I think that the CO2-caused Global Warming theory is false and unproven junk science.
But let’s suppose for a moment that the CO2 equals Global Warming equation is real. The wealthy elitists James Hansen, Al Gore, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, and the other high-profile cheerleaders for CO2 reduction are asking the poor and middle classes to suffer the consequences of a radical shutdown of global commerce and energy production in order to ‘save the planet’ from Global Warming. They want to make serfs of the masses of working people, while a privileged elite will be permitted to continue living in high style with a much larger ‘carbon footprint’ than the un-entitled lower classes.
We should never let that happen. The only way that ‘carbon rationing’ should be allowed is by assigning the exact same carbon limit to all people everywhere. Al Gore, Barack Obama, a London cabbie, and a Kalahari Bushman should all be assigned exactly the same number of ‘carbon credits’, period. Let them trade their credits with each other, but everyone should be restricted to the same limited ‘carbon credit’ allowance. The long-term ultimate effect of this would be an economic leveling of society; essentially global Communism. Under such a system, no one would be able to accumulate an excess of personal property or wealth because they could never accumulate enough ‘carbon credits’ to do so.
When Hansen, Gore, Blair, and Obama give up their patrician incomes and lifestyles and restrict their own ‘carbon footprint’ to the level of the common labourer or office worker, I will begin to believe that they are sincere about preventing Global Warming. Their obvious unwillingness to do what they are asking the rest of us to do proves that they are not sincere. They want the common people to sacrifice their lives to prevent Global Warming, while the wealthy retain their high-carbon consuming and producing privileges.
We cannot permit a privileged elite to enjoy a ‘high-carbon’ lifestyle while the poor are restricted by law to a ‘low-carbon’ lifestyle. Any effort by any government to impose carbon rationing with preferential treatment to any class of people should be seen as sufficient reason for an all-out French-style revolution in which the majority population dispossess the elitists of their wealth, their positions of power, and their privilege. In a world that is constantly threatened by Global Warming, we cannot allow a greedy few to consume or produce in excess of the average ‘carbon footprint’ of the world’s population as a whole.
Barack Obama keeps the temperature at 78 degrees Fahrenheit in the Oval Office while telling the rest of us to turn our thermostats down. James Hansen has received grants amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote the Global Warming theory. Al Gore has invested heavily in the ‘carbon trading’ brokerage business. All of these men jet around the world, live in oversized houses, and ride in limousines. If the common people are to be required by law to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’, we need to demand that our leaders and the wealthy elite be restricted to exactly the same carbon allowance as everyone else.
We are not all together in the fight against Global Warming unless everyone is required to make the same sacrifices by sharing an equal ‘carbon footprint’ and an equal ‘carbon ration’, which should be assigned equally to every living person in the entire world. We need to hold the elitists’ feet to the fire and require them to make exactly the same sacrifices as the rest of humanity.
Individual carbon limits and carbon rationing? Bring them on. Viva la Revolucion!
Gregory Fegel
Published on March 20, 2009 at Pravda.Ru
Friday, February 3, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age
The earth is now on the brink of entering another Ice Age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence from within the field of climate science. Many sources of data which provide our knowledge base of long-term climate change indicate that the warm, eleven thousand year-long Holocene period will rather soon be coming to an end, and then the earth will return to Ice Age conditions for the next 100,000 years.
Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age Glacial Maximums which each last about 100,000 years, separated by intervening warm Interglacials, each lasting about 10 to 12,000 years.
Most of the long-term climate data collected from various sources also show a strong correlation with the three astronomical cycles which are together known as the Milankovitch cycles. The three Milankovitch cycles include the tilt of the earth, which varies over a 41,000 year period; the shape of the earth’s orbit, which changes over a period of 100,000 years; and the Precession of the Equinoxes, also known as the earth’s ‘wobble’, which gradually rotates the direction of the earth’s axis over a period of 26,000 years. According to the Milankovitch theory of Ice Age causation, these three astronomical cycles, each of which effects the amount of solar radiation which reaches the earth, act together to produce the cycle of cold Ice Age Glacial Maximums and warm Interglacials.
Elements of the astronomical theory of Ice Age causation were first presented by the French mathematician Joseph Adhemar in 1842, it was developed further by the English prodigy Joseph Croll in 1875, and the theory was established in its present form by the Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovitch in the 1920s and 30s. In 1976 the prestigious journal Science published a landmark paper by John Imbrie, James Hays, and Nicholas Shackleton entitled “Variations in the Earth's orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages,” which described the correlation which the trio of scientist/authors had found between the climate data obtained from ocean sediment cores and the patterns of the astronomical Milankovitch cycles. Since the late 1970s, the Milankovitch theory has remained the predominant theory to account for Ice Age causation among climate scientists, and hence the Milankovitch theory is always described in textbooks of climatology and in encyclopedia articles about the Ice Ages.
In their 1976 paper Imbrie, Hays, and Shackleton wrote that their own climate forecasts, which were based on sea-sediment cores and the Milankovitch cycles, "… must be qualified in two ways. First, they apply only to the natural component of future climatic trends - and not to anthropogenic effects such as those due to the burning of fossil fuels. Second, they describe only the long-term trends, because they are linked to orbital variations with periods of 20,000 years and longer. Climatic oscillations at higher frequencies are not predicted... the results indicate that the long-term trend over the next 20,000 years is towards extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation and cooler climate."
During the 1970s the famous American astronomer Carl Sagan and other scientists began promoting the theory that ‘greenhouse gasses’ such as carbon dioxide, or CO2, produced by human industries could lead to catastrophic global warming. Since the 1970s the theory of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’ (AGW) has gradually become accepted as fact by most of the academic establishment, and their acceptance of AGW has inspired a global movement to encourage governments to make pivotal changes to prevent the worsening of AGW.
The central piece of evidence that is cited in support of the AGW theory is the famous ‘hockey stick’ graph which was presented by Al Gore in his 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth. The ‘hockey stick’ graph shows an acute upward spike in global temperatures which began in 1970. However, that warming trend ended in 1998 with a cooling trend which has continued ever since. The winter of 2007/8 delivered the deepest snow cover to the Northern Hemisphere since 1966 and the coldest temperatures since 2001. The Northern Hemisphere winter of 2008/09 broke numerous records for both snow depth and cold temperatures, and in October of 2009 many cold-weather records have again been broken in the Northern Hemisphere.
The main flaw in the AGW theory is that its proponents focus on evidence from only the past one thousand years at most, while ignoring the evidence from the past million years -- evidence which is essential for a true understanding of climatology. The data from paleoclimatology provides us with an alternative and more credible explanation for the recent global temperature spike, based on the natural cycle of the Ice Age Glacial Maximums and Interglacials.
In 1999 the British journal Nature published the results of data derived from glacial ice cores collected at the Russia ’s Vostok station in Antarctica during the 1990s. The Vostok ice core data includes a record of global atmospheric temperatures, atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and airborne particulates starting from 420,000 years ago and continuing through history up to our present time.
The graph of the Vostok ice core data shows that the Ice Age Glacial Maximums and the warm Interglacials occur within a regular cyclic pattern, the graph-line of which is similar to the rhythm of a heartbeat on an electrocardiogram tracing. The Vostok data graph also shows that changes in global CO2 levels lag behind global temperature changes by about eight hundred years. What that indicates is that global temperatures precede or cause global CO2 changes, and not the reverse. In other words, increasing atmospheric CO2 is not causing global temperature to rise; instead the natural cyclic increase in global temperature is causing global CO2 to rise.
The reason that global CO2 levels rise and fall in response to the global temperature is because cold water is capable of retaining more CO2 than warm water. That is why carbonated beverages loose their carbonation, or CO2, when stored in a warm environment. We store our carbonated soft drinks, wine, and beer in a cool place to prevent them from loosing their ‘fizz’, which is a feature of their carbonation, or CO2 content. The earth is currently warming as a result of the natural Ice Age cycle, and as the oceans get warmer, they release increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Because the release of CO2 by the warming oceans lags behind the changes in the earth’s temperature, we should expect to see global CO2 levels continue to rise for another eight hundred years after the end of the earth’s recent Interglacial warm period, which by now should be nearly finished. We will already be eight hundred years into the next Ice Age Glacial Maximum before global CO2 levels begin to drop in response to the increased chilling of the world’s oceans.
The Vostok ice core data graph reveals that global CO2 levels regularly rose and fell in a direct response to the natural cycle of Ice Age Glacial Maximums and Interglacials during the past four hundred and twenty thousand years. Within that natural cycle, about every 110,000 years global temperatures, followed by global CO2 levels, have peaked at approximately the same levels which they are at today.
About 325,000 years ago, at the peak of a warm Interglacial, global temperature and CO2 levels were higher than they are today. Today we are again at the peak, and near to the end, of a warm Interglacial, and the earth is now due to enter the next Ice Age Glacial Maximum. If we are lucky, we may have a few years to prepare for it. The next Ice Age Glacial Maximum will return, as it always has, in its regular and natural cycle, with or without any influence from the questionable effects of Anthropogenic Global Warming.
The AGW theory is based on data that are drawn from a ridiculously narrow span of time, and it demonstrates a wanton disregard for the ‘big picture’ of long-term climate change. The data from paleoclimatology, including ice cores, sea sediments, geology, paleobotany and zoology, indicate that we are on the verge of entering another Ice Age Glacial Maximum, and the data also shows that severe and lasting climate change sometimes occurs within the span of only a few years. While concern over the dubious threat of Anthropogenic Global Warming continues to distract the attention of people throughout the world, the very real threat of the approaching and inevitable Ice Age Glacial Maximum, which will render large parts of the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, is being foolishly ignored.
Gregory Fegel
Published on January 11, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age Glacial Maximums which each last about 100,000 years, separated by intervening warm Interglacials, each lasting about 10 to 12,000 years.
Most of the long-term climate data collected from various sources also show a strong correlation with the three astronomical cycles which are together known as the Milankovitch cycles. The three Milankovitch cycles include the tilt of the earth, which varies over a 41,000 year period; the shape of the earth’s orbit, which changes over a period of 100,000 years; and the Precession of the Equinoxes, also known as the earth’s ‘wobble’, which gradually rotates the direction of the earth’s axis over a period of 26,000 years. According to the Milankovitch theory of Ice Age causation, these three astronomical cycles, each of which effects the amount of solar radiation which reaches the earth, act together to produce the cycle of cold Ice Age Glacial Maximums and warm Interglacials.
Elements of the astronomical theory of Ice Age causation were first presented by the French mathematician Joseph Adhemar in 1842, it was developed further by the English prodigy Joseph Croll in 1875, and the theory was established in its present form by the Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovitch in the 1920s and 30s. In 1976 the prestigious journal Science published a landmark paper by John Imbrie, James Hays, and Nicholas Shackleton entitled “Variations in the Earth's orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages,” which described the correlation which the trio of scientist/authors had found between the climate data obtained from ocean sediment cores and the patterns of the astronomical Milankovitch cycles. Since the late 1970s, the Milankovitch theory has remained the predominant theory to account for Ice Age causation among climate scientists, and hence the Milankovitch theory is always described in textbooks of climatology and in encyclopedia articles about the Ice Ages.
In their 1976 paper Imbrie, Hays, and Shackleton wrote that their own climate forecasts, which were based on sea-sediment cores and the Milankovitch cycles, "… must be qualified in two ways. First, they apply only to the natural component of future climatic trends - and not to anthropogenic effects such as those due to the burning of fossil fuels. Second, they describe only the long-term trends, because they are linked to orbital variations with periods of 20,000 years and longer. Climatic oscillations at higher frequencies are not predicted... the results indicate that the long-term trend over the next 20,000 years is towards extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation and cooler climate."
During the 1970s the famous American astronomer Carl Sagan and other scientists began promoting the theory that ‘greenhouse gasses’ such as carbon dioxide, or CO2, produced by human industries could lead to catastrophic global warming. Since the 1970s the theory of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’ (AGW) has gradually become accepted as fact by most of the academic establishment, and their acceptance of AGW has inspired a global movement to encourage governments to make pivotal changes to prevent the worsening of AGW.
The central piece of evidence that is cited in support of the AGW theory is the famous ‘hockey stick’ graph which was presented by Al Gore in his 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth. The ‘hockey stick’ graph shows an acute upward spike in global temperatures which began in 1970. However, that warming trend ended in 1998 with a cooling trend which has continued ever since. The winter of 2007/8 delivered the deepest snow cover to the Northern Hemisphere since 1966 and the coldest temperatures since 2001. The Northern Hemisphere winter of 2008/09 broke numerous records for both snow depth and cold temperatures, and in October of 2009 many cold-weather records have again been broken in the Northern Hemisphere.
The main flaw in the AGW theory is that its proponents focus on evidence from only the past one thousand years at most, while ignoring the evidence from the past million years -- evidence which is essential for a true understanding of climatology. The data from paleoclimatology provides us with an alternative and more credible explanation for the recent global temperature spike, based on the natural cycle of the Ice Age Glacial Maximums and Interglacials.
In 1999 the British journal Nature published the results of data derived from glacial ice cores collected at the Russia ’s Vostok station in Antarctica during the 1990s. The Vostok ice core data includes a record of global atmospheric temperatures, atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and airborne particulates starting from 420,000 years ago and continuing through history up to our present time.
The graph of the Vostok ice core data shows that the Ice Age Glacial Maximums and the warm Interglacials occur within a regular cyclic pattern, the graph-line of which is similar to the rhythm of a heartbeat on an electrocardiogram tracing. The Vostok data graph also shows that changes in global CO2 levels lag behind global temperature changes by about eight hundred years. What that indicates is that global temperatures precede or cause global CO2 changes, and not the reverse. In other words, increasing atmospheric CO2 is not causing global temperature to rise; instead the natural cyclic increase in global temperature is causing global CO2 to rise.
The reason that global CO2 levels rise and fall in response to the global temperature is because cold water is capable of retaining more CO2 than warm water. That is why carbonated beverages loose their carbonation, or CO2, when stored in a warm environment. We store our carbonated soft drinks, wine, and beer in a cool place to prevent them from loosing their ‘fizz’, which is a feature of their carbonation, or CO2 content. The earth is currently warming as a result of the natural Ice Age cycle, and as the oceans get warmer, they release increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Because the release of CO2 by the warming oceans lags behind the changes in the earth’s temperature, we should expect to see global CO2 levels continue to rise for another eight hundred years after the end of the earth’s recent Interglacial warm period, which by now should be nearly finished. We will already be eight hundred years into the next Ice Age Glacial Maximum before global CO2 levels begin to drop in response to the increased chilling of the world’s oceans.
The Vostok ice core data graph reveals that global CO2 levels regularly rose and fell in a direct response to the natural cycle of Ice Age Glacial Maximums and Interglacials during the past four hundred and twenty thousand years. Within that natural cycle, about every 110,000 years global temperatures, followed by global CO2 levels, have peaked at approximately the same levels which they are at today.
About 325,000 years ago, at the peak of a warm Interglacial, global temperature and CO2 levels were higher than they are today. Today we are again at the peak, and near to the end, of a warm Interglacial, and the earth is now due to enter the next Ice Age Glacial Maximum. If we are lucky, we may have a few years to prepare for it. The next Ice Age Glacial Maximum will return, as it always has, in its regular and natural cycle, with or without any influence from the questionable effects of Anthropogenic Global Warming.
The AGW theory is based on data that are drawn from a ridiculously narrow span of time, and it demonstrates a wanton disregard for the ‘big picture’ of long-term climate change. The data from paleoclimatology, including ice cores, sea sediments, geology, paleobotany and zoology, indicate that we are on the verge of entering another Ice Age Glacial Maximum, and the data also shows that severe and lasting climate change sometimes occurs within the span of only a few years. While concern over the dubious threat of Anthropogenic Global Warming continues to distract the attention of people throughout the world, the very real threat of the approaching and inevitable Ice Age Glacial Maximum, which will render large parts of the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, is being foolishly ignored.
Gregory Fegel
Published on January 11, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
How an Ice Age Begins
The idea that climatic warming can induce climatic cooling may seem counterintuitive, but that process of warming leading to cooling is a basic part of the "orbital theory" of an insolation-driven (sunlight-driven) Ice Age cycle. The orbital theory, also known as the Milankovitch theory, is based on the fact that cyclic changes in the earth's orbit of the sun alter the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth, and it is the most widely-accepted theory of Ice Age causation.
The next Ice Age will be precipitated by -- quite literally -- an upward trend in summer temperatures and summer warming of the oceans in the Northern Hemisphere, which will increase oceanic evaporation and cause an increase in precipitation, some of which will fall as snow that will feed the growth of glaciers at high elevations and at high latitudes.
An Ice Age is characterized by the formation of vast glaciers on top of large continental land masses. Since there are much larger continental land masses located in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere, it is in the Northern Hemisphere that the Ice Age cycle is most obviously manifested. At the peak of the last Ice Age glacial maximum, about 18,000 years ago, vast glaciers up to two miles thick covered all of Canada, all of Scandinavia, and most of the British Isles.
The astronomical phenomenon known as the Precession of the Equinoxes causes a gradual rotation of the earth's axial tilt, which changes the seasons during which the Northern and Southern Hemispheres make their nearest approach to the sun (at perihelion) and their farthest excursion from the sun (at aphelion).
For the past 11,000 years perihelion -- the earth's nearest approach to the sun -- has occured during the Northern Hemisphere's winter, and aphelion -- the earth's farthest excursion from the sun -- has occured during the Northern Hemisphere's summer.
When perihelion -- the earth's nearest approach to the sun -- occurs during the winter and aphelion -- the earth's farthest excursion from the sun -- occurs during the summer, there is a reduction in the temperature extremes of the seasons. That is because at perihelion the nearness of the earth to the sun reduces the cold of winter and at aphelion the increased distance of the earth from the sun reduces the warmth of summer. Furthermore, a winter perihelion shortens the duration of the winter and a summer aphelion lengthens the duration of the summer.
But the short, mild winters and long, mild summers which the Northern Hemisphere has enjoyed for the past 11,000 years have come to an end. During the next 11,000 years the winters in the Northern Hemisphere will become longer and colder, and the summers will become shorter and hotter.
During the next 11,000 years the Northern Hemisphere will experience short, hot summers and long, cold winters. The blazing hot summers will warm the oceans and cause increased precipitation, much of which will be deposited as snow at high elevations and in the high latitudes, facilitating the genesis and growth of glaciers. The long, cold winters will further facilitate the growth and maintenance of glaciers in the high latitudes and high elevations of the Northern Hemisphere.
Research has shown that during the previous Ice Age glacial maximum, the first 5,000 years of the glacial advance was characterized by the conditions described by the above paragraph. After 5,000 years, the continental glaciers became well established at their full extent and the Northern Hemisphere remained in full Ice Age conditions for another 5,000 years before the ice began to retreat about 11,000 years ago.
In recent years we have seen record-breaking high summer temperatures recorded in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and we have also seen record-breaking low winter temperatures recorded in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. The winters of 2007-8 and 2008-9 broke many records for low temperatures and the depth of snowfall, and in early October of 2009 we are already seeing an early onset of wintry-cold conditions in the Northern Hemisphere.
The increasing extremes of summer and winter temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere that we have seen in recent years are consistent with what we should expect to see as the Northern Hemisphere moves into another 11,000 year period of extreme summers and winters.
And that is how an Ice Age begins.
Gregory Fegel
Published on October 7, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
The next Ice Age will be precipitated by -- quite literally -- an upward trend in summer temperatures and summer warming of the oceans in the Northern Hemisphere, which will increase oceanic evaporation and cause an increase in precipitation, some of which will fall as snow that will feed the growth of glaciers at high elevations and at high latitudes.
An Ice Age is characterized by the formation of vast glaciers on top of large continental land masses. Since there are much larger continental land masses located in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere, it is in the Northern Hemisphere that the Ice Age cycle is most obviously manifested. At the peak of the last Ice Age glacial maximum, about 18,000 years ago, vast glaciers up to two miles thick covered all of Canada, all of Scandinavia, and most of the British Isles.
The astronomical phenomenon known as the Precession of the Equinoxes causes a gradual rotation of the earth's axial tilt, which changes the seasons during which the Northern and Southern Hemispheres make their nearest approach to the sun (at perihelion) and their farthest excursion from the sun (at aphelion).
For the past 11,000 years perihelion -- the earth's nearest approach to the sun -- has occured during the Northern Hemisphere's winter, and aphelion -- the earth's farthest excursion from the sun -- has occured during the Northern Hemisphere's summer.
When perihelion -- the earth's nearest approach to the sun -- occurs during the winter and aphelion -- the earth's farthest excursion from the sun -- occurs during the summer, there is a reduction in the temperature extremes of the seasons. That is because at perihelion the nearness of the earth to the sun reduces the cold of winter and at aphelion the increased distance of the earth from the sun reduces the warmth of summer. Furthermore, a winter perihelion shortens the duration of the winter and a summer aphelion lengthens the duration of the summer.
But the short, mild winters and long, mild summers which the Northern Hemisphere has enjoyed for the past 11,000 years have come to an end. During the next 11,000 years the winters in the Northern Hemisphere will become longer and colder, and the summers will become shorter and hotter.
During the next 11,000 years the Northern Hemisphere will experience short, hot summers and long, cold winters. The blazing hot summers will warm the oceans and cause increased precipitation, much of which will be deposited as snow at high elevations and in the high latitudes, facilitating the genesis and growth of glaciers. The long, cold winters will further facilitate the growth and maintenance of glaciers in the high latitudes and high elevations of the Northern Hemisphere.
Research has shown that during the previous Ice Age glacial maximum, the first 5,000 years of the glacial advance was characterized by the conditions described by the above paragraph. After 5,000 years, the continental glaciers became well established at their full extent and the Northern Hemisphere remained in full Ice Age conditions for another 5,000 years before the ice began to retreat about 11,000 years ago.
In recent years we have seen record-breaking high summer temperatures recorded in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and we have also seen record-breaking low winter temperatures recorded in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. The winters of 2007-8 and 2008-9 broke many records for low temperatures and the depth of snowfall, and in early October of 2009 we are already seeing an early onset of wintry-cold conditions in the Northern Hemisphere.
The increasing extremes of summer and winter temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere that we have seen in recent years are consistent with what we should expect to see as the Northern Hemisphere moves into another 11,000 year period of extreme summers and winters.
And that is how an Ice Age begins.
Gregory Fegel
Published on October 7, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
Global Warming Will Improve Global Agriculture
At many times in the past, the earth's climate has been warmer than it is today. During the period known as the Holocene Climatic Optimum, global temperatures were about two degrees Celsius, or about four degrees Fahrenheit, higher than they are today. During the Holocene Climatic Optimum, warmer temperatures and an associated increase in rainfall facilitated the development of agriculture, village communities, and eventually towns and cities, by humankind in many parts of the world.
The increased global temperatures of the Holocene Climatic Optimum warmed the world's oceans, causing increased evaporation, creating more clouds and storms, and ultimately increasing rainfall throughout the Tropical, Subtropical, and Temperate zones encircling the earth. During the Holocene Climatic Optimum, California, the southwestern and southern USA, the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, the Ukraine, India, China, and northern Africa all recieved more rainfall than they do today. During the Holocene Climatic Optimum, the Sahara desert became a lush savannah punctuated with rivers and lakes that supported elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, crocodiles, humans, and the cattle the humans had domesticated. During that time, agriculture spread from the Middle East into Europe, rice cultivation spread throughout east Asia, and maize, bean, and squash cultivation spread throughout Central America.
The global warming of the Holocene Climatic Optimum also caused global sea levels to rise by about two meters, or nearly seven feet. Evidence for that rise in global sea levels has been found in many places, including southern Mesopotamia and in numerous five thousand year-old beaches and coral deposits found throughout the world which are now standing two meters above the present sea level.
In the current hysteria about Global Warming, or 'Climate Change', as it is now being called, the emphasis has been entirely placed on the predicted undesirable effects of Global Warming, and the possible benefits of Global Warming are very seldom mentioned. Al Gore, James Hansen, and the other Jeremiahs of Global Warming or 'Climate Change' warn us about catastrophic rises in sea levels which will inundate major cities and about chronic, severe droughts which they claim will dessicate and devastate most of the major agricultural zones of the earth.
The geologic evidence from the Holocene Climatic Optimum proves that Global Warming will indeed raise global sea levels with catastrophic effects on major cities and low-lying districts throughout the world. However, the evidence from the Holocene Climatic Optimum also shows that Global Warming should improve global agriculture by warming and widening the earth's Tropical, Subtropical, and Temperate zones, and by increasing rainfall throughout the world. The loss of some major cities to rising sea levels will certainly be traumatic, but the loss of those cities will be offset by an increase in agricultural production, forestry, and grazing areas throughout the world. The increase in agricultural, timber, and livestock production which would result from an increase of two degrees Celsius of Global Warming is badly needed in our increasingly over-populated world.
Plants breathe CO2; they require CO2 to live and they thrive on it. Many professional growers pump CO2 into their greenhouses to increase plant production. Numerous land and satellite-based studies have shown an increase in global biomass during the time period that is associated with Global Warming. According to NASA scientist Ramakrishna Nemani, “Between 1982 and 1999, twenty-five percent of the Earth’s vegetated area experienced increasing plant productivity -- a total increase of about six percent.”
Al Gore, James Hansen, and the other prophets of Climate Change catastrophe never mention the actual and potential benefits of Global Warming. Why is that? Isn't science supposed to be about objectivity? Al Gore has invested heavily in carbon credit brokerage firms. For Gore, there is a financial profit to be made from promoting Global Warming alarmism.
Gregory Fegel
Published on June 19, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
The increased global temperatures of the Holocene Climatic Optimum warmed the world's oceans, causing increased evaporation, creating more clouds and storms, and ultimately increasing rainfall throughout the Tropical, Subtropical, and Temperate zones encircling the earth. During the Holocene Climatic Optimum, California, the southwestern and southern USA, the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, the Ukraine, India, China, and northern Africa all recieved more rainfall than they do today. During the Holocene Climatic Optimum, the Sahara desert became a lush savannah punctuated with rivers and lakes that supported elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, crocodiles, humans, and the cattle the humans had domesticated. During that time, agriculture spread from the Middle East into Europe, rice cultivation spread throughout east Asia, and maize, bean, and squash cultivation spread throughout Central America.
The global warming of the Holocene Climatic Optimum also caused global sea levels to rise by about two meters, or nearly seven feet. Evidence for that rise in global sea levels has been found in many places, including southern Mesopotamia and in numerous five thousand year-old beaches and coral deposits found throughout the world which are now standing two meters above the present sea level.
In the current hysteria about Global Warming, or 'Climate Change', as it is now being called, the emphasis has been entirely placed on the predicted undesirable effects of Global Warming, and the possible benefits of Global Warming are very seldom mentioned. Al Gore, James Hansen, and the other Jeremiahs of Global Warming or 'Climate Change' warn us about catastrophic rises in sea levels which will inundate major cities and about chronic, severe droughts which they claim will dessicate and devastate most of the major agricultural zones of the earth.
The geologic evidence from the Holocene Climatic Optimum proves that Global Warming will indeed raise global sea levels with catastrophic effects on major cities and low-lying districts throughout the world. However, the evidence from the Holocene Climatic Optimum also shows that Global Warming should improve global agriculture by warming and widening the earth's Tropical, Subtropical, and Temperate zones, and by increasing rainfall throughout the world. The loss of some major cities to rising sea levels will certainly be traumatic, but the loss of those cities will be offset by an increase in agricultural production, forestry, and grazing areas throughout the world. The increase in agricultural, timber, and livestock production which would result from an increase of two degrees Celsius of Global Warming is badly needed in our increasingly over-populated world.
Plants breathe CO2; they require CO2 to live and they thrive on it. Many professional growers pump CO2 into their greenhouses to increase plant production. Numerous land and satellite-based studies have shown an increase in global biomass during the time period that is associated with Global Warming. According to NASA scientist Ramakrishna Nemani, “Between 1982 and 1999, twenty-five percent of the Earth’s vegetated area experienced increasing plant productivity -- a total increase of about six percent.”
Al Gore, James Hansen, and the other prophets of Climate Change catastrophe never mention the actual and potential benefits of Global Warming. Why is that? Isn't science supposed to be about objectivity? Al Gore has invested heavily in carbon credit brokerage firms. For Gore, there is a financial profit to be made from promoting Global Warming alarmism.
Gregory Fegel
Published on June 19, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
Chipmunks Have the Nuts to Survive an Ice Age
Chipmunks are forest-dwelling, squirrel-like rodents whose size is typically about half that of the average squirrel. In addition to their smaller size, chipmunks may be readily distinguished from squirrels by the linear stripes of white fur which chipmunks sport on their heads and backs. There are twenty-five recognized species of chipmunks, one of which lives in northeast Asia, another in eastern North America, and all of the others in western North America.
The omnivorous chipmunks eat grain, nuts, fungi, birds' eggs, small frogs, worms, and insects, and, during the fall of each year, chipmunks stockpile some of those foods in their underground burrows for consumption during the winter. Human vistors at forest parks in North America soon become familiar with the playful antics of the chipmunks, who often forage in campgrounds for scraps of food.
In July of 2004, researchers at the University of Illinois published the results of a field study they conducted of 244 chipmunks in the upper Midwest states of Illinois and Wisconsin. The chipmunks were captured in live traps, and the researchers removed a tiny sample of flesh from the tip of an ear of each chipmunk before releasing the animal close to the site of its capture. Back in the laboratory, the researchers isolated the mitochondrial DNA from each sample of chipmunk flesh and they studied the genetic structure of each sample.
The genetic patterns of the chipmunks from Illinois and Wisconsin, when compared with related communities of chipmunks in the eastern and southern USA, provided proof that the Illinois and Wisconsin chipmunks had remained in Illinois and Wisconsin throughout the last Ice Age Glacial Maximum. The researchers concluded that there must have been areas of forest that supported a chipmunk population which survived in close proximity to the great continental ice sheet throughout the Ice Age.
During an Ice Age Glacial Maximum, continental ice sheets up to two miles (or three kilometers) thick cover all of Canada, the Great Lakes, and large portions of the northern USA, including all of New York State, all of the New England states, and half of Alaska. In Eurasia, the continental ice sheets cover all of Scandinavia, the British Isles, Iceland, and large parts of Russia and Siberia.
The continental ice sheets that form during an Ice Age are created and enlarged by snowfall that subtracts water from the world’s oceans. As a result, the world’s ocean levels drop by as much as 425 feet (130 meters) during an Ice Age. During an Ice Age Glacial Maximum, the continental shelves and shallow seas will become dry land, and an examination of a good ocean-depth map will show you where the new coastlines will be during a Glacial Maximum.
During an Ice Age Glacial Maximum, the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia will become dry land, and in its place will emerge the Bering Land Bridge, 1600 kilometers wide from north to south. The Gulf of Mexico will shrink to half its present size and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula will double in size. The eastern seaboard of the USA will extend several hundred miles further out into the Atlantic Ocean, Argentina will nearly double in size, southern Japan will be reconnected with China and Korea, Australia will regain a huge northern territory, and mainland Southeast Asia will merge with the Indonesian Archipelago to form Sundaland.
Nearly all of the United Kingdom will be buried under a huge ice cap, but the sunken, legendary land of Lyonesse, itself almost as large as the entire UK, will emerge from the North Atlantic between Ireland and France to become the new homeland of the British.
The exposed continental shelves on both coasts of India will provide new habitats for wildlife and new opportunities for human settlement. The legendary Adam's Bridge, which the Hindu Epics say was built by the monkey god Hanuman, will emerge once again from the sea to connect India with Sri Lanka. The Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean will rise as much as 400 feet from a surrounding sea that will be even shallower than it is today.
During a Glacial Maximum many of the northern countries that currently export food will lose most of their agricultural productivity and become more suitable for livestock grazing. But the losses to glaciation and cold in the north will be offset by the gains of exposed continental shelves and new lands for human habitation and agriculture in the south. We may hope that humankind will adjust to these immense and inevitable changes peacefully, but hope, by itself, is not sufficient preparation for a global catastrophe.
All of the plant and animal species living in the world today have survived and evolved through a series of Ice Age cycles going back several million years, so nature has prepared most species to survive an Ice Age. However, at the close of the most recent Glacial Maximum, which ended about 11,000 years ago, most of the megafauna of the Ice Age Steppe, including the mammoth, wooly rhinoceros, and giant cave bears, went extinct, and some researchers blame human hunters, at least in part, for the extinction of the megafauna.
Multiple evidence from geology, sea-sediment cores, ice cores, and the earth’s orbital cycle shows that the earth is already due for the commencement of the next Ice Age Glacial Maximum. During the coming Glacial Maximum, the earth’s human population will be much larger than ever before, so there will be a far greater human influence and pressure on the habitats and survival of all the nonhuman species.
Chipmunks have the nuts to survive an Ice Age.
Do we?
Gregory Fegel
Published on November 17, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
The omnivorous chipmunks eat grain, nuts, fungi, birds' eggs, small frogs, worms, and insects, and, during the fall of each year, chipmunks stockpile some of those foods in their underground burrows for consumption during the winter. Human vistors at forest parks in North America soon become familiar with the playful antics of the chipmunks, who often forage in campgrounds for scraps of food.
In July of 2004, researchers at the University of Illinois published the results of a field study they conducted of 244 chipmunks in the upper Midwest states of Illinois and Wisconsin. The chipmunks were captured in live traps, and the researchers removed a tiny sample of flesh from the tip of an ear of each chipmunk before releasing the animal close to the site of its capture. Back in the laboratory, the researchers isolated the mitochondrial DNA from each sample of chipmunk flesh and they studied the genetic structure of each sample.
The genetic patterns of the chipmunks from Illinois and Wisconsin, when compared with related communities of chipmunks in the eastern and southern USA, provided proof that the Illinois and Wisconsin chipmunks had remained in Illinois and Wisconsin throughout the last Ice Age Glacial Maximum. The researchers concluded that there must have been areas of forest that supported a chipmunk population which survived in close proximity to the great continental ice sheet throughout the Ice Age.
During an Ice Age Glacial Maximum, continental ice sheets up to two miles (or three kilometers) thick cover all of Canada, the Great Lakes, and large portions of the northern USA, including all of New York State, all of the New England states, and half of Alaska. In Eurasia, the continental ice sheets cover all of Scandinavia, the British Isles, Iceland, and large parts of Russia and Siberia.
The continental ice sheets that form during an Ice Age are created and enlarged by snowfall that subtracts water from the world’s oceans. As a result, the world’s ocean levels drop by as much as 425 feet (130 meters) during an Ice Age. During an Ice Age Glacial Maximum, the continental shelves and shallow seas will become dry land, and an examination of a good ocean-depth map will show you where the new coastlines will be during a Glacial Maximum.
During an Ice Age Glacial Maximum, the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia will become dry land, and in its place will emerge the Bering Land Bridge, 1600 kilometers wide from north to south. The Gulf of Mexico will shrink to half its present size and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula will double in size. The eastern seaboard of the USA will extend several hundred miles further out into the Atlantic Ocean, Argentina will nearly double in size, southern Japan will be reconnected with China and Korea, Australia will regain a huge northern territory, and mainland Southeast Asia will merge with the Indonesian Archipelago to form Sundaland.
Nearly all of the United Kingdom will be buried under a huge ice cap, but the sunken, legendary land of Lyonesse, itself almost as large as the entire UK, will emerge from the North Atlantic between Ireland and France to become the new homeland of the British.
The exposed continental shelves on both coasts of India will provide new habitats for wildlife and new opportunities for human settlement. The legendary Adam's Bridge, which the Hindu Epics say was built by the monkey god Hanuman, will emerge once again from the sea to connect India with Sri Lanka. The Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean will rise as much as 400 feet from a surrounding sea that will be even shallower than it is today.
During a Glacial Maximum many of the northern countries that currently export food will lose most of their agricultural productivity and become more suitable for livestock grazing. But the losses to glaciation and cold in the north will be offset by the gains of exposed continental shelves and new lands for human habitation and agriculture in the south. We may hope that humankind will adjust to these immense and inevitable changes peacefully, but hope, by itself, is not sufficient preparation for a global catastrophe.
All of the plant and animal species living in the world today have survived and evolved through a series of Ice Age cycles going back several million years, so nature has prepared most species to survive an Ice Age. However, at the close of the most recent Glacial Maximum, which ended about 11,000 years ago, most of the megafauna of the Ice Age Steppe, including the mammoth, wooly rhinoceros, and giant cave bears, went extinct, and some researchers blame human hunters, at least in part, for the extinction of the megafauna.
Multiple evidence from geology, sea-sediment cores, ice cores, and the earth’s orbital cycle shows that the earth is already due for the commencement of the next Ice Age Glacial Maximum. During the coming Glacial Maximum, the earth’s human population will be much larger than ever before, so there will be a far greater human influence and pressure on the habitats and survival of all the nonhuman species.
Chipmunks have the nuts to survive an Ice Age.
Do we?
Gregory Fegel
Published on November 17, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
‘Climategate’ Exposes the Global Warming Hoax
The Internet is abuzz with the news of what everyone is calling ‘Climategate’ -- a major scandal involving leaked emails and data from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Located in the town of Norwich in the United Kingdom, the Climatic Research Unit is a primary center for the ‘science’ that supports the theory of Global Warming. The CRU provides ‘scientific’ advice and guidance to the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which implements international policies based on that advice.
On November 17th, 2009 an anonymous whistleblower downloaded email and data files from computers at the Climatic Research Unit, and, using a Internet server based in Russia, posted them on a ‘Global Warming skeptic’ website called The Air Vent. Soon thereafter the files were forwarded to numerous other ‘skeptic’ websites and news outlets. The leaked files include more than 1,000 emails and about 3,000 documents, and they provide abundant evidence of falsification of data among the scientists at the forefront of promoting the theory of Global Warming.
The leaked emails consist of correspondence between many of the top researchers in the field of climate science and Global Warming, including CRU’s Director Phillip Jones and his assistant, Keith Briffa; Michael Mann at Pennsylvania State; Malcolm Hughes at the University of Arizona; Kevin Trenberth at the National Center for Atmospheric Research; James Hansen at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies; and James Holdren, US President Barack Obama’s new ‘Science Czar’. The authenticity of the leaked emails and documents has been verified by Phillip Jones of CRU, Kevin Trenberth, and others.
The emails and documents reveal that the scientists at the CRU and their colleagues in the USA not only falsified their data to ‘prove’ Global Warming; they also collaborated to prevent qualified scientists who disagree with the theory of Global Warming from publishing or participating in the ‘peer reviews’ process. The belief in Global Warming among scientists is not a consensus; it is a dictatorship.
The whistleblower who downloaded and posted the CRU files worked under the username ‘FOIA’, a reference to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the United States. The CRU has repeatedly refused FOIA requests for release of the data on which their computer models and conclusions about Global Warming are based. Obstruction of the release of information under the FOIA is a crime in both the UK and the USA, and the guilty scientists can be punished with fines or jail time.
Prompted by the Climategate scandal, former UK Chancellor Lord Lawson has called for an independent public inquiry into the facts of the CRU’s falsification of data to support the theory of Global Warming. In the USA, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma announced that he will launch an investigation into the Climategate scandal. Inhofe’s office has sent letters to the scientists involved and to federal agencies warning them to “retain (related) documents.” In Australia ten Labour Party MPs (Members of Parliament) resigned their seats in protest of their government’s support of the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), an equivalent of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and the pending Cap and Trade legislation in the USA.
'Climategate’ is not an ordinary case of falsifying data by a few rogue scientists. The fraudulent theory of Global Warming has provided the basis for an international political movement which has the stated goal of completely restructuring the entire global economy based on that fraudulent theory. ‘Global Warming’ is a confidence (or ‘con’) game perpetrated by dishonest scientists and the government and corporate leaders who provide the corrupt scientists with opportunities for advancement.
If we fail to stop the further politicization and institutionalization of the fraudulent theory of Global Warming, we will most certainly experience a future of ‘science’ created and controlled by government decree and of an international government that facilitates the operations of corporate industries while imposing severe restrictions and arbitrary taxes on the general public.
That is a future which would fully justify resistance and rebellion among the international populations who will be the victims of this massive global fraud. If we fail to stop this fraudulent enterprise by legal means, we will certainly have a future of global oppression based on fraud, with its attendant institutionalized crimes, and whatever popular backlash might eventually result.
Gregory Fegel
Published on November 30, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
On November 17th, 2009 an anonymous whistleblower downloaded email and data files from computers at the Climatic Research Unit, and, using a Internet server based in Russia, posted them on a ‘Global Warming skeptic’ website called The Air Vent. Soon thereafter the files were forwarded to numerous other ‘skeptic’ websites and news outlets. The leaked files include more than 1,000 emails and about 3,000 documents, and they provide abundant evidence of falsification of data among the scientists at the forefront of promoting the theory of Global Warming.
The leaked emails consist of correspondence between many of the top researchers in the field of climate science and Global Warming, including CRU’s Director Phillip Jones and his assistant, Keith Briffa; Michael Mann at Pennsylvania State; Malcolm Hughes at the University of Arizona; Kevin Trenberth at the National Center for Atmospheric Research; James Hansen at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies; and James Holdren, US President Barack Obama’s new ‘Science Czar’. The authenticity of the leaked emails and documents has been verified by Phillip Jones of CRU, Kevin Trenberth, and others.
The emails and documents reveal that the scientists at the CRU and their colleagues in the USA not only falsified their data to ‘prove’ Global Warming; they also collaborated to prevent qualified scientists who disagree with the theory of Global Warming from publishing or participating in the ‘peer reviews’ process. The belief in Global Warming among scientists is not a consensus; it is a dictatorship.
The whistleblower who downloaded and posted the CRU files worked under the username ‘FOIA’, a reference to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the United States. The CRU has repeatedly refused FOIA requests for release of the data on which their computer models and conclusions about Global Warming are based. Obstruction of the release of information under the FOIA is a crime in both the UK and the USA, and the guilty scientists can be punished with fines or jail time.
Prompted by the Climategate scandal, former UK Chancellor Lord Lawson has called for an independent public inquiry into the facts of the CRU’s falsification of data to support the theory of Global Warming. In the USA, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma announced that he will launch an investigation into the Climategate scandal. Inhofe’s office has sent letters to the scientists involved and to federal agencies warning them to “retain (related) documents.” In Australia ten Labour Party MPs (Members of Parliament) resigned their seats in protest of their government’s support of the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), an equivalent of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and the pending Cap and Trade legislation in the USA.
'Climategate’ is not an ordinary case of falsifying data by a few rogue scientists. The fraudulent theory of Global Warming has provided the basis for an international political movement which has the stated goal of completely restructuring the entire global economy based on that fraudulent theory. ‘Global Warming’ is a confidence (or ‘con’) game perpetrated by dishonest scientists and the government and corporate leaders who provide the corrupt scientists with opportunities for advancement.
If we fail to stop the further politicization and institutionalization of the fraudulent theory of Global Warming, we will most certainly experience a future of ‘science’ created and controlled by government decree and of an international government that facilitates the operations of corporate industries while imposing severe restrictions and arbitrary taxes on the general public.
That is a future which would fully justify resistance and rebellion among the international populations who will be the victims of this massive global fraud. If we fail to stop this fraudulent enterprise by legal means, we will certainly have a future of global oppression based on fraud, with its attendant institutionalized crimes, and whatever popular backlash might eventually result.
Gregory Fegel
Published on November 30, 2009 at Pravda.ru.
Missionaries are Colonialists
Christian missionaries make no secret of the fact that they use medical services, education, and employment opportunities to lure impoverished indigenous populations throughout the world into conversion to Christianity.
According to the popular and scholarly history of Christianity, the early Christian Church found its greatest appeal and attracted its greatest number of converts from the poor people of the Roman Empire. The early Christian churches raised money through a tithe, or ten per cent income tax, levied on their members, and the early Christian church is said to have had a strong 'sense of community', which implies that it had a well-organized social, financial, and political network among its membership.
Using your wealth to purchase other people's loyalty is a game as old as humanity itself. Rich men use their wealth to attract women, unscrupulous employers use material incentives and disincentives to manipulate their workers, and wealthy countries like the USA use their national wealth to keep their citizens loyal to the cause of aggressive and genocidal Imperialism. But historical longevity and common practice don't make the manipulation or exploitation morally or ethically right.
Organized religions are inherently POLITICAL organizations. There is a fundamental difference between the financial enterprise and political machinations of an organized religion versus a mass of independent, unaffiliated believers, philosophers, and mystics who do not support any organized religion.
Christianity and Islam are known as proselytizing religions because they make an organized and systematic effort to gain converts, and they often provide services, products, or employment to attract converts. Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism show far less zeal about gaining converts, which is why you almost never hear about Jewish, Hindu, or Buddhist missionaries.
Modern medical and nursing schools usually teach their students the moral principle that the provision of medical services should never be used as a means to proselytize or promote a religion, but that does not deter many Christian health care providers from doing exactly that. Most of the medical and charitable organizations based in Christian countries are fronts for Christian proselytizing activities.
One of the largest international medical relief organizations based in the USA, Northwest Medical Teams, states in their recruitment brochure that their chief 'mission' is to 'spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ', that their medical relief services are subordinate to their stated goal of proselytizing Christianity, and that their medical relief work is merely an 'aegis', or facade, for spreading Christianity.
The religious and cultural Imperialism performed by missionaries nearly always goes hand-in-hand with political and economic Imperialism. Christian missionaries often work in partnership with the CIA, with the US government, and with wealthy corporations to subvert the religion, the culture, the economy, and the politics of vulnerable indigenous populations. The CIA often uses planes owned by Christian missionary organizations and flown by Christian missionary pilots to smuggle drugs, arms, and prisoners.
During the CIA's illegal Iran/Contra scam of the 1980s, Christian missionary pilots and planes smuggled drugs into the USA and arms into Central America and Iran. Now the CIA is using Christian missionary planes to smuggle heroin from Afghanistan, cocaine from Latin America, and for 'rendition' flights of 'Terrorist' prisoners to secret prisons that practice torture and commit extra-judicial executions.
The USA's Faith Based Initiative law provides Christian missionary organizations with taxpayer funds that are used to proselytize Christianity to indigenous populations throughout the world. Christian missionaries are the leading edge of a religious, cultural, economic, and political aggression supported by the US government.
When missionaries bring outside wealth to an impoverished Third World country and use that wealth to provide services that are meant to attract converts, they are interfering with the local social and economic structure as well as the local cultural traditions. Indigenous people who take advantage of the privileges provided by the missionaries and convert to Christianity partake in a social organization that uses foreign wealth as a tool to eliminate the indigenous culture and replace it with Christianity.
A small and reclusive population of a few hundred people with a primitive Stone Age culture lives on North Sentinel Island, in the Andaman chain, which is administered by the government of India. To protect the culture of the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island, the Indian government has wisely banned anyone from visiting the island. I approve of the Indian government's policy of protecting the unique culture of the North Sentinels from outside influence. If anyone on North Sentinel Island should ever desire to leave, they can build a boat and do so.
Among a total of 195 nations in the world today, fifty-seven of those nations have a legally established, official State Religion. There are fourteen nations that claim Christianity as their State Religion, twenty-six nations that claim Islam as their State Religion, six nations that claim Buddhism as their State Religion, and the Jewish State of Israel. The Jewish State of Israel discriminates against its non-Jewish citizens and within its borders Israel officially prohibits the proselytizing of any religion other than Judaism. Many people believe that Israel has a ‘right to exist’ in this manner as a Jewish State.
Many Islamic countries strive to protect the cultural identity of their citizens by enforcing a ban on preaching any religion but Islam. Considering the aggressive, insidious, and highly political nature of Christian missionary programs, the banning of non-Moslem religious preaching by Moslem governments makes sense.
Currently there is no officially Hindu State anywhere in the world, but perhaps India should become a Hindu State in order to protect its indigenous religion and culture from the predatory missionaries and State-sponsored cultural Imperialism that are coming from both Christian and Moslem countries. If the Jews have the right to establish and maintain Israel as a Jewish State, then the Hindus certainly have a right to establish and maintain India as a Hindu State.
When Western leaders talk about a 'Clash of Civilizations', what they really mean is Judeo-Christianity and corporate Capitalism versus all non-Christians and non-Capitalists. Christian missionaries are essentially colonialists working for Christian cultural Imperialism.
When the Hindus of India rise up in riot and drive out the Christian missionaries and the Christian 'cash converts', they are doing what the Iraqi, Afghani, and Palestinian Freedom Fighters are doing. They are protecting themselves and their indigenous culture from wealthy and unscrupulous invaders who have no respect for them or for their culture. I wish the Hindu nationalists well in their efforts to defend and maintain the independence and survival of their indigenous culture and religion against the onslaught of predatory and disrespectful foreigners whose goal is to replace indigenous traditional cultures with a global Christian empire.
If Christian missionaries want to come to India and try to make converts to Christianity, let them come with empty pockets and compete on a level playing field. And if most of the locals don't want the missionaries interfering with their traditional way of life, they have the right to make the missionaries and their converts leave.
Gregory F. Fegel
Published on October 21, 2008 at Pravda.Ru.
According to the popular and scholarly history of Christianity, the early Christian Church found its greatest appeal and attracted its greatest number of converts from the poor people of the Roman Empire. The early Christian churches raised money through a tithe, or ten per cent income tax, levied on their members, and the early Christian church is said to have had a strong 'sense of community', which implies that it had a well-organized social, financial, and political network among its membership.
Using your wealth to purchase other people's loyalty is a game as old as humanity itself. Rich men use their wealth to attract women, unscrupulous employers use material incentives and disincentives to manipulate their workers, and wealthy countries like the USA use their national wealth to keep their citizens loyal to the cause of aggressive and genocidal Imperialism. But historical longevity and common practice don't make the manipulation or exploitation morally or ethically right.
Organized religions are inherently POLITICAL organizations. There is a fundamental difference between the financial enterprise and political machinations of an organized religion versus a mass of independent, unaffiliated believers, philosophers, and mystics who do not support any organized religion.
Christianity and Islam are known as proselytizing religions because they make an organized and systematic effort to gain converts, and they often provide services, products, or employment to attract converts. Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism show far less zeal about gaining converts, which is why you almost never hear about Jewish, Hindu, or Buddhist missionaries.
Modern medical and nursing schools usually teach their students the moral principle that the provision of medical services should never be used as a means to proselytize or promote a religion, but that does not deter many Christian health care providers from doing exactly that. Most of the medical and charitable organizations based in Christian countries are fronts for Christian proselytizing activities.
One of the largest international medical relief organizations based in the USA, Northwest Medical Teams, states in their recruitment brochure that their chief 'mission' is to 'spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ', that their medical relief services are subordinate to their stated goal of proselytizing Christianity, and that their medical relief work is merely an 'aegis', or facade, for spreading Christianity.
The religious and cultural Imperialism performed by missionaries nearly always goes hand-in-hand with political and economic Imperialism. Christian missionaries often work in partnership with the CIA, with the US government, and with wealthy corporations to subvert the religion, the culture, the economy, and the politics of vulnerable indigenous populations. The CIA often uses planes owned by Christian missionary organizations and flown by Christian missionary pilots to smuggle drugs, arms, and prisoners.
During the CIA's illegal Iran/Contra scam of the 1980s, Christian missionary pilots and planes smuggled drugs into the USA and arms into Central America and Iran. Now the CIA is using Christian missionary planes to smuggle heroin from Afghanistan, cocaine from Latin America, and for 'rendition' flights of 'Terrorist' prisoners to secret prisons that practice torture and commit extra-judicial executions.
The USA's Faith Based Initiative law provides Christian missionary organizations with taxpayer funds that are used to proselytize Christianity to indigenous populations throughout the world. Christian missionaries are the leading edge of a religious, cultural, economic, and political aggression supported by the US government.
When missionaries bring outside wealth to an impoverished Third World country and use that wealth to provide services that are meant to attract converts, they are interfering with the local social and economic structure as well as the local cultural traditions. Indigenous people who take advantage of the privileges provided by the missionaries and convert to Christianity partake in a social organization that uses foreign wealth as a tool to eliminate the indigenous culture and replace it with Christianity.
A small and reclusive population of a few hundred people with a primitive Stone Age culture lives on North Sentinel Island, in the Andaman chain, which is administered by the government of India. To protect the culture of the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island, the Indian government has wisely banned anyone from visiting the island. I approve of the Indian government's policy of protecting the unique culture of the North Sentinels from outside influence. If anyone on North Sentinel Island should ever desire to leave, they can build a boat and do so.
Among a total of 195 nations in the world today, fifty-seven of those nations have a legally established, official State Religion. There are fourteen nations that claim Christianity as their State Religion, twenty-six nations that claim Islam as their State Religion, six nations that claim Buddhism as their State Religion, and the Jewish State of Israel. The Jewish State of Israel discriminates against its non-Jewish citizens and within its borders Israel officially prohibits the proselytizing of any religion other than Judaism. Many people believe that Israel has a ‘right to exist’ in this manner as a Jewish State.
Many Islamic countries strive to protect the cultural identity of their citizens by enforcing a ban on preaching any religion but Islam. Considering the aggressive, insidious, and highly political nature of Christian missionary programs, the banning of non-Moslem religious preaching by Moslem governments makes sense.
Currently there is no officially Hindu State anywhere in the world, but perhaps India should become a Hindu State in order to protect its indigenous religion and culture from the predatory missionaries and State-sponsored cultural Imperialism that are coming from both Christian and Moslem countries. If the Jews have the right to establish and maintain Israel as a Jewish State, then the Hindus certainly have a right to establish and maintain India as a Hindu State.
When Western leaders talk about a 'Clash of Civilizations', what they really mean is Judeo-Christianity and corporate Capitalism versus all non-Christians and non-Capitalists. Christian missionaries are essentially colonialists working for Christian cultural Imperialism.
When the Hindus of India rise up in riot and drive out the Christian missionaries and the Christian 'cash converts', they are doing what the Iraqi, Afghani, and Palestinian Freedom Fighters are doing. They are protecting themselves and their indigenous culture from wealthy and unscrupulous invaders who have no respect for them or for their culture. I wish the Hindu nationalists well in their efforts to defend and maintain the independence and survival of their indigenous culture and religion against the onslaught of predatory and disrespectful foreigners whose goal is to replace indigenous traditional cultures with a global Christian empire.
If Christian missionaries want to come to India and try to make converts to Christianity, let them come with empty pockets and compete on a level playing field. And if most of the locals don't want the missionaries interfering with their traditional way of life, they have the right to make the missionaries and their converts leave.
Gregory F. Fegel
Published on October 21, 2008 at Pravda.Ru.
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