Uploaded on Jan 21, 2012 by ShufflebassT to YouTube: Rest In Peace Richard Pierce "Richie" Havens.. ☮ (January 21, 1941 - April 22, 2013) More than 3 months ago I decided to take a look into the woodstock history and music. I was interested in peace, freedom and the hippie scene. Then I found this excellent, unique live performance by Richie Havens. At first I thought that he is just a very talented guitar player, but when he began to sing, my whole world stopped. His amazing own voice kinda petrified me. After that I imagined that he just sat there more than 42 years ago in front of more than 400 thousand people and sang into the microphone "YEAH ! FREEDOM ! FREEDOM !" and that was the moment which changed my life. Then I watched other videos where he sang freedom at woodstock and i realized that there is no real version of it. All versions are sort of pitched up (that means his voice is a bit higher than normaly) I downloaded one video, made it HD and made his voice deeper, so now in this video you will hear the real voice version and video of him. By the way, today was richie's 71st birthday. So I wish one of the greatest men alive HAPPY BIRTHDAY and all the best.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Andy Lee Robinson is at it again with ice visualization magic. These visuals are powerful and give individuals a vivid and visceral handle on what is happening on the roof of the world.
http://climatecrocks.com/2013/04/23/arctic-ice-mass-loss-visualized/
SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors (SFERS) passed a unanimous resolution this afternoon calling on the San Francisco Employee Retirement System to divest over $583 million invested in the 200 corporations that hold the majority of the world’s fossil fuel reserves.
The resolution makes San Francisco the third city in the nation after Ithaca and Seattle to push for fossil fuel divestment. If the SFERS Board agrees to the Supervisors’ request, it will become the largest pension fund in the country to divest from the fossil fuel industry.
“Divestment is an important part of our city response to climate change,” said Supervisor John Avalos, who introduced the resolution.
The San Francisco Employee’s Retirement System (SFERS) is a roughly $16 billion pension fund that serves more than 52,000 active and retired employees of the City and County of San Francisco and their survivors. According to SFERS Executive Director Jay Huish, the fund currently owns $583.7 million of public holdings in 91 of top 200 fossil fuel companies. Some of SFERS’ largest fossil fuel holdings include $112 million in ExxonMobil, $60 million in Chevron, $26 million in Shell Oil, $17 million in Occidental Petroleum, and $11 million in the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. (1)
The push for fossil fuel divestment is part of a new national campaign, Go Fossil Free, that is modeled on the 1980s movement to divest from apartheid South Africa. The movement has spread to over 100 cities and 300 colleges and universities across the country. Four colleges, Unity, Hampshire, Sterling, and College of the Atlantic, have committed to divestment. There are also active campaigns on every University of California campus. Earlier this spring, UC Berkeley’s student government voted to divest their $2 million budget from fossil fuels. (2)
In San Francisco, the divestment campaign was led by 350 Bay Area and the national 350.org campaign and supported by groups including SEIU 1021, SF Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, Center for Biological Diverstiy, and more.
“San Francisco’s commitment is a big victory for the burgeoning fossil fuel divestment movement,” said Bill McKibben, founder of350.org, one of the organizations helping lead Go Fossil Free campaign. “The Bay Area will spend billions adapting to climate change--it makes no sense at all to simultaneously invest in the corporations making that work necessary.”
Allowing global warming to proceed unchecked could have a devastating affect on the Bay Area. A recent report by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission found that a 55-inch sea level rise by the end of the century would put $62 billion of Bay Area shoreline development at risk and require at least $14 billion worth of static structures to protect California’s shorelines. (3)
The 200 fossil fuel companies targeted by Board of Supervisors resolution were chosen because they control the vast majority of the world’s coal, oil and gas reserves. According to top scientists and analysis by groups like the International Energy Agency, nearly 80% of those reserves must go unburned if the world is going to keep global warming below 2°C, a target that the United States and nearly every other country on Earth has agreed to meet. (4)
SFERS could face a potential financial risk by staying invested in the fossil fuel industry, according to a new report by market analysts at HSBC. According to the report, if countries agree to meet the 2°C target and pass regulations strong enough to keep 75-80% of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground, the write off of those reserves could cause loss in market value of up to 60% for fossil fuel companies like BP, Shell, and Chevron. (5)
On the other hand, according to a new report by the Aperio Group, a group of financial advisors based in Marin, fossil fuel divestment poses would increase portfolio risk by a roughly 0.01%. The report’s lead author, Patrick Geddes, told reporters on a recent webinar that, “Statistically, it’s basically noise.” (6)
After today’s vote, divestment advocates will be following up with the SFERS Retirement Board to make sure that it pursues the divestment goal in a timely and responsible manner, as well as continuing to educate San Francisco residents about the importance of the move.
“This is a big victory today, but it’s just the beginning of our campaign here in California,” said Jamie Henn, 350.org’s Communications Director and a San Francisco resident. “We’re looking forward to extending this effort to cities across the state and supporting the growing student movement on campuses. We’ve financed the fossil fuel industry’s destruction long enough, it’s time to invest in the future.”
###
1. SFERS latest financial report: http://bit.ly/Xcpasb
2. Go Fossil Free campaign website: http://gofossilfree.org
3. Sea level rise report: http://bit.ly/yibazN
4. Article on IEA report: http://bit.ly/QDWkT4
5. Article on HSBC report on fossil fuel reserves: http://bit.ly/Xdm32Z
6. Article on Aperio Group report: http://bit.ly/WeRLzv
by Charles P. Pierce, Esquire Magazine, April 19, 2013
Because we all could use a break, let's check in on the latest news from the midwest subsidiary of Koch Industries formerly known as the state of Wisconsin.
As Democrats were seeking access to Republican redistricting files last year, hundreds of thousands of computer files were deleted from state computers used by GOP aides, according to documents filed Thursday in federal court in Milwaukee. Democratic plaintiffs alleged in the court filing that six days after an agreement for Republicans to hand over files used to draw new legislative districts, someone logged in as a Republican aide deleted hundreds of thousands of redistricting files from one of the computers. The following week, redistricting documents were handed over to Democrats. "The meaning of this . . . cannot be known unless and until the deleted files are recovered and reviewed," one of the filings said of the deletions. The plaintiffs are seeking to have the state pay the more than $100,000 expense of the costly computer review needed to recover the deleted files.
What a terribly inconvenient accident to have happened!
Wait, no.
The case holds high stakes for GOP lawmakers and Michael Best & Friedrich, the firm they hired to help draw the new legislative lines. The federal judges in the case have been critical of the way the firm handled the case, at one point ordering lawyers there to pay about $17,500 because they had filed frivolous motions in attempts to block the release of documents. Every 10 years, states must draw new maps for legislative and congressional districts to account for population changes. Republicans controlled all of Wisconsin's government in 2011, and they used their power to draw lines that were greatly beneficial to their party and those districts were largely upheld after a group of Democrats and the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera sued over them.
Don't sleep on Wisconsin. It's the lab rat for everything else they want to do.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Greenpeace Switzerland, April 22, 2013
With the help of local activists, on April 17, Greenpeace Switzerland scaled the building at Syngenta’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, and dropped a large banner proclaiming “Syngenta Pesticides Kill Bees.” The global agrochemical company consistently denies that its pesticide products kill bees. For the last 15 years, in Europe and North America bees are dying at an alarming extent. Depending on the year and region, the mortality of bee colonies is up 53%.
© Greenpeace 2013 / Michael Würtenberg
Syngenta’s products Actara and Cruiser contain the active ingredient thiamethoxam—a neonicotinoid—one of the pesticides most harmful to bees. With an annual turnover of $14.2 billion, Syngenta is the world’s biggest seller of pesticides—neonicotinoids representing around 10% of total sales. Neonicotinoids are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine. They are used for seed dressing or sprayed directly on the plant. Extensive studies of the European Authority for Food Safety Authority and a recently published Greenpeace study shows that a small dose means acute poisoning to bees, leading to flight and navigation problems, fertility issues and inefficient and reduced foraging—making colonies more prone to illness or parasites.
Bees are crucial for our survival. At least one-third of global food production depends on pollination by bees and other insects. In addition to parasites, diseases, climate change and a decline in natural habitats from industrial agricultural practices—the use of pesticides is responsible for the devastating decline of bee populations worldwide.
Countries across Europe have already begun implementing the prohibition against bee-killing pesticides. In France, Germany, Slovenia and Italy, these toxins have been partially banned for years and have seen evidence of recovering bee populations without yield loss. While the European Commission is apparently willing to adopt far-reaching restrictions despite massive resistance from the industry, the Swiss government remains passive as Agriculture Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann appears to be intimidated by threats from Syngenta.
“Syngenta must stop spreading untruths. Syngenta responds to profit instead of to the protection of bees,” said Marianne Künzle, agricultural expert at Greenpeace Switzerland. “The dramatic death of wild bees and honey bees is a symptom of misguided industrial agriculture, which serves mainly the interests of powerful corporations like Syngenta. It must stop now. As the agriculture minister, Schneider-Ammann is required to address this issue. Protect our bees and agriculture—Prohibit bee killing pesticides!”
In February, Greenpeace Switzerland was joined by beekeepers from all over in Bern, Switzerland, and presented a petition of 80,000 signatures to protect the bees.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
by Andrew Glikson, The Conversation, March 22, 2013
It’s long been known that massive increases in emission of CO2 from volcanoes, associated with the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in the end-Triassic Period, set off a shift in state of the climate which caused global mass extinction of species, eliminating about 34% of genera. The extinction created ecological niches which allowed the rise of dinosaurs during the Triassic, about 250–200 million years ago.New research released this morning in Science Express has refined the dating of this wave of volcanism. It shows marine and land species disappear from the fossil record within 20,000 to 30,000 years from the time evidence for the eruption of large magma flows appears, approximately 201 million years ago. These volcanic eruptions increased atmospheric CO2 and increased ocean acidity.
Mass extinctions due to rapidly escalating levels of CO2 are recorded since as long as 580 million years ago. As our anthropogenic global emissions of CO2 are rising, at a rate for which no precedence is known from the geological record with the exception of asteroid impacts, another wave of extinctions is unfolding.
Mass extinctions of species in the history of Earth include:
- the ~580 million years-old (Ma) Acraman impact (South Australia) and Acrytarch (ancient palynomorphs) extinction and radiation
- Late Devonian (~374 Ma) volcanism, peak global temperatures and mass extinctions
- the end-Devonian impact cluster associated with mass extinction, which among others destroyed the Kimberley Fitzroy reefs (~360 Ma)
- the upper Permian (~267 Ma) extinction associated with a warming trend
- the Permian-Triassic boundary volcanic and asteroid impact events (~ 251 Ma) and peak warming
- the End-Triassic (201 Ma) opening of the Atlantic Ocean, and massive volcanism
- an End-Jurassic (~145 Ma) impact cluster and opening of the Indian Ocean
- the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary (K-T) (~65 Ma) impact cluster, Deccan volcanic activity and mass extinction
- the pre-Eocene–Oligocene boundary (~34 Ma) impact cluster and a cooling trend, followed by opening of the Drake Passage between Antarctica and South America, formation of the Antarctic ice sheet and minor extinction at ~34 Ma.
Click on graphs to enlarge.
In February 2013, CO2 levels had risen to near 396.80 ppm at Mauna Loa Atmospheric Observatory, compared to 393.54 ppm in February 2012. This rise (3.26 ppm per year) is at the highest rate yet recorded. Further measurements show CO2 is at near 400 ppm of the atmosphere over the Arctic. At this rate the upper stability threshold of the Antarctic ice sheet, defined at about 500–600 ppm CO2 would be reached later this century (although hysteresis of the ice sheets may slow down melting).
Our global carbon reserves (including coal, oil, oil shale, tar sands, gas and coal-seam gas) contain considerably more than 10,000 billion tonnes of carbon (see Figure 5). This amount of carbon, if released into the atmosphere, is capable of raising atmospheric CO2 levels to higher than 1,000 ppm. Such a rise in atmospheric radiative forcing will be similar to that of the Paleocene–Eocene boundary thermal maximum (PETM), which happened about 55 million years ago (see Figures 1, 2 and 4). But the rate of rise surpasses those of this thermal maximum by about ten times.
The Paleocene–Eocene boundary thermal maximum event about 55 million years ago saw the release of approximately 2,000–3,000 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere in the form of methane (CH4). It led to the extinction of about 35–50% of benthic foraminifera (see Figures 3 and 4), representing a major decline in the state of the marine ecosystem. The temperature rise and ocean acidity during this event are shown in Figures 4 and 6.
Based on the amount of carbon already emitted and which could continue to be released to the atmosphere (see Figure 5), current climate trends could be tracking toward conditions like those of the Paleocene–Eocene event. Many species may be unable to adapt to the extreme rate of current rise in greenhouse gases and temperatures. The rapid opening of the Arctic Sea ice, melting of Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets, and rising spate of floods, heat waves, fires and other extreme weather events may signify a shift in the state of the climate, crossing tipping points.
By analogy to medical science analysing blood count as diagnosis for cancer, climate science uses the greenhouse gas levels of the atmosphere, pH levels of the ocean, variations in solar insolation, aerosol concentrations, clouding states at different levels of the atmosphere, state of the continental ice sheets and sea ice, position of high pressure ridges and climate zones and many other parameters to determine trends in the climate. The results of these tests, conducted by thousands of peer-reviewed scientists world-wide, have to date been ignored, at the greatest peril to humanity and nature.
Continuing emissions contravene international laws regarding crimes against humanity and related International and Australian covenants. In the absence of an effective global mitigation effort, governments world-wide are now presiding over the demise of future generations and of nature, tracking toward one of the greatest mass extinction events nature has seen. It is time we learned from the history of planet Earth.
Andrew Glikson does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article.
by Peter Sinclair, Climate Denial Crock of the Week, April 11, 2013
I bumped into some of these sea ice maps squirreled away on a dusty corner of my HD, on my way to researching this week’s video, and it occurred to me this would make a good post. Checking around, I see Neven already had it covered some time ago.
Nevertheless, people should know about these very valuable historical documents –Danish Sea Ice Maps from the early 20th century. [Readers, these maps are amazing. Go to the link and find the publication from 1907 and check out September!]
I’m supposed to be on a holiday and should let this one slide, but it’s too much. I was expecting fake skeptics to remain mostly silent in face of the ice massacre up north, but apparently they acutely sense how big this blow is to the remaining shred of their credibility, and so they upped the ante of misleading and distorting stupidity. Anyone can see and judge the silliness of paid shill Marc Morano, 5-sentence posts regurgitator/vomiter Steve Goddard and of course WUWT. But this Sunday Times article, written by well-known pseudo-journalist Jonathan Leake (search for his name on Deltoid) had a quote by presumed scientist John Christy that really got my hackles up:Professor John Christy director of the Earth System Science Centre at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, said the Arctic had indeed warmed, but there was also anecdotal and other evidence suggesting similar melts from 1938-43 and on other occasions.
“Climate change is a murky science,” he said. “To some it’s an easy answer to say it’s due to extra green house gasses. To the rest of us, separating natural variability from human impacts remains a wicked problem.”Commenters over at Skeptical Science quickly took this nonsense apart. First FrankD:Danske Meteorologiske Institut published a series of annual reports on arctic sea ice covering most years from 1893 to 1956. The link has one folder per year, with each containing individual pages (month identified by the trailing digit) and the whole annual report (about 5 meg each).
Just referring to August extent…
Its true that ice extent was lower in the 1930s than it had been in the preceding 30 years. In particular, 1938 saw a dramatic reduction from the previous years – it was probably 1.4 M km^2 below the then long term average and maybe 0.6 M km^2 below the already low years in the late 30′s (carefully measured using Eyeball, Mk I).
So, it is fair to say there were some big melts in the 30s. But Christy’s false equivalence is an epic fail – “similar melts” is pretty nice weasel-wording for mine. 1.4 M km^2 below recent climatology? Considered like that, 1938 was like 2010, I guess.
But in absolute terms, August 1938 extent was much greater (4 M km^2?) than today. So any attempt to conflate the two is…well…I can[‘t think of an adjective suitable for polite company.
Taking the Kinnard graphic (below) – the 1930s' “similar melt” is the second last dip on the graph, the first decline with modern observational data. This saw a return to “normal” after a peak that had seen the greatest extents in 500 years.
And then Daniel Bailey posted two graphs:Compared to the current decline on Kinnard (even without “enhancement”)? Well, even on Sesame Street they could tell you when one of these things was not like the other…
1. Arctic Sea Ice Extent August 1938 (see top of post).
2. Arctic Sea Ice Extent August 2012 (see below).
http://climatecrocks.com/2013/04/11/pesky-reality-intrudes-in-denierville-again-danish-ice-maps-from-the-30s/
My question to Dr. Christy: Why do you lie?
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