SUFFERING SINBAD !

The Omani  coastal city of Quriyat set an unenviable record Tuesday: a 24-hour low temperature of 42.6°C (108.7°F), the hottest 24-hour-minimum temperature ever recorded.

The previous high-minimum temperature record for any 24-hour period was 41.9°C (107.4°F), set at nearby Khassab Airport in Oman on June 27, 2011,  and it has on occasion failed to fall below 111 F. before midnight elsewhere in the neighborhood.

If you find yourself strolling the shores of the Persian Gulf this time of year, think twice before jumping in to cool off- onshore water temperatures of 100 F. have been recorded in Dubai.

FOR MORE STRINGENT PEER REVIEW, TRY VANITY FAIR

The New Yorker was long famed for editorial vigilance, but this 20 June ecomium by Elizabeth Kolbert channeling Chris mooney, late of Climate Progress, make one wonder if its legendary fact checkers have already fallen prey to The Sixth Extinction ?

The bits hyperbolic or just plain wrong enough to do credit to Mark Morano have been red bolded:


This week marks the thirtieth anniversary of Hansen’s testimony, and it would be hard to think of a more lugubrious milestone. In the intervening three decades, nearly half of the Arctic ice cap has melted away, the oceans have acidified, much of the American West has burned, lower Manhattan, South Florida, Houston, and New Orleans have flooded, and average temperatures have continued to climb. Just last week, a team of scientists reported in Nature that the rate of melt off Antarctica has tripled in the past decade; as the Washington Post put it, “If that continues, we are in serious trouble.” (Were the Antarctic ice to melt away entirely, global sea levels would rise by two hundred feet; if just the more vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted, sea levels would rise by about ten feet.) Also last week, scientists reported that most of Africa’s oldest baobab trees have died, probably because of climate change, and last month researchers showed that rising CO2 levels were reducing the nutrient content of rice, which is probably the single most important food source for people. 

A SNICKER IS JUST A SMALL RIVER IN AFRICA

VEXED BY MOSQUITOES AND FALLING BOOK SALES AS ONTARIO TEMPERATURES RISE, WUWT'S DOYEN OF HUDSON'S BAY BLANKET CONNOISSEURSHIP & GOOSE MIGRATION STATISTICS LASHES OUT AT WARM AIRHEAD DEEPAK CHOPRA WITH A COOL NEW  SEMIOTIC THEORY:

Climate Change and Fear of Change are Natural Conditions Easily Exploited Because People Don’t Understand Amount and Extent of Change

Anthony Watts  7 hours ago  Guest opinion: Dr. Tim Ball

An ugly fact appeared after 1998 that dealt a mortal blow to the beautiful AGW hypothesis.  This ludicrous notion, which ignores humans as the most successful animal on the planet from a Darwinian perspective, even received credibility from supposedly thoughtful people. The AGW hypothesis assumed that an increase in CO2 would cause an increase in temperature. After 1998, the CO2 continued to increase, but temperature levelled. Promoters tried to ignore what was going on, but that caught the eye of those humorous cynics, the cartoonists :

NO ROOM FOR CLIMATE IN GALLAUDET'S NOAA'S ARK

THEY WON'T TASTE ANY BETTER 30 YEARS FROM NOW

WARNING:
BOTH BRANDS MAY CAUSE SEVERE HANGOVERS

THIRTY MOSTLY LONGER, HOTTER, SUMMERS LATER

                   CUE WINING NOISES FROM MARK STEYN

IF SCOTLAND'S  WINES ARE  TOO TROPICAL FOR YOUR TASTE, TRY THESE TWO NEW OFFERINGS:

LERKEKÅSA VINEYARD

Lerkekåsa Vineyard in Telemark, Norway (59°40′N; 09°19′E).  has been growing grapes since 2008- Check out their website to learn about visiting- this used to be the  world's northernmost vineyard, but despite taking advantage  of  accelerated global warming at high latitudes, the pinot neros of Telemark have been upstaged  by the  almost Arctic oenophiles of  Finland's

  OLKILUOTO NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

ON THE EDGE OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE  at 61°14′ North, this experimental vineyard uses the reactors  13 °C) cooling water  for small-scale agriculture , including  a  thousand square meter  plot that yields  ~2,000 pounds  of Zilga grapes a year

PRUITT ORDERS EPA TO FIND VIRGIN GEOLOGIST TO THROW INTO ERUPTING VOLCANO

ADMINISTRATOR REJECTS NATIONAL ACADEMY ERUPTION MITIGATION STUDY  TO  EMBRACE  SOUND SCIENCE  OF  ARMSTRONG SPERRY'S 1923 WORLD MAGAZINE  REPORT:

Cast Alive into the Molten Heart of a Volcano An American Artist-Explorer's Hair-Raising Adventure With Cannibals Whose Superstitious Fear Caused Them to Offer Human Sacrifice to the God of "Smoking Mountain" The continuing validity of the sacrifice theory documented by Sperry is evident in today's Washington Post : KILAUEA'S ERUPTION IGNITES DEBATE

The only geothermal plant on Hawaii’s Big Island has been closed for more than six weeks because of the Kilauea volcano's eruptions... some people on the island -- including native Hawaiians -- believe geothermal development undermines their worship of Pele, a deity and the volcano goddess.

Kū Kahakalau, an educator and Hawaiian language teacher..., who also has a doctorate in indigenous education, explained... many Hawaiians and those who worship Pele believe the geothermal plant is a “nonconsensual rape of the deity, literally digging into her body and extracting her life, her lifeblood, her lava.” one of the physical forms she takes is in the lava and volcano.

[State Representative Russell] Ruderman acknowledged it was an “intuitive feeling” that many people in Puna have.

“There are lots of people here who feel a strong connection between geothermal and Pele, that Pele hates geothermal, wants it gone. Some people think the eruption is all about that.”

The plant says it provides about 30 percent of the electricity on the Big Island.


















.

CLIMAGOGUES WANTED : NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Climate change and the next left

Sunday 17 June 2018, by  David Camfield

Climate change is already happening. But the really bad news is that there’s very strong evidence that capitalism will deliver a future of catastrophic climate change that will have far-reaching effects around the world, especially in the imperialized countries of the Global South...

In a thoughtful article, “Revolution in a Warming World: Lessons from the Russian to the Syrian Revolutions,” Andreas Malm writes,

Lenin spoke of the catastrophe of his time as a ‘mighty accelerator’ bringing all contradictions to a head, ‘engendering world-wide crises of unparalleled intensity,’ driving nations ‘to the brink of doom’… 

Climate change is likely to be the accelerator of the twenty-first century, speeding up the contradictions of late capitalism – above all the growing chasm between the evergreen lawns of the rich and the precariousness of propertyless existence – and expedit[ing] one local catastrophe after another. [2]

In advanced capitalist countries, we could see even more aggressive attacks on public health care, education and social services as states cut there while they spend more in response to floods, droughts and other effects of climate change... leading to an intensification of racism and repression and the growth of fascist and other far right movements.

As more catastrophes happen... ruling-class strategists will attempt to come up with responses to reduce the impact of climate change and manage these problems on their terms... we need anti-capitalist, anti-oppression, social-struggle ecological justice politics with a commitment to constructive involvement in broad workplace, community and campus organizing.

'SMORES NO MORE : PRUITT WAR ON RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVASTATES LUAU INDUSTRY

GEOENGINEERING : THE END OF THE GOLDEN AGE

IT WAS CALLED  Γαιάτεχνε  AT THE TIME

Apologies to William Cope- pinxit MCMXXXVIII

CHARTER FLIGHT SNOWBALL FIGHT GROUNDS PRUITT

                                                                          Inhofe signo vinces

IOWA MAD MEN BUSHWACK TULSA PR POSSE

IOWA AND KANSAS REPUBLICAN FARMERS HAVE SICCED A DES MOINES ADVERTISING FIRM ON ADMINISTRATOR PRUITT FOR TALK OF TAKING THE CORN ALCOHOL OUT OF  GASOLINE 

SWAMP CELEBRATES ARRIVAL OF STEVE MILLOY

AFTER ROLLING DOWNMARKET FOR A DECADE
AFTER HIS EJECTION FROM A MOUNT PELERIN
SUMMIT MEETING, THE JUNK SCIENCE JUNKETEER
HAS BOTTOMED OUT IN THE SWAMP

Steve Milloy doesn't like 'climate bedwetters'

Scott Waldman, E&E News reporter

Published: Tuesday, June 12, 2018The former securities lawyer and Trump EPA transition official has held significant sway over some of the agency's major policy moves under Administrator Scott Pruitt.

There is a mountain of science that says he's wrong... 

So for years, Milloy... a former executive at the Murray Energy Corp. coal company, had no real influence at EPA. Instead, the agency served as a useful target of his ire.

Then Trump was elected.

With Pruitt expressing empathy toward industry, Milloy has helped muster some major changes at EPA. He's largely unknown to the public, a symptom, perhaps, of toiling for years in obscurity.  His daily Twitter feed is a mix of attacks on communism, liberals and "climate bedwetters." He also posts frequent exclamations of triumph.

Like these:

Trump rolls back a policy by President Obama that sought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "WINNING!!" Milloy writes.

 A judge lifts a ban on coal exports at a port in Oakland, Calif. "WINNING!!"
Pruitt will get "Secret Science" out of EPA. Very               "YUGE WINNING!!"

                                                                "Thank God for President @realDonaldTrump," 

In the past, Milloy was a hired crusader helping companies ... He wouldn't disclose who his funders are in a recent interview, allowing only that they include "private foundations."

In April, Milloy was in the audience at EPA headquarters when Pruitt proposed a rule that would restrict some types of science that the agency can use to craft regulations... They were in the Rachel Carson Green Room, named after the famed environmentalist, who Milloy said "misrepresented the existing science on bird reproduction and was wrong about DDT causing cancer."... He tweeted:

 Climate skeptic barbarians @junkscience and @climatedepot. Not just at the EPA's gate, but inside the administrator's office eating the greens' lunch....

I don't even know that I'm representative of anything, because I'm the only person I know that has been doing whatever is I've been doing for the last 25 years,"

"For me, it's been this tremendous educational experience. When I die, I'm not going to sit there and wonder what that was all about. I have been fortunate that I have been able to do this continuing education on scholarship in a way. The fact that my ideas have now gained traction in government and are going to be part of public policy, well, that's awesome. 

Who in Washington could ask for more?

THE ANTHROPOCENE: BAD FOR BAOBABS ?

NATURE NEWS  12 JUNE 2018

Africa’s majestic baobab trees are mysteriously dying

 LES BAOBABS MAJESTIQUES EXTRA-TERRESTRES

Between 2005 & 2017,[a team from] Babeş-Bolyai University in Romania.

dated more than 60 trees across Africa and its islands — nearly all of the continent’s largest, and potentially longest living, known baobabs. To compare ages of different parts of the trees, the researchers collected samples of wood from the inner cavities and exteriors of the trunks and from deep incisions in the stems, which were then sealed to prevent infection.

Patrut and his colleagues say that their measurements suggest the trees live so long because they periodically produce new stems, similarly to how other trees produce new branches. The team says that over time, these stems fuse into a ring-shaped structure, creating a false cavity in the middle.

BAOBABS IN A BAD MOOD

But, surprisingly, the scientists also found that most of the oldest and largest baobabs died during the study, often suddenly between measurements. Nine of the 13 oldest, and 5 of the 6 largest, baobabs measured died in the 12-year period — “an event of unprecedented magnitude”, says the study. The researchers found no signs of an epidemic or disease, leading them to suggest that changing climates in southern Africa could be to blame — but they stress that more research is needed to confirm this idea.

In one instance, the researchers observed that in 2010 and 2011, all the stems of Panke, a giant, sacred baobab tree in Zimbabwe, fell over and died. The team estimates that the tree was 2,450 years old, making it the oldest known accurately dated African baobab and angiosperm. Other trees across southern Africa also died completely, or had partial stem collapse.

EVERY DISASTER MOVIE OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS NEEDS A BOOK OF GENESIS

1974

“… revolutionaries have been misguided. Not only can the United States not afford the costs of a bloody revolution; such an effort could easily lead to suicide for what remains of the “movement.” 

...the number of people dedicated to violent revolution is far short of a critical mass and now seems to be declining... 

Revolutions exhaust material resources ...  It is certain that policies designed to achieve social justice and ecological stability would require considerable economic redistribution and some form of social dislocation

Radicals who genuinely desire to ensure “power for the people” in the long run should consider what the immediate effects of suddenly involving millions of “silent majority” voters directly ...

even though the United States possesses one of the world’s largest educational establishments, politically sophisticated citizens remain in the minority... those interested in rapid social change should be thankful... minor changes can be initiated by a dedicated cadre of a few thousand people. "

NEOPHYTE FILM DIRECTOR  ROLAND EMMERICH

TOOK UP THE CHALLENGE WITH 
THE NOAH'S ARK PRINCIPLE

HE WENT ON TO PRODUCE 

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

COGNITIVE CAGW DISSONANCE IMAGING AT THE GWPF

THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL

Date: 08/06/18 John Ridgway, Climate Scepticism

Much work has already been undertaken to establish the cognitive foundation for the irrationality of climate change denial. Of particular note are the studies undertaken by Lewandowsky, Kahneman, Shapiro and O’Conner, identifying the many cognitive biases that invalidate arguments put forward by those who profess scepticism in the face of the scientific evidence. However, it is not until recently that neuroscientists have turned their attention to the subject of climate change science denial in order to determine whether there are any fundamental neurological indicators that may be used as predictors of such pathological thinking strategies. 

In The neurobiology of climate change denial,  Dr Rodriguez Azuela et al, of the Positano Behavioural and Cognitive Research Unit report:

 “We were interested to see how the pattern of neural activity differed between climate change deniers and those who accept the scientific consensus...For this purpose, subjects who had declared varying degrees of scepticism were confronted with images totemic of climate change evidence and were asked to offer their personal assessment whilst undergoing Catastropic Alarmist Global Warming Alarmist Dissonance Imaging (CAGWADMRI)...

It would be quite wrong to label climate change deniers as psychopaths based upon the results of this study. Psychopathy exists as a spectrum of human behaviour; in this instance the GWPF's self-parody simply indicates an unusually low paralimbic reaction to a perceived threat.

In reality, studies have shown that confirmation bias poses the greatest challenge to cognitive performance. Those that suffer this bias will accept what they read unquestioningly, whilst others remain instinctively suspicious. Doubt should have kicked in at Ridgway's suggestion that Positano has a Behavioural and Cognitive Research Unit. However, if you still failed to recognize the inauthenticity of this article, perhaps you should now be questioning any faith you might have had in the scientific consensus that imputing intellectual seriousness to the GWPF Forum may be symptomatic of brain death, witness that the editors of their sister publication  Climate Depot  fell for it with the ease of GWPF Director Benny Peisner and Rush Limbaugh swallowing the " Benthic Bacteria" hoax hook line and sinker:

In 2007  the denialati fell for a non-existent article in a non-existent learned journal :

 “Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the death of manmade global warming theory?” 

It featured a spectacular  display of pure gibberish, peppered with pseudoequations, like:

4δ161x Λ³Жญ5,6,1,8Φ-4 = {(ΣΨ²Њyt3-14๖P9) x 49}/2β x ⅜kxgt-§

adduced to prove  that 'benthic bacteria', not man-made CO2, cause global arming.

I was designed, sucessfully, to make climate scientists fall down laughing, but   Peisner posted it on the GWPF blog, where it remained unchallenged  long enough for 2,000 true believers to read it without complaint. 

Rush Limbaugh broadcast the bogus hypothesis nationwide, declaring it  "very convincing ",  and citing as proof positive its reference to fossils from the " Miocene, Pliocene and Plasticine eras."

CAN AXOLOTL COUGH SYRUP SAVE THE MANTHROPOCENE?

Emerging technologies promise to give us the power to take over some of Nature's most basic operations. It is not just that we are exiting the Holocene and entering the Anthropocene; it is that we are leaving behind the time in which planetary change is just the unintended consequence of unbridled industrialism. A world designed by engineers and technicians means the birth of the planet's first Synthetic Age.

Sarah Aronson: 

As opposed to the Anthropocene, what is the Manthropocene?

The Manthropocene is a label feminists have concocted in order to point the finger at masculinity as being the cause of a lot of environmental problems. 

So if you call it the Anthropocene it suggests that the whole of humanity is equally implicated in the kinds of destruction that we’ve caused. 
If you call it the Manthropocene, you’re pointing your finger.

ELSEWHERE IN INTERSECTIONAL BROADCASTING, THE BBC REPORTS:

A group of retiring Mexican nuns have become the most adept and successful breeders  of  the Achoque axolotl  
a  critically  endangered  species 
with unique regenerative abilities.

IT MUST BE A HUGE  VICTORIA GILL FAN 

The nuns breed a large, genetically diverse collection of animals to produce the secret ingredient in their cough syrup.

Science Correspondent Victoria Gill has been to Mexico to visit this unique conservation convent.

You can hear more from Victoria Gill’s journey to Mexico to meet the sisters on The Sisters of the Sacred Salamander on Radio 4.

TRUMP BEGINS BUILDING BORDER WALL AROUND PRUITT

THE WEEK reports

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has reportedly walled himself off from everyone at the agency except a core group of five aides, and two members of that inner circle, executive scheduler Millan Hupp and senior counselor Sarah Greenwalt, tendered their resignations on Wednesday...

Hupp... drafting her resignation... after... doing personal errands for Pruitt — searching for his housing, trying to obtain a used mattress from Trump International Hotel, and seeing about getting a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife

On the upside, Axios says its a very thick wall:

Inside Scott Pruitt's "miserable" bunker

President Trump is unhappy about a report in The Atlantic which says a member of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's press team has been shopping negative stories about Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to multiple outlets. A source who spoke to Trump told me the president raised the issue in conversation and said, "That's not good." Trump has been souring on Pruitt as the negative press about him piles up.

Why this matters: Pruitt — who is under siege from federal investigators, the White House, Capitol Hill, and the media — survives because the one guy who matters in the White House won't fire him. Trump's draining supply of goodwill towards Pruitt is the EPA administrator's lifeline. Most everyone else in the building wants him gone.

• Over the last few months, Pruitt has walled himself off from all but five EPA political appointees: ​Millan Hupp, Sarah Greenwalt, Hayley Ford, Lincoln Ferguson, and Wilcox. Of those five, only Wilcox is over 30. Hupp, Greenwalt and Ferguson came with Pruitt from Oklahoma. Wilcox is the only press aide Pruitt appears to trust.
• "All of us have been frozen out over time," one EPA political appointee told me. "It's absolutely unreal working here. Everyone's miserable. Nobody talks. It's a dry wall prison."...

Now, senior political appointees tell me they have no idea where and how Pruitt spends his time. They scan Twitter and the news to try to keep tabs on him.

• Pruitt used to share his travel schedule with political appointees. Then, over the winter, he sent out a redacted schedule simply saying "travel." After that, he stopped sharing it altogether. Since his April 26 congressional testimony, senior staff outside his inner circle have had virtually no idea of his whereabouts.
• The leadership in Pruitt's congressional affairs shop have complained to associates that they can't do their jobs. They've griped about complaints from members of Congress when the members find out after the fact that Pruitt has visited their state or congressional district. The embarrassing reality for Pruitt's legislative affairs team is they had no idea either. 
• Wilcox pushed back on that complaint, noting that Pruitt has appeared with members in their districts at least twice in the last few months.
• Two sources told me that Pruitt's hardly been in the office this past week. He's been planning to set up an external legal defense fund — a development first reported by the New York Times.

The bottom line: Pruitt has grown paranoid and isolated, and he only trusts a small handful of people at the agency. Senior White House staff darkly joke among themselves every time a fresh bad story comes out about Pruitt. Numerous senior EPA staff have already resigned or plan to quit.