Monthly Archives: November 2020

Asteroids

An asteroid almost hit Earth – How did astronomers miss it?

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How did astronomers miss this asteroid that just almost hit Earth?

The asteroid swooped by our planet at such a narrow distance that even the International Space Station was farther away than the rock at its closest approach. The space rock made its pass on November 13th, and while it could have endangered satellites orbiting our planet, it doesn’t appear to have done any harm and passed by safely. 2020 VT4 set a new record for close passes by asteroids, coming close than any space rock that didn’t actually enter Earth’s atmosphere and become a meteor.

There are four problems that humans face with asteroids right now:

  • As demonstrated here, asteroids often come close to Earth without being detected until after the fact
  • Therefore it is quite possible that asteroids are coming close to Earth without ever being detected
  • Out of all of the asteroids that could affect Earth, we have only cataloged a fraction of them
  • If an asteroid were known to be on a collision course with Earth, we currently have no way/plan to stop it

The 2013 asteroid in Russia was about 50 feet (16 meters) in diameter:

Meteor Strikes Russia, Over 1,000 Believed Injured

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.

Nuclear Bombs, Terrorism

Will World War 3 start with a strike on Iran?

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There is concern that departing President Trump will do something irrational in the waning days of his tenure and that it will have large-scale repercussions. For example:

Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Program

From the article:

“President Trump asked senior advisers in an Oval Office meeting on Thursday whether he had options to take action against Iran’s main nuclear site in the coming weeks…. A range of senior advisers dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike. The advisers — including Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Christopher C. Miller, the acting defense secretary; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — warned that a strike against Iran’s facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of Mr. Trump’s presidency.”

Iran’s response was nearly immediate:

Iran warns of ‘crushing response’ if Trump targets nuclear site

Iran has warned of a strong response if Donald Trump goes ahead with plans to use the twilight of his presidency to mount a strike on Iran or its allies in the region… Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei warned against such an attack. “Any action against the Iranian nation would certainly face a crushing response,” he said.

And soon WW3 could be underway. For example, Israel may want to get involved:

Iran warns of ‘crushing’ response after report Trump mulled military strike

“If I were the Iranians, I would not feel at ease,” Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said, according to Reuters, referring to the reports… “It is very important that the Iranians know that if, indeed, they suddenly dash toward high levels of enrichment, in the direction of nuclear weaponry, they are liable to encounter the military might of the United States — and also, perhaps, of other countries,” Steinitz said on Israel’s Army Radio.

Saudi Arabia is making noises as well:

Saudi minister says nuclear armament against Iran ‘an option’

Meanwhile, Trump is trying other dubious paths before he is ousted:

Trump officials rush to auction off rights to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Biden can block it; Officials aim to sell drilling rights to the pristine wilderness’s coastal plain before the president-elect takes office

The Trump administration is asking oil and gas firms to pick spots where they want to drill in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as it races to open the pristine wilderness to development and lock in drilling rights before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

See also:

Trump aides privately plot a flurry of moves in their final 10 weeks

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.

Global Warming, Warnings

Scientists say net zero by 2050 is too late

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Scientists say net zero by 2050 is too late

From the article:

CRC quotes British Professor of Energy and Climate Change Kevin Anderson as saying the world is currently on a path to 3–5ºC warming by 2100. He warned that a 4°C warmer future is “incompatible with an organised global community”. That sort of temperature rise is “beyond adaptation”, he said, because it will “devastate the majority of ecosystems and has a high probability of not being stable”.

A further problem is that climate change is not one thing, but many. Humans must take extraordinary steps now or watch a disaster unfold through multiple mechanisms:

This video describes one path to net-zero:

Is 100% Renewable Possible By 2050? – Interconnectors

But it is too little too late. The pace of change must accelerate dramatically.

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.

Pandemics

The COVID virus appears to be spreading uncontrollably in the United States

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Case numbers for COVID-19 in the United States grow nearly every day now. The NYTimes put it this way:

“The infection rate continues to shatter records: On Friday, public health officials reported more than 181,000 new cases across the country. It was only eight days earlier that the U.S. reported its first 100,000-case day.”

And this article from the Atlantic is talking about exponential spread that is likely to occur unless intense steps are taken to slow the virus down:

It’s Time to Hunker Down – A devastating surge is here. Unless Americans act aggressively, it will get much larger, very quickly.

From the article:

“Almost every day, America is breaking new records in confirmed cases: They are up 40 percent from just one week ago. These cases are not confined to a region or a state; the whole nation is in the midst of a terrible surge…. This is not a “casedemic”—the false notion that we just have better testing and detection, without any real change in the underlying risk for illness and death. It’s true that we missed a lot of cases in the spring because we didn’t have enough tests, and that we are catching more of them now. But it’s not just confirmed cases that are on the rise. The United States is also experiencing a steep increase in hospitalizations, as well as about 1,500 reported deaths a day…”

Everyone who gets COVID potentially spreads it to 2 or 3 other people, and without measures to contain this spread, the virus can experience exponential growth. Why is this happening?

  • People are letting their guard down
  • People are “tired of the virus”, they want it to be over, they want to stop thinking about it, they want to return to normal
  • Some people, fantastically, continue to believe that the virus is a hoax

A South Dakota ER nurse shared the sobering reality of the coronavirus in a CNN interview – On ‘New Day’ with Alisyn Camerota, Jodi Doering shared horror stories of patients not believing COVID-19 was real even as they lay dying from it.

“I have a night off from the hospital. As I’m on my couch with my dog I can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is (g)oing to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that ‘stuff’ because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real.”

It is impossible to believe that this is happening, but it is happening. People who do not believe that the virus is real take no precautions, and they spread the virus freely.

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.

Chemical Attack, Terrorism, Warnings

The Fentanyl Drug Epidemic – A documentary – And Opioid Weapons of Mass destruction

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This documentary describes the fentanyl drug epidemic in the United States and Canada.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtGpPhd-c7Q
The fentanyl drug epidemic in North America | DW Documentary

From the video’s description:

One hundred times stronger than heroin, the opioid fentanyl is cheap, potent and can be sent through the post. These market forces have seen it replacing heroin and causing unprecedented death, destruction and misery. The death toll has disproportionately affected the homeless and already marginalized. Now, due to its strength and low cost, the drug is also starting to be mixed into party drugs, such as cocaine and cannabis – with fatal results. The documentary travels to Vancouver, the epicenter of the fentanyl epidemic to meet with health care workers, activists, fentanyl dealers and addicts. It shows some of the radical initiatives fighting the abuse of this drug, and asks what the world could face if the fentanyl epidemic spreads outside of North America.

Fentanyl has killed tens of thousands of people.

The other side of fentanyl and carfentanil is their potential use as terrorist weapons, weapons of mass destruction.

Could fentanyl be a weapon of mass destruction?
What You Need to Know about Carfentanil

For more info see:

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.

Rainforest Collapse

The Last Rainforests in Asia are Doomed

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The burning scar: Inside the destruction of Asia’s last rainforests

From the article:

A Korean palm oil giant has been buying up swathes of Asia’s largest remaining rainforests. A visual investigation published today suggests fires have been deliberately set on the land.

As discussed in the chapter on Rainforest Collapse, a rainforest is a symbiotic loop where the trees contribute to the rain and the rain waters the trees. Kill off enough trees and this beneficial cycle ends, turning a rainforest into savannah or desert. In the process, more gigatons of carbon dioxide enter the atmosphere (from trees that die or burn), causing the planet to heat up even more in a deadly positive feedback loop. The only solution is to stop destroying the raiforests and start rebuilding them.

In other doomsday rainforest news:

Report: Neste responsible for rainforest destruction ‘the size of Paris’ since 2019

From the article:

A new report claims that Finland’s majority state-owned fuel company Neste is responsible for the destruction of at least 10,000 hectares of rainforest since 2019 – an area the size of Paris. Friends of the Earth Netherlands Milieudefensie says Neste also continues to buy palm oil from suppliers in Liberia with links to armed militias who extorted land from villagers to grow the lucrative crops. According to Milieudefensie, the Finnish company buys 1.3 million tons of palm oil and a substance called PFAD – palm fatty acid distillate – every year to turn into biofuel.

Also:

Scientists say that combatting rising deforestation rates in the Amazon rainforest – a major store of planet-warming carbon that stretches across nine South American countries – is crucial in the fight against climate change.

Also:

The world’s largest wetlands are on fire. That’s a disaster for all of us

Wetlands like the Pantanal are Earth’s most effective carbon sinks — ecosystems that absorb and store more carbon than they release, keeping it away from the atmosphere. At roughly 200,000 square kilometers, the Pantanal comprises about 3% of the globe’s wetlands and plays a key role in the carbon cycle.

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.

Geoengineering, Global Warming, Warnings

Many parts of the world will become uninhabitable to humans and animals as the planet heats up

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Planet Earth is growing warmer, and as it does we will see parts of the planet become uninhabitable due to heat and humidity. The southeastern United States is vulnerable to this – it will be impossible to go outside without an air conditioned vehicle or suit:

Climate Change Will Make Parts of the U.S. Uninhabitable. Americans Are Still Moving There.

From the article:

The data shows that the warming climate will alter everything from how we grow food to where people can plausibly live. Ultimately, millions of people will be displaced by flooding, fires and scorching heat, a resorting of the map not seen since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Now as then, the biggest question will be who escapes and who is left behind.

It’s crazy to think that it will come to this – that humans will choose to destroy the planet instead of taking action to stop the burning of fossil fuels. Nonetheless, this is the path humanity is following right now, and it will have gigantic economic and social costs for all human beings unless we as a species change course. See the Global Warming chapter for details. And this video paints a dire picture:

Extreme Heat Could Make One Third of Planet Uninhabitable

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.

Warnings

“We are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021”

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“We are going to have famines of biblical proportions in 2021.” This is the dire warning from The UN’s World Food Program:

Nobel-winning UN agency warns of ‘famines of biblical proportions’ in 2021 

Beasley said WFP needs $15 billion next year – $5 billion just to avert famine and $10 billion to carry out the agency’s global programs including for malnourished children and school lunches which are often the only meal youngsters get. “If I could get that coupled with our normal money, then we avert famine around the world” and minimize destabilization as well as migration. he said.

Nuclear Bombs, Terrorism

Iran now has 2,000kg (4,000 pounds) of enriched uranium

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Iran has been producing enriched uranium at a breakneck pace and now has about a ton of enriched uranium. This means that Iran has been increasing the amount of uranium it can process, and the process it is using is effective. Further, it indicates that Iran could easily take the next step and start producing weapons-grade (90%) enriched uranium:

Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile ’10 times limit’

“Iran now has more than 10 times the amount of enriched uranium permitted under an international agreement, the UN’s nuclear watchdog says. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile had reached 2,105kg (4,640lb).”

From Iran’s perspective it is a spectacular achievement. From the world’s perspective it points toward the potential emergence of yet another nation with nuclear weapons.

One possible reaction is to go to war with Iran as described in this article:

Are Israel and the US planning to attack Iran?

This is important to keep in mind amid speculation – once again during a presidential lame duck period – that in his last few weeks in office, Donald Trump will either order US military action against Iran or give Israel a green light, as well as some assistance, to do so on its own.

“The Doomsday Book” by Marshall Brain lays out this scenario in amazing detail and offers solutions to prevent this doomsday scenario from unfolding. You can order the book today on Amazon and other retailers.