Funny, Al Gore didn’t say anything about 2017 being “less devastating”:
Frankfurt am Main (AFP) – Natural catastrophes worldwide were less devastating in the first half of 2017 than the average over the past 10 years, reinsurer Munich Re said Tuesday, while highlighting the role of climate change in severe US storms.
Some 3,200 people lost their lives to disasters between January and June, the German group found — well short of the 10-year average of 47,000 for the period or the 5,100 deaths in the first half of 2016.
Every year there is a long list of disasters somewhere (aka weather-porn items for Al Gore🙂
April floods and landslides in Colombia that claimed 329 lives were the deadliest single event.
Elsewhere, an April-June heatwave in India killed 264 people, while floods, landslides and avalanches claimed around 200 lives in Sri Lanka, 200 in Afghanistan and 200 Bangladesh.
In terms of costs — that’s 60 billion “saved” this year:
Disasters inflicted a financial cost of around $41 billion in the first six months, Munich Re reported.
That was less than half of the $111 billion toll in the same period last year, or the average of $102 billion over the past 10 years.
The most costly single event was flooding in Peru between January and March, which killed 113 people and inflicted damage worth around $3.1 billion, followed by Cyclone Debbie’s toll of 12 lives and $2.7 billion in Australia.
No one is suggesting one-year stats and ten year averages are meaningful. Unless you are Al Gore, then you need even less.
Here’s Gore using events exactly like these to sell his renewables salvation. From the transcript to the Al Gore speech:
In Australia, there may be less rain overall but much more in these big storm events.
A couple of months ago, there was a 1 in 500 year flood in NZ and similar in Brisbane a couple of years ago. Last week in Lagos Nigeria, this (slide) was in my state just two months ago and another 1 in 1000 years.
I was in Houston Texas last year training climate activists , there was 240b gallons came down, equivalent of 3 days of Niagara Falls flowing right into the middle of Houston. In one calendar year they had two 1 in 500 years and one in one 1000 years. [Footage of flood slides from Quebec, Guatemale, Columbia, Rio, Lima, Chile, Bangladesh, Guangzhou, UK, Spain, Madagascar].
Gore and others are using events that are happening anyway to imply that every flood/drought/storm/landslide/sticky-road is worse than it would have been unless we buy his snake oil. Where’s the ACCC when you need them?
Hearts go out to the actual victims of these events.
Wouldn’t it be something if we had models that worked that could predict them?
___________________________________________
*ACCC: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ie consumer rights in Australia)
Thanks to Tony Thomas for the transcript of Al.
Let’s assume there is some climate change going on for a moment. Then if this is true,
I would be inclined to NOT believe there is any correlation between the one and the other. If anything, we are simply the beneficiary of good luck. Weather appears to change according to some plan of its own and so what? And then there is no credible evidence of climate change in the first place. So what can lead anyone to the conclusion Jo’s headline states?
The climate change pushers are barking like a hound dog at an empty tree if you ask me. There ain’t no raccoon up there.
162
I notice that Al is now resorting to the John Cook strategy, mention all the skeptical points he can before launching his ambush with the concluson that it’s still necessary to do what he says — or else.
So Al, bring on your “or else” and let us decide for ourselves. But of course you don’t have that “or else” in you hot little hand to show us, do you?
We’re all fed up to our ears with your idiotic game. So stand and deliver of shut up once and for all.
162
How can we give this thoroughly dislikable man the boot, permanently?
122
Al, like many politicians and most snake oil salesmen, is an actor, working to a script, that he is confident will work, as long as he sticks to the script.
He has a number of minders, supplied no doubt, by one Green faction or another, who are tasked with keeping him on script.
The cover photograph of Jo’s article, of 16 July, shows it very well, in his confrontation with Mark Morano.
The three men in suits, behind Al, are probably the security detail – one in close, for protection, two further back, where they can get a wider angle of vision, as they come to the end of the corridor.
It is the blond standing to Al’s left who is really interesting.
Why is she wearing a flack jacket, and a very ill-fitting one at that? She is most definitely not one of his security detail.
I would suggest that she is his intellectual minder, tasked with handling any situation that could cause Al to panic and, heaven forbid, say something ad lib, that could be picked up and published by the press.
Al Gore is, and probably always has been, a talking head, regurgitating whatever people, like “Miss Flack Jacket 2017”, coaches him to say.
The man himself is redundant, other than being a talking head.
221
More like useless…
Those same handlers and protection detail you mention are all equally useless since there’s no there there to protect or handle.
40
The photo has 6 people:
Mark & Al
A dude behind Al’s right shoulder with a pained expression – Al must have his heel on the man’s toes.
Behind Al’s left shoulder is a woman (looks like a maid).
Then a man behind her – security, trained to kill.
Both seem to be looking at the behind of the woman in the flak jacket. The “very ill-fitting one” could be a suicide vest. Her expression may say she is afraid she may have to pull the cord (?), if Gore goes off script.
20
I will concede the third person behind Al was a female. I doubt that she was a maid. The guy at the back would not have allowed a maid to get that close in such a small space. And besides, there are such things as female close protection security officers, although you have to wonder where they conceal their weapon(s). I am not sure that a shoulder holster would be all that accessible. 😉
10
When Al Gore says “must we change” he will always avoid who makes up the we. The audience have enjoyed the benefits of fossil fuels. But this is from the rich world. The vast majority of the global population are in countries that have yet to enjoy the the benefits of cheap fossil fuels. To make global fossil fuel use near zero by the end the century the bulk of the world’s poor across Africa, South-East Asia and South America can never enjoy those benefits. The we of policy is totally different and vastly bigger from the we of Gore’s speeches. He ignores my First Law of Climate Mitigation
10
Roy
Another view
“Terry McCrann is right: “Pose the question ‘Do you believe in climate change?’ and you define yourself as a moron.”
It proves you simply do not understand the first thing about the debate.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/the-most-stupid-question-that-warmists-ask/news-story/d01fd2dec88e472f8fa1c218b8ab8b58
20
Yes there is no racoon up the tree but we are there and we are beyond being annoyed. Perhaps it’s time we shoot the dog so we can come down the tree and get on with life. Otherwise, we will eventually die of thirst and starvation being stuck up the tree.
20
Don’t tempt me. 🙂
00
CAGW = less natural disasters?
This means its a self correcting process and no need for concern….own goal by the warmists.
00
Latest Chinese study agrees.
https://phys.org/news/2017-02-china-severe-weather-patterns-drastically.html
10
Money is not the root of all evil. The LOVE of money is. I do not really know what makes Al tick. But big money always seems to flow his way.
He is getting money and fame. I sometimes wonder how it will all turn out for him.
151
His money will be his undoing. A man’s character determines what he does to his money and what his money does to him. Clearly, Al has vanishingly little character. He couldn’t even steal a crooked election from a Bush.
I suggest, his owners will soon tire of pulling his stings. They are getting an ever lower return on investment. Soon they will have nothing but stones rattling in a tin can.
40
His handlers may use him as a meal on an ice flow for starving polar bears affected by non-existant CAGW…..
There a form of wonderful balance in that moment…..
10
The climate alarmists have been very good at highlighting the alarming signs of the coming climate apocalypse, but are incapable of putting the disasters in the proper global context over many decades. Very good examples of this were in the comments accompanying some very high quality photographs by an eco-tourist Ashley Cooper, published by the Guardian last year. It was in promotion for a book.
One section was on the Australian drought taken around 2009. By looking into the background I was able to debunk the claimed emerging trend.
For instance a photograph was the dry bottom of Lake Elidon, Victoria when it was 29% full. It is possible to show graphs from Goulburn-Murray Water that demonstrated post 2009 the lake reached levels not seem since the 1990s.
Another example was of a bush fires near Michelago, New South Wales, the inference being that it was caused by bush fires. I was able to reference the Munich Re website, which stated that most bush fires were caused by human activity, but not by changing climate. The increased severity of bush fires was due to the deliberate suppression of fires, increased resultant fuel load. David Evans expanded on the issue of fuel load in a 2013 article.
If you want to objectively determine trends in climate, it is necessary to look at clearly defined criteria over long periods. Insurance claims can be misleading as they tend to go up far faster than inflation or indeed nominal GDP growth (Inflation plus growth). The fact they claims fallen after a couple of extremely warm El Nino years tends to undermine this worsening climate theory.
221
“…equivalent of 3 days of Niagara Falls…”
Much too scientific for our teensie minds. How much is it in football fields or Sydney Harbours?
Wait, I have an idea for a measurement we can understand: How much is that in 1935 Great Texas Floods? You know, Professor (hon) Gore…that one in a gazillion year flood where some fibbers west of San Antonio reckon they copped up to two feet of rain in less than three hours.
Of course, Eastern Texas and Central Texas being notorious cloudburst regions one can’t say for sure who has the record. When the Brazos River changed its course in 1913 there was a drop or two about. Heard about the one in a triptillion year flooding of the USA in 1913, Professor (hon) Gore? Still the nation’s most widespread natural disaster (even wider than the one in guptillion Great Mississippi Flood of 1927) and the reason for the Tennessee Valley Authority…surely you’ve heard of it, bein’ from Tennessee ‘n all? No?
But go on, Prof (hon) Gore. How many 1935 Great Texas Floods fell while you were training your climate activists?
121
I suggest we measure dame in multiples of Al Gore’s income (AGI):
“The damage bill was estimated to be 5,000 AGIs”
60
The lack of tropical cyclones making landfall in Australia is of great concern, the benefit of this global warming hiatus has not been properly calculated and will eventually end in tears.
51
“The lack of tropical cyclones making landfall in Australia is of great concern ”
Tropical cyclones (in the U.S. – hurricanes) bring moisture to large areas. There has not been a big rain generator come to the U.S. Gulf Coast for many years (11?). There have been lesser storms. [“Sandy” was a special case, and not a TC when she came ashore.]
Florida is dry and the other SE states could use rain.
A region that is usually moist is currently less so.
The image here, of fires, is from last fall: Link
Currently, from Africa to the Americas, there is no activity over the Ocean.
Some people report the lack of TCs as a good thing. That’s false. They will return as such atmospheric things do.
00
In an Australian context, Jo covered all this years ago.
http://jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/graphs/storms/tropical/haig-2014-fig-4-australian-cyclones-1500-years.gif
10
Our beloved BOM stopped updating in chart on cyclone frequency and intensity year ago when it was clear it was going off narrative. When I queried it they said we could expect less frequent but more intense cyclones, right on narrative. They had nothing sensible to say about why they stopped updating a simple bar chart.
50
BoM’s ‘less frequent’ yet ‘more intense’ meme makes no rational sense, clearly a lack of cyclones is a regional cooling signal.
10
It sounds like an ad for a coffee brand….
20
You won’t hear much of this on the MSM.
Here’s last year’s news: http://www.smh.com.au/national/natural-disasters-are-costing-more-but-killing-less-20161012-gs0gr3.html:
And the most that I could find on the Munich report was: https://www.yahoo.com/news/natural-disasters-less-devastating-2017-munich-103904188.html. But they still blamed climate change:
31
Look again at the SMH headline
Then consider this quote from Munich Re.
Comparing the two, I would be willing to bet that the property damage in Peru, in terms of buildings destroyed and people made homeless was far worse than in Australia. This is because Peru is a much poorer country. As a result the people affected will also take longer to recover. Similarly, the insurance losses from the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan in 2011 were greater than the much smaller magnitude earthquake in Haiti in 2009. But there were over 10 times the dead in Haiti and the recovery in Haiti was far slower in terms of people in the affected area returning back to normality.
This is a lesson for policy. Whatever the future of natural disasters, the best way for humans to cope with the disasters is through strong economic growth.
Indur Goklany in Wealth and Safety: The Amazing Decline in Deaths from Extreme Weather in an Era of Global Warming,
1900–2010 shows that since 1900 the number of recorded extreme weather events has risen dramatically since 1900 due to better recording, but the number of deaths per million population has declined dramatically. That is mainly due to higher living standards enabling better protection from disasters, along with improved disaster relief efforts.
40
The most relevant graphic from Indur Goklany’s report showing declining death rates from natural disasters is Figure 2
Note that a lack of information from the early twentieth century makes the likely decline even more dramatic.
https://manicbeancounter.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/fig-2-deaths_from_extreme_weather_1900_2010-pdf.png
20
It stands to reason that as the world enters a cooling phase as solar output diminishes that there is less energy in the atmosphere and therefore natural weather events will be of lesser severity.
92
David from my reading weather becomes more extreme as conditions cool, it appears to have something to do with blocking high systems and a wayward jet stream.
21
Ok, well that’s counter-intuitive.
20
Here’s a vintage article from 1974 saying that a cooling world will result in more extreme weather.
I think the fears of the 70’s that we were entering major cooling phase or ice age were close to the mark.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/03/13/an-article-from-1974-suggests-global-cooling-would-cause-more-extreme-weather/amp/
30
Ok, I just thought up a new term.
I am a “coolist”.
30
@David Maddison
If you are truly a ‘coolist’, man, you’d just say “Climate, cool” or maybe “Climate, I’m cool with that.” or if someone mentions ‘climate’ you’d just say ‘cool’.
Or has all this climate jazz got you warmly poppin’?
Cool with that?
10
‘Increased Surface Albedo in the Northern Hemisphere’
Too simplistic, only at the depths of the LIA did that kick in, we see it with shorter growing seasons in Europe.
Initially there will be wild sea storms in the North Atlantic with the potential for a huge loss of life and property. Of course in this approaching war with nature the military will be put to good use.
Nothing untoward is happening at the moment, as we sit atop the Modern Climate Optimum waiting for the oscillations to click into place.
10
Off topic, but avoiding man made disasters, on the AEMO website.
Market Notice 58845
AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE Refer to market notices 58785
Constraint Invocation to manage power system security in SA Region 5.03pm 19.7.17
In order to maintain sufficient fault levels in SA and hence a secure operating state, the following constraint set was invoked at 1500hrs which operates in both Dispatch and Pre-Dispatch:
S_WIND_1200_AUTO
This constraint equation automates the process of applying the 1200 MW limit on the wind farms. If there is enough synchronous generation online it will be “swamped” out by adding 10000 to the right-hand side, otherwise the 1200 MW limit will be applied.
So too much wind in SA meant AEMO had to curtail wind generation or risk loss of synchronisation across the network.
It’a a bit confusing, because on the Anero.id site it appears that wind generation peaked at over 1500 MW late on Tuesday evening, but by 5pm on Wed generation was down to 200 MW.
20
Robber
This might have something to do with it
http://joannenova.com.au/2017/07/climate-change-remains-malcolm-turnbulls-kryptonite/#comment-1926114
http://joannenova.com.au/2017/07/climate-change-remains-malcolm-turnbulls-kryptonite/#comment-1926115
10
In March 2008 Adelaide suffered a “one-in-three-thousand-year” heatwave where it was above the old “ton” (37.8C) for thirteen consecutive days. No-one died because of it.
Earth is a big place. If there is not a “one-in-so-many-years” event going on somewhere every so often (ie several times a year) then we are in trouble. It’s just a statistical certainty.
30
The use of descriptors such as “one in a hundred (or thousand) years” plays on the common misconception that events can or should occur once over that time period.
It is never explained that this is a loose and misleading way of describing the statistical chance of an event occurring over the specified time period.
Another method of keeping the populace scared and used as a reason to do something.
60
Average Recurrence Interval (ARI) is widely accepted in engineering as a basis of design. It commonly appears in engineering standards and regulations when considering natural events such as earthquake, flooding and wind.
Insurance companies and regulators continue to push for higher standards. Do a search for recurrence in the BCA:
http://bca.saiglobal.com/FreeDocs/bca_archive/BCA96Amdts/Vol2A2.pdf
For example:
and
This is an area that Judith Curry seas as potential for improved climate models. The current determinant of ARI is weather history. She can see potential for climate models to help forecast longer term changes that might increase or reduce risk of serious weather events.
https://www.cfanclimate.net
10
When looking at an extreme event it is best to have a standard measure. Otherwise science reporting becomes like a Test Match reporting from someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of Wisden’s. Every match will have a new record. After another heatwave in Adelaide in January 2012, Joanne posted some statistics from Ian Hill of heatwaves, defined as 3 or more consecutive days where the maximum temperature exceeds 38C with data going back to the 1880s
I converted these records into frequency graphs. There were quite a lot of extreme heatwaves in the last decade. Far more than in any decade since the 1930s. But there were also lots of extreme heatwaves in the 1890s and 1900s as well. So, as far as Adelaide is concerned, extreme heatwaves have not recently become more frequent as catastrophic global warming theory predicts.
30
Just to clarify, I defined what a heatwave was for that particular exercise only. It would be an interesting task to list the many different definitions of “heatwave” in use, at least one of which identified “record” heatwaves occurring in winter! They really meant “consecutive days of positive variation from the norm” but they still called it a heatwave.
20
Any lawyers here?
If a person seeks to make money by promoting unsupportable claims, aren’t they breaking some law or other?
(Mind you, all the other religions get away with it)
30
What a pity Gore is so ignorant about our planet earth. Dr Goklany, Dr Ridley, Lomborg and now Dr Rosling have tried their best to dispel our ignorance, yet Gore still tells every porky in the book.
Deaths from extreme weather events have dropped dramatically since the 1920s and are at record LOW levels today.
Here’s DR Rosling trying to wake people up to their ignorance during his TED talk. Just watch the first 5 minutes where he includes the best data and evidence about extreme events.
Unfortunately some fools just seem to be addicted to watching and talking about this type of climate porn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5xF-UYgdg
30
We have to thank Steve Goddard for this list “climate change” disaster from the past – also known as extreme, severe weather incidents.
http://www.c3headlines.com/bad-stuff-happens.html
Steve Goddard has the website http://realclimatescience.com/
50
Every heatwave, drought and downpour,
If either less frequent or more,
As disasters will do,
To blame man’s CO2,
By the chief of alarmists, Al Gore.
90
Here’s Dr Rosling’s 200 countries since the start of the Industrial revolution.
This is how fossil fuels pulled the entire world out of extreme poverty and increased life expectancy, wealth etc to where we are today.
Gore can tell all his porkies but he cannot change history. This video takes just 4 minutes of your time and uses the most accurate data available.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
30
‘This is how fossil fuels pulled the entire world out of extreme poverty and increased life expectancy, wealth etc to where we are today.’
Global warming pulled us out of extreme poverty and increased life expectancy, not fossil fuels. If you go back to the Medieval Warm Period you can see the same phenomenon.
European wealth was built on the backs of slaves.
00
El gordo you are talking nonsense. The use of fossil fuels made the difference and helped with new inventions, new technology and all the rest of the mod cons we have today.
Primitive humans and humans living up to 1800 had a similar life expectancy, certainly under 40 years. As John Christy said without fossil fuels life is brutal and short and any genuine base load power (like nuclear) would have a similar impact.
In 1950 China had a very low life expectancy and that only changed slowly until they started to industrialise and use fossil fuels to the extent they do today. And over the last 30 to 40 years their life expectancy has increased to about 75 years or within 6 years of western countries.
And don’t forget we’re talking about 1.3 billion people dragged out of poverty over this very short period of time. In fact it’s a modern miracle.
No slavery involved but a take up of new technologies and investment and they now use more coal than the rest of the world combined. Think about it and please watch the Rosling videos.
10
I see it more as an exercise in economic history, with infrastructure building during the MWP and RWP a sign of innovation and population growth.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2163610/Fascinating-new-graph-shows-economic-history-world-Jesus.html
Admittedly the Chinese economic revolution is unprecedented.
10
FakeNewsMSM is promoting Al, his movie & renewables like crazy today, including in National Geographic Australia.
note: Al gets his full FORMER title; current Aussie PM gets nothing! no hint there was anything wrong with Al’s first movie:
19 Jul: NatGeoAustralia: Lulu Morris: Al Gore Praises South Australia
Stoked with their plans for a giant battery
***Former US vice president Al Gore is down under and only has nice things to say…
“The reason it’s so important is that the sun doesn’t shine at night and the wind doesn’t blow all the time, so if you can store it and use it when you need it, then the cheaper cost of renewable electricity can be enjoyed around the clock.”…
Al Gore is touring Australia right now to promote the sequel to his award winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth…
“And if you look at what China’s doing and what India’s doing they are turning away from coal.
“They’ve shut hundreds of coal burning generating plants; they are closing a lot of their coal mines because they see that not only is renewable electricity cheaper but it creates more jobs.”…
This comes ahead of ***Turnbull’s decision to allow coal mining giant Adani to build a coal mine next to our most treasured site, the Great Barrier Reef.
Hopefully, after Al Gore’s visit to Australia, the decision will be re-visited and with any hope overturned.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/australia/al-gore-praises-south-australia.aspx
Lulu in April – hilarious:
19 Apr: NatGeoAustralia: Lulu Morris: Australian Woman Shortlisted for Mars One
Aussies in space
http://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/australia/australian-woman-shortlisted-for-mars-one.aspx
11 Apr: Apr: NatGeoAustralia: Lulu Morris: The Great Barrier Reef is Now Terminal
Water quality expert, Jon Brodie from James Cook University admits the reef is now in a ‘terminal stage’.
“We’ve given up, it’s been my life managing water quality, we’ve failed.”…
***pity young Lulu’s vision of Australia is so dire.
Facebook: Lulu Morris, National Geographic Australia
***World Vision Australia
Sales Promoter · 2014 to present
https://www.facebook.com/lulu.morris.90
30
Do they report UNESCO’s finding last year that the Reef is not in danger? It’s as if that report did not happen. Bleaching, pollution, coal. The reef is doomed, according to the experts at James Cook University, home of the 97% consensus that UNESCO are wrong.
40
Al bloody Gore, makes an issue of the flood in Brisbane, caused by accountants running a flood prevention device as a revenue stream…its called a flood compartment for a reason! Idiots!
[Belatedly published. Email coming your way. – Jo]
00
Al Gore praises South Australia, but, Gore won’t live there.
30
As the good people of South Australia and Victoria sort their rubbish into recyclables, the only plastics recycler in South Australia has shut, costing 35 jobs and entirely thanks to the impossibly high cost of electricity. Gore flies home with his Victorian government gift of $300,000 for telling us we also are doing the right things. Reminiscent of Sir Bob Geldoff who delivered lectures on poverty in Melbourne for $100,000 a talk, plus expenses for his entourage.
At the same time, a giant fire in Victoria’s acres of plastic waste in Western suburbs Coolaroo has stopped blowing huge clouds of toxic gases over Melbourne, another recycling success and again possibly indicative of the impossibility of recycling with the world’s highest electricity prices. Some of the hundreds of residents evacuated have joined a class action for compensation.
The Victoria government has just bought our largest Timber mill who cannot make money as the same government stopped them from harvesting enough to be profitable. They wanted to move to Tasmania, taking the jobs with them. So now we have a public service timber mill who are not allowed mill timber and our toxic unrecycled plastics cloud blows over Al Gore’s plane as he flies off in first class to help another client save the environment. Almost beyond belief. Thanks Al.
Meanwhile we all pay our council rates for processing recycled plastic, which will no longer go anywhere. Weatherill is spending hundreds of millions to keep jobs in Whyalla and Port Pirie and Andrews at Alcoa and Hastings, but no one is too concerned that all the plastics recycling is utterly fake as the clouds of really toxic carbon compounds and CO2 blow over Melbourne.
70
Yeah but apart from all that VICs going pretty good, dont you think?
20
Down is a valid answer to that question
10
A few comments. Firstly, that flood in Brisbane was entirely man made, due to holding the water in the Wivenhoe dam by acolytes of Gore and into which there was a Royal Commission. Gore and Flannery are answerable for that disaster which was nearly the worst in the world at the time. If the earth work Wivenhoe dam overflowed and three Sydney harbours crashed into the Brisbane valley it would have swept away a whole city and a million people in an hour. The Wivenhoe dam reached over 190% full, all of the safety reserve gone. In Brisbane a dam can half fill in a night and more rain was coming. Only the recently installed disaster plugs opened as intended and did what total political paralysis did not allow, save Brisbane. By law, Wivenhoe was supposed to open at 100%.
Secondly, a little on 500 year and 1000 year events. In fact all random things. The farmers are right. Things come in threes.
Imagine if a one in ten year every turned up on cue, exactly every ten years. That is not random. Anything which happens with equal spacing is not random. 11 years has been the cycle in Egypt for 1600 years on record. That is not random.
Consider a series of things equally spaced. Clearly not random. Move only every second event in either direction to maintain the average spacing and you instantly get pairs and triples. That is random. The very logic behind Gore’s idea shows a complete lack of understanding of random events but he and Flannery were equally bad at mathematics.
The only real puzzle for historians is how they reached the heights they did, one to a Nobel Prize and the other to Australia’s Chief Climate officer, both essayists with no qualifications in meteorology or hard science. Both in the right place at the right time to capitalize on the most profitable worldwide scam in human history.
60
Sorry, which would have been, not was. Past Subjunctive. It nearly was. Many people sat up all night fearing disaster, man made disaster.
30
like theirABC’s Q&A audience times a thousand, Gore gets a standing ovation & screams of excitement from this CAGW-loving audience. funny how Al’s disaster-porn effects them this way- you would think they’d be sobbing:
VIDEO: 1hour-plus: 19 Jul: NYT: Coral Davenport: Talking About Climate Change With Al Gore
In a TimesTalks conversation in New York on Tuesday, I spoke with Mr. Gore about what went through his mind when Mr. Trump made his Paris announcement. Watch to find out how the Nobel Prize-winning climate change activist sees the landscape of policy unfolding in the 21st century, as the effects of climate change become more clear.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/climate/al-gore-climate-change-timestalks.html
more hard-hitting FakeNewsMSM coverage today:
CNN to host ‘global town hall’ with Gore on ‘climate crisis’
The Hill· 5h ago
Al Gore Plots Climate Change Special With Fat Joe, Steve Aoki
RollingStone.com-20 hours ago
Al Gore, ‘Inconvenient Sequel’ Directors Slated for SiriusXM Variety …
Variety-7 hours ago
Al Gore Is Getting…Hotter
ELLE.com-6 hours ago
this one is NOVEL-LENGTH. read it and wonder how,
despite all this organised propaganda over decades, there are still so many CAGW sceptics in the US?
20 Jul: BuzzFeed: Katie Hasty: How Documentaries Can Make Climate Believers Out Of Christians
Religious leaders and documentary filmmakers are preaching the same sermon, connecting glaciers in Greenland to clean air in Atlanta in order to convert the unconverted.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiehasty/climate-documentaries-are-christian-movies-too?utm_term=.lnGKnB7dLM#.lv7bYW70v1
Twitter: Katie Hasty
https://twitter.com/TheKatieHasty?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
30
Excellent point. “Gore gets a standing ovation & screams of excitement from this CAGW-loving audience. funny how Al’s disaster-porn effects them this way- you would think they’d be sobbing”
No, they are barracking. Their jobs, their beliefs depend on Climate Change. They want more ‘evidence’, even if it just disaster porn. The environmental disaster at Coolaroo does not get a mention, due entirely to the utter failure of recycling and the total government disinterest in recycling.
It reminds me of the 3,000 cases of Cholera in Melbourne before sewage was retrofitted in the 1880s, as with London. The council workers in Caulfield would collect the ‘night soil’ and take it to the boundaries of Caulfield and dump it. The site at Coolaroo made great sums of money for everyone in the recycling business, including councils. No one seems to mind that it is not actually recycled.
The environment is the gift which keeps making people rich but do any of those people cheering care about what really happens?
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Global Warming Derangement Syndrome: Please Make It Stop
“The alarmists’ screeching is incessant, their lectures grating and without restraint, their hypocrisy as fetid as the wrong side of a sewage treatment plant.”
http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/global-warming-derangement-syndrome-please-make-it-stop/
WMO: Global warming remains major culprit behind extreme weather
“Using the climate assessment models of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the WMO predicted that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, the Earth’s average global surface temperature could rise more than 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, meaning more intense heat waves and more extremely hot days and nights ahead.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-07/18/c_136453724.htm
Sigh … I’m all warmed out …
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Here are some testable weather predictions. Northern hemisphere winter.
http://www.globalweatheroscillations.com/2018-winter-predictions
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interesting but how are they testable? How do you distinguish a correct prediction from a chance correct guess?
I’d be willing to bet (but not willing to do the work involved) that there are hundreds of web sites offering predictions over the same period – each different. From those, some would claim to be right or close or justified by some criteria (probably the criteria of the predicting entity). Among the correct ones would be multiple claims for why they wre correct (ie different mechanisms algorithms, theories to derive the prediction).
Does that mean we should applaud those people who got it right or remain sceptical since there is no actual way (ie they are not testable) to assess whether they were lucky or not?
I predict that it is highly unlikely that you’d get no one guessing correctly by chance.
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and it looks like GWO has not done so well previously using their methods
http://jennifermarohasy.com/2008/08/david-dilley-predicts-global-cooling-now/
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Yeah I had a run in with Dilley a while back and we agreed to disagree.
Cooling has been delayed by three super El Nino and all we need is a string of La Nina to drive world temperatures down below the line for a decade. Embedded will be a Gleissberg and the upper reaches of the Thames will freeze over.
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The upper reaches of the thames froze over in the winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11. I watched the ice flowing under Waterloo Bridge. There will be no more ice fairs by the way.
The old London Bridge, demolished in 1831, had narrow sluices which held the surface water in the pool of London immobile allowing extensive freezing. The head under the bridge at low tide exceeded 6 feet. At low water in 2011 there was extensive ice on the exposed beaches by the Tate Modern.
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Do you think the droughty conditions in Australia and South Africa are related?
Its a signal of some sort.
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what are you trying to say? related is meaningless. Of course they are related since they are on the same planet…
Do you mean causing an affect on the other. Originating from the same affect (ie drought v no drought)? Something else?
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Okay I’ll help you out.
‘Professor Will Steffen, said a much clearer picture of climate change’s influence on drought was emerging through recent research.
“There is stronger evidence that the front that brings rain in from the Southern Ocean has shifted south by about a degree in latitude, while the subtropical ridge, which is a belt of high pressure in central Australia, has intensified,” he said.
“We are seeing this kind of thing consistently around the planet. This is being driven very strongly by climate change, through the models and supported by observations.”
Guardian
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and?
You are not going to tie this in with the GWO predictions are you?
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Gravitational theory on climate change has a lot to recommend it, a Barycentric phenomenon.
With the intensification of the STR I have to prove its a global cooling signal, otherwise its game over.
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By the way, Dilley is predicting rapid cooling beginning in 2019, similar to the late 1940s. I would say that’s a safe bet.
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Isn’t it amazing that changes to the global weather patterns are now being strongly driven by the models, not to mention being supported by observations. That observation god, he mighty strong ju ju.
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The Klimatariat struck it lucky with this yarn, but what they don’t say is that the STR intensified in the early 1940s. Which. in a saner world, would support the notion of imminent global cooling.
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I have posted this link to a talk by David Dilley before and asked for any criticisms of the theory but no one has responded with any.
https://youtu.be/w4hbKF5-qUE
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which means what? How about his theory got it wrong as a criticism?
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do a 180 degree turn…no matter…MSM will gobble it up:
19 Jul: SacramentoBee: Carolyn Wilke:Climate change could mean a much wetter California
Californians have been bracing themselves for a drier future accompanying a warming climate. But research by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, suggests that the state may actually get wetter in the event of severe climate change.
The study, published July 6 in Nature Communications (LINK), reports that more years in the state could look like El Niño ones, when California typically has wetter winters.
The authors found that average annual precipitation in California could increase by about 12 percent if nothing is done to curb carbon emissions. Average precipitation in the winter could increase by as much as 30 percent. A wetter climate, however, might not offset the overwhelmingly negative effects of a warming climate…
That wetter scenario would take place in a future where atmospheric carbon dioxide reaches almost 1,000 parts per million, more than doubling what it is now and corresponding to the planet heating by between 5 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit…
Most previous studies predicted that California would be drier with climate change, said Robert Allen, one of the authors of the paper and an assistant professor of climatology at UC Riverside…
Allen and co-author Rainer Luptowitz analyzed dozens of climate models, focusing on those that best captured the climate processes behind California’s precipitation…
“Just because we have these projections of precipitation increase, no one should leap to the conclusion that we aren’t going to be severely impacted in our water resources,” says David Neelin, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UCLA who was not affiliated with the work. “It’s a reduction in the bad news for California.”…
Allen said the projections shouldn’t change the way policymakers plan for the future just yet.
***More researchers need to reproduce the study’s results first.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article160865574.html
funny thing is the writer’s tweet suggested the piece would have something about it being GOOD NEWS, yet there’s nothing of the sort in the above:
Twitter: Carolyn Wilke
2017 AAAS Mass Media Fellow at SacBee, PhD @NorthwesternU researching #nanoparticles and #nanotoxicity to #bacteria
TWEET: A warming climate might bring wetter years in CA, but that doesn’t mean all good news…LINK
https://twitter.com/carolynmwilke
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19 Jul: Real Climate Science: Tony Heller: July 19, 1934 – Every State Over 90 Degrees
July 19, 1934 was one of the hottest days in US history. Every state recorded temperatures over 90 degrees, and the average maximum temperature across the US was 95 degrees. The only other year which came close was two years later in 1936…
Compare vs. the same date in 2014, when most states had no 90 degree temperatures…
Contrary to the seemingly endless lies of government funded climate scientists, US summers are much cooler than they used to be. They don’t want you to know about The Grapes of Wrath. Their job is to erase history.
https://realclimatescience.com/2017/07/july-19-1934-every-state-over-90-degrees/
19 Jul: Daily Mail: Harry Pettit: Cutting emissions isn’t enough: We must remove CO2 from the atmosphere as soon as possible to avoid extreme climate change, warn scientists
Scientists say we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by 12.5%
Geoengineering measures could accomplish much of the needed CO2 removal
These could include replenishing forests or chemically altering the oceans
The researchers hope their study will push governments toward greener policies
An international team of scientists led by Professor Jim Hansen, Nasa’s former climate science chief, said their conclusion that the world had already missed targets to curb global warming to within acceptable levels was ‘sufficiently grim’ to force them to urge ‘rapid emission reductions’…
Asked to assess the world’s current progress in fighting climate change, Professor Hansen, now at Columbia University, New York, told the Independent the ‘s*** is hitting the fan’…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4704130/To-safeguard-Earth-remove-CO2-atmosphere.html
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***Zeke says adjustments reduce the warming!
19 Jul: CarbonBrief: Zeke Hausfather: Explainer: How data adjustments affect global temperature records
These adjustments have long been a heated point of debate. Many climate sceptics like to argue that scientists “exaggerate” warming by lowering past temperatures and raising present ones…
Christopher Booker, a climate sceptic writing in the Sunday Telegraph in 2015, called them “the greatest scientific scandal in history”. A new report from the rightwing US thinktank, the Cato Institute, even claims that adjustments account for “nearly all the warming” in the historical record.
But analysis by Carbon Brief comparing raw global temperature records to the adjusted data finds that the truth is much more mundane: adjustments have relatively little impact on global temperatures, particularly over the past 50 years.
***In fact, over the full period when measurements are available, adjustments actually have the net effect of reducing the amount of long-term warming that the world has experienced…
Methodological footnote: READ ALL
Note: The author of this article was a member of the team that produced the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project. In addition, he is the lead author on the paper mentioned assessing the Karl et al 2015 buoy corrections and the paper on US climate reference network comparisons.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-how-data-adjustments-affect-global-temperature-records
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Good info Pat well done.
GeoffW
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Al Gore spreading FAKE news.
GeoffW
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What! No, never! Big Al would not utter untruths … unless they were in the script, that his minders cooked up earlier.
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cherry-picking in China:
19 Jul: Reuters: Beijing aims to curb city’s use of coal by 2020
(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Richard Pullin)
China’s capital city Beijing is aiming to cut its coal consumption to below 5 million tonnes by 2020 and limit the use of coal in smog-prone areas, a document issued by the Beijing Municipal Government showed on Tuesday.
The city, which suffers from bouts of choking pollution, also pledged in a five-year-plan to boost renewable energy’s share of total energy consumption to at least 8 percent by 2020 from 6.6 percent in 2015.
Beijing currently uses about 11 million tonnes of coal a year but has been strongly promoting the use of gas and renewable energy.
The city also aims to keep total annual energy consumption below 76 million tonnes of coal equivalent by 2020, compared with 68.5 million tonnes in 2015, the document showed.
It will also try to cap total emissions of CO2, or climate-warming greenhouse gas, by around 2020 or even earlier, according to the plan.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-coal-idUSKBN1A406R
19 Jul: ThomsonReutersFoundation: Japan, China, South Korea bankroll Indonesia’s coal despite Paris pledge
(Reporting By Thin Lei Win, Editing by Laurie Goering)
Australia-based environmental finance organization Market Forces said it analyzed 22 coal power deals in Indonesia since January 2010 and found state-run financiers for the three nations were involved in 18 of them.
In all, foreign banks, both commercial and state-owned, are providing 98 percent of the debt finance for the projects, amounting to $16.7 billion.
Indonesian banks provided just 2 percent of the financial resources for the projects, according to the Market Forces analysis published this week…
Market Forces said the Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim) was involved in seven of the coal power deals, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the China Development Bank (CDB) in five deals each, and the Korea Development Bank (KDB) in one deal.
The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank) is also involved in one deal, together with JBIC, it said…
JBIC declined to comment on the projects it is involved in Indonesia but said in an e-mail that emerging countries are looking to expand their power sources in response to surging demand and are using coal due to its economic efficiency and reliability…
Korean Eximbank declined to comment.
Multiple calls to the public relations departments of CDB and China Exim went unanswered. KDB did not respond to emails seeking comment…
Globally, many countries are shutting down or putting on hold plans for coal-fired power plants as costs for wind and solar power plummet. China has been leading the charge, in part to limit pollution and climate change – though it has also been financially backing new coal plants in ***Pakistan…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-coal-idUSKBN1A411Z
***why single out Pakistan, Reuters? let me help you:
(China is) “involved in nearly 100 coal-fired power projects abroad, in countries including Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mongolia and Iran… In 2013, President Xi Jinping announced “One Belt, One Road,” a massive project that involves infrastructure construction and trade expansion in more than 60 countries across Asia, Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East.
From 2001 to 2016, Chinese firms were involved in 240 coal power projects in those countries, many of which rank among the world’s most vulnerable to the damaging effects of climate change, including heat waves, floods, droughts and melting glaciers.
When the projects are complete, they’ll have a total generating capacity of 251 gigawatts, according to the Global Environmental Institute, a Beijing-based nonprofit. (By contrast, only about 70 gigawatts of solar power was installed globally in 2016. About half of that was in China.)…
Yet since 2016, China has announced, or begun developing, several new coal projects throughout the world, according to the online magazine Chinadialogue and the nonprofit CEE Bankwatch Network. The projects’ total capacity — more than 52 gigawatts — is more than that of planned coal-plant closures in the U.S. by 2020… – LA Times, 1 June 2017 “China is getting serious about fighting climate change at home. Abroad, its investments tell a different story”
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-dirty-energy-20170601-story.html
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17 Jul: Reuters: China June coal output rises as summer power demand heats up
China’s coal production rose 10.6 percent to 308 million tonnes in June from a year ago, data showed on Monday, as miners ramped up output to meet a pick-up in demand during the hot summer months, data from the National Statistics Bureau showed.
Authorities have called for coal miners to boost output to ensure power supplies as people crank up air conditioners with a prolonged heatwave hitting across the country.
Heavy rainfall has also slashed hydropower capacity in the south, helping boost demand for coal-fired electricity.
Thermal coal prices have surged this year, hitting a fresh record of 614.6 yuan ($90.81) a tonne in early trading on Monday…
The most-traded coke futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange has gained 32 percent this year.
https://www.reuters.com/article/china-economy-output-coal-idUSENNH7D0RY
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saw this behind paywall:
19 Jul: UK Times: Katie Gibbons: Why folklore carries more weight than Met Office for weather forecasts
When it comes to predicting the weather cows have more authority than the experts in meteorology, according to a study.
Three quarters of the public have admitted using old wives’ tales and popular folklore to forecast the weather even though there is little proof that they work, research carried out by the Met Office suggests…
A survey of more than 2,000 people found that 64 per cent believed these predictions to be more accurate than official weather forecasts even though almost half…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/why-folklore-carries-more-weight-than-met-office-for-weather-forecasts-3x8f326pt?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2076652&MN=19.07.2017%20Red%20Box%20Degrees%20(1)
so went here for more, including link to 2min44sec video:
18 Jul: UK Met Office: Do cows really lie down when it’s about to rain?
Over 60% believe it’s true. But, is it? Three-quarters of the British public have used folklore such as ‘red sky at night, shepherd’s delight’ to predict the weather. Half have been caught out by the weather when they relied on folklore methods.
The public’s fascination with the weather is well-known, and few have not heard of weather folklore such as ‘red sky at night, shepherd’s delight’, or that it can be ‘too cold to snow’.
We found in a new survey that the use of these saying was more prevalent than expected with three quarters (75%) of UK adults saying they use folklore to predict the weather. The most commonly-used were revealed to be:
•Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight – used by 70% of UK adults
•It can be too cold to snow – used by 49%
•Cows lie down when it is about to rain – used by 44%
•Pine cones open up when good weather is coming – used by 26%
•If it rains on St Swithin’s day, it will rain on each of the next 40 days – used by 22%
In total, 58% of UK adults think that these methods are accurate to some degree, and incredibly, almost two thirds (64%) think they can be more reliable than official forecasts. However, nearly half (48%) of UK adults who have used traditional methods to predict the weather say they have been ‘caught out’.
To help separate fact from fiction, experts at the Met Office teamed up with radio DJ and television presenter Scott Mills. In a video (LINK) Scott and Met Office meteorologist and presenter Charlie Powell investigate the science behind the folklore…READ ON
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2017/do-cows-really-lie-down-when-its-about-to-rain
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HOW CAN COUNCILS BE SIGNING ON TO UNELECTED CLIMATE COUNCIL INITIATIVES??? SOMETHING DOESN’T SEEM RIGHT HERE.
links to the Conversation, which links to the report, & Cities Power Partnership.
19 Jul: Guardian: Michael Slezak: Australian local councils lead the way in tackling climate change as federal policy stalls
Thirty-five councils pledge to switch renewable energy, maximise public transport use and develop more climate-resilient communities
The pledges by the councils, which serve three million Australians, were made as part of the Climate Council’s launch of the Cities Power Partnership, which encourages towns and cities via local governments to reduce emissions and increase resilience.
The launch came as the Climate Council released a report showing the unique threats and opportunities climate change poses for Australian towns and cities, and highlighting earlier findings that 70% of the emissions reductions required to keep global warming at 2C can be achieved by making changes at the local level…
Councils from every state and territory except South Australia signed the pledge, and included Canberra, Alice Springs, Newcastle, North Sydney, Kur-ring-gai and Penrith…
The chief councillor of the Climate Council, Tim Flannery, urged “councils across the rest of Australia to take the pledge and get on with the job of combatting climate change”.
Writing in the Conversation (LINK), the Climate Council councillor and scientist Lesley Hughes said: “Ultimately, the [Cities Power Partnership] is designed to help local communities sidestep the political roadblocks at national level, and just get on with the job of implementing climate policies.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/19/australian-local-councils-lead-the-way-in-tackling-climate-change-as-federal-policy-stalls
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no other coverage as yet. this takes a “Greens” perspective, but is nonetheless interesting:
19 Jul: EurActiv: German nuclear damage shows atomic and renewable power are unhappy bedfellows
By Dagmar Dehmer | Der Tagesspiegel | translated by Sam Morgan
A Germany nuclear plant was damaged because its operators increased and decreased its output to respond to energy grid fluctuations. The incident supports the theory that nuclear and renewable energy generation are incompatible. EURACTIV’s partner Der Tagesspiegel reports.
The Brokdorf nuclear power station, located in northern Germany, was taken offline in February after maintenance showed its reactor’s fuel rods had begun to unexpectedly oxidise…
The practice of quickly increasing or decreasing electricity generation to compensate for excessive or reduced renewable output has been particularly prevalent since 2015.
In 2015, the cost of switching off wind turbines in the northern German region, when electricity networks had reached their capacity, was particularly high…READ ALL
https://www.euractiv.com/section/electricity/news/german-nuclear-damage-shows-atomic-and-renewable-power-are-unhappy-bedfellows/
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19 Jul: CarbonPulse: EU chemicals industry outlines paths to 2050 carbon neutrality amid €200/tonne carbon prices
European chemical industry lobby Cefic on Wednesday published a roadmap of what the sector may require to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century, when its modelling predicts carbon prices could reach nearly €200/tonne.
19 Jul: CEFIC (The European Chemical Industry Council): How the European chemical industry could become carbon neutral by 2050
Brussels, 19 July 2017 – The chemical industry’s ambition is to play a leading role in the transformation of the European economy to a low-carbon and circular one by creating innovative climate and energy friendly solutions for its own processes and for many other industries through chemical products. A new report Low carbon energy and feedstock for the European chemical industry (LINK) released today explores how the chemical industry can become carbon neutral by 2050…
http://www.cefic.org/newsroom/top-story/How-the-European-chemical-industry-could-become-carbon-neutral-by-2050/
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another loyal advisor!
19 Jul: CNBC: Dow Chemical’s CEO — a Trump advisor — says the US will ‘find a way back’ to Paris Agreement
by Kelsey Kats
“I do believe we will find a way back to [the Paris Agreement],” said Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical CEO & chairman, addressing a small crowd at the New Lab in Brooklyn.
Liveris, head of Trump’s manufacturing council, spoke Friday at the DS Virgin Innovation Summit in New York, an event to promote sustainable technology…
Sir Richard Branson, who also participated in the discussion, called the Trump administration’s position on the Paris Agreement “incredibly bizarre” and said Trump may be regretting his decision to withdraw from it…
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/dow-chemical-ceo-liveris-us-will-come-back-to-paris-agreement.html
Royal DSM is, partly, a chemical company:
18 Jul: CNBC: Anmar Frangoul: CEO urges companies to wise up to carbon pricing or face a ‘Kodak moment’
Carbon pricing – a system whereby companies and governments put a price on their carbon emissions with the broad goal of tackling the effects of climate change – is not dead in the water, according to the CEO of food supplement firm Royal DSM.
“I would even say the opposite,” Feike Sijbesma told CNBC on Tuesday, adding that China was set to introduce a price on carbon nationwide at the end of 2017.
“More than 5,000 companies in China will fall under the carbon pricing regime by the year end,” he said…
“I would even say to companies: If you don’t want to create your own ‘Kodak moment’, and if you want to future proof your business, I’d rather stimulate companies to put a price on carbon internally already, right now, like we do,” he said.
Sijbesma went on to reference the landmark Paris Agreement…
“Even if one country – although be it big – is stepping out of this … We will implement Paris and we have to,” he said. “And I think many companies are investing in the ‘green stuff’ already today.”
Almost 1,000 companies around the world already had an internal price on carbon, with DSM setting itself a price of 50 euros ($57.76) per ton, he added.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/18/ceo-urges-companies-wise-up-to-carbon-pricing-kodak-moment.html?recirc=taboolainternal
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PDF: 112 pages: June 2017: World Bank: The Growing Role of Minerals and Metals for a Low Carbon Future
P18: Demand for Metal Will Increase, but for What Metals?
The clear conclusion to be drawn from the above discussion is that the acceleration in deployment of the key low carbon technologies in the wind, solar, and energy storage areas has real implications for the commodities market, and not only rare earths, such as indium and neodymium. Aluminum, copper, silver, bauxite, iron, lead, and others all stand to potentially benefit from a strong shift to low carbon technologies
It would be reasonable to expect that all low carbon energy systems are more likely than not to be more metal intensive than high-carbon systems. In fact, all literature examining material and metals implications for supplying clean technologies agree strongly that building these technologies will result in considerably more material-intensive demand than would traditional fossil fuel mechanisms…
Wind power shows the scale of the challenge. The technology as a whole is predicted to become an increasingly important component of many countries’ energy systems, especially those with significant wind resources. However, within wind energy, two main types of technology choices are available: onshore and offshore wind. The main technology difference between these geographically separated technologies is the use of permanent magnets in offshore wind versus the use of geared drives in onshore. Permanent magnets are a more expensive and metal-intensive option, but the use of such technology requires less maintenance and replacement, and is therefore more suited to the challenging conditions in which offshore wind operates.
Thus, an energy scenario that involves greater penetration of offshore wind would result in much greater demand for permanent magnets and rare earth metals such as neodymium…
A fully electric fleet is predicted to involve massive increases in the demand for lithium, used in the lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. In contrast, a fleet that involves less penetration by electrical technology and is dominated by mild hybrid vehicles could lead to much lower levels of lithium demand but much higher demand for lead for use in lead-acid batteries. If hydrogen fuel cell vehicles predominate, then demand for platinum group metals could increase rapidly…ETC ETC ETC
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/207371500386458722/pdf/117581-WP-P159838-PUBLIC-ClimateSmartMiningJuly.pdf
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Jo the 1900 Galveston Hurricane was the worst in US history when CO2 levels were low. There were 6-10,000+ deaths, up to 10 times the Katrina Hurricane death numbers
I wonder why Al Bore did not show the National Geographic video of the damage? (sarc)
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A list of US hurricanes from The National Hurricane Center (NOAA) here.
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Hey, there was a lot of mention of flooding and landslide disasters but spare a thought for that poor man Mr Gore showed us, that lost his shoe to global warming. (can I say poor sole? or is that pun too insensitive?)
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