HEMP and the weather

There is much talk these days about the weather, especially after whole cities are deluged. Recently I tried to explain to a friend the essence of HAARP - which Jesse Ventura talks about on the web after trying to access the secret US gov HAARP facility in Alaska - and now I found HEMP. And this kind is not a dicotyledonous annual. It is a high tech weapon that the general public is not supposed to know about...So while I am trying to make hemp, Cannabis sativa legal with the petition to the White House at www.minawear.com/about-us/ - it may well be we need one to make the other HEMP illegal...Read the article by Robert Tilford in the examiner.com

"High Energy Radio Frequency" (HERE) and "Electromagnetic Pulse" (EMP) weapons

Electromagnetic Pulse bomps are scary weapons which have the
potential to fry computers and sensative ekectronics,

Credits: Defense Intelligence Agency

They are called "High Energy Radio Frequency" (HERE) and "Electromagnetic Pulse" (EMP) weapons - I know very "exotic and futuristic" names but they do pose a serious threat to the entire world. Especially in terms of lethality.

An electromagnetic pulse (sometimes abbreviated EMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. The abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation usually results from certain types of high energy explosions, especially a nuclear explosion, or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field. The resulting rapidly changing electric fields and magnetic fields may couple with electrical/electronic systems to produce damaging current and voltage surges.

In military terminology, a nuclear bomb detonated hundreds of kilometers above the Earth's surface is known as a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) device. Effects of a HEMP device depend on a very large number of factors, including the altitude of the detonation, energy yield, gamma rays output, interactions with the Earth's magnetic field, and electromagnetic shielding of targets.

They are sometimes referred to as "Directed Energy Weapons" (DEW's) which basically use electromagnetic radiation to deliver heat, mechanical or electrical energy to a target to cause various sometimes very subtle effects.

These weapons are being designed to be used against humans, electronics equipment and military targets generally dependant on technology like command and control centers.

EMP LASER WEAPONS

An electromagnetic pulse laser weapon can be used from up to 1.242 kilometers or over a mile away from a human and kill them with precise accuracy. Others are taser like weapons that effect motor effect in a human being.

PULSED ENERGY PROJECTILE (PEP) ROUNDS - THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES!

The purpose of PEP (Pulsed Energy Projectile), the LIP (Laser Individual Plasma) weapon and last but not least the Active Denial System (ADS) to induce pain although the PEP and has lethal capabilities.

When used as directed electromagnetic energy (DE) weapons can operate similar to omni-directional electromagnetic pulse weapons.

Potential military uses of such weapons are scary and include 1) the capability of inlfuencingan enemy force (or population) to flee rather the to stand and fight 2) instill dread and deny the enemy of sound and sleep - essentially driving people crazy.

Such weapons have redefined the word "terror" when you think of what could happen if such weapons ever fall into the hands of terrorists.

On-line you can read of amateurish attempts to created portable weapons, other are viable attempts to seem to point to a new trend in terms of terrorism in the near future. One site in particle gave all the information you need to make a HERF gun off the shelf, using a 800 watt Microwave oven that had a range of 50 ft that was demonstrated in a field tests and photographs to take out video cameras at 20 feet. (Source: "How to make a HERF weapon" www.topsight.net/article.php/20021115142933894) .

The author explains and photographs all his experiments and shows that even an idiot can make their own HERF gun by simply taking apart a microwave and fitting a wave-guide and cone around the magnetron.

HERE guns could be made and aimed at anything electronic would permanently destroy it.

PROTECTING AGAINST EMP

The only way to protect your computer from such radio weaponry or HERF is by using the Faraday cage method. This can be done by wrapping metallic shielding on and around the entire system. To completely protect it you need to cover the keyboard, mouse, all wires going in and out of the system and even the case of the computer (which alone cannot because of the gaps in the steal, a problem we have identified as a security problem). The other security measure often overlooked, in protecting computers from EMP is "unplugging the machine when not in use.

HOW REAL IS THE THREAT - THERE ARE 30 MILLION REASON WHY!

"In a blink of an eye, electromagnetic bombs could be thrown civilization back 200 years and terrorist can build them for less $400.00. (And kill an estimated 30 million inside of one year)." National Security Agency employee - speaking off the record for this exclusive allvoices report.

WHAT IS EMP?

According to the Institute for Telecommunications Sciences, Electromagnetic Pulse is 1) "The electromagnetic radiation from a nuclear explosion caused by Comton recoil electrons and photo electrons from photons scattered in the materials of the nuclear device or in a surrounding medium. The resulting electrical magnetic fields may couple with electrical/electronic system to provide damaging current and voltage surges. MAY ALSO BE CAUSE BY NON-NUCLEAR MEANS? 2) A broadband high intensity short duration burst of eltro magnetic energy. Note: In the case of a nuclear bomb, the EMP consists of a continuous frequency spectrum - most of the energy is distributed throughout the lower frequencies between 3 Hz and 30kHz."

In plain language, it is Electro-Magnetic shockwave that is released nuclear and non-nuclear means that can seriously damage only electrical components in its wake or path. China and Russia posses the ability to launch EMP attacks, which are classed in some reports as a "weapon of mass destruction" because of how dependent our society is one electronics and computers.

EMP can travel either through air or through conductive pathways such as electrical phone lines. It can affect electric equipment regardless of if the equipment is switched on or off.

E-BOMBS for under $400 DOLLARS

The more serious threat is from EMP bombs, which can be built off the shelf using around $400 dollars in supplies. Physicist Arthur H. Compton first proposed the theory behind the E-bomb in 1925. Since then they have been like a Frankenstein monster on the loose threatening everyone.

"E-Bombs use a bank of capacitors. Some copper wire and explosives to create an EMP which would wipe out all integrated circuits and other such things", according to Popular Mechanical magazine, which said "only diesel engines will work after a blast".

E-bombs are sometimes called "flux compression generator". They sound nicer that way.

US HAS THE MOST EMP BOMBS - according to the "Tarzan yell" (underground) newsletter publican Phx, Arizona.

The US military has such E bomb and is thinking about using them against anti ship missiles and similar things, which could render sophisticated computer electronics and render them useless. E-Bombs have a "blast range"...and pose a serious threat to unsecured electronics. (Source: http://popularmechanics.com/science/military/2001/9/e-bomb/).

Now circumstantial evidence suggests terrorists are also expressing interests in such weapons. Moreover, we can just imagine how they can adapt them for use in indiscriminate attacks against people in crowded cities.

"Funding for EMP defense should be a national priority - it isn't for some reason?", says Tom Newan of Charlotte, N.C

See useful information on EMP weapons @ http://www.huachuca-usaic.army,mil/contleaming/infrastructure/medical/Mipb/janmarch97/merkle.html

LIES ABOUT ICE

The New York Times yesterday had an article by Felicity Barringer about a faulty map put out by the Murdoch people which erronsously shows that 15% of Greenland's ice had melted, reinforcing the idea of global warming. Problem is, it is untrue. Several glaciers were erased in the zeal to promote the climate change voucher business.
This is a deja vu of faulty reporting about Himalayan glaciers in 2007.

Peoples' World Conference

on Climate Change and the
Rights of the Mother Earth

(This was sent to me by the Bolivian Mission to the UN, it details their upcoming programme in La Paz. Contact information can be found at the end, I strongly urge anyone to pass this information around and attend if you can)

NEWSLETTER NO.1, 25 January 2010
www.cmpcc.org
Registration opens for Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change and
the Rights of the Mother Earth
Just over a month after President Evo Morales of Bolivia issued his call at
Copenhagen for “the people to decide,” registration has opened for the Peoples'
World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth. You
can register for the conference at: http://200.105.147.98/indexe.php
Join a Working Group
The work of organizing the conference begins in February, when more than 16 working groups will begin the preparation via email on key climate issues. These working groups include Structural Causes, Harmony with Nature to “Live Well,” Rights of the Mother Earth, Referendum on Climate Change, Climate Justice Tribunal, Climate Refugees, Indigenous Peoples, Climate Debt, Shared Vision, Kyoto Protocol and Emission Reduction Commitments, Adaptation, Financing, Technology Transfer, Forests and Climate Change, Dangers of Carbon Markets, Action Strategies, and others based on the suggestions of participants.
The working groups will discuss these issues in advance of the conference and prepare draft documents for discussion in Cochabamba.
The Conference Program
In addition to the working groups, there will also be a series of main plenary events and self organized events put together by participants. The conference will end with a dialogue among peoples and governments and a mass event in Cochabamba's football stadium on April 22nd, 2010. More information on the program of the conference can be seen at: http://cmpcc.org/2010/01/05/call/ More than 10,000 people are expected to attend the summit, to be held in Cochabamba, Bolivia, from April 19th to 22nd, 2010. Many more will also participate via the Internet, and in campaign actions on the final day of the conference, April 22nd, which marks UN International Mother Earth Day. Groups mobilize to make conference a success.
From the moment the conference was announced, Bolivia has received countless requests for information from a wide range of civil society organizations. For what Copenhagen showed was that while the leaders of the world's richest nations failed to deliver a just and binding accord, peoples' movements were hugely successful in putting climate change on the international agenda. Many of those groups are now engaging with the Peoples' World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth to put forward a constructive and effective agenda and platform for tackling climate change.
Many initiatives are in the early stages, but there are already proposals from Britain for a working group on labor and green jobs, youth activists in Bolivia are talking of putting on a parallel youth climate event, activists in the US are exploring bringing delegations of people affected by environmental contamination in industrialized countries. Other groups are already announcing platforms that they would like to be adopted globally. The hosts of the conference are open to all ideas for making this unprecedented event a success. The key to this will be for social organizations to push forward these initiatives and put the resources into them to make them succeed.
What you can do to support the conference?
If you represent a social organization, academic institution, youth, women, labor
or religious organization committed to tackling the root causes of climate change.. .
! Register and come to the conference http://200.105.147.98/indexe.php
! If you can't come, put it on your calendar. We hope to set up virtual participation if we can find the resources
! Publicize it to your networks
! Blog, write, twitter, and talk about it
! Get involved in one of the working groups
If you represent the media...
! Sign up to attend or receive press releases by emailing media@cmpcc.org
! Cover the event
If you represent a funding body...
! Look to fund the participation of delegates from other Southern countries and from low-income communities who wouldn't otherwise be able to participate
CONTACTS
General inquiries and registration – info@cmpcc.org
Working Groups - workingroup@cmpcc.org
Self-Organized events - selforganized@cmpcc.org
Press inquiries – media@cmpcc.org
www.cmpcc.org

CLIMATE CHANGE OUTED

On this blog I have questioned the climage change camp many times. From firsthand experience, it was easy to see that many in it were dishonest and had no clue about anything scientific. If I had any doubts, they were removed when the Green Party UK delegate told me I could not expect them to be scientists. No. He was right. Not sure if I can expect anything at all from them.

The latest revelation about them comes from emails proving that they were hiding relevant data. Tree rings, for instance, showing patterns of global cooling. Today' s piece by Kenneth Green in The Epoch Times (NY) lays it bare when he notes that the Climate Research Unit (UK) has not been able to deny its data manipulation as manifested by the hacked emails. They consistently denied Steve McIntyre's requests for information, acting like some dodgy government agency with something to hide. Like the facts. Phil Jones, former head of CRU's climate change group, said he'd rather destroy data rather than show it. Maybe his new job will be at the CIA, where they are in need of a paper shredder.

Green (ironic surname...) notes: "What the Climate Change documents reveal is that this small group of scientists, who often peer-review each others' work as well as skeptical articles, have discussed ways of keeping findings they don't like out of the peer-reviewed literature as well as the IPCC reports, even if it required trying to oust editors, boycotting certain journalists, or to reclassifying a prestigious journal that publishes skeptical articles aas a fringe journal unworthy of consideration."

In other words, a gang of green nazis. Stupid, arrogant people trying to make a buck off of others' misery. And none are keen to wear hemp or even hear the facts about hemp - which brings me to note another story in The Epoch Times, this one written by Barbro Plogander, in which it is pointed out that cotton is a "thirsty crop." Yes indeed, but go tell that to the green nazis. I tried and they turned on me like swine, before whom you cannot cast your pearls.

So I am glad to see some facts, inconvenient ones at that, get out, bravo to the folks at The Epoch Times here in New York. They are sort of a startup paper and it looks like they may bring some fresh reporting to the stage, so have a look at their site at http://www.theepochtimes.com/

TROUBLE BREWS

Image left is me at the Black Eagle Brewery. The pitcher of water was poured out as a way to get people to pay attention to what is happening to our resources, water included. Most of the audience was receptive, though a couple young girls sat in the back and giggled; but more soberminded people took note, and the recent headlines in the press, inluding yesterday's dour announcements that petrol could reach $250 a barrel, drove home my points. We need to curb our water use, ration how much land can be used for non-food items, and develop alternative energy. However, this means getting some of the trendy journalists to listen to science. For anyone who read the previous post, the name Lucy Siegle might come to mind. She sure sent me a less than happy email, reminding me that some of her work is based on votes from Observer readers. Very good, 50 million people can't be wrong...but science does not do democracy. It looks at facts, and when people have facts to back up their stance, they are confident in discussing them. So far, we do not see this confidence from my more outraged blogreaders - none has ever left a comment to rebut my findings. They would if they could but they don't. Other tactics prevail. More sensible blogreaders can see beyond the Observer.

On the issue of land use, today let me propose one more part of the solution. So far I have singled out cotton, and I do not think even the likes of Lucy Siegle can disagree with that, she informs me she commissioned the Dan McDougall expose on cotton culivation in Egypt. So then she ought to take note. But on to another plant that is not worn by fashionistas and guardianistas, let us take a harsh look at sugar. The other day I was squeezing my way through the aisles of my local mini Tesco, hardly able to find anything edible, when I noticed a whole aisle devoted to one kind of food - sugar. Six aisles and one just for sweets, plus two coolers with ice cream, lots of fizzy drinks, and other assorted sugary items at checkout. Not to mention all the other foods which contain sugar.

Now, sugar cultivation is destroying rain forest land, it is a monocrop, and it can be quite exploitive. Why do we allow so much land to be used for it? We consume on average in the West four ounces a day, so some 38,000 tons a day for the US alone. This substance causes bone and tooth decay, hyperactivity, ADF, etc. We need to look at crops like this and decide whether we want to waste our land on sugar, cotton and tobacco (not to mention cocaine, opium, etc.) or whether we want to eat.

Hemp is not sweet. For all the things I can say about it, I cannot sell it as candy. But I can make a scienific point about its use as a food, textile, paper, medicine and fuel plant and hope that someone listens. I do not have the money to place ads in papers or hang out with trendy people, but I can confidentally state the facts. Speaking of hanging out with trendy people and stating facts, a friend of mine went and found out last night that these two ideals do not always happen in tandem. He went to the screening of the new Oxfam movie on climate change in Leicester Square. But when he asked about hemp, he was given no answer. Guess who was there to give no answer? Lucy Siegle. Later in the evening she went ballistic when he mentioned my name; he told me that she hates me with a passion. He also informs that the climate change propaganda was forced on us once again by using images of starving people and maybe some polar bears - but no one there wanted to take on board facts that disprove their trendy theories. Mention Piers Corbyn and you do not get a smile from Lucy Siegle. Ask her about the sun spots and the similar climate changes on Mars and Venus, obviously not due to SUVs, and she does not seem to have any answer. But then again, she has 50 million Observer readers and they cannot possibly be wrong... So do not worry about my abrupt manner, find someone sweet and trendy and let them set the agenda - but don't look at me when that agenda ends up in terrible unemployment, food riots, lack of energy supplies - I will turn around and tell you I told you so. Facts are facts and they are meant to be listened to. We do not have time for fools.

THE CHANGE IN CLIMATE CHANGE

Another good story in the Guardian is today's front page by John Vidal about the billions wasted on UN climate change programme. He reports on routine abuse and waste in this, which is now a$20bn a year industry, expected to grow to $100bn a year.

By the way, this month has been quite cool, and again the global warming hawkers will have to wear jackets and bring their brolleys if they want to venture outside. Of course, having been so wrong for so long, they might as well just stay in and avoid any public disussion.

If a fraction of that money had been wisely spent on developing hemp farms and more infrastructure for hemp textile production, we would not be in so much of a mess. The do-gooders waste time and money on hair-brained ideas, but there is always a bevy of stupid journalists to take on these ideas. A few in the press are however noticing that we need to pay more attention to facts, but the industries that have $20-100bn to spend can drown them out with a blitzkrieg of press releases.

COOL HEMP

Robbie Anderman (pictured right) of Cool Hemp in Canada just sent us a link to his You Tube video, click here to see it. He also has a song about hemp, archived earlier this year (17 Jan) on this site, use the keyword search for the site to bring it up or click on archives for January.

On a not so cool note, I just talked to James Randerson of the Guardian, he is their science correspondent, or 'churnalist', as fellow Guardian writer Nick Davies might call him. When asked if the paper was reviewing the hype surrounding climate change, as they at least partly did earlier this week in an article by Randerson (also discussed on this site, 12/March/08), he said that it was a definite conclusion. But when challenged with the evidenece from hundreds of scientists, including Piers Corbyn, he did not seem to know of a single one of them. He challenged Corbyn's accuracy not by rebutting data, but by asking if Corbyn was a billionaire; the answer to which is "I do not know." And if I did, what relevance does it have to the issue? Is that what the paper considers a mathematical equation? Formulate weather patterns based on someone's bank balance?

I had thought that Randerson was going to voice some needed dissent, but no, his piece only noted that certain data was not conclusive, but he asserts that is only that data and he does not notice that other legs of the table are falling off. And I bet that he is sitting there writing on tree pulp paper and wearing mainly cotton clothing. Not cool. If anyone wants to send him some informatoin on hemp, you can address it to: james.randerson@guardian.co.uk

GUARDIAN QUESTIONS THE

GLOBAL WARMING HOAX

It's refreshing to hear some sanity in the Guardian after all the Green Nazi brainwashing crusade to get us all to believe in Al Gore and George Monbiot's hot air news. James Randerson writes in yesterday (11 March, '28) paper: "Experts deny link between floods and gloabl warming." The scientific ananlysis of the severe floods here in the UK has shown that they cannot be linked to climate change. In fact, there has been less summer flooding in the last four decades. And some of the older folk remember some quite warm winters when they sat on the beach without any coats in the winter.

However, the Nazi youth party in the Greens does not want to remember all this. They want to herd us all into their protest march and take our money, but not once do they talk sense abou hemp. So will we be hearing more real science from the press? Hopefully yes, but that means they will have to do real work. So maybe that is too much to hope. I encourage everyone to keep on contacting their local journalists with information on hemp and any other real science so we can get heard over the roar of the Nazi Green PR machine.

A LIGHTER SHADE OF GREEN

I live to fight another day, after having attended the Monbiot rally at Friends House. I did not get lynched, only ignored and collared by one angry member of the Green Party UK.

Was it something I said? Or the fact that I wrote on their solicitation forms: "PRINTED ON ENVIRONMENTALLY DESTRUCTIVE WOOD PULP PAPER. HELP DESTROY THE RAIN FORESTS AND SUPPORT US NOW"?

They were not pleased. One member then proceeded to discusss global warming with me and things got hot. I mentioned Cynthia McKinney and her visit to the UK Greens in September, and he suggested she was unable to answer questions. When I questioned the angry member as to which questions, he was then unable to answer, and it turned out he was not even at the event. He was not alone in that his inability to answer questions. The panelists were not only unable to do so, but also rather angry an my inconvenient truths. When asked about Piers Corbyn, Phil just asserted that Piers was a nutter. "Conspicuously absent from your speeches was any mention of him or others who have real science about climate change," I told them.

While facts were few and far between, emotions ran high. One teary-eyed blonde from down under went on about how terrible climate change was, and how great it was to break the law in London to get her point across. For all her emotional speeches and illegal actions, she did not want to know about hemp and gave me a cold look when I gave her some hemp paper; as did another speaker.

The main speaker was George Monbiot, the smartest of the lot - he sat nearest the exit and when anyone like myself approached after the talk he managed to get away faster than a snake in the grass. This left a volunteer to field my questions about why they only discussed biofuel as one product rather than intelligenlty talking about biodiesel and bioethanol as two very distinct items; which confused the mean green assistant further and I was sure they were just about to call security.

The overall impression of it was that it was a Holy Roller revival meeting. They talk up the emotions and then pass the plate. In this case the plate was in the form of direct debit forms printed on - environmentally destructive wood pulp paper. And were any of them wearing hemp? No way - they all had on environmentally destructive cotton. They want to preach, but they don't want to practice.

GORE GORED

No matter how hard they try, there will always be people who can see through lies. Tonight a naked emperor dances on the stage with his rubbish about climate change, and no doubt there will be lots of people admiring his clothes - which will be made of cotton.

George Monbiot goes on in a few hours and if I get to pose a few inconvenient questions I may get lynched. In case that happens, and this is my swansong, I leave to the reader some links to articles that debunk the climate change hot air.

Click here for a good article in the Telegraph by Christopher Boooker and Richard North, published 4 November 2007, titled "The Deceit behind Global Warming". Another is at educate-yourself.org and a third, from Hillsdale College, can be found here.

The trouble with all this is that it is fed by the companies that want us to use nuclear power. Further, it is a false platform, and when it falls, it brings the reputable researchers with it. Thus, it is harder to get action behind real issues. But since there is a $billion industry now involved, they will only beat the drum for more money, scaring us into coughing up just as they did in the '70s with the global cooling fiasco.

ENEMIES MEETING UP AT FRIENDS HOUSE

Thursday, 8 November, 7 pm, George Monbiot is contributing to global warming with more hot air about climate change and carbon credits. The game is that lots of people give money to their stupid programmes and get made fools of. Real scientists warn them, but, just like in the '70s, when the same kind of people made a cult of global cooling, the media takes a liking to the hysterical nonsense. This means that resources that could be spent to fight pollution get used by hotheads.

That may be part of the reason we are in the mess we are in today.

So, to raise awareness of real issues, I will picket the event with fellow activists. Participants are encouraged to wear hemp (which the moonbats almost assuredly will not be wearing, as they much prefer environmentally destructive cotton).

Friends House is a historic venue located just across from Euston Tube Station on Euston Road. Come and make history at this event! Bring your "Real Eco" hemp bags for a night of awakening and help pass out flyers (to be printed on hemp paper).

INCONVENIENT FACTS

It has been windy wet and cold here in London these last few days, but no surprise to those of you who took on board the predictions of Piers Corbyn (posted on this site earlier this summer).

The Global Warming people have had to change their tune and are now yelling climate change, much to the delight of anarchists and the nuclear power industry, which is selling itself through the likes of George Monbiot. Al Gore is also into the nuke thing, his mouth is where his money is, as his family has a stake in that business. The Sunday Telegraph published some very inconvenient facts (19/8/07, Christopher Booker) for Mr. Gore. One was about the false date published by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Booker writes: "The error was so glaring that, on August 7, GISS had to post revised figures which show, instead of temperatures reaching their highest level in the past decade, that the hottest year of the 20th century was not 1998 but 1934. Of the 10 warmest years since 1880, it turns out that four were in the 1930s and only three in the past decade."

Which means that James Hansen, head of GISS and Gore's closest scientific ally, has been promoting rubbish.

GREEN HIGLIGHTS

Just packing up for the Big Green, trashing my room and not finding all the bits and bobs I am supposed to bring. But then out of the closet popped the brand new pair of Gravis hemp trainers (sneakers if you're from the US), so I can cross one thing off my list. They are by the way quite comfortable and aesthetic. Some may recall the hemp shoes on the cover of Rowan Robinson's The Great Book of Hemp and cringe.

Once at the Big Green there is so much to do, there will be speakers all day long and well into the night at both the Sun and the Moon Marquee, and there is an Earth Space as well where films will be screened. Highlights of events include Dr. Nick Kollerstrom speaking on the Summer of Love 1967 - I think he hit the hippy trail and toured Afghanistan back then; he does this talk on Thursday, 2 August at 2:30 pm in the Sun Marquee, and will again address an audience on Sunday, 5 August in the same place, but at 10 pm, when he will discuss crop circle geometry. Friday, 3 August starts off with a didgeradoo serenade by Eshua, who is playing a hemp didgeradoo at 10 am in the Moon Marquee - and again on Sunday, same time, same place.

My talk on the Hemp Revolution is scheduled for 8:30 pm on Friday 3 August in the Moon Marquee, where I will be enlisting and arming revolutionaries...More notes on hemp will be heard on Saturday 4 August when Rebekah Shaman and Carlo Dawson give their presentation on ethical business, 11:30 am in the Moon Marquee.

Other highlights, though not about hemp, include Hugh Newman of New Humans who will be talking about the ancient science of earth energies and the planetary grid-shift at 7 pm in the Sun Marquee on Friday, 3 August. David Shayler, former MI5 agent, gives us his opinions on 9/11 at 10pm on Thursday 2 August in the Moon Marquee, though his views may well not be backed up by valid research, or any at all in some cases. Still, an interesting chap for his experience with MI5, which has now been caught shopping British citizens to the CIA.

Don't miss the screening of The Great Global Warming Swindle at 12:30 am (just after midnight) in the Earth Space!

THE DEBATE HEATS UP

On a US Senate website there is a list of top scientists who are saying that global warming is not the product of our pollution (posted 15/5/07). The list includes Dr. Claude Allegre, Bruno Wiskel, Dr, Nir Shaviv, Dr. David Evans, Dr. Tad Murty, Dr. David Bellamy, Dr. Chris de Freitas, Dr. Reid Bryson, Hans H.J. Labohm and Tim Patterson, inter alia. Many of these started out as alarmists but have re-studied the data and feel that it is the sun, and not man-made pollutants, which have caused the warming. Only an idiot would deny that there is global warming.

Given the site, one tends to wonder if this is not propaganda, but on the other hand, much of the hysteria, which is promulgated by the likes of Johann Hari and George Monbiot, also looks dodgy. Then there is the fact that the global warming industry is out to make money just like Du Pont and GM. It's hard to take sides, and most honest people would agree that it is a complex argument, best not entrusted to Messrs. Hari and Monbiot. Neither is it to be entrusted to big business or their bestest friend in the whole world, the US government.

One point made by the scientists is that the debate takes energy away from other issues, including the production of ethanol and the curtailing of the cotton industry. I would like to see some real journalists take these on and not just the loud mouths at the Guardian and the Independent. Could it not be that both these papers are in the business of advertising big cars and expensive cotton threads?

The hot air that these papers exhude (and the trees they fell to print their opinions on) is a danger, but if we take a closer look at some of the global warming fanatics, we may want to put a stop to them as soon as we can. Some of them are ready to inject diatomaceous earth (used in kitty litter) into the stratosphere. James R. Fleming, writing in The Wilson Quarterly, notes that they talked about these kinds of big ideas "even as they joked about a NASA staffer's apology for her inability to control the temperature in the meeting room..."

So NASA cannot even keep themselves cool, yet it hosts idiot savants who want to churn ocean water and blast kitty litter into the air. All, of course, at great cost to the taxpayer, and who reaps the benefit? The bevy of savants, journalists, scaremongers and politicians who can divert tax monies to these sorts of schemes... the same people who were crying about global cooling a few years ago. Now they're back, and they are wasting our time as we research proven solutions such as hemp and locally produced ethanol.

HOT AIR AND GLOBAL WARMING

Yesterday's front page of the Independent (UK) featured an image of an island caused by global warming. P. 2 then devotes lots of space to Michael McCarthy's "Environment Alert". It seems that the easiest job in journalism today is that of environment editor, as there is always something happening which can be reported on from the comfort of an armchair in E14. They used to report from the comfort of an armchair in EC4, but rent was easier in E14...Fleet Street now has no newspapers, they've all moved out to some part of London you need a passport to get to.

The article by McCarthy is put to ridicule by the big ad for a big car on p. 3 of that august publication, a Renault Scenic to be exact. So between McCarthy's hot air, the exhaust fumes of this behemoth vehicle, and the energy used in cutting down trees to make the paper for this paper, we are helping the Earth to heat up.

Granted, the Independent has some great writers working for it, Robert Fisk, Patrick Cockburn, Genevieve Roberts, but McCarthy does not hold a candle to any of them. They ought to get a proper environment editor who just might do some real research on hemp and natural fibres. BTW, if they want a story, they ought to have gotten out of bed this morning and taken notes outside Sainsburys in Camden, where real environmentalists protested the sale of the Anya Hindmarch cotton bags. Other journalists were there, and coverage will appear shortly on this site and schmoontherun.

TOO MUCH SALT IN THE SOUP

Ten years ago, global warming experts were considered a bit crazy, worth mention in a small byline on p. 197 of your local rag. Now, global warming is front page day after day. To counter this, the pundits are out there calling the scientists a bunch of conspiracy theorists. One of them, Melanie Phillips, was caught out on the BBC when asked if she realised that her sources were industry funded. No, she was rather clueless on that one, but it made her sound important to put people down and quote some 'experts'.
However, it is not just those taking dosh from big business who muddy the waters. It seems now every anarachist and journalist is out there claiming to be an expert as well, and when they do a halfway job, they end up discrediting the work of others who have spent far more time and effort than themselves. It seems that from the ranks of anarchists, we have George Monbiot raging against the day without all the facts, and he gets put in his place by those who do. Weighing in to the Guardian on 30 January, he bashes that other idiot George, aka W, and thus starts off on a roll. However, he would be wise to cut it short, as after taking aim at so ridiculous a figure, he then descends into folly. Whilst he questions W's motives in calling for biofuel production, telling us, as if we did not already know, that W just might be funneling public funds to his buddies who have farms, he calls these moves "quixotic solutions." He then, as is common practice in the Guardian, alludes to maize and rapeseed as the crops which will provide the material for this. (Which, BTW, is cellulose, the most common compound in the vegetable kingdom). Their rival paper, the Independent, is prone to the same error. Rape seems to be what they believe would be used, then they realise it cannot supply such great amounts of cellulose as the stems are flacid, then someone writes in that this just won't work. The Independent science editor Steve Connor ought to know better, but he goes on about maize, ignoring other, better crops for biofuel. For one thing Steve, maize, or corn as it is known in North America, does not grow in Canada or in parts of the UK.
But getting back to that other would-be science editor, George of the Guardian, it is interesting to note that he repeats a very serious bit of misinformation that has been put forth repeatedly (including by one letter writer to the Independent), which is to say that using plants for biofuel would raise world food prices.
Assuming, perhaps, that the farmers are going to sell the edible parts of their maize, if that is what they are going to use, or the seeds from their rape, to the fuel producers. Of course not. Henry Ford, when he produced ethanol from hemp and other common crops, did not use the edible parts; rather, he created a secondary market for the waste parts, which for hemp, was the hurd, the inner core. Maize stalks and cobs can go into the pot for fuel after the kernels have gone into the pot for food, and the same example is mirrored in so many hundreds of other crops. George Monbiot shows himself a cut below that other George whom we all so loathe. Ironically it is GW, not GM, who is doing something, however selfishly, about producing biofuel.
But GM is not alone in this practice. Examine for a moment the usual eruption of irony spewed forth by Johann Hari in the Independent, who writes on so many subjects he might pass for an all-knowing genius if he could just get them right. His diatribe on 25 January bashes global warming deniers. Again, if he knew when to stop he might be a genius. Like Monbiot, he goes on to display a certain ignorance and weakness in debating style. He picks on a number of obviously wrong counter arguments, but does not mention at all the fact that Greenland was arable in the Middle Ages or, of more recent application, the facts put forth by Piers Corbyn (brother to MP Jeremy Corbyn). Much as I support the argument for global warming, I do not do so by suppressing the counter arguments, which can quite often be of great value to the whole picture. Picking and choosing your facts is how so many journalists work, but to present a holistic picture we must listen to all sides and form our opinions after we have listened.
Again, I might emphasise that I am well into the global warming camp and work to reduce pollution. However, if that warming is partly caused by the sun and other forces other than man-made pollution, we need to know that as well and act accordingly.
Another aspect to all this is that a rush to judgment on this complicated issue seems to be the style of those who stand to profit from or tax the carbon credit schemes. Much of this is newly foisted on the public and just because someone like George M or George W comes out and shoots their mouth off on a subject, does not mean we all ought to take their word as final. That is insanity.
Instead, I stand for sanity, demanding to hear all sides of the arguments, even those sides I do not like. There may be points in their thesis that have been overlooked, and the opposition can add to the campaign.
But getting back to hemp, what bothers me enough to write this much is that all these 'experts' and pseudo-scientists writing in these supposedly progressive papers ignore the hemp issue; years of giving them the information on hemp have, I think, been wasted, as the advertisers of these papers include car manufacturers (yes, the Guardian is in the business of advertising 4x4s after Monbiot rants against their use) and cotton growers.
If they were more intelligent, they would look at the plethora of information about hemp, which is one of, if not the, fastest biomass producers on the planet. You may just want to bring this to their attention, and you can do by emailing them at: editor@guardian.co.uk or s.connor@independent.co.uk Don't bother with Mr. Hari, his phone does not take incoming calls and he does not respond to facts put to him by email.

HEMP VS COTTON

Earlier this week, I trekked over to Mayfair, the glamorous bit of London where ambassadors and socialites meet up for tea...along with the odd former KGB man. My aim was the American Embassy, not because it is the most elegant of edifices, but the site where the climate change protesters were assembling for a candle light vigil.

Talk was on the recent by-election, where a green party candidate came in second (808) votes after the Lib Dem (1,000+ votes). Labour, due to the Quinetics scandal and the Iraq war, is losing ground fast these days. Today's Guardian mentioned the Labour environment minister David Milliband taking stock of the fact that his party better get it together. They in fact have renegged on promises to do less road building and are doing more, with resulting traffic jams all over the UK (but with lucrative contracts and the possibility of kickbacks).

The climate change debate is getting fervent these days, every time there is a major storm somewhere, the US press picks up on this; another story in the Guardian this week is about how lame reporters are in the land of the brave to tackle this one. Unless they are knocked down by Katrina, they prefer to pretend it's not happening, kind of like the overall press response to the truth about 9/11. But I digress. Back to climate change... this is an issue everyone ought to be aware of, before a tornado strikes (and strike one did, not in Kansas, but right here in London last week, which is odd...but would you believe that one reporter said it was only odd because we tend to notice them more? As if to say, ten years ago a tornado would destroy a sections of the city and, like, no one would notice...how observant we are now! To think we really just ignored it all before!) or the fish in the sea no longer have enough plankton to feed on.

Most people are in fact somewhat hip to the climate change debate, but there seems to be more confusion and inaction than change. As we realise our plight, no one really seems to do anything. One thing I noticed among the protestors was that they were all wearing cotton. They had some idea that cotton was destroying the water systems in many countries, that it used 50% of all the world's pesticides, that it was made in sweatshops, etc., but there they were wearing it head to toe.

The hemp plant is part of the answer to pollution, climate change, etc. Presently cotton is about 300 times as common as hemp, which means we have a long way to go. Most of the cotton that we buy helps to poison the environment and is processed in sweatshops. Muchof it is grown in America, with 1m acres in California alone. In that state, an actor turned politician named Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill to grow hemp in California. The cotton heads must have loved it. This means more profits to the pesticide companies, and Monsanto can continue to splice in genes to make cotton seed oil edible to humans. In the past GM cotton seed has been fed to cows, which is now known to be the cause of bovine diseases.

Much as Hemp for Victory is a mantra in environmental circles, Cotton for Victory may be the mantra in the board rooms of the pesticide companies. This will make slimebags rich as they turn California into a desert. Take a look at what happened to the cotton growing lands around the Aral Sea, and you get an idea where California is headed. But the last laugh may be with the cotton producers and the chemical companies, as the very people protesting so loudly are wearing it. Just ask George Monbiot what he is wearing the next time he gets up to make a speech and promote himself. Then you might wonder why change is taking so long.

For those interested in getting some hemp threads, check out Minawear Hemp Clothing in the US or The Hemp Shop in the UK. Not only clothes, but cosmetics, food, rope and paper are available. If each of us does a little, we can bring hemp into the mainstream and stop picking cotton and chopping down trees.