When science meets religion's miracles, exposing fact/science Vs. faith/fantasy
The information discussed in the following monologue is the top rung of the
knowledge ladder for the details that led to the issues of chemtrails and
many of the more diverse methods that cause concern for many. These are the
insights that we had at ORNL in the mid-1980s that led to major discoveries from
Climate Change due to man's impacts on nature (UV-b and DMS/DMSO causation) to
those of the origin of religious theology. The associations are simple and
basic common sense, so much so, that one must always question why the US and the
entire world does not have them more solidly entrenched as common knowledge.
If this information were common knowledge, then we all become one step closer
to a kinder and gentler world, peace, and a real promised land for all.
The persons that I hold most accountable for not providing or teaching
these simple associations are those teachers of religion and their failures to
tell the simple truths and simple associations for the history of mono-theology. It is these persons and their manipulations that are at the root of these faked up wars for economic dominance. Religion's missionaries are often used as a precursor for economic control, as this was the big dispute with Vietnam. Some of the monotheistic religions focus on Mary and Jesus and they appear to have differences with what came before or at least how it was modified from the original aspects of the natural order from which it all originated.
Mary and Jesus had better ideas on how to attain a world at peace, because
they were in an areas where they could find the original meanings of what
inspired the biblical religious narratives. Some of the stories were embellished by the Arabic language's poetic imagery styled into stories that would carry a little more weight. The faith interpretations appear to stretch reality, impart more mythology than basic truth, and the point of this narrative is to explore those imagery styles and look for rational explanations from which the original stories were derived. US religion has become a money making game, with stories that had some truth in the old days but have too much embellishment into the realm of mythical presentation these days.
When one takes up science one must apply a "tangible realities" standard
of having to know some natural process to accept an outcome. Applying science
to the biblical narratives and incorporating the geography and geology of the
regions involved explains a lot. Using science methods, one cannot take things
on faith or engage in fantasy explanations that seem common in the biblical
narrative's teachings or Evangelical embellishments. In religious evangelism few people apply science and simple fact finding and the reason appears to be because religion's Evangelists don't engage in science, but do engage in faked up explanations often based on fantasy, myths, and accepting all those embellishments on faith. So, in these days of Holy Wars the principle causes appear to be those people of faith, who ignore simple science, and the teaching of truth itself. For this simple reason, it is the Evangelists that I hold most accountable for causing faked up wars. They are altering the truth, they have become the new age Pharisee.
Presidents like Bush-43 make use of these methods for exploitation. The White House and Dept. of State have been taken over by Zionists or Neo-Cons. Bush claims to be a United Methodist and belongs to the Highland Park United Methodist Church on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The United Methodist Church began in Dallas in 1968, with the push to merge Jewish theology and that of Christians. Bush has gone on to push all Israel and Jewish issues into the forefront of the White House. Dallas is the "City of Hate" that killed JFK in 1963 for resisting this type take over of Govt. and religion itself. Bush-43, for all outward appearances and associations, is Jewish and studies the Talmud. Bush-43 represents the anti-Christ.
God for many religions is used in the same sense as father, and this takes advantage of human needs for a father figure. Father figures determine one's worth, worthiness, and group approval. The need for humans to have a God gets down to the basic human reliance on a father to guide and to protect. The monotheistic religions exploit this basic human need and use veiled words to embellish how nature fills this role on planet Earth. Persons of religion can easily exploit this basic human need, as well as exploit that need for their own advantages. This exploitation effect especially shows up in Zionism. Evangelists use the effect to herd up massive numbers of people, "safety in numbers," into an often mislead following. As the world becomes smaller due to global news and other factors, these varied God factions clash over each's beliefs, economics, and control over the masses. This is the root of today's Holy Wars. God is a human creation and derived from a basic human need for an overseer and a purpose.
Nature's role always has played the major theme in religion. In Christian
theology, "eschatology" is the study of the destiny of mankind according to
the purposes of God. Put simply nature determines all that man seeks to attain
and those who understand nature's ways become the closest to God's ways.
Nature has always been man's guide and looking at those guideposts is a good way to begin using "tangible realities."
In the Middle East there is a very large fault (The 3,700 mile long "Great
Rift Valley Fault") between two tectonic plates (Arabia and African) that are
pulling away from each other and leaving a depression where the Dead Sea and
the Sea of Galilee both lie. See: ["http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea"]
The Dead Sea's surface is almost 1,400 ft. below sea level and known for its health benefits. Its regional health benefits are due in part to hyperbarick pressure oxygen effects and in part due to the magnesium rich salts (magnesium chloride) in the water. Magnesium is the key to an important cellular and liver enzyme called glutathione and folks that take regular baths in Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate) have younger skin, so much so this is a common beauty secret. When one considers those effects one begins to associate why the vegetarian Essene lived and studied in this area in the time of Jesus, as well has why they had the greater insights into Moses' speaking on God. These were the peoples that kept what is now called the Dead Sea Scrolls as records of their old beliefs.
The Dead Sea was also known to Ancient Egypt and was the source of asphalt,
which is an oil based product. The Dead Sea is around a 1,400 ft. deep and
from its depths rises bits of broken off asphalt. When quakes occur sometimes
large chunks, as big as a house, float to the surface. When one sees asphalt
together with a fault line, one knows that heat and oil deposits are involved
in the derivation. Oil deposits and heat make asphalt, just as it does in oil
refineries of today. Consideration of oil deposits even yields the idea of
their being replenished from deep down in the Earth's crust. Gas deposits are
trapped gases caught in dome like geological formations underground. And oil
fields stem from the same geological dome formations. Oil fields appear to
form from a process similar to what we call coal gasification, which resupplies
oil from heat and coal deposits deeper in the ground.
Coal gasification was well know in W.W.II because it was what Hitler used
to power his war machine, as the Allies took back control of Middle East's Oil
zones. The coal gasification I. G. Farbin operations were in places like Poland and operated by the German concentration camp prisoners "working to be free." The DOE also has a model coal gasification power plant in Orlando Florida to minimize air pollution. The very same effects acting on coal deposits deep underground make for oil and gas deposits trapped under geological domes. Saudi Arabia and other Middle East regions are rich in this type of deposit.
Coal itself comes from nature's carbon cycle and plants taking up carbon
dioxide from the air and sequestering it in the biota. Oceans and Seas over
the millennia have played major roles in the formation of coal beds. Even the
deepest of coal mines always have little sea creatures shells visible in the
formations. As the Earth has changed these deep deposits of coal have come to
be broken down by heat and pressure into the oil and gas deposits trapped in
the Earth's various strata and geologic domes.
The Dead Sea is also known for other properties, like Red Tide effects,
from phytoplanton, cyanobacteria, and algae blooms caused by heavy rains
resulting in the Sea's surface being dyed red. The same effect is known to occur south of the Dead Sea in another Sea that formed from the same Great Rift effect. The Red Sea was likely named for these same phytoplankton and algae blooms that colored their water's red. Man always names things after his observations.
Even in the US we experience the Red Tides and the species of algae that
make potent neurotoxins that cause people to stop breathing. It is why filter
feeders, like oysters and clams, are only eaten in the months with an "R" in
their name. See:
[ "http://museum.gov.ns.ca/poison/redtide.htm" ] Even in recent times in the
US a very toxic algae called "pfiesteria" has infected rivers and lakes with
nitrogen and pollution problems. With the correct environmental factors
present, these toxic biological agents can become potent biological warfare agents. This appears the case for Moses and his games with Red Tide like algae and pfisteria like algae that killed the fish, cattle, frogs, and people of Egypt during times of volcanic activity and great regional upheaval. See:
[ "http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/moses/evidence/plagues.shtml" ]
The eruption of Thera [aka Santorini] occurred around 1450-1500 B.C.E.
according to archaeological dating which is during the same time frame as the
scriptural dating for the Exodus of Moses (1447 B.C.E.). Volcanic activities of
this magnitude can easily darken the Sun over Egypt in this period. It even
follows on the story of Noah and the largest land mass volcano in the world called Mt. Ararat, with similar stories of darkness and long rains which can stem from sea based volcanic detonations or meteorite impact effects. These same criteria are used in nuclear warfare Doomsday Predictions and the issues of
"Nuclear Winters." Volcanic emissions frequently contribute to cirrus cloud
formation and cooling of the Earth's surface, and this basic effect was the root of the "Global Shield" chemtrails methods. See:
[ "http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/VolcWeather/description_volcanoes_and_weather.html" ]
The story of Moses and the plagues upon Egypt are easily explained as natural
effects from volcanic and rifting effects, where the "Burning Bush" called
Moses' attention to those effects. Moses Arab father in law,
Jethro - The High Priest of Midian, lived in an area with lots of volcanic activity in that period and well knew all the ways to survive their toxic effects. These methods were shared with the Israelites of Egypt, but not with the Egyptians. So, the Egyptian's cattle died and they suffered great plagues from all the death in the river, while the Israelites suffered little impact. Arabic Jethro knew the effects of biological agents from volcanic environmental
associated disasters and how to counter their effects. Today, the Holy City of Mecca is situated in this volcanic rift area, where Mohammed began Islam. Volcanic cinder cone areas and lava flows dated to the times of Moses are near this region and Mohammed understood those associations with the stories of Moses' mountain of fire.
Moses stayed in Midian with the Arabs, as his Exodus followers left him behind. Moses followers took control of the area of Israel from the Egyptians. The name Israel means to "struggle with god" and this has been the constant case for the Jewish, especially as they get into the Pharisee extremes and supremacist language. Islam still respects Moses as a Profit, but totally disrespects what Judaism became under the later interpretations of the Pharisee. Islam even respects Jesus as a Prophet. Jesus also did not approve of the Pharisee interpretations of Torah and Talmud. The problem is the Pharisee interpretation on religion and god. If one had to pick a more truthful interpretation for religion and God, the more truthful pick is Jesus words for teaching. Many call Jesus a Rabbi, where the word "Rabbi" means "teacher."
They knew nature well in those times, even to the point of the issues of
using animal pathogens to offset human pathological agents. In these times, we
know that various pathological agents set up their own cytokine responses that
take over human cells and immune system control. The epidemic flues that kill
people are the result of viruses that cause cells to produce excessive amounts
of a cytokine called TNFa, which causes a huge inflammation response that
kills lung tissues and causes death.
Today, we also can see that infecting people with pathogens that counter one
agent's effect with another can be beneficial. So, with the issue of the
Sheep's blood over the doorways of the Israelites, this appears one way of
infecting these people with animal pathogens that avoided the toxic "Passover's
Death" effects. Even today, the US conducts experiments with blood cells as
carriers for various pathogens to counter various infectious agents, and in some
cases for killing via biological warfare methods.
Today, the world is confused and dazed because the very same tactics as were
used against the Egyptians are being used to neutralize the minds of Americans
and large parts of the world. It is not difficult to put the pieces of the
puzzle together, as volcanic effects dump acids like HCl into the Nile River
and set up the same salt levels as oceans that support toxic algae blooms.
Moses staff was seen as a symbol of power or leadership and when Moses staff was
embellished as a snake this represented in those times the sign of toxic
poisoning effects. When the bible narratives tell of Moses' mythical staff turning the Nile River to blood this would be the effects of seeding some of the Red Tide type algae that would multiply rapidly in the heat and nutrients in the
Nile River. This would turn the water toxic, killing fish and chasing Frogs
from the marshes. See: [ "http://www.grahamphillips.net/Books/Moses_Ch1.htm" ]
The turning the River to Blood biological trick was on the Egyptians could
duplicate and dismissed Moses claims of God being behind the work. However,
Moses indications from the Bushing Bush showed matters were becoming worse. When a rift zone and volcanic activity runs into an oil rich region, one should
expect some gas fires to happen on the surface around the zone. All the rotting
fish in the river, the dead frogs on land, the dead cattle, and such all
attracted lots of flies and this helped to spread tropical diseases. These
effects that Moses claimed to be from his God finally persuaded the Pharaoh to set Moses' People free.
Moses headed straight back to the region of Midian, but took a route across
the Red Sea that was part of a fault zone. This fault zone made a natural land
bridge at low tide. This region has amplified tides due to the water finger
formation and the high to low tide difference is around 25 ft. Such is more
than enough to drown Egyptians, who did not know the tidal effect's timing.
The rift zone's active effects appear to have set up a gas flame fire in the
path of the Egyptians as they tried to follow the Israelites across the land
bridge. A very much bigger gas flame column of fire emitted from the highest
mountain near Midian, Mt. Sinai.
These special effects in this region from the very active time of the plate
shifting and volcanic effects in an oil field region set up some releases of
gases that caused climate change and increased rainfall in the region. It was
this effect that set up a garden zone in the middle of what is a desert region
today. It also made springs and streams to water cattle and support the
Israelite camp under the Moses Mountain of fire, Mt. Sinai near Midian. In the
80s, a person from Tennessee named Ron Wyatt told his story on finding the real
Exodus crossing and the real Mt. Sinai near Midian in Northeastern Saudi
Arabia. All began to make sense on the stories of Genesis as these factors became associated in the 1980s. Many others have come out to support Wyatt's findings on the location of Mt. Sinai and its geological origin.
Even in the times of Jesus, as he was from Galilee and knew the region of the
Dead Sea, some of the effects of phytoplankton blooms and toxic effects of
algae Red Tide like blooms would have been obvious to Jesus, Mary, and the
Essene who lived down in the Dead Sea region where Sodom and Gomorra sank because of the plate shifting that brought the Dead Sea some 1400 ft. below sea level. The peoples in those times considered these special effects of nature as
miracles, but in these days what science can explain becomes less than a miracle
of God and more just the workings of the natural order of planet Earth. In
those times these natural workings of the planet were called God and those that
understood how nature spoke to man as those understanding and speaking to God.
The Egyptians studied these natural orders and their "School of Mysteries"
was the way to attain their highest religious order. Moses was exposed to these
teachings and much later so was Jesus and his followers. Jesus was also
exposed to the special region of the Dead Sea, which is somewhat like Hawaii's
Volcanoes National Park and volcanic study center. The Dead Sea and Red Sea were a natural learning laboratory, like we think of the volcanoes in Hawaii
today. The Dead Sea was a regional study center for volcanic related tectonic
plate shifting and subsidence. These effects released many toxic materials into
the environment. They set up the conditions for the Dead Sea, and similar
effects on the Nile in the times of Moses.
Jesus and his followers, like St. John, likely saw how the phytoplankton
blooms altered the rainfall patterns around the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. It
would be obvious from areas high above the Dead Sea that were Israel's Holy Sites, like Masada. It appears to be these associations that allowed persons from these times to make the prophecy predictions on the End-Times. The very
similar methods that made the Nile River sick are making many rivers sick and even large parts of the world's oceans today. The loss of clouds increases the oceans heating and contributes to the extreme weather problems. Not only were these predictions possible in Jesus times from such observations, they appear to have been known in the times of Nostradameous.
It is interesting to take note that St. John wrote down the Revelations while
he was on the Roman prison island of Patmos, which is part of Greece and just
off Turkey. This is the region of Thera, which blew up in the times of Moses
and caused the great environmental effects in the times of Moses. Islands in
the region of Patmos have volcanic origin. St. John likely learned of the region's history directly from the regions inhabitants, and perhaps even saw the volcanic vents modify the regions clouds and weather.
Thus, one has what appears to be an increased level of understanding of parts
of the biblical narratives by looking for "tangible realities" of nature
involved in what was happening in those times. Correlation with multiple volcanic and rift zone events tell most of the story. Today volcanic events are well associated with killing cattle hundreds of miles downstream from the events from hydrogen fluoride's toxic effects. In the times of Moses, one of the largest ever volcanic events darkened this area of the planet and set up factors that supported poisoning of the Nile's waters and the deaths of land mammals from the multiple toxic effects that resulted.
To deal with the mythology type effects entering religion from the Pharisees,
Jesus and Mary had better ideas. Jesus had been to the "Egyptian School of
Mysteries" or better called the "School of the Natural Order," lived around the
Essene, and presented himself as the only way to God. This threatened the
Pharisee's mythical like interpretations, and they wanted Jesus dead. The Pharasees could not kill Jesus, but they could get the Romans to kill him. The recent movie called The Passion appears to tell the story accurately. Mary had
to flee clear to England and the Glastonbury region.
The Jewish mythology imposed upon the human definition for God was one that
departed from the fact/science and into faith/fantasy. This departure appears
the reason why the Jewish have experienced so many pogroms in history, as the
Pharisee have attempted to make Jewish people into an exclusive sect where all
other people are put down as being on the level of animals. One would think
that over the millennia that some would learn better and the Rabbi teachers of
religion would lead with truth, not mythological fictions. The formerly
Jewish Dr. Albert Einstein offered that doing the same thing over and over and
expecting different results was a sign of insanity.
Once one knows the bigger picture on religion and just how much nature's ways
apply to the prophecies of Revelations, then one can understand why the world
is again being attacked by the Jewish myths of religion. The idea is to
attack and cover up the problems, and Judaic Pharisee methods are the perfect way to suppress those simple truths on the environment. Jesus' followers are being impugned with words like anti-Semitic to intimidate people from learning the simple truths of the Jewish myths. Even St. John's Revelations of Jesus are being attacked as anti-Semitic hate speech. Make no mistake, the word anti-Semite is most often used as a supremacist hate word to attack those who believe in Christ's teachings in the same bigoted vein as calling black people "niggers" and animals.
It is easy to see why throwing Jewish hate at Christians is being used to run
over Christ's Revelation message. The real teachings of Rabbi Jesus on God
went highly against the Pharisee's mythical interpretations of Torah and
Talmud. Jesus' predictions as told by St. John are all about the massive weather and health problems that we experience today, which have the original roots in the understanding of the natural orders of nature stemming from Moses and Jesus time.
Organized religion and their associated big banking control is oriented
around the theory that a profit structured society is the best for humanity. This is basically the same as the Jewish Temple Mount's goals as being the center for Govt. and religion. Most big churches in the US are dominantly GOP
oriented and believe in the money driven system controls being best of humanity. But really these systems have never proven to be good for the little guy and
generally are shown to take control of them and treat them as basic surfs and
slaves. With the Revelations End-Times Prophecies becoming all too visible and all so true, it is these big bankers that have their wallets and their collective wealth in mind and the biggest intentions to pull the wool over the sheep's eyes. They want the people to be taken hostage with trumped up wars and distractions to keep from being held accountable to the End-Times linked disasters and the truth of Jesus Prophecies.
Churches in the US have turned into big business, but little of it speaks
about the real teachings from Jesus. Churches have tried to bridge the Jewish
Torah with Christian views on Jesus, and really just the opposite is the reality. Jesus objected to the Torah and Talmud interpretations on God, and he
basically knew mother nature speaks to men that are attune to nature, but not the reverse. Mega-churches are more about fraudulent interpretations of God of the same extremes as exhibited by the Pharisee in Jesus' time. Most churches in the US are 180 degrees opposed from the real values of Jesus, and exhibit basic
fraud. This lack of truth on the motivations for religion is directly at the
root of the Holy War problems in this time. Mega-Churches today are theatrical productions that are about as divorced from Jesus' teachings as one can be oriented, and are nearly totally devoid of the real subject matter that Jesus sought to present as being the pathway to being saved.
The end of WWII and holocaust claims brought about this attempt to merge the theology of the Jesuits and those of Judaism, and with this has come the Holy War between Islam and Judaism also attacking the US. Israel has taken control of US politics and with political donations gets billions in US aid in return. The push by Zionism to take control of the US played a major role in the murder of President John Kennedy. It is this alliance of the US with Israel that has brought the attacks on the WTC. Judaism's Pharisee teachings and the teachings of Jesus are naturally opposed to each other and basically can't be merged. Jesus and St. John said the solution was to recognize Jesus' teachings, or to become Christians.
Revelation's prophecy tells that Jesus second coming with involve the return
of the cloud systems needed to cool the Earth's surfaces. It is of little
wonder that St. John would have finally figured out Rabbi Jesus' teachings on the natural order effects, as he was kept prisoner by the Romans on the island of Patmos in the volcanic Greek Island range of Thera. It is these cloud systems effects that chemtrails techniques seek to restore to some extent using jet planes as catalysts for cirrus cloud formations. It is a like technique that nature used in volcanic eruptions that caused a net global cooling. All the chemtrials sciences are the direct result of the extended knowledge of the "tangible realities" of religion and the natural ways of rift zones and volcanoes. In the times of Moses, they attributed these effects to God, but today it is more correctly attributed to the ways of nature and the natural order of the Earth. Man's failures to grasp these simple realities have offended the natural order to such an extent that those natural processes will highly affect man and the world economy. Hurricane Katrina's sinking of New Orleans is just the beginning of major problems for sea levels will rise. All the predictions of Revelations are slowly taking shape, and all those predictions are just common sense associations with knowing the ways of nature and God. See: [" http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0222-01.htm"]
When one views religion and Jesus teachings the true meaning for the Trinity comes into view. The Father, in Jesus terms was God or Nature's Ways. The Son was Jesus, who best understood the origins of monotheism and man's need for the term God. The Holy Ghost is Jesus message that returns in this day and age, with the insights given by St. John and Revelations Prophecy.
Sincerely,
Jim Phelps
This is the supplemental orientation Reference material for people that don't have the time to do web searches. People in the US are tired, used, and highly misinformed and the only way to overcome that effect is to make the associative learning easy.
The following is an article on phytoplankton and its importance to ocean ecosystems, and really for the Ocean's cooling via the DMS and DMSO emissions.
"Limnology" is the professional discipline that studies these type water ecosystem effects and some of them are beginning to take note of the Revelation linked effects that will highly affect the ocean fish populations, as well as our global weather. The following article is about Limnology research in Amsterdam, as this type of closer look in the US is not funded to avoid exposing serious problems with the Oceans associated with the UV-b and Ozone Hole effects.
"http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article339596.ece"
Warmer Seas Will Wipe Out Plankton
By Steve Connor
Science Editor - The Independent
1-19-5
The microscopic plants that underpin all life in the oceans are likely to be destroyed by global warming, a study has found.
Scientists have discovered a way that the vital plankton of the oceans can be starved of nutrients as a result of the seas getting warmer. They believe the findings have catastrophic implications for the entire marine habitat, which ultimately relies on plankton at the base of the food chain.
The study is also potentially devastating because it has thrown up a new "positive feedback" mechanism that could result in more carbon dioxide ending up in the atmosphere to cause a runaway greenhouse effect.
Scientists led by Jef Huisman of the University of Amsterdam have calculated that global warming, which is causing the temperature of the sea surface to rise, will also interfere with the vital upward movement of nutrients from the deep sea.
These nutrients, containing nitrogen, phosphorus and iron, are vital food for phytoplankton. If the supply is interrupted the plants die off, which prevents them from absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
"Global warming of the surface layers of the oceans reduces the upward transport of nutrients into the surface layers. This generates chaos among the plankton," the professor said.
The sea is one of nature's "carbon sinks", which removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and deposits the carbon in a long-term store - dissolved in the ocean or deposited as organic waste on the seabed. The vast quantities of phytoplankton in the oceans absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide. When the organisms die they fall to the seabed, carrying their store of carbon with them, where it stays for many thousands of years - thereby helping to counter global warming.
"Plankton... forms the basis of the marine food web. Moreover, phytoplankton consumes the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide during photosynthesis," Professor Huisman said. "Uptake of carbon dioxide by phytoplankton across the vast expanses of the oceans reduces the rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere."
Warmer surface water caused by global warming causes greater temperature stratification, with warm surface layers sitting on deeper, colder layers, to prevent mixing of nutrients.
Professor Huisman shows in a study published in Nature that warmer sea surfaces will deliver a potentially devastating blow to the supply of deep-sea nutrients for phytoplankton.
His computer model of the impact was tested on real measurements made in the Pacific Ocean, where sea surface temperatures tend to be higher than in other parts of the world. He found that his computer predictions of how nutrient movement would be interrupted were accurate.
"A larger temperature difference between two water layers implies less mixing of chemicals between these water layers," he said. "Global warming of the surface layers of the oceans, owing to climate change, strengthens the stratification and thereby reduces the upward mixing of nutrients."
Scientists had believed phytoplankton, which survives best at depths of about 100 metres, is largely stable and immune from the impact of global warming. "This model prediction was rather unexpected," Professor Huisman said.
"Reduced stability of the plankton, caused by global warming of the oceans, may result in a decline of oceanic production and reduced sequestration of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the oceans."
Vital link in the food chain
Microscopic plankton comes in animal and plant forms. The plants are known as phytoplankton. They lie at the base of the marine food chain because they convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into organic carbon - food for everything else.
Smaller animals such as shrimp-like krill feed on plankton and are themselves eaten by larger organisms, from small fish to the biggest whales. Without phytoplankton, the oceans would soon because marine deserts. Phytoplankton are also important because of the role they play in the carbon cycle, which determines how much carbon dioxide - the most important greenhouse gas - ends up in the atmosphere to cause global warming. Huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which dissolves in the oceans, are absorbed by phytoplankton and converted to organic carbon. When the phytoplankton die, their shells and bodies sink to the seabed, carrying this carbon with them.
Phytoplankton therefore acts as a carbon "sink" which takes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and deposits the carbon in long-term stores that can remain undisturbed for thousands of years. If the growth of phytoplankton is interrupted by global warming, this ability to act as a buffer against global warming is also affected - leading to a much-feared positive feedback.
This is another orientation article, but this one is from the US Govt's. Geological Surveys Dept. Volcano emissions have long changed the global climate, and often set up cirrus clouds that reflect the Sun's IR heat back into space. One can observe these type emissions around volcanoes like the ones in Hawaii, and see the effects of polar acid emissions forming downwind clouds and rainfall. It was observations of these type emissions that lead to the chemtrails ideas of using the atmospheric water vapor and simple catalytic effects to increase the Earth's cloud cover.
"http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/VolcWeather/description_volcanoes_and_weather.html"
DESCRIPTION: Volcanoes and the Weather
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Volcanoes and Global Cooling
Agung
El Chichón
Hudson
Laki
Pinatubo
Tambora
Volcanic Smog "Vog" and Acid Rain
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Volcanoes and Global Cooling
Pinatubo91_lateral_blast_plume_pinatubo_06-15-91.jpg View to west from Clark Air Base of Pinatubo's lateral blast cloud of eruption of 5:55 am. U.S. Geological Survey Photograph taken on June 15, 1991, by Rick Hoblitt. [medium size] ... [large size]
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From: Richard S. Williams, Jr., Glaciers: Clues to Future Climate: USGS General Interest Publication, 1999 Online version Among the more prominent theories of events that have triggered global climatic changes and lead to repeated glaciation are: (1) known astronomical variations in the orbital elements of the Earth (the so-called Milankovitch theory); (2) changes in energy output from the Sun; and (3) increases in volcanism that could have thrown more airborne volcanic material into the stratosphere, thereby creating a dust veil and lowered temperatures.
The years 1980, 1981, and 1982, for example, saw several major volcanic eruptions adding large quantities of particulate volcanic material and volatiles to the stratosphere, including the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington, on May 18, 1980, and a large eruption of Mount Hekla, Iceland, on August 17, 1980. The 1982 series of eruptions from El Chichón volcano, Mexico, caused death and destruction in the populated area around the volcano, but a further reaching impact may result from the effect on Earth's climate because of the enormous ejection of volcanic material into the stratosphere.
The potential climatic effect of the Laki volcanic eruption in Iceland in 1783, the largest effusive (lava) volcanic eruption in historic time, was noted by the diplomat-scientist Benjamin Franklin in 1784, during one of his many sojourns in Paris. Franklin concluded that the introduction of large quantities of volcanic particles into the Earth's upper atmosphere could cause a reduction in surface temperature, because the particles would lessen the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface. The catastrophic eruption of the Tambora volcano, Indonesia, in 1815 was followed by a so-called "year-without-a-summer." In New England, for example, frost occurred during each of the summer months in 1816.
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From: Kious and Tilling, 1996, This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics: USGS General Interest Publication The June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo was global. Slightly cooler than usual temperatures recorded worldwide and the brilliant sunsets and sunrises have been attributed to this eruption that sent fine ash and gases high into the stratosphere, forming a large volcanic cloud that drifted around the world. The sulfur dioxide (SO2) in this cloud -- about 22 million tons -- combined with water to form droplets of sulfuric acid, blocking some of the sunlight from reaching the Earth and thereby cooling temperatures in some regions by as much as 0.5 degrees C. An eruption the size of Mount Pinatubo could affect the weather for a few years.
A similar phenomenon occurred in April of 1815 with the cataclysmic eruption of Tambora Volcano in Indonesia, the most powerful eruption in recorded history. Tambora's volcanic cloud lowered global temperatures by as much as 3 degrees C. Even a year after the eruption, most of the northern hemisphere experienced sharply cooler temperatures during the summer months. In parts of Europe and in North America, 1816 was known as "the year without a summer."
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From: NASA's Earth Observing Project Science Webpage: Volcanoes and Global Climate Change, May 2000 Volcanic eruptions are thought to be responsible for the global cooling that has been observed for a few years after a major eruption. The amount and global extent of the cooling depend on the force of the eruption and, possibly, its latitude. When large masses of gases from the eruption reach the stratosphere, they can produce a large, widespread cooling effect. As a prime example, the effects of Mount Pinatubo, which erupted in June 1991, may have lasted a few years, serving to offset temporarily the predicted greenhouse effect.
Global cooling often has been linked with major volcanic eruptions. The year 1816 often has been referred to as "the year without a summer". It was a time of significant weather-related disruptions in New England and in Western Europe with killing summer frosts in the United States and Canada. These strange phenomena were attributed to a major eruption of the Tambora volcano in 1815 in Indonesia. The volcano threw sulfur dioxide gas into the stratosphere, and the aerosol layer that formed led to brilliant sunsets seen around the world for several years.
However, there is some confusion about the historical evidence that global cooling may be caused by volcanic emissions. Two recent volcanic eruptions have provided contradictory evidence on this point. Mount Agung in 1963 (Indonesia) apparently caused a considerable decrease in temperatures around much of the world, whereas El Chichon in 1982 (Mexico), seemed to have little effect, perhaps because of its different location or because of the El Nino that occurred the same year. El Nino is a Pacific Ocean phenomenon, but it causes worldwide weather variations that may have acted to cancel out the effect of the El Chichon eruption.
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From: Myers, et.al., 1997, What are Volcano Hazards?: USGS Fact Sheet 002-97 Cataclysmic eruptions, such as the June 15, 1991, eruption of Mount Pinatubo (Philippines), inject huge amounts of sulfur dioxide gas into the stratosphere, where it combines with water to form an aerosol (mist) of sulfuric acid. By reflecting solar radiation, such aerosols can lower the Earth's average surface temperature for extended periods of time by several degrees Fahrenheit. These sulfuric acid aerosols also contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer by altering chlorine and nitrogen compounds in the upper atmosphere.
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From: Self, et.al., 1996, The Atmospheric Impact of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo Eruption: IN: Newhall and Punongbayan, (eds.), 1996, Fire and Mud: Eruptions and Lahars of Mount Pinatubo, Philippines: University of Washington Press As observed after several eruptions, including Agung in 1963 (Indonesia) and El Chichon in 1982 (Mexico), stratospheric warming and lower tropospheric and surface cooling have been documented after the Pinatubo eruption. Labitzke and McCormick (1992) show that warming in the lower stratosphere (16 to 24 kilometers or 30 to 100 mbar) of up to 2 to 3 degrees C occurred within 4 to 5 months of the eruption between the equator and 20degreesNorth latitude, and it was also later noticed in middle northern latitudes (Angell, 1993). The warming distribution closely mirrored the dispersal pattern of the aerosol cloud; this mirroring strongly suggests that the warming was due to absorption of radiation by the aerosols. The warming was more intense in southern temperate-polar latitudes, perhaps due to the presence of aerosols from the Mount Hudson (Chile) eruption. Such temperature changes can influence stratospheric dynamics (Pitari, 1992). Since the peak of stratospheric warming in late 1991, temperatures in the 18- to 24-kilometer region have cooled considerably, passing the average in early 1993; temperatures in 1993 were the coldest ever recorded (Christy and Drouilhet, 1994; Monastersky, 1994) and may be related to ozone destruction in the lower stratosphere. Stratospheric temperatures also plummeted and stayed cooler than average for 7 years after the El Chichon eruption.
Several experiments have measured the radiative climate forcing of the Pinatubo aerosols. The NASA Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) recently provided the first unambiguous direct measurement of the climate forcing on a large scale in both hemispheres (Minnis and others, 1993), an average radiative cooling of 2.7 W/m2 by August 1991. Direct solar beam reductions of 25 to 30 percent were measured at widely distributed stations by Dutton and Christy (1992), while Stowe and others (1992) showed from AVHRR-derived optical depth measurements that the globally averaged net radiation at the top of the atmosphere may have decreased by about 2.5 W/m2 in late 1991. These values translate into a global cooling of at least 0.5 to 0.7 degrees C, as seen in the global and Northern Hemisphere temperature records by September 1992 (Dutton and Christy, 1992). A net cooling effect of approximately 0.3 degrees C was estimated as a result of the El Chichon aerosol (Angell and Korshover, 1983; Handler, 1989), but the overall potential cooling caused by the El Chichon cloud was moderated by warming assiciated with El-Nino-Southern Oscillation (Angell, 1988, 1990). Pinatubo had a much larger radiative influence than El Chichon in the Southern Hemisphere (Dutton and Christy, 1992). Pinatubo's cloud caused about 1.7 times the global radiative forcing of El Chichon, making the estimated cooling of 0.5 degrees C a more robust figure.
One possible opposite effect, leading to surface warming, may have been caused by stratospheric to tropospheric transport of aerosols, due to aerosol-induced changes in atmospheric dynamics, and in a theoretical study Jensen and Toon (1992) suggest that this process may cause higher than usual amounts of cirrus clouds in the upper troposphere. Warmer than average winters and cooler than average summers over continental Northern Hemisphere areas have been documented and modeled after several eruptions, including Pinatubo, and this appears to be part of the normal Northern Hemisphere response after volcanic aerosol events (Groisman, 1992; Robock and Liu, 1994).
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Volcanic Smog ("Vog") and Acid Rain
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From: Heliker, et.al., 1997, Living on Active Volcanoes -- The Island of Hawai'i: USGS Fact Sheet 074-97 Sulfur dioxide gas, continuously emitted during Kilauea's current long-lived eruption, has resulted in persistent volcanic smog ("vog") in downwind areas. Vog, as well as acid rain, forms when sulfur dioxide reacts with atmospheric moisture. Vog aggravates respiratory problems, and acid rain damages crops and corrodes metal. On the Island of Hawai'i, the drinking water of many homes with rain-water catchment systems has been contaminated by lead leached by acid rain from roofing and plumbing materials.
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From: Myers, et.al., 1997, What are Volcano Hazards?: USGS Fact Sheet 002-97 Volcanoes emit gases during eruptions. Even when a volcano is not erupting, cracks in the ground allow gases to reach the surface through small openings called fumaroles. Ninety percent of all gas emitted by volcanoes is water vapor (steam), most of which is heated ground water (underground water from rain fall and streams). Other common volcanic gases are carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen, and fluorine. Sulfur dioxide gas can react with water droplets in the atmosphere to create acid rain, which causes corrosion and harms vegetation. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air and can be trapped in low areas in concentrations that are deadly to people and animals. Fluorine, which in high concentrations is toxic, can be adsorbed onto volcanic ash particles that later fall to the ground. The fluorine on the particles can poison livestock grazing on ash-coated grass and also contaminate domestic water supplies.
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URL for CVO HomePage is: If you have questions or comments please contact: This is a discussion of the special things that were happening to the tectonic plates, rift zone, and volcanoes in the region and time of Moses. It explains in a simple fashion the association of the toxic materials emissions to the effects on the biota and animals exposed to these effects.
"http://www.grahamphillips.net/Books/Moses_Ch1.htm"
The Moses Legacy
Chapter I
The One God
And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. (Deuteronomy 34:10.)
If Moses existed he is arguably history's most influential figure. His words are the foundation of faith for over half the earth's population. The great monotheistic religions of the modern world derived from the holy laws he is said to have revealed to the ancient Israelites. Moses' God became not only the God of Judaism but of Christianity and Islam.
'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.'
These are the words from the Jewish Shema, contained in chapter 6, verses 4 to 7 in the biblical book of Deuteronomy, still considered Judaism's most important commandment. Christians too accept this passage as central to their faith. According to chapter 12, verses 28 to 30 in the New Testament gospel of Mark, when asked what was the most important commandment, Jesus replied:
'The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.'
The words are echoed in the Adhán, the Islamic call to prayer:
'God is great. I bear witness that there is no deity but God'.
Regardless of how each of these religions and their many different creeds interpret the scriptures, all believe that there is only one God and the acceptance of that fact is the most fundamental principle of their faith. According to the Bible, this commandment was revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai - the mountain of God - nearly three and a half thousand years ago.
Before the apparent time of Moses there is no evidence that anyone in the world had ever considered worshipping just one god - not even the Israelites. Archaeology has revealed that the early Semites, the nomadic tribes who eventually became the Israelites, had many gods, as demonstrated by the numerous statuettes found in their graves. Even the Bible confirms that there was no such thing as the Israelite religion before Moses. Although God is portrayed as speaking directly to a few of Moses' forebears, such as Abraham and Jacob, there is no reference to the worship or acceptance of God by the Israelites as a whole. Even Moses has no idea who this God is when he first confronts him. According to the Old Testament book of Exodus, Moses first discovers God on the mountain of God when he speak to him from a burning bush:
'Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.' (Exodus 3:1-4.)
From the biblical perspective this is where, when and how the Israelite religion first came into existence. For centuries after it was only the Israelites, also called the Hebrews, who followed this single god religion. This God was a unique concept. Not only in that it was a single, universal deity, but that it had no name. Unlike other ancient gods, he was addressed as Yhwh or Yahweh, which later translators of the Bible rendered as Jehovah - a word that meant simply 'the Lord'. Acceptance of this same Lord as the only God is central to every modern culture of eastern and western Europe, the Middle East, north and south America, most of Africa and much of Asia. He had been the God of the late Roman Empire, the God of Byzantium, the God of the Arabs, the God of the crusaders, the God of the conquistadors and the God of the Victorian missionaries. Originally, however, he was only the God of the Israelites.
Until around 600 BCE the Israelites had maintained an insular existence along a fertile strip of land that is now the state of Israel, the West Bank and southern Jordan. Called Canaan by the Egyptians and Palestine by the Greeks and Romans, it stood at the crossroads of the great civilisations of Africa, Asia Minor and the Near East. According to the Bible, this had once had been the united Hebrew kingdom of Israel, but by the time the area was opened up to the rest of the world only a small, autonomous Hebrew state remained - the kingdom of Judah around the city of Jerusalem. Later called Judea by the Romans, this was to be the kingdom of Herod, the province of Pontius Pilate and the land where Jesus was born and died.
In 597 BCE, Judah was invaded by the Babylonians and thereafter the culture and religion of the inhabitants - the Jews - gradually became known to the rest of the world. Once the unique, monotheistic religion of the Jews became disseminated, its influence just continued to grow. When Alexander the Great annexed Palestine in 333 BCE many of the Greeks who settled in the area converted to the Hebrew God and Judaism, as we now know it, began to evolve. Although the word Jew had once referred only to a citizen of Judah, the term was now applied to any convert to the Jewish God. Indeed, by the time of the Roman occupation of Palestine even the Jewish monarchy was Greek. In the first century CE, Christianity developed from Judaism and by the early forth century it had become the state religion of the Roman Empire. When the Roman Empire collapsed and the new Arab empires arose throughout the Middle East, they too continued to venerate the same God.
Today there are so many different sects, denominations and cults following the one God that it is impossible to keep track of them all. The Roman Catholic Church is by far the largest Christian movement with almost a billion Catholics worldwide. The mainstream protestants boast around 300 million members, which include the Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians, with an additional 30 million Baptists. The Quakers, also known as The Society of Friends, have a world total of around 200,000 members; the Unitarians have a world total of around 500,000 members and the Pentecostals have an estimated 10 million following. Then there are the rapidly growing offshoot Christian movements. The Jehovah's Witnesses have an estimated 3 million members, the Mormons, or Church of Jesus Christ and the Later-day Saints, have a worldwide membership of around 6 million; Seventh Day Adventist membership is around 200,000 and Christian Science has around 140,000 followers. Eastern Europe has it own Orthodox Church with over 130 million adherents. Of the non-Christian movements, there are around 18 million Jews and well over a billion Moslems. And all this began with a small nation in Palestine that seems to have been virtually unknown to the world until 597 BCE.
The only history we have of the Hebrews before this time is contained in the Jewish Tanak - what the Christians call the Old Testament of the Bible. Although it covers the history of the Hebrews for over a millennium before the Babylonian invasion, it does not appear to have been written until around 550 BCE.
The events which the Old Testament describes surrounding the inception of the Hebrew religion scarcely sound credible to modern thinking. Going by biblical chronology, it begins somewhere around 1300 BCE. It starts with Moses speaking to God in a burning bush, and is furthered when the Israelites escape bondage in Egypt after being helped by a series of divine plagues. Following the escape, when God divides the waters of the Red Sea, the Israelites are guided through the wilderness by an enormous pillar of fire. They are able to conquer Canaan after the impregnable walls of Jericho miraculously fall down. There follows the age of heroes, such as the mighty Sampson, who single-handedly pulls down the Philistine temple of Dagon, and King David who kills the giant Goliath in single combat. Then, around 1000 BCE, there comes the golden age of Solomon, when the wise king becomes the wealthiest man on earth and Jerusalem is the richest city in the world. Finally, there is the age of prophets whose lives are surrounded by wondrous events, such as Elijah who ascends to heaven in a flaming chariot and Ezekiel who is visited by God on a flying throne.
Despite these biblical claims, there is no contemporary record of any of these figures. Neither is there a single contemporary account of any of these miracles. Even the Egyptian records, of which many survive, say nothing of the plagues of the Exodus that apparently included events that could hardly be ignored, such as day turning to night and the Nile turning to blood. Archaeology has excavated nothing in Jerusalem from the supposed time of Solomon to reveal anything but a relatively low level of culture. As for the surrounding empires, if their records are any indication, they do not seem to have even noticed that Jerusalem was there.
When Moses was apparently revealing the laws of God to the Israelites the kingdom of Egypt had been in existence for over two thousand years and the pyramids of Giza had been standing for almost as long. Egypt was at the height of its power and the eighteenth-dynasty pharaohs, which included the infamous Tutankhamun and Rameses the Great, where on the throne. In Mesopotamia the Babylonian Empire stretched through Iran and Iraq and the Hittites of Turkey were establishing their own empire throughout Asia Minor. In the Mediterranean the Minoans of Crete had created an empire based on sea power that covered the Aegean. Britain was seeing the building of Stonehenge and in India Hinduism was established and the hymns of the Rig-Veda were being composed.
By the time Solomon was on the throne, the Egyptian and Hittite empires had collapsed, the Minoans had been overrun by the Mycenaeans from mainland Greece and the seafaring Phoenicians of Lebanon had taken control of the Mediterranean. By the time of the Babylonian invasion of Judah, the Assyrian empire had risen and fallen, the Tarquin dynasty had been founded in Rome, and the Hellenic city states had risen to prominence in Greece. The Persian Empire was established in what is now Iran, and the Iron Age Celts had spread throughout much of northern Europe and the British Isles. At the very time the Old Testament seems to have been written Lao-Tse was founding Taoism in China, Zen Buddhism was evolving in Japan and the first oracle of Delphi was installed in Thessaly. If the Bible is to be believed, throughout all this time, and with all these changes going on in the world, the one God religion of the Hebrews survived and thrived.
Modern thinking is somewhat polarised concerning how this religion really developed. On the one hand there are the fundamentalists who accept every word of Old Testament account as historical fact, and on the other there are the sceptics who maintain that it was not until late in their history that the Israelites conceived of monotheism. To the former, it is blasphemous to question the biblical account, and to the latter it is just too preposterous to contemplate. In the middle are the historians whose consensus tends to be that, although monotheism may have developed well before the Babylonian invasion, the story of how it originated did not take shape until this time. They reason that many of these biblical stories were inspired by the Jews' captivity in Babylon. After Judah was invaded, the Babylonians returned with the majority of Jerusalem's citizens as slaves and it was amongst them, during this so-called Babylonian Exile, that the accounts were complied. It is argued that the story of Moses and the Exodus was an allegory: perhaps based on the visions of a religious leader concerning how God had long ago delivered his people from bondage and would soon do so again. Likewise, the golden age of Solomon is considered nothing more than a fable of a time of passed glory that would one day return. The Jerusalem of Solomon was merely a copy of Babylon, at the time of the Exile, the most splendid city in the world. As for the exploits of ancient Israelite heroes and the lives of the prophets, these were little more than folklore such that exists in every ancient culture. Finally, there are the archaeologists who generally regard the ancient Hebrews as a loose alliance of unsophisticated Bronze Age tribes, fighting a precarious existence in a no-man's land, hemmed in between the mighty empires of the Middle East and Asia Minor.
One thing that is certain is that by the time of the Babylonian invasion in 597 BCE the Jews did have a single God known as Yahweh. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar actually records the destruction of the Jew's chief centre of worship - the Jerusalem Temple. Beside the Old Testament, however, there is little to go on as to how this religion actually came about. From the historical perspective it is certainly one of the world's greatest enigmas.
At one time I tended to agree with the popular consensus that much of the Old Testament history was little more than mythology. That was until I examined the biblical account of the plagues of the Exodus. In the mid 1990s I was working on my book Act of God that concerned the 3000-year old mystery of an Egyptian tomb. The period of Egyptian history I was investigating included the period in which the Exodus story seems to have been set. Astonishingly, I discovered that a natural catastrophe occurred in Egypt around this time that closely matched the plagues of the Exodus as described in the Old Testament.
According to the Old Testament account in the book of Exodus, when the pharaoh refused Moses' demands to let the Israelite slaves leave Egypt, God punishes the Egyptians by a series of what the Bible calls plagues: darkness over the land, the Nile turning to blood, fiery hail storms, cattle deaths, a plague of boils and infestations of frogs, lice, flies and locusts. To the modern mind it all sounds very much like myth and legend. However, such events may have been the result of a natural catastrophe - a gigantic volcanic eruption.
First of all there is the plague of darkness. This might have been the result of a massive cloud of fallout ash. One of the largest eruptions in recent years was the Mount Saint Helens eruption in Washington State USA in 1980. After the eruption the sun was obscured for hours 800 kilometres from the volcano, and after the even larger eruption on the island of Krakatau near Sumatra in 1883 the skies were darkened to a much greater distance - it was actually as dark as night for days on end over 1000 kilometres away. According to Exodus 10: 21-23:
'And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand towards heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness that may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand towards heaven; and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.'
If just one of the ten plagues matched the effects of a volcanic eruption it would be interesting enough: the fact is, they all do. In Exodus 9:23-26, we are told that Egypt is afflicted by a terrible fiery hailstorm:
'And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote all throughout the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast, and brake every tree in the field.'
This would be an accurate description of the dreadful ordeal suffered by the people on the Sumatra coast after the eruption of Krakatau - pellet-sized volcanic debris falling like hail; fiery pumice setting fires on the ground and destroying trees and houses; lightning flashing around, generated by the tremendous turbulence inside the volcanic cloud. Even after the lesser eruption of Mount Saint Helens, volcanic debris fell like hailstones, flattening crops hundreds of kilometres away.
The Exodus account of another of the plagues could easily be a report given by someone living in the states of Washington, Idaho and Montana, over which the volcanic fallout cloud was blown after the Mount Saint Helens eruption of 1980:
'And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast...' (Exodus 9:9.)
Fine dust causing boils and blains! Hundreds of people were taken to hospital with skin sores and rashes after the Mount Saint Helens eruption, due to exposure to the acidic fallout ash, and livestock perished or had to be destroyed, due to prolonged inhalation of the volcanic dust. According to Exodus 9:6: 'And all the cattle of Egypt died'.
After the Mount Saint Helens eruption fish also died and were found floating on the surface of hundreds of kilometres of waterways. The pungent odour of pumice permeated everything, and water supplies had to be cut off until the impurities could be filtered from reservoirs. According to Exodus 7:21:'And the fish that was in the river died: and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the river, and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.'
As well as the grey pumice ash volcanoes blast skywards, many volcanoes, such as Krakatau, have another, more corrosive toxin in their bedrock - iron oxide. (This is the same red material that covers the surface of Mars.) At Krakatau thousands of tons of iron oxide were discharged killing fish for miles around. It would certainly explain the Exodus reference to the Nile turning to blood, as iron oxide would turn the river red: 'And all the waters that were in the river turned to blood' (Exodus 7:20).
The remaining plagues do not immediately suggest themselves as having anything to do with a volcanic eruption - frogs, flies, lice and locusts. However, they can be just as linked with volcanic activity as the fallout cloud itself. Those who have not suffered the dreadful effects of a volcanic eruption might imagine that once the eruption has subsided, the dead have been buried, the injured tended, and the immediate damage repaired, the survivors can begin the task of putting their lives back together, free from further volcanic horrors. This is very often far from true, as the entire ecosystem has been affected. Most forms of life suffer from volcanic devastation but, remarkably, some actually thrive.
After the blanketing of the countryside with fallout ash, crawling invertebrates and insects in their larval, pupal or egg stage would be safe underground, as would burrowing snakes and rodents; so also would frog-spawn, protected under submerged ledges. Insects have a short life cycle and accordingly reproduce at a frightening rate. After such a cataclysm, therefore, they have plenty of time to establish a head start on their larger predators and competitors. Moreover, compared to bigger animals, they reproduce in vast numbers. Swarming insects are therefore commonly associated with the aftermath of volcanic eruptions. Having survived the calamity, the ash-cover forces them to seek out new habitations and food supplies - and heaven help anyone who gets in the way!
An excellent example is the flesh-crawling aftermath of the Mount Pelee eruption on the island of Martinique in the West Indies in 1902. Volcanic debris covered the nearby port of St Pierre, killing over 30,000 people, but the horrors did not end there. The survivors endured a terrifying episode when huge swarms of flying ants descended upon the sugar plantations and attacked the workers. As they fled for their lives, the vicious creatures seared their flesh with dreadful acid stings. It was no fluke that the insect assaults had followed the eruption: the creatures had attacked before when Mount Pelee had erupted in 1851. On this occasion they not only drove away workers and devoured entire plantations, they were even reported to have attacked and killed defenceless babies while they were still in their cots. Three types of insect infested Egypt, according to the Exodus account: lice. flies and locusts.
'Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all of the land of Egypt.' (Exodus 8:17.)
'Behold I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.... And the Lord did so and there came a grievous swarm of flies... and the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.' (Exodus 8:21-24.)
'And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.' (Exodus 10: 14-15.)
Frogs are perhaps the most prepared of all the vertebrates for such cataclysms: like insects, they produce vast numbers of offspring. Each frog lays literally thousands of eggs. Under normal conditions this is a biological necessity, as the tiny tadpoles emerge from the eggs almost completely defenceless. The only chance the species has for survival is in numbers. When frogspawn hatches, the local fish are in for a banquet and only one or two of the tadpoles ever survive to become frogs. However, after the Mount Saint Helens eruption the predatory fish were decimated. The tiny would-be frogs, on the other hand, were kept safe inside their spawn. By the time they emerged, the hazardous chemicals had washed away down river, but the fish had not yet returned. The result was a plague of frogs throughout much of Washington State. In their thousands, they littered the countryside - there were so many squashed on the roads that they made driving conditions hazardous: they clogged waterways, covered gardens, and infested houses. According to Exodus 8:2-8, this is exactly what happened to the ancient Egyptians:
'Behold, I will smite all thy boarders with frogs. And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall come up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs... And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.'
Over the years, various scholars have individually attributed these plagues to different natural phenomena. The darkness could have been due to a particularly violent sandstorm, the hail the result of freak weather conditions. The boils could have been caused by an epidemic, and the bloodied river may have been the result of some seismic activity far to the south, near the Nile's source. Swarms of locusts, flies and infestation of lice would not have been that uncommon. However, the likelihood of them all happening at the same time seems just too remote. A volcanic eruption, however, would account for them all.
The only real problem with attributing the plagues of Egypt to a volcanic eruption is that they do not appear in the order that they would have occurred after such an event. The darkness and fiery hail would come first, followed by the sores, the bloodied river, dead cattle and fish, and some time later the frogs and insects. In Exodus they appear in a different order: blood, fish, frogs, lice, flies, cattle deaths, boils, hail, locusts and darkness. However, Exodus seems to have been written many centuries after the events being described. The account of the plagues might have been handed down orally for many generations and certain details could easily have been moved around.
When we realise just how similar the plagues of Egypt are to the terrible effects of a volcanic eruption, then these particular episodes of the Exodus account no longer seems so implausible. However, there still remains a big question mark. Did a volcanic eruption actually affect Egypt sometime around 1300 BCE, when the story of the Exodus appears to be set. There have been no known volcanoes in Egypt in recent geological times, but a large enough eruption to have afflicted the country did occur on the Aegean island of Thera sometime around the period in question.
Thera was the southernmost of the Greek Cyclades islands, and in the fifteenth century BCE it had supported an important trading port of the Minoan civilisation, centred on the nearby island of Crete. Today Thera is a crescent-shaped island, now called Santorini, forming a bay almost ten kilometres across. The cliffs surrounding it are ribbed with layers of volcanic debris and once molten rock, testifying to the island's violent past. The bay itself is actually a crater formed by the ancient eruption, and it is so deep that it is said that no ship's anchor reaches the bottom. In the 1930s, the Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos was the first to propose that at some point towards the end of the Minoan period a gigantic volcanic eruption had all but destroyed the island. In 1956s two geologists, Dragoslav Ninkovich and Bruce Heezen of Columbia University USA, conducted a survey of the seabed to try to determine precisely how large the eruption had been. From their survey ship, the Vema, they were able to ascertain the exact size of the volcanic crater - fifty-one square kilometres - and from this, they estimate the incredible magnitude of the event.
There are various types of volcanic eruption: some spew forth rivers of molten lava, others produce searing mud slides, but by far the most devastating is when the pressure of the magma causes the volcano to literally blow its top. Going by the resultant crater size, that is what happened at Thera almost three and a half thousand years ago. It was, in fact, similar to the Mount St Helen's eruption when the explosion blasted away the mountainside with the power of a fifty megaton bomb.
In an instant, on the morning of 18 May 1980, a mass of searing volcanic material blasted outwards, killing every living thing within 251-square-kilometres. Thousands of acres of forest were flattened and molten debris covered everything like the surface of the moon. What had once been a bustling tourist resort over sixteen kilometres from the volcano was now covered entirely by pumice. Within a few hours, a cloud of ash some eight kilometres high, containing billions of tons of volcanic material, had rolled 800 kilometres east. In three states - Washington, Idaho and Montana - the massive volcanic cloud covered the sky and day was turned to night. Throughout the whole area ash fell like rain, clogging motor engines, halting trains and blocking roads. Seven million hectares of lush farmland now looked like a grey desert, and millions of dollars worth of crops were flattened and destroyed.
Mount St Helen's was one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in recent years, yet compared with the explosion of Thera it was tiny. When Ninkovich and Heezen published their findings regarding the Thera explosion, they used the Krakatau eruption as a comparison. In August 1883 Krakatau exploded with a force twenty times that of Mount Saint Helens. The eruption was heard over 4800 kilometres away in Melbourne in southern Australia, a volcanic cloud rose eighty kilometres into the air, fallout ash covered thousands of square kilometres. Over 36,000 people perished! It has been estimated by the size of the resultant crater, that nine cubic kilometres of volcanic material blasted skywards from Krakatau - yet Thera's crater is almost six times bigger. Accordingly, the explosion would have been heard half way around the world, volcanic debris would have been hurled over a hundred kilometres high, and the ash fallout would have covered well over a million square kilometres.
The last nuclear weapon mankind used in warfare was the atom bomb that totally destroyed half the Japanese city of Nagasaki in 1945. It was a 20-kiloton explosion (the equivalent of 20,000 tons of conventional explosives). Mount Saint Helens exploded with a far greater force of 50,000 kilotons; Krakatau reached an incredible 1,000,000 kilotons; yet Thera dwarfs them both with a staggering 6,000,000 kilotons. It would take 6,000 of the most destructive modern nuclear warheads - each with the power to wipe out an entire city - to equal the explosive magnitude of Thera. It is estimated by adding the mass of the original volcano to the size of the crater that 114 cubic kilometres of debris was ejected skywards. It would have formed a massive fallout cloud that was blown in the direction of Egypt.
The ancient samples of pumice taken from the seabed during the Vema survey showed that the fallout cloud was carried on the wind towards Egypt. The Egyptian coast is only 800 kilometres from Thera. Judging by the affects of the smaller Mount Saint Helens and Krakatau eruptions at such a distance from the volcanoes, it is fairy certain that the land of Egypt would have suffered the full horrors of the fallout cloud. The Hebrews at the time, or the later Jews, may well have interpreted the event as the divine intervention of God.
Why such an event is not recorded in surviving Egyptian records is something I will return to later. The important point is that the biblical plagues no longer seemed as mythological as they once had, which begged the question: how many more episodes in the Old Testament might have been based on historical events? This is how my current investigation began. As the story of the Exodus plagues no longer seems so fantastic, perhaps the biblical story of the origins of the Hebrew religion warranted serious investigation. I decided to research not only the Bible, but also historical records and archaeological discoveries to see if I could find any evidence as to how it really came about. As the concept of the one God has been so influential in the world, and its inception is still an enigma to historians, it seemed to me that this was one of the world's greatest unsolved mysteries. What were the true origins of God?
This is a Pentagon based report on the extent of the damage expected from the polar ice melt that stems mainly from the ocean's surface heating linked to the loss of cloud cover from the phytoplankton and DMS / DMSO effects in producing cloud cover. The US Govt's. own Pentagon predicts an environmental Armageddon of the type from the End-Times.
"http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0222-01.htm"
Now the Pentagon Tells Bush: Climate Change Will Destroy Us
Secret Report Warns of Rioting and Nuclear War; Threat to the World is Greater than Terrorism
by Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York
Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..
A secret report, suppressed by US defense chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'
The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defense is a priority.
The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defense adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.
An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately', they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.
Last week the Bush administration came under heavy fire from a large body of respected scientists who claimed that it cherry-picked science to suit its policy agenda and suppressed studies that it did not like. Jeremy Symons, a former whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White House trying to bury the threat of climate change.
Senior climatologists, however, believe that their verdicts could prove the catalyst in forcing Bush to accept climate change as a real and happening phenomenon. They also hope it will convince the United States to sign up to global treaties to reduce the rate of climatic change.
A group of eminent UK scientists recently visited the White House to voice their fears over global warming, part of an intensifying drive to get the US to treat the issue seriously. Sources have told The Observer that American officials appeared extremely sensitive about the issue when faced with complaints that America's public stance appeared increasingly out of touch.
One even alleged that the White House had written to complain about some of the comments attributed to Professor Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, after he branded the President's position on the issue as indefensible.
Among those scientists present at the White House talks were Professor John Schellnhuber, former chief environmental adviser to the German government and head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research. He said that the Pentagon's internal fears should prove the 'tipping point' in persuading Bush to accept climatic change.
Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the Meteorological Office - and the first senior figure to liken the threat of climate change to that of terrorism - said: 'If the Pentagon is sending out that sort of message, then this is an important document indeed.'
Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be ignored.
'Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defense The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added Watson.
'You've got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you've got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It's pretty scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue,' said Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace.
Already, according to Randall and Schwartz, the planet is carrying a higher population than it can sustain. By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the planet into war. They warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought widespread crop failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations that could soon be repeated.
Randall told The Observer that the potential ramifications of rapid climate change would create global chaos. 'This is depressing stuff,' he said. 'It is a national security threat that is unique because there is no enemy to point your guns at and we have no control over the threat.'
Randall added that it was already possibly too late to prevent a disaster happening. 'We don't know exactly where we are in the process. It could start tomorrow and we would not know for another five years,' he said.
'The consequences for some nations of the climate change are unbelievable. It seems obvious that cutting the use of fossil fuels would be worthwhile.'
So dramatic are the report's scenarios, Watson said, that they may prove vital in the US elections. Democratic frontrunner John Kerry is known to accept climate change as a real problem. Scientists disillusioned with Bush's stance are threatening to make sure Kerry uses the Pentagon report in his campaign.
The fact that Marshall is behind its scathing findings will aid Kerry's cause. Marshall, 82, is a Pentagon legend who heads a secretive think-tank dedicated to weighing risks to national security called the Office of Net Assessment. Dubbed 'Yoda' by Pentagon insiders who respect his vast experience, he is credited with being behind the Department of Defense's push on ballistic-missile defense
Symons, who left the EPA in protest at political interference, said that the suppression of the report was a further instance of the White House trying to bury evidence of climate change. 'It is yet another example of why this government should stop burying its head in the sand on this issue.'
Symons said the Bush administration's close links to high-powered energy and oil companies was vital in understanding why climate change was received skeptically in the Oval Office. 'This administration is ignoring the evidence in order to placate a handful of large energy and oil companies,' he added.
=====
Key findings of the Pentagon Report
· Future wars will be fought over the issue of survival rather than religion, ideology or national honor.
· By 2007 violent storms smash coastal barriers rendering large parts of the Netherlands inhabitable. Cities like The Hague are abandoned. In California the delta island levees in the Sacramento river area are breached, disrupting the aqueduct system transporting water from north to south.
· Between 2010 and 2020 Europe is hardest hit by climatic change with an average annual temperature drop of 6F. Climate in Britain becomes colder and drier as weather patterns begin to resemble Siberia.
· Deaths from war and famine run into the millions until the planet's population is reduced by such an extent the Earth can cope.
· Riots and internal conflict tear apart India, South Africa and Indonesia.
· Access to water becomes a major battleground. The Nile, Danube and Amazon are all mentioned as being high risk.
· A 'significant drop' in the planet's ability to sustain its present population will become apparent over the next 20 years.
· Rich areas like the US and Europe would become 'virtual fortresses' to prevent millions of migrants from entering after being forced from land drowned by sea-level rise or no longer able to grow crops. Waves of boatpeople pose significant problems.
· Nuclear arms proliferation is inevitable. Japan, South Korea, and Germany develop nuclear-weapons capabilities, as do Iran, Egypt and North Korea. Israel, China, India and Pakistan also are poised to use the bomb.
· By 2010 the US and Europe will experience a third more days with peak temperatures above 90F. Climate becomes an 'economic nuisance' as storms, droughts and hot spells create havoc for farmers.
· More than 400m people in subtropical regions at grave risk.
· Europe will face huge internal struggles as it copes with massive numbers of migrants washing up on its shores. Immigrants from Scandinavia seek warmer climes to the south. Southern Europe is beleaguered by refugees from hard-hit countries in Africa.
· Mega-droughts affect the world's major breadbaskets, including America's Midwest, where strong winds bring soil loss.
· China's huge population and food demand make it particularly vulnerable. Bangladesh becomes nearly uninhabitable because of a rising sea level, which contaminates the inland water supplies.
This is a discussion on the Gaia effect, where the planet is a highly interconnected system. The main Gaia effect that has been compromised is the ocean's cloud cover systems set up by phytoplankton and the disruption driver is the higher UV-b level induced by the Ozone Hole. These effects are important parts of the End-Times Revelation.
"http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article338879.ece"
Why Gaia is wreaking revenge on our abuse of the environment
By Michael McCarthy
16 January 2006
With anyone else, you would not really take it seriously: the proposition that because of climate change, human society as we know it on this planet may already be condemned, whatever we do. It would seem not just radical, but outlandish, mere hyperbole. And we react against it instinctively: it seems simply too sombre to be countenanced.
But James Lovelock, the celebrated environmental scientist, has a unique perspective on the fate of the Earth. Thirty years ago he conceived the idea that the planet was special in a way no one had ever considered before: that it regulated itself, chemically and atmospherically, to keep itself fit for life, as if it were a great super-organism; as if, in fact, it were alive.
The complex mechanism he put forward for this might have remained in the pages of arcane geophysical journals had he continued to refer to it as "the biocybernetic universal system tendency".
But his neighbour in the village of Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Golding (who wroteLord of The Flies), suggested he christen it after the Greek goddess of the Earth; and Gaia was born.
Gaia has made Professor Lovelock world famous, but at first his fame was in an entirely unexpected quarter. Research scientists, who were his original target audience, virtually ignored his theory.
To his surprise, it was the burgeoning New Age and environmental movements who took it up - the generation who had just seen the first pictures of the Earth taken by the Apollo astronauts, the shimmering pastel-blue sphere hanging in infinite black space, fragile and vulnerable, but our only home. They seized on his metaphor of a reinvented Mother Earth, who needed to be revered and respected - or else.
It has been only gradually that the scientific establishment has become convinced of the essential truth of the theory, that the Earth possesses a planetary control system, founded on the interaction of living organisms with their environment, which has operated for billions of years to allow life to exist, by regulating the temperature, the chemical composition of the atmosphere, even the salinity of the seas.
But accepted it is, and now (under the term Earth System Science) it has been subsumed into the scientific mainstream; two years ago, for example, Nature, the world's premier scientific journal, gave Professor Lovelock two pages to sum up recent developments in it.
Yet now too, by a savage irony, it is Gaia that lies behind his profound pessimism about how climate change will affect us all. For the planetary control system, he believes, which has always worked in our favour, will now work against us. It has been made up of a host of positive feedback mechanisms; now, as the temperature starts to rise abnormally because of human activity, these will turn harmful in their effect, and put the situation beyond our control.
To give just a single example out of very many: the ice of the Arctic Ocean is now melting so fast it is likely to be gone in a few decades at most. Concerns are already acute about, for example, what that will mean for polar bears, who need the ice to live and hunt.
But there is more. For when the ice has vanished, there will be a dark ocean that absorbs the sun's heat, instead of an icy surface that reflects 90 per cent of it back into space; and so the planet will get even hotter still.
Professor Lovelock visualises it all in the title of his new book, The Revenge of Gaia. Now 86, but looking and sounding 20 years younger, he is by nature an optimistic man with a ready grin, and it felt somewhat unreal to talk calmly to him in his Cornish mill house last week, with a coffee cup to hand and birds on the feeder outside the study window, about such a dark future. You had to pinch yourself.
He too saw the strangeness of it. "I'm usually a cheerful sod, so I'm not happy about writing doom books," he said. "But I don't see any easy way out."
His predictions are simply based on the inevitable nature of the Gaian system.
"If on Mars, which is a dead planet, you doubled the CO2, you could predict accurately what the temperature would rise to," he said.
"On the Earth, you can't do it, because the biota [the ensemble of life forms] reacts. As soon as you pump up the temperature, everything changes. And at the moment the system is amplifying change. "So our problem is that anything we do, like increasing the carbon dioxide, mucking about with the land, destroying forests, farming too much, things like that - they don't just produce a linear increase in temperature, they produce an amplified increase in temperature.
"And it's worse than that. Because as you approach one of the tipping points, the thresholds, the extent of amplification rapidly increases and tends towards infinity.
"The analogy I use is, it's as if we were in a pleasure boat above the Niagara Falls. You're all right as long as the engines are going, and you can get out of it. But if the engines fail, you're drawn towards the edge faster and faster, and there's no hope of getting back once you've gone over - then you're going down.
"And the uprise is just like that, the steep jump of temperature on Earth. It is exactly like the drop in the Falls."
Professor Lovelock's unique viewpoint is that he is just not looking at this or that aspect of the Earth's climate, as are other scientists; he is looking at the whole planet in terms of a different discipline, control theory.
"Most scientists are not trained in control theory. They follow Descartes, and they think that everything can be explained if you take it down to its atoms, and then build it up again.
"Control theory looks at it in a very different way. You look at whole systems and how do they work. Gaia is very much about control theory. And that's why I spot all these positive feedbacks."
I asked him how he would sum up the message of his new book. He said simply: "It's a wake-up call.''
With anyone else, you would not really take it seriously: the proposition that because of climate change, human society as we know it on this planet may already be condemned, whatever we do. It would seem not just radical, but outlandish, mere hyperbole. And we react against it instinctively: it seems simply too sombre to be countenanced.
But James Lovelock, the celebrated environmental scientist, has a unique perspective on the fate of the Earth. Thirty years ago he conceived the idea that the planet was special in a way no one had ever considered before: that it regulated itself, chemically and atmospherically, to keep itself fit for life, as if it were a great super-organism; as if, in fact, it were alive.
The complex mechanism he put forward for this might have remained in the pages of arcane geophysical journals had he continued to refer to it as "the biocybernetic universal system tendency".
But his neighbour in the village of Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Golding (who wroteLord of The Flies), suggested he christen it after the Greek goddess of the Earth; and Gaia was born.
Gaia has made Professor Lovelock world famous, but at first his fame was in an entirely unexpected quarter. Research scientists, who were his original target audience, virtually ignored his theory.
To his surprise, it was the burgeoning New Age and environmental movements who took it up - the generation who had just seen the first pictures of the Earth taken by the Apollo astronauts, the shimmering pastel-blue sphere hanging in infinite black space, fragile and vulnerable, but our only home. They seized on his metaphor of a reinvented Mother Earth, who needed to be revered and respected - or else.
It has been only gradually that the scientific establishment has become convinced of the essential truth of the theory, that the Earth possesses a planetary control system, founded on the interaction of living organisms with their environment, which has operated for billions of years to allow life to exist, by regulating the temperature, the chemical composition of the atmosphere, even the salinity of the seas.
But accepted it is, and now (under the term Earth System Science) it has been subsumed into the scientific mainstream; two years ago, for example, Nature, the world's premier scientific journal, gave Professor Lovelock two pages to sum up recent developments in it.
Yet now too, by a savage irony, it is Gaia that lies behind his profound pessimism about how climate change will affect us all. For the planetary control system, he believes, which has always worked in our favour, will now work against us. It has been made up of a host of positive feedback mechanisms; now, as the temperature starts to rise abnormally because of human activity, these will turn harmful in their effect, and put the situation beyond our control.
To give just a single example out of very many: the ice of the Arctic Ocean is now melting so fast it is likely to be gone in a few decades at most. Concerns are already acute about, for example, what that will mean for polar bears, who need the ice to live and hunt. But there is more. For when the ice has vanished, there will be a dark ocean that absorbs the sun's heat, instead of an icy surface that reflects 90 per cent of it back into space; and so the planet will get even hotter still.
Professor Lovelock visualises it all in the title of his new book, The Revenge of Gaia. Now 86, but looking and sounding 20 years younger, he is by nature an optimistic man with a ready grin, and it felt somewhat unreal to talk calmly to him in his Cornish mill house last week, with a coffee cup to hand and birds on the feeder outside the study window, about such a dark future. You had to pinch yourself.
He too saw the strangeness of it. "I'm usually a cheerful sod, so I'm not happy about writing doom books," he said. "But I don't see any easy way out."
His predictions are simply based on the inevitable nature of the Gaian system.
"If on Mars, which is a dead planet, you doubled the CO2, you could predict accurately what the temperature would rise to," he said.
"On the Earth, you can't do it, because the biota [the ensemble of life forms] reacts. As soon as you pump up the temperature, everything changes. And at the moment the system is amplifying change. "So our problem is that anything we do, like increasing the carbon dioxide, mucking about with the land, destroying forests, farming too much, things like that - they don't just produce a linear increase in temperature, they produce an amplified increase in temperature.
"And it's worse than that. Because as you approach one of the tipping points, the thresholds, the extent of amplification rapidly increases and tends towards infinity.
"The analogy I use is, it's as if we were in a pleasure boat above the Niagara Falls. You're all right as long as the engines are going, and you can get out of it. But if the engines fail, you're drawn towards the edge faster and faster, and there's no hope of getting back once you've gone over - then you're going down.
"And the uprise is just like that, the steep jump of temperature on Earth. It is exactly like the drop in the Falls."
Professor Lovelock's unique viewpoint is that he is just not looking at this or that aspect of the Earth's climate, as are other scientists; he is looking at the whole planet in terms of a different discipline, control theory.
"Most scientists are not trained in control theory. They follow Descartes, and they think that everything can be explained if you take it down to its atoms, and then build it up again.
"Control theory looks at it in a very different way. You look at whole systems and how do they work. Gaia is very much about control theory. And that's why I spot all these positive feedbacks."
I asked him how he would sum up the message of his new book. He said simply: "It's a wake-up call.''
Environmental writers are beginning to take notice of the realities of Global Warming and the Climate Change and planet illness associations.
"http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/123005EA.shtml"
Climate Shock: We're on Thin Ice
By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Review
30 December 2005
Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World's Highest Mountains
By Mark Bowen
Henry Holt, 2005
"In Sanskrit, Himalaya means 'abode of snow,' but as crops and people die from lack of water while watching the highest mountains on Earth turn from white to black, that name may soon seem grotesquely inappropriate." -- Mark Bowen, Thin Ice
Climate shock comes from the realization that climate change is not only real, but huge; it is not only huge, but it is now; and it will affect your life very shortly. Not your grandchildren's lives. Not your children's lives. Your life. Soon - if it hasn't already.
If you have not experienced climate shock yet, you will when you read Thin Ice by Mark Bowen. Thin Ice is the story of the scientific team from Ohio State University, led by researcher Lonnie Thompson, that has spent the last two decades drilling ice cores in tropical mountain glaciers. Their aim is to retrieve information about climate history from the ice, but there has been a race against time as these glaciers melt, making new history.
Thin Ice is an exciting adventure story. The logistics of transporting the scientists and their drilling equipment into the most inaccessible places on Earth bring hair-raising tales. The team members struggle with altitude sickness, windstorms destroy the solar panels that power their drill, crampons get stuck in ladders deployed over widening crevasses, and the crew tries to float ice core samples off the mountain with a hot-air balloon.
The scientists are awed by their surroundings as they camp for weeks at a time on the top of the world, absorbing "the brown earth and the blue sky and the white ice..." until it seeps into their skins and they bond emotionally with the mountains. Bowen quotes researcher Mary Davis saying that she has a "soft spot" for the Dunde Ice Cap in China's Qilian Shan mountain range. Drilling engineer and ice physicist Bruce Koci confesses to Bowen that it is not just a job for him, it is about "being out there," and he would do it even if he didn't get paid.
The scientific detective work is just as thrilling. Thompson's team has made a number of surprising additions to climate theory and shaken some deeply held establishment views. One surprise was the discovery that a few of the mountain ice cores went as far back in time as any yet recovered from the polar regions. Why? Because when ice gets thick enough, as it does at the poles, pressure and temperature build up, and the ice actually starts to melt from the bottom, destroying the sediment layers and air bubbles that yield all the historical information. But tropical mountains have only scant annual precipitation, so the ice layers are thin, making a longer time-horizon possible. Hence the book's title, Thin Ice.
Another surprising result is some convincing evidence that the Gulf Stream and African currents that help to warm northern Europe are a less powerful influence on climate than previously thought. The climate change horror flick, "The Day After Tomorrow," was based on this "thermohaline convection theory" that says melting ice could disrupt the flow of the warming current and actually cause Europe and New York City to freeze (though not nearly so fast as in the movie).
Thompson's work shows that tropical influences, particularly the El Niño and monsoon cycles (which are related), are the bigger drivers of climate change. This suggests that in the future, the Earth's climate may resemble what we see in El Niño years, but much more extreme. Depending on where you are, your climate shock could show up as either flood or drought or both in rapid succession - a permanent El Niño from Hell.
My own climate shock came in 2002 when the 500,000-acre Biscuit Fire raged through the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in southwest Oregon. I sat in my yard and watched a huge mushroom cloud of smoke boil up out of the wilderness. A freak wind was blowing from the east, full of dry, hot, desert air that pumped up the fire like a bellows. The Kalmiopsis was a place that I deeply loved and it will never be the same again - not just in my lifetime, but forever. Climate change is likely to favor new growth of chaparral and brush over the kind of deep fir and pine forests that got their start in a cooler age.
Gulf Coast residents got their climate shock this past hurricane season as warming oceans spawned the strongest storms on record. Alaska natives are getting their climate shock as retreating sea ice ruins their hunting, and melting permafrost topples their homes. Pacific Islanders are getting it too as their atolls flood and they flee to higher ground. And this is just the very beginning.
Trying to anticipate the climates of the future is impossible without understanding those of the past, yet as Bowen conveys in this book, the past is extremely complicated and hard for someone who is not a climate researcher to fully understand. Given the difficulties, Bowen does a remarkable job both of explaining it and keeping the story interesting and fast-paced. But for a little help getting a better grasp on Earth's history and the timescales involved, I turned to a 1991 book by scientist James Lovelock called Healing Gaia.
Lovelock believes that the best way to think about the Earth is to see it as an organism that goes through phases of sickness and health, or instability followed by equilibrium. Earth's medical history is a long story, for she is an older lady. Her life is now at least 3.5 billion years old.
Conditions change on Earth, and one is that the sun has grown hotter. For most of the age of mammals (the age that followed the dinosaurs and their asteroid demise) the Earth was warm and no ice formed at the poles. But as the sun grew ever hotter, by about 2 million years ago, polar ice caps formed and the Pleistocene began - the ice ages. This sounds odd, but Lovelock explains it: the Earth began to pull more CO2 out of the atmosphere and store it in rocks and plants. Less CO2 in the atmosphere lessened the greenhouse effect and temperatures dropped. But because of cyclical changes in Earth's orbit over time, the ice ages have see-sawed back and forth between glacial and interglacial in a series of 100,000-year cycles. A system with this much dynamism is prone to getting knocked off balance, and there is little doubt that that is what is happening now: climate shock.
A funny thing happened 2 million years ago on the way to the ice ages. The ice caps sucked moisture from the African forests, which withered and withdrew from the plains. An arboreal ape came down from the trees and began to make tools and lose its hair. When its descendants multiplied and started to burn fossil fuels, they became a fever-inducing planetary infection. They (we) are the cause of climate shock.
Thin Ice is really the story of the "planetary physicians," as Lovelock calls them - the scientists like Lonnie Thompson who have devoted their careers to taking the planet's temperature. And now the world is getting so warm that anyone can hold a hand to the patient's forehead and get a sense of what is happening.
Besides being a physics PhD from MIT, Thin Ice author Mark Bowen is also an avid recreational climber. He was able to add to his story of scientific discovery the eyewitness accounts from climbers all over the world of rapid ice-melting over the last ten years. A glacier that was a stone's throw from Sir Edmund Hilary's first camp on Mt. Everest has retreated three miles since Hilary's 1953 historic ascent.
An international commission predicts that there is a high likelihood that all of the Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2035. The Himalaya will turn black, and the Ganges and other rivers that flow from it will dry to seasonal streams. The 500 million people in India who depend on water from these rivers will have no other source. As mountain glaciers and snow packs melt everywhere, China, the Andes and California will face the same climate shock - no water.
Meanwhile, the melting ice will raise the seas. Lonnie Thompson and other researchers are discovering that once glaciers start to melt, they can melt all the way to bedrock very rapidly. If all of the Earth's mountain glaciers were to melt, it would raise the sea level by a foot and a half and that would be the end of places like Bangladesh and Louisiana's bayou country. But the polar ice caps are showing the same tendency for rapid melting, and a mere two degree Fahrenheit rise in global temperature could be enough to cause a complete disintegration. Sea levels could start rising by 3 feet every 20 years. We will have to act quickly and drastically to avert this inundation.
Reading Thin Ice and exposing yourself to climate shock could help prepare you for your new role in the greenhouse world. We will need more planetary physicians to diagnose and prescribe, and there will also be a need for planetary nurses, orderlies and volunteers to pitch in around the clock to keep the dear old lady alive. What does this mean? Probably it will mean changing everything about the way we live, starting by reducing our fossil fuel consumption now.
But how on Earth can we train ourselves to change everything, all at once?
Let's face it: We are more like monkeys than like gods, and we learn best by imitating whatever we think is admirable. For most of our evolutionary history we were a prey species - a scruffy primate just recently evolved from a rodent. And so, in our hominid phase we have fancied ourselves a glorious predator, in the same league with the lion and the eagle. In the future, if we want to survive, we will become symbionts - life forms that live in partnership with others. We may become like the rhinoceros bird that pecks parasitic ticks (and blood) from the rhino's back and warns it of approaching danger.
As successful symbionts we will adapt to the warmer Earth by living modestly and learning all the tricks and trades for storing carbon away in forests, fields, soils and rocks. We'll blow sweet breezes on the lady's brow, soothe her hot flashes, and cool the Earth again. In return, if luck and tides are with us, she will continue to sustain us until our time on Earth is done.
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Kelpie Wilson is the t r u t h o u t environment editor. She is also a mechanical engineer and does technical writing for the solar power industry. She has been a leader in the campaign to protect ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest and was the executive director of the Siskiyou Regional Education Project. Her first novel, Primal Tears, has been published by North Atlantic Books.
Trinity -- Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
