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Yellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells

Some places saw the ground rise by ten inches, experts report.

Steam rises from Castle Geyser in Yellowstone National Park (file photo).

Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic

Brian Handwerk

for National Geographic News

Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano just took a deep "breath," causing miles of ground to rise dramatically, scientists report.

The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions—each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 eruption—three times in the past 2.1 million years. Yellowstone's caldera, which covers a 25- by 37-mile (40- by 60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago.

(See "When Yellowstone Explodes" in National Geographic magazine.)

Since then, about 30 smaller eruptions—including one as recent as 70,000 years ago—have filled the caldera with lava and ash, producing the relatively flat landscape we see today.

But beginning in 2004, scientists saw the ground above the caldera rise upward at rates as high as 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) a year. (Related: "Yellowstone Is Rising on Swollen 'Supervolcano.'")

The rate slowed between 2007 and 2010 to a centimeter a year or less. Still, since the start of the swelling, ground levels over the volcano have been raised by as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) in places.

"It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high," said the University of Utah's Bob Smith, a longtime expert in Yellowstone's volcanism.

Scientists think a swelling magma reservoir four to six miles (seven to ten kilometers) below the surface is driving the uplift. Fortunately, the surge doesn't seem to herald an imminent catastrophe, Smith said. (Related: "Under Yellowstone, Magma Pocket 20 Percent Larger Than Thought.")

"At the beginning we were concerned it could be leading up to an eruption," said Smith, who co-authored a paper on the surge published in the December 3, 2010, edition of Geophysical Research Letters.

"But once we saw [the magma] was at a depth of ten kilometers, we weren't so concerned. If it had been at depths of two or three kilometers [one or two miles], we'd have been a lot more concerned."

Studies of the surge, he added, may offer valuable clues about what's going on in the volcano's subterranean plumbing, which may eventually help scientists predict when Yellowstone's next volcanic "burp" will break out.

Yellowstone Takes Regular Breaths

Smith and colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Yellowstone Volcano Observatory have been mapping the caldera's rise and fall using tools such as global positioning systems (GPS) and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), which gives ground-deformation measurements.

Ground deformation can suggest that magma is moving toward the surface before an eruption: The flanks of Mount St. Helens, for example, swelled dramatically in the months before its 1980 explosion. (See pictures of Mount St. Helens before and after the blast.)

But there are also many examples, including the Yellowstone supervolcano, where it appears the ground has risen and fallen for thousands of years without an eruption.

According to current theory, Yellowstone's magma reservoir is fed by a plume of hot rock surging upward from Earth's mantle. (Related: "New Magma Layer Found Deep in Earth's Mantle?")

When the amount of magma flowing into the chamber increases, the reservoir swells like a lung and the surface above expands upward. Models suggest that during the recent uplift, the reservoir was filling with 0.02 cubic miles (0.1 cubic kilometer) of magma a year.

When the rate of increase slows, the theory goes, the magma likely moves off horizontally to solidify and cool, allowing the surface to settle back down.

Based on geologic evidence, Yellowstone has probably seen a continuous cycle of inflation and deflation over the past 15,000 years, and the cycle will likely continue, Smith said.

Surveys show, for example, that the caldera rose some 7 inches (18 centimeters) between 1976 and 1984 before dropping back about 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) over the next decade.

"These calderas tend to go up and down, up and down," he said. "But every once in a while they burp, creating hydrothermal explosions, earthquakes, or—ultimately—they can produce volcanic eruptions."

Yellowstone Surge Also Linked to Geysers, Quakes?

Predicting when an eruption might occur is extremely difficult, in part because the fine details of what's going on under Yellowstone are still undetermined. What's more, continuous records of Yellowstone's activity have been made only since the 1970s—a tiny slice of geologic time—making it hard to draw conclusions.

"Clearly some deep source of magma feeds Yellowstone, and since Yellowstone has erupted in the recent geological past, we know that there is magma at shallower depths too," said Dan Dzurisin, a Yellowstone expert with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Washington State.

"There has to be magma in the crust, or we wouldn't have all the hydrothermal activity that we have," Dzurisin added. "There is so much heat coming out of Yellowstone right now that if it wasn't being reheated by magma, the whole system would have gone stone cold since the time of the last eruption 70,000 years ago."

The large hydrothermal system just below Yellowstone's surface, which produces many of the park's top tourist attractions, may also play a role in ground swelling, Dzurisin said, though no one is sure to what extent.

"Could it be that some uplift is caused not by new magma coming in but by the hydrothermal system sealing itself up and pressurizing?" he asked. "And then it subsides when it springs a leak and depressurizes? These details are difficult."

And it's not a matter of simply watching the ground rise and fall. Different areas may move in different directions and be interconnected in unknown ways, reflecting the as yet unmapped network of volcanic and hydrothermal plumbing.

The roughly 3,000 earthquakes in Yellowstone each year may offer even more clues about the relationship between ground uplift and the magma chamber.

For example, between December 26, 2008, and January 8, 2009, some 900 earthquakes occurred in the area around Yellowstone Lake.

This earthquake "swarm" may have helped to release pressure on the magma reservoir by allowing fluids to escape, and this may have slowed the rate of uplift, the University of Utah's Smith said. (Related: "Mysterious 'Swarm' of Quakes Strikes Oregon Waters.")

"Big quakes [can have] a relationship to uplift and deformations caused by the intrusion of magma," he said. "How those intrusions stress the adjacent faults, or how the faults might transmit stress to the magma system, is a really important new area of study."

Overall, USGS's Dzurisin added, "the story of Yellowstone deformation has gotten more complex as we've had better and better technologies to study it." Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com

 

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By the Skins of Their Teeth — Is a New MTV Series Child Pornography?

Does “Skins” cross the legal line of criminal child pornography? Just imagine the moral culpability of a network whose executives even have to ask the question.

MTV turns 30 this year, and it is wasting no time as it rushes headlong into a mid-life crisis. The cable network, first known as Music Television, pioneered the music video as constant entertainment and, from the beginning, it pushed the boundaries of morality and taste. Indeed, it pushed far past those boundaries.

The network, now older than many of its young viewers, first flaunted parental concerns with music videos that featured explicit sexuality. Later, it added racy programming to its mix, effectively competing against more traditional networks for viewers. The programs brought more viewers — and plenty of controversy as well.

In recent years, the network has been less controversial, but this says far more about a shift in social standards than about MTV itself. Once a transgression goes commercial, it loses some of its shock value.

Until now, that is. In recent days, news reports indicate that MTV is having second thoughts about one of its prized new programs, “Skins.” The MTV product is modeled after a popular program of the same name in Britain. Nothing quite like it has ever been seen on U.S. television screens.

The problem? MTV is evidently worried that its prized new product might violate laws against child pornography. Here is how Brian Stelter of The New York Times reported the issue:

Child pornography is defined by the United States as any visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In some cases, “a picture of a naked child may constitute illegal child pornography if it is sufficiently sexually suggestive,” according to the Justice Department’s legal guidance. Anyone younger than 18 is considered to be a minor. The youngest cast member on “Skins” is 15.

The sex acts portrayed on “Skins” pretty much cover the waterfront of modern sexuality. There is no question that MTV will draw an audience. The big question confronted by the network is whether the show will draw child pornography charges as well.

David Carr, author of “The Media Equation” column at the Times, explained that “the series is meant to provoke.” He suggests, plausibly enough, that MTV executives did not “set out to make child pornography,” but they clearly did not set out not to make child pornography, either.

Evidently, the concerns are rather urgent at MTV’s headquarters. As Brian Stelter reported last week:

It is unclear when MTV first realized that the show may be vulnerable to child pornography charges. On Tuesday, a flurry of meetings took place at the network’s headquarters in New York, according to an executive who attended some of the meetings and spoke only on the condition of anonymity. In one of the meetings, the executives wondered aloud who could possibly face criminal prosecution and jail time if the episodes were broadcast without changes.

It should tell you just about everything you need to know that MTV executives “wondered aloud” if they might do jail time for child pornography by broadcasting the series. Have you ever worried about that at your office or place of work?

It is at this point that David Carr levels his most serious argument. “In a cluttered programming era, controversy is oxygen, so MTV was undoubtedly happy with the tsk-tsking the show incited in advance. But objectifying teenage pathology, along with teenage bodies, is a complicated business — and the business that MTV is in.”

Objectifying parental nightmares is indeed “the business that MTV is in.” And, as Carr — the father of a 14-year-old daughter — suggests, “since its inception, MTV has pushed this boundary as hard as any major media company ever has and may finally have crossed a line that will be hard to scramble back across.”

MTV is owned by media giant Viacom, and that conglomerate is now complicit in this mess. MTV executives may or may not change the upcoming third episode of the series (the episode of greatest current concern), but they appear determined to stand behind their product. The series may or may not draw criminal child pornography charges, but the fact that executives worry about this possibility reveals the moral bankruptcy at the heart of the enterprise.

And, as is so often the case, MTV may even find a way to benefit from this very controversy. After all, “controversy is oxygen.” As with all pornography, the market runs by supply and demand. In a fallen world, the distortions of sexuality always seem to draw an audience. In this case, the audience is mostly made up of young people who are told that the drugs and sex on “Skins” are “realistic.”

Sadly enough, in far too many cases, this series might actually be realistic. That should break our hearts, but not our resolve to protect our children — and as many young people as we can reach — from this kind of “realism.”

Does “Skins” cross the legal line of criminal child pornography? Just imagine the moral culpability of a network whose executives even have to ask the question.

I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.

Brian Stelter, “A Racy Show With Teenagers Steps Back From a Boundary,” The New York Times, Thursday, January 20, 2011.

David Carr, “MTV’s Naked Calculation Gone Bad,” The New York Times, Monday, January 24, 2011.

Related Posts The Seducation of Pornography — The Los Angeles Times Reports The Pornography Plague — A British View Pornography, Public Culture, and the New Administration Custom Pornography for a Consumerist Age Another Warning for Parents About On-Line Pornography Read more at www.albertmohler.com

 

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European financial woes reflected in Adventist Church operations

How the church is handling financial uncertainty in Greece, Spain and Portugal 26 Jan 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States Arin Gencer/ANN

With unemployed members and decreased tithes, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe has been struggling, much like the rest of the continent, to contend with the global financial crisis.

The Adventist Church is having to adjust to the financial troubles in Greece, Spain and Portugal--three of the countries at the core of the European debt crisis. Above, an Adventist Church Women's Ministries conference in Valencia, Spain in 2008. [photo: Raquel Arrias]

Particularly in Greece, Spain and Portugal -- countries whose unemployment rates are among Europe's highest and where the financial crisis has been particularly dire -- the global Protestant denomination has been forced to make adjustments, striving to do the same work with less.

"With faith in our Lord Jesus Christ we are doing the best we can," said Apostolos Maglis, president of the Adventist Church in Greece, which has already seen the adverse effects of the country's debt crisis on the church body. He anticipates these will spill over into 2011.

Since receiving a bailout last year from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Greece has introduced a number of austerity measures to significantly reduce its public deficit, spurring several protests and strikes from unions.

The Adventist Church's Greek Mission, which consists of 10 churches, has seen the turmoil impact the church in various ways. These include a decrease in tithes -- down 20 percent at the end of 2010 relative to the previous year, for the first time in a decade, Maglis said in an e-mail.

The mission expects that number to further drop to 35 percent lower in 2011, he added. The economic challenges represent yet another hurdle to the Adventist Church in this part of the world, where evangelism already faces considerable obstacles, including the dominance of the Orthodox Church and the inability to conduct public religious programs, Maglis said.

"Many members lost their work and are unemployed," Maglis said, preventing them from paying rent and buying basic necessities. Several churches are collecting and distributing food to individuals in need, he added, "but this is not enough."

He described two recently launched evangelical programs -- one training people to be missionaries at work; the other, showing members "how they can bring a friend to Jesus." He said both have led to a record 56 baptisms in the past year and brought membership to about 570. The Greek Mission's baptism goals set for this year now must contend with reduced funds.

Officials in the Spanish and Portuguese unions say they are experiencing similar problems, which are not limited to the Adventist Church or even Europe. The church's North American Division has reported slight but consecutive drops in tithe in 2008 and 2009, a decline attributed to U.S. economic woes.

The "delicate" economic situation in Spain -- where the unemployment rate is the second-highest in Europe, with 3 million people out of work -- has put the Adventist Spanish Union of Churches in a difficult position since 2008, said Juan Andres Prieto, the union's treasurer.

"The same thing that is happening in society is happening in the church," Prieto said, citing, as an example, a congregation of about 60 or 70 members, all of whom are jobless.

The union is operating on a savings policy: Whatever they don't bring in, they don't spend. And although they continue trying to serve the church in the same way with fewer resources, certain things have been affected, Prieto said.

Since November 2008, the union has suspended its practice of giving financial assistance to new groups just starting to rent meeting space, he said, and has even reduced occasional aid to established congregations. Union salaries have been frozen since that time as well.

In an attempt to meet the challenges of the day, the union has proposed a voluntary program that would take 2 percent of pastors' salaries to create a reserve fund for supporting church members in need.

Similarly, Portuguese church leaders are finding it difficult to perform certain activities, such as launching new congregations or establishing communities in certain areas, said Rui Filipe Dias, treasurer for the denomination's Portuguese Union of Churches. Unemployment in that country is at about 10 percent, he said.

"The biggest difficulty I've seen is supporting all the needs of our members," Dias said, adding that the union typically sees offerings decline in the midst of a financial crisis. "Their needs are much greater than in a normal situation."

"We are depending on the goodness of God to guide us," Dias added. Read more at news.adventist.org

 

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Inside | The Second Coming | National Geographic Channel

URL:  http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/inside/491...

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2TB Hard Drive Filled With Truth Videos, Movies, Documentaries, PDFs, Pics

Since the Internet is under attack hardcore and freedom of speech as we know it is almost gone we have decided to stage an all out blitz attack on the New World Order.

What we are doing is simple.

We have been downloading videos, PDFs, pics for over 2 years now.  We have over 1.5 TB of info an we want to share it with all of you. We have been loading it onto 1TB drives but we have acquired more than 1TB of data so the only option was to go bigger.  We are now using 2TB drives so we can give you everything we have and you will have a bit of room left over to add to it yourself.  You can purchase one for the cost of the drive + small setup and shipping fee.

Total cost to you $220.00 – (Inside The US) – Includes Shipping

$250.00 – (Outside US) – Includes Shipping

You are only paying for the Hard drive, setup & shipping.  You are not paying for any content. This is not a way to make money, the only reason we are doing this is because we really believe in the freedom of information.  And we believe that true information is going to be harder to get.  If multiple groups of people have the videos than they can be uploaded to multiple video sites by multiple people….get the idea.  The truth will spread like a virus.

Destination Of HD (Inside US or Outside US) Inside U.S.A. $220.00 Outside U.S.A. $250.00

You can do screenings wherever, whenever you want.  Print out fliers to hand out.  Make your own youtube channels and upload the videos.  Copy the Hard Drive and give it out to others.  Your truth group can strike a huge blow to the New World Order with just this and a small laptop.  Its time to ensure that the truth is preserved and stays mainstream or else its 1984 for us and we at FEDERALJACK refuse to go down without a fight.

Western Digital Elements 2TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

Model # WDBAAU0020HBK-NESN

Interface USB 2.0

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*NOTE:  Sometimes the Western Digital drives are not available.  When they aren’t, we purchase hard drives of the same quality. Read more at www.federaljack.com

 

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Scientists Think Jesus Became a Space Alien

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Scientists Think Jesus Became a Space Alien

Scientists say there were two incarnations: when Jesus became human, and when Jesus became a space alien.

The journal of  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society is at it again. Researchers and theologians are discussing the incarnation of Christ.

One of the studies released on January 10 noted the impact aliens may have on society depending on if intelligent life was found or simply extraterrestrial  life noted NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay at Ames Research Center.

“The discovery of life could very well or would probably be of microbes and could perhaps be on Mars or Europa, while the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence would almost certainly be from signals originating quite distant from us,” McKay said.

Ted Peters of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California says that we should rethink the book of Genesis and ponder a second incarnation.

Scientists and theologians are setting up the greatest deception of all time.

“It’s been argued for a couple of centuries now whether one incarnation of God as Jesus Christ for the entirety of creation is sufficient, with some thinking that God would do so multiple times as appropriate for the capacity of any individual species to comprehend,” Peter said.

The chief astronomer at the Vatican said he would baptize aliens if he could.

To see how contact with aliens would effect major religions, Peters and his colleagues questioned over 1300 people from various religions: Catholic,  MainlineProtestants, Evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Mormons and non-religious groups. Most religious leaders said discovering intelligent life would not erode their faith. Two-thirds of non-religious thought finding alien life would collapse religious belief . One-third of religious surveyed thought their faith would be threatened.

Peters believes that Alien religions could make converts if religions on earth would be in agreement and blend philosophies.

“Greek philosophers never met the God of Moses, but there were people who said, ‘Doggone, there seems to be much that coheres,’” said Peters.

Theologians will not find themselves out of a job — traditional theologians will have to become astrotheologians”

“One of the things that distinguish one religious tradition from another are the symbols that have developed over time — Christians have their set, much as Hindus have theirs,” he said. “No doubt extraterrestrials have their sets of symbols as well, and theologians will have their work cut out analyzing them to see if there is any continuity of meaning.

Will these two be sitting next to you in church? According to some theologians, they are your brothers in Christ.

Sources: International Business Times, space.com My Comment: I don’t think it’s a coincidence that scientists and theologians are discussing alien life. I believe a great deception is close at hand. Along with a the forming world government and world religion, the alien agenda will blend in perfectly. As world leaders embrace world-togetherness, governments can point to aliens for helping the world evolve into a perfect utopia. A place where advanced technology can connect all the world in record speed. They can help us battle global warming, they will tell us. They can help unite all religions.

The United Nations is sounding the horn for Maitreya, the “world teacher” that will come to earth on a spaceship. Maitreya is supposed to meld all religions into one.

With the Vatican backing aliens and claiming they are our brothers , we are in for the biggest lie of the century. The Vatican will be used by the United Nations as the moral authority of the world to defend their false claims of space aliens coming to “help us.”

Believers, hold fast to the Word. You were born to live at a crucial time in history. To non-believers, I pray you will open the Bible and pray to the Lord Jesus to open your eyes and heart to the truth that will set you free and save your soul. The Lord led you here, to read these very words. Call out to the One that died for you. Call out to the King of Kings who can fill every hole in your heart that can not be filled with anything else. There is no other name by which we are saved. And certainly, no alien can take His place.

John 16:13

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

Written by: Sue Read more at ivarfjeld.wordpress.com

 

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Social Security now seen to run permanent deficits

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Social Security now seen to run permanent deficits

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sick and getting sicker, Social Security will run at a deficit this year and keep on running in the red until its trust funds are drained by about 2037, congressional budget experts said Wednesday in bleaker-than-previous estimates.

The massive retirement program has been suffering from the effects of the struggling economy for several years. It first went into deficit last year but had been projected to post surpluses for a few more years before permanently slipping into the red in 2016

This year alone, Social Security will pay out $45 billion more in retirement, disability and survivors' benefits than it collects in payroll taxes, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said. That figure nearly triples — to $130 billion — when the new one-year cut in payroll taxes is included.

Congress has promised to replenish any lost revenue from the tax cut, but that's hardly good news, either, adding to the federal budget deficit. In another sobering estimate, the congressional office said government red ink this year will increase to $1.5 trillion, the most in U.S. history.

More than 54 million Americans receive Social Security benefits, averaging $1,076 per month.

The outlook for the program has grown more sour as the nation has struggled to recover from the worst economic crisis since Social Security was enacted, during the Great Depression. In the short term, Social Security is suffering from the weak economy that has payroll taxes lagging and applications for benefits rising. In the long term, Social Security will be strained by the growing number of baby boomers retiring and applying for benefits.

The projected deficits add a sense of urgency to efforts to improve Social Security's finances. For much of the past 30 years, the program has run big surpluses, which the government has borrowed to spend on other programs. Now that Social Security is running deficits, the federal government will have to find money elsewhere to help pay for benefits.

"So long as Social Security was running surpluses, policymakers could put off the need to fix the program," said Andrew Biggs, a former deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration who is now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "Now that the system is running deficits, it simply becomes clear that we need to act on Social Security reform."

President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address Tuesday night that he wanted "a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations."

The president however has not embraced recommendations from a debt commission he appointed last year, including one that would gradually increase the full retirement age, from 67 to 69, over the next 65 years.

But Obama did lay down some markers for making Social Security closer to solvent.

"We must do it without putting at risk current retirees, the most vulnerable, or people with disabilities, without slashing benefits for future generations and without subjecting Americans' guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market," Obama said.

The program has been supported by a 6.2 percent payroll tax, paid by both workers and employers. In December, Congress passed a one-year tax cut for workers, to 4.2 percent. The lost revenue is to be repaid to Social Security from general revenue funds, meaning it will add to the growing national debt.

Social Security has built up a $2.5 trillion surplus since the retirement program was last overhauled in the 1980s. Benefits will be safe until that money runs out. That is projected to happen in 2037 — unless Congress acts in the meantime. At that point, Social Security would collect enough in payroll taxes to pay out about 78 percent of benefits, according to the Social Security Administration.

The $2.5 trillion surplus, however, has been borrowed over the years by the federal government and spent on other programs. In return, the Treasury Department has issued bonds to Social Security, guaranteeing repayment, with interest.

"Social Security taxes are not going to pay for the spending, so it's got to come from somewhere else," said Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury official who is now a fellow at the Urban Institute. "We can go through long arguments about whether its owed money by the trust funds or not, but that doesn't alleviate the simple fact that it's got to come from somewhere."

Social Security supporters are adamant that the program will be repaid, just as the U.S. government repays others who invest in U.S. Treasury bonds.

"Its' an IOU that is backed by Treasury bonds and the faith and credit of the United States government," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. "It is the same faith and credit that enables us to borrow from rich people and from China and from other countries. As you well know, in the history of this country, the United States has never defaulted on one penny owed to a creditor." Read more at www.google.com

 

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Genghis Khan hailed as environmentalist for 'scrubbing' humanity's carbon footprint Killing 40 million people?

Now, that's green!

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Killing 40 million people? Now, that's green!

Genghis Khan hailed as environmentalist for 'scrubbing' humanity's carbon footprint

HEAT OF THE MOMENT

By Drew Zahn © 2011 WorldNetDaily

Bust of Genghis Khan

Who knew that killing 40 million people could be hailed as having a "positive" effect on global warming?

Apparently, whether he knew it or not, Genghis Khan's invasions of the 13th and 14th centuries were so sweeping, it "may have been the first instance in history of a single culture causing man-made climate change," marvels enviro-journalist Bryan Nelson.

The mass slaughter, Nelson writes in a Mother Nature Network report, was actually able to cool the environment by "effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere."

Discover how radical the religion of environmentalism has become with "Resisting the Green Dragon" on DVD!

The research on Khan's net effect on the environment was first published in the climate-change journal The Holocene, prompting Nelson to pen his article titled "Was Genghis Khan History's Greenest Conqueror?"

"So how exactly did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card?" Nelson writes. "The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan did it the same way he built his empire – with a high body count."

"Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire," Nelson explains, "about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and an estimated 40 million people were slaughtered by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests.

"In other words," Nelson concludes, "one effect of Genghis Khan's unrelenting invasion was widespread reforestation, and the re-growth of those forests meant that more carbon could be absorbed from the atmosphere."

Julia Pongratz of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology was lead author of the study into Khan's environmental impact.

"It's a common misconception that the human impact on climate began with the large-scale burning of coal and oil in the industrial era," said Pongratz in a statement. "Actually, humans started to influence the environment thousands of years ago by changing the vegetation cover of the Earth's landscapes when we cleared forests for agriculture."

Pongratz and her colleagues focused their study on four historical events that she theorized could have killed enough people to make room for massive reforestation: the Black Death in Europe, the fall of China's Ming Dynasty, the conquest of the Americas and the Mongol invasion.

"We found that during the short events such as the Black Death and the Ming Dynasty collapse, the forest re-growth wasn't enough to overcome the emissions from decaying material in the soil," explains Pongratz. "But during the longer-lasting ones like the Mongol invasion and the conquest of the Americas, there was enough time for the forests to re-grow and absorb significant amounts of carbon."

The research has already been reported widely, not only on Mother Nature News, but also in newspapers around the world and on conservationist websites like Mongabay and Planetsave, the latter of which hailed Khan as "an environmentalist."

Reader comments on the stories, however, have blasted Nelson and others for celebrating in the name of climate change a man whose hordes killed an estimated 40 million people.

"I am a liberal," claims one Mother Nature News reader, "[but] praising Genghis Khan for his impact on the environment is … insane."

"Anyone who doubts that environmentalists are the most anti-human group in the world, think about this," scathes a comment from another reader. "Their admiration for a first-class murderer ought to tell humans just what their game is – no morality, just reduce carbon and exterminate human life."

Columnists and commentators aside, the researchers behind the study claim their research is relevant to today's climate controversies, but left specific application of their findings somewhat vague.

"In the past we have had a substantial impact on global climate and the carbon cycle, but it was all unintentional," explains Pongratz. "Based on the knowledge we have gained from the past, we are now in a position to make land-use decisions that will diminish our impact on climate and the carbon cycle. We cannot ignore the knowledge we have gained." Read more at www.wnd.com

 

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