For a variety of political and natural reasons, global warming affects some countries differently than others. Fragile economies and weak infrastructures tend to worsen the results of climate disruptions, a problem exemplified by Bangladesh’s vulnerability to monsoons, accelerating desertification in northern China, and, most visibly, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in New Orleans. At the same time, warming and altered rainfall patterns may—temporarily—improve conditions for countries in extreme latitudes, increasing harvests in Canada and Russia for a few years. Similarly, intentional changes meant to fight global warming would also have differential results.
At the same time, the resources required for geoengineering projects can vary dramatically. A start-up company called Climos and the government of India have each begun to prepare tests of “ocean iron fertilization” to boost oceanic phytoplankton blooms, in order to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, at a cost of just a few million dollars. At the other end of the spectrum, projects like the injection of megatons of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere to simulate the effects of a volcano would easily cost in the tens of billions of dollars—still within the means of most developed countries.
Read about the new game Frontline: Fuel of War on CNN:
Over the last two decades prior to 2030 oil production has peaked and is declining rapidly, renewables never panned out, plagues hit, and starvation ensued. In other words, things have been very bad, at least according to Kaos Studios, the maker of this video game you’re playing.
Israel has been hit in recent years by thousands and thousands of rockets, mortar shells, and missiles. And that could be just a preview of the onslaught Iran may one day unleash. So Israeli military leaders have begun early planning for a new, robotic defense system, armed with enough artificial intelligence that it “could take over completely” from flesh-and-blood operators. ”It will be designed for… autonomous operations,’ Brig. Gen. Daniel Milo, commander of Israel’s air defense forces, tells Defense News‘ Barbara Opall-Rome. And in the event of a “doomsday” strike, Opall-Rome notes, the system could handle “attacks that exceed physiological limits of human command.”
The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the “imminent” spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west’s most senior military officers and strategists.
A year ago to the day, China knocked a weather satellite out of orbit, and threw the international community into panic. Some figured the satellite-killer test was the harbinger of a future war in space — the kind of conflict that could cripple a tech-dependent United States military. Geoffrey Forden, PhD — an MIT research associate and a former UN weapons inspector and strategic weapons analyst at the Congressional Budget Office — examines the possibilities of an all-out Chinese assault on American satellites. This is part one. Click for parts two and three.
Military patches and logos—simply the latest examples of heraldry dating back thousands of years—are by definition symbolic, so it is no surprise that they contain symbols. What is surprising is that these symbols often reveal information about the satellites’ identities and missions that are otherwise classified.
For years, no military program has sparked more fevered speculation from conspiracy theorists than the mysterious High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP. And for years, the Pentagon has been pooh-poohing speculation that the enormous collection of transmitters, radars, and magnetometers in Alaska was some sort of superweapon.
But, it turns out, the conspiracy theorists may not have been entirely off-base, after all.
Until now, the electric-shock gun consisted of two barbed darts attached to wires that shoot out and strike the victim, immobilizing the person with 50,000 volts of electricity, causing severe pain and intense muscle contraction.
But the wires could only extend a few metres. With the new “extended range electronic projectile,” or XREP, the Taser has been turned into a kind of self-contained shotgun shell and can be fired, wire-free, from a standard shotgun, which police typically have in their arsenal already.
PARIS - Iran’s announcement that it has developed the 1,200-mile range Ashura ballistic missile is being viewed with some concern by the Pentagon.
Although the Defense Department has long been projecting Iranian ballistic missiles to achieve that range, it was expected to be through upgrades of the long-known Shahab-3. However, the Ashura is “different,” says U.S. Missile Defense Agency director Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering. “That’s what surprised us,” he said.
Moreover, Obering notes that the Ashura’s emergence indicates how much work Iran is putting into improving its ballistic missile defense capability.
Obering was here in Paris once again trying to make the case for a European site for the ground-based midcourse defense system. He noted that the Iranian effort underscores the need to proceed.
The Pentagon also has been talking to Russia to reduce Moscow’s anxiety over the emergent missile defense shield on its doorstep and has offered both radar data sharing and other inducements.
Obering says that one proposal would have the Pentagon proceed with building the missile defense facilities - emplacing a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptors in Poland - but that the European site would not become operational until a clear threat from Iran emerged. One trigger could be flight-testing of an advanced ballistic missile, for instance. Talks with Moscow appear to involve how to verify the difference between an operational and nonoperational system - the Defense Department would prefer to have interceptors already in their silo.
Moscow so far has been cool to the plan and proposals put forward, but Obering says more talks already are scheduled. And he concedes many more visits to Europe will likely be needed before political consensus is reached.
The Pentagon would like to start construction next year of the missile defense site, and hopes Prague and Warsaw will agree by no later than early next year. If that’s the case, the plan to get the missile defense site up and running would be delayed only six months from the schedule put forward earlier this year - the schedule change reflects a congressional cut in the project’s budget.
Testing of the two-stage interceptor would begin in two-three years, with the full system to be tested end to end and ready for operations around 2013. Obering notes that the change to the interceptor is minor. The U.S.-based interceptors are three stage, so the third one would need to be removed and the adaptor for the kill vehicle modified. However, he argues it’s not a major development effort.
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