Global Warming and Martial Law

October 26th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in Uncategorized

US Has Secret Contingency Plans For Global Warming

Washington, D.C. - Assimilated Press has learned that the Department of Homeland Security, under the direction of the White House, has prepared secret contingency plans for the inevitable drastic changes brought about by the shift in the global climate. This secret document shows that, contrary to their public position, the Bush administration has privately acknowledged that the “green house effect” is happening and that it will have dire consequences around the world.

Through carefully cultivated sources deep within the Bush White House, Assimilated Press has received a copy of this secret contingency plan. It is marked “Super Top Secret” and appears to be jointly authored by officials from Vice President Cheney’s staff and top executives from Exxon Mobil. From the very first page it is obvious that this is a meticulously prepared document that provides a shocking assessment of the damage to the environment and society that will result from the continuation of current energy policies. However, instead of viewing this as a tragedy, the authors take great pains to point out the opportunities that global warming will present.

First and foremost, it is assumed that large areas of American land mass on both coasts will be lost. Second, it predicts that wide scale drought and famine will occur and that they will be accompanied by pestilence and epidemics of contagious diseases. The good news, according to this plan, is that it provides a justification for the declaration of martial law which will simplify the governing of the country during the course of the emergency.

Planning is also underway to use the opportunity global warming presents to finally solve the issue of illegal immigration. According to the contingency plan, the loss of California and parts of Nevada will make it possible for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a giant moat that connects the Pacific Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico. This will create a natural barrier between the United States and Mexico. The Bush administration, realizing that they could be criticized for using the catastrophe of global warming to advance xenophobic policies that are near and dear to their right-wing base, has already hired Hill & Knowlton to package this to the American people as a national security issue.

Finally, the contingency plan shows that the White House is actually pleased with the way global warming will impact politics in America. By their reasoning, the most heavily Democratic states will disappear, states such as California, Oregon, New York and Rhode Island. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and President Bush believe this will guarantee Republican rule for at least the next one hundred years.

The White House has refused requests from Assimilated Press to comment on this report.

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North Pole May Completely Melt This Summer

June 29th, 2008 | 2 Comments | Posted in Environment

scientists reveal new evidence of dramatic climate change

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic and serious examples of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north could be gone by summer.

“From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water,” said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.

This one-year ice is highly vulnerable to melting during the summer months and satellite data coming in over recent weeks shows that the rate of melting is faster than last year, when there was an all-time record loss of summer sea ice at the Arctic.

“The issue is that, for the first time that I am aware of, the North Pole is covered with extensive first-year ice – ice that formed last autumn and winter. I’d say it’s even-odds whether the North Pole melts out,” said Dr Serreze.

Each summer the sea ice melts before reforming again during the long Arctic winter but the loss of sea ice last year was so extensive that much of the Arctic Ocean became open water, with the water-ice boundary coming just 700 miles away from the North Pole.

The diminishing polar ice

Courtesy of NOAA / NESDIS Center for Satellite Applications and Research

This meant that about 70 per cent of the sea ice present this spring was single-year ice formed over last winter. Scientists predict that at least 70 per cent of this single-year ice – and perhaps all of it – will melt completely this summer, Dr Serreze said.

“Indeed, for the Arctic as a whole, the melt season started with even more thin ice than in 2007, hence concerns that we may even beat last year’s sea-ice minimum. We’ll see what happens, a great deal depends on the weather patterns in July and August,” he said.

Ron Lindsay, a polar scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, agreed that much now depends on what happens to the Arctic weather in terms of wind patterns and hours of sunshine. “There’s a good chance that it will all melt away at the North Pole, it’s certainly feasible, but it’s not guaranteed,” Dr Lindsay said.

The polar regions are experiencing the most dramatic increase in average temperatures due to global warming and scientists fear that as more sea ice is lost, the darker, open ocean will absorb more heat and raise local temperatures even further. Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, who was one of the first civilian scientists to sail underneath the Arctic sea ice in a Royal Navy submarine, said that the conditions are ripe for an unprecedented melting of the ice at the North Pole.

“Last year we saw huge areas of the ocean open up, which has never been experienced before. People are expecting this to continue this year and it is likely to extend over the North Pole. It is quite likely that the North Pole will be exposed this summer – it’s not happened before,” Professor Wadhams said.

There are other indications that the Arctic sea ice is showing signs of breaking up. Scientists at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre said that the North Water ‘polynya’ – an expanse of open water surrounded on all sides by ice – that normally forms near Alaska and Banks Island off the Canadian coast, is much larger than normal. Polynyas absorb heat from the sun and eat away at the edge of the sea ice.

Inuit natives living near Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland are also reporting that the sea ice there is starting to break up much earlier than normal and that they have seen wide cracks appearing in the ice where it normally remains stable. Satellite measurements collected over nearly 30 years show a significant decline in the extent of the Arctic sea ice, which has become more rapid in recent years.

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Former Skeptic Now Sees Major Arctic Melting this Summer

May 4th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in Environment

The Arctic will remain on thinning ice, and climate warming is expected to begin affecting the Antarctic also, scientists said Friday.

“The long-term prognosis is not very optimistic,” atmospheric scientist Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University said at a briefing.

Last summer sea ice in the North shrank to a record low, a change many attribute to global warming.

But while solar radiation and amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are similar at the poles, to date the regions have responded differently, with little change in the South, explained oceanographer James Overland of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

What researchers have concluded was happening, was that in the North, global warming and natural variability of climate were reinforcing one another, sending the Arctic into a new state with much less sea ice than in the past.

“And there is very little chance for the climate to return to the conditions of 20 years ago,” he added.

On the other hand, Overland explained, the ozone hole in the Antarctic masked conditions there, keeping temperatures low in most of the continent other than the peninsula reaching toward South America.

“So there is a scientific reason for why we’re not seeing large changes in the Antarctic like we’re seeing in the Arctic,” he said.

But, Overland added, as the ozone hole recovers in coming years, global warming will begin to affect the South Pole also.

The briefing covered data being reported in a paper scheduled for publication next week in Eos, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

Overland said he used to be among those skeptical about the effects of global climate change. The new findings, which he termed “startling,” were developed at a recent workshop, he said.

There is agreement between weather observations, the output of computer climate models and scientific expectations for what should happen, added Francis.

All the evidence points toward human-made changes at both poles, she said, a conclusion that “further depletes the arsenals of those who insist that human-caused climate change is nothing to worry about.”

Climatologist Gareth Marshall of the British Antarctic Survey said that while the term global warming is widely used, things are more complicated at the regional level.

In the Antarctic, he explained, climate change strengthened winds blowing around the continent, helping trap colder air. But that will decrease in the future, allowing warmer conditions to begin, he said.

And, Marshall added, all studies now show that human activities are the drivers of climate change in the Antarctic.

Asked if this summer will match last year’s record low sea ice in the North, Overland that is likely.

“The tea leaves point to a minimal amount of sea ice next September, that would be the same as we had last summer, 40 percent loss compared to 20 years ago,” he said. Overland added that the winter freeze got a late start last fall.

Francis added: “Over this entire fall, winter and right up ’till today the ice concentration, the amount of ice that’s floating around on the Arctic, has been below normal every single day.”

“All arrows are pointing towards, certainly not a recovery, something like we had last summer and possibly worse,” she said.

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