Quick — tax the magma
It’s another round of Antarctic Doom about next to nothing. In April Antarctica’s ice was melting five times faster than usual. Now it’s losing ice three times faster in the last five years than the 15 before that! What you won’t hear is how the Antarctic ice cap has 29 million cubic kilometers of ice and has been there for 30 million, mostly warmer, years. You also won’t hear how Antarctica was warmer in Roman Times, or that the Antarctic Peninsula has cooled by almost 1 degree.
You also won’t hear a word about any volcanoes
The new paper has zero mentions of the word. But other scientists have published plenty of papers describing how the West Antarctic zone is being warmed from below by 1200 degrees of magma. According to scientist Dustin Schroeder and co, it is as if the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctic is sitting on a “stovetop burner”.[1] His words. Thwaites Glacier,, smack in the middle of the warming is being melted from below by geothermal heat. Then there is the large blob of superheated rock 60 miles below West Antarctica. The researchers use the phrase “like a blow-torch”…. Capping it off, only last year 91 new volcanoes were discovered 2km underneath the West Antarctic Rift. That’s new, as in, we didn’t know they were there.
Follow the reasoning, either a trace gas 10 kilometers up is causing some spots of Antarctica to warm and other parts to cool, or hot magma at 1,200C is. What’s more likely?
Antarctic ice is warming in West Antarctica and the Peninsula, but not over most of East Antarctica.
From the new paper we get the same old pattern. The biggest part of Antarctica is East Antarctica and it’s not melting — even in this alarming new paper.
I thought there was CO2 there as well?
…
The battle of Big Meaningless Numbers
From the abstract we find tiny fractions are written up as big numbers of small units with no real context. Then they extrapolate a 6 year trend on an ice mass that’s been around for millions of years. Adding up the losses, in this “worst of the worst” scenarios Antarctica might be losing 187 billion tonnes of ice per year (give or take a lot). That’s 187 cubic kilometers of ice, which sounds like a lot until we look at the size of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (29 million kilometers cubed). At this new “accelerated” rate the total loss is one 155,00oth of the total mass. Expressed another way, it’s 0.0006%. At this rate Antarctica will be entirely melted 155,000 years from now.
This agrees quite well with the April round of Antarctic Doom which implied it would melt in 118,000 years. Lucky us, we have 30,000 years to spare now.
The first line in the paper’s introduction:
Handy to know what people in 155,000 A.D. will be facing. Now that’s forward planning….
Other posts on this topic:
- Panic time: a tiny 0.01% of Antarctica, resting on volcanoes, melts five times faster than nothing
- The Cryosat study telling us melting was twice as fast as expected had only 3 whole years of data.
- Longer studies (800 years) show that this has all happened before.
- The Medieval Warm Period hit west Antarctica too.
- Antarctica – 91 volcanoes coincidentally found under glaciers warming “due to climate change”
- There goes that scare: Antarctic Peninsula cooling by almost 1 degree
- Antarctic scientists may find climate Holy Grail, ice with magic 7 digit age
ABSTRACT
From beneath west Antarctic’s ice-sheet,
Where magma is thrust,
Through miles of the crust,
And would likely some glaciers deplete.
h/t Marc Morano, Cliff O, Don A, Greg in NZ, Pat,
REFERENCES
The IMBIE Team (2018) Mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2017, Nature, volume 558, pages219–222 (2018)
Dustin M. Schroeder, Donald D. Blankenship, Duncan A. Young, and Enrica Quartini. Evidence for elevated and spatially variable geothermal flux beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. PNAS, June 9, 2014 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1405184111 [Abstract]
Lough et al. (2013) Seismic detection of an active subglacial magmatic complex in Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, Nature, PDF
Lloyd et al (2015) A seismic transect across West Antarctica: Evidence for mantle thermal anomalies beneath the Bentley Subglacial Trench and the Marie Byrd Land Dome. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2015; DOI: 10.1002/2015JB012455
Maximillian van Wyk de Vries, Robert G. Bingham and Andrew S. Hein (2017) A new volcanic province: an inventory of subglacial volcanoes in West Antarctica Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 461, 29 May 2017. doi.org/10.1144/SP461.7
Antarctic ice is melting at an alarming rate but measured sea levels don’t appear to correlate hmmmmmmm.
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You’ve almost spotted it.
Here’s the Loxodonta Africana, the world’s largest elephant (African Elephant) in the room:
Okay: among model estimates, I don’t trust models. Climate models are always wrong. So let’s look a little deeper. I can see 20 +/- billion tonnes per year which isn’t going anyway immediately. There were two large lumps of ice (measured in a very obscure unit of manhattans whatever that is) of “ice-shelf collapse” which separated from the onshore glacier.
These lumps are, as far as the model is concerned, no longer part of Antarctica as they have “detached.” So they’ve disappeared, they’re not there any more. But they haven’t gone away: they’re still sitting on the sea floor and not melting any.
Right. That’s my bit for now. Who’s Next?
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Very good point. By definition a model has to be wrong because if it wasn’t wrong it would instead be called a law of nature. The other point almost everyone ignores is that if the ice didn’t break off the ice-shelf it would eventually pile up so high and wide it would become the highest point on earth beating even Mt Everest and also covering the whole earth.
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Interesting youtube. I do not know if this is true/false but he makes a good case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZw9Zb1TtAI
ABC can not have found any of this. They should read Jo!
10
Volcanic activity has been on a significant up-tick of late and even the MSM have covered it since volcanoes tend to be noticed due to the unfortunate result they have destroyed towns, roads, and many people have died. Even a leftists retard would notice one if it was next door. So what does it take for them to notice volcanoes are under the Antarctic? See lava flows streaming out of the ice? Perhaps in time we will.
The good news though is 99.989% of the Antarctic Ice Sheet Didn’t Melt!
Mr. Blutarsky…Zero Point Zero. once the impact is rounded to 1 decimal place.
262
Good point PeterS – if volcanoes above the oceans have increased activity, possibly the same factors have increased submarine volcanic action too. How would we know? We discovered 91 volcanoes last year under Antarctica. The trend line on their activity is one year long…
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and a million or so penguins. My theory is that Antarctica is sought of like a reverse Bermuda Triangle, stuff just keeps turining up.
50
That’s Einstein’s definition of a white hole. Well at least the Antarctica is white.
20
Oh, you WAAYCIST!
00
It wouldn’t be easy. Oregon State University’s Volcano World estimates about 1 million (yes!) submarine volcanoes exist. That figure includes active, dormant and extinct—I think.
Here’s a list of mostly aerial (land based) volcanoes. It includes a few of the more active submarine ones. I note that the Rumbles New Zealand Rumbles 1 – IV aren’t included on the big list but have their own data page. They’re approx 200km NE of White Island (an ex-submarine volcano, now very much an aerial (in atmosphere) active volcano off the east coast of the North Island in the Bay of Penty (to the SE of Tauranga).
Possibly the most well known of the unknown submarine volcanoes was the one which KO’d the USS San Francisco submarine in 2005 some 560 km south of Guam. This link shows site of crash. [pdf].
30
Not to mention that the surface temperature of Antarctica is between -40 and -60 degrees C. So how and where is it possible for any of its trillions of tons of ice to melt? Headline “non scientist points out errors in alarmist “scientific paper”, author shocked”. Duh.
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Simples. The leftist retards just redefine the melting point of ice to be -40 C. There can be no other explanation in their pea sized brains. Intelligent people know the real reason of course – active volcanoes.
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Melted by warming seas, under the ice shelves. At least that’s the claim. C’mon, destroy it! 🙂
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How about the water is so hot it melts under the ice shelf to form large vertical vents much like how volcanoes work? 🙂
20
Now you got me thinking. Perhaps I can get a grant to study it. All I need is a few billion to construct large numbers of remotely controlled really deep diving subs to go under the Antarctic to explore the vents.
30
Wait. What?
Isn’t Antarctica where the 97% brains trust are gonna put all those climate refugees … ?
2008: Climate change will force refugees to move to Antarctica by 2030, researchers have predicted.
” … Refugees are expected to move to Antarctica because of the rising temperatures that will see the population of the continent increase to 3.5 million people by 2040.”
It gets better …
“Among future scenarios are the Olympics being held in cyberspace and central Australia being abandoned, according to the think tank report.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/3353247/Climate-change-study-predicts-refugees-fleeing-into-Antarctica.html
“
Think tank“.Thunk tank. There. Fixed that for you.
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Is that the 50,000,000 climate refugees that we were going to have by 2010? All obviously still at sea on Indonesian fishing boats.
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“Australia and Oklahoma will be abandoned because of water shortages and athletes will stay at home in the world’s first virtual Olympics, competing against each other in virtual space with billions of spectators.”
The connection between Australia and Oklahoma seems odd. Both were major productions…and I get why some would abandon certain Baz Luhrman movies. But The Surry with the Fringe on Top will never die, surely.
As for those Olympics where the athletes stay at home…that is something which would never have occurred to me. Billions of polar-dwelling spectators staring into virtual space every four years! I might go a decade and not have an idea like that pop into my head. Particularly when aridity and consequent civilisational strains have been connected more with cooling than with warming. But maybe that’s just old pre-post-modern science we can ignore.
As for the notion that, despite the lure of Antarctica (and Mars?), we will nonetheless hang about the Sahara and turn it green with solar powered desal plants…that shows why humanity needs think tanks and forums run by po-mo urbanites and Posh Left activists. You just don’t get ideas like that anywhere else.
I’m just surprised delegates didn’t mention the post-1980 southward creep of Queensland conditions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbgShiaal6E
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Apparently they could foresee the end of the olympics in 2009, but not the future virtual reality option …
Global warming could make 2016 Games ‘the last Olympics in the history of mankind’, says Tokyo governor
https://www.reuters.com/article/olympics-tokyo-environment-idUSLU38985020090930
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they would save a fortune on condoms
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Another gotcha from the same kiddies who have ignored West Antarctic volcanism (and a subglacial ash sheet the size of some countries near PIG) and who for years distracted from the increase of Antarctic ice over the same satellite period as the one which revealed reduction in the Arctic.
Because the climate industry can be summed up in the one infantile word: gotcha.
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More red thumbs here, please. All you GetUp volunteers staying under covers on a cold Canberra morning. Get up and do your job.
I want five red ones before midday.
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Yes the more red thumbs the better since we would then know there are more alarmists coming here to read the truth and so they might actually learn something instead of listening the crap coming from the likes of the ABC and CSIRO. Notice too they never actually reply with a counter argument. Of course we know why. They have no counter argument.
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I wonder if there is a green thumb total past which potential red thumbers are cowed by the size of the step
“from near zero to an extremely tiny number”?
Maybe a research grant application here
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they love playing with numbers , even though they dont really understand them
there is an article doing the rounds at the minute on how the government (=taxpayers=us) should fund more charging points for electric vehicles because EV sales soared 67% last year. Soared!!! to a massive 2,284 for the whole year. Total passenger vehicle sales?? a lazy 1.2 million in 2017.
Yep that rise (an unprecedented demand actually) to 2,284 out of 1,200,000 should really be the trigger for massive investment. This would have to parallel Teslas proprietary stations of course, which means the real demand is less than 2,284 if you take out the Teslas, but unprecedented anyway (dare I say a tipping point?)
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You’ve got a good point there. You might have noticed that sea level rise is suddenly being quoted in millimeters lately and not so much in yards and miles. That’s because
the numbers in millimeters are delightfully larger than inches.
I’m watching to see if the bubble will burst when someone realizes that 3mm is just a fraction less than 1/25th of an inch, and 3mm rise per year is just on a foot per century … 🙂
(Another shoe may hit the floor when someone realizes 1 tonne is 140 lbs less than 1 ton …)
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3mm is just a fraction less than 1/25th of an inch.
I think that should be 1/8th of an inch?
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Breaking News!
Antarctica 1965:
Before Doomsday Global Warming happened, a piece of the Ice Barrier OVER TWICE THE SIZE of Larsen B broke off.
Climate crooks said that Larsen A in 1995 “was UNPRECEDENTED”.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105826301
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Someone should start promoting geothermal energy in the Antarctic, then it would be written up as the miracle of renewables.
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If they did that they could then run an under sea cable to South Australia to provide electricity when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow or blows too hard.
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We could set an Australian colony up in Antarctica, generate geothermal there and homogenize the renewable generation across continents….
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Sounds brilliant Jo , and totally PC.
KK
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Of course the realistic and non PC version is that it won’t be practicable.
KK
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“and homogenize the renewable generation across continents….” that is probably a brilliant suggestion but I have no clue what it means
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yarpos said:
Yes you do: it means whatever the result, the power from it is going to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more expensive.
40
And offer immediate re-settlement of Pacific Islanders who claim to be wallowing as we read this in CAGW-rising seas that have just about obliterated their homelands. Why with all the increasing global warming that is sure to hit Earth, one blanket and a pillow each would probably suffice for a night’s sleep when the odd unusual chilly day occurs in New Antarctica.
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They can’t even keep the one across tiny Bass Strait operational.
What chance one to the Antarctic 🙂
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Not Antarctica but
“Y2Kyoto: I’ll Miss The Poley Bears”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/06/14/y2kyoto-ill-miss-the-poley-bears/
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Argo data of circum-Antarctic waters shows no trend since 2004 and the 30 year T trend of the Souther Ocean is negative.
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Right.
And it’s supposed to be the “warming” Southern Ocean which melts all that ice?
Right.
That’s just so scary!
“ How sweet to be an idiot
As harmless as a cloud,
Too small to hide the sun
Almost poking fun,
At the warm but insecure untidy crowd.
[Neil Innes, 1974]
Antarctica is a continent, a rather big land mass. Its ice cap is land based,Antarctica is not an ocean-based ice-cap as the Arctic is. . The icecap is well over a mile thick in East Antarctica. How is that going to melt when the southern ocean can’t get at it? Just a minor detail…
So the Southern Ocean is eating into it they say? Those are just the glacier tongues which run into the ocean. So what? That ice mass is trivial given the extent of Antarctica.
Air temperatures down there aren’t going to do it. The sun in Antarctica’s summer (it’s now winter down under as we all know only too well, but those Northern Hemisphere phules keep forgetting that the night is six months long so it’s not going to do much melting), rises about 15 ° above the horizon, during Antarctica’s six month long day so it’s weak and certainly doesn’t have the punch to melt the ice itself. The Ice sheet albedo is too high and most is reflected. That’s why it’s so cold down there -40° C to -50°C. Those temps are going to melt a lot of the ice.
Neither is the Southern Hemisphere as industrially dirty as the Northern, so sooty ice won’t cut it either. The time frame for it to melt in is going to require
way higher temperatures than Antarctica has experienced in the is inter-stadial. Where are they going to come from? Sub-icecap volcanoes? They’ve been at work already.
Have a look at Antarctica’s current sea ice extent and point out the warm patches in the Southern Ocean. Anybody?
…
Fie fye foe fum,
I smell the blood of the asylum,
…
Oooh how sweet to be an idiot,
How sweet. how sweet. How sweet.
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If the alarmists are claiming the waters are warming due to man-made CO2 emission then how come the land surface temperatures are not trending up any more and in fact look like they are trending down? The only realistic cause of the waters warming is a localised heat source below the waters. Volcanoes are the obvious heat sources since it’s a scientific fact they do exist in the Antarctic. It doesn’t require a lot of intelligence to figure that out. Can I get a grant to gather the evidence and write a report? I do have lots of research experience as I did work at CSIRO a long time ago (before it became too politicised and left at the time I saw it coming in a big way).
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There are no grants for natural climate change.
120
Alarmists are feeling the heat,
From beneath west Antarctic’s ice-sheet,
Where magma is thrust,
Through miles of the crust,
And would likely some glaciers deplete.
250
That and your previous one are both brilliant Ruairi! 🙂
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Antarctic IE seems to have slowly increased from 1979 – 2015 (highest extent) and then dropped off to around the mid-1980s.
http://www.climate4you.com/images/NSIDC%20GlobalArcticAntarctic%20SeaIceArea.gif
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Sea ice is below average around the world and we have to counter the argument that CO2 is the cause. How hard could it be?
https://sunshinehours.net
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this rush of Antarctica stories is no concidence. Antarctica is the new Greenland for the CAGW mob:
Andy Shepherd, Leeds Uni: “The last time we looked at the polar ice sheets, Greenland was the dominant contributor. That’s no longer the case.”
VIDEO/AUDIO: 13 Jun: BBC: Antarctica loses three trillion tonnes of ice in 25 years
By Jonathan Amos and Victoria Gill
“We can’t say when it started – we didn’t collect measurements in the sea back then,” explained Prof Andrew Shepherd, who leads the Ice sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (Imbie).
“But what we can say is that it’s too warm for Antarctica today. It’s about half a degree Celsius warmer than the continent can withstand and it’s melting about five metres of ice from its base each year, and that’s what’s triggering the sea-level contribution that we’re seeing,” he told BBC News.
East Antarctica, the greater part of the continent, is the only region to have shown some growth. Much of this region essentially sits out of the ocean and collects its snows over time and is not subject to the same melting forces seen elsewhere. But the gains are likely quite small, running at about five billion tonnes per year.
And the Imbie team stresses that the growth cannot counterbalance what is happening in the West and on the Peninsula. Indeed, it is probable that an unusually big dump of snow in the East just before the last assessment in 2012 made Antarctica as a whole look less negative than the reality.
Globally, sea levels are rising by about 3mm a year. This figure is driven by several factors, including the expansion of the oceans as they warm. But what is clear from the latest Imbie assessment is that Antarctica is becoming a significant player.
“A three-fold increase now puts Antarctica in the frame as one of the largest contributors to sea-level rise,” said Prof Shepherd, who is affiliated to Leeds University, UK.
***”The last time we looked at the polar ice sheets, Greenland was the dominant contributor. That’s no longer the case.”…
New evidence suggests where this process has occurred in the past, it can actually constrain ice losses – as the land rises, it snags on the floating fronts of marine-terminating glaciers.
“It’s like applying the brakes on a bike,” said Dr Pippa Whitehouse from Durham University. “Friction on the bottom of the ice, which was floating but has now grounded again, slows everything and changes the whole dynamic upstream. We do think the rebound (in the future) will be fast, but not fast enough to stop the retreat we’ve kicked off with today’s warming.
“Ocean warming is going to make the ice too thin for this process to help.” …
“At the moment, we have projections going through to 2100, which is sort of on a lifetime of what we can envisage, and actually the sea-level rise we will see is 50/60cm,” said Dr Whitehouse. “And that is not only going to impact people who live close to the coast, but actually when we have storms – the repeat time of major storms and flooding events is going to be exacerbated,” she told BBC News.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44470208
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Antarctica – first segment (ends 11min40secs). crumbling ice. 58 metre sea level rise if it all melts. loads of related Antarctica links bottom right of page. Guests: Prof Andy Shepherd from Leeds University; ice-modeller Dr Pippa Whitehouse from Durham University.
AUDIO: 26mins29secs: 15 Jun: BBC Science in Action: Antarctic Ice Melt and Sea Level Rise
Presenter: Roland Pease
Antarctic ice melt and sea level rise – The rate of sea level rise from melting ice sheets and ice shelves in Antarctica has trebled in the past 5 years, due to global warming. Satellite data is showing that ice loss from Antarctica has increased global sea levels by 7.6mm since 1992 and could reach 15 cm the end of the century.
Earthquake Prediction
Global earthquake models pass stress test. Combining GPS and seismic data gives us the best earthquake forecasts yet.
Undersea fibre optic data cables that carry the world’s telecommunications data can also be used to detect seismic signals from earthquakes. This is particularly useful for picking up signals from remote undersea tectonically active regions which are not very well covered by land-based seismic recorders.
Picture: Summer clouds swirl in around the Staccato Peaks of Alexander Island, Antarctic Peninsula. High snowfall and strong weather gradients in this mountainous area make assessment of glacier mass balance particularly challenging. Credit: Hamish Pritchard, BAS.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswmph
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AUDIO: 10min14secs: 13 Jun: BBC: Antarctic melting speeds up
Antarctica is shedding ice at an accelerating rate. Satellites monitoring the state of the White Continent indicate some 200 billion tonnes a year are now being lost to the ocean as a result of melting. This is pushing up global sea-levels by 0.6mm annually – a three-fold increase since 2012 when the last such assessment was undertaken. Study leader Prof Andrew Shepherd spoke with our science correspondent Jonathan Amos.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-44470214/antarctic-melting-speeds-up
AUDIO: 8mins32secs: 13 Jun: BBC: Rising rock ‘won’t save Antarctica’
As Antarctica’s ice melts, the underlying rock will rise up – something scientists call isostatic readjustment. New evidence suggests where this process has occurred in the past, it can actually constrain ice losses – as the land lifts, it snags on the floating fronts of marine-terminating glaciers. But that might not happen with current melting, says Dr Pippa Whitehouse from Durham University. She spoke with our science correspondent Jonathan Amos.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-44470216/rising-rock-won-t-save-antarctica
meanwhile, neither BBC (or theirABC) appear to have a single mention, as yet, of the BP Energy Review on carbon emissions increase; coal comeback etc. at least I can’t find anything in searches or on their websites.
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14 Jun: Japan Times: Bloomberg: Global emissions hit record, climbing 1.6 percent, with Paris deal targets in doubt
Two years after 200 nations forged a United Nations deal to protect the climate, output of gases blamed for global warming has surged to a record.
Carbon dioxide emissions from energy use climbed 1.6 percent in 2017, with emerging and developed economies both contributing to the increase, according to BP PLC data published Wednesday.
In the U.S., which intends to withdraw from the U.N.’s Paris accord, greenhouse-gas output fell for a third year, by 0.5 percent.
Emissions from Japan also fell slightly, by 0.1 percent.
Emissions are rising in the run-up to the 2020 start of the Paris deal, which pushed all countries to make reductions in fossil-fuel use. As emerging nations’ growth accelerates, countries remain divided about who should finance projects to limit pollution and how deep national pledges should go.
***Hardly any nations have plans compatible with the Paris targets…
The biggest advances in emissions were in emerging nations, with a 4.4 percent jump in India and a 1.6 percent gain in China. Carbon dioxide output also rose in Brazil, Qatar and Russia, while Turkey’s jumped by 13 percent.
In the European Union, home to the world’s biggest carbon market, emissions from energy use advanced 1.5 percent. Greenhouse gas output rose in Canada…
BP’s data are among the first that provides an estimate of national emissions output for the year and meshes with preliminary statistics published in March by the International Energy Agency…
Coal’s share of power generation globally has been little changed over the past three decades, the BP data show…
Programs that put a cost on emissions will cover only about 20 percent of global emissions by 2020, according to the World Bank’s State & Trends of Carbon Pricing 2018 report. Prices in programs that do exist aren’t high enough to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), the main target mentioned in the 2015 Paris accord.
Given current efforts, the world is probably heading for temperature gains of 4 degrees or more, according to Climate Action Tracker.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/06/14/world/science-health-world/global-emissions-hit-record-climbing-1-6-percent-paris-deal-targets-doubt/#.WyLtOeQnbIU
30
IIRC “How to lie with statistics” made a mention of the use of percentages
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14 Jun: Forbes: Robert Rapier: World Sets New Oil Production Record
(Robert Rapier has over 20 years of experience in the energy industry as an engineer and an investor)
This week the 2018 BP Statistical Review of World Energy was released, which covers energy data through 2017. It is the definitive source for global energy production and consumption figures, and a primary source of data for numerous companies, government agencies and non-government organizations…
First, the report shows that the world achieved a new oil production record of 92.6 million barrels per day (BPD), which is the 8th straight year global oil production has increased. The United States was the world’s top oil producer in 2017, exceeding 13 million BPD* for the first time ever. Saudi Arabia was second at 12.0 million BPD, while Russia came in at 11.3 million BPD…
Oil consumption, which is quite a bit higher due to the inclusion of biofuels and fuels derived from coal and natural gas, also set a new record of 98.2 million BPD. U.S. consumption rose by 1.0%, and still leads the world at 19.9 million BPD. China’s demand rose by 4% to a new record of 12.8 million BPD…
China remains the world’s top coal market, with the country consuming 50.7% of the world’s coal in 2017…
Global carbon dioxide emissions rose 1.6% to a new record of 33.4 billion metric tons…
In the next few articles, I will take a deeper dive and share some graphics derived from the report.
*Note that BP’s definition of “oil” includes natural gas liquids (NGLs), which have surged in the U.S. along with natural gas production. This is the primary reason BP’s oil production number is higher than numbers reported by the Energy Information Administration.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2018/06/14/world-sets-new-oil-production-record/#11660508752d
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Scary graph. 3,000 Gigatons gone!
Unless I am mistaken, a Gigaton is 10^9 tons, same as a Billion tons using US nomenclature.
Now according to the infallible internet, the ice covering Antartica weight 27 Million billion tons.
So 27,000,000 Gigatons.
As a % the loss is 3/27,000 or 1/900%, 0.0011%. Run for the hills! Scary graph!
I also remember satellite reporting that the centre of Antarctica has grown significantly. Much more than this.
Still, you have to keep that Green funding going. Otherwise who cares about Antarctica?
What is surprising is that the Polar Bears have been wiped out by the penguins. Does no one care for the missing Antarctic Polar bears? Should we introduce them, save them? They would love penguins. Taste like chicken.
Soon Antarctica would be covered in tens of thousands of huge one tonne carnivores snacking on millions of penguins, walruses, seals and smaller sea lions. Then UN could build some walls or send in the blue helmets so that there was sustainable snacking making sure minority groups were protected and had safe spaces.
There is an increasing sense of unreality over this fake concern for the Arctic and Antarctic where no one lives or can live.
Surely after thirty years of rapid runaway tipping point Global Warming we would have seen more than a few mm of regular sea level rise? According to the ABC’s 100 metres Robin Williams, the Sydney Harbour bridge should have been underwater by now. Oh, the humanity!
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Sorry, 0.011%. 10x worse than I thought in 30 years.
I mean where will we be in another 30 years with another terrifying sea level rise of 10mm? I think the mean height of most cities is going up much faster.
Part of Scotland are rising at 100mm per hundred years, 3x this rate. What a curse, having to move from Cornwall to Scotland because of a 10mm rise in average sea level caused by Antarctica over 30 years.
Also, when the news came out about extra ice in the centre of Antarctica in a few years, I calculated an immediate 6mm drop in sea levels. You would think that might be significant, but no one worries about the sea going down as it is in Sweden.
31
Alarmist always turn insignificant numbers into scary monsters. After all a rise of CO2 from 0.035% to 0.04% according to them is alarming when in fact it’s insignificant. Let me know when it’s over 0.4% and I might start to think about. When it’s over 4% I might start to worry. How many centuries at the current rate will that be? No need to bother – it will all be pointless well before then anyway.
31
Naughty copywriters at the Australian. Article by Henry Ergas titled “ABC, try harder, for fact’s sake”. Funny.
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Excellent news everyone (to quote mad Professor Farnsworth from Futurama) – I’ve discovered where all that melted Antarctic ice and snow is… in Australia! A quick perusal of some of the webcams below shows large dollops of cold, white stuff falling from the sky and landing on the hills of VIC and NSW. Shocking! Astounding! Chilling!
http://www.snowatch.com.au/live-snow-cams/
I’ve got a half-baked hypothesis ready to send off to the IPCC Grant Application Board – I’m just trying to figure out where to insert the necessary catchwords ‘robust’ and ‘unprecedented’ and ‘worse than we thought’. My working title is – Lies, Damned Lies, and Climate Séance: Hot Models and Hotter Penguins.
http://squall.sfsu.edu/gif/jetstream_sohem_00.gif
Thankfully penguins can’t fly otherwise they might get caught up in the jet stream and begin dropping from the sky as well.
100
The jet stream is out of whack and the scientists have seen nothing like this in 290 years.
https://www.wuft.org/nation-world/2018/01/12/scientists-say-a-fluctuating-jet-stream-may-be-causing-extreme-weather-events/
The meandering jet stream is a sign of global cooling.
40
If you look back at history of jet stream wobbles it seems its more a sign of changing from warming to cooling OR from cooling to warming.
21
I can see you haven’t watched penguins under water: that’s where they fly!
20
It’s ironic that we have multiple real explanations to show the warmists have it totally wrong. How come we don’t hear those explanations being announced loud and clear from the wide body of scientists who know the truth? Again as I said many times before we are being let down badly by all the scientists of the world for being at best silent and not blowing the whistle on the CAGW scam. They are ALL guilty, except the few who are on our side but are ignored by the MSM, politicians and much of the public. It’s really a sad indictment of established research organisations like the CSIRO. As far as I’m concerned they have lost all credibility.
81
I think Professor Peter Ridd, formerly of JCU, said exactly that. Now he is suing to get his job back.
You can add Bob Carter, Prof Geoffrey Blainey, Prof Murry Selby and a host of others.
If you have a mortgage, children at school, a career and work for the very left public service, you cannot speak out.
39% of US universities do not employ a single Republican. Clearly you are not even considered for a job in nearly half of US universities if you are not a slave to Global Warming.
Or you don’t let on that you vote Republican and stay very quiet.
100
You could add cartoonist Bill Leak to that group.
80
Yes money never sleeps.
50
You may also have noted that many of the people who are prepared to speak out are retired or close to retirement, if not past caring. Or like Keith Windschuttle on *boriginal topics, of independent means and not able to be fired. Ex employees of NASA, ex professors, ex scientists, engineers and others.
Even in private industry scientists work in large corporations and corporations are becoming more politically correct than their customers as executives join the SJW group of which Climate Change is a big part. As Bill Maher, US HBO Television commentator said, the US is using poison gas in Syria too, carbon dioxide. Ignorance is not bliss.
40
TdeF
Observed by Neville Shute in his research activities with the RNVR in WW2. Chapter 7 in “Slide Rule”.
“As civilians in uniform we found the Admiralty system to be better adapted to conserving money in peace time than to getting quick production in times of war. We found in many instances that the only way to get things done quickly was to short circuit the system, getting verbal authority by telephone conversations with the various departments affected and letting the paper work tag along three weeks later. These methods required senior officers of the regular navy to give verbal decisions which might involve expenditures of thousands of pounds without any paper cover, and naturally made us very unpopular.”
“Now and again, we would find some cheerful young commander or captain who was not affected by these scruples, who was as brave in the office as he was at sea. Commenting on such a regular officer and on his way of doing business we would say “He’s a good one. I bet he’s got private means.”
“- – – and then it got beyond a joke and turned into an axiom. These were the men who could afford to shoulder personal responsibility in the Admiralty, who could afford to do their duty to the Navy in the highest sense”
60
It was insitutionalized when you could buy commissions. Money did get you to the top of the armed forces. Not competence or bravery.
Incidentally that is where Winston Churchill as the son of Lord Randolph and born at Blenheim was so different. He was past brave, even suicidal.
10
None the less, during our time with the Army, it was a fact that those of independant means could speak up in a way that others found a bit risky to their careers. It wasn’t all to do with historical purchase of commissions.
21
CAGW rule #1: thou shalt have no ***”economic growth”:
13 Jun: Deutsche Welle: Germany to miss 2020 greenhouse gas emissions target
***Economic and population growth are to blame for Germany missing its climate protection target. One of the leaders of the Greens said figures show that Chancellor Angela Merkel has more bark than bite on climate change.
by amp/sms (Reuters, dpa, AFP)
Germany is set to miss its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions target by 8 percent, according to German weekly magazine Der Spiegel.
The German government set itself the goal of reducing national greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 by 40 percent compared to 1990 levels.
But a draft government report estimates that the country will only be able to reduce emissions by 32 percent. Officials had previously estimated a shortfall of 5 percent to 8 percent.
The document blames ***”unexpected economic developments and unexpected population growth” for the failure to meet the target. Increased economic activity and strong population growth generally cause an uptick in emissions due to increased use of fossil fuel energy.
“The climate protection report shows a gigantic gap between the government’s words and deeds when it comes to climate protection,” the German branch of the environmental protection group WWF said in a statement. “It’s a 120-decibel alarm and the government has to show it has heard it.”
Green Party leader lashes out at Merkel
Annalena Baerbock, co-leader of the Green Party, told Der Spiegel that the figures were proof Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has long championed the fight against climate change, “says a lot about the climate, but delivers very little.”
The new figures came a day after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Germany needed to do more to realize its climate change goals.
***The OECD also cited strong economic growth as a challenge to meeting emissions targets. Traffic emissions had increased as well, it said, presenting another problem for the country’s ability to meet its commitments.
http://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-miss-2020-greenhouse-gas-emissions-target/a-44199562
30
14 Jun: CNBC: Trump’s forecast of 4% GDP growth close to coming true as Americans spend tax-bill proceeds
•Surging consumer spending is driving GDP well above prior estimates, and it is now tracking near 4 percent for the second quarter.
•That’s almost double the pace of the first quarter.
•Economists say the consumer is seeing the impact of the tax cuts and is spending, as a result of more disposable income.
by Patti Domm
The economy in the second quarter is tracking close to 4 percent growth — a level President Donald Trump raved about last December, just before the tax bill was approved. At the same time, he had also told reporters he was holding out for a doubling of growth to 6 percent.
For now, his 4 percent forecast is close to coming true on a quarterly basis, after strong retail sales data pushed up tracking GDP growth for the second quarter to about double the first quarter’s level…
“On the heels of this data we now estimate real GDP is expanding at a 4.0% annual rate in Q2, up from our prior estimate of 2.75% and almost twice the 2.2% growth rate experienced in Q1,” wrote JP Morgan chief U.S. economist Michael Feroli. If the economy hits that growth rate, it would be the best since the third quarter of 2014.
“The primary source of the acceleration in growth this quarter is the consumer, which looks to be expanding real outlays at a 3.7% rate in Q2 following an anemic 1.0% pace last quarter,” Feroli added. “We had looked for a rebound in Q2, as some temporary drags waned and the tax cut boosted disposable incomes. In any event, consumers wasted no time enjoying their tax windfall, as the Q2 saving rate looks like it will revisit the lows for the cycle.”
White House economic advisors last fall had expected just the corporate tax cuts to send growth to 3 percent to 5 percent annual pace within three years, and they could be hitting the low end of the range this year. In December, Trump was even more optimistic: “So we’re at 3.3 percent GDP. I see no reason why we don’t go to 4 percent, 5 percent, and even 6 percent,” he said at the time.
“Net, net, consumers are back in a big way and provide the rocket fuel that is powering the stronger 3 percent growth we are forecasting this quarter,” wrote Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank. “This is exactly what we should expect to see when the economy is giving everyone a job and workers have their pockets stuffed with massive tax cuts cash.”
Jobless claims also surprised economists Thursday morning, falling 4,000 to a near 44½-year low of 218,000, signaling an economy at full employment…
Economists said the better retail sales could be the result of improved May weather, after poor weather in March and April…
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said in April he believes U.S. gross domestic product could hit 5 percent for a time as economic growth moves back toward its long-term trend.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/14/trumps-forecast-of-4-percent-gdp-growth-close-to-coming-true-as-americans-spend-tax-bill-proceeds.html
20
Oh how we long for the good old days way down in Antarctica all those hundred odd million years ago when the sun shone brightly and the dinasours roamed and the summer days were long and warm and the cycads and conifers were out in all their spendour and the new angiosperms were just coming into their own over the last 5 milllion years with their brightly coloured flowers and green leaves and those new bee type insects began to appear !
Sources various and numerous but this one will do!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3577625/Huge-trove-dinosaur-fossils-Antarctica-71-million-year-old-bones-reveal-new-clues-went-extinct.html
50
Things ain’t what they used to be as the Supercontinent drifted South all those years ago. Just waiting for it to start slamming into Africa. I’ll sit back ad wait – I have plenty of time.
30
It is a good thing that we parted company 30 mya .I think this is a good thing.
30
Quick! Panic panic panic.
That guy on the ABC last night said it was melting at a huge rate, enough to cover Texas to a depth of 4 Metres.
Holy smoke, that’s really bad.
That’s Queensland to a depth of 1.5 Metres.
Or Brisbane to a depth of 176 Metres
Or Rockhampton to a depth of 4.8 Kilometres.
Umm, now I really am concerned. I’m so glad I have the ABC as a source of all the right information, or should that be left.
Tony.
120
How much would it drown Canberra?
60
Forget Canberra!
They live in a fly blown bubble that is impervious to anything going on outside of it!
70
Maybe it’ll be encased with ice and snow as it’s an upland valley?
40
ROM
There is this ethnic joke punchline on impervious protections
“Well fill it up with beer”.
30
I noticed those kamikaze flies when I was there in 1990. Couldn’t ignore the obnoxious things. They had this annoying behaviour or habit of flying straight at one’s eyes making sunglasses manadatory. That didn’t stop them. Cleaning my sunglasses was a job which had to be done inside …
10
Umm! 3420 Metres!
Would they notice?
Tony.
60
Now Tony, you have to get your relativities correct here!
Queensland if it was a nation in its own right, in area [ 1,730,648 sq kms] would come in just behind Libya [ 1,759,540 ] and ahead of Iran [ 1, 648,000 ] making it the equivalent in area of the 18th largest nation on earth.
[ out of the 267 nations and independent entities listed ‘ island nations etc, by wikipedia ]
Of course WA with its area of 2,529,875 sq kms places it in the 10th position in area globally if it was a nation in its own right.
With Kazakhstan [ 2 724,900 ] and Argentina @ 2,780,400 sq kms ahead of WA and Algeria [ 2,381,740 ] behind WA in area.
WA in fact is larger in area than any African nation on the African continent.
60
Yeah, off topic I know, so sorry for that, and see how easily it happens.
Not long after I completed my original Series about The Kyoto Protocol at the site I now call home, back in 2008, I thought I was tapped out, with nothing left to say. I based that original Series on what it might take to replace!! coal fired power with renewables in the U.S. in an effort to comply with what Kyoto asked for, and it lasted more than 50 separate Posts, and as it turned out, I just kept going with electrical power generation.
The site’s owner asked me to perhaps give some background on Australia, about how it was discovered, settled, etc, as (like him) not many people in the U.S. knew all that much about Australia.
So, I started a new Series, which ended up at 5 Parts, and did just that.
At the very first Post I found two graphics of the relative sizes of the UK and Australia, and Australia and the U.S.
After that first Post appeared, I got an email back from the site owner, and he asked me to check on that second graphic, because he was certain that Australia was not that large when compared to the U.S. almost the same size as the Continental (lower 48 States) U.S.
He was astonished when I told him that was correct, and when he showed his family and friends, the same happened with them as well.
I’m still surprised to this day that very few Americans are aware of this fact.
Here’s the link to that First Part in that Series, and beware, I was still pretty much an amateur writer in those days, well, I still am I guess.
Australia (Part One) The Genesis
Tony.
If Any of you want to read the rest, here’s the permanent link to all 5 Posts
50
I did something similar on the [ international in scope ] “Combine Forum” where I wrote a series of 17 articles on both the historical aspects of australian agriculture and the potential developments [ Ok predictions almost ! ] on the possible future developments in combine harvesters.
Quite a lot of my posts were describing conditions in australian agriculture which I gathered from the americans caused a lot of discussion in farm discussion groups across the huge american grain and corn areas.
The americans who have been brought up a diet that they invented most items of importance in this world were somewhat stunned when I described the history of the earlliest harvesters as developed here in Australia in SA particularly around the 1830’s and 1840’s.
The so called revolutionary McCormick reaper , a cutter bar and a collection platform where the sheaves were tied before being taken to the stationary thresher for threshing which the Americans made a big deal of was actually around 20 to 30 years behind the Australians who had developed the strippers and then the combined cutter bars and threshing mechanism into one machine by the late 1800’s.
The americans only caught up with the developed australian grain harvesting technologies by around 1920.
Then of course the sheer size of the american farm industry meant that the american combine manufacturers overwhelmed the small but very good australian harvesting machinery manufacturers.
Some americans openly questioned the Australian’s early historical developments of grain harvesting machinery as I quoted numerous recorded items from both museum selections and from the local papers of the times, ahead of the americans but were shot down fairly hard by a couple of their fellow country men who had read up on the history of the global grain harvesting mechinisation and just flatly admitted that the australian developments in grain harvesting mechanisation in the 1800’s was anything up to a quarter of a century ahead of the american developments .
50
Howard Rotavator.
Tony.
20
How does an ex-RAAFie like yourself know about Howard rotavators? You’re not a farm boy are you? I’ll bet not even ROM knows about them. They’re a coastal implement. In the early 60s Howard also built the Howard 2000, first of the mini tractors with multi-implements which have since proliferated under a dozen brand names.
The Yeomans plow — a deep ripper developed in the 60s — was also a fantastic piece of thoughtful Oz engineering way ahead of the competition, and still is. It complemented Yeoman’s system of gravity-fed irrigation and off-contour ripping to disperse surface water and develop topsoil.
The round baler was also an Oz invention. We had the prototype “hay roller” near our house for years in the 70s before the yanks saw it and commercialised it.
Australia has a wonderful history of invention and a pathetic history of commercialising our inventions for want of investors with foresight.
10
The same thing happened with a lot of British inventions…not developed in Britain, eventually sold to the Americans and developed by them and then sold back!
I remember seeing the Rotodyne (sp?) flying over us (50s/60s?). Presumably that’s what came back as the Chinook, at a price!
11
Tony
If you haven’t seen this….
Very handy site for country size comparison.
10
But Yeppoon would be 166 million km deep. Or more accurately 166,958,880km deep. Should I calculate it to 4 decimal places?
Sadly I can’t find any area for Yeppoon, I’m estimating it as 2.5km x 2.5km.
30
The ‘tards I know used to always bang on about GRACE measuring magnetic changes due to the rebound of the continent due to ice loss, I tried to explain to them magma flow will also produce changes in garvitation but their eyes would just glaze over and i would get called a denier.
Its studies like this one that keeps the stupid in check which is why they routinely produce them they are not meant for our (denier) consumption.
40
A quote from the movie Liar Liar (1997).
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (actually a quote from the bible – John 8:32 and I am not religious – just have a good memory from my school scripture lessons).
And the truth is that AGW is nonsense.
And the truth will set you free – namely that the main driver of Earth’s Climate is Solar and other non-anthropogenic effects.
So the key question is – when will the truth set us free?
Well I am pinning my hopes on the imminent “Mini Ice Age” due to kick in late next decade – and hopefully earlier.
40
12 Jun: GWPF: New Study: The Sun And Volcanoes Caused The Pause
by Dr David Whitehouse, GWPF Science Editor
Last week a team of researchers from the UK Met Office, the University of East Anglia, the University of Gothenburg, the University of Southern Queensland and the Sorbonne published in the journal Science Advances an interesting paper (LINK) showing that the recent much debated and researched 21st century “slowdown” in global surface temperatures was real and could be explained by reduced solar activity and increased volcanic counteracting climate forcing from greenhouse gases. It achieved almost no media coverage despite being published in a high profile journal.
Its stated aim was to “place the slowdown in a longer term context.” It chose not to use the words “pause” or “hiatus” because it says warming did not entirely cease on decadal timescales.
That’s where I disagree. It depends upon when you start the decade. All the global databases clearly show that warming did cease between 2001 – 2013 (before the recent very strong El Nino), though I would advise the reader to experiment with trends by altering start and end dates to get a better picture of what is going on…READ ON
https://www.thegwpf.com/the-sun-and-volcanoes-cause-the-pause/
30
behind paywall – MSM not interested:
14 Jun: Law360: RBS Faces Trial Over Alleged Role In £160M Tax Fraud
By Richard Crump
Lawyers for Royal Bank of Scotland PLC appeared at the High Court in London on Thursday over its alleged role in a huge carbon trading tax fraud, in which it is alleged that traders at the bank carried out deals that helped fraudsters cheat HM Revenue and Customs out of millions of pounds in VAT payments.
Royal Bank of Scotland is being sued by liquidators at Grant Thornton on behalf of creditors who claim they have been left with enormous debts. (AP) Two traders employed at…
reminder:
5 Jun 2016: ThisIsMoneyUK: RBS sued for £145m over its alleged role in huge carbon trading VAT fraud
By Adam Luck For The Mail On Sunday
The legal action, which dates back to 2009 just months after the bank was bailed out by taxpayers, alleges that two traders at the bank carried out deals which helped fraudsters cheat Revenue & Customs out of millions of pounds in VAT payments…
Between June 8 and July 6, 2009, the court papers state, RBS traders bought 43 million carbon credits linked to allegedly fraudulent companies.
The deals were said to have been conducted by Andrew Gygax, 41, and Jonathan Shain, 38, who were employed at the bank’s commodities trading division RBS Sempra…
The legal action is being brought against RBS by liquidators at accountancy firm Grant Thornton acting for creditors – including the Revenue – who have been left out of pocket by the failure of the allegedly fraudulent companies…
In 2013, a report by accountancy giant BDO estimated that VAT fraud – which has been the subject of an ongoing crackdown in the UK – costs Britain more than £3billion a year…
A spokesman for the bank said: ‘RBS denies these allegations and will vigorously defend them.’ Shain declined to comment and Gygax could not be reached. Both are understood to reject the allegations.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-3625388/RBS-sued-145m-alleged-role-huge-carbon-trading-VAT-fraud.html
and another:
12 Jun: Gov.UK: Press release: Maximum ban for director involved in multimillion VAT fraud
A 15-year disqualification order has been served against Ulhaque Lone Ahtamad, after he carried out a multimillion pound VAT fraud.
Ulhaque Ahtamad was the sole director of Masstech Ltd, a carbon emissions allowance and metals trader based in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
The Insolvency Service started to investigate Ulhaque Ahtamad after Masstech Ltd was wound up for debts owed to HMRC.
The investigation uncovered that between June and September 2009, Masstech Ltd, made sales of more than £38 million in the wholesale trade of carbon emission allowances and metals with little initial finance in place.
The company then filed quarterly returns with HMRC attempting to fraudulently reclaim UK VAT that ‘missing traders’ earlier in supply chains had failed to pay to HMRC. This was part of a Missing Trader Intracommunity (MTIC) fraudulent scheme…
The court heard that Masstech Ltd entered into trading arrangements which were “too good to be true”, and against which the company had been expressly and repeatedly warned by HMRC.
And Ulhaque Ahtamad made payments to unconnected third parties totalling at least £7.38 million, despite having been warned on more than one occasion by HMRC officers of the risks of third party payments in the context of MTIC fraud.
The VAT fraud, including wrongful VAT reclaims against HMRC, resulted in tax losses of over £7.1 million…
The court concluded that Ulhaque Ahtamad must have been a knowing participant in this scheme and that a 15 year ban, the maximum period of disqualification, was appropriate…
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/maximum-ban-for-director-involved-in-multimillion-vat-fraud
20
I think the author of the article Michael Le Page (New Scientist) needs to go back to high school or drink stronger coffee
30
Reuters’ account:
14 Jun: Reuters: Brendan Pierson: Oil majors ask U.S. judge to toss New York City climate lawsuit
Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer for Chevron Corp, said at a hearing before U.S. District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan that the lawsuit, filed in January, was an attempt to hold the oil companies liable for carbon emissions all over the world since the industrial revolution.
“They’re basically asking the court to recognize a tort that would hold (the oil companies) responsible for the way civilization and humankind have developed over the ages,” Boutrous said.
The city sued Chevron, BP Plc, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc in January, announcing at the same time that it intended to divest fossil fuel investments from its $189 billion public pension funds over the next five years…
The city said it must spend billions of dollars to safeguard against flooding and other hazards of global warming, and is seeking money damages…
Boutrous argued at the hearing that the city was wrong to bring claims under state law because federal law governs carbon emissions. He also argued that a court would be unable to decide the complicated political considerations that go into addressing global warming.
“Global warming is a very important issue. It’s a thorny problem,” Boutros said. “Lawsuits are not the way to deal with this.”
Matthew Pawa, a lawyer for the city, said the oil companies had contributed to a “public nuisance” under state law, defined as “an unreasonable interference with rights common to the public.” He denied that the lawsuit sought to hold the companies liable for emissions going back centuries, saying the city only claimed they became liable once they knew of fossil fuels’ risks.
“The liability would go back as far as the intentionality goes,” he said.
Keenan asked both sides’ lawyers whether the city could hold the oil companies liable, given that it used fossil fuels itself. Boutrous agreed that could be an issue, while Pawa said it was not grounds for dismissing the case.
The judge did not make a decision at the hearing.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-municipals-fossilfuels/oil-majors-ask-u-s-judge-to-toss-new-york-city-climate-lawsuit-idUSKBN1J92UE?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
AP’s account:
14 Jun: AP: LARRY NEUMEISTER: Judge shows skepticism to New York climate change lawsuit
New York City’s attempt to hold five of the world’s biggest oil companies responsible for damage from global warming didn’t seem to impress a judge during oral arguments Wednesday to determine if a lawsuit can proceed.
U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan questioned the city’s standing to bring the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages from BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.
At one point, Keenan asked a city lawyer if New York City had investments in the companies it was suing. At another, he noted the many cars owned by the police department and the many trucks operated by fire and sanitation personnel.
And at least twice, the judge asked if the city was hiding an emissions case in language meant to seem it was instead targeting the companies’ production and sales operations.
“Aren’t you trying to dress a wolf up in sheep’s clothing?” he asked attorney Matthew Pawa, who represented the city.
“Aren’t the plaintiffs using the product?” Keenan asked. “Does the city have clean hands?”
“Yes, the city uses fossil fuels,” Pawa responded.
Pawa recalled successful litigation to hold tobacco companies responsible for the harms of cigarette smoking and said he was asking Keenan “to apply very old law to new facts.”
The judge did not rule immediately…
If the lawsuit survives, Boutrous said, it would encourage similar litigation.
“It really would involve everybody suing everybody for living our lives the way we do and using the power sources that we have,” he said.
https://www.apnews.com/dda1f33e613f450bae3b8802032bc449/Judge-shows-skepticism-to-New-York-climate-change-lawsuit
30
14 Jun: Bloomberg: Lynn Doan: Guess Who Also Met With Pope and Big Oil? Renewables Executives
Pattern Energy’s Garland among those who attended climate talk
Everybody agreed climate change must be addressed: Garland
In the quest to track down every oil giant and investor that attended a recent climate change meeting with Pope Francis, two completely non-oil-related attendees appear to have been overlooked: a couple of renewable energy companies.
Michael Garland, the chief executive officer of U.S. wind and solar power company Pattern Energy Group Inc., said he and another renewable energy executive were invited to join the conversation last week to represent their industry. “We were outnumbered, but that’s OK,” he said in an interview in San Francisco Wednesday. “We felt honored to be there. We added just enough flavor on the renewable side to make it interesting.”
Garland echoed a lot of what’s already been reported out of the meeting. He said everybody agreed that there needed to be something done about climate change, that there needs to be a price on carbon — perhaps in the form of a tax on emissions — and that oil and gas companies need a way of disclosing their efforts to combat global warming without exposing themselves to lawsuits if they can’t deliver on every part of their plans.
***One thing Garland said he found disappointing about the meeting: They didn’t discuss coal. “To me, coal is the near-term big problem,” he said. “If we could eliminate coal quickly and replace it with renewables and gas, it gives the oil guys a better transition and it gives us more room in our carbon budget. We’ve got to get rid of this coal.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-13/guess-who-also-met-with-pope-and-big-oil-renewables-executives
20
Breaking Nooze
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-15/consumers-more-annoyed-with-their-energy-company-than-their-bank/9871500
30
Is anyone tracking vocanic activity around the pacific rim?
Just from anecdotal evidence, there seems to be a happening of late.
20
— volcanic — :-).
20
Try the Smithsonian Institutions Global Volcanism Program for a very comprehensive outline on what is currently erupting and where, when and how much
20
And there’s Volcano World at Oregon State University FWIW.
20
Thanks guys.
00
.
Back to the future here
.
Now you lot above have come up with some rather impractical suggestions as to what should be done to icebergs and where they might fit in research and researchers.
So to fill a hole so as to speak re icebergs, the bigger, the better in this case, we turn to South Africa and its current very severe, er! “unprecedented ” drought .
To quote a headline out of a selection of maybe dozens on the subject;
These wild images show how scientists could hunt for icebergs in Antarctica and tow them back to help solve Cape Town’s water crisis
20
Diesel powered, have to be. 🙂
10
Dick Smith already did it . . . kinda.
http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_sydney_iceberg/
00
Antarctica..
The sky is falling… Antarctica is melting away! Not really. Can’t happen and here’s why.
Pesky facts about Antarctica..
First, the average annual temperature range for Antarctica ranges between – 10C at the coast to – 60C inland. However, coastal areas near sea level account for less than 10% of Antarctica’s land mass. Just look at Google earth to see this. Most of antarctica is “inland:! Why does this matter?
Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth: average elevation is 8,200ft (2500m). Think about this. Take a look at a map and you will see that the Antarctic mountains start to rise within a few hundred miles of the coast. In fact, 90% of Antarctica has an elevation which is higher than 3,000 ft. Why does this matter…
Two reasons: First, as we have all experienced, temperatures decline as elevation goes up. At 3000 ft, the temperature will be 10C lower than it would at sea level. Next elevation matters because of glaciers and gravity. Glaciers are enormous chunks of ice which have always and must always eventually respond to the unyielding tug of gravity. Antarctic glaciers are now doing what they have always done, sliding down hill toward the sea. Nothing new is happening here.
Antarctica is a very large continent. In fact it is twice the size of Australia. 85% of all of the earth’s frozen freshwater is locked up in Antarctica. And, do to the facts I state above, unless global warming increases by another 10C or so as it did in the Jurassic period, (since 1880 the earth has warmed only 1.2C) even the wee bit of coastal ice will not melt away. For a lot of Antarctic ice to melt, global temperatures would have to increase by 20C or so. In fact, the last time Antarctica was free of ice was 35 million years ago when Antarctica was much closer to the equator.
PS much of this is also true for Greenland which is also mostly mountainous and the inland areas remain well below freezing all year round.
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That reminded me. Your link looks like a scene straight out of Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner [written 1797–98,pub 1798] Inspiration in parts may be owed to James Cook’s second voyage to explore the South Seas and the Pacific [1772–1775—the first voyage was to test John Harrison’s longitude watch and to observe the Transit of Venus.]
Must have gotten close to the object of our discussion:
And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken—
The ice was all between.
The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!
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Davide Middleton did a post on Watts Up With That. He used the ice mass data in the paper “USGS Professional Paper 1386–A–2: State of the Earth’s Cryosphere at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Glaciers, Global Snow Cover, Floating Ice, and Permafrost and Periglacial Environments.”
When he ran the numbers, the total ice loss over the last 25 years was 0.011%
Out of curiosity, I was wondering how long it would take to lose 1% of the ice mass at that rate. The answer? 2,272 years!! Not exactly rapid or catastrophic.
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[…] about throwing every excuse against the wall and seeing what sticks. Case in point: Aussie blogger JoNova’s take that because there are volcanoes and magma under the Antarctic ice, a warming atmosphere must not […]
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