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Obama Blocks Offshore Drilling In Atlantic, Arctic Areas (npr.org)
Before the new administration takes over next month, President Obama took new action Wednesday to place large sections of the Arctic and the Atlantic Oceans off limits to oil drilling. NPR reports: The Arctic protections are a joint partnership with Canada. "These actions, and Canada's parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth," the White House said in a statement. "They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region's harsh conditions is limited," the White House added. "By contrast, it would take decades to fully develop the production infrastructure necessary for any large-scale oil and gas leasing production in the region -- at a time when we need to continue to move decisively away from fossil fuels." Obama's action designates 31 Atlantic canyons "off limits to oil and gas exploration and development activity," totaling 3.8 million acres, according to the administration. It provides the same protections to much of the Arctic's waters, covering the "vast majority of U.S. waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas," totaling 115 million acres. Canada is doing the same to "all Arctic Canadian waters," the joint statement adds. Obama took these actions by invoking a law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which gives the president the authority to withdraw lands from oil and gas leases.
. . . China is building yet even more artificial military base islands in the Arctic waters, to add more weight to their claim that the Arctic is part of China's territorial waters. This claim is not recognized by any other nations . . . yet.
The Chinese navy also announced that they have captured a US Navy drone in their waters. It is very large and coated with a blubbery black skin, that is probably "stealth" technology. The drone appears to be armed with a water jet weapon, that sporadically spews from the top of the drone. It is powered by bottom dwelling sea crustacean critters that it scoops up with a toothed dredging device at the front of the drone. Chinese scientists plan to disassemble the drone to discover how the crustacean critters are converted into energy.
Chinese navy crew members have claimed to have seen a "white" version of the drone, but the Chinese Admiralty brushes this off as sailors who have been out to sea too long, with too much rice wine, and too little women folk around.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Please for the love of the magical, ficitional deity you believe in, take a fucking science class.
"Pssst, I'll give you $100 if you tell your students they are a monkey's uncle."
Table-ized A.I.
New plot idea: 97% of the world's scientists contrive an environment crisis, but are exposed by a plucky band of billionaires and oil companies.
**shamelessley stolen from a bunch of places online**
Are you serious?
New plot idea: Scientists declare "demon rum" a threat to public health and morality.
Yup - was true then, is still true now. Just because getting drunk is legal and socially acceptable doesn't mean it's not a problem.
The size of government balloons, corruption becomes the norm.
Sounds like government as usual - pork barrel spending, lobbyists for every cause. Nothing specific to climate change here.
Constitutional rights become more "malleable", cities turn into war zones.
Well, we can thank the drug war for that, and Homeland Security, and the telecom companies, and paramiltary law enforcement - wait, what were we talking about again? How did we get here from climate change?
Black markets thrive, smuggling becomes too much for law enforcement.
Yup - totally see Joe Sixpack slow-riding up to some sketchy dame on a dark street corner to hook up some carbon credits!
The government uses new laws to poison known supplies of black market alcohol, dozens of people die and hundreds sickened.
So - you are insinuating that with all of the new-found powers that Guvmint has (due to climate change), they are going to pump some carbon monoxide into the executive offices and board rooms of oil & gas companies? That would be tragic, wouldn't it?
Only after years of public outcry does the government relent and lift the ban on alcoholic beverages.
So let me get this straight... a bunch of holier-than-thou Christian nutjobs make enough noise to convince Congress to ban alcohol. But the general American public disagrees, the alcohol still flows, and it causes enough problems until finally even the politicians have to admit they were wrong to listen to the religious wackos trying to force their religion on everyone? I can definitely see some parallels with modern times....
Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. If you cannot see the parallel to the way that the government is managing this global warming threat and how it handled Prohibition then I'm not sure I can explain it to you.
... but CLIMATE CHANGE? Um, no. And sounds like you don't even understand the parallels, if you can't explain it.