Day: August 3, 2023

Don’t Forget Your Umbrella

That would be sage advice for my friends in the UK……but I do not believe they need to be reminded.

Since the rising heat on earth and the fact that this topic is generating a lot of  post and Chatbot writings I would offer a post on how to ‘cool’ the planet down.

The ‘umbrella’ I am speaking about is plan for our space projects and a way to help control our climate change.

Scientists think they have come up with a new approach to mitigating global warming: put up a giant “umbrella” in space to protect the Earth from excess sunlight.

István Szapudi, an astronomer at the University of Hawai’i Institute for Astronomy, said a workable design for a solar shield could be ready in decades.

“In Hawai’i, many use an umbrella to block the sunlight as they walk about during the day. I was thinking, could we do the same for Earth and thereby mitigate the impending catastrophe of climate change?” he said.

According to ongoing temperature analyses, the average global temperature on Earth has increased by at least 1.1 Celsius since the Victorian era. It has led scientists to pursue new ways of reducing the effects of climate change.

The solar shield plan would require an exceptionally large structure to prevent solar radiation, and it would need to be heavy enough not to blow away. Therefore, the study published recently in the journal PNAS proposes using a captured asteroid as a counterweight.

Researchers said they wanted the “umbrella” to reduce the impact of solar radiation on Earth by about 1.7 per cent to prevent a catastrophic rise in global temperatures.

Using a tethered counterbalance, such as an asteroid, would reduce the weight of the shield to 3.5m tons. That is light as a feather compared to previous estimates without a counterweight, which were about 100 times heavier.

Even the largest rockets in operation today can only lift about 50 tons to a low Earth orbit, however.

Looks like we’ve got a little time to wait before we get our giant interplanetary parasol.

https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/space-umbrella-climate-change

We could speed up the process by making it a massive profit generating program….that would bring Musk out of the woodwork.

Anyway….good idea or BS?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

All Eyes To Niger

In case you have not heard there has been a military coup in the African nation of Niger.

I bet you will ask….’why is that important?’ Right?

The United States has sunk $500 million over the last decade into training and equipping Niger’s armed forces, which have now overthrown the democratically-elected president of the country.

Nigerien armed forces declared that they removed President Mohamed Bazoum from power amid a coup that began last Wednesday, spearheaded by a general who studied at the Department of Defense-backed College of International Security Affairs, Reuters reported. The U.S. has spent $500 million on training and arming Nigerien soldiers and stationing more than 1,000 U.S. troops in the region, according to the U.S. Embassy in Niger.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said over the weekend that the U.S. partnership with Niger is in “clear jeopardy.”

https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/01/us-niger-coup-funding-military/

The military we trained just overthrew a west leaning government….go figure.

Does that tell you anything?

Here’s a hint ‘wasted money’.

Niger is not alone in this…..

Take a map of Africa, shade in the nations that have had military coups over the last few years, and you’ll see the pattern: It’s what Declan Walsh in the New York Times calls a “coup belt” stretching across the entire continent. It goes from Guinea on the west coast to Sudan on the east coast, with Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and, most recently, Niger, filling in the belt. Coverage:

  • The Sahel: This six-nation band “has become the longest corridor of military rule on Earth,” writes Walsh. The line roughly corresponds with what’s known as the Sahel region of Africa, described by the AP as a “vast arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert”—and one that has become increasingly linked to extremist groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
  • One big worry: Terror groups have been gaining ground throughout the Sahel in recent years, particularly in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Niger, notes an analysis by Mohammed Yusuf at Voice of America. The democratically elected Mohamed Bazoum of Niger had been a US ally in fighting such groups, and his overthrow vastly complicates that effort—particularly if Western and UN troops are asked to leave Niger, as they have been elsewhere in the Sahel. The US currently has about 1,100 troops stationed at two bases in Niger, per Reuters. If the military coup holds—the situation is very much in flux—they would have to leave under US law.
  • Russia: The BBC notes another parallel within the band: Russian influence. One fear in the West is that a new military regime in Niger will embrace Vladimir Putin. “If it does, it would follow the path of two of its neighbors—Burkina Faso and Mali—which have both pivoted towards Moscow since recent military coups of their own,” writes Yusuf Akinpelu. There’s no evidence Russia has fomented the coups, but Moscow has positioned itself to take advantage of the movements.
  • Meltdown? The Sahel “has surpassed the Middle East and South Asia to become the global epicenter of jihadist violence,” writes Walsh, and that has analysts worried. “I’m very worried that Sahelian Africa is going to melt down,” says Paul Collier of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.

If more info is wanted then I suggest reading this article…..

Niger is the Fourth Country in the Sahel to Experience an Anti-Western Coup

Here we go again….I say that in response to Blinken’s words about the coup….

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed support for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) after it threatened to use force against coup leaders in Niger if President Mohamed Bazoum is not reinstated.

ECOWAS, a bloc of 15 West African nations, held an extraordinary summit to discuss the coup on Sunday. In a joint communique, ECOWAS leaders announced sanctions and said if Bazoum is not reinstated within a week, the bloc will “take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order” in Niger. “Such measures may include the use of force,” the leaders said.

Following the ECOWAS summit, Blinken released a statement backing the bloc. “The United States welcomes and commends the strong leadership of the [ECOWAS] Heads of State and Government to defend constitutional order in Niger,” Blinken said.

(antiwar.com)

Oh good another country for our weapons and cash to be used….as if we have not already wasted enough….(and the M-IC smiled)

Does this sound at all familiar?

I Await your thinking.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”