KLM-backed bio-kerosene plant may open in the Netherlands

DutchNews, September 18, 2018 

Aviation is a major source of carbon-dioxide emissions. Photo: DutchNews.nl 

The Netherlands is on the verge of getting its first factory to produce bio-kerosene, an alternative fuel to tradition kerosene and made out of biomass, the AD said on Tuesday. 

A location for the plant has not yet been confirmed but Groningen is on the shortlist, the paper said. 

The plans have been confirmed by Maarten van Dijk, director of SkyNRG, which will build the factory. ‘We are in the last phase of selecting the location and suppliers. I think that we will be able to reveal more at the end of this year or beginning of the next,’ he told the paper. 

Rotterdam and Amsterdam are being considered as alternative locations. 

Airline KLM is a important shareholder in SkyNRG and has also confirmed that plans for the factory are being made. The airline currently imports bio-kerosine from Los Angeles and it uses the fuel mainly on its fights to the American east coast. 

The AD says there are no other bio-kerosines plants in north-west Europe and that the investment will create a large number of jobs. 

Pollution 

Passenger air traffic is currently responsible for between 2% and 3% of global carbon-dioxide emissions, but in the Netherlands, the figure is 7%, the AD said. 

Bio-kerosine is made from leftovers from the timber and agricultural industries, as well as the food processing industry. Wageningen University said earlier this year that bio-kerosene is a potentially important option to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector. 

However, the price is two to three times that of ordinary kerosene and ‘the direct and indirect effects… on the aviation sector and the Dutch economy as a whole depend to a large extent on how the additional costs of biokerosene will be funded,’ University researchers said.

Indigenous peoples, key to saving forests, catch a break

Yahoo – AFP, Marlowe HOOD, September 14, 2018

Up to now, native communities in the forests of Latin America, Africa and Asia have
seen their ancestral lands degraded and destroyed -- sometimes with the
blessing of local or national governments (AFP Photo/Apu Gomes)

San Francisco (AFP) - Proven masters at sustainably managing forests that protect against global warming, indigenous peoples got a place at the table, and some cash, at an international climate summit in San Francisco this week.

New "guiding principles" for collaboration endorsed by three dozen mostly tropical provinces and states across nine countries bolster indigenous rights to land, self-governance and finance earmarked for safeguarding forests.

"The partnership between governments and indigenous leaders marks a paradigm shift for tribal and indigenous engagement," Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, said at the Global Climate Action Summit.

Up to now, native communities in the forests of Latin America, Africa and Asia have seen their ancestral lands degraded and destroyed -- sometimes with the blessing of local or national governments -- by extraction industries (oil, gold) and big agriculture (soy, palm oil, cattle).

Even UN-led efforts to involve indigenous peoples in preventing deforestation have unfolded "in a context of rights abuses, displacement and dispossession, threats and harassment over territories, and the repression and assassination of environmental activists by state and private forces," the non-profit Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) reported last year.

At least 207 environmental campaigners, half from indigenous tribes in tropical forests, were murdered in 2017, according to watchdog group Global Witness.

Deforestation -- responsible for about a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions -- intensifies global warming in two ways.

Losing a wooded area the size of Greece each year not only reduces Earth's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, it releases huge amounts of the planet-warming gas into the atmosphere.

The principles were negotiated within the decade-old Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force, made up of state and provincial leaders from eight tropical countries and the governors of California, Illinois and Catalonia.

Keeping carbon in the trees

"Today we recognize the essential role of local communities and indigenous peoples for the conservation of forest territories and the development of effective climate change strategies," said Jorge Aristoteles Sandoval Diaz, governor of Jalisco, Mexico.

New "guiding principles" for collaboration endorsed by three dozen mostly tropical 

provinces and states across nine countries bolster indigenous rights to land, 

self-governance and finance earmarked for safeguarding forests (AFP Photo/Apu Gomes)

Tribal leaders, who helped forge the new charter, said it would make a difference.

"We live in, depend upon, and manage our forests -- and have done so for centuries," said Francisca Arara, leader of the Arara indigenous people in Acre, Brazil.

"These principals provide us with a stronger platform for negotiating equal ground with governments."

Experts described the charter as "an important step forward," but said more was needed.

"Recognizing the rights is really key to keeping the carbon in the trees and the soil," said Andy White, Coordinator of the Washington-based Rights and Resources Initiative, a research group.

"But the real question is how much money they put behind implementing these commitments."

Tropical forests provide livelihoods and anchor the cultural identities of tens of millions of indigenous people.

Research has shown that stewardship by local communities significantly slows the pace of deforestation.

"Thirty-seven percent of what is needed to stay below two degrees Celsius" -- the cornerstone goal of the 196-nation Paris Agreement -- "can be provided by land," said Andrew Steer, WRI President and CEO of the World Resources Institute in Washington DC.

"But only three percent of the public funding for mitigation goes to land and forest issues. That needs to change."

In a parallel announcement, nine foundations pledged nearly half-a-billion dollars over the next five years to boost indigenous management of carbon-rich forests.

"Solving climate change requires that forests, and land in general, be managed well," Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, told AFP. "Indigenous peoples are the key to unlocking that solution."

Bill Gates, Ban Ki-moon, World Bank chief to head up Dutch climate initiative

DutchNews, September 10, 2018

Demonstrators for climate change in Amsterdam 

Former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates and World Bank chief executive Kristalina Georgieva will head an international commission on climate change to launch next month, the Dutch government said on Monday. 

The Global Commission on Adaptation is a new international climate commission initiated by the Netherlands aimed at convincing countries worldwide to arm themselves against the effects of climate change. 

The commission will be housed in the Global Climate Adaptation Centre which has a base in both Groningen and Rotterdam. Georgieva will oversee the Rotterdam-based commission.

‘Climate change is not something that will take place in some far away future,’ said infrastructure minister Cora van Nieuwhuizen who sunk the first pile in the construction of the new floating office of the GCA in Rotterdam’s Rijnhaven. 

‘We are right in the middle of it. Large parts of Europe have been combating drought. With the commission we want to drive home the necessity of climate adaptation worldwide. I am very honoured that Georgieva, Ban Ki-Moon and Gates were prepared to lead this important commission.’ 

Ban Ki-Moon called the Dutch initiative ‘a critical step forward to set in motion more vigorous attention to and action around climate adaptation’ and said he looked forward to ‘worldwide mission to accelerate adaptation’. 

Ban Ki-Moon, Gates and Georgieva are coming to the Netherlands on October 16 to launch the new commission. Van Nieuwenhuizen will be one of the 20 commission members. 

In September 2019 the commission is expected to present an action programme which will show countries which short-term measures they can take to protect vulnerable areas from the effects of a changing climate.

Can crunch talks bring the Paris climate treaty to life?

Yahoo – AFP, September 2, 2018

As the pace of global warming races ahead of efforts to tame it, diplomats from more 

than 190 nations begin crunch UN climate talks in Bangkok Tuesday to breathe life 

into the Paris Agreement. (AFP Photo/JOEL SAGET)

Paris (AFP) - As the pace of global warming races ahead of efforts to tame it, diplomats from more than 190 nations begin crunch UN climate talks in Bangkok Tuesday to breathe life into the Paris Agreement.

This year is the deadline to finalise the "rule book" for the 2015 treaty, which calls for capping the rise in global temperatures at "well below" two degrees Celsius, and 1.5 C if possible.

The pact also promises $100 billion annually from 2020 to poor nations already coping with floods, heatwaves, rising seas and superstorms made worse by climate change.

"The Paris Agreement was like a letter of intent," said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University.

Unless detailed rules of implementation covering dozens of contentious and unresolved issues are agreed upon, he and other experts said, the landmark treaty could run aground.

Lamenting "uneven progress" to date, co-chairs of UN talks last month urged rank-and-file negotiators to produce "clear and streamlined options" that ministers and heads of state can push across the finish line at the December UN climate summit in Poland.

"If Parties do not achieve this in Bangkok, a satisfactory outcome in Katowice will be in jeopardy," they wrote in the unusual appeal.

The most persistent sticking points in the UN talks revolve around money.

Developing countries favour outright grants from public sources, demand visibility on how donor nations intend to scale up this largesse, and object to under-investment in adapting to climate impacts.

Rich countries want more private capital in the mix, prefer projects with profit potential, and have been reluctant to make hard-and-fast long-term commitments.

This tension flared spectacularly in July when the UN's flagship climate finance initiative, the Green Climate Fund, suffered a boardroom meltdown after members could not agree on funding priorities.

Symptom and cause

The executive director quit, and the paralysed fund -- hampered by US President Donald Trump's refusal to honour a US $2 billion pledge -- is facing a cash crunch.

The Fund's woes are both symptom and cause, and will complicate the broader talks on finance, experts say.

An even more daunting -- and arguably urgent -- task facing diplomats in Bangkok and Katowice is ratcheting up voluntary national commitments to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Taken together, current pledges would allow average global temperatures to climb more than 3 C (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The mercury has gone up 1 C so far.

Under the Paris accord, countries are not required to revisit these commitments until 2023.

But waiting that long could doom the planet to runaway global warming, scientists warn in a UN special report obtained by AFP, to be officially unveiled in October.

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1.5 C report will show the need for increased ambition if we want to have a functional human civilisation in the future," said Wael Hmaidan, executive director of Climate Action Network, which groups hundreds of climate NGOs.

Debilitating heatwaves and deadly fires across the northern hemisphere this summer may be a mild foretaste of what a climate addled future would look like.

"We need to see announcements of increased ambition from some of the big countries that put out 2030 commitments -- China, India, Brazil, the European Union, Japan," said Alden Meyer, policy and strategy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington.

Bottleneck is governments

A handful of nations, including the United States, submitted plans running out to 2025.

Meanwhile, dozens of developing countries in the Climate Vulnerable Forum, an informal bloc, are announcing ambitious timetables for energy sectors run entirely with renewables.

"They are saying, 'if we -- the poorest, most climate impacted countries in the world -- are able to be in line with the 1.5 C goal, there is no excuse for bigger, richer countries not to do the same'," said Hmaidan.

Sub-national governments, regions, cities and businesses gathering in San Francisco in mid-September at the Global Climate Action Summit are also poised to unveil initiatives and commitments to speed the transition to a low- or no-carbon global economy.

But the full-throttle response needed tackle global warming has yet to materialise, as each sector looks to the other to take the lead.

"Businesses are looking to countries to build on the commitments they made in Paris," said Jennifer Austin, policy director for We Mean Business.

"Strong, clear policies are what give businesses clarity and confidence."

At the same time, even nations instrumental in forging the Paris pact have failed to redouble their efforts, said Hmaidan.

"The bottleneck for a real transformation is political will at the national level -- heads of state," he said.

France's environment minister Nicolas Hulot quit his post suddenly last week, citing among other reasons lack of progress on climate change.

Pope urges clean up of plastic waste from oceans

Yahoo – AFP, 1 September 2018

Pope Francis said access to water was a basic right

Pope Francis on Saturday issued a call to clear up oceans threatened by plastic waste and underscored the need to provide drinking water to all as a basic right.

"We cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic," the pontiff said in a message on the fourth World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.

"Sadly, all too many efforts fail due to the lack of effective regulation and means of control, particularly with regard to the protection of marine areas beyond national confines."

The pope also said that access "to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right" and deplored that for many it was "difficult if not impossible.

"Our world owes a great social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity," he said.

Paris, Tokyo, New York and others pledge to slash waste

Yahoo – AFP, August 28, 2018

A reclaimer wades through the waste at Robinson Deep landfill, Johannesburg's
largest landfill on June 29, 2018. (AFP Photo/GULSHAN KHAN)

New York (AFP) - By slashing food waste and improving waste management and recycling, 23 global cities and regions representing 150 million people pledged Tuesday to significantly cut the pollution-causing garbage they generate by 2030.

Places like New York, Tokyo, London, Paris and Sydney vowed to "cut the amount of waste generated by each citizen 15 percent by 2030," said a statement from C40 Cities, a global network dedicated to fighting climate change.

They will also "reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and incineration by 50 percent and increase the diversion rate to 70 percent by 2030," according to the declaration.

The goal of the "Advancing Towards Zero Waste Declaration" is to avoid the disposal of at least 87 million tons of waste by 2030.

Waste is becoming one of the leading threats to the environment, increasing faster than any other pollutant.

Each year, 1.3 billion tons of wasted food is sent to landfills where rotting scraps send the potent heat-trapping greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere.

Improving waste and material management around the world globally could reduce global emissions by 20 percent, and are "essential" to delivering on the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accords and keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 Celsius, said the C40 Cities statement.

The announcement was released ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco in mid-September.

Signatories include Auckland, Copenhagen, Dubai, London, Milan, Montreal, New York City, Newburyport, Paris, Philadelphia, Portland, Rotterdam, San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver Washington DC, and the regions of Navarra and Catalonia.

Specific steps include reducing food waste and facilitating safe food donation.

Participating areas may encourage separate collection of food scraps that could be used for compost, and supporting local policies like sustainable procurement and boosting awareness and use of recycling for construction and demolition materials.

Areas may also support reductions or bans on single-use and non-recyclable plastics.

The signatories pledged to publicly report their progress every two years.

"Dramatically reducing waste will help curb carbon emissions while helping us build a fairer, cleaner and more livable city for all New Yorkers," said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"We're proud to stand alongside other leading cities worldwide in taking ambitious steps to cut down on waste."

'Trash is gold' as Benin community turns waste into biogas

Yahoo – AFP, Josué MEHOUENOU, August 22, 2018

The facility processes around six tonnes of organic waste every week, turning it
into 200 cubic metres of biogas (AFP Photo/Yanick FOLLY)

Houegbo (Bénin) (AFP) - Garbage has never smelled so sweet for a small village in southern Benin since it opened a pilot waste treatment centre to turn household rubbish into gas -- and cash.

"Our trash has become gold. We no longer throw it into the bush. We use it to make money," beams Alphonse Ago, who lives next to the centre in Houegbo village.

ReBin, a Swiss foundation for sustainable development, built the 1.3-hectare (3.2-acre) facility, which every week turns around six tonnes of organic waste into 200 cubic metres of biogas -- saving some 164 tonnes of wood from being used to make charcoal.

The centre, which opened late last year, also plans to produce around 400 tonnes of organic fertiliser per year.

So far, around 100 households in the area have signed up to the scheme to deposit their waste at the centre on a daily basis.

Every 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) of waste fetches 250 CFA francs (around 50 euro cents, 57 US cents), paid either in cash or credit -- to buy biogas.

The fuel is a precious commodity in a rural region where electricity remains scarce.

Agnes Avoce, a shopkeeper and mother of five, proudly straps a large plastic bag of the gas onto her back.

So far, around 100 households in the area have signed up to the scheme. Every 

10 kilogrammes of waste fetches 250 CFA francs (around 50 euro cents), paid 

either in cash or credit -- to buy biogas (AFP Photo/Yanick FOLLY)

Biogas, she says, is much cleaner and more efficient for cooking than charcoal -- which "darkens the pots and makes me sick" -- and she is more than happy to make the switch.

Avoce is not alone; five other women are waiting to pick up gas.

"There are queues here since we opted for biogas," another customer says.

'Goldmine'

Symphorien Adonon, 35, drops off a week's worth of carefully sorted waste, smiling as he pockets his cash payment.

"Now I have enough to do the shopping for dinner," says Adonon, who drives a motorcycle taxi.

ReBin Benin Foundation chief Mark Giannelli was inspired to launch the project 

after noticing mountains of discarded pineapple skins in Benin, Africa's fourth-biggest 

exporter of the fruit (AFP Photo/Yanick FOLLY)

The centre has treated more than 20 tonnes of waste since it began operations late last year.

In addition to the customers' household waste, there is also rubbish collected by a local non-government organisation, Astome.

The NGO's chief, Florent Gbegnon, says he used to collect it on a push cart, but he now uses a tricycle provided by the centre.

"It's a huge relief," he says as he dumps a load of pineapple skins. "Pushing the cart was a real burden."

It was the massive amounts of waste such as pineapple skins that originally caught the attention of ReBin's founder, Mark Giannelli, and inspired him to set up the treatment centre in Houegbo.

"I saw this not as a problem, but as an opportunity, and I thought it was a goldmine," Giannelli told AFP.

Benin is Africa's fourth-biggest exporter of pineapples. And in Houegbo, which has one of the busiest markets in the region, local sources estimate that more than a tonne of waste is generated every day from that fruit alone.

Giannelli told AFP that he had been searching for a potential site for his project in Benin's West African neighbours Ghana and Togo.

Sewai Mardochee, director of the Toffo facility, says it should be duplicated across 

Benin. 'We can then create jobs and clean up our living environment by reducing

the use of firewood and coal' (AFP Photo/Yanick FOLLY)

But it was the enthusiasm with which the locals embraced his idea that finally convinced him to set up the waste treatment centre here, he said.

'Source of happiness'

The goal is to establish "a real economy that serves the population and protects the environment," he says. "We have to take the problems locally and adapt them to local solutions."

Once the necessary expertise has become more firmly established in Houegbo, Giannelli hopes to extend the project to larger municipalities and let local entrepreneurs run it.

The centre's director, Sewai Mardochee, suggests duplicating it in all of Benin's 77 municipalities.

"We can then create jobs and clean up our living environment by reducing the use of firewood and coal," he said.

Nicolas Hounje, a retired official, has put himself forward to take over the company.

"We did not know here that garbage can become a source of happiness," he says.

VIDEO: Garbage has never smelled so sweet for a small village in southern Benin since it opened a pilot waste treatment centre to turn household rubbish into gas -- and cash pic.twitter.com/HqvKadsl6w

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 22, 2018

New Zealand to ban single-use plastic bags

Yahoo – AFP, August 10, 2018

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand uses "hundreds of millions" of
single-use plastic bags each year, many of which end up harming marine life
 (AFP Photo/Marty MELVILLE)

Wellington (AFP) - New Zealand became the latest country Friday to outlaw single-use plastic shopping bags, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying they will be phased out over the next year as a "meaningful step" towards reducing pollution.

New Zealand uses "hundreds of millions" of single-use plastic bags each year, many of which end up harming marine life, Ardern said.

"We need to be far smarter in the way we manage waste and this is a good start," she said.

"We're phasing-out single-use plastic bags so we can better look after our environment and safeguard New Zealand's clean, green reputation."

Ardern said her coalition government, which includes the Green Party, was facing up to environmental challenges and "just like climate change, we're taking meaningful steps to reduce plastics pollution so we don't pass this problem to future generations."

Single-use plastic bags are among the most common items found in coastal litter in New Zealand and the environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the decision to outlaw them.

"This could be a major leap forward in turning the tide on ocean plastic pollution and an important first step in protecting marine life such as sea turtles and whales, from the growing plastic waste epidemic," Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner Emily Hunter said.

A United Nations report in June said up to five trillion grocery bags are used globally each year, which is nearly 10 million plastic bags per minute.

"If tied together, all these plastic bags could be wrapped around the world seven times every hour" and like most plastic garbage barely any is recycled, said Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment.

The UN said more than 60 countries had introduced bans and levies on single-use plastic items like bags.

But better waste management, financial incentives to change consumers' buying habits and research into alternative materials were needed to make any real change, it added.

Europe sizzles in heatwave as wildfire hits Portugal

Yahoo – AFP, August 5, 2018

Saturday was the hottest day in France since the infamous heatwave of 2003
(AFP Photo/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)

Madrid (AFP) - Europe sweltered through an intense heatwave on Sunday, with soaring temperatures contributing to forest fires, the closure of nuclear plants and even a threat to the Netherlands' supply of potato fries, although some countries experienced a slight respite.

Here is a roundup:

Spain: Fire under control

A top temperature of 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) was forecast in the southwest region of Extremadura on Sunday, where a wildfire in San Vicente de Alcantara has been brought under control by firefighters, the local fire service said.

The mercury had reached 44 C in the country's south on Saturday, the Spanish Meteorological Agency said.

The rise in temperatures has already claimed the lives of three people who died of heatstroke this week.

A female orangutan hides from the blazing sun in Madrid, Spain 

(AFP Photo/PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU)

Portugal: 45 C forecast

The mercury was expected to hit 45 C in some parts of Portugal on Sunday, a day after weather records in several cities were broken on Saturday, the hottest day for 18 years according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA)

A temperature of 46.8 C was recorded north of Lisbon on Saturday, although nowhere reached the nationwide record of 47.3 C registered in the southern village of Amareleja in 2003.

Faced with the heatwave the national rail company admitted that there had been air conditioning problems on some trains and halted the sale of tickets for certain routes, especially those which cross areas where the temperatures are most ferocious.

A forest fire continued to rage on two fronts in Monchique in the country's south on Sunday, with 800 firefighters, supported by 12 water-dropping planes and helicopters were working to put it out.

Another forest fire, in central Estremoz, has left six people wounded, two in serious condition.

A woman pulls two horses as smoke columns rise from a wildfire raging in 

Alvega, Portugal (AFP Photo/CARLOS COSTA)

France: 'Recklessness' warning

In France, 67 out of 101 departments were on heatwave alert with temperatures in the south of the country expected to again peak near 40 C.

Saturday was the hottest day in the country since the infamous heatwave of 2003, in which thousands of mainly elderly people died.

The emergency services complained that, despite public health warnings about keeping cool and hydrated, there was "still quite a lot of recklessness" -- citing the example of an elderly man in Lyon who suffered heart problems while mowing his lawn under the merciless afternoon sun.

The heat has also caused air pollution levels to soar. To try to clear the air, the city of Paris has banned owners of the most polluting categories of vehicles from using their cars on Monday. In the east of the country, authorities have lowered the speed limit by 20 kilometres/hour to try dispel the smog.

French emergency services complained that, despite public health warnings about 

keeping cool and hydrated, there was "still quite a lot of recklessness" (AFP Photo/

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)

Italy: Tornado spotted

Several thunderstorms flooded streets in Sicily and Sardinia in the south of Italy on Sunday, cooling down a the heatwave that has caused traffic problems on the country's busiest summer weekend on the roads.

Tourists on the Italian island of Pantelleria, near Tunisia, said they had seen a tornado off the coast on Saturday.

Media had previously reported on Saturday that a woman had died from apparent heatstroke on a beach in the northwestern Liguria region.

A woman cools herself in a fountain near the Ara Pacis monument in central
Rome (AFP Photo/Andreas SOLARO)

Germany: Rain brings relief

Isolated showers and thunderstorms brought some relief from the heat in parts of Germany this weekend, particularly in the south. However temperatures are expected to climb again to as high as 39 C in the east on Wednesday.

Sweltering Germans have been flocking to open air swimming pools across the country, and many pools are expecting record visitor numbers this summer, DPA news agency reported.

People walk in a fountain in front of the Berlin Cathedral as the heatwave in Europe 

continues (AFP Photo/John MACDOUGALL)

Britain: Hot until Tuesday

The heat also slightly abated in Britain on Sunday, with the high of just over 30 degrees expected in the south of England, according to the Met Office, which predicted the heatwave would continue until Tuesday.

Public Health England told those in the southeast to stay in the shade and drink lots of water.

Netherlands: Shortage of fries?

While the temperature was down to a near-seasonal 25 C in the Netherlands on Sunday, the country's drought continues to wreak havoc on crops.

Farmers are working night and day to save what they can, the Dutch broadcaster NOS reported, with potato and corn yields hit particularly hard.

Producers have warned that a potato shortage could affect the supply of fries, a Dutch favourite.

Europe swelters with intense heat as temperatures hit near-record highs of 46 degrees Celsius in Portugal, while elsewhere the high temperatures exacerbate fires and melt the asphalt on highwayshttps://t.co/1kxcPnk2ZS pic.twitter.com/nB5qkKUZpG

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 5, 2018

Related Articles:

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Weather

Let's talk about the weather. We retreat to exactly what we told you before in this very chair. The water cycle is a cooling cycle, not a heating cycle. You're going to have more severe winters and storms. It's going to get colder. But it gets warmer before it gets colder. That is the cycle, and it has always been the cycle. You can see it in the rings of the trees and the cores of the ice. Don't let your scientists pull the political wool over your eyes for their own purposes. Start seeing these things for what they are. It's a recurring cycle based on four Earth alignment attributes, including the wobble (the precession). You're in this cycle. Prepare.

The beginnings of it will be with you from now at least until the end of the 2012 36-year window, and you can watch it work. The first thing that happens is that the ice melts at the poles, but not completely. It's the way it has happened before. As the redistribution of weight from the poles to the oceans of the earth takes place, the weight is redistributed to the crust, and that creates earthquakes. And the earthquakes that will be the most powerful are the ones that are closest to the poles. We told you that some time ago. So it's not a mystery that suddenly you have some of the most powerful earthquakes that you've ever had. Not only that, but a cooling ocean creates larger storms.

What do the conspiracists do with all this? "See? We're doomed. Here it comes," they say. "Here it comes! The end is here!" Twenty-two years ago, we gave you the information that is happening today. We told you about the weather. We told you to get ready for it, but we still haven't told you why the water cycle is needed. We've hinted at it since it is very controversial, and we'll lose many readers right here and now. Here's the prediction: The scientists are going to laugh and biologists are going to scratch their heads and roll their eyes.

The Refreshing of the Cycle of Life

When you change the temperature of the waters of the planet, it changes the life cycle of the ocean and it eventually renews itself. The life cycle of the planet has a limit to its viability over time. There has to be a refreshing of the very cycle of life, and this is what the water cycle does. Are there any places you've seen too many fish lately? Yes. Millions of salmon in the north. Odd that it was in Alaska, isn't it? Alaska is very close to the poles where the water temperature is being felt first. Oh, again the experts will tell you that this is not the reason. It's about hatcheries and rivers. But nobody predicted this, did they? Science is fast to give you reasons, but slow to give you logic in advance. They always seem to be surprised.

We are saying things we haven't said before. Again, watch for this, an actual change in the life cycle of the planet's oceans because of the water temperature shift. Biologists are going to have to start redesigning the paradigm of how everything works, including reefs, ocean bottoms, and how plankton survive and reproduce. Listen, this is not the first time that the life cycle has been refreshed! But again, this may take generations of humanity to complete. In the process, you may again lose species. This is normal. Gaia is slow, and Humans are impatient. Your textbooks may someday tell of how naive humanity was back in 2011 when they tried to blame weather changes on everything but a natural cycle. Now you know why there is a water cycle.

So what does that tell you about Gaia? Gaia is beginning the cycle of refreshing life on over-fished oceans. It tells you that in the cracks, there is love and caring about the Humans who live on the earth. There's a reason you're here. There's a plan here, and a benevolent Universe and quantum energy with intelligent design. All is there for you, precious, sacred Human Being. …”