Climate and the Rogue Regime

We should all be ashamed of what is happening to science funding under this rogue regime. Not just to slashing current research, but the dismantling of science education and mentoring essential for the further development of young people who were attracted to the STEM programs and will likely not be able to complete advanced degrees. Did the Taliban just take over? If this regime wants to slash spending and foreign aid, why not start with defunding the biggest aid-state in the world - israel (which no longer deserves a capital letter)? And the universities themselves are about to be dismantled, see this on YouTube: Blonde Politics | The Silly Serious. Imagine if the destructive powers of the DOGE could have been employed to knock down greenhouse gas emissions rather than destroy every functioning part of government and international trade and promoting “drill, baby, drill,” an environmental catastrophe. But that didn’t happen and while this civilizational collapse certainly will knock down emissions, the resulting societal destruction will certainly have worse environmental consequences.

While you’re reading this post, try playing this video of one of my favourite Russian pianists: Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D minor, from Partita No. 2, BWV 1004 by Polina Osetinskaya. Spoiler alert: don’t worry about the Steinway, it survives this.

Some recent developments in climate research bring me back to that issue.

Dr. James Hansen has published an important paper, which more fully explains the role of the reduction of marine fuel sulfur reduction on recent global warming. The previous 3.5% sulfur content in marine fuels led to increased low-level cloud (and “ship’s trails”) formation in the relatively clean open ocean environment, providing a cooling effect. That cooling was lost due to “improvements” by reducing marine fuel sulfur content. Here is a link to the public summary of the paper, with links to the main paper and supplements. Below is a section in this public summary:

“On a programmatic note: We have long realized that our conclusion that modern nuclear power needs to play an important role in decarbonizing global energy systems limits our ability to obtain public and philanthropic support for CSAS. Now, it seems, this situation is much aggravated by any open discussion that purposeful global cooling may eventually be needed. It’s reminiscent of an analysis once made by JEH’s oldest grandson at age 10:

“If we keep doing what we are doing now then the environment will be ruined when the people who are kids now are grownups. And unless we can figure out how to make a time machine that actually works, there will be no way to go back in time to fix it. It’s not fair that the grownups now are ruining the atmosphere for the grownup in the future. Grownups now are scared of nuclear power but they should be scared of what will happen if they keep doing what they’re doing now because we know the ways to use nuclear power safe and we know that using fossil fuels is not safe. It’s very dangerous.”

It seems that “grownups,” have now decided that, after tying one arm behind the back of young people (by setting back nuclear R&D several decades; nuclear power has the potential to be our least expensive 24/7 power source, as well as having the smallest environmental footprint), they should also tie their other arm behind their back by prohibiting research on purposeful cooling, in case the grownups screwed up again and did not leave a time machine.”

“The tactics of the kibitzers seem to work on most of the media and some of our prior supporters. Apparently, the kibitzers have learned from politicians that it doesn’t matter if what you say is true or not, and even ad hominem attacks are allowed – if enough people repeat the arguments often enough, they are accepted. Our attitude has usually been that we don’t have time to deal with all the disinformation and also focus on our scientific research – because eventually the truth will come out.”

Well, I have a lot of gripes about the above statements. First of all, look who’s now doing ad hominems - “kibitzers”? I continue to support Columbia Science Awareness and Solutions (CSAS) in my small way (retirement income) and you can too by donating here. The quote from the 10-year-old seems a bit far-fetched without coaching. Dr. Hansen’s continued support for nuclear power is a small-c conservative approach that believes the arc of history bends toward the ongoing development of the previous (ante-Trump) course of western civilization. Even though the Empire was already in decline, the Trump regime along with the Dept of Government Erasure (DOGE) ensures a collapse of Empire unprecedented in history. Unprecedented in scope, severity and the complications of unwinding it, what with all the nuclear warheads, nuclear submarines, nuclear power plants and nuclear disposal sites, all of which require soon-to-be extinguished technological prowess for many generations yet unborn. Yet by promoting further nuclear power, we absolutely depend on these future children being trained to take care of this massive waste we leave for them, all the while we continue to pretend that this present (now former) form of civilization would go on forever. And the crash, now deeply in progress, is a self-inflicted wound - the Empire has fallen on its sword and it didn’t have to happen so soon or so quickly. And yes, it will be a severe crash, making the Great Depression look like a picnic. The world financial situation is a very tender creation, held up by wobbly legs and innumerable layers of debt leverage and derivatives. Looking down over this vast flimsy scaffolding, you can hardly see Planet Earth down there. Yet the bull in the china shop, t-Rex (tRump), lashes about in ignorant rage crashing through each functioning support of the system. Remember the Great Depression was really less than 10% drop in global GDP and what’s now in progress will be much deeper, unleashing the worst-ever civil unrest. And when present nuclear reactors fail from inadequate maintenance, the results will mimic conditions described in “The Trudeau Papers” (McClelland and Steward, 1971, ISBN 9780771000522.

We absolutely need to live using LESS power, rather than consigning the planet to further nuclear contamination. Using less energy is possible, see the article by Charles Hugh Smith, “What’s valuable may become valueless.”

And the ass-end of nuclear power is waste “disposal,” as if you can put this trash out-of-mind like you do your other so-called consumables. The Experts are now trying to stash plutonium wastes into the nuclear repository that was never designed for plutonium waste, in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the desert near Carlsbad, New Mexico, built for transuranic waste operations beginning in November 2022.

Can we put this nuclear promotion argument to rest yet, please? Can you really be serious about what life will be like for our future generations when we are already pushing our future generations to extinctions by this overload of stress and pollution?

Our minds can comprehend technologies, but our bodies cannot tolerate this ever-increasing level of stress, and that stress level directly damages the biology of the following generations. As does the chemicals and microplastics pollution. The expansion of civilization is re-writing our genetic code to ensure our extinction. This follows along what I wrote about in my first post, Limits to Progress, in which I have shown that although humans keep escaping Nature’s normal methods of controlling species numbers, via such vectors as viruses, Nature also built in a fail-safe mechanism by which we (meaning you) fail to see the mental disconnect between living in harmony with this planet and your glorious vision of a perfect City, thus leading to your own destruction, from within. Note that there are only three cell divisions between generations. The fertilized egg divides (1st) into two cells, then again (2nd) into four cells, then (3rd) into eight cells. One of those eight cells becomes your reproductive system. In my Jan 26th post, “Poisoning ourselves into extinction,” I showed how the ever-increasing level of stress on people damages reproduction functions that can continue into future generations, as do the effects of microplastics and chemical pollution.

Here’s another study on plastics contamination:

Tiny plastic particles can amplify pollutant absorption in plants and intestinal cells by Andrew Smith, Rutgers University.

“Micro- and nanoscale plastic particles in soil and water can significantly increase how much toxic chemicals plants and human intestinal cells absorb, according to two new studies from Rutgers Health that raise fresh concerns about food safety from plastic pollution.

The relationship, moreover, worked both ways: The presence of these environmental pollutants also significantly increased the amount of plastic absorbed by the intestinal tissue, with plastic uptake roughly doubling when toxins were present.”

Citing: Trung Huu Bui et al, “Micro-nanoscale polystyrene co-exposure impacts the uptake and translocation of arsenic and boscalid by lettuce (Lactuca sativa)” NanoImpact (2025). https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.impact.2025.100541

But back to global warming.

And as I said in my post of January 12th, “Ask Gazans about climate change,” the precious “pre-industrial” climate was an aberration in Earth’s history. But you always need a “real study” to prove it to you, since I’m just making crap up? Well, here’s the study: Research reveals how Earth got its ice caps, by University of Leeds, citing: Andrew S. Merdith, Thomas M. Gernon, Pierre Maffre, Yannick Donnadieu, Yves Goddéris, Jack Longman, R. Dietmar Müller, Benjamin J. W. Mills (2025) Phanerozoic icehouse climates as the result of multiple solid-Earth cooling mechanisms, Science Advances (2025) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adm9798

“The cool conditions which have allowed ice caps to form on Earth are rare events in the planet's history and require many complex processes working at once, according to new research.

A team of scientists led by the University of Leeds investigated why Earth has existed in what is known as a "greenhouse" state without ice caps for much of its history, and why the conditions we are living in now are so rare.

They found that Earth's current ice-covered state is not typical for the planet's history and was only achieved through a lucky coincidence.

"There is an important message, which is that we should not expect the Earth to always return to a cold state as it was in the pre-industrial age," he said.

"Earth's current ice-covered state is not typical for the planet's history, but our current global society relies on it.”

"We should do everything we can to preserve it, and we should be careful with assumptions that cold climates will return if we drive excessive warming before stopping emissions. Over its long history, the Earth likes it hot, but our human society does not."

So there you have it - let’s give this climate issue a rest for a while. Our main existential threat, surpassing the previous top issues of nuclear war and plastics and chemical pollution, is now the perfect example of the worst possible iteration of a human being that could ever be born.

Another consequence of seeing that the pre-industrial climate does not fit with Earth’s natural cycles, is that more serious attempts will be made to shove the planet back into that cooler state via geoengineering. Please, no - enough human meddling already! Leave the Earth, and the Moon, and Mars alone! All that malarkey is definitely a part of science that that needs to be abandoned.

Yet, absolutely, CO₂ emissions must END or we are on a trajectory to double present CO₂ by century end. End emissions not by 2050, now! Yes, that means using less energy! And, as I have written in previous post, the importance of saving the oceans, which are larger and more significant than our thin atmosphere, yet easily damaged and very slow to recover, see this report:

Earth's acid test: When did ocean acidity allow life to commence? by Yale University.

For their study, Korenaga and Guo carefully calibrated and set parameters for how each of these components functioned—and then had them interact. The researchers were guided by a series of early Earth studies previously published from Korenaga's group.

"I think the main reason why we are able to do this modeling now is that our understanding of early Earth tectonics has been drastically improved in the last few years," Korenaga said. "That work concentrated on the evolution of continental crust and the physics of magma oceans."

Using their new model, Korenaga and Guo estimated that it would have taken Earth 500 million years to neutralize ocean acidity enough to support life. Pockets of water with more neutral pH levels may have existed earlier, but not on a large enough scale for life to take hold.

The researchers said their findings can shed light not only on early Earth processes, but also on the role those processes play in modern day climate.

Citing: Meng Guo et al, Rapid rise of early ocean pH under elevated weathering rates, Nature Geoscience (2025) https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01649-9

On the closure of scientific research, try really hard to make it through this next paragraph (today’s brain exercise) to see the level of scientific discourse which is getting trashed:

High levels of adrenomedullin found to promote obesity-associated insulin resistance, by Justin Jackson , Medical Xpress:

‘At the molecular level, ADM (Adrenomedullin) triggers Gs-coupled signaling that elevates cAMP and activates protein kinase A (PKA). PKA then phosphorylates PTP1B on serine 205, increasing the phosphatase's activity. This heightened phosphatase function dephosphorylates the insulin receptor on critical tyrosine residues, reducing insulin receptor signaling within endothelial cells. High-resolution phosphoproteomic screens pinpointed serine 205 in PTP1B as the principal site phosphorylated by PKA. Mutating this site blocked ADM's ability to weaken insulin signaling, definitively establishing S205 phosphorylation as the switch for this process.”

Citing: Haaglim Cho et al, Endothelial insulin resistance induced by adrenomedullin mediates obesity-associated diabetes, Science (2025) https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adr4731

While on that topic, have a look at this one: Egyptian scientists use gold nanoparticles to reverse obesity-related damage in rat study, by Justin Jackson , Phys.org

“Blood analysis indicated that AuNPs [gold nanoparticles] treatment restored lipid profiles, FBG, and oxidative stress markers to normal levels. Histological examination revealed that AuNPs reduced fat accumulation and improved liver and kidney cell structure, while orlistat-treated rats showed persistent organ damage.”

Citing: Rana M. Selima et al, “Effect of gold nanoparticles treatment on rats-induced obesity by evaluating body-composition directly and indirectly via bioelectric impedance analysis” Scientific Reports (2025) https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-87971-z