Maximum Alert for Forest Fires in Provence, France

Drought and the Mistral wind pose unprecedented threat of forest fires in Provence 

Seven of the nine departments in the southern French region of Provence are experiencing “exceptional threat” of forest fires and have been placed on maximum alert.  The other two departments, Var and the neighboring Bouches-du-Rhône, are currently on “very severe” alert.

❗️ Lundi 24 juillet 2017, risque incendie EXCEPTIONNEL ⚫️ pour 7 massifs forestiers du #Var. Infos sur https://t.co/yyAeZVBkch pic.twitter.com/rRZY98TZLc

— Préfet du Var (@Prefet83) July 23, 2017

French Grape Harvest

Meanwhile, French grape harvest is expected to drop to a historic low, this year, according to the agriculture ministry.

“At 37.6 million hectolitres the 2017 harvest is set to come in 17% lower than in 2016, and 16% below the average of the past five years.”

Germany

Very low rainfall in Germany has led to low water levels on the Rhine and Danube rivers, preventing cargo ships from being fully loaded.

Dry weather is also impacting rivers in Switzerland.

• Details of regional forecast issued by FIRE-EARTH Science Team are available via FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.

States of Emergency Declared in France and Germany amid Rising Floodwaters

Tens of thousands evacuated as deadly floods sweep through France and Germany

French President has declared a State of Emergency in the areas devastated by floods, while German authorities declared  the “disaster alarm,” said reports.

Extreme rain events have triggered widespread flooding from Bavaria, Southern Germany, to Paris, France, killing at least a dozen people and destroying or damaging thousands of properties, roads and other public infrastructure.

The most affected city has been Nemours, south of Paris, where around 3,000 people were forced to flee their homes after the floods.

Soldiers have been deployed to help emergency personnel rescue stranded residents and motorists.

Meteo France, the country’s main weather agency, has put Paris region and six other departments on orange alert, the second-highest warning level on risk of floods, while the Seine-et-Marne department has been put on red alert.

The River Seine was forecast to peak six meters (19ft) above its normal level – the highest level since the 1910 Great Flood of Paris.

NOTHING SHORT OF GENOCIDE !

Submitted by a reader

Genocide is being committed against people of Syria by all those who destabilized the country

In 2010, there were no Syrian refugees drowning in the Mediterranean while escaping the Wahhabi block terrorists. Even polio had long been eradicated across the country…

When President Barack Obama secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to begin arming Syria’s embattled rebels in 2013, the spy agency knew it would have a willing partner to help pay for the covert operation. It was the same partner the CIA has relied on for decades for money and discretion in far-off conflicts: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. —Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo

U.S. officials have not disclosed the amount of the Saudi contribution, which is by far the largest from another nation to the program to arm the rebels against President Bashar Assad’s military. But estimates have put the total cost of the arming and training effort at several billion dollars.

Statement to the Security Council on Syria, New York, 27 January 2016

Since 2011, more than 250,000 people have been killed, well over a million injured, and 6.5 million internally displaced within Syria. About 4.6 million refugees, and most of the remaining population – some 13.5 million people – are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, said the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien.

At least 24 migrants including 10 children drowned in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, after their boat capsized near Greece.

In 2015, some 3,811 people were reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean, most all were migrants trying to escape war zones, poverty or persecution in their homelands, reported the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

At least 224 similar deaths have occurred so far this year, said IOM.

Highlights of a U.N. Report Last Week

• ISIL launches an offensive on GoS controlled areas of Deir-Ez-Zor city causing the displacement of 3,200 families;
• Unconfirmed reports of 300 civilians killed by ISIL and 400 civilians abducted
• Already limited supplies of foods and other commodities are likely to diminish soon putting 200,000 individuals at risk of increased malnutrition
• Those living in GoS controlled areas also face serious protection risks should ISIL take full control of the area
• On 19 January, the Government of Russia announced that they dropped 40 MT of relief supplies from the air.

Meanwhile, several European countries, which feel threatened by the influx of refugees, threaten to deport tens of thousands of asylum-seekers:

• Sweden to deport up to 80,000 asylum-seekers
• Denmark passes controversial bill to take migrants’ valuables
• Germany confiscates more from refugees than Denmark
• Migrants: Norway ‘sending us to death’ in Russia

Massive Heatwave Hits Europe (Round 3)

Dry conditions destroy crops in Central and Eastern Europe

Additionally, a drought is severely affecting agricultural areas of southern Poland, amid where crops bone dry condition and the blazing heat, said a report.

“The heatwave has also forced Poland to restrict electricity supplies to industry, pushing some firms to limit production.”

Meanwhile, soaring temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius have broken multiple record across Germany. Record heat has also affected River Elbe in Dresden, with ware levels falling to extreme lows.

Record-breaking heatwave is also affecting France, Italy, Sweden and Ukraine, according to local reports.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service has issued the following bulletin:

Heat building into the West

Temperatures will soar this week in the West. The hottest temperatures will be felt in the deserts of southern Calif. and Ariz. where Excessive Heat Watches are in effect. Temperatures could exceed 115 [46°C] in some locations. Farther north, these hot temperatures will contribute to fire danger in parts of northern California and the Pacific Northwest where Red Flag Warnings are in effect.

 

Forest Fires Plague SW Europe amid Record Temperatures

Iberia turned into a tinderbox

Thousands evacuated in Spain amid raging wildfires in the west and southeast of the country.

Meanwhile, about 80% of neighboring Portugal is facing severe or extreme drought conditions, according to the local climatologists.

Copyright © Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera 2012 2015. See blog Fair Use Notice for educational purposes.

Meteorologists expect the temperature in southern Germany to break all-time high of 40.3C (105F) on Friday, a record that was set just over a month ago on 5 July in the town of Kitzingen in Bavaria, said a report.

France’s weather agency issued Extreme Heat Warnings for central and eastern France Friday, forecasting temperatures of up to 40C in many regions.

“This summer has been a particularly hot one for France and left many areas in drought and with water restrictions imposed,” said a report.

Flood Disaster Warnings Issued in Central Europe

Czech government declares a state of emergency in most of the country

Flooding in Czech Republic threatens the historic center of capital Prague, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

Levels on the Vltava river that runs through Prague’s center continued to rise Monday. Flood-related incidents have left a dozen people dead or missing, and forced thousands of people to flee their homes in low-lying areas of Prague and western half of the country.

• The Czech Prime Minister has declared a state of emergency in seven of the country’s 14 administrative regions.
• Authorities have shut a dozen subway stations in the capital.
• Many roads and train routes are also closed.
• All schools in the capital Prague will be closed Monday.

Flooding has also wreaked havoc across Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland.

Severe Flooding in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Dresden, Passau, Rosenheim and several other German cities have declared states of emergency due to severe flooding, with Passau requesting help from the federal army.

At least a dozen people were killed, several others reported missing and hundreds evacuated from their homes as floodwaters continue rising in Germany, Austria and Switzerland following days of torrential rain.

Major Flood Warning in Slovakia

Slovak authorities have issued the highest level of flood warning for the length of the Danube River in the country, as   water level on the river at the confluence with the Morava River topped 7.20 meters and continued rising.

• Slovakia’s State Shipping Administration has banned all traffic on the Danube River in the country until further notice.

Related Links

• Hundred Evacuated Amid Flooding in Central Europe

The Alps buried under 6 feet of snow

Vercorin, Switzerland Sees 6ft of Snow in just 3 Days

NC Gov Declares State of Emergency after Snow Storm

Large snow storms have been reported across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and France in the past three days.

Switzerland saw the most snow, On the Snow reported. In Vercorin, Switzerland,  snow topped 180cm. Elsewhere in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and France between 105 and 120cm (48 inches) of snow  covered much of the region.

“Another 42-70cm of further snow is forecast within the next five days in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and France: 70cm in Gstaad, Switzerland; 48cm in am Belchen and Todtnauberg, Germany; 47cm in Courmayeur, Italy; and 42-44cm in La Mongie, Piau Engaly, and Saint Lary Soulan, France.” The report said.

In Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia,  the region where the cities of Cologne and Dusseldorf are located, more than 300 accidents were reported in a 12-hour period between Friday night and Saturday morning.

The chaos on the North Rhine-Westphalia roads killed at least one motorist and injured  40  others, while Bavaria’s frozen roads claimed another two lives, and a road accident in Thuringia killed 2 more people.

Flights at some of the airports in both regions were canceled or delayed, as police advised motorists to stay at home.

US Weather

Near Real-Time U.S. Composite Satellite Image.  Credit SSEC. Click image to enlarge.

Meanwhile, North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue declared a state of emergency as more than a foot of snow blankets mountain areas. About 20 emergency shelters opened across the state, Perdue said.

“The storm left roads icy and snow packed across the South, and thousands were without power as ice accumulated. Although police said they had to clear hundreds of wrecks, there were no deaths or serious injuries reported.” WMBF reported.

Some 11 inches of snow covered Asheville, North Carolina, on Friday. The storm that brought the winter weather to the Southeast is now heading toward the Eastern Seaboard.

The lowest temperature in the Lower 48 states ranged from a low of -25ºF degrees at Upson, Wisconsin, to a high of 83ºF degrees at Vero Beach, Florida.

IR Satellite Image. Click image to update.

Weather. Click image to enlarge and update.

Temperature. Click image to enlarge and update.

Predominant Weather. Click image to enlarge and update.

Related Links:

• For other graphical forecasts click  Weather
• For additional satellite images click  Satellite Imagery
• The 10 Worst Snow Disasters in History [The 1st entry on the list concerning the number of soldiers lost from Hannibal’s army is disputed.]

European Pressurized Water Reactor!

Second new reactor for France

Computer designed picture of the planned European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR). Licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; source: http://www.framatome-anp.com

The French president told nuclear workers they can “look forward to a second new nuclear construction project.”

France already employs some 58 nuclear power reactors generating about 78% of its electricity [but more of a good thing is never enough!]

It’s believed Sarcozy has already secured himself a position with the new employers of Tony Bliar!

Image of the Day: Heat Wave in Northern Europe

On the calendar, Scandinavian summer starts on June 21 in 2008, but summer temperatures had already settled over much of northern Europe by early June. This image shows land surface temperatures—how hot the ground is to the touch, a measure that is different than the air temperatures reported in the news—as observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite between June 2 and June 8, 2008.

The image compares the average temperature between June 2 and June 8, 2008, to average temperatures recorded during the same period in June 2000 through 2007. Areas that were warmer than average are red, while cooler than average conditions are represented in blue.The heat that dominated the weather in northern Europe in early June is evident in the dark red that covers Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and parts of Germany and Poland. Southern Europe experienced cooler than average temperatures during the period.

The intense heat and dry weather led to dangerous fire conditions in Scandinavia. Both Norway and Sweden were plagued with several forest fires in early June. A fire that burned for several days in southern Norway was the largest in the country’s history, causing an estimated ten million dollars worth of damage, reported The Norway Post on June 17, 2008.

You can download a 9-kilometer-resolution KMZ file of global land surface temperature anomaly suitable for use with Google Earth.

• References
• Deutsche Presse-Agentur. (2008, June 13). Norway asks for help to tackle large forest blaze. Monsters and Critics. Accessed June 20, 2008.
• Solholm, R. (2008, June 17). State pays part of cost of forest fire. The Norway Post. Accessed June 20, 2008.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the Goddard Land Processes data archives. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Naples Garbage Opera – Act II

Partenope: Naples Garbage Opera

Act II: Confusion, Rodents, Vermin, Pest [and possible disease pandemics]

There are known knowns: Things we know we know

• As per usual with Italian politics, garbage and football the facts and numbers don’t add up!
• The garbage dumps near Naples reached their limit in Mid December 2007.
• By Mid January 2008, some four weeks later, about 250, 000 tons of garbage decorated the Neapolitan streets.
• The 6million inhabitants of Campania region (Naples is the capital city of Campania) produce about 7,200 tons of garbage per day (between Mid December 2007 and end May 2008 they will have produced a total of about 1.2 million tons of garbage ).
• Germany’s Environment Ministry estimates that 52,000 tonnes of Italian waste were imported to Germany for processing in 2007. (Source)
• A one-off deal was struck with the German city of Bremen to transport 30,000 ton of Neapolitan garbage to an incinerator in Bremerhaven.
• Another deal was struck with Germany to haul 200,000 tons of the garbage by train to German Incinerators via Austria.
• EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the European Commission would take legal action against Italy unless it resolves the garbage crisis in Naples. [Wow, that really scared the pants out of the Italians!]

The ongoing nightmare scenario could only get worse in the coming weeks when the summer temperatures soar in the Campania region.

Naples’s mob, the Camorra has been illegally importing garbage from Italy’s northern cities stuffing Naple’s landfills. “The Camorra has grabbed an even larger share of the city’s garbage-hauling contracts after vetting standards were relaxed to cope with the current crisis.” WSJ said.

[Of course, no one has told EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas that “throwing out trash has become big business” in Europe. “According to a March report by the European Topic Centre on Resource and Waste Management, about 15% of the continent’s hazardous trash, or 8.6 million tons, was disposed of outside its country of origin in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available.” Wall Street Journal reported. “Plants in northern Germany charge between €150 and €250 ($237 to $394) to incinerate one ton of waste, estimates Christian Fischer, a waste-management analyst who co-authored the March report.” ]

[Why is it so difficult to live without producing waste you can’t handle?] A woman and children walk past a pile of garbage in Naples, Italy. Photo: AP Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

There are known unknowns: We know there are some things we do not know

• How much of this garbage still fills the streets of Naples?
• The estimates for the amount of garbage still covering the Neapolitan sidewalks (and elsewhere in Campania) vary from a misleading 100,000 tons to an unconvincing 200,000 tons.
• About 700,000 tons of garbage may have been stockpiled in provisional sites. (Source)
• Unless a substantial amount of the garbage, about 200 -300,000 tons, is consumed by millions of rats and other vermin, the total amount of garbage rotting on the streets of Naples and other town in Campania is closer to 400 – 500,000 tons as of end May 2008. What we know that we don’t know, is exactly how many rats are feasting on their Neapolitan diet and how many pizzas they can eat per head per day!

Unknown unknowns: The ones we don’t know we don’t know

• In case of bubonic plague outbreaks or other serious disease pandemics caused by rodents, vermin, pest infestation, how does the Italian government propose to protect the rest of Italy, or the EU authorities the rest of Europe?

Relate Links:

• Seeking Toxic Asylum (Act I)
  
• Naples Garbage: First Commercial Dividends
• Naples: The Triangle of Death

• Italy: Submerged in Floodwaters, Sinking in Garbage

[Note: The Known Unknowns …  was recited by the US bard, Donald Rumsfeld.]

Seeking Toxic Asylum

submitted by a reader

Partenope: Naples Garbage Opera

Protagonists:

• Queen Partenope: Played by the entire population of Naples and Campania [and the estimated 1.2 million tons of rotting garbage]
• Prince Armindo of Rhodes: played by Il Duce [the leader] of Italy Silvio Berlusconi and his gang.
• Prince Arsace of Corinth: The garbage incinerators in Germany, Switzerland and elsewhere
• Prince Emilio of Cumae [who is at war with Naples and with Queen Partenope] : Played by the Camorra mafia

Full List of Actors:

• Il Duce [the leader] of Italy Silvio Berlusconi
• Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo
• Camorra mafia
• Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, head of the influential Italian Bishops Conference
• The corrupt regional governor, Antonio Bassolino, and 27 others under house arrest.
• City’s chief officer and special commissioner Alessandro Pansa (one of the 27)
• Rosanna Laraia, head of waste management in Italy’s Ministry for the Environment

• Billions of missing, misappropriated, or unaccounted for euros [ € billions ]

• Environmental campaigner Francesco Pascale
• Sergio Sedia and his wife Giulia
• President Giorgio Napolitano
• Just over 1 million Neapolitans (and a further 5 million people living in Campania region and the province of Naples.)
• Hundreds of police officers in riot gears
• Probably as many as 10 million “super-charged” rats and 100 million cockroaches living in the garbage piles throughout the city of Naples

Composer:

• Germany’s George Frideric Handel

Act I – Seeking Toxic Asylum

In Act I of the famous Naples Garbage Opera, Partenope, Sergio Sedia and his wife Giulia request “toxic asylum” in Switzerland.

Sergio and his wife Giulia live in the “Triangle of Death” near Naples where the mafia has illegally dumped tons of toxic waste. British medical journal, The Lancet, reported in 2004 on “considerably higher cancer and deformity rates” in the area compared with other parts of the Campania region near Naples.

[Other than rats and cockroaches, what sort of vermin would transform its place of habitat to this?] A woman wearing a filtered mask walks past piles of trash thrown into a street intersection in protest in Naples May 16, 2008. REUTERS/Ciro Messere/Agnfoto. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

“The (Italian) government has not protected my right to health, and in this area people are dying of cancers caused by tonnes of chemical and toxic waste illegally dumped here for more than 20 years,” said Sergio.

Camorra mafia has been secretly dumping thousands of tonnes of industrial waste since the 1980s in what is “the heart of some of Italy’s best farm land,” environmental groups said.

“This area is nearly entirely agricultural, there are no factories, but has mortality rates for cancers linked to pollution higher than the national average. Here one doesn’t die of a heart attack or an accident, but from tumors,” said Sedia, 34, who works in the finance industry.

Silvio Berlusconi Prime Minister of Italy (President of the Council of Ministers of Italy). Born 29 September 1936, he is an entrepreneur, media proprietor and Head of the

“What I eat and breathe every day makes me afraid because of the products — the asbestos, the lead, the dioxins that are there in the air, the soil, the ground water,” he told AFP.

Fearing also for the health of their unborn child, said Sedia, “we decided to demand protection abroad and our choice fell on Switzerland.”

“We want to save ourselves, and only another country can help us, because if waste is one enemy, the Italian state is another in continuing to deny there is a problem in this area.”

“The Italian authorities are trying to act as if the problem of contamination doesn’t exist,” he said.

“I am not very confident when I see the authorities test mozzarella (over dioxin poisoning) because it is a valuable product, but doesn’t conduct tests on us citizens because we don’t have any commercial value.”

Earlier this year samples of mozzarella cheese, made from buffalo milk, were found to have highlevels of the toxic compound dioxin. As a result, buffalo farms in the Campania region were quarantined.

Japan, Singapore and South Korea banned the import of Italian mozzarella, earlier this year. (Source)

continued …

Related Links:

• Naples Garbage Opera – Act II
• Naples Garbage: First Commercial Dividends
• Naples: The Triangle of Death

Wind Energy in Norway, Nuclear in F*nland

Are the Norwegians More Intelligent Than the Finns?

Top 10 Reasons why the Norwegians May Be More Intelligent that the Finns [then again …]:

10. Finland with an estimated population of 5.32million, most of whom are intoxicated most of the time [no offense intended, just citing a matter of fact relayed to us by a Finnish colleague,] wants more nuclear energy despite the fact … well read it for yourself: More nuclear power and How Do You Say ‘Duck-n-Cover’ in Finnish?

As for our Norwegian [distant] cousins, the North Sea gas pipeline operator Gassco has just awarded [Aug 20, 2008] Sweden’s Marine Matteknikk AB “a contract to survey 636 km of seabed for potential pipelines to carry carbon dioxide to offshore burial sites.” (Source)

Let’s hope there’ll never be an earthquake on the Norwegian Continental shelf.

Continued …

Don’t Worry, it’s Only Earth

A Herculean task, significant impact on physical and biological systems globally, worst cases in 800,000 years

One species disappears every 20 minutes, UN Experts

“In my view, climate change and the loss of biodiversity are the most alarming challenges on the global agenda,” Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said at the opening of a U.N. biodiversity conference on Monday.

Some of the biodiversity of a coral reef. Reproduced under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, ersion 1.2 or any later version. (author: Richard Ling)

“In my view, climate change [Germany is the world’s 6th largest pollutor] and the loss of biodiversity are the most alarming challenges on the global agenda […] It will be a Herculean task to get the world community and each individual country on the right path to sustainability [still talking about ‘Tending Our Goats at the Edge of Apocalypse’] … The truth today is that we are still on the wrong track. If we follow this path we can foresee that we will fail to meet the target … Business as usual is no more an option if humanity is going to survive. Losing biodiversity is not just losing trees and species, it is an economic and security loss. [Thanks for reading our blogs, Mr Gabriel!]” (Source)

Attributing physical and biological impacts to anthropogenic climate change

Significant changes in physical and biological systems are occurring on all continents and in most oceans, with a concentration of available data in Europe and North America. Most of these changes are in the direction expected with warming temperature. Here we show that these changes in natural systems since at least 1970 are occurring in regions of observed temperature increases, and that these temperature increases at continental scales cannot be explained by natural climate variations alone. Given the conclusions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report that most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely to be due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations, and furthermore that it is likely that there has been significant anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent except Antarctica, we conclude that anthropogenic climate change is having a significant impact on physical and biological systems globally and in some continents. (Source)

Instrumental Temperature record of the last 150 years. (Author: Robert A. Rohde) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License Version 2.5

Greenhouse gases highest in 800,000 years

Atmospheric greenhouse gases are now at the highest levels in 800,000 years, according to a study of Antarctic ice, which provides additional evidence that human activity is disrupting the climate.

“Shanghai at sunset, as seen from the observation deck of the Jin Mao tower. The sun has not actually dropped below the horizon yet, rather it has reached the smog line.” This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (Photo: Suicup; via: Wikimedia Commons. )

“We can firmly say that today’s concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane are 28 and 124 percent higher respectively than at any time during the last 800,000 years,” said Thomas Stocker, a researcher at the University of Berne. (Source)

Related Links:

• Failing Ecosystems
• State of the World
• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
  
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle

• Giga Trends
• Tipping Point
• Future Scenarios
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix

Ich bin eine Coal Girl!

How do you say you’re a “hypocrite” without calling yourself “hippo turd” in German?

Brazil biofuels must respect Amazon: Merkel

German coal-powered plants must respect Earth: The World

German Chancellor Merkel urged Brazil to adopt tougher environmental standards in biofuels production. [She added rich nations needed to pay up to help protect the rainforests’ biodiversity.]

“Biofuels are a way to replace traditional fossil fuels but only if they are produced sustainably,” Merkel said in Brasilia. [She could hardly hide her disgust at the fact that Germany couldn’t import “cheap” Brazilian ethanol anytime soon.]

Merkel and Sarkazy. Two turds of the EU powerhouse. (Credit: Gerald Herbert, AP) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

“There are statistics that raise concerns about deforestation, the process of displacement between soybeans, beef and the rain forest,” Merkel said at a joint news conference with Brazilian President Lula.

Merkel with the other one turd of the EU powerhouse. (Credit: global-metropolis) Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

Meanwhile Lula made his statement of the year saying that “Brazil was the most interested of all countries in protecting the Amazon but that the millions of people living there also had a right to prosperity.” (Source)

So, remember children, Lula style “prosperity” first, ecosystems second! Because if you are prosperous, you can tell mother Earth to go F*ck herself!

Previously …

Dr Hansen at Columbia University Earth Institute wrote to Dr Merkel (April 2008 ):

Dear Chancellor Merkel,

Your leadership is needed on a matter concerning coal-fired power plants in your country, a
matter with global ramifications, as I will clarify.

For the sake of identification, I am a United States citizen, director of the NASA Goddard
Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. I
write, however, as a private citizen, a resident of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, on behalf of the
planet and life on Earth, including all species.

I recognize that you strongly support policies aimed at reducing the danger of global warming.
Also Germany has been a leader in pressing for appropriate international actions.

Yet there are plans for construction of new coal-fired power plants in Germany. Consummation
of those plans would contribute to foreseeable adverse consequences of global warming.
Conversely, a choice not to build could be a tipping point that seeds a transition that is needed to
solve the global warming problem. […] (Source)

“You can be sure of Shell !”

Shell nixes wind project, UK government peeved

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to sell its stake in one of the world’s largest wind farm projects, much to the annoyance of the the UK government, project partners and environmentalists.

Shell is one of three shareholders of London Array, which plans to erect 340 turbines with a combined generating power of 1,000 MW on a 20km stretch along the Thames Estuary, east of London. [The other two are the German utility E.ON AG and Denmark’s state-controlled DONG (!) Energy.

The upstream (search, recovery and extraction of crude oil and natural gas) provides about 70 percent of Shell’s revenues. [The Arguello Inc. Harvest Oil Platform is located about 10 km off the coast of central California near Point Conception. Photo: NASA JPL]

Accused of “hypocrisy” by environmentalists, Shell is the world’s second-largest non-government controlled oil company.

“We’re very disappointed that Shell — which touts itself as a progressive green company — is pulling out of the London Array project and leaving a key clean energy project high and dry,” Friends of the Earth Energy Campaigner Nick Rau said. (Source)

Apart from the obvious, what is it about Shell that people so intensely dislike?

In Europe and most of ROW, I’m told, “you can be sure of Shell!” That is, you can be sure that Shell is the bête noire of the major oil corporations. My colleague who lives in London, England, reminds me about the non-stop demonstrations Greenpeace held against Shell in the late 70s and early 80s. Everyone, understandably, despised Shell: “Out! Out, with Shell!” But What about the other majors like ExxonMobil (the direct descendant of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company) and BP (then British Petroleum), the world’s largest and third largest oil and gas corporations respectively? Were/are they really “greener” that Shell? The interesting point was that Greenpeace in London, home of the BP, never uttered a word in anger against British Petroleum.

It’d be interesting to find out why!

.