Our Descent Into Madness

“Scientists already know that the North Pole wanders over time. But a theory known as true polar wander suggests that if a very heavy object, like an oversized volcano forms far from the equator, the force of the planet’s rotation would pull the object away from the axis the Earth spins around.”

So drastically that Alaska could reach the equator. It’s thought by some that this has happened before and could maybe happen again.

Evidence includes anomalies in Svalbard sediments which serve as records of the Earth’s magnetic field at the time they were formed. Such extreme polar wander could also be responsible for unexplained changes in ocean chemistry 800 million years ago.

Huh.

…says ChristianExodus.org.

“ChristianExodus.org is moving thousands of Christians to South Carolina to reestablish constitutionally limited government founded upon Christian principles. It is evident that the U.S. constitution has been abandoned under our current federal system, and the efforts of Christian activism to restore our Godly republic have proven futile over the past three decades. The time has come for Christian Constitutionalists to protect our liberties in a State like South Carolina by interposing the State’s sovereign authority retained under the 10th Ammendment of the U.S. Constitution.”

Hahahahahaha, hahaha.

Haha.

Yay for productivity. Today is the 12th birthday celebration of Art Behind Bars, a program founded by Lynne Vantriglia at the Monroe County Detention Center on Stock Island in 1994. When she first visited the Monroe County Detention Center, Lynne was a rape victims’ advocate who was appalled at the lack of activity provided for the women there. She bought them $600 worth of art supplies, and the number of participants in the program grew. (The program is available to men now, too).

Said Lori Rheingold, a participant in the Art Behind Bars program, “You don’t really realize that art is building your self-esteem. And that’s one thing drug addicts and alcoholics all have in common– low self-esteem.”

The program sponsors two art shows a year. Art sold by participants of the Art Behind Bars program raises money for the use of the program or other non-profits and charities. Participants of the Art After Bars program get to keep whatever their art sells for.

Sweet deal.

Picture palm trees swaying in Canada, warm seas lapping at shorelines hundreds of feet higher than they are today—and no natural ice anywhere.

That was the scene some 50 million years ago, scientists say, and rising carbon dioxide levels could make Earth’s future look much like this hothouse past.

A new study says that the levels of atmospheric CO2 during the Eocene, an epoch that occured some fifty million years ago and was the hottest in the last 65 million, match the levels predicted for the end of this century. During the Eocene, there were palm trees as far north as Alaska, forests at the poles, and no ice, period.

Oh, wow. Beautiful and accurate 19th-century glass models of flowers and sea creatures.

I have a lot of fun at the National Geographic website. Most recently, I took this silly Climate IQ Quiz. Good stuff.

Relatedly, if you haven’t yet, I recommend calculating your carbon footprint.

Check out this matchstick-model of Hogwarts.

Via Boing Boing

India contains half of the world’s tiger population. They are facing extinction because of an illicit skin trade between gangs in India and Tibet. The pelts are sold for tons of money, and are increasingly used to make fashionable accesories.

“India’s big cat population has been whittled away by a combination of habitat destruction, loss of prey and conflict with humans. But this trend is being accelerated by the tiger skin trade. The result, say conservationists, has been that tigers are being wiped out of India.”

Before 1947, there were 40,000 wild tigers in India. Now there are 1,500.

“This is an illegal trade much like the criminal arms trade or drug trade. It has to be controlled and stopped by specialised enforcement units.”

Well, on with it specialized enforcement units. Get those cat-killers.

Scientists in the Virgin Islands have issues their strongest warning of the year that coral is in danger from global warming, more dire than two warnings released earlier in the year. Water temperatures in the area have reached 85 degrees, which, if sustained, will cause coral to bleach and die.

The warning issued Saturday by NOAA urges scuba-dive operators and underwater researchers in the U.S. Caribbean territories to look for coral damage and use caution around the fragile reefs, which are easily damaged by physical contact.

Coral, which provide a sheltered habitat for fish, lobsters and other animals, die from prolonged bleaching, when the water temperature gets so high that it kills the algae that populate and build the reefs.

Researchers in Nebraska have been looking for a way to prevent harmful fertilizer from seeping into groundwater; they’re using the material found in disposable baby diapers to soak up the chemicals. They’ve developed an environmentally-friendly version of the plastic, specially designed for use in soil.

“We are testing a product that may have the potential of eliminating nitrogen leaching,” [Dean Krull of the University of Nebraska] said.