Japan digs deep for alternative energy

Deutsche Welle, 7 February 2014

Three years after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Japan's nuclear plants remain mothballed. But as Tokyo struggles to cover the costs of imported oil and petroleum, companies have set their sights on geothermal energy.

The announcement in January that Japan suffered a record trade deficit in 2013 caused consternation in Tokyo, with analysts pointing to the need to import fossil fuels as the biggest single factor in the nation's economic slump.

The annual deficit spiked to 11.47 trillion yen (112.07 billion US dollars), up 65.3 percent on the previous year, due in large part to the demand from industry and households for crude oil and liquefied natural gas, all of which have to be imported.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says it is committed to restarting nuclear reactors idled since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and weaning the country off energy imports. But with the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant still fresh in local residents' memories, there is little likelihood of the nation's 50 reactors being switched back on in the near future.

Adversity into opportunity

Face with this situation, Japanese companies have discovered that times of adversity can also present a window of opportunity. And with the public unwilling to countenance a return to nuclear power - at least for now - a number of firms want to tap into an underdeveloped, virtually limitless and environmentally friendly energy source that literally lies beneath Japan's feet.

PM Shinzo Abe is committed to
restarting nuclear reactors in Japan

Chuo Electric Power Co. has announced that its new geothermal plant in Kumamoto Prefecture will start generating power in April, becoming the first new geothermal facility in 15 years.

A second project, developed by Orix Corp, and Toshiba Corp., is scheduled to go online in early 2015. The two companies see the plant in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan, as a test site for further facilities in Hokkaido, Tohoku - the region devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami - and on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu.

Another 10-company consortium, headed by Idemitsu Kosan Co. and Inpex Corp., has similarly announced plans to develop Japan's largest geothermal plant, in the Bandai-Asahi National Park in the Fukushima Prefecture. With an anticipated output capacity of 270,000 kilowatts, the developers are hoping to have the plant operational in the early years of the next decade.

Oil, gas exploration firms

"Inpex are getting involved as they are an oil and gas exploration company and obviously have experience and know-how in the area of drilling, so a project like this is perfect for them," Tom O'Sullivan, an independent energy consultant and founder of Tokyo-based Mathyos Japan, told DW.

Projects to harness Japan's geothermal resources lag behind the solar sector, he agreed, "but the potential is enormous in a country that sits atop the 'Ring of Fire'" - the meeting point of tectonic plates around the Pacific Rim that is infamous for seismic activity, volcanoes and naturally heated water rising from deep within the earth's crust.

"All of Japan is colored in red on the University of Tokyo's seismological map," O'Sullivan said. "The potential is just remarkable." An estimated 70 gigawatts of geothermal energy lie directly below Japan, sufficient to supply more than one third of the nation's power needs, O'Sullivan said.

Japanese companies want to tap into the underdeveloped energy source
which lie under the country's feet

But there are also hurdles. In the same way as people in other countries are protesting the exploitation of shale gas deposits, many in Japan are resisting the deep boring that is required to access geothermal energy. Even the operators of the nation's famous "onsen" hot spring resorts are concerned that the power industry will deprive them of the resource they rely on.

High development costs

Development costs are also high, critics point out, with a 20 megawatt geothermal plant requiring an initial 7 million US dollars to assess and then a further investment of between $20 million and $40 million to complete the drilling.

The typical seven years from discovery to commercial operation of a geothermal plant is another concern for potential investors. A solar farm, for example, can be returning an income in as little as 12 months, O'Sullivan points out.

Japan's first geothermal plant (article picture) opened on the island of Hachijojima in 1999 and, to date, geothermal projects here have been relatively small-scale affairs, in part to ensure the support of local residents.

Since the Fukushima disaster, however, the national government has introduced a feed-in tariff system to encourage investment in the geothermal sector and a further 20 sites across the country are presently being assessed for the suitability for projects.

Rival energy sources

But Yoko Ito, a senior researcher at the Institute of Energy Economics Japan, believes that more attention is still being focused on other potential sources of renewable energy.

"The feed-in tariffs were introduced in July 2012 as the government believed they would help to increase the amount of geothermal energy being supplied, but the total amount that has been added so far is disappointing," she said.

The 17 plants currently in operation provide a modest 520 megawatts, although this puts Japan in eighth place in the world in terms of geothermal electricity, according to the Geothermal Energy Association.

"Many of Japan's projects are quite small, for a limited local area and not suitable for commercial operations," Ito said.

Supporters of alternatives to Japan's reliance on nuclear energy or polluting fossil fuels hope that small-scale geothermal projects will eventually encourage investors to sink their money into larger schemes that may make the most of the nation's underground opportunity.

Related Articles:

"Connecting The Dots" - Feb 1, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - New

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version) 

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much….”

Natural insecticide helps diversify Rwandan economy

Google – AFP, Stephanie Aglietti (AFP), 14 February 2014

A woman harvests pyrethre flowers, which will later be dried to produce pyrethrum,

 a natural insecticide, in Musanze, northern Rwanda , on October 24, 2013 (AFP,

Stephanie Aglietti)

Musanze — Tourists flock to Rwanda's mountains to see its famed gorillas, but now the small nation is working to diversify its economy with a natural insecticide farmed on nearby fertile foothills.

Pyrethrum, a natural insecticide, is ideally suited to the climate in the foothills of the Virunga mountains where the gorillas live, in the north of Rwanda.

"It's used to make natural insecticide," explains Laher Nyirakwiha, a barefoot 70-year-old farmer as she tosses a handful of small daisy-like flowers into a wicker basket.

A woman harvests pyrethre flowers, which will

 later be dried to produce pyrethrum, a natural

 insecticide, in Musanze, northern Rwanda , on

October 24, 2013 (AFP, Stephanie Aglietti)

Few grow the plant commercially: only here, in neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania and in Australia, mainly on the island of Tasmania.

The revival of this crop, first introduced in colonial times, is one of Rwanda's recent attempts to diversify its sources of foreign currency, generated mainly by tea, coffee and tourism.

Agriculture still accounted for one-third of the economy of this densely populated central African country in 2012.

"Rwanda decided to develop pyrethrum as a cash crop, so as to get an additional source of revenue for farmers and another foreign exchange earner," Jerome Mureramanzi, production manager at the Rwanda Pyrethrum Company (Sopyrwa) told AFP.

Pyrethrum was first introduced here as a crop in 1936, but dropped off after Rwanda's devastating 1994 genocide, only being revived a decade or so later.

Tasmania is currently thought to be the world's biggest producer, industry sources say, although Kenya, another big producer, stopped publishing statistics a decade ago.

The pyrethrum is exported to the United States, Europe and Asia, while some is sold to a local company that produces organic insecticides.

Pyrethrum cultivation, like every other type of economic activity, was abandoned after the 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people died, and which left the country's social and economic life in ruins.

Environmental considerations were a factor motivating its revival.

"As the world becomes more conscious of the need to protect the environment, Rwanda has seized the opportunity to develop this natural insecticide," Mureramanzi added.

Women harvest pyrethre flowers, which will later be dried to produce pyrethrum,

 a natural insecticide, in Musanze, northern Rwanda , on October 24, 2013

(AFP, Stephanie Aglietti)

Other producing countries are also seeking to revive or expand cultivation the crop. Australia is introducing pyrethrum to parts of the mainland, and the crop is also being revived in neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

Another east African country, Uganda, recently sent a team to Rwanda with a view to growing the crop.

'Win-win' scheme

The plant, from the chrysanthemum family, contains the organic substance pyrethrin, which acts on the central nervous system of insects.

"Pyrethrum kills a wide variety of insects without any impact on the environment, as its organic compound is very quickly destroyed by ultraviolet rays," Mureramanzi said.

The flowers are dried and processed, then the honey-coloured extract is exported, mainly to the United States and to Europe.

Between 2009 and 2013, annual production of dried flower heads rose from 200 tonnes to 1,300 tonnes, according to Sopyrwa, with revenue rising seven fold to $7 million (five million euros).

The plant will not grow at altitudes lower than 1800 metres (5,900 feet) and needs cold nights and generous rainfall.

This region of rich volcanic soil where northern Rwanda meets Uganda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, with its lashing rain and chilly nights, fits the bill exactly.

Some 37,000 Rwandan peasant farmers live from this crop, whose cultivation covers some 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres).

Under the terms of a deal between the government and the farmers, some of the farmers have to use at least 40 percent of their land for growing pyrethrum.

Mountain Gorillas frolick in dense undergrowth at the Virunga National park

in Rwanda on June 17, 2012 (AFP/File, Aude Genet)

The remaining 60 percent can be planted with food crops, while the farmers are also obliged to alternate so that pyrethrum is not planted on the same part of every plot the whole time.

Sopyrwa's director general Gabriel Bizimungu said that the company provides its farmers with seeds and fertiliser, builds drying stations for the flowers and pays its farmers on time.

The farmers have organised themselves into cooperatives to which they sell their crops at fixed prices.

"It allows farmers to diversify their sources of income and Sopyrwa buys all of their production," Mureramanzi said, adding that farmers can access interest-free loans through the cooperatives.

"It's a win-win situation," said Jean-Claude Kayisinga from the Rwanda Pyrethrum Program.

The programme, funded by USAID and Wisconsin-based cleaning products manufacturer S.C.Johnson, has been training farmers since 2009 on how to increase yields and improve the quality of the pyrethrum flowers they cultivate.

Farmers get virtually the same profits as they do from growing potatoes and alternating crops means the productivity of food crops is improved.

Not only does growing pyrethrum help fight erosion, it also enriches the soil, meaning better crops of food staples such as potatoes or cabbages.

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Taiwan develops plant oil mixture to replace pesticides

Taiwan aims to triple organic farming land by 2020

Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I would appreciate a perspective on the following: There seems to be two opposed schools of thought with respect to pesticides and their use. One group categorically states that they are very dangerous and that they are responsible for causing cancers etc... (there's a very long list!!) The other group naturally claims that they are perfectly safe with today's technological advances etc. 

Answer: The chemicals you are using today are dangerous to your health. The more they are used, the more it will be seen over time. We have indicated before that there are far better natural scientific solutions to protecting your crops. Use biology to balance biology. It is non-toxic and simply an alteration of what already exists.

Oil sands pollution two to three times higher than thought

Google – AFP, Kerry Sheridan (AFP), 3 February 2014

A bus carrying workers heads towards the Syncrude oil sands extraction

facility in Alberta Province, Canada on October 22, 2009 (AFP/File, Mark Ralston)

Washington — The amount of harmful pollutants released in the process of recovering oil from tar sands in western Canada is likely far higher than corporate interests say, university researchers said Monday.

Actual levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions into the air may be two to three times higher than estimated, said the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.

The study raises new questions about the accuracy of environmental impact assessments on the tar sands, just days after a US State Department report said the controversial Keystone pipeline project to bring oil from Canada to Texas would have little impact on climate change or the environment.

Current government-accepted estimates do not account for the evaporation of PAHs from wastewater pools known as tailing ponds, which are believed to be a major source of pollution, said researchers at the University of Toronto.

View of an oil sands mine near the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta

on October 23, 2009 (AFP/File, Mark Ralston)

According to corporate interests which are responsible for projecting their environmental impact, the Athabasca oil sands beneath Alberta, Canada -- which hold the third largest reserve of crude oil known in the world -- are only spewing as much pollution into the air as sparsely populated Greenland, where no big industry exists.

Lead study author Frank Wania, a professor in the department of physical and environmental sciences, described the corporate estimates as "inadequate and incomplete."

"If you use these officially reported emissions for the oil sands area you get an emissions density that is lower than just about anywhere else in the world," he told AFP.

"Only with a complete and accurate account of the emissions is it actually possible to make a meaningful assessment of the environmental impact and of the risk to human health," he added.

Began as a student project

The research began as a term paper project by his student, Abha Parajulee, and was funded only by internal resources at the University of Toronto, he said.

She examined emissions estimates from environmental impact assessments that corporations must file with the government before any new projects can begin to coax oil from the Athabasca oil sands.

Aerial view of the Syncrude oil sands extraction facility with the Suncor extraction

 facility in the background, in Alberta Province, Canada on October 23, 2009

(AFP/File, Mark Ralston)

She compared them with measurements in the field by academic scientists and by the federal ministry of the environment, known as Environment Canada.

The estimates were way lower than the actual measurements, apparently because they did not include any escape of PAHs from tailing ponds, which are engineered dyke and dam systems built near mining operations in the oil sands to collect the water, sand, clay and residual oil left over from processing.

Until now, they were not expected to be a source of pollution.

PAHs are dangerous chemicals created in the burning of fossil fuels, and some are considered cancer-causing. They can also coat meats and other foods that are char-grilled.

Little common sense

"The physical properties of these substances are such that if you put them in water they will partition into the atmosphere," said Jonathan Martin, an associate professor in the department of division of environmental toxicology at the University of Alberta.

"It was shocking to me to understand that current environmental impact assessments do not take this into account at all," said Martin, who was not involved with the research but reviewed it before publication.

A disused mining machine is displayed in front of the Syncrude oil sands

 extraction facility near the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta Province, Canada

on October 22, 2009 (AFP/File, Mark Ralston)

"It just shows how little we know," Martin told AFP.

He said that since the paper relies on modeling projections, PAH measurements need to be taken above tailing ponds to confirm, which would require big oil's permission.

Environment Canada is interested in the findings and has agreed to fund more research going forward, Wania said.

With the third largest crude oil reserves in the world after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, Canada has predicted that oil sands development will bring in about $2 trillion over the next two decades.

The US State Department's report on Friday raised no major objections to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline plan and said the pipeline would not in itself significantly increase greenhouse gases.

The Keystone XL project aims to carry some 830,000 barrels of heavy crude a day from Alberta's oil sands south to Nebraska refineries before joining an existing pipeline to be shipped to Texas.

Related Articles:

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Has Canada's government been muzzling its scientists?

Oil sands' toxins 'accumulate in freshwater ecosystems'

UK secretly helping Canada push its oil sands project

Canada to pull out of Kyoto protocol

Aboriginal Leaders Meet with Canada PM as Grassroots Protest

UN Security Council declares war on ivory poachers, traffickers

Google – AFP, André Viollaz (AFP), 3 February 2014

Seized ivory tusks are displayed during a Hong Kong Customs press

conference on January 4, 2013 (AFP/File, Dale de la Rey)

United Nations (United States) — The United Nations Security Council is cracking down on ivory hunters and traffickers who finance armed groups in Africa in a new initiative that has been welcomed by conservationists.

Two resolutions adopted by the council last week -- one relating to the Central African Republic, the other to the Democratic Republic of Congo -- stated that the trade in illegal wildlife was fueling conflicts in the region and bankrolling organized crime.

Under the resolutions, the council can slap sanctions, such as freezing assets or restricting travel, on any individual found to be involved in wildlife trafficking.

Game rangers look at the large bloated

 carcass of an adult elephant killed for

 its tusks in the Ishasha Valley, Virunga

 National Park on March 5, 2012 (Virunga

National Park/AFP/File)

The resolutions were primarily designed to target a number of armed rebel groups operating in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN also suspects the Lord's Resistance Army run by the ruthless warlord Joseph Kony uses the illegal ivory trade as a source of generating finances.

Other groups believed to benefit from the illegal wildlife trade include Somalia's Al-Shabaab Islamist militant group and Sudan's fearsome Janjaweed militia.

"This is the first time that a United nations Security Council sanctions regime has targeted wildlife poachers and traffickers," said Wendy Elliott, species programme manager at the World Wildlife Fund told AFP. "It should act as a deterrent."

"There is no silver bullet to end this traffic, this is not going to solve the problem instantly but a year ago wildlife trafficking was not seen as a criminal issue, just an environmental one," Elliott added.

The resolution means that traffickers can now be targeted by officials from different government agencies such as interior and finance ministries, as well as customs.

Since 2009, the trade in poaching has escalated to near industrial levels, with more than 500 kilograms of ivory seized worldwide, threatening elephants and rhinos with extinction despite the existence of CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

An estimated 60 elephants are slain each day in Africa, where the total

numbers of the animals has plummeted by half since 1980 to just 500,000 (AFP)

An estimated 60 elephants are slain each day in Africa, where the total numbers of the animals has plummeted by half since 1980 to just 500,000.

Lucrative criminal trade

In February 2012, traffickers from South Sudan massacred more than 300 elephants in the Bouba N'Djidda National Park in northern Cameroon.

In May last year, taking advantage of the chaos embroiling the Central African Republic, poachers armed with Kalashnikov assault weapons killed at least 26 animals in the fabled "village of elephants" the WWF said, a reserve set up Dzanga Bai World Heritage Site.

If the slaughter continues at the same rate, Africa will lose 20 percent of its elephant population over the next decade, according to projected estimates from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

A policeman stands in front of a pile of

ivory before being crushed during a public

event in Dongguan, south China's

Guangdong province on January 6, 2014

(AFP/File)

The illegal trade in ivory and other wildlife is the fourth most lucrative revenue stream for criminal gangs in Africa after drugs, counterfeiting and human trafficking. Ivory can fetch up to $2,000 per kilo on the black market in Asia, it's most common destination.

The UN and conservationists want a twin-pronged approach, targeting both producers of ivory in Africa -- including countries such as Gabon, Kenya, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Uganda -- and consumer countries such as China and Thailand. Transit countries on ivory smuggling routes, such as Kenya, Tanzania, Malaysia and Vietnam, would also be targeted.

"It's a simmering issue," a UN diplomat told AFP. Two international conferences to address the subject had already taken place in Botswana and France last December, the diplomat noted.

British Prime Minister David Cameron meanwhile has convened a summit on the trafficking of endangered species from February 12 and 13.

"The idea is to get the highest level of political commitment from the countries involved (in the London conference)," Elliott said.

Related Articles:

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Schoolchildren among 14 killed by Indonesia volcano eruption

Google – AFP, 1 February 2014

A resident runs away to escape from hot volcanic ash clouds engulfing

 villages in Karo district during the eruption of Mount Sinabung volcano, on

Indonesia's Sumatra island, on February 1, 2014 (AFP, Sutanta Aditya)

Karo — Fourteen people, including four schoolchildren, were killed Saturday after they were engulfed in scorching ash clouds spat out by Indonesia's Mount Sinabung in its biggest eruption in recent days, officials said.

Dark, searing clouds rolling down the mountain left apocalyptic scenes of ash-covered bodies scattered by a roadside in Sukameriah village, just 2.7 kilometres (1.7 miles) from the volcano's crater, an AFP witness who helped with the evacuation said.

Officials fear there could be more fatalities from Saturday's eruptions, but due to the high potential of lethal heat clouds spewing from the mountain, a search and rescue mission has been grounded, officials said.

Indonesian rescuers recover the body of a 

victim at a village in Karo district following

 eruptions of Mount Sinabung, on Sumatra

island, on February 1, 2014 (AFP, Sutanta

Aditya)

"We suspect there are more victims but we cannot recover them because the victims are in the path of the hot (ash) clouds," said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.

All 14 bodies have been identified. Four of them were high school students on a sightseeing trip to the volcano on the western island of Sumatra, he added.

"The bodies were in a state where, even though their skin did not peel, their faces were swollen and the tongues were sticking out," an AFP reporter on the ground said.

Three other people -- a father and his son who wanted to pay respects at the graves of their relatives, and a man who came to the village to check his long-abandoned house -- were also trapped and injured by the deadly clouds, Karo district official Johnson Tarigan told AFP.

He said the three were in the intensive care unit of a local hospital.

Thirty thousand people have been evacuated from the area since the volcano started erupting in September.

But some residents had returned home on Friday following advice from the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation that houses outside the five-kilometre radius from the mountain were safe.

The volcano erupted again on Saturday morning, sending hot rocks and ash up 2,000 metres (16,00 feet) into the air, blanketing the surrounding countryside with grey dust, said volcanologist Kristianto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

A giant cloud of hot volcanic ash clouds engulfs villages in Karo district

 during the eruption of Mount Sinabung volcano, on Indonesia's

Sumatra island, on February 1, 2014 (AFP, Sutanta Aditya)

Sukameriah village is located in the red zone, where human activities are strictly banned, but locals often trespassed the restricted area to check on their houses and belongings as well as their crops, officials said.

Nugroho said the evacuation will resume on Sunday.

Mount Sinabung is one of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia that straddle major tectonic fault lines, known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.

It had been quiet for around 400 years until it rumbled back to life in 2010, and again in September last year.

In August 2013, five people were killed and hundreds evacuated when a volcano on a small island in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted.

The country's most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of eruptions in 2010.

Related Article:

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

New Mini Ice Age

“… So now we've refreshed that which we have said before, a review. You are in the middle of a cycle that will bring cooling to the planet. It is not a heat cycle, but rather a cooling cycle. But it always starts with a short heat cycle. It has been here before. It will come again. It is a long cycle - one generation plus five years. That's how long it's going to last. It starts with the melting of the ice caps, which is far more than any of you have seen in your lifetime or those of your ancestors. It is a cycle whose repetition is thousands of years long, but one that has not yet been recorded to the books of Human record. But it's definitely been recorded in the cores of the ice and in the rings of the trees.

Thousands of years old, it is, and it happens in a cyclical way. It's about water. It starts with that which is the melting of the ice caps to a particular degree, which has a profound effect on the planet in all ways. You can't have that happen without seeing life change as well as Gaia change and you've seeing it already. What happens when you take that which is heavy on the poles [ice] and you melt it? It then becomes cold water added to that which is a very, very gentle and finite balance of temperature in the seas of the planet (1). The first thing that happens is a redistribution of the weight of water on the thin crust of the earth from ice at the poles to new water in the seas. The results become earthquakes and volcanoes, and you're seeing them, aren't you? You are having earthquakes in places that are not supposed to have earthquakes. Volcanoes are coming to life in a way that you've not seen before on a regular basis. There will be more. Expect them.

Is it too much to ask of a Human Being that if you live by a volcano that you know might erupt, maybe you ought to move? Yet there will be those who say, "It hasn't erupted in my lifetime or my parents' lifetime or my grandparents' lifetime; therefore, it won't." You may have a surprise, for all things are changing. That is what is happening to Gaia. ….“

THE RELATIONSHIP TO GAIA - April 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"The weather you have today, and all the alarming attributes of it, is a scenario of what was scheduled to happen on Earth anyway. I review again that the weather changes you are seeing prophesied by myself, 21 years ago, are not a surprise. The changes are not caused by the pollutants you put in the air. You call it global warming and that's a nice phrase, and perhaps that will get you to put less pollutants in the air – a very good thing. But what you are seeing in the weather shift today was not caused by Humans putting things into the air. It would have happened anyway in about 300 years."

"We've called this process the water cycle, since it's all about water, not about air. The water is the predominant attribute of Gaia and of the weather cycle you're seeing. More predominant is the temperature of it. The cycle is ice to water and water to ice, and has been repeated on this planet over and over and over. It is not new. It is not exceptional. It is not frightening. But it's a cycle that modern humanity has not seen before, and it's a long cycle that is beyond the life span of a Human Being. Therefore, it tends to be overlooked or not seen at all !"

"In the days of the Lemurians, the water level of the Pacific Ocean was almost 400 feet lower, and that's only 50,000 years ago. [Kryon invites science to check this out – the water level at that time.] That was a water cycle working, and the reason it was lower was due to so much of the water being stored as ice. Today you're going through another water cycle that will eventually lead to cooling. The last one was in the 1400s."

"Science sees that at about 1650. As mentioned, they are so slow there is no remembrance that a Human has of them except in past writings and in the rings of the trees. The time span of the changes is so great that environmental record keeping does not exist in the form that it does today. But you can still look at the rings of the trees and at the striations of the rocks and can generally figure out that a few hundred years ago, you had a mini-ice age. Now you're going to have another one."