Earth rebelling against humanity

Let's stop arguing whether or not the climate change is human-caused or a "natural cycle". The facts are: co2 is increasing (we don't have to get agreement on why); co2 does cause a greenhouse effect; and, now, we have positive feedback effects such as methane coming from the bottom of the ocean. Coal is over, or we are over. The liars that are eliminating forest with mountaintop removal mining are so powerful as to get Obama to mention "clean coal" in his campaign. THERE IS NO CLEAN COAL. THERE IS NO CLEAN OR SAFE NUCLEAR. These people are gangsters, so powerful as to compel top politicians to roll with them. The ship of humanity as a whole is going almost full steam in the wrong direction.
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Coal River Mountain Watch
crmw.net
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Burning the Future: Coal in America
burningthefuture.org
burningthefuture.blogspot.com
youtube.com/watch?v=luVmMBppJc8&feature=channel
penniesofpromise.org
coalriverwind.org
youtube.com/watch?v=kQPYKD4WGew
ilovemountains.org
sludgesafety.org/press_room/2005/06_30.html
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Student Environmental Action Coalition
seac.org/node/117
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From:

Methane Hydrates: What are they thinking?
by Richard Embleton 12/5/8

wordpress.com/tag/fossil-fuels

"...There are various technologies under consideration for extracting methane from hydrate deposits. Most involve some form of heating the hydrate deposits - one, probably the dumbest and most dangerous, even goes so far as to suggest using nuclear explosions beneath the deposit to heat it, also suggested by some as a means of releasing oil from tar sands and oil shale - causing them to release the methane..."

oilbeseeingyou.blogspot.com/2008/12/methane-hydrates-what-are-they-thinking.html

...CO2 remains in the atmosphere for over 100 years.

Scientists studying global warming have long been seriously concerned about the possibility of large scale methane hydrate destabilization and methane release into the atmosphere. The greatest concern is about the large volumes of methane hydrates under the Arctic sea floor and that trapped in the vast permafrost zone surrounding the Arctic Ocean. That concern has now been heightened by recent discoveries of hundreds of methane plumes on the floor of the Arctic Ocean north of Norway and Siberia. [2] There is also evidence in pock-marked sea floors of large releases of methane plumes in the geological past. [3]

Paleoclimatologists now believe that large scale, natural methane hydrate releases have been partly but significantly responsible for short-cycle global warming and global cooling cycles in the past. The recent discoveries in the Arctic, in fact, are thought to suggest that methane releases have contributed to the global warming that has occurred since the last ice age 15,000 years ago. [2]

The problem is that these methane releases have a strong positive feedback loop. As they increase the warming of the atmosphere that warming in turn increases methane release which in turn increases warming which in turn releases more...... You get the picture. Acceleration of global warming through this positive feedback loop, by increased methane concentration in the atmosphere, far more than CO2 concentrations, represents, to paleoclimatologists, a far greater risk of pushing us into the Venus effect, runaway global warming.

When it comes to satisfying the world's energy lust, however, caution may be thrown to the wind. Powering down human society is never an option put on the table when politicians and other leaders discuss energy policies and strategies. We have proven over and over again that business as usual is the only model that will be considered. How else can we explain the tar sands, oil shale development, deepwater oil extraction, coal mines extending out under the sea floor, and more?

There are various technologies under consideration for extracting methane from hydrate deposits. Most involve some form of heating the hydrate deposits - one, probably the dumbest and most dangerous, even goes so far as to suggest using nuclear explosions beneath the deposit to heat it, also suggested by some as a means of releasing oil from tar sands and oil shale - causing them to release the methane which is then collected and piped to a processing facility of holding tank. Proponents of methane hydrate exploitation, conscious of environmental concerns, are quick to offer reassurances like ".....tapping into the gas hydrates assessed in the study is not expected to affect global warming, said Brenda Pierce, coordinator for the USGS Energy Resources Program." [4] The louder and more frequent such reassurances are, of course, the more it suggests they are trying to cover up the probability that the result will be the opposite.

There are many projects underway, funded by governments throughout the world (Japan, India, China, South Korea, Russia, Norway, Canada, the U.S.), aimed at developing commercially viable technologies for exploiting the planet's vast methane hydrate deposits. The selection of sites for these projects are, themselves, a clear indication of one of the primary roadblocks to using methane hydrates as a societal-supporting energy source. They have sought out test sites with high methane hydrate concentrations.

Most hydrate deposits are too small or too dispersed to be commercially exploited. Also, unlike oil and natural gas, those deposits are generally not capped in such a way that the geology can be used to contain releases. Most of those deposits on the sea floor, in fact, exist in unconsolidated, sandy or silt sediment. The geology surrounding them is inherently unstable, difficult to contain. Once the deposit, or any large portion of it, is destabilized it is very difficult to prevent unintended, uncontrolled methane releases into the atmosphere.

...methane hydrates are not like the other fossil fuels...The risk to the climate and the environment is so much greater than has ever been the case with other fossil fuels. Most importantly, methane hydrates are globally affected by exactly the same constrains; temperature and pressure.

Global warming itself - it doesn't matter whether it is naturally occurring or caused by human combustion of fossil fuels - is the greatest threat of tipping methane releases into a runaway warming mechanism. Scientists do not know with any certainty yet how much of a global temperature rise is necessary to reach the tipping point where methane hydrate release into the atmosphere accelerates out of control. They do know that once that happens the acceleration will be self-sustaining and self-accelerating.

If our leaders take the same cavalier approach with scientific warnings about runaway methane release that they have taken with warnings about CO2 buildup in the atmosphere, and the long-term, safe storage of spent nuclear fuel, we are headed toward a much more serious atmospheric and climatic disaster than global warming experts have thus far suggested. Methane releases from the ocean floors and from Arctic permafrost have not been built into any of the current global warming models as a factor...
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"...when the Roman Empire finally collapsed, large parts of Europe had been deforested. Acres of forestland had been cleared for farmland and to provide firewood. Wood and food were essential, to maintain the Roman Empire. To meet their short term needs, the Romans overexploited their prime energy resource. They did not think about the consequences for later generations. So the demise of a seemingly invincible civilization was partially due to the unsustainable use of their prime energy resource. The question is, are we going to be any wiser?

What the Romans were experiencing, we would now describe as peak wood. Reaching a point of maximum production after which it enters terminal decline..."

~Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands

energybulletin.net/node/47796
europe.theoildrum.com/node/4991
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"...local food, not fuel..."
youtube.com/watch?v=N1ZNorSvYzQ&feature=channel
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"...If the nuclear industry is green, it's because it's glowing in the dark..."
youtube.com/watch?v=N1ZNorSvYzQ&feature=channel
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Specter of slavery persists in fields
Tomato pickers insist practice is rampant
by Amy Bennett Williams 12/14/8
news-press.com/article/20081214/NEWS01/812140376/1002/NEWS01
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Coalition of Immokalee Workers
antislavery.org/homepage/news/270508_CIW.htm
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projectgreenteams.org
communityenergyservices.org
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zkea.com/categories/category10.html

...Today we stand at the vanguard of a grim new era. The treaties banning the development and deployment of biological weapons are dead letters. (See the Treaties And Protocols archive.) The United States has publicly renounced these treaties and is actively pursuing new offensive and defensive biological weapons. A handful of other countries have already developed horrific capabilities, armed and at the ready, including weaponized anthrax and smallpox. Dozens of other nations are busily constructing their own arsenals. Why shouldn't they? Biological weapons are cheap, easily deployed, and quite effective. Plus everyone else has them. Therefore it seems prudent to have such weapons as well.

And it does not stop there. Genetic engineering is now actively harnessed to the cause. Incurable forms of existing pathogens - as well as completely artificial organisms - are already deployed. Incurable anthrax, particularly vicious mutants of smallpox, horrific blood fevers, and universally fatal toxins, all these and more await their use in the next war.

So we move into an increasingly unstable world, with apocalyptic weapons spreading like viruses. And yet the world sleeps.

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American Biological Weapons Programs

zkea.com/archives/archive10005.html

...it is believed that the United States has indeed restarted a major biological program under the Bush administration. Driven by the events of 9/11 and the perceived failure of the BWC treaty, the United States believes that biodefenses are again strategically critical. Unfortunately the line between defense and offense is an exceedingly fine one. It is an interesting logical paradox. In order to develop and test defenses against theoretical biological weapons, often one must develop those very same biological weapons. Thus the theoretical threat becomes real by virtue of the need to anticipate the threat. This is an interesting nuance that Dr. Strangelove would have appreciated.

A new arms race has begun. Unfortunately, this arms race will not be confined to a few large research facilities safely locked inside a couple superpowers. This arms race will encompass the world.

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From the

Henry L. Stimson Center :

Old Plagues, New Threats:

The Biotech Revolution and its Impact on US National Security
by Rita Grossman-Vermaas, Brian D. Finlay, and Elizabeth Turpen, Ph.D.
March 2008

stimson.org/cnp/pdf/Old_Plagues_FINAL.pdf

...According to the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, “BSL-3 laboratories are used to study biological agents that are potentially lethal and transmissible by the aerosol route and require special safety design features, such as sealed windows and specialized ventilation systems. BSL-4 laboratories are typically used to study lethal agents for which no vaccine or therapy is available. They incorporate the BSL-3 laboratory safety features, plus additional safety features such as full body suits ventilated by life support systems.”13
Biodefense research, which impacts bioterrorism prevention and infectious disease
surveillance and response capacities, including development of countermeasures, is a
critical component of the broader US strategy to protect populations against a biological
weapons attack. Much of this research, particularly on some of the most harmful
pathogens, is conducted at the growing number of high-containment facilities, in many
cases, by researchers with little or no laboratory experience with dangerous agents. This
not only increases the risk of an accidental release of biological weapons agents, but also
gives larger numbers of people access to the materials, technologies and knowledge that
could be used to undertake a bioweapons attack. The rapid increase in the numbers of
these facilities has also raised policy questions from the public and scientific community,
including personnel training in biosafety standards, the adequacy of existing biosafety
and biosecurity measures, and transparency of policies and research directions. Even the
rationale justifying expansion has been called into question.14 Because of the inherent
dual-use nature of biodefense research, US activities have not only created skepticism
within the US about the intentions, but perhaps of more grave consequence, in the
international community. Suspicions have spurred other countries to pursue their own
biodefense research programs, an unintended consequence of US policy...

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uncommonthought.com/Resources.php
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