…
In evolutionary terms, it’s a blink. Around 1200-1400AD a bunch of people bought a few domestic horses to far east freezing Siberia, where the temperature sometimes falls below -70. Somehow the horses have already become physiologically and genetically well adapted to the extreme climate. The panic-merchants would have us believe that the climate is changing “faster than evolution”, but biology and genes turn out to be amazingly flexible. (Who knows, maybe 4 million years of swinging ice ages has that effect on gene pools?)
DNA studies revealed that these horses were all derived from distant domestic horses, even though wild unrelated horses lived in the region til 5,000 years ago. This is pretty spectacular.
Dr. Ludovic Orlando: “This is truly amazing as it implies that all traits now seen in Yakutian horses are the product of very fast adaptive processes, taking place in about 800 years. This represents about a hundred generations for horses. That shows how fast evolution can go when selective pressures for survival are as strong as in the extreme environment of Yakutia.”
Analyzing the genomes shows that it’s not driven by mutations in genes as much as by changes to the regulatory parts of the genome. In other words, the instructions about the instructions changed. Useful genes (like fur) get expressed more often, less useful ones become dormant. Imagine all mammal species, say, carry a similar toolkit. It’s not a question of inventing fur, just of making it thicker, or stick around longer. A bit like building houses — if we change the instructions – the same tools and types of materials can make good houses in both Darwin and Greenland. A brick is a brick, but you can have lots of bricks, high walls, thicker walls, and empty spaces. A small change in the plans makes all the difference.
Humans, mammoths and horses appear to have separately picked up changes in things like shivering, or fur thickness that help them adapt to the extreme cold. It’s called “convergent” evolution.
It doesn’t prove that all species will adapt to big changes, but it shows that things are (yet again) a lot better than the apocalyptic scenarios suggest. It’s possible that life can adapt.
To believe that a slight climate-change,
Could destroy life on Earth is most strange,
When in fact what we find,
Is that beasts and mankind,
Can adapt through a vast climate range.
— Ruairi
_____________________________
Adapting to -70 degrees in Siberia: a tale of Yakutian horses
FROM COLD TO COLDER
From an evolutionary perspective it happened almost overnight. In less than 800 years Yakutian horses adapted to temperatures of -70 degrees found in the extreme environments of eastern Siberia. The adaptation mechanisms involved the same genes found in humans as well as the extinct wooly mammoth.
In a new scientific study, the comparison of the complete genomes of nine living and two ancient Yakutian horses from Far-East Siberia with a large genome panel of 27 domesticated horses reveals that the current population of Yakutian horses was founded following the migration of the Yakut people into the region in the 13-15th century AD. Yakutian horses, thus, developed their striking adaptations to the extreme cold climate present in the region in less than 800 years. This is one of the fastest examples of adaptation within mammals.
A horse-centered lifestyle
Horses have been essential to the survival and development of the Yakut people, who migrated into the Far-East Siberia in the 13-15th century AD, probably from Mongolia. There, Yakut people developed an economy almost entirely based on horses. Horses were indeed key for communication and keeping population contact within a territory slightly larger than Argentina, and with 40 % of its surface area situated north of the Arctic Circle. Horse meat and hide have also revealed crucial for surviving extremely cold winters, with temperatures occasionally dropping below -70C.
Horses have been present in Yakutia for a long time as 30,000 year-old Late Pleistocene fossils from the region show. Yet, Dr. Ludovic Orlando and his team now reveal that ancient horses of this region were not the ancestors of the present-day Yakutian horses.
A divergence as deep as the origin of modern humans
The genome sequence obtained from the remains of a 5,200 year-old horse from Yakutia appears within the diversity of a now-extinct population of wild horses that the team discovered last year in Late Pleistocene fossils from the Taymir peninsula, Central Siberia. This new finding extends by thousands of kilometers eastwards the geographical range of this divergent horse population, which became separated from the lineage leading to modern horses some 150,000 years ago. It also extends its temporal range up to 5,200 years ago, a time when woolly mammoths also became extinct. Dr. Ludovic Orlando says:
– This population did not appear on any radar until we sequenced the genomes of some of its members. With 150,000 years of divergence with the lineage leading to modern horses, this makes the roots of this population as deep as the origins of our human species.
The full press release: Adapting to -70 degrees in Siberia: a tale of Yakutian horses
Credit Science Daily
REFERENCES
Librado et al (2015) Tracking the origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis for their fast adaptation to subarctic environments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015; 201513696 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1513696112
DNA analysis is revolutionising so much of what was thought of as “settled” science, from how much Neanderthal DNA we carry (3-4% in most people and 20% in total of their genes), how many waves of us left Africa and even shedding light on pre-history. eg Current day Africans carry no Neanderthal DNA component, since it was only the refugees from Africa who met and canoodled with the Neanderthals rather than exterminating them.
It’s amazing what extracting some DNA fragments from the ancient heel bone of a Neanderthal can tell you!
Pointman
262
There is a theory that shows that animals and even people can adapt within a few generations to changes in environment ,its known as “insular dwarfism ” and it is most noticed on small islands when it is known as “island dwarfism” , think about the Shetland pony or the species of small people that evolved on the tiny isolated island of Flores in indonesia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_dwarfism
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Insular dwarfism: is that the same as the poor intellectual capacity of the science deniers like Mann etc.?
282
Insular dwarfism applied in this scenario will now be known as the Mann Bear Pig Mannal Toe.
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Good one turnedoutnice.
Should run a poll. Who is more believable?
A “Science Denier” or a “Global Warming Denier”
The results of this poll should be useful for IQ testing research.
60
That’s intellectual in-breeding resulting from group-think.
60
.
Or even within one generation. Everyone I know is taller than their parents, and most of our children are taller than us. Only a reaction to better nutrition, you say. Yes indeed, but it is still an evolutionary adaption. A taller person still often gets the better job and spouse, so if your next generation can take advantage of good nutrition, that’s an advantage. But there is a downside. A book I read on Japanese POW camps was quite definite that there was only one factor involved in survival – size. The food allowance was the same, so the bigger prisoners died first.
20
LOL + 100 :)good one turnedoutnice and so quick on the draw
31
O/T but an interesting bit of info:
I think we can forget about Russia and China and India agreeing to curb CO2 it ain’t gonna happen!
They are the three big emitters and thanks to the strangling of the USA and EU economies they are now getting even bigger.
YEAR 2006
https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/file2/publication/article/SAAMAG/29907/pending/pie_chart_countries.jpg
YEAR 2011
https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/image_thumb9.png
Just to make it easy:
COUNTRY … PERCENT 2006 … PERCENT 2011
China………………. 21% ………………… 27%
USA…………………. 20% ………………… 18%
EU…………………… ??? …………………. 13%
Russia………………. 6% …………………. 13%
India…………………. 4% ………………….. 5%
And that does not get into China’s fudging the numbers.
(I really wish I could post those piecharts so I am goint to try)
2006
2011
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The IPCC spin will be China is allowed a delayed reduction timeframe until say 2030?, so the world biggest emitter of CO2 (a trace gas that according to warmists creates a catastrophic climate tipping point) gets a hall pass because of……..?
Nice piecharts BTW gai.
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I stole them and just put together what they are telling us. Not that we needed them to see our jobs and economy walking off to China and India. I was a bit surprised about Russia. Says a lot about Putin.
50
Of course it won’t happen. Not all climate science is driven by far left agendas. Others know better and their leaders know that that our delusional obsession with CO2 emissions will inevitably lead to their advance at our expense by maneuvering around the carbon penalties designed to advance the developing world at the expense of the developed world.
70
With respect to that second pie chart, it changes big time each year. Note the date on this chart, 2011. Note that China has a total of 9.072 Billion Tonnes for a percentage of 27%.
Currently, China’s CO2 emissions are (around) 10.33 Billion, and hey, good luck finding accurate data on what China’s CO2 emissions are, and from what I can find out, they are loosely based around calculated best guesses, depending on which source you want to quote, and how they made their calculation, and what their agenda is. That current percentage for China with respect to the overall is now up to 29.2%.
So, the increase is around half a percentage point a year give or take, so by 2030, you’re probably looking at China at around 37 to 40%, and when India is added to that, those two Countries alone will make up 50% of all emissions, and the UN will be utterly, totally, and completely unable to do anything about it, no matter what their bluster will be.
One interesting sidelight in the use of a pie chart to explain things is this.
Back in 2005, Australia’s CO2 emissions were around 360 Million tonnes, and our percentage of the total was 1.6%
Right now, 2015, Australia’s CO2 emissions are (again, around) 390 Million tonnes, so a rise of 30 Million tonnes in 10 years. However, Australia’s percentage of the overall total has dropped to just under 1.1%.
Let’s say in 2030, with a (you’re joking aren’t you?) 26% reduction in CO2 emissions, then a probable Australian total with respect to the overall might be as low as 0.4%.
See now how all these figures are relative.
You can make them say whatever you want them to.
Whichever way you want to look at it, the Rise in Chinese and Indian emissions of CO2 will far and away, by a humungous margin outweigh any teeny weeny reductions for the target Countries of the UN, no matter how perceivably high each Country aims for in their bid to say ….. “We’re the best!”
Tony.
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Thanks Tony
I appreciate you additions. I could not find any more recent charts. Gee, you would think they are trying to hide something…
As you said Australia, Canada and NZ are so tiny they are off the bottom of the chart. Therefore the whole deal looks more and more to be ‘The Punishment of the Productive for being Productive’ by the Paris-ites.
20
Here’s the latest on what young Trudeau is doing to Canada and science in the name of climate change..
http://linkis.com/financialpost.com/M0igq
20
No wonder it is so well written look who the author is: Ross McKitrick, Special to Financial Post
20
My Husband has been in e-mail contact with a guy in Siberia who is trying to breed back to the wild Siberian ponies. He is Sergey Zimov.
This is his web page: http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/
and the info on the horses:
http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/photo/68/
More on the The Yakut horse.
We have had horses for decades and do not believe in putting them in stalls unless absolutely necessary.
120
It is interesting that the main archaeological body and evolutionary progress of the horse,from 50myo Eocene Eohippus comes from North America.No real account has been made of their disappearance about 12,000 years ago from the continent.I gather that the modern horse had its origin in Ukraine.Modern( and earlier types) horses are suited to steppe/ prairie habitat.Hot summer and freezing wind swept winters.Like most mammals they are very adaptive and obdurate.
31
To follow up on doubting dave – and sorry to be vague on this – but about a dozen or more years ago I clearly remember reading an article (probably from the old-style, pre-AGW UK Telegraph) about an experiment made with small animals (squirrel size, I think) which live on east Pacific islands. They were tree-dwelling with ground-dwelling predators but a colony was moved to a similar island where there were no predators. Within 3 or 4 generations (short ones, I guess) the length of their hind legs were measurably shorter because they no longer needed to climb trees at all and became ground-dwelling themselves.
50
I used to cave with “Beep” Hobbs when he was catching blind cave crayfish for his Phd dissertation. I grabbed one that was between a white blind crayfish and the dark brown outside stream dwelling type. Not only was the color in between but so was the body shape.
Since I graduated and was off to other parts of the USA and then to Europe, I never did find out what Beep thought of that crayfish. Back in the 1970s we didn’t have the DNA analysis we have now. His dad ( Horton H. Hobbs, Jr.) was a well known authority on crayfish.
Beep found a new species in 1999
http://www.kcgrotto.org/guano/guano199911.html
http://www.watersheds.org/nature/cave.htm
50
This is his scientific background:
http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/background/
His park is also where a mammoth may be recreated:
Wooly mammoth blood recovered from frozen carcass, Russian scientists say
Siberian scientists announce they now have a ‘high chance’ to clone the woolly mammoth
USA not to be left behind:
Scientists Successfully Insert Woolly Mammoth DNA Into Elephant Genome
(wwwDOT)iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/scientists-successfully-insert-woolly-mammoth-dna-elephant-genome
There is quite a bit on this mammoth (nicknamed Buttercup), on the internet.
50
This has a real Jurassic Park feel to it, they have a mammoth task ahead of them…..
61
Elephantine wit, I fear!
30
Do we really, truly, want woolly mammoths to walk the earth again?
10
There’s a lot about biology and climate that’s discounted by the consensus.
* Mankind has always benefited during periods of warmth and has struggled during when the climate was colder.
* CO2 is one of three constituents of all biomoass, water and sunlight being the other two
* Increased global biomass both results in and requires higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations
* A warmer climate means more biomass and consequentially higher CO2 levels (see the ice cores)
* Biology is no where near as fragile as alarmists presume
* Even if incremental CO2 caused significant warming, mankind would easily adapt
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Excellent use of dot points.
20
Talking of the Mammoth gia , it is thought that the Greek myth of the Cyclops is based on dwarf Mammoth or dwarf elephant remains’,found on Mediterranean islands by the early greek explorers. After the ice age when the sea’s began to rise, some large mammals became trapped on these islands and adapted to their new environment by shrinking in size , when the Greeks came across their skulls , they imagined the nasal cavity as an extra eye , in Plato’s description of atlantis , thought to be the island of Thera ( Santorini ) ‘ he mentions dwarf elephants lived there .
50
There is a lot of new science going on in the field of biology and palaeobiology. It is too bad all this CAGW/mankind caused prehistoric extinctions crud overlays so much of it.
I really wanted to be a biologist instead of a chemist but a girl friend who had just graduated talked me out of it. So I became a chemist instead based on the desire to eat.
71
Remember this story from wattsupwiththat last year , it appears climate scientists can’t resist medaling in other scientific fields ,despite complaining when scientists from other fields look at their research ;http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/21/eye-roller-climate-change-shrinks-goats/
31
The prospect of AGW/CC seems to shrink certain brains anyway!
10
Although the American plains are not Siberia they are not easy living with hot summers, cold winters and drought. Therefore the American Mustang is also quite hardy and prized for that hardiness. Montana can get as cold as −70 °F / −57 °C and North Dakota −60 °F / −51 °C. That doesn’t even get into the Canadian plains.
Originally the romantics in the USA thought the American Mustang was from Colonial Spanish type horses. DNA testing showed they were crosses mainly Morgan or Thoroughbred because the Army wanted heavier horses for the calvary. The practice was to shoot the feral stallion and turn loose a domestic stud.
http://www.centerforamericasfirsthorse.org/north-american-colonial-spanish-horse.html
Also of interest is the fact that during the Wisconsin Ice Age Siberia was not glaciated but a desert.
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/euras(2.gif
Light gray is glaciers
Dark gray is polar desert
Dark peach is extreme desert
light peach semi-desert
Light green is scrub
medium green is open canopy woodland
Dark green is forest
very dark green is tropical forest
yellow is grassland
purple is savanna (grass with few trees)
FROM: http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc.html#maps
It is an interesting site giving the climate vegetation from the Wisconsin Ice Age to the present.
Again it dispells the romantic nonsense that is dished out.
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gai @ 5:59 #11 … mentions Thoroughbreds & Spanish type
The wiki entry says “all modern Thoroughbreds trace back to three stallions imported into England from the Middle East in the late 17th and early 18th centuries: the Byerley Turk (1680s), the Darley Arabian (1704), and the Godolphin Arabian (1729).” The mares were varied in ancestry.
http://www.horseshowcentral.com/breeds/spanish
Says, “The Spanish Horse, according to traditional fables, was bred by Zephr (the golden or gentle west wind), also known as Pegasus since ancient times.”
And then the genealogy gets a bit fuzzy.
20
John,
That is why I find the use of the word thoroughbred to mean purebred so amusing. Especially by some snooty matron with her yappy teacup poodle. I have visions of that big 17 hand thoroughbred stud looking bewildered….
Same with labeling saying “No chemicals added” I wonder why they are selling vacuum and calling it food.
30
The horse died out in the Americas, I presume about 40-50,000 years ago, leaving behind ten million years of evidence of their existence. Similarly with the megafauna in Australia. Natural selection. We ate them. There are specialty horse butcher shops even in pretty Venice. Natural selection, by man alone. How many whole species have we eaten?
It must have been a shock for the Americans to see horses again. Just as the Australian aborigines must have been pleased to see a boat after the seas rose and trapped them in a continent as big as the continental US, isolated. As always, population pressured (being murdered by your neighbours) pushed them around the continent. The only other mammals aborigines saw were their dogs.
Taming the horse appears to have happened in the area around Kiev but it spread to Asia and what a difference that made to agriculture and warfare! Until the invention of the steam engine, horses and oxen and slaves were our only source of power. Then water wheels and wind mills. We may end up back there.
However you can imagine the shock moment when the Spanish rode their horses. “So that’s what you do with them! Brilliant”. A real Monty Python moment.
50
Ahem TdeF, I think Aboriginals saw the odd few million mammals of the marsupial kind…
bounce bounce bounce
50
Point taken. Placental mammals then.
10
still wrong
00
and they saw and used plenty of boats.
Jo, you forgot bats (lots of species) and a few rats, dolphins, dugongs, seals and whales. All eaten.
20
Far from it. Dogs, for example, were used to operate wheels to drive all manner of machinery like bellows for blacksmiths’ forges; and to draw small carts in mines where horses did not fit; or where people could not afford to own a horse. e.g. at Wikipedia with more pictures at the German version showing the use of dog carts into the 20th century.
30
Yes, that is what the Rottweilers were bred for.
20
And humans operated all those things plus others
00
This bodes well for our space adventures.
21
Not really. The evolution that’s produced the DNA existing today hasn’t experienced “space travel” except (plausibly) at most the molecular level.
Processes such as “radiation hardening” of individuals by exposing them for months to “high” levels of background radiation as experienced by ancestors when the whole planet was more radioactive, will activate genes responsible for more intense checking that cell division is “correct” in an environment of more ionising radiation, reducing the probability of cancerous mutations; albeit at the cost of slightly “stunted” growth.
40
Yeah, clearly I hadn’t thought it through.
20
Sooooo, a mare has her first foal at 80 years of age? Serious? And this is a biologist studying horses?
22
I think you will find that is 8 years of age if you recheck your maths.
40
Thanks kmac, good thing I’m only an engineer.
I guess 8 years is a good average, since a mare will foal from 3 years up to nearly 20.
30
Yikes!
40
Greg, just a thought.
Could that be 8 years per generation?
20
sorry ; should have rebooted the page.
Answer already there.
20
Of course life adapts. Of course species evolve, as the Polar bear has done from the brown bear. However this is to miss the point that evolution is not to be allowed. The world is perfect now. The temperature is perfect now. The sea level is perfect. So say the Greens.
The Green idea is that no one actually wants natural selection to happen as they do not want to be selected against. So it is not only a terror induced by a fear of any change, it is an absolute non negotiable and completely loony demand that nothing change. Which is very odd when you consider that humans are spread across the world and to every climate entirely from pressure from other humans, with everyone having gone through enormous change of climate, environment, society. Or were the endless mass migrations of every society just tourism? Is there a paradise? What do Eskimos think of Tahiti? People massively changed their own climates simply by moving.
Now humans have reached their geographic limits from pole to pole. The world is occupied from Macchu Piccu to Greenland to Pitcairn island. Now according to the terrified Greens, we have to stop producing carbon dioxide. It is the problem. So stop breathing. In their view, if everyone else vanished from the planet, it would be saved, for them? Who cares about the Chinese? Let them suffer from too much CO2.
Fundamentally the multi billion dollar Green religion does not make sense. It is driven by fear, a fear easily exploited by the communist refugees who took it over in 1988 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, followed by the lawyers and opportunist businessmen attracted by the free money. The Green movement trades on fear, specifically of evolution. Now 138 world leaders and thousands of cash hungry opportunists are flying to Paris to fix not population pressures, economic and cultural conflicts, but carbon dioxide. Good luck with that, the most pointless and expensive and disastrous exercise since pyramid building. We are presented with the massive international meeting of Lord Monckton’s Profiteers of Doom at our expense, the association to raise trillions of dollars using fear of evolution driven by the UN’s International Program for Conning Countries. Evolution must be stopped.
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TdeF @ 7:15 am mentions Polar and Brown bears
Susan Crockford writes about bears at:
Polar Bear Science
Under a category named “evolution” there are several interesting posts, such as…
“Ancestor of the polar bear by any name: grizzly vs. brown bear monikers explained”
and …
“Is it plausible that polar bears are 4-5 million years old? Part 2, Hybridization”
Go there and search. http://polarbearscience.com/
21
We are extremely lucky that AGW or ACC was not invented during the little ice age.
If the measures were done and had worked, we would still be in the little ice age.
It makes me shiver.
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Yes. Being selected against is so UNFAIR, isn’t it ?
“Social Justice Warriors” really want equal outcomes. In order to achieve that, individual success needs to be suppressed
A pointless, circular activity – never-ending re-runs of the Robin Hood myth
60
religious fever at UNEP –
26 Nov: UN: Pope Francis calls for strong climate agreement during visit to UN office in Nairobi
Pope Francis today called on world leaders to seal a strong agreement at the upcoming UN climate change conference (COP21), stating that transforming current development models is a “political and economic obligation”, as he visited the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya.
Speaking to an audience of thousands, which included UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner and United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) Director-General Sahle-Work Zewde, Pope Francis placed particular emphasis on the need to adopt low-carbon energy systems and end the “throw-away culture” that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
“In a few days, an important meeting on climate change will be held in Paris…It would be sad, and I dare say even catastrophic, were particular interests to prevail over the common good,” Pope Francis told the crowd. “In this international context, we are confronted with a choice which cannot be ignored: either to improve or to destroy the environment.”…
“We are faced with a great political and economic obligation to rethink and correct the dysfunctions and distortions of the current model of development,” he stressed…
“Addressing the world just a few days before the Paris climate conference, with the future of this planet hanging in the balance, you [Pope Francis] remind world leaders, business leaders and individual citizens that we each have not only a responsibility, but an obligation to act on what our conscience tells us to be right,” Mr. Steiner said.
“In this pivotal year, your powerful notion of the ‘globalization of indifference’ speaks to the heart of the practical and ethical challenges ahead: both to reach a climate change agreement in Paris and to deliver it within the much broader, holistic spectrum of sustainable development that must leave no one behind.”…
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52663#.VleGypKhfcc
31
more hilarity – read all:
26 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: Megan Darby: UN moves goalposts to keep 2C hope alive
Positive message of “emissions gap” report ahead of COP21 is based on implausible assumptions, warns scientist Oliver Geden
Every year since 2010, the UN Environment Programme has produced an “emissions gap” report, outlining what needs to be done to hold global warming to 2C.
It is highly influential, used as a basis for talks on how to tackle climate change. This year’s executive summary, released three weeks ago, had the usual message: If leaders act now, they can still avert catastrophic climate change.
***But the full report, due out on Friday ahead of a critical UN climate summit in Paris, is expected to show the body has had to change its assumptions to fit the narrative…
Oliver Geden, scientist and head of research at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told Climate Home: “The emissions gap report gives the questionable impression that despite increasing levels of global emissions there’s always a way to keep the 2C target within reach. It’s always ‘five minutes to midnight’…
Some scientists remain optimistic. Michael Mann, who contributed to the famous “hockey stick graph”, has accused Geden of “denial of hope”…
Authors of the UNEP report could not be reached for comment at time of publication.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2015/11/26/un-moves-goalposts-to-keep-2c-hope-alive/
31
Puzzled. From what? Does the proposed 2C include the alleged 0.8C from the last 150 years? Anyway, it used to be 4-5C and if you keep shaving it to get closer to the satellite observation that nothing has happened, by the time the target is 0C in a world average over a year, warmists can claim resounding success through a combinations of windmill building and taxes.
As well and following Gai’s excellent charts, the Greens appear to really believe that CO2 is a local pollution problem. So if all the rare earths are mined in China and all the manufacturing is in China and all the CO2 is generated in China and India, the Greens can rest easy. I have concluded that the Greens have taken the (Not in My Backyard) NIMBY to extremes. They are so science ignorant they really think this makes sense.
51
US, Canada not playing along!
25 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: Ed King: EU climate chief says US must consider binding Paris pact
Miguel Arias Canete turns screw on US counterpart Todd Stern, insisting COP21 must legally enforce national emissions cuts
Washington and Brussels are on a collision course over the legal nature of a proposed UN deal to tackle global warming, with the EU’s top climate official insisting it wants a binding treaty to enforce carbon cuts.
Miguel Arias Canete said the US had to demonstrate how promises to curb greenhouse gases could be believed if they were not to be legally binding. “It must put a new approach on the table. We want binding mitigation commitments,” he said.
US secretary of state John Kerry recently said there was “definitively not going to be a treaty” binding the administration to its climate targets…
In a Tuesday briefing lead US climate envoy Todd Stern said the “stars are more aligned that ever before” in the quest for a pact to hold warming below the 2C danger zone…
India, Saudi Arabia and Canada are among other larger polluters believed to oppose binding carbon targets…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2015/11/25/eu-climate-chief-says-us-must-consider-binding-paris-pact/
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25 Nov: ReutersCarbonPulse: Ben Garside: UK scraps £1 billion CCS funding in budget cull
The UK, as part of government-wide spending cuts announced Wednesday, scrapped plans to award up to £1 billion ($1.5 billion) to kickstart CCS, putting two advanced projects in doubt and dealing a severe blow to the nascent technology’s future in Europe.
The two large-scale CCS projects that were vying for the funding included Shell’s Peterhead gas-fired scheme and White Rose, which was to capture CO2 from Drax’s coal-fired plant…
White Rose was awarded €300 million from the EU’s NER300 programme funded by selling EUAs, but it was counting on the UK’s competition cash.
This means the money will return to EU coffers, adding to the programme’s dismal record for funding carbon-cutting schemes and leaving the EU with no advanced large-scale CCS schemes on the horizon…
http://carbon-pulse.com/12513/
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beautiful:
26 Nov: CarbonBrief: Robert McSweeney: Animation: Satellite images of ‘surging’ glaciers in Asia
The study’s author Dr Frank Paul, a senior researcher at the University of Zurich, says turning the static images into an animation makes it easier for the human eye to follow how glaciers flow and notice any changes…
The region’s glaciers are something of an outlier, says Paul, as most are stable or advancing, rather than retreating and shrinking like many around the world. Using animations will help scientists distinguish between a normal glacier melting and a surging glacier surging, he adds…
http://www.carbonbrief.org/animation-satellite-images-of-surging-glaciers-in-asia?utm_content=bufferd6bcd&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
hearteningly ignorant Londoners:
26 Nov: YouTube 2mins24secs: Has London heard of COP21? Climate Home (aka RTCC aka ClimateChangeNews) investigates
A crunch UN climate change conference in Paris begins on November 30. Almost 200 countries are expected to strike a new global warming deal. But is the average person on the street any the wiser? Climate Home’s Alex Pashley went to London’s landmarks to find out more.
(No comments to display)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLlJX-_UK10
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25 Nov: NatureClimateChange: The adaptation challenge in the Arctic
Authors: James D. Ford & Graham McDowell, Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A OB9, Canada, and
Tristan Pearce, Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, Queensland 4558, Australia
Abstract: It is commonly asserted that human communities in the Arctic are highly vulnerable to climate change, with the magnitude of projected impacts limiting their ability to adapt. At the same time, an increasing number of field studies demonstrate significant adaptive capacity. Given this paradox, we review climate change adaptation, resilience and vulnerability research to identify and characterize the nature and magnitude of the adaptation challenge facing the Arctic. We find that the challenge of adaptation in the Arctic is formidable, but suggest that drivers of vulnerability and barriers to adaptation can be overcome, avoided or reduced by individual and collective efforts across scales for many, if not all, climate change risks…
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n12/full/nclimate2723.html
11
Ernst Mayre (evolutionary biologist):
“There is alot of structure in the genotype that cannot be discovered and explained by a purely reductionist approach”
Like life itself I suppose.
20
read all:
28 Nov issue: UK Spectator: David Rose: ‘I was tossed out of the tribe’: climate scientist Judith Curry interviewed
For engaging with sceptics, and discussing uncertainties in projections frankly, this Georgia professor is branded a heretic
She remains optimistic that science will recover its equilibrium, and that the quasi-McCarthyite tide will recede: ‘I think that by 2030, temperatures will not have increased all that much. Maybe then there will be the funding to do the kind of research on natural variability that we need, to get the climate community motivated to look at things like the solar-climate connection.’ …
https://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/11/i-was-tossed-out-of-the-tribe-climate-scientist-judith-curry-interviewed/
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Thanks for that Pat. A lot of skeptics don’t trust Dr Curry because she is a luke warmer, but I find her open minded approach refreshing. You don’t have to agree 100% with everything-I don’t- but at least there’s someone standing up for academic freedom and the integrity of the scientific method.
10
Horses are so adaptable. Here adjacent to the hot zone of the Great Sandy and the Tanami Deserts, horses thrive, to the point where their numbers reflect their ability to withstand very hot weather, in excess of 40C for half the year, followed by cold nights below freezing in winter on occasions. Numbers have grown substantially since being abandoned in favour of vehicles and helicopters for cattle station mustering duties. Images here show their appreciation of desert conditions.
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The Australian bred Walers were the envy of all military people who observed the Australian mounted forces in Africa and during WW1, the Light Horsemen for their strength and ability to cope with adverse conditions.
40
We have been aiding in the search for Walers from abandoned stations East from Wiluna and various other places including remote Nullarbor Stations. Walers are horses where no new blood types were introduced after about 1950.
Most Kimberley Stations have various types added since then, including Arab, Thoroughbred, Percheron and Quarterhorse. The magnificent Arabs introduced to the Balgo, Lake Gregory area pre-2nd World War are still obvious due to the import of some outstanding and highly sought after bloodlines.
Some stations you can still see the influence of Timor ponies from the late 18th and early 19th Century.
40
25 Nov: Washington Times: Ben Wolfgang: Obama green energy project Abengoa on verge of bankruptcy; demise recalls Solyndra
Abengoa is a Spanish company that was another of President Obama’s personally picked green energy projects, and it’s now on the verge of bankruptcy too, potentially saddling taxpayers with a multibillion-dollar tab and fueling the notion that the administration repeatedly gambles on losers in the energy sector…
The renewable energy firm, which is constructing several large-scale solar power projects in the U.S. and has received at least $2.7 billion in federal loan guarantees since 2010, said Wednesday it will begin insolvency proceedings, a technical first step toward a possible bankruptcy…
A potential Abengoa bankruptcy could be much worse for taxpayers, although it’s unclear how much of the guaranteed loans the company has paid back. Neither the White House nor the Energy Department responded to requests for comment Wednesday seeking information on how much the company still owes on the loans, for which the federal government might be left on the hook…
Wednesday’s news sent Abengoa’s stock price falling by about 60 percent. International banks’ total exposure to a full Abengo bankruptcy stands at about $21.4 billion, according to Reuters news agency, meaning the company’s downfall would end up being the largest bankruptcy in Spanish history…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/25/abengoa-obama-green-energy-project-on-verge-of-ban/
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Yes, it surely demonstrates the ability of organisms to adapt to changed habitats. An ability to adapt is in itself an adaptation, with natural selection acting against lines that have low phenotypic or genotypic variability unless they are lucky enough to live insulated from changes in their environment.
You make an important point, Jo, that in this instance the adaptation was ‘not driven by mutations in genes as much as by changes to the regulatory parts of the genome’. The relation between domesticated plants and animals, and their wild ancestors, is a rich field for study. The tarpan ancestors of the domestic horse may have once lived in environments almost as cold as present-day eastern Siberia, they seem to have come through the last ice age in Europe from the evidence of cave paintings. They might have retained all the genetic equipment (alleles) to survive those conditions, just down-regulated to produce phenotypes that were favoured by horse-breeders and more suited to domesticated life.
50
As I understand it, Darwin came up with his theory (or fine tuned it) observing finches in the Galapagos Islands. Darwin observed that when the weather turned dry, the finch beaks got thicker and stronger because the nuts they ate got harder and thicker. This was Darwin’s theory of evolution and survival of the fittest.
As has been pointed out by many since, it’s a demonstratino of adaption, not a demonstration of evolution. And it also wasn’t mentioned by Darwin that when the rains returned and the nuts softened up, the finch’s beaks rerturned to normal thickness and strength.
But the takeaway message is, withing a single wet-dry season; the finches adapted.
30
That’s correct. The changes in the finches (and horses) over time were the result of the natural selection and concentration of living things with the most appropriate gene information that suited the prevailing environmental conditions. No new genetic information was added – all the information was there beforehand. It’s just natural section of existing genetic information that best matches the circumstances. The same process has been used artificially to breed a variety of dogs with different (and sometimes unusual) appearances and characteristics.
20
Tropical fossil forests unearthed in Arctic Norway
Fossil forests, with tree stumps preserved in place, were found in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago situated in the Arctic Ocean.
The forests grew near the equator during the late Devonian period, and could provide an insight into the cause of a 15-fold reduction in levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere around that time.
Current theories suggest that during the Devonian period (420-360 million years ago) there was a huge drop in the level of CO2 in the atmosphere, thought to be largely caused by a change in vegetation from diminutive plants to the first large forest trees
Forests pulled CO2 out of the air through photosynthesis – the process by which plants create food and tissues – and the formation of soils.
> Links to past horizons always put me in moderation, so:
pasthorizonspr(dot)com/index(dot)php/archives/11/2015/tropical-fossil-forests-unearthed-in-arctic-norway
The new findings have been published in the journal Geology (open access).
10
25 Nov: Financial Times: James Mackintosh: Coal, not climate, could be in bargain hunters’ sights
It isn’t a great omen for next week’s climate talks in Paris that Britain chose on Wednesday to slash subsidies for carbon reduction, scrap £1bn support for carbon capture and exempt heavy industry from environmental tariffs…
Environmentalists tend to be smug about the plunging price of coal. But while the price has collapsed, thanks to a weaker China and new mines, production is only slightly down from a record high (see chart). It is the amount dug up and burnt that matters to the environment, not price…
Smart investors should not just try to get out before everyone else sells their fossil fuel producers or power generators. They should also prepare to get back in. If institutional selling drives down the price enough to create a significant carbon risk premium, it will be a buying opportunity. As UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne showed again today, when the going gets tough politicians usually favour industry and jobs over saving the environment.
So stay out of coal miners for the moment, but be ready to buy back in when prices get really distressed
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/80ddb6b0-937e-11e5-b190-291e94b77c8f.html#axzz3sYPBwXWz
26 Nov: Mining Weekly: Coal of Africa shares rocket on $91m offer for Universal
If approved, the combining of the two entities will provide a resource and reserve base of thee-billion tonnes and annuity income from sales mainly to Eskom…
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/coal-of-africa-shares-rocket-on-91m-offer-for-universal-2015-11-26
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If you have not seen the Russian riders you are missing a treat!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTDKqZniSe0
The Russian Don was the tradition horse for the Russian cavalry.
Russian horse breeds.
(And yes I am a horse lover. I want to put together a troika hitch this winter.)
30
To believe that a slight climate-change,
Could destroy life on Earth is most strange,
When in fact what we find,
Is that beasts and mankind,
Can adapt through a vast climate range.
70
ABC The Drum headline story today;
If we want to avoid the disappointment we felt after the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference, we need to accept that the Paris meeting next week won’t be about signing some grand treaty, but about keeping up momentum for change.
40
forget SunEdison, Abengoa, etc.
over at their ABC, they’re in a CAGW FRENZY/FANTASYLAND:
27 Nov: ABC Breakfast: Is it the end for ‘King Coal’ with global action on two degrees of warming?
Australia is the world’s largest coal exporter. And critically for the future of those exports, the Barclay’s report estimates that $5.8 trillion will be wiped off the value of the global coal trade by 2040.
RN Breakfast Environment Editor Gregg Borschmann takes a look at what the emerging political and scientific consensus on climate change portends for the future of coal.
Guests:
Kobad Bhavnagri, Head of Australia, Bloomberg New Energy Finance
Mike Wilkins, Global Head of Environmental Research, Standard and Poors Ratings Services
Tim Buckley, Director of Energy Finance Studies Australasia, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/new-report-indicates-$34-trillion-loss-to-fossil/6979490
followed by:
Australian coal sector commits to goal of limiting global warming to two degrees
The Australian coal sector has dismissed an open letter to French President Francois Hollande and world leaders calling for a moratorium on new coal mines.
Greg Evans from the Minerals Council of Australia describes the letter to world leaders as ‘a stunt on the way to Paris’.
But he’s committed Australian coal interests to supporting the goal of limiting global warming to two degrees.
followed later by:
BoM sees change in fire weather behaviour with drier winters and hotter springs
The fires have claimed two lives, destroyed 16 homes, and burnt through 85,000 hectares of land.
It comes as weather experts track big changes in Australia’s fire weather behaviour…
The Manager of the Climate Monitoring Section at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Karl Braganza, joins James Carleton on RN Breakfast.
on ABC AM:
Labor to unveil emissions targets tonight
MARK BUTLER: So we feel as the alternative government of the country we’ve got an obligation to lift Australia’s ambition to make sure that Australia keeps at the head of the pack with countries like the US and Germany and the United Kingdom, rather than at the back of the pack…
But it’s very likely, we think, that the US is going to lift its target. And Canada, after the election of Justin Trudeau, has also indicated it’s likely to lift their target…
And that’s vastly preferable, we think, to being shut out of the investment and jobs boom that will flow from the shift to clean technology and renewable energy…
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Okay. Well, to achieve this goal you’ll have to go to the next election with a new plan for an emissions trading scheme. That was described recently by the former prime minister as a carbon tax by another name…
MARK BUTLER: Well, I think the evidence polling released by the Lowy Institute only earlier this week indicates that Australians want a level of ambition here.
They recognise firstly our obligation to the rest of the world and, perhaps even more importantly, to future generations to ensure that global warming does not exceed two degrees.
But they also recognise increasingly that there is a clean technology renewable energy boom around the corner…
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4360866.htm
followed by:
Push for global moratorium on new coal mines by leading scientists and economists
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: A collection of some of the world’s leading scientists and economists will today publish an open letter calling for a global moratorium on new coal mines.
The letter, published later today in the New Scientist magazine and the Guardian newspaper, will argue it makes economic and scientific sense to stop building new coal mines.
The signatories include some Nobel Prize-winning economists, scientists and former business leaders.
One of them is Ian Dunlop, the former Shell executive and former chair of the Australian Coal Association.
I spoke to him earlier this morning…
DUNLOP: There is no moral case for further use of coal, because the use of coal in the way we’ve been doing it is, quite frankly, going to create enormous poverty.
If you look at a country like India: India is already experiencing climate extremes, as indeed Australia is; only it’s been a bit worse there in terms of extreme heat, extreme rainfall and so on.
If we keep on pouring money into coal mines, what we’re doing is just going to exacerbate poverty and create an enormous problem.
The real moral case is actually to help countries like India to avoid the high-carbon coal development path and move directly onto low-carbon alternatives: you know, renewables, gas, nuclear and so on…
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4360858.htm
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Funny about that former executive of Shell advocating for a moratorium on coal mining.
CO2 emissions from electrical power generation make up around 40% of the overall total for CO2 emissions.
CO2 emissions from the transportation sector make up around 32% of the overall CO2 emissions, and part of the electrical power generation emissions come from Natural Gas Fired power.
I don’t hear that former executive of Shell calling for a moratorium on production of oil and natural gas.
Vested interests get thee behind me.
Tony.
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Dunlop was Chair of the ACA during a period when I was active in actual mining operations. The point for the ACA is to act as effectively as possible as an advocate to Govt (lobbying) on behalf of its’ constituents
While I’m sure there are people who will disagree with me, I am still firmly of the view, based on the hard evidence of that time, that not only was Dunlop useless to us, he was actually dangerous. Shell’s history in Aus coal mining is less than glorious, as is that of other oil enterprises (eg. BP)
I do not think the spots on the leopard’s hide are changed
30
I listened to a Dunlop interview on their ABC this morning, nothing but nonsense, easily refuted, except never by ABC.
31
26 Nov: The Local, France: The Paris COP21 climate summit in numbers
3,000
The number of people hired to work at COP21. Although organizers had promised local workers would get “priority treatment” for jobs generated by the summit, at least 200 of these workers were revealed to have been subcontracted from eastern Europe, reportedly on low paid contracts.
70 Euros
The amount one Slovakian worker was paid for a 12-hour shift, according to France TV. The man was allegedly hired by GL events to work on COP21 preparations, however this salary would be illegal as it is below France’s minimum wage, which would see him earning at least 115 Euros for 12 hours’ work…
11,000
The number of police France’s interior minister announced would be deployed, of which 2,800 will be stationed at the conference venue, with the remaining 8,000 carrying out border checks…
0
The number of truly legally binding and global treaties on climate change before now. The Kyoto protocol commits only developed nations to a reduction in greenhouse gases while eight days of talks in Copenhagen in 2009 ended with an agreement which “recognized” the need to cap temperature rises but did not contain any commitments to do so.
147
The number of world leaders who will be in attendance. Notable presences include long-time climate change sceptic Vladimir Putin..etc
40,000
The total number of participants. This figure includes 25,000 official delegates (government figures along with representatives from intergovernmental organizations, UN agencies, NGOs, civil society), 3,000 accredited journalists who will be noting down every development, organizers, speakers and world leaders.
170 million
The total budget, in euros, to be spent on COP21. The gathering is expected to generate 100 million Euros of income for the Ile de France regions.
100 percent
The increase in Airbnb reservations in Seine-Saint-Denis, near to Bourget, for the duration of the conference. Local hotels haven’t seen the boom in reservations they were hoping for, and are pointing the finger at the home-sharing service for taking their custom.
9,000 tonnes
That’s how much CO2 is expected to be produced just by hotels during the conference, not taking into account the emissions from transport, electricity and other sources linked to COP21. To compensate, organizers plan to have 27,000 trees planted in Peru.
ONLY ONE COMMENT, BUT IT’S GOOD:
by chatnoir50: Interesting numbers. Putting them together seems to omit the bigger picture. 54,000 involved from all sectors and although the junket last only 12days there is also all the preparation and then the debriefings etc so I would reckon, at a conservative guess, 30days each, at 10hrs per day (they are very dedicated people) and at about 100Euro per hour that gives a total cost of 1.6 billion Euros.
The 40k are the elite of this industry so I’d have to reckon a minimum multiplier of 15 supporting staff for each one.
Therefore, world-wide we have about 600,000 people in the industry. They are very valuable people, even though they produce absolutely nothing of worth, so at 100Euro per hr that generates a total drain on the major economies of the world of about 125 billion Euros every year. This may be a bit of an over-estimate … but not by very much.
I’m not happy at that so to work off my anger I’m going outside to chop some more logs, for my wood burners. And can you guess what I’ll be thinking, with each swing of my axe?
http://www.thelocal.fr/20151126/cop-21-in-numbers-the-facts-and-figures-to-know
BBC, like ABC, has a lot to answer for:
21 Nov: Telerama France: Yohav Oremiatzki: Interview: Thom Yorke (Radiohead) and George Monbiot : “We have to prepare for the inevitable failure of COP21”
Q: When did you become aware of climate change?
YORKE : I remember one of the first debates I had heard on the BBC was between a misinformed scientist and a climate-change sceptic, in other words a paid professional liar. That was probably in the late 90’s. It got me so angry and that’s when I started getting sucked into it.
MONBIOT: I was mad about wildlife almost before I could walk. 1987 was the year I started working for the BBC doing investigative and environmental programmes, so I was tuned in and ready to hear this stuff. But it began to feature a bit larger in my life when James Hansen from NASA did his presentation to the US Senate in 1988, which was a seminal event.
Suddenly it became a legitimate topic for the media to cover. Though of course it also unleashed a great wave of corporate-funded denial from fossil fuel companies like Exxon, Big Coal or Koch Brothers, for which we still pay the price…
http://www.telerama.fr/monde/thom-yorke-and-george-monbiot-we-have-to-prepare-for-the-inevitable-failure-of-cop21,134497.php
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Kimberley Land Council are about to send a small team to Paris, spending some of their ‘sit-down’ money or taxpayer grants and donor funds. Better that than spending funds on keeping Communities open/sarc.
20
One only has to look at human immigrants to Australia to see how the physiology in the living person adapts. Nothern Europeans will have thicker, sub-cutaneous fat and difficulty dealing with long hot summers; until the fat goes away after a few summers like that.
Some individuals cannot however adapt and always have difficulty dealing with really how weather; even after decades.
We carry a lot of what used to be called “junk DNA” around with us. It’s inherited from millions of years of evolution; encompassing capacities to deal with much colder and hotter weather; and lots of other environmental factors like far greater background radiation.
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The people spreading the lies are convinced that the majority of their audience are stupid or as gullible as themselves. Unfortunately the MSM including the Australian, which sometimes prints real climate news, are totally irresponsible by reporting crap as truth. There will come a time when the truth will be known by more than the current 50% and then we will see panic among politicians and the press. I would not like to be a BoM or CSIRO climate scientist then as they will be blamed for giving the wrong information. Our warnings have been ignored so we will know the politicians are at fault all by themselves. I just hope some climate sceptics put themselves forward for pre-selection in the Coalition at the next election.
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I only somewhat agree with you here Lawrie.
Are they spreading lies, or just lacking the knowledge to understand, let alone explain the actualities of things.
It’s one thing for me to (attempt to, anyway) explain the deficiencies of renewable power. It also might look suspiciously like it could seem that I am ‘shilling’ for coal fired power, which is another thing that also needs to be explained correctly, and by my doing this, it might be thought that I am supporting it, perhaps, by some, blindly supporting it.
To correctly explain one, you need to correctly explain the other.
There are just so many things that need to be explained.
Journalists know their trade ….. journalism, so they understand that for them to appear good at their work, they need something which they think the people want to read, and dry old engineering facts, no matter how correct, are envisaged by journalists as being over the heads of their readers, when in reality it is actually over their own heads as journalists. They would dread writing about something in a half ar$ed manner, and being either proven wrong, or having their editor just dump the article altogether.
What I have found, thanks to this site, is that people actually do want to read the real facts on things like this, and they actually DO want to try and understand it.
Quite a lot of those facts seem to be so outrageous as to seem improbable, and following from that, not really able to be believed.
Some could say that no one wants to read the truth, when the probable reality is that no one is game enough to ….. write the truth.
I sometimes despair that the real truth will never get a chance to be told.
The same applies for the reality of correctly explained climate science as opposed to what is actually being reported. Again, the same metric applies. As journalists, they again are not disposed to find out the real facts, for fear of their jobs, and the only real journalists who are reporting the real facts are already long established journalists with no fear of losing their jobs.
Tony.
41
ABC in full PR mode for a climate rally in Melbourne.
already being updated with pics etc.
page is full of stuff & nonsense.
27 Nov: ABC: Sara Phillips: Thousands expected to rally in Melbourne for action on climate change ahead of UN talks
“The majority of Australians want action on climate change and you’ll see that in this rally,” said Geoff Cousins, chair of the Australian Conservation Foundation, one of the organising groups…
“This is affecting their lives **on a daily basis and they want something done about it.”
Luke Hilakari, secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, said “thousands” of union members were expected to join the march which will start at Victoria’s State Library on Swanston Street.
“We know this is important, we know climate change is dangerous and we know there are great opportunities for us in ***new jobs,” he said…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-27/people-rally-in-melbourne-for-climate-change/6981136
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even more pretentious than the Melbourne mob.
i’ve never even heard of 97% (roughly) of the signatories, so they definitely aren’t shaping my world:
27 Nov: Guardian: Letters: Global creative community calls on world leaders to tackle climate change
PHOTO CAPTION: Smoking chimneys at a factory in northern China’s Jilin province. More than 300 prominent members of the global creative community, including David Bowie, Bjork, Margaret Atwood, Katherine Hamnett and Ian McEwan have signed a letter pleading with world leaders at the COP21 summit to tackle climate change.
We, the creative community as represented by the signatories below, ask all those responsible for negotiating the post-2020 climate change framework to agree an ambitious and inspiring international agreement.
The creative community – design, broadcasting, publishing, film, gaming, fashion, literature, music, the performing and visual arts, galleries and museums – can make a unique contribution to the global sustainability challenge. Collectively we shape not just our material world, but our conceptual world too, including the values that underpin our lives…
We are deeply concerned that our global economic and industrial systems are accelerating rates of extinction, desertification and soil depletion, degrading ecosystems, acidifying and littering our rivers and oceans, and resulting in a relentless rise in greenhouse gas emissions driving irreversible climate change. In short, we are overwhelming the planet’s life-support systems…
We must, we can, and together we will act on climate change.
Signatories…
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/27/global-creative-community-calls-on-world-leaders-to-tackle-climate-change
21
the CAGW politically-correct crowd, such as the self-described “creatives” who signed the letter to The Guardian & the Melbourne protesters, are agents of the “carbon imperialists”…if only they had the brains to know it:
26 Nov: Financial Times: India is right to resist the west’s carbon imperialism
The rich world’s move against fossil fuels is a disaster for poorer states, writes Arvind Subramanian
(The writer is the Indian government’s chief economic adviser)
For India — a country struggling to provide basic electricity to about 25 per cent of the population, according to conservative estimates — this smacks of a “carbon imperialism”. And such imperialism on the part of advanced nations could spell disaster for India and other developing countries.
In fact, rather than replacing coal, the only way India and other poorer nations can both meet their needs and minimise damage to the environment may be to find effective techniques to “clean and green” coal.
Under any plausible scenario, coal will provide about 40-60 per cent of India’s energy until 2030. It will, and should, remain the country’s primary energy source because it is the cheapest fuel available…
In the past few months I have met senior leaders from the US, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and Japan. All appreciated that the need to clean coal is a significant part of efforts to fight climate change. The time is ripe to create a global green and clean coal coalition. That, rather than unconscionable calls to phase out India’s cheapest form of energy, would best serve the cause of fighting climate change.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0805bac2-937d-11e5-bd82-c1fb87bef7af.html
11
the travelling Pope…
26 Nov: National Catholic Reporter: Pope calls for eliminating carbon use, says failure in Paris would be ‘catastrophic’
by Joshua J. McElwee
The pontiff said that the Paris meeting “represents an important stage” in a developing a new global energy system, which he said should be based on three pillars: “minimal use of fossil fuels,” energy efficiency and “use of energy sources with little or no carbon content.”…
“I express my hope that COP21 will achieve a global and ‘transformational’ agreement based on the principles of solidarity, justice, equality and participation,” the pope continued. “An agreement which targets three complex and interdependent goals: lessening the impact of climate change, fighting poverty and ensuring respect for human dignity.”…
He also called for new global ***reeducation and training programs to help people understand the impact of their energy choices.
“Nothing will happen unless political and technical solutions are accompanied by a process of education which proposes new ways of living,” said Francis. “A new culture.”…
The pontiff is visiting Kenya through mid-day Friday, when he will leave for Uganda before heading to the Central African Republic on Sunday.
http://ncronline.org/news/global/pope-calls-eliminating-carbon-use-says-failure-paris-would-be-catastrophic
India, tell the Pope, the celebrities et al to get lost.
the developed world WILL NOT VACATE THE CARBON SPACE, nor will they cough up the promised dollars or the technology (unless you pay dearly for it), so best you walk away and get on with life in a happier, holier, post-CAGW world:
26 Nov: EconomicTimesIndia: PTI: Too many emission curbs to hit India’s competitive power: Piyush Goyal
Ahead of Paris climate talks at the end of this month, Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said too many restrictions on carbon emission will curb India’s competitive strength
“Too many restrictions on carbon emissions will curb India’s competitive strength. The developed world must provide access to low-cost finance and technology to developing nations for climate action,” Goyal tweeted today…
Yesterday, Goyal had said, “India stands for carbon justice. Our development imperative must be recognised…
“We believe that the carbon space will be vacated by the developed world and India’s development imperative has to be recognised.”…
The minister is of the view that India is not the polluter and also not responsible for the agony the world is facing today.
“In fact, the statistics you see in the last 150 years, it’s the United States which has contributed nearly 18 per cent to the carbon emission in the atmosphere. Europe has added another 21 per cent and China about 10 per cent,” He had said.
“India’s share in carbon emission is probably two and a half per cent. Now, we are home to one-fifth of the population
of the world. When you juxtapose our carbon emission on per capita basis, we are one-fifteenth of many of the developed world.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/too-many-emission-curbs-to-hit-indias-competitive-power-piyush-goyal/articleshow/49934140.cms
20
The migration to east Siberia took place in the the 13th to 15th centuries – coinciding with the MWP. I wonder how much warmer that region ws then than it is today.
50
truly evil:
27 Nov: Fiji Times: Nasik Swami: Developing countries urged to meet zero carbon world target
United Nations special envoy for climate change Mary Robinson has urged developing countries to develop without emissions in order to achieve a zero carbon world.
Ms Robinson was speaking to foreign ministers ahead of the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which begins in Malta on Friday, reported Pacific news agency service PACNEWS…
“The world needs them to follow a path to development that has never been followed before, to develop without emissions.”…
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=331499
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22 Nov: RepublicanAmerican: Peter Z. Grossman: Climate action will victimize the poor
(Peter Z. Grossman, formerly of Waterbury, is the author of “U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure” (Cambridge 2013) and is a professor of economics at Butler University, Indianapolis.)
It’s not clear who will come out winners from the Paris climate talks set to begin the end of November. Probably the wind- and solar-energy companies will do well…
More obvious is who will lose: the poor. That is especially true of the absolutely poor, the billion people in the world who have a money income of $1.25 per day or less; and the billion or so more whose income only reaches $2 per day. Agreement or no agreement, they will come off badly.
Even in rich countries like the United States, the relatively poor probably will lose — especially if their governments decide to cut carbon-dioxide emissions regardless of what happens in Paris. Virtually all of the alternative-energy credits and subsidies have created a reverse Robin Hood effect: they benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Rooftop solar panels, for example, lower electricity costs for people fortunate enough to own their own homes, and who have the wherewithal to put up the panels…
The rich countries want the poor to “go green,” to avoid using fossil fuels, especially coal for electricity — electricity that more than a billion poor people lack. We are telling the poor instead to build a renewable electric system using wind and solar power, in effect telling them, “Don’t make our mistake!”
But what was our mistake? We used fossil fuels to become wealthy enough so that if there are major adverse effects from climate change, we have the means to deal with them. “Don’t make our mistake” is a way of saying, “stay poor.”…
The idea that people with no access to electricity today can leapfrog the steps we took is not just fantasy, it is unfair. A mature grid system with 15 percent wind and solar generation — which is approximately the German electric system today — requires fossil-fuel backup generators, linkages to French nuclear power and other non-renewable systems, and careful computer monitoring of the system to make sure the demand is met with an appropriate level of supply.
We are arrogant and confused to demand of countries that right now have little electric power, to adopt a system that challenges First World technology…
But the bottom line is this: as things seem to be set up, the poor lose either way — unless the rich countries help them to grow rich before they demand that they turn green.
http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2015/11/27/commentary/922919.txt
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kudos to Gannett for publishing the Grossman article in the Indianapolis Star:
23 Nov: Indianapolis Star (Gannett Media): Impoverished will lose at climate change talks
by Peter Z. Grossman
http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2015/11/23/grossman-improverished-will-lose-climate-change-talks/76256064/
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On expression of genes:
I have various pony breeds (Shetland, Welsh, Norwegian Fjord…) I found with the pony breeds the coat color changes with the protein and mineral content of the feed especially in winter.
I have had two Shetlands who were ‘silver dapple’ In winter these animals would change to almost pure white.
The silver dapple gene changes the black or bay coat color. Silver Dapple is a dominant gene symbolized as Z which acts on a black. The gene specifically dilutes black. A horse with the genetics for black, when carrying the silver dapple gene, will have a flaxen mane and tail and a dark colored body.It uncommon in horses, mostly appearing in the Shetland Pony, Rocky Mountain Horse, Mustang, Miniature Horse breeds, and a few others, having likely originated in the Shetland pony.
I also have palominos, duns and a varnish roan (Leopard Complex (Lp)) that go very light colored in the winter. One dun changes to the color of winter grass and blends so well you literally can not see him in the pasture in winter.
I think these diluting genes (Cream, Champagne, Dun, Pearl and Silver) that act on the basic coat colors of chestnut, bay, brown and black are protective adaptations.
Only with the protection of man have the ‘pure’ coat colors become common.
‘Silver dapple’
https://knoji.com/images/user/100_0036.JPG
Varnish roan
http://equinetapestry.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/freckles2008.jpg
Zimov Sergey’s ponies in the Pleistocene Park. Note they are all ‘primitive colors’ displaying the diluting genes.
http://www.pleistocenepark.ru/en/photo/74/
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for the record:
ACF is claiming 60,000 were at the Melbourne climate march – a record for a climate march in Australia. no pic showing more than 1,000:
Age: Organiser Victoria McKenzie-McHarg estimated the crowd was at least 60,000 strong.
“This absolutely is the largest climate change rally we have ever seen in Australian history,” she said to cheers from the crowd.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/thousands-expected-at-melbourne-cbd-rally-ahead-of-paris-climate-summit-20151127-gl9lz8.html
try to find a single photo online to indicate anything like that number.
ABC is putting out the large number, allegedly from police. AFP photo shows maybe a couple of thousand:
AFP Photo: People march along a road during a rally calling for action on climate change in Melbourne on November 27, 2015. (AFP)
“We have people from all sorts of different backgrounds who’ve come together for this moment,” said Victoria McKenzie-McHarg from the Australian Conservation Foundation.
“Because our future depends on cutting pollution and creating a clean and just future for all,” she said as the crowd swelled to an estimated 40,000 according to a police count carried by the ***Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/australia-kicks-off-climate-rallies-ahead-of-global-talks-1248385
PHOTO GALLERY: 16 photos: PHOTOS 1 AND 2 ARE THE ONLY ONES SHOWING ANY NUMBERS AND I DOUBT THEY SHOW 5,000
http://www.demotix.com/news/9156630/thousands-melburnians-march-support-climate-action#media-9156394
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all the usual suspects. note Cathy Alexander has it at 10,000 4 hours ago, then has it at 40,000 also 4 hours ago.
Ros Lording says 60,000 but posts pic showing a dozen! no photos of any sizeable crowd whatsoever. all these social media fanatics & they can’t post a video!
Twitter #climatemarch
Avaaz Verified account @Avaaz · 4 hours ago
Amazing! The Melbourne #ClimateMarch is now the largest climate march ever in Australia with an estimated 60,000 people marching right now!
Ros Lording @roslording · 4 hours ago
Tonight 60,000 people have come out to champion #ClimateAction in #Melbourne #ClimateMarch – politicians take note!
Margo Kingston Verified account @margokingston1 · 3 hours ago
Yes, Melbourne! 50,000 at #climatemarch pre-Paris.
Avaaz Verified account @Avaaz · 3 hours ago
WOW! 50,000 people are marching in Melbourne, Australia right now! This is the latest official #ClimateMarch coalition & police estimate!
Greenpeace Aus Pac @GreenpeaceAustP · 4 hours ago
We have the solution – 100% Renewables!
Reports there are 50000 of us in the Melbourne #ClimateMarch
Cathy Alexander @cathymalexander · 4 hours ago
Official police crowd estimate is at least 40,000 people at Melbourne #ClimateMarch #COP21 @UNFCCC
Cathy Alexander @cathymalexander · 4 hours ago
Melbourne #climatemarch underway with at least 10,000 here. ‘We’re here and we’re ready,’ speaker says #COP21
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23climatemarch%20melbourne
note the history of McKenzie-McHarg who is claiming the 60,000:
LinkedIn: Victoria McKenzie-McHarg
Climate Campaign Manager at Australian Conservation Foundation
https://au.linkedin.com/in/victoria-mckenzie-mcharg-59900455
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You should know more than most pat that math was never a warmist’s strong suit. 🙂
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PICS ON ACF: maximum a few thousand, despite this at the top of the page!
Twitter #AusConservation
ACF @AusConservation · 1 hour ago
Just to be clear on what just happened. SIXTY THOUSAND people just walked through Melbourne to ask for more #peoplesclimate #huge
https://twitter.com/AusConservation?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
below, maximum a few thousand!
silent video: 60,000 sing “from little things big things grow”.
https://vine.co/v/iabPxPDpHeD
google images for climate march Melbourne are few & show nothing larger than what I’ve posted.
btw The Age article I posted earlier is so insignificant on their homepage, you could miss seeing it unless you did a search for “climate” to get to it. it is a small type “Up to 50,000 gather for climate rally” with no summary.
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Shrug, north eastern Australian snakes have evolved to handle cane toads in a little over 50 years. Head size, relative to body size has changed. So a snake can’t eat a toad large enough to kill it.
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Life is tougher than these alarmists think. And even as many species have disappeared for one reason or another, new ones are being discovered. I don’t know what it all amounts to in the long run except change. And change has been the way of things since the beginning of this planet (study natural history or geology if you don’t understand that point).
I do know this — humans are as native to this planet as anything else and we have as much right to be here as anything else and we have as much right as any other species to modify our environment to provide for our safety, happiness and, yes, our convenience as well. And other species definitely modify their environment with everything from chemical repellants against competitors, sometimes poisonous, to building sophisticated homes in which to live and raise their young. Which of you climate change advocates can build something as delicate and intricate as a hummingbird’s nest? If you can’t then shut up with the complaining.
Start to solve real problems and work on the trashing of our beautiful planet with every conceivable kind of trash being tossed around without a care in the world. Let’s work on the real pollution problems we have. I can name a long list of diseases we can work on. I’m sure any one reading this can easily name other real problems. There are more than enough to go around.
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just opened my browser and got a message at the very bottom:
Climate change affects the things you love. #OursToLose
25 Nov: TenEightyMag: YouTubers Participate in #OursToLose Campaign
Finn Harries, Louis Cole and more are participating in YouTube’s campaign to raise awareness for climate change.
This week, the eagle-eyed viewers might have noticed that YouTube is sporting a couple of new icons. These icons, in the shape of a polar bear and a globe, will lead you to YouTube Spotlight’s curated videos around the topic of climate change. The campaign, led by a video titled #OursToLose, features the likes of Finn Harries, Louis Cole and Sorted Food (covered in chocolate) amongst a plethora of YouTubers from around the world, including Casey Neistat and Cassey Ho…
***The video and spotlight page link to a petition that calls for a move to 100% clean energy by 2050, which the YouTubers speaking in the lead video urge everyone to sign….
http://teneightymagazine.com/2015/11/25/youtubers-participate-in-ourstolose-campaign/
23 Nov: tubefilter: YouTube Enlists Casey Neistat, Blogilates, Louis Cole, And More For Global Climate Discussion Through #OursToLose Campaign
Google’s video site has launched the #OursToLose (LINK) campaign to spur discussion around and help raise awareness for the effects of climate change…
First, YouTube is encouraging #OursToLose viewers to sign the Avaaz petition (LINK), a campaign aimed at implementing clean energy around the world by 2050 (the petition currently boasts 3.1 million signatures). Concerned citizens can also create their own videos about how climate will affect the things they love, and upload them to YouTube using the #OursToLose hashtag.
“The YouTube community can empower tremendous collaboration, advocacy, and creativity,” wrote YouTube Programming Coordinator Marc Hertz and Associate Product Marketing Manager Aaron Taylor in a blog post (LINK).
YouTube also put together a special playlist for the #OursToLose campaign, featuring several educational videos about how the climate is changing the world around us. You can view the “We’re All in This Together” playlist here (LINK)
http://www.tubefilter.com/2015/11/23/youtube-ours-to-lose-climate-change-campaign/
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back to the Melbourne march.
surely there’s one journalist, politician, or CAGW sceptic in Melbourne who can present the photos of the march available online to the Melbourne police, who allegedly told ABC they estimated a crowd of 40,000, & ask if they actually stated that figure and, if so, how do they explain the photos.
tellingly, I’ve heard a number of news bulletins last nite & this morning, and NONE have even mentioned the march. a climate march of 2 people can make our CAGW-infested MSM, much less one of 40,000 or a MASSIVE 60,000. something is very fishy indeed.
re the Cathy Alexander on the #climatemarch twitter page posted earlier.
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back to the Melbourne march.
surely there’s one journalist, politician, or CAGW sceptic in Melbourne who can present the photos of the march available online to the Melbourne police, who allegedly told ABC they estimated a crowd of 40,000, & ask if they actually stated that figure and, if so, how do they explain the photos.
tellingly, I’ve heard a number of news bulletins last nite & this morning, and NONE have even mentioned the march. a climate march of 2 people can make our CAGW-infested MSM, much less one of 40,000 or a MASSIVE 60,000. something is very fishy indeed.
re the Cathy Alexander on the #climatemarch twitter page posted earlier.
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don’t know why my comment went thru before it was finished. not to worry.
Cathy Alexander:
26 Nov: SBS: Biwa Khan: Explainer: Paris Climate Meeting: What you need to know about COP21
5 of 8 topics: Is a two degree target achievable or already lost?
PhD candidate on climate change politics, Cathy Alexander at the University of Melbourne, said a deal to limit global warming to 2 degrees is out of reach, barring a huge surprise at the meeting. Months of negotiation, what some have dubbed “scientific diplomacy”, has been underway in preparation for the final talks in Paris.
But Cathy Alexander said there is still the potential to get a strong outcome.
“It’s likely to land somewhere between a ‘negotiations stalled’ and a ‘good step forwards’,” she said…
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/explainer/paris-climate-meeting-what-you-need-know-about-cop21
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today, no new pics showing more than the numbers I’ve mentioned in previous comments.
also, if u search “Melbourne cimate march” and refine “images” to “past 24 hours” you get a couple that I doubt are even of the march yesterday.
The Age now has the march at the very top of its homepage as:
Up to 50,000 gather for Melbourne rally
Stunned diners watch – and some heckle – as city hosts ‘largest climate change rally seen in Australian history’.
Contains:
(LINK) Business backs action
article is the same piece i linked to yesterday, with a few lines added, & with all photos by Age Photog, Edie Jim.
video at top of article has nothing to do with the march. it is the 2-min propaganda piece by Fairfax’s Lucy Cormack i posted at a previous thread recently.
strangely, the only Eddie Jim pic showing any numbers is way down in the article & has that strange two-section crowd with a break inbetween. it doesn’t seem to fit with the lighting of the rest of the pics.
27 Nov: The Age: Thousands gather at Melbourne CBD rally ahead of Paris climate summit
Chloe Booker, Timna Jacks With Tom Cowie and AAP
Organiser Victoria McKenzie-McHarg estimated the crowd was at least 60,000 strong…
Stunned diners observed the march from outside Bourke Street cafes, and some heckled the demonstrators…
PHOTO CAPTION: Attendees marched from the State Library to Parliament House. Photo: ***Eddie Jim
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/thousands-expected-at-melbourne-cbd-rally-ahead-of-paris-climate-summit-20151127-gl9lz8.html
oddly, Eddie Jim doesn’t choose to illustrate his tweet with the pic showing the biggest numbers. instead, if u click on summary, u get the only pic Eddie has posted on Twitter, one of the dear climate warrior Angels!
Twitter Eddie Jim, The Age photographer, Melbourne
https://twitter.com/EddieJim2?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
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must read all. links to Globescan. great for a weekend thread, jo:
27 Nov: BBC: Matt McGrath: COP21: Public support for tough climate deal ‘declines’
Public support for a strong global deal on climate change has declined, according to a poll carried out in 20 countries.
Only four now have majorities in favour of their governments setting ambitious targets at a global conference in Paris.
In a similar poll before the Copenhagen meeting in 2009, eight countries had majorities favouring tough action.
The poll has been provided to the BBC by research group GlobeScan (LINK).
Just under half of all those surveyed viewed climate change as a “very serious” problem this year, compared with 63% in 2009…
The findings will make sober reading for global political leaders…
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34900474
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HMMM!!!
WUWT Tips & Notes page, posted by:
Right Deviationist November 27, 2015 at 12:50 am
Paid Climate Change Protesters
Maribyrnong City Council (Melbourne, Australia) sent pretty much all its staff to the Climate Change rally held today (27/11/15) on pay during work hours. It provided them with banners and other protest paraphernalia. It’s web site is full of climate change material.
Scandalous waste of rate payers’ money.
PIC OF SOLAR PANELS!
Maribyrnong City Council: Climate Change
Climate change is one of the greatest economic, social, and environmental challenges facing the world at present. Expert scientific evidence confirms that human activity is altering the climate, changing rainfall patterns, reducing water availability in Australia and increasing the frequency of severe weather events such as bushfires and storms…
(LINKS to the usual) Climate Change Organisations
http://www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.aspx?Page_Id=4603
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u know the figures are dodgy when ABC doesn’t want to talk about it!
Twitter Greenpeace – Melbourne climate march
myknittingwool · 2 hours ago Devonport, Tasmania
not heard on abc mornings on radio though
Bill lead the march is that why ?
myknittingwool · 2 hours ago Devonport, Tasmania
has it been on tv @ABCNews24 breakfast radio no mention
https://twitter.com/GreenpeaceAustP/status/670193630020169728/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
have seen claim of 10,000 for Brisbane march, but ABC says 5,000 and the pic says probably smaller than that:
28 Nov: ABC: Matt Eaton: Thousands turn out in Brisbane march calling for climate change action ahead of Paris summit
About 5,000 people have braved ***hot and humid weather in the Brisbane CBD for a climate change rally…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-28/thousands-turn-out-in-brisbane-march-for-climate-change-action/6983252
***these ABC types can’t cope once they’re out of their airconditioned offices, can they? it was about 27 degrees with approx 60 percent humidity in Brisbane when this march started…and with a lovely breeze.
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26 Nov: Washington Times: Lamar Smith:NOAA’s climate change science fiction
The environmental intelligence agency ignores satellite data
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/26/lamar-smith-noaas-climate-change-science-fiction/
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28 Nov: Guardian: Arthur Neslen: Paris climate activists put under house arrest using emergency laws
French police arrest activists for flouting ban on organising protests during climate talks next week
PHOTO CAPTION: Activists protest against French authorities using emergency law to ban demonstrations at the Place de la Republique in Paris.
The author and climate change campaigner, Naomi Klein, accused French authorities of “a gross abuse of power that risks turning the summit into a farce”.
***“Climate summits are not photo opportunities to boost the popularity of politicians,” she told the Guardian…
Since Thursday, three people have been placed under house arrest in Rens, two in Paris, two in Rouen and one in Lyons, according to campaigners. They may now only leave their houses to sign a post office register verifying their whereabouts, three times a day.
Joel Domenjoud, a legal activist, said that he had been served with a restraining order wrongly describing him as a “principal leader of the ultra-left movement” just hours after a judge refused to hear an appeal against the ban on the climate demo that he had petitioned for…
Thousands of climate campaigners, including high-profile Indian activist Vandana Shiva, have vowed to defy the blanket ban on demonstrations. One protest on Sunday will be protected by a ‘human chain’, while a day of civil disobedience will take place when the summit ends on 12 December, dubbed as ‘red lines’ day.
Numbers are expected to be smaller than previously hoped, but artists have been working around the clock on creations such as a series of ‘inflatable cobble stones’, alluding to a famous slogan from the May 1968 protests: Beneath the cobble stones the beach…
“We are trying to find grey areas in the law,” said John Jordan, a prominent activist. “At the moment, a demonstration is legally defined as more than two people who share a political message. We are trying to find creative ways around these laws.”
During recent protests by Quebec students, participant numbers were kept to below 50 on each march, to avoid a prohibition order.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/27/paris-climate-activists-put-under-house-arrest-using-emergency-laws
***of course not, climate summits are for the likes of Naomi to help publicise her books!
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COOL PICS:
28 Nov: UK Daily Mail: Becky Pemmberton: The Great snowfall of China: Mesmerising pictures show the country’s top tourist attractions transformed into a winter wonderland (and even the pandas are making the most of it)
Blizzards have brought in beautiful scenery over landmarks including The Great Wall of China and Forbidden City
Hundreds of stunning photos showing snowfall blanketing the country have captured the wintry weather this week
The recent ***unexpectedly early snowfall has turned Beijing and other northern parts of China into a wintry white realm, offering visitors a unique, fairytale-like experience of top attractions…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3335083/Mesmerising-pictures-China-s-tourist-attractions-transformed-winter-wonderland.html
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28 Nov: ChannelNewsAsia: AFP/ec: Abengoa CEO resigns as concerns mount over Spanish firm’s fate
Abengoa said on Friday (Nov 27) its chief executive Santiago Seage had resigned after it emerged the Spanish renewable energy giant was close to bankruptcy, as concerns rise over the fate of a firm that employs close to 29,000 people
The company announced Wednesday that a deal with Spanish engineering group Gestamp – which had been due to inject much-needed cash into the firm – had fallen through, leaving it with a mountain of debt and the threat of becoming Spain’s biggest-ever corporate failure…
Gestamp subsidiary Gonvarri had planned to buy up 28 percent of Abengoa for some €350 million (US$370 million), which would have made it the renewable energy firm’s biggest shareholder.
But the deal fell through, and a court in the southern city of Seville – where the company is headquartered – said on Friday it had launched bankruptcy proceedings, which offers Abengoa protection from creditors for up to four months until it finds a solution…
Unions and politicians are increasingly concerned about the fate of the 70-year-old firm, which employs 28,700 people around the world, including 7,000 in Spain.
Alberto Garzon, Spain’s far-left candidate to December general elections, called on the government to rescue the company while UGT, one of Spain’s main unions, urged the authorities to find a solution.
“What we cannot allow – neither Abengoa workers, nor Spanish society, nor the industrial sector of our country – is to let this company disappear,” UGT head Candido Mendez told Cadena Ser radio…
Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told reporters it was important for the world player in solar and wind power, biofuels and water management to find “an industrial partner”, but he appeared to reject any bailout of the group…
***Shares in Abengoa have been suspended from Spain’s main Ibex-35 index after they went into freefall.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/abengoa-ceo-resigns-as/2300628.html
27 Nov: CBC: Canadian Press: Company building Maritime Link lines files for bankruptcy protection
A Spanish company that is building parts of the Maritime Link, which will funnel Labrador-generated electricity to the Maritimes, has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Abengoa was awarded the contract for 400 kilometres of overhead transmission line on Newfoundland and in Nova Scotia.
The power lines are part of the infrastructure that will connect the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project to the North American grid.
The Maritime Link is the phase of the project that will move electricity to the Maritime provinces and possibly into the United States.
A spokesperson with Emera Inc., which is overseeing the project, said despite Abengoa’s financial problems, it is still obligated to do the work…
Abengoa is more than $9 billion in debt, and has four months to reach an agreement with its creditors…
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/abengoa-bankruptcy-protection-1.3340037
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