Kiev wants war : the view from Novorossia

Pepe Escobar on What He Saw in Rebel East Ukraine

• "I saw refugees on the Russian side of the border, [...] whose kids, when they first came to the shelter, would duck under tables when they heard a plane in the sky."
• "I saw whole families holed up in fully decorated Soviet-era bomb shelters too afraid to go out even by daylight, traumatized by the bombings orchestrated by Kiev’s “anti-terrorist operations”.
• "I saw a modern, hard-working industrial city at least half-empty and partially destroyed but not bent, able to survive by their guts and guile with a little help from Russian humanitarian convoys."

And yet unconquered

Russia Insider,

31 March, 2015

This article originally appeared at Asia Times

I’ve just been to the struggling Donetsk People’s Republic. Now I’m back in the splendid arrogance and insolence of NATOstan.

Quite a few people – in Donbass, in Moscow, and now in Europe – have asked me what struck me most about this visit.

I could start by paraphrasing Allen Ginsberg in Howl – “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”.

But these were the Cold War mid-1950s. Now we’re in early 21st century Cold War 2.0 .

Thus what I saw were the ghastly side effects of the worst minds of my – and a subsequent – generation corroded by (war) madness.

I saw refugees on the Russian side of the border, mostly your average middle-class European family whose kids, when they first came to the shelter,  would duck under tables when they heard a plane in the sky.

I saw the Dylan of Donetsk holed up in his lonely room in a veterans’ home turned refugee shelter fighting the blues and the hopelessness by singing songs of love and heroism.

Dylan of Donetsk

I saw whole families holed up in fully decorated Soviet-era bomb shelters too afraid to go out even by daylight, traumatized by the bombings orchestrated by Kiev’s “anti-terrorist operations”.

Soviet-era bomb shelter

I saw a modern, hard-working industrial city at least half-empty and partially destroyed but not bent, able to survive by their guts and guile with a little help from Russian humanitarian convoys.

I saw beautiful girls hangin’ out by Lenin’s statue in a central square lamenting their only shot at fun was family parties in each other’s houses because nightlife was dead and “we’re at war”.

Donetsk girls by Lenin’s statue

I saw virtually the whole neighborhood of Oktyabrski near the airport bombed out like Grozny and practically deserted except for a few lonely babushkas with nowhere to go and too proud to relinquish their family photos of World War II heroes.

Bombed out Oktyabrski neighborhood

I saw checkpoints like I was back in Baghdad during the Petraeus surge.

I saw the main trauma doctor at the key Donetsk hospital confirm there has been no Red Cross and no international humanitarian help to the people of Donetsk.

Oktyabrski neighborhood, bombed hospital


I saw Stanislava, one of DPR’s finest and an expert sniper, in charge of our security, cry when she laid a flower on the ground of a fierce battle in which her squad was under heavy fire, with twenty seriously wounded and one dead, and she was hit by shrapnel and survived.

I saw orthodox churches fully destroyed by Kiev’s bombing.

I saw the Russian flag still on top of the anti-Maidan building which is now the House of Government of the DPR.

I saw the gleaming Donbass arena, the home of Shaktar Donetsk and a UFO in a war-torn city, deserted and without a single soul in the fan area.
I saw Donetsk’s railway station bombed by Kiev’s goons.

I saw a homeless man screaming “Robert Plant!” and “Jimmy Page!” as I found out he was still in love with Led Zeppelin and kept his vinyl copies.

I saw a row of books which never surrendered behind the cracked windows of bombed out Oktyabrski.

I saw the fresh graves where the DPR buries their resistance heroes.

I saw the top of the hill at Saur-mogila which the DPR resistance lost and then re-conquered, with a lone red-white-blue flag now waving in the wind.

Top of the hill at Saur-moglia

I saw the Superman rising from the destruction at Saur-mogila – the fallen statue in a monument to World War II heroes, which seventy years ago was fighting fascism and now has been hit, but not destroyed, by fascists.

The superman statue rising from the destruction at Saur-mogila


I saw the Debaltsevo cauldron in the distance and then I could fully appreciate, geographically, how DPR tactics surrounded and squeezed the demoralized Kiev fighters.

I saw the DPR’s military practicing their drills by the roadside from Donetsk to Lugansk.

I saw the DPR’s Foreign Minister hopeful there would be a political solution instead of war while admitting personally he dreams of a DPR as an independent nation.

I saw two badass Cossack commanders tell me in a horse-breeding farm in holy Cossack land that the real war has not even started.

I did not see the totally destroyed Donetsk airport because the DPR’s military were too concerned about our safety and would not grant us a permit while the airport was being hit – in defiance of Minsk 2; but I saw the destruction and the pile of Ukrainian army bodies on the mobile phone of a Serbian DPR resistance fъighter.

I did not see, as Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe international observers also didn’t, the rows and rows of Russian tanks and soldiers that the current Dr. Strangelove in charge of NATO, General Breedhate, sees everyday in his exalted dreams invading Ukraine over and over again.

And I did not see the arrogance, the ignorance, the shamelessness and the lies distorting those manicured faces in Kiev, Washington and Brussels while they insist, over and over again, that the entire population of Donbass, traumatized babushkas and children of all ages included, are nothing but “terra-rists”.

After all, they are Western “civilization”-enabled cowards who would never dare to show their manicured faces to the people of Donbass.

So this is my gift to them.

Just a howl of anger and unbounded contempt.

Donbass: ‘The war has not started yet’

Pepe Escobar

RT,

31 March, 2015

Two top Cossack commanders in the People's Republic of Donetsk and a seasoned Serbian volunteer fighter are adamant: the real war in Donbass has not even started.

It’s a spectacular sunset in the People’s Republic of Donetsk and I’m standing in the Cossack ‘holy land’ - an open field in a horse-breeding farm - talking to Nikolai Korsunov, captain of the Ivan Sirko Cossack Brigade, and Roman Ivlev, founder of the Donbass Berkut Veterans Union group.

Why is this Cossack ‘holy land’? They take no time to remind me of the legendary 17th century Cossack military hero Ivan Sirko, a.k.a. “The Wizard”, credited with extra-sensory powers, who won 55 battles mostly against Poles and Tatars.
Only three kilometers from where we stand a key battle at a crossroads on the ancient Silk Road called Matsapulovska Krinitsa took place, involving 3,000 Cossacks and 15,000 Tatars.

Now, at the dawn of the Chinese-driven 21st century New Silk Road - which will also traverse Russia – here we are discussing the proxy war in Ukraine between the US and Russia whose ultimate objective is to disrupt the New Silk Road.

Commander Korsunov leads one of the 18 Cossack brigades in Makeevka; 240 of his soldiers are now involved in the Ukrainian civil war – some of them freshly returned from the cauldron in Debaltsevo. Some were formerly part of the Ukrainian Army, some worked in the security business. Korsunov and Ivlev insist all their fighters have jobs, even if unpaid – and have joined the Donetsk People’s Republic army as volunteers. “Somehow, they manage to survive.”

What’s so special about Cossack fighters? “It’s historical – we’ve always fought to defend our lands.” Commander Korsunov was a miner, now he’s on a pension – although for obvious reasons he’s receiving nothing from Poroshenko’s Kiev set up; only support from the Berkut group, the Ministry for Youth and Sports of the People’s Republic, and humanitarian food convoys from Russia.

Korsunov and Ivlev are convinced Minsk 2 will not hold; fierce fighting should resume “in a matter of weeks.” According to their best military intelligence, Kiev’s army, after the recent IMF loan, was allocated no less than $3.8 billion for weapons.



Checkpoint in Donetsk. (Photo: Pepe Escobar)


“After Odessa”, they say – a reference to the massacre of civilians in May last year - Ukraine as we know it “is finished”. So what would be the best political solution for Donbass? Their priority is “to free all Ukraine from fascism.” And after victory, referenda should be held in all regions of the country. “People should vote for what they want; whether to remain in Ukraine, whether to align with Europe, or with Russia.” This implies advancing towards Western Ukraine across hostile territory; “We’re ready for five, seven years of war, it doesn’t matter.”

So even if a political solution might be possible on a distant horizon, they are preparing for a long war. The EU is “mistaken” to treat them as separatists and even terrorists. As for those elusive Russian tanks and soldiers relentlessly denounced by NATO, where are they? Hiding in the bushes? They laugh heartily – and we’re off to a countryside Cossack banquet.

Kiev wants war

Serbian fighter Dejan “Deki” Beric – a hero of the People’s Republic army, already decorated with 10 medals - fully shares the assessment of the Cossack commanders: “The real war has not started yet.”

There are 20 Serbs – all with extensive battle experience - fighting alongside the Donbass brigades. “Deki” has just returned from a secret hardcore recon mission, infiltrating enemy territory just to conclude they are bringing in fresh soldiers, bringing new technicians, and are awash with new weapons. Minsk 2 is about to the shredded to pieces.

“Deki” shows absolutely harrowing personal footage shot with his mobile phone of the People’s Republic victory at the now fully destroyed Donetsk airport; the main scene (not fully uploaded to YouTube) starts with soldiers laughing, chatting and smoking and pans to dozens of scattered, lifeless bodies of Kiev’s forces.


Burying the dead: a hero of the People's Republic of Donetsk in Saur-mogila. (Photo: Pepe Escobar)

“Deki” confirms that even before last summer Kiev might have had no less than 20,000 dead. The absolute majority of soldiers he encountered were too scared to fight; in the Debaltsevo cauldron, “they didn’t even try to fight.”

Less than two weeks ago Ukrainian Prime Minister “Yats”, cherished pal of the American Queen of Nulandistan Victoria “F**k the EU”, made no mistake war is inevitable: “Our goal is to regain control of Donetsk and Lugansk.” Of course such a wide-ranging threat is possible only when you’re sure of total support from the IMF and NATO – financial and military arms from the US government. Not to mention Capitol Hill.

NATO has no proper intel agency of its own. NATO’s military intel is gathered by American, Brit or German agents – thus politically manipulated. That’s why NATO’s current Dr. Strangelove, Gen. Breedlove – call him Breedhate – is able to relentlessly spew out the same nonsense about “columns of Russian equipment - primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defense systems and Russian combat troops” invading Ukraine over and over again, even as OSCE observers insist they have never seen them. And neither did this columnist.

Contrary to the assessment of both Cossack commanders and “Deki”, this concise analysis contends that neither side – Kiev or the Donbass armies – is about to launch a full offensive anytime soon. Meanwhile, the People’s Republic of Donetsk is turbo-charging the political front. Foreign Minister Alexander Kofman – who confirms he’s having political discussions with members of some EU countries - says there are plans for a wide-ranging meeting in May, leading to the possible set up of an Institution of Unrecognized Nations which could include a lot of participants, from Donetsk and Lugansk to Catalonia and the Basque country.

And Kofman is adamant. He’d rather see the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as an independent country, not as part of Russia. But first, the war Kiev – and Washington - are so obsessed on winning has to end.

Pepe Escobar traveled to Donetsk at the invitation of German-based media project Europa Objektiv.

America's "war on terror"

Body Count Report Reveals at Least 1.3 Million Lives Lost to US-Led War on Terror

Although a conservative estimate, physicians' groups say the figure 'is approximately 10 times greater' than typically reported

by Sarah Lazare

The rubble of a home reportedly hit by a U.S.-led coalition airstrike in Kafar Daryan in Syria. (Photo: Sami Ali / AFP/Getty Images)

Common Dreams,

28 March, 2015

How do you calculate the human costs of the U.S.-led War on Terror?

On the 12th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, groups of physicians attempted to arrive at a partial answer to this question by counting the dead.

In their joint report— Body Count: Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the ‘War on Terror—Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Global Survival, and the Nobel Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War concluded that this number is staggering, with at least 1.3 million lives lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan alone since the onset of the war following September 11, 2001.

However, the report notes, this is a conservative estimate, and the total number killed in the three countries “could also be in excess of 2 million, whereas a figure below 1 million is extremely unlikely.”

Furthermore, the researchers do not look at other countries targeted by U.S.-led war, including Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syria, and beyond.

Even still, the report states the figure “is approximately 10 times greater than that of which the public, experts and decision makers are aware of and propagated by the media and major NGOs.

In Iraq, at least 1 million lives have been lost during and since 2003, a figure that accounts for five percent of the nation’s total population. This does not include deaths among the estimated 3 million Iraqi refugees, many of whom were subject to dangerous conditionsduring this past winter.

Furthermore, an estimated 220,000 people have been killed in Afghanistan and 80,000 in Pakistan, note the researchers. The findings follow a United Nations report which finds that civilian deaths in Afghanistan in 2014 were at their highest levels since the global body began making reports in 2009.

The researchers identified direct and indirect deaths based on UN, government, and NGO data, as well as individual studies. While the specific number is difficult to peg, researchers say they hope to convey the large-scale of death and loss.

Speaking with Democracy Now! on Thursday, Dr. Robert Gould, president of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility and co-author of the forward to the report, said:

“[A]t a time when we’re contemplating at this point cutting off our removal of troops from Afghanistan and contemplating new military authorization for increasing our operations in Syria and Iraq, this insulation from the real impacts serves our government in being able to continue to conduct these wars in the name of the war on terror, with not only horrendous cost to the people in the region, but we in the United States suffer from what the budgetary costs of unending war are.”

According to Gould’s forward, co-authored with Dr. Tim Takaro, the public is purposefully kept in the dark about this toll.

“A politically useful option for U.S. political elites has been to attribute the on-going violence to internecine conflicts of various types, including historical religious animosities, as if the resurgence and brutality of such conflicts is unrelated to the destabilization cause by decades of outside military intervention,” they write. “As such, under-reporting of the human toll attributed to ongoing Western interventions, whether deliberate of through self-censorship, has been key to removing the ‘fingerprints’ of responsibility.”

Here is the interview on Democracy Now!

Donbass restores destoyed rail link

This is a huge achievement, is it not?

Donetsk-Lugansk rail service restored after 8 months

Fort Russ,

31 March, 2015

Translated by Kristina Rus

There are good news, which somehow went unnoticed. But actually it is very important. Because it marks a new life of Donbass, its rebirth. The first steps of peaceful development.

I am very glad that the rail service between Donetsk and Lugansk has been restored. I remember when I was in Novorossia, in order to get to Donetsk from Lugansk and Alchevsk, we had to loop around narrow bypass trails in the dark of the night in a minivan - from checkpoint to checkpoint. Hoping that we won't make the wrong turn and stumble on the ukro-punishers. :) Under the seat layed the two "Mukhi", on the seat - the AK. The feeling was unforgettable. But now Debaltsevo is free. And the direct way is open.

"On March 28 from Yasinovataya-Passazhirskaya station departed the first train in 8 months, connecting Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. It departs 3 times a week through the stations Yenakiyevo, Debaltsevo, Rudakova and 14 other settlements with the last stop in Lugansk at 13.30."

And this is not a small thing. This is a huge, hard work of thousands of people. And those who freed Debaltsevo, and those who restored the rail communications and power lines.

"In response to another statement of the ATO spokesman Lysenko that UAF will leave us a "lunar surface", and as directed by the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, we are ready to lay the railway on the "lunar surface", which is left after the Ukrainian army."

Positive feedbacks

With 49 positive feedbacks so far, this will come as a huge surprise (sic)

Study: Direct Evidence That Global Warming Causes More Global Warming

Data from Antarctic ice cores show global warming causes more global warming.

CREDIT: Andreea Dragomir / Shutterstock

Think Progress,

31 March, 2015

Scientists agree that an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases causes the Earth’s temperature to rise, but they’ve also noticed that relationship seems to swing both ways: warmer temperatures also seem to correspond with an increase in greenhouse gases. But drawing conclusions about the nature of the relationship is tricky, because though scientists have seen a correlation, they haven’t been able to show causation.

Now, scientists believe they’ve untangled the relationship. In a paper published Monday in Nature Climate Change, researchers from the University of Exeter claim to have found direct evidence that as global temperatures rise, so does the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, creating a positive feedback that in turn warms the Earth even more — basically, global warming creates more global warming.

“We discovered that not only does thickening the blanket of heat-trapping gases around our planet cause it to get warmer, but also, crucially, when it gets warmer this increases thickens the blanket of heat-trapping gases,” Tim Lenton, the paper’s author, told ThinkProgress, “so we have a process called a ‘positive feedback’ that amplifies changes in the Earth’s temperature.”

This isn’t the first time this relationship has been suggested. Scientists have previously used data from Antarctic ice cores to show that historic temperature rises were accompanied by spikes in global carbon dioxide levels, but other studies cast doubt on that timing, showing a lag of some thousand years.

While several models suggest a correlation between warming temperatures and an increase in greenhouse gas, Lenton’s team is the first to prove the relationship using direct evidence, taken from ice cores nearly one million years old.

The team — comprised of scientists from the University of Exeter, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Wageningen University in the Netherlands — analyzed Antarctic ice core data from the end of ice age cycles 400,000 and 800,000 years ago. That ancient ice is important, because it offers an extremely large amount of historical global temperature and greenhouse gas concentration data, which the scientists were able to analyze to figure out how the two interact.

Combining historical data about temperature and greenhouse gas composition, the scientists used a mathematical approach known as Takens’ theorem to look at the relationship between the two. The approach, Lenton explained, is based on the idea that if one variable causes even a small change in the other, the more information you have about the first variable. The more information you have about the first variable, the better you should be able to predict the change in the second. Eventually the variables will converge, giving researchers an idea of how strong the first is in predicting change in the second.

“We find that if A and B are temperature and CO2 (or temperature and methane) we get strong reciprocal causality,” Lenton said, proving that warmer temperatures cause an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases.

The findings provide even more support to the overwhelming evidence that humans are causing global warming by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The surprise, Lenton explained, is that the findings also show that increasing temperature eventually increases greenhouse gases.

“It implies that we should expect the ‘Earth system’ to respond to anthropogenic global warming by amplifying it with the release of additional greenhouse gases,” Lenton said.

Though the study looks at historical data, Lenton acknowledges that current implications can’t be overlooked. “The Earth is a complex system containing many feedbacks, and they are strong enough to swing the planet between the depths of an ice age and a warm ‘interglacial’,” Lenton said.

The Earth is currently warming at a much faster rate than previous warming events, roughly ten times faster than ice-age-recovery warming, according to NASA. In 2013, atmospheric greenhouse gas hit a record high, and scientists warned that the Earth’s ability to store and mediate gas, through plants and oceans, might been approaching its saturation point.

We’re already seeing unexpected changes in the climate: the West Antarctic ice shelves, for instance, is melting at a much faster rate than scientists predicted. 

“As we meddle with the climate system now, driving it to hotter temperatures, we should expect the Earth to reply by amplifying the changes we are causing,” Lenton said.

Russian tanks in California

Russian tanks in California?

Ha! Ha! I actually had to persuade myself that this was for real.

I guess you can’t beat the hyperbole of wrestling!

This Is the Greatest Professional Wrestling Entrance Ever

For a better version of this GO HERE

http://time.com/3762902/greatest-wrestling-entrance-tank-rusev-wwe-wrestlemania31/

You can't top an actual tank

The wide world of wrestling is no stranger to tender geopolitical fault lines.

At the first WrestleMania in March 1985, tag team partners The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff ratcheted up the Cold War a few degrees before squaring off with the aptly named American duo, the U.S Express. Before the match, The Iron Sheik proudly waved the Iranian flag, while Volkoff gave a throaty rendition of the Soviet national anthem. The tens of thousands of American fans in attendance at Madison Square Garden booed and chucked trash at the ring in response.

Thirty years later, little seems to have changed. With relations between Washington and the Kremlin in a downward spiral again, “Russian” wrestler Alexander Rusev (who is actually Bulgarian) entered Wrestlemania 31 on Sunday in unbelievable fashion: In a tank waving the Russian flag, while being escorted by what appeared to be a platoon of Russian troops.

Who cares that the hitherto undefeated Rusev went on to lose the United States Championship belt to red-blooded American wrestler John Cena? In terms of his entrance, he was a winner all the way.

Crying wolf?

Hot off the press in Ukraine.

It all goes to show that nothing needs to be either fact-based or without any evidence.

Who was it that said that if you repeat the same lie often enough people will start to believe it?

Or is it a case of crying wolf?

Perhaps he is referring to some plans of the military junta?

General Clark: Russia might have an offensive in Donbas between Easter and May 9

Wesley Clark called on for supplying weapons to Ukraine

General Clark expects Donbas militants’ offensive

ZN, AU,

31 March, 2015

 Russia might launch active military hostilities in the Donbas after Easter, but before May 9 (Victory Day).

"It seems that the restoration of a wider conflict is inevitable, and I hope that the United States will take all necessary steps to prevent it," – announced the American general, former commander of NATO forces in Europe during the war in Kosovo, Wesley Clark in his speech at the Atlantic Council.

According to the general, Minsk agreements "barely work." Heavy weapons, which had to be withdrawn according to the agreement, are hidden near the boundary line. Nevertheless, Russia continues to supply military equipment to the militants.

Given these factors, General Clark expects a new offensive by pro-Russian forces after the Easter holidays, but before May 9.

"If you look at the previous patterns of operations, it is possible to predict the next Russian offensive, noting that it is hard to keep the Donbas without control over the supply of electricity and the Crimea without proper communication. 

Nevertheless, according to the General, Putin may postpone the attack, if European leaders decide not to boycott celebrations in Moscow.

Read more: Parubiy: Putin to carry out a large-scale military operation against Ukraine before May 9

"Putin's ambitions go beyond military targets. The Russian president wants to drive a wedge between the US and its European allies, and between western and eastern members of NATO to weaken the countries of Central and Eastern Europe," – announced General Clark.

Clark also expressed his belief that the US should change its current policy and start immediately arming Ukraine.

Earlier, the former NSDC Secretary Patubiy already mentioned a possibiilty of an offensive by the militnats before May 9.

Strange cloud formations in New Zealand

I know some smart person is going to mention HAARP!

“They’ve just begun to be studied in 2006.”

Do they mean, that is when they started to appear?

Asperatus Clouds Swirling Over New Zealand

Loosely translating as “roughened or agitated waves”, while the Undulatus asperatus clouds above appear somewhat menacing, storms seldom follow their dissipation. Not much is known about these clouds, as they’ve just begun to be studied in 2006.

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/asperatus-clouds-over-new-zealand

A new source of methane

New research identifies diverse sources of methane in shallow Arctic lakes

Biogenic methane production in lake sediments may be sensitive to increasing global temperatures

Desert Research Institute

Eurekalert,

30 March, 2015

RENO, Nev. - New research into the changing ecology of thousands of shallow lakes on the North Slope of Alaska suggests that in scenarios of increasing global temperatures, methane-generating microbes, found in thawing lake sediments, may ramp up production of the potent greenhouse gas - which has a global warming potential 25 times greater than carbon dioxide.

A study published this month in Geobiology - resulting from five-years of collaborative research led by Nevada's Desert Research Institute (DRI) and including scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Montana State University, and University of California, Riverside - illustrates how the decomposition of organic matter in thermokast lake sediments can produce up to three times more biological methane gas emissions when subjected to increased temperatures in a simulated environment.

Further, researchers found that the methane detected in in lake sediments in this region can arise from both ancient theremogenic sources deep in the earth, or from shallow contemporary biological sources. Interestingly, the coastal plain in the North Slope of Alaska is estimated to contain 53-billion cubic feet of natural gas trapped under the permafrost ice cap.

Thermokarst lakes occur as permafrost thaws and creates surface depressions where meltwater accumulates , converting what was previously frozen land into small freshwater lakes with active decomposing sediment layers.

While scientists have long understood that methane and carbon dioxide releases from thawing permafrost are important sources of global greenhouse gas emissions, little is known about the sources and rates of methane production (known as methanogensis) from microbial communities found in these changing environment.

"The large amount of organic matter stored in the thaw layer between the water column and the permafrost table serves as a significant source of carbon for methanogensis," explained Paula Matheus Carnevali, a doctoral student at DRI and the study's lead author. "Identifying and understanding the production sources of methane will improve our ability to generate accurate predictions about the changing climate in the Arctic."

The study focused on methane dynamics within 16 sediment cores collected over a period of four years from two Alaskan thermokarst lakes, near Barrow, Alaska. Samples were obtained from three sites, one proximal to an active, submerged natural gas seep and another from a site approximately one-kilometer away from the seep site. The second lake was located about 13-km to the northwest, and did not have visibly active seeps.

Simulated climate scenarios were performed in a controlled DRI laboratory in Reno, Nevada and scientists analyzed the potential for increased biological production of methane from methanogens found in the lake sediments; the role of the sediment geochemistry in this process; and the temperature dependency of this process.

"This study marks an important step in recognizing that there are different methane sources in close proximity that may respond differently in the changing Alaskan arctic ecosystems," said Alison Murray, Ph.D., a principal investigator on the study and expert in microbial ecology and archaea found in some of Earth's most extreme environment.

"In scenarios of warming climate," Murray said, "our measurements indicate that biological methane production may play a larger role in total methane emissions in the future, which could have a significant impact on our climate.

Methane in Arctic lake traced to groundwater from seasonal thawing

Global warming may ramp up the flow of methane from groundwater into Arctic lakes, allowing more of the potent greenhouse gas to bubble out into the atmosphere, according to a new study led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz.

Another category 5 cyclone hits the Pacific

After cyclone Pam comes super typhoon Maysak - headed for the Philippines

Houses blown away after Maysak hits FSM atolls

Whole houses have been blown away on the small atoll of Fais in the northwest Pacific's Federated States of Micronesia after the super typhoon Maysak hit overnight.

Typhoon Maysak's position at 1500 UTC on Tuesday   Photo: US National Weather Service

Radio NZ

1 April, 2015

The United Services National Weather Service in Guam said neighbouring Ulithi took a direct hit with gusts of 300 kilometres an our.

The two atolls have a combined population of 1000.

Maysak is now pounding the state of Yap with 120 kilometre per hour winds.
The command post in Yap lost contact with most of the islets in the Ulithi lagoon overnight, but did speak to Mogmog islanders while they were in the eye of the storm.

Yap's Disaster Coordination Officer, Raymond Igechep, said houses were blown away in Fais, and he hopes there was no loss of life.

"They've seen houses blown off their platforms and stuff like that, the storm went very close to them and in fact in Ulithi, they went through the eye. They reported in later during the night that they experienced calmer weather and I advised them not to venture outside because that's the eye of the storm."

Raymond Igechep says Yap is experiencing very strong winds, and is hearing tin fly around outside as dawn breaks on the island.

Winds of up to 250 kilometres per hour are forecast if the supertyphoon directly hits.

Mr Igechep says the damage on Yap is already worse than last year's typhoon Hagupit, but he hopes the supertyphoon continues to turn northerly away from Yap.

"I have a feeling that we won't get up to ...160 [miles per hour] but ... a tin roof flying around outside... so, yeah, from my assistant out here who is by the window, he is figuring out that the damages sustained is a bit more bad than what we went through with Typhoon Hagupit," he said.

Raymond Igechep says he hopes to have news from the atolls of Fais and Ulithi in the next few hours.

Maysak remains Category 5 but expected to weaken

A meteorologist with the United Services National Weather Service in Guam, Ken Kleeschulpe, said he has heard neighbouring Fais sustained a lot of damage from Maysak which remains a Category 5 storm.

"Fais did not get a direct hit but they got some pretty strong winds there as well. They were close. They did have a lot of damage. Their water's contaminated and they've taken a lot of damage," said Mr Kleeschulpe.

Ken Kleeschulpe said Maysak was about 110 kilometres northeast of Yap, which was unlikely to take a direct hit, although it should be prepared for typhoon conditions.

He said the storm was expected to maintain its intensity for a couple of days but should start to weaken before it got to the Philippines.

Another forecaster, Mike Ziobro, said the main Yap islands would feel some effects of the storm which was passing to the north.

"Probably a bit further north than Yap, although they could get some strong winds there ... especially in their coastal waters, maybe some typhoon force winds. But Fais is the one that's going to get very close to them."


Typhoon Maysak.  Photo: www.wunderground.com

Churches and schools provided shelter

A disaster official in the Federated States of Micronesia state of Yap earlier said people in the path of the super typhoon Maysak had spent the night sheltering from the storm.

Raymond Igechep said people on Fais and Ulithi sought shelter in concrete buildings such as churches and schools.

"We're expecting a full, hard impact on the islands by nightfall. As far as information relayed to us, people are mobilising to the community designated typhoon shelters. So I hope they are all OK when the typhoon hits."

Raymond Igechep said there were reports of significant damage to the environment in the eastern islands of Yap state, but there had been no reports of deaths.

The governor of the state of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia, has requested a state of disaster emergency be declared for the state after it was damaged by Maysak on Sunday.


Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia Photo: Supplied


In a letter to the FSM President, Manny Mori, Governor Johnson Elimo said there was extensive damage to infrastructure, houses, crops and commercial buildings, including on the main island, Weno.

Five people are also believed to have died in Chuuk.

Pacific Super Typhoon Maysak among strongest on record so early in the season

By Jason Samenow 

Washington Post,

31 March, 2015

Super Typhoon Maysak via satellite at 12:30 a.m. EDT March 31, 2015 (NOAA)

An unusually strong spring super typhoon is sweeping across the western Pacific, its eyes set on the northern Philippines for the second half of the coming weekend.

The super typhoon, named Maysak, packs maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. Maysak achieved super typhoon intensity with winds of at least 150 mph on Monday, while undergoing rapid strengthening. It is currently the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane.

Wide view of Super Typhoon Maysak (MTSAT)

By becoming so strong so early in the typhoon season, Maysak has set several historical milestones. In records dating back to 1945 (via Jeff Masters at Wunderground, and Weather.com):

• It is only the third known super typhoon with winds this strong prior to April 1
• It is the first time there have been two major typhoons (category 3 or higher) during the first three months of the year
• It is only the fifth super typhoon to develop prior to April 1 (the last super typhoon prior to April was Mitag in March 2002)
• Maysak is the third typhoon this year, the most so early in the year
• Maysak is fourth named storm in the western Pacific in 2015; only one other year has had more, 1965 when there were 5.
  

Sea surface temperatures were 1.8 – 3.6°F above normal in the part of the western Pacific where Maysak formed and developed, helping to fuel the storm, Masters said.

After slamming the state of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia over the weekend as a category 1-equivalent storm, Maysak is battering Yap Island today, where a typhoon warning is in effect.

Maysak is forecast to proceed over the open western Pacific waters through Friday and likely approach the Philippines Saturday evening, making landfall during the day Sunday – most likely northeast of Manila.

Track forecast for Super Typhoon Maysak (Joint Typhoon Warning Center)

Due to increasingly hostile upper level winds, Maysak is forecast to gradually weaken over the next several days.  When it makes landfall, its peaks winds may have diminished to around 100 mph though the exact intensity is uncertain.  Even if Maysak’s peak winds drop below 100 mph, they will still be capable of damage while extremely heavy rain and flash flooding will be a major concern.

Prepang for martial law in New Zealand?

New Zealand soldiers doing exercises in urban warfare? In Christchurch? 

What do you think they are preparing for?

Army exercises upsets Christchurch red-zoners

Red-zone life is traumatising enough without troops of soldiers firing guns and throwing grenades in the neighbourhood, a Christchurch family says.

the Press,

31 March, 2015

Up to 100 New Zealand Army soldiers set up camp in the red-zoned Horseshoe Lake area on March 23 and have been firing blank gunshots and letting off pyrotechnics as part of an urban-training operation.

Barbara Henderson is living in a red-zoned house on Mundys Rd in Dallington - with her husband, two adult sons and daughter-in-law - until they settle with their insurance company.

She said neither they nor their green-zoned neighbour had been notified of the army exercise around Queensbury St about 150 metres away.

Gunshots went all day and sometimes during the night too, she said.

"We're traumatised enough that we don't need them running around in their full gears with guns. We've got demolition on one side and guns going off on the other side."

Daughter-in-law Jess Henderson said they should have been warned.

"I feel like we can't even take the dogs for a walk because we don't want to get accidentally shot or anything."

A Defence Force spokeswoman said local residents were warned about an eight-day urban-training exercise in the area through a public notice in The Press and leaflet drops.

Soldiers used vacant properties and numerous weapons but fired blank rounds only.

Approval was given to use Crown-owned red-zone land - something the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) had allowed in the past.

It also had an administration base on De Ville Pl. Soldiers from Burnham Military Camp camped out in the area during the week.

The red zone was "ideal" for training soldiers as it was unoccupied and suited the need for scenario-based training, the spokeswoman said.

The exercises were expected to be completed today. No complaints had been received, she said.

Broomfield Tce resident Val Cox said she heard shooting "every now and then" and there had been some very loud days.

"In some ways it's quite encouraging to know your defence force is keeping themselves in training," she said.

They had received a leaflet notifying them of the training.

Pro-Junta NZ journalist beaten up

NZ journalist reportedly beaten in Ukraine

KIWI IN KIEV: Jared Morgan.

29 March, 2015

A New Zealand journalist has reportedly been beaten in Ukraine.

Jared Morgan is in hospital with concussion after being beaten near where he lives in Kiev, according to local media reports.

Morgan said he was attacked by three men who might have been refugees from eastern Ukraine and "disliked his pro-Ukrainian views", journalist Andre Alexin said on Facebook on Saturday.

Alexin said Morgan would have to spend a couple of weeks in hospital and encouraged people to visit him in the neurosurgery ward.

News website Telekritika said Morgan has lived in Kiev since 2011.

He is a former Southland Times reporter and won the Qantas Media Award for best junior feature writer in 2007.

Last January, Fairfax did a story about him - 

Kiwi in 'apocalyptic' Kiev protests

A report from on the ground. Thanks to Robin Dolstra in Sevastopol

"In Kiev activists beat up a journalist from New Zealand - Jared Morgan, who lives in Kiev in 2011 and works as a freelance. 

On the attack, said a friend of the victim Andrew Aleksin. 

He himself wrote:" We heard that said in English on the phone, came to ask that I forgot in Ukraine. Replied that he loves this country, and so proud of Maidan. D., And heard: "Oh, no ... with the Bandera!" Then remember bad. Woke up at night, "- says Aleksin. 

According to him, the attack took place at eight o'clock next to the house where he lives Morgan. 

Three young men did not like pro-Ukrainian views journalist. Diagnosis: concussion, bruises, - told us the deputy head of the press service of the police Kiev Irina Levchenko. From a foreigner refused hospitalization. " 

Kiev was occupied, but disagree with the cannibalistic Ukrainian authorities and many in this glorious Russian city. ".