God's Shock Doctrine

The climate is always in the throes of change and the causes have been identified. Changes come as a result of solar variations, earth's orbital variation, volcanoes, space dust, asteroids and comets and now a new wrinkle, man made causes. We read in the Bible of horrific climatological and geological changes in the past and have gone far in establishing the geological truth in many of these stories. In one case, we have even matched dates with a huge climatic catastrophe that inspired the book of Exodus. But so far, these were the events that arrived out of great geological catastrophes. Today we verge on another climate catastrophe that is entirely man made. The amount of material and substances like soot, carbon dioxide and methane that we inject into the atmosphere as if it were the garbage dump in the sky, is equivalent or surpasses that of volcanoes, meteors and orbital changes. Over the last decade and a half, we have seen dramatic changes in the climate everywhere in the world. In fact, some regions radical and sudden temperature changes in a day or mere hours can come as a shock that kills people, animals and plants. We have witnessed this directly; the shock doctrine of God in action, so to speak. But, we brought it on ourselves and there is no one else to blame. Will God save us while we continue to fiddle? The short answer is no; unless we take it upon ourselves to turn away from our greed and ecological crimes, clean up our mess and become sustainable stewards of the Earth. Consider for the moment, something entirely man-made; brown clouds.

Soot and chemicals lead to the formation of atmospheric brown clouds around particles like black carbon soot that absorb sunlight, heating the air; and gases such as ozone which enhance the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere. Globally however, atmospheric brown clouds may be countering or masking the warming impacts of climate change by between 20 and 80 per cent that many researchers suggest. This is because of particles such as sulfates and some organics which reflect sunlight and cool the surface of the Earth below. If the brown clouds were suddenly removed, we would all immediately feel the effects of global warming and the consequences of glacial meltdown worldwide due to an immediate worldwide rise of temperature of at least 2 degrees centigrade. This would tend to be more extreme at the poles as evidence suggests, with sudden, radical temperature swings measured in hours. With greenhouse gasses already responsible for about 1 degree Celsius rise in he world temperature, the added increase from brown cloud removal would set the rise to 3 degrees overall. The geological record indicates that 12,600 years ago, a rise in global temperatures of 5 degrees caused such a meltdown, that sea levels rose 130 meters (400 feet). That rise was sudden in time-lines, suggest by some as occurring over a decade or two. Further research indicates that there was a sudden increase in methane in the atmosphere that contributed to global warming at the end of the last major ice age.

Today we are witnessing an increase of methane entering the atmosphere. Methane itself is a colourless and potent greenhouse gas. There are several sources today being the population of beef cattle and cows, release of methane from the melting permafrost, food waste and improper disposal and under-processing of sewage, destruction of large swaths of natural ecosystems such as the Amazon basin and frozen pockets of solid methane and methane hydroxide under the ocean being released due to warming. We may think that it is hidden from view, but recently, an apparently new phenomenon has emerged that can be traced directly to methane increase and these are the so called night glowing or “noctilucent” clouds. These strange clouds are seen as a sign from God by some people, hence another clue to God's shock doctrine.

But it does not end there. These same brown clouds rain on the land with all the chemicals contained therein and inject these same chemicals into the soil. This affects all agricultural production worldwide and in turn they end up in meat, grain, nuts, fruits and vegetables that we all eat and thus poisoning us. Some of these same chemicals go though a process of biological magnification and wind up in high concentrations in our bodies and endanger or ruin our health. Brown clouds contain a variety of toxic aerosols, carcinogens and particles including particulate matter of less than 2.5 microns in width, what some call the negative side of nanotechnology. These have been linked with a variety of health effects from respiratory disease and cardio-vascular problems. This danger is shown in signs such as increase of asthma, bronchitis and weakened immunity, which threatens those with already weakened immunity whether from disease or chemotherapy. Further, reduction of sunlight interferes with photosynthesis and reduces food production substantially. We have seen an annual reduction of food production year after year since 2004/05 and 2010 is no exception. Combined with population expansion, a billion people are in immediate danger of starving to death. With an expanding population, reduction of food will raise food prices and sharply increase starvation, riots and warfare.

Yea sayers and nay sayers notwithstanding, I have personally noticed the deterioration of the local climate over the last few years in particular, beginning around 2004/05. Winters are confused meanderings between extreme cold and mild, almost summer like temperatures. This has caused early and fatal blooming of some flowering trees. Summers are longer, but cooler, leading to many crops failing to mature. Crop failure across a range of plants is increasing over the last few years. 2010 stands out as the worst year so far with up to 95 percent failure rate in some regions. There was the problem with bee colony die off and collapse both in 2008 and 2010, leading to reduced seed and fruit production. I’ve personally noted a 90 percent decrease in some areas. I’ve also noted that wild bees seem to be unaffected up to this point. In 2010, wild bees took over some of the slack of the nearly extinct domestic variety on Vancouver Island. You may have noticed changes yourself amidst all the controversy. Your own personal experience with climate change cannot be denied; just as I can’t deny the adverse changes I have seen over the last five years.

A list of the damages done and going on looks like the following.

• Global warming/weather pattern alteration tied to fossil fuel burning and methane release.

• Penetration of alien species into new areas, destroying established ecosystems such as the zebra mussel that destroyed an entire ecosystem within a single year.

• Mass extinction of many species due to human encroachment.

• Depletion of soils.

• Accumulating toxic waste, pesticides, chemicals, nuclear, plastics, etc on land and sea.

• Pollution of the oceans, such as the BP oil spill and the 50 year running Nigeria Shell oil spill. The Exxon Valdes pales in comparison to these, yet its damage persists.

• Damage created due to countless and endless wars, like depleted uranium bombs and the 1991 Kuwait oil fires.

• Rising sea levels, loss of land, glacial meltdown. Some 9 centimetres in the last decade alone.

• Poisoning of the wild by chemicals, GMOs, etc.

• Agri-business practices like factory farms, monoculture, GMOs, etc.

• Loss of arable land due to expansion of mega-cities and massive roads for vehicles.

• Over use and tapping of fresh water resources depleting aquifers and seasonal inputs.

• Experiments with nuclear and electronic warfare as in the case of Amchitka Island in 1962.

• Virulent new diseases that defy treatment, loss of health like MRSI.

• Mis-education, misinformation, dumbing down, propaganda.

Climate shock can occur virtually overnight. Consider for the moment the evidence presented by the 1991 Kuwait oil fires. 500 oil wells were set ablaze and took almost a year to extinguish. The skies were blackened and reporters in the region reported freezing temperatures under the sky blackening clouds in a season and location where temperatures are normally in the 40's Centigrade range. The Kuwait oil fires actually lowered world temperatures for a few years by a degree Centigrade. It was by far, the single largest ecological disaster, all for the profit of war. But that is mild compared to what has been developing of late from the collective world industrial input.

We are facing a crisis and catastrophe the likes of which only nature has so far produced in the past. No doubt you have heard terms like nuclear winter, volcanic winter and impact winter, but you can add a new one to the list; industrial winter, caused by pollution. Unlike the others that are sudden and unmistakable if we know the cause, this one is incipient and creeps up on us. We are already in it and few people are aware that we are. We see chaotic weather; more rain, more droughts, more flooding, cooler though longer summers, warmer Polar Regions, melting ice packs and the like. Many experience the effects on their health and tens of thousands die from pollution effects in every major metropolis and country every year. Natural catastrophic driven climactic winters come on suddenly and darken the skies, plunging the entire world in a non stop winter for several years. This one is subtle, creeping in slowly, disguised in part by overall global warming, but brings on catastrophic changes that are slowly building to the levels of sudden catastrophe brought on by something like a volcanic winter. We are in the position of the frog that is slowly being boiled and we are not jumping! Industrial winter has taken us over some tipping points and now has released a chain reaction of escalating climate catastrophe. Incredibly, many are still arguing that tipping points are still in the future, though the evidence clearly points to the near past and present.

“Currently second behind the U.S. in the table of the world's leading greenhouse gas emitters, China, whose economy continues to grow at a rate of about eight percent annually, is expected to top the list in the near future, with many analysts predicting the "near future" to mean [the] year, 2007.” With the economic collapse of the fall of 2008, this move of China to first place was realized by early 2009. India is rapidly growing too. Both have gone car crazy and the infrastructure is growing in years that took a century in the US and Europe.

“As well as contributing to global warming, those emissions -- as well as a host of other toxic by products of Chinese industrialization, are having a catastrophic effect on the health and environment of the nation that is producing them. According to environmental monitoring group the Worldwatch Institute, China now boasts 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities. As much as 70 percent of the country's water is suffering from pollution, with an estimated 300 million people drinking contaminated water on a daily basis, and 190 million drinking water that is so contaminated it affects their health. Crop returns are decreasing both in terms of quality and quantity as a result of polluted land; while approximately 400,000 people in China die annually from respiratory infections directly attributable to air pollution. The sheer scale of the economic activity in China means that pollution is as probably bad as it has ever been anywhere in the world, ever.

Such is the pollution haze in many of the cities that you can't even see the sun. A lot of the rivers are so dirty their water cannot now be used for irrigation, while some of the soil is so badly contaminated with cadmium and mercury that there is a question as to whether food grown in those soils is safe to eat."(1 )

Nor is the cost just human and environmental. Ironically given that it is China's bullish economic growth that is fuelling such high levels of pollution, that same pollution is proving increasingly detrimental to the country's economic well being, with the China's economy losing an estimated $200 billion annually due to the effects of pollution and global warming, which amounts to almost 10 percent of its Gross Domestic Product. The pollution blocking out the sun has introduced cooling in the regions directly affected, adding another burden on the ability to grow crops. The soot and dust has been detected over North America after being wafted over the Pacific Ocean by global wind patterns. The result has been cooler summers there as well. Since 2003, the summers have been getting gradually cooler. In regions that boasted weeks of heat waves, now see only a day or two of a heat wave for the entire summer. Elsewhere, the opposite happens with extended and killing heat waves, such as in France where tens of thousands died from heat related causes.

Added to this are natural factors, over which we have no control. Earth has an eccentric orbit. Currently, the point where the Earth is closest to the sun is on or about January 4th of each year. The result is that the southern hemisphere has short intense summers and long cold winters. The northern hemisphere has shorter, less severe winters and long cooler summers. But, as most of the land mass of the Earth is north of the equator, temperature swings are quicker due to less water to hold the heat. As the perihelion of the Earth shifts to its opposite point in July, the situation will reverse with the north having long deep winters, where ice will have a chance to build up. This is partly confirmed in the existence of massive ice fields in Antarctica. However, the massive ice shelves in Antarctica have recently collapsed and in a period where ice should be building, especially as we are also in a solar cooling as well. However, this has not been the case. In a spit of land that stretches almost to S. America, regions are now ice free and in the first time in living memory, plants are establishing themselves in Antarctica while Emperor penguins have left for colder climes further south.

What is behind this curious anomaly? It can be only one thing and one thing alone that fly in the face of cherished ideas of the nay-sayers. That has to be the effects of combined human input on the globe. We are far from the first. Earth got its oxygen atmosphere from cyanobacteria hundreds of millions of years ago, changing forever the Earth and allowing for creatures like us. Now we are changing the atmosphere by adding pollutants that block sunlight and greenhouse gasses that trap heat. For the moment, the two have something of a cancelling effect, but remove the dust; soot, methane, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide and the sunlight will pour in to really heat things up. The oceans will give off more moisture, making more clouds that will rebalance things, but with more intense storms. Statistic show that hurricane and typhoon severity has been increasing over the last couple of decades. Sure the solar cooling will chill things a bit and this may be a blessing to allow us to get our greenhouse act together and stop God's climate shock doctrine, but overall, heat will still get trapped.

In this debate enters political realities and economics. In any scenario, we have to take this into consideration. Who stands to profit on both sides of the question in this competition of ideas? Those who deny global warming and dimming do so because they want to keep things just as they are because this is what is the most profitable for them. Others are left to clean up the mess or suffer from its accumulation. On the other hand, there are those who will profit from carbon taxes. On both counts, the poor will suffer the most and various interests will profit. This fate is being witnessed in the starvation of a billion people, too poor to survive. But ultimately, the situation regarding our collective environment will have to be dealt with just because the evidence out there is telling us we must.

Reference:

1. Lester Brown, head of Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, as told to CNN.