Ethanol Stupor

Advanced Biofuels, Eco-Friendly Cars [and Drive-In Eco-Tourism?]

Everyone seems to think that ethanol is a good way to make cars greener. Everyone is wrong!

Related links…

• Starving for Fuel: How Ethanol Production Contributes to Global Hunger
• Food or Fuel?
• The Ethanol Hoax
• A Humanitarian Critique of Winning the Oil Endgame

Eco Tourism?

Eco-Tourism Is an Oxymoron!

Compare healthy smoking, environmentally-friendly SUVs, safe malignant cancer…

Eco-tourism is growing at a phenomenal rate stressing the environment, damaging fragile ecosystems and destroying endangered species. Eco-tourism is the gang-rape of the environment under the “green” flag.

Basic ecological facts:

1. Human activities degrade ecosystems.
2. Intensive human activities destroy ecosystems.
3. After warfare, tourism [euphemistically referred to as eco-tourism,] is the most destructive human activity. ~ EDRO

Hermaphrodite Lamb Born With Seven Legs

New Zealand Special: Spiderlamb

A seven-legged lamb was born in New Zealand. Is there a link between the mutant lamb and hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic chemicals dumped in New Zealand? It’s high time for New Zealand government to tell the truth and reveal the exact locations of their chemical dumps, especially the areas where they have buried thousands of tons of “leftover” Agent Orange!

Agent Orange was manufactured in New Zealand from about 1962 until 1987. Dioxin has a 30-year envelop and its effects would continue to poison the people and environment until at least 2017.

A former top official for the manufacturers confirmed that the ‘leftover’ toxic chemicals were buried in secret toxic waste dumps around the country: “We bulldozed big pits and dumped thousands of tonnes of chemicals there.”

Must Read

Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’

The Poisoning of New Zealand

Spiderlamb … this New Zealand six-day-old lamb has three extra limbs and uses five to walk on, it is also a hermaphrodite and has part of its bowel missing.

Other Links:

CANTERBURY, New Zealand, Aug. 2 (UPI) — A country known worldwide for its lamb exports, New Zealand has produced a lamb born with seven legs, among other problems.

A seven-legged lamb is pictured on its farm at Methven near Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand

Why NASA Doctors Ozone Hole Data?

White Elephant Update:

Fire Earth has made several attempts to contact NASA to find out why they are doctoring the Antarctic ozone hole data. NASA has not responded.

There is a general consensus of opinion among the Fire Earth contributing members concerning the reasons why NASA is doctoring the ozone hole data. Here are some answers to the 64 billion dollar question why the white elephant is misbehaving:

1. White House has ordered NASA to doctor the Data. NASA is under immense political pressure to assure the world community that all is well [sic], everything is under control [sic] and there is no longer any need to worry about the ozone hole [despite all evidence to the contrary!]

2. The ozone hole phenomenon is bad news for corporate business. It flies directly in the face of technology and technological “achievements.”

3. The ozone hole is a huge burden, an undesirable “cost” that NASA and the Government won’t internalize. [Therefore it’s being swept under the rug.]

4. NASA would put itself in a bad light if it continues to report the bad news, which is getting even worse.

5. If you can’t fix it, don’t bloody well talk about it.

6. NASA is under enormous pressure to prove Montreal Protocol has been “a resounding success,” despite the fact that Antarctic ozone hole is enlarging!

7. NASA is suppressing the Antarctic ozone hole data at the behest of the Australian and New Zealand governments [and others] for political, monetary and socioeconomic reasons.

8. Hiding behind lies, disinformation and abstractions.

9. Other additional reasons.

 

NASA: The Conjuring Continues

NASA Continues Doctoring Antarctic Ozone Hole Data

NASA has now re-doctored its Antarctic ozone level for September 15, 2007 (see the new graph below, which was posted on NASA Ozone Hole Watch on Sept. 19, 2007 and compare it with their previous graph posted here yesterday). The doctored and re-doctored data serve to obfuscate the overall size and development of the Antarctic ozone hole.

The Fire-Earth estimate for the area covered by the Antarctic ozone hole on September 16, 2007 is 28.5 million km² (NASA’s figure is 24 million km²). This means the size of the Antarctic ozone hole was increasing on September 16, 2007 rather than decreasing as indicated by NASA.

Conclusion

The Antarctic ozone hole on September 16, 2007 covered an estimated area of 28.5 million km² (about 19% larger than the doctored data released by NASA) and was growing. The largest ozone hole ever reported by NASA covered an area of 26 million km² on September 24, 2006.

NASA: Not Another Shameful Admission

NASA re-doctored data (again!) after they were exposed by Fire Earth yesterday!

(See previous posts.)

NASA’s minimum ozone figure of 173 DU (Dobson Units) for September 15 (see updated graph above) remains wildly inaccurate and misleading. Fire Earth estimate for the minimum ozone on September 15 is in the range of 95-105 DU.

The minimum stratospheric temperature, which is marked at 183K, may have been doctored to account for the sudden rise in the minimum ozone on September 15.

NASA is under enormous pressure to prove Montreal Protocol has been “a resounding success,” despite the fact that the Antarctic ozone hole keeps on growing!

“The goal now is to ensure that CFCs and other emissions continue to fall to below the levels that produce an ozone hole,” said Goddard’s Anne Douglass, the deputy project scientist for Aura. “This won’t happen until about 2070.”

The taxpayers and their representatives (as if they had anything to do with anything) are reminded that at least 95% of all NASA ‘scientific’ activities could be carried out accurately, honestly and responsibly at a fraction of their enormous current budget (and without involving Google.com).

NASA Practices Extreme Voodoo

Here we go again! NASA’s latest frantic attempt at Voodoo to make the Antarctic Ozone Hole disappear!

[See previous posts for history. ]

Google Blocks Damaging Info on NASA

[REPOSTED]

Fire Earth couldn’t quite understand, after they caught NASA red-handed cooking the ozone hole data (see previous posts), why this site was effectively blocked by Google. Then the following came to light:

NASA provides unparalleled parking spot for private 767 of Google’s billionaire founders

The Independent UK; By David Usborne in New York, Published: 14 September 2007

“The men, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have landed a privileged parking deal for their Boeing 767 that makes all other executive perks look pedestrian. Since last month, the Google Twins, as they are sometimes known, have been allowed exclusive use of a nearby private airstrip owned by NASA, no less.”

“The Google 767 has been completely refurbished with bedrooms for each of the founders and seats only fifty passengers at its rear.” Read Full Article…

Seems like the obvious answer, doesn’t it? How would you vote if defending some “derisory” issue such as freedom of speech meant you couldn’t fly in your bedroom and land next door to your office?

Unfortunately, the real reasons are much more sinister and are to do with, in Ed Crane’s words, “the subjugation and exploitation of a great majority of people by an elite few by what has been appropriately termed the ‘ruling class’.”

NASA’s Re-Doctored Data: More “Acceptable!”

Having sounded the alarm bell on detecting the flagrant anomaly in NASA’s data for the Antarctic Ozone Hole, FEWW is happy to announce that NASA has now re-doctored its data to make it look more “acceptable!”

Below images show the doctored, “Before,” and re-doctored, “After,” computer generated graphics for the Antarctic Ozone Hole on September 7, 2007.

Now you see it! Now you don’t!

Before: The Antarctic Ozone Hole shrank by 11 million sq km (4,248,940 squared miles), a 45.8% reduction, on September 7, 2007.

After: The Antarctic Ozone Hole (for September 7, 2007), after FEWW screamed bloody murder, grew by 11 million sq km (an increase of 84.6%) on September 11, 2007.

And the 64 billion dollar question why NASA attempted to “fix” the ozone hole:

Cui bono? Who benefits from NASA’s disinformation about the Environment?

NASA’s Ozone Hole Data Doctored?

What’s Wrong With NASA’s Antarctic Ozone Hole Data?

Current entries: Ozone Hole Watch!

Previous data:  July 1979 – Present

World Oceans in Extreme Danger

Project Censored:
Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2007

Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger

Source: Mother Jones, March /April, 2006
Title: The Fate of the Ocean
Author: Julia Whitty

Oceanic problems once found on a local scale are now pandemic. Data from oceanography, marine biology, meteorology, fishery science, and glaciology reveal that the seas are changing in ominous ways. A vortex of cause and effect wrought by global environmental dilemmas is changing the ocean from a watery horizon with assorted regional troubles to a global system in alarming distress.

According to oceanographers the oceans are one, with currents linking the seas and regulating climate. Sea temperature and chemistry changes, along with contamination and reckless fishing practices, intertwine to imperil the world’s largest communal life source.

In 2005, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found clear evidence the ocean is quickly warming. They discovered that the top half-mile of the ocean has warmed dramatically in the past forty years as a result of human-induced greenhouse gases.

One manifestation of this warming is the melting of the Arctic. A shrinking ratio of ice to water has set off a feedback loop, accelerating the increase in water surfaces that promote further warming and melting. With polar waters growing fresher and tropical seas saltier, the cycle of evaporation and precipitation has quickened, further invigorating the greenhouse effect. The ocean’s currents are reacting to this freshening, causing a critical conveyor that carries warm upper waters into Europe’s northern latitudes to slow by one third since 1957, bolstering fears of a shut down and cataclysmic climate change. This accelerating cycle of cause and effect will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.

Atmospheric litter is also altering sea chemistry, as thousands of toxic compounds poison marine creatures and devastate propagation. The ocean has absorbed an estimated 118 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, with 20 to 25 tons being added to the atmosphere daily. Increasing acidity from rising levels of CO2 is changing the ocean’s PH balance. Studies indicate that the shells and skeletons possessed by everything from reef-building corals to mollusks and plankton begin to dissolve within forty-eight hours of exposure to the acidity expected in the ocean by 2050. Coral reefs will almost certainly disappear and, even more worrisome, so will plankton. Phytoplankton absorb greenhouse gases, manufacture oxygen, and are the primary producers of the marine food web.

Mercury pollution enters the food web via coal and chemical industry waste, oxidizes in the atmosphere, and settles to the sea bottom. There it is consumed, delivering mercury to each subsequent link in the food chain, until predators such as tuna or whales carry levels of mercury as much as one million times that of the waters around them. The Gulf of Mexico has the highest mercury levels ever recorded, with an average of ten tons of mercury coming down the Mississippi River every year, and another ton added by offshore drilling.

Along with mercury, the Mississippi delivers nitrogen (often from fertilizers). Nitrogen stimulates plant and bacterial growth in the water that consume oxygen, creating a condition known as hypoxia, or dead zones. Dead zones occur wherever oceanic oxygen is depleted below the level necessary to sustain marine life. A sizable portion of the Gulf of Mexico has become a dead zone—the largest such area in the U.S. and the second largest on the planet, measuring nearly 8,000 square miles in 2001. It is no coincidence that almost all of the nearly 150 (and counting) dead zones on earth lay at the mouths of rivers. Nearly fifty fester off U.S. coasts. While most are caused by river-borne nitrogen, fossil fuel-burning plants help create this condition, as does phosphorous from human sewage and nitrogen emissions from auto exhaust.

Meanwhile, since its peak in 2000, the global wild fish harvest has begun a sharp decline despite progress in seagoing technologies and intensified fishing. So-called efficiencies in fishing have stimulated unprecedented decimation of sealife. Long-lining, in which a single boat sets line across sixty or more miles of ocean, each baited with up to 10,000 hooks, captures at least 25 percent unwanted catch. With an estimated 2 billion hooks set each year, as much as 88 billion pounds of life a year is thrown back to the ocean either dead or dying. Additionally, trawlers drag nets across every square inch of the continental shelves every two years. Fishing the sea floor like a bulldozer, they level an area 150 times larger than all forest clearcuts each year and destroy seafloor ecosystems. Aquaculture is no better, since three pounds of wild fish are caught to feed every pound of farmed salmon. A 2003 study out of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia concluded, based on data dating from the 1950s, that in the wake of decades of such onslaught only 10 percent of all large fish (tuna, swordfish) and ground fish (cod, hake, flounder) are left anywhere in the ocean.

Other sea nurseries are also threatened. Fifteen percent of seagrass beds have disappeared in the last ten years, depriving juvenile fish, manatees, and sea turtles of critical habitats. Kelp beds are also dying at alarming rates.

While at no time in history has science taught more about how the earth’s life-support systems work, the maelstrom of human assault on the seas continues. If human failure in governance of the world’s largest public domain is not reversed quickly, the ocean will soon and surely reach a point of no return.

Comment:
After release of the Pew Oceans Commission report, U.S. media, most notably The Washington Post and National Public Radio in 2003 and 2004, covered several stories regarding impending threats to the ocean, recommendations for protection, and President Bush’s response. However, media treatment of the collective acceleration of ocean damage and cross-pollination of harm was left to Julia Whitty in her lengthy feature. In April of 2006, Time Magazine presented an in-depth article about earth at “the tipping point,” describing the planet as an overworked organism fighting the consequences of global climate change on shore and sea. In her Mother Jones article, Whitty presented a look at global illness by directly examining the ocean as earth’s circulatory, respiratory, and reproductive system.

Following up on “The Last Days of the Ocean,” Mother Jones has produced “Ocean Voyager,” an innovative web-based adventure that includes videos, audio interviews with key players, webcams, and links to informative web pages created by more than twenty organizations. The site is a tour of various ocean trouble spots around the world, which highlights solutions and suggests actions that can be taken to help make a difference.

UPDATE BY JULIA WHITTY
This story is awash with new developments. Scientists are currently publishing at an unprecedented rate their observations—not just predictions—on the rapid changes underway on our ocean planet. First and foremost, the year 2005 turned out to be the warmest year on record. This reinforces other data showing the earth has grown hotter in the past 400 years, and possibly in the past 2,000 years. A study out of the National Center for Atmospheric Research found ocean temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic in 2005 nearly two degrees Fahrenheit above normal; this turned out to be the predominant catalyst for the monstrous 2005 hurricane season—the most violent season ever seen.

The news from the polar ice is no better. A joint NASA/University of Kansas study in Science (02/06) reveals that Greenland’s glaciers are surging towards the sea and melting more than twice as fast as ten years ago. This further endangers the critical balance of the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, which holds our climate stable. Meanwhile, in March, the British Antarctic Survey announced their findings that the “global warming signature” of the Antarctic is three times larger than what we’re seeing elsewhere on Earth—the first proof of broadscale climate change across the southern continent.

Since “The Fate of the Ocean” went to press in Mother Jones magazine, evidence of the politicization of science in the global climate wars has also emerged. In January 2006 NASA’s top climate scientist, James Hansen, accused the agency of trying to censor his work. Four months later, Hansen’s accusations were echoed by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as by a U.S. Geological Survey scientist working at a NOAA lab, who claimed their work on global climate change was being censored by their departments, as part of a policy of intimidation by the anti-science Bush administration.

Problems for the ocean’s wildlife are escalating too. In 2005, biologists from the U.S. Minerals Management Service found polar bears drowned in the waters off Alaska, apparent victims of the disappearing ice. In 2006, U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center researchers found polar bears killing and eating each other in areas where sea ice failed to form that year, leaving the bears bereft of food. In response, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources revised their Red List for polar bears—upgrading them from “conservation dependent” to “vulnerable.” In February, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would begin reviewing whether polar bears need protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Since my report, the leaders of two influential commissions—the Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy—gave Congress, the Bush administration, and our nation’s governors a “D+” grade for not moving quickly enough to address their recommendations for restoring health to our nation’s oceans.

Most of these stories remain out of view, sunk with cement boots in the backwaters of scientific journals. The media remains unable to discern good science from bad, and gives equal credence to both, when they give any at all. The story of our declining ocean world, and our own future, develops beyond the ken of the public, who forge ahead without altering behavior or goals, and unimpeded by foresight.

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