Sign of the Times: The Humble Sponge

Admittedly, you do not think much of sponges, unless you enjoy the feel of a natural sponge in your bath. But members of the humble Spongia species tell a tale of woe for humanity. The long-lived creatures that create an exoskeleton we use. They live in well-oxygenated shallow seas around the globe. Consequently, the ratio of oxygen isotopes contained in their exoskeleton record the temperature level in the sea. 

Three hundred year old sclerosponges [photo left] from the Caribbean Sea predate the Industrial Revolution. Sponges that contain higher levels of Oxygen 16 (8 neutrons) compared to Oxygen 18 (10 neutrons) indicate warm sea temperatures, and vis-versa. Oxygen bonds with carbon to form calcium carbonate in their skeletons. These chemical variations show that sclerosponges experienced stable sea temperatures between 1700 and 1790. By the mid 1860s, sea temperatures began to rise after a period of some cooling probalby caused by volcanic eruptions blocking sunlight. By the middle of the 20th centrury the sponge record indicates that sea warming by one degree ℉ more than scientists expected using convential methods has occurred.

The Earth experienced its hottest year in recorded history occurred in 2023.  NOAA said that 2023 was the hottest year in its 174 year data set.  The World MeterologicalOrganization confirmed the record setting year. Future generations may look back at this year as the indicator of when humanity failed to take action against global climate change. James Hanson the NASA scientist who alerted the world to climate change in 1988 testimony to the Senate, told The Guardian, 2023 may be considered one of the cooler years in the future record because failure will be built into the climate system due to the continued burning of fossil fuels.

Is Nuclear Power Officially Dead?

Nuclear power hucksters have lately been touting "small modular reactors" as the panacea of a dying industry.  It is dying for a simple reason: nuclear power is uneconomic compared to other less potentially dangerous power sources.  This reason did not stop the nuclear boosters from gathering in Brussels at a March 21st conference organized by the IAEA to cheerlead for nuclear power. Bankers, however, were much less exuberant.

Insiders know that SMR is, as the former CEO of NuScale at the forefront of SMR development called it, "a dead horse". He recently sold 59,768 shares of the company. NuScale is burning through $185 million per year developing its VOYGR project. Wells Fargo, hardly a progressive bank, declared investors to be "misguided". Motley Fool reported that VOYGR has no secure customers, and is not cost competitive.

not Fukushima, but San Onofre, CA

The captured Nuclear Regulatory Commission was unable to approve another SMR project known as Aurora because the application for a license contained significant gaps in information about potential accidents and safety systems.  It denied the application outright in January 2022, and a reapplication nine months later went nowhere. USAF cancelled its order for an Aurora unit destined for Eielson AFB in Alaska. Predicatably people with a financial interest in nuclear power are continuing to deny reality and sell nuclear power as the answerto Earth's climate crisis. [photo credit: Jelson25]

Of course nuclear supporters want and need ratepayers and taxpayers to foot the exorbitant bills associated with nuclear power development. Private capital is unwilling to finance the cost without subsidies. Depsite the reluctance of the private sector, the federal government appears to be willing to enslave US at the behest of nuclear interests. The House passed the ADVANCE act to encourage nuclear power development and do away with supposedly unneeded, burdensome regulations. Only 35 Democrats voted against passage. Making its way through the Senate is a forty-year extension of the Price-Anderson Act due to expire in 2025. The law limits liability of plant owners to just $16 million per reactor for accidents. This de-regulation push by industry is hardly consistent with claims that SMRs are "walkaway safe" and "meltdown-proof". Oh, the wonders of the techno-god! Sorry, we have heard this all before. Nuclear power is dying because its electricity is too expensive to safely build. Period.

A Survival Story

A  hatchery tanker caring thousands of young salmons an smolts crashed on a sharp curve when its driver lost control last Friday near Elgin, OR. Loaded with fish and water the tanker weighed 80,000 pounds.    Fortunately for the salmon, Lookingglass Creek was next to the road.  The 26,000 smolts died, but the young salmon managed to swim into the creek and survive.  The 100,000 fish were  supposed to restock the Imnaha River.  A fisheries spokesperson said that the salmon are now expected to reach the sea via the Grand Ronde River.  The incident reminds US how resilient nature is, and especially salmon.

Employees of the Union County Sheriffs Office and Nez Pierce tribe members cleaned up the spill and counted the fish.  The smolts were too young to flop into the water; 77,000 salmon did reach the creek   The state of Oregon spends considerable amounts on hatching salmon to repopulate depleted rivers and streams.  The Lookingglass Creek hatchery is one of thirty-three operated by the state.The dams on the lower Snake River seem to be a major choke point for migrating salmon.   It seems to US Person that money could be more effectively spent on removing unneeded dams, restoring riverine habitat and reducing pollution.  This  story reminds US Person of the time he assisted a spawning Chinook salmon over a weir in Alaska to reach his home lake.

Salmon spend about three years at sea foraging and building strength for the return journey to their spawning grounds. Smolts are around eighteen months old; they conserve their stregth by floating tail first on the spring run-off 650 miles to the Pacific Ocean.  Scientists think that salmon use their sense of smell to navigate their return. [photo credit: USFWS]

In Iowa, the Nishnabotna River was the scene of an another devastation of aquatic life last month.  An open valve on a storage tank allowed 265,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen to leak into the river.  The toxic chemical soon spread to the Missouri River.  An estimated 790,000 fish died in a stretch of rivers 60 miles long. Carcasses lined the banks of the Nishnabotna.  The dead were mostly smaller species, but large catfish and shovel nose sturgeon also perished.  The spill was the most deadly since 2023 when run-off from a dairy farm killed 800,000.  Iowa has struggled with controlling agricultural contamination of its rivers and streams.  Despite advocacy from environmentalists, no regulatory legislation has passed the Repugnant-controlled legislature.

Sign of the Times: Spinning Fish

Florida wildlife officials are baffled by the phenomenon of spinning fish.  Hundreds of fish including endangered saw fish are thrashing themselves to death with no apparent cause.  Experts have found no communicable diseases and water parameters such as toxins, temperature, salinity, and pollution levels are normal.  NOAA has declared an emergency response focused on the Florida Keys starting this week.  In late January state officials declared a mass mortality event for sawfish Pristis.s, a prehistoric looking creature related to rays and sharks.  These fish normally live extended lives, and their line goes back unchanged for millions of years, but they have been listed as endangered since 2003.  Some members of this family can grow up to sixteen feet, and were once found all along the Gulf Coast and south Atlantic coast.  [photo credit: AP]

It is not clear if the erratic behaviors are related to the lengthy marine heat wave attributed to global warming.  Researchers have discovered that captured spinning fish stop spinning when transferred to clean water.  Because of this discovery, scientists will attempt to capture as many sawfish in danger as possible and transfer them to a recovery facility.  Such a transfer, while done for manatees,  turtles and dolphins, has never been attempted for such a large, predatory fish with a beak full of pointy teeth. NOAA has set up a tip line 844-4Sawfish.

TWIT: Mathew 7, 24

Update: New York's Attorney General has questioned the legal sufficiency of the surety that put up the $175 million bond in the NY civil fraud case. A notice to the court stated that Knight Specialty Insurance Company does not have a "certificate of qualification" from New York, and has insufficient capital to secure the bond. The AG has given the defendant ten days to "justify" the surety. In a filing Knight said it only has $139 million in capital surplus (filed balance statement). The bond posted is far in excess of  ten percent of capital surplus imposed by NY state. If the surety is not justified to the AG's satisfaction, New York will be free to begin executing on Trump's assets, unless he finds yet another idiot to back him on appeal.  There will be a hearing before Judge Engoron later this month.

credit: P. Molina

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. [24] For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. [25] Behold, I have told you before.

Only one presidential candidate has been charged with dozens of felony crimes ranging from fraud to obstruction, espionage and, at the same time, claims to be the "chosen one". His conduct is so hypocritically lawless that he need not be named.  Watching him tell a media person that "law and order" must be a foremost issue in the election is sickening.  More than that, it is an indictment of our degraded political system.

Judge Juan Merchan expanded his gag order to include family members after Big Don started in on his daughter who works for a public relations firm that has Democratic clients.  This unacceptable behavior is an intentional strategy to disrupt and discredit the judicial proceeding ascertaining his guilt.  He used the same strategy in Georgia by attacking the prosecutor for having an affair with her employee.  Neither gambit will work.  In Ft. Pierce, FL however, he has the assistance of a federal judge in his pocket, who will keep the federal trial on espionage and obstruction from occurring before the election.

As predicted, the 'King of Debt' managed to find a surety for the reduced bond in the NY civil fraud case. He is a billionare supporter, Don Hankey, who owns Knight Specialty Insurance, and is thought to be the largest shareholder in Axos Bank.  Henley is known as the "king of the subprime" auto loan, so he made his fortune lending money to bad credit risks at high interest.  Axos refinanced loans secured by Trump Tower and Doral National Golf Course. It loaned him $100 for Trump Tower and $125 million for Doral; both are not due until 2032.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  Shares in Trump Media Company fell by 15% after the street got a look at its 2023 financial statements filed with the SEC.  According to those statements, the company lost $58 million on revenues of just $4 million!  One observer called the company, "a money incinerator" in which investors will regret taking a stake. His shares are now only worth $4.25 billion.  This false Messiah is one hell of a businessman!

That his MAGA supporters are essentially deluded children seeking attention:

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves--Mathew 7:15

US Leads Push to Open New Oil Fields

Houston, TX

IEA experts at the Paris Accords said that no new development of oil and gas infrastructure could take place if the planet is to meet the agreed goal of 1.5℃ rise in global temperature. That red-line will be breached sometime in the next decade as a surge in oil and gas development is occurring. At least 20 new fields are being readied for production equivalent to 20 bn barrels of oil. The United States leads the way in the new expansion. The US has produced more crude oil than any other country in history six years in a row. The demagogue running for office wants to produce even more. [photo credit: Getty Images]

One industry expert says the increase in production efforts shows a clear lack of commitment on the supply-side to global warming goals calling it "disappointing". The industry's attitude of "drill, baby drill" is more than that, it's dangerous. Earth is already experiencing erratic and severe weather caused by global warming.

Fossil fuel development is also expanding in the global south. Four countries--Namibia, Cyprus, Guyana and Zimbabwe--account for one third of new discoveries in the past two years. These countries previously produced little oil or gas. The Venus Project in Namibia is the second largest discovery behind the Shahini gas field in Iran reportedly containing 623 bn meters of gas. Already operating oil and gas fields will be enough to push the planet beyond the Paris limit. New projects will only add to the planet's climate crisis. Since the 2021 IEA report, forty-five new projects have been fully approved.

TWIT: Trumplaw

"Get your Bible now!"

More: A California Bar judge has recommended to the California Supreme Court that John Eastman be disbarred for his participation in the January 6th Insurrection. It is expected the recommendation will be upheld by the Court. Ten out of eleven counts against him including failing to support the Constitution of the United States were found proven by the state's Office of Chief Trial Counsel. Eastman was employed at the University of Colorado, Boulder as a visiting scholar on conservative thought while he was advising the Boss on how to overthrow the US government.

Critics of the US justice systems think that there are actually two systems of justice, one for the rich and one for the rest of us. Case in point: The first division of the New York Applelate Court reduced the celebrity defendant's supersedeas bond in the civil fraud case from $464 million to $175 million and gave him ten more days to raise the money! The one page order did not explain why the intermediate appellate court granted such an astounding break to defendant Trump. Granted, there is a criminal case against him in the same department, but that is his doing not the people of the state of New York. US Person expects the judgement debtor to convince a surety to put up the lower amount given that Boss Trumpilini has already told the court he could afford $100 million. Posting bond effectively stays execution on the judgement until at least September when the intermediate appeals court begins a new session and can decide his appeal. The court-ordered monitorship of his company remains in effect.  Meanwhile™ he received a $5 billion windfall when his Trump Media company went public this week.  Shares are now selling at $68, and his Bible at $60.  In effect, his assault on American democracy is being funded by the herrenvolk.  One informed estimate is that he spends $90,000 a day on legal bills, none of which comes out of his pocket.

Why quibble over distinctions without a difference, when the similarities are so striking? Americans have long harbored fascistic tendencies. It is historic fact that Nazi race laws were modeled on southern American anti-miscegenation laws. Hitler called racist industrialist Henry Ford his "inspiration".  Hero Charles Lindbergh admired the Nazi rise to power in Germany and accepted a medal from Hitler. He became spokesperson for the defeatist "America First" political action committee. You want to call him "proto-fascist"?  Fine, with US Person. That is enough for him to join a united front against a narcissistic dilettante who cannot make up his mind about contemporary issues, and consistently echos Nazi rhetoric. If given another chance at power he will become a more consistent and accomplished fascist, perhaps with lessons from Europe's Viktor Orban.

On the side of equal justice under law, Justice Juan Merchan has rejected any more attempts at delay in the criminal fraud case and scheduled the trial to begin on April 15th, and imposed a limited gag order on Der Leader. Trump's attorneys tried to implicate the prosecution in the delay of providing discovery material to the defense at a hearing on the 25th. Justice Merchan was having none of that, and forcefully admonished the defense for making accusations of prosecutorial misconduct without any support. So a jury verdict in the case could come sometime this summer, in the middle of the presidential election. History is be made being made as the first US President goes to trial for crimes committed while in office!

credit: M. Lukovich, Atlanta Journal-Constituiton