JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Where’s the photo of an area of outstanding natural beauty in Oz that normally adorns the unthreaded page ? Anybody would think you’ve been too busy to dig one out!
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Ah well, we’ll have to do a whip-around around and crowdsource an Aussie photo for today.
I can scrounge together 4 suggestions from my own camera. There’s a bushland one, and a cave and a rainforest photo too, but they are all too dark. Here is the one that might suit you northerners the best at this time of year since it is the sunniest :
Coorong river cruise, March 2007, near the mouth of the (formerly) mighty Murray river.
Maybe the subject isn’t spectacular but it has a wide variety of elements and textures in it from a compositional perspective.
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Thanks Andrew. Blighty weather is in it’s post-Wimbledon sulk ATM. 10/10 cloud and drizzling rain with the odd downpour. I’m thinking of firing up the C/H in July! Thanks for the reminder of Australian sunshine and warmth.
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I hate to disillusion you Kevin but it’s cold, sopping wet and dreary down here in Victoria. It has been for weeks with heating on all the time. There is masses of snow on the mountains.
I think it might be nicer further north….we are told that there are many Melburnians up in Noosa at present…wish we were there right now…I ‘ve three layers of clothing, the stove is going, I have a blanket around my shoulders and my hands are cold and I’m someone who hates the heat!
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Dear Annie. Your observations do not agree with AGM projections. Therefore your observations are wrong.
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Oh, of course…silly me. You must go by the ‘evidence’ of the models while I must ignore the real evidence of my shivering self and all the mud that I have to wade through at the farm!!!
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The models are egalitarian. The reported temperatures are designed to suit everybody equally, as according to UN diktat.
The fact that your farm has refused to respond in a suitable manner, has been duly noted, and you can expect a visit from government agents shortly. These agents will analyse your farm management practices, and inform you how to maintain the temperature on your farm to within the range
recommendedrequired by the climate models.91
Whoops! Suitably chastened!!!
20
Mid coast NSW is where I am and it is cold here too, snow at Barrington Tops not far away to the west and warmer this morning at 9C in my bedroom at 7am. The temperature has been close to zero previous few days overnight. Two weeks ago a massive hail storm delivered a huge quantity of hail stones about marble size on average that shredded trees and garden plants and left the district looking like a Snowy Mountains village from 3pm to midday the next day.
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Brisbane had it’s coldest July temperature in over 100 years Thursday early morning.
Must be global warming.
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Yes it is global warming. I explained it here.
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I’m in Port Douglas at the moment (poor me!) and they are having the coldest spell the
locals can remember. Down to about 12C at night. Sky has just clouded over and it is Not Warm. Can be easily explained by climate change, more commonly known as “weather”.
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Take heart. I understand that those in Dunedin shiver away after a record warm June e..v..a..h
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@Annie
July 12, 2014
‘There is masses of snow on the mountains.’ not according to this, unless you include snow making machines!
Today 12/07/14: Australia climate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/today
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Ah well, we’ll have to do a whip-around around and crowdsource an Aussie photo for today
Here is a nice topical one
Topical.. not tropical ! 🙂
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As long as I’m not there, I like it. 😉
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By the way, where is it?
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Up near Thredbo somewhere.
Pull up the pic and see the url.
more worldwide snow pics if you get back to the root url.
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Looked high and low for that place but apparently I don’t know the right search term to get a map.
In any case, it’s a beautiful shot. Reminds me of my one winter in Massachusetts when the wind blew during a storm and covered some of the trees and sides of buildings that same way.
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just google, “Thredbo NSW”
That pic could have been taken anywhere in that region.
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Here ya go, Roy
https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Thredbo+NSW+2625/@-36.4542848,148.3887038,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x6b234aef39bf42df:0x40609b490441420
You can see that the main ski area is a bit further north, around Perisher Valley,
but the alpine ridge that provides our ski season also goes further south into Victoria, to places like Mt Hotham.
If you look at the height of our tallest peak, (Mount Kosciuszko, 2228m) you will realise that Australia is a pretty flat country, so we only get that alpine snow for a relatively short period in winter.
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Thanks for the link.
I figured from the picture it was fairly low altitude because it takes not too solidly frozen snow to stick like that. When the snow hits something vertical like in the picture it has to melt a little to stick that way and the trees (or buildings) don’t freeze as fast as air does So the air temp needs to be closer to freezing. If it’s been down low enough that the tree trunk is below freezing the snow doesn’t stick.
And that about exhausts my winter snow experience. I came back home to sunny Southern California and I like that climate much better.
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Looks like one of your typical UN snow-jobs to me.
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UN snow jobs don’t look half so good. They’re better at pulling the wool over your eyes. 😉
00
Record cold in Southern Qld.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/southeast-shivers-as-icy-weather-hits/story-e6frep3x-1226072416001?
Bloody Global Warming again.
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Coldest Queensland July in 103 years they say.
Bet MSM don’t get on it, well not unless Flannery and the Climate Council can spin it into further proof of Global Warming.
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Bet they did, Here, and by the ALPBC nonetheless, heheh.
Still waiting for it to be connected to global warming and a quick googling shows no link to Flannery… so far.
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http://coedmagazine.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/emily-scott.jpg?w=500&h=757
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THAT looks NOTHING like Tim!!
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This is the Tamar River early in the morning Kevin
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Isn’t this a site of ONB itself ?
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What about the photo at the top of the page? (fawn,fawn)
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You practicing running for office?
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Argh, I was replying to you at #1 and Jo did say wandering thoughts…
Might as well run for office here, can’t do any worse than some of these clowns.
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These are a few words on a pet peeve of mine, the subjects of AGW and CAGW.
Almost every sceptic quite correctly dismisses the subject of CAGW, which can only be found in biased, inaccurate computer programs with pre-determined results.
The other is AGW, a significant minority of sceptics also believes this does not exist. This simply cannot be correct, the effects of agriculture, irrigation and city building must have an effect, plus let us not forget that rising carbon dioxide levels will have an impact on tempuratures, albeit very small.
On a local level, one obvious manifestation of AGW is the UHI effect, where cities and towns are noticeably warmer than the surrounding rural areas. This effect is deliberately downplayed by the alarmist gatekeepers of temperature statistics, as this would require them having to admit that the modest warming we have experienced over the past century (~0.7 degrees C) has been overstated.
The concept of ‘denier’, used derogatorily by alarmists, is designed to portray sceptics as being ignorant bigots. The use of the term ‘denier’ is used to describe those who do not believe in man made global warming and global change. In other words, this is aimed at those who say AGW does not exist and the alarmists tar all sceptics as being heretical unbelievers.
Well, I am a scientist, a geologist (the most sceptical group of all) and I believe in AGW, but I do not believe it is significant or anything to worry about, as long as we are reasonably sensible.
The subject of CAGW is another matter altogether, this is an alarmist myth and is the reason why that motley group of goofies, greenies and lefties want to beggar our economies by taking draconian measures to tackle a non-problem.
The denial of AGW is the sceptics’ Achilles Heel. We all regularly see alarmist papers and arguments shredded here at Jo Nova, WUWT, Climate Audit and many others, for the very simple reason that bad science cannot stand up to any sort of scrutiny.
Alarmists, not surprisingly, do not like having their views and papers shredded in public. Their only response is to shrilly decry their sceptic critics as being deniers of AGW – note they almost never say that about CAGW – thereby diverting attention away from their own drivel.
I am sure this will upset some sceptics, but there can be no doubt man has changed the climate of our planet. This change is neither significant, nor dangerous, and I can only see beneficial effects from increasing CO2 levels – if you doubt this, then consult your nearest tree.
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Locally certainly, and probably even regionally, but let’s see if you can prove any global change that is anthropogenic.
I very much doubt mankind has had one iota of effect on the climate of deserts, the polar region, and in fact the 70% of the planet that is ocean.
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Enough said !
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Nah! I can’t believe in AGW. Not until someone can explain to me how blasting CO2 with radiation over the 13 to 17 micron bands can cause the temperature of the CO2 to rise above 223K or -50C, which by the way is the PEAK temperature of the 13 micron band. Also the CO2 in the atmosphere is right royally knocked around by the KINETIC energy of the other molecules in the atmosphere which are in a temperature range way above -50C. If you believe kinetic energy is NOT translated into vibrational energy in the CO2 molecule please explain why and how.
And by the way, H2O molecules also react strongly to those same radiation bands and there are vastly more H2O molecules than CO2 molecules in the atmosphere.
And in our so called warming world why has a region of Australia just experienced the coldest day in 103 years???
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If you are keeping an eye on Steven Goddard’s site, you can see that raw data basically shows no warming or slight cooling in the US for a pretty significant length of time.
Ken’s Kingdom also shows cooling in the raw data in Australia. But BOM has manipulated basically every site into a warming trend.
Who knows how much other parts of the world have been fudged !!!!!!!!
The only warming I can see is the man-made adjustments to the temperature data.
The globe, in general, is pretty much not changing much at all.
And if it isn’t changing much, then its pointless on supposing a cause.
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ps. That’s what is so infuriating about the whole thing….
The temperature data before 1979, and even for some period after…
…… CANNOT BE TRUSTED, but its all we seem to have.
Drawing any conclusions using this data is always going to be pretty much like standing on quicksand.
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Drawing conclusions from data? Can you do that? You need a complex computer model with a million lines of code and several thousand experts, 97% of whom agree with each other to explain what it means. Otherwise you just have numbers. Five or six different models make it even better.
Isn’t that the way it is? Well, that’s what all the “experts” say anyway. 😉
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CAGW is the big lie, AGW is the little truth.
Man has changed the climate of our planet, there can be no doubt of that, but it is not – and it is unlikely to ever be – significant, except on a very local level. Increases in CO2 are part of that change, but nobody knows how much that is, except that it is likely to be minuscule.
To shriek, “there is no AGW” is exactly what the alarmists want to hear you say. To say that is to betray the scientific basis of the sceptic cause and it allows the alarmists to sneer “typical unscientific from an unthinking denier”.
Harsh, but true.
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So I’m to let the alarmists do my thinking for me? Well you can call me Galileo.
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Okay Peter, how about you start by defining ‘sensible’ and follow that by quantifying ‘reasonable’ ?
In the absence of warming for 18 years, and following your assertion of “Man has changed the climate of our planet” please elucidate further.
You claim “Well, I am a scientist…” and you state: ‘but nobody knows how much that is, except that it is likely to be minuscule’
Quantify ‘likely’ and ‘miniscule’ and ‘nobody’.
I presume you are the exception that proves the rule?
00
AGW, CAGW…..
Once upon a time everyone agreed that ‘NATURE’ was such a wonderful natural beast that it could fix all the weird happenings in the world environment naturally over time as a matter of course.
We had faith in that simple proposition – after all in recent memory millions of litres of bunker oil were strewn throughout the oceans in World War II plus millions of tons of pollutants went into the atmosphere in the same conflict. At the time the scars were depressing but have a look now. The recovery has been outstanding. The environment adapted and healed.
Perhaps the mother nature concept is still alive and well and the alarmists should note past history.
Bring back the simple honest concepts and concentrate on the man-originated ills that really matter like eliminating genocide, defeating terrorism, ridding the world of slavery, championing freedom, etc, etc.
The global warming debate is largely a bloody stupid and dishonest academic and economic distraction with all the associated chest beating and greed that goes with it.
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http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/11/the-climate-consensus-is-not-97-its-100/
Shock news from the Heartland Institute’s Ninth International Climate Change Conference: among the 600 delegates, the consensus that Man contributes to global warming was not 97%. It was 100%.
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Hmm. A rather impromptu survey, only based on a quick show of hands, before anyone had time to raise their hand.
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Thankyou DownTicker. I have absolutely no objection to how Lord Monckton trumps up a consensus. I think that was perhaps rather his point.
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Ah! They fixed the form at last. Only one box.
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Yep.. Towards 800ppm !! 🙂
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I think the question is not whether we may have modified the climate or any other aspect of our environment but do we have the right to modify it? And the very fact that we’re here answers that question. We do have that right. We cannot be here without modifying it any more than any other species can be here without modifying the environment around it.
And that is what makes this global warming monster so pernicious. It tries to put a guilt trip on everyone on the planet.
We aren’t here by our choice. Who among us was asked whether they wanted to be put here?
No one, that’s who. Not one of us had that choice offered to us. We are not guilty of anything for living our lives and making things as easy on ourselves as we can because that’s what every other species on Earth tries to do.
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Let the alarmists try to argue otherwise if they dare.
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A few things. Firstly Climate is a silly word. Local areas have climate. Planets do not. A climate can differ from one side of the hill to another. Compare dry Townsville with Innisfail, perhaps the highest rainfall in the world. What is the climate in that area? It is not democratic. So man can have regional effects, especially by changing vegetation. Planetary climate? No.
Then if we really believe we can change local climates, should we? At the very lest we should be considering what we want? More rain, less rain, more clouds, fewer clouds,higher temperatures? No rain on the weekends or during holiday seasons? Cooler summers and warmer winterse? Could we get two people to agree on what is better? Why did climate alarmists spend 50 years researching cloud seeding and then decide that climate change was evil?
Anyway, firstly most people would want warmer. The tropics cannot get any hotter but deserts in the mid latitudes are typically cold places with low rainfall. Hot places have evaporation and precipitation. Really hot places get monsoons. North Africa used to be lush with higher temperatures and monsoons across what is now the Sahara. So we would want more rainfall, preferably at night and during working weeks. All religions, amazingly, agree on having a working weekend, even if the Sabbath falls on a different day.
Then we would want more CO2. CO2 levels are at an all time low, so low in fact that any lower and plants would not grow at all, given plants are a solid form of CO2 and water. So are we.
So I am amazed that the story of man made climate change is not only illogical, it is all and only about stopping things from changing, even when change is good, desirable and long overdue. What no one wants is another ice age and dropping CO2. That would be a disaster.
Stopping things appeals to my favorite group, STWIGO, Stop the World I Want to Get Off, people frightened by change, people who want to go back to a dreamtime which never existed where we sat around log fires and sang songs. Nothing else of course. What is also outstanding is the Man Made Climate Change is not a science issue, it is a political issue, largely with communists like Adam Bandt, Julia Gillard, Lee Rhiannon and so many more just pretending to care about the environment.
Just making a list of how I would like my climate at my place. Then we can raise a tax to make it just how I want it, if everyone agrees.
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Oh, the Climate Alarmists were the CSIRO.
10
You left off the sailor’s working religion.
For six days thou shat work and do all thou art able. On the seventh the same and pound on the cable.
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When I read that I thought of one of my friends, who lives in a semi arid area in South Australia near Monarto.
He is an ardent advocate of sustainablility and hence has done everything he can to change his local environs to create a micro climate which minimises energy requirements for a habitable environment. That includes an acre of shade cloth on the lower and upwind side of his house. Vegetation under the shade cloth acts as a humidifier and helps cool the air further. The cooler air from the shady area then passes through his house, propelled by a thermal current. He generates the thermal current by creating a hot spot on the higher and downwind side of the house, which is cleared and paved in a dark colour.
Brilliant stuff but he is seriously messing with his environment. And he does it in the name of GREEN.
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One only need to look at one of the hotbeds of environmentalism here in the US, i.e. California, to see what a bunch of confused hypocrites they are.
Specifically southern California which is a natural desert yet in many areas it has been terraformed into something that would not naturally occur. Last time I was out there in the Palm Springs area there were sprinklers going constantly to keep the grass that would otherwise never grow there healthy. Using water brought in from other states no less.
Nevada is a similar case, i.e. Las Vegas. Terraforming to create the environment people want because the natural environment just isn’t that appealing.
If some of these people actually had to “get back to nature” with no iPhone, no iPad, no battery powered anything, no toilet paper made from trees, no tents made from nylon, and so on, they not only wouldn’t like it much they wouldn’t last long.
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Disturbing the Greenies, a rare good post from SNWA that describes nature’s own GM splicing to produce new organisms. Viruses and bacteria, do the work that scientists do, naturally.
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Tom,
It’s a pity that this comment by Dr Oliver cannot be said of Climate Science:-
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The BBC says Australia is running out of snow because of global warming.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p022qszr
Interesting the expert scientist consulted was Al Gore. I believe that the BBC has rules about who is supposed to opine about AGW/climate change.
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I haven’t been watching because I’m not a skier, but a few blokes I know say its a great season for snow so far, and they are just itching for some time off to head up there.
Any skiers who can comment?
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Ahhh, my red thumbed groupie has returned.
Hi Sweetie! 😉
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I told you that disguise wouldn’t work. Would you listen? No.
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Stopped skiing years ago, snowboards looked like they were more fun and the boots are so much easier to walk around in.
Can’t tell you about Australia but I can tell you that last winter was great for us slope hounds here in the states. I would suspect it’s been treating our Aussie slope hounds just as well.
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Yeah, listened to that, typical BBC sh$$t. will probably be re-broadcast on ABC.
I notice they didn’t say the snow came just one week into the official season, or they were the best conditions in years. And oh! we’ll have nowhere to ski in 2040! Reminds me of Viner and his “Children just won’t know…”
And I’m pretty sure that Queenslanders this morning were chanting “Deliver us oh Lord Gore from this pestilential Global Warming™.
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It was on BBC radio 4 news this morning, pretty blatant AGW propaganda.
The elected PM of Australia was allowed to state his views on AGW,
then there was a typical BBC hatchet job of Al Gore, “Some climate scientists say …”,
and ONE (probably young) person saying that CC was happening.
Australia is clearly getting the finger-pointing treatment (as in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”),
when a govt dares to stray from the Party Line.
I don’t know how the BBC gets away with it, its a state organisation,
acting like those in Russia and North Korea.
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Nigel Lawson can not be on the BBC giving a counter view to AGW, as the BBC says he is unqualified.
However the BBC allows Al Gore as he’s so qualified to comment about AGW?
One set of BBC rules – differently applied?
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No Tom, it is a consistent set of rules. The BBC follows the “scientific consensus” line. Qualification for entry is through professed belief in the science and of the necessity of combating the problem. Al Gore is one of the highly qualified experts in that respect. Nigel Lawson is an agnostic, so should not be trusted.
One minor inconvenient factor they all ignore. It is the real world of actual evidence.
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Look ere you people:- if the BBC AND Al Gore said there is no snow in Australia, then there is definitely no snow in Australia.
Those people who think they are skiing down the slopes at Perisher, Mt Buller, Selwyn, etc are obviously dreaming.
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It’s the mushrooms.
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Not content with just a quick piece on loosing snow, the BBC goes the whole hog and interviews Gore about how and why Australia is doing it wrong.
Not that the BBC wants to tell Australians what they have wrong – do they?
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/bbc-news-al-gore-climate-change-is-the-biggest-crisis-our-civilisation-faces/
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Snow? You might get some yet! 🙂
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/brisbane-hits-coldest-temperature-in-103-years/story-fnihsrf2-1226986116278?nk=1dc9ad94e6ccb5ad7953468a1812581a
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You know that cold snap is caused by global warming, do you not?
You see, what happens is that, as we all know, hot air rises. With global warming this is exactly what happens. All that hot air rises, causing colder air to come down, hence the cold snap.
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Antarctic ice is also very interesting. What has happened there is that, due to ice melting, the surface water is fresher, thus freezing more readily, hence we see more sea ice. Global warming at work yet again! (There really was a paper which put forth this theory).
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Then that “global warming” could not have been caused by extra CO2 in the atmosphere. That, according to the “settled science”, is all that that extra atmospheric CO2 can cause.
However it might be due to climate change which given there is no surface warming involved also means it has nothing to do with the extra CO2 in the atmosphere.
That leaves only climate change due to the multiplicity of factors involved in natural variability and by definition must exclude extra atmospheric CO2.
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I’m sceptical that yesterday morning was the coldest.
1984-I remember it sleeting near Ipswich.
1994-We had frosts at Kenmore. Burnt palm trees that took two years to recover.
2004-I remember two days that were so cold I gave my staff those days off.
2014-Coldest temperature in 103 years?
Don’t trust BOM but there seems to be a pattern or cycle.
50
A ten year cycle. Interesting….what’s your thought on it?
10
Al Gore has become a bore. He should retire and enjoy his money before his adoring fans finally catch on.
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I observe that since Al Gore joined Clive Palmer at a press conference about the Carbon Tax Repeal Bill and Palmer mentioned the possibility of a condition being an ETS in the future, and they then had private talks, another Australian investor has joined in support and has been talking to Palmer, former Liberal leader John Hewson. And add to the list Malcolm Turnbull who was seen dining at a Chinese restaurant with Palmer not long ago. Turnbull being a cabinet minister in the Abbott Coalition government and, when he was their leader in opposition, he joined hands with then PM Rudd in support of an ETS. I think the best way to describe these fellow travellers is the smell of new money.
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@DT,
Ha, Turnbull is known as “The Member For Goldman Sachs”.
50
…..or “The Member for Gold in my Sacks”.
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If you had stopped with just,
it would gave been pretty accurate. There’s a lot more there than the smell of money. And I think the smell of corruption is by far the worst of the odors from these, “…fellow travelers…”
10
Peter,
You would be heartened by his lordship (Christopher Moncton), who ran a poll at the Heartland conference in Las Vagas this week. 100% agreed, not only to the proposition of Global Warming but also that humans have some effect (at least no one held up their hand for NO).
At a local level some climate effects are obvious. When I was at school we had swimming lessons in the Barwon River in mid winter. Because of the heat output into the river from the cement works just upstream the water temperature was a barmy 29C. Steam seemed to emit from the water surface, which made it easier to put ones toe in.
Personally I would have held my hand up. Yes it can be argued that the accumulation of local effects may have an effect on GLOBAL TEMPERATURE, however small. However a tiny local heat contribution should not imply that
Same with Urban Heat Island Effect, which is a lot larger than the heat from my cement works.
I see where you are coming from and I agree that there is a heat input. However I do not think that Climate can be calculated merely from summing known heat inputs and losses. There are too many unknowns including Feedbacks (totally unquantified)
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Maybe some will get a laugh outta this.
youtube:
Puppet Government: Closed for Business
Puppet Government: Global Warming
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Max Keiser is one of the many original Wolves of Wall Street. He’s looking a bit tired and hackneyed these days, nonetheless this is another typical infotainment episode in his classic style. [KR625] Keiser Report: Time to Fake US Manufacturing? The first half is standard fare, but the interview with Robert Steele is more interesting for his vision of an open society revolution in productivity, counter to the feudal crony-capitalist protection racket that passes for free market capitalism today.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Also, old science news but still fascinating…
It’s possible to image individual bonds and atoms in molecules using a non-contact atomic force microscope.
I’m wondering how long it takes to use the same technique to build molecules one atom at a time. There’s plenty of ways to simulate the properties of a hypothetical molecule, but no way to benefit from it unless it can actually be made and in large quantities. We need atomically precise construction methods to create materials more regular than natural organics but more useful than crystals.
I find these sorts of microscopes to be as infuriating as the space telescopes; they show us things that we can’t actually make or visit. Making the very small and visiting the very far are the final game-changing technologies for humanity, because once you can do those two things there are no more resource limits and anything is possible.
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North Carolina bans climate alarmism 🙂 – http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/12/north-carolina-outlaws-alarmist-planning-advice-restricts-slr-planning-input-to-maximum-timeframe-of-30-years/
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Could one of the kind technical folk who contribute, please give me the answers to:
How much carbon dioxide is produced by a standard family sedan (say Camry on unleaded fuel) to travel 10,000 kms?
How much carbon dioxide is generated by a coal- fired power station to charge the batteries to run a Tesla for 10,000 kms?
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Take the weight of the petrol you burn and multiply it by 3. Most of the weight of petrol is the carbon, the two oxygen atoms which combine with the carbon each weigh slightly more than the carbon.
As for the Tesla – assume roughly the same energy burn as a light petrol car, then consider losses converting the coal into electricity, losses transmitting the electricity, losses charging the batteries. Messy.
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Just imagine the green tribal feeling of superiority of driving an upwardly-mobile, planet-salvaging, yet perceptively modest vehicle that will impress your inner-city academic colleagues.
Bugger this energy stuff-the feeling is priceless.
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I’m imagining the hubris when the battery runs out in a traffic jam caused by torrential rain at 1830 on a cold November NH Autumn evening.
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Tesla — so far a financial flop into the bargain. And no bargain either, not at the asking price.
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toorightmate:
Use 3 times your weight of petrol used as the weight of CO2 produced. (3.08 is factor) so from litres convert using 0.84 (roughly) as the SG of petrol. So 2.59 by litres for weight of CO2.
For the electricity use 0.96 by KWH produced for the power station emission in Kg. You then have to estimate losses to your house (usually less than 10%) and the efficiency of your charger. At a rough guess I would try Kwh by 2.86 to get weight of CO2.
Where the Tesla gains is by using regenerative braking i.e. it gets to reuse some of its charge. Whether it ever pays for the cost of batteries, carbon fibre body etc. is questionable.
30
A small correction: the SG of Petrol is 0.72. Diesel is around 0.84. So CO2 produce for a petrol engine is about 2.2kg/l.
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Thank you all – kind folk.
10
We have a taxi cab company where I live, that exclusively uses Prius cars. They got them very cheap, because a) it was a fleet deal, and b) Toyota wanted to have the advertising opportunity.
They are now coming up to the milage where a battery replacement is recommended. I am waiting in anticipation of much angst, from the poor owner drivers, when they start getting quotations.
30
One wonders whether they’ll also have to fork out for disposal of the used battery, which might be interesting.
10
Camry???? I’ve heard they make good shopping trolleys…./sarc.
If you want to produce your own CO2, you have to do it properly…..like I do;
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/crocko05/DSC00445_zps4e06e568.jpg
…it belongs to this;
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/crocko05/DSC00435_zps861d60ea.jpg
2003 Monaro CV8-R, 5.7ltr
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Nice one Bruce, I got a 5.0 litre 82 WB ute in the garage.
But we both know the trade off for the toys don’t we.
Toilets growing geraniums in the garden.
20
Got my eye on an SV8 Holden when the tax cheque comes in. !! 🙂
30
Griss you won’t regret it, the LS V8 series is well proven in power and reliability, I still can’t believe how high they rev 🙂
Better sill with the economy going south there are absolute bargains as people try to reduce debt, do your homework on models, years, engine/trans specs and work out what you want, I’d go for an LS2(6.0l) or LS3 HSV(6.2l) factory stock or with Walkinshaw upgrades, have fun you lucky b&*%$#d. 🙂
30
Still, limited funds ($7K), we will see.. hopefully some time this week !! 🙂
20
$7K should get you a decent 2004 VZ SV8 with average k’s (150-180,000 km’s). You could also pick up a very good 2003 VY/VY II with lower k’s (100-150,000 km’s), all of above have the LS1 5.7L, like mine.
Monaro’s (2002 – 2006) are holding their value much better ($18k – $40+k). I paid $25k for mine (with 89,400 odd km’s) in Nov last year. Mine is the limited edition ‘R’ version (only 350 produced in June 2003), all were turbine grey in colour with sandalwood (beige) interior and many up-market Calais interior trimmings.
@ Yonniestone. The LS2 was released in the VZ Series II and early VE (including HSV). The L98 and L96 (AFM) replaced the LS2 and is still used in the current VF Commodores. The LS3 is a HSV only engine used since 2008.
00
Yeah they look nice and seem to have the horses, but ya can’t beat old petrol tech I say. Forget higher revs, low down torque at low revs is the thing, stroke it, cam it and stick a carby on it… oh and a lovely set of tuned extractors with duel 3 inch pipes.
20
I agree James however with EFI engines if you muck around with the emissions side of things the authorities can hit you up with huge fines, try $10,000 for removing the catalytic converters for a start, how overreacting is that?!!
A local drag racer here got caught out with gutted cats when the cops ran a roadworthy blitz last year, they got him using a sniffer in the exhaust and were going for the big fine, he got off only when his lawyer argued that he didn’t know the cats were gutted and a mechanical roadworthy in Victoria doesn’t test emissions on the vehicle to pick this up.
Needless to say he’s running proper cats now. 🙂
00
Yonnie,
That’s why I stick to pre-unleaded models – I don’t have to worry about the diagnostics if it doesn’t start:
“Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.”
00
Queensland shivering in the cold – http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/brisbane-hits-coldest-temperature-in-103-years/story-fnihsrf2-1226986116278
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Could Jo and David be right? Don’t know for sure but I’m not going to bet against them.
70
Blurry cold here in Broome too, despite BoM predicting a much warmer period for the 3 months. I hope they are right/sarc.
30
In July 2016, a team of ten passionate women will embark upon an epic three-month journey, snorkeling through frigid Arctic seas from Pond Inlet, Nunavut, to Inuvik, Northwest Territories.
Supported by a mother ship equipped with two rigid hull boats, the snorkelers will scout, document and record the impacts of global warming on this fragile arctic ecosystem and on the aboriginal peoples’ traditional ways of life.
Team Sedna’s mission is to study the impacts of disappearing sea ice in the Arctic, and to educate and engage the public about the wonders of the Arctic and its importance to our global climate.
http://www.intotheplanet.com/?tag=snorkel
~ ~ ~
Via comments @stevegoddard post:
Very Slow Melt Season In The Arctic Basin
. . .
That will be entertaining.
Popcorn anyone?
100
This is almost the same journey that Mainstream tried last summer. You can read what happened to them.
http://mainstreamlastfirst.com/and-the-trip-comes-to-an-end/
Bit I liked.
Richard dropped me a note the other day advising: “This has been the coldest season with the most ice since we started Arctic Watch in 2000. Almost no whales. The NWPassage is still blocked with ice. Some of the bays still have not melted!”
This year’s summer temps look just the same as last year’s summer temps i.e. below average.
90
Love the anecdotal “evidence”. Of course were we to dig up anecdotal evidence showing that what we see is nothing unusual, we would be blasted. I have known “elders” in their early 30’s.
That pesky ice must be giving them the poops….. idiots.
60
And this is the North West passage that, in the late 1960’s, BP were planning to use to ship oil from the Alaska oil fields to Europe!
50
But they will be able to see so clearly ,from their lights being on highbeams…
60
“ten passionate women”
Unless they are self inclined, they won’t get much passion up that way !!
40
I’d laugh my head off if these snorkeling women ran in to the same conditions as ‘Australia’s famous son’ Timmy Flannery (or whatever his name was) ran into!!!
40
Lets not forget Professor Christopher Turney and his Ship of Fools so quickly.
http://www.spiritofmawson.com/
50
Can you say the word HYPOTHERMIA ????
Should be a laugh !!!!
21
A mother ship plus crew; two rigid-hulled boats; high-tech diver propulsion vehicles…
It begs the question: who is paying the bills?
30
Mentioning extreme Greens, during the week their leader, Senator Milne, was asked if one of her office staffers was assisting the Palmer United Party (PUP), her usual unblinking stare changed briefly and she replied that the now PUP adviser is no longer working for her. The next revelation was that PUP also have an adviser who used to work for rogue so called independent MP now retired Tony Windsor.
The plot thickens, Windsor had a falling out with the Liberal Party years ago and now hates them, Palmer stormed out on his Liberal National Party former mates after decades of membership and donations following rejection by the then new Queensland LNP Government of Palmer wanting a backroom deal done to allow his company to construct a railway line from a coal mine to the coast and to construct Port Palmer.
Tasmanian PUP Senator Jacqui Lambie, rejected at preselection to stand for the Liberal Party as a candidate also hates them and, apparently from her extremely rude bad mannered outburts, she also hates Tony Abbott. She also a chip on her shoulder because of an Army discharge, a demotion from acting corporal after she bashed a fellow male soldier and because a disability pension was cancelled when the ADF’s insurers’investigators caught her doing heavy lifting despite her claimed back problem.
It is now clear to me that there is a plot to damage the government, a gang of wreckers bearing grudges, an alliance that could be called the AA Party or Anti Abbott.
No wonder the extreme Greens and Union Labor are on the side of AA, pity about us and the poor state of the nation that the Coalition is working to repair.
90
Well said, DT.
Actually, Windsor originally had a falling out with the Nationals which culminated in him becoming an independent in the NSW state parliament for Tamworth.
The other member of the ‘AA party’ was Oakeshott who originally worked for the Nationals before having a falling out with them and following in Windsor’s footsteps. We won’t mention Slipper.
40
Thanks Ian, with my thoughts on the AA as a whole I was in error, and I did know that Windsor was with the Nationals. By the way there is a NSW ICAC hearning on the list that involves now quickly resigned former state so called independent Torbay, apparently an Obeid associate (as is Windsor and also a coal business dealer, and the rumour is that Torbay could have been a bagman distributing money to other so called independents provided by their ALP insider maates.
20
Torbay was an interesting case. He was as popular as Windsor was when he was an independent for the seat of Armidale. He was thus chosen by the Nationals to run against Windsor for New England and then dropped when exposed.
I always wondered why he was Speaker in the NSW govt when Labor were in power – a prestigious position which Labor members would have died for. Now we know.
The other interesting thing was when he was exposed, he went without a whimper.
20
I believe the next election will be a DD…it is just a matter of timing.
If the carbon tax repeal is not passed next week the next opportunity will be in late August. I suggest that Australia will be in a different place by then. Not a good place.
40
a tale of six months!
13 July: Khaleej Times: Unmasking the chilling conspiracy of global warming
A tragedy turned an Indian chemistry graduate into a filmmaker. Now he wants to expose what he says is the global warming myth, reports Nivriti Butalia…
Nine countries in the past four months. Not a bad record, especially when you consider that Zanane Rajsingh, a 26-year old filmmaker from Gujarat, first went abroad in January…
His new film is a full-length feature, an American-Indian venture on climate change produced by US-based company Nanoland. The script is by Dr Rajeshkumar Acharya, Nanoland’s corporate advisor.
The preparation for the movie took time: Six months of reading to be convinced that global warming was a farce, as claimed by the script writer, Dr Acharya…
“People think climate change is (due to) global warming. But global warming is a myth.”
That’s what the film talks about, the global warming ‘conspiracy’.
The first part of the film releases in January 2015. Currently, the director is on a packed schedule and constantly travelling…
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/nationgeneral/2014/July/nationgeneral_July55.xml§ion=nationgeneral
8 Feb: Times of India: Ankur Tewari: ‘I am Earth, ravaged by climate change’
All these and other mysteries about the environment will be dealt with in India’s first ‘feature film’ on climate change – It’s Tomorrow’ – written by non-resident Gujarati, Dr Rajeshkumar Acharya, who currently lives in the US. It is directed by Zanane Rajsingh, who was born in Nagpur but studied in Ahmedabad. The director said they had initially planned a documentary but had finally decided to make a feature-length film on the subject. Interestingly, the movie has the Earth talking to the audience directly and telling them about its plight caused by climate change.
Will human beings become extinct in another 100 years? Startling questions like this one about the environment and life on earth will be answered in the film which is about 20% ready. It will explain climate change, its impact and the factors that influence climate on earth, Rajsingh said.
“‘It’s Tomorrow’ aims to sensitize the audience about climate change and global warming. It is a wake-up call to the world. The one-and-a-half-hour film explores what a worst-case scenario might look like and gives a glimpse of the kind of floods and other natural disasters that might visit us in future…
Talking about the crew of the film, Acharya said that ‘It’s Tomorrow’ is a political drama that revolves around the ongoing climate change phenomenon around the world. “Hence we’ve political giants, renowned scientists and actors playing roles in it. Actor Letiana Bohlke from Colombia will play the role of a strong political leader of Argentina, while Xenia Henriquez will essay the role of a former president of Philippines. Kiyoshi Kuzuwa, a noted Japanese scientist, will play himself in the film,” said Acharya.
From India, Gujarat-born Suresh Vyas will portray the role of a strong leader from his state. Other Indian members of the crew are Rejeesh Ramesan and Jaymin Modi, a film graduate from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad…
The film is jointly produced by a US-based firm Nanoland Inc and an Indian firm, Nanoland Ltd…
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/I-am-Earth-ravaged-by-climate-change/articleshow/30026768.cms
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10 July: Bloomberg: Eric Roston: Fix the Climate Problem? Easy. Cut U.S. Emissions to 1901 Levels
A draft report prepared for the United Nations suggests, out loud, what the U.S. needs to do about climate change: Cut emissions to one-tenth of current levels, per person, in less than 40 years…
The report, Pathways to Deep Decarbonization, describes how nations might be able mitigate against dangerous climate change. ***Two organizations wrote it to provide national leaders and UN agencies with a specific vision of how 15 leading economies can slash climate pollution.
The study contains detailed sections on each of a dozen large national emitters, including the U.S., China, Russia and the U.K. It suggests to national leaders that cutting carbon may be possible, without economic compromise and without fear that they’ll have to go it alone. Such analysis might help them generate the political support they’ll need to make the UN climate negotiations in Paris at the end of 2015 successful…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-09/fix-the-climate-problem-easy-cut-u-s-emissions-to-1901-levels.html
***altho Bloomberg provided a link, Roston was obviously not keen to name the organisations who came up with the nonsense!
UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network: Deep Decarbonization Pathways
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) co-founded and lead the DDPP.
Currently, the DDPP comprises 15 Country Research Teams composed of leading researchers and research institutions from countries representing 70% of global GHG emissions and different stages of development: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, the UK, and the USA…
Several Partner Organizations contribute to the analysis and outreach of the DDPP, including the German Development Institute (GDI), the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD). We invite other organizations to become DDPP partners and contribute to practical problem solving for deep decarbonization.
Australia:
Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University
ClimateWorks Australia, Monash University
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
United States
Energy and Environment Economics (E3)
http://unsdsn.org/what-we-do/deep-decarbonization-pathways/
20
Saturation MSM coverage of this nonsense:
http://unsdsn.org/news/2014/07/10/press-coverage-roundup-of-deep-decarbonization-report-launch/
my favourite – which i couldn’t read due to subscription required, but which showed the one and only comment to the economic hit man Jeffrey Sachs’ piece:
8 July: Financial Times: Jeffrey Sachs: How to decarbonise the global economy
ONE COMMENT ONLY: by Richard Gordon: Sadly the lack of comments on this important article shows the indifference of the vast majority of the public. Climate change is the most critical threat to mankind and the planet…etc
http://blogs.ft.com/the-a-list/2014/07/08/77872/
8 July: NYT: Eduardo Porter: Blueprints for Taming the Climate Crisis
This course, created by a team of energy experts (LOL), was unveiled on Tuesday in a report for the United Nations that explores the technological paths available for the world’s 15 main economies to both maintain reasonable rates of growth and cut their carbon emissions enough by 2050 to prevent climatic havoc.
It offers a sobering conclusion. We might be able to pull it off. But it will take an overhaul of the way we use energy, and a huge investment in the development and deployment of new energy technologies…
The new assessment also underscores the pointlessness of small, incremental emissions cuts…
For the first time, when we say we can stop the climate from heating we will more or less know what we are talking about…
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/business/blueprints-for-taming-the-climate-crisis.html?_r=1
20
Pat, access the FT blog via Google.
https://www.google.ca/webhp?complete=0#complete=0&q=Jeffrey+Sachs:+How+to+decarbonise+the+global+economy
20
RIP Charlie Haden.
http://libertygibbert.com/juke-box/#comment-33076
30
Also Tommy Ramone, RIP
41
The Ramones “It’s Alive” 2-LP set recorded at the Rainbow Theatre London is a force of it’s own and shows the absolute relentless raw energy of the group.
These guys lived breathed and were rock n roll, punks dead! RIP boys.
21
Oh for joy.
Mark down October 2014 on your calendars.
Pink Floyd will be releasing a new studio album. It will be based around music produced in conjunction with The Division Bell sessions from that wonderful 1994 album, and will feature new music as well.
Rumour is that Roger Waters may also appear, as well as David Crosby and Graham Nash.
Titled The Endless River, it will be the first Floyd album for 20 years and the first music from David Gilmour since On An Island in 2006.
I might muse that there could also be a mention of the late Rick Wright in the album notes.
Rick passed away in 2008, and I mentioned that in a Post at my site at the time, featuring that wonderful song from Dark Side Of The Moon, (now topical here at Joanne’s site) the beautiful song The Great Gig In The Sky.
Vale Richard Wright
That same song has a quirky background, with respect to those soaring vocals from Clare Torry, and I also detailed that at the following link.
New Year’s Day Music – The Great Gig In The Sky
Odd, isn’t it? Floyd could do anything at all, and it would sell off the wall.
Dark Side still holds the record too. Most consecutive weeks on the Billboard Top 200 album charts more than 600 weeks, and a total of more than 1100 weeks in that chart in all, also a record. Worldwide sales are still humming along, and on a bad week, they still sell around 7,000 copies of the album, and hey, wouldn’t the royalties from that album be a nice retirement fund.
Still, my favourite album of theirs is Wish You Were Here.
The most I ever paid for an album was $85 for a vinyl LP of The Division Bell, and I got that in 1995, the year after its release. This album was released when CD’s had taken over so, the band made a (very) limited number of vinyl pressings of the album. A few came to Oz, and I’ve got one of them, still in its unopened plastic sleeve. It was a coloured vinyl picture album with an image pressed into the vinyl.
Funny, a young student made me aware of A Momentary Lapse of Reason a month after its initial release in 1987. I was teaching the Electrical trade to new guys at the RAAF School of Technical Training. When he saw my interest, and that I actually knew of the band, he proudly mentioned that he also had a copy of their first album, Dark Side Of The Moon. The look on his face when I told him that Dark Side was in fact their tenth album was priceless.
Looking forward to this new album.
Tony.
60
Dark Side.. Now playing on SACD. 🙂
10
Will the next album be called: “The Dark Side of the Retirement Village”?
00
I still cant decide between Dark side and Wish U Where Here Tony, both are brilliant in there own right. Ahh, many a “day after” evening was spend in the tub with dear wifey, candlelit with 1 of them on repeat. Good times.
10
Another Graeme,
Hard to repeat when they’re vinyl!
None of those little ear buddies either. Harman Kardon head set, and you pick up all the beautiful nuances, mainly achieved by the ‘fifth’ Floyd member, album engineer Alan Parsons. If anybody ever deserved a Grammy he’s the guy. Parson also holds an ironic record too. Most Grammy Award nominations without ever winning one. He left Floyd after Dark Side, and formed his own group. His first album was Tales Of Mystery And Imagination Edgar Allan Poe, and if you really want to hear music album engineering at its finest, listen to side two of that album, The Fall Of The House Of Usher, all 16 minutes of it. The crack of lightning and subsequent peal of thunder gets me every time, it’s so realistic. Rolls right across the top of your head with those HK’s on.
Tony.
20
All of it done electronically too. A real wizard.
Tony.
10
Well ok, to state the obvious it was on cd. When dark side was on we would program the player to skip Money as it would spoil the ambiance. My understanding is that they wrote money to keep the record company happy as they were pushing for a single. Personally, I always thought Money would have been better suited to Wish You Were Here, maybe after Have a Cigar. I don’t have decent headphones (not great for romantic baths :))but my Richters do a fair job of it, good lower frequency handling without a sub.
00
What does it say about global warming hysteria when it snows in New Zealand and Sweden on the same day?
40
Not much about global warming hysteria, but a lot about latitude.
20
A lot of Australians find it hard to see the naturally muted beauty of our land, instead they still hark for those contrasting blue and while snow-caps Europe and its southern baby NZ have to offer, No wonder mindsets are mixed in this young atmosphere. It will take more than 250 years, probable 500 for the city centric to get down and dirty and appreciate what is.
40
So then, here’s a piece of useless information.
I was looking up population figures for large (ish) cities for something I’m working on.
Australia has a population of 22.7 Million, and we have 5 cities with a population of more than a million, Adelaide 1.28 Million, Perth 1.9 Million, Brisbane 2.2 Million, Melbourne 4.25 Million, and Sydney 4.7 Million. So, that means 14.3 Million people living in those 5 cities, or 14.3 Million living in those 5 cities, or 63% of our population.
Now, I knew that the U.S. has a population of 314 Million, so I sort of expected there to be quite a large number of cities with populations of over a million.
Not so, as there are only 9 of them.
Now look at both Melbourne and Sydney, both over 4 million. There’s only one city in the U.S. with a population larger than that, NYC. Even L.A. has less than either of those 2 cities here in Oz, and those 2 U.S. cities are the only ones larger than even Brisbane.
You learn something new every day.
Tony.
40
Interesting Tony but we count Melbourne etc. greater metro areas while in the Us they (generally?) don’t.
30
Tony, I’m pretty sure we are comparing apples with oranges here and I’m sure it has something to do with boundaries.
My other home is just outside Philadelphia, Newtown, PA. And I was born in Brisbane and know Brisbane very well indeed, even though my Australian home is in Hervey Bay.
I can assure you Philadelphia is a much, much larger city than Brisbane.
Newtown is much the same size as Hervey Bay, 60,000 approx., where as Newtown Borough has a population of 2,700, but including the surrounding area, it is about 60,000 as well. Newtown is in the Greater Philadelphia Area.
And much like the Brisbane, Gold Coast corridor, The I 95 corridor from Philadelphia to New York City is the same. Never ending suburbia.
So Tony, if you are doing some scientific research, I would think about those numbers again.
BTW. I spent four months in PA. This year, coldest winter in 150 years in Newtown. Global warming ???
20
I went to Philadelphia once to visit some relatives. They live in a peripheral suburb, about the distance of Frankston from the Melbourne CBD.
When I wanted to go back to the city, no taxi wanted to take me. It was too far away.
00
Must have been a while ago.
Dave’s Limo Service charges me $37 to do the trip from Philly International to Newtown, 40 Miles.
I book online from Hervey Bay the day before I fly.
00
Funny Thing.
Even though I live here in Rockhampton, my home site is PA Pundits International. The PA part is for Pennsylvania, and the blog is centred and owned by a resident of the State Capital, Harrisburg.
I always knew Harrisburg, on the Susquehanna River, to be the home of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, and that was one of the first things I quizzed ‘Ed’ about, and he was virtually unconcerned about it from the get go, and said that, as per usual, the whole thing was blown way out of proportion. He said that when elements of the media were asked about who wanted to report on it, the first question asked was ….. “Anyone here seen The China Syndrome?” which was released at the same time as the TMI accident, and Editors asked those reporting to couch all articles in the term of a real life China Syndrome, hence blowing the real thing way out of proportion.
Local residents were hardly concerned at all, and as shown at this link, it really was a storm in a teacup.
Three Mile Island and Chernobyl: What Went Wrong And Why Today’s Reactors Are Safe
My home site was originally called just plain old PA Pundits, and when I came on board as the senior editor, Ed added the word International to it and the text at the top of the site which says that “We blog the World.”
Tony.
10
Just to follow up Tony.
Brisbane has a population Density of 379.4 people per square kilometre while Philadelphia has a density of 4,394. More than eleven times that of Brisbane.
I think this is getting closer to comparing apples to apples.
00
Tony have a look at the largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the USA. There are 52 with over 1 million:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas
For example: Miami-Ft Lauderdale-West Palm Beach is #8 with 5.8 million, but the city of Miami by itself only has 413,000.
00
I see that some parts of the NH are not enjoying the best of summers. For instance forecasted 50 cm of snow down to 1800m in Switzerland this time of year was a tad unusual. Two mountain passes have been closed in midsummer and tourism badly affected.
http://notrickszone.com/2014/07/11/in-switzerland-thing-of-the-past-becomes-a-thing-of-july-more-weather-that-isnt-supposed-to-happen/
30
Bob_FJ
Stand by for “carbon causes global cooling! Shock, horror, must have a Carbon Tax at once” etc.
20
I was in the Alps throughout the previous week, to last Sunday 6 July, in the Valais & in the Diablerets featured in the reports. It was lovely, hot & sunny. Well apart from a wettish Wednesday and a cloudy Friday, but very warm all the time. A Fohn wind from Africa was making everyone just a little less good natured than usual, despite the good weather.
A bit of fresh snow this week is nothing unusual in the mountains.. What sort of Guides complain about a little unseasonal snow ? They should have started their season earlier if they were that bothered ?
10
I’ve posted this interesting letter on the site you’ve provided the link for – yet another example of the real world versus the catastrophic global warming fantasists!
Here’s what a reader wrote to the UK’s ‘Guardian’, a well-known bastion of global warming propaganda, on the 26th May 2011:
“Why do you say climate change could deal a fatal blow to the beleaguered ski industry in Scotland ? It is articles like this that could deal the fatal blow. The ski industry is not beleaguered. My business is highly profitable, employing up to 15 technicians, instructors ans sales staff. We are currently expanding to create more jobs and more ski-hire facilities. We have a newly developed cross-country ski facility which provided 67 skiable days in the forest last season and 120 the previous season. We have experienced a continual growth in skier numbers over the last five years, bucking the economic woes of the UK.
William Wilson, Glenmore Outdoor, Aviemore”
20
Earths Changing Magnetic Field
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Swarm/Swarm_reveals_Earth_s_changing_magnetism
The first set of high-resolution results from ESA’s three-satellite Swarm constellation reveals the most recent changes in the magnetic field that protects our planet.
Launched in November 2013, Swarm is providing unprecedented insights into the complex workings of Earth’s magnetic field, which safeguards us from the bombarding cosmic radiation and charged particles.
Measurements made over the past six months confirm the general trend of the field’s weakening, with the most dramatic declines over the Western Hemisphere.
But in other areas, such as the southern Indian Ocean, the magnetic field has strengthened since January.
The latest measurements also confirm the movement of magnetic North towards Siberia.
These changes are based on the magnetic signals stemming from Earth’s core. Over the coming months, scientists will analyse the data to unravel the magnetic contributions from other sources, namely the mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere.
This will provide new insight into many natural processes, from those occurring deep inside our planet to space weather triggered by solar activity. In turn, this information will yield a better understanding of why the magnetic field is weakening.
20
The suns magnet has also weakened, the electric and magnetic connection between the sun and the planets will ultimately be shown to reset our thermostat.
30
Damn!
There goes yet another of the alarmists favorite nostrums.
If the Amazon rain forests are harmed by drought created by catastrophic anthropogenic global warming or are even slightly cleared the world’s “lungs” will irreparably destroyed and we will all go to hell in a red hot hand woven wicker basket’.
[ Our guarantee. our baskets are produced by peer reviewed and fully degreed and credentialled weavers. Adjustments to the weave have been made to correct the temperature at which these baskets will ignite. ]
It seems that at least a darn large part of the southern Amazonia rain forest or perhaps most of it never existed before about 300AD.
Instead a lot of it was FARMED!
The abstract;
Environmental impact of geometric earthwork construction in pre-Columbian Amazonia
****************************
The common man’s version from the excellent UK on line news source The Register
Would it be BAD if the Amazon rainforest was all FARMS? Well it WAS, once
Used to be all fields round here: Jungle tribesman saying
[quoted ]
It’s generally assumed that it would mean a disaster for the planet if the rainforests of the Amazon were to be replaced with farmland. But it turns out that, actually, much of the area was indeed farmland just a few thousand years ago.
We learn this from new research just published in the august Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A team of mainly British-based scientists carried it out, seeking to explain the presence of various large human-dug ditches and earthworks criss-crossing today’s thick Amazon jungles – and pre-dating them.
Some in the paleo-boffinry community suggest that the ditches mean that the pre-Columbian civilisations of South America had slashed and burned the immemorial rainforests to create large intensively farmed areas home to dense populations. Others contend that actually the jungles remained largely intact, with just a few incursions by small communities of people.
Neither of these scenarios are true, apparently.
“We went to Bolivia hoping to find evidence of the kinds of crops being grown by ancient Amerindian groups, and to try to find how much impact they had on the ancient forest,” explains Dr John Carson of Reading uni. “What we found was that they were having virtually no effect on the forest, in terms of past deforestation, because it didn’t exist there until much later.”
Carson goes on to say:
“The scale of the earthworks that were built on these sites suggests that the land was capable of supporting relatively large populations. Our analysis shows that they were growing maize and other food crops. They also likely caught fish, and there’s evidence from other parts of the Bolivian Amazon for people farming Muscovy ducks and Amazonian river turtles.
“Our findings have serious implications for understanding past climate change, and how the Amazon basin might react to more modern forest clearance.”
Carson cautions that the idea – advanced by some, since the earthworks have become known – that the rainforests will simply return naturally following modern deforestation is not supported by his new findings. The primitive Amazonians didn’t deforest the area, so the fact that jungle spread across their farms from around the period 0-300AD – probably due to the climate getting wetter – doesn’t mean that today’s deforestations are easily reversible.
But the new research does rather conclusively cast doubt on the alternative notion, that the Amazon rainforests are an immutable necessity for a reasonable world climate. Plainly there have been times even just within recorded human history when large chunks of the current jungle simply weren’t there, and the land was used for farms instead – without any associated eco-disaster.
[ end ]
20
I am far from an alarmist, but there was not the technology to construct super highways through the rainforest to allow farming on the massive scale we have now. (World Bank sponsored.)
00
The spaniards navigated the rivers in the amazon, it was covered with people and villages, when they went back not long after all was gone, they killed all the indians with rampant white man diseases, like colds, flu measles and mumps. Thousands of square miles of the basin have been found to have been landscaped for farming, this has been known for decades. This is old stuff.
10
I’ve got what maybe a stupid question about acidification and ocean temperatures.
My understanding is that warmer oceans absorb less CO2, that they release it. Now if ocean temperatures are “meant” to be getting warmer, how can they also become more PH natural, aka “acidic”?
10
Anthony: It’s not a stupid question at all. I have a liking for real figures, and you might find the following of interest.
Firstly, even the IPCC in their publication ‘Climate Change 2007 – The Physical Science Basis’ state on p405 that ‘the mean pH of surface waters ranges between 7.9 and 8.3 in the open ocean.’
But there’s also the following on p48: ‘the uptake of anthropogenic carbon since 1750 has led to the ocean becoming more acidic, with an average increase in surface pH of 0.1 units’ – and how do we know this?
Because according to the IPCC ‘The overall pH change is computed from estimates of anthropogenic carbon uptake and simple ocean models’ (!)
To me, this is sheer nonsense, and completely divorced from reality.
I think that you should get a copy of ‘Climate – the Counter Consensus’ by Professor Robert M. Carter, who is a geologist. He devotes about five pages in his book to the acidification scare, and on p109 points out that seawater pH is very sensitive to temperature. He also makes it clear on p108 that ocean pH is is not a function of atmospheric carbon dioxide alone, but depends just as much on complex oceanographic and biochemical processes, attendant physical changes in temperature, salinity and nutrients, and submarine volcanic sources – which means that ocean pH varies widely from one location to another, from less than 7.8 in regions of upwelling deep water to about 8.5 in other areas.
So much for ‘average pH increases’!
10
Hyundai i35 Fuel Cell Australian trial on the cards.
Do they not know that water vapor is a greenhouse gas, far more powerful than CO2?
30
–
PROFESSOR PHIL JONES
The English Prometheus
.
To tell the tale as it began —
An ego yearned
Ambition burned
Inside a quiet little man
No one had heard of Phillip Jones
Obscure to fame
(And likewise blame)
The creep of time upon his bones
Men self-deceive when fame is sought
Their fingers fold
Their ego told
That fire is what their fist has caught
Such want to feel, not understand
Jones made it plain
That Hell must reign
In England’s green and pleasant land
What demon in him came to birth?
In mental fight
Against the light
He raised the temperature of earth
And with his arrows of desire
In sneak attacks
He shot the backs
Of those who questioned — where’s the fire?
Raw data that was burning gold
He threw away
So none could say
It falsified what he foretold
East Anglia supports him still
Whitewashed and praised
His name emblazed
Within that dark Satanic Mill
The evil that this twit began
Will go around
And come around
Prometheus soon wicker man
.
Eugene WR Gallun
10
New Book: Twilight of Abundance
Posted on March 6, 2014 by Anthony Watts
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/03/06/new-book-twilight-of-abundance/
==============
David Archibald:
This book had its origins back in 2005, when a fellow scientist requested that I attempt to replicate the work a German researcher had done on the Sun’s influence on climate. At the time, the solar physics community had a wide range of predictions of the level of future solar activity.
But strangely, the climate science community was not interested in what the Sun might do. I pressed on and made a few original contributions to science. The Sun cooperated, and solar activity has played out much as I predicted. It has become established—for those who are willing to look at the evidence—that climate will very closely follow our colder Sun. Climate is no longer a mystery to us. We can predict forward up to two solar cycles, that is about twenty-five years into the future. When models of solar activity are further refined, we may be able to predict climate forward beyond a hundred years.
I was a foot soldier in the solar science trench of the global warming battle. But that battle is only a part of the much larger culture wars. The culture wars are about the division of the spoils of civilization, about what Abraham Lincoln termed “that same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it.” This struggle has been going on for at least as long as human beings have been speaking to each other, possibly for more than fifty thousand years. The forces of darkness have already lost the global warming battle—the actual science is “settled” in a way quite different from what they contend, and their pseudo-science and dissimulation have become impossible to hide from the public at large—but they are winning the culture wars, even to the extent of being able to steal from the future.
10
[snip]
It has been a wonderful journey of service and I have had many help me on the way. They include Bob Foster, Ray Evans, David Bellamy, Anthony Watts, Vaclav Klaus, Joseph Poprzeczny, Marek Chodakiewcz, Stefan Bjorklund, and the team at Regnery. Thanks to all.
00
Eric Worrall says:
March 6, 2014 at 12:39 am
The “elites” already have a plan to survive the coming cold.
“The Herald”, a major Australian newspaper, recently posted an update about the ongoing scandal of large scale foreign buyouts of Australian farmland, some of which are believed to be government backed.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/03/06/new-book-twilight-of-abundance/#comment-1583948
00
Can someone explain this female pay gap hullaballoo?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-14/australian-women-face-70-year-wait-for-pay-equality-report/5594082
The article spends several paragraphs quoting from experts and modelling to argue that many women are busy doing things other than working at a full-time job then, in a logical leap that I have yet to grasp, concludes: “And what it means is that women’s rights to economic security are unrealised”
They have the right to equal pay for equal work and every other statistic I’ve heard puts the real pay gap for equal work at less than 5%, so where exactly is the problem if they choose to not do equal work? Surely unequal pay and “unrealised rights to economic security” are a logical consequence of choosing to not take on equal quantities of work?
The main cause of women not participating fully in the official labour force is a different kind of labour. When women have babies, the human species continues. Are we going to jeopardise that outcome just so that some business fatcat somewhere can make a few more performance bonuses and the professional feminist worry-a-lots can achieve their aggregate female income equality targets? How exactly is this expert going to “recognise unpaid work” if that doesn’t translate to stay-at-home parents being paid to raise children? Child-care allowances? We already have that. Where is the problem?
Again if I’ve missed something, I’m sure someone well versed in the art can explain how this hullaballoo has a rational basis.
10
A missive wot I writ on the Guardian UK , banned now for ,i think , the sixth time,
all the excuses and all the denial
whilst global warming was hardly worthwhile
All of the papers and all of the press
are increasingly becoming hard to digest.
So if you believe that our future is cursed
believe on the one hand , snip on the other
and see which of them fills up first.
It,s a tough Gig this mocking the loonies.
00
http://notrickszone.com/2014/07/14/polar-vortices-everywhere-central-russia-hit-by-mid-summer-freak-abnormal-snowstorm-snowdrifts/
Central Russia is famous for it’s harsh winters, but it also has warm southern European-like summers. Well, at least it used to.
00
Hi Jo, I watched Jennifer Marohasy give a presentation in Vegas. Her neural net work computer seems to think for itself, put in all the historic data you can find and it works out the most likely scenario for the present and the near future. This to me seems to be what David is trying to do with his solar model. Using her model or a derivation and all your input data may give you even better answers?
00
Hi Jo, I watched Jennifer Marohasy give a presentation in Vegas. Her neural net work computer seems to think for itself…
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/49794634
00
Not the weekend. Not about science, per sé.
It’s about getting representative government and the protection of the States’ interests in a Federal system. Out of my half-bakery: Senators for States
Read the rest by following the link.
There are also colourful pictures amongst the words.
00