We are well beyond the influence of any natural cycle

Key References:

• More on climate change
• Link to some serious climate liars

Funny you should mention that: WE AT CATMAP HEADQUARTERS ARE ALSO SURPRISED THE CLIMATE SCIENTISTS MISSED SOMETHING SO OBVIOUS!!

Actually Mr. Beck, Mr. Inhofe, slimy US Chamber of Commerce liars and other assorted science jesters, THEY DIDN’T MISS IT. Everyone, with the exception of perhaps Creationists, understands that the earth’s climate goes through cycles. But 1) humans weren’t around for most of those cycle and there is no guarantee of them/us being around for the next one* and 2) the changes happening now are unprecedented.

Now, see if you can get your minds off of homosexuals, the War on Christmas and illegal aliens and concentrate on science. Read here how the three dominant astrological cycles – known to scientists as Milankovitch Cycles – work:

1. Every 100,000 years: The Elliptical orbit. The actual distance of the planet from the sun varies, which means more or less solar radiation, and therefore fluctuations in total temperature.

2. Every 40,000 years: change in Earth’s tilt. Changes of one or more degrees in the tilt of the axis also changes the amount of radiation collected in various locations.

3. Every 21,000 years: changes in Earth’s solar orbit plane. Another cause of fluctuations in total radiation received on the planet.

The orbital calculations are accurate back several million years, and match markers of temperature variations within layered structures on the planet, such as layered ice in Greenland and Antarctica and layered deep sea sediments. Like Before Noah, OK? Measurements of changes within these layers correlate with the Earth’s climate over the course of hundreds of thousands and even millions of years of Earth’s history.

The combination of the three Milankovitch influences, along with other cyclical factors such as solar flares, is what has kept the climate interesting over the past several millions years. Scientists have established rather sustainable temperature patterns going back nearly 700,000 years (sorry New Earthers) by sampling ice core data. This data shows a variation of 6 degrees Centigrade (or 10.8 F) over this period of time (apologies to Republicans – we know Centigrade is kind of an un-American and therefore a dangerous and unpatriotic idea like that ridiculous metric system). During this cycle – at least for the past 700,000 years – the CO2 concentration also fluctuated 120 parts per million. The bottom end is 180 ppm and the top is 300 ppm, and then back again. Similarly, at the bottom end of the 6C temperature swing is an ice age climate. At the moment however, we are at the top of the temperature curve…and climbing fast.

The carbon cycle and the temperature cycle track each other almost perfectly…at least until 1750, whence dates roughly the Industrial Revolution. Ladies and gentlemen, today we stand at 384 ppm of CO2, a figure that has not likely been equaled in 20 million years. And at the present rate, we will add another 100 ppm of CO2 in the next 50 years.

Here’s the clincher: The new CO2 is from burning fossil fuels, not the natural release we have seen from oceanic cycles over the past millions of years. How do we know that? Because the age of CO2 can be measured. The increase in CO2 is accounted for by new CO2, not the CO2 in the oceans that was generated naturally.

For the past 700,000 years, whenever CO2 in the atmosphere goes up, so does the temperature. Now, looking at the current levels, and the exciting new CO2 levels we can most surely expect with China alone opening up a new coal fired plant every week to 10 days, what can we expect in terms of near and long term temperature increases?

Jumpin’ Jehosophat! This is alarming. Why didn’t someone tell you?
Try changing the channel.

Poachers Continue to Kill The Nearly Extinct Species,
Cut Off Their Horns and Leave Them to Die

Key References:

• More on the listings
• Catastrophe Map: Link to extinction listings

The Javan Rhinoceros is a critically endangered species from Southeast Asia. With less than sixty of them left they are the most highly endangered rhino in the world. These rhinos are much smaller than the more common white rhinos. At only ten to eleven feet long they can be up to five feet shorter than white rhinos at up to fifteen feet long. The black rhinoceros currently has approximately eleven thousand rhinos compared to the Javan rhino’s sixty. Unfortunately, there are no Javan rhinos in captivity so conservation is not going well. The main reason for the decrease in Javan rhinoceros population is poaching for their horns. Rhinos are shot mostly for their horns and nothing else, then left to die in extreme pain.

• Visit the ever growing Extinction Map
• Spend some time with the Red List

OMINOUS ARCHIVES

• If you didn’t say goodbye to the Yangtze River dolphin, it’s now too late

The numbers according to IUCN: 17,291 species out of the 47,677 assessed species are threatened with extinction. The study estimates that 21 percent of all known mammals, 30 percent of all known amphibians, 12 percent of all known birds, and 28 percent of reptiles, 37 percent of freshwater fishes, 70 percent of plants, 35 percent of invertebrates assessed so far are at risk. The IUCN believes that it’s numbers underestimate the extent of the disaster. In fact, we just lost another large mammal, the Yangtze river dolphin, for good. Tigers are next. Won’t that be a shame?

For environmental hipsters such as the entire Catastrophe Map Editorial Board, this is known as the Sixth Great Extinction.

On the rare occasion that developers, oil companies or other plunder pimps are thwarted when attempting to exploit public assets for private profit, listen for the following comment: “who cares about a [spotted southern newt]?” or variation thereof. The message is clear that the targeted species inside the [ ] is not important enough to warrant loss of whatever economic windfall has been temporarily forestalled. Multiply this situation by every greedy ignorant corporation on the planet, aided by their respective governments, and you can appreciate the scale of the problem.

Missing from the worldview, of course, is the interrelationships among all species, including humammals. When you add or subtract any component of any ecosystem, top, bottom or middle, the Law of Unintended Consequences kicks in hard. This law is an addendum to Murphy’s Law.

If you subtract over 17,000 species in a short period of time, the fun will surely begin. What will the giant mosquitoes eat?

This contradictory humammal attitude toward the other species that share the planet has been around for eons. As early as Genesis 8, we citizens of the Christian West have been told the inspiring story of how Noah saved all of the animals from the flood. But almost no one reads the text of the actual Bible (Genesis , in which Noah sacrifices “every clean animal” when the Ark comes to rest. (That’s right…go find your Bible. That’s what it says). Noah kind of established the trend right there, and authority figure Jahweh was the enabler (It’s not clear when or how we acquired replacement animals.)

When the waters recede this time, will it be just us and the rats?

In spite of organized prayers offered by the clergy and their flocks, neither of the two gods* representing Cyprus has done anything about the biblical drought plaguing this divided Mediterranean island. Now in its fourth year, the water emergency has lowered reserves to seven percent of capacity, the lowest level since 1908. The Kouris Dam, which was to solve water use problems for the foreseeable future, sports a shallow pool of tepid water which doesn’t even cover the bottom of the reservoir. Instead, neighboring Greece is providing tankers full of water shipped from the mainland.

Rationing has been imposed on the citizenry, although the hotels and resorts that drive the tourist economy have suffered no inconvenience. Likewise, farmers will have access neither to the water shipped from Greece, nor to the water from the desalination plants that will be coming on line. And according to liberal climate scientists, this is just the beginning in terms of future climate expectations.

The organized praying began in early 2008, with no results reported thus far except an increase in church attendance. Greek Orthodox Archbishop, Chrysostomos II, in a circular distributed to churches, said: “We will all be given the chance to send prayers to our Heavenly Father to end the drought on our island. We have no doubt God will hear our prayers and send us the rain we so badly need.”

We can’t say for sure whether or not God has heard the prayers**, but we do know that he in his infinite and unknowable wisdom has not seen fit to provide the requested rainfall. As is their normal practice, the faithful have now determined that the water tankers represent the prayed for response from God. The Catastrophe Map Editorial Board believes it is more likely the water tankers are a response from the friendly Greek government, but we don’t rule out the possibility that God told them to send the tankers.

As is the case with most “natural” disasters, the activities of human Cypriots have exacerbated the normal cycles of [nature]. Unchecked development has destroyed 50% of Cypriot forests and vegetation, replacing it with tourist hotels and retirement resorts. The destruction of the forests and the short-sighted depletion of the aquifers has permanently changed the ability of the island paradise to survive future droughts. The swimming pools are still filled, much like unnaturally green golf courses in the parched Southwestern U.S. The reasoning is as follows: the island’s economy needs to generate the enough money to pay for the desalination plants which are necessitated by the water emergency which is aggravated by overdevelopment.

On component of the Biblical retribution concept is “God’s wrath”. But the other part is man’s stupidity and greed, which appears to be what sets God off in the first place.

*Cyprus is divided between the Northern Turkish (Islamic) and Southern Greek (Orthodox) sections, with Greek Orthodox Archbishop Chrysostomos II and his congregations doing the heavy lifting in the prayer effort. The Islamic clergy may also be organizing prayers, but have kept a lower profile, or perhaps simply assume that God will mention the problem to Allah at the deity Starbucks hangout or something.

** God actually forgot that the nation of Israel was down in Egypt…for 400 years.

If you eat beef, chicken or pork from the factory farm system – the origin of most meat unless it’s organic or free range – you are a participant in an industrial animal suffering machine that makes Michael Vick’s dog fighting operation look like a petting zoo.

• All you didn’t want to know about feed lots
• More at the CatMap

OMINOUS ARCHIVES

• Got bovine growth hormone?

Pigs, cattle and eggs are a similar story. pigs on factory farms are forced to live in their own feces, vomit, and even amid the corpses of other pigs. Cattle don’t graze in the pasture anymore, but live crammed into a feedlot, shoulder to shoulder with 100,000 of his brethren, ankle deep in manure, existing only to eat and ingest antibiotics and hormones.

Know anything about veal calves?

There are three primary reasons you aren’t aware of this horrorshow. The first is that you don’t want to be. The second is that the meat industry doesn’t want you to be. The third is that the corporate media has no interest in reporting this type of news. It might make you unhappy.

It’s funny how we think about animals. Dogs, cats and horses are our beloved pets, while cattle, pigs and chickens are basically tortured their entire lives until they are processed like machine parts. Bye Bye Bossy.

At least the dogs get a chance to put up a fight.

Clean Coal Victimized by Dishonest! Temp! Employee!

Key References:

RELATED LINKS

• Way more on the horror called mountaintop mining
• More at the CatMap

OMINOUS ARCHIVES

• The imaginary carbon sequestration project called Future Gen,
• Early reporting on the fly ash spill in Tennessee

The letters had not been written by those organizations, but rather by Bonner & Associates, a PR/lobbying firm working for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Industry. Two other congress people received letters forged by the coal lobbyists.

The coal industry was outraged – that’s right OUTRAGED. How could such a thing happen? And despite the fact that the letters were on the stationery of the minority organizations, Jolly Jack Bonner claimed that the mailing was a mistake, the nefarious doings of a temp employee. It turns out that virtually all of Jack’s employees are temporary, ‘cause Jack doesn’t want to pay benefits at the company he himself has described as a “white collar sweatshop.”

So try to be sensitive to the fact that both Bonner and ACCCE are innocent victims.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity indeed a coalition. It counts among its members Arch Coal, Peabody Energy, Duke Energy and other grassroots folks like that.

The ACCCE is famous for it’s animated coal chunks singing variations on Silent Night and other Christmas favorites during the 2008 holiday season.

Bonner Industries specializes in fake grassroots campaigns for any number of dubious initiatives. For example, in 2003, drug giant Pfizer hired the company to pose as the “60 Plus Association” and call seniors urging them to oppose prescription drug legislation. The callers mid-represented themselves as members of the 60 Plus Association, a fake seniors organization funded by the pharmaceutical industry. The organization has ties to Jack Abramoff.

PROBABILITY HIGH FOR ANOTHER RECORD BREAKING DEAD
ZONE IN THE GULF THIS YEAR!

Key References:

RELATED LINKS

• Read what the liberals at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency are predicting
• More at the CatMap

OMINOUS ARCHIVES

• How about that Jellyfish invasion,
• What’s up with all the Tornadoes?

However, it appears that one of the biggest and deadest of the dead zones – right off the shores of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico – is on track to be one of the largest on record in 2009. The latest forecast, issued by University of Michigan aquatic ecologist Donald Scavia, predicts a dead zone of between 7,450 and 8,456 square miles. That would make three years of this decade worthy of placing in the top five Gulf dead zones of all time. The area of New Jersey is 7417 sq. miles.

Now, a lot of the denial types** (DTs) – - have a tendency to make light of threats to a bunch of turtles and wetlands, you know, the kind of thing that chicks worry about. But these solid realists should be aware that in this case, the threat is to what was once a half-billion dollar fishery. That’s a lot of shrimp, groupers and tilefish floating belly up and not making it into the seafood gumbo.Professor Scavia, a professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment and director of the U-M Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute, describes the world wide plague of Dead Zones as “an ecological time bomb.”

The sad saga of the erstwhile and eventual FutureGen low-emissions coal fired electric generating plant is a stunning example of the current state of the artnot of the “clean coal fantasy”.

Key References:

• Visit Clean Coal USA, website of the pretend grassroots organization American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
• Now visit Coal Is Clean.
• Catastrophe Map: the seven lies of Clean Coal

When Matoon, Illinois was selected as the project site in 2006 – a logical choice given its proximity to the high sulphur, dirty burning coal fields of Illinois – the Bush administration had a hissy fit and killed the project. The problem: FutureGen was supposed to have been located in Texas, the pretend home state of the pretend warrior George “Kennebunkport” Bush.

Of course, now that a new president has been selected from the well governed state of Illinois, the project has been announced as re-instated. Considering the power of the coal lobby, one would think it would have a fast track, but obstacles continue to pop up. In June 2009, American Electric Power Co. and Southern Co. announced they’re withdrawing from the corporate consortium trying to put the project together. Peabody Energy, another partner, says it won’t affect the project, and really, if you can’t believe Peabody Energy, who can you believe?

So, the slick ads you may have seen during your primary activity of watching hockey playoffs or American Idol are lies. And even if carbon sequestration turns out to be real, there is no reason to believe that the coal pimps will implement this technology in a timely fashion, considering their 30 years of resistance to Federally mandated smoke stack scrubbers, which removed sulfur dioxide, mercury, arsenic et al from airborne emissions. Persuading the coal industry to install this relatively inexpensive technology has been like pulling the teeth of a hyena.

And that’s just the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg. Go into the Catastrophe Map for more on the seven sins of coal.