Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiPut Oil Firm Chiefs On Trial, Says Leading Climate Change Scientist
James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.
Hansen will use the symbolically charged 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking speech (pdf) to the US Congress - in which he was among the first to sound the alarm over the reality of global warming - to argue that radical steps need to be taken immediately if the "perfect storm" of irreversible climate change is not to become inevitable.
Speaking before Congress again, he will accuse the chief executive officers of companies such as ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy of being fully aware of the disinformation about climate change they are spreading.
In an interview with the Guardian he said: "When you are in that kind of position, as the CEO of one the primary players who have been putting out misinformation even via organisations that affect what gets into school textbooks, then I think that's a crime."
He is also considering personally targeting members of Congress who have a poor track record on climate change in the coming November elections. He will campaign to have several of them unseated. Hansen's speech to Congress on June 23 1988 is seen as a seminal moment in bringing the threat of global warming to the public's attention. At a time when most scientists were still hesitant to speak out, he said the evidence of the greenhouse gas effect was 99% certain, adding "it is time to stop waffling".
He will tell the House select committee on energy independence and global warming this afternoon that he is now 99% certain that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has already risen beyond the safe level.
The current concentration is 385 parts per million and is rising by 2ppm a year. Hansen, who heads Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, says 2009 will be a crucial year, with a new US president and talks on how to follow the Kyoto agreement.
He wants to see a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants, coupled with the creation of a huge grid of low-loss electric power lines buried under ground and spread across America, in order to give wind and solar power a chance of competing. "The new US president would have to take the initiative analogous to Kennedy's decision to go to the moon."
His sharpest words are reserved for the special interests he blames for public confusion about the nature of the global warming threat. "The problem is not political will, it's the alligator shoes - the lobbyists. It's the fact that money talks in Washington, and that democracy is not working the way it's intended to work."
A group seeking to increase pressure on international leaders is launching a campaign today called 350.org. It is taking out full-page adverts in papers such as the New York Times and the Swedish Falukuriren calling for the target level of CO2 to be lowered to 350ppm. The advert has been backed by 150 signatories, including Hansen.
© 2008 The Guardian
108 Comments so far
Show AllAd Hominem attacks? Is that all you got left?
Where is your evidence that energy company scientists have been hired to debunk MGW?
You try to have a reasonable discussion with people and they get all worked up and start calling you names. Reasonable people can disagree, until you get to religious belief systems, then all hell breaks loose.
Habibullo Abdussamatov, the head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, recently linked the attenuation of ice caps on Mars to fluctuations in the sun's output. Abdussamatov also blamed solar fluctuations for Earth's current global warming trend. His initial comments were published online by National Geographic News.
"Man-made greenhouse warming has [made a] small contribution [to] the warming on Earth in recent years, but [it] cannot compete with the increase in solar irradiance," Abdussamatov told LiveScience in an email interview last week. "The considerable heating and cooling on the Earth and on Mars always will be practically parallel."
Benny Peiser, a social anthropologist at Liverpool John Moores University who monitors studies and news reports of asteroids, global warming and other potentially apocalyptic topics, recently quoted in his daily electronic newsletter the following from a blog called Strata-Sphere: "Global warming on Neptune's moon Triton as well as Jupiter and Pluto, and now Mars has some [scientists] scratching their heads over what could possibly be in common with the warming of all these planets ... Could there be something in common with all the planets in our solar system that might cause them all to warm at the same time?
Gee I wonder what it could be??
The point is, the science is not in;
Take a breath elmysterio.
Words have meaning, cigarettes don't CAUSE cancer!! If they did everybody who smokes would have cancer. My mother-in-law has smoked 2 packs a day for 60 years, she doesn't have cancer! How can that be if cigarettes cause cancer. Cigarettes increase the likelyhood that you will get lung cancer and or heart disease, but cigs don't cause cancer.
Life is all about risk. If doodads provide a benefit to many people but happen to liquefy some peoples innards, shouldn't you (the end user) have the right to decide if you want to risk innard liquefication to get the other benefit? After all, none of us are getting out of this life alive.
You believe your scientists, I'll believe mine, we agree to disagree.
Good luck.
RoR said: "So anyone who doesn't believe that man is causing global warming and says as much, is a LIAR?"
Must We simplify everything into black and white for you dumb-ass Americans? Shit man. What I'm talking about here, is not people like our friend Kem Patrick, who is entitled to his opinions... he believes what he's saying and came to his opinions, hopefully, through research and understanding. While I disagree with people who don't believe in G.W. their assertions are not necessarily criminal.
What IS criminal is Oil executives, or Tobacco executives, or any other executive looking at the evidence given to them by their scientists and saying "Oh shit, we're causing XYZ, better bury that information and tell the public ABC"...
For example, I have a corporation that makes doodads. People all over the world use my doodads... now, after a couple years, it comes to my attention that my doodads cause internal organ liquefaction... Instead of doing what's right and saying "hey, these doodads are bad. Stop using them"... I hire a team of 'scientists' to debunk the research that says doodads are bad... they cause confusion about the 'science' that says doodads are bad... I lie to the public and tell them that doodads are perfectly safe and the people who say otherwise are crazy granola eating liberals... Meanwhile, I know full well that many people are going to have their organs liquefied by my doodads but I do nothing about it.
THAT is the criminal behavior that I'm talking about. Simple enough for you to understand American?
There are many writing here who supported George Bush in the last US election. There are many writing who represent the business intersts of the the USA regardless of the the fact that globalization and "business as usual" are killing humanity. The ability to convince these people of other thinking is like trying to tell W that he is a fool. He is the president so he can't be a fool. The emperor has new clothes!
The people writing reflect the illogical framework of this country the USA! Money is the end in itself all other aspects of human survival take secon place. Many here think they will change this thinking it may be as good as any way to use time in your dotage.
Come an get me, be well armed.
elmysterio
So anyone who doesn't believe that man is causing global warming and says as much, is a LIAR?
Do we get to haul you and KEM PATRICK to court if by some miracle your predictions don't come true?
But your right, there's no money to be made selling manmade global warming.
It has been reported that Al Gore has made $100 Million selling carbon offsets.
jcrumb asks "WHY?" And wants a rational explanation of WHY anyone would destroy their own future. I'm not sure that rationality plays much part in all this. I don't have an answer but I can make a few observations.
1. I teach school and I can see students, who everyday, do things that are destroying their future. If you were to ask them why, their answer is that they don't know. Maybe you can think back to when you were in that situation and recall that you too didn't know why you did some of those remarkably stupid and self-destructive things, I know I can.
2. Inside of us, many anyway, don't believe that the results being predicted will really happen. It's called Blind Faith.
3. Even if we do believe that we're on this bad road, many believe that someone will come to save us. It's called Religion.
4. Just think how bad they'd feel, if they gave up the bad things and then the worst didn't happen after all. Although the reason for giving it up is to stop the bad things from happening, if they indeed do so and the worst doesn't happen well that might mean they shouldn't have given it up, that someone else needed to give it up but not them. It's the idea that if I don't do it, someone else will and we'll all be toast anyway. So I might as well get mine.
If I were a betting person, not given to keen introspection, perhaps I'd find myself behind category 2, 3 or 4. Then I wouldn't have to give up all the money and power and try to find something constructive to do.
Very cool, thanks and GOD BLESS!
May we all work together as Christian Soldiers to defend our Oil Chiefs, who have plundered the heathens in JESUS' Name. They have truly served the humble Patriotic American Heartland of Chickenpluckistan!
~ THE PLUCKING TRUTH ~
__ I am not present, as I've been sup.presenced __
__ The O-ban_ning of so many is hard to believe __
Hansen has gone over the top--being a sane man, he just can't come to grips with the fact that political/corporate forces are more powerful than the biophysical laws running the planet (at least for while).
In a duh bible it says when it be duh time fo redeemshun, wheeze god fearin sort be goin to heaven and all the rest gonna be livin in hell that came up from the under world and takes over the whole of the earth.
Sounds like environmental prophesy to me.....by the book!
pluckistani pete: I know you hear me! We gonna fuck it up for everybody but us, right?
Some of em blog comments here too.
Some so called "expert spokesmen" employed previously by tobacco companies now spin for fossil fuel companies.
RoR said: "Only in totalitarian systems is dissent a criminal offense."
We're not talking about criminalizing dissent (like some in the government are)... we're talking about holding people who are DELIBERATELY lying about a SERIOUS issue accountable for their lies. Lies that are told for one reason only... money. Big difference between holding liars accountable and criminalizing dissent. Nice try though.
Hey, some of these OIL CHIEFS come from humble beginnings! Like me and my kin, they used to be simple chicken pluckers and catfish harvesters.
Yup, I can still remember the good ol' days, sittin' back on the porch. chawin' tobacca and talkin' about JESUS. One former chicken plucker-turned oil chief knocked up my younger sister - twice! Now she's poppin' kids right and left - all wonderful young PLUCKISTANIS being reared in the WAY OF THE LORD.
So the lesson for all you marijuana-smokin' liberals is, the OIL CHIEFS will take care of their own and don't you forget it - PRAISE JESUS.
And as for your thoughts on HEMP, Homeward Angel, I'd drop it if I were you or we'll send out our CHICKENPLUCKIN' militias after you. HEMP and MARIJUANA is the same damn thing! You should be seeking redemption and supporting strong DRUG LAWS to keep MARIJUANA from ever corrupting our land and our children.
I do hope ~Plukistani~ is being sarcastic and believe he is. Sarcasm can be a powerful use of words.
umm- that sounds confusing-what I just wrote. It means that I am serious about what I said regarding the poetic imagery of your June 23rd, 2008 11:32 pm post, and that Pluckistani's humor is very evident, to me.
Hope u r having a great day.
KEN NUTI & SLIM SHADY: Gracias. (I can't tell if "he" is being facetious or serious!)
Definitely serious, Souixrose.
With some of the lines in Pluckistani's humorous rants, he has GOT to be facetious!
If anyone gets down this far..lemme just say,,in response to all the responses to the "WHY" question..
okay..I basically AGREE with every one of the respnses...HOWEVER..I have to say..
The OIL companies...are no longer JUST oil companies..and I don't need..NO ONE needs an MBA from YALE (S&B?) OR a MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR SALLERY to figure out that if the PEOPLE are being DRAINED...by ONE product..in this case OIL..then they have LESS money for ....EVERYTHING ELSE..and again..the oil companies have CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS..FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS..and on and on..with the "storefronts" they have purchased over the decades...so..for them to simply TAP..COMPLETELY..the economy...is..well..it STILL does not makes sense that it is just...a.."NORMAL REASON" aka GREED..or..AVARICE..(because we can...etc..) so..again..with the ..absolute truism that these GLOBAL CORPORATIONS are completely INTERDEPENDANT..and INTERTWINED.....well..WHY..are they going this strong into the economic collapse of the worlds number one consumer..AND ENERGY....market???????? WHY?
Personally I do think...I really do think that this is about...DISTRACTION of some sort...a .."PLAN" to RATIONALIZE the opening of the coast of Cal..the Arctic..IRAN..etc..etc..etc...get people so...DESPERATE..that as the line in 'THREE DAY'S OF THE CONDOR' SAID.."TALK TO EM WHEN THEIR RUNNING OUT...TALK TO THEM WHEN THEIRS NO FOOD ON THE TABLE...THEN THEY WON'T CARE HOW WE GET IT...THEY'LL JUST WANT US TO GET IT FOR EM..." probably hould have paraphrased that one...BUT.. really o believe this is the "reason" becasue economic suicide..is..going to damge the BOTTOM LINE for ALL of these congloms. period..so..WHY it simply cannot be..just greed...it canot be..it does not make sense...
WHY? or better yet..and i should have stated this earlier on...WHAT IS COMING NEXT...??
LIVE FREE OR DIE...
James Hansen wants oil executives put on trial for giving "misinformation" about his global warming theory.
Is this where society is headed?
If so, we are headed for a dangerous place.
Only in totalitarian systems is dissent a criminal offense.
~GEO 522~ I see you arrived as usual to deny global warming is a fact. And then ~MIMICCS~ showed up also to inform us we can't think for ourselves and it's "blind faith" that leads us "global warming believers" on.
Here is some blind faith bud, the Arctic, Anarctica and Greenland are thawing out, you can witness it with your own eyes. All of the worlds glaciers are melting away and many have already disappeared. That is not because our normal climate is getting colder.
The world's leading climatic scientists, who are on the Nobel Prize winning "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change", insist that human activity is responsible for Earth's current global warming issue.
That is a very strong consensus and is not what I would consider to be "blind faith", when anyone who possesses any common sense listens to what they report and takes it as constructive information. They say we must reduce greenhouse gases and do so very soon, or we won't have a prayer of stopping a world wide disaster which will eleminate all life on the planet down to the microbal level. Is that serious or not?
So please do tell us who these scientists are that claim global warming is a myth ~GEO 522~. I understand Exxon was paying "scientists" $10,000 to write denial reports on the issue.
As stated previously, Co2 is measured daily in our atmosphere and an annual report is published. It is currenty at 385 P-P million, that alone will insure gobal warming will continue and become worse by the week if methane gas is not even factored in.
Add in the tons of methane gas now spewing out into the atmosphere. If you deny that is a fact, read that Link I offered ~Geo 522~ and ~MiMiCcS~ and tell us why it is a myth. ___ LOL, but you are not humerous.
Consider this: Methane is from 23 to 25% more potent as a Greenhouse gas than Co2 is. So for math purposes: If Co2 was only 100ppm and methane was 10ppm, methane would be equivelant to 250 ppm of Co2. Last year Co2 rose .06% and methane rose .05% in our atmosphere and methane had been stable for many years. If methane gas continues to rise at ONLY that level for five or six years, we are screwed.
I do believe I am thinking for myself there ~MiMiCcS~ and I chose to think that the scientists who warn us to stop burning coal and oil like we currently are doing, are correct. So you think for yourself and think whatever you choose.
I don't neeed to be a climatatic scientist to see the world's glaciers melting and the Poles thawing. And any ten year old child with an average IQ can see that also and understand the issue.
"Nation's Spies: Climate Change Could Spark War"
Finally, America has uncovered THE Global Terrorists - and they are us.
MiMiCcS
"Yet a proposal to put those who exercise their free speech on trial gets supported on a progressive site."
Pity the poor corporations whose freedom of speech is abridged!
James Hansen is undoubtedly aware of what he's up against. It's bigger than politics. It's about responsibility for the global natural system in which we live. If we can destroy it by our activities, then we have the responsibility to protect it within a legal framework. This is not war, it is called "the rule of law".
We must have a body of law to protect the environment and guarantee the future habitability of the planet.
This may not happen. It may be as George Carlin said that nature invented us because she wanted plastic. She needed us to invent it for her. Now that she's got it, she doesn't need us anymore. Bye bye.
The American public, to paraphrase Bobby Kennedy,Jr., is the best entertained and the least informed group of citizens on the planet. They resist thinking, don't read, confuse fact with opinion and reject any and all facts that don't conform to their opinions. More importantly, they can't tell good research from bad or marginal science and scientists from mainstream research and the scientists that do it. It would never occur to them that the source of funding for research is as important as its methodology or its outcome. They stand with gaping mouths and glazed eyes watching the magic performed by the petro-sponsored snakeoil salesmen while believing their every word.
elmysterio said: "The Big energy companies have known for a while now that their practices are harming the planet. What do they do in response to that? They lie. They spread misinformation to try to confuse the issue. That seems like criminal behavior don't ya think?"
I've believed the same for some time, but frankly, could never prove it. Its worth investigating, but without proof, should criminal behavior be assumed, and Hansen's tribunals constituted?
Maybe we could incarcerate them in Guantanano, if that's where we're headed with all of this. It would be strangely appropriate.
On the other hand, I can almost hear some oil execs chuckling to themselves, "Ah, that ol' liberal even-handedness we knew we could rely on..."
geo522 said: "What about the growing number or scientists who disagree with this whole global warming theory, and of course the simple fact is that the temperature is not warming?"
How many of them are climatologists? Check out www.RealClimate.org with its (sadly appropriate) byline: 'Climate Science by Climate Scientists'
Would you go to a climate scientist for advice on which strain of peas to plant in your garden? If not, then why do so many experts in agriculture feel qualified to comment on Climate Change? They know as much about the subject as you or I... But they do have the coveted 'PhD', which apparently is enough to fool the Bush sheep...
Siouxrose, that's picturesque and well-spoken. Thanks.
Throw them in the tar pit. Skip the trial. They're guilty!
IF the sun is altering its spots it takes on the dreamy equivalent of a celestial hand gently rubbing the fire from the wick of a candle. Perhaps some upper agency, what religious types might term angelic helpers, are giving the good people living on earth a little more time to alter their behaviors by recognizing the benefits implicit to living simply, THAT others may simply live...
If we WITNESS in JESUS Name unto the Muslim heathen, the LORD shall spare us Environmental Disaster so we may continue pillaging in HIS NAME. Then, we can rebuild our chickenpluckin' miltias to confront the ATHEIST Scientists and their destructive Theories about Climate Change.
It is fortold in Isaiah 7:55.
Another great quote from whatreallyhappened.org
Truth needs no laws to defend it. Truth is self-evident to all. Truth survives independent re-examination. Throughout history, from Galileo to Bruno, to Zundel, only lies and liars resort to the courts to enforce adherence to dogma.
...James Hansen, nice job!!....way to expose the brash truth that everyone knows deep in their guts. Be careful, by the way, upon leaving that Senate hearing today...check your review mirrors when driving, invest in a debugging kit for your house...don't be walking alone near any high cliffs, o.k.?!...Typically when someone like you comes forward and tries to trumpet the kind of hard-line, bottom-line truth you are trying to expose, they tend to be either disappeared or killed in some ironic fashion...that is the kind of honoring our government tends to issue to men like you who are trying to advance the truth that will help mankind and the earth; so be careful!!....again, way to stand up to the Power Brokers...not an easy thing to due in such a public way, but we greatly thank you for your efforts!!....good luck!
Wow. The blind faith being shown to the global warming gurus reminds me of the blind faith of the republicans over Bushs policies.
Big Oil CEO's and Global Warming Gurus are partners. The Global Warming movement serves to keep restrictions on more refineries and offshore drilling, which allows them to import more oil (where they lock in profits in tax havens-they do not pay market price for oil), tighten supplies, and keep prices high. Big Oil is alos interlocked with Big Banking and Nuclear, so they will profit as well from carbon caps and trading that Global warming will sell you next year when Green Obama takes over, even if it means they sell less oil for a time until the next war (the Pentagon is the biggest non-state gas guzzler on the planet).
So Big Oil plays the bad cop on the Global warming issue. Their public opposition to the idea that man made CO2 has caused the Global Warming to date, and will result in catastrophic climate change is a classic strategy. If Big Oil, making obscene profits denies Global Warming, then it must be true. Right? Wrong. Meanwhile, the Good cops (dems) are coming to power, and will save us from the Global Warming Terrorists in a War on Climate Change, by passing a Climate Security Act in 2009.
All wars leave you poorer.
Can people not see?.
On Keith Olbermann's show recently Carlin said that America was "finished" because "no one questions things anymore" and that the population had been bought off by distractions, toys and gizmos. And during during an appearance at Borders bookstore in New York City last October he was asked what he thought of the 9/11 truth movement. Carlin said "I always question the received reality." "The consensus reality is often intentionally misleading,"
Carlin is famous for saying the "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" and getting arrested, and eventually exonerated over free speech.
Yet a proposal to put those who exercise their free speech on trial gets supported on a progressive site.
Wow, again. There really is no hope when people have lost the ability to think for themselves.
Right On! Can we also put the Democrats and Republicans on trial for their culpability by ignoring the issue and accepting Oil Money for their campaigns? Oops, that would send a chill into the Obama and McCain campiagns. Oh, well, lets just forget the whole thing.
Hey David Grayling you hit the nail on the head, Capitalism is the plague of the 21st century and it needs to mutate into a more manageable disease.
We are all in big trouble. Men like Teddy Roosevelt unfortunately are not around anymore. All we have are crooks and a few brave souls like Mr Hansen but not enough people listening yet. When people are freezing to death this winter then maybe we will get some responses from our elected officials because they will not want blood on there hands.
The root cause of all our problems in the world is CAPITALISM. It is an amoral system which encourages infinite greed and selfishness and to hell with the consequences.
We have been fed a load of old cobblers so that a few people could become very, very rich and buy 100 meter motor yachts.
Capitalism needs to be treated for what it is: a voracious malignancy. If we don't get rid of it soon, it will destroy us and our world.
www.dangerouscreation.com
What about the growing number or scientists who disagree with this whole global warming theory, and of course the simple fact is that the temperature is not warming, so there would be no evidence to put anyone on trial for this, although I think that the oil execs should be put on trial for ripping us all off the way that they have been.
What is needed is nationalization of the oil companies. Venezuela and Bolivia have the right idea. They are not Communist or even socialist, but mixed economies. They are saying enough of greedy plundering of their economies. But, they still fail to deal with rape of the environment. The US must join Euro countries like Germany in reducing our carbon footprints by a crash commitment to sustainable renewable sources of energy, and thus lead as a positive example in the Americas. On a bus ride from Vienna to Bratislava for much of the way there were windmills as far as the eye could see.
Nationalization is necessary, not only for environmental reasons and internal economic reasons (as with health insurance companies), but, very importantly, for foreign policy. For it is the greed of oil companies, along with that of defense and security contractors that pressure our politicians and corporate media to lead us into wars of aggression.
USAn
Better check your facts.
"The Sun is presently at a markedly heightened level of sunspot activity and was last similarly active over 8,000 years ago. The number of sunspots correlates with the intensity of solar radiation over the period (since 1979) when satellite measurements of absolute radiative flux were available." (Wikipedia)
There is presently some concern at the lack of sunspot activity when increased activity is expected in the new cycle and speculation that the sun could reproduce another "Maunder Minimum" event, which happened in the 17th Century, when sunspot activity nearly disappeared for an extended period.
This was called "The Little Ice Age" and it occurred as a direct result of the reduction in the intensity of the sun's radiation. It snowed in Europe in July.
The idea that the sun's activity has no relation to global warming is nonsense. The intensity of the sun's radiation is not a constant. It changes, like everything else in the sentient Gaia system.
You can also add another factor: the phenomenon of global dimming, which is caused by particulates in the atmosphere, not the least of which are chemtrail aerosols. If the sun remains quiescent the warming trend may reverse, and yet, the theory of global warming, the blanket of heat trapping gases will not be disproved because the cooling, if it does occur, will be less than it would otherwise be.
One wonders how these corporations can be so wildy self-destructive (self-absorbed and self-gratifying, too).
It reminds me of the joke: Why do dogs lick thier own penises? Answer: Because they can...!
This edit feature Common Dreams has here is crap. I wished to add a line and was informed I had passed the 30 minute time limit, ___or I had not written it. I did write it and it not even a minute had passed. Now I'll wait for ~WORD PRESS~ to step in and block me totally.
Anyway, "dreampt" is mis-spelled and last year methane gas in our atmosphere rose .05% which is very alarming.
Here is a three minute read and it shows only one of hundreds of lakes in the Arctic where methane gas is spewing out. There is also an icon which will give you the maps of Arctic perma-frost. Currently half of the Arctic is now mush and July and August are up next and next year will be much worse as the "feed-back" phenom develops.
This is not a mundane subject or issue. Tell us one of more importance.
http://www.farnorthscience.com/2007/09/26
~USA N~ Our sun's beams have nothng to do with the current global warming and you know it. It is trapped heat from EXCESS Co2 in our atmosphere that has created the serious problem. In addition we have burned off much of our vital to all life's forests.
For the past 200+ years we humans have been burning coal and oil and the current annual amount of Co2 we put into the atmoophere is equivelant to 17,000 volcanoes the size of Hawaii's Kilauea. The P/P Million of Co2 in our atmosphere is currently (385), ___350 PPM was the tipping point. We have already passed it and last year we added .06% more Co2. The result is the global Greenhouse effect.
Co2 does not just evaporate in our atmophere, we can be breathing Co2 this minute that came from Henry Ford's first automobile exhaust. The problem is EXCESS Co-2. Some Co2 in the atmosphere is natural and necessary.
Now comes the scary part, global warming is causing the Arctic to thaw, there are 400 gigatons of methane gas safely locked up in the Arctic's perma-frost.
Oops, not safely locked up anymore. For the first time in millions of years, ice free lakes in the Arctic are now spewing methnane into our atmoshpere and methane is 25% more potent as a Greenhouse gas than Co2 is. So we now have the feed-back problem and we will soon experience global warming and climate changes like we never dreamtp of and time is rapidly running out to attempt to correct it.
The big oil and coal mining execs know all of this and for years they have attempted to deny and or distort the truth of it all and they are either guilty of criminal intent, or stupidity, ____ or both. They pay people to write such denying comments as you have posted here. They should be charged and tried, so the truths can be brought forth.
ubrew12:
some of us intelligent people shook our heads and spoke up, loudly and persistently. millions really, world wide.
we may have been unsuccessful but we're not nobody.
This is the kind of guy who should be secretary of interior.
There is far too much money and power in oil corporations. With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and anti-climate change propaganda, and off shoring billions of profits, they act as if they own the earth. They have no interest in reducing our oil dependency.
ubrew12 said: "Global Warming doubters turned out to be wrong about the nature and extent of Climate Change. But they had a right to their opinions about it, and the oil companies saw their industry under attack and fought back. How is that illegal? You can expect Agricultural seed companies to fund advertising promoting GMO foods. If they turn out to be dangerous, does that make their support criminal?"
Sure, people are entitled to their opinions... but the point where it crosses into criminal behavior is when they are INTENTIONALLY misleading or spreading falsehoods in regards to a serious planetary challenge in order to preserve their corporate profits. Your example of GMO foods... if the companies making these GMOs KNOW that they're dangerous, know that they do more harm than good, but INTENTIONALLY lie about their safety/benefit then that is criminal behavior.
The Big energy companies have known for a while now that their practices are harming the planet. What do they do in response to that? They lie. They spread misinformation to try to confuse the issue. That seems like criminal behavior don't ya think?
Ah, what you're going to see now is countries imposing a "Carbon Tax" on hydrocarbon use. They'll say it's to deter people from over-use of hydrocarbons. They'll also insist that this is a revenue neutral 'tax', offset by other tax breaks. But the reality is something quite different.
The tax will not prevent polluting industries and the oil industry from carrying on business as usual. The supposedly revenue neutral aspect of it, places a disproportionate burden on the consumers while the 'tax breaks' mostly go to the polluting corporations. This is happening where I live and will be coming soon to a country near you. It's really just a scam... a greenwashing so that the corrupt politicians can serve their corporate masters while appeasing the environmentally sensitive public with a sense of 'doing something'... it's sickening.
I believe Hansen's point is valid. Our only hope for the future is to topple power centers. Whether it is Monsanto, Exxon, Lockheed Martin, the Federal Reserve, AIPAC, or our own fascist governments. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Economic justice, earth justice, justice in general, depends upon all of us having a say in how our food is grown, how our energy resources are managed, how conflicts are dealt with, and how increases in productivity are equitably shared. Those at the top, whose decisions have squandered our countries wealth, resources and security and who have actively mislead the public, must be held accountable. That means jail time. We must quit pandering to the lowest common denominator. Hansen is a man of courage and deserving of our respect. Thank you James Hansen
cruxpuppy,
The is no solar heating or cooling. It is a myth orgiinating from the more kooky ranks of the GW deniers. There are spacecraft dedicted full time to observing the sun and none of them have observed any changes to solar luminosity.
The sun has been and continues to very gradually heat up as it's core densifies from the production of heavier fusion products. This will impose on shorter term climate fluctuations a gradual heating. Lovelock's Gaia mechanism has kept the earth temperature clement for life - but with some crises and close-calls - for the past billion years. This mechanism will ultimately break down and the planet will become inhospitable to large life forms 800 million years from now, and bacterial forms succumbing about 1.5 billion years from now. So, we are already past the midpoint of the biosphere's life span.
So, Mother Gaia is entering middle age, and may not be as robust as her younger years when she shook off some bad fevers. So, there a small chance that we may poison her to death this time and the earth will become a hot lifeless ball a whole lot sooner.
Thank you, James Hansen!
We all know that Exxon will not pay for their "misdeeds" simply because we all NEED oil, unlike tobacco.
Hopefully, Mr. Hansen will be able to reverse the misinformation campaign and resulting damage done by Dick & George's secretive Energy Task Force.
It would also be nice if some of the misfits in Congress could be "unseated" so we can actually move toward a much neeeded and brighter future for this country.
Global Warming doubters turned out to be wrong about the nature and extent of Climate Change. But they had a right to their opinions about it, and the oil companies saw their industry under attack and fought back. How is that illegal?
You can expect Agricultural seed companies to fund advertising promoting GMO foods. If they turn out to be dangerous, does that make their support criminal?
This all makes me uncomfortable. I like Hansen, but expect more from him. This is a dangerous road for the supporters of the concept of Climate Change to take ESPECIALLY BECAUSE the consequences of climate change could be catastrophic, and we could all be looking for scapegoats.
Likewise, is it really all GW's and Cheneys and the MSM's fault we're in Iraq today? Or did ordinary Americans follow like sheep, while the few with a more intelligent view shook their heads but kept their mouths shut.
Looking for a scapegoat for todays problems? Look in a mirror.
I've thought of the "why" question and tried to follow it through to a logical conclusion.......Bush wants to strangle government. The agenda seems to be.....let the market free to balance itself. Get government out of the way. So, since Bush/Cheney gang is into oil, they help this market along...making huge profits. Sounds good. The oil companies have shareholders. If the oil companies make huge profits, the shareholders are happy. The companies consider themselves a great success and receive the appropriate CEO rewards in money....lots of money!
People with a mindset like this don't understand the language of people who are concerned about "soft" things like the environment. They actually don't have any idea that includes any consideration of consequences. Oil is a resource, when it's gone, it's gone....we move on to something else! You would have to change these people's brains in order for them to understand what we are talking about. They believe we have no credibility. We are nut jobs to them. Power/success is all in how much money you can generate. Profit. Profit. Profit.
Neocons are ushering in the New American Century. For them, all this stuff happening is expected and invited. There is a global movement with allies such as Saudi Arabia, China, and I'm not sure who else....that is being set up to take control of our planets' economic and political management. Everything is in place. Everything is going according to plan. Exploiting resources is just a minor step in changing the face of the world. People are a commodity. We have been placated, saturated with stuff, "softened." Soon we will be herded right into the role of slaves for this new world government. In fact, we already are! Notice how big corporations have all but killed any labor movement? Benefits are decreasing yearly! Wages are stagnant! Health care is decreasing more and more. Now food is supposedly becoming scarcer! Oh yes, we are there!
Try to exit the grid....if you can. I'm sure trying for that. The U.S. is being harvested! We will be a third world country soon. The playing field will be leveled with the entire globe ripe for corporate/fascist control and exploitation. And the people are just like sheep. They have slowly and subtly penned us in. Why are we outraged? We have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have confused God and Mammon. Money is our God and corporate/capitalist/fascist leaders are the authorities now. We have been tricked and brainwashed because we are asleep. Wake up NOW!!! We are spiraling down.....BUT, we can change all this. Everything can be different! We have to get out of our comfort zone. How? Start where you are. Talk to people. Write down your ideas for your own benefit. Make changes in your own life. Choose wisely what you buy and evaluate what you really need. Move toward simplicity. Buy small vehicles that are good on gas mileage. Stop watching TV. Stop listening to advertisements that pull you to the stores. Stop being a consumer! Slowly, slowly, we can edge our way back up the hill. A change will happen if we all begin to do things in a thoughtful way. We are part of a circle of life. We must respect our planet, animals, plants, air, water, as well as people. Wake up NOW!!!
Of course, put them on trial -- if we lived as a species in a society in which justice was a truly practiced value. But the human thirst for power and sustaining power will not let any such trial happen. The ongoing legal code of any ruling class is -- societal rules are made to be followed by the followers and to be broken and changed by the rule makers at the whims of the makers. Rulers have no concern for the well-being of followers -- except that they align and keep producing for the rulers.
SCIENTIFIC BETRAYAL
Certainly the oil cartels should face charges for their deliberate manipulation of information and its dreadful consequences to humanity. However they could not have acheived this degree of chicanery without help from this admunistration who bears even more responsibility then big oil.
The manipulation of scientific data, as used by this administration to derail vital environmental reforms, conservation, family planning-- and the list goes on. The resulting long term environmental and social damage are beyond measure, and can only worsen if not curtailed.
Despite their clandestine cloak, or environmental friendly disguise, these sellouts have been evident since Bush first was handed the presidency. They have been exposed by defectors from the EPA, health & human services, etc; and have been documented and chronicled by numerous dedicated environmental organizations including The Union of Concerned Scientists.
The gravity of these unprecedented betrayals eclipses the Monica Lewinski scandal which led to an impeachment, and pose greater dangers than Watergate which terminated a presidency. Blame falls mainly on the populace and our legislators for tolerating this reckless and arrogant occupant of the White House.
A trial for Corporate and Congressional lemmings? Perhaps just a simple push will get them started.
And let us not forget the lobbyists, ___murdering criminals to all of mankind and to the Earth.
Jacob Freeze, amen to that: Hansen deserves the Nobel Prize and more ... not just for what he's been telling us for the past 20-plus years, but for all the mockery, political muscling and nasty personal attacks he's had to endure over that time.
jungleboy, you raise a chilling prospect that echoes a section from Jared Diamond's "Collapse," in which he describes how the most land- and livestock-wealthy medieval settlers of Greenland were well-off enough only to be among the last to go, possibly at the hands of the starving, poorer masses. It's a line that comes back to me time and again these days.
By the way, interesting that we have to learn of today's Hansen testimony from the U.K. Guardian, isn't it? No mention of it in the headlines that I could see on CNN, Time or MSNBC. (And there was no earthly reason for me to check Fox News ... you know how they roll.)
Does edit never work right?
H-H-O - heavy runner Early cars are the best to test on..... less sensor crap. 2001 kia will get37mpg, a 2004 gets 19mpg, in the book. Lets go congress, you O.K.ed this.
Oh yeah...you think congress will do anything besides off Hansen?
I vote no, by the way, with my non dollars on the automobile based transportation system. I bought a new Toyota Corolla in 1985. It has 270,000 miles on it and runs great and still gets 33 miles per gallon.
I also have a 1982 Mercedes 300 TDT with 408,000 miles on it, and a 1989 Toyota 4Runner with 280,000 miles on it. I do my own mechanical work, or perhaps older cars would be too expensive, but if everyone made their cars last like I do the car companies would not have the money to promote the automobile culture lifestyle.
It is not sustainable to move 2 tons of steel and glass every time someone wants to go from point A to point B. We have to convert to steel on steel travel in trains and trams. Walking, bicycling and small electric cars to get to the stations will supplement the new way of moving about. It really sounds pleasant to me. I never rent a car when I am in Europe, and I love getting around by train and tram and bus and subway and walking! Freeways and freeway driving are nightmares that hardly anyone enjoys.
I see ~USAN~, I did misunderstnd you. Please accept my humble apologies for being senile.
Hey ~MIMICCS~ could you repeat that please, I got lost there in the middle. But first please read and think about ~Siouxroses~ last blog.
I have to choose whether to trust YOUR words, or those of the climatic scientists who are VERY concerned and are not being paid by Exxon to write their reports. I also trust the words of the geologist and scientist ~Michael J. Benton~, who penned the book, "When Life Nearly Died". We currently are on the edge of a repeat.
Finally, I have to trust my own observations in my back yard, where we no longer have the birds, bees or inscets in any numbers to speak of anymore and our mountain streams are almost totally dried up now, never seen anything like it. No one has. I'm sure you would have an answer to that, but please don't bother.
Survival of the Elitist. If we dump the monetary system, these people, big oil and the lot of corporate superpowers, will still have a pretty fair chance at holding their own with the infrastructure they created for themselves. God forbid we find out who and where they're at! There is no doubt in my mind its all about their own survival at this point. Perhaps a single dollar bet over "Jesus being born again when the signs are right" started this mess, inconsequential for them but a great idea for sequestering a larger percent of the worlds capital. If you personally owned more liquid capital than a world superpower wouldn't you want to get your way? They say Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world, but, I ask you this, He claims all his earnings, right? In the states, right? Not a Capitan Nemo with a fleet of oil tankers. Not profit...of course not...Just control! Infrastructure! They have divided us and have conquered us so far. There is some oil product everywhere we look, even where we least expect it. "Better living threw chemistry!" Just think millions of barrels of oil worth of plastic bags a day are disposed of. If big oil cared for the earth that would be a practice stopped long ago.$$$
I learned from today's Democracy Now! program that General Motors, alone, spends $9 million dollars A DAY on advertising! This is the corporation that purchased the street car lines in many American cities and dismantled them so they could have a more open and larger market for their product.
Those car ads don't just sell brand, they promote a lifestyle. A lifestyle, by the way, which does not actually exist. They don't show gridlock or stop and go jammed freeways or road rage or mutilated bodies at fatal accident scenes - 42,000+ killed every year, 2 million maimed.
Nine million dollars a day promoting the transportation mode that most contributes to global warming - shouldn't that be seen as a crime as well?
fanman June 23rd, 2008 1:28 pm -- 'jcrumb & Arvy Let me attempt to give an even more simple distillation to the question:"WHY?" Simple Answer: Because they CAN!'
I'm not sure that really is a simpler answer inasmuch as "because we can" would, once again, indicate some purposful intent in demonstrating and exposing that ability to destroy the economy. And that inevitably leads to other obvious questions.
I still think it's simpler to assume nothing but total indifference to any economic impacts beyond their own profits. And even that limited perspective can often be quite shortsighted, especially where executive remuneration and bonuses are a major influence on decisions.
Fuck the trials, just take em back in the oil patch and fucking shoot them.
jcrumb & Arvy
Let me attempt to give an even more simple distillation to the question:"WHY?"
Simple Answer: Because they CAN!
When you are so powerful that you can buy governments outright you simply continue to do what got you $FAT$ in the first place - FUCK everyone else.
I think most sentient beings now believe that the human species wll NOT make it out of the 21st Century in any fashion comparable to the 20th. So it's easy to understand that people with unlimited power and influence will simply grab everything for themselves and go out with a BANG!
Put the meat and dairy industry chiefs on trial too.
They contribute to global warming in a big way as well.
Big Oil's crimes against humanity have been in motion for most of the 20th century. The global warming issue is just a new chapter in an endless horror story.
At the moment "they" are having people killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Columbia and other places around this corporate fascist world. And for what ? To steal a polluting fossil fuel.
Our Nazi-lite Congress and Pentagon are simply following orders given by Big Oil.
Well said, Arvy, and barely human who said, "it would be a start"...
Laws and rules and courts won't work at this point. But Hansen's call will help in whatever way it can to demonstrate the simple premise: If you want to stop global warming / climate change, then stop doing what causes it, and if you lie about culpability, you will pay, since thousands of species, human and nonhuman, have paid, are paying, and will pay for centuries...
Hell to pay.
If Hansen can focus attention on the energy cartel and raise some public awareness of how these corporate mobsters operate, more power to him. That will be a fine trick in a corporatocracy!
However, he may have some difficulty selling the urgency of the global warming hypothesis while the sun is behaving as it is. The quiescent solar condition means a reduction in the most important factor in global heating: solar energy. The decrease in solar energy reaching the planet will cause a drop in the warming trend. This doesn't imply the heat-trapping effect of co2 and other gases is not true, but a gullible and stupid public, led by people like Senator Imhoff, will have more reason to deny global warming.
If the sun doesn't perk up and become a little more active, we could enter into a period of global cooling, though the cooling would be less pronounced than it would be with the heat trapping gases in the atmosphere. But how is that going to fly with the crowd of deniers who claim global warming is a hoax on any given day when the temps are cooler than normal?
The corporate criminals will have Hansen for lunch.
I hope Hansen's call for a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants has dropped the "until CO2 capture and interment can be incorporated" caveat.
Carbon is already sequestered in those fossil fuels. Leave them be!
jcrumb June 23rd, 2008 11:11 am -- 'Again..for me..the real MYSTERY in all of this is…WHY DESTROY THE ECONOMY?'
Your question is predicated on two assumptions about those involved in the destructive processes, neither of which can be taken as valid axioms:
- that the reasons for their actions are concerned with broad economic impacts, and
- that they are sufficently foresighted to correctly forecast such impacts.
Looking for an answer that is based on some rational reason(s) for destroying the economy is, therefore, likely to be a highly frustrating exercise. In an unfettered capitalist system based on greed, some events can only be understood as collateral damage. Not unlike any other war.
"Get a rope".
No, _____"lots of ropes".
But wait, I'm against capital punishment. Hmmmmm. How about banishment to a Pacific Island that's highest elevation is 30 feet above sea level? Let em take their Cadillac SUVs.
yes yes yes...I have been thinking exactly the same things...hold them responsible for promoting addiction and suppressing alternative energy...much like the tobacco companies.
The carbon ass prints evidenced by CEO inaction and disinformation is finally being raised to the level of criminal by a respected source. I hope that the National Academy of Science joins Mr. Hansen in the effort to prosecute the criminals.
The oil companies and the religeous right both learned well from the tobacco companies how to propagate lies. They call it "teaching the controversy". An endless list of "experts" appear on the news to tell everyone how controversial the issue is and amisdst the shouting and arguing of the talking heads, the general public tunes out because, after all, nothing conclusive is apparently known. Only by prosecuting these liars will this process stop.
jcrumb, your posts are so much easier to read when there not ALL CAPS, that even though i come across your posts time and again, i think this one was the first i accually read.
its time for INDUSTRIAL HEMP, people wake up! hemp for fuel, hemp for fibre, hemp for food. INDUSTRIAL HEMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dos anyone else find it nauseating that we are being..."asked"(read: "TOLD") to "tighten our belts and chip in...make some sacrifices.." etc...in some very scary way's? We are being asked to "Cope" with teh almost...strip search level of "security" at airports..as if an outfit with Saudi Financing could not get their own plane...(if a coke dealer can..??)..that we are being sold on a passel of "laws" that are destroying the U.S Constitution...we are being spied on..w are paying..bizarre prices for everything...with really...no explanation...
AND YET.......The OIL COMPANIES ARE MAKING "RECORD PROFITS"..!!!!!!!!
Where is the Federal Govt. with a lecture on "Chipping in for the war effort" when it come to "RECORD PROFITS"?
We are not talking about mere "PROFITS" here...we are talking about...RECORD PROFITS...how is this being allowed to happen? WHY is this beng allowed to happen? Are we not sitting on the worlds largest oil reserve...? or close to it?...and finally..WHY ARE the OIL COMPANIES DOING THIS? WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON?
I have yet to see this answered...the closest thing to an "Answer" I have found is pretty scary and ...amazingly crass..but that shuld no longer be any surprise..but this one is..
The only "reason" I have found that makes "sense" to me...as in..WRECK THE ECONOMY..GET AWAY WITH IT..FOR ..WHAT?..Well..it looks like it's a .."BAIL-OUT" FOR THE HOUSING AND CREDIT CRISIS...AN INVISIBLE TAX..AND WE ARE PAYING IT..pretty clever really..
These Giant Mega Corporations..invested in everything..are being given ENORMOUS LATITUDE in investing in, speculating on..and profiting from...OIL SPECULATION...so they go broke with bad predatory business practices..wreck the economy..and now..are using our vehicles and the price at the pump to return the money to the coffers...
Of course this only SORT of works for me..because I cannot see that the END RESULT..aka a wrecked economy..is any different..BUT WAIT!...since when has THAT been allowed to get in the way of the Boy's Who Call the Shots?...Uhhhhh..NEVER!?!...So..it makes a kind of twisted sense..Bushco is splitting..allegedly..and who really believes that these..."Men"...WILL SIMPLY WALK AWAY?..Who really believes that these .."Men"...will not do ALL THAT THEY CAN to ...FOUL THE WATER..? Remember..they aren't so much "Leaving" as they are.."Escaping with the loot"...the bigest Robbery/Homicide ever committed..the BUSH DOCTRINE..
They need cover for their crimes..for one thing..and barring WWIII with Iran..((read: attacking Russia in the winter like any good Fascist should...))..so, if it AINT gonna be WWIII...then this is their BACK UP PLAN...Simply lave a SCORCHED EARTH ECONOMY in their WAKE...keep everyone SO FUCKING DISTRACTED..so fucking BUSY...so fucking WORRIED...that they simply do not care what becomes of these "Men"...we simply will not..HAVE THE TIME...to..March..Protest..etc..which they could care less about anyway..as they only concern themselves with MONEY..but hey..what the hell...to busy even to THINK...it is all the same in the end..
Again..for me..the real MYSTERY in all of this is...WHY DESTROY THE ECONOMY? WHY?..THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR BUSINESS...EXCEPT A FEW..LIKE THE ONES WHO BET LONG ON AIR TRAVEL THE DAY BEFORE 9/11..So..WHY?
this is basically ALLOWING..economic suicide..nay..ENCOURAGING economic suicide....
The price of gas..is going o be $6.00 or more...just in time for X-Mass...unless their is...an emergency reality check from this government...which there will not be...They will continue to take everything they can from us...as long as they can..but the OIL companies...? make a SACRIFICE? sheeeit! no way amigo!..no way!
I am totally confused..and discombobulated on this one..all over the place..and it shows...but my final question about all of this..is pretty plain..and I have not seen an "answer" that really makes any real sense..my basic final question:
WHY?
King Canute-Hansen. Laughable.
What will the corporate shills in America do to bury this guy?
Add in the media CEO's that endless repeat the fossil-fuel industry talking points.
And while your at it, put the entire Republican policy establishment ("the government is the problem, not the solution") on trial for overt treason, since the government is we the people.
Hooray for Hansen's heroism, but it really is off the mark. The problem is not a few lying executives and congessional 'representatives', but the imperialist system that spawns such behavior. Even without global warming factored in, we are still facing global meltdown on a dozen other fronts. Truly, the greatest threat today is certainly man made: Nuclear war.
The answer to all of these greed-rooted problems is an international socialist economy. This formula has been blacklisted in most minds, despite its obvious appeal, thanks to Stalin and his heirs, but it remains the only integrated solution out there. The way forward is to build the party of revolution, which is necessarily of Trotskyist bend. Get with it, or roast.
A scientist with a conscience, and more than that, going up against the rulers of the world with the truth: may there be a hundred thousand more like him.
It would be a start.
"The problem is not political will, it's the alligator shoes - the lobbyists. It's the fact that money talks in Washington, and that democracy is not working the way it's intended to work."
Let the trials begin!
Thank you, Mr. Hansen, for standing up for all these years, and especially, for making a stand today. You are a model of courage.
Hansen has a case. If you want to see the details read the report by the Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ExxonMobil-GlobalWarming-tobacco.html or google a summary.
According to the report, ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.
"ExxonMobil has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer," said Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists' Director of Strategy & Policy. "A modest but effective investment has allowed the oil giant to fuel doubt about global warming to delay government action just as Big Tobacco did for over 40 years."
Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to "Manufacture Uncertainty" on Climate Change details how the oil company, like the tobacco industry in previous decades, has
raised doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence
funded an array of front organizations to create the appearance of a broad platform for a tight-knit group of vocal climate change contrarians who misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings
attempted to portray its opposition to action as a positive quest for "sound science" rather than business self-interest
used its access to the Bush administration to block federal policies and shape government communications on global warming
Hansen deserves the Nobel Prize for his courageous and clairvoyant life-work, and the rest of us deserve the Booby Prize for ignoring it. Exxon executives should be prosecuted or just hunted down for destroying the planet, but the rest of us also deserve lots of credit for being idiot consumer whores, and betraying our responsibility to all future generations.
...
KEM,
You completely misunderstood me. I was talking about the behavior of the sun on geological time scales. Of course the current warming is anthropogenic.
But, where the long term behavior of the sun comes in, is that the last time the biosphere had a very close-call with severe warming, at the end of the Permian Era 250 million years ago, the sun's power output was 1.5-2% lower. If our activities create a similar runaway warming event under current solar flux, the biosphere may not be able to "shake the fever off" this time.
cruxpuppy,
go here:
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/
See any sunspots? Actually we are in an unusually long "bottom" of the 11-year sunspot cycle.