Dolphin circus sparks animal cruelty debate in Central Asia

Yahoo – AFP, Tolkun Namatbayeva, January 21, 2016

Dolphins during a performance at the Moscow Travelling Dolphinarium
(AFP Photo/Vyacheslav Oseledko)

Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) (AFP) - Inside a travelling aquatic circus in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, whoops and cheers go up as a dolphin leaps out of a pool and slam-dunks a ball through a basketball net.

Hundreds of people packed inside the Moscow Travelling Dolphinarium to watch dolphins and beluga whales perform acrobatic stunts, against a painted backdrop of blue skies and palm trees.

A beluga whale performs at the Moscow 

ravelling Dolphinarium in Bishkek

(AFP Photo/Vyacheslav Oseledko)

A blonde female announcer dressed as a sailor spurs on the animals like champion athletes.

"A real sportsman doesn't give up so easily," she booms as a beluga named Dandy leaps out of the water but fails to whack a ball hanging on a string with his tail.

But he does not fluff up his second attempt.

"And he's got it this time!" the presenter shouts as the crowd roars in approval over a soundtrack of blaring rock and Russian pop ballads.

While the New Year's show wowed crowds in landlocked Kyrgyzstan, it also fuelled a long-running debate in former Soviet states about cruelty to animals.

Travelling dolphinariums are banned across much of the world but remain popular in the ex-Soviet bloc where forms of circus entertainment prohibited in the West, such as acts with wild animals like lions and bears, continue to thrive despite concerns about animal welfare.

Yet opposition to animal abuse has grown in recent times, with local activists using the Internet to gather data and mobilise opposition to practises they say involve animal cruelty or stress.

Before the Moscow dolphin circus rolled into town, 1,500 people signed an online petition imploring Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev to ban it.

On opening night, a group of protesters picketed the performance with posters featuring drawings of weeping dolphins, some of them by children.

"Why has this dolphin circus ended up in Kyrgyzstan? Because it has nowhere else to go and we are a poor country with lax legislation," Anna Kirilenko of BIOM, an environmentalist non-profit organisation based in Bishkek, told AFP.

Authorities in Bishkek however defended the show.

"Dolphins love to be touched. Training and performances are a form of play for dolphins...they were born in captivity and thus would not survive in the wild," the mayor's office said in a statement.

Before the Moscow dolphin circus rolled into town, 1,500 people signed an online

 petition imploring Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev to ban it (AFP Photo/

Vyacheslav Oseledko)

Video footage secretly recorded by citizen journalists showing a circus whale in the Russian city of Perm being kept in a small metal container for days on end has been used by activists to press their case.

A representative of the Moscow Travelling Dolphinarium denied any connection between the circus and the whale in Perm, saying the company never toured in Russia outside the capital.

Shooting stray dogs

Animal abuse is a recurring theme in Kyrgyzstan -- the second-poorest country to emerge from the breakup of the Soviet Union.

In 2011, authorities in Bishkek announced plans to shoot around 10,000 stray dogs, sparking an international outcry and a number of petitions demanding the creatures be spared.

The government defended the shootings, arguing that housing the dogs or organising a programme of mass sterilisation was too costly.

Neighbouring Tajikistan also has a sometimes unsavoury reputation on animal welfare.

For many years, a white-bearded man patrolled the streets of the capital Dushanbe with a sad-looking muzzled bear, offering rides to passers-by. Both he and his bear died in 2013.

The stress and discomfort suffered by aquatic mammals in travelling circuses has attracted particular attention.

In 2010, a beluga whale called Dale died from heart problems in Kazakhstan while touring with a Russian circus.

Animal-welfare organisations prostest against the Moscow Travelling Dolphinarium 

during their rally outside the dolphinarium in Bishkek (AFP Photo/Vyacheslav Oseledko)

Dale's circus partner lost interest in performing tricks after his death and disappeared from the show shortly afterwards, Kazakh media reported.

'Worst of the worst'

"These travelling dolphin circuses are the worst of the worst in terms of cruelty," said Richard O'Barry, founder of the US-based Dolphin Project that campaigns against dolphin captivity.

"They haul dolphins and whales around in a truck. They live in a coffin-sized box. Then they milk as much money out of them before they die from stress-related diseases."

O'Barry once trained dolphins for the US television show Flipper but turned his back on such displays after the dolphin that most often played the lead character died in what O'Barry believes was a suicide triggered by depression.

Dolphin circus sparks animal cruelty debate in Central Asia https://t.co/l9OAu2FW0Q pic.twitter.com/yIgrm8kdKR

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 21, 2016

MH370 searchers spot shipwreck instead of airliner

Another old shipwreck has been located by searchers for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The plane that went missing in 2014 has so far eluded an international Australian-led team scanning the Indian Ocean.

Deutsche Welle, 14 January 2016

Australia's search coordination agency announced Wednesday that a submersible vehicle deployed by a search ship spotted the remains of an old metallic ship lying on the seabed on December19, at a depth of 3,700 meters (12,140 feet).

"The Shipwreck Galleries of the Western Australian Museum have conducted a preliminary review of the some sonar imagery and advised that the vessel is likely to be a steel/iron vessel dating from the turn of the 19th century," said the Joint Agency Coordinating Centre (JACC).

A previous sonar find in May last year showed an anchor, along with other objects thought to be lumps of coal.

More than half scanned

So far, the expensive oceanic search for MH370 has covered more than 80,000 square kilometers (31,000 square miles) of mostly deep seafloor. The total area planned is 120,000 square kilometers.

JACC said that governments involved had agreed not to widen the intended area unless "credible new information" emerged.

The only tangible evidence that MH370 met a tragic end emerged last May, when a two-meter-long piece of the wing, a so-called flaperon, washed up on Reunion, an Indian Ocean island.

The airliner with 239 people on board went missing during an intended flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Speculation

A myriad of speculative causes for the plane's disappearance has ranged from a hijacking, to mechanical failure, a terror plot to even rogue pilot action.

Analysts have said that only by pinpointing a crash site and recovering the plane's flight recorders will authorities being able to say exactly what happened to the plane.

ipj/sms (Reuters, AFP)

Beached sperm whales die on Dutch island overnight

DutchNews, January 13, 2016

The five dead whales will now be tested to find out why they died. Photo: ANP

The five sperm whales which beached on the Dutch Wadden Sea island of Texel have all died overnight as expected, marine experts said on Wednesday. 

The whales were spotted in difficulty close to the shore on Tuesday and rescue efforts continued until midnight, without success.

It is extremely unusual for so many whales to be in Dutch waters, a spokesman for the Ecomare marine centre told local paper Noordhollands Dagblad. The area of beach where the whales were was closed to the public, to minimise the distress to the animals. 

Protocol

The Netherlands has set up a special protocol to deal with beachings following the death of a hump backed whale which stranded on a sandbank near Texel in 2012. The protocol states that efforts to save the animals will stop after they have been beached for more than 12 hours. Two dead sperm whales washed up on the German Wadden Sea island of Wangerooge on January 8. They are thought to have been dead for some time.

[Update]Noodverordening voor strand Paal 12 - https://t.co/RY4dZoRX42 pic.twitter.com/MK8LQt3ole

— Texelse Courant (@texelsecourant) January 12, 2016

Vrijwilligers KNRM Texel ter plaatse in afwachting hulpverlening. Foto: Marleen Bergamin #potvissen pic.twitter.com/mAOCgAfmie

— KNRM (@KNRM) January 12, 2016

Related Articles:

Two more sperm whales wash up on Texel
45 whales die after southern India stranding

45 whales die after southern India stranding

Yahoo – AFP, January 12, 2016

Forty-five whales have died after becoming stranded on a beach in
southern India (AFP Photo/Frederic J. Brown)

Forty-five whales have died after stranding themselves on a southern Indian beach, a government official said Tuesday, with local fishermen struggling to save others.

The pod of whales started beaching themselves on Monday afternoon along a 15-kilometre (9-mile) stretch of coast near Tiruchendur on India's southernmost tip.

"At least 45 short-nosed pilot whales beached were later confirmed dead on the coast of Tiruchendur," district collector M. Ravikumar said, adding that the pod may have been hit by a passing ship.

About 50 whales altogether had become stranded, local forestry officer S.A. Raju said, while the Press Trust of India and other local media put the total number at more than 100.

"It's very strange and we are examining the whales. We found some of the whales are still alive and struggling for their lives," Raju said.

Raju added he and his team were seeking help from the district administration to try to rescue those still breathing.

Fishermen and others were attempting to push those whales back into the water along the coast, located some 700 kilometres from the city of Chennai, local media reported.

Fishermen raised the alarm after the whales, about 15 feet (4.5 metres) long, starting coming ashore.

"On Monday evening there were more than a dozen whales beached at many places on the shore," said S. Thiraviyam, a resident of the town of Manapad.

The southern tip of India is close to major shipping trade routes.

Bolivia, Peru sign $500 mn deal for Lake Titicaca clean-up

Yahoo – AFP, January 8, 2016

Lake Titicaca, which is the highest in the world, at an altitude of 3,800 meters
(12,470 feet) above sea level, provides a habitat for a number of frogs, birds
and fish, including two species that have almost been wiped out (AFP Photo
/Aizar Raldes)

La Paz (AFP) - Bolivia and Peru agreed to provide more than $500 million towards cleaning up Lake Titicaca, whose polluted waters are home to some animals nearing extinction, a Bolivian environment official said.

The deal, which is meant to improve the lake's biodiversity, includes environmental management and recovery through to 2025.

Lake Titicaca, which is the highest in the world, at an altitude of 3,800 meters (12,470 feet) above sea level, provides a habitat for a number of frogs, birds and fish, including two species that have almost been wiped out.

Bolivia's Environment and Water Minister Alexandra Moreira and her Peruvian counterpart Manuel Pulgar signed the agreement during a public event.

"For the short term we have a limit of $117 million and for the long term $400 million," said Moreira's advisor Sergio Arispe.

“It's a logistical matter we are trying to manage through 2025," he said.

Part of the waste in the lake is generated by the Bolivian city of El Alto, near La Paz, which is home to about 800,000 people.

Peru's minister stressed that the two countries are "already taking concrete actions such as investing in water treatment plants to address the main problems the lake is facing."

Aid groups create huge peace sign of life jackets on Greek isle

Yahoo – AFP, January 2, 2016

A photo released by Greenpeace and taken on January 1, 2016 on the Greek
island of Lesbos shows a peace sign created from over 3,000 discarded refugee
 life jackets, calling for safe passage to those fleeing war, poverty and oppression.
(AFP Photo/Florian Schulz)

Athens (AFP) - Rights groups briefly transformed a mountain of discarded life jackets used by refugees who crossed the Aegean Sea into a huge peace sign on the hills of the Greek island of Lesbos.

The giant symbol, which was made out of around 3,000 flourescent orange life jackets, was created on a hillside overlooking the 10-kilometre (six mile) stretch of water between the island's northern shores and the Turkish coastline, the Greenpeace website said.

It was formed on New Year's Day by around 100 volunteers from Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders, Sea-Watch and the Dutch Refugee Boat Foundation as well as the local community group, Starfish.

The groups created the peace sign "on New Year's Day to bring in 2016 with a message of hope," with Greenpeace's Florian Schulz telling AFP it took three-to-four hours to create the giant symbol, which measured 10 metres from side-to-side.

But it was later removed as the group did not have permission to leave it there.

"We had no permission for the sign to stay in the hills so we dismantled it and cleaned up the dump," Schulz told AFP.

UN figures show that more than half a million people have crossed Aegean Sea to Lesbos alone over the past year, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the 850,000 who reached Greece by boat in 2015.

The vast majority were refugees fleeing war and violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, with the life jackets they used left at a dump near the village of Molyvos, Greenpeace said.

A man reacts as he arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek

 island of Lesbos, on October 28, 2015, after crossing the Aegean sea from

Turkey (AFP Photo/ARIS MESSINIS)

'A silent reminder'

"The dump site stands as a statue, a silent reminder of the risks and that so many more still hold out hope of a safe crossing. It also includes the life jackets of those who never made it, of those who lost their lives at sea and can never return home or continue their journey north," it said.

More than one million migrants and refugees have entered Europe this year, four out of five of whom reached the continent via the Greek islands. Although the arrivals has declined since the autumn, around 60,000 arrived on Lesbos in December, UN figures show.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei on Friday said he was planning to create a memorial on Lesbos to the plight of refugees, many of whom have died trying to reach Europe.

"A lot of people have lost their lives under the waves... we need a memorial," he told AFP after a news conference on the project.

"I already set up a studio in Lesbos. Next year we are going to be involved with different projects," he added.

Chinese artist Weiwei to create refugee memorial on Lesbos https://t.co/CQZDJPsrDR pic.twitter.com/S1lyTTU0PA

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) January 1, 2016

Weird weather brings warm welcome to 2016

Yahoo – AFP, Clement Sabourin, December 31, 2015

Members of the emergency services search for people in need after the adjacent
River Foss burst it's banks in York, northern England, on December 27, 2015
(AFP Photo/Oli Scarff)

London (AFP) - With temperatures above freezing at the North Pole, deadly tornadoes in Texas, extreme heat in Australia and floods in Britain and Missouri, the world is beset by extreme weather events as it welcomes 2016.

A powerful and destructive low-pressure system in the North Atlantic has pushed the mercury up to two degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) at the pole, 20 degrees above the seasonal norm.

Firefighters tackle a blaze in an

area affected by wildfires near the

Basque town of Berango in

northern Spain on December 28,

2015 (AFP Photo/Ander Gillenea)

The Arctic has borne the brunt of global warming, with temperatures three degrees higher than the pre-industrial era.

But linking the current mild conditions to climate change is premature, warned Natalie Hasell, meteorologist at the Canadian Department of the Environment, saying that scientists do not base their conclusions "on one anomaly".

The North Atlantic depression also brought eastern Canada an unusually warm holiday period, with temperatures hitting 15.9 degrees Celsius in Montreal on Christmas Eve, around 20 degrees above the seasonal average.

This was followed by heavy snowfall that covered the country's eastern half.

In the United States, tornadoes and floods left at least 49 dead.

The waters of the mighty Mississippi River have already exceeded overflow levels by four metres in some areas, claiming 13 lives.

In the south, spectacular tornadoes devastated parts of Texas.

The common cause of the unusual events is a particularly strong El Nino system, amplified by global warming, according to scientists.

El Ninos, which emerge every four to seven years on average and run from October through January, are triggered by a shift in trade winds across the Pacific around the Equator.

However, the 2015 episode is "probably the strongest in the last 100 years," said Jerome Lecou, ​​forecaster at Meteo-France.

"There is no simple answer" to explain the exceptional conditions, he added.

Strawberries at Christmas

Although centered on the Pacific Ocean, El Nino "has an impact on a global scale," Jean Jouzel, former vice president of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told AFP.

"Generally, El Nino years are warmer than average," he said.

A producer from the Perigord region checks

 her ripe strawberries, due to the unusual

 warm temperatures, on December 29, 2015

 in Cendrieux, southwestern France (AFP

Photo/Nicolas Tucat)

In Australia, scorching heat has led to large forest fires and temperatures are forecast to soon hit 38 degrees Celsius in the south.

In France, the unseasonably warm weather has baffled Mother Nature with Perigord strawberries, Alsatian asparagus and mimosas all flourishing on the French Riviera.

In Spain, higher temperatures and low rainfall have led to an unusual outbreak of wildfires in the north.

Several Italian cities have introduced traffic restrictions to combat fine-particle pollution, which has been worsened by the dry and calm conditions.

Record rainfall has brought unprecedented flooding to the north of England, leaving the historic city of York under feet of water and thousands evacuated over December.

Stormy weather buffeting the North Sea has brought havoc to oilfields on New Year's Eve, with one man reported killed by a giant wave hitting a rig, and hundreds of workers evacuated after a huge barge broke its moorings and began drifting.

"There is no doubt in my mind that climate change is partly responsible for the flooding across the north of England," said Piers Forster, professor of climate science at Leeds University.

A daisy blooms in Alexandra Palace Park, 

north London on December 18, 2015

(AFP Photo/Leon Neal)

Britain's mean December temperature was a record-breaking eight degrees Celsius, smashing the previous high of 6.9 degrees set in 1934, according to the Met Office.

It was also the wettest December on record for Scotland and Wales and one of the top 10 wettest in Britain as a whole.

Worldwide, temperatures between January and November have already broken records, suggesting that 2015 will be the hottest in modern history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"On a global level, we really are in an exceptional year as it is just over a tenth of a degree warmer than 2014, which itself was a record year," said Jean Jouzel.

"This is a real leap, one tenth of a degree from one year to another," he added.

With El Nino showing little sign of running out of steam, he predicted that 2016 could be warmer still, but that following years may be less extreme.

Graphic comparing the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon in 1997

 with that forecast for 2015-16. (AFP Photo/Jean Michel CORNU)

Related Articles:

Record-breaking 2014 was hottest in modern history: US

Global average temperatures soar, Arctic ice shrinks

"The Weather" - Mar 1, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"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. …”

British Columbia salmon return one of largest seen in region (Sep 2013)

Pink salmon, shown in a file photograph, 

have a lifespan of two years

"Effect of the New Energy on DNA" + "One Foot in Each Energy" (3) - Aug 1-2, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... The Role of the Sun

As you move into this new energy, or what some have even called "radiation", you should know how it works, for it's very related to your Sun. Physically, it affects the magnetic field of the Sun (the heliosphere), which then in turn is blasted to your own magnetic field via the solar wind. That's the physics of it, but dear one, let me give you the esoterics of it. This has been the plan all along, that if you made it as a Human race past the 2012 marker, you would pass into this area of space and the magnetics would shift, allowing Human consciousness to change. Dear ones, this was always here waiting for you to pass the marker! This is why I came 26 years ago and told you the magnetics would shift. This is an evolutionary energy that is going to affect your Sun - the heliosphere of your Sun - which then will pass to the magnetic field of the earth, a field that has now been repostured for this new consciousness.

Oh, there are those intellectuals who would say, "Well, what if we had destroyed ourselves as the prophecies said we would? What if there were no Humans to receive this?" It's simple. No Humans would have been here, but the planet would have still moved into this new area of space and the same energies would have been there, but you would not have been. Simple. But indeed, here you are!

So now you can see that the prophecy from the indigenous is also being fulfilled, for they told you about the changes coming after the precession of the equinoxes (December 2012). How could they have had this prophecy about your movement into a new place around your galaxy? Think about it! These things are not new, and even the ancients told you it was coming! They may not have known the specifics of science, but their prophecy is the same one I have: New consciousness is coming.

Dear ones, I want you to continue to put together these pieces physically in what you can see. As we told you, these changes affect your Sun. The heliosphere of your Sun changes you magnetic grid. Now, for this all to work, the Sun had to be quiet for this. I want you to ask an astronomer about the Sun and the cycles of the Sun. Ask about what period of radiance the Sun is in at the moment. The astronomer will tell you that it appears to be one of the quietest cycles that the Sun has ever seen. Solar flares and sunspots are disturbances in the multidimensional field that surrounds the Sun, so these had to be gone while the new energies were starting to be implemented. For this all to work, the Sun had to be as quiet as possible, and it is. The Sun's quiet time is also affecting your weather, and we told you that, too. Due to its quietness, you're in a cycle of weather that we also predicted [a cold time coming] that also has a lot to do with the energy that's coming. That's physical. Ask an astronomer, “Are they worried about all this?” Some of them are and others are not. But it is affecting you and the planet right now. Now you know why the magnetic grid was changed when it was changed and why. That's physical. .."

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

New Mini Ice Age

"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." 

Indonesia Sinks 10 Illegal Fishing Vessels

Jakarta Globe, Alin Almanar, December 31, 2015

Susi Pudjiastuti, the minister for maritime affairs and fisheries, visits impounded
 illegal foreign fishing vessels in Kubu Raya district, West Kalimantan. (Antara
Photo/Jessica Helena Wuysang)

Jakarta. Indonesian authorities on Thursday simultaneously sank ten foreign and local fishing boats caught operating illegally in the archipelago's vast waters, in the government's latest move in its war on illegal fishing.

Among the foreign vessels destroyed that day, two were Philippine-flagged boats carrying 16 and three Filipino fishermen respectively; another two hailed from Malaysia, each with a crew of 22 consisting of Malaysian and Myanmar nationals.

The latter two were caught with a total of 19 tons of fish.

The remaining were Indonesian fishing boats that had employed a crew of 44 Filipinos combined.

The vessels were sunk in four separate locations: six in the waters of Tahuna district off the coast of North Sulawesi; two in Tarakan, North Kalimantan; one in Belawan, North Sumatra; and another in Ranai, Riau.

"We will continue to take firm actions against boats caught fishing illegally in Indonesian waters as per the president's instructions," said First Adm. M. Zainudin, spokesman for the Indonesian Navy.

Upon taking office last October, President Joko Widodo instructed authorities to take drastic measures in tackling illegal and unreported fishing, which lead to dozens of ships from neighboring countries being destroyed.

According to government estimates, illegal fishing is costing the state some Rp 300 trillion ($21.68 billion) annually.