…
After lasting for thousands of years through wild swings of temperature, scientists could never have guessed that the Great Barrier Reef has evolved to cope with climate change.
The reef spans 2,300km and has spawning events so large that they can be viewed from space, but who knew that some parts of the reef appear to be safer and more resilient, and would repopulate the rest of the reef? (Apparently, not most of the scientists who have been selling the message of doom). Instead it made sense that 100% of the reef was at the same risk from predatory starfish and hot months, and that any day now, the reef might be polished off for good.
Perhaps some scientists had an idea, but when newspaper headlines declared the reef was on the brink of extinction, or doomed, where were they? (Possibly in hiding — afterall, Peter Ridd is one of the only ones to speak out, and he’s now fighting to save his job).
Crikey! It restores how much?
From the abstract:
The great replenishment potential of these ‘robust source reefs’, which may supply 47% of the ecosystem in a single dispersal event, emerges from the interaction between oceanographic conditions and geographic location…
Righto. This 3% of the reef matters. So lets not build coal mines on thes
e parts, yeah?
[Telegraph] A new study has revealed a collection of 100 individual reefs spread throughout the 2,000 mile-long marine ecosystem that not only withstand warming seas and attacking starfish but also protect others.
… a collection of reefs lying in cooler areas able to supply their larvae – fertilised eggs – to other reefs via ocean currents.
“The presence of these well-connected reefs on the Great Barrier Reef means that the whole system of coral reefs possesses a level of resilience that may help it bounce back from disturbances, as the recovery of the damaged locations is supported by the influx of coral larvae from the non-exposed reefs,” said Dr Karlo Hock, who led the research.
(A) Robust sources are the reefs that possess high replenishment potential while also having low risk of bleaching and COTS outbreaks. (B) When robust sources are superimposed on estimates of acute thermal stress, the region of lower stress in the southern GBR is clearly visible. Most robust sources are located in a region where cooler oceanic water of the SCJ, and to a lesser extent the NCJ, of the South Equatorial Current flushes the GBR reef matrix. COTS, crown-of-thorns starfish; GBR, Great Barrier Reef; NCJ, North Caledonian Jet; SCJ, South Caledonian Jet.
If properly protected, these cool-water reefs could supply larvae to nearly half (45 per cent) of the entire ecosystem in a single year, it said. “Finding these 100 reefs is a little like revealing the cardiovascular system of the Great Barrier Reef,” said the study’s lead author Peter Mumby, professor at the University of Queensland.
But don’t stop panicking:
Similarly, the Queensland University academics said the 100 healthy reefs cannot be solely relied upon to mitigate the damage caused by climate change.
“These findings by no means suggest that the Great Barrier Reef corals are safe and in great condition, and there are no reasons for concern,” said Dr Hock.
Professor Peter Mumby, who also worked on the paper, said “Saving the Great Barrier Reef is possible but requires serious mitigation of climate change and continued investments in local protection.”
With any good news story, it’s obligatory to remind everyone that we always need more concern and more money.
(A) Robust sources are the reefs that possess high replenishment potential while also having low risk of bleaching and COTS outbreaks. (B) When robust sources are superimposed on estimates of acute thermal stress, the region of lower stress in the southern GBR is clearly visible. Most robust sources are located in a region where cooler oceanic water of the SCJ, and to a lesser extent the NCJ, of the South Equatorial Current flushes the GBR reef matrix [35]. Data provided in S1 Data. COTS, crown-of-thorns starfish; GBR, Great Barrier Reef; NCJ, North Caledonian Jet; SCJ, South Caledonian Jet.
Press Release:
Just three per cent of the Great Barrier Reef’s corals may hold the key to regenerating reefs damaged after major disturbances, new research reveals.
Researchers from The University of Queensland, CSIRO, Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Sheffield have pinpointed 100 reefs that have the potential to supply larvae to almost half of the Great Barrier Reef’s ecosystem in one year.
UQ School of Biological Sciences and ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies Professor Peter Mumby said these reefs appeared to be less at risk of the damaging effects of bleaching and starfish predation.
“They are well connected to other downstream reefs by ocean currents and can provide coral larvae (fertilised eggs), which float on ocean currents, to support the recovery of other reefs,” Professor Mumby said.
“Corals on these reefs should fare relatively well and be able to supply larvae to as many reefs as possible, without spreading the pest, crown-of-thorns starfish,” Professor Mumby said.
“Finding these 100 reefs is a little like revealing the cardiovascular system of the Great Barrier Reef.”
We knew something pumped blood, but we didn’t know exactly where it was. Now, thanks to this hard work, we have a map.
To alarmists it won’t bring relief,
That damage is known to be brief,
As repairs are nearby,
Through its own D.I.Y.,
Of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
–Ruairi
REFERENCE
Hock et al (2017) Connectivity and systemic resilience of the Great Barrier Reef PLOS Biology (doi 10.1371/journal.pbio.2003355)
Image: Wikimedia, author Wise Hok Wai Lum: Flynn Reef 2014.
The doom and gloom reef scientists have proved themselves to be less than scientists, and more like propagandists for the global warming fraud. That I am paying their wages with my taxes because they suck on the government teat, peeves me somewhat.
261
When it comes to climate scientology, all news is bad news and there is no hope (and send money).
180
Below is a brilliant comment from over at WUWT. It seems to me to describe the approach of many climate and environmental ‘scientists’ to a T:
“Some scientists use science like a pimp uses a hooker, they dress it up, abuse it and throw it out there to make money.”
90
If we can’t mine coal on the Great Barrier Reef can we at least log it for woodchips ?
181
Go right ahead, Robert. You never know: if you dig deep enough you just might find coal. Or oil.
50
There is definitely oil.
The Rundle shale project proved there is quite a lot just off & north of Gladstone.
Can you imagine the scream that would go up from the greenies if anyone tried to extract it. Of course with modern horizontal drilling techniques much of it could be accessed boring from the mainland.
20
the dumbest thing that JCU ever did was try to shut down Prof Kidd. Now they have to mount a legal argument, not just a limp, media oriented one.
In front of a High Court Judge or 3.
Big mistake. Huge.
Amateur hour.
201
Except Australia’s high court judges are a bit to the left of Karl Marx.
221
And less critical than that other one.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QMuDihPPyPA/R9cr2ldlF2I/AAAAAAAAD5o/y4b2zRAXlwk/s400/06a.jpg
80
They treated the late Bob Carter terribly too.
120
Yeah they did. Bob was awesome. A public lecture on “Climate Context as a basis for Better Policy”, given at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, June 2011, by Australian paleoclimatologist Professor Bob Carter was one of the first things I came across when first starting to investigate this nonsense for myself. I will never forgive them for what they did to Bob.
20
They are suggesting a clear causality, so we should see corresponding data that highlights that these 112 “special” reefs must be older than all the rest of the GBR? Right?
Perhaps I could save them some trouble. They have failed to take into account the tectonic movement of the Australia plate. The oldest part of the reef is the most northerly. The youngest is the most southerly. It all suffers from differing water temperature, depth, and exposure to UV radiation, but seems to survive and continue to grow. And it has survived far more significant climate change over its life than a 2 deg C temperature increase. So I’m guessing it’s survival really doesn’t have anything to do with the mechanism proposed in this paper.
Of course, I could have just said that they were only playing with computer models. No actual data was harmed in the writing of this paper.
261
Pauly, given that the Eastern Australian Plate is moving Northwards at the rate of 5.6 cm per year how likely is it that the Reef is also growing southwards by 5.6 cm per annum as well?
40
Closer to 7cm per year, so yes, it continues to grow southward. And the southern sections of the reef, from Townsville south, were almost unaffected by the latest bleaching event.
70
Geologically reefs are one the most resilient ecosystems to exist. At the end of the Permian (250mln years ago) some 95% species disappeared including reefs. 1 to 3 mln years after the catastrophe (most likely caused by another asteroid) reefs came back with vengeance. This continues today. The only way to kill a reef is through a subaerial exposure, not drowning. This is why the Pacific Ocean islands will never get submerged with the sea level increase, as reefs are vigorous enough to keep up with the natural subsidence. Even Darwin deduced that 150 years ago. Geology 101 talks about it, but somehow our climate scientists have lost that knowledge or never been exposed to it.
271
Here is a paper written about the results of 2 drill holes on the GBR:
Coral variation in two deep drill cores: significance for the Pleistocene Development of the Great Barrier Reef.
Jody M. Webster, Peter J. Davies.
Sedimentary Geology, Vol 159 (2003), Pgs 61–80
Point 3 in the Abstract is most interesting and relevant to the resilience of the GBR.
“(3) the repeated occurrence of similar coral assemblages in both drill cores indicates that the Great Barrier Reef has been able to re-establish itself, repeatedly producing reefs of similar composition over the last 500,000 years, despite major environmental fluctuations in sea level and perhaps temperature.”
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Paper can be found at this link:
Coral variation in two deep drill cores: significance for the Pleistocene Development of the Great Barrier Reef.
Jody M. Webster, Peter J. Davies.
Sedimentary Geology, Vol 159 (2003), Pgs 61–80
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Dariusz:
Just to be contrary, I would have thought that the end Permian extinction had something to do with the Siberian Traps; after all lava flows 2000 metres thick over an area larger than Australia should have had some effect on the world. Even if it is fashionable to claim that Siberia emitted lots of CO2 so there must have been a runaway Greenhouse heat© and Ocean Acidification© which was the cause of the extinctions. It is only necessary to ignore the huge quantities of sulphuric and nitric acid generated and the 60,000 years of ice age but who lets facts stand in the way of politically correct theory these days?
Yes, the reefs recovered rapidly but it was different species than in the Permian – and in the GBR because most of its flora and fauna date from the Jurassic and so have only survived the last 200 millions years. Poor weak critters they must be.
130
There are two large impact craters dated to around the same time. One is in East Antarctica in Wilkes Land (under the ice) known as the Wilkes Land Anomaly and the other is to the north west of West Falkland Island.
The Wilke’s Land Anomaly was discovered in 1972 and generated some controversy but further analysis in 2009 using the GRACE satellite data brought it back from being a “possible impact crater” to a “probable.” The crater is c. 500km in size.
If the Falkland feature turns out to be a definite impact crater (it needs more research) then, at 250km in size, it and the Wilkes Land crater are both significantly larger than the Chixulub impactor which is credited with the end of the dinosaurs.
Both these impact craters are in the far south of Pangaea and are almost directly opposite the Siberian Traps (on the globe) eruptions area as shown here and both are dated to c. 250MYA.
However, while interesting, it’s really nothing to do with the GBR’s Coral Recovery Scheme.
50
Well, well look what you can find if you actually go out and look rather than sit at a desk and play with models.
I shouldn’t be surprised at this because it is what happens when you apply real evidence based science to a problem rather than just thinking about it.
140
Good grief man, we have spent millions on high-speed computers, and billions on satellites, with cameras so precise, that they can photograph a flea on a dogs’ ear, and you want us to actually go outside to look?
We never go outside and look. There are people, out there, and some of them might be students.
Besides, where is one expected to get a decent latte, out on the reef?
200
& most of them got sea sick when I took the Marine Park people out to Hardy reef on our large reef trip cat.
The crew said they had never seen such a high percentage of people sick on such a nice day.
40
Strange!
Not very long ago we had the extraordinarily hyped catastrophic death of was it 80% of the GBR as scientifically pronounced as seen by an aerial survey tthrouh a glsss darkely if I know light aircraft windows, by the GBR researchers at the James Cook University in Townsville.
Of course the local GBR tourist operators who knew where the best spots on the reef were to be found and who had a very good collective knowledge of the Northern Reef soon provided a very different picture, a picture of quite good reef health with nothing unusual that had not happened before on the reef any number of times past.
In short there wasn’t anything about the health of the Reef as whole that was different to any time in the past for as long as mankind has known the reef.
Nor was the health of the GBR any diferent to the health of thousands of other coral reefs around the world.
Now we are suddenly informed that the Reef has the ability to heal itself if it is damaged anywhere, anytime. , [ for crying out loud, the bloody reef is a few hundreds of thousands to few tens of hundreds of thousand years old and has seen tsunamis , no doubt meteor impacts , ice ages, warm seas far above todays ocean temperatures , sea levels tens of metres lower and tens of metres higher, volcanic eruptions within a few thousand kilometres of it or closer such as Queensland’s volcanic province, SE Australias volcanoes and NZ’s Taupo super volcanic eruption of 26,000 years ago and again about 1800 years ago plus no doubt coral diseases that probably nearly wiped it out a few times in the past , plus fish and numerous other ocean life and species that attacked it, eaten it, gouged it tried to smother it and etc.
And the GBR is still there in all its magnificence .]
So my guess is that the sudden discovery of brooder areas for the reef larvae and etc is a get out for a group of scientists who made sheer bloody stupid fools of themselves both amongst the more switched on public and probably even more so amongst other coral reef researchers.
So they had to do something to try and retrieve their reputations and to assure the public, that yes, the reef is OK because we didn’t know about the brood areas of the reef due entirely to the fact that 80% of the reef was declared dead after an AERIAL survey up and down the reef at a 100 plus knots looking out of a dirty perspex window at a few hundred feet height.
So when they finally had their lavish funding reduced they finally had to get down wet and dirty and do some real research and then, hey , the reef has brooder areas you know!.
—————–
Mankind in the form of ever more interfering and usually quite ignorant , “we never thought of that” scientists never give up do they ?.
The latest stunt is to collect coral larvae in mesh nets , breed them up in artificial incubators and then release them onto “dead coral reefs ” hundreds or thousands of kilometres distance from their original place of catchment.!
All to save a Reef which never was ever in any danger of needing to be saved.
Coral research breakthrough could save Great Barrier Reef
This headline of course, coming from the ABC is quite typical of the today’s ABC’s gross lying ineptitude and sheer inability to actually report true facts without deliberately twisting them around to give a false impression even when given those facts in writing.
The ABC headline isn’t what the coral researchers were actually doing with the coral larvae.
They were releasing the larvae around the Philli[ines reefs which have had the guts blown out of them with the long term dynamiting for fish .
As for shifting coral larvae from one reef system to another lot of reef systems thousands of kiometres away, say Rabbits, Cane Toads, Indian Mynahs, Foxes, Starlings, sparrows , Bridal creeper , a few dozen of thew world’s worst weeds and etc , anybody!.
OOPS! “We never thought of that!”
161
There was an ABC TV program that was shown, within the last couple of months, regarding a project that was being given the go ahead to develop genetically modified coral, which, if successful, would be able to survive the higher water temperatures. Possible undesirable consequences were acknowledged, but were to be disregarded, as the global warming death of the reef was the greater threat. Unfortunately, I didn’t take notes and don’t remember which program. Maybe someone else here saw it?
80
‘Reefer Madness’ by any chance?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness
20
You know, I think these reef specialists are looking in the wrong direction. They probably should be off in the bush working with the original peoples that lived in the area back during the medieval warm period to find out what it was that THEY did “to preserve the reefs.” Surely they must have done something, even though they may not have had “money,” because the reefs did survive those warmer times, and it must have been by human help!
90
Global cooling during the LIA had an impact, but in due course the coral recovered.
‘Two conspicuous scars from coral tissue death and subsequent regrowth were discovered, one in a core from a Brook Island Porites colony (event dated 1782–85) and another in a core from Pandora Reef (event dated 1817).’
Hendy et al 2003
90
Another coral story, this time from the BBC, pretending the Solomon Islands are sinking.
The BBC story is debunked at the site ‘not a lot of people know that’.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2017/11/22/bbcs-bogus-claims-about-the-drowning-solomon-islands/
I accessed it via the blog ‘skating under the ice’ at https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/29/feasting/
121
Thanks NB,
I just love this little piece of unconsidered logic from your first link:
” The sea around the Solomon Islands is rising three times faster than the average for the rest of the world, due to global warming and regional changes. Five islands have already disappeared in the South Pacific. ”
Should be a surfers’ paradise in a century or so.
Or perhaps its evidence of the islands’ sinking?
Cheers,
Dave B
80
‘Serious mitigation of climate change’ – what utter garbage.
70
To alarmists it won’t bring relief,
That damage is known to be brief,
As repairs are nearby,
Through its own D.I.Y.,
Of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
240
That is one for posterity.
70
From http://eo.ucar.edu/staff/rrussell/climate/paleoclimate/coral_reef_proxy_records.html
The coral polyp animals actually live in a symbiotic relationship with a type of algae, which requires sunlight for photosynthesis.
I wonder where is the research on how the very important symbiotic algae have evolved and changed over the ages as the climate has changed? Is it not reasonable that as the climate varies then the population and types of these symbiotic algae vary?
The fundamental point though is reefs and corals have already proved that they can successfully ride out massive changes in climate, by surviving for the last 200 million years. Is it reasonable to think that these robust symbiotic community structures can be overstressed by the current, all natural, changes in climate? Modern corals have only been around for at least 20 times longer than all human-like bipeds, and people really thought a tiny change in climate could wipe them out or seriously affect their number.
Only complete idiots could think such nonsense.
80
tom0mason:
Not all believers in the ABC etc. are complete idiots, some are missing logical cognitive ability.
60
Aunty is coming around very slowly, a couple of months ago the organisation was quietly horrified to find instantaneous recovery.
‘The institute’s Neil Cantin said they were surprised to find the coral had already started to reproduce.
“We’re finding corals that are showing early signs of reproductive development, really visible eggs that we can see under the naked eye,” Dr Cantin said.
“[It’s] very surprising as previous studies have shown a two-to-three year delay in reproductive activity following bleaching events.’
60
🙂
20
Not sure if it is incompetence or deliberate, but the “currents” indicators are misleading. Yes, the south equatorial currents split into the East Australian Current (of “Finding Nemo” fame) and the Hiri Current, but there are counter currents, eg closer to the shore line the current runs north rather than south, at least where I am at 19°S. The beach at my place is littered with pumice from the Havre Seamount located ~800km NE of Auckland. And we know when the coral is spawning.
70
Its more chaotic.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp_anomaly/orthographic=152.31,-23.51,2120/loc=146.774,-28.460
10
Yep – especially that strange “black hole” bit that seems to be between Ayr and Bowen 🙂
Nullschool is useful, but it is modelling, not reality. I found I could not rely on it for wind direction.
30
Oops the plug hole seems to be near Clairview, north of Allandale Island.
30
Your last sentence, Joanne, sums it up beautifully.
40
29 Nov: ABC: BOM warns Victoria to be hit by ‘unprecedented’ thunderstorms, flash flooding
By Andie Noonan
Victoria is set to be drenched with up to three times its monthly rainfall average mostly over two days with “unprecedented” thunderstorms due to hit the state on Friday and Saturday, which could lead to flash flooding.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning with heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast to move across the state from the west from Thursday night.
Senior forecaster Scott Williams said the heaviest storms were set to hit Melbourne and the state’s north and north-east late on Friday night and into the early hours of Saturday.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a deep low form over Victoria whilst we’ve got this moisture around,” he said.
“So to that extent we are a little bit in unchartered territory in terms of the weather.
“This is a very big event, a very widescale event and it’s right at the top end of rainfalls that we’ve seen in Victoria in the last 30 years.”…
Mr Williams said there could be rainfall of up to 300 millimetres in the state’s north-east ranges.
He said thunderstorms were common in November, but not on this scale…
“When you’re talking 150, up to 300, millimetres on the ranges, that makes it unprecedented.”…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-29/thunderstorm-warning-issued-for-victoria/9207056
28 Nov: Weather Channel: Parts of Siberia are Colder Than Minus 60 Degrees Fahrenheit, and It’s Only November
By Brian Donegan
▪ This is more typical of the heart of winter, not late November.
▪ Some of this arctic air could spill into the central and eastern U.S. in 7 to 10 days.
A low temperature of minus 69 degrees was recorded early Tuesday in Delyankir, Russia. This is colder than the all-time record lows in every U.S. state except Utah (-69 degrees), Montana (-70 degrees) and Alaska (-80 degrees).
If that wasn’t incredible enough, the daytime high in Delyankir Tuesday failed to rise above -60 degrees…
https://weather.com/news/weather/news/2017-11-28-siberia-colder-than-minus-60-degrees-in-november
40
We got hit with another lot of” unprecedented” rain events around Christmas 2010 which dropped up to 200 mms here on parts of west Vic.
And another stack of “unprecedented” rainfall events occurred in 1973 / 74 which left about half of the very flat farming areas, the Kalkee Plains north of Horsham, under a few centimetres to a couple of metres of water for 3 or 4 months for two years running;
And then there was the “unprecedented” late frost which wiped out nearly a million dollars worth of our own lentils when they were only a fortnight away from being harvested in 2008.
Same again this year with an “unprecedented” late frost wiping out millions of dollars worth of crops across west Vic.
For a map of 126 years of Australian rainfall; The Long Paddock; Australia’s Variable Rainfall maps
.
But I guess those BOM personnel who are being quoted were still in nappies back then or only a twinkle in their hopeful, soon to be a father’s eye so they wouldn’t have a clue about past events as everything in climate and weather science and research these days, solely and strictly and revolves around the climate scientist’s / BOM’s personnel’s own personal experiences which they have seen and experienced during their short lives.
Anything outside of their own personal experiences as recorded in Clmate and Weather History is “so over it” these days when everything Weather and Climate is “unprecedented” and “irrevocable” and “devastating” in climate and weather research.
111
Three ‘c’s to be avoided when you wish to
misinform… comparison, contrast and context.
91
The “unprecedented” events of recent days has lead to “unprecedented” amounts of ABC reporting of “unprecedented” events. An ABC spokesperson of indeterminate gender said —
Later tonight ABC will be “unprecedentedly” reporting on how paint dries, and how the sun can set “unprecedentedly” everyday!
Next-up the “unprecedented” weather forecast…
51
Unfortunately you guys need to keep up with with the changing meaning of terms in the science of climatologists.
Unprecedented = it hasn’t happened ( probably for a week or more) since the last time it’s happened.
Also new is the definition of acidic , sea water for instance can now be defined as being acidic or alkaline at the same time and neutral is no longer defined when in reference to CAGW .
91
What an unprecedentedly acidic comment!
Quick, call ABC…
😆
40
lol
29 Nov: NPR: Rebecca Hersher: Climate Scientists Watch Their Words, Hoping To Stave Off Funding Cuts
Scientists appear to be self-censoring by omitting the term “climate change” in public grant summaries.
An NPR analysis of grants awarded by the National Science Foundation found a steadily decreasing number with the phrase “climate change” in the title or summary, resulting in a sharp drop in the term’s use in 2017. At the same time, the use of alternative terms such as “extreme weather” appears to be rising slightly.
The change in language appears to be driven in part by the Trump administration’s open hostility to the topic of climate change…
“In the scientific community, we’re very cautious people,” says Katharine Hayhoe, the director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech. “We tend to be quite averse to notoriety and conflict, so I absolutely have seen self-censorship among my colleagues. [They’ll say] ‘Well, maybe I shouldn’t say it that way, because whatever funding organization or politician or agency won’t appreciate it.'”…
“Scientists I know are increasingly using terms like ‘global change’, ‘environmental change’, and ‘extreme weather’, rather than explicitly saying ‘climate change’,” Jonathan Thompson, the senior ecologist at the Harvard Forest, wrote in an email to NPR. Thompson has been the lead investigator on multiple research projects funded by the NSF in recent years. “This seems to be born out of an abundance of caution to limit their exposure to any political landmines in what is already an extremely competitive process,” he wrote.
Four other climate researchers acknowledged that they had personally removed the term “climate change” from funding proposals or public summaries in the last year, or had advised graduate students who had done so. All were concerned that if they disclosed their names, it could negatively impact their future funding competitiveness…
At the NSF, it remains unclear whether there is a real threat to research branded “climate”. Even scientists who said they have avoided the term “climate change” in grant proposals say they haven’t seen evidence of direct political meddling in the NSF process for determining who wins funding. That is echoed by Mitch Ambrose, a policy analyst for the American Institute of Physics. “I haven’t seen any evidence that the Trump administration has issued any specific guidance to NSF,” he says…
“Some people have shifted away from climate research altogether,” in recent years says Philip Mote, the director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University…
And insurers are using climate change data to determine rates for homeowners.
“This is the biggest environmental challenge in human history,” says Mote. “Absent political winds, I don’t think researchers would avoid using the term ‘climate change’ to describe it.”
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/29/564043596/climate-scientists-watch-their-words-hoping-to-stave-off-funding-cuts
30
How does she know this? She’s a committed and notorious alarmist!
60
sounds threatening!
premium content, behind paywall:
29 Nov: Bloomberg: Moody’s Warns Cities to Address Climate Risks or Face Downgrades
By Christopher Flavelle
Communities in Texas, Florida, other coastal states at risk
Credit rating agency says it’s adding climate to credit risks
Coastal communities from Maine to California have been put on notice from one of the top credit rating agencies: Start preparing for climate change or risk losing access to cheap credit.
28 Nov: ThinkProgress: Mark Hand: Warning to local governments: Adopt climate adaptation strategies or face credit downgrades
28 Nov: Moodys: Announcement: Moody’s: Climate change is forecast to heighten US exposure to economic loss placing short- and long-term credit pressure on US states and local governments
The growing effects of climate change, including climbing global temperatures, and rising sea levels, are forecast to have an increasing economic impact on US state and local issuers. This will be a growing negative credit factor for issuers without sufficient adaptation and mitigation strategies, Moody’s Investors Service says in a new report.
The report differentiates between climate trends, which are a longer-term shift in the climate over several decades, versus climate shock, defined as extreme weather events like natural disasters, floods, and droughts which are exacerbated by climate trends. Our credit analysis considers the effects of climate change when we believe a meaningful credit impact is highly likely to occur and not be mitigated by issuer actions, even if this is a number of years in the future.
Climate shocks or extreme weather events have sharp, immediate and observable impacts on an issuer’s infrastructure, economy and revenue base, and environment. As such, we factor these impacts into our analysis of an issuer’s economy, fiscal position and capital infrastructure, as well as management’s ability to marshal resources and implement strategies to drive recovery.
Extreme weather patterns exacerbated by changing climate trends include higher rates of coastal storm damage, more frequent droughts, and severe heat waves. These events can also cause economic challenges like smaller crop yields, infrastructure damage, higher energy demands, and escalated recovery costs.
“While we anticipate states and municipalities will adopt mitigation strategies for these events, costs to employ them could also become an ongoing credit challenge,” Michael Wertz, a Moody’s Vice President says…
Moody’s analysts weigh the impact of climate risks with states and municipalities’ preparedness and planning for these changes when we are analyzing credit ratings. Analysts for municipal issuers with higher exposure to climate risks will also focus on current and future mitigation steps and how these steps will impact the issuer’s overall profile when assigning ratings.
https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-Climate-change-is-forecast-to-heighten-US-exposure-to–PR_376056
30
meanwhile, how odd is this one, given it’s on NBC and the writer is from George Mason Uni? of course, it still states “Now would seem a particularly apt time to act” blah blah:
28 Nov: NBC Think: Tonya T. Neaves: The climate is changing, but not just because of humans. Here’s why that matters
Our culture of disaster has increased ideological semantics but not informed decision-making.
(Tonya T. Neaves is the director for the Centers on the Public Service at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, where she also is a faculty member in its master of public administration program and coordinator for the Emergency Management and Homeland Security certificate)
The climate is changing — the thing is, it isn’t just due to humans.
Natural forces beyond human control are also gradually affecting our climate. These geophysical forces are vital to understanding global warming. Man is indeed responsible for a large portion — possibly even a majority — of global warming. But also in play are complex gravitational interactions, including changes in the Earth’s orbit, axial tilt and torque.
This fact needs to be included in the public debate…
Changes in the Earth’s path around the Sun, or eccentricity, involve shifts in the orbit around the Sun from a roughly circular journey to more of an elliptical one. When the Earth gradually adopts a more elliptical orbit, there are more pronounced temperatures during the summer and winter months. This alteration is exacerbated when the Earth’s axial tilt is inclined to a sharper degree than usual. As this happens, it causes the North and South Poles to be positioned more directly toward the Sun.
Haven’t you noticed the recent rise in irregular weather patterns? This is not just a man-made problem. Gradual slight variations in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun can strongly influence temperature extremes…
The variations in the Earth’s orbit are known as the Milankovitch cycles — after the Serbian geophysicist Milutin Milanković, who hypothesized this phenomenon in the 1920s. He discovered that variations in the Earth’s path around the Sun, axial tilt and torque could together affect our climate.
Even a slight change or orientation in the precession of the Earth’s rotating body can cause a wobbling effect shifting torque in different areas since the planet is not a perfect sphere to some people’s surprise.
Now would seem a particularly apt time to act. The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was an intense, record-setting period…
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/climate-changing-not-just-because-humans-here-s-why-matters-ncna824271
50
Again thanks Pat,
The mention of the Milankovic cycles amazes me. One the major causes of my scepticism was the Gore omission of any consideration of them in his film.
I wonder if our new media witll show any interest.
Again I live in hope, but without confidence.
Cheers,
Dave B
60
Back in the early 1960s there was an academic at UQ, Dr Robert Endean, who was something of a specialist on the Crown of Thorns starfish.
His theory back then – at least as reported – was that an infestation of CoT might destroy the reef and leave a dead coral desert where the GBR had been. I hope I’m not misquoting him, but that’s my memory.
Since then, I’ve lost count of the various catastrophes, predicted and otherwise, which have failed to deliver terminal damage to the GBR.
And academics wonder why they have such poor public standing.
Would any other profession tolerate such poor performance? For many academics, life seems to be about the process, rather than delivering results. And I’m not dissing Bob Endean’s work in any way.
60
Jennifer Marohasy goes after the GBR Klimatariat and gets a stunning victory.
http://jennifermarohasy.com/2013/05/havent-lost-half-of-the-great-barrier-reef-part-2-junk-methodology/
61
lol
28 Nov: Daily Caller: Chuck Ross: Terry McAuliffe And Tony Rodham Sued Over Green Card Investment ‘Scam’
A group of Chinese investors is suing Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and the brother of Hillary Clinton, saying they were defrauded of $17 million in a cash-for-green card “scam.”
The investors filed suit in Fairfax Co., Va. circuit court last week, Politico first reported.
The suit alleges that McAuliffe and Clinton’s youngest brother, Anthony Rodham, “exploited” the 32 investors by promising to “leverage…political connections” to ensure that their visa applications “will get to the top of the pile, and then be approved.”…
The 32 Chinese investors say they paid $560,000 apiece in 2012 and 2013 to invest in GreenTech, an electric car company controlled by McAuliffe and Rodham…
The suit claims that the pair “misrepresented” the number of jobs that GreenTech would generate while also falsely claiming that the car company had been selected as a Defense Department contractor. McAuliffe and Rodham also made false claims about GreenTech’s financial situation, including overstating the amount of collateral the company had for its outstanding loans, according to the complaint.
“They painted a false picture of the state of the company, including instructing employees to pretend to be working while investors toured the plant,” the suit alleges. McAuliffe and Rodham also “lied about the sales and expected sales of the company” during their investment pitches.
McAuliffe and Rodham also failed to disclose the existence of government investigations into GreenTech…
http://dailycaller.com/2017/11/28/terry-mcauliffe-and-tony-rodham-sued-over-green-card-investment-scam/
28 Nov: Politico: Chinese investors sue McAuliffe, Rodham over green-car investments
The suit is the latest headache for the Virginia governor as he mulls a presidential bid.
By JOSH GERSTEIN
McAuliffe and Rodham did several tours through China to seek investments in the electric car startup, the suit says. As brother-in-law of President Bill Clinton and as brother of the then-secretary of state—Rodham appeared to serve as a means of attracting Chinese interest in the project. The suit contends that Rodham’s involvement conveyed that the electric-car firm was politically-connected and likely to prosper.
“Defendants milked these connections in marketing materials,” the suit says. “Defendants exploited those relationships to assure investors of both the success of the company and their ability to obtain U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) approval of the visa applications.”
A spokeswoman for McAuliffe, Crystal Carson, disputed the claims and noted that the governor gave up his role in the firm years ago…
As McAuliffe prepared to run for Virginia governor, Greentech was a bright spot on his resume, combining entrepreneurial spirit with environmentalism and an effort to bring jobs to an impoverished area of Mississippi. A 2012 ribbon-cutting for the Mississippi factory drew former President Bill Clinton and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour generated glowing press coverage.
However, the firm soon ran into trouble finding its footing. Production was repeatedly delayed. Hiring for the assembly line fell well short of the 350 jobs promised…
The Mississippi factory apparently closed in January. In July, the state’s auditor said Greentech’s employment in the state peaked at 143 and the firm now owes the state $6.4 million for failing to live up to promises it made to get a $5 million financing package from the government there…
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/28/greentech-automotive-lawsuit-terry-mcauliffe-262771
40
The science is settled, a brief sea level fall brought on by a strong El Nino caused the recent severe bleaching of the GBR.
‘The conditions led to an estimated 29 per cent loss of shallow water corals along the Reef, according to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The worst-affected reefs are between Port Douglas and the Torres Strait.’
Cairns Post
61
Did the GBRMP get that pearl of wisdom from ABC, Fairfax, MSN, Flannery, or some other dumbcluck?
30
comment in moderation re Clinton-connected electric vehicle scam and lawsuit.
40
It was a close run thing at the last glacial maximum.
‘The results show that 20,000 years ago, during the last ice age, corals were living on the edge. “Ocean temperatures around Cairns and Mackay were 4-5 degrees cooler than today, and these temperatures are right at the lower limit of what corals can tolerate.” says Dr McGregor.
‘The lower temperatures suggest that the East Australia Current, which today brings warm water as far south as Sydney, probably did not get much further south than Mackay.’
ANU Earth Sciences 2014
40
Maybe the Coral Reef expert Dr McGregor hadn’t heard of the Deep , Cold Water Corals that lay a few tens of kilometres off the edge of the GBR in the deep waters to be found there.
Coldwater corals in the Coral Sea
80
The local people have a strong oral history and they reckon the GBR was connected to the mainland at the LGM.
‘Off the coast of northern Queensland lies the Great Barrier Reef. In the Cairns region, where the edge of the Great Barrier Reef is 50km from shore, an early report states that “the Googanji natives … say that before the flood the Barrier Reef was the original coastline, and that a river entered the sea near what is known as Fitzroy Island”
(Gribble, 1933).
Nicholas Reid 2015 (Charles Darwin Uni)
50
I have been an occasional visitor to the GBR for 60 years and remember it in it’s full glory before the first and most devastating COT outbreak.
I remember swimming the Ribbon reefs after that and could not find ANY hard coral. It was depressing.
QUT has developed a killer drone that can recognise the animal and inject it with white vinegar. This is a couple of years old, I wonder how it is progressing.
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2015/09/03/Australian-scientists-sending-robot-after-destructive-starfish/8561441311705/?spt=mps&or=4&sn=sn
40
Should QUT (or anyone else) interfere with nature?
COT starfish are part of nature.
Also COT are far more powerful in destroying coral that CO2, pH, salinity, trace fertilizers or any other bloody thing you might want to dream up.
NATURE RULES.
The CO2 horsesh*t has to stop.
40
This is good news for the reef. What we have been saying for ever; the reef does, can and will recover. All in its natural cycle.
GeoffW
80
Pity that charts showing the extent of actual observed coral bleaching, or actual COTS damage, as well as the dates of those observation have not been provided.
Those charts that are provided feign scientific method, providing color coded ‘heat stress’ or ‘bleaching risk’ maps that suggest what could be rather than what is. More so when the chart titled “Disturbance: Bleaching’, does not show disturbance but shows perceived risk of disturbance.
One can only conclude that there is no desire by the Peter Mumbo-jumbo and his colleagues to tell it as it is. That would not be politic.
60
It’s a cult: Why the climate debate is paralyzing free thinkers and undermining democracy.
40
What? The parrot, I mean coral reef, is alive? Great news! The TV once told me that the rising boiling acid ocean had killed them already.
70
Whenever they use the term “Centre of Excellence”, I know to expect propaganda, not science.
40
29 Nov: Local, France: Here comes the snow: 50 departments in France placed on alert
Snow and ice is expected to hit much of France, with national weather agency Météo France placing 50 departments on yellow alert — the third highest warning level…
“We will end up at temperatures worthy of the heart of winter, from mid-January to late-January,” Olivier Proust, forecaster at Météo France told Le Parisien.
On Thursday and Friday, snow is expected in two-thirds of the country, from Normandy to the Grand Est, and then down to the south of the Massif Central.
And the news may justifiably come as a surprise, with this being the first time snow has been expected so early in the year since 2010.
“It’s been seven years since we’ve had such early snow,” said Pascal Scaviner, head of the forecast service at the Weather Channel, according to Le Parisien…
While the mountains in France have already had their fair share of snow, between Wednesday and Sunday it is expected to fall on lower ground around the country…
***”We will end up at temperatures worthy of the heart of winter, from mid-January to late-January,” says Olivier Proust, forecaster at Météo France.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20171129/here-comes-the-snow-50-departments-in-france-placed-on-alert
20
28 Nov: Reuters: Norway’s wealth fund would take many years to sell energy shares
by Gwladys Fouche
OSLO – Norway’s $1-trillion (£0.75 trillion) sovereign wealth fund may take five years to reduce its investments in energy companies even once the policy is adopted, the fund’s CEO said on Tuesday…
It must first be reviewed by the finance ministry, which has said it would come back with its opinion in autumn 2018. If the ministry backs the proposal, parliament could vote on it only in June 2019 at the earliest.
From that point, there will be another few years before the fund completes the process, said fund CEO Yngve Slyngstad.
“Typically our transition period will be two, three, five years, depending on the issue,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “The fund will be invested in oil stocks for many years.”…
These stocks represent 6 percent – or around $37 billion – of the fund’s benchmark equity index.
“It will clearly reduce the exposure to the (oil and gas) sector and we will potentially exit the sector,” said Slyngstad…
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-norway-swf/norways-wealth-fund-would-take-many-years-to-sell-energy-shares-idUKKBN1DS0V8
29 Nov: CarbonBrief: Analysis: How developing nations are driving record growth in solar power
by Zeke Hausfather
Emerging markets now account for the majority of growth in solar power, according to new data (LINK TO CLIMATESCOPE2017) from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF)…
***Solar power accounts for only 5% of capacity and 1.3% of electricity generation globally today, but is growing rapidly…
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-developing-nations-driving-record-growth-solar-power
20
So all that money that went into learning how to grow coral and transplant it to the “damaged “parts of the Reef was an unnecessary expenditure.
Do these donkeys actually talk to each other?
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/scientists-grow-baby-coral-on-barrier-reef-20171126-p4yx7v.html
30
It would seem not.
It is a bray no word, out there.
50
OT , Victoriastan are staving off blackouts by getting big users of electricity to shutdown due to the inability of the system to cope with increased demand during summer .
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-30/sa-tesla-battery-begins-producing-power-a-day-ahead-of-schedule/9212794
Nothing to see here and nothing to do with Hazelwood shutting down I’m sure , 100 diesel gensets being set up in Morewell but that’s if they can get it through the local council .
51
No South Australian or Vicistan generator salesman will be living in poverty by 2018!
51
As you know the water around Tasmania is unusually warm at the moment, which might be related to the EAC.
‘As noted in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the East Australian Current has advanced 350 kilometres towards the South Pole over the six decades, extending the range of sharks, tuna and other species while also affecting existing biota such as kelp forests.’
SMH
20
Sorry more OT but looks like weatherdill doesn’t want to go next election .
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-30/sa-labor-stages-eleventh-hour-constitutional-coup/9213444
31
robert rosicka –
the political games being played are worrying.
40
“…if something has to be inserted by a referendum, how do you, without a referendum, actually remove them?”
The SA pseudo Marxist consortium has seized upon the opportunity and it could start a trend, democracy is on the ropes.
20
time will tell.
at top of ABC’s “Top Stories”: How bad will Victoria’s wild weekend weather be? A 10 out of 10, says BOM
actual headline:
30 Nov: ABC: Victoria weather: Heavy rain, ‘massive flooding’ forecast as Premier warns of ‘challenging period’
Forecaster Scott Williams, from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said thunderstorms developing over western Victoria this evening would move to other parts overnight and into Friday.
“Those thunderstorms will gradually all weld into a massive, great rain band, and that band will spread down across the state on Friday night and Saturday morning,” he said.
“This is a vast, intense, high-impact event for this state.”
Mr Williams said the rain would fall heavy and fast, with the potential of more than 50 millimetres in just an hour.
The biggest concern was for the north-east of the state, with “huge” amounts of rainfall to peak there on Saturday.
“It’s not just 300mm at the top of the mountains, it’s 300mm possible anywhere from Wangaratta to Hotham Heights,” Mr Williams warned.
“It’ll be over more quickly in the west, the Mallee and those areas, the main impacts [there] will be the thunderstorms, so the rain total out there will probably be generally 50mm to 100mm.
“There may be some local 200mm falls…
“If we’re going to get gale-force south-westerly winds, a high tide, 150mm of rain in Melbourne over two days — that’s three times the December average — we’re going to have massive flooding.”…
Asked to rate the storms out of 10, Mr Williams said: “I’ll take the punt and say it’s a 10 for Victoria.”
“So we’re going to have major, major, major flooding problems right around this state, probably many roads cut … I suspect [infrastructure] will be impacted as badly as most of us have ever seen.”…
“This is a very serious matter, and one that will pose a real challenge to communities right across the state and will be a direct challenge to public safety,” (Premier Daniel) Andrews said…
Thunderstorms are common in Victoria in November, but not on this scale…
Farmers on edge
Growers fear the deluge has the potential to wipe out an entire season of crops…
Chiltern orchardist Bill Hotson plans to take the drastic step of getting a helicopter from nearby Albury, in southern NSW, to blow air on his cherries after the rain to dry them off…
Three or four days of high humidity will cause just as much risk to the crop as the rain itself, increasing the chance of blackspot and other diseases…
Ashley Mills, from the CFA in north-east Victoria, said the rain could push the fire danger period back by three weeks in some parts of the state — but he warned against complacency.
“If we’ve got high 30-degree temperatures and low humidity, we’ll still see the potential for fires to develop quickly, even within three weeks after an event like that,” he said.
The heavy rainfall could also pose a problem if it triggers growth, he said.
“So later on in the season we may well see some fuel loads that may present as a bit of an issue.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-30/victoria-weather-heavy-rains-floods-forecast/9209902
40
This is really, really, really serious.
Victoria has never had heavy rain.
Victoria has never had a thunderstorm.
Victoria has never had windy days.
OMG this is serious.
80
It is now 3:10pm Melbourne time.
A bit of blue sky, but the city has been drenched with 7mm of rain and the wind is howling at 24kph.
Thank goodness for the BoM warning – again.
Wolf!! Wolf!!!
20
comment in moderation re: at top of ABC’s “Top Stories”: How bad will Victoria’s wild weekend weather be? A 10 out of 10, says BOM
20
30 Nov: ABC: South Australia’s Tesla battery called on a day ahead of schedule as hot weather takes hold
By politics reporter Nick Harmsen
South Australia’s giant Tesla battery has begun dispatching stored wind power into the electricity grid a day ahead of its scheduled switch-on.
Premier Jay Weatherill is due to visit the battery site — alongside the Hornsdale windfarm near Jamestown in the state’s mid north — tomorrow, to mark its official opening on the first day of summer.
But with temperatures across South Australia and Victoria hitting the mid 30s, and output from the state’s wind farms low, the battery was called upon early to help meet Thursday afternoon’s peak demand.
The battery dispatched a maximum of 59 megawatts of power.
The 100MW/129MWh battery is capable of powering about 30,000 homes for a little over an hour…
***Power voluntarily rationed in Victoria
The hot weather on the eve of summer prompted the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) into taking the highly unusual step of paying power customers to reduce their electricity usage during the peak period.
The customer or customers involved have not been identified.
But they are likely to be heavy power users who volunteered to be directed to reduce their power usage under a “demand management” program.
That program is a key part of AEMO’s plan to prevent unexpected blackouts this summer.
The plan was enacted after the closure of the Hazelwood coal-fired power station in Victoria…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-30/sa-tesla-battery-begins-producing-power-a-day-ahead-of-schedule/9212794
20
30 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: How New Zealand can make world-leading climate refugee visas work
Wellington wants to give a home to Pacific island neighbours threatened by sea level rise. Here are six things to consider
By Nina Hall at John Hopkins University
(Nina Hall is assistant professor of international relations, Johns Hopkins University
This article was originally published on The Conversation)
New Zealand’s new government plans to create the world’s first humanitarian visa for climate refugees (LINK)…
1. Consider reasons for migration
It is clear that climate change is having a significant impact in the Pacific but it is hard, except in extreme cases, to prove that it causes migration and displacement. This is because migration is driven by many factors – social, economic and political…
5. Offer asylum to communities rather than individuals…READ ALL
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/11/30/new-zealand-can-make-world-leading-climate-refugee-visas-work/
20
CAGW science has been thrown out in a lot of FakeNewsMSM coverage lately; it’s all about economics.
there’s a bank ad I saw briefly on Sky News, which is no doubt on other channels, with text stating the bank that doesn’t lend to fossil fuel companies, or whatever, as if that is a badge of honour:
29 Nov: Guardian: Michael Slezak: Banks warned of ‘regulatory action’ as climate change bites global economy
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority says it is quizzing companies about their actions to assess climate risks
Australia’s financial regulator has stepped-up its warning to banks, lenders and insurers, saying climate change is already impacting the global economy, and flagged the possibility of “regulatory action”.
Geoff Summerhayes from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (Apra) revealed it had begun quizzing companies about their actions to assess climate risks, noting it would be demanding more in the future.
Apra also revealed it has established an internal working group to assess the financial risk from climate change and was coordinating an interagency initiative with the corporate watchdog Asic, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and federal Treasury to examine what risks climate change was posing to Australia’s economy…
In an extended version of a speech to the progressive Centre for Policy Development, and circulated to journalists ahead of its delivery, Summerhayes said a shift occurring in the global economy was increasingly being driven by ***commercial imperatives – investments, innovation and reputational factors – rather than what scientists or policymakers are saying or doing.
***“Apra is not a scientific body and I can’t say with 100% conviction to what extent scientists’ predictions of increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, more frequent droughts and more intense storms will impact the Australian economy,” Summerhayes said.
***“But what I can tell you with absolute certainty is that the transition to a low-carbon economy is underway and moving quickly.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/29/banks-warned-of-regulatory-action-as-climate-change-bites-global-economy
30
So the great barrier reef is a weed?
31
The people who pronounce its demise are weeds.
41
believe it or not:
30 Nov: Thomson Reuters Foundation: Rising seas will swallow 14,000 U.S. historic sites: study
by
Almost 14,000 archeological sites and national monuments in the United States could be lost by the year 2100 as seas rise due to climate change, scientists said on Wednesday…
“The data are sobering: projected sea level rise … will result in the loss of a substantial portion of the record of both pre-Columbian and historic period human habitation,” the authors said in the journal PLoS ONE…
In the first study on such a scale, researchers combined data on the elevation of archeological and historic sites along in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts with sea-level rise predictions.
“This is only a tiny fraction of what’s out there,” co-author David Anderson, an archeology professor at the University of Tennessee, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
“The record of human occupation of coastal regions goes back thousands of years and we stand to lose a lot of that.”…
The authors called for a debate about which fragments of human history should be salvaged through relocation and documented for posterity.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climate-archeology/rising-seas-will-swallow-14000-u-s-historic-sites-study-idUSKBN1DT2ZV
why do I feel this will end badly?
30 Nov: Reuters: Macron makes renewable energy push in power-starved Africa
Macron inaugurates 33 MW solar plant in Burkina Faso
600 mln people live without power in sub-Saharan Africa
Finance for new power projects tough to obtain
By Marine Pennetier
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday inaugurated West Africa’s largest solar energy plant in Burkina Faso and pushed for French companies to be the preferred partners to develop future renewable power projects on the continent.
The 33 megawatt (MW) plant, built on scrubland outside the capital Ouagadougou by a subsidiary of France’s Vinci SA , will generate power to supply 110,000 households…
***Despite the deal, power-starved Africa remains a laggard in renewable energy…
Corruption, red tape and the grip of often-poorly financed national power companies lead investors to tread warily…
Across sub-Saharan Africa, more than 600 million people live without electricity…
The region, with a population of around 1 billion, has an installed power capacity of 122 GW, according to the IEA. That’s roughly equivalent to Spain, whose population is 46 million…
The IEA forecasts this will double to 253GW by 2030, with hydropower and solar overtaking oil to become the leading power sources. Yet there could be a four-fold increase in demand during the three decades from 2010 to 2040, consultancy group Mckinsey and Company estimates.
In recent years, Chinese companies have driven the expansion of Africa’s power sector, responsible for 30 percent of new capacity…
Two years ago, the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) was launched to much fanfare during the Paris climate summit, promising to accelerate electricity generation in a continent that was “tired of being in the dark”.
The initiative announced it would aim to unlock $10 billion in financing to add 10 GW of renewable power to Africa’s power grids by 2020 and a further 300 GW a decade later.
Yet with the first deadline fast approaching, the initiative has made scant progress. Nineteen projects with a combined proposed output of 1.8 GW were shortlisted in March and there remain large financing holes, AREI documents on its website showed, making the initial target seem a stretch…
https://www.reuters.com/article/africa-renewables/macron-makes-renewable-energy-push-in-power-starved-africa-idUSL8N1NZ45O
40
***keystone cops:
30 Nov: Guardian: New study uncovers the ‘keystone domino’ strategy of climate denial
How climate denial blogs misinform so many people with such poor scientific arguments.
by Dana Nuccitelli
The body of evidence supporting human-caused global warming is vast – too vast for climate denial blogs to attack it all. Instead they focus on what a new study (LINK) published in the journal Bioscience calls ***“keystone dominoes.” These are individual pieces of evidence that capture peoples’ attention, like polar bears. The authors write…READ ON
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/nov/29/new-study-uncovers-the-keystone-domino-strategy-of-climate-denial
40
Pat @ #44
The inability to accept that some may not agree with your “climate change catastrophe” cultist beliefs is surely becoming a growth industry amongst a whole swag of selfie appointed, utterly righteous, foaming at the mouth guardians of their own personal beliefs in their own perverted version of what supposedly constitutes “climate science” in their eyes.
I wonder just how many scurrilious and inept “papers” that are claimed to be under the banner of being some form of a seriously perverted “science” have now been written about “deniers” by so called “scientists” few of whom would know what a climate was even if it knocked them over, but who are themselves incapable of avoiding a totalitarian version a fixated bigotry when somebody just happens to refuse to toe their own personal belief line when it comes to their rigid and somewhat insane beliefs in something for which they have no demonstrable proof of and which belief is based on nothing more than their own posturings and scribblings and much hand waving of those of a simlar climate cultist ideology.
As with so many of those rigid, intellectually crippled believers in “Climate change”, be they so called scientists , the ABC, the Guardian, various media outlets, reporters and opinion writers, with the irreducible Climate Change beliefs they espouse and in their utterly irrational mental fixation on those same beliefs are prepared to force their own perverted climate beliefs onto the society and the world, why then do we actually need any climate scientists any more who might just upset those perversions of anthropogenic climate change beliefs that are held by the “climate change cultists?
After all, all those rigidly fixated Clmate Change cult believers have made up their minds long ago that THEY KNOW what the correct science is on CLIMATE CHANGE and anybody who doesn’t believe as they do, be they real climate scientists and real scientists with an open mind like the the Susan Crockfords and Roger Pielke Jr’s of this world, are “deniers” who are totally and completely wrong, and are therefore without quibble or any doubt, the destroyers of the Planet.
So with a body of Climate Change cultist believers and their irrevocable beliefs that they are the true Guardians of the Planet and that they are the ONLY ones with the knowledge to Save the Planet as they alone have the full and correct grasp on the complexities inherent in Climate Science and they alone are the sole self appointed keepers of that knowledge that is the only means of protecting the global climate from any further changes, there is simply no justification anymore for having any more Climate Scientists or any justification for paying for any more climate research ever again .
Those climate change cultists, their solutions to saving the Planet, their castigating of those who disgree with them as “deniers”, all of that plus much more surely indicates that they believe there are no other alternatives or answers to the actions they propose and promote to Save the Planet.
Therefore on that basis ,”Climate science”as a science is finished, it is at the end of the road and no further progress can be achieved as a Science of the Climate,.
So no more climate scientists, no more papers on climate science although the usual scurrilous papers on “deniers” will no doubt continue to proliferate.
No more immense sums need to be spent on Climate Science as the future of the Planet’s climate is now known in complete detail by the Climate Change cultists as are the fixes for any present and future Climate Change by those climate ciultists who do not accept any other than their own versions of Climate Science.
OK Folks ,so we can pack it up.
We can all go home as the Planet’s Climate is never again going to be allowed to do what the Climate has done for the last 3.5 billion years of our Planets existence and we are not allowed to discuss or write or talk anymore about the Global Climate .
The Climate Change cultists and their running dogs in the media and on the foaming mouth, “Denier” accusing blogs have have decreed so.
To the “Denier” accussing blogs and perverted Climate Change publicists of scurrilious accusations against those who do not believe as they believe , be careful, very careful.
You might just get what you are demanding but it might perhaps not really be what you expected.
30
Anyone notice that three of the four Qld coal handling ports are adjacent to these 112 key sites?
00
OK..how about..the enemy have just designated 112 key attack points to strangle the sea lanes out of three of the four major coal handling terminals in Queensland.
10
Yabut never mind the science – we’re all supposed to be listening to the half-witted bedwetting emo schoolgirl Terry Hughes – aren’t we?
00