NO PEACE in MAY …

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The following excerpts from news posted at Watch.org are very telling … with respect that no peace pact will come to Israel in March, or April, or May … and frankly, those who have read the Scriptures know what to look for … we are told there the peace pact will be a seven year covenant in a time when Israel lives without walls … NO PEACE, NO WAY, until then.  Also of interest is Putin’s apparent desire to grater power and with access to strategic territories that will only make it easier to move forces to the south … Gog and Magog … is that it?

Stay tuned, because if you really think about it, humanity is not about living in peace, stewardship, or extending the prospects for life on earth … why?  Because everyone has some sort of material or national agenda … and that is why we say information from both science and scripture have relevance … so visit WindowView for more on that, but for now … WHAT do the following headlines tell you!

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Susan Rice to Netanyahu: Only two-state solution can bring peace with Palestinians

Not reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran is preferable to signing a bad accord, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, soon after meeting with visiting US National Security Advisor Susan Rice.  Rice arrived in the country earlier in the day as part of a high-level US delegation. Members of the delegation came to consult with their Israeli counterparts about Iran and other strategic issues prior to another round of talks between the P5+1 and Iran in Vienna next week, and as work went on to formulate a final nuclear deal. Following the Rice meeting – a meeting the Prime Minister’s Office was not willing to discuss – Netanyahu met with a delegation from the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF). The brief statement issued about that meeting made the gist of Netanyahu’s message to Rice clear.

Meeting Abbas, Rice outlines ‘constructive’ path forward for peace with Israel

Any power-sharing Palestinian government must recognize the state of Israel, renounce violence and adhere to previous agreements, whether it includes Hamas or not, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting in Ramallah on Thursday.  According to the White House, Rice made “clear… the principles that must guide a Palestinian government in order for it to play a constructive role in achieving peace and building an independent Palestinian state.”

“She reiterated US policy that any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the State of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties,” the White House said in a statement after the meeting.

US envoy Indyk insists peace process not dead

Washington’s top negotiator criticizes both sides for failed talks, saying Netanyahu was ‘flexible’ despite approving settlements.  While delivering scathing condemnations of the behavior of both sides, Washington’s chief negotiator in the recent Israeli-Palestinian talks denied Thursday that the peace process was over.  In his most revealing comments since the breakdown of talks, Ambassador Martin Indyk recounted Thursday evening how, after six months of productive direct negotiations, Palestinian leaders “shut down” and singled out settlement activity as a major – but not the sole – factor.

“We have passed the nine-month marker for these negotiations, and for the time being the talks have been suspended,” Indyk said, addressing the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Weinberg Founders Conference in Washington DC. “Some have said this process is over. But that is not correct. As my little story testifies. As you all know well— in the Middle East, it’s never over.”

Roads blocked, schools closed as freak rains flood country, flash floods from Eilat to the Dead Sea

Unseasonable storm wreaks havoc in south; flash floods reported from Eilat to Dead Sea.  Schools near the Dead Sea were shut and several roads in the area were blocked by authorities Thursday morning as a rare tropical storm dumped rain across the country causing flash floods and wreaking havoc in the south of the country.  Wednesday night and Thursday morning saw heavy rains and thunderstorms across the country, a rare occurrence so late into the spring. The rain brought dry riverbeds to life, flooding low-lying areas, especially in the Judean Desert and Negev in the south of the country. By Thursday morning the city of Arad reported 44 millimeters of rain had fallen from the storm, 40 times the average for this time of year, according to the Israel Meteorological Service. Jerusalem saw 32 millimeters, Beersheba 24 millimeters and Ra’anana 45 millimeters. Tel Aviv, however, only saw 15 millimeters.

Top Netanyahu aide: Here’s proof Abbas deliberately destroyed peace talks

Analysis: Countering US narrative, some Israeli sources
insist Netanyahu negotiated sincerely

Putin oversees Russian Nuclear forces exercise

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday oversaw a military exercise involving Russia’s nuclear forces amid escalating tensions over Ukraine.  While Putin said the exercise had been planned back in November, it comes as relations between Russia and the West have plunged to their lowest point since the Cold War over Ukraine.  Putin, speaking from the Defense Ministry’s headquarters where he oversaw the exercise along with leaders of several ex-Soviet nations which are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, said that the maneuvers involved the military across the entire Russian territory, including the nation’s nuclear forces.  Russian news wires said that the exercises simulated dealing a massive retaliatory nuclear strike in response to an enemy attack. The description of the exercise is unusually blunt, reflecting tensions with the West running high over Ukraine.

Putin says Russian troops pull back from Ukraine border

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Wednesday that his military had pulled back from the Ukrainian border — but a top Pentagon official told Fox News that the U.S. military had not seen any changes in the deployment of Russian forces.  Putin also urged pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine to postpone Sunday’s referendum on secession. Putin said Russian troops had pulled back to training grounds and locations for “regular exercises,” but didn’t specify whether those locations were in areas near Ukraine.

Putin Warns of Growing Militant Nationalism, Nazi Ideology in Europe

NATO’s top military commander in Europe said on Monday he no longer thought regular Russian troops would enter eastern Ukraine, predicting Moscow could achieve its goals through the unconventional forces stirring up trouble there.  U.S. air force Gen. Philip Breedlove said it was a completely false Russian narrative that it was only Ukrainians rebelling in the east of their country, saying it was clear that special forces troops from Russia were operating there as they did in Crimea before its annexation.  “Remember that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin denied their presence and now he has admitted to their presence in Crimea. The same thing will come out of Ukraine as time rolls out,” he told a military and diplomatic audience in Ottawa.

Pew Global Survey: Public Backs Putin, Crimea’s Secession, Putin is overwhelmingly popular

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s handling of the crisis in Ukraine has met with considerable opposition in Western nations and much of the international community, as well as in Ukraine itself, but Russians have largely rallied around their leader. Putin is overwhelmingly popular, and Russian national pride appears to be on the rise. In fact, a plurality thinks Putin’s handling of the crisis has improved Russia’s international stature.  A large majority of Russians believe the recent referendum in Crimea was free and fair, and that Kyiv (Kiev) should accept the results and allow Crimea to join Russia. Crimea is only one of Russia’s territorial grievances, and as they have in previous surveys, a majority of Russians say they believe there are parts of neighboring countries that really belong to Russia.  Meanwhile, tensions with the West have led to a dramatic spike in negative views about the U.S. and the European Union. Similarly, both U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are held in low regard.

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Spend some time at your window and think about what is really happening in the world today … it looks like it could get a lot worse before it gets better.

Director, WindowView.org

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Genome as Library, Survival by Chance or Design

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Sitting here for years and looking at how scientists regard evolution in daily terms and how the argument from design reveals organisms hold unique and highly specified information, that in turn drives the existence of complex structure and function, leads to an idea … the genome in organisms is a library. Libraries hold much more information than one reads at any time. Books are checked out for a time and later returned. All the while, the library holds a vast amount of information, even in books hidden or buried in the stacks.

The following news feed from a scientific list serve seems to hint that corals, themselves a complex relationship of organisms, have within themselves the ability to check out and utilize information to survive changes in environment. Recent review of the scientific literature by Meyer indicates the invention of new information, traits, and thus genetic abilities by organisms is not known to the datasets collected by the scientific community. Perhaps as junk DNA becomes even more an understood entity we will see how extant, present information within living types is already present. How that got there in the first place leaves out the standard model and opens science to the new challenge.

When the sea grows warm or acid, it’s not by mutation but by endowment that organisms adjust to change. A well endowed library is the gift of life and that is replete with complex and specified information … that comes with the appearance of life.

From the list serve:

Researchers find coral can change physiology to survive warming seas
When oceans become warmer or acidic, coral reef apparently have the ability to change their physiology to survive, researchers have discovered. Studying coral off Ofu Island in American Samoa, researchers found that the coral can use their genes to turn on heat-resistant proteins. “What we don’t know is what their limits are, and when those limits are going to be reached by future climate change,” said marine biologist Stephen Palumbi of Stanford University. Nature (free content) (4/24)

In recent decades the scientific community was discouraged by the thought corals would die off due to climate change leaving a barren sea across the globe. But if we look for the libraries in life, we might see an entire array of informational gifts within. Some will try to sell it as evolution, but the information is still highly specified and complex without substantial explanation as to the origin. To understand that requires the big picture view here at the window.

Director, WindowView.org

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“Darwin’s Doubt” with Stephen Meyer

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This video presentation has received positive reviews because so much is clearly explained by Dr. Meyer about his book “Darwin’s Doubt.”

“Darwin’s Doubt” with Stephen Meyer from Socrates in the City on Vimeo.

Watch and hear from the author himself.

Director, WindowView.org

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Question: What is the Ultimate Reality

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WindowView is in a sense another way of saying “world view” except that a line of reasoning and an appeal to ‘data’ or information that is before us is indeed part of the real objective to presenting the Window. It’s YOUR window, you look, you see, you assess and in the end only you can conclude what is real.  But lets visit the vital questions in life for a moment.  If Darwin’s theory on evolution is all there is to being, then we are the result of chance and randomness in the universe. But Darwin had his doubts about evolution and the data today support good reason to doubt his theory. So, then, what is reality? What are the consequences to getting the correct data to determine who you are?

Dr. Samples offers the following list of critical factors and questions in his book “World of Difference.”

“An accurate road map supplies valid directions that profoundly guide a person’s life decisions. Therefore, a well-thought-out course, or worldview, needs to answer twelve ultimate concerns that philosophers identify as “the big questions of life”:

1. Ultimate Reality: What kind of God, if any, actually exists?

2. External Reality: Is there anything beyond the cosmos?

3. Knowledge: What can be known and how can anyone know it?

4. Origin: Where did I come from?

5. Identity: Who am I?

6. Location: Where am I?

7. Morals: How should I live?

8. Values: What should I consider of great worth?

9. Predicament: What is humanity’s fundamental problem?

10. Resolution: How can humanity’s problem be solved?

11. Past/Present: What is the meaning and direction of history?

12. Destiny: Will I survive the death of my body and, if so, in what state?

When a worldview elucidates reasonable answers to these ultimate questions, life (and death) issues become much more comprehensible and easier to get through.”

The concept of WindowView hinges on the fact that evidence from science, Scripture, changes around the globe, and a timeline sequences that follows a known chronology going forward, all this presents a convergence of driving forces.  All this provides an affirmative answer to the first questions and all the data from there on becomes easier to see. But what about these ultimate questions.  You have asked them, we all have. But have you taken time to look through the Window?

Director, WindowView.org

 

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Risks for Global Change

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WE ARE ALL AT RISK
A recent MarketWatch article starts this way:

“A poll of participants ahead of this year’s World Economic Forum at Davos found 10 areas of highest risk to the world. Such risks are “defined as an occurrence that causes significant negative impact for several countries and industries over a time frame of up to 10 years,” according to a report issued before the conference slated for this month in Switzerland.

1. Fiscal crises in key economies: The biggest concern, according to the report, remains whether wealthy countries can keep it together. “The report lists fiscal crises as the top risk advanced economies remain in danger of fiscal crises. …

Aside: This article relates how global economic instability could (ironically) stem from (complex political scenarios and ) falling oil prices as described elsewhere.

The MarketWatch article outlines these additional factors for global risks:

2. Structurally high unemployment/underemployment: The flip side of income disparity is the persistent unemployment and underemployment of millions of people.

3. Water crises: Huge population growth is placing big demands on freshwater supplies, notably in China and sub-saharan Africa. …

4. Severe income disparity: With employment in developed countries still suppressed in the wake of the financial crisis, and huge unemployed populations in developing economies, income disparity is a huge issue for Davos participants.

“Income disparity is also among the most worrying of issues. It raises concerns about the Great Recession and the squeezing effect it had on the middle classes in developed economies, while globalization has brought about a polarization of incomes in emerging and developing economies. This is true despite the obvious progress in countries such as Brazil and lower levels of poverty in several developing countries in Asia and Africa.“

5. Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation: Similar to the fear of global governance failure is the fear that concerns over climate change won’t be addressed. “Climate change, ranked fifth on the list, is the key driver of such uncertain and changing weather patterns, causing an increased frequency of extreme weather events such as floods and droughts,” according to the report.

6. Greater incidence of extreme weather events: … Of note, is the finding that huge populations in coming years will be born in developing countries with potential exposure to hurricanes and typhoons, posing greater risks of damage such as was caused in the Philippines last year by a huge storm.

7. Global governance failure: This one amounts to the fear that … in the end international institutions aren’t actually able to get their act together.

“Given that global risks can be addressed effectively only through international collaboration, it is hardly a surprise that global governance failure is also included in the list as the risk of seventh highest concern,” the report finds.

8. Food crises: Nothing gets people riled up like not being able to eat. …

9. Failure of a major financial mechanism/institution: Perhaps not surprisingly … concern over failures financial institutions remains very high.

“Five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, with its system-wide impacts, the failure of a major financial mechanism or institution also features among the risks that the respondents are most concerned about, as uncertainty about the quality of many banks’ assets remains.”

10. Profound political and social instability: No. 10 on this year’s list is profound political and social instability potentially caused by military actions or aggressive foreign or trade policies on the part of global or regional powers.

———————– From the Window —————————-

The above ten cited concerns are not necessarily directly linked to biblical themes, but some are. For the serious Bible student, the idea of global governance is something that might link all ten issues. One day, soon, according to the Bible the world will turn to a single over arching global governance … a one world government. While climate change, as a whole, is not described in the Bible, numerous other events and the making of the one world government easily connect to the risks we see today. How will humans in a material context respond to changes in a way that leads to a single governance? We suggest material and spiritual forces bring us to such a point. And to understand that viewpoint takes time looking through the Window!

Director, WindowView.org

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Raising Estimates on Sea Level Rise

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“A team of Rutgers University researchers has attempted to answer that question and localize it by studying past sea-level rise along the East Coast, as well as other factors that could influence what happens along the New Jersey Shore.

In recently published studies, they conclude that sea level at the Shore – already rising faster than at any time in the last 4,300 years – could go up by 11 to 15 inches more than the global average by 2100.

While levels worldwide will generally increase less than a foot by 2050, those at the Shore will likely rise 1.5 feet, according to a mid-range scenario. By 2100, local levels could climb 3.5 feet, bringing unprecedented flooding.”

Quotation above from Full article

Why is sea level rise important?  Our answer: because the topic of change affects every living being on the planet. And if that is linked to what life is and will be in the future, then change heightens our senses concerning a deeper look at the value and meaning of life itself.

The underlying position one can adopt from time spent looking through the ‘window’ is that driving forces in material and mind open one’s spirit to seeing life in the context of purpose and a future. Too many people either don’t take time to look at their life in the context of our origins, information from both science and Scripture, and further make too many conclusions by assumptions. Global change is one aspect of the multiple perspectives one gains by a good long look. You are alive … here … now, so why not look if indeed the WindowView reveals something special about life and that you are not here by chance.

Director. WindowView.org

 

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EVOLUTIONISM IN THE PULPIT

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“From The Herald and Presbyter, November 22, 1911, Cincinnati, Ohio. We reprint this excellent paper as the remarkable utterance of a Christian layman on a most important subject. — Editor

BY AN OCCUPANT OF THE PEW

Perhaps the most remarkable movement in philosophic thought that has occurred in any age was the rise and general acceptance by scientific circles of the evolutionary theory as propounded by Darwin, Huxley and Spencer. It was remarkable that men of science, whose peculiar boast it is that they deal only with established facts, should have so readily departed from this rule and accepted a system based upon hypothesis only, and which was, and is still after the lapse of forty years, without a single known fact to support it. Even when allowance is made for the well-known eagerness of many scientists to do away with all dualism, which was Mr. Darwin’s aim, it was still remarkable that men of trained intellect should have so promptly accepted at face value his two principal works, in which the expression, “we may well suppose,” occurs over eight hundred times, as a basis for the argument. Pure supposition may answer as a foundation for fanciful sketches like those of Jules Verne’s; but as ground upon which to base a sober scientific argument it appears to the average man as little less than farcical. Why it did not so appear to the scientific mind, the scientific mind may perhaps be able to explain. We frankly confess our inability to do so.”

From THE FUNDAMENTALS – A TESTIMONY TO THE TRUTH Volume 4 Edited by R.A. Torrey, A.C. Dixon and Others.

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A Quotation from A Conclusion on Evolution

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The following words from Dr. Wright may not at first resonate with the way moderns think, but from this window is a view to interesting reflections. Written over a century ago, these words are worth a look:

Theories of evolution have chased each other off the field in rapid succession for thousands of years. Evolution is not a new thing in philosophy, and such is the frailty of human nature that it is not likely to disappear suddenly from among men. The craze of the last half century is little more than the recrudesence of a philosophy which has divided the opinion of men from the earliest ages. In both the Egyptian and the East Indian mythology, the world and all things in it were evolved from an egg; and so in the Polynesian myths. But the Polynesians had to have a bird to lay the egg, and the Egyptians and the Brahmans had to have some sort of a deity to create theirs. The Greek philosophers struggled with the problem without coming to any more satisfactory conclusion. Aniximander, like Professor Huxley, traced everything back to an “infinity” which gradually worked itself into a sort of pristine “mud” (something like Huxley’s exploded “bathybius”), out of which everything else evolved; while Thales of Miletus tried to think of water as the mother of everything, and Aneximenes practically deified the air. Diogenes imagined a “mind stuff” (something like Weissmann’s “biophores,” Darwin’s “gemmules possessed with affinity for each other,” and Spencer’s “vitalized molecules”) which acted as if it had intelligence; while Heraclitus thought that fire was the only element pure enough to produce the soul of man. These speculations culminated in the great poem of Lucretius entitled, De Rerum Natura, written shortly before the beginning of the Christian era. His atomic theory was something like that which prevails at the present time among physicists. Amid the unceasing motion of these atoms there somehow appeared, according to him, the orderly forms and the living processes of nature.

Modern evolutionary speculations have not made much real progress over those of the ancients. As already remarked, they are, in their bolder forms atheistic; while in their milder forms they are “deistic” — admitting, indeed, the agency of God at the beginning, but nowhere else. The attempt, however, to give the doctrine standing through Darwin’s theory of the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection has not been successful; for at best, that theory can enlarge but little our comprehension of the adequacy of resident forces to produce and conserve variations of species, and cannot in the least degree banish the idea of design from the process.

From: CHAPTER 6 THE PASSING OF EVOLUTION BY PROFESSOR GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT, D. D., L.L. D., Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. In THE FUNDAMENTALS – A TESTIMONY TO THE TRUTH Volume 4 Edited by R.A. Torrey, A.C. Dixon and Others. ca. 1909

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Billions of Earth-size planets … Yes, but ….

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On the news wire for November 5:

“Milky Way may host billions of Earth-size planets – LA Times
There’s no place like home, but scientists now say that Earth-size planets orbiting sun-like stars in a so-called habitable zone are so common that there could be as many as 11 billion in the Milky Way alone.”

We have NASA colleagues who strive hard to find evidence for water on Mars or to reach into space for habitable planets. And we may find many houses with rooms and spaces fit for life in the universe … but the real question is: Why do we make the leap to say if it’s fit for life, we will find life? Let us think one step further.

Starting on planet Earth and examining every aspect of life from sophisticated research efforts we now find the ultimate dilemma. Science indicates laws and conditions ( the application of physics, chemistry, and material sciences ) is likely equal across the universe. If life starts here it could by the same means start elsewhere. That is logic used by many persons.

Okay, now the wrench to throw into the works. Human explorations of planetary science (i.e. of Earth ) and every conceivable approach to how chemicals could or can come together to create first life … all come to dead ends. Human ingenuity suggests there must be an answer because … well … because here we are alive today.

Bottom line: Scientists cannot tell you how life arouse from chemicals. So why would any other planet elsewhere be any better than this known fit for life earth? You can think about that because we want to go to the bigger problem now known to the sciences.

Life is not simply metabolism, form, reproduction, or historical records of species. Life is an innovation. A first innovation for first appearance and we will not toss out the word evolution here, because some change in life forms appears over time (from existing life).

The problem is simply life is based on information. Information in DNA and also epigenetic information that is elsewhere in living beings and not in the DNA. The point raised here is simple. No one in science has explained how the initial information arouse. Most biological, genetic and evolutionary research shows change over time, but based on existing information in life forms. Explaining new innovation that gives us new forms based on new information is lacking.

There is more to this presentation than written here. The main point is that the universe can have trillions of habitable planets, but unless chemicals can make life and information is somehow introduced to direct life’s forms and being … you can count all the planets you want to no gain.

Is this a case of skepticism? Actually, not at all. This post is simply drawing attention to the status of what science also knows as fact. And that gives cause to not being so moved by planetary discoveries, because the real question for which we desire answers concerns the source and origin of life in the first place.

Director, WindowView.org

Related Window Links:
Chemical Origins — Yes or No — What Does the Evidence Show
Time Required for Macroevolution to Occur
Living On A Privileged Planet

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Getting Hotter: Human influence on climate clear, IPCC says

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To Our WindowViewers:

A while back we came across an article about the potential release of methane that currently is held in the permafrost of the northern latitudes.  If the permafrost region experiences temperature increases … then methane will be released into the atmosphere.  AND once that happens, warming will accelerate.  The international panel of scientists has just released new documentation and in January a report will be posted with their latest assessment.

BOTTOM LINE:  If the IPCC is correct and the further warming also influences methane releases … then the Change we speak of at WindowView will come quicker than anyone, you, us, all plain folks, could ever imagine.

—————    IPCC PRESS RELEASE  ————-

27 September 2013

Human influence on climate clear, IPCC report says

STOCKHOLM, 27 September – Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident

in most regions of the globe, a new assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes.

It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. The evidence for this has grown, thanks to more and better observations, an improved understanding of the climate system response and improved climate models.

Warming in the climate system is unequivocal and since 1950 many changes have been observed throughout the climate system that are unprecedented over decades to millennia. Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850, reports the Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC Working Group I assessment report, Climate Change 2013: the Physical Science Basis, approved on Friday by member governments of the IPCC in Stockholm, Sweden.

“Observations of changes in the climate system are based on multiple lines of independent evidence. Our assessment of the science finds that the atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amount of snow and ice has diminished, the global mean sea level has risen and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased,” said Qin Dahe, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group I.

Thomas Stocker, the other Co-Chair of Working Group I said: “Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all components of the climate system. Limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.”

——————- end quotation from press release ————

We’ll provide more on the methane story in a future post.  One thing is certain, the news on climate change is heating up.  Sea level is rising, migration patterns have changed, and life on earth is shifting!

Visit our change pages at WindowView

Director, WindowVieworg

Window Related Links:
Thesis on Change
Climate Change
Historic Scientists’ Warning

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