Tuesday, April 24, 2018

I am fairly certain these are methane seeps. It needs to be examined for potential to seal them.

The article at the bottom is about the Mackenzie River Delta. The Arctic Ocean is beginning it's springtime and there are structures noted that hasn't been there before. I think these are underwater methane seeps breaking trough because the ice has melted to the point where they can be exposed now. The ice formations probably occurred as winter set in in the Arctic.

When examining the photo closely it is obvious there is no wildlife that poked a hole through the thinned ice. There are waves just above the structures and there are two additional structures in the lower left corner.

Gaseous methane doesn't always mix with water. So the chance there are methane seeps below the water/ice northwest of the Mackenzie River is very likely. There was probably ice covering the holes and trapped the gas under it, hence, the wavey lines above the larger structures with holes already in them. The wavey lines above them prove there was pressure behind the methane leaks. The water surrounding these seeps would freeze because of the cold temperatures.

This shows how far we are out of sync with Earth's warming trend that started with the Industrial Revolution. We should already have a technology available to find methane seeps and close them so long as it is not permafrost. These seeps should be addressed and closed if at all possible. The USA sealed the Deepwater Horizon hole into Earth, a similar technology should be exploded to seal these leaks.

April 23, 2018
By Rafi Letzter
NASA scientists (click here) flying over the Arctic earlier this month spotted strange shapes out the window, but they aren't sure what caused them.
Three holes dot the sea ice, seen from the window of a NASA aircraft in the photo above, taken April 14. They're clustered together, each surrounded by one or two radiating layers of ridged, textured ice, almost as if a batch of archery targets had melted and gone lopsided. All around them are bumpy formations that mean the ice is thin and relatively new, NASA said in a statement.
"We saw these sorta-circular features only for a few minutes today," mission scientist John Sonntag wrote from the field, according to NASA's statement. "I don't recall seeing this sort of thing elsewhere."...

It is very difficult to stop the degradation of the permafrost. It is too warm.
April 23, 2018
By Charles J. Hanly
Only a squawk from a sandhill crane broke the Arctic silence — and a low gurgle of bubbles, a watery whisper of trouble repeated in countless spots around the polar world.

"On a calm day, you can see 20 or more 'seeps' out across this lake," said Canadian researcher Rob Bowen, sidling his small rubber boat up beside one of them. A tossed match would have set it ablaze.

"It's essentially pure methane."

Pure methane, gas bubbling up from underwater vents, escaping into northern skies, adds to the global warming gases accumulating in the atmosphere. And pure methane escaping in the massive amounts known to be locked in the Arctic permafrost and seabed would spell a climate catastrophe.

Is such an unlocking underway?...
Every time Rand Paul is the last holdout, it tells his constituency back home they are the most powerful people in the world. Rand Paul has to be chased by the President and Rand makes his concerns and wins concessions. The vote for Pompeo is yet another proof of the power of his constituency.

His "no" vote is a permanent placemark for the GOP. Libertarians never have a grand win to influence policy. Rand Paul says that is not so anytime he votes "no."

That "no" vote holds his place with his constituency, but, also glues the Libertarian Party together.
The two First Ladies coordinated their wardrobe today. That is very nice. They put forward the image of solidarity. Melania is her alert and attentive self, which is easy to note in any ceremony she attends.

Everyone sincerely concerned about the White House has a strong basis other than instinct.

Donald Trump is enjoying the power and privilege or the USA without doing any of the work.

When Donald Trump (click here) had a phone conversation with Vladimir Putin on the morning of March 20th, the two were at an excruciatingly delicate juncture....

...The National Security Council has a comparatively lean budget—approximately twelve million dollars—and so its staff consists largely of career professionals on loan from the State Department, the Pentagon, and other agencies. When Trump assumed office, N.S.C. staffers initially generated memos for him that resembled those produced for his predecessors: multi-page explications of policy and strategy. But “an edict came down,” a former staffer told me: “ ‘Thin it out.’ ” The staff dutifully trimmed the memos to a single page. “But then word comes back: ‘This is still too much.’ ” A senior Trump aide explained to the staffers that the President is “a visual person,” and asked them to express points “pictorially.”

“By the time I left, we had these cards,” the former staffer said. They are long and narrow, made of heavy stock, and emblazoned with the words “the white house” at the top. Trump receives a thick briefing book every night, but nobody harbors the illusion that he reads it. Current and former officials told me that filling out a card is the best way to raise an issue with him in writing. Everything that needs to be conveyed to the President must be boiled down, the former staffer said, to “two or three points, with the syntactical complexity of ‘See Jane run.’ ”....


The USA EPA needs a highly qualified person as Secretary.

Heading the EPA would be like a walk in the park, be highly prolific and conducted with one hand behind his back. His specialty is molecular physics to remodel chemical molecules. He is brilliant and we would be lucky to have him. He is known and renowned internationally and would be an asset to allies and friends that want to invoke change.

Arieh Warshel, (click here) Nobel laureate, Distinguished Professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry, holder of the Dana and David Dornsife Chair in Chemistry, will join other outstanding luminaries on May 12, to receive a 2018 Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO).

The Ellis Island Medal of Honor commends a select group of individuals whose achievements and exceptional service to our nation embody the American spirit in their patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity, and is among the nation’s most celebrated awards. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have officially recognized the Ellis Island Medals of Honor, and each year the recipients are listed in the Congressional Record....