Basically, the Argentine military took control of a Ford plant to use as a torture chamber. It just happened to be for employees.

Consumers in the USA didn't know. We have taken action against human rights abuses in factories in the modern era and even against apartheid. But, this? I don't believe consumers in the USA had a clue about it.

The first Ford assembly plant in La Boca, Buenos Aires, c. 1921.

Ford Motor Argentina (click here) is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company and was founded in Buenos Aires in 1913.[1] Its first products were Model Ts assembled from complete knock down (CKD) kits provided by Ford Motor Company in 1917. Nevertheless, Ford Motor Argentina is best known in more recent times for producing the Ford Focus and, previously, the Argentine version of the Ford Falcon,[2] originally a US model introduced in Argentina in 1961, but adapted to the Argentine market....

Ford was making money while this was going on, so for all intentions and purposes this inhumane activity was sanctioned by the company.

December 11, 2018
by Cassandra Garrison and Nicolas Misculin

Former Ford Motor Co. security chief Hector Sibilla leaves the court after the trial in Buenos Aires, Argentina, December 11, 2018.

...It is the first time former executives of a multinational company (click here) working in Argentina during the dictatorship have been convicted of crimes against humanity, one of the lawyers, Tomas Ojea Quintana, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“It is clear that Ford Motor Company had control of the Argentinian subsidiary during the ‘70s. Therefore, there is a direct responsibility of Ford Motor Company and that might give us the possibility to bring the case to the U.S. courts,” Ojea Quintana said....

I wonder if the USA Congress held any hearings on this. If not, they should now.

December 11, 2018
By Uki Goni

...Although nearly 1,000 former military officers (click here) have been imprisoned over crimes committed under military rule, Tuesday’s verdict in a Buenos Aires court marked the first time executives of a foreign company have been convicted.

Former Ford executive Pedro Müller, 86, and Héctor Sibila, 90, a former Ford security manager, were sentenced to 10 and 12 years, respectively, for the kidnapping and torture of 24 employees at Ford’s General Pacheco plant outside Argentina’s capital city.

Testimony at the trial showed the executives provided the military with lists, addresses and photo IDs of workers they wanted arrested and even provided space for an illegal detention centre at the plant where the abductees could be interrogated.

“The company acted in a coordinated manner with the military,” the prosecution alleged.

Former army general Santiago Riveros, who oversaw repression in the General Pacheco area, was convicted to 15 years for the same crimes committed at the Ford plant. All three will benefit from house arrest because of their advanced age.

“Ford is an example of civilian-military state terrorism operations,” tweeted Hijos Capital, an association representing the children of the disappeared of the capital city of Buenos Aires.

The trial got under way last December in a tribunal packed with former employees of the General Pacheco plant. Prosecutors alleged that the plant was used as a clandestine detention centre.

“The majority were kidnapped right off the assembly line,” said Tomás Ojea Quintana, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the start of the trial. “They were taken by rifle-toting military officers and paraded before the other workers so they could see what happened to their union representatives. This created an atmosphere of terror in the workplace that prevented any wage or working condition complaints.”...    

Speaking of pink. Remembering Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

December 11, 2018
By Jarrett Earnest

...These islands (click here) are dark thickets in the gleaming bay. Like “happy little accidents” populating Bob Ross’s landscapes, they’re remnants of a dredging project in the 1920s. Seeds of the invasive Australian pine found their way onto their man-made land and a haphazard ecosystem was formed. Christo and Jeanne-Claude noticed them while crossing the Venetian causeway — which connects the barrier island of Miami Beach to Miami proper — when they visited the area at the end of 1980. Almost immediately, they had an idea: to wreathe 11 of these non-naturally-occurring islands in 6-and-a-half million square feet of a woven tropical pink polypropylene, creating a wide, matlike margin of gently pulsing plastic, appearing for two weeks before being removed without a trace. They went to work, engaging the federal, state, and county’s bureaucratic machinery, creating sketches, hiring engineers, scientists, and lawyers. And they are nothing if not persistent (their 2005 The Gates project in Central Park was 26 years in the making). The effect of their installation in 1983 proved to be profound, remaining deeply embedded in the cultural psyche of a city that has since fashioned itself into a hub for international contemporary art....

...Christo and Jeanne-Claude assembled these archives to be shown in cities where they were developing new pieces, to “sensitize” them to their vision, process, and to show no harm had been done. In the exhibition, you see many of the large-scale preparatory drawings and collages, the sales of which financed the project, along with photographs by Wolfgang Volz from 1980–1983. In the pictures, you see Christo and Jeanne-Claude talking to people — everywhere from committee rooms to shipyards — modeling the elegant pantomime of renaissance painting, alongside the many stages of installation, often from the air....

Surprise, surprise, surprise; the border wall wasn't written into CAMUS.

What a disappointment this must be to Trump supporters that were promised that Mexico would pay for the border wall. Now, Trump wants the US Congress to pay for the border wall. Surprise, another bait and switch by Trump. He needs to leave the White House.

He is so proud of any promise made and promise kept, well, this is a big one and the American taxpayer is NOT building a border wall with taxpayer monies. He needs to admit the promise he made about Mexico paying for the wall and it's big beautiful door is a promise broken. 

WE ARE NOT PAYING FOR TRUMP'S FAILURES!!!!

I like that picture. Standing tough on paying for Trump's failures. Nancy looks good in pink.

December 11, 2018
By Jacqueline Alemany

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) will head to the White House this morning to meet with President Trump

DEJA VU: It looks like President Trump (click here) could end the year just as he started it — with the self-proclaimed dealmaker unable to secure $5 billion in funding for his signature border wall between the United States and Mexico. It's either that or a partial government shutdown. 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) head to the White House this morning where they plan to offer Trump "$1.3 billion in funding for a border fence . . . a bid that falls far short of the $5 billion Trump is demanding,” but amounts to current levels of funding for border security within the Department of Homeland Security, The Post's Erica Werner reports....

Sound does carry from Mars.

Speed of Sound NASA (click here)

December 9, 2018
By Eleanor Imster

On December 1, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander, (click here) which touched down on Mars on November 26, provided the first ever sounds of winds on the planet Mars.

The spacecraft’s sensors captured a haunting low rumble caused by vibrations from the wind, estimated to be blowing 10 to 15 miles per hour (6-24 km per hour) from northwest to southeast. The winds were consistent with the direction of dust devil streaks in the landing area, which were observed from orbit.

You can listen to full-length uncompressed .wav files here.

Bruce Banerdt is InSight principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. Banerdt said in a statement:

Capturing this audio was an unplanned treat. But one of the things our mission is dedicated to is measuring motion on Mars, and naturally that includes motion caused by sound waves.

InSight (which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is not a rover; it’s designed to stay in one place and to drill into and study Mars’ deep interior. NASA said:

InSight’s two-year mission will be to study the deep interior of Mars to learn how all celestial bodies with rocky surfaces, including Earth and the moon, 
formed....

Voyager 2 has joined it's sister, Voyager 1 into interstellar space. I wonder?

December 10, 2018
By Charlie Wood.

Voyager 2, (click here) the little spacecraft that could, continues to hurtle outward into the universe, moving around 10 miles away from the sun every second. Those miles have added up over the course of 41 years, taking it past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. On November 5 it finally joined its sibling Voyager 1 in the unexplored reaches of interstellar space....

Why is Roof allowed contact with the outside world?

Who else is he talking to and is the plot bigger than one person?

December 10, 2018
By Yaron Steinbuch

An Ohio woman (click here) who corresponded with Charleston, SC, church shooter Dylann Roof was accused Monday of planning to commit “an upscale mass murder” at a Toledo bar, according to reports.

Elizabeth Lecron, 23, one of two people arrested in terrorism-related cases, was charged with purchasing bomb-making materials that the FBI said she intended to use at the drinking joint, the Toledo Blade reported.

Toledo police received a tip about Lecron’s social media activity and alerted the Northwest Ohio Joint Terrorism Task Force, US Attorney Justin Herdman said Monday.

On Friday, she bought two pounds of a muzzle-loading propellant, and then went to another retailer in Perrysburg, where she bought 665 screws of various sizes....

Dylann Roof is a confessed mass murderer. He is not married and short of his immediate family visiting why is he allowed contact with the outside world? The USA isn't violent enough?

Police pulling toddler from mother at NY food stamp office (click here for article - thank you)

This is outrageous. There are at least six officers attempting to remove a child from the arms of the mother. New York City police have nothing better to do than harass food stamp recipients. WHERE ARE ALL THE CHAIRS?

This started because a woman waiting for an appointment regarding food stamps was in line for two hours and sat down along a wall with her child. I suppose after two hours waiting a child gets a little heavy and the mother got tired. The police decided "the lazy black mother" had no right to sit down even after a two hour wait. 

Everyone of those officers should be put on leave without pay while the investigation continues. This is outrageous. The police don't know how to behave. They started the assault and now a child could be injured for the force they were using.

December 10, 2018

By Pete Williams

...Medicaid patients in Kansas and Louisiana, (click here) two of the states that took action against Planned Parenthood, claimed the states violated Medicaid's requirement that patients must be free to seek their health care from any qualified and willing provider. They sued, and lower federal courts found in their favor, entering injunctions that ordered those states to lift their bans.

In declining to take up the states' appeals, the Supreme Court's action on Monday leaves those lower court victories for the Medicaid patients in place.

Planned Parenthood offers Medicaid patients vaccines, wellness examinations, screening for breast and cervical cancer, contraception services and pregnancy testing. But abortion is not offered, because federal funds cannot pay for them except in cases of rape, incest or life endangerment. The Kansas affiliate said it provides "essential medical care for hundreds of low-income Kansans each year."...

Donald Trump does not have a political future. He broke ELECTION laws. He needs to be impeached now.

Where is Ryan? He needs to get started. There are three days left on the US House Calendar. There is a criminal in the White House that needs to be removed. This is not as complicated as climate science. He broke campaign laws and he needs to be removed. Simple.

December 10, 2018
By Kaitlan Collins

Washington - While President Donald Trump (click here) and Nick Ayers were still in the middle of negotiations about him replacing John Kelly as chief of staff, Trump had already given Ayers a task, according to a source familiar with the discussion. He wanted him to conduct a thorough review of how the West Wing operates, including evaluating staffing, in order to make it more politically focused over the next two years.

Trump has become increasingly concerned in recent weeks about what his administration is facing come January, when newly empowered Democrats are expected to unleash the full force of their oversight powers on the Trump administration....

It seems as though Ryan has had a difficult time breaking away from being Trump's lackey. 

December 7, 2018

According to our friend Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-4), (click here) Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and his leadership team, including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP Whip Steve Scalise, refused to lobby for the Trump-supported Goodlatte immigration bill, which would have built a border wall, enacted E-Verify procedures, and offered DREAMERS a path to citizenship. It failed to pass the House after nearly 20 Ryan loyalists voted against it.

Now, many of the 20 Republicans who voted “NO” on Goodlatte are gone, defeated or retired in the 2018 midterm election, and Rep. Goodlatte has been clear on why his bill did not pass, when Republicans had the majority in the House.

Our friend Neil Munro reports Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the retiring Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary, says the GOP leadership let the House immigration reform die in June by allowing a critical bloc of GOP legislators to split their votes between two rival reform bills.

“The strategy of having two options really let people have an off-ramp — they could vote for the more conservative bill and against the other, or vote for the second bill and not the first,” Goodlatte said, adding according to Munro’s reporting:

That is just not a good strategy and I complained about it at the time. I said ‘You’ve got to narrow this down to one bill and then work really hard to get the members to vote for that one bill.’

Mr. Goodlatte confirmed that House Speaker Paul Ryan made the decision to create the rival bill that blocked Goodlatte’s bill.

On November 30, Ryan told an interviewer that he preferred the second bill, which he credited to Florida GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo....

"Good Night, Moon"

The waxing crescent

2.4 day old moon

6.3 percent lit

The latest climate assessments by the IPCC and the USA scientists relay a message of urgency. It is long over time to make necessary changes to end greenhouse gas emissions of all kinds. We can do this and we need to do this now.

...It's almost time to say farewell to our glaciers," (click here) Austrian mountain farmer Siggi Ellmauer said, looking at the craggy summits across the Pyhrn valley. After a tour of the nature camp he's building for school kids, Ellmauer talks about how climate change is reshaping his world.

"As a child, I never would have thought they could vanish. Even 20 years ago there were still patches of ice up there on those north-facing slopes. I've watched, we've all watched the glaciers shrink here and across the country," he said.

"When will they all be completely gone?"...

The climate crisis in the year 2018-2019 is about quality of life. In the future, it is about sustainability of life on Earth. We need to get this right and now!

This is very good news for countries such as Slovakia to make the changes they need to a safer climate.

December 3, 2018

Katowice - The Latest on the U.N. climate talks (click here) taking place in Katowice, Poland (all times local):

2 a.m.

The World Bank Group says it is doubling funding for poor countries preparing for climate change to $200 billion over five years.

The Washington-based organization said Monday that about half would come from the World Bank itself, while the rest would be sourced from other institutions within the group and private capital.

No one ever said this was easy to understand.

A.3.1. Impacts on natural and human systems from global warming have already been observed (high confidence). Many land and ocean ecosystems and some of the services they provide have already changed due to global warming (high confidence). (Figure SPM.2) {1.4, 3.4, 3.5}

A.3.2. Future climate-related risks depend on the rate, peak and duration of warming. In the aggregate, they are larger if global warming exceeds 1.5°C before returning to that level by 2100 than if global warming gradually stabilizes at 1.5°C, especially if the peak temperature is high (e.g., about 2°C) (high confidence). Some impacts may be long-lasting or irreversible, such as the loss of some ecosystems (high confidence). {3.2, 3.4.4, 3.6.3, Cross-Chapter Box 8 in Chapter 3}

A.3.3. Adaptation and mitigation are already occurring (high confidence). Future climate-related risks would be reduced by the upscaling and acceleration of far-reaching, multilevel and cross-sectoral climate mitigation and by both incremental and transformational adaptation (high confidence). {1.2, 1.3, Table 3.5, 4.2.2, Cross-Chapter Box 9 in Chapter 4, Box 4.2, Box 4.3, Box 4.6, 4.3.1, 4.3.2, 4.3.3, 4.3.4, 4.3.5, 4.4.1, 4.4.4, 4.4.5, 4.5.3}

Fundamental changes (click here) in seawater chemistry are occurring throughout the world's oceans. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the release of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from humankind's industrial and agricultural activities has increased the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

The ocean absorbs about a quarter of the CO₂ we release into the atmosphere every year, so as atmospheric CO₂ levels increase, so do the levels in the ocean. Initially, many scientists focused on the benefits of the ocean removing this greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.  However, decades of ocean observations now show that there is also a downside — the CO₂ absorbed by the ocean is changing the chemistry of the seawater, a process called OCEAN ACIDIFICATION....

This is the formula and it may look confusing to some, but, maybe this explanation will help. But, basically what is occurring in the oceans is a REDUCTION of naturally occurring buffer (bi carbonate). The natural pH of the ocean is 8.2. It is now reduced today to 8.1. The problem is the saturation of CO2 into the oceans creating carbonic acid that reacts with it's natural buffer.

Once dissolved in seawater, CO₂ reacts with water, H₂O, to form carbonic acid, H₂CO_3:

CO_{2 +} H₂O ↔ H₂CO₃. 

Carbonic acid dissolves rapidly to form H+ ions (an acid) and bicarbonate, HCO^3-(a base).  

Seawater is naturally saturated with another base, carbonate ion (CO₃⁻²) that acts like an antacid to neutralize the H+, forming more bicarbonate. The net reaction looks like this: CO₂ + H₂O + CO₃⁻²_→ 2HCO^3-

As carbonate ion gets depleted, seawater becomes undersaturated with respect to two calcium carbonate minerals vital for shell-building, aragonite and calcite. Scientific models suggest that the oceans are becoming undersaturated with respect to aragonite at the poles, where the cold and dense waters most readily absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide.  The Southern Ocean is expected to become undersaturated with respect to aragonite by 2050, and the problem could extend into the subarctic Pacific Ocean by 2100 (Orr et al., 2005).

The reduction of the natural ocean buffer may seem silly to many, however, it is not silly to shellfish and their production of their shells.

...This acidification process (click here) decreases the saturation state of aragonite (Ωarag) (right image) and calcite (Ωcal), the two mineral forms of calcium carbonate that most bivalves use to form their shells....

Aragonite is a carbonate mineral, one of the three most common naturally occurring crystal forms of calcium carbonate, CaCO₃. It is formed by biological and physical processes, including precipitation from marine and freshwater environments.

Slovakia is taking the climate crisis seriously at exactly a time when growth has improved.

The Gross Domestic Product click here) per capita in Slovakia was last recorded at 19897.15 US dollars in 2017. The GDP per Capita in Slovakia is equivalent to 158 percent of the world's average. GDP per capita in Slovakia averaged 13399.21 USD from 1992 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 19897.15 USD in 2017 and a record low of 7675.59 USD in 1992.

Slovakia's population is 5,432,157. It is the highest it has ever been and is expected to sustain that trajectory through 2025.

OVERALL PROSPERITY (CLICK HERE)

In the overall Prosperity Index rankings, Slovakia has climbed by 1 position from 33 to 32 when compared to last year. Since the Prosperity Index began in 2006, Slovakia has moved up the rankings table by 2 places.

Slovakia’s economic freedom score (click here)

is 65.3, making its economy the 59th freest in the 2018 Index...

...It is still affected by widespread corruption and a weak judicial system that remains inefficient and vulnerable to political interference....

...After Slovakia gained independence from the former Czechoslovakia in 1993, market reforms made it one of Europe’s rising economic stars. It entered the European Union and NATO in 2004 and the eurozone in 2009. Prime Minister Robert Fico’s center-left Direction-Social Democracy Party (Smer) lost its parliamentary majority in 2016, but Fico remains leader of a coalition government that includes Smer, the Slovak National Party, and the center-right Bridge (Most-Híd) party. Independent Andrej Kiska was elected president in 2014. Slovakia has rebuffed EU plans for mandatory migrant quotas. Its small, open economy is driven mainly by automobile and electronics exports. Unemployment has mostly remained above the EU average but also has been falling; youth unemployment, however, remains high....

It can be halted and reversed. This is not a theory, this is a matter of fact.

2018

A.2.2. Reaching and sustaining net zero global anthropogenic CO2 emissions and declining net non-CO2 radiative forcing would halt anthropogenic global warming on multi-decadal timescales (high confidence). The maximum temperature reached is then determined by cumulative net global anthropogenic CO2 emissions up to the time of net zero CO2 emissions (high confidence) and the level of non-CO2 radiative forcing in the decades prior to the time that maximum temperatures are reached (medium confidence). On longer timescales, sustained net negative global anthropogenic CO2 emissions and/or further reductions in non-CO2 radiative forcing may still be required to prevent further warming due to Earth system feedbacks and to reverse ocean acidification (medium confidence) and will be required to minimize sea level rise (high confidence). {Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1, 1.2.3, 1.2.4, Figure 1.4, 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 3.4.4.8, 3.4.5.1, 3.6.3.2}

California is leading the way to the future and every other state needs to get on board. California has 39.5 million residents and is the most populous state in the USA. It is the third largest by area.

California is the world's fifth largest economy with a gross state product in 2017 of $2.747 trillion and surpasses the United Kingdom's $2.625 trillion GDP.

The biggest complaint by plutocrats and capitalists is that the climate crisis is adverse to economics. Really? California has always had the toughest environmental laws in the USA, if not the world. California thrives and is determined to thrive no matter the reality it faces to bring moral content to government. The people of California are resilient. 

The determination of people be they Californians or not to change the circumstances that endangers them due to climate are paramount to the best global outcomes. We can do this.

August 29, 2018
By Michael J. Coren

The Golden State (click here) is turning into the Solar State. On Aug. 28, California’s state assembly passed a bill to eliminate electricity-related greenhouse-gas emissions by 2045 and cut them by half by 2026. If the state senate and governor Jerry Brown sign off on it, California will become the world’s largest single economy to adopt a zero-emissions goal for its electricity grid by relying on wind, solar, and other renewable technology.

Hawaii is the only other US state with greater ambition (it enacted a bill in June), and Massachusetts is considering a similar bill. The European Union’s bloc of 28 countries (the third-largest source of global emissions) plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 across all sectors of all economies. To do this, carbon removal systems now being developed (as Quartz has reported) are expected to play a role in compensating for sectors such as aviation that may still emit greenhouse gases even after the energy grid is fully powered by renewables....

The milling industry has no internal reserves to absorb the expected rise in food grain prices.

Addressing the climate crisis is not an option for these countries. They are not wealthy and have no residual to the well being for their people. The USA's stagnant interest in the continued climate crisis is a dangerous place for it's allies. Slovakia is a member of the European Union. It is an ally of the USA. After 911, Slovakia opened it's airspace to the USA and also sends assistance to Afghanistan. Why is the United States of America looking the other way in regard to climate when so many allies need it's dedication to their best outcomes?

14 August 2018

Drought and summer heat this year (click here) will not only cause a lower yield for the cereal harvest and the subsequent price rise in the European Union, but will also push up the price of flour. The Slovak Millers Association has already indicated that the price of flour will go up in response to this situation.

“The largest European producers of cereal crops have been warning for several weeks that they will harvest significantly less from their fields and after this year’s harvest, food crop prices will again be influenced by the harvest in the EU, outside the EU, and global reserves,” said Jana Holéciová, spokeswoman for the Slovak Agricultural and Food Chamber (SPPK), as cited in the press release. “The international commodity markets, MATIF in Paris and CBoT in Chicago, have already reacted to the unfavourable farming season in the EU.”...

The video out of New Zealand is tragic.

5 December 2018

If you think New Zealand's Southern Alps (click here) are shielded from climate change – take a look at this. "You can't make a glacier lie.” / NIWA

"...You can't make a glacier lie...."

Does everyone understand that losing the icefields, glaciers and caps of Earth is extremely dangerous?

There is absolutely no doubt Earth is warming and the icefields of Earth are melting. There is no doubt about that. It is measurable and the statements accurate.

Earth's capacity to maintain it's icefields is so diminished that the planet is heating. The greenhouse gases are responsible for Earth's warming climate.
High amounts of these gases in Earth's troposphere is detrimental to life.

The greenhouse gas over abundance has to end and a reverse trend to eliminate anthropogenic emissions must be engaged to fully recapture Earth's benevolence. The icefields must regenerate.

Flattening out the emission trend is admirable, but, reversing the trend is the future.

Climate ADAPT - Slovakia

Climate change (click here) has caused a wide range of impacts on natural and human systems all over the world1. In Slovakia in recent years more frequent physical impacts of climate change such as floods, landslides, long-term droughts and heatwaves were observed, which influenced the economy, social systems, ecosystems and the infrastructure.

The National adaptation strategy provides an overview of the impacts on natural systems (geological environment, water, soil, biosphere and biodiversity) as and describes the impacts on human health, urban environment, agriculture, forestry, transportation, energy, industry and tourism. The strategy summarizes a set of adaptation measures for each sector.

The aim of the strategy is to draw attention to the fact that climate change is an urgent issue that requires an integrated and comprehensive approach....

IPCC Summary for Policy Makers

2018 (click here)

A.1. Human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0°C of global warming above pre-industrial levels, with a likely range of 0.8°C to 1.2°C. Global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate. (high confidence) (Figure SPM.1) {1.2}

A.1.1. Reflecting the long-term warming trend since pre-industrial times, observed global mean surface temperature (GMST) for the decade 2006–2015 was 0.87°C (likely between 0.75°C and 0.99°C) higher than the average over the 1850–1900 period (very high confidence). Estimated anthropogenic global warming matches the level of observed warming to within ±20% (likely range). Estimated anthropogenic global warming is currently increasing at 0.2°C (likely between 0.1°C and 0.3°C) per decade due to past and ongoing emissions (high confidence). {1.2.1, Table 1.1, 1.2.4}

A.1.2. Warming greater than the global annual average is being experienced in many land regions and seasons, including two to three times higher in the Arctic. Warming is generally higher over land than over the ocean. (high confidence) {1.2.1, 1.2.2, Figure 1.1, Figure 1.3, 3.3.1, 3.3.2}...

Within the global scientific community there is "high confidence" to the knowledge that human activity caused 1.0 degree C increase to Earth's troposphere. What is there besides that needs to be known?

I am serious.

What does any leader of any government need to know, except, that human activity IS RESPONSIBLE for 1.0 degree C INCREASE to Earth's troposphere. It is the responsibility of humans on Earth to reverse and stabilize this trend.

When looking across the globe there are countries that contribute enormous amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and it is THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to end their emissions. The major emitters of greenhouse gases:

As of 2010, 52.86 percent of the CO2 emissions came from five countries

China - 23.43 percent

USA - 14.69 percent

India - 5.70 percent

Russian Federation - 4.87 percent

Brazil - 4.17 percent

In the year 2018 I can honestly state the USA has tried it's best to bring down the use of fossil fuels, UNTIL, 2005 when Richard Cheney's Energy Policy turned fracking loose on the land in the USA. Since, that unfettered destruction of land in the USA by fracking, Oklahoma now has a very tentative outcome for landowners due to significant and increasing seismic activity.

China is not a first world country, neither is India, Russia or Brazil. The USA allies have done their part and moved to reduce and eliminate the emissions of greenhouse gases, including CO2. I might add, the reduction of other greenhouse gases, including methane, needs to be stopped now. Other then CO2, the dangers of emissions of the other greenhouse gases are far more dangerous to Earth's outcomes.

“Climate change also affects Slovakia,”...

17 May 2018

After a longer period of time (click here) most of Slovakia experienced continuous rain earlier this week while meteorologists forecast the rainy weather to continue in the following days. The temperature dropped too, when the decline was as much as approximately 10 degrees Celsius. Climatologists see this only as a return to normal since Slovakia experienced a record warm and dry April caused by climate change.

“Climate change also affects Slovakia,” said climatologist Jozef Pecho from the Slovak Hydro-Meteorological Office (SHMÚ), adding that the faster arrival of spring, a longer and hotter summer and more hydro-meteorological extremes like heat waves, drought, storms, windstorms or torrential rain and fires will be more common.

Already now insurance protection is too expensive for some people and companies is too expensive and thus inaccessible due to climate change.

"In the future the price of insurance policies will be even higher and there will be more groups of people, sectors and localities in Slovakia for which insurance policies will be inaccessible due to more frequent weather extremes," said Daniel Vida, deputy chairman of the board of directors of the insurance company Poštová Poisťovňa.

Increasing temperatures

The most significant demonstration of climate change’s impacts is the increasing temperature. The average global temperature has increased by almost 1 degree Celsius since the beginning of the 20^th century. However, central Europe, including Slovakia ,reports an almost double warming. For example, the average annual temperature in Bratislava and its vicinity has increased by almost 2 degrees Celsius since 1951....