NASA confirms US’s 2,500-square-mile methane cloud
Floating over the US Southwest is a cloud of methane the size of Delaware, writes Mike G – reflecting the release of almost 600,000 tonnes of the powerful greenhouse gas every year. Its origins? Coalbed gas production, fracking and horizontal drilling.
The hot spot happens to be above New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, the most productive coalbed methane basin in North America.
When NASA researchers first saw data indicating a massive cloud of methane floating over the American Southwest, they found it so incredible that they dismissed it as an instrument error.
But as they continued analyzing data from the European Space Agency’s Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography instrument from 2002 to 2012, the ‘atmospheric hot spot’ kept appearing.
The team at NASA was finally able to take a closer look, and have now concluded that there is in fact a 2,500-square-mile cloud of methane – roughly the size of Delaware – floating over the Four Corners region, where the borders of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah all intersect.
This discovery follows the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s new estimates of methane’s ‘global warming potential’ (GWP): 34 over 100 years, and 86 over 20 years. That number reflects how much more powerful methane is than CO2.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/02/2708911/fracking-ipcc-methane/
SOTT Summary, September 2014: Fireballs, Extreme Weather, High Strangeness and Earth Changes
The ninth installment in our monthly series, the following video compiles footage of ‘signs of the times’ from around the world during September 2014 – ‘earth changes’, extreme weather, meteor fireballs, high strangeness and planetary upheaval.
‘Iraq War III’ is underway, and Mother Nature is not happy about it.
Fireball meteor sightings picked up dramatically in September, with spectacular sightings over Russia, the U.S. Pacific coast, an actual impact next to a busy airport in Nicaragua, and what appeared to be multiple fireballs coming down over Lake Michigan. The U.S.’s earliest ever snowfall hit South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado, while Calgary in Canada went from summer temperatures to 11 inches of snow overnight. Ignoring the raging wildfires across California, a monster hailstorm blanketed Napa Valley with 6 inches of hail, a feat repeated in Florence, Italy and Teruel, Spain.
Rainfall records around the world continue to be broken at an alarming rate, with deluges happening so fast in southern France, southern Italy, the Balkans and southern Spain that cars, roads, homes and people were washed away. Montpelier even recorded over a foot of rain in just two hours. Intense flooding in India, Pakistan, Thailand and China were matched by successive waves of flash-flooding from Mexico to the U.S. Northeast, with up to 10 inches of rain falling from coast to coast. Meanwhile, tornadoes made appearances in France, Germany, The Netherlands and Croatia.
There were a number of spectacular volcanic eruptions, particularly in Papua New Guinea, Iceland and Japan: the latter two countries’ second-largest volcanoes erupted; the first gave plenty of warning but Mount Ontake took hundreds of climbers completely by surprise. September also saw a lot of ‘high strangeness’, with ‘UFO lights’ filmed over Hong Kong at the height of anti-Chinese protests, and plasma formations photographed above Chicago. In what could be a foreboding harbinger of plagues to come, the West African Ebola outbreak death toll passed the 3,000 mark last month… as the deadly virus reached the U.S.
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Music used: ‘Escape from the Temple’ by Per Kiilstofte: https://machinimasound.com/music/esca…
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The Ironies of Our Present Situation
Knowledge has been accumulating over the past few decades suggesting that our current situation, as humans, is dire. One irony associated with this body of knowledge is that it is likely now too late to act on that knowledge in a way that might save us. A second irony is even more saturated in irony: Had we had this knowledge 40—or even 30—years ago, and acted on it, it’s likely that our situation would not now be dire; however, it’s unlikely that we would have acted to save ourselves even then! It’s enough to make one cry! By Al Thompson
What knowledge am I referring to? Here are 10 instances of that “knowledge”—in the form of facts and reasoned guesses.
Eran Efrati – Russell Tribunal 2014 – 24/09
Eran Efrati talks about the killing of Palestinian civilian Salem Shamaly by an Israeli sniper during Operation Protective Edge.
Gaza In Ruins, Israel’s Ban on Dignity, More Illegal Settlements & Decades to Rebuild
EPISODE BREAKDOWN: On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin reports on the announcement by Israel that 1,000 acres of land have been claimed for a new settlement bloc near Bethlehem, discussing the continued expansion of Israeli settlement in Palestinian territories. Abby then speaks with Eran Efrati, a former IDF soldier who recounts his experience being ostracized for attempting to expose crimes he witnessed as a soldier. Abby then outlines a few of the various goods banned from entering Gaza under Israel’s blockade, and how a ban on cement and other construction materials could mean that it will take several decades to rebuild Gaza. BTS wraps up the show with an interview with journalist and author Max Blumenthal, discussing his book ‘Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel’ which explores the true makeup of modern Israeli society and its policies toward the Palestinian territories.
Activists arrested for defending these ancient trees
“We are not giving up until the dam has been stopped for good”, says Areng Valley resident Ven Vorn of the indigenous community’s two-year struggle to save their homes from a destructive dam.
Nine people were arrested on September 16, 2014 for denying workers and construction machinery access to the valley. The activists have maintained their blockade since March.
The inhabitants of the valley have also taken their protest to the streets of Phnom Penh.
If the Cheay Areng Dam is realized, 20,000 hectares of rainforest – half of which are located in a protected nature reserve – would be flooded. The area is rich in rare and endangered species such as Siamese crocodiles, Asian elephants and clouded leopards. 1,500 indigenous people would be evicted from the land that their families have called home for centuries.
More on Rainforest Rescue
The information war for Ukraine (Eng Subs)
German satire: Volker Pispers about double standards in international law and democracy
Everything You Need to Know About the CIA Torture Report in Under 4 Minutes
If someone tries to hide something from you for ten years, it’s probably pretty embarrassing or shameful. Over the past ten years, the CIA has misled Congress about their post-9/11 torture program, withheld evidence and tried to cover up the facts. In the next few weeks, a new bipartisan Senate report is expected to reveal the truth about the CIA’s torture programs. Here’s why you want to know what’s in the Torture Report.
Four Horsemen – Feature Documentary – Official Version
FOUR HORSEMEN is an award winning independent feature documentary which lifts the lid on how the world really works.
As we will never return to ‘business as usual’ 23 international thinkers, government advisors and Wall Street money-men break their silence and explain how to establish a moral and just society.
FOUR HORSEMEN is free from mainstream media propaganda — the film doesn’t bash bankers, criticise politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. It ignites the debate about how to usher a new economic paradigm into the world which would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions.
“It’s Inside Job with bells on, and a frequently compelling thesis thanks to Ashcroft’s crack team of talking heads — economists, whistleblowers and Noam Chomsky, all talking with candour and clarity.” – Total Film
“Four Horsemen is a breathtakingly composed jeremiad against the folly of Neo-classical economics and the threats it represents to all we should hold dear.”
– Harold Crooks, The Corporation (Co-Director) Surviving Progress (Co-Director/Co-Writer)
Man Calls a Suicide Prevention Hotline, SWAT Team Shows Up and Kills Him | The Free Thought Project
A Roy, Utah man, Jose Calzada, 35, placed a call to a suicide prevention hotline at 4:00 a.m. Tuesday morning and threatened to kill himself, seven hour later he was shot and killed by police, according to law enforcement.
According to ABC 4, neighbors described Calzada as a quiet, friendly man, who was divorced and now lived in the home with his girlfriend and her children.
The first tragic mistake in this case was made when the Weber County Consolidated Dispatch Center sent officers to the residence rather than some type of crisis response team trained to deal with suicidal individuals.
From previous cases, such as that of Jason Turk, who was shot twice in the face after a suicide call to 9-1-1 by his wife, or that of Christian Alberto Sierra, who was suffering from depression and had attempted suicide when police showed up and shot him four times, killing him, most know all too well what happens when you send officers to “assist” people threatening suicide.
Subsequently, a SWAT team came to the residence and “negotiated” with Calzada for more than seven hours before taking his life.
“At some point those negotiations failed and unfortunately the SWAT team was involved in a shooting, and the subject is now deceased,” said Roy PD spokesman Matt Gwynn.
Eyewitness Ron Smith told the Standard-Examiner that he heard “one shot, and then a pause, and then four or five shots after that, that were very rapid.”
Specifics of the case were not released but Gwynn was sure to explain the cop logic of reasonableness stating, “Officers are authorized to stop a threat whenever their life is threatened, or the life of another is threatened. And at that point if the officer feels he is justified, he may act to stop that threat.”
“This is being treated as a officer assisted suicide or suicide by cops,” Gwynn said.
While that could potentially be the case, this is usually the default position of law enforcement when unprepared officers show up to deal with individuals experiencing severe mental health issues.
Often police go into these situations with an ingrained mentality of looking at citizens as threats to the safety of the officers and thus feel empowered and justified to use lethal force as the suicidal person has already threatened to kill someone, themselves.
Gwynn went on to state, “We encourage those having suicidal thoughts or tendencies to contact a physician or expert that can talk them through it. In this particular case he attempted to do that — it’s unfortunate and sad that it failed.”
Sadly, Gwynn’s words ring hollow as Calzada did exactly as Gwynn suggests and ended up paying the ultimate price as is far too often the case in these situations.
RECALLING LOVE: And Woman And Man
“Recalling love: And woman and man…” is a thirty minute performance based on excerpts from Turkish novelist Meltem Arikan’s 7 novels. It was performed as part of International Performance Festival Cardiff in 10 Feet Tall on 15 June 2014.
That She's Really Into Politics GIrl 