global warming

Future contracts for water will appear on the markets for the first time in history. Future contracts are tied to the spot price of water and let investors bet on the price of water as the value of the precious resource goes up and down due to climate change. Water will join gold, oil, and other commodities being traded on Wall Street with contracts financially settled just like any other futures contract. Contracts will each represent 10 acre-feet of water, equal to about 3.26 million gallons. Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products, explained why the water futures contracts were being issued: "With nearly two-thirds of the world's population expected to face water shortages by 2025, water scarcity presents a growing risk

An outside temperature of 120 degrees would be  nightmarish, a temperature of 130 degrees would be  hellish, and surely a 140-degree weather event would be an unsurvivable meteorological impossibility. But it happened - in Texas - in 1960 during a rare weather event called a “heat burst”. The citizens of Kopperl, a small Texas town tucked into a bend of the Brazos River, still talk about the hellish event, referring to the meteorological anomaly as Satan’s Storm. Weather records prove the event truly happened – it’s not a myth – and at the time, citizens believed the apocalypse was descending upon them. Today we know the day-after scene of unbelievable devastation was caused by a weather phenomenon known as a heat burst. It was a warm night on

Frames from a video of the spectacular SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explosion at Cape Canaveral on September 1, 2016 captured an “anomaly” that many suspect may have caused the detonation of the rocket and destruction of its communications satellite payload. In the video frames, which came from a high-speed video source near the launch pad, you can clearly see an unidentified metallic, orb-shaped object approach the launch pad from the right and cross above the rocket before disappearing to the left of the frame. In the video source, the object moves so fast, it can barely be seen without slo-mo post processing. Analysis of the SpaceX Falcon 9 UFO In this first frame, the object can be seen about to pass behind the tower to the right of

Researchers from York University in Canada and the University of Zurich released findings yesterday which reveal a terrifying consequence of global warming. According to the researchers, the thawing ice sheet in Greenland will expose several hundred thousand gallons of military waste including chemical, biological, and radioactive waste left over from Project Iceworm. The waste is stored in an abandoned Cold War-era U.S. military camp, Camp Century.  Camp Century was built underground in northwest Greenland in 1959 as part of Project Iceworm and tasked to research the feasibility of nuclear missile launch sites in the Arctic (under the guise of polar research, of course).  Denmark, which controlled Greenland at the time, granted the US permission to establish military bases there.  At the site, camp personnel stored an unknown amount of radioactive

Anthrax outbreak in Russia after dormant form of virus released from thawed permafrost At first it seemed like something out of a sci-fi movie but the latest news this week confirm the event is true. It began last week when reports of over 1,000 reindeer dying in the Yamal region, the fifth largest region in Russia (comparable in size to Turkey and larger than Texas). This week, Interfax reported another 1,000+ reindeer had died bringing the total to about 1% of the area’s reindeer population. It was initially believed the reindeer died from the extraordinary heatwave that struck the area in July. However, new biological tests revealed anthrax is responsible for the deaths – and it has spread to humans. Details are still sketchy but reports indicate over

Scientists this week noted a highly unusual weather event – the Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream has merged with the Southern Hemisphere Jet Stream. One scientist explained: “Historically, the Tropics — which produce the tallest and thickest air mass in the world — have served as a mostly impenetrable barrier to upper level winds moving from one Hemisphere to another. But as the Poles have warmed due to human-forced climate change, the Hemispherical Jet Streams have moved out of the Middle Latitudes more and more.” Now that the jet streams have merged – what’s next? Some believe the extraordinary event could have global weather-changing consequences including the end of seasons on planet earth.  One scientist explained the concern over the unusual merging of the jet streams: “That’s bad news for seasonality. You get this weather-destabilizing

The historic, out-of-control Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, Canada wiped out cities and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. Given today’s advanced firefighting technology, modern-day wildfires are much smaller than historic burners of the past, but with changing weather and environmental conditions resulting from global warming, experts say the fires burn much hotter and spread much quicker than fires of the past. In fact, Canada’s 2016 wildfire is so intense, it is furthering its advance by generating its own weather system. Compounding fears, experts now believe dire effects from the extraordinary fire may extend far beyond Canada and Alaska. The 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire is so intense, it generates its own lightning inside a self-contained weather system Experts say the fire is burning so hot, "fire clouds" are forming which not

Global warming and climate change have produced unusually dry conditions in Australia this past year, prompting a bizarre invasion of a species worthy of nightmares – well at least for the residents of southeastern Australia who say the “hairy panic” tumbleweeds are burying their cars, covering doorways, and piling up on roofs of houses. The weeds, officially known as Panicum effusum, have invaded Wangaratta, an inland town in the Australian state of Victoria. Residents are blaming the outbreak on a single farmer whom they said failed to plant one of his fields this season allowing the weed to run rampant. One resident wrote on Facebook: “Hope the person who owns the out of control paddocks in our area gets notified to do something because this is a joke

This crack in the earth is huge – more than seven football fields long and nearly a football field in width – and it appeared virtually overnight. Scientists are not sure what caused it, how it formed, or how much bigger it may get. “A hunter stumbled on it when he was hunting there Oct. 1. And the next time anybody went out there, a few weeks later, there it was, this huge slide or crack or whatever it is.” The crack appeared in a rural area, about 40 miles south of Ten Sleep in north central Wyoming, on state-owned land in the middle of a cattle ranch. The land began to crack in late September but geologists were stunned to find it had developed from a mere