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Texas drought will harm wildlife habitat for years
Turkey vultures drop in for a drink from one of the very few remaining watering sources on a private ranch that spans over 7,000 acres Saturday Aug. 6, 2011, near San Angelo, Texas. Randy Bolf, a fence contractor and rancher that leases the property for his cattle herd said that all of the rain and run-off watering tanks on the ranch that straddles Tom Green and Coke county have dried up and area wildlife and his cattle rely on the artificial watering sources he maintains on the property. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
(AP) — In a muddy pile of sand where a pond once flowed in the Texas Panhandle, dead fish, their flesh already decayed and feasted on by maggots, lie with their mouths open. Nearby, deer munch on the equivalent of vegetative junk food and wild turkeys nibble on red harvester ants – certainly not their first choice for lunch.
As the state struggles with the worst one-year drought in its history, entire ecosystems, from the smallest insects to the largest predators, are struggling for survival. The foundations of their habitats – rivers, springs, creeks, streams and lakes – have turned into dry sand, wet mud, trickling springs or, in the best case, large puddles.
“It has a compound effect on a multitude of species and organisms and habitat types because of the way that it’s chained and linked together,” said Jeff Bonner, a wildlife biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Since January, Texas has only gotten about 6 inches of rain, compared to Read more…
Europe Is On The Verge Of Collapsing
Photo by Dieter Heinemann
The scale of impact is unpredictable, but potentially worse than that of the recent toxic assets crisis. The European bloc is the second largest economy, the first trade partner of China, the largest importer of Russian energy and the first buyer of high quality raw materials (it still holds the Hilton quota, the world’s most expensive meat quota).
All over the world European debt holders and many states maintain their reserves in euros. China, for example, has one-fourth of its reserves in such currency and holds a large amount of Greek, Portuguese and Spanish debt bonds….
Without debt restructuring involving important debt amount reductions and extended maturities, Greece will not be able to meet her commitments, just like the rest of Europe’s debt-overhung Europe’s periphery economies – Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, and the effects would certainly contaminate the rest of Europe including the region’s strongest economies.
The illusion of dampening the fire by deferring debt maturities is just that – a chimera. Unless public and private bondholders’ debts are reduced and longer maturities granted, default and meltdown are Read more…
Gold/Silver Ratio Heads Back Up: Trend Might Continue Without QE3
I previously heralded silver’s breakout above $40, as well as gold’s breakout above $1600, as the dawning of the next leg up for precious metals — one that would send silver past its previous high of above $49 reached earlier this year. I still believe that silver will find its way well into triple digits in the coming years, as monetary demand from the global sovereign debt crisis is only escalating and will be the primary driver of silver’s price, but I’m not so sure it will happen imminently; in light of the tumultuous events of this past week, I’ve taken off some of my silver positions in exchange for gold instead. My rationale is as follows:
1. Because of its industrial role — silver is used to create a wide variety of goods, such as warfare weapons and solar panels — silver is more associated with risk. If we see the return of the bear market in equities like we saw in 2008, silver is going to get hit harder than gold.
2. I expected the gold/silver ratio to fall below 40 and approach its previous low of 33. Instead, we saw a bounce off 40. I still believe that silver will unofficially be re-monetized, and that this process will Read more…
Gold passes $1,700 an Ounce
The price of gold topped $1,700 an ounce Sunday evening as fears of a global economic meltdown intensified.
According to the Times of India, “An unprecedented downgrade to the US credit rating sent investors scrambling out of riskier assets, hammering equity markets and the dollar. US gold futures touched an intraday high at $1,702.7 an ounce, while cash gold, which hit its 11th record in 19 sessions, could rise further if pledges by the Group of Seven nations to support battered financial markets fail to bear fruit.”
The Times reported, “The one notch downgrade by Standard & Poor’s of the US long-term rating on Friday added to the threat of contagion from the euro debt crisis, fears over recession in the United States and even the possibility of Read more…
The Invisible IQ Lowering Drug Most Americans Consume Daily
Did you know there’s an “invisible” drug that a majority of Americans consume on a daily basis—a drug so harmful it’s been proven to cause serious health issues, including damage to your bones and teeth, as well as your kidneys, thyroid, pineal gland, and even your brain. This drug is so pervasive that over 40 percent of all American teens between the ages of 12 and 15 show visible signs of having been overexposed to it, and, shockingly, recent international studies indicate that even small doses of this drug can lower the IQ in children.
What is this drug? Read more…
Arctic “death spiral” or dead sensor?
As many readers have noted, one of the Arctic sea ice extent plots on our WUWT sea ice page took a Serreze style nosedive today:
According to DMI (Danish Meteorological Institute), this is the source of the data:
The ice extent values are calculated from the ice type data from the Ocean and Sea Ice, Satellite Application Facility (OSISAF), where areas with ice concentration higher than 30% are classified Read more…
China willing to facilitate military cooperation with Russia: senior military officer
MOSCOW, Aug 07, 2011 (Xinhua via COMTEX) — Chen Bingde, chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China, stressed here on Sunday that China is willing to further promote military cooperation with neighboring Russia.
Chen, who visited Russian military units from Friday to Sunday, said that China’s army would like to work with the Russian forces to further advance their military ties, exchange their beneficial experience on building forces, and share with each other the achievements of military reforms.
China wants to step up its cooperation with Russia to mutually promote the army building in both countries, said Chen.
During his stay, Chen has visited several Russian units, including the Read more…
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