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Last ever post in this thread, I promise.
quote:Warmest Winter Ever Recorded In Parts Of Canada
By Chris Jermyn
The Canadian Press
3-8-2
OTTAWA - Warm winter. Usually an oxymoron, but almost an axiom in the southern parts of Ontario and Quebec from December to February. How warm was it?
"Winter in southern Ontario and southern Quebec was the warmest since national records began in 1948," Environment Canada reported Thursday. The average temperature was 4.8 C above normal, an amazing departure from average conditions.
"Toronto's winter was unprecedented, the warmest . . . since city records began in 1840. The average winter temperature was above freezing (1.3 C) and 4.7 C above normal." Daily highs were above freezing for 72 days.
Winter was exceptional in Montreal - the warmest in 60 years with an unprecedented 51 days above freezing. The average temperature of -3.3 C was 5.4 C above normal.
"For the first time since records began in 1941, the overnight lows did not reach the -20 C mark."
The department said the very warm conditions "may be a harbinger" of what winters in southern Ontario and southern Quebec will be like in 50 years.
Other Ontario cities experiencing record warmth were Hamilton, London, Ottawa and Windsor. In Quebec, Bagotville, Val D'Or and Quebec City were hot spots.
Snowfall was also scant this year.
"Most of Canada was drier than normal, especially the Prairies, southern Ontario, southern Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Central Alberta was the driest area, receiving less than half the normal precipitation."
The water equivalent of snow in southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba as of March 1 was less than half of normal, raising concerns for agriculture.
While many people may have welcomed the warmth, Environment Canada had several concerns.
"Pests and diseases, which are normally kept in check by lengthy cold spells, are multiplying in some areas," it said, citing the mountain pine beetle threat to forests in British Columbia and the spread of a tick which causes Lyme disease.
In the far North, the opening of ice roads was delayed, increasing costs of consumer goods usually delivered in early winter. Winter tourism and mining also suffered.
Despite the warm news, Environment Canada had a warning about the lions of March:
"It should be noted that winter-like conditions can continue into March. Severe snow storms have occurred on occasion throughout March, or even April."
quote: The Interstate 95 Drought
Anyone who's turned on the TV or read a newspaper in the last two months knows that there's a big drought on in the eastern United States, especially strong from northern Virginia to Southern New England. Ominously, the epicenter lies along the Washington–New York's Interstate 95 axis—and thus it is fated to be a drought more important than any other weather event in world history.
quote:Top US Climate Scientists
Suggest Catastrophe May Be Near
By Jeremy Rifkin
The Guardian - London
3-7-2
We live in a world that has become so desensitised by watching calamities unfold on global television - both natural and human-induced - that it takes something really spectacular even to get our attention.
And it usually has to be visually dramatic to register, much less elicit a deep emotional response - such as the tragic events of September 11.
Recently, I came across a frightening report published by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - the nation's most august scientific body. Yet, because there was no visually provocative content, the report had received only a couple of short paragraphs tucked away inside a few newspapers.
From here
quote:Monday, March 11, is the six-month anniversary of the suicide outrage that destroyed New York’s World Trade Center, hit the Pentagon – and prompted the Afghan War. It is to be marked by an address by President George W. Bush to an invited audience of 1,300 to the White House, in which he is due to announce the next stage of global terror. He will also emphasize that inaction against nations developing weapons of mass destruction is not an option. The three members of his “axis of evil”, Iraq, Iran and North Korea will be clearly in focus.
The Afghanistan setback will not do much of the 12-nation tour on which vice president Richard Cheney has embarked, covering Middle East and Gulf capitals as well as the London, to finalize arrangements for the American strike against Iraq. The British are being asked to put up 25,000 troops for the campaign.
Another complicating factor for Washington is the rising spiral of Palestinian-Israeli clashes emanating from multi-casualty Palestinian terrorist strikes.
All in all, the Bush administration could have managed very well without a battlefield reverse in Afghanistan, which DEBKAfile’s military analysts predict may lead to four key developments:
1. America’s Iraq offensive could be either delayed substantially, or put forward. The Bush team is weighing both options.
According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, an American airlift delivered a fresh batch of upgraded Patriot anti-missile missiles with US crews to Israel Sunday, March 10. Their orders were to deploy in battle array by the end of this week. The Patriot airlift may signify an early offensive in the offing; alternatively, it may be meant to forestall an Iraqi pre-emptive attack or large-scale terror strike against US targets. Both could spoil Cheney’s mission.
2. The Palestinians will derive further encouragement from the US setback in Afghanistan to redouble their terror assault. Yasser Arafat, in private conversations with his cronies, insists that the Palestinian uprising that he leads is the true Muslim jihad – not Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda confrontation. He could well decide to try and outshine al Qaeda by beating off the powerful Israeli army, as well as intensifying his terror offensive - just when US ceasefire mediator Anthony Zinni is due.
3. The turn of events in Paktia brings forward the prospect, revived this week, of the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the global war on terror.
(This possibility was first disclosed in our intelligence newsletter DEBKA-Net-Weekly in early October 2001, three times in the course of the same month in DEBKAfile and again on November 26, 2001).
This week the Los Angeles Times reported that President Bush had ordered the Pentagon to draw up contingency plans for the use of nuclear weapons and a list of seven nations for targeting: Five - North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria - are either terror sponsors or developers of weapons of mass destruction.
DEBKAfile’s military experts recall in this regard the announcement made by the American deputy secretary of state for disarmament, John Bolton, on February 21 that Washington had decided to depart from its traditional policy of nuclear non-use against non-nuclear powers. The exceptions would be made in the cases of terrorists, their sponsors and states developing weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton’s statement was received in Baghdad as a signla that the United States has decided to use nuclear weapons in its coming offensive, and Saddam Hussein regime has made preparation.
D. The US armed forces are looking harder at the development of small nuclear bombs for tactical use. Given the setbacks in Tora Bora and the Shah-e-Kot Valley - for lack of intelligence and reliable Afghan allied troops - US military planners may lean further towards the use of tactical nuclear weapons to finish off the Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds still defying conventional means of warfare.
From Debka
quote:[URL=http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/03/09/26894.html ]Russia Slipping Into Abyss - Tidal Wave Of Crime Envelopes Country[/URL]
3-10-2
Dear compatriots!
Dear President of the Russian Federation!
Our fatherland is in danger! Russia is on the verge of self-annihilation. An enemy called 'criminality' is before our threshold.
Tide of murders and grave crimes against individual has overwhelmed the whole country. Every day, reports sound all over Russia, robbery and brigandage are being committed, human blood is being shed.
Wanna hear something more frightening? No? Allright then. |
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, with a promise of just wasting time with alcohol. But, surprise, none are willing. So, in short: I have no answer and Barbelith will always be the just about only Forum that I am a member of.