NASA Warns & Projects Faster Rising Sea Levels, & More News

Global Digest's Insights

This is a very serious warning from NASA. This is probably a good time to consider whether holding on to real estate near coastal waters makes any sense at all. Bloomberg's proposed seawall for NYC makes even better reasons today  to build in light of NASA's concerns. However, it may just be a short-term remedy!

There are not too many positives here as for certain it will bring on historic dislocations of all sorts. It may however solve some the wildfire  issues in drought laden coastal areas  around the water, but that is not much consolation!

August 31, 2015

Sea Level Rising Faster Than Expected, NASA Warns

That’s the higher range of the one to three feet level of rise the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gave in its 2013 assessment.

Sea levels have already risen three inches on average since 1992, with some areas experiencing as much as a 9-inch rise.

“Given what we know now about how the ocean expands as it warms and how ice sheets andglaciers are adding water to the seas, it’s pretty certain we are locked into at least three feet of sea level rise and probably more,” said Steve Nerem of the University of Colorado, Boulder and lead of NASA’s interdisciplinary Sea Level Change Team. “But we don’t know whether it will happen within a century or somewhat longer.”

Germany moves to Ban GMO Crops

Following Scotland's lead, Germany becomes latest in EU to pursue opt-out clause in GMO rules

Citigroup Predicts $100 Trillion In Stranded Assets If Paris Summit Succeeds

Wind & Solar Are Already A Better Value Than Fossil Fuels

 Hawking: There may be a way out of black holes

British scientist proposes that physical information could survive and pass through black holes to alternate universes.

Victoria networks to sell solar direct to customers, taking on retailers

Victoria’s electricity networks are making a major push into the commercial solar market as part of a broad strategy into new technologies that could put them in direct competition with electricity retailers.

The PowerCor and CitiPower networks which service Melbourne and much of regional Victoria, are also pursuing battery storage options – both at the customer and the grid level – and setting up a consultancy company as part of a strategy to deal with rapidly changing economics of solar and storage and a decentralised energy system.

Kissinger: ‘Breaking Russia Has Become 

Objective For US’ 

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has hit out at American and European Ukraine policy, saying it ignores Russia’s relationship with its neighbor, and has called for cooperation between the White House and the Kremlin on the issue.

“Breaking Russia has become an objective [for US officials] the long-range purpose should be to integrate it,” the 92-year-old told The National Interest in a lengthy interview for the policy magazine’s anniversary that touched on most of the world’s most pertinent international issues. “If we treat Russia seriously as a great power, we need at an early stage to determine whether their concerns can be reconciled with our necessities.”

The diplomat, who is most famous for serving in the Nixon administration, and controversially being awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, for negotiating the Vietnam ceasefire, accused the West of failing to recognize the historical context in which the fallout occurred between Moscow and Kiev.

“The relationship between Ukraine and Russia will always have a special character in the Russian mind. It can never be limited to a relationship of two traditional sovereign states, not from the Russian point of view, maybe not even from Ukraine’s. So, what happens in Ukraine cannot be put into a simple formula of applying principles that worked in Western Europe.”

A  Passing  Thought...

California: Look At Mother Nature On The Run In The 21st Century, & More

Well, I dreamed I saw the knights

In armor coming

Saying something about a queen

There were peasants singing and

Drummers drumming

And the archer split the tree

There was a fanfare blowing

To the sun

That was floating on the breeze

Look at Mother Nature on the run

In the nineteen seventies

Now, look at California on the run

In the twenty-first century... 

More Than Half of San Jose's Guadalupe River Is Gone

SAN JOSE -- On a recent afternoon at Guadalupe River Park in the heart of downtown, a couple strolled hand-in-hand, a mother pushed her toddler in a stroller, and soft breezes rustled the leaves of stately trees near the home of the San Jose Sharks.

But something was missing: the river.

The river that runs through America's 10th-largest city has dried up, shriveling a source of civic pride that had welcomed back trout, salmon, beavers and other wildlife after years of restoration efforts. Over the past two months, large sections of the Guadalupe have become miles of cracked, arid gray riverbed. Fish and other wildlife are either missing or dead, casualties of California's relentless drought.

Look at Mother Nature on the run

In the nineteen seventies

Now, look at California on the run

In the twenty-first century... 

Germany Struggles With Too Much 

Renewable Energy

Although Germany has increased its renewable energy generation by almost five times in the last decade, it has failed to invest in building the necessary infrastructure to carry this energy. The excess electricity that is being generated by Germany is spilling over to Poland and Czech Republic, two countries that are investing close to $180 million to shore up their grids from Germany’s power spillage.

Perfect Storm' Engulfing Canada's Economy Perfectly Predictable

Throughout the world, analysts no longer refer to bitumen as Canada's destiny, but as a stranded asset. Nearly $60-billion of projects representing 1.6 million barrels of production were mothballed last year. 

Turkish security forces reel from wave of attacks

Two women shot at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Monday and at least eight people were killed in a wave of separate attacks on Turkish security forces, weeks after Ankara launched a crackdown on Kurdish militants.

The Point of No Return

Temperatures reached highs of 47C in conditions made less bearable by elevated humidity 

Heat wave hits some European countries, more wildfires reported

More Than 1 Million Acres of Paddy Fields Destroyed by Floods

The Weight of the World

The  United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or U.N.F.C.C.C., has by now been ratified by a hundred and ninety-five countries, which, depending on how you count, represents either all the countries in the world or all the countries and then some. Every year, the treaty stipulates, the signatories have to hold a meeting—a gathering that’s known as a COP, short for Conference of the Parties. The third COP produced the Kyoto Protocol, which, in turn, gave rise to another mandatory gathering, a MOP, or Meeting of the Parties. 

The seventeenth COP, which coincided with the seventh MOP, took place in South Africa. There it was decided that the work of previous COPs and MOPs had been inadequate, and a new group was formed—the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, usually referred to as the A.D.P. The A.D.P. subsequently split into A.D.P.-1 and A.D.P.-2, each of which held meetings of its own. The purpose of the U.N.F.C.C.C. and of the many negotiating sessions and working groups and protocols it has spun off over the years is to prevent “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” In climate circles, this is usually shortened to D.A.I. In plain English, it means global collapse.

Look at Mother Nature on the run

In the nineteen seventies

Now, look at California on the run

In the twenty-first century...

Top Weekly Ideas and Insights

An Inconvenient Truth

"Battle For Oil" 

What Happens When Political Interests Get Desperate?

EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

"Coming To The End Of Oil Age"

 - Looking Beyond The Brink -

Now, look at California on the run

In the twenty-first century...

Pakistan Heat Wave Killing Hundreds, & More

Heat wave kills 692 in three days, most of them in port city of Karachi, as emergency declared in hospitals.

Up To 700 Dead As Pakistan Reels Under Blistering Heat

Nearly 700 people have died in a severe three-day heat wave in Pakistan, officials have said, with medics battling to treat patients as a state of emergency was declared in hospitals.

The majority of people died in government-run hospitals in the port city of Karachi, Pakistan's economic hub of around 20 million people, as temperatures reached 45 degrees Celsius at the weekend.

"The number of people who have died in the heatwave has now reached 692," Saeed Mangnejo, a senior health official in Sindh province, said on Tuesday.

Mangnejo said that the death toll may rise further.

Karachi's largest hospital, Post Graduate Medical College Hospital, has treated more than 3,000 patients, Dr Semi Jamila told the AFP news agency.

Hospitals have been swamped with people suffering from heatstroke and dehydration, while repeated power outages have left many without air conditioning or running water.

Meanwhile, seven people have died from the heat in Punjab province over the past 24 hours, officials said.

The Point of No Return

The worst predicted impacts of climate change global warming are starting to happen much faster than expected. London reached 98F during the hottest July day ever recorded; James Hansen suggests mean sea levels could rise 10 times faster than previously predicted, with devastating social disruption that might make the planet ungovernable.

Europe shouldn’t worry about migrants. It should worry about creeping fascism 

The ultimate victory of fringe groups is not to enter the administration, but to change its direction, and Ukip has done this with aplomb, playing into a broader, well-orchestrated European meltdown over migration. Every paper has led with headlines about the supposed “immigrant crisis”. The prime minister describes migrants to Europe as a “swarm”, and the foreign secretary goes further, warning the people of Britain that the thousands of desperate people drowning in the Mediterranean are “marauding” foreigners who must be prevented from coming here because they will threaten our “standard of living” and our “way of life”.

Who Is Leading the Charge in Energy Storage? 

Danielle Fong, the founder of Lightsail, is extremely upbeat about Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), a concept which has been around since 1870s but has failed to generate traction earlier due to limitations associated with the extraction of stored energy from underground caverns. 

According to Fong, Lightsail Energy’s technique of using ‘above the ground’ storage tanks is not only efficient but also commercially viable. This technique has been tested successfully in the laboratory and is now about to be tested in the field in North America. Moreover, with $58 million dollar funding from global players such as Total, Khosla Ventures, Peter Thiel, Founder Funds and Bill Gates, Lightsail’ s investor portfolio is indeed impressive.

Low Oil Prices Spells Economic 

Trouble For  Texas 

“Everybody is waiting for doomsday,” said Vi Malone, the Karnes County treasurer. “Everything was good, and everybody was getting these big checks, and everybody waited for their land to be leased, and then it all came to a screeching halt around the beginning of the year.”

Yemen Humanitarian Crisis 

'Catastrophic,' Says Red Cross

Civilians in Yemen are living in appalling conditions compounded by heavy fighting and a Saudi Arabian blockade, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday. 
After a three day tour of the war-torn nation, Peter Maurer urged the international community
 to "wake up.” 
“The humanitarian situation is nothing short of catastrophic. Every family in Yemen has been affected by this conflict. The people are facing immense hardship. 
And it is getting worse by the day,” he said. 

After a three day tour of the war-torn nation, Peter Maurer urged the international community to “wake up.”

“The humanitarian situation is nothing short of catastrophic. Every family in Yemen has been affected by this conflict. The people are facing immense hardship. And it is getting worse by the day,” he said.

The ICRC head warned that “intense” fighting has devastated civilian infrastructure including hospitals. He also cited “import restrictions” as a major hurdle to providing humanitarian relief. Since Saudi Arabia launched its military offensive in March, Yemen has been largely cut off from the outside world by a Saudi blockade.

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Top Weekly Ideas and Insights

An Inconvenient Truth

"Battle For Oil" 

What Happens When Political Interests Get Desperate?

EXISTENTIAL REALITY 

"Coming To The End Of Oil Age"

 - Looking Beyond The Brink -