Thin Ice - And a Slippery Slope

D'you ever have those days when you wish none of this earth change stuff was real?

I do.

But this isn't one of those days.

This is the day to celebrate the birth of a New Earth Change Report.

Naturally I'd like it to look like a million-dollar production. And a film star endorsement would help too I guess.

Having a couple million subscribers would round out the fantasy quite nicely as well. With my own Business Jumbo Jet and an on board Hot Tubby (and a hot tub).

However, NewECR is not about fantasies, so we'll give them the Passover and get down to business. Ice cold business.

That's the title of an essay by Professor David Barber - Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science, University of Manitoba.

The essay is about his long years of experience studying the changing Arctic - most recently as head of a winter-long scientific research program as part of the International Polar Year.

I vividly recall my first trip to the north, working in the Husky Lakes area of the Western High Arctic.

In those days we didn’t talk much about climate change or global warming. We mostly talked about the uniqueness and magnificence of the Arctic.

When I first heard about global warming I was quite sceptical. I thought that what we were seeing was simply a result of the large natural variability in the Arctic System and that there was no real trend evident in most of the indices that we were using to define change.

About 15 ago I began to rethink this position as I became increasingly concerned about trends I was seeing in my own, and others’ analyses.

In particular it appeared that the sea ice was changing and that this change was not a byproduct of variability but rather a systematic trend towards later freeze-up, earlier melt, less multiyear ice extent and an overall thinning of sea ice.

In the mid 1990’s I began to work with large multidisciplinary teams of oceanographers, geochemists and biologists (www.arcticnet-ulaval.ca).

These large programs shed an increasingly poignant light on the fact the Arctic was indeed changing and that this change was affecting each level of the Arctic Marine Foodweb.

The change we are now seeing in the Arctic is not simply a transient change in the physical system but rather a profound and sustained alteration of the natural and associated biological systems.

When speaking at public engagements or to the media I used to say that the Arctic had been losing multiyear sea ice at a rate of about 30,000 km2 per year on average over the last 20 years; I then increased that to 50,000 km2 per year over the last 25 years, and most recently upped that estimate yet again to about 70,000 km2 per year (an area about the size of Lake Superior).

In 2005 we experienced the lowest summer sea ice minimum extent on record (less than 5.5M km2).

This record minimum was a real eye opener for those of us working in the sea ice field. We saw that the Arctic was capable of losing a large proportion of the summer extent of sea ice in a very short period of time.

The models we use to predict these changes all estimated on the conservative side of this 2005 minimum.

This past summer we shattered this previous record showing a seasonal sea ice minimum extent of only 4 million km2; a loss of over 1 million km2 in a single year.

This was an incredible reduction in the areal extent of sea ice and predictably it was accompanied by a reduction in thickness.

We are now predicting a seasonally ice-free arctic by around 2030.

This is about 70 years earlier than the general circulation model predictions based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments.

Down in Antarctica, another massive ice shelf has broken away.

This one's seven times the size of Manhattan. However, it can't add to rising sea levels because it was already floating in the ocean, so it'll melt like an ice cube in a glass of water, without raising water levels.

BUT - what its break-off does mean is that ice on land can now move more freely into the ocean - and that's what raises sea levels.

Further - this break-up of the Wilkins ice shelf tells us that the models scientists use - and the predictions they make that sea levels won't rise for decades - could well be wrong - in the wrong direction.

Clearly, no matter what the models might project, Nature has a mind of her own.

So why shouldn't you just eat a Dove bar? Well . . . the chocolate found in candy is PROCESSED (which kills the antioxidant content). Processed chocolate is laden with fat, wax, fillers, preservatives and sugar. Xocai Products contain completely natural, unprocessed chocolate which retains 100% of its antioxidant and nutritional value!

(Click here or on the graphic to see our new web site).

Now,let's move on and meet a new columnist. He's just a kid, so perhaps you shouldn't take him too seriously. Or perhaps you should, since he insists his column should deal with matters of the mind.

My name is Billy. My big brother is Bywee and my sister is Mahwee.

I think mind matters, so the editor told me to spout off here.

I’m not very old, although I’m a lot older than I look. I think it’s important to understand how the mind works, what it has to work with, and how it can be used most efficiently.

For one thing, the mind is faster than a time machine. It can take you anywhere, instantly.

So let’s travel back, back, back to the distant ancient almost forgotten past….let’s say 1952.

For some reason the phrase “It’s all in the mind” really got my attention back then.

It started about the time I first became aware of adults disagreeing over things like religion and politics. I was about seven years old, living in a two-bedroom house with my parents, four brothers and a sister. 82 Manawatu Street Hokowhitu Palmerston North….(I had to remember all that in case I got lost on one of my regular forays far from home…)

My father had somehow managed to build enough bunks for us boys to share one small room, and our sister had the sun porch to herself.

Sunday School (Brethren as I recall, and then a switch to Baptist) was a weekly requirement. I ‘gave my life to Jesus’ at seven, and before long I was singing “Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war” at the top of my lungs on the way home from school.

I had a girl friend too. Her name was Colleen. She lived down the road and we’d play together with the other neighborhood kids.

One day I noticed small flags on the mail boxes outside all the houses on our street.

I asked my mother what they were about. She said “We’re having an election to see who is going to be the government. The red ones are for Labour and the blue ones are for National.”

“Well,” I said, “we have a red flag, and Colleen’s place has a blue flag.”

“That’s because we’re Labour and they’re National. And they’re also Catholics,” my mother said. “And I really don’t think you should spend so much time with her.”

Right there, I learned that adults think differently about religion and politics, and they take sides or defensive positions. They can also be very staunch in their personal belief system – so staunch that they’ll argue with each other, fight with each other, not talk to each other at all. Or kill each other.

I noticed that when the red flags and blue flags went up some people replaced the standard-issue ones with bigger ones they’d made themselves. Also, certain neighbors stopped talking to each other, and we kids were expected to follow suit.

It seemed pretty odd to me that flags of different colors and going to different churches could be so divisive. Catholic Colleen and Baptist me both thought Jesus was great. But our parents ..well…they had their own ideas.

Okay, let’s move forward in time and slowly bring ourselves back to the 21st Century.

As time went by, I learned that flags and religions and politics do serve a purpose. They are used to unite people of similar beliefs while at the same time they divide people who have different beliefs.

This results in a willingness, sometimes even an eagerness, by both sides to go to war for what they believe in. (“Onward Christian/Muslim/soldiers….”)

But who is right? Those with the red flags or blue? The Bible or the Koran? The sword or the scimitar?

It’s all in the mind. And you adults have got pretty messed up ones. So there.

What’s interesting is the International Atomic Energy Agency came out with a report almost immediately after the ‘quake, saying despite a certain amount of radiation leakage, the plant itself had stood up to the ‘quake very well.

But now the company is making no projections about income in the next 12 months – nor is it saying when the nuclear reactors and power plant will be up and running again.

Makes you wonder – how bad was the damage really, and how do you repair radioactive things and live through it?

Nargis is categorized by the Tropical Storm Risk consortium in London as a very severe or Category One cyclone.

It's expected to make landfall Friday evening local time, and the Voice of America quotes specialists as saying its chances of becoming a super cyclone are about one in three.

Last November, Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh, killing more than 3000 people and leaving 2.5 million homeless.

Bangladesh is in the middle of a critical rice harvest at this moment.

Can you imagine 60,000 police braced for action as people begin to protest at the rising cost of food?

Sixty thousand cops is a small army.

That was the story in Indonesia on May 1 (May Day) this past week with 10,000 police on active duty and another 50,000 on standby as food price rise protests spread through Asia.

In Jakarta protesters carried signs saying "Jobs, Justice, Food" and "Lower Food Prices Now".

In the Philippines, police armed with assault rifles were out in the streets of Manila.

Meanwhile Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, saw over 500 people detained, six cops and two demonstrators injured as protestors demanded that something be done about rising food prices. The Turkish police used pepper gas and water cannon to stop the rally.

The BBC reports that “More than 10,000 Australian farming families have had to leave their land as a result of the country's ongoing drought…

“There has been a 10% drop in the number of farmers in the past five years, (and the) number of farmers in Australia has dropped by a third in just 20 years.

“They have been hit not just by the difficulties of farming water-starved land, but interest rates which are at a 12-year high.”

Australia’s dairy production is also at historic lows, and its crop yields this year are expected to be “piss poor” (that’s an Aussie word).

From across the Tasman, cameraman Greg Pennikett (who came to the States to film “Contact Has Begun” because he was the only guy in the world with experience with such advanced equipment) has written to say his part of New Zealand is almost history for dairy farmers because of the worst drought in memory.


Big stores in the US are now restricting customer purchases of rice and other commodities.

Seems like here in America we have a choice between filling the gas tank with biofuels made from corn for as much as $100, or driving half as much and putting aside something we can eat. Except the corn is now in the tank….

Meanwhile, also in the US, Big Oil (ExxonMobil) reports a $10.8 billion profit for the first quarter. Guess they’re having a really tough time buying crude at its ever-rising levels?

Big Business is apparently better at running a business than the US government is at being a government business…. The Outstanding US Public Debt as of 03 May 2008 is $9,345,932,614,418.16.

If you can’t get your head around that, look at it this way. The estimated population of the United States is 303,921,631so each citizen's share of this debt is $30,760.99.

But it’ll be more than that tomorrow, because "the US debt has been going up by $1.45 billion per day since September 29, 2006!"

In other words, those who own the world’s banks have designed a system in which the interest (debt) can never be paid off.

Any of us, no matter what country we’re in, could find the same thing applies. Governments keep ratcheting up their debt, which can never be paid off. (Repeating myself?).

He wrote back and said “No.”

Meanwhile, the US government has just sent out so-called “tax rebate checks” (cheques) of about $1200 each - to the tune of $152 billion.

Comes a suggestion from those who clearly see a banker-engineered Very Great Depression coming that “all we have to do is take that tax rebate money and buy GOLD! …. 152 billion fake dollars turned into GOLD held by the American People. They're Done!!!”

If you don’t yet know that the whole world financial structure is bogus, deliberately fabricated to enable a few very intelligent people to control the world economy – and its happy little slave units - this video is an excellent resource. It’s called “Money as Debt.”

Q: "I'm linked to a few newsletters and you are one of them.

"The only point is that I still cannot get an idea of where we stand.

"What if I get enough food for my family, I must get a gun as well.

"But these changes will lift our world population in consciousness.

"Is the gun still necessary?" - ......

A: There's no doubt that information about these earth changes can make your head spin your tummy roll and your heart sink....

But that's temporary.

Like Billy says, it's all in the mind - and when we put our mind to it, we can achieve remarkable things.

The process starts with gathering information. Then contemplating it. Sometimes this means stepping back from the input - after all, there are only so many ways to say "the earth is changing, food's going to be short, how do we prepare and survive?"

Comes a time when action is imperative.

In that regard, a list is a good beginning. It might be the size of an elephant to start with, but you can get it done one bite at a time.

(I'll be including lists in future newsletters, and as soon as I can I'll have them up as a free downloadable .pdf file).

In other words, we make up our mind.

Is the consciousness of the world evolving fast enough that there's nothing to do or worry about?

Hmmmm...."pre-emptive strike" is getting a lot of air time; "nuclear" is out there like an ugly sister; "martial law" is on some people's lips; people are being killed in food riots; millions are homeless and millions more starving.

Even though I believe we are "all one" we are a "one" of many parts or subdivisions. So I'm not holding my breath waiting for the rest of the world to evolve - any more than I would expect to be carried by someone else on a journey I should make on my own two feet.

Therefore, it looks to me like it would be wise to raise my own consciousness, get centered on my own purpose and choices, and let the world catch up, if and when it's ready.

Meanwhile, I'll be catching up to those who've already made that journey to enlightenment.

As for guns - I'm entirely neutral on that subject. At the same time, a person has every right (and responsibility) to defend himself/herself and family. Which of course could open up a long discussion on what's best, under what circumstances. The strongest possible pepper spray for example (not the cheap mild stuff but the bear stopper variety. And I mean bear stopper).

According to this site “The strongest concentrations are 15% active ingredients and rated at 2 million scoville heat units. The high scoville heat rating is more important than the percentage of pepper spray ingredients.”

Such preparations are decided according to personal circumstances.

However, if it's all in the mind - which it is - the best thing would be to first of all focus on surviving whatever events come up.

If that's a regular mental scenario, a forward vision if you will, there will no doubt be adventures along the way, but the Universe has a way of making sure that what we think is what we get.

And I think 2013 will be a very good year:-)

All subscribers are invited to submit links that might be included here for general reference. (They’ll be vetted for relevance to earth changes and preparedness so they may not all make the cut).

This submission is from Louise:

It’s the Natural Solutions Foundation which says “Among the major threats to health freedom are Codex Alimentarius (the World Food Code) and certain national agencies that should be protecting the public, but are not. The threats to health and freedom are both domestic and international, as are the solutions…”

What caught my eye in the bulleted list was this: • Be informed of GMO vaccination, regulatory and other dangers to your family• Be inspired to take action through our easy Mouse Warrior eAlert system!

I know GMO is not referring to the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio railroad carrier which once ran from Chicago to Kansas City. It actually means Genetically Modified Organisms, like crops, or weird stuff in vaccines that you can’t easily link to later serious disorders. And the world certainly needs a lot of mouse warriors these days because it’s being over-run by rats…genetically modified ones no less.….

Victoria sent this:

It’s about Canada deciding to preserve 25 million acres of boreal forest.

Sounds great, and it is, but when put in perspective… “Canada has 417.6 million hectares (one billion acres) of forest, of which 56 percent, or 235 million hectares (588 million acres), is managed for timber production.”

Aside from that, the Canadian government is - I was told this week by a friend who has lived with them for many years - planning to renege on all treaties with the Indian tribes.

They're using the excuse that the treaties were signed with other nations and governments, so this government does not have to honor them.

What's behind this? This - and it's an old story. While the designated Indian/Innuit nations are as much as 500 miles from the white man, these lands have mineral resources that the white man covets.....

Michael started on about how much weight I might lose by eating healthy chocolate (I have a friend who lost 15 lbs in no time).

But Michael slowly realized the error of his ways, paused, looked down at the corn chips and salsa bowl, and said "I'd better quit, or I might get that in my face...."

Said Ishtar. "Yep. Hit by a...Flying.....salsa."

And that's it for today folks...except for showing you a really cool new graphic that's been made for Miceal Ledwith"s new DVD Orbs: Clues to a More Exciting Universe."

I have spoken with him about possibly being a regular contributor to NewECR, since he is also well aware of earth changes, and the fact that many people are interested in learning as much as they can about "the great questions" - where did we come from? and why are we here?

Be aware.

Prepare.

Sincerely.

Michael Knight.

Editor - New Earth Change Report (and I might change the name).

PS - stay away from flying salsas.....

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Sincerely.

Michael Knight - Editor.