Investigative reporter Linda Moulton Howe shared the latest Earthfiles news on heat, drought, & fires, the electric universe, and a mysterious pyramid structure that may exist in Alaska. In her first segment, she reported that between January and July 2012, the United States has broken 40,000 heat temperature records, and 2/3 of the contiguous US is now in moderate to severe drought, second only to the summer of 1934-- the height of the Dust Bowl era. She interviewed Prof. Jonathan Overpeck of the Univ. of Arizona in Tucson, who said "heat waves are getting hotter and longer, and forest fires are getting bigger and more severe." As to the cause, he cited the warming of Earth brought about by greenhouse gas pollution primarily from fossil fuel burning. More here.

In her second report, Linda spoke with two researchers of the "electric universe" theory: Wallace Thornhill and David Talbott. The electric universe hypothesis suggests that 99% of all matter (excluding dark energy & dark matter) is made up of plasma, and when the plasma moves, electric currents are created. Thornhill talked about the electrical behavior around stars and nebulae, while Talbott addressed the Valles Marineris crater on Mars. It "looks like nothing more than an electric arc blasting across the surface of Mars and removing immense amounts of material from the planet," he commented. Further details.

In a two-part report, Linda interviewed retired U. S. Army counterintelligence Warrant Officer Douglas Mutschler who'd been puzzled by a USGS map in his intell work that had a large whited out area between Mt. McKinley and Nome, Alaska. Then, on an evening in November 1992 on Channel 13 in Anchorage, Alaska, he and 39 others in his unit were in a Ft. Richardson cafeteria when they all watched a news program about the discovery of a very large pyramidal structure underground between Mt. McKinley and Nome, Alaska, that was discovered when geologists studied crust images during the May 22, 1992, large underground nuclear detonation in China. After the newscast, Mutschler went to the Channel 13 TV news station to get a dub of the report and was told by the General Manager that no such broadcast had occurred. He knew that was not the truth and when he was leaving the station, a TV technician approached him and said privately that the underground pyramid in Alaska story had aired, but afterward someone ordered the story erased. Later, when he sought out information on the topic at a classified archive in Fort Meade, two men showed up and told him to leave the subject alone. More here.

Shape-Up America Week 4

In the first hour, author and Board certified internist Dr. John McDougall appeared as the final guest in George Noory's month-long Shape-Up America Campaign. He discussed how he'd helped patients lose weight and reverse chronic disease through a starch-based diet, in contrast to diets such as Atkins that advise against eating carbs. By basing one's diet on carbohydrates rather than proteins or fats, people will have more energy and feel better, he argued. Most large populations have successfully been geared around carbohydrate-based diets rather than proteins-- people in China eat a lot of rice, but are rarely overweight, he cited. "The more you replace meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, and oils in your diet for potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, beans, rice-- the healthier and thinner you'll be," he said. For more, check out Dr. McDougall's YouTube Channel.

News segment guests: John Lott, Catherine Austin Fitts