Citizen Power

The UK is launching a new earth-orbiting satellite today that will be working to gather information about gravity and topography, and will help study climate change. This European Space Agency satellite is called GOCE, which loosely stands for Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer.  Specifically, the satellite will study and gather gravity data.  This satellite is being advertised as giving us the best and most precise measurements yet of our planet’s gravitational field, from its eventual orbit, 155 miles above earth. In large part this satellite’s abilities will be used for mapping more accurately, because gravity around the world changes, believe it or not.

On Earth, the gravity ranges from 32.09 feet per second squared at the equator, to 32.25 feet per second squared at the North and South poles. That’s because the earth is not exactly round, it’s more elliptical. Extra distance from the surface to the core of the earth weakens gravity’s force, so at the equator, you are literally a little bit lighter than you would be at the poles.

The result of all this will have climate change measuring results. The global reference result this satellite will come up with is called a geoid. It’s a height reference for all points on earth, according to one of the GOCE’s gradiometer engineers. A more accurate geoid gives us better climate change research. That’s because climate and temperatures are highly affected by ocean circulation, which moves warm ocean currents to the north on the surface, and moves colder water toward the equator in deep currents. This is called, by some people, “The great conveyor”. It’s estimated this movement can take up to 1,000 years. For instance, it’s known that the Gulf Stream carries warm surface water from the Gulf of Mexico to northern Europe. That is what keeps Europe from being super cold, or going into another little ice age.  If the current stops due to climate change, (and there’s a possibility of that happening) Europe would become very cold again.

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People are losing the battle to clean up the eco-messes they make.   As a result, the world’s biggest landfill is in the Pacific Ocean.  There is a slow-moving clockwise spiral of currents created by air currents. It’s an oceanic desert, (not a dead zone, like off the coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast).  It’s filled with tiny phytoplankton but hardly any big fish.  Fishermen avoid it.  It’s made up of people’s trash.  It is the largest landfill in the world, and it is mostly made up of bits of plastic floating in the middle of the ocean.  There are actually two large patches of garbage that have sort of drifted apart. The Eastern one estimated as being the size of Texas.  (L.A. Times )

The Western garbage patch is floating east of Japan and is approximately the same size.  Both patches collect trash from all over the world.  The U.N. Environment Program estimates that 46,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating on every square mile of the oceans. About 70% will eventually sink and after it sinks, it continues to kill and disturb life in the depths of the water.  This plastic doesn’t just sit on the floor of the ocean and get covered up with sand, it continues to move with the currents.

Obviously, this is horrible, and mainly because it’s such a massive size it would be impossible to clean it all up. Teams of scuba divers go out to areas of the ocean every year to cut nets and try to clean the worst of it up from marine life habitats, but it’s a losing battle, and it’s an expensive job.   Worse, the patch is estimated to be growing thousands of square miles every  year,  and it’s killing so much wildlife. Birds and other animals eat the plastic, thinking it’s food, and die.    Watch this sad video about Albatrosses accidentally eating plastic and dying of dehydration and starvation in the Pacific, even though they eat every day.  (click on ‘The Plastic Diet’)  They mistake the plastic for food and after eating it, it stays in their stomachs until they die, which is often before they reach adulthood.

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This looks a bit like a Hobbit house or a place where gnomes or something like that might live.    It’s a house built right into a hill, naturally cooled and as self-sufficient as possible. And according to the owner and builder of the house, it took no special abilities or tools to build. In fact, the builder had only worked once before on a house like this before he built his own!

The house is in Wales, and it was built by the builder, his father-in-law, and visiting friends.  It only took four months to build, and cost about 3000 pounds (sorry I don’t have he pound symbol).  It reminds me of a treehouse or a house in a cave. It’s energy efficient because the hill it’s built into keeps it cool and warm.   Another good thing about it is that it wasn’t built with modern building materials, so the air quality inside the house, where a lot of pollution comes from, is great.  Everything is natural.

It was built with materials such as mud, turf, straw bales in floors and walls for insulation, oak wood for frames for the house (very strong wood) and skylights give the house a feeling of light and being larger than it is.

The energy comes from natural sources too.  Solar panels for the electricity, and the refrigerator is cooled by air from underground.  It’s hard to see how that could be cool enough, but I have to say I’m not very familiar with the weather in Wales.  The builder was highly ecologically motivated.  He wrote:

“Our society is almost entirely dependent on the availability of increasing amounts of fossil fuel energy. This has brought us to the point at which our supplies are dwindling and our planet is in ecological catastrophe. We have no viable alternative energy source and no choice but to reduce our energy consumption. The sooner this change can be begun, the more comfortable it will be.”

I’ve wanted to live in a house like this for a long time. Would this be feasible to build in the United States?  You can see several other photos of this house here, and a lot more information about it and how it came about. Plans for the house and videos are there too.

A very serious report by the UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers says that we should accept that the world will change drastically due to climate change, and that we’ll  need to adapt. One of the changes the IME says is coming is rising seas that may flood England — and large parts of the U.S. coastline where major cities are located. In order to survive, they advise, we had better start planning. This is similar advice to what English  climate scientist James Lovelock is telling the BBC lately. In a short interview on Monday morning (02/23) he told the BBC’s Today program that it’s too late to do anything about climate change and we’d better plan on how to adapt to it.  I’m wary of such predictions because they tend to let people get away with doing nothing. If people feel, “what’s the use” then they won’t support the governments that have barely begun to take action on climate change.

We need to support efforts to both do something about climate change now, and plan ways to survive if what we do isn’t enough. President Obama signaled his intent last night in his speech before a joint session of Congress, when he declared that he wants a market cap on C02 emissions to be submitted to him soon. That means he wants a carbon cap, which is drastic action for the United States and something that would never, in a million years, have happened under a Republican administration. This means that the president who has surrounded himself with the best and brightest scientific minds in America to be his science and climate advisors still feels there is something we can do about climate change and it’s worth a try, even if it costs a lot in both money and effort and work. So read the following with a grain of salt and remember — no one can predict the future with any absolute accuracy.
Britain should prepare for massive loss of landmass, warns engineers

UK should change building design, transport and energy infrastructure ahead of climate change and high sea level. Engineers fear London could be submerged as the climate changes. According to the BBC, the report states:

“However, the existing Kyoto Protocol has, to date, been a near total failure, with emissions levels continuing to rise substantially.”

While the report’s authors point out that the Institution, like many scientific bodies, has a strong belief that we need “to reduce CO2 to secure long-term human survival”, they also say that we should be realistic about what we can achieve. And “even with vigorous mitigation effort, we will continue to use fossil fuel reserves until they are exhausted.”

It’s clear to me that people will try to use all the remaining fossil fuels, which would change our climate for the next 10,000 years or more, but just because people will try does not mean they will be successful. This is where politics comes into policy. Political viewpoints on this subject do matter.

From The Guardian, February 2009.
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The trouble with predictions is that they can’t be sure. Two doomsday scenarios painted for us by two experts in their field in the space of two days. Has global warming already doomed us? Personally, I don’t think so, but at least one scientist does. On Monday morning, climate expert James Lovelock told a BBC Today’s morning audience that it was too late, and we should forget alternative energy, and that trying to stop warming would all be for nothing. He said we should be focusing on survival and how to save the human race.

Lovelock said he felt that Canada and some countries like England would withstand climate change OK, and those were the countries where climate refugees would migrate to, so those of us lucky enough to live in the north already should be preparing for that. (I’m hoping the northern U.S. escapes the worst of it too). His viewpoint was not met with skepticism by the BBC reporter, but with a sort of acceptance and sadness. Lovelock said we should be building hospitals and planning our cities for mass food distribution and mass housing, when the time comes, which he felt that would be sometime within 100 years. The reason the situation might get so grim, in his estimation, is that climate change is going to bring us to a temperature rise of 5 degree Celsius, there is nothing we can do to stop it, and that earth can’t support the 7 billion people that will be here when that happens. There will be incredible food shortages and migrations from the coast, and not enough fresh water for so many people in a shrinking land mass. So, he said he felt about 6 billion humans will die. I certainly hope he’s wrong, and he admitted that’s totally possible. Still, even to think of that many people not making because of something we could do something about now is terrible.

That was the worst prediction I had heard yet. But now another “prediction” has come to light, although the second guy doesn’t feel we’re all doomed for sure like Lovelock does. The 2nd prediction is for mass and extended war for land and resources. That’s a terrifying scenario. Here is the story from South Africa, and I strongly hope this is only the “worst case scenario”. In this case, an economist is the one making the dire prediction. Can he be right or are these people too pessimistic? We are only just now starting to do what we can about C02 emissions and it will take years before these things are put into place.

Mass migrations and war: Dire climate scenario
By Charles J. Hanley

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — If we don’t deal with climate change decisively, “what we’re talking about then is extended world war,” the eminent economist said.

His audience Saturday, small and elite, had been stranded here by bad weather and were talking climate. They couldn’t do much about the one, but the other was squarely in their hands. And so, Lord Nicholas Stern was telling them, was the potential for mass migrations setting off mass conflict.

“Somehow we have to explain to people just how worrying that is,” the British economic thinker said.

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the Beijing Taiyanggong Gas-fueled Thermal Power Co., Ltd. (Taiyanggong Power Plant) of the Beijing Energy Investment Co., Ltd. in Beijing, capital of China on February 21. She also visited the Chinese president the same day, especially to reassure him that China’s investments in the U.S. were safe (that must have been a hard sell) and that we will work together to makes our economies strong again, according to a report by the CBC.

Clinton said she had “very good meetings” with Chinese officials during her visit, which she called the beginning of “a new era” of China-U.S. relations characterized by positive cooperation. China owns a lot of our economy so they were mainly interested in meeting with Sec. Clinton on economic matters. The purpose of Clinton’s visit was to work on general relations with China, economic issues, and climate change/energy issues.

“BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) — China and the United States on Saturday agreed to establish a dialogue on strategic and economic issues and pledged to work together to tackle the global financial crisis and climate change. The agreement came out of a flurry of meetings between Chinese leaders and visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday. “Now it is more important than anytime in the past to deepen and develop China-U.S. relations amid the spreading financial crisis and increasing global challenges,” Chinese President Hu Jintao told Clinton. Saying the relations were “among the most important bilateral relations in the world,” Hu proposed both countries work closely to address international financial crisis and tackle climate change and other global challenges so as to seek a sound and smooth growth of bilateral ties. . . . . . “

We’d better hope China is enthusiastic about working with us on climate issues. Last year, Science reported that China’s C02 emissions could equal the whole world’s emissions today, by 2030. They were constructing new coal plants at the rate of about two per week in 2008, with no serious signs of stopping in 2009. According to the journal Science in 2008: “China is completing two new coal plants per week. That power is being used to drive an enormous manufacturing expansion. China has increased steel production from 140 million tons in 2000 to 419 million tons in 2006, the authors report.” The U.S. has basically stopped opening new coal plants and the EPA’s decision on new coal plants and whether to tie them to the Clean Air Act is expected before April 2nd. The news source Xinhuanet also reported:

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President Obama met with Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper on Thursday during a brief official visit to Canada.

They talked privately and later held a join press conference. The crowds loved President Obama; he stopped at a shopping center and got a lot of Canadian love along with some Maple Leaf cookies for the Obama daughters. (Finally, we can be not ashamed that our president is liked, and not despised, when he visits other countries!) But the discussion during this brief visit was serious. In part, Harper and Obama discussed “clean energy”. We presume they discussed the Alberta tar sands, or what the industry euphemistically refers to as the “oil sands.” There isn’t technically oil in the dirt in Alberta; it’s a form of tar, which is a super thick, sludgey form of a very crude, very dirty substance than can be processed into oil, after a massive expenditure of heat and water and energy. Then it is shipped into the U.S., where we buy a lot of it, unfortunately, to run our cars and more.   All this at the expense of the atmosphere and the environment in the area where this sludge is mined.

But they did make some quasi-progress:  they both vowed to speed up carbon capture and sequestration to clean up C02 in some type of joint agreement/project.  This will be difficult, however, since CCS does not yet exist except in experimental stages.  It just does not exist.  Basically, if this is progress, it’s meaningless.   Canada will continue to pump C02 into the air, uncaptured, and so will the U.S.  When will real progress come?

Environmental groups and most everyone else who knows about the tar sands were hoping President Obama would finally tell Canada that we don’t want their dirty tar for our energy. But the conversation was obviously much more amicable than that, (as it probably needed to be) and at the very least it laid the groundwork for cooperation on “clean energy” in the future. Oil and especially tar sands oil will never, ever be “clean energy”, no matter what they do with it. And the environmental damage being caused in Canada is just devastating.

This all comes after a federal court judge has reversed a decision on mountaintop removal in the United States. (See Appeals court overturns new mountaintop mine rules).

The coal mining issue is not turning out as well as I had hoped, but there is time for Obama to redeem himself in all of these areas and I expect he will soon. Meanwhile, you can see amazing photos of the tar sands in Alberta at this Flickr stream called Stop the Tar Sands.

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Tungsten is a powerful contaminant and toxin that is in a lot of regular things, like jewelry and lightbulbs. When used in bombs for war, it’s a nightmare material that produces terrible and strange wounds, and is both a danger to humans and to the environment. (See: ‘Tungsten bombs’ leave Israel’s victims with mystery wounds”)

Tungsten was used extensively in DIME bombs used by Israel, (allegedly) supplied by the United States, in their brutal attacks on Gaza recently. Hundreds of DIME bombs were used by Israel for weeks in the attacks.

Tungsten will be a serious environmental toxin for years to come in the Gaza strip, as a result. It may also stunt the growth of plants that grow there and negatively affect reproduction. Here is a recent article from Scientific American explaining the problems with tungsten.

“Scientists this week urged further research on tungsten, the metal used to make light bulb filaments, shotgun shells, electrical wires and even wedding bands, to rule out possible health risks to humans and the environment in the wake of studies showing that it may cause reproductive problems in earthworms and stunted growth in sunflowers.

In an article published this week in Chemical & Engineering News, researchers suggest that not enough is known to determine whether tungsten is safe, and that studies need to be conducted to assess how much is in drinking water and the soil – and whether it poses dangers for humans, animals and plants.

Experts say that tungsten is safe when used in its pure form in light bulb filaments, jewelry, and electrical devices. But researchers quoted in the article and interviewed by ScientificAmerican.com say that when tungsten gets into the soil (through, say, light bulbs in landfills), it reacts with substances such as oxygen, forming new chemicals such as polytungstates that may cause growth and reproduction problems in plants and animals. Studies show that sunflowers grown in soil spiked with tungsten powder grow shorter roots, stalks, and leaves and “start looking sickly,” says David Johnson, a toxicologist with the Environmental Laboratory of the U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Miss.

He adds that it’s also “a pretty potent reproductive toxin” in earthworms, noting that worms exposed to even minute levels of tungsten (700 milligrams of tungsten per 1 kilogram of soil) become infertile. Johnson says that the effects of tungsten on earthworm reproduction are “comparable” to that of lead in humans, which has been linked to neurological problems in fetuses and children.

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The Israeli government is turning into the very thing that they are supposedly fighting against. They are not just targeting civilians inside the Gaza strip in this war of aggression, they are also targeting the UN and reporters and even warehouses of food aid. They prevented foreign journalists from entering Gaza, and now they are seemingly trying to finish off the ones who are there! (The United States military did the same thing at the start of the Iraq war, killing foreign journalists and even seeming to target them.) When will someone stop the Israeli terrorism? It doesn’t matter if someone is using a suicide bomb or a high-tech plane dropping bombs, — killing people and terrorizing them with threat of harm or death in order to manipulate them politically is terrorism, and that’s what Israel is currently doing. In this case, it’s to completely control an entire 1.5 million people in the teriory of the Gaza strip. These are clearly people who will not be controlled. And ironically, it’s the media that is failing to point out that Hamas was democratically elected and should have been negotiated with, not attacked.

“Israeli military asked to explain how Gaza media building came to be hit by explosion

15 January 2009– Reporters Without Borders calls on the Israeli military to investigate and explain exactly how a 16-storey building in Gaza City that houses several news organisations including Reuters came to be hit by an explosion this morning.

An Abu Dhabi TV journalist and a Reuters cameraman were injured in the blast that shook the Al-Shurouq Tower. It was not immediately known whether the explosion was the result of a missile or a shell fired by a tank.

Reuters said an Israeli army spokesman contacted the news agency’s Jerusalem bureau shortly before the explosion to verify the location of its Gaza bureau. Reuters had informed the Israeli army of the exact location at the start of the war and was assured by the Israelis on several occasions that it would not be a target.

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This was a little-covered protest in Washington, a protest asking President Obama to change U.S. policies towards Gaza and the Israel Palestine conflict.

President Obama needs to realize that people see him as the man who will end unnecessary wars and overt aggression, as we are seeing in the Gaza strip, and we expect him to do that. Peace marches against Israeli violence and American violence are valuable for a lot of reasons. They are a perfect example of Citizen Power! Today, Sunday, there was a small peace protest for Palestinians, outside a Solidarity with Israel event in Minneapolis. I wish I could have been there with them. We are sick of war and that includes this slaughter of Palestinians going on in the Gaza Strip right now.

There is widespread support for Israel’s anti-peace acts of aggression, as seen in my local media, including TV stations. Yes, I know they don’t know their back ends from their brains, but they are still sitting in those anchor chairs telling everyone that my state supports Israel no matter what dumb idiotic thing they do. They did this tonight on their “news” broadcast. They showed a “solidarity” event “packed to standing-room only” and of course the solidarity was with Israel and their “right” to “defend themselves”. Nevermind that this “defend itself” excuse is BS.

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Today, on the first day of 2009, I’m publishing a guest post by a writer for one of my other websites. He’s a student of Israel-Palestine issues, and does a lot of reading on the issues involved in their conflicts. He writes regularly for some other websites also, including Lew Rockwell and the Atlantic Free Press. Here is his latest article about Israel’s latest war with Gaza. The odd thing about Israel attacking Gaza like this is that they do this every few years. I was looking for some background material for something on this war last night, looking for a story of how the US recently blocked a UN resolution for an immediate ceasefire (a ceasefire other countries are still working on.) I found this article on Breitbart which says in part:

“The United States vetoed a UN draft resolution that would have called for an end to Israeli attacks and “disproportionate use of force” in the Gaza Strip as well as for the release of a kidnapped Israeli soldier.

The Security Council resolution received 10 votes, one against from the United States with four abstentions, French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the council president for July, announced.

Explaining his negative vote, US Ambassador John Bolton described the text as “unbalanced” and was “not only untimely but also outmoded” because of the attacks against Israel by Lebanese Hezbollah militants and UN chief Kofi Annan’s decision to send a crisis team to the region.

He said adoption of the resolution would have exacerbated tensions in the region. . . . “

It’s dated July 13 2005! One vote against it — the United States.  So the names have changed, but the problems are still nearly exactly the same. Hamas flings some home made rockets at Israel that usually hurt no one. Israel responds with tanks and days of Air Force bombings that kill hundreds. It seems rather ridiculously unbalanced, doesn’t it? Tonight the death toll in Gaza is 440, with reports that Israel bombed a school yesterday filled with kids. I get most of my up-to-the-minute information on this war from Twitter. I’m following several Palestinians there and in other countries, in touch with their connections who are there, so they are reporting the news that CNN won’t. (You can follow me on Twitter at this link).

Here is the article about Israel’s latest war by Tom Chartier.

Israel’s Iron Fist
By Tom Chartier

We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done,
no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmet agree with it or not.
There is no other morality.

Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky- Founder of the Israeli Right – Nov. 4, 1923

In his historic essay The Iron Wall Russian immigrant to Palestine Vladimir Jabotinsky succinctly outlined the Zionist plan of colonization. His logic was nearly impeccable as was his honest assessment of the challenges Zionism faced in coming to an agreement with the indigenous Arab population. Only behind an Iron Wall of brute force and oppression destroying any hope would the Arabs ever agree to peaceful co-existence with the flood of Jewish immigrants seeking a Jewish National Homeland.

Jabotinsky was brutally honest in his logic, however twisted. Where his assertion that “Zionism is moral and just” comes from I can only speculate. Since when has colonization of another people’s land been moral and just? Jabotinsky made a frightening statement implying a divine right where the end justifies the means. Where is the morality or justice in this?

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“The war against Gaza is ongoing, more hospitals, houses, mosques, government and military facilities are under fire, and the number of casualties, especially among the civilians is gradually increasing. Death toll exceeded 385 residents, including children, women and elderly while at least 1750 residents were injured. “– IMEMC

At least 40 more people in Gaza lost their lives today. Were they Hamas or civilians, and why does that question even matter? Hamas is no al Qaeda, but Israel has vowed to kill even Hamas “sympathizers”. It would be very interesting to find out how Israel determines who is a “sympathizer” and whether kids under 16 or in refugee camps can be considered Hamas sympathizers. If not, Israel is making a lot of mistakes with its targeting.

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and the Dignity made CNN news today several times. McKinney was interviewed by several reporters but CNN cut her off when she started talking about Gaza, as though defending the people there and pointing out their side of the story is just too controversial. On the other hand, various media pundits are castigating Hamas for hiding behind “women and children”. So we are getting mixed signals as to whether “women and children’s” lives matter or not.

Petitions to sign and websites promoting a ceasefire are coming into email accounts all over the country today and I’ve gotten a rush of them over the last 3 days. Here are two of the easiest “action items” from today and maybe they will even have some effect. The first is from CREDO — sign their petition here:

We need a ceasefire now in Gaza.

During a time of year filled with prayers for peace, the volatile Gaza Strip is plagued, once again, by violence and death.

Air strikes in Gaza have killed 300 so far - at least 50 of them civilians - and injured over 600 more. Rockets are striking deep inside of Israel. As the crisis is spirals out of control, it is certain to lead to more civilian suffering and an escalation of the conflict.

To make a profound understatement, the political and historical conflict causing this violence is centuries old and far too complicated to address in an e-mail petition. The purpose of this petition is not to assert who’s right and who’s wrong. Rather, we join our allies at Avaaz.org and ask for real action to stop the violence through an immediate ceasefire.

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