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Cosmic waves beginning…reported as interplanetary shock waves.

June 1, 2013 at 2:57 am Leave a Comment

GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A G2-class (Kp=6) geomagnetic storm is in progress following the arrival of an interplanetary shock wave on May 31st. The source of the shock is not known; it might have been a minor CME that left the sun without drawing attention to itself. The impact sparked auroras across many northern-tier US states. This photo, for instance, comes from Christopher Griffith in Baxter, Minnesota:

“I wasn’t expecting to see any lights, but right before the midnight it broke loose and the sky lit up,” says Griffith. “Sadly the clouds quickly filled in my little window, and the auroras were gone. Just thankful for what I got so see!” Elsewhere in the USA, auroras were sighted as far south as Colorado, Maryland, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

Filed Under: 2013 Global Changes - Earth Changes, Doom & Gloom or Choice of Survival?, Earth Changes News, Environmental & Specie Changes, Global Changes, NASA News - Sun to Earth Activity, Predictions for World Changes, Solar Energy Shifts, What is happening to our Earth?, World Disaster or Spiritual Evolution?, World Healing Project

Energy “bombardments” …earth is okay …really…

May 29, 2013 at 6:28 pm Leave a Comment

June 4, 2013 – we are expecting some energy “bombardments”…kind of hard on the sensitive ears/sensitive empaths… Earth is strained but can handle things..expect intense ESP sensitivities previously not awakened. Earth’s inner body is hot & stressed so expecting some relief valves through volcanoes….also East Cost of USA…expect the unexpected..especially Maryland region.

Filed Under: 2013 Global Changes - Earth Changes, Doom & Gloom or Choice of Survival?, Earth Changes News, Environmental & Specie Changes, Global Changes, Healing sites, Predictions for World Changes, Solar Energy Shifts, Uncategorized, Universal Laws and Reflections, What is happening to our Earth?, World Disaster or Spiritual Evolution?, World Healing Project, World News

Cosmic Wave Particles – towards our Earth

May 28, 2013 at 9:49 am Leave a Comment

I have been guided to write about the rapid changes taking place on our earth and the reason for them.  I will try to then keep you abreast of the situation and what can be expected as time moves forward.

According to the “Presence”, a pulse or wave was sent out a very, very long time ago from a Central Quasar…so long ago in fact that we are receiving a “ripple” only of this…thank goodness!  However please note that these waves that move across the very fabric of creation are all in Order with the cycles and changes that are expected to the stellar and planetary systems of galaxies far and wide.  When an influence is sent out to impress changes upon the races in existence..it is all in Divine Order of the great plan or schematic of Creation.

Energy Intelligence contained in cosmic particles of the wave reach the human race here on earth and are to cause change within each of us…let me quote here a snippet from the dialogue more recently:

“During this Age..the new Reign begins in the Higher Teachings of Cosmic Intelligence and as such there are specific needs for the human race.  Optimizing their opportunity to grow in expanded consciousness is Key to their existence.  We afford you this discussion in order for you to begin to reflect more deeply upon this subject matter.  Your Energy systems here on earth are stressed and must break further in order to be replaced or modified which would then bring new beginnings to most of those on your planet.  The Overseeing Divine Mind, Intelligence Wisdom and Understanding is upon you and now the existence of human beings is being questioned.  Their survival rate is low in face of disasters and pending changes thus we are enabling many to pursue other means of expression now.  Those left to continue with the earth will do so under different vibratory patterns.  The current patterns create a particular design in their swirling similarly capturing the reflection of the Divine swirling.  Then there are the disrupted patterns that are being cleaned up.  They are likely to go into a bend or warp so that mankind can escape much of the doom and disaster with selected ones executing the plan of the future earth.  The slowly establishing return of the Divine Age is underway.

Cryptic notes have been left for you .many of you..in the folds of the fabric of creation and you are to determine their meaning, with help of course.  During the changes ahead it is wise to buffer the impact by reducing your engagement to the false teachings and false leaderships in the world that suppress the man’s consciousness and pretend to be their aligned friend.  In fact they are the foe and this folly must stop.”
** Please note that the Teaching is given so that we can wake up and start to recognize our responsibility to follow Universal Laws”.

…continuing
“Exploring the need for greed and mutations to take over the earth is meaningful yet one must understand that this is but a temporary glitch in the program relative to the All Presence cycle.

You are to learn about the Cosmic waves that are entering the Galactic rim and those that originate in the core substance…these two systems meet causing a swirling like projection that moves and turns systems over to new expressions.  Like flipping your mattress each spring..we need to flip or reset the systems here that you live in.

The morbidity rate will rise and the lack of considerations for those abroad grows more distant.

Each member of the human race family is to be addressed..and the best way possible is to engage in the Cosmic blessings for all…you have the Peace and the Divine Right to instill these higher qualities among mankind as it is still a viable option for many as to which path they will choose to take. To be left behind on a warped planetary system surely means in many cases an early demise due to the toxins and toxic environment.

The naval powers and military might will mean nothing when one is so hot that you can’t breathe.

The new consciousness is one in which mankind can thrive and be liberated from the challenges of this.”

Council further adds this:

”
The world is collapsing and most of the old programs…. and systems… as economically they are not viable and militarily they  are not viable…. for strength wanes and the Earth herself is showing her own might.

She will not permit conditions to get more deplorable in her kingdoms.  The systems must change and mankind must abide by the Universal Law.

The disturbances are coming in first and coming in hard…These changes will awaken many…for the false Teachings must stop.

Know This….Justice will be served and all will abide by her.

Divine Justice is placing her Sword into the ground and reverberations will arise from this now.

NO more studies need to be done now (by scientists)..the research and development, application and advancement for mankind must now follow prevention and technical conservation.

True facts..not just fragments.

Divine Energy Intelligence will be composing a direct vortex or swirling..through sound and Light and it will be burning across the fabric…These waves of Fire/transformative cosmic particles move at rapids speeds and liken to burn across the fabric…tearing up in it’s path as it goes.

These will activate the ancient grid sites of the incoming and outgoing communicative towers and pyramids..thus your own minds will be knowing the timing of the incoming wave.

Others will feel it as an assault not knowing what to make of it..therefore the Teachers are protected but will also be asked to convey meaning to others.

If one is aware one can tune into it..will know of it’s changes.

Others fear..others are confused.

It is scheduled to flow through during the May to June cycle and it will go across for several weeks of your time.

The influence begins early/mid May and continues from there…Systems will further collapse.

** Please note that the wave has already begun and mankind is proving to be very successful in waking up already !  see how so many have taken to the media to oppose the false teachings

and the oppression and control.  If it wise therefore, to wake up to your own internal Self and govern and Master that which you do have control over; your lower self.

In Light and in Peace,

Kathy Roseborough

 

Filed Under: 2013 Global Changes - Earth Changes, Doom & Gloom or Choice of Survival?, Earth Changes News, Global Changes, Healing sites, Predictions for World Changes, Solar Energy Shifts, Universal Laws and Reflections, What is happening to our Earth?, World Disaster or Spiritual Evolution?, World Healing Project

Watch the “subtle” approach to Arctic by CHINA

April 22, 2013 at 6:47 pm Leave a Comment

China should have a say in future of Arctic – Iceland president

Olafur Ragnar Grimsson says nations beyond the polar region should be involved in determining future of the far north

 

China in Arctic : Iceland flag on Tiananmen square during visit of Johanna Sigurdardottir

A Chinese national flag (right) and Iceland national flag (left) are displayed on a street lamp at Tiananmen square in Beijing on April 15, 2013. Photograph: Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images

Iceland‘s president has called for an expanded role for China and other Asian countries in the future of the Arctic, arguing that the rapid melting of the summer sea ice was having effects far beyond the region.

In a visit to Washington, for the launch of a new global forum, the Arctic Circle, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said countries beyond the polar region deserved a say in determining the future of the far north.

“It is a wrong scenario to think that this will only be of concern to those people living in the Arctic. It will be a concern to every nation,” Grimsson said in an interview. “There is no country that will escape the consequences, either through rising sea levels or extreme weather patterns.”

With that in mind, Grimsson argued that oil companies and countries as far away as China, India, Singapore and South Korea should have a voice in the future of the region. At present, only the eight countries of the Arctic Council have a say in setting policy in the region. “We realise that there are other nations in Asia and Europe that have legitimate concerns and enterprises in the Arctic and it’s important to involve them in a co-operative effort,” Grimsson said.

He made his visit to Washington as Chinese and Icelandic leaders signed a free trade agreement in Beijing that will give China a bigger foothold in the emerging region.

Grimsson said Arctic Circle would aim for a more inclusive debate about the future of the Arctic.

Decisions on the development and the environment of the region are now the preserve of the eight countries involved in the Arctic Council: America, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden in addition to Iceland.

But Grimsson said it was important to involve other countries in deciding the future of the region, as it undergoes a rapid transformation due to climate change.

Last year produced a record melting of summer sea ice. A study published last week by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Arctic waters could be nearly ice-free by as early as 2020.

The retreat of summer sea ice has seen a push by oil and mining companies to drill in Arctic waters, and by Asian countries hoping to cut shipping routes. Environment campaigners on Monday planted a flag on the seabed at the north pole and demanded the region be declared a global sanctuary.

The new forum launched this week will hold its first gathering in Reykjavik in October and will be open to government officials, scientists and members of non-government organisations.

Grimsson described it as an “open tent”.

“I see it as a part of my responsibility to encourage a dialogue between the people who live in the Arctic and those who want to use the Arctic – to put it bluntly,” he said during a speech on Monday.

Grimsson told an audience at the National Press Club that in every meeting with Asian leaders this year, from China, South Korea, Singapore and India, his counterparts had sought observer status on the Arctic Council.

China, South Korea, and Singapore are exploring new shipping routes across the pole. The polar route would cut about two weeks off the average shipment time between northern Europe and Asia.

China has sought permanent observer status in the Arctic Council, the group of eight northern countries that sets policy in the region.

Grimsson indicated support for the move, saying outside influence over the Arctic was inevitable. “With the accelerating melting of the Arctic Sea ice we will have an open ocean there that anyone with a vessel could get into according to international law,” he said.

China sent an ice breaker through the Arctic last year, and was already building Arctic-capable ships, he noted.

“The big question is whether we will catch up with our decision making and our dialogue and our form of co-operation before acceleration of melting sea ice created a completely new playing field.”

Filed Under: Arctic North News, Earth Changes News, Environmental & Specie Changes, World Healing Project, World News

What is China up to with Iceland re: ARCTIC?

April 22, 2013 at 6:43 pm Leave a Comment

China cozies up to Iceland in race for Arctic resources

China has been paying a lot of attention to Iceland, a country with a population 1/5000th the size of its own, as an effort to stretch its influence into the Arctic Sea.

By , Staff writer / April 15, 2013

Beijing

It is clear why Iceland is interested in China: the Arctic nation’s prime minister is currently in Beijing to sign a free-trade agreement that will boost Icelandic fish exports more than somewhat. But why is China so interested in Iceland?

Perhaps because the Arctic is shaping up to be one of the world’s future hot spots, as the melting icecap reveals a potential treasure-trove of natural resources and clears new shipping routes.

“China has an interest in the region and it wants to be part of the Arctic game,” says Geir Flikke, an expert in Arctic security issues at the University of Oslo.

Chinese officials, though, are more evasive. Asked about Beijing’s Embassy in Reykjavik – a hulking granite block that can house more staff members than the number of people who work in Iceland’s entire Foreign Ministry – the Chinese Foreign Ministry would say only that it had dispatched “the necessary and proper number of diplomats” to foster bilateral ties.

In fact, say Chinese Arctic experts and foreign observers, the attention that Beijing is paying to a minnow state with a population 1/5000th the size of its own is all part of China’s bid to stretch its influence into the Arctic as part of a global vision.

“China sees itself as a 21st-century power and it wants a seat at the table,” says Malte Humpert, founder of the Arctic Institute, a think tank in Washington. “They are seeing where there is potential … and developing their geostrategic position.”

China: a ‘near arctic nation?’

The Chinese government has no declared Arctic policy, but it has taken to calling China a “near-Arctic nation” despite being about 1,000 miles away from the Arctic Circle at its nearest point. Beijing sent its only icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, on its first transpolar voyage last year, and China is hoping to be accepted as a permanent observer at the eight-nation Arctic Council next month.

Behind all this is climate change. As global warming shrinks the polar ice, resources such as rare earth minerals, iron ore, oil, and gas are becoming more accessible. At the same time, a northern sea route is opening up that is ice-free during the summer months, which could cut 30 percent off China’s shipping costs to Europe.

Just 46 vessels, including the Snow Dragon, made the trans-Arctic passage last year, mostly LNG (liquefied natural gas) tankers and iron-ore transports accompanied by Russian icebreakers. But by the middle of this century, some experts predict, ordinary ships with ice-strengthened hulls will be able to pass directly over the North Pole for several months a year.

That route would cut a third off the current sea journey between Shanghai and Hamburg, Germany, points out Zhang Yao, director of the Ocean and Polar Research Center at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. Europe is now China’s biggest trade partner and “we believe the Arctic route could play a very important role in China’s trade, taking a significant proportion of it,” Dr. Zhang says.

If that were to happen, says Professor Flikke, Iceland would be attractive as a transport hub, though Icelanders themselves seem a little nervous about that prospect. When a Chinese billionaire tried to buy a swath of gale-swept coastline in 2011, claiming he planned to build a resort and golf course there, the government rebuffed him amid public fears he was a stalking horse in Beijing’s search for deep water ports.

The Arctic route would serve another Chinese strategic purpose, though. Currently, 80 percent of Beijing’s oil imports are shipped through the narrow and pirate-ridden Malacca Straits (see map) – which lie between Malaysia and Indonesia – a security nightmare in time of crisis. As China seeks to diversify its energy sources, and buy more from Russia, shipping such fuel around the top of the world would be an attractive prospect.

Resources as the world warms up

But shipping is not all there is to it, says Mei Xinyu, a researcher at a think tank linked to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. China “cannot afford to ignore the potential resources that it will become possible to exploit as the world warms up,” he argues.

Thirty percent of the world’s untapped gas and 13 percent of its undiscovered oil lie within the Arctic, according to US Geological Survey estimates. Greenland, a dependency of Denmark, is thought to have the largest deposits of rare earths outside China, along with major iron ore reserves.

A British company is hoping to win Greenland’s approval this year for an iron-ore mine that would supply 15 million tons a year of ore to China, and employ up to 3,000 Chinese miners. But the government that took office earlier this month in Nuuk is wary of such an influx into a territory whose population is only 57,000. “The coalition emphasizes that foreign labor should be minimized,” the new ruling parties declared.

China appears to have been quite successful in calming local reservations about its regional intentions; most of the smaller Arctic nations say they support Beijing’s bid for permanent observer status at the Arctic Council although Canada or the United States might veto the attempt at a summit next month in Tromso, Norway.

That would be a blow to Chinese ambitions, says Mr. Mei. “China would like to take part in making the rules that will govern sea routes, resource exploitation, and scientific polar research,” he explains. “If China is not a permanent observer” at the Arctic Council, which has made itself the forum for such policy decisions, “we will have to accept policies set by others that may not take China’s interests into account.”

Filed Under: Arctic North News, Earth Changes News, Environmental & Specie Changes, World Healing Project, World News

Keep an Eye on North Korea…

April 4, 2013 at 9:58 am Leave a Comment

North Korea moves missile with ‘considerable range’ to coast, says Seoul

South Korea’s defence minister confirms move, but says North is showing no other signs of preparing for full-scale conflict

North Korean Musudan-class missiles displayed during a 2012 military parade

South Korea’s description suggests the weapon in question may be a Musudan-class missile, shown here on display during a 2012 military parade. Photograph: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

South Korea‘s defence minister has confirmed that Pyongyang has moved a missile with “considerable range” to its east coast, but said there were no signs that North Korea was preparing for a full-scale conflict despite the continuing standoff.

The confirmation from Kim Kwan-jin came hours after North Korea’s military announced it had been authorised to attack the US using “smaller, lighter and diversified” nuclear weapons.

Kim said he did not know why the North had moved the missile, but suggested it “could be for testing or drills”.

He dismissed Japanese media speculation that the missile could be a KN-08, which is believed to be a long-range missile that – if operable – could hit the US.

Kim told a parliamentary committee meeting that although the missile had considerable range, it was not sufficient to hit the US mainland.

His description could suggest a missile known as the Musudan, which has a range of 3,000km (1,800 miles). That would make Japan and South Korea potential targets along with US bases in both countries.

Map: North Korean missile defence ranges and Guam deployment Map: North Korean missile defence ranges and Guam deploymentThere are doubts, however, about the missile’s accuracy and range, and some suspect that long-range missiles unveiled by Pyongyang at a parade last year were actually mock-ups.

Kim said that if North Korea were preparing for a full-scale conflict, there would be more signs of the mobilisation of troops and supplies.

So far, he said, South Korean military officials had found no evidence of such preparations.

“[North Korea's recent threats] are rhetorical threats,” he said. “I believe the odds of a full-scale provocation are small.”

He did, however, add that North Korea might mount a small-scale provocation as it did in 2010, when it shelled a South Korean island, killing four people.

The Pentagon announced on Wednesday night that it would deploy a missile defence system known as the terminal high altitude area defence system to the US Pacific territory of Guam to strengthen regional protection against a possible attack.

The deployment is the biggest indication yet that Washington regards North Korea’s sabre-rattling as more worrying than similar threats over the past few years. It also suggests the US is preparing for a long standoff.

The $800m (£529m) battery was not due for deployment until 2015, but will now be in place within weeks. There had been debate within the Pentagon about deploying it first to the Middle East to protect Israel, but the threat from North Korea is now viewed as more serious.

A Pentagon statement said the deployment was “a precautionary move to strengthen our regional defence posture against the North Korean regional ballistic missile threat”.

On Wednesday, the US defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, said North Korea posed “a real and clear danger” to South Korea, Japan and the US.

“They have a nuclear capacity now,” he told the National Defense University in Washington. “They have a missile delivery capacity now. And so, as they have ratcheted up their bellicose, dangerous rhetoric, and some of the actions they have taken over the last few weeks, present a real and clear danger.”

His response contrasted with more muted comments by other members of the Obama administration over the past few days as they sought to reduce tensions.

China also voiced strong fears about rising tensions on the Korean peninsula. Its foreign ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, told reporters in Beijing that the country’s deputy foreign minister, Zhang Yesui, had expressed serious concern over the crisis at a meeting with ambassadors from the US and South Korea.

“In the present situation, China believes all sides must remain calm and exercise restraint and not take actions which are mutually provocative and must certainly not take actions which will worsen the situation,” Lei said.

North Korea followed Tuesday’s announcement that it would resume operations to produce weapons-grade plutonium by barring South Korean workers from entering a jointly-run industrial complex.

The Kaesong industrial complex, six miles north of the heavily fortified border that has separated the two countries for six decades, is viewed as the last remaining symbol of co-operation.

The North has disrupted operations at Kaesong before, but Wednesday’s move caused particular concern as South Korea and the US attempt to respond to a catalogue of provocations by Pyongyang.

The disruption at Kaesong, which draws on investment from more than 100 South Korean firms and employs workers from both countries, was seen by some experts as a sign of a swift deterioration in an already tense situation.

In recent weeks, North Korea has threatened a nuclear attack against the US and its overseas bases – a hollow threat, experts say, given the regime’s relatively primitive nuclear and missile technology – and declared a “state of war” with South Korea.

China is North Korea’s only remaining ally and its biggest aid donor. Its description of the situation in such bleak terms is being interpreted as a sign of growing frustration with the unpredictable behaviour of the 30-year-old North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

Filed Under: World Healing Project, World News

5th Annual World Healing Conference

April 2, 2013 at 4:52 pm Leave a Comment

The gathering for the 5th Annual World Healing project will take place on Thursday, April 18th, 2013 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at my place in Innisfil, Ontario which is south of Barrie and just north of Bradford/Newmarket, Ontario.  We will continue to include joyfully the many that are choosing to participate long distance in the conference and welcome all who still wish to join in person or from the comfort of their own homes! The gather will be taped and I can send you the mP3 audio file of the evening events.  The Event will include guided meditation for your own personal healing, healing and blessings for the Planet, energy experiments with soil and water plus a discourse and message from Spirit as to the Earth Changes taking place and those expected!  Let me know if you wish to attend by emailing info@schoolofetherichealing.com or sign up at www.schoolofetherichealing.com

In Light and in Peace,

Kathy Roseborough

 

Filed Under: Events, Healing sites, World Healing Project, World News

Canada – Oil Transportation

April 2, 2013 at 6:35 am Leave a Comment

TransCanada pressing ahead with East-West oil pipeline project

TransCanada Corp CEO Russ Girling on April 27 2012Russ Girling, president and CEO of TransCanada Corp., addresses the company’s annual meeting in Calgary, Friday, April 27, 2012. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Tuesday, April 2, 2013 8:12AM EDT
Last Updated Tuesday, April 2, 2013 9:20AM EDT

TransCanada Corp. is looking for companies interested in shipping oil across the country, as it presses ahead with a plan to establish a pipeline from Western Canada all the way to Saint John, New Brunswick.

The energy company announced Tuesday that a binding ‘open season’ will run from April 15 to June 17. During that time, the company said it is looking for “firm commitments” from companies interested in delivering oil to Montreal, Quebec City and Saint John, N.B.

TransCanada says, if established, the Energy East Pipeline could have the capacity to transport 850,000 barrels of crude oil from Alberta’s oilsands to refineries in the east. The company said the pipeline could eliminate the need to import crude oil to supply the refineries.

The project involves converting about 3,000 kilometres of an existing natural gas pipeline and constructing 1,400 kilometres of new pipeline.

The proposal has previously received the support of the premiers of Alberta and New Brunswick, as well the federal government under Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

And NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, who vehemently opposes the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline that would transport bitumen south from Alberta, has expressed his support for construction of the East-West pipeline in Canada.

In a statement released Tuesday, TransCanada said that, if the “open season” is a success, it will then apply for the regulatory go-ahead.

Pending approval, TransCanada forecast a late-2017 in-service date.

 

Filed Under: Earth Changes News, Environmental & Specie Changes, World Healing Project, World News

Shifting Arctic Weather Patterns

April 2, 2013 at 6:33 am Leave a Comment

Scientists link frozen spring to dramatic Arctic sea ice loss

Melting sea ice, exposing huge parts of the ocean to the atmosphere, explains extreme weather both hot and cold

A snow-plough clears the A66 near Bowes, County Durham, where the road was closed for several hours due to heavy snow. Forecasters have warned that another cold snap is on its way - with parts of the country facing more snow and freezing temperatures.

Arctic ice loss adds heat to the ocean and atmosphere which shifts the position of the jet stream, which affects weather in the northern hemisphere. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Climate scientists have linked the massive snowstorms and bitter spring weather now being experienced across Britain and large parts of Europe and North America to the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice.

Both the extent and the volume of the sea ice that forms and melts each year in the Arctic Ocean fell to an historic low last autumn, and satellite records published on Monday by the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, show the ice extent is close to the minimum recorded for this time of year.

“The sea ice is going rapidly. It’s 80% less than it was just 30 years ago. There has been a dramatic loss. This is a symptom of global warming and it contributes to enhanced warming of the Arctic,” said Jennifer Francis, research professor with the Rutgers Institute of Coastal and Marine Science.

According to Francis and a growing body of other researchers, the Arctic ice loss adds heat to the ocean and atmosphere which shifts the position of the jet stream – the high-altitude river of air that steers storm systems and governs most weather in northern hemisphere.

“This is what is affecting the jet stream and leading to the extreme weather we are seeing in mid-latitudes,” she said. “It allows the cold air from the Arctic to plunge much further south. The pattern can be slow to change because the [southern] wave of the jet stream is getting bigger. It’s now at a near record position, so whatever weather you have now is going to stick around,” she said.

Francis linked the Arctic temperature rises to extreme weather in mid latitudes last year and warned in September that 2012′s record sea ice melt could lead to a cold winter in the UK and northern Europe.

She was backed by Vladimir Petoukhov, professor of Earth system analysis at Potsdam Institute in Germany, whose research suggests the loss of ice this year could be changing the direction of the jet stream.

“The ice was at a record low last year and is now exceptionally low in some parts of the Arctic like the Labrador and Greenland seas. This could be one reason why anticyclones are developing,” he said.

The heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures which have marked March 2013 across the northern hemisphere are in stark contrast to March 2012 when many countries experienced their warmest ever springs. The hypothesis that wind patterns are being changed because melting Arctic sea ice has exposed huge swaths of normally frozen ocean to the atmosphere would explain both the extremes of heat and cold, say the scientists.

A recent paper by the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also found that enhanced warming of the Arctic influenced weather across the northern hemisphere.

“With more solar energy going into the Arctic Ocean because of lost ice, there is reason to expect more extreme weather events, such as heavy snowfall, heat waves, and flooding in North America and Europe,” said the researchers.

The Met Office’s chief scientist has previously said the melting Arctic ice is in part responsible for the UK’s recent colder winters.

The possible links between Arctic sea ice loss and extreme weather were made as the UK’s government’s outgoing chief scientific adviser Sir John Beddington warned that the world could expect more extremes of weather.

“The [current] variation we are seeing in temperature or rainfall is double the rate of the average. That suggests that we are going to have more droughts, we are going to have more floods, we are going to have more sea surges and we are going to have more storms.” He said that said there was a “need for urgency” in tackling climate change.

“These are the sort of changes that are going to affect us in quite a short timescale,” he warned. Last year saw record heat, rainfall, drought and floods in the northern hemisphere.

Filed Under: Arctic North News, Environmental & Specie Changes, World Healing Project, World News

Focus – World Air Pollution

January 18, 2013 at 6:08 am Leave a Comment

Beijing is not the only Asian city with lethal air pollution

The Chinese capital is just one of hundreds of cities where poisonous air is the fastest growing cause of death

Air Pollution in Shanghai , China

A view of the Oriental Pearl TV tower and downtown Shanghai. A report in the Lancet says that worldwide, a record 3.2 million people died from air pollution in 2010, compared with 800,000 in 2000. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Air pollution in Beijing has been described as “apocalyptic” this week with people choking their way through murky streets, short of breath and their eyes stinging from toxic air. But Beijing is just one of hundreds of cities, largely in Asia, where poisonous air is now the fastest growing cause of death in urban populations.

In the past few months there have been acute air pollution incidents reported in Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Pakistan. In Tehran, the desperate authorities had to close all public offices, schools, universities and banks twice in the last two months; In Nepal the army has had to give up its cars and in Kabul it has been reported that there are now more deaths as a result of air and water pollution than from conflict.

Statistics are unreliable, with few cities able to monitor accurately either the source or the level of the cocktail of pollutants emitted by traffic, ships, industry, brick kilns and domestic heating. But go to the hospitals and doctors will tell you that up to 80% of people admitted come with respiratory or other chronic diseases linked to air pollution. In Tehran, more than 4,500 people were said to have died last year because of air pollution – but because cancers can take years to develop the true figure may be far higher.

Perhaps because there are no drugs available to counter air pollution, it has never been taken as seriously by governments as other diseases like HIV/Aids or malaria, even though the World Health Organisation estimates more than 2 million people worldwide die every year from bad air and that it is now among the top 10 killers in the world. But governments may have to act as new research shows it to be rapidly worsening.

The biggest study done so far, published one month ago in the Lancet suggested that, worldwide, a record 3.2 million people died from air pollution in 2010, compared with 800,000 in 2000. The annual Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report ranked air pollution for the first time in the world’s top 10 list of killer diseases, with 1.2 million deaths a year in east Asia and China, and 712,000 in south Asia, including India.

But while Beijing got the headlines this week, there is mounting evidence that air pollution in India is as bad, if not worse, than in China. A study conducted by satellite imagery by Tel Aviv University last year reported that Indian megacities were seeing double digit increases in air pollution. From 2002 to 2010, said the paper, Bangalore saw the second highest increase in air-pollution levels in the world at 34%,with Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad not far behind. Improvements in car and fuel technology have been made since 2000 but these are nullified by the sheer increase in car numbers. Nearly 18m cars are expected to be sold this year alone in India.

The blame is variously levelled on the geography of cities, the inversion of temperatures especially in cold months which trap pollutants, the vastly increasing number of cars, power plants, forest fires and the boom in building construction. However, the Lancet study found that it was specifically the type of air pollution caused by car and truck exhaust that was doing the most health damage.

There is increasing evidence too that the air pollution now plaguing cities is because the fuel being burned by millions of cars and motorbikes is heavily contaminated by dealers who mix petrol and diesel with kerosene, waste industrial solvents and other additives to produce cheaper fuel. The result is a cocktail of poisonous emissions, many of which are not picked up by government monitoring stations and which are not filtered out by catalytic converters.

The scale of illegal fuel adulteration is unknown, but academic studies suggest it is rampant in poor countries like Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan, all of which depend on importing fuel from outside. One study in Nepal found that at least half the motorbikes in use had engines damaged by contaminated fuel.

But rich countries should not think their air is clean. A report by the European environment agency found that almost one third of Europe’s city dwellers are exposed to PM10 particulate concentrations above EU legal limits and 90-95% to concentrations of smaller and even more deadly PM2.5 particulates. If nothing is done to improve it, the EU expects to see 200,000 premature deaths a year in Europe by 2020 due to particle emissions alone.

EU environment commissioner Janez Potočnik spelled out the financial costs on the European economy in September: “Clean air is an investment. We cannot afford not to act. In monetary terms … the associated costs [will] amount to between €189-609bn per year in 2020. Our current analysis shows that if we do nothing, we will see 200,000 premature deaths in the EU by 2020 due to particle emissions alone – but with concerted action, this number can be pushed down to 130,000. To invest in clean air means to invest in our future.”

Filed Under: Earth Changes News, Environmental & Specie Changes, World Healing Project, World News
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