Pre-Announcement Media Coverage

Doomsday is creeping closer as Earth suffers from rising sea levels, melting glaciers, intensifying storms and devastating drought. Scientists have moved the symbolic Doomsday Clock ahead by two minutes, from five minutes to three minutes till midnight, amid growing concerns about climate change -- and the feeble response by countries to stop this existential threat.

“Despite some modestly positive developments in the climate change arena, current efforts are entirely insufficient to prevent a catastrophic warming of Earth,” the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a 70-year-old group, warned in a Thursday announcement. The organization also cited “global nuclear weapons modernization and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals” in the United States, Russia and other nations as additional reasons for moving the clock closer to Doomsday.

"It was inaction on climate change and nuclear weapon dismantling and reduction," Kennette Benedict, executive director, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said in an interview with International Business Times discussing the decision to advance the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock. "You’ve seen the reports on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and [the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's] report that the last decade was the warmest in many, many decades. Science is getting much clearer now. We’re really observing quite extraordinary changes, especially in the Antarctic, and the inevitability of the sea level rise."

The scientists cited a handful of factors that show the accelerating threat of climate change. Let’s take a look:

It’s not a distant or wishy-washy threat. Climate change is here and now, according to a United Nations-led panel of global climate scientists. “Human influence on the climate system is clear and growing, with impacts observed on all continents,” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a stark November report.

Over the past century, burning oil, coal and natural gas for energy use, converting forests into industrial farmland and razing pristine jungles has pumped massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As a result, the atmosphere and oceans are warming, sea levels are rising and concentrations of carbon dioxide -- the most abundant greenhouse gas -- have increased to levels unseen in at least the last 800,000 years, according to the assessment.

Need proof the climate is changing? The panel pointed to the mass die-offs of forests in the U.S. West, where heat-loving beetles are thriving and killing trees. More frequent heat waves are destroying crops and causing tens of thousands of deaths worldwide. In New York City, sea levels are 1.1 feet higher today than in 1900. That change proved especially dangerous during 2012’s Hurricane Sandy; the added ocean height worsened the extent and magnitude of coastal flooding during the storm.

Last year, surface temperatures on the land and oceans reached a combined global average of 1.24 degrees Fahrenheit (0.69 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average -- the hottest level on record since 1880, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said earlier this month.

NASA scientists separately determined that the 10 warmest years in the past 135 are all since 2000, with the exception of 1998. Last year “is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades,” Gavin Schmidt, who directs NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said recently.

He noted that while chaotic weather patterns in certain years can mess with global temperatures, “the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases.”

Global warming must be kept to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. But scientists generally agree that we’ll breeze past that threshold before the middle of the century, and we could see warming of up to 4.8 degrees Celsius by 2100.

To prevent extreme warming, the world needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions entirely before the end of the century. As in, to zero. That means keeping all of the world’s remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground, an action that will require aggressive government policies such as carbon pricing and trillions of dollars of investment in cleaner energy alternatives.

To limit warming to just 2 degrees, countries will have to keep 80 percent of coal, half of natural gas, and one-third of oil in the ground by 2050, according to a recent study by University College London researchers. Scientists say it’s technically possible to do this, given the recent advancements in solar and wind power and energy-saving technologies. But policy experts say it’s a “politically unachievable” feat right now.

The Doomsday Clock scientists said the U.N. climate talks in Peru in December were “inadequate” given the scope of the threat.

At the meeting, 196 countries agreed to work over the next 12 months to develop an international treaty for reducing emissions and investing in low-carbon technologies. Many negotiators and outside observers hailed the conference as a success; it’s perhaps the closest countries have come to an inclusive global agreement in nearly two decades of talks. But critics, including the atomic scientists, pointed out that the “plan to make a plan” isn’t doing much right now to curb global emissions and halt investment in fossil fuels.

The U.N will have another climate summit in Paris later this year, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Benedict hopes to see serious developments regarding global warming. "I think it almost takes a change in consciousness and we hope that might happen in Paris, that there might be more money set aside for the people who will suffer the most from climate change. People in poor countries, especially low-lying countries along the coast, that would be a big step forward and would signal, to many, that the international community is taking this seriously," Benedict said. "Talk is talk, what we need is action at this point."

Comment by casey a on January 24, 2015 at 7:54pm: Big asteroid to fly by Earth Monday. http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/22/us/asteroid-fly-by/.

Also mentioned in the article is: Don Yeomans, director of the Near Earth Object Program @ NASA has retired. He used to be one of the company guys put forth to chirp the coverup lies.

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on January 22, 2015 at 11:41pm: http://www.ibtimes.com/pulse/doomsday-clock-ticks-closer-apocalypse...

Doomsday Clock Ticks Closer To Apocalypse Because Of Climate Change, Atomic Scientists Warn

Thu, 2015-01-22 14:17

Firefighters battle a wildfire nearly Fresh Pond, California, in September 2014. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warned Thursday that the effects of climate change -- including increased heat, drought and wildfires -- are accelerating as countries fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Reuters

Doomsday is creeping closer as Earth suffers from rising sea levels, melting glaciers, intensifying storms and devastating drought. Scientists have moved the symbolic Doomsday Clock ahead by two minutes, from five minutes to three minutes till midnight, amid growing concerns about climate change -- and the feeble response by countries to stop this existential threat.

“Despite some modestly positive developments in the climate change arena, current efforts are entirely insufficient to prevent a catastrophic warming of Earth,” the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a 70-year-old group, warned in a Thursday announcement. The organization also cited “global nuclear weapons modernization and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals” in the United States, Russia and other nations as additional reasons for moving the clock closer to Doomsday.

"It was inaction on climate change and nuclear weapon dismantling and reduction," Kennette Benedict, executive director, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said in an interview with International Business Times discussing the decision to advance the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock. "You’ve seen the reports on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and [the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's] report that the last decade was the warmest in many, many decades. Science is getting much clearer now. We’re really observing quite extraordinary changes, especially in the Antarctic, and the inevitability of the sea level rise."

The scientists cited a handful of factors that show the accelerating threat of climate change. Let’s take a look:

1. Climate change is already happening -- and it’s our fault

A damaged house is seen after 2012's Hurricane Sandy passed through in the greatly affected community of Atlantique on Fire Island, New York. Rising sea levels -- caused largely by global warming -- intensified the extent and magnitude of coastal flooding during the storm.  Reuters

It’s not a distant or wishy-washy threat. Climate change is here and now, according to a United Nations-led panel of global climate scientists. “Human influence on the climate system is clear and growing, with impacts observed on all continents,” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a stark November report.

Over the past century, burning oil, coal and natural gas for energy use, converting forests into industrial farmland and razing pristine jungles has pumped massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As a result, the atmosphere and oceans are warming, sea levels are rising and concentrations of carbon dioxide -- the most abundant greenhouse gas -- have increased to levels unseen in at least the last 800,000 years, according to the assessment.

Need proof the climate is changing? The panel pointed to the mass die-offs of forests in the U.S. West, where heat-loving beetles are thriving and killing trees. More frequent heat waves are destroying crops and causing tens of thousands of deaths worldwide. In New York City, sea levels are 1.1 feet higher today than in 1900. That change proved especially dangerous during 2012’s Hurricane Sandy; the added ocean height worsened the extent and magnitude of coastal flooding during the storm.

Here’s another unsettling tidbit:

2. 2014 was the hottest year on record

A man walks through the dried-up bed of a reservoir in China's Shaanxi province in July 2014. Last year was the planet's hottest year on record, scientists say.  Reuters

Last year, surface temperatures on the land and oceans reached a combined global average of 1.24 degrees Fahrenheit (0.69 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average -- the hottest level on record since 1880, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said earlier this month.

NASA scientists separately determined that the 10 warmest years in the past 135 are all since 2000, with the exception of 1998. Last year “is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades,” Gavin Schmidt, who directs NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said recently.

He noted that while chaotic weather patterns in certain years can mess with global temperatures, “the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases.”

3. Temperatures will keep rising -- and probably past the 2-degree threshold

The coal power plant 'Scholven' owned by German utility giant E.ON. The world needs to keep most its remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground by 2050 to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.  Reuters

Global warming must be kept to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. But scientists generally agree that we’ll breeze past that threshold before the middle of the century, and we could see warming of up to 4.8 degrees Celsius by 2100.

To prevent extreme warming, the world needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions entirely before the end of the century. As in, to zero. That means keeping all of the world’s remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground, an action that will require aggressive government policies such as carbon pricing and trillions of dollars of investment in cleaner energy alternatives.

To limit warming to just 2 degrees, countries will have to keep 80 percent of coal, half of natural gas, and one-third of oil in the ground by 2050, according to a recent study by University College London researchers. Scientists say it’s technically possible to do this, given the recent advancements in solar and wind power and energy-saving technologies. But policy experts say it’s a “politically unachievable” feat right now.

4. Last year’s climate negotiations were kind of a dud

A delegate yawns during a plenary session of the U.N. Climate Change Conference COP 20 in Lima, Peru, in December 2014. Nearly 200 nations agreed at the meeting to work toward a global treaty to reduce emissions, which countries will sign at this year's conference in Paris.  Reuters

The Doomsday Clock scientists said the U.N. climate talks in Peru in December were “inadequate” given the scope of the threat.

At the meeting, 196 countries agreed to work over the next 12 months to develop an international treaty for reducing emissions and investing in low-carbon technologies. Many negotiators and outside observers hailed the conference as a success; it’s perhaps the closest countries have come to an inclusive global agreement in nearly two decades of talks. But critics, including the atomic scientists, pointed out that the “plan to make a plan” isn’t doing much right now to curb global emissions and halt investment in fossil fuels.

The U.N will have another climate summit in Paris later this year, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Benedict hopes to see serious developments regarding global warming. "I think it almost takes a change in consciousness and we hope that might happen in Paris, that there might be more money set aside for the people who will suffer the most from climate change. People in poor countries, especially low-lying countries along the coast, that would be a big step forward and would signal, to many, that the international community is taking this seriously," Benedict said. "Talk is talk, what we need is action at this point."

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on January 21, 2015 at 5:36pm: http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/2015/01/ufo-disclosure-advocate...

UFO Disclosure Advocate to Play a Major Role in Hillary Clinton’s Election Campaign

Posted on January 21, 2015

An advocate for freedom of information, John Podesta has said that it’s time for a full disclosure of everything, including the existence of space aliens. The Wall Street Journal said John Podesta, who serves as a senior White House aide, may resign and join the election campaign of Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Podesta’s role in a Clinton campaign remains unclear, the Journal reported. People with inside access to the discussions said he likely would get the role of a campaign chairman should Hillary decide to run. Podesta would be an impressive Clinton’s asset given his political and social learning.

In 2013, Podesta called Republicans “Killer Cultists” when he referred congressional Republicans the Jonestown cultists who left more than nine hundred people dead and committed mass suicide in 1978. He said that they should focus on executive action because they would likely face a second term against a cult with similarity of Jonestown taking charge in one of the houses of Congress. Republicans got furious, and Podesta eventually issued an apology through Twitter.

UFO and extraterrestrial enthusiasts will be most interested in Podesta’s suggestion that authorities should impart their knowledge about extraterrestrials to the public if they have any proof. Speaking at a press conference in 2002, he asked the U.S. government to declassify any UFO information. He also composed the foreword to the book “UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record,” published in 2010.

He wrote that the time to disclose UFO subject is long overdue. If Podesta is faithful to his words and if he’s in a position of power, Steve Bassett’s petition requesting for disclosure might not be needed anymore as disclosure may just come naturally.

In the U.S. history, no female has become president, and if human rights and equality advocate Hillary Clinton make it to the Presidential Office with Podesta at her side, people could expect full disclosure.

Comment by casey a on January 21, 2015 at 5:35pm: Al Gore's speech at the World Economic Forum that's taking place in Switzerland. (Its basically a place where the political elite meet the corporate elite). But Gore's speech on climate change is interesting (to say the least). Looks like he's doubling down on climate change. Its one way of getting ppl's attention on the earth changes & renewable energy, I guess.

Comment by casey a on January 21, 2015 at 11:51am: NASA Cuts ISS Live Feed As 'UFO' Appears (video) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/01/19/ufo-appears-iss-nasa-cut...

Comment by casey a on January 20, 2015 at 9:55am: Has Science Just Admitted Planet X/Nibiru Exists? Believers Say Full ‘Nibiru Disclosure’ Is Coming

http://www.inquisitr.com/1769216/has-science-just-admitted-planet-x...

Comment by Mark on January 16, 2015 at 12:04pm: Are there hidden planets in our solar system?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2912323/Are-hidden-p...

Astronomers believe there are at least two unknown planets waiting to be discovered well beyond Pluto.

They claim these planets are changing the position of objects away from Neptune, causing them to behave in strange ways.

If their theory proves true, scientists say it could 'revolutionise' solar system models.

Comment by Yvonne Lawson on January 14, 2015 at 8:04am: Can you solve some of the world’s biggest UFO mysteries? Rare microfilms of alien sightings are now available online for free

Mr Arnold saw nine UFOs over Mount Rainier, on 24 June 1947 and the US government agencies took an interest in reports. A similar sighting (pictured) occurred over Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 12, 1947

The files relate to USAF investigations into UFO from 1947-1969

They were conducted under 'Project Blue Book' which ended in 1970

More than 700 cases remain unsolved, accounting for 5.5% of the files

In 1948, the US government launched several inquiries into UFO sightings, which many believed were sparked by Cold War paranoia.

In what became known as 'Project Blue Book,' more than 12,000 encounters with UFOs were looked into by the Air Force.

Now, decades after the files were closed, the microfilms have been made available online for free – allowing anyone to re-examine the evidence.

The USAF says that the Blue Book included 12,618 sightings reports, with 701 of which remained 'unidentified' – or around 5.5 per cent of the files.

The files, which can be accessed here, were previously only available by visiting the National Archives in Washington, according to a report in openminds.tv.

'There is plenty of work for amateur investigators to try to come up with explanations they never had time to consider or research,' Nigel Watson author of the UFO investigations Manual told MailOnline.

One case that Mr Watson is particularly intrigued in for historical reasons is a report filed by Kenneth Arnold which led to the popular term 'flying saucers'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2908998/Can-solve-wo...

Comment by casey a on January 9, 2015 at 10:38pm: NASA made posters for some known exoplanets. Here is one. http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/08/nasa-travel-posters-exoplanets/

Two suns, you say? That's right, just like Luke Skywalker's home world of Tatooine, Kepler-16b orbits a pair of giant stars.

Comment by casey a on January 7, 2015 at 10:20am: Kepler 438b: Most Earth-like planet ever discovered could be home for alien life. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/06/earth-like-planet-al...

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Pre-Announcement Media Coverage

"Nearly Every Star Hosts at Least One Alien Planet"

NASA Scientists "Discover" a Wobbly Planet!?

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Doomsday Clock Ticks Closer To Apocalypse Because Of Climate Change, Atomic Scientists Warn

UFO Disclosure Advocate to Play a Major Role in Hillary Clinton’s Election Campaign

Are there hidden planets in our solar system?

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