Humor4u

by Andrew Glikson “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” Noam Chomsky (1998). The level of atmospheric methane, a poisonous gas considered responsible for major mass extinction events in the past , has nearly tripled during the 20-21st centuries, from ~722 ppb (parts per billion) to above ~1866 ppb , currently reinforced by coal seam gas (CSG) emissions. As the concentration of atmospheric methane from thawing Arctic permafrost , from Arctic sediments and from marshlands worldwide is rising, the hydrocarbon industry, subsidized by governments, is progressively enhancing global warming by extracting coal seam gas in defiance of every international agreement. Methane (CH₄), a powerful greenhouse gas ~80 times the radiative power of carbon dioxide (CO₂) when fresh, sourced in from anaerobic decomposition in wetlands, rice fields, emission from animals, fermentation, a...

Sea surface temperatures on the Northern Hemisphere have been rising dramatically over the years, as illustrated by above image, indicating that the latent heat tipping point is getting crossed, while the methane hydrates tipping point could get crossed soon, depending on developments. At the moment, the surface temperature of most of the Arctic ocean's is still below 0°C. Heat is entering the Arctic Ocean from the south, as illustrated by the image on the right. Hot, salty water is entering the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean as currents dive underneath the ice, causing the ice to melt from below.  [ click on images to enlarge ] The image on the right, from the NSIDC article A step in our Spring , compares sea ice age between March 12 to 18 for the years 1985 (a) and 2021 (b). The bottom graph (c) shows a time series from 1985 to 2021 of percent ice coverage of the Arctic Ocean domain. The Arctic Ocean domain is depicted in the inset map with purple shading. At the end of t...

by Malcolm Light The greatest threat to humanity on Earth is the escalating Arctic atmospheric methane buildup, caused by the destabilization of subsea methane hydrates. This subsea Arctic methane hydrate destabilization will go out of control in 2024 and lead to a catastrophic heatwave by 2026. While the source region for this subsea methane is in Russian waters, the hot ocean current setting them off is the northern extension of the Gulf Stream - North Atlantic Drift, the “Svalbard Current”, which makes United States and Canadian atmospheric pollution guilty of this looming catastrophic Global Extinction event. References Extinction by 2027 - Post by Malcolm Light and comments  https://www.facebook.com/malcolm.light.50/posts/4013328748745929 Anomalies of methane in the atmosphere over the East Siberian shelf: Is there any sign of methane leakage from shallow shelf hydrates? - by Shakhova, Semiletov, Salyuk and Kosmach (2008)  http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU2008/01526/EGU2...

The 275th anniversary of Goya's birth has become an opportunity to bring the underpopulated county of Campo de Belchite and the village of Fuendetodos back to the map.   The Guardian recently reported on the " Territorio Goya " project, which aims to exploit the 200th anniversary of Goya's Black Paintings to "stem the decline of a region where there are just 4.8 inhabitants per square kilometre" . In this article, which is suitable for C1 students and above, you can come across words like: to summon, to stem [the decline],  to devour, a witches's sabbath, to drown, a printmaker, [to be] appalled, slumber, to cling [to the map], a curator, a resident, [annual] income, a profound pull, to empower, the plight [of Campo de Belchite], the hollowed [Spain], a demographic challenge, [to be] squeezed, to have a project underway, to mark [the 275th anniversary], demolished, [to be] stripped out, canvas, a mock-up [image], to commission, to reintepret, the rewor...

  Good Friday and Christmas were the only days of the year that pubs closed in Ireland until legislation was passed in 2018 to allow pubs to open.  In this The Irish Times story, you will learn about some of the old traditions associated with Good Friday , a text which is recommended for C1 students and above.   The report also includes a short 2':55" video where some publicans and local customers talk about the closing of pubs on Good Friday in the village of Drumconrath in Co Meath. The video, without subtitles, and with strong local Irish accents is recommended for C2 students. In the article you will come across words like: to liven it up, uneventful, a foreboding, guilt-ridden [religious observations], the Stations of the Cross, a retreat, repository, a cluster of [interesting observances], to guard against [headaches], to draw [blood], a bald patch, drips, a rafter, disrespectful, to unhook, fltches [of salted bacon], to nail to the timber, blacksmiths, carpent...

The radio programme " All Things Considered ", has recently reported about the African migrants that are temporarily being sheltered in hotels in the Canary Islands.  Here you can find a link to the audio (3':42") and the transcript on NPR's webpage .  And on this link, you can download  a lesson plan which includes a listening comprehension exercise, the key and some questions for discussion which can be used as oral exam practice for a monologue or an interaction at C1 level. The vocabulary is not particularly difficult, some of the words you will come across are: pandemic, to halt [global travel], to host, a wave [of visitors], a surge, packed with [tourists], the occupancy, to be down to [COVID restrictions], to soak up [the sun], asylum seekers, [to play] draughts, apprehensive, to flee [conflict], risky, to starve, to scrape a living, the mainland, to bounce back.

Questions and Answers with Sam Carana Above image shows a non-linear blue trend based on 1880-2020 NASA Land+Ocean data that are adjusted 0.78°C to reflect a pre-industrial base, to more fully reflect strong polar warming, and to reflect surface air temperatures over oceans. This blue trend highlights that the 1.5°C threshold was crossed in 2012 (inset), while the 2°C threshold looks set to be crossed next year and a 3°C rise could be reached at the end of 2026. Overshoot? The blue trend in the image at the top shows the temperature rise crossing 1.5°C in 2012. Could this have been a temporary overshoot? Could the trend be wrong and could temperatures come down in future, instead of continuing to rise, and could temperatures fall to such extent that this will bring the average temperature rise back to below 1.5°C? To answer this question, let's apply the method followed by the IPCC and estimate the average temperature rise over a 30-year period that is centered around the start o...