"The First Thanksgiving at
Plymouth" (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe.
In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is commonly,
but not universally, traced to a poorly documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth
in present-day Massachusetts. (wikipedia.com)
* Special thanks to "Google Images", "wikipedia.com", "NBC News".
and "The Washington Post"
BLOG POST
By Felicity Blaze
Noodleman
Los Angeles, CA
11.29.13
Well it’s official now!
Another Thanksgiving has come and gone.
Americas oldest holiday, first observed in the new world by the Pilgrims
who voyaged from Europe settling in America.
The day of feasting took place as early as 1621 and has endured as a day
for celebration and giving thanks for the bountiful blessings found in America
sustaining us from that time until the present; all these 392 years! Since that time many new Pilgrims have settled
here in this new world and have joined in the traditional day of feasting celebrating
the blessings they too have enjoyed here in the America.
Now that the day of feasting is over we are also blessed
with left overs and the inevitable cleaning up from the family lounging around
watching the televised football, which has now become a Thanksgiving tradition. Who knew that the garbage disposal and the dishwasher would both breakdown at the same time? For some of us we may need to also evict some of the guests who have decided to stay over for a few days!
The traditional feast was made available to the homeless supplied by charitable organization and Churches. Low income families received turkeys supplied by grocery stores who wanted to donate them to the needy. Numerous efforts were made by many to insure that everyone could join in on the day of feasting. The Jewish "Festival of Lights" known as Hanukkah coincided with Thanksgiving for the first time since the 1800's in what has been called a calendar "overlap" this year. Last but not least, Macy's department store had their traditional Thanksgiving day parade! The retailers at the local Mall and around
town have been busy preparing for your Christmas shopping hoping they will have
a good year and today marks “Black Friday” which is the first official day of
Christmas shopping! Door buster sales abounded with the latest and newest merchandise for the Christmas holiday just right around the corner!
Did
President Obama have a good holiday? He
pardoned the honorary turkey with a Presidential proclamation but unfortunately
he has become something of a turkey himself.
President Obama continues to do poorly in the polls. Oh and by the way, the turkeys who have received
Presidential pardons usually don’t tend to live long afterwards. Two articles follow which describe the Presidents Thanksgiving along with an article outlining the history of Presidential pardons for the "Ole Tom Turkey".
David Jackson, USA TODAY 5:46 p.m.
EST November 27, 2013
(Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
On a
rainy day, President Obama performs the traditional turkey pardoning
Obama
also jokes about turkey pardons
Today
marked the 66th annual presentation of the National Thanksgiving Turkey
As the wind blew and the rain fell, President Obama
stepped outside the White House for five minutes today for a holiday ritual:
pardoning a lucky turkey named Popcorn.
Obama also engaged in another White House tradition:
Telling jokes about the turkey pardoning.
"The office of the presidency — the most powerful
position in the world — brings with it many awesome and solemn
responsibilities," Obama said during a ceremony on the North Portico.
"This is not one of them."
Noting that Popcorn was one of 80 birds that competed for
a pardon from the Thanksgiving table, Obama said: "It was, quite
literally, the Hunger Games."
As daughters Malia and Sasha and official guests looked
on, Obama asserted his presidential authority: "Popcorn, you have a full
reprieve from cranberry sauce and stuffing. We wish you well."
As for runner-up Caramel — who is also being spared this
Thanksgiving — Obama joked that "he's already busy raising money for his
next campaign."
The president, first lady Michelle Obama and their
daughters were scheduled to do a Thanksgiving-related public service event
later on Thursday.
This was the 66th annual presentation of the National
Thanksgiving Turkey, courtesy of the National Turkey Federation.
Voters across the country got to choose between finalists
Popcorn and Caramel by casting ballots via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Caramel and Popcorn, both of whom are 20 weeks old and
weigh about 38 pounds each, grew up on a farm in Minnesota. After the ceremony,
they were driven to George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens for
public viewing during the holidays.
Various organizations have been giving turkeys to
presidents for years — the practice can be traced back to at least the 1870s —
and Abraham Lincoln is said to have saved the life of a dinner-bound fowl that
his son had taken a shine to.
In years past, many presidents have simply eaten turkeys
presented to them.
The White House Historical Association pointed out that a Washington
Post newspaper story used the terms "pardon" and
"reprieve" when President John F. Kennedy said of the national
turkey, "let's keep him going."
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush said:
"'Reprieve,' 'keep him going,' or 'pardon': It's all the same for the
turkey, as long as he doesn't end up on the president's holiday table."
"USA Today"
"The Washington Post"
Poll: 4 In
10 Say Obama An Effective Leader
·BY AARON BLAKE
·
Just four in 10 Americans say
that President Obama is a capable and effective leader for the American government,
according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll.
The 40 percent who agree with
this statement is down from 52 percent just five months ago and comes as Obama
continues to wrestle with the troubled health-care law rollout.
The poll also matched other
recent polls showing a drop in the number of people who believe Obama is
"honest" and "trustworthy." CNN pegs the number who
disagree with that statement at 53 percent.
The poll also shows 56 percent
say the president is not someone they admire, another reflection of changing
views of Obama's character.
The poll isn't all bad news for
Obama. While his ability to perform his job well and his honesty -- long strong
points for the president -- have taken a sharp hit, six in 10 say he has a
vision for the country's future and seven in 10 still say he is "likeable."
Both of those numbers are down
from previous polls, though.
"The Washington Post"
"NBC News"
Presidential Turkey Pardons, Not As Long a History As You Might Think
Two turkeys, one named "Caramel" and the other "Popcorn," are presented to the press in Washington on Nov. 26, 2013. Nicholas Kamm / AFP
By Domenico Montanaro, Deputy Political Editor, NBC News
The annual ceremony of the presidential turkey pardon is so ingrained in the American Thanksgiving tradition that it might seem as old as the holiday itself. But the ritual of White House clemency for a pair of lucky fowl is actually relatively recent.
President Barack Obama will officially pardon "Popcorn" and "Caramel" this week at the White House.
President Harry Truman is often cited, incorrectly, as the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. (Just Google first president to pardon a turkey and see how many amateur-website Truman answers you get.)
Adding to the confusion, President Bill Clinton attributed the first Thanksgiving-related poultry acquittal to Truman during his own pardoning session in 1997.
But the Truman Library wrote in 2003: "The Library's staff has found no documents, speeches, newspaper clippings, photographs, or other contemporary records in our holdings which refer to Truman pardoning a turkey that he received as a gift in 1947, or at any other time during his Presidency."
In fact, Truman was fairly blunt about the fact that the tasty birds that came to the White House weren’t exactly headed toward blissful retirement after a high-profile political absolution.
President Bill Clinton gestures toward a turkey presented to him at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1993 by the National Turkey Federation as the Federation's President Stuart Proctor looks on. Doug Mills / AP
"Truman sometimes indicated to reporters that the turkeys he received were destined for the family dinner table," the library wrote.
It appears that Abraham Lincoln, in a way, was the first to spare a turkey. But it wasn't a Thanksgiving turkey. It was a turkey his son adopted as a pet during the Christmas season, which is apparently the kind of thing kids did in the mid-1800s.
"[T]he tradition actually began 83 years earlier when President Lincoln received a turkey for Christmas holiday,” Clinton said during that same 1997 speech. “His son, Tad, grew so attached to the turkey that he named him 'Jack,' and President Lincoln had no choice but to give Jack the full run of the White House."
President George W. Bush made reference to the same story in his “pardoning” ceremony in 2001.
So which president was the first to actually pardon a Thanksgiving turkey?
President John F. Kennedy reaches out to touch a 40-pound turkey presented to him Nov. 19, 1963, at the White House. Harvey Georges / AP
It appears it was John F. Kennedy in 1963. An NBC News archive search found a Los Angeles Times article dated Nov. 20, 1963 with the headline, "Turkey gets presidential pardon."
And that turkey was a monster. The paper described it as a "55-pound broad white tom."
Despite a sign hanging around the bird's neck that read, "Good eating, Mr. President," Kennedy took a look down at the "frightened, panting bird" and said, "We'll just let this one grow."
One more – albeit morbid – note about these pardoned birds. They're bred to be eaten, and they only live an average of two years after the leave the White House.
On that appetizing note, enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner!
"NBC News"
So for 2013 this just about sums up Thanksgiving. In case you haven't guessed, this article is something of a turkey this week too! Felicity feasting here with the "Noodleman Group".
It's easy! Just copy and paste me into your email!
* “The Noodleman Group” is pleased to announce that we are now carrying a link to the “USA Today” news site.We installed the “widget/gadget” August 20, and it will be carried as a regular feature on our site.Now you can read“Noodleman” and then check in to “USA Today” for all the up to date News, Weather, Sports and more!Just scroll all the way down to the bottom of our site and hit the “USA Today” hyperlinks.Enjoy!
This week we would like to honor Dave
Granlund. His cartoons have appeared in
the New York Times,Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek and he has been a great source for our Blog. His art often illustrates many subjects we have featured with his great sense of houmor. His web site also features other artests which we have featured in the past @ http://www.davegranlund.com/cartoons/
Thanks Dave!
* Special thanks to "Google Images", "urbandictionary.com", "NBC News", "USA Today",
"ABC News" and "The Gurdian".
BLOG POST
by Felicity Blaze
Noodleman
Los Angeles, CA
11.22.13
Global warming? Climate Change? Just an unuseual weather pattern: freak storms? The
evidence is beginning to stack up. As we approach and are preparing for our Thanksgiving holiday 2013, maybe we should be giving thanks for the good weather we enjoy from day to day while we are able! Catastrophic weather conditions are beginning to appear the world
over. These phenomenon are beginning to
occur with more frequency and are creating record breaking meteorological devastation
on the earth and human kind, and also on many life forms for this world. Mother Nature is letting
us know that she is on the move. Weather has the ability to change so quickly that it is able to catch us completely off guard. Normally we expect the weather conditions to be in season with the time of year and therefor we are prepared for the seasonal climate. Occasionally however; nature will throw us a "curve ball" which catches us by "storm"! "The Urban Dictionary" defines inclimate weather in these terms:
inclimate weather
Often mistakenly used when the phrase "inclement weather" should be used, the phrase "inclimate weather" actually means "unseasonable weather" due to climate change.
"Inclement weather" means "unpleasant weather which is stormy, rainy, or snowy," and that can also be the meaning of "inclimate weather" when the weather is supposed to be pleasant. However, when the climate and the time of year normally would bring stormy, rainy, or snowy weather, "inclimate weather" is sunny or pleasant weather.
"urbandictionary.com"
Going back to the devastation of “Hurricane Katrina” in the
New Orleans area of Louisiana and the destructive force of “Hurricane Sandy” on
the east coast which was seen in the New York area damaging the Statute of
Liberty, we are experiencing larger storm forces around the world. What is even more disturbing than the size of
these storms is the unseasonal times of the year in which these storms are
striking leaving their devastation as a testimony of changes which may be right
around the corner for the Planet.
Within the last month or so we have seen three news worthy
Meteorological events which again bear witness to global warming and
change. The Typhoon which struck the Philippines,
a record snow fall in China and a large number of Tornado's striking the Midwestern
US. This week was are passing along the
articles for these events along with as article about “Sea Urchins” as further
evidence of global warming.
"NBC News"
More Bad Global Warming News:
Acidification Harming Sea Urchins
Stephanie Pappas LiveScience
Adult green sea urchins, a keystone
species in temperate and subpolar kelp
forests.
(GEOMAR)
Spiny green sea
urchins face a new challenge from climate change: As the oceans become more
acidic, urchin larvae struggle to digest their food, new research finds.
The study is the first
to prove that ocean acidification can cause digestive problems for marine
animals, though scientists have long been alarmed at the trend for other
reasons. Ocean acidificationhas threatened oyster farms, slowed coral growth and caused common marine snails to shrink, among other
effects.
Earlier studies have
focused on calcification, or the process by which marine animals draw minerals
from the water to build shells and skeletons, study researcher Meike Stumpp, a
former Ph.D. student at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research and the
University of Kiel in Germany, said in a statement.
"Other vital
processes — such as digestion and gastric pH regulation — were neglected,"
Stumpp said. Gastric pH is the level of acidity in the digestive system.
"We can now demonstrate that they deserve much more attention," she
said.
Warming climate,
acidifying oceans
As levels of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere increase — driven by the burning of fossil fuels —
the oceans act as a sponge, taking up some of the extra carbon dioxide. The
result is carbonic acid, which decreases the overall pH of the oceans. Since
the Industrial Revolution, the ocean has become about 25 to 30 percent more
acidic, scientists estimate. [Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming]
Acidification eats
away at minerals used by corals to build their skeletons and other animals
to build their shells. But Stumpp and her colleagues were concerned with another part
of the life cycle. Many marine animals start their lives as larvae, which are
very exposed to the ocean environment. In particular, the larvae of the green
sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis) have a digestive system that is bathed
in ocean water.
Humans and other
mammals have acidic gastric juices with a pH measurement of around 2, similar
to the acidity level of lemon juice. Sea-urchin larvae, in contrast, have very
basic, or alkaline, digestive juices — about 9.5 on the 14-point pH scale.
Historically, ocean pH was about 8.16 on the pH scale, making it slightly less
basic than urchin digestive juices.
Digestive problems
Stumpp and her
colleagues exposed sea-urchin larvae to slightly more acidic seawater, calibrated to be at a pH level of 7.7 and 7.4. On the pH
scale, 7 is neutral, so the seawater was still slightly basic.
Because the larval
digestive system is exposed to the outside environment, the more acidic water
caused a decrease in gastric-juice pH of about 0.3 to 0.5, the researchers
report Oct. 20 online in the journal Nature Climate Change.
In the more acidic
environment, the enzymes that digest food don't work as well. As a result, the
researchers found, urchin larvae in acidic water ate 11 percent to 33 percent
more than those in ideal water conditions.
"If the organisms
are unable to compensate for extra costs caused by ocean acidification by eating
more, they suffer negative consequences in the form of reduced growth and
fertility, and in extreme cases, death," study researcher Sam Dupont of
the University of Gothenburg in Sweden said in a statement.
Green sea urchins are a key
species in kelp forests in temperate and subpolar oceans, so their health and
survival is crucial for the entire ecosystem, the researchers wrote. More
studies of keystone species are needed, they added — especially in the
vulnerable larval stage.
"NBC News"
Super Typhoon Smashes Into Philippines
Doyle
Rice, USA TODAY 5:19 a.m. EST November 8, 2013
It is one of the most intense storms in world history.
One of the most powerful typhoons
ever recorded has slammed into the Philippines. Officials are worried about the
number of casualties and the amount damage they will find in remote areas.
(Nov. 8) AP
(Photo:
CharismSayat,
AFP/Getty Images)
A massive typhoon packing winds approaching 200 mph and called
one of the most powerful storms ever recorded blasted into the Philippines on
Friday, killing at least four people.
Forecasters warned of potentially catastrophic damage. Trees
were down, power was out in parts of the country, there was widespread flooding
and communication with the hardest-hit areas was knocked out, making it
difficult to get a full sense of the damage.
Two people were electrocuted in storm-related accidents, one
person was killed by a fallen tree and another was struck by lightning,
official reports said.
Super Typhoon Haiyan made morning landfall at Guiuan, a small
city in Samar province in the eastern Philippines. The U.S. Navy's Joint
Typhoon Warning Center said maximum sustained winds were 195 mph, with gusts to
235 mph.
It reached the fragile island chain as the most powerful typhoon
or hurricane in recorded history, based on wind speed measurements from
satellites, says meteorologist Jeff Masters of Weather Underground.
""There aren't too many buildings constructed that can
withstand that kind of wind,'' Masters said.
Authorities in Guiuan could not be reached for word of any
deaths or damage, regional civil defense chief Rey Gozon told DZBB radio.
Forecaster Mario Palafox with the nation's weather bureau said
it had lost contact with its staff in the landfall area.
"This is really a wallop,'' Southern Leyte Gov. Roger
Mercado said on ABS-CBN television. "All roads are impassable due to
fallen trees."
A reporter for the network
in the Tacloban city was drenched in the pounding rain and said he was wearing
a helmet as protection against flying debris. Visibility was so poor that only
his silhouette could be seen through the driving rain and water.
Television images showed a street
under knee-deep floodwater carrying debris. Tin sheets ripped from roofs were
flying above the street.
(Nicolas
Asfouri,
AFP/Getty Images)
Officials in Cebu province have shut down electric service to
the northern part of the province to avoid electrocutions in case power pylons
are toppled, said assistant regional civil defense chief Flor Gaviola.
Thousands of people evacuated villages in the central
Philippines as Haiyan took aim the region, which was devastated by an
earthquake last month.
No Atlantic or eastern Pacific hurricane has ever been stronger
than Haiyan (typhoons are the same type of storms as hurricanes).
It's
called Super Typhoon Usagi — and it's picking up serious
steam as it churns away in the western Pacific Ocean. Now the equivalent of a
Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, it's poised to hit some of the most densely
populated regions in the world, including Taiwan, the northern Philippines, and
Hong Kong.
About 10 million people live on the central Philippine islands
and are most at risk from a direct strike from Haiyan.
The latest forecast track shows Haiyan passing near Tacloban, a
city of about 250,000, and Cebu, a city of nearly 1 million, reports
meteorologist Eric Holthaus of Quartzmagazine.
The storm was not expected to directly hit Manila, which is
farther north. Predictions for Manila were for winds of up to 37 mph and rain.
TYPHOON: Why
everyone is talking about it
SUPER TYPHOON: Gusts
estimated as high as 230 mph
President Benigno Aquino III warned people to leave high-risk
areas, including 100 coastal communities where forecasters said the storm surge
could reach up to 23 feet. He urged seafarers to stay in port.
"No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we'll be
united," he said in a televised address.
Haiyan is the fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines in 2013, a
nation that typically gets hit by more typhoons than any other country in the
world, usually about six or seven each year.
Haiyan is the Chinese word for petrel, a type of bird that lives
over the open sea and returns to land only for breeding. The storm is known as
Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines.
Governors and mayors supervised the evacuation of landslide- and
flood-prone communities in several provinces where the typhoon is expected to
pass, said Eduardo del Rosario, head of the government's main disaster-response
agency. School classes and plane flights were canceled in many areas.
Aquino ordered officials to aim for zero casualties.
Edgardo Chatto, governor of Bohol island province in the central
Philippines, where an earthquake in October killed more than 200 people, said
soldiers, police and rescue units were helping displaced residents, including
thousands staying in small tents, move to shelters. Bohol is not forecast to
receive a direct hit but is expected to be battered by strong winds and rain,
government forecaster Jori Loiz said.
"My worst fear is that the eye of this typhoon will hit us.
I hope we will be spared," Chatto told the Associated Press by telephone.
After roaring across the Philippines, Haiyan is expected to move
into the South China Sea and eventually hit Vietnam and Laos over the weekend,
still as a typhoon.
"USA Today"
"ABC News"
81 Midwest Tornadoes Highly Unusual for
November
Nov. 18, 2013
By MAX GOLEMBO
Historic Storms Kill at Least 8 in
the Midwest
After one of the
quietest U.S. tornado seasons in 40 years, Sunday was nature's
comeback, with a total of 81 tornado reports in Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri,
Indiana and Ohio.
Illinois was the hardest hit, with 43 tornadoes,
followed by 23 in Indiana, 13 in Kentucky, one in Missouri and one in Ohio.
According to the
National Weather Service's preliminary ratings, New Minden, Ill., in the
southern part of the state, was in the swirl of an EF4 tornado, with winds of
at least 166 mph. In Washington, Ill., the tornado, also an EF4, packed even
more force, with winds from 170 to 190 mph.
According to the
climatology of U.S. tornadoes in the Midwest, twisters of such force were
unusual for this time of year. In the lower 48 states, the peak of severe
weather and tornadoes usually occurs in April and May; November is known as the
second peak for severe weather.
According
to the SPC,
we've had 81 tornado reports this week, most of them caused by the massive low
pressure system that moved through the Midwest... and that doesn't include 25
funnel clouds and 2 waterspout reports which are shown on the map above: To put
this in perspective, October beat August and September (which is not all that
unusual - there is a "second severe weather season" this time of
year) and also scored the
most tornadoes in October since 2001! The
same is true for total October storm reports (including wind & hail) that
now stand at 1,148.
On average, the entire
United States usually gets hit with 35 tornadoes in November. Only seven
tornadoes on average occur in Midwestern states in November, and only one on
average strikes Illinois in November.
More than 140 tornado
warnings were issued Sunday from this storm. The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration had never issued a "high risk" prediction
for severe weather, including tornadoes, this late in the season this far
north.
At
Least 6 Dead in Illinois After Tornadoes, Storms Damage Homes
Tornadoes'
Trail: Houses Turned to Rubble, Lives Shattered
But it was a perfect
atmospheric setup: strong jet stream aloft (more than100 mph), blowing from the
southwest to the northeast over the Midwest, which helped to lift the moist air
at the surface coming from the Gulf of Mexico, south to north.
When these elements
combine, they create "twist" in the atmosphere conductive to tornado
development. As a strong cold front moved through this unstable environment, it
helped to lift the moist, warm air. The result was violent, large and long
tracked tornadoes, seen more typically in April or May.
Baltimore
Ravens players leave the field as play was suspended for a severe thunderstorm
blowing through Soldier Field during the first half of an NFL football game
against the Chicago Bears, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles
Rex Arbogast)
It's Not Just Britain Shivering As Record Snow Hits China and South Korea
Police stand guard at Tiananmen Square in
Beijing. Temperatures are expected to fall to -18C in the Chinese capital by
tomorrow night. (Photograph: Joe Chan/Reuters)
Tania Branigan in Beijing, Sam Jones and agencies
The Guardian,
British commuters may
have shivered, cursed and slid as they headed back to work after the Christmas
break today, but the UK has been spared the worst of the cold weatherthat is gripping much of the northern
hemisphere, bringing freezing temperatures and record snowfalls to parts of
north Asia, Europe and the US.
The punishing winter
weather has brought transport chaos to China andSouthKorea and claimed at least 60 lives in
northern and eastern India.
Reports suggest that
the states of Punjab, Bihar, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have borne the brunt of
the freezing temperatures in India. "We are looking into the deaths and in
the meantime have asked local authorities to arrange bonfires in the evening
for the homeless," said a government official in Bihar, who added that all
schools had been closed.
A heavy blanket of fog
in New Delhi forced airport authorities to cancel or delay dozens of flights
from the capital and train services were also disrupted.
In China more than 2.2
million pupils in Beijing and nearby Tianjin enjoyed a day off as officials
took the rare step of closing thousands of schools. Temperatures in the Chinese
capital are expected to fall to –18C on Tuesday night, with predictions they
could reach –32C in the northernmost parts of the country by Wednesday morning.
In Beijing authorities
mobilised more than 300,000 people to clear the streets after Sunday's blizzard
dumped 8cm (3in)of snow – the most in the capital in a single day in January
since 1951.
The city's normally
bustling shopping districts were empty. "It's been a real pain," said
He Wenhua, 19, from the south-western city of Chengdu. "I'm here on
holiday and I can't get to any of the main sights."
Changping, near the
Great Wall, saw more than 20cm of snow, according to China's National
Meteorological Centre.
A wholesale market in
Beijing told state media the prices of several vegetables had risen by 10% to
50% because of transport problems. There were also concerns that the weather
could destroy crops and cause other economic damage.
But Yi Xianrong, an
economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told Reuters
there would be no significant damage. "This won't have any impact. It's
too small and local," he said. "In fact, all the snow could be a
positive thing for agriculture in northern China, which is usually so dry … the
melted snow will help feed crops in spring."
Officials will also be
concerned about the strain the cold weather will place on China's gas and oil
supplies. There have been gas shortages in the last two months as demand has
risen in the unusually cold weather. More snow is expected this week.
In Seoul a blizzard
dumped more than 25cm of snow today – the heaviest snowfall since Korea began
conducting meteorological surveys in 1937, the state weather agency said.
In Switzerland police
said three people were still missing after two successive avalanches hit the
Bernese Oberland.
They declined to give
the victims' nationalities, saying only that three people had died in the first
avalanche, while the doctor sent to help them had become engulfed by the second
and had died later in hospital. Eight people were rescued, some seriously
injured.
The US is also
experiencing an unusually chilly winter, with cold and windy weather along the
east coast and record low temperatures in southern states such as Georgia,
Alabama and Florida.
South
Korea’s Gangwon Province was blanketed by more than a
meter of snow earlier this week, the heaviest snowfall in the northeastern
province in a century.
http://yeinjee.com/tag/natural-disaster/
"The Guardian"
As we review all of the unusual weather activity over the past years we are beginning to see a case emerge for some kind of climate change happening world wide. We've mentioned most of them with the exception of the Tsunami which devastated Japan in 2011. As we sign out we are posting an article entitled "Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions". Since most of these companies are energy producers it would serve us well to use our natural resources wisely and more sparingly. Something is happening to our planet and we can only hope and pray things will not worsen in the future. Clearly we need to do more in protecting our Earth. Thanks again for being with us at "The Noodleman Group"! "The Guardian"
Just 90 Companies Caused Two-Thirds of Man-Made Global Warming Emissions
Chevron, Exxon and BP
among companies most responsible for climate change since dawn of industrial
age, figures show
Suzanne
Goldenberg, US environment
correspondent
·theguardian.com, Wednesday 20 November 2013 11.07 EST
Oil, coal and gas companies are
contributing to most carbon emissions, causing climate change and some are also
funding denial campaigns. (Photograph: David Gray/Reuters)
The climate crisis of
the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between
them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since
the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests.
The companies range
from investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP – to state-owned and government-run firms.
The analysis, which
was welcomed by the former vice-president Al Goreas a "crucial step forward" found
that the vast majority of the firms were in the business of producing oil, gas or coal, found the analysis, which has been accepted
for publication
in the journal Climactic Change.
"There are
thousands of oil, gas and coal producers in the world," climate researcher
and author Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute in Colorado
said. "But the decision makers, the CEOs, or the ministers of coal and oil
if you narrow it down to just one person, they could all fit on a Greyhound bus
or two."
Half of the estimated
emissions were produced just in the past 25 years – well past the date when
governments and corporations became aware that rising greenhouse gas emissions
from the burning of coal and oil were causing dangerous climate change.
Many of the same
companies are also sitting on substantial reserves of fossil fuel which – if
they are burned – puts the world at even greater risk of dangerous climate
change.
Climate change experts
said the data set was the most ambitious effort so far to hold individual
carbon producers, rather than governments, to account.
The United Nations
climate change panel, the IPCC, warned
in September that at current
rates the world stood within
30 years of exhausting its "carbon budget" – the amount of carbon dioxide it could
emit without going into the danger zone above 2C warming. The former US
vice-president and environmental champion, Al Gore, said the new carbon
accounting could re-set the debate about allocating blame for the climate
crisis.
Leaders meeting in
Warsaw for the UN climate talks this week clashed repeatedly over which
countries bore the burden for solving the climate crisis – historic emitters
such as America or Europe or the rising economies of India and China.
Gore in his comments
said the analysis underlined that it should not fall to governments alone to
act on climate change.
"This study is a
crucial step forward in our understanding of the evolution of the climate
crisis. The public and private sectors alike must do what is necessary to stop
global warming," Gore told the Guardian. "Those who are historically
responsible for polluting our atmosphere have a clear obligation to be part of
the solution."
Between them, the 90
companies on the list of top emitters produced 63% of the cumulative global
emissions of industrial carbon dioxide and methane between 1751 to 2010,
amounting to about 914 gigatonne CO2 emissions, according to the research. All
but seven of the 90 wereenergy companies producing oil, gas and coal.
The remaining seven were cement manufacturers.
The list of 90
companies included 50 investor-owned firms – mainly oil companies with widely
recognised names such as Chevron, Exxon, BP , and Royal Dutch Shell and coal
producers such as British Coal Corp, Peabody Energy and BHP Billiton.
Some 31 of the
companies that made the list were state-owned companies such as Saudi Arabia's
Saudi Aramco, Russia's Gazprom and Norway's Statoil.
Nine were government
run industries, producing mainly coal in countries such as China, the former
Soviet Union, North Korea and Poland, the host of this week's talks.
Experts familiar with
Heede's research and the politics of climate change said they hoped the
analysis could help break the deadlock in international climate talks.
"It seemed like
maybe this could break the logjam," said Naomi Oreskes, professor of the
history of science at Harvard. "There are all kinds of countries that have
produced a tremendous amount of historical emissions that we do not normally
talk about. We do not normally talk about Mexico or Poland or Venezuela. So
then it's not just rich v poor, it is also producers v consumers, and resource
rich v resource poor."
Michael Mann, the
climate scientist, said he hoped the list would bring greater scrutiny to oil
and coal companies' deployment of their remaining reserves. "What I think
could be a game changer here is the potential for clearly fingerprinting the
sources of those future emissions," he said. "It increases the
accountability for fossil fuel burning. You can't burn fossil fuels without the rest of the world knowing
about it."
Others were less
optimistic that a more comprehensive accounting of the sources of greenhouse
gas emissions would make it easier to achieve the emissions reductions needed
to avoid catastrophic climate change.
John Ashton, who
served as UK's chief climate change negotiator for six years, suggested that
the findings reaffirmed the central role of fossil fuel producing entities in
the economy.
"The challenge we
face is to move in the space of not much more than a generation from a
carbon-intensive energy system to a carbonneutral energy system. If we don't do
that we stand no chance of keeping climate change within the 2C
threshold," Ashton said.
"By highlighting
the way in which a relatively small number of large companies are at the heart
of the current carbon-intensive growth model, this report highlights that
fundamental challenge."
Meanwhile, Oreskes,
who has written extensively about corporate-funded climate denial, noted that
several of the top companies on the list had funded the climate denial
movement.
"For me one of
the most interesting things to think about was the overlap of large scale
producers and the funding of disinformation campaigns, and how that has delayed
action," she said.
The data represents
eight years of exhaustive research into carbon emissions over time, as well as the ownership
history of the major emitters.
The companies'
operations spanned the globe, with company headquarters in 43 different
countries. "These entities extract resources from every oil, natural gas
and coal province in the world, and process the fuels into marketable products
that are sold to consumers on every nation on Earth," Heede writes in the
paper.
The largest of the
investor-owned companies were responsible for an outsized share of emissions.
Nearly 30% of emissions were produced just by the top 20 companies, the
research found.
By Heede's
calculation, government-run oil and coal companies in the former Soviet Union
produced more greenhouse gas emissions than any other entity – just under 8.9%
of the total produced over time. China came a close second with its
government-run entities accounting for 8.6% of total global emissions.
ChevronTexaco was the
leading emitter among investor-owned companies, causing 3.5% of greenhouse gas
emissions to date, with Exxon not far behind at 3.2%. In third place, BP caused
2.5% of global emissions to date.
The historic emissions
record was constructed using public records and data from the US department of
energy's Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Centre, and took account of
emissions all along the supply chain.
The centre put global
industrial emissions since 1751 at 1,450 gigatonnes.
"The Guardian"
Just
90 Companies Caused Two-Thirds Of Man-Made Global Warming Emissions. Details
from The
Guardian:
"The climate crisis of the 21st
century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them
produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the
dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests. The companies range from
investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP – to state-owned and
government-run firms. The analysis, which was welcomed by the former
vice-president Al Goreas
a "crucial step forward" found that the vast majority of the firms
were in the business of producing oil, gas or coal, found the analysis, which has
been accepted for publication
in the journal Climatic Change..."
(Graphic above courtesy of Carbon Majors.)
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/232950371.html
Joe
Heller / Green Bay Press Gazette, Politicalcartoons.com http://www.nbcnews.com/slideshow/weather/year-in-weather-cartoons-45481124
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