Our Disappearing World

Earth Change Report 011 Sept 28 2007

Tuvalu (above) a tiny island in the South Pacific, is disappearing.

And it is rising sea levels that will cause its demise.

But it is not only Tuvalu that is in danger.

There are many similar islands around the world where people are facing total displacement.

And for some, it will be either abrupt - or too late.

This looming crisis for such small island nations is but one of many threats touched on at the recent gathering of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the IPCC.

In April 2002 the Environmental News Service reported that “the Bush administration took another swipe at efforts to understand and combat global warming” by advocating that Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (right) replace Dr. Robert Watson as head of the IPCC.

“Critics of Pachauri's candidacy note that his two Ph Ds are in economics and industrial engineering…”

ENS reported that the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a private conservation group, had released papers showing that the energy industry had been quietly pressing for the removal of Watson since the Bush administration took office.

“Oil giant ExxonMobil sent a confidential memo to the White House urging the Bush administration to replace Watson, who ‘was hand picked by [former Vice President] Al Gore,’ along with other Clinton era appointees, with a ‘team that can better represent the Bush Administration interests.’

The memorandum was obtained by the NRDC from the White House Council on Environmental Quality under the Freedom of Information Act.

"It's bad enough that ExxonMobil controls White House energy and climate policies," said Daniel Lashof, science director of the NRDC climate center. "Now they want to control the science too."

And the point is?

The point is that whatever the politics involved, behind the scenes there are powerful lobbying groups that represent interests that have no concern at all about the state of the environment.

If they can influence appointments to organizations such as the IPCC, they can also affect – and delay – any substantive action on the “human influence” on climate change, which in reality is the influence of industry and its massive output of climate-changing toxins.

Nevertheless, humans are matching industry pretty closely, as is so well illustrated in this picture of smog over Los Angeles on a 'fine' day.

But what are industry and governments really doing about it all?

The United States for one is responsible for setting back any international agreements on greenhouse gas reductions by almost a decade – because six years ago it discounted the Kyoto Protocol as “fatally flawed” and has refused to do anything about reducing total emissions.

Instead, it favors global trade in toxic gas ‘credits’ between large and small polluters by putting a price on them, while telling us that this is good for the environment and our economic future.

Pachauri himself is an advocate of this good-for-business scenario too. Under his scheme, industry should be able to trade credits until 2015 – an action delay of another seven years.

Frankly, it all sounds like window dressing for the masses, because while corporations trade credits, all the other events that Pachauri warns of will escalate because in spite of the pretty words, the world is awash in both deception and self-deception.

So what should we as individuals do about it?

Walk and ride bicycles?

Or realize that politicians are never going to address the worst-case scenario, at least publicly. Nor should we expect them to.

Speaking of ET contact at his 2006 ECETI conference, James Gilliland said: "Contact has begun. The rest is up to you."

And so it is in terms of making our way through the next few years of global warming and global catastrophes.

If we take note of the signs and the obvious and hidden clues in some of these scientific reports we are free to prepare for abrupt climate change and abrupt earth changes and abrupt solar storms – and the arrival of Planet X.

And it's not as if information about climate change has not been made available by many government departments.

NASA released this report on the disappearance of 110 glaciers in Montana's Glacier National Park over three years ago.

His speech headline was "The Future in our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change."

“To start with let me say that we, the human race, have substantially altered the Earth's atmosphere.

“In 2005 the concentration of carbon dioxide exceeded the natural range that has existed over 650.000 years.

“Eleven of the warmest years since instrumental records have been kept occurred during the last 12 years and therefore climate change is accelerating.

“In the 20th century the increase in average temperature was 0.74 degrees centigrade; sea level increased by 17 cm and a large part of the Northern Hemisphere snow cover vanished.

“Particularly worrisome is the reduction in the mass balance of the glaciers and this has serious implications for the availability of water; something like 500 million people in South Asia and 250 million people in China are likely to be affected as a result.

“We also know that there are major precipitation changes that are taking place.

In general in the temperate regions there's an increase in precipitation, rainfall and snow, but in the tropical, subtropical and Mediterranean regions there is a decline.

“But all of this is also accompanied by an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme precipitation events: we have seen several of those in recent years.

“Overall may I say that water scarcity is going to be affected and will increase in several parts of the globe.

“We also know that there are issues of concern with regard to food security because a number of crops that the human race is dependent on are likely to see a decline in yield and productivity.

“Some regions are more vulnerable than others. The Arctic region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe.

“Sub-Saharan Africa already under a lot of stress will also be impacted by stress induced by climate change and I might say Africa as a whole will probably see 75 to 250 million people being affected by water stress by the year 2020.

“Small island states… are under threat of sea level rise and would be affected by storm surges and cyclones even before there is the reality of submergence.

“Asian mega deltas, as we've been told, are extremely vulnerable and this includes a number of cities in Asia which are very heavy in terms of population density. Several coastal regions are under threat of coastal flooding.”

“There are some systems that are also vulnerable: coral reefs, tundra, boreal forest and we have assessed in the IPCC that 20 to 30 percent of plant and animal species are in danger of extinction (e.g. the red wolf / left) if temperature exceeds 1.5 to 2.5 degrees centigrade (increase).

“The inertia of the system that we have is such that climate change would continue for decades and centuries even if we were to stabilize the concentration of gases that are causing this problem today, which means that adaptation is inevitable.

“But let me emphasize that adaptation alone will not do. We need to bring about mitigation actions to start in the short term even when benefits may arrive in a few decades.

“And there are huge co-benefits from mitigation action in terms of energy security, in terms of local environmental benefits. The cost of adaptation and impacts, I might mention, will keep going up as the global temperature goes up.

(This is the favored approach. It appears to penalise major polluters and encourage new technology to replace smoke stacks such as the one at right - photo (c) European Community 2007)

“Technology by itself will not do unless there is a pricing framework that ensures that low carbon technologies are developed and disseminated on a large scale.

“Investments in energy infrastructure have to be in a manner that is going to be climate friendly because these investments will serve society for a long time to come.

“Lifestyle and behavioral changes are important and in very simple terms that means the use of walking, cycling, all of which will make human beings healthier and so also the planet.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, my time is up and I would say: so also is the time up for inaction.

“I would like to end my presentation with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, a great leader well ahead of his time.

“Gandhi said: 'A technological society has two choices: first it can wait until catastrophic failures expose systemic deficiencies, distortion and self-deceptions. Secondly, a culture can provide social checks and balances to correct for systemic distortion prior to catastrophic failures'.

"May I submit, it is time for us to move away from self-deception and go on to the second of these two choices.”

Have Your Say - Send A Letter

Thank You, Michael, for your most informative and compelling newsletter. The unfortunate circumstances that have led to the worldwide calamity about to unfold, are truly heart wrenching. But, with continued work and Intent, the number of individuals impacted can be mitigated to some extent. Keep the information coming my friend,as the Clarion Call has gone out and folks are slowly awakening to their collective peril.... - Mark, USA

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All the executives of Mobile, Exxon and big industry in general appear to be oblivious to the fact that even their own children and grandchildren will suffer from this procrastination - it appears that they relish power and greed over truth and consequences. – Wayne. Canada

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I do agree with you that we need to do something now. I started researching Planet X about 2 years ago and your 5-part video explained every thing I had researched simply and beautifully. - Jan USA