Showing posts with label Saudi Arabia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saudi Arabia. Show all posts

Monday, January 16, 2017

Climate change and the state of the world is drastic.

Due to continued rising sea levels and accelerated calving of glaciers increasing wave action; I predict the locations of the massive flooding in the US will soon become uninhabitable and the source of mass migration unlike any we have seen to date!  Likewise islands and coastal cities throughout the world.

I'm adding this excellent link which is animated in such a way as to be mind-boggling and in support of my article.

For years we have been told to turn down our heat, don't idle our vehicles so long etc. and nothing came of it! Now we have no choices. There is a hope the carbon tax will encourage this kind of thinking.  Conservative rail against it but offer no solutions.  The Wild Rose Party are in complete denial as are most Conservatives.  Their policy and action come from the LDS Church as does most of their candidates. The Mormon church has more cash on hand than most countries!

The arctic tundra is melting which can release a further 2.5 times the CO2 than is present in the atmosphere.  Earth orbit is elliptical and we are moving away from the sun as we should be but, rather than cool off we are still heating up! Ocean currents are changing, the oceans are rising!  Currents and changing and sharks and "southern" species are showing up in "northern" waters.

Greenland's ice is melting fast as is Antarctica and the arctic causing sea level to start rising.  Along with our glaciers where we get our drinking water from, receding rapidly adds greatly to our problems.
If we don't get this heating under control we will fail as the human race! Cities by the ocean will start flooding and you will witness a migration that will stagger your imagination!

Waves are gnawing at the cliffs of Herschel Island!  The town of Tuktoyaktuk which for comparison was palm size is now thumb size and the tundra, in general, is eroding now; into the arctic ocean.  This, in turn, will accelerate heating of the Arctic because of the dark particles in the water.
Earth orbit is elliptical; we are moving away from the sun as we should.  We are into a 5000-year journey to apex  But; we are still heating rather than cooling as we should be!  Then, it's 5000 years back to circular around the sun.
Conservatives tried, and even argue for carbon cap and trade with does nothing for the environment and gives corporations a huge tax deduction at one end and a huge tax credit on
The world, not just  Canada and Alberta is moving towards carbon charges. There is no other way.  PM Trudeau was recently in meetings with the Saudi.  The Saudi announced billions to invest in silicon sun generation was one outcome.  Get used to wearing a sweater and turn down your dam thermostat and air conditioning. 

Pumping carbon dioxide down the hole in as they do in Saskatchewan results in an explosion of carbon dioxide out of the hole running for many hours ahead of any oil showing up and sounding like a jet plane but conservative is after the residual oil in those fields.
On the other hand, there is news of mixing carbon dioxide with cement; holding it firm and making the cement last longer too.
And more:
A satellite image of Herschel Island, Yukon, showing huge sediment plumes in the shallow water areas. (NASA Worldview)
Fritz said the majority of the coastline on Herschel Island, like much of the Arctic, is subject to erosion in the summer when the sea ice retreats.
"Since 2007, we've seen one minimum after the other regarding sea ice distribution in summer on the Arctic Ocean. That gives rise to higher waves, more storms that can affect the coast to erode it."
When that coast is eroded, the nutrient-rich soil mixes with the seawater and creates massive plumes of sediment. Fritz said the effect that murky water has on the marine ecosystem is unknown.
"With that sediment comes a lot of carbon and lot of nutrients, and those nutrients and pollutants will affect the water column," he said.
"We ask ourselves the question 'with this higher load of sediments, of nutrients and also of pollutants, what is happening with the food web' and we don't know."

Scientists are predicting catastrophic lake drainage now.
When Conservatives rail against a carbon tax, they are in denial of our circumstances.   Our economy will adjust to the new realities and ongoing abrupt changes.  Abrupt? Yes; they will accelerate.

All this on top of a world presently in recession and a position of universal deficit spending again, not just Canada and Alberta but the world!!
And to put it on an entirely different scale:  Thirty years ago there was little or no conversation on Climate Change.  A few scientists were shouting through the darkness about it but, nothing showing up in the weather!
In just this 20 years we have progressed to wild weather patterns, all extremes.  Floods, Fires, tidal surges and wave actions.  Tornados and Hurricanes around the world.

Now we see the Arctic Tundra melting which has two times as much Carbon Dioxide and Methane in it as does our present atmosphere!  

What kind of a horrid situation are we going to be facing in just another 20 years?


Tuesday, November 22, 2016

A lesson in US Civics:

What happens when the losing candidate gets most votes?  Well, Trump is not president until December 19th and any time up to and including that date the Electoral College can change their minds but; you can be sure they won’t.   

This is the 5th time in US history that this has happened.

Proposals are out to do away with the Electoral College which is a group of people bound by the Federal Law (Judges, Generals, Fire Chiefs, Mayors) or by the state, by pledges or law, to vote for a specific candidate chosen by the people. (Popular vote 26 states out of 50 have such laws in place) You can see the excitement over these states during the election.

These states are:
Electors in these States are bound by State Law or by pledges to cast their vote for a specific candidate:

ALABAMA – Party Pledge / State Law – § 17-19-2
ALASKA – Party Pledge / State Law – § 15.30.040; 15.30.070
CALIFORNIA – State Law – Elections Code § 6906
COLORADO – State Law – § 1-4-304
CONNECTICUT – State Law – § 9-175
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA – DC Pledge / DC Law – § 1-1001.08(g)
FLORIDA – Party Pledge / State Law – § 103.021(1)
HAWAII – State Law – §§ 14-26 to 14-28
MAINE – State Law – § 805
MARYLAND – State Law – § 8-505
MASSACHUSETTS – Party Pledge / State Law – Ch. 53, § 8, Supp.
MICHIGAN – State Law – § 168.47 (Violation cancels vote and Elector is replaced.)
MISSISSIPPI – Party Pledge / State Law – § 23-15-785(3)
MONTANA – State Law – § 13-25-304
NEBRASKA – State Law – § 32-714
NEW MEXICO – State Law – § 1-15-5 to 1-15-9 (Violation is a fourth degree felony.)
NORTH CAROLINA – State Law – § 163-212 (Violation cancels vote; elector is replaced and is subject to $500 fine.)
OHIO – State Law – § 3505.40
OKLAHOMA – State Pledge / State Law – 26, §§ 10-102; 10-109 (Violation of oath is a misdemeanor, carrying a fine of up to $1000.)
OREGON – State Pledge / State Law – § 248.355
SOUTH CAROLINA – State Pledge / State Law – § 7-19-80 (Replacement and criminal sanctions for violation.)
VERMONT – State Law – title 17, § 2732
VIRGINIA – State Law – § 24.2-202
WASHINGTON – Party Pledge / State Law – §§ 29.71.020, 29.71.040, Supp. ($1000 fine.)
WISCONSIN – State Law – § 7.75
WYOMING – State Law – §§ 22-19-106; 22-19-108

This proposal has been put forward over 700 times!   However, it takes a @constitutional change to enact a law to remove the College.

#To change the US constitution, requires the house and senate to both approve the change with 2/3 majority plus the change, if it gets that far it must be ratified ¾ of the states.  Canada is much more straight forward but the Wild Rose Party would like to take us in the US direction.
 
The Electoral College was put into the Constitution to protect the voting public (can you believe?) from demigods or very corrupt presidential candidates.

Speaking of demigods.  @Trump has ripped up all the US environmental agreements even though the Arctic Tundra is melting and earth’s elliptical orbit is on track and; we are still heating up!

During the election, Trump told the U S that #global warming was a farce dreamed up by the Chinese to injure US economy. Now he is saber rattling about the South China sea pointedly taking US attention off the middle east.  It is easy to see why his comradeship with Mr. @Putin was so easily formed.

His policies are the epidemy of protectionism complete with walls and fences.  Wait until he goes to work on the rest of his rhetoric.  @Saudi’s will have to dig in.  Perhaps the US will be an unwelcome guest on their middle east airports and military bases?  New middle east alliances?  @Turkey

How I see the results?

China can put more onto Trump’s plate than the US is capable of handling.  Starting with pulling or selling off their US dollars.  A crippling move!

I must explain the US has a half dozen ways of measuring unemployment but you really have to dig for the totals.  Their popular figure is 2% where in fact that is just one iconic measurement. There is a large segment that have used up their equivalent of EI so are not counted as unemployed.

Trump took office with 8 million Americans unemployed.  Perhaps he’s ready for war?  I don’t know.  But, he may see a robust military build up and engagement as being a way  out of recession which, has been proven so many times, not to work at all.

If he follows up in his present course, it will leave Russia to get rid of ISIS and anyone not friendly with Assad and firmly install the old regime (Assad) who Russia backs and it will be left to Israel to clean up a mess.

The next 4 years are going to be hell on earth!


Monday, October 12, 2015

Our oil Problems, an American perspective, once overhauled.

How this came about:
‪#‎Shale‬ oil production improved US self Sufficiency. As well, they cut the Saudi off from traditional access to the gulf refinery; a hard hit for the @Saudi's. This left the Saudi fighting a 2 front price ware. ‪#‎Primary‬ was the @Chinese Indonesian gas plants who were selling LNG into the Saudi market at extremely low prices forcing the Saudi into a BTU war rather than an oil price war. Politics and embargo put the Russian Gazprom head on with the Saudi in the same market place. Hit from 3 sides they are/were in dire straights.
The ‪#‎US‬ when cutting off the @Saudi from the gulf coast access inked a first time deal with Mexico which allows them almost unrestricted access to the oil refineries on the Gulf. In an unprecedented move, the US for the first time also allows ‪#‎Mexico‬ to import condensate from the US. This combination of moves leaves @Mexico in a position to further refine their own oil and gas supplies in quantity.
The oil companies and media at times blame the Saudi for all the trouble. Simply not true.
The Results: Oil operations are too difficult to shut down and restart again. The Conservative total arrogance and fumbling of negotiations opting for confrontation rather than negotiation have prevented a coastal water export point for Canada's oil. Harper in bed with the US Republicans wanted all the oil to continue to go to the Gulf Coast through Cushing Ok. They did little or nothing other than aggravate the pipeline situation.
Now stranded between a rock and a hard place Alberta is in the course of building 80 million barrels of new storage in Alberta. This, to stockpile the produced oil from plants that can't shut down. Alberta is still producing 200.000 barrels a day of crude that is 400 days of production and little is going to change in that period of time. Banks don't pay for oil sitting in storage.
The only good thing I have seen in the media in the past week is that the Saudi is going to sit at the table with the Russians. There is a remote chance there is sanity at the table but, not all players are present.
The natural gas is another story of Conservative blundering. Both Federal and Provincial. Dreams were turned into projects based on the 17.50 per mcf of gas being charged to Japan which in turn kept the Indonesian gas markets high. @Japan in a crisis of economy over paying these high prices and having no popular choice after the earthquake asked the US if they could be included in the 3.00 mcf market that was in place in the US and Canada. (Hence the golden dreams of gas forever) @Christie Clark bought heavily into this. It will come back to bite BC big time!
Obama said NO! Japan, to survive, opened up its one good ‪#‎Nuclear‬plant and proceed to bring another 2 plants into shape within months. This killed most of their need for natural gas imports. Japan also told the world it would have 6 more plants on line within a year! Forever ending the need for natural gas and the crashed natural gas market place.
There is no upside to this tale of a whole! A future under Harper and his crew mean a future of Corporate Welfare and ongoing catering to the whims of the US Republicans.
I'm going to put this up on
http://albertathedetails.blogspot.ca/ The coming weeks may see some relief but I really don't think so.
And, remember that the often quoted Fraser think tank is a Conservative Organization made up of US Republican Members and Canadian Conservatives most of which have dual citizenships.
The IKOS polling company was established by the Conservative Party of Canada who in turn, tongue in cheek say they are arm's length and unbiased.
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