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New Intelligence Report: US Dominance Set to Wane by 2025

LibertySugar — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:30:57 -0800

If you wish you could see into the future, US intelligence officials are here to hand you a crystal ball. The National Intelligence Council just released Global Trends 2025, an unclassified intelligence report put out every four years, and assesses the opportunities and problems that lie ahead in the next 15 years. One tip: Americans might need to start practicing being humble, because by 2025 the US could lose its position of global supremacy.

Other findings include:

Global warming will have a positive economic impact in Russian and Canada because it will make seasons longer, as well as increase their access to oil fields.
Russia's rise could be hindered by a lack of investment in the energy sector, crime, and corruption.
Governments in Africa and South Asia could collapse due to security problems or water and food shortages caused by a population boom of 1.5 billion and global warming.
There will be a greater potential for war in 2025, thanks to increased global competition for food, water, and energy.
The transfer of wealth from West to East will continue for the foreseeable future.
Thanks to economic growth in the Middle East, and growing unpopularity of al Qaeda, the terrorist network will collapse sooner than people think.

To see some other predictions regarding Iran, nuclear weapons, and US dominance,

Not Evil Just Wrong — New Film to Take on Al Gore

LibertySugar — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:30:42 -0800

The new documentary Not Evil Just Wrong challenges so-called "global warming hysteria." The Irish filmmakers behind the project believe the effort to save the planet only hurts the poor, and they hope the film will discredit "alarmists" like Al Gore.

The film presents some alleged inconvenient truths that counter Al Gore. In the trailer, the Nobel Peace Prize winner is presented as a dark fearmongerer demanding that people drastically change the way they live, or that factories close and take away millions of jobs. Those in the documentary emotionally explain that such efforts destroy industry and ultimately cost people's lives.

Do you think this documentary could change your view of global warming?

Mindy Kaling, Kristen Wiig, and More Launch Strike.tv

BuzzSugar — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:32:02 -0700

Well, at least one good thing came out of last Winter's writers' strike. This week brought the launch of Strike.tv, a venture for comedy writers to put their own content on the Web without the interference of networks. (Think Dr. Horrible, but with even more people involved.)

Several of the web series are up now, including one called House Poor starring The Office's Mindy Kaling as a new homeowner who will stop at nothing (er, not even faking a pregnancy) to set up her dream house. Kaling also pops up in Global Warming, a series starring Kristen Wiig and The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi as two coworkers and possible lovers connected only by their online tech support chats. There's lots more to come; check out the whole list.

Not only is it good content, but it also has a good cause: Its ad revenue benefits the Actors Fund's Entertainment Assistance Program, which distributes money to Hollywood workers (camera crews, set decorators, carpenters, etc.) hurt by the writers' strike and the threat of an actors' strike. This year, the fund has already given $1.3 million dollars in aid. So, get clicking!

The shows will also appear on YouTube and other video sites. To check out the first episode of House Poor, just

Front Page: Two Held in Obama Plot, Syria Raid Kills "Major Target," Arctic Ice Thickness Drops

CitizenSugar — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:59:46 -0700

Two Held in Obama Plot:
Two men, being described as Neo-Nazis and aged 18 and 20, are being held for plotting to kill Barack Obama. Obama said he's not worried about the news and that it's "not who America is." The plan was to shoot 88 African-Americans and decapitate 14, symbolic numbers to white supremacists. The plot appears to have been amateurish and unsophisticated.

Syria Raid Kills "Major Target": A controversial raid into Syria has killed a key individual, Abu Ghadiyah, who was involved in smuggling foreign fighters into Iraq. Officials called the raid a "success." Baghdad has condemned the move saying that it doesn't want to be used as a launch point for attacks on others.

Arctic Ice Thickness Drops:
The thickness of the Arctic Ice dropped last year as much as 1.5 feet in some areas. The ice had been consistent for five years before hitting the 2007 minimum. The losses in ice could suggest the region has hit a tipping point — five years ago they projected the sea ice would disappear by 2080. The new data shows the ice will be gone by 2030 or 2040.

Source

Front Page: Joe the Plumber Speaks, Social Security Benefits to Rise, EU Firm on Climate Goals

CitizenSugar — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:00:42 -0700

Joe the Plumber Speaks:
After being the star of last night's debate, mentioned conservatively a dozen times, "Joe the Plumber" has come forward. His name is Joe Wurzelbacher, an Ohio man who wants to buy a plumbing business. He had spoken with Obama in Toledo this week, and told him his tax plan would prevent him from buying the business. He said of being the example of the night, "It's pretty surreal, man, my name being mentioned in a presidential campaign." He won't say who he's voting for — if he's registered — "That's for me and a button to know."

Social Security Benefits to Rise:
Social Security benefits will go up 5.8 percent for 50 million people next year. It's the largest pay rise in more than a quarter of a century. The increase will begin in January and will mean $63 extra per month for the average retiree. The raise is double increase from January this year.

EU Firm on Climate Goals:
European Union leaders are resolved to meet their targets and timetable for addressing climate change, despite objections from some countries. Worries that given the global economic situation cutting greenhouse gas emissions will be too costly has caused some countries to threaten to block the plan. French President Sarkozy says, "The climate package is so important that we cannot simply drop it, under the pretext of a financial crisis."

Al Gore Calls For "Civil Disobedience" Against New Coal Plants

CitizenSugar — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:45:35 -0700

At the fourth annual Clinton Global Initiative kicked off yesterday in New York City, Al Gore made a perhaps inconvenient call to action: civil disobedience. Gore, surrounded by Queen Raina, Clinton, and Bono painted a grim planetary picture:

This is a rout. We are losing badly. This is the result of a dysfunctional, insane global system pattern that we have to change.

Then his plan to gain ground on the climate crisis:

If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration.

To see what he means,

Study to Examine If Climate Change Makes Fall Foliage, Leaf

CitizenSugar — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:00:59 -0700

Now that it's officially Fall, the announcement of this new study seems prudent, timely, and worth a trip to New England. Scientists at the University of Vermont have a three-year, $45,000 grant from the Department of Agriculture to study the effects of climate change on the famous Fall foliage. It's not just a tree-hugging (or leaf-loving) move. Fall leaves, especially in the peak season of late-September to early-October, bring $364 million in tourism dollars to the state. Money, it seems, does grow on trees.

One researcher says, "It is getting warmer, and people want to know how that's going to affect this big process that's so important to us." Because decreasing day length causes chlorophyll to break down making the red shine through, scientists want to see the true effect of cold nights and warm days on the leaves — especially if the overall temperature of both rises.

As for the leaves now? "It's always great. . . it can peak in different places at the same time so you just drive around and you hit all these different pockets of the landscape, so it's always fabulous."

Source

The Scoop: Accelerated Ice Melt Threatens Life in the Arctic

PetSugar — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:00:35 -0700

Not only does the ice help regulate the earth's temperature, but it also sustains life by giving access to food to many Arctic creatures. Unfortunately, with the ice shelf melting at an alarming rate (about 10 percent per decade), it's having a deadly effect on the Polar Bears native to the region. Kassie Siegel, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity explains:

The Arctic sea ice melt is a disaster for the polar bears. They are dependent on the Arctic sea ice for all of their essential behaviors, and as the ice melts and global warming transforms the Arctic, polar bears are starving, drowning, even resorting to cannibalism because they don't have access to their usual food sources.

But the Arctic ice melt doesn't just affect residents of the north. See how this will affect us here in the US, just

States, Provinces to Cap and Trade Sans Federal Governments

LibertySugar — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0700

Seven western US states and four Canadian provinces have agreed to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 15 percent before 2020. Proud of the Western Climate Initiative, Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger asserted:

We’re sending a strong message to our federal governments that states and provinces are moving forward in the absence of federal action, and we’re setting the stage for national programs that are just as aggressive.

So how will Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec curb climate change? To find out,

Oh Floe! Melting Ice Releases Millions of Tons of Methane Gas

CitizenSugar — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:07 -0700

Scientists working on greenhouse gas emissions have discovered a new source of gas which is potentially 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide: Methane. Now don't start blaming the poor cows, this time it's not their stink. It's worse. Methane is currently being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed all because of the eroding ice cap.

These underground pockets of methane are believed to be, in the past, the cause of rapid increases in global temperatures, fierce climate fluctuations, and extinctions on a mass scale. Scientists working off of Russian’s northern coast have witnessed concentrations of methane, up to 100 times the normal level, bubbling up to the surface. To see what scientists make of the phenomenon,