Category: Environment

The North Pole Is An Insane 36 Degrees Warmer Than Normal As Winter Descends

By Chris Mooney and Jason Samenow

Political people in the United States are watching the chaos in Washington in the moment. But some people in the science community are watching the chaos somewhere else — the Arctic.

It’s polar night there now — the sun isn’t rising in much of the Arctic. That’s when the Arctic is supposed to get super-cold, when the sea ice that covers the vast Arctic Ocean is supposed to grow and thicken.

But in fall of 2016 — which has been a zany year for the region, with multiple records set for low levels of monthly sea ice — something is totally off. The Arctic is super-hot, even as a vast area of cold polar air has been displaced over Siberia.


Image obtained using a climate reanalyzer. (Climate Change Institute/University of Maine)

At the same time, one of the key indicators of the state of the Arctic — the extent of sea ice covering the polar ocean — is at a record low. The ice is freezing up again, as it always does this time of year after reaching its September low, but it isn’t doing so as rapidly as usual.

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Wild Buffalo Rounded Up and Kept Without Food or Water to Protect Dakota Access Pipeline Construction Site

HOW IS THIS ALLOWED!??

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Wild Buffaloes in North Dakota have been corralled without access to food or water to “protect” the construction site of the Dakota Access pipeline.

Though the recent protests in the US would have you think that the biggest crisis facing the United States is Donald Trump’s surprise win, Native Americans have gathered in historic numbers to defend native territory from the Dakota Access Pipeline. The pipeline, if completed, will span 1,170 miles at a cost of approximately $3.7 billion. The company behind the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, has pushed on with the project, despite covering up its dangers and circumventing the law.

Now, as the pipeline enters its final phase of construction in North Dakota, where most of the resistance to the pipeline is located, Energy Transfer Partners and its hired contractors have escalated tensions with protestors to protect the project as it enters its final phase. The State of North Dakota has also taken to protecting the pipeline. State police have been using rubber bullets, attack dogs, and tear gas on the protestors while North Dakota’s state attorneys have been working to intimidate journalists for covering and filming the protests. In one notable example, a filmmaker now faces up to 45 years in prison for only filming the protestors.

Now, it appears that the native wildlife are also targets. Yesterday, Indigenous Rising Media released a video showing a large group of wild buffaloes being herded into an enclosure surrounded by 8 foot deep trenches and razor wire.

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SHOT IN THE BACK AT STANDING ROCK

Elders kept in cages. Demonstrators shot with rubber bullets. What’s happening at Standing Rock isn’t just a protest, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox writes. It’s a character test—one America is failing.

by: Josh Fox

OCETI SAKOWIN CAMP, Standing Rock Reservation—The moral soul of this continent is at Standing Rock, and at the moment that soul is being beaten, maced, pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed, and locked up by a militarized police force acting on behalf of foreign oil companies.

As North Dakota police lock up and abuse peaceful “water protectors,” members of a growing resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline slated to transport oil under the Missouri River, it becomes clear that the fight over the tribal land of Standing Rock is not only the primary battleground for indigenous sovereignty; it is the center of the fight for clean water, to fight climate change, and to ban hydraulic fracturing. At its base, this is a struggle between the people and a government corrupted by corporate power.

Wes “Mekasi” Horinek, an activist with the water rights group Bold Alliance was arrested during a camp raid by local police. He described the atrocities he’s witnessed: “peaceful protesters were hooded, put in stress positions, strip-searched. We were placed in dog kennels with numbers written on our arms for hours. Elders were kept in cages in the basement of the police station for days.”

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Physicist Michio Kaku Talks Weather Modification

Editor’s note:  Deep breath. Rolling my eyes.  ONE DAY they MAY control the weather?  ONE DAY?  How about the past 50 damn years we have had weather modification technology.  Just part of disclosure – which is government’s way of saying “we SAY we will start doing this but in truth we really have already been doing it.”  Pass the chemtrail cocktail, please…

Climate Activists From Portland, Oregon Building Medical Bus and Sending to Standing Rock

The Portland Climate Action Coalition isn’t just checking into Standing Rock. It’s bringing Standing Rock a place to check in—and get help.

The Portland CAC, a coalition of local social and environmental justice groups, is working to retrofit an old school bus into a makeshift refuge and medical care unit to be driven to to the oil pipeline protest at Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Complete with beds, heat, and medical supplies, the bus will provide a warm space and limited medical services to protestors allied with Native American tribes trying to block the pipeline.

The Bunk Bus project began when CAC members Mike Horner and Harlan Shober made a trip to Standing Rock to drop off supplies in the end of September. Hauling a load of wood stoves, tents, food, and other supplies, Horner and Shober were floored by the 30-mile-per-hour winds and severe weather conditions they encountered.

“The wind was howling,” says Horner. “Tents were falling down. Just by looking we could see that it was going to be unbelievably cold in the winter.”

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Cast Of Avengers Shows Their Support – Brings Attention To DAPL Protestors

By: Claire Bernish

Four stars from the movie, The Avengers, have now joined forces to demand President Barack Obama pay attention to abuses and excessive force being used against the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other water protectors fighting construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, and Chris Evans have teamed up to use their celebrity status on behalf of Native Americans concerned the pipeline’s route under the Missouri River could poison drinking water for both the reservation and at least 18 million people downstream.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux are also particularly concerned further construction by Energy Transfer Partners endangers sites sacred to the tribe, some of which tribal historians had been unable to assess until recently due to previously longstanding lack of permission from now-private property owners.

All four Avengers have taken to social media in the past month to encourage others to share their support of opposition to the pipeline. As Ruffalo, who plays The Hulk in the film, said in a recent video:

“Take a stand for our brothers and sisters in #StandingRock! Join me in telling @barackobama to just say #NoDAPL. Period. Sign the petition and #StandWithStandingRock at the link in my bio.”

Thor actor Hemsworth shared a photo in full costume holding a sign which read, “We stand with Standing Rock #WaterisLife #NoDAPL #MniWiconi.”

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Native Woman Cooking For Thousands Of People Fighting Against Dakota Access

 

2734Nantinki Young has fed almost 3000 people a day to support the protest against the Dakota pipeline that would destroy many Native American lands.

A member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, Young drove 2,100 miles to join the protests and doesn’t plan on leaving any time soon.

Nantinki Young, 27, Santee, South Dakota: “I support the camp by providing energy and strength through the meals we prepare each day. I make sure everyone that comes here has something to eat even if it’s just a snack in between meals. … It’s not our tribe, I’m not from here, but we’re all Native Americans and we stand together.”

Since March, thousands of Native Americans, environmental activists and their allies — including some UC Berkeley students — have gathered at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota to oppose the ongoing construction of the pipeline, which is intended to carry hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois each day.
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2 Police Officers Turn In Badges In Support Of Standing Rock Water Protectors

Earlier today it was reported by Redhawk at Standing Rock in North Dakota that two police officers have turned in their badges in support of the water protectors.

“There have been at least 2 reports of police officers turning in their badges acknowledging that this battle is not what they signed up for. You can see it in some of them, that they do not support the police actions. We must keep reminding them they are welcome to put down their weapons and badge and take a stand against this pipeline as well. Some are waking up.”
-Redhawk

With actions from militarized police continuing to be seen as extremely violent and dangerous, this news is a big win for the water protectors and for humanity as a whole. While the actions of some police officers are not appropriate, we all must continue to visualize and intend/pray that the hearts of all involved in this situation continue to open. Police must be held accountable for their actions, though we must continue to welcome them over to the side of the water protectors.

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