Avalanche takes out Battalion HQ & buries 130 Pakistani soldiers

[Viking]

Exceptional claims require exceptional evidence.
Prove it!!!

You know, I really can't be arsed, I'm gonna let NASA do it for me.

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years.1

Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. Studying these climate data collected over many years reveal the signals of a changing climate.

Certain facts about Earth's climate are not in dispute:

    The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century.2 Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many JPL-designed instruments, such as AIRS. Increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.

    Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in solar output, in the Earth’s orbit, and in greenhouse gas levels. They also show that in the past, large changes in climate have happened very quickly, geologically-speaking: in tens of years, not in millions or even thousands.3

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:

Sea level rise
Global sea level rose about 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in the last century. The rate in the last decade, however, is nearly double that of the last century.4

Global temperature rise
All three major global surface temperature reconstructions show that Earth has warmed since 1880. 5 Most of this warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years. 6 Even though the 2000s witnessed a solar output decline resulting in an unusually deep solar minimum in 2007-2009, surface temperatures continue to increase

Warming oceans
The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.8

Shrinking ice sheets
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.

Declining Arctic sea ice
Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades. 9

Glacial retreat
Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.10

Extreme events
The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.11

Ocean acidification
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent.12,13 This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by about 2 billion tons per year.14,15

N.B. The actual website is full of documenting links that I can't be arsed to put in here.

Now, siegy, what extraordinary evidence do you have for the existence of YAHWE?

[CountDeMoney]

Like Neil DeGrasse says, don't want to listen to scientists about global climate change, fine;  listen to the plant and animal kingdoms.  They're telling us everything.

Scientists have identified the first-ever hybrid shark off the coast of Australia, a discovery that suggests some shark species may respond to changing ocean conditions by interbreeding with one another.

A team of 10 Australian researchers identified multiple generations of sharks that arose from mating between the common blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) and the Australian blacktip (Carcharhinus tilstoni), which is smaller and lives in warmer waters than its global counterpart.

"To find a wild hybrid animal is unusual," the scientists wrote in the journal Conservation Genetics. "To find 57 hybrids along 2,000 km [1,240 miles] of coastline is unprecedented."

James Cook University professor Colin Simpfendorfer, one of the paper's co-authors, emphasized in an e-mail that he and his colleagues "don't know what is causing these species to be mating together." They are investigating factors including the two species' close relationship, fishing pressure and climate change.

Australian blacktips confine themselves to tropical waters, which end around Brisbane, while the hybrid sharks swam more than 1,000 miles south to cooler areas around Sydney. Simpfendorfer, who directs the university's Centre of Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, said this may suggest the hybrid species has an evolutionary advantage as the climate changes.

As a result, he wrote, "We are now seeing individuals carrying the more tropical species genes in more southerly areas. In a changing climate, this hybridization may therefore allow these species to better adapt to different conditions."

The researchers — who had been working on a government-funded study of the structure of shark populations along Australia's northeast coast — first realized something unusual was going on when they found fish whose genetic analysis showed they were one kind of blacktip but their physical characteristics, particularly the number of vertebrae they had, were those of another. Shark scientists often use vertebrae counts to distinguish among species.

The team also found that several sharks that genetically identified as Australian blacktips were longer than the maximum length typically found for the species. Australian blacktips reach 5.2 feet; common blacktips in that part of the world reach 6.6 feet.

Demian Chapman, assistant director of science of Stony Brook University's Institute for Ocean Conservation Science, said the idea that sharks can interbreed is "something a lot of shark biologists thought could happen but now we have evidence, and it's fantastic evidence."

He added, however, that the fact that these two species were so closely related made it easier for them to mate than wildly-divergent ones.

"It doesn't mean we're going to see great-white-tiger sharks anytime soon, or bull-Greenland sharks," he said. "If any species was going to hybridize, it was going to be this pair."

Chapman, who first documented in 2008 that some female sharks can reproduce without having intercourse, said this latest discovery suggests "there's yet another path to reproduction that these species can do. It just reinforces that sharks can do it all when it comes to reproduction."

[jimmy olsen]

129 soldiers and 11 civilians dead.

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/19/11291438-stand-off-at-worlds-highest-battlefield-leaves-140-dead-in-tragedy?lite

By Fakhar ur Rehman, NBC News Producer

GAYARI ARMY BASE, Pakistan – Rugged grey mountains of snow and ice spotted with heavy machinery and rescue workers is all that remains of Pakistan's Gayari army base.

An avalanche struck the battalion headquarters of the 6th Northern Light Infantry 14,000 feet up in the mountains of Kashmir on April 7, burying alive 129 Pakistan army soldiers and 11 civilians in the wee hours of the morning.

After nearly two weeks of struggles, rescue and recovery efforts at what's been called "the world's highest battlefield" are over and the search for bodies is on.

Pakistan and Indian soldiers have been sitting eyeball to eyeball in this remote outpost for nearly 30 years -- fighting less against each other than against the extreme weather.

Dramatic site
The first opportunity for the Pakistan Army to take media up to the site only came on Thursday -- 12 days after the horrific avalanche -- because of continuously bad weather. Situated in the mountains more than 680 miles north of Islamabad, it took traveling in a military plane, helicopters, 4x4 trucks and then on foot to reach the site.

Towering snow-covered peaks against a lush blue sky, with an aqua marine stream flowing in the valley and terraced fields of potatoes and wheat were beautiful, but there was nothing but sadness at the site of the incident.

This was my second visit to the area in 15 years. Seeing the size of the mud-filled snow slide, heavy rocks, boulders and slush spread over about a third of a square mile was horrifying. And at 14,000 feet above sea level, I really felt difficulty breathing.

"Tell us immediately if you feel any pain in chest or neck," Brigadier Saqib Mahmood Malik, the Siachen brigade commander, warned the gathered media. "We will give you quick paramedic service," he promised.

Weather has been a major difficulty hampering the efforts to dig into the ground where the battalion headquarters was stationed.

More than 400 soldiers have been busy with heavy machinery such as bulldozers and excavators looking for the remains of their compatriots, but there has been no sign of life, let alone any bodies.

The tragedy triggered a response from the world community, with the U.S., Germany, Switzerland and Norway sending expert teams immediately to assist with the rescue effort.                       

"The whole mountain has fallen," said a soldier pointing his finger toward the snow-covered peak from where the avalanche began. Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani promised that they will continue to dig into the mountain to recover the bodies until they succeed. Soldiers are busy digging a tunnel 70 feet deep into the mass of the avalanche.   

Standoff in the mountains
The missing soldiers were part of the Pakistani military deployment to the area that sits just below the Siachen Glacier, in the northern part of the Kashmir region. The Kashmir is the area that is the main source of tension between India and Pakistan, the nuclear-armed rival Pakistan has been fighting against since 1947.

The avalanche is the biggest loss for the Pakistan at the Gayari base since the conflict with India began in 1984.

Guns have been silent between India and Pakistan since a 2003 ceasefire. But both armies have stayed put to guard their respective territories and continued to fight the harsh mountain weather with sub-zero temperatures. More lives have been lost over the years to the freezing temperatures and treacherous conditions than combat.

Of all the problems plaguing the two countries, Siachen is often described as one of the easiest to solve. But any resolution to the conflict has been held hostage by general mistrust and hard-liners on both sides who don't want to give up their claim on territory, however strategically insignificant.

Hope for peace
The tragedy has brought to light the need to put an end to the senseless fight.

"Both are fools," said Shujaat Ali, a 50-year-old civilian resident of the area. "They can earn more with tourism in this region than what they spend on the battle here," he added.

"Both countries must work to pull out troops from the region. Siachen is a difficult front," Kayani, Pakistan's top army officer, said on Thursday. "This conflict should be resolved, but how it is resolved, the two countries have to talk about it," he added.

Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman said Thursday that "various proposals have been made under the Siachen dialogue process and that includes redeployment of forces." He said dates have already been proposed to India for a new round of talks on the issue with Pakistan.

[Razgovory]

129 soldiers and 11 civilians dead.

Why the sad face?

[Neil]

It is specifically not natural. It is anthropogenic - created by man.

Everything done by man is inherently natural, unless you subscribe to some sort of weird magical thinking.

[grumbler]

It's no so exceptional. Put a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere and you're going to get a greenhouse effect.

Indeed.  The earth wouldn't be habitable by humans of there was no greenhouse gas effect.