Responding to a draft version of an upcoming IPCC report on climate change mitigation obtained and reported on by Reuters on Wednesday, former US vice president and well known climate change activist Al Gore says that any plans to execute “geoengineered” solutions to global warming are “insane, utterly mad and delusional in the extreme.”
“We are already engaged in a planet-wide experiment with consequences we can already tell are unpleasant for the future of humanity. So the hubris involved in thinking we can come up with a second planet-wide experiment that would exactly counteract the first experiment is delusional in the extreme.” –Al Gore
Though the draft IPCC report, as presented by Reuters, does not seem to advocate strongly for some of the most outrageous proposed schemes, the report does say that the inability of the world’s governments to reduce emissions will necessitate more aggressive and pro-active measures in the future to avoid the global temperature increases the scientists are now predicting.
As the Guardian‘s Suzanne Goldenberg reports:
Long a fixation for some, a multitude of geoengineering schemes have been floated based on the idea that if human interference (ie. widespread industrial and carbon pollution) has caused the planet to warm, some kind of additional human interference with nature can reverse the trend.
Just last week, as Common Dreams reported, a study by University of Reading researchers showed that a plan to employ “stratospheric aerosols” to block solar heat could bring a “new unintended side-effect over a large part of the planet” that could be as bad as the effects of rising CO2.
And as journalist and climate activist Naomi Klein articulated last year, in an interview with Earth Island Journal, geoengineering is the “ultimate expression of a desire to avoid doing the hard work of reducing emissions, and I think that’s the appeal of it. I think we will see this trajectory the more and more climate change becomes impossible to deny. A lot of people will skip right to geoengineering. The appeal of geoengineering is that it doesn’t threaten our worldview. It leaves us in a dominant position. It says that there is an escape hatch.”
“If we start tinkering with the earth’s thermostat — deliberately turning our oceans murky green to soak up carbon and bleaching the skies hazy white to deflect the sun — we take our influence to a new level.” –Naomi Klein
Of course, a distinction is necessary between sustainable mitigation plans, emission reductions and large scale geoengineering projects. As nearly all experts agree, there will be significant technological and scientific solutions necessary to help lessen (if not solve) the destructive impacts of global warming but what Gore and Klein are specifically rejecting are large scale projects like seeding the oceans or the clouds with chemicals in vain attempts to reverse the damage wrought by the industrial age.
“The most discussed so-called geo-engineering proposals – like putting sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere to reflect incoming sunlight – that’s just insane,” said Gore in the conference call. “Let’s just describe that clearly – it is utterly mad.”
He added: “We are already engaged in a planet-wide experiment with consequences we can already tell are unpleasant for the future of humanity. So the hubris involved in thinking we can come up with a second planet-wide experiment that would exactly counteract the first experiment is delusional in the extreme.”
And as Klein wrote in the New York Times in 2012:
________________________________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
The vast dragnet operations of the NSA include “industrial espionage,” whistleblower Edward Snowden told the German television network ARD TV in an exclusive interview airing Sunday evening.
In his first televised appearance since speaking with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong, Snowden spoke at length with German journalist Hubert Seipel on his current predicament as an exile living in Russia.
In text released ahead of the interview, ARD TV quoted Snowden saying the NSA does not limit its espionage to issues of national security, giving the example of the German engineering firm Siemens.
“If there is information about Siemens that benefit the national interest of the United States, but have nothing to do with national security, then take this information anyway,” Snowden said, according to ARD, which recorded the interview in Russia.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
The program will air at 23:05 CET, or 5:05 PM EST.
Snowden also told the German public broadcasting network that he no longer has possession of any of the leaked documents—which he has passed on to journalist Glenn Greenwald and others at the Washington Post—and has no influence over the publication of the revelations.
According to a preview of the interview, Snowden also discussed reports that American officials “want to kill him” for exposing the vast dragnet operations of the NSA.
“He has a very strong patriotic sense of justice,” Seipel said after speaking with Snowden. “The fact that Obama has said that he is not a patriot, for him, I think, quite difficult.”
_____________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
The National Security Agency tapped the mobile phone of Germany’s ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder because of his opposition to the U.S.-led war on Iraq, German media reported Tuesday.
According to a joint report by Süddeutsche Zeitung daily and regional public broadcaster NDR, the surveillance of Angela Merkel’s predecessor began in 2002, with his name being number 388 on a list of people whose communications should be surveilled.
“We had reason to presume that [Schroeder] was not contributing to the success of the alliance,” Süddeutsche quotes an unnamed source as saying.
Schroeder, a Social Democrat, held office from 1998 until 2005, with his second term beginning in 2002.
He was s staunch opponent of the Iraq war, saying at the beginning of his second election campaign that his country would not be providing troops for what he called an “adventure.”
“My arguments against military intervention remain, and it is clear that under my leadership, Germany will not participate in military action,” Schroeder added during campaign appearances.
Then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld offered his thoughts on Schroeder’s reelection, saying, “the way [the election] was conducted was notably unhelpful, and as the White House indicated, has had the effect of poisoning the [U.S.-German] relationship.”
Responding to the revelations on Tuesday, Schroeder said, “I would never have imagined that I was being bugged by American services then, but now I am no longer surprised.”
The news is likely to contribute to already strained relations between the two counties. In October of last year Der Spiegel revealed that the NSA may have been spying on the mobile phone of Chancellor Merkel, sparking outrage in Berlin.
__________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by phone Friday morning, but no consensus on how best to move forward over the crisis in Ukraine was reached and each country represented the call, not surprisingly, with sharply different narratives.
On Thursday, Obama signed off on a series of “soft” sanctions against Russia, but Putin is reportedly undeterred by the U.S. placement of some travel restrictions on officials.
“The U.S. has the right [to sanction], and we have the right to respond to it,” said Vladimir Lukin, a Russian government official who has worked on the Ukrainian crisis, told Interfax, a Russian news agency. “But all that is, of course, not making me happy.” Lukin was referring to previous Russian warnings that it would respond to economic sanctions by western countries, with counter-sanctions of its own.
While Obama repeated his objections to a move by Crimea to schedule a vote on whether it would remain part of Ukraine, Putin said that his country would defend the right of Crimeans to seek Russian protection as they continue to ask for it.
“Russia cannot ignore calls for help and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with international law,” Putin said on his call with Obama. The Russian Federation Council on Friday also offered its official endorsement of the Crimea referendum.
According to statements from the White House, Mr. Obama urged Mr. Putin on the call to authorize direct talks with Ukraine’s newly established government in Kiev, allow entry of international monitors and return his military forces to the bases that Russia maintains in Crimea.
Putin responded by saying that the government Kiev was ushered in by an “anti-constitutional coup” and he continues to view it as not “legitimate” it as it has no popular mandate across the country.
The New York Times explains the tensions surrounding the Crimea vote, currently set for March 16, by noting how both international powers are leveraging their outsized influence to make declarations about representing the will of the Ukrainian people:
Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that “Ukraine’s border guard operation now believes Russia has 30,000 troops in the region, almost twice the estimate of 16,000 given by the Ukrainian government earlier this week.”
Lastly, as events on the international and diplomatic level continued to unfold, voices on the street in Crimea reveal the worry by many that what will be forgotten as world powers like the U.S., Russia, and the EU squabble over their own interests and desires, the interests of Ukrainians–on all sides of the complex situation–will be forgotten. As the Moscow Times reports from a pro-Russian rally in the regional capitol of Simferopol:
_________________________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
George Russell says he is “not concerned” by rumors that he could lose his drive with Williams to Sergio Perez, insisting he will be racing with the British outfit in 2021.
Speculation about Russell’s future at Williams emerged in the wake of stories placing Perez and the Mexican’s personal sponsors at the Grove-based team next season.
Russell and teammate Nicholas Latifi were contracted to Williams for 2021 earlier this year by Claire Williams. But it is believed the team’s recent change of ownership may have invalidated those contracts, paving the way for Williams to seal a deal with Perez and the Mexican’s benefactors.
However, in Portimão on Thursday, a confident Russell insisted his contract with Williams remained, in his view, valid for 2021, although he admitted he had not discussed his situation with the team’s owners, Dorilton capital.
“I have a contract for next year with the new owners coming in,” Russell said. “Nothing has changed whatsoever, from a contractual perspective under new ownership.
“I’ve actually not spoken to the new owners about it, because from my side, there are no concerns.
“They’ll all be here this weekend. I’m sure any air will be cleared, but I am not concerned. I will be on the grid next year with Williams.”
Read also: Russell rumoured to be at risk amid Mazepin reports
As a Mercedes protégé, Russell said he would rely on the latter’s advice should his contract with Williams be called into question.
“I guess in the coming weeks, if there were to be any reasons to worry, I’m in contact with the guys at Mercedes weekly,” Russell said.
“We’re always staying in touch. I feel in a really privileged position to have their full support behind me, and long term I think I’m in a great position.
“If it really comes to that, I’ll be speaking to them, but right here, right now, I’ve got no reason to be concerned.”
Russell said the speculation surrounding the drivers’ market was understandable given the number of free agents seeking a seat for next season.
“It’s understandable there is speculation, because there are so many great drivers who are available fighting for a place right now with Sergio, both the Haas guys, [Nico] Hulkenberg as well,” Russell said.
“So there’s obviously going to the speculation. Unfortunately in Formula 1, there isn’t enough place for everybody who necessarily deserves to be here.”
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
As a result of steadily climbing Arctic temperatures, the polar jet stream has been thrown off its usual course, setting off wild weather patterns such as the extremely harsh winter in the Northern and Eastern U.S. this year. This chilly reality is likely to become the new norm, a group of U.S. scientists said at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Saturday.
“The jet stream, a ribbon of high altitude, high-speed wind in northern latitudes that blows from west to east, is formed when the cold Arctic air clashes with warmer air from further south,” Agence France-Presse explains. “The greater the difference in temperature, the faster the jet stream moves.” Because the air coming from the Arctic is warming, the jet stream has weakened and “has begun to meander, like a river heading off course.”
“Weather patterns are changing,” said Jennifer Francis, a climate expert at Rutgers University, at the meeting. “We can expect more of the same and we can expect it to happen more frequently.”
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
Temperatures in the Arctic have been rising “two to three times faster than the rest of the planet,” said James Overland, a weather expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This trend could in turn see the increasingly harsh winters in Northern U.S. and Europe continue into the unforeseeable future.
______________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
In a nondescript industrial estate in El Segundo, a boxy suburb in northern Los Angeles just a mile or two from LAX international airport, 20 people wait in a windowless canteen for a ceremony to begin. Outside, the sun is shining on an unseasonably warm February day; inside, the only light comes from the glare of halogen bulbs.
There is a strange mix of accents – predominantly American, but smatterings of Swedish, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese can be heard around the room, as men and women (but mostly men) chat over pepperoni pizza and 75-cent vending machine soda. In the corner, an Asteroids arcade machine blares out tinny music and flashing lights.
It might be a fairly typical office scene, were it not for the extraordinary security procedures that everyone in this room has had to complete just to get here, the sort of measures normally reserved for nuclear launch codes or presidential visits. The reason we are all here sounds like the stuff of science fiction, or the plot of a new Tom Cruise franchise: the ceremony we are about to witness sees the coming together of a group of people, from all over the world, who each hold a key to the internet. Together, their keys create a master key, which in turn controls one of the central security measures at the core of the web. Rumours about the power of these keyholders abound: could their key switch off the internet? Or, if someone somehow managed to bring the whole system down, could they turn it on again?
The keyholders have been meeting four times a year, twice on the east coast of the US and twice here on the west, since 2010. Gaining access to their inner sanctum isn’t easy, but last month I was invited along to watch the ceremony and meet some of the keyholders – a select group of security experts from around the world. All have long backgrounds in internet security and work for various international institutions. They were chosen for their geographical spread as well as their experience – no one country is allowed to have too many keyholders. They travel to the ceremony at their own, or their employer’s, expense.
What these men and women control is the system at the heart of the web: the domain name system, or DNS. This is the internet’s version of a telephone directory – a series of registers linking web addresses to a series of numbers, called IP addresses. Without these addresses, you would need to know a long sequence of numbers for every site you wanted to visit. To get to the Guardian, for instance, you’d have to enter “77.91.251.10” instead of theguardian.com.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
The master key is part of a new global effort to make the whole domain name system secure and the internet safer: every time the keyholders meet, they are verifying that each entry in these online “phone books” is authentic. This prevents a proliferation of fake web addresses which could lead people to malicious sites, used to hack computers or steal credit card details.
The east and west coast ceremonies each have seven keyholders, with a further seven people around the world who could access a last-resort measure to reconstruct the system if something calamitous were to happen. Each of the 14 primary keyholders owns a traditional metal key to a safety deposit box, which in turn contains a smartcard, which in turn activates a machine that creates a new master key. The backup keyholders have something a bit different: smartcards that contain a fragment of code needed to build a replacement key-generating machine. Once a year, these shadow holders send the organisation that runs the system – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) – a photograph of themselves with that day’s newspaper and their key, to verify that all is well.
The fact that the US-based, not-for-profit organisation Icann – rather than a government or an international body – has one of the biggest jobs in maintaining global internet security has inevitably come in for criticism. Today’s occasionally over-the-top ceremony (streamed live on Icann’s website) is intended to prove how seriously they are taking this responsibility. It’s one part The Matrix (the tech and security stuff) to two parts The Office (pretty much everything else).
Australia’s Victorian state parliament passed a draconian anti-protest bill on Tuesday, prompting protests in the Melbourne parliament chamber that were violently shut down by security.
The Summary Offenses and Sentencing Amendment Bill has been widely criticized as a crackdown on freedom of expression and public protest, as well as an attack on marginalized, poor, homeless, and undocumented people.
When opponents of the bill voiced their opposition during debate in the chamber on Tuesday, security “proceeded to drag people by their arms, legs and their necks out of the gallery for daring to express the concerns of the community,” said protester Samantha Castro in an interview with 7 News describing the scene, which was captured on the video below.
In addition, a riot police squad was called to the scene to disband the approximately 30 protesters. The demonstrators “were representative of a much larger movement, of many [thousands] of people who do not want to see democracy further stifled in this state,” wrote Nicola Paris of nonviolent direct action group CounterAct, in a statement about the action.
Now passed, the bill drastically expands police powers to force individuals or groups of people in public places to “move on” on the suspicion that they will cause violence, obstruction, or sell drugs, and it expands powers to ban, imprison, and fine people who are deemed not in compliance.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
“These laws will disproportionately affect marginalized young people, people experiencing homelessness, poverty, and mental health issues who occupy public spaces, both as a result of social choice and necessity,” reads a statement from a coalition of Australian organizations that oppose the bill.
“By necessity, people experiencing homelessness live their lives in public places,” reads a statement from Australian organization Justice Connect. “Unlike the rest of us who could go home if told to move-on, homeless people have no-where else to go.”
Many suspect the law is aimed, in part, at stifling demonstrations and worker pickets in the state, including Melbourne protests against an East West Link Road under construction that critics charge would displace residents, contaminate the environment, and expand carbon pollution.
Describing the Tuesday protests, Paris wrote, “We were there for unionists, for teachers, for nurses, for people who fought for the rights we now have. We were there for environmentalists, for people who care for refugees, who care about the city we live in, and who have saved the buildings we now cherish. We were there for those defending their homes and communities from an unwanted road project that will bring no benefit but much pollution, at a cost of billions.”
“This legislation is yet another step down the slippery slope. If we don’t fight for our rights now, they will take them away.”
_____________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
As Ukraine’s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told parliament on Tuesday that the military was engaged in an “anti-terrorist operation” in the east of the country, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev warned against the use of force and said that Ukraine is again “on the brink of civil war.”
Pro-Russian activists in cities across the east have risen up against Kiev’s authority, with many calling for the opportunity to vote on their continued inclusion in Ukraine.
“Overnight, an antiterrorist operation began in the north of Donetsk. But it will be phased, responsible and balanced,” Turchynov announced, according to the Interfax news agency. “The purpose of the actions, I stress once again, is to protect the citizens of Ukraine.”
According to CNN, “A spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Evgen Rojenyuk, confirmed that a National Guard battalion made up of 350 troops was sent to eastern Ukraine from Kiev on Tuesday morning.”
Tweets about “Ukraine Russia filter:links”
Updates to follow….
(11:25 AM EST):
The Guardian reports:
____________________________________
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
(11:18 AM EST):
RIA-Novosti, the Russian state-run news agency, reports:
____________________________________
Previous ultimatums from Kiev for the pro-Russian activists to relinquish their positions had gone unfulfilled. But as the New York Times reports, “The first indication that the operation represented more than just words this time was a modest Ukrainian military checkpoint established on a highway north of the town of Slovyansk, which has been controlled by militants since Saturday.”
Witnesses confirmed to the Times that a dozen armored personnel carriers were parked on the highway and flying Ukrainian flags about 25 miles, north of the town, but that “no credible reports of confrontations” had yet occurred.
In a phone call Monday night, President Obama spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and again warned that further sanctions would be imposed by the west if Moscow did not end its interference in eastern Ukraine. Putin, however, rebuffed Obama’s claims of Russian interference and said that it was incumbent on the U.S. and its European allies to use their influence with the government in Kiev to make sure violence does not break out.
In a statement made from Beijing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Ukraine’s decision to use military action against the uprisings in the east as “unacceptable.” He reiterated Putin’s claim as well, saying that Moscow’s involvement among the Pro-Russian activists in eastern cities was “the biggest load of nonsense I have ever heard.”
Media outlets report that Russia has threatened to cancel international talks scheduled for later this week if Ukraine follows through with its threat to oust those occupying government buildings.
In a related development, the White House confirmed on Monday that CIA chief John Brennan did visit Kiev over the weekend, though spokesman Jay Carney would not detail who he met or why, exactly, he was there. As the AP reports: “Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is accusing the CIA of being behind the new government’s decision to turn to force. But the CIA denies that Brennan encouraged Ukrainian authorities to conduct tactical operations.”
____________________________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
A strong earthquake hit Japan’s northern coast Saturday near the Fukushima nuclear power plant crippled in the 2011 tsunami.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the magnitude-6.8 quake struck 6 miles below the sea surface just off the coast of Fukushima. The 4:22 a.m. local time quake rattled buildings in Tokyo, about 120 miles southwest of the epicenter.
A small tsunami reached the coast of Ishinomaki Ayukawa and Ofunato about 50 minutes after the quake. Smaller waves were observed at several other locations along the coast, but changes to the shoreline were not visible on television footage aired by public broadcaster NHK.
Eight towns devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, including Rikuzentakata, Higashi Matsushima and Otsuchi, issued evacuation advisories to thousands of households along the northern coast, along with schools and community centers.
All tsunami and evacuation advisories were lifted about two hours after the quake.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
Fukushima Dai-ichi – the nuclear plant decimated in the 2011 disaster – and two other nuclear power plants, along with other nuclear facilities along the coast, claimed their reactors and fuel storage pools were being cooled safely, according to Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority.
Plant operators Tokyo Electric said there were no immediate reports of abnormality after the quake, according to Kyodo news agency.
The meteorological agency advised people to leave the coast immediately, while Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said some local authorities issued evacuation advisories to their residents.
The 2011 disaster killed about 19,000 people and triggered multiple catastrophic meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear facilitiy. More than 100,000 people have been displaced by radiation contamination in communities near the nuclear plant.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.