Daily Archives: 11. December 2020
Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
Dec. 7, 2020: Something special is happening in the sunset sky. It’s a Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. The two giant planets are converging for a close encounter the likes of which have not been seen since the Middle Ages. Shahrin Ahmad of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, photographed the pair on Dec. 7th:
„Jupiter and Saturn are about 1.5º apart this evening, “ says Ahmad. „Even under a light polluted sky, both can easily be seen.“
They’re about to get much closer. On Dec. 21st, the two planets will lie just 0.1 degrees apart. That’s so close, some people will perceive them as a single brilliant star. Viewed through binoculars or a small telescope, ringed Saturn will appear as close to Jupiter as some of Jupiter’s moons:
Although Great Conjunctions between Jupiter and Saturn occur every 20 years, they’re not all easy to see. Often the two planets are hidden in the glare of the sun. This year is special because the conjunction happens comfortably away from the sun. In fact, the last time the two worlds were so close together *and* so easy to see was the year 1226, astronomer Michael Brown told the Washington Post.
The show is underway. Jupiter and Saturn are already a tight pair in the evening sky, and they will grow rapidly and noticeably closer together every night for the next two weeks. Dates of special interest include Dec. 16th and 17th, when the crescent Moon joins the planets, and, of course, Dec. 21st when they are almost touching. Sky maps: Dec. 16, 17; Dec. 21.
Realtime Spaceweather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
via Spaceweather.com
Weak Impact: The CME That Failed
Dec. 10, 2020: As predicted, a CME (pictured below) hit Earth’s magnetic field during the early hours of Dec. 10th (1:30 UT), but the impact did not cause a geomagnetic storm. Why not? Scroll down for the answer:
Why didn’t the CME cause a storm? Every CME brings with it some magnetic field from the sun. If that magnetic field points south, it opens cracks in Earth’s magnetic field, allowing solar wind to flow inside and fuel auroras. On the other hand, if the CME’s magnetic field points north, it seals cracks in Earth’s magnetic field, blocking the solar wind and quenching storms.
This CME brought a storm-killing north magnetic field. So, even though the velocity of the solar wind in the CME’s wake flirted with a high value of 600 km/s, it was ineffective at causing geomagnetic storms and auroras.
Maybe next time. Solar activity is picking up with the onset of new Solar Cycle 25. This is just the first of many CMEs likely to head our way in the months ahead. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
via Spaceweather.com
Climate Tits!
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
This appeared in the Telegraph the other day. It followed a similar story in the “Independent?” last month, and another from the Telegraph a couple of years ago:
A rapidly warming climate will spell disaster for swathes of life on earth, including many bird species.
A new study reveals some birds which are dependent on specific abundant food sources at certain times of year may not be able to adapt fast enough to the change to seasonal patterns the climate crisis is bringing.
The research, by scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Oxford University, focused on great tits’ dietary habits.
They found that warmer winters and subsequent early springs cause trees to leaf earlier, which in turn prompts the larvae that feed on the plants to hatch earlier, and this can present a problem to the birds.
Great tits are among many species which depend on an abundance of larvae available when their chicks are newly hatched and growing.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-birds-great-tits-extinct-b1720406.html
Warmer springs are leaving birds hungry because they hatch after the caterpillar population has peaked, experts have warned.
The Universities of Exeter, Edinburgh and Sheffield found that the emergence of chicks is ‘increasingly mismatched’ with their main food source of oak caterpillars which are only active for a few weeks.
After that, they typically fall from the trees and pupate, transforming into moths by November.
Researchers found that Great tits were on average two days later than the caterpillar peak, Blue tits were on average three days later, while Pied flycatchers hatched 13 days too late.
“Forests have a short peak in caterpillar abundance, and some forest birds time their breeding so this coincides with the time when their chicks are hungriest,” said Dr Malcolm Burgess, of the University of Exeter and the RSPB.
“With spring coming earlier due to climate change, leaves and caterpillars emerge earlier and birds need to breed earlier to avoid being mismatched. We found that the earlier the spring, the less able birds are to do this.
The key month for determining whether trees leaf early and how early insects appear seems to be March. (After all, I know of no way trees and butterflies can predict in March what the weather will be like in April or May!)
This is borne out by the Woodland Trust’s Spring Analysis this year:
https://naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk
Note that insects appeared 23.2 days early in 2019, against 16.4 days this year and 1.4 days late in 2018. This tallies with the temperature record:
You will notice of course that the warmest Marches were in 1938 and 1957, rather putting the kibosh on the global warming argument!
But what really does stand out is the huge year-on-year variation, which can be as much as 6C. If insects and birds can manage to survive this weather variability, I am sure they won’t have any problem dealing with a degree of change over 30 years.
The reality is that weather has a much bigger impact on butterflies, including rain, snow, storms, and not just in the month they first appear as caterpillars. For instance, a mild March may bring insects out early, but a cold, wet April can cause much harm.
What none of these supposed nature experts seem to understand is that nature is far more resilient than they give it credit for.
Insects quickly adapt to changing weather conditions, and can readily move from one flower to another as they bloom during the season. Similarly, most birds feed from a multiple of different sources, which they can adapt to as circumstances change from week to week.
Above all, nature has its own self-balancing mechanism. In this case, if fewer caterpillars are eaten this year by birds, there will be more butterflies and consequently more caterpillars next year, thus allowing bird populations to thrive in turn next year. In turn, more birds means fewer caterpillars next, beginning the whole cycle again.
But you don’t have to take my word for this. The Woodland Trust themselves tell us that Great Tits and Blue Tits have been thriving in Britain since 1970:
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
December 11, 2020 at 12:18PM
The whole purpose of a democratic vote is to prevent the old violent ways of settling political arguments
Comparing today’s world to the American Civil War, or the UK Commonwealth period of the 1600s with an Absolutism King colliding with Parliament, or the French revolution.
___________
The whole purpose of a democratic vote is to prevent the old violent ways of settling political arguments
J. H. Walker
My understanding is that the US electorate wishes to count every legal vote and disallow every illegal vote.
My question is, should the entire set of Democrat states be proven to have mounted an electoral coup using electronic hacking and fake votes on a massive scale, isn’t that treasonous in the extreme?
The whole purpose of a democratic vote is to prevent the old violent ways of settling political arguments within countries. The American Civil War is an example of what happens when absolute dictators try to rule. This is no different than the UK Commonwealth period of the 1600s with an Absolutism King colliding with Parliament, or the French revolution.
Electoral electronic fraud on a mass scale affecting 300 million people shows just what happens when a NWO World Government with 5 or six continental assemblies supposedly voted for by the majority.
Can electronic voting ever be proven safe and free from tamper?
Who watches the watchers?
The post The whole purpose of a democratic vote is to prevent the old violent ways of settling political arguments appeared first on Ice Age Now.
via Ice Age Now
December 11, 2020 at 12:18PM
Claim: The greening of the earth is approaching its limit
A new study published in Science reveals that the fertilizing effect of excess CO2 on vegetation is decreasing worldwide
SPANISH NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (CSIC)
When plants absorb this gas to grow, they remove it from the atmosphere and it is sequestered in their branches, trunk or roots. An article published today in Science shows that this fertilizing effect of CO2 is decreasing worldwide, according to the text co-directed by Professor Josep Peñuelas of the CSIC at CREAF and Professor Yongguan Zhang of the University of Nanjin, with the participation of CREAF researchers Jordi Sardans and Marcos Fernández. The study, carried out by an international team, concludes that the reduction has reached 50% progressively since 1982 due basically to two key factors: the availability of water and nutrients. “There is no mystery about the formula, plants need CO2, water and nutrients in order to grow. However much the CO2 increases, if the nutrients and water do not increase in parallel, the plants will not be able to take advantage of the increase in this gas”, explains Professor Josep Peñuelas. In fact, three years ago Prof. Peñuelas already warned in an article in Nature Ecology and Evolution that the fertilising effect of CO2 would not last forever, that plants cannot grow indefinitely, because there are other factors that limit them.
If the fertilizing capacity of CO2 decreases, there will be strong consequences on the carbon cycle and therefore on the climate. Forests have received a veritable CO2 bonus for decades, which has allowed them to sequester tons of carbon dioxide that enabled them to do more photosynthesis and grow more. In fact, this increased sequestration has managed to reduce the CO2 accumulated in the air, but now it is over. “These unprecedented results indicate that the absorption of carbon by vegetation is beginning to become saturated. This has very important climate implications that must be taken into account in possible climate change mitigation strategies and policies at the global level. Nature’s capacity to sequester carbon is decreasing and with it society’s dependence on future strategies to curb greenhouse gas emissions is increasing”, warns Josep Peñuelas.
The study published in Science has been carried out using satellite, atmospheric, ecosystem and modelling information. It highlights the use of sensors that use near-infrared and fluorescence and are thus capable of measuring vegetation growth activity.
Less water and nutrients
According to the results, the lack of water and nutrients are the two factors that reduce the capacity of CO2 to improve plant growth. To reach this conclusion, the team based itself on data obtained from hundreds of forests studied over the last 40 years. “These data show that concentrations of essential nutrients in the leaves, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, have also progressively decreased since 1990,” explains researcher Songhan Wang, the first author of the article.
The team has also found that water availability and temporal changes in water supply play a significant role in this phenomenon. “We have found that plants slow down their growth, not only in times of drought, but also when there are changes in the seasonality of rainfall, which is increasingly happening with climate change,” explains researcher Yongguan Zhang.
###
Reference article:
Wang S, Zhang YG, Ju W, Chen, J, Ciais P, Cescatti A, Sardans J, Janssens IA, Sardans, J, Fernández-Martínez, M, … Penuelas J (2020). Recent global decline of CO2 fertilization effects on vegetation photosynthesis. Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.abb7772
via Watts Up With That?
December 11, 2020 at 12:08PM
Updates posted on Supreme Court website on Thursday alone
Meanwhile, the media keeps harping us that this is a “frivolous” lawsuit. Must be a lot of frivolous State’s Attorneys General.
“The following are all of the updates that were posted on the Supreme Court website on Thursday alone,” says reader Adoni.
Motion of State of Ohio for leave to file amicus brief not accepted for filing. (December 10, 2020) (corrected motion electronically filed)
Response to motion for leave to file bill of complaint and motion for preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order or stay from defendant Wisconsin filed.
Opposition to Texas’s motion for leave to file bill of complaint and its motion for preliminary relief from defendant Georgia filed.
Opposition to motions for leave to file bill of complaint and for injunctive relief from defendant Michigan filed.
Opposition to motion for leave to file bill of complaint and motion for preliminary injunction, temporary restraining order, or stay from defendant Pennsylvania filed.
Motion for leave to file amicus brief from the District of Columbia on behalf of 22 States and Territories filed.
Motion to Intervene and Proposed Bill of Complaint in Intervention of State of Missouri submitted.
Motion of State of Ohio for leave to file amicus brief submitted.
Motion for Leave to File Brief as Amicus Curiae and Brief for Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. as Amicus Curiae in Support of Plaintiff/Defendants of Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly submitted.
Motion of Certain Select Pennsylvania State Senators for leave to file amicus brief submitted.
Motion of Christian Family Coalition for leave to file amicus brief submitted.
Amicus brief of Bryan Cutler Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Kerry Benninghoff Majority Leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives submitted.
For Leave to File Complaint-in-Intervention of Ron Heuer, et al. submitted.
Motion of U.S. Representative Mike Johnson and 105 Other Members for leave to file amicus brief submitted.
Motion of Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, Senator Lora Reinbold, Representative David Eastment, et al. (Elected State Officials) for leave to file amicus brief submitted.
Amicus brief of City of Detroit submitted.
Motion for Leave to File and Amicus Curiae Brief of Justice and Freedom Fund in Support of Plaintiff of Justice and Freedom Fund in Support of Plaintiff submitted.
Complaint in Intervention of Ron Heuer, et al. submitted.
Amicus brief of Ga. state Sen. William Ligon et al. submitted.
Motion of L. Lin Wood for leave to file amicus brief submitted.
Motion of Steve Bullock, in his official capacity as Governor of Montana for leave to file amicus brief submitted.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/22o155.html
The post Updates posted on Supreme Court website on Thursday alone appeared first on Ice Age Now.
via Ice Age Now
December 11, 2020 at 12:03PM
Temperatures far below normal in Kazakhstan and Central Asia
“Kazakhstan and Central Asia fall into ice captivity.”
In Kazakhstan and Central Asia, for two weeks it has been too cold for December. Air temperature anomaly maps show sub-normal temperatures of 6 to 8 degrees, sometimes as much as 10 degrees.
Minus 30 ° C have been observed in Kazakhstan, and minus 25 ° C in both Kyrgyzstan and northern Uzbekistan., which are uncommon for December.
It’s cold in the south. It is snowing in Dushanbe and Tashkent, and the temperature only occasionally reaches a high of zero.
Alexander Shuvalov, head of the forecasting center, commenting on the situation of the southern neighbors, said: “This is practically the same as if in Moscow there were now frosts below -40 ° C (-40F). We can only sympathize with the southerners, for whom this is, if not a disaster, then an unprecedented test.”
“Furthermore,” said Shuvalov, “this kind of cold wave hits Central Asia in December extremely rarely, at best, once for 15-20 years. ”
Thanks to Martin Siebert for this link
The post Temperatures far below normal in Kazakhstan and Central Asia appeared first on Ice Age Now.
via Ice Age Now
December 11, 2020 at 11:49AM
Robert Zubrin: Why we need a technological environmentalism
Saving the planet means going high-tech, not back to nature.
In the 1930s, many idealistic people of good will enlisted in the communist movement, only to discover that its promised land offered not heaven on Earth but hell. Having gone through that experience, writers like George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, and Whittaker Chambers shared their hard-won wisdom in some of the twentieth century’s most noteworthy books, so that others like them, and most certainly society as a whole, might be duly warned from making the same mistake.
In Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, veteran environmental activist Michael Shellenberger makes an excellent attempt to deliver a similar signal warning against today’s most seductive political cult.
Shellenberger’s personal voyage of discovery began as a young green movement missionary seeking to protect indigenous peoples from the alleged harms of economic development. On these travels he discovered the real evil crushing the lives of billions of people — poverty — and how the limitations imposed on them by some of the richest of the world’s elites in the name of conservation not only prevented their escape from brutal grinding poverty but undermined the putative goal of preserving the wonders of nature.
In further pursuit of this insight, Shellenberger then takes the reader on a tour of the African horror show. There, European aristocrat–led organizations like the World Wildlife Fund — following the example of Sierra Club founder John Muir, who advocated for the expulsion of Native Americans to create the Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks — have paid local potentates to clear vast lands of over 14 million poor natives to create game reserves for their aesthetic pleasure. Far from protecting wildlife, however, these cruel projects have served to incite their victims to seek revenge by killing the animals that displaced them.
Shellenberger contrasts this model of environmental preservation with that of economic development fueled by electricity generation, which gets people off the land not at gunpoint, but through the offer of city jobs in factories and offices. Environmentalists have denounced these opportunities as “sweatshops,” but Shellenberger shows that for those able to seize them they are godsends, allowing them to leave behind backbreaking rural lives hauling water and chopping wood to become motor-scooter-liberated commuters, riding home from work to electrified apartments with lighting, air conditioning, electric stoves, indoor plumbing, and flat-screen TVs.
Shellenberger then generalizes from such particulars to develop a broader theory of environmental conservation that is not in conflict with human needs, but coherent with them. His theory is based on two main principles. First: that to preserve the natural we must embrace the artificial. And second, as a central example derived from this, that we must base our civilization on the densest possible energy sources. A substantial part of the book is devoted to unpacking these two principles.
Full essay ($)
The post Robert Zubrin: Why we need a technological environmentalism appeared first on The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF).
via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
December 11, 2020 at 10:59AM
Hailstorm,Flood hits Mahikeng City, South Africa, Dec 10,2020
