Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
We Can't Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea of Ownership
Kyle Wiens 04.21.15 9:00 am
It’s official: John Deere and General Motors want to eviscerate the notion of ownership. Sure, we pay for their vehicles. But we don’t own them. Not according to their corporate lawyers, anyway.
In a particularly spectacular display of corporate delusion, John Deere—the world’s largest agricultural machinery maker —told the Copyright Office that farmers don’t own their tractors. Because computer code snakes through the DNA of modern tractors, farmers receive “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.”
It’s John Deere’s tractor, folks. You’re just driving it.
Several manufacturers recently submitted similar comments to the Copyright Office under an inquiry into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. DMCA is a vast 1998 copyright law that (among other things) governs the blurry line between software and hardware. The Copyright Office, after reading the comments and holding a hearing, will decide in July which high-tech devices we can modify, hack, and repair—and decide whether John Deere’s twisted vision of ownership will become a reality.
Over the last two decades, manufacturers have used the DMCA to argue that consumers do not own the software underpinning the products they buy—things like smartphones, computers, coffeemakers, cars, and, yes, even tractors. So, Old MacDonald has a tractor, but he owns a massive barn ornament, because the manufacturer holds the rights to the programming that makes it run.
(This is an important issue for farmers: a neighbor, Kerry Adams, hasn’t been able to fix an expensive transplanter because he doesn’t have access to the diagnostic software he needs. He’s not alone: many farmers are opting for older, computer-free equipment.)
Over the last two decades, manufacturers have used the DMCA to argue that consumers do not own the software that powers the products they buy.
In recent years, some companies have even leveraged the DMCA to stop owners from modifying the programming on those products. This means you can’t strip DRM off smart kitty litter boxes, install custom software on your iPad, or alter the calibration on a tractor’s engine. Not without potentially running afoul of the DMCA.
What does any of that have to do with copyright? Owners, tinkerers, and homebrew “hackers” must copy programming so they can modify it. Product makers don’t like people messing with their stuff, so some manufacturers place digital locks over software. Breaking the lock, making the copy, and changing something could be construed as a violation of copyright law.
And that’s how manufacturers turn tinkerers into “pirates”—even if said “pirates” aren’t circulating illegal copies of anything. Makes sense, right? Yeah, not to me either.
It makes sense to John Deere: The company argues that allowing people to alter the software—even for the purpose of repair—would “make it possible for pirates, third-party developers, and less innovative competitors to free-ride off the creativity, unique expression and ingenuity of vehicle software.” The pièce de résistance in John Deere’s argument: permitting owners to root around in a tractor’s programming might lead to pirating music through a vehicle’s entertainment system. Because copyright-marauding farmers are very busy and need to multitask by simultaneously copying Taylor Swift’s 1989 and harvesting corn? (I’m guessing, because John Deere’s lawyers never explained why anyone would pirate music on a tractor, only that it could happen.)
John Deere is a company, by the way, that is seriously serious about preventing people from copying their stuff. So serious, in fact, that they even locked the PDF they sent to the Copyright Office. No modifying the document. And no copying passages. Really, John Deere? How am I supposed to highlight all that's wrong in this document now?
John Deere is a company, by the way, that is seriously serious about preventing people from copying their stuff. So serious, in fact, that they even locked the PDF they sent to the Copyright Office. No modifying the document. And no copying passages. Really, John Deere? How am I supposed to highlight all that’s wrong in this document now? Screenshot by Kyle Wiens
John Deere may be out of touch, but it’s not alone. Other corporations, including trade groups representing nearly every major automaker, made the same case to the Copyright Office again and again. It’s worth noting Tesla Motors didn’t join automakers in this argument, even though its cars rely heavily on proprietary software.
General Motors told the Copyright Office that proponents of copyright reform mistakenly “conflate ownership of a vehicle with ownership of the underlying computer software in a vehicle.” But I’d bet most Americans make the same conflation—and Joe Sixpack might be surprised to learn GM owns a giant chunk of the Chevy sitting in his driveway.
Other automakers pointed out that owners who make unsanctioned modifications could alter their vehicles in bad ways. They could tweak them to go faster. Or change engine parameters to run afoul of emissions regulations.
Joe Sixpack might be surprised to learn GM owns a giant chunk of the Chevy sitting in his driveway.
They’re right. That could happen. But those activities are (1) already illegal, and (2) have nothing to do with copyright. If you’re going too fast, a cop should stop you—copyright law shouldn’t. If you’re dodging emissions regulations, you should pay EPA fines—not DMCA fines. And the specter of someone doing something illegal shouldn’t justify shutting down all the reasonable and legal modifications people can make to the things they paid for.
GM went so far as to argue locking people out helps innovation. That’s like saying locking up books will inspire kids to be innovative writers, because they won’t be tempted to copy passages from a Hemingway novel. Meanwhile, outside of Bizarroland, actual technology experts—including the Electronic Frontier Foundation—have consistently labeled the DMCA an innovation killer. They insist that, rather than stopping content pirates, language in the DMCA has been used to stifle competition and expand corporate control over the life (and afterlife) of products.
“The bad part is, my sense is, these companies are just locking up this technology, and increasing the sort of monopoly pricing structure that just doesn’t work for us,” Brian Talley, a farmer on California’s central coast, says of restrictions placed on his equipment. I toured his farm with a fellow from the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Clinic so we could tell the Copyright Office how manufacturers are hampering farmers. “We are used to operating independently, and that’s one of the great things about being a farmer. And in this particular space, they are really taking that away from us.”
The notion of actually owning the things you buy has become revolutionary.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Clinic, and the Digital Right to Repair Coalition (Disclaimer: I’m a founding member of the Coalition.) are fighting to preserve the notion of ownership. We’re trying to open the floodgates of information. To let owners investigate the code in their devices. To modify them for better functionality. To repair them, even without the blessing of manufacturer.
Thankfully, we aren’t alone. There’s a backlash against the slow creep of corporate product control.
Earlier this year, consumers sent 40,000 comments to the Copyright Office—all of them urging the restoration of ownership rights. The year before, consumers and activists forced a law through Congress that made it legal to unlock a cellphone and move it to a different carrier.
This week, Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Jared Polis will introduce the “Breaking Down Barriers to Innovation Act of 2015, which would substantially improve the DMCA process. Lawmakers in Minnesota and New York have introduced “Fair Repair” legislation that assert an owner’s right to repair electronic equipment they’ve purchased. They want equal access to repair information, replacement parts, and security updates.
Of course, taking back the stuff that we own won’t be easy. Corporations have better lobbyists than the rest of us. And, somehow, the notion of actually owning the things you buy has become revolutionary.
It doesn’t have to be. Tell the Copyright Office to side with consumers when it decides which gadgets are legal to modify and repair. Urge lawmakers to support legislation like the Unlocking Technology Act and the Your Own Devices Act, because we deserve the keys to our own products. And support Fair Repair legislation.
If you bought it, you should own it—simple as that. It’s time corporate lawyers left the bullshit to the farmers, who actually need it.
We Can't Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea of Ownership
Kyle Wiens 04.21.15 9:00 am
It’s official: John Deere and General Motors want to eviscerate the notion of ownership. Sure, we pay for their vehicles. But we don’t own them. Not according to their corporate lawyers, anyway.
In a particularly spectacular display of corporate delusion, John Deere—the world’s largest agricultural machinery maker —told the Copyright Office that farmers don’t own their tractors. Because computer code snakes through the DNA of modern tractors, farmers receive “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.”
It’s John Deere’s tractor, folks. You’re just driving it.
Several manufacturers recently submitted similar comments to the Copyright Office under an inquiry into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. DMCA is a vast 1998 copyright law that (among other things) governs the blurry line between software and hardware. The Copyright Office, after reading the comments and holding a hearing, will decide in July which high-tech devices we can modify, hack, and repair—and decide whether John Deere’s twisted vision of ownership will become a reality.
Over the last two decades, manufacturers have used the DMCA to argue that consumers do not own the software underpinning the products they buy—things like smartphones, computers, coffeemakers, cars, and, yes, even tractors. So, Old MacDonald has a tractor, but he owns a massive barn ornament, because the manufacturer holds the rights to the programming that makes it run.
(This is an important issue for farmers: a neighbor, Kerry Adams, hasn’t been able to fix an expensive transplanter because he doesn’t have access to the diagnostic software he needs. He’s not alone: many farmers are opting for older, computer-free equipment.)
Over the last two decades, manufacturers have used the DMCA to argue that consumers do not own the software that powers the products they buy.
In recent years, some companies have even leveraged the DMCA to stop owners from modifying the programming on those products. This means you can’t strip DRM off smart kitty litter boxes, install custom software on your iPad, or alter the calibration on a tractor’s engine. Not without potentially running afoul of the DMCA.
What does any of that have to do with copyright? Owners, tinkerers, and homebrew “hackers” must copy programming so they can modify it. Product makers don’t like people messing with their stuff, so some manufacturers place digital locks over software. Breaking the lock, making the copy, and changing something could be construed as a violation of copyright law.
And that’s how manufacturers turn tinkerers into “pirates”—even if said “pirates” aren’t circulating illegal copies of anything. Makes sense, right? Yeah, not to me either.
It makes sense to John Deere: The company argues that allowing people to alter the software—even for the purpose of repair—would “make it possible for pirates, third-party developers, and less innovative competitors to free-ride off the creativity, unique expression and ingenuity of vehicle software.” The pièce de résistance in John Deere’s argument: permitting owners to root around in a tractor’s programming might lead to pirating music through a vehicle’s entertainment system. Because copyright-marauding farmers are very busy and need to multitask by simultaneously copying Taylor Swift’s 1989 and harvesting corn? (I’m guessing, because John Deere’s lawyers never explained why anyone would pirate music on a tractor, only that it could happen.)
John Deere is a company, by the way, that is seriously serious about preventing people from copying their stuff. So serious, in fact, that they even locked the PDF they sent to the Copyright Office. No modifying the document. And no copying passages. Really, John Deere? How am I supposed to highlight all that's wrong in this document now?
John Deere is a company, by the way, that is seriously serious about preventing people from copying their stuff. So serious, in fact, that they even locked the PDF they sent to the Copyright Office. No modifying the document. And no copying passages. Really, John Deere? How am I supposed to highlight all that’s wrong in this document now? Screenshot by Kyle Wiens
John Deere may be out of touch, but it’s not alone. Other corporations, including trade groups representing nearly every major automaker, made the same case to the Copyright Office again and again. It’s worth noting Tesla Motors didn’t join automakers in this argument, even though its cars rely heavily on proprietary software.
General Motors told the Copyright Office that proponents of copyright reform mistakenly “conflate ownership of a vehicle with ownership of the underlying computer software in a vehicle.” But I’d bet most Americans make the same conflation—and Joe Sixpack might be surprised to learn GM owns a giant chunk of the Chevy sitting in his driveway.
Other automakers pointed out that owners who make unsanctioned modifications could alter their vehicles in bad ways. They could tweak them to go faster. Or change engine parameters to run afoul of emissions regulations.
Joe Sixpack might be surprised to learn GM owns a giant chunk of the Chevy sitting in his driveway.
They’re right. That could happen. But those activities are (1) already illegal, and (2) have nothing to do with copyright. If you’re going too fast, a cop should stop you—copyright law shouldn’t. If you’re dodging emissions regulations, you should pay EPA fines—not DMCA fines. And the specter of someone doing something illegal shouldn’t justify shutting down all the reasonable and legal modifications people can make to the things they paid for.
GM went so far as to argue locking people out helps innovation. That’s like saying locking up books will inspire kids to be innovative writers, because they won’t be tempted to copy passages from a Hemingway novel. Meanwhile, outside of Bizarroland, actual technology experts—including the Electronic Frontier Foundation—have consistently labeled the DMCA an innovation killer. They insist that, rather than stopping content pirates, language in the DMCA has been used to stifle competition and expand corporate control over the life (and afterlife) of products.
“The bad part is, my sense is, these companies are just locking up this technology, and increasing the sort of monopoly pricing structure that just doesn’t work for us,” Brian Talley, a farmer on California’s central coast, says of restrictions placed on his equipment. I toured his farm with a fellow from the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Clinic so we could tell the Copyright Office how manufacturers are hampering farmers. “We are used to operating independently, and that’s one of the great things about being a farmer. And in this particular space, they are really taking that away from us.”
The notion of actually owning the things you buy has become revolutionary.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Clinic, and the Digital Right to Repair Coalition (Disclaimer: I’m a founding member of the Coalition.) are fighting to preserve the notion of ownership. We’re trying to open the floodgates of information. To let owners investigate the code in their devices. To modify them for better functionality. To repair them, even without the blessing of manufacturer.
Thankfully, we aren’t alone. There’s a backlash against the slow creep of corporate product control.
Earlier this year, consumers sent 40,000 comments to the Copyright Office—all of them urging the restoration of ownership rights. The year before, consumers and activists forced a law through Congress that made it legal to unlock a cellphone and move it to a different carrier.
This week, Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Jared Polis will introduce the “Breaking Down Barriers to Innovation Act of 2015, which would substantially improve the DMCA process. Lawmakers in Minnesota and New York have introduced “Fair Repair” legislation that assert an owner’s right to repair electronic equipment they’ve purchased. They want equal access to repair information, replacement parts, and security updates.
Of course, taking back the stuff that we own won’t be easy. Corporations have better lobbyists than the rest of us. And, somehow, the notion of actually owning the things you buy has become revolutionary.
It doesn’t have to be. Tell the Copyright Office to side with consumers when it decides which gadgets are legal to modify and repair. Urge lawmakers to support legislation like the Unlocking Technology Act and the Your Own Devices Act, because we deserve the keys to our own products. And support Fair Repair legislation.
If you bought it, you should own it—simple as that. It’s time corporate lawyers left the bullshit to the farmers, who actually need it.
I am still expecting $0.0001 soon followed by another reverse split. I will buy up to $100 worth at $0.0001 as a way of playing what happens after the next reverse split. Looking to keep my hat in the ring and not get reverse split out of shares.
Instead of delisting there is always the possibility of another reverse split.
Every time I hear about isis slaughtering more Christians, I think of Revelation 6:9=11, When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.
Hillary's secret war on women.
I think most Americans would give Bill a break knowing who he is married to.
I think American's love a liar. A liar won the last two elections hands down. If she is the best liar she is a sure winner.
Just the sad truth...
We are all going to be billionaires (strike that, trillionaires)!
Got Silver?
I believe that was a slam on pigs. Pigs have much nice skin without the baggy eyes.
Contrast what dufuss said with this...
The leader of England's speech was far more reverent to Christians.
Listen to this... it is quite a contrast to the satanist in chief.
Wouldn't $NBRI have to start mining first?
It is definitely spring time and I have not heard what the plan is for mining operations this year. Did I miss it?
Plugger and Excel you are both on target.
It seems like we all saw this coming for awhile (at least 6 years now) but as the Eisenhower quote states it has been going on a lot longer. I would dare to say for at least 100 years at nearly glacial speed it has crept up upon us.
For several years I have done my best to warn people about the direction the masses are going. It is like trying to turn the direction of a charging herd of buffalo... cliff ahead... stop.. but alas they are determined to go over that cliff.
This is not only true of our nation but the world... cliff ahead... enslavement... brutality... wars... possible extinction.
It is enough to cripple the human spirit. And that is leaning on our own understanding.
I keep reminding myself that God has a plan and His plan always works out for our best. "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." 1 John 4:4
Yes, we are a nation that has become unhinged from our founding principles. We have removed God and His laws from our schools and public areas. Kinda reminds me what ISIS is doing by destroying the history (museums, sculptures, and yes, even the pyramids and the sphinx) in areas they control.
Christians are being persecuted, imprisoned, torture, killed, and even crucified in other countries. And yet we have no definitive plan to put down this scourge the world faces, we just seem to embolden it.
All my life I have heard that there is no true identification of our nation in the Bible during the end times. With all that I see around me, I am beginning to realize why.
The majority of the people in our nation claim to be Christian. I find myself wondering how many would claim to be Christian if Christians were being persecuted in this nation. God only knows.
Fear is already deep rooted in this nation. We have given our rights away for man's security without a thought that God is our refuge. We fear Climate Change when I am pretty sure after Noah's flood God promised never to destroy the Earth by flood again.
Remember "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 1 Timothy 1:7
And finally, paraphrasing Proverbs 22; Wise people see trouble coming and get out of its way, where as fools go straight to it. A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them.
Why would you complain about government lies? Your representatives voted for give you propaganda. Obviously your representatives were enacting the will of the people they represent. So you can deduce that the majority of Americans want to be lied to.
U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News to Americans
July 14, 2013
That is because the Jews were told it was for their protection... only later did they learn the truth of what would happen.
So he admits he will do anything for money. That says plenty about him.
That's because the majority of Americans are perfectly fine with it and love it. Heck, many protested for Net Neutrality yet they never read the 300 some pages of regulations.
Do yourself a favor and do not follow the path the majority of Americans are going down.
Good post!
It is amazing how many people are unprepared for any type of emergency. Hopefully the snow apocalypse event on the East coast has waken a few more people up to be prepared.
I dare say that those in the country-side are more prepared than those in the cities.
May I suggest selecting representatives that will only serve one term and return to private life. This way a servant of the people can run and come from outside the establishment. All it takes the first time is winning the people's votes. If the representative is not focused on running again, there is a chance of not succumbing to special interest money.
Now if you say that "We the People" are influenced by big money spending and not principles. Well, all may be lost because the people no longer believe in principles but on how much flash and spending a candidate can do.
Sticking to the basics laid out in the U.S. Constitution does not take a brainiac. A man willing to stick to those principles is all it takes. Most brainy people tend to think they know best for the people. All you really need is let freedom ring and let people set their own destiny.
Personally, I have no problem of a common person being President. However, I will judge that person by whom they surround themselves with. Having a great team around you is what it takes to run things especially when most of the government is not needed (Education, EPA, and other departments).
The administration the majority of Americans elected twice plainly stated before the first election that rates will necessarily have to skyrocket. At the time the majority of Americans were perfectly fine with it. Buyer (voter) beware.
Americans have a representative government, they voted in their representative obviously they are perfectly willing to pay higher electricity rates.
Obama: My Plan Makes Electricity Rates Skyrocket
You have a representative government voted in by the majority of the people. And your representatives passed a bill which made it legal for the government to feed propaganda to its people. Thus the majority of Americans willingly wanted their government to lie to them. And to boot, it seems like the majority of Americans are perfectly fine with it.
I guess Americans get the government they want.
If $NBRI keeps going down about 30% each trading day, I may be picking up a few more shares at $0.0001 soon to bring down my avg cost per share.
Without hearing any firm plan for bringing Ruby and Fraser into production this year, my plan is to buy $NBRI at 0.0001 to round my holdings up to 100k and lower my avg price per share from $11 to around $2. Then ride out the final reverse split, if there is one, I will spend about $100 to average down again.
Do I think Ruby and Fraser can be brought into production? Yes, but not without more dilution.
Time will tell.
I thought you were going to say it was selling hopium.
M 6.8 - 77km ENE of Miyako, Japan
Good size earthquake in the vicinity of Japan.
Let me explain, it is not global warming.. the issue is climate change. Change happens, it is the one constant you can count on. Prolonged droughts, famines, monsoons, glaciation, rising seas, and declining seas have all happened before.
The human race is pathetic. They think that if something has not happened in their lifetime, then it is not normal and time to panic.
Wake up, it is a fact of life on this planet that species come and go. What once was a rainforest is now a desert. What was once a swamp is now dry.
The lesson is to adapt or die. Personally, I am betting on the extinction of the human race. I do not think the human race has the will to adapt anymore.
That is complete insanity. What do those in New Jersey say?
I keep thinking back to the "Star Wars" movies. Remember how the Banking clan was behind the take-down of the federation. In some ways it is like we are living out a few of the plot lines in those movies.
Sometimes reality really does look like fiction.
This is a no non-sense way to fix SS funding, just eliminate the cap on SS taxes. I have never understood why such a simple solution is not done.
At least they agree that the sun is a source of heat.
Fed report: Time to examine idea of purposely cooling planet
By SETH BORENSTEIN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's time to study and maybe even test the idea of cooling the Earth by injecting sulfur pollution high in the air to reflect the sun's heat, a first-of-its-kind federal science report said Tuesday.
The idea was once considered fringe — to purposely re-engineer the planet's climate as a last ditch effort to battle global warming with an artificial cloud. No longer.
In a nuanced, two-volume report, the National Academy of Sciences said that the concept should not be acted upon immediately because it is too risky, but it should be studied and perhaps tested outdoors in small projects. It could be a relatively cheap, effective and quick way to cool the planet by mimicking the natural effects on climate of large volcanic eruptions, but scientists concede there could be dramatic and dangerous side effects that they don't know about.
Because warming has worsened and some countries might act unilaterally, scientists said research is needed to calculate the consequences.
Panel chairwoman Marcia McNutt, editor of the journal Science and former director of the U.S. Geological Survey, said in an interview that the public should read this report "and say, 'This is downright scary.' And they should say, 'If this is our Hail Mary, what a scary, scary place we are in.'"
This is the first time a government-associated science panel talked about the controlled small scale outdoor tests of the artificial cloud concept, called solar radiation management or SRM. But even then panelists downplayed the idea and said it would require some kind of government or other oversight before it is done.
"Yes, small scale outdoor tests might be allowed, but it wouldn't just be in the hands of scientists to decide what's allowable and what's not allowable," McNutt said. "Civil society needs to engage in these discussions where the line is to be drawn."
Some scientists worry that research itself it will make this type of planet hacking more likely to occur.
"This creates a bit of what we call a moral hazard," said Waleed Abdalati, a University of Colorado ice scientist and former NASA chief scientist who co-authored the report. "There will likely come a time we're going to want to know the ramifications of that kind of action. ... You're talking about potentially changing weather and climate. You don't want to do that without as good an understanding as you can possibly have."
And the committee scientists said once you start this type of tinkering, it would be difficult to stop because warming would come back with such a force. So a decision to spray particles into the air would have to continue for more than 1,000 years.
The report was requested by U.S. intelligence agencies, academy president Ralph J. Ciccerone said. Because the world is not reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming, scientists have been forced "to at least consider what is known as geoengineering," he said.
The panel did favor technology to suck carbon dioxide from the air and bury it underground. But unlike the artificial cloud concept, it would be costly and take decades to cool the planet. The panel wrote a separate volume on this method with the idea of distancing the concept from the idea of the artificial cloud, which McNutt described as a political hot potato.
Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the burning of coal, oil and gas. Removing it from the air treats the cause of man-made global warming, while deflecting the sun with an artificial cloud only treats the symptoms and does nothing about ocean acidification, the report said.
A leading climate engineering scientist, David Keith of Harvard, hailed the report, but said it could have gone further. With backing from billionaire Bill Gates, Keith has proposed an experiment involving putting about two pounds (1 kilogram) of a sulfur solution in the air to see what happens.
Rutgers University scientist Alan Robock said it would be interesting to spray a small sulfur dioxide into a cloud, and use a blimp or drone to measure what happens. But that should only be done with proper oversight, he said.
Other climate scientists are adamantly against injecting sulphates into the air, even as a last ditch effort.
Such an idea "could do far more harm than good" and scientists should treat the Earth like doctors do their patients, abiding by the rule "first, do no harm," said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann. But he favors increased study of the issue "if only for one purpose: to expose just how dangerous many of these schemes might be."
While the artificial cloud idea is a much worse option that carbon dioxide removal, it is more attractive to some people because "we could probably do it right now," said Texas A&M University atmospheric sciences professor Andrew Dessler. "There's really very little that's technologically standing in our way."
I am glad to see the American people finally support a rational solution to "climate change", the extinction of the human race. Yes, your tax dollars at work.
Humans thinking they can control something that is well beyond their control is the ultimate in arrogance and stupidity. I think some of those SciFi disaster movies always start with that premise.
Having grown up in coal country and seeing the effects of sulfur in the environment. This American proposal will certainly work out well.
I am sure that the American people will not oppose this idea, because they voted to install the current administration twice. The American people obviously love their current government with all of its control ideas.
I sincerely wish you the best in trying to survive snowball Earth. Because we know that scientist know the precise amount of sulfur that needs to be injected into the upper atmosphere. And there never could be an event where a volcano would inject a little more than expected into the upper atmosphere too.
The only thing you need to know about climate change is how to adapt. Why? Because the climate is always changing.
Fed report: Time to examine idea of purposely cooling planet
By SETH BORENSTEIN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's time to study and maybe even test the idea of cooling the Earth by injecting sulfur pollution high in the air to reflect the sun's heat, a first-of-its-kind federal science report said Tuesday.
The idea was once considered fringe — to purposely re-engineer the planet's climate as a last ditch effort to battle global warming with an artificial cloud. No longer.
In a nuanced, two-volume report, the National Academy of Sciences said that the concept should not be acted upon immediately because it is too risky, but it should be studied and perhaps tested outdoors in small projects. It could be a relatively cheap, effective and quick way to cool the planet by mimicking the natural effects on climate of large volcanic eruptions, but scientists concede there could be dramatic and dangerous side effects that they don't know about.
Because warming has worsened and some countries might act unilaterally, scientists said research is needed to calculate the consequences.
Panel chairwoman Marcia McNutt, editor of the journal Science and former director of the U.S. Geological Survey, said in an interview that the public should read this report "and say, 'This is downright scary.' And they should say, 'If this is our Hail Mary, what a scary, scary place we are in.'"
This is the first time a government-associated science panel talked about the controlled small scale outdoor tests of the artificial cloud concept, called solar radiation management or SRM. But even then panelists downplayed the idea and said it would require some kind of government or other oversight before it is done.
"Yes, small scale outdoor tests might be allowed, but it wouldn't just be in the hands of scientists to decide what's allowable and what's not allowable," McNutt said. "Civil society needs to engage in these discussions where the line is to be drawn."
Some scientists worry that research itself it will make this type of planet hacking more likely to occur.
"This creates a bit of what we call a moral hazard," said Waleed Abdalati, a University of Colorado ice scientist and former NASA chief scientist who co-authored the report. "There will likely come a time we're going to want to know the ramifications of that kind of action. ... You're talking about potentially changing weather and climate. You don't want to do that without as good an understanding as you can possibly have."
And the committee scientists said once you start this type of tinkering, it would be difficult to stop because warming would come back with such a force. So a decision to spray particles into the air would have to continue for more than 1,000 years.
The report was requested by U.S. intelligence agencies, academy president Ralph J. Ciccerone said. Because the world is not reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming, scientists have been forced "to at least consider what is known as geoengineering," he said.
The panel did favor technology to suck carbon dioxide from the air and bury it underground. But unlike the artificial cloud concept, it would be costly and take decades to cool the planet. The panel wrote a separate volume on this method with the idea of distancing the concept from the idea of the artificial cloud, which McNutt described as a political hot potato.
Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the burning of coal, oil and gas. Removing it from the air treats the cause of man-made global warming, while deflecting the sun with an artificial cloud only treats the symptoms and does nothing about ocean acidification, the report said.
A leading climate engineering scientist, David Keith of Harvard, hailed the report, but said it could have gone further. With backing from billionaire Bill Gates, Keith has proposed an experiment involving putting about two pounds (1 kilogram) of a sulfur solution in the air to see what happens.
Rutgers University scientist Alan Robock said it would be interesting to spray a small sulfur dioxide into a cloud, and use a blimp or drone to measure what happens. But that should only be done with proper oversight, he said.
Other climate scientists are adamantly against injecting sulphates into the air, even as a last ditch effort.
Such an idea "could do far more harm than good" and scientists should treat the Earth like doctors do their patients, abiding by the rule "first, do no harm," said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann. But he favors increased study of the issue "if only for one purpose: to expose just how dangerous many of these schemes might be."
While the artificial cloud idea is a much worse option that carbon dioxide removal, it is more attractive to some people because "we could probably do it right now," said Texas A&M University atmospheric sciences professor Andrew Dessler. "There's really very little that's technologically standing in our way."
Islamic Tribunal in Texas uses Sharia Law
Feb 9, 2015 DALLAS, Texas
I'm sure it is man made climate change on Mars. Just think, we didn't notice the change until we started sending probes and rovers there.
The fallacy of humanity is to think they are the center of the universe.
What about a digital currency as a replacement?
I am not for it, but I heard Bill Gates is in favor of digital money.