFxy9lsNxvE50W_PyxTH1Ry3AXNGm6HHpaDbEZE4JUhqjhE
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Hi Kevin. I understand my Virginia comments are United State focused. Should you choose to reject, I understand. Its just that I attempt to view as much of the planet as possible. Should you chose to post, please edit and include the following good news, or, cheer for our increased resistance against unwise government activity that I observe in down under Australia
I had thought 3 weeks ago that “all the easy oil’s been found”. The VCDL officers evidently don’t see it that way. We now have 90 of VA’s 95 counties with Sanctuary resolutions. And one of those (Prince William) whose incoming Board of Supervisors had sworn they were going to undo that Sanctuary resolution, were flooded with pro-resolution public this afternoon at 2PM, 6 1/2 hours worth, and have postponed the vote. They had changed the hearing from 7PM to 2PM, evidently in an effort to starve the opposition, because the pro-gun people all have jobs they’d have to be at instead of the session. Not only didn’t work for them to do that, it backfired. They arguably got a LOT of Virginians angry at what they evidently meant to do. At this juncture, I’d not be surprised to see a recall against said Board of Supervisor members if they DO succeed in rescinding that resolution.
— Laird
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: VCDL
> Subject: VA-ALERT: 4 sanctuary victories: VA Beach, Clarke, Essex, Prince William! Portsmouth action item
> Date: January 8, 2020 at 12:24:21 AM EST
> To: lairdtaylor@mac.com
> Reply-To: VCDL
>
> View this email in your browser
>
> 1. Four big sanctuary wins for gun owners!
> 2. Action Item: Portsmouth City Council meeting on January 14
> 1. Four big sanctuary wins for gun owners!
> Another two great days for gun owners! We have now 119 Sanctuaries!
>
> Yesterday, Clarke County, Highland County, and Virginia Beach became sanctuaries. Today, January 7, 2020, Essex County became a sanctuary.
>
> And another major victory for now: Prince William County has postponed a vote on revoking their sanctuary status after their building was FLOODED with gun owners at 2 pm today! The hearing went on for SIX HOURS! VCDL – you guys are AMAZING and showed everyone, once again, the extreme power of grassroots!
>
> Don’t forget that tomorrow, Wednesday, January 8, is when Highland Countyvotes to become a sanctuary at 6 pm!
>
> Location:
>
> Highland County High School
> Myers Moon Rd, Monterey, VA 24465
>
> 2. Action Item: Portsmouth City Council meeting on January 14
> What:
> Portsmouth City Council Meeting
>
> When:
> Tuesday January 14, 2020 at 7:00pm
>
> A 2A Resolution is not currently on the agenda, but Jay Ward has been working on getting it added. There is a public works session before the regular meeting, that begins at 5:00pm, where it will most likely be discussed. So 2A supporters – please try to arrive by 5pm!
>
> Where:
> Portsmouth City Hall
> 801 Crawford Street (6th Floor)
> Portsmouth, VA 23704
>
> You can sign up to speak, on the day of the meeting:
> By phone: 8am-4pm (757) 393-8639
> By email: 8am-4pm council@portsmouthva.gov
> In person: at Portsmouth City Hall 8am-7pm
>
> Carry is permitted in Portsmouth City Hall, both open & concealed.
>
> Councilman William E “Bill” Moody and Councilman Nathan Clark have both publicly supported a 2A Resolution, as well as the Portsmouth FOP (Fraternal Order of Police)
>
> The council members’ contact info is:
>
> John L. Rowe, Jr.
> City Council
> Title: Mayor
> Phone: 757-393-8746
> mayor@portsmouthva.gov
>
> Lisa Lucas-Burke
> City Council
> Title: Vice Mayor
> Phone: 757-418-7658
> lucasburkel@portsmouthva.gov
>
> William E “Bill” Moody, Jr.
> City Council
> Title: Councilman
> Phone: 757-714-5471
> moodyw@portsmouthva.gov
> (Bill has publicly supported a 2A Resolution, so no need to contact, unless to thank.)
>
> Elizabeth M. Psimas
> City Council
> Title: Councilwoman
> Phone: 757-535-0227
> psimase@portsmouthva.gov
>
> Nathan J. Clark
> City Council
> Title: Councilman
> Phone: 757-418-1489
> clarkn@portsmouthva.gov
> (Nathan has publicly supported a 2A Resolution, so no need to contact, unless to thank.)
>
> Paul J. Battle
> City Council
> Title: Councilman
> Phone: 757-816-9147
> battlep@portsmouthva.gov
>
> Shannon E. Glover
> City Council
> Title: Councilman
> Phone: 757-679-5469
> glovers@portsmouthva.gov
>
> Portsmouth 2A group:
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/PVA2A
> https://m.facebook.com/groups/PVA2A
>
> Portsmouth 2A group City Council Meeting event:
> https://facebook.com/events/s/2nd-amendment-resolution-for-p/480901042825599/?ti=icl
>
> Twitter
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Here’s a cartoon for ya, Kevin and others. Fits right in it does!
https://thenib.com/this-is-not-fine/
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Yeah thenib.com are onto it
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I thought I’d post the entire article which I don’t think I’ve ever done here but… The final decade may be optimistic I’m afraid. The last sentence is…useless because it was way past time quite a while ago I’m thinking.
sealintheSelkirks
‘The Most Dangerous Situation That Humanity Has Ever Faced’: Doomsday Clock Now 100 Seconds to Midnight
Citing the worsening nuclear threat and inaction on the climate crisis, scientists issue a historic warning about the risk of global catastrophe.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/23/most-dangerous-situation-humanity-has-ever-faced-doomsday-clock-now-100-seconds
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight—a decision made by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists—during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 23, 2020. (Photo: Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images)
“The Doomsday Clock now stands at 100 seconds to midnight, the most dangerous situation that humanity has ever faced. Now is the time to come together—to unite and to act.”
“Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond.”
—Bulletin of Atomic Scientist
So said Mary Robinson, chair of The Elders, in a statement from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on Thursday announcing a historic update to the clock, a decades-old symbol for potential global catastrophe.
Robinson, the former president of Ireland and United Nations high commissioner for human rights, urged world leaders “to join us in 2020 as we work to pull humanity back from the brink.”
After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the Bulletin was founded by University of Chicago scientists who had been involved with the Manhattan Project. Two years later, the group introduced the Doomsday Clock, set at seven minutes to midnight. Midnight represented potential apocalypse based on global nuclear dangers—the closer the hands are to midnight, the higher the threat.
Since 1947, the clock’s hands have moved both closer to and further from midnight, reaching 17 minutes to midnight in 1991. In 2018, the hands hit two minutes to midnight for the first time since 1953, after the United States and the Soviet Union tested thermonuclear weapons. Last year, the clock stayed there, and Bulletin president and CEO Rachel Bronson welcomed the world to “the new abnormal.”
For more than a decade, the Doomsday Clock’s setting has reflected the threat posed by nuclear weaponry as well as the human-caused climate crisis. The 2020 statement explained that “humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond.”
“It is 100 seconds to midnight. We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds—not hours, or even minutes,” Bronson said Thursday. “It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in the history of the Doomsday Clock. We now face a true emergency—an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay.”
Along with highlighting growing concerns about how “sophisticated, technology-propelled propaganda” is undermining global efforts to address the two key existential threats, this year’s statement slammed world leaders for “not responding appropriately to reduce this threat level and counteract the hollowing-out of international political institutions, negotiations, and agreements that aim to contain it.”
As the Bulletin put it:
Faced with this daunting threat landscape and a new willingness of political leaders to reject the negotiations and institutions that can protect civilization over the long term, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today moves the Doomsday Clock 20 seconds closer to midnight—closer to apocalypse than ever. In so doing, board members are explicitly warning leaders and citizens around the world that the international security situation is now more dangerous than it has ever been, even at the height of the Cold War.
Referencing “the new abnormal” introduced last year, the 2020 statement warned, “This dangerous situation remains—and continues to deteriorate.” The Bulletin declared that “the need for emergency action is urgent.” On the nuclear front, global leaders were urged to reinstate treaties, cut countries’ arsenals, limit modernization programs, and “start talks on cyber warfare, missile defenses, the militarization of space, hypersonic technology, and the elimination of battlefield nuclear weapons.”
More generally, the Bulletin called for “multilateral discussions aimed at establishing norms of behavior, both domestic and international, that discourage and penalize the misuse of science,” emphasizing that “focused attention is needed to prevent information technology from undermining public trust in political institutions, in the media, and in the existence of objective reality itself.”
In terms of climate action, the Bulletin urged all countries remain committed to the landmark 2015 Paris agreement. The statement noted that meeting the goals of that accord will require industrialized countries “to curb emissions rapidly, going beyond their initial, inadequate pledges and supporting developing countries so they can leapfrog the entrenched, fossil fuel-intensive patterns.”
While the Bulletin broadly encouraged citizens across the globe to pressure their governments to pursue bold policies to avert climate catastrophe, it drew specific attention to the United States, pointing out that in November 2019, President Donald Trump fulfilled his longtime promise to begin the lengthy process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris agreement.
During a press conference in Washington, D.C. to announce the Doomsday Clock update Thursday, former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed disappointment in global leaders for failing to address these two crises. Ban, now deputy chair of The Elders, warned of the dangers of isolationist policies but also framed the clock’s shift as an opportunity for policymakers worldwide to recommit to multilateralism.
Jerry Brown, the current executive chair of the Bulletin, also spoke at the press conference Thursday. He criticized Trump for delivering a speech—at the World Economic Forum’s summit for the global elite in Davos, Switzerland—that called for rejecting “alarmists” and “perennial prophets of doom,” along with their “predictions of the apocalypse.”
Brown, a former Democratic governor of California, also said that U.S. politicians from both major parties have not adequately worked to combat the nuclear and climate threats, and decried “vast, deep, and pervasive complacency” on a societal level.
After summarizing the Bulletin’s warnings in a statement Thursday, Brown concluded: “If there’s ever a time to wake up, it’s now.”
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I read a piece of old information this week and didn’t think about it until yesterday when it showed back up in my mind. I suddenly realized that I was there (sort of), and that what I read is still far-too-damned relevant to the current version of now. What started it was an old movie titled By Dawn’s Early Light not-starring a much younger looking James Earl Jones who definitely was one of the prime characters though Powers Booth and Martin Landau were the leading men. Interesting premise…one of those ‘make you think’ movies especially since Spokane and Fairchild AFB was in it…
So I wrote my thoughts about it to include the information as it applied to me. As it applies to all of us. That failed human experiment. HA!
We had SUCH potential, didn’t we?
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***My parents started my body sometime in March 1954 in Ocean Beach-San Diego, or at least my best guess counting forward 9 months. Funny that it was also the same month the the US blew off a 15 MT thermonuclear hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll that poisoned the entire Pacific Basin and blew radioactive fallout all along the West Coast (and around the world in the Northern Hemispheric winds).
It was so big that the scientists were literally too scared to ever ‘test’ another because they were afraid the atmosphere would catch on fire and burn. That is not a joke. This is what they were quoted as saying. It was so big that no one at the time even thought about trying something larger.
That bomb was FIVE TIMES (5) more powerful that all of the bombs dropped on Germany and Japan in WWII put together including the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (roughly Atomic 12-15KT). It was estimated that it was probably more powerful that all the ordinance dropped in the history of our species. Ever.
We now have thermonuclear hydrogen bombs up to the 50MT range supposedly, and there is speculation that ‘doomsday’ bombs of 100MT have been built. Most are not this big in the world’s arsenals. The Russian average is ‘only’ 350KT going up to 10MT. But missiles are now multi-targeted warheads that go in different directions. One missile can destroy multiple cities within a few hundred miles radius of one another. Just one. Draw a circle with a compass that is 300 miles in diameter around a prime target anywhere in the world…oh. The circles start overlapping all over the place. Wow. Ya think?
There are an estimated 6,000+ ready to use in silos, submarines, bomber squadrons, etc. of varying size.
There are 500 cities with populations over 1 million on the planet. That leaves 5,500 for use…elsewhere. There are about 1,652 cities with populations over 300,000 so that leaves maybe 4,500 left to use elsewhere. That is…boggling. Really, it is.
If the US gov actually did start up the sirens and emergency broadcast system, they know for a fact that people would instantly go batshit fucking crazy. Cities would be an instant gridlocked nightmare with berserk frothing violent nightmare primates…doing what they always do in situations…shall we say ‘this stressful?’ The powerful, the ones in the know, would be stopped from being able to evacuate themselves and their families. Hmmm.
I vaguely remember time scales of 20-30 minutes from launch to impact back during the Alzheimer’s President and that administration’s ‘Star Wars’ plans. Probably faster after three decades of R&D since, ya think? Recently it has been all about Hypersonic missiles…which I’m assuming means literally what, 4 mintues to travel 6,000 miles?
Just contemplating my navel I guess. One of those old surfer ‘Weird Thoughts Inside the Gold Mine’ moments. Sure is a lot of crazy shit going on.
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Weather:
6’C range again today, rain coming back tomorrow after broken cloud-overcast with sun today. Yesterday it freaking poured here, hard pounding and cold sheets of rain. The snow levels are high and climbing even higher to nearly the top of my snowboarding hill for tomorrow. Oops. It will definitely be raining up on the Peak again and absolutely miserable. Sitting on a lift for 9 minutes in the pouring rain just doesn’t attract any customers.
There is still a bit of snow around the property but it’s mostly sticky mud instead of frozen earth underneath. Flying bugs are showing up outside. There’s green grass showing. Last night the sky shook off the last of the cloud masses after sunset and went brilliantly full of star fields, just breath-stoppingly clear. Much bigger were the planets whirling by, moving quicker than the stars. Enjoy the little things…
The smaller birds are loving the new Suet feeders, but the old girl dog is having to run the turkeys off. Three turkeys finally saw them hanging, pecked so hard one of them opened and two days later there were a dozen under the apple tree trying to open them. Had to put the hooks on higher branches and so far they having tried climbing the limbs for them. Turkeys and an invasive, introduced species here. They are very annoying. February starts in a few hours. It should be cold, snowing, icy roads, you know, winter at 49’N latitude next to Canada weather. And it is going to start raining again tomorrow.
Welcome to the 2020s no shit, Kevin!
sealintheSelkirks
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Industrial civilisation is spectacularly unprepared for abrupt climate change.
Complexity is our Achilles heal.
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/texas-energy-executives-pressed-state-lawmakers-76119973
https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/late-ginger-zee-texas-power-grid-failure-76125196?fbclid=IwAR2_ynaGoM6U94noZevD2whCTan_5Kq1I6IISa3CffdN4mG31SszDduzfAU
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Haha, Umair is much more optimistic than me, I think it will all unfold this decade.
https://eand.co/this-is-how-our-civilization-is-self-destructing-63ffeaeb24f5
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Oh yes, I agree with that. A serious optimist but then we can be serious pessimists at time, too, eh Kevin? But another 30 years of sliding off the cliff? Don’t think so as the cascading positive feedbacks that seem to be inherent in the system (of which it seems we consistently discover more of to our misfortune!) doesn’t point that we’ll ‘survive’ until the 2050s… Maybe Greenland won’t melt completely off in the next 30 years, or the Antarctic continent will still have ice pack and the oceans won’t be 120 feet higher worldwide, but he does seem to be much more of an optimist than the facts would call for.
Based on our species history…and current behavior? Nah, here’s some links. I think I already put a couple of these below on other threads but just in case I didn’t. I send off so much stuff sometimes that I lose track. One of the down sides of being able to read so damned fast I guess.
sealintheSelkirks
60 Largest Banks Have Dumped $3.8 Trillion Into Fossil Fuels Since 2015, Report Shows
“By bankrolling the expansion of oil and gas, the top banks of the world have blood on their hands.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/24/60-largest-banks-have-dumped-38-trillion-fossil-fuels-2015-report-shows
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Long-lost Core Drilled to Prepare Ice Sheet to Hide Nuclear Missiles Holds Clues About a Different Threat
Plant remnants frozen beneath 4,000 feet of ice show that most of Greenland’s ice sheet melted about 1 million years ago, in a climate like today’s.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15032021/ice-core-greenland-ice-sheet-climate-change/
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A climate tryptych: Gulf Stream, jet steam, and paving over California’s artificial streams
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/3/20/2021990/-A-climate-tryptic-Gulf-Steam-jet-streams-and-paving-over-California-s-artificial-streams
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Direct Air Capture and Big Oil
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/03/12/direct-air-capture-and-big-oil/
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Villagers & Pillagers: Who Will Survive the Collapse?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/03/19/villagers-pillagers-who-will-survive-the-collapse/
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‘Climate Change Is Here’: Europe’s Recent Droughts ‘Unprecedented’ in Millennia, Study Finds
“Our results show that what we have experienced over the past five summers is extraordinary for central Europe, in terms of how dry it has been consecutively.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/16/climate-change-here-europes-recent-droughts-unprecedented-millennia-study-finds
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Haha, by 2030, hilarious, we’ll all be gone by 2030.
Can kicker of the year goes to Joe and Co. 😉
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What, Kevin? You thinking ‘ol Joe the Reagan Drug War Democrat isn’t serious? I mean, look at that face isn’t it the face of your dear old grandad and how can one not trust that truly honest look that this will work?
Oh wait. Didn’t ‘ol Joe just fire, demote, or otherwise remove from working in the White House all those Democratic aides that have at one point or another admitted to smoking cannabis sometime in their life? Well he sure did and that speaks loudly that cannabis, like Hillary Clinton publicly stated, won’t be legal on his watch!
The can was kicked by Trump, Obama, Shadow Pres. ‘Shotgun’ Dick and his puppet Wbush, B. Clinton, HWbush, and most certainly by our favorite Grandpa face Ronnie “Trees cause air pollution, too” Reagan… And definitely kicked by the boards of directors of oil companies in the 60s when their own scientists TOLD them what was coming. Why are the most powerful in our societies the most unethical, corrupt, and greedy? Is there a basic flaw in our species?
Don’t answer that because I’ll just get depressed at the reality of it all.
Ain’t this fun? I don’t listen to these politicians. I read transcripts because it gives me a much better feel for what they are actually saying…
Did you read Greta Thunberg’s words today?
https://www.vogue.com/article/greta-thunberg-letter-climate-change-earth-day
sealintheSelkirks
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Kevin, I thought this was a very good read this morning so I’m sending the link. Human hubris?
sealintheSelkirks
In Our Hurry to Conquer Nature and Death, We Have Made a New Religion of Science
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/22/in-our-hurry-to-conquer-nature-and-death-we-have-made-a-new-religion-of-science/
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Cassandra
https://www.straight.com/news/climate-cassandra-guy-mcpherson-makes-a-case-that-scientists-ipcc-and-media-underplay-crisis?fbclid=IwAR0-Arr_c5CO-3vl9qf0DMz4uJkLZj2Lf9azRE-JVVIJ3b0nVxJB5RShJpg
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So even Bill Nye The Science Guy is talking off camera on this but of course not on camera because the corporate owners of the media would never allow anything even close to the after-filming conversation to get out. Can you imagine the reaction if it went on CNN, MSNBC, and Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda channel? It would be worse than…the panic buying in Florida when a hurricane is coming. Worse than Black Friday at Walmart. The churches would be overwhelmed with huge crowds screaming for Jeezuz to save them. There would be riots.
Self-censorship is alive and well. But Nye and Arnie baby? What a very strange combination that is. The Austrian has always been just another neoliberal RWNJ with ‘feel his BIG Muscles’ crap. When he was ‘elected governor of California I wasn’t surprised. I mean, the state has always been a bastion of militarism, corporatism, and extremely conservative. Shit, they elected Reagan so why the hell not?
104’F at 4pm again today. I hear fireworks going off in the distance. The highest temperatures ever recorded, the driest June every recorded, and the driest Jan-July ever recorded, and these dumbasses are lighting off bombs. Why do I get the feeling you’re gonna outlive me?
But probably not by all that much. Even New Zealand is going to be hit pretty damned hard just not as quick as the Northern Hemisphere I’m guessing…
sealintheSelkirks
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Another source of methane that has blown past all expectations:
Exponential ‘methane wetland feedback’ is occurring faster than the worst-case scenarios.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/22/2159602/-Exponential-methane-wetland-feedback-is-faster-than-the-worst-case-scenarios
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Never any ‘good news.’
sealintheSelkirks
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