Rosalind Peterson is the California President and Co-Founder of the Agriculture Defense Coalition (ADC), formed in 2006 to protect agricultural crop production from uncontrolled experimental weather modification programs, atmospheric heating, testing programs, and ocean and atmospheric experimental geoengineering programs. In 2007 she took part in the 60th Annual Climate Change Conference at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and gave the following speech.

 

 

Good afternoon Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a pleasure and a great honor to be here with you today. One of the things I would like to say is that we are in a global drumbeat, right at the moment, talking about climate change and global warming. The word mitigation without definition of the type of mitigation proposed, is heard in speeches and presentations. Many mitigation proposals would place particulates or chemicals into our atmosphere without public, Congressional, or agriculture oversight of any kind being in place. If you use various mitigation programs will we be trading one problem for another without considering the consequences to our drinking water, soil, trees, or agriculture as a whole? Will we be railroaded into questionable schemes by the drumbeat of fear that states: We must do something now!

 

One of the most important things that is negatively affected by climate change is agriculture. Some of what we are experiencing is man-made, in a different way than you may guess. Weather modification programs, experimental ones that use private companies, initiated by the United States government, government agencies or individual States, are now underway. There are more than fifty such weather modification programs in operation across the United States according to NOAA. All of these experimental weather modification programs negatively impact agriculture because they change the micro-climates needed for agriculture to survive. None of these programs, that I know of today (and this information is available to the public), are under any direct public, agriculture, or Congressional oversight, to my knowledge, in the United States.

 

These experimental weather modification programs that negatively impact agriculture are not only found in the United States but around the world. International and U.S. weather modification companies are modifying our weather with programs that cover thousands of square miles. Most of these programs use toxic chemicals or particulates to alter the weather with either ground-based or airborne releases that change or modify our local micro-climates. One of the things I am concerned about and that we need to address, now and in the future, is how these programs are affecting the micro-climates needed for our crops to survive and for pollination to take place. If we artificially change the growing seasons, our pollinators like bees and birds (many now in sharp decline across the United States), many not survive, leaving many flowers, native plants, agricultural and trees crops that are not pollinated. Native grasses, plants, trees, and agricultural losses could be devastated not only in the United States but on a worldwide basis.

 

 

One of the areas of our investigation has been to determine if we can begin to put weather modification programs under congressional, agriculture, and public scrutiny and oversight to determine how they alter agriculture crop production, change climate or produce artificial droughts or floods. When a private company can modify your weather for the personal gain of their respective clients then we have an agricultural and forestland crisis in the making. The mitigation drumbeat heard everywhere sounds impressive. However, these undefined measures may be detrimental to human health, crop production, soils, and drinking water supplies. It is now necessary to define what is meant by mitigation and to place all of these measures under congressional, agriculture, and pubic oversight. We do not want to place ourselves in the position of making huge mistakes by trading one pollution problem for another more serious problem.

 

The following example reflects a monetary mitigation agreement that allows polluters to purchase the ability to pollute more: SF Chronicle “ September 2007 “ California makes deal with Conoco Phillips so that it can expand its refinery in the San Francisco Bay Area while paying the State of California $10 Million total so that it can release an additional 500,000 tons of pollutants from their Rodeo, CA, facility. In addition, their proposed expansion agreement would add one million tons a year of carbon dioxide from another facility that currently releases yearly 1.9 millions tons a year. This expansion also increases the amounts of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, soot and other pollutants that will be emitted when the facility expansion is completed. The Chevron Oil Company wants to build a similar plant expansion in Richmond, CA, and the State of California is looking to make sweet deals for other oil companies. Our California air is to be polluted in the future for a measly one-time sum of $10 Million when oil companies are making record profits? You bet – human, agriculture, and tree health has been sold out! Just the medical bills alone, for increased human health costs, will be astronomical.

 

Geoengineering schemes, many developed to place chemicals, salt or other particulates into our atmosphere to control global warming, are waiting in the wings to be implemented or have already been implemented. The release of chemicals or particulates, like highly polluting sulfur, are now being discussed at NASA Ames (November 2006 Geoengineering Meetings), and by many scientists worldwide waiting in the wings for funding. These chemicals and particulates are being proposed so that the amount of direct sunlight reaching the earth is reduced in order to cool the planet. What is not being discussed, for example, is that California in 2006, took highly polluting sulfur out of diesel fuel due to asthma and other environmental problems. Now there are proposals to place sulfur back into our atmosphere to reduce global warming. Where is the discussion about environmental, agriculture, and human health declines from this proposal?

 

 

What about public and congressional oversight of these proposed programs? No public oversight, hearings or regulations are being proposed that would protect agriculture or public heath. The actions of placing chemicals into our atmosphere is certainly going to have negative effects on crop production and tree health. And if you place in our skies chemicals to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the earth, you are going to reduce the photosynthesis needed for crop production. In order to produce crops and for plants and trees to grow and thrive they need direct sunlight. A recent corn crop study at the University of Illinois shows that increased cloud cover reduces corn crop production while direct sunlight increases production. Photosynthesis is the process where plants and trees gain the energy to grow and produce crops. If we mitigate to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the earth, negatively affecting crop production not only in the United States but worldwide, we could put the world in a food shortage crisis. Two experiments are now believed to be reducing crop production in the United States: 1) Micro-climate shifts caused by experimental weather modification programs and, 2) a lack of photosynthesis cause by persistent jet contrails that produce (according to NASA), man-made clouds that change our climate. (Solar voltaic panels are beginning to produce less power due to these experiments.)

 

NASA noted in an October 2005 newsletter, and from other study results, notes that increasingly persistent contrails are turning into man-made clouds that are trapping warmth in the atmosphere and exacerbating global warming NASA goes on to note that: Any increase in global cloud cover will contribute to long-term changes in Earths climate. Likewise, any change in Earths climate may have effects on natural resources Jets leaving persistent jet contrails are changing our climate to the degree that one jet leaving a persistent jet contrail has the following affect according to NASAs Patrick Minnis (February 2007): We had found that (jet) contrails were producing much more cloud cover than we ever thought they did. This one particular aircraft produced a contrail that covered an area of four thousand square kilometers and lingered for six hours. But we also found that there were contrails covering much larger areas and lasting more than twenty hours… Dr. Wayne Evans, Atmospheric Scientist: You see the two contrails forming cirrus clouds While most natural clouds actually reflect more sunlight back into space than they supply infrared heat energy towards the earth. However, cirrus clouds are different. They actually radiate more heat energy than they reflect solar energy back into space. Therefore, cirrus clouds contribute to global warming. 

 

The picture up on the screen shows just one jet leaving a persistent jet contrail  that one trail can expand to cover an area of four thousand square kilometers and linger for more than twenty hours. This phenomenon was unheard of in the early fifties, sixties and seventies. It was not until the late 1980s that there was a huge change and people began to see the first persistent jet contrails that persist like we see today on a massive scale. NASA studies show that climate change and global warming problems could be attributed to these types of persistent jet contrails and that jets cause them to form in our once clear blue skies. One of the issues needed to be addressed as we go forward is: HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR SKIES NATURAL OR MAN-MADE? And right now we are making manmade clouds like the ones you see up on the screen. And these man-made clouds are trapping warmth in our
atmosphere.

 

 

Isnt it time that all of us addressed this global warming issue? The climate change produced by the jets pictured, not all jets mostly non-commercial jets, can be observed in our skies and by weathermen who cant predict the weather very well because they refuse to put these man-made formations in their weather prediction models. These man-made clouds trap warmth in our atmosphere and increase our humidity. This allows for diseases, flu, molds, mildews, fungus, viruses, and pests to proliferate. These pictures of man-made clouds were taken in Lake, Mendocino, Contra Costa, Sonoma and other California counties, to show what man-made skies look like now. They represent thousands of similar pictures taken worldwide they show persistent jet contrails turning into white haze and man-made clouds.

 

NASA, NOAA, and other U.S. government agencies know that these unusual clouds are man-made and not normal cloud formations. No one is asking what happens to agriculture and human health from man-made reductions of the amount of direct sunlight hitting the earth because it is blocked by man-made clouds. Pictured on the screen is one example of what scientists call global dimming a process that reduces direct sunlight from reaching the earth. Is this why rickets, a bone disease, has been increasing in children across the United States (not seen in the U.S. since children were freed from working in American coal mines)? The pictures that you see on this screen look odd, unlike historical cloud formations that were observed and photographed prior to the late 1980s, and back through U.S. history. We have time-lapse photographs and hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the formation of these man-made clouds from thin, spindly contrails being left by unmarked jets. All of you here today can begin to look up and observe this process for yourselves.

 

There are also other experiments taking place in our atmosphere. The colors in this man-made cloud photograph in Mendocino County, CA, shows just one of many experiments. These colors represent a chemical reaction produced by experiments conducted by NASA and the United States Air Force. They are sending up canisters loaded with toxic chemicals designed to explode when superheated in order to conduct atmospheric and ionosphere experimental tests. Some persistent jet contrails and man-made clouds, I believe, allow scientists to observe the results of these tests from either satellites or ground-based observation platforms. Without man-made clouds these tests could not be observed, as the chemicals would not produce a visible marker.

 

The reason that many are so concerned about protecting agriculture from these programs is because we depend totally on agriculture for the food we all eat. None of these experiments, that I know of, have any public, agriculture or congressional oversight. Our drinking water, trees, and soils have been tested at various times and show unusual spikes of many of these experimental chemicals. The use of aluminum in atmospheric testing programs is a major problem with regard to both soil and drinking water pollution. With increasingly acidic rains, aluminum in the soil is released for uptake by tree roots. Once aluminum is in the root system the tree will die because it can no longer absorb the nutrients and water needed to survive. The tree looks like it is dying of drought even though there is sufficient water for the tree to survive. The trees become stressed at this point and pests then attack these trees as they die creating a huge fire hazard. Many of our tree and plant communities are dying or in sharp decline in Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma, Shasta, Tahoe, and the Sierra Mountains. Many oak trees (without Sudden Oak Death Syndrome), redwoods, Douglas fir, agriculture crop trees, and plants are impacted by man-made clouds and atmospheric chemical programs. Molds, mildews, fungus, viruses and pests are on the rise in many areas of the United States. When persistent jet contrails and man-made clouds raise night temperatures, and humidity, this reduces the number of freezing fruit set hours needed for crop production and to control pest proliferation.

 

 

Our Skies are no longer crystal clear and deep blue The skies that you see in these pictures depict man-made clouds and white haze. When traveling on Delta Airlines across the United States from California to New York on September 4th, 2007, we were struck by the fact that we were flying through miles of persistent jet contrails and white haze that lasted the entire five-hour trip. There were few real clouds and the skies looked exactly like the pictures on this screen.

 

Important issues that should be closely examined are the problems we are creating for ourselves through government and private atmospheric heating and testing programs, experimental weather modification, jet fuel emissions, and persistent jet contrails that create climate change, with the idea of reducing or eliminating these programs. We can improve human health through the elimination of these programs and we can protect our trees, agriculture crop production, and drinking water supplies from chemical contamination. If we only consider mitigation that adds more pollution, chemicals, and particulates to our atmosphere then we are doomed to failure. Reduction of pollutants is the only answer. The geoengineering programs that are now being promoted are only going to release more toxic chemicals and particulates into our atmosphere in the hope that they will, in the short term mitigate climate change. What they will do instead is create a toxic pea soup of chemicals, with unknown, and uncontrollable synergistic effects, that could destroy our ability to produce crops and grow trees. The human costs will be astronomical as rickets, asthma and other respiratory diseases and cancers increase form the use of particulates and toxic chemicals. Just examine the increase in these incidents since the late 1980s when we started to experiment with atmospheric programs on a grand scale.

 

It would be easier to reduce the pollutants by following the early U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) model. This agency was created to clean up our air, water, rivers, and streams, through strict reductions in all types of emissions, reducing pollution at its source, whether cars, trucks, factories, chemical plants, etc. This model worked in the past and can work again. (In the last few years the EPA has been under mined and is not working as this agency has come under corporate polluter control.) Now there is only talk of adding toxic chemicals and particulates to our atmosphere for a so-called short-term gain under the heading of mitigation. These geoengineering experiments represent an unknown, but the money and the will to use them are increasing with the climate change drumbeat. We must reduce pollution not add to it.

 

Our trees, across the United States are dying and in decline in many areas. In Northern California, Lake, Mendocino, Shasta and Sonoma Counties the evidence is almost everywhere. We have traveled to other states and counties and found the same declines it is a decline we cannot afford. Since the late 1980s forest fires have burned hotter and higher than ever before and one reason is the use of flammable and toxic atmospheric chemicals which cause increased tree decline and also contaminate our soils and air.

 

One of the goals that we need to work toward is reducing pollution at the source not adding more pollutants to mix with what we are all producing at this time. Allan Buckmann, recently retired from the California State Department of Fish & Game and President of Microbe Tech, an invited guest speaker at a U.N. Workshop yesterday, spoke eloquently on the benefits of using microbes to clean up pollution and to also maintain the heath of our planet. We do have at our disposal the technologies and the wherewithal to make our planet healthier for all. We just need the will to use them instead of using chemical solutions.

 

 

If we decide to reduce pollution at its sources through regulations then we can make faster progress. If we choose the alternative solutions being proposed as mitigation measures then progress will be slow, unproven, and uncontrolled as the chemical and particulate mixtures will exacerbate a deterioration in human and agriculture health. These geoengineering programs are waiting in the wings to be used, thousands of them here and around the world, without any agriculture, congressional, or public oversight. It is time to look at different solutions that are already here and it is time to look-up at our skies and see that some of these programs are already producing climate change and agriculture decline. And what damage are these ongoing experiments doing to the fragile cocoon that protects our planet and makes life possible here?

 

We do know that the atmospheric chemicals are showing up in our drinking water (California, Arizona and other states), tree ring samples, and soils. (The U.S. Air Force is releasing, according to their own records, 500 tons of aluminum-coated fiberglass (Chaff), worldwide each year, without notifying the public of the health effects of their actions.) In closing I would like to say that these atmospheric and weather modification programs are already negatively impairing crop production and tree health in the United States. We are seeing it in ever higher UV Radiation readings (burning of the tips of trees and grapevines), increased molds, mildews and fungus, and the proliferation of pests.

 

We hope that all of you, before jumping on the mitigation bandwagon now being promoted and heavily marketed, under Cap & Trade Money Market Schemes, will closely examine these proposed forms of mitigation before being stampeded into using them. Just who will they benefit? When a California corporation called Planktos (Summer or Fall 2007 Program), decides to create an artificial algae bloom in the Galapagos Islands Pacific by dusting the Pacific Ocean with iron dust, there is no worldwide oversight. They can harm marine life without any consequences. Why? So that they can say they are benefiting the environment and then sell pollution credits to corporations who want to continue to pollute more.

 

Corporations are going to spring up from nowhere in order to buy tree areas or use other polluting schemes in order to make money on the stock market by selling these so-called credits on the stock market to polluters. These corporate schemes are just designed to allow polluters to keep polluting when the only solutions is to reduce the pollution at it sources. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is something we must all consider now and in the immediate future. When we consider the Cap & Trade solutions or many mitigation measures we must know that reducing pollution is the ultimate goal. We must examine the consequences of our actions and research these suspect geoengineering plans. We have other options like using microbes. We have the technology and the ability now to reduce pollution the question is do we have the will to move in that direction and to change our behavior? Thank you for your interest in these issues.

 

A special thank you the United Nations and to a few of the sponsors: The Light Millennium, Campaign for the Earth, Ribbon International, Peace Action, Peace Caucus, and the Turkish Cultural Center, New York. For more information on these and other topics: Website: californiaskywatch.com Many people spoke on the issue of climate change at this conference. United Nations Website on Climate Change.

 

Anyone wishing to se the video of this speech please click the following link :  http://youtu.be/LVD9IUO9Ftk And if you have any views on this article please scroll down to the bottom and post your views, we would love to hear them.