Tag Archives: Nature

Aug 14 2018

Horrific Bridge Collapse in Genoa, Italy – Dozens Killed During Massive Structural Failure…


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on August 14, 2018 by

The images are jaw-dropping.  Dozens of vehicles plunged well over a hundred feet when a massive section of an elevated/suspension bridge collapsed in Genoa, Italy.  The death toll continues to grow (currently 35); and incredibly there were/are actual survivors being pulled from vehicles.  The bridge was built in 1967, and there was a very bad storm at the time of the collapse. An eye witness stated he saw a direct lightning strike on the support tower just prior to the moment of failure.

(Via Daily Mail) At least 35 people have been killed ‘including a baby’ and dozens more are feared dead after a huge 260ft section of a highway bridge collapsed during a fierce storm in the Italian city of Genoa.

Cars fell hundreds of feet along with tonnes of twisted steel and concrete debris into a river, railroad tracks and an industrial zone below when the Morandi bridge gave way at 11.30am local time.

Officials fear ‘dozens’ are dead in what is being described as ‘an immense tragedy.’ There are reports that a baby is among the victims and that two people died in their homes when the giant structure collapsed.

Amid ‘apocalyptic’ scenes, up to 35 cars and three heavy trucks cascaded into the valley below as they were making their way over the bridge.

One witness said he saw the 50-year-old structure ‘wobbling’ minutes before it gave way and another said they saw it being struck by lightning just before it crumbled. (read more)

Aug 11 2018

Back to School in California….


Re-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on August 11, 2018 by

Things have become a little more challenging for kids this year….

Aug 10 2018

Global Warming / Climate Change Hoax – Dr. Roy Spencer


Published on Jul 10, 2014

The climate change hoax, is real. Global Warming in terms of the government and IPCC’s agenda is fake. The IPCC is made up of 72 people… The NIPCC who dissent from the IPCC, 32,000 scientists and climate change analysts oppose the political agenda created for the purpose of expanding regulations and power of the government, subsequently increasing taxes at every direction, to expand government further, around the world. Why? It’s simple…. Karl Marx, 1848, when he created the concept of progressivism,,, “to transfer wealth and power to the state”…….. sums that up. NIPCC (Non Government International Panel on Climate Change http://www.nipccreport.org Video Credit, Heartland Foundation, via 9th International Conference on Climate Change http://www.heartland.org
Aug 9 2018

Electric Cars or Else – Says Brussels by 2020


Armstrong Economics Blog/Technology

Re-Posted Aug 9, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

From 2020, European carmakers MUST  comply with stricter EU regulations. On average, only 95 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer drove are permitted per car produced. If the output is higher than that, there will be drastic fines due. The leader seems to be BMW. I bought an I8 myself which is a hybrid so it has also a gas engine in the rear but electric in the front. You really can’t beat electric for speed off the line. It will really pin you back in the seat. I must say, being a sports car advocate, it is one of the best cars I have ever owned and a love it. (I do not own BMW stock).

Nevertheless, German companies are finding these requirements are unreasonable to meet 95 grams of CO2 emissions. That means the consumption of fuel must be around four liters per 100 kilometers. That is a very major objective imposed by this theory of Global Warming. The market for electric cars is really confined to Europe for regulation purposes, but the number one market is China where electricity prices are the lowest.

There are no combustion cars that comply with the European standard. German carmakers to produce sedans, but they cannot avoid building cars that consume more than four liters of fuel on average and therefore they cannot meet these higher CO2 emissions standards of 95 grams per kilometer.

Clearly, European car manufacturers have no choice but to produce electric cars. The fine per car that does not meet the standard will be around 13,o00 to 11,000 euros. Every German car maker will face hundreds of millions of euros in fines. The problem that the government has completely FAILED to take into consideration is the availability of electricity to fuel cars. Many are starting to look at the problem that even assuming cars can be plugged in, the demand for electricity may exceed the capacity to produce it.

The installation of an electric power station at every parking lot will be expensive, to begin with. However, if every car is plugged into the power grid, then the concern becomes will we simply shift the CO2 emissions from cars to power plants? The only way to avoid that is to create more nuclear power plants, and then we have many environmentalists objecting to that solution.

Of course, the world can go back to bicycles. Amsterdam has so many people commuting on bikes, it is astonishing. There are parking garages at the train station where people leave their bikes overnight and commute home by train. Here is a picture of a parking lot for bikes in Amsterdam. You will never see this anywhere else. Of course, back in the 1980s to early 1990s, there were still more bikes on the road in Beijing than there were cars. That has now changed dramatically as well.

Bikes are certainly a solution, but it has its limitations for age and disabilities. Then there is weather as well, which conspires against the commuter using bikes

Aug 7 2018

California tackles THE BIG ISSUES


Published on Aug 5, 2018

The electrical grid is inadequate. The roads are third-world. Public sector unions have bankrupted what was once the richest state in the nation. Thank God Cali has got its priorities straight
Aug 7 2018

Is SO2 the Real Threat – not CO2?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Nature

Re-Posted Aug 7, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

It has snowed in Alberta, Canada on August 1st in the dead of summer. Such strange events like this have not been common. Europe is burning from heat when buildings do not even have air conditioning because they never needed it. The concern that we are headed into a volcanic weather event really needs our attention. Volcanos emit C02, but they are a major source of something far worse – SO2. We have all heard of the London Fog. However, in 1952, some 4,000 people in Britain died from breathing in the fog.

The London Fog of 1952 resulted from burning coal excessively because it was a bitterly cold winter. This produced sulfur dioxide in the lower atmosphere, which may have reached 7 times normal levels. This became the perfect storm. The air was stagnant and there no real wind. This combined with high humidity to create a very dense fog. Once the sulfur dioxide was trapped by the fog combining with the high humidity of water vapor, this deadly combination produced sulfuric acid, which many call today acid rain. Despite all the claims of CO2, it is really SO2 that can become lethal.

We have learned about SO2 and have been reducing human emissions since the London Fog of 1952. Despite the constant focus of cars and CO2, it is Power plants and motor vehicles that burn sulfur-containing fuels, especially diesel, that create SO2. It is the Sulfur dioxide that can react in the atmosphere to form fine particles of acrid rain that pose the largest health risks to the atmosphere. CO2 does not have the same effect. This is what the major movement has been for clean air – reducing SO2.

Volcanos emit a lot of Sulfur dioxide (SO2) which smells like rotten eggs. Humans also contribute by burning coal and other fossil fuels which are the largest source of sulfur dioxide from human activities. However, volcanoes and forest fires are THE major natural contributors. What is important to understand is that sulfur dioxide is a pollutant that does impact the climate. Once SO2 is in the atmosphere, it can easily form sulfate ions. These are negatively charged particles made of up of sulfur and oxygen atoms. Since they are negatively charged, sulfate ions combine with water vapor in the atmosphere and then form small droplets of sulfuric acid (H2SO4). You may hear of this as acid rain. CO2 does not act in this manner.

When a volcano erupts. we then see huge amounts of sulfur dioxide are released into the stratosphere which will then convert to sulfates. There is a qualification needed here because sulfates formed at lower altitudes are removed from the atmosphere in just a few weeks through settling and precipitation. However, the SO2 emission from volcanos reach the upper bounds of the atmosphere and create aerosols that are mainly tiny droplets of sulfuric acid that then stay in the atmosphere for about two years. These SO2 droplets reflect incoming solar radiation back into space yet absorb both incoming solar radiation and outgoing infrared radiation. The net result, is simply that SO2 reduces the amount of energy reaching the lower atmosphere and Earth’s surface. Hence, we get global cooling of the lower atmosphere and Earth’s surface.

Consequently, it is the volcanic eruptions are of considerable impact on global climate and are a proven fact rather than theory as is the case with CO2. Following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, a cooling trend lasted through 1993. This was attributed to the sulfuric acid aerosols that persisted in the stratosphere. Historically, there was a global cooling which followed the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. The worst such event was the “Year without a summer” which followed the eruption of Tambora in 1815.

The other school of thought has been where many scientists believe that the continuous emission of sulfates would counter any greenhouse gas theory of CO2. As volcanos tend to erupt when the energy output of the sun declines as has been taking place since 2015, we are experiencing uneven concentrations of sulfates around the world. This may be a major issue if turning places that are normally warm to cold and cold to warm. The problem with SO2 is that it remains in the atmosphere much longer and hence the continued trend of erupting volcanos can seriously alter the climate for even more than a decade ahead.

Aug 5 2018

42,000-year-old worms revived from Siberian permafrost


Armstrong Economics Blog/Nature

Re-Posted Aug 5, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

Well, it looks like you can’t just freeze politicians and end their reign of terror. It turns out, they might still be thawed out 42,000 years later beginning again. The latest biology news was reported in Germany in grenzwissenschaft-aktuell.de. A 42,000-year-old soil sample from Siberian permafrost contained nematodes. It was thawed and the soil contained worms which were brought back to life. This amazing event set the biology record for the period of time over which higher organisms can survive in cryogenic sleep. They reported that the worms began to move within a few weeks at 20 degrees Celsius in the Moscow laboratories and began to eat food.

There are two species of worm that have been discovered. Panagrolaimus nematodes have been revived which date back 32,000 years and were located at about 3.0 meters down. The Plectus worms were discovered at an age of 42,000 years only 3.5 meters deep. Therefore, those who thought Global Cooling might freeze politicians suddenly as took place in Siberia had better reconsider their dreams. They just might wake up on the next cycle and begin the chaos all over again

Aug 5 2018

Is the Climate Change Preparation for the Pole Shift?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Nature

Re-Posted Aug 5, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

 

A reader sent this is where ice storms are happening daily this summer in Calgary, Canada. In Bavaria, where I am currently, it is the hottest in 200 years. The temperature is in the 90s (32c) and hotels, restaurants do not have air conditioning because it never gets hot here. Then in Ukraine, which it is typically in the 90s for the summer, they are experiencing the coldest summer with temperatures in the 70s.

In Greenland, birds migrate there for the summer to create offspring. This year, summer never came. Indeed, crops are failing around the world from either too much heat or too much cold. It appears that where it is normally hot, the climate is becoming cold. Where it is cold, it is becoming hot.

Many scientists are starting to wonder what is going on. It certainly is not Global Warming since that theory implies consistency. Some are wondering if this is a prelude to the climate is shifting thanks to a possible pole shift. The problem, nobody knows what this means. The last time the poles flipped was 720,000 years ago. We have no model to clearly define the end result. Will we suddenly be frozen with a spoon in our mouth at breakfast? Perhaps we are entering more than just a major Sixth Wave in the ECM. Maybe the weather is also conspiring to shift the financial capital from the West to the East.

Still, the other school of thought is pointing to volcano’s. It’s abundantly clear that there is also such a thing as volcanic weather, which historically can be highly dangerous. These astonishing changes historically also remind us that volcanic events have long affected weather systems and have even transformed the Earth’s climate dramatically. They have changed weather also by prolonged gaseous effusions. In recent times they’ve occasionally canceled out summers or triggered droughts. The major eruption of Tambora created the year without a summer where it snowed in New York City in July. Volcano-ism has disrupted the atmosphere altering our climate. For brief moments, the realization that lava flows can drive machinations in the sky makes such meteorological manifestations seem very close to magic. Heat rises and lava is about as hot as it gets. Many fear that the increase in volcanic activity is disrupting the climate that needs to be studied closely but is being ignored because you cannot tax nature.

Aug 1 2018

Another Volcano Erupts in the Pacific


Armstrong Economics Blog/Nature

Re-Posted Aug 1, 2018 by Martin Armstrong

We have another volcano erupting in the Pacific and this time the entire island of  Vanuatu island is being completely evacuated for a second time as its volcano erupts again. The Manaro Voui volcano began spewing ash in recent days, prompting officials to order thousands of residents on tiny Ambae island to leave immediately. All crops appear to have been destroyed by the ash.

The volcano began rumbling in September last year, which led to the island’s first full evacuation. This time, officials in the South Pacific nation have made the evacuation  compulsory where all residents are being moved to neighboring islands.

The more volcanoes that keep erupting the greater the chance of increasing the cooling trend

Jul 29 2018

D’oh Canada…


RE-Posted from The Conservative Tree House on July 29, 2018 by

Canada is on the cusp of instituting a national carbon tax.  Against push-back from normal Canadians in Ontario who are against the insufferable proposal, Liberal Minister of Environment Catherine McKenna explains how it will work.  WATCH:

 

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