New Research Finds Climate Change Linked To Enhanced Slowing in Earth's Rotation Rate

 

If one looks at the underlying physics it shouldn't be astounding to learn that days are getting longer as a result of climate change.  In effect, warmer temperatures have led to a slowing of Earth’s rotation at a rate we have not been seen for at least 3.6 million years. This finding is based on new research, i.e.

Climate‐Induced Length of Day Variations Since the Late Pliocene - Kiani Shahvandi - 2026 - Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth - Wiley Online Library

 Showing that rising sea levels caused by melting ice sheets are redistributing mass across the planet, reducing how fast Earth spins and gradually lengthening the day.  Amazing?  Not really. Earlier research has already found that the Earth's rotation axis has been displaced by melting glaciers and ground water overuse. Also, that new estimates of the inertial tensor have shown the rotation of the non-rigid Earth can be affected. (See added links at end of this post).

Of course, the deviations are extremely small, but they add up over time, especially geological eons. Researchers have found that days are currently increasing by about 1.33 milliseconds per century due to climate-related factors, a pace that stands out sharply in the planet’s recent geological history. Earlier studies by the same team established that climate change affects sea levels and, as a result, Earth’s rotation—but the new work places the trend in a geological context. 

According to lead paper author (and geodisist*) Benedikt Soja of ETH Zurich, Switzerland:

“This rapid increase in day length implies that the rate of modern climate change has been unprecedented at least since the late Pliocene, 3.6 million years ago.  The current rapid rise in day length can thus be attributed primarily to human influences."

Adding:

“By the end of the 21^st century, climate change is expected to affect day length even more strongly than the Moon. Even though the changes are only milliseconds, they can cause problems in many areas, for example in precise space navigation, which requires accurate information on Earth’s rotation.”

Paper co-author Mostafa Kiani Shahvandi of the University of Vienna added that the effect is similar to a figure skater spinning more slowly after extending her arms.  She will be slowed dramatically in terms of reduction in angular velocity, w. so that her angular speed w (f)  <  w (i).   

This is something every college freshman doing general physics learns.  What remains uncertain, according to Shahvandi, was whether climate had ever lengthened the day this quickly before. To answer that question, the research team reconstructed changes in Earth’s day length going back millions of years.

Obviously, no actual time machines are being used here, so the team relied on fossilized remains of benthic foraminifera, single-celled marine organisms that preserve chemical signals of past ocean conditions. By analyzing these fossils, the geodesy team was able to infer historical sea-level fluctuations and calculate how those shifts would have affected Earth’s rotation.

The researchers then applied a type of machine deep learning algorithm to the findings, much like I saw solar dynamics researchers do in the SDO 2025 workshop last year, 

Looking Back On Last Week's Solar Dynamics Workshop - One Of The Best Meetings I've Ever Attended

 designed to reflect sea-level change while accounting for the uncertainty that comes with ancient climate data. According to Shahvandi:

“From the chemical composition of the foraminifera fossils, we can infer sea-level fluctuations and then mathematically derive the corresponding changes in day length. This model captures the physics of sea-level change, while remaining robust to the large uncertainties inherent in paleoclimate data.”

The results show that Earth’s day length has varied significantly over the past 2.6 million years, particularly during the Quaternary period, when large continental ice sheets repeatedly grew and melted. These ice-driven sea-level changes caused Earth’s rotation to speed up or slow down at different times.

However,  compared with modern measurements, the researchers found th at today’s increase in day length is exceptional. Only one period, around two million years ago, showed a rate of change that came close to present-day levels, and even that episode was slightly slower than what has been observed between 2000 and 2020. In the words of Shahvandi:

“Never before or after that has the planetary ‘figure skater’ raised her arms and sea levels so quickly as in 2000 to 2020.” 

These recent findings suggest that the current trend reflects a broader pattern of unusually rapid climate change. Looking ahead, the researchers say climate change could have an even greater influence on Earth’s rotation. By the end of the 21st century, they estimate that climate-driven effects on day length may surpass the slowing impact caused by the Moon’s gravitational pull.

----

* geodisist: A specialist involved in the science of Geodesy

 See Also:

• Melting Glaciers & Ground Water Overuse Displace Earth's Rotation Axis...

And:

New estimates of the inertia tensor and rotation of the triaxial nonrigid Earth - Chen - 2010 - Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth - Wiley Online Library

 And:

Climate Justice

Scrapping the Endangerment Finding: Payback for the Billionaire Climate Criminals

by Anabel Scales | March 25, 2026 - 4:48am | permalink

by Anabel Scales and Chuck Collins

The February rollback of the “endangerment finding”—which provides the legal basis for regulating climate change—was many years in the works. It’s the ultimate payback for a politically engaged fossil fuel industry and the climate criminals who use their wealth, power, and position to block efforts to help us transition to a post-oil, gas, and coal era.

Who’s responsible for rolling back the endangerment finding? We believe it is time to name names so future generations—and future climate justice tribunals—will know who is responsible for incinerating our futures. Researchers at the Climate Accountability Research Project have tracked several of the key individuals working to undermine climate protection for the last two years.

» article continues...

The 'Tragedy of Robert Mueller'? No, More About How The U.S. Right Media Keeps Coddling A Putin Asset

 

     We're almost home, my pet, there are no more serious investigations."

"Trump is showing us why he didn't touch the Bible when he pretended to take the Oath of Office for his current term. He's at least superstitious enough to think he's not bound by it. Intolerable!" - WaPo Comment

The Wall Street Journal's latest Editorial potshot at truth ('The Tragedy Of Robert Mueller', p. A16 yesterday, is as bereft of fact as its earlier editorial misfires on the SAVE Act and Paul Ehrlich.  In this one the Journal's Pooh Bahs insisting:

 "The FBI Director's long service was marred by the Russia collusion probe. The tragedy of his legacy is that he agreed to lead the probe into whether Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.".

No, it was not. It was the conservative, reactionary media (like the WSJ) that marred its own credibility by failing to accept what Mueller revealed:  That Donald Trump is basically a "KGB plant" foolishly elected by 77m nutso Americans.  This now buttressed by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele's 2024 book, 'Unredacted'.  We now know, thanks to Mr. Steele's further work, the extent to which Trump DID collude and indeed, conspired with Putin and other Russian operatives to further his aims. As Steele writes in his book's Introduction:

 "Presently the gravest threat to Western democracy and the rule of law comes from Donald Trump and the U.S. Republican Party, increasingly the willing handmaidens for Putin." 

Adding:

"It is sometimes easy to forget that Putin helped Trump to become President before, in 2016, as the report by special counsel Robert Mueller made clear."

Indeed, and there were literally troves of substantiated material which the WSJ nabobs casually ignore in Mueller's (2019) Report:. 

www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf

 Including his indictments of 12 Russian (GRU) agents.

[Read the indictment here.]

So it beggars the rational mind how the Journal, which prides itself on otherwise sober reporting, can spout bollocks about Mueller's Report offering "dubious conclusions" and even suggesting (at the end of the editorial) Mueller may not have been fit enough to render credible conclusions. I.e. "How much was a declining Mueller in control of his investigation? In 2019, when he testified before the House his decline was apparent."

Well, how about Trump's rapid decline?  Shouldn't that merit his removal under the 25th amendment? This is a deranged mutt who just launched a war on a whim because he believed he could conquer Iran as easily as Venezuela!  Thereby, minus any rhyme or reason, sending gas prices into the stratosphere, even as he yelped he was "glad" Mueller died! See also:

Trump’s HEALTH CRASHES in WAR as 25th AMENDMENT DEMANDED!!

Maybe the Journal's editors would do better to ask Trump's 1st term AG William Barr why he found it necessary to incarcerate a former Air Force officer (Reality Winner) under the 1917 Espionage Act for using the internet to leak documents pertaining to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. 

If there was no "there, there" and the Russia story was just a hoax, why lock her up? Why not just dismiss her as a flake suffering from TDS? Wasn't she just leaking her own fantasies over the internet? 

But this has been symptomatic of how the right-leaning media has continued to coddle and make excuses for the pestilence holding the highest office in the land.  A degraded fungal maggot who has seemingly compromised all who might hold him to account. Especially after his last display of removing sanctions for Russian oil, after he knew that Putin and Co. were dispatching intel on U.S. military targets to Iran. This was reported in The Washington Post:

Russia is giving Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces, officials say - The Washington Post

Noting:

"Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East, the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating — even indirectly — in the war, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence.

Then there was the main section WSJ article ('Europe Confronts Rupture', p. A8,Jan. 20, p. A8)  noting:

"Even more important to Putin than all of Ukraine is the longstanding Russian objective to divide the trans-Atlantic alliance. So recent Trump and U.S. actions that break the cohesion and trust within NATO are a gift to Putin"  According to Doug Lute, a former U.S. Ambassador to NATO."

Incredibly, also in January, the WSJ editors acknowledged for once the degree to  which Trump is a real Russian apparatchik, noting:

"For more than 75 years, the fondest dream of Russian strategy has been to divide Western Europe from the U.S. and break the NATO alliance. That is now a possibility as President Trump presses his campaign to capture Greenland no matter what the locals or its Denmark owner thinks."

Never mind Trump backed off, after a firestorm erupted. He attempted it! The only rational and logical explanation that explains Trump's actions across the board is that he's a Russian pawn or agent, doing Putin's bidding. Likely because the Russian has a 'pee tape' on him, as first exposed in the Steele Dossier.  See e.g.

James Carville: There Is A Pee Tape 

Steele Dossier a fake? Think again! As reported in the comprehensive 'Moscow Project":  Dossier - The Moscow Project

"Donald Trump’s allies in Congress and in the media have long attempted to use the Steele Dossier to discredit the Russia investigation. It has also been the subject of lawsuits filed by parties named in the document.

But Christopher Steele is now fighting back full tilt against that agitprop. He makes clear the purpose for writing his recent book in his Author’s Note:

“I believe it is in the public interest for me to revisit matters raised in the dossier and republish in the form I have decided to do in this work, so that readers are able to understand fully my account of the events described, my criticisms of the investigative efforts which followed and my ongoing concerns that the matters raised in the dossier (including the issue of Russian Kompromat) have not been serious resolved and so remain  a threat.”

This is important as in the page that follows where he pointedly writes that the “Trump-Russia Dossier was published in Buzzfeed without my knowledge or approval."  Buzzfeed's  blatant and reckless act had the effect of unmasking many of Steele's sources who were then “punished by the Russian regime and its facilitators.” It also had the effect of exposing him to “legal threats” from people and companies named in the reports” (p. 192)

But throughout his book, Steele stands by what he wrote in the dossier given he relied on numerous independent sources, as well as high quality investigative reporting, unlike the drivel typically coming out of the Wall Street Journal at the time. By contrast, The Financial Times in its Feb. 16, 2018 issue, validated Christopher Steele's bona fides as a trusted MI6 agent, noting he was "the UK intelligence expert on Russia".  In addition, citing James Nixey, the head of Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program, confirming that key sections of the dossier read exactly as reports from the secret services". .

In his book, Steele observes (p. 144) there were accusations of Russian collaboration leveled against Trump - though he denied them.  However, multiple witnesses testified  (ibid.) under oath that he stayed overnight at the Moscow Ritz Carlton in 2013 – where the pee tape was made. Further, three experienced Guardian UK journalists (Luke Harding, Julian Borger, Dan Sabbah) reported:

 “The existence of a leaked Kremlin document describing the meeting of the Russian National Security Council in January, 2016 at which Vladimir Putin ‘authorizes a secret spy operation to support a ‘mentally unstable Donald Trump’ in the 2016 presidential election.”

Fusion GPS is also cited (p.125) and Steele noted its work:

"Had unearthed numerous connections between Trump and Russia, including his links with alleged Russian organized crime figures - also that Trump had made many trips to Russia starting in the Soviet era."

This also meshes with the Trump back story revealed in a New Republic expose on the traitor rat's history with Russia (Aug./Sept. 2017, p .29):

"A review of the public record reveals a clear and disturbing pattern: Trump owes much of his business success, and by extension his presidency, to a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia. Over the past three decades, at least 13 people with known or alleged links to Russian mobsters or oligarchs have owned, lived in, or even run criminal activities out of Trump Tower and other Trump properties. Many used his apartments and casinos to launder untold millions in dirty money .....

Taken together, the flow of money from Russia provided Trump with a crucial infusion of financing that helped rescue his empire from ruin, burnish his image, and launch his career in television and politics....It's entirely possible that Trump was never more than a convenient patsy for Russian oligarchs and mobsters."

 As if all this wasn't enough, Steele details (pp.268-69) how Trump - with Putin's GRU help - also planned to snatch the 2020 election from Biden with an elaborate ruse. As Steele relates it (p. 268):

"At the more bizarre end of the reporting range, in early October, 2020, a senior Russian intelligence officer shared a plan with our (UK) collector that showed at least some elements within the power structure in Moscow were considering a radical, highly risky last minute operation to help snatch victory from Biden in the last days of the campaign. The report read:

'During the last week, and no more than the past two weeks, in GRU headquarters in Moscow, a small and highly secret group detached from all other tasks, has been meeting to fulfill a sole mission: to instigate the kidnapping or hostage- taking of U.S. citizens in either Iraq or Syria.  The aim being to create a distracting event just before the U.S. elections either to:

- allow Trump quickly and successfully to settle the hostage situation and use it to his political advantage (the Kremlin's preferred method)

or:

- to resolve the situation in a joint operation between Russian and U.S. military forces. (In the event a joint operation would be too complex to execute, only Russian forces would be used for the mission).

The aim is to fake a situation and then to 'resolve' it with the effect that Russia appears as a friend to the U.S. and Trump's relationship with Putin has been well worth it."

Of course, as Steele goes on to note, this shenanigan never transpired but it shows the extent to which the Russkies regarded Trump as a useful pawn. Steele then adding in regard to the (coming) 2024 election (p. 269):

"Approaching the 2024 election, with all restraints off Putin, we must be alert to the potential for operations that could be even more aggressive, ambitious and outlandish."

Among which I tag the spate of 'manosphere' podcasts painting Trump as some kind of superhuman for escaping the attempted assassination in Butler, PA.  Also the Polymarket betting frenzy (mostly on Trump) and the radical emergence of the crypto bros.

So uh, yeah, Trump is a Russkie asset - maybe even a Manchurian candidate - and it doesn't take a Mensa level IQ to figure that out. Hell, all you needed was to witness Trump's deference to Putin in their Anchorage meet last August,

 Anchorage Meet Proved Trump Is Still Putin's Bitch - And It Ain't No "Zombie Lie",

And to grasp Putin got everything he could have out of it - including mountains of respect - while Donny Dotard got polar bear piss and lickspittle. 

Maybe it's time The Wall Street Journal's mavens finally wake up to the fact the guy they're coddling is a craven traitor and liability to this country. Hint: Journal Editors, check out Putin's  mug as he gets in the Trump limo in Anchorage last summer:

See Also:

Russia sending drones to Iran, western intelligence says

Moscow close to completing phased deliveries of lethal weapons, food and medicine to Tehran

And:

Donald Trump

Does Trump Have a KGB Card?

by Thom Hartmann | March 12, 2026 - 5:18am | permalink

— from The Hartmann Report

Eight of our American service members are dead and over 140 wounded because Iran’s military has suddenly gotten really good at targeting our soldiers, Airmen, and Marines. News reports say they’ve been able to hit us with such precision because Russia is using their extraordinary spy satellite, spy plane, and advanced radar capabilities to help Iran’s military.

The Washington Post, which first reported on this, quoted a Russian military expert as saying that Iran is now “making very precise hits on early-warning radars or over-the-horizon radars,” seeming to validate the concern. The article added:

“Iran possesses only a handful of military-grade satellites, and no satellite constellation of its own, which would make imagery provided by Russia’s much more advanced space capabilities highly valuable — particularly as the Kremlin has honed its own targeting after years of war in Ukraine…”

» article continues...

And:

Donald Trump

The Manchurian Billionaire: How Trump’s Rise Mirrors Every Classic Intelligence Takeover

by Thom Hartmann | February 3, 2026 - 6:25am | permalink

— from The Hartmann Report

The British newspaper Daily Mail is out with a deeply researched investigative report, the result of a long collaboration between columnists Glen Owen and Dan Hodges, along with Mark Hookham (Assistant Editor Investigations), and Daisy Graham-Brown (Investigative Reporter).

It’s shocking in its detail and its implication that Putin has basically owned Trump for years, even before he ran for president in 2016.

They note of last week’s partial (about 50%) Epstein document release:

“The files include 1,056 documents naming Russian President Vladimir Putin and 9,629 referring to Moscow. Epstein even seems to have secured audiences with Putin after his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.”

» article continues...

And:

The ‘Putinization’ of US foreign policy has arrived in Venezuela | Venezuela | The Guardian

And:

Donald Trump | Robert Mueller

Trump’s Vicious Response to Robert Mueller’s Passing Draws Condemnation

by Roxanne Cooper | March 22, 2026 - 5:14am | permalink

— from Alternet

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who led the high-profile investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow, passed away Saturday, prompting an immediate and inflammatory response from President Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform.

Mueller, 79, had served as the FBI's director from 2001 to 2013 under both Republican and Democratic administrations. He was appointed special counsel in May 2017 to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential obstruction of justice by Trump. The investigation lasted nearly two years and resulted in the Mueller Report, which detailed extensive Russian interference efforts and numerous contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian operatives, though it stopped short of making a prosecutorial judgment on obstruction charges.

» article continues...

And:

Russia sees victory as Trump adopts Putin’s approach to ending Ukraine war - The Washington Post

Excerpt:

Russian officials and commentators were especially enamored by Trump’s unusually warm red-carpet greeting to Putin on Friday in which they saw an opening to pull America away from its traditional allies in Europe. ...Trump appeared to have been swayed by the Kremlin’s contention that only a comprehensive peace deal was acceptable — which Putin has so far used to delay efforts to halt the fighting. 

 Putin also succeeded, to some extent, in deflecting pressure to end the war onto Zelensky — rather than keeping it on Russia as the aggressor — with Trump telling Fox News after the summit that Zelensky should “make a deal” now because “Russia’s a very big power. And they’re not.”

WSJ Editors Boff It Again On Paul Ehrlich 'Losing A Bet' On Overpopulation

 

                           Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich and his book, in 1976

Let's add another WSJ Editorial misfire to the one last week about the 'SAVE Act'.   This from a March 18 entry: Paul Ehrlich, the Man Who Lost an Infamous Bet - wherein the editors squawked:

"The Stanford biologist bet against human ingenuity and lost to Julian Simon.  Paul Ehrlich, who died Friday at age 93, made his most important contribution to the world by losing a bet. He bet against human ingenuity and lost to Julian Simon.   It helped educate millions that his ideas about scarcity and human ingenuity were wrong.”  

Not really, WSJ nabobs.  In fact Ehrlich was simply years early. The fact is that Ehrlich’s "apocalyptic fear"  was valid and  remains as  real as a heart attack. It's just that it was about a century ahead of its time  - as then propounded by  Ehrlich in his book, The Population Bomb.   

This WSJ editorial isn't the first attempt by its scribes to try to diminish the import of Ehrlich's work. Another WSJ contributor (William McGurn) wrote a column ('The Population Bomb Was A Dud', May 1, p. A13)  in which he tried to skewer Ehrlich's thesis.

He misfires on one count because he accuses Ehrlich of a hyped -up book title. Unaware that it was not the author's own choice- which was actually, 'Population, Resources and the Environment' - much less sexy and eye-catching.   The publisher then insisted on the catchier title, clearly to get more sales.

 McGurn - like the WSJ editors- then latches on to the book by Julian Lincoln Simon entitled 'The Ultimate Resource' . Therein, the author insists "we live in an epidemic of life" and it's all basically glorious bounty.  Well, I'd sure love this fool to try to prove that to the people clamoring for housing across the nation right now, and all the water being sucked up by the ever spreading AI date centers.

McGurn also cites a bet that Ehrlich made with Simon based on commodities and which Ehrlich ultimately lost. The bet was for $1,000 - not a mammoth sum - but not unreasonable given the implicit uncertainties. The bet was that the inflation-adjusted prices of five metals (chromium, tin, copper , tungsten,  and nickel would rise by 1990 (Ehrlich) or fall (Simon.) Simon ended up winning but likely because of dumb luck in timing and choosing those particular commodities.  (Potable water and arable land would have been better choices given both are in precipitous decline.)

Ehrlich was right in one sense: the population continued to soar from 4.5 billion in 1980 to 5.3 billion in 1990. More importantly, a 2014  paper by David S, Jacks ('Front Boom to Bust:  A Typology of Real Commodity Prices in the Long Run" ) disclosed Ehrlich would have won the bet had the time frame been extended. In summary, the Jacks' paper found that:

"Cumulatively, the picture emerging from this exercise is a clear patter of real, rising commodity prices from at least 1950."

Even The Economist's "free exchange" blog  ca. 2014,  pointed out that while Simon may have won the specific bet, the Capitalist Cornucopians hadn't yet proven their position. The blog pointed out:

"The  (Jacks) paper does suggest that while innovation, substitution and conservation can reduce the price impact of rising demand for fundamentally scarce resources, they can't necessarily eliminate it entirely ."

Further (ibid.):

"Of course, rising demand itself might come to an eventual end given new technologies - or to validate Mr. Ehrlich - the ultimate decline and stabilization of the global population. It may still be too early to tell whether humanity faces Malthusian limits or not."

I concur with this - especially in terms of limits to freshwater access, already a problem in many countries. (Look for example at Capetown, S. Africa, narrowly avoiding "Day Zero" in 2018 but at the cost of 40 percent of the country's water intensive crops.  Without freshwater resources, the whole 'enchilada' goes south, from crops to public health.  It's a no brainer, given we are seeing the exhaustion of stores of fresh water globally..

 One notable ‘State of the World’ report (2000, pp. 46-47), warned that the ever increasing water deficits will likely spark “water wars” by 2025.  Even now, 1 billion-plus  people live in water-stressed conditions, meaning that renewable water supplies have dropped below 1,700 cubic meters per capita, a critical survival threshold. As observed (p. 47):

“When a country’s renewable water supplies drop below 1,700 cubic meters per capita (what some analysts call the water stress level) it becomes difficult for the country to mobilize enough water to satisfy all the food, household, and industrial needs of its population.”

Anyway, McGurn – like the current WSJ editors-  swallows Simon's codswallop hook, line and sinker that "human beings are more than just mouths to feed"  (Really? Tell that to the underfed billions in  sub-Sahara Africa, India).  He also insists - on the basis of Simon's garbage -- that  "Paul Ehrlich got it wrong because he never understood human potential", adding:

"Fifty years out, alas, Mr. Ehrlich remains as impervious to the evidence as ever. In an interview two months ago in the Guardian, Mr. Ehrlich decreed the collapse of civilization a 'near certainty' in the next few decades."

But in truth it is the market -worshipping Cornucopians like McGurn and the WSJ editors who are impervious to the evidence. That is, that a finite planet simply cannot support an ever expanding population that consumes more resources in one year than the planet is able to provide.

Ehrlich was  100 percent correct when he said (in a 1970 broadcast) that  humans face:   "An utter breakdown of the capacity of the planet to support humanity,"  

This is best  illustrated  in the concept of Earth overshoot, as embodied in the graphic below which shows humans are currently consuming the equivalent resources of 1.6 EARTHS per year, e.g

The interpretation of the graph (upward) is straightforward. By June, 2030 TWO full Earths - that is the resources therein - will be needed to support the then population. Already we are at 1.6 Earths. Every year Global Footprint Network raises awareness about global ecological overshoot with its Earth Overshoot Day campaign. Earth Overshoot Day is the day on the calendar when humanity has used up the resources that it takes the planet the full year to regenerate.  

What is all of this telling us?  Easy!  We do not NEED any more people on this planet! Or...in the US of A. It helps to get some stats to register this overshoot:

-  Every day humans permanently remove 4.2 billion gallons more water from aquifers than nature can replace. Much of this from AI data centers and bitcoin mining, i.e.

Bitcoin Mining Threatens Not Only Financial System - But Our Water Supply Too

- U.S. consumption of energy grows every day despite efforts to conserve it.  This is important because each energy use is accompanied by entropy or degradation in the quality of energy remaining  which also impacts our environment.

- To accommodate growth we pave over an area equal to the state of Delaware every year.

Common sense ought to inform one that this is unsustainable and can't go on indefinitely. This again gets back to that key quantitative indicator, the carrying capacity, first defined by Isaac Asimov:

                                  Asimov explains carrying capacity in Bim Lecture
 

Carrying capacity =

(usable land-water resource base providing water + food + fuel) / (individual food, fuel + water requirement)

If the numerator is » 11.4 x 10 ⁹  hectares of usable aggregate equivalent land-water resource base and if 6 hectares is the ideal "mean individual requirement" over a lifetime (e.g. meet all basic needs and have a few private luxuries) , that means:

CC = (11.4 x 10 ⁹   hectares) / 6 hectares/person » 2 billion

That is a figure we are now on the verge of surpassing by a factor of four.  Obviously, this can be increased if the numerator can be increased or the denominator (each individual's ecological footprint) decreased. The problem is how to achieve it? (Especially if the total population continues to increase at 2-3% per year)  

A metaphor that Asimov used to illustrate carrying capacity has since become known as "the bathroom metaphor" and it works to get people to understand the debilitating, disastrous effects of too many people. As Asimov noted, if two people live in an apartment, and it comes with two bathrooms, they have a comfortable life. Either one can use the bathroom anytime he or she wants, and can remain in there as long as they desire, even reading while doing business.

One can say, that for the purpose of "Bathroom freedom" - 2 is the carrying capacity for a two -person apartment. Now, let there be twenty people occupying the same apartment, and what happens? Bathroom freedom evaporates. Visits now must be regulated by the clock, and no one may stay in for too long. Indeed, a timetable likely has to be set up for each person's bathroom use

  The point is we're rapidly approaching the threshold at which there will simply be too many people to feed given existing resources: water, arable soil, fertilizers etc.. The projections now are for at least 10 billion people by 2050, and an 80 percent probability of 12.3 billion on Earth by 2100. Simply put, there simply aren't the resources to support even the lower population addition.

 See Also:

Sustainability

We Need a Degrowth Strategy or Another Planet

by Stan Cox | June 16, 2023 - 5:34am | permalink

And:

Prof. Albert Bartlett Skewers The Trope That "The Total Global Population Is A Meaningless Number"

And:

Mass Global Migration Will Never Be Stopped By Laws - Because It's Fueled By Overpopulation 

And:

"To Breed Or Not To Breed?" The Answer Ought To Be Obvious By Now!

Needing A U.S. Passport To Vote? Why The Misnamed 'SAVE' Act Is Not "Partisan Hype" -

 

"More people were caught masturbating in voting booths in the last election than immigrants were caught illegally voting." - Jimmy Kimmel, Tuesday night

In its Wednesday, March 18 editorial(‘Why The Save America Act…Won’t,) the WSJ’s resident editorial Pooh Bahs claimed:

 "For partisan hype, it’s hard to beat the Senate debate this week on the SAVE America Act. President Trump says the legislation is a salvation from mass voter fraud. Sen. Chuck Schumer says it’s an effort at mass voter suppression, “Jim Crow 2.0.” Neither is reality. Also, Republicans don’t have the votes to clear the Senate’s filibuster. And if they bully the bill through anyway, Democrats eyeing the end of the 60-vote rule will quietly celebrate.

The House version of the SAVE America Act, which passed last month, has two main planks. First, people registering to vote would be asked to show proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate or naturalization document. Many driver’s licenses wouldn’t qualify. While the bill says it would accept a REAL ID “that indicates the applicant is a citizen,” standard license designs often don’t say. Legal immigrants can get REAL IDs, too."

So, in other words, try to impose draconian rules on the rest of us to prove our U.S. birth bona fides, even if that means extraordinary ordeals.   Especially for married women who'd have to track back for proof of their identity and U.S. birth validity from the time they first changed their maiden names. So let's get to the facts regarding this misnamed 'SAVE Act' which actually is designed to work in tandem with the 'Save America Act' to discourage millions of citizens from voting:

On Feb. 11, the Reepo-led House voted to approve the misnamed 'Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act' (0r SAVE) which would require tens of millions of Americans to get passports. Reeps will vehemently deny that, but in truth that is what it comes down to. Basically, passage would forbid state election officials from registering an individual to vote in federal elections unless the person "provides documentary proof of United States citizenship".  Furthermore, the act would forbid individuals from voting unless they bring such proof to the polls each time they vote.  Thus mail ballots would also be prohibited. Married women - with maiden name changed - would have to show up at voting precincts with proof of birth (not from a dr. or hospital - but the state) each time, or with a proper passport.  

According to the Brennan Center For Justice these are some of the consequences we might expect if this Trump atrocity passes in the Senate:

 In every form, the SAVE Act would require American citizens to show documents like a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Our research shows that more than 21 million Americans lack ready access to those documents. 

Roughly half of Americans don’t even have a passport. Millions lack access to a paper copy of their birth certificate. The SAVE Act would disenfranchise Americans of all ages and races, but younger voters and voters of color would suffer disproportionately.

 Likewise, millions of women whose married names aren’t on their birth certificates or passports would face extra steps just to make their voices heard.

The SAVE America Act would also require photo ID to vote, providing a narrow list of acceptable IDs more restrictive than the voter ID laws in every state but Ohio. For example, the bill prohibits the use of student IDs (even those issued by state universities), and accepts tribal IDs only with an expiration date, even though many tribal IDs do not contain them.

As if the above abominations to suppress votes weren't bad enough states also would face these nightmares, making one wonder whether the WSJ nabobs even know what they are talking about:

Just like the SAVE Act of 2025, the new SAVE Act proposals would inject chaos into election administration. They would place a massive unfunded burden on state and local election officials. And they would expose those officials to significant legal risk. 

The bills would leave it up to local officials to decide whether a voter who lacks one of the specified documents has done enough to prove citizenship. Officials who make an honest mistake could face civil and criminal penalties. An election official could even be punished for registering an eligible American citizen, just for failing to collect all the right paperwork at the right time.

Clearly, it doesn't take a Mensan IQ to see the Save Act proposals comprise the most vile voter suppression artifact to be created since the Jim Crow voter qualification tests of the 50s-60s.  In fact, it would particularly create barriers to minority and low income communities. 

FACT: As of now, at least 9 percent of voting age Americans (22 m people) lack even drivers' licenses, let alone other proof of citizenship -say like a state-issued photo  REAL ID card, or U.S. military ID card.  

Another Fact: Should this travesty become law, if a person turns 18, or moves between states - and wants to register to vote in their new home- they will likely be turned away if they cannot produce any of the above cited documents. (At best they might be allowed to fill out a registration form but would still need to mail in acceptable proof of citizenship.  For women who changed surnames after marriage questions remain on whether birth certificates could even count as acceptable proof of citizenship.

This is the whirlwind Trump has unleashed barely 8 months before the midterms, and we know why. Trump is in desperation mode to try to rig the midterms for the GOP.  Give the exploding costs of fuel and food from his illegal war, and Trump's approval sinking like a rock - at least among those with measurable IQs - he knows he will get shit -hammered in the midterms. (As the ruling party typically does only this time even bigger on account of his reckless war based on lies.)

So, he is using these 'SAVE' Act suppression tactics to try to depress the midterm vote, including by mail.  This, to keep control of the House by his GOOPr bootlickers and thereby escaping accountability  (and possible 3rd impeachment) for his actions. Namely for all the criminal norm breaking and lawlessness he's been responsible for over the past 18 months - from dispatching ICE goons into blue cites, to blowing up fishermen in boats off South America, to launching an illegal war.

We need people to be alert and aware and to call congress critters to let them know where you stand and you aren't tolerating ripping away one of the most basic rights an American has.

Stay tuned.

See Also:

New SAVE Act Bills Would Still Block Millions of Americans From Voting | Brennan Center for Justice

And

What You Need to Know About the SAVE Act | Campaign Legal Center

 And:

America may need saving, but not from the voters (Letters)

Excerpt:

The two articles about the SAVE America Act helped readers understand that the disruption and hardship changes to voter ID expectations going into the next two election cycles are more of a strategy to limit voting and instill skepticism as opposed to creating an upgrade to our voting systems. SAVE America Act sounds like there is an existential threat. No one seems to point out that no money is being appropriated to initiate a sincere improvement, a universal voter ID number system embedded into an ultra-modern and secure high-tech system that will lead to citizens voting from home or voting centers throughout our country.

Look at how money is being spent for military conflicts, renovating ballrooms and the Kennedy Center, tax cuts, and immigration detention centers and all.

The election illegitimacy lies, which are actually right out of the KGB playbook, need to be met with a constructive dialogue with a reasonable timeline, to finally update, modernize, and make voting welcoming and easy to access for every American. Let’s ask Republicans to initiate bipartisan legislation to be in place for the 2030 midterms and call it the Voting for Every American Act, and create landmark legislation we can all be proud of.

And:

What happened when Kansas tried a version of Trump's SAVE Act? Chaos