Archive

Archive for the ‘world’ Category

Billion-plus people to lack water in 2050: study

March 29, 2011 Comments off

(AFP)

WASHINGTON – More than one billion urban residents will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanization, with Indian cities among the worst hit, a study said Monday.

The shortage threatens sanitation in some of the world’s fastest-growing cities but also poses risks for wildlife if cities pump in water from outside, said the article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study found that under current urbanization trends, by mid-century some 993 million city dwellers will live with less than 100 liters (26 gallons) each day of water each — roughly the amount that fills a personal bathtub — which authors considered the daily minimum.

Adding on the impact of climate change, an additional 100 million people will lack what they Read more…

A global energy war looms

March 23, 2011 Comments off

telegraph

Here’s an alarming chart to ponder. HSBC has calculated what would happen to energy consumption by 2050 given plausible forecasts for economic growth and assuming no constraint on resources, or that humans carry on using energy in the “taken for granted” way they do at the moment.

 

As you can see, demand in China, India and other emerging markets soars, but there is also quite considerable growth from advanced economies too. The big picture is that with an additional one billion cars on the road, demand for oil would grow 110pc to more than 190 million barrels per day. Total demand for energy would rise by a similar order of magnitude, doubling the Read more…

Secretive Plan For a Global Currency

March 22, 2011 Comments off

www.globalresearch

Excerpt from “The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century”
by Ellen Brown ~ Global Research
The following is an excerpt of a chapter by Ellen Brown from the new book by Global Research Publishers, “The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century.” 

Michel Chossudovsky
Andrew Gavin Marshall (editors)

 

 

Help us get the word out, “like” the book on Facebook, comment, and share with friends!

By acting together to fulfill these pledges we will bring the world economy out of recession and prevent a crisis like this from recurring in the future. We are committed to take all necessary actions to restore the normal flow of credit through the financial system and ensure the soundness of systemically important institutions, implementing our policies in line with the agreed G20 framework for restoring lending and repairing the financial sector. We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn into the world economy and increase global liquidity.– G20 Communiqué, London, April 2, 2009

Towards a New Global Currency?

Is the Group of Twenty Countries (G20) envisaging the creation of a Global Central bank? Who or what would serve as this global central bank, cloaked with the power to issue the global currency and police monetary policy for all humanity? When the world’s central bankers met in Washington in September 2008 at the height of the financial meltdown, they discussed what body might be in a position to serve in that awesome and fearful role. A former governor of the Bank of England stated:

The answer might already be staring us in the face, in the form of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)… The Read more…

High seismic activity will last 10 years – seismologist

March 21, 2011 Comments off

rt.com

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake in Japan was one of the major events in the natural cycle of the planet’s seismic activity, Evgeny Rogozhin, deputy director of the Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences told RT.

RT: You have made some controversial predictions in terms of future earthquakes. What exactly are they and what are they based on?

Evgeny Rogozhin: I think that there is no direct connection between the earthquake in Japan and earthquakes that could happen on our territory. But this latest is one of the major events in the chain of earthquakes that recently happened on the planet. You all remember the earthquake on Sumatra in 2004. It was a major earthquake – magnitude 9.5. It was huge. Major loss of life, tsunami, etc. Then there were a number of other earthquakes – in India, where people also died, in China with the magnitude 8 and finally, in Chile last year – 8.8. And now this earthquake in Japan with a magnitude unheard of before in this country – 9.

As you can see the process is taking place in different places on Earth. What does our country look like in this respect? In the last 15 years or so we’ve had about 15 major earthquakes in Read more…

The megaquake connection: Are huge earthquakes linked?

March 18, 2011 Comments off

newscientist.com

The recent cluster of huge quakes around the Pacific Ocean has fuelled speculation that they are seismically linked. New Scientist examines the evidence

A wave of activity (Image: Bernd Settnik/EPA/Corbis)

A wave of activity (Image: Bernd Settnik/EPA/Corbis)

AT 2.46 pm local time on Friday last week, Japan shook like never before. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake wrenched the main island of Honshu 2.5 metres closer to the US and nudged the tilt of Earth’s axis by 16 centimetres. At the epicentre, 130 kilometres offshore, the Pacific tectonic plate lurched westwards, and a 10-metre-high tsunami sped towards the coastal city of Sendai and the surrounding region.

The devastation caused by the events is difficult to exaggerate – estimates suggest the number of fatalities could top 10,000. One of the few consolations is that quakes of magnitude 8.5 and above are rare: the Sendai earthquake is in the top 10 of the highest-magnitude quakes of the last 100 years.

Yet three of these – the December 2004 Sumatra quake, the February 2010 Chile quake, and now Sendai – have struck in just over six years. This presents a horrifying possibility: Read more…

Currency Meltdown Coming

March 17, 2011 Comments off

usawatchdog.com

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

The situation in Japan is getting worse, not better. There are shortages in food, fuel and warm dry shelter. To make matters exponentially worse, nuclear power plants there continue to burn out of control and emit high levels of radiation. Japan is a stark reminder of how fast a modern technologically advanced society can be brought to its knees by an unforeseen calamity.

On the other side of the Pacific, the devastating pictures from that island nation are taking the attention away from our own, much more predictable, calamity coming from a tsunami of debt. As the U.S. and other world governments continue to print money to keep the banks and system solvent, a ball of debt is growing. It is on course to Read more…

2011 has already exceeded 2010 Earthquake Energy Release by 20%

March 15, 2011 Comments off

www.abovetopsecret.com

This is NOT doom-mongering. This is purely observation of the facts. In a year with a very large earthquake this is bound to happen, It happened in 2004 and in 2010, and now in 2011. What will be interesting is to see if the remainder of the year is proportionately quieter, or if we go into a quiet period for a year or two. This was definitely the case in 2005 and 2006. The actual percentage so far @ March 13th is 19.765%

Bearing in mind that the Indonesia big quake was Dec 2004, and then it went very quiet, the rest of this year MAY not see more large quakes.

Just to remind you:

Read more…

Scientists warn of ‘dangerous over-reliance’ on GPS

March 9, 2011 Comments off

(AFP)

LONDON — Developed nations have become “dangerously over-reliant” on satellite navigation systems such as GPS, which could break down or be attacked with devastating results, British engineers said Tuesday.

The Royal Academy of Engineering said the application of the technology was now so broad — from car sat-navs to the time stamp on financial transactions — that without adequate backup, any disruption could have a major impact.

It cited a recent European Commission study showing that six Read more…

Global Food Prices Hit A Record High For The Third Straight Month

March 3, 2011 Comments off

businessinsider.com

Global food prices broke another record in February: higher than January, December and the so-called food crisis of 2008.

The UN index showed a slight decline in sugar prices — still extremely high — with a rise in oil, cereal, dairy and meat.

At this point it’s hard not to see food as a key factor in the Arab revolts.

See Also: 25 Countries That Are Vulnerable To A Food Crisis

chart

Limited Nuclear War Could Deplete Ozone Layer, Increasing Radiation

February 25, 2011 1 comment

By Chris Schneidmiller

Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — A nuclear conflict involving as few as 100 weapons could produce long-term damage to the ozone layer, enabling higher than “extreme” levels of ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth’s surface, new research indicates (see GSN, March 16, 2010).

(Feb. 24) – A 1971 French nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll. The ozone layer could sustain lasting harm from a nuclear exchange involving as few as 100 weapons, allowing increased levels of ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth’s surface, according to new research (Getty Images).

Increased levels of UV radiation from the sun could persist for years, possibly with a drastic impact on humans and the environment, even thousands of miles from the area of the nuclear conflict.

“A regional nuclear exchange of 100 15-kiloton weapons … would produce unprecedented low-ozone columns over populated areas in conjunction with the coldest surface temperatures experienced in the last 1,000 years, and would likely result in a global nuclear famine,” according to a presentation delivered on Friday at a major science conference in Washington.

Today, there are five recognized nuclear powers — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. India, Israel and Pakistan are all known or widely assumed to hold nuclear weapons, while North Korea has a Read more…