Back in the unpoliticized Pliocene it’s possible that cosmic rays bombarded Earth and triggered lightning which started fires all around the Earth. This may (warning: speculation) have pushed human ancestors to stand on two legs. In the politicized Holocene, however cosmic rays are “irrelevant”. Ancient cosmic rays can set the Earth on fire apparently, change dominant species, and leave a charcoal layer around the Earth. But changes in cosmic rays lately can *not* cause any changes in modern lightning and cloud cover.
Color me skeptical that there is a cause and effect link between fires and homo-four-legs becoming homo-two-legs. It’s possible, and interesting, but a little bit “just so”. There are many advantages in standing upright — seeing further, reaching higher, standing in water, and carrying booty or babies. Some dinosaurs also evolved to be bipedal.
The study reminds us that for most of human history Space Weather was important. It’s only modern climate models that decree astronomical-stuff = zero.
Another previous study showed that lightning strikes occur in time with the spinning Sun in 150 year old Japanese farm records.
Did ancient supernovae prompt human ancestors to walk upright?
Supernovae bombarded Earth with cosmic energy starting as many as 8 million years ago, with a peak some 2.6 million years ago, initiating an avalanche of electrons in the lower atmosphere…
The authors believe atmospheric ionization probably triggered an enormous upsurge in cloud-to-ground lightning strikes that ignited forest fires around the globe. These infernos could be one reason ancestors of Homo sapiens developed bipedalism — to adapt in savannas that replaced torched forests in northeast Africa.
“It is thought there was already some tendency for hominins to walk on two legs, even before this event,” said lead author Adrian Melott, professor emeritus of physics & astronomy at the University of Kansas. “But they were mainly adapted for climbing around in trees. After this conversion to savanna, they would much more often have to walk from one tree to another across the grassland, and so they become better at walking upright. They could see over the tops of grass and watch for predators. It’s thought this conversion to savanna contributed to bipedalism as it became more and more dominant in human ancestors.”
Based on a “telltale” layer of iron-60 deposits lining the world’s sea beds, astronomers have high confidence supernovae exploded in Earth’s immediate cosmic neighborhood — between 100 and only 50 parsecs (163 light years) away — during the transition from the Pliocene Epoch to the Ice Age.
“We calculated the ionization of the atmosphere from cosmic rays which would come from a supernova about as far away as the iron-60 deposits indicate,” Melott said. “It appears that this was the closest one in a much longer series. We contend it would increase the ionization of the lower atmosphere by 50-fold. Usually, you don’t get lower-atmosphere ionization because cosmic rays don’t penetrate that far, but the more energetic ones from supernovae come right down to the surface — so there would be a lot of electrons being knocked out of the atmosphere.”
According to Melott and co-author Brian Thomas of Washburn University, ionization in the lower atmosphere meant an abundance of electrons would form more pathways for lightning strikes.
“The bottom mile or so of atmosphere gets affected in ways it normally never does,” Melott said. “When high-energy cosmic rays hit atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they knock electrons out of them — so these electrons are running around loose instead of bound to atoms. Ordinarily, in the lightning process, there’s a buildup of voltage between clouds or the clouds and the ground — but current can’t flow because not enough electrons are around to carry it. So, it has to build up high voltage before electrons start moving. Once they’re moving, electrons knock more electrons out of more atoms, and it builds to a lightning bolt. But with this ionization, that process can get started a lot more easily, so there would be a lot more lightning bolts.”
The KU researcher said the probability that this lightning spike touched off a worldwide upsurge in wildfires is supported by the discovery of carbon deposits found in soils that correspond with the timing of the cosmic-ray bombardment.
“The observation is that there’s a lot more charcoal and soot in the world starting a few million years ago,” Melott said. “It’s all over the place, and nobody has any explanation for why it would have happened all over the world in different climate zones. This could be an explanation. That increase in fires is thought to have stimulated the transition from woodland to savanna in a lot of places — where you had forests, now you had mostly open grassland with shrubby things here and there. That’s thought to be related to human evolution in northeast Africa. Specifically, in the Great Rift Valley where you get all these hominin fossils.”
Photo: Jonathan Bowers @jbowersphotography
REFERENCE
Adrian L. Melott, Brian C. Thomas. From Cosmic Explosions to Terrestrial Fires? The Journal of Geology, 2019; 000 DOI: 10.1086/703418
As light and vision lifted us up to walk and see darkness and short sightedness will surely drag us back down to crawl.
210
Yonnie, it’s hard to bow and scrape before your masters when you are standing upright.
110
Tjis unscientific speculation stuff
Puts me to sleep..
I’m convinced that elephants
Got big trunks
From the same process 🙂
Now how can I get hold of some
Money to help me do some research about it
And live very well on the hog
As well ?
Sarc/
90
You forgot giraffes and long necks, Bill.
An interesting point about giraffes: when they’re browsing the tree tops — that’s where the nicest leaves are, out of the way of those shorty browsers — they always browse/move into the wind. That’s thought to be so the trees upwind aren’t warned by the trees being eaten and release chemicals into their leaves to render the leaves less than delicious.
Trees aren’t stupid … and neither are giraffes.
Or should that be: giraffes aren’t stupid and neither are trees?
Elephants are more likely to have long trunks so they can reach their toes and pick the slow natives out from between them. I mean: look at the configuration! Those trunks dangle.
30
Yes. And just as surely we will slowly rise again. It’ the latest theory in genetics, the Yo-yo Theory, we go up and down like a yo-yo. It has a long perod so it was never noticed before until I saw it reflected in the rise and fall of politicians and other swelled head types.
Remember you saw it here first. Now I need a grant to study it. Any takers? A couple of hundred million USD should be enough to complete my research and place the world on it’s path to enlightenment. Otherwise known as NLF, Nothing Lasts Forever. Cosmic rays did it.
10
Really? It is “possible and interesting” that lightning could cause an ape to stand upright and stay that way? Is that the sort of “science” on which Darwinian evolution rests?
I thought Lamarckianism was falsified a long time ago. Yet time and again these type of lamarckian causes for evolution are invoked to explain design features in complex creatures.
The advantages of bipedalism have nothing to do with genetic mechanisms of evolution. They cannot drive mutational changes necessary to provide opportunities for selection. Chopping off thetail of a mouse will never produce offspring with no tails. Such speculation as occurs so often makes the whole idea of science underpinning Darwinism ridiculous. It is clear that such speculation actually underpins the total implausibility of Darwinian evolution, and requires bucket loads of credulity on the part of true believers.
So many people can easily see through the pagan beliefs of the climate change cult, yet when it comes to Dawinian evolution, they are no different, demanding that the “science is settled”, and shutting down any dissent by those who dare to challenge the orthodoxy, no matter how stupid, implausible and puerile those beliefs might be.
74
“Is that the sort of “science” on which Darwinian evolution rests?”
I would have guessed that rather than stand up, animals hit by lightning would go down and stay down. Fast food for other animals. End of family
90
Stay low- stooped and keep your graphite implements even lower.
60
Life seeks advantage and the line of least resistance.Well, that’s me in a nutshell. Literally.
50
Don’t know about staying low Michel, a bolt of lightning hit the ground close to me one day; it was like Flash Bang instantaniously. I reckon I would’ve beaten Cathy Freeman that day. My dog doesn’t like lightning either and I suspect he gets up on two legs cause he’s gone in a nano-second when he hears a thunderclap.
80
Is that the sort of “science” on which Darwinian evolution rests?
You forgot the /sarc right?
Sigh. The hominins that stood taller saw the lion coming first, ran faster, had longer strides, ate the fruit from the higher branches, impressed the girls and had more babies.
Over 1 million years this experiment was repeated 40,000 times thus slowly but methodically weeding out the genes of hominims that couldn’t keep up.
The advantages of bipedalism are exactly the kind of forcing that changes gene pools.
This paper makes some claim that the increase in fires due to the lightning added some extra reason to go bipedal, which maybe it did (a bit). My point was that I was skeptical that the fires were central, or that they had much evidence to support the idea. There are lots of reasons for us to be upright.
I was more interested in the idea that a supernova caused lightning and fires on Earth, and scientists were so happy to accept that in the Pliocene, but climate models don’t include any effect from space weather now.
160
Thanks for that explanation Jo.
It makes sense -all of it.
There is an interesting counter thought
That lot’s of ires from whatever source
Made it easier for the short folks to see
In the distance.
And so avoid those lions and jackals
.Ummmmm ?
31
Perhaps the loss of trees caused by the fires forced the hominids to the ground which may have been covered by tall growing (and much faster growing that the trees) scrub/grass and the tallest in the tribe were the best placed to survive.
Ergo – 2 legs good, four legs bad (apologies to Animal Farm)
20
Or put simply, climate change caused bipedalism. Is there nothing Climate Change cannot do? All of it bad.
51
“but climate models don’t include any effect from space weather now”
As far as I can see climate models rely on the weather system being a perpetual mobile of the second kind, no drivers except CO2, just like magic, unphysical reality.
70
Bipedalism appeared around the time when the weather/climate changed and became drier across southern to central Africa — dry enough to not be able to support lush rain forest but still wet enough to support lush grassy plains. We are the `plains ape.’ Our bipedalism makes a lot of sense with some drawbacks but lots of compensatory features. Sure, we can only run at about half the speed of most of the quadrupedal carnivores but we can go up trees almost as fast as any chimpanzee or orangatan — long arms don’t need long legs to do that. The plains trees are all covered in convenient ladders … As Jo points out, standing tall means we see better to be able to react to predators.
Our hands and brains together mean we are uniquely tool-makers. We aren’t armed with natural deterrents as tooth and claw, so, to make for that lack, we make tools. We make tools for everything from self defence through right over the top offence and more. When Nature introduced that into its evolutionary mix, I don’t think our modern machinery was fully envisaged, but you do have to admit that atomic bombs are a superior hunting weapon.
Going upright reduces surface area directly exposed to sun. Replacing hair follicles with sweat glands enables better control of core body temperature. Leaving a thatch of fur on the top of the head protects the central nervous system from overheating and so it goes on.
How did all this happen? Look at food sources — it’s no coincidence we evolved after the grassy plains. They produces lots of rich edible carbohydrate capsules. Grass is the major evolutionary driver. Grass is the most successful species of plant. It has successfully evolved all these bipedal and aggressive care-givers to extend its range: to plant and cultivate it, water it, fertilize and protect it from being too heavily grazed or not grazed at all. The only thing it can’t do is get off planet but that’s a Work in Progress.
A thought: how efficient is a patch of grass at converting CO2 to O2. Better than any other plant for the same area?
30
Here’s a good example of complex tools outrunning human intelligence in their use.
Enjoy
10
Here it is … My brain fart …
20
I think that’s nonsense. They have things backward, the fact is that our opposing thumbs allowed us to grasp things and it’s hard to grasp something and move on all fours, well before pockets were invented anyway. Evolution isn’t about drivers or precursors, it’s about survival of the fittest. Those that were more upright carried more food which gave them better mates which evolved more upright progeny.
20
The opposed thumb came before the bipedal posture. It’s one of the distinguishing characteristics of the primate family. Gorillas split off the primate line well before our ancestors did and they don’t walk bipedally but in a modified four legged posture — knuckle-walking.
Pockets are an under-celebrated invention! 🙂
It’s interesting how many of these changes have occurred in the last 3 million years — since the start of the Quaternary Ice Age, the current ice Age. Evolution accelerates during cold times and we are in a cold time despite recent “warming.”
It’s about that long ago the Solar System entered Goulds Belt in the Orion Spiral Arm, where cosmic rays are significantly more plentiful than outside the belt. Cosmic Rays help push evolution. They are the “radiative” mutagens, driving rapid evolution.
20
Bobl:
Some evolution is driven by drivers. Fast mutations and consequent fast evolution is driven by sex with its semi-random selection of which genes in a new individual to express. That’s why Nature invented it. It’s why new or mutated diseases almost never completely wipe out a population, because there are always some breeding individuals who are genetically immune to the new mutated disease. Cosmic radiation exposure causing random mutations in a species’ DNA is another driver..
Evolution is all about how fast can an exploitable niche be exploited.
Poor mutations don’t survive, they’re easily and, during an ice age, quickly selected out. On the other hand, useful mutations, or good ones, survive and go into the genepool.
1. Check Nir Shaviv’s blog for his paper on Ice-Ages
[ http://sciencebits.com/ice-ages ]
2. Check Nigel Calder’s blog page Sorry folks, Cosmic Rays really are in charge
[https://calderup.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/climate-physics-101]
Check Henrik Svensmark’s paper on Super Nova driving evolution on Earth.
[ Download (PDF) http://www.templar.co.uk/downloads/MNRAS_Svensmark2012.pdf ]
Put all those together and put some thought into it. Evolution motors, accelerates, speeds up and has races with itself (evolutionary biathlons) during Ice Ages. Note: I use “Ice Ages” in its correct meaning rather than meaning just another glaciation, after having absorbed Shaviv’s paper.
We are in the Quaternary Ice Age, it started 3MYA and has maybe another 25MY to go. We are in c. 60 million light years of a number of red giant stars such as Betelgeuse, and Antares, both residents of and near neighbours to our solar system in Gould’s Belt, in the Orion Spur. The red giant phase is the pre-nova stage. Ex-blue giants make SuperNovas.
One close supernova was that of Geminga (a Blue Giant which was in the constellation of Gemini). It blew up 600,000 years ago right next door to us. Our solar system is currently passing through the hole it left in the galactic gas medium (the Local Bubble and Local Cloud).
And Ice Ages make a large number of exploitable niches and much more nutrients than warm times. The seas and oceans are churned by the storminess.
The astronomers have only recently put cosmic-rays into the correct perspective. And since Svensmark, Mickey Mann, school children and others still think man-kind causes and controls climate change? Poor fools. Hubris, sheer hubris.
Enjoy your reading.
20
Hi Jo,
This paper should never have gotten past peer review.
It takes effects from sparse but compelling sources. Proposes a theory with out any factual evidence then proceeds to purport yet another supposition and ‘Joins the Dots’! In this way they provide ‘Scientifically’ published data that can be used by others as proven…
Oh and they want $10 to be able to read their drivel!
/Sarc On
I see not to far down this road that increased CO2 in the atmosphere caused by Humans use of fossil fuels cause more lightening strikes that cause more wild fires therefore we should reduce CO2 emissions drastically.
/Sarc Off
[My thoughts too. A clickbait headline, but little evidence to support that. – Jo]
00
There is a little (<-Note: Operative Word!) evidence to support them: the Gould Belt section of the Orion spur our Solar System entered about 3MYA had a burst of SuperNovae: about 20 over the 11 MY leading into the start of the Quaternary Ice Age (c. 2.8MYA). They were in the Scorpio-Centaurus 0B star cluster which is the closest to our Solar System. Α-Centauri is still only c. 4.4 light years away and as a G2 star, is not likely to go bang for a long long time. Β-Centauri is a Blue Giant nearly 300 LY away. It’s not yet in it’s Red Giant phase so it’s not going to go bang this century. The evidence for any being so close to set fires is not easy to find, and I haven’t found any, so I don’t know about all the alleged soot and evidence of burning destruction. I would have thought there would have been some mention of it all in all my reading of around that time …
Here is another paper which suggests a destructive supernova about 4500 – 5000 years ago, right when Stonehenge was being played with, occurred in the Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades cluster is given as ~400 light years away. It’s presently 450 light years away so we can safely say between 400 and 450 LYs. From the description of the effects, I can’t help but wonder if the Super Nova (SN) described wasn’t a lot closer.
It also speculates it stopped the Tower of Babel project. If this SN was real, it may have caused the timber henge to be replaced by rock at Stonehenge, because that’s also about the time the stone Sarsens were dropped into the ground in Stonehenge.
But I have a problem: where is the stellar debris?
Where is the CO2 spike in the atmosphere? (CO2 is such a powerful GHG, that no bursts have been discovered to account for the PETM, either … about 58 – 50MYA).
And where is all this soot and carbon?
The Pleiades is still known as the `Seven Sisters’ even though there are only six giant stars in the cluster. That was behind my purchase of some binoculars long ago because my naked eye couldn’t see seven, only six, and I happened to want some reasonable binoculars. Maybe that seventh one was hiding. It wasn’t.
Another possible source is the
Scorpio-Centaurus OB cluster which has a mean distance of 380 – 400 LY away. If Alpha-Centauri is a member of this cluster, then our solar system is right on the fringes of it. (That’s the trouble with means!)
I doubt the scenario in the paper is realistic from this. (Near Earth Super Novae). A bolide (a Big Rock from Space) or several, would be much more reasonable but I know of no large craters dating from that time. (2.2 – 2.8 MYA) This of course, is not saying there is no Big Hole in The Ground as evidence. It might not have been found, nor have I looked.
It seems far too speculative to be taken seriously. With no obvious detritus, it may be just Click Bait, as Jo has suggested.
10
Yet another maybe story. It seems mixed with data and theory and supposition that dont always match.
If a supernova occurred within the 200 ly radius there would be debris. I havent seen any reference to very nearby supernova. The crab nebula, distance est 6,500 ± 1,600 ly was seen about 1000 years ago, it is now visible as a distinct nebula. SN (type undefined here) leave a big cosmic footprint.
“between 100 and only 50 parsecs (163 light years) away”
Crab nebula 13±3 light year diameter! That would be dam close if it was only 160 ly away. I think any supernova that close and it would have been goodnight nurse for any humans on planet earth.
Possible if there is evidence of lighting at that time, look at magnetic reversals, was this close to the Gothenburg reversal (Gothenburg Magnetic Flip at 12,400−12,350 )? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/003358947790031X
I sit on the fence over this, Im pretty skeptical about the made man ‘walk upright’ thing.
40
Rats! moderation?? no funny words? ..
20
The moderation filter is a gamble sometimes, I think sometimes it gets bored and wants to play with our minds
20
Heh! I like your thinking on that darned script, Bobl.
Maybe it keeps records of regular contributors and how long ago they were last tossed into moderation, then tosses them into moderation to keep them from getting too cocky?
20
“The idea that life on Earth began in the oceans is something that has been largely accepted by scientists, but when life moved from the sea to dry land — and what types of life first made that move — is still up for debate.
This new information shakes up our understanding of what types of life first sprung up on land and could offer a clue as to when ancient animals first roamed the shores.
The fossils, which were found in Canada, point to a much earlier date for land-based life than researchers thought.
The idea being that if fungi were present on land one billion years ago, animal life would likely have been there alongside it.
In a new paper published in Nature, researchers reveal the discovery of tiny microfossils dating back at least 900 million years — and perhaps even as far as one billion years — that prove that some forms of fungi were alive and well much farther back in Earth’s history than previously thought.”
Discovery of billion-year-old fungi upends understanding of life on Earth
https://nypost.com/2019/05/24/discovery-of-billion-year-old-fungi-upends-understanding-of-life-on-earth/
70
Travis:
While Fungi are classified as animalia they are brainless, sedentary creatures doing nothing except absorbing nutrients from other animals and plants. So you are saying that the first animals on land were Greenies?
90
Not yet. They had not differentiated. Just politicians.
20
Or parasitic Swamp Creatures.
20
🙂
10
Im moderately (well mostly) convinced on the idea of ‘transpermia’ life origin is outside the solar system, created in interstellar dust lanes. Possibly in supernova remnants. Comets seed life organic molecules onto planets whether it develops depends on the conditions. Earth being one.
Evidence? .. organic molecules found in interstellar space and on other moons in this solar system.
01
The regressive progressives totally believe that whatever they believe is what is real. All they have to do to make that happen is to really really believe and work to suppress any opposition to their belief. The faith of a mustard seed and all that.
Surprise! The reality does not agree. Belief only works if what is believed does, in fact, correspond to what is. Since there are far more ways to be wrong than right, any given untested belief is much more likely to be wrong than right. Sometimes, even a tested belief can be wrong in that something in the environment coincidentally made the belief appear to be tested when, in fact, something else was actually tested. Context cannot be safely ignored.
Hence the slow progression of the advance of validated knowledge (the only kind of knowledge) experienced since the first humanoid asked the first dimly understood “why?”
100
‘The authors believe that atmospheric ionization probably …’ ‘these infernos could be…’
Sigh.
80
Beth
O/T re that map you posted on Chiefio
Have a look at the Qld vegetation mapping as in Regional Ecosystems. If they could break them down to units of less than 10000 ha each one is of maximum concern
30
O/T Yes Ian. Therefore requiring Agenda 21 action. http://www.galileomovement.com.au/docs/gw/Agenda21inAustralia_2.pdf
30
“The study reminds us that for most of human history Space Weather was important. It’s only modern climate models that decree astronomical-stuff = zero. ”
That well known modelling dictum in action again
“If in doubt leave it out”
80
Looks like even more left out
“Dr John Christy (Director of the Earth System Science Center, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science Alabama State Climatologist, University of Alabama). “The models are getting worse. This is a real problem”. ”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/05/24/w-o-o-d-24-may-2019/#comment-112832
And the next comment
“@Larry, at least this proves, not only are their models wrong, but everything that the modelers know about the causes of climate change is wrong. Now that the effects of the quiet Sun are beginning to take hold they will be even more wrong.
Time for the next batch of post doc’s to write “Ground Breaking” papers about Human Caused Global Cooling! OH! My God! the Ice Age is upon us! Hummmmmm. I remember that song and dance from the 60s. Human caused Aerosols are shading the Earth and causing cooling. WE must stop all modern human activities to save the world from an induced Ice Age!
A Einstein said: “Science only advances at the rate that old professors die!”
For the last 150 years the “Science of Climatology” has been wrong. It should be called by it’s real name “The Religion of Climatology” and it’s practitioners have been wrong for 6,000 years…pg.”
110
I remember that cooling was caused by mankind burning fossil fuels.
That was definite.
It couldn’t possibly be wrong.
The real name is “Technocracy.” Climate is just an excuse to take over ….
00
We have our Jo, Supernova, who will certainly cause lightning to strike, yes, and hopefully it will cause many political fires and total destruction, which just (maybe) cause politicians, to finally stand upright, and grow a spine.
230
A very pertinent observation.
🙂
80
Just as well I read your comment first Graham Dunton, as I was going to write something very similar. Doubtless others thought of it too. Jo is our Super Nova and we all walk more upright because of her. 🙂
70
Not hard to imagine fire occurring in many places for perfectly normal reasons.
Here is another completely different date and cause for a burnt layer.
Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson JRE #725 – 12,800 Years Ago The World Caught On Fire!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQwHi3VxOww
60
Very interesting.
30
I suspect the reason they walked on 2 legs was to get away from the bush fire created by the lighting strikes…he he 🙂
Talk about pulling a long bow…..
80
Either very quick evolution or a very slow fire there
70
Kangaroos, too.
40
I am preparing a Paper on how the kangaroo became a Biped.
Abstract: The Kangaroo, due to its being a Marsupial Mammal and lower on the evolutionary scale than Placental Mammals, is not the brightest of mammals and for at least a millennia got around its environment as a quadruped, not easy with those two absurd front legs and being the butt of other animals’ jokes. [Ref: early Hominids, H Australopithecus, not so very bright but brighter than marsupials.] Responding to that first climate change avalanche of ions setting fire to woodlands, [Ref Paper by Melott and Thomas) the Kangaroo evolved to stand on two legs, [Re, process, Stephen Jay Gould Quick Evolution Theory] and by this process of nature, but also by a process of imitation early Hominids doing it first,] and possibly tired of being the butt of jokes, the Kangaroo evolved into a Biped.
20
I thought the suggestion was upright walking was developed to deal with the high savannah grasses after the forest fires, not by the fires themselves.
This ties in with the story of the Fucarwe tribe in north Africa. Only 4’8″ tall on average, the have been observed running around in the 6Ft tall savannah grasses jumping up & down, shouting “Where the Fucarwe”, hence the name.
This would surely give a cause for natural selection of taller tribesmen.
40
That tribe has been known of in Australia since about 1956.
Since this was only a verbal recounting of an event seen by an African missionary the spelling varies, one alternate being the “Fa Kawi” tribe.
KK
20
Some times the older versions of this joke are a surprise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYkUNuMD8pc
20
Mmmmm,
The PC version.
Where the heck are we?
Translation.
Where in heavens name are we?
20
Never mind that historic stuff. What about the auroras all the way down to ground level. That would be something to see. – A. Lookie Lew
10
Meanwhile alleged “climut change” seems to have caused those at public broadcasters to devolve somewhat….
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-30/climate-change-and-manmade-change-affecting-english-language/11152380
“Climate change isn’t just affecting our planet, it’s also shifting the language we use, as idioms take on new meaning and words are created to express the unique phenomenon.
Key points:
* New words are being created to describe climate-related events and feelings
* Musicians and films are popularising some terms
“Some words have been popularised by musicians and filmmakers, while the rather grandly named Bureau of Linguistic Reality has started crowdsourcing new terms and definitions.
It appears those in the creative arts are well…creative….science unfortunately, works on facts…..
“Other notable terms to have entered our discourse include:
“Greenwashing: A form of marketing spin to make a product or business seem more environmentally friendly, even if it’s not.
“Green economy: Business and enterprise that is low-carbon, resource-efficient and socially inclusive.
“Envirocrime [or ecocide]: Actions that have significant and damaging effects on nature or natural areas of significance.
Closed loop: A manufacturing system where waste or by-product of one process or product is used to make another, without creating additional waste or environmental impact.”
40
“Supernovae bombarded Earth with cosmic energy starting as many as 8 million years ago, with a peak some 2.6 million years ago, initiating an avalanche of electrons in the lower atmosphere…”
As I remember it, a supernova is a single event. In or der to force a creature to evolve, a time period of millions of years? is involved?
How did this get past peer review?
50
You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours…….?
Yes, I know that that is not how it is supposed to work, but the circle of “peers” working in a great many rarified scientific niches is rather small. If you are particularly harsh on my latest paper, I may not be very sympathetic the next time you publish…..
30
The Homo line diverged from the Australopithicus line during the Miocene, which ended 5.3 Million years ago.
Ardipithecus had a ‘separated’ big toe indicating bipedalism was possible about 4.4 million years ago.
http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/ardipithecus-ramidus
20
Seems to be a date problem re the Melotte/Thomas paper, that peak avalanche of electrons 2.6 million yrs ago, and hominids walking upright. Discovery of trail of hominid fossil footprints some 3 3/4 million years old, in Laotili, Tanzania. Ch 3 Richard Leakey, ‘The Making of Mankind.’ Here’s a nice image of them. More with details on internet.
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/trail-of-laetoli-footprints-john-reader.html?product=poster
20
Would that be Homo Erectus?
20
No. Homo erectus was from (roughly) 2 million years ago to (maybe) 400,000 years ago. Even less time ago if you classify the Hobbit (Homo floresensis) and Peking man as part. There is also the problem of 47,000 year old Denisovan DNA containing H. neanderthalis, H.sapiens and an unknown hominid, most probably H. erectus.
30
Thought to be an early ancestor of ours, Yonniestone. Footprints most likely belonged to Mister’n Missus Australopithecus afarensis.
10
Standing upright was natural for gracile apes living on the edge of a large watering hole in Kenya.
31
Poor Charles Darwin.
All he wanted to do was offer the observations that he had made to act as a guide for us to interpret the development of life on Earth.
I’m not sure where the Pope stands on this issue, but there is a disturbing “required belief” in sections of modern Christianity which says that the theory of Evolution is heresy because it contradicts the Bible. The Bible says,,,,,,,.
The whole Christian church seems to be in lock step with the Global Warming/Climate change meme as well, so that there are two major issues adding confusion to the church’s mission now in 2019 AD.
It almost seems that the church is trying to demonstrate that it doesn’t understand the basis of it’s own existence.
If Darwin could see us, he might well be perplexed at the lack of Evolution of our capacity to think and reason since he passed away about 150 years ago.
It’s good to speculate in science, that’s a given.
The problem we have is that manipulators are taking the speculation and promoting it as Real Science.
It seems we have not Evolved much in our thinking.
KK
91
KK….
Why don’t you follow the evidence, which is:
1. There is no such thing as the “whole church” on such matters. The history of Christianity contains enormous amounts of argument over issues of this nature. Galileo was a member of his church and was supported by a considerable number of a Jesuit intellectuals and even the Pope, until he – Gallileo – committed the faux pas of being bloody rude to his Holiness.
2. The majority of Christians – and the Church is not a monolithic business owned by its rulers, but an association of individuals sharing certain basic beliefs – are pretty comfortable with evolution and see no immediate contradiction with a biblical narrative that they take figuratively, rather than literally.
3. Of those who do reject evolution, a great many of them point to evidence which they regard as inconsistent with Darwin’s theory and for which they consider special Creation to be a superior explanation.
We can’t claim some kind of scientific high ground by refusing to be honest about those with whom we disagree…… that would put us in the same category as the warmenists who label us “deniers”.
22
The point being, before I got lost in a history lesson, that citing a few highly political people in leadership or “expert” positions as being representative of the the whole, is precisely the error that we are dealing with now , whether it is claims about “scientists” or “the people”.
Cheers…..Peter
11
Hi Peter,
I’ve seen DVDs of the church’s anti evolution stance, made in America and sold worldwide.
Your comment No. 3 has a familiar ring to it.
My point was that the church is making itself look uninformed and exposed on both climate change and evolution.
The Pope has the financial resources to commission people to identify the truth on both issues.
Same for other groups.
It seems that people don’t understand the core of their own religion and are satisfied with promoting the latest popular cause.
Looks cheap.
KK
41
Y’all so backward. Doncha know that climate change will make grow wings and fly? Like, no planes, so how’re we gonna go overseas?
40
“Get with the times, NB” **
Haven’t you heard about Occasional-Cordtex’s railways?
Which brings to mind the comment attached to the Flanders and Swan song about the “Slow Train”
“If God had intended us to fly he would never have given us the railway” (IIRC – Annie?)
(** That is borrowed and adapted from an ad current on local radio here)
40
Yes, Another Ian! I was just quoting another bit of Flanders and Swann to a caller not an hour ago. It might not be popular or pc in some quarters…A song of Patriotic Prejudice. Our caller is English in origin, as are we. I love that song 😉
10
Special weather request.
To resolve this and a few other questions could the next Velicovsky carbon rain event please fall on the next stuck ship of fools?
60
Standing upright, if true, was advance,
Giving humans a much better chance,
To hunt using hands,
In woods and grasslands,
And a much further view from their stance.
100
All true and correct young Ruairi and explained with visual clarity.
When north and south America joined at the isthmus, Africa dried out and the gracile apes became savannah scavengers. Darwinism is safe.
20
This statement from the introduction is no longer valid:
Recommendations for CMIP6 compliant models are to include cosmic particles as modulated by the sun:
https://www.wcrp-climate.org/images/modelling/WGCM/CMIP/CMIP6Forcings_SolarForcing_InitialDescription_150213.pdf
I do not know what models are including this data but I suspect it will show that CO2 has negligible influence and that will not be a good outcome. To get a null result for CO2 would condemn and model to the sin bin.
Melbourne had its coldest May 29th for 20 years. I suspect Victorian gas bills will be supercharged this year.
40
It is fashionable to decry it but the “Aquatic Ape” theory provides evidence based explanations for many of our variations from chimpanzees. Video of apes walking upright in water are an obvious indication. Loss of hair and actual sweat glands ,blubber insulation , ability to suspend breathing etc. are all features common to aquatic animals. The Savannah Theory on the other hand has nothing physical to back it up. It is just an idea looking for validation. That environment made Baboons , not men. When the forest vanished the sea coast provided better food and security than Savannah. Check out the Bonobo with its largely aquatic life. It is more similar to us than the other chimps are.
40
Cosmic rays, eh?
Time to revisit the work of Henrik Svensmark (The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change ]2007]) and (for example) this article from 9 May 19.
40
So that explains the expression “bolt upright”.
lol
50
Literally yes, and through the ages humans never lost the innate behaviour to “Run away run away” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FPELc1wEvk
10
O/T but funny – an advertisement on the BOM forecast for Adelaide page says “Fruit fly can destroy and entire industry”.
Lots of typos in headlines these days but you don’t expect to see one in a professional advertisement!
I took a screenshot.
20
English can be a dangerous language.
Overseas sports/archery shop that advertised as “The Best Little Knock Shop in the – – -“
20
Or as Americans like to say “I’ll root for you …” in the context of barracking.
The Fruit Fly ad is still running with the error – you’d think that someone would tell them. I don’t intend to.
20
Ian, our MetService – equivalent of your BoM – is similarly B-grade when it comes to the command of English language/grammar, which is why I ignore their written text and simply look at their pretty pictures (isobar map, satellite imagery, rain radar) and especially their 3-day
heatingrainsnow forecast. The current one is a humdinger: toggle through to 9 pm Saturday 1 June to see the southerly take aim at Cook Strait and Wellington… that frigid polar blast will have those politricksters in the capital bolting upright and running for the thermostat to crank it up to eleven –https://www.metservice.com/maps-radar/rain-forecast/rain-forecast-3-day
Toggle through to Monday and the monkeys-in-suits are even prognosticating snow on Hikurangi, way up on the East Cape. Winter arrived early and bigly in 2019.
10
Seven compelling demonstrations that CO2 has little if any effect on climate are listed in http://diyclimateanalysis.blogspot.com . Also included is the apparent reason why CO2, in spite of being a ghg, has no significant effect on temperature. The match between measured average global temperature and calculated (sans CO2) is 98+% 1895-2018.
The world has been lied to by politicians who seek to control its inhabitants. The irony is that CO2 has no significant effect on warming and has increased crop yield by about 15% or more but the planet is still impoverished for CO2. About 70% of planet warming since 1909 has been from water vapor increase which is accurately measured worldwide via satellite. WV increase correlates with irrigation increase. Warming from the added WV will at least prevent cooling because of the quiet sun.
30
Gosh, I read your link, if this was submitted in a first year science course, it would get an ‘F’. Tip – water vapour is an accepted GHC and it’s correlated with temperature. So that would be the case in your reconstructions, but you did not filter for that.
14
It is understandable that you have been misled. The GCMs which assume CO2 causes warming also got it wrong. They are showing here https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D44H2rCUIAAWTuM.jpg temperature increase rate about twice measured. I wonder how much longer this growing separation will need to continue for you to realize that perhaps a lot of what you think you know is wrong.
30
Water vapor isnt a RGHG either. Water affects HEAT transport in the atmosphere via latent heat of condensation and evaporation, so that it will appear to increase temperature. Thermal mixing then transports that energy between clouds and ground. The RGHG theory is false and has been falsified.
31
Either way, It has a measurable effect.
11
Well you’re entitled to your opinion but I believe that it went the other way and subsequently it has an effect tangential to the suggested direction but perpendicular to the original.
This is only true if the photons are emitted without any rotational component and where energy is related to the s,p,d,f convention for the Bohr atom.
The S_B equation is not applicable in this analysis for obvious reasons.
KK
20
Measurable effect? Really? How and where?
20
Latent heat of evaporating water vapor accounts for about half of the energy leaving the surface. That is described at http://globalclimatedrivers2.blogspot.com . The rest of your comment is misinformed. A simple GOOGLE search would have shown that.
20
The paper proposes an environmental change would cause an evolutionary pressure. It is perfectly reasonable to posit that this would have an influence on the development of a bipedal stance. However, this change is not evident in other denizens of the African plains. So it is either an isolated mutation propagated only through our ancestors, or it was not significant in the evolutionary sense. If it is the effect of a mutation, then it would be that the cosmic ray’s altered our DNA, the lightning was just special effects.
65
There has been talk of the ‘Cygnus event’.
Some interesting correlations, but I’ll reserve my judgement.
21
Not much of a fan of the out of Africa hypothesis, mostly because the settlement of Australia and South America happened suspiciously fast. Cosmic rays are well known as DNA mutagens, and they would have impacted the whole globe.
71
Actually me too I dont beleive the whole out of Africa theory. I think the ‘Eve’ theory also got busted, I havent looked that up for a while.
31
Wondering if the 120,000 year aboriginal artefacts found near Warrnambool have been validated yet if so it throws a spanner in the out of Africa theory .
30
if you believe the mitochondrial DNA then 7 Eves in total
20
Frankly Mitochondria themselves are a massive mystery, cells within cells. It’s an amazing universe we live in.
30
Careful Peter Fitzroy,
you may think that a little scepticism is OK, but we know what that leads to.
30
Oh no, not that!
Not the SGM, that would mean that the originator and the seven people who had been in closest contact would become scepticised within three years.
Fear Nature.
00
Surly 7 Adams too? That DNA doesn’t spring forth on it’s own does it?
10
In regard to homo sapiens, the out of Africa theory is solid.
This Cygnus event caught my eye because of the cycles, cosmic ray bombardment lasting a couple of thousand years would cause an increase in low cloud cover and global cooling.
21
Hair has been standing up due to static charges in the air long before humans learnt how to stand up.
We just copied our hair. Looked at it in reflections like Narcissus.
Should be obvious that standing up was something humans concocted all by themselves.
Nothing to do with Darwinian evolution at all !!
00
*…was not something humans concocted all by themselves.
And besides, humans are 90% bacteria, most probably extraterestrial 🙂
00
As we all know, we are told that increasing atmospheric CO2 levels is causing the temperature to increase and an increase of 2°C is going to cause all sorts of dire consequences such as the Arctic and Antarctic ice to melt, causing sea levels to rise by about 6 meters. But surely the impact of a 2°C increase depends on the location of the increase. It doesn’t make a great difference of the temperature increases from -50°C to -48°C. In theory, an increase from –1°C to 1°C will cause the ice to melt.
However, I wonder whether the computer models that predict the increases allegedly caused by increasing CO2 levels take into account the wind. Near where I live, at Redesdale in Victoria, the BOM observations for this morning show temp 2.9°C Wind SSW 11 Km/h, app temp -0.9°C; temp 3.1°C, wind SSW 9Km/h, app temp -0.5°C; in other words higher wind speed lower apparent temperature.
So at the edge of the Arctic Circle, if the temperature increases from -1°C to 1°C and the wind is blowing at 50 Km/h, the apparent temperature is probably about -20°C so the ice isn’t going to melt.
Makes me wonder if the models that predict the temperature increases and all the dire consequences include wind as a variable.
70
Doesn’t work that way, apparent temperature is a measure of how efficiently the environment can remove body heat, so in general the lower the apparent temperature the more evaporation occurs. High apparent temperature are where the environment prevents body cooling by evaporation as in very humid days. It is possible that by lowering local air pressure wind could raise the freezing point of water vapour a bit but that effect is small.
At STP, wind over 0 C melts/sublimes ice faster by disturbing the insulating cold layer of air at the solid/gas boundary.
10
Saw the headline.
Immediately thought that our esteemed blogger was being blamed for unprecedented wild bush fires.
20
Meanwhile at the ALP caucus in Canberra, Shorten blames corporate leviathans for the ALP losing the election.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-30/bill-shorten-takes-aim-at-corporate-leviathans-federal-election/11164318
But not a word about the elephant in the room : the fact that a former member of Young Labor has accused him of plying her with booze and dope and then raping her at an ALP Young Labor weekend conference at Portarlington in 1986.
And still the mainstream media have not mentioned it at all.
How fortunate we are that there are blogs and social media which cannot be silenced.
50
From comments I have seen in the papers post election, I believe the arrogance of Labor was their downfall. The best example is this interview on their ABC:
https://www.chrisbowen.net/media-releases/abc-radio-melbourne-with-jon-faine-tuesday-29-january-2019/
And they did in droves. My son is not a wealthy small business owner but he was already trying to work out how his family trust should be restructured in the event Labor won. Their loss has saved him considerable financial juggling.
I also think this is the reason Bowen withdrew from the leadership. He is such a smarmy know it all that he would not get through the front door at a union meeting.
https://twitter.com/David_Speers/status/1130625334913560576
30
Another meanwhile !
The Christmas Island shire president Gordon Thomson is complaining that the arrival of boat people on Christmas Island during the election was kept secret and that he was not told. ( Given this man’s long term vocal opposition to Australia’s policies on boat people, I think that this secrecy was well warranted and needed. Kudos to Border Affairs for keeping it secret ! )
ABC reports ” Mr Thompson said if the arrival of asylum seekers on Christmas Island was kept purposefully secret, he might have to appeal to a higher authority……Perhaps [to] the United Nations, and ask the United Nations to have a look at what the Australian Government is doing in secret on Christmas Island, a non-self-governing territory, a former colony, and still a bloody colony..”
Now that raises an interesting question. Why not give Christmas Island it’s Independence ? It is a drain on Australian taxpayers as there are few jobs and high unemployment. But it is the preferred ‘Australian” destination of choice for most boat people smugglers as it is close to Indonesia..Just 400 ks away..But a long way from continental Australia..
Soooooo Boat people arriving at a future independent Christmas Island would be a problem for Christmas Island to solve..Not an expensive Australian one.
Sounds like a good idea.
Perhaps we should thank Gordon Thomson and the ABC for mentioning it !!
50
Bill, Xmas island has a strategic value so we put up with the scammers arriving by boat.
30
Craker, I was merely following up on grump Gordon Thomsom’s complaint.
I’m open to other viewpoints on this.
What is the strategic value ?
Please explain.
Bill
10
It’s also very interesting that they are using Iron 60 to date the world. ” half-life is measured at 2.60 million years with a 2% uncertainty – can now be used to date astrophysical events on that timescale, making it a reliable astrophysical chronometer.”
However warmists refuse to recognize that we can date Carbon Dioxide with Carbon 14, which has a half life of 5400 years. So we can absolutely tell fossil carbon from modern carbon. A modern science miracle discovered in 1956 and used in all human archeology. We can say with absolute certainty that there is a trivial amount of fossil fuel CO2 in the air and yet no one wants to talk about it. When you do, there is a whole body of madness about Carbon 13 to do with plant uptake and some crazy theories. The wikipedia entry is trashed.
There is no doubt that the 50% increase in CO2 since 1900 is NOT fossil fuel. That should have instantly been the end of Al Gore and James Hansen’s made up story. The CSIRO says nothing. The BOM says nothing. The IPCC says nothing. Physics departments at every university in the world say nothing. Even the people who wrote this article say nothing. Fe60 is much more interesting.
We can have virtually zero effect on CO2 levels. It is in rapid exchange of O2 and CO2 with the oceans, if that was not obvious enough from the fact that fish breathe.
That should be obvious from the zero effect any attempts made to change CO2 levels have had, but still the madeness goes on, making so many players rich. Dr. John Hewson, flogging solar panels. Merchant bankers like Malcolm Turnbull. The ripoff of our power bills is unbeleivable, all to pay for stuff which makes zero difference in a $1,500,000,000,000 per year scam.
Repeal the RET. Please. We are paying $200 a tonne for carbon as petrol, oil and $400 a tonne for carbon as gas. And people wonder why gas prices are so high?
60
first take note re Logan:
23 May: ABC: To all those #Quexiteers: don’t judge, try to understand us and the federal election result
The Conversation By Anne Tiernan, Jacob Deem and Jennifer Menzies
(Anne Tiernan is professor of politics, Jacob Deem is a post-doctoral research fellow and Jennifer Menzies is principal research fellow at Griffith University)
Another index developed by Griffith University researchers identifies Gladstone, ***Logan…and Far North Queensland as ***”hotspots” of energy poverty, meaning they ***lack access to affordable energy services.
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=federal+election+results+logan+queensland&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDjbuCycLiAhVLeH0KHYMNAF4Q_AUIDigB&biw=1366&bih=599
today the local free newspaper has a story headlined:
Yarrabilba picked for eco lab by Judith Kerr
Pic: Prince Andrew talks to Substation 33’s Tony Sharp, who is on a think tank heading to Yarrabilba.
Yarrabilba chosen for eco laboratory trial to cut waste and save money
Courier Mail-22 May 2019
AN emerging housing estate in southeast Queensland will play a part in driving an Australian-first to reduce energy consumption and waste.
The Logan suburb of Yarrabilba, the fastest growing suburb in Logan…
The program, called the Circular Economy Lab, is the brainchild of the state Environment Department with input from businesses and think tanks across the state…
23 May: MirageNews: Yarrabilba leads way on improving environment
Residents of Yarrabilba will help drive an Australia-first initiative aimed at reducing energy consumption and waste.
The Logan suburb has been chosen as a test community to gain benefits from new technologies and innovative approaches to achieving a greener environment.
Logan City Council has joined a key stakeholder group called the Circular Economy Lab (CELab)…
Logan’s innovation hub Substation33 is also involved in the project.
Other participating organisations include developer Lendlease, RACQ, Fisher & Paykel, Access Community Services and industrial equipment supplier Movus…
https://www.miragenews.com/yarrabilba-leads-way-on-improving-environment/
WHAT A JOKE.
10
meant to highlight Mirage News’s “aimed at reducing energy consumption”, given Logan is described as one of the “hotspots” of energy poverty, meaning they lack access to affordable energy services in the ABC/Conversation piece.
10
I commented (in moderation still ) about the improbability of any supernova close as 160 ly.
20
Since a radius of 100 light years contains approximately 27.8 times as much volume as one of 33 light years, a supernova should occur within a radius of 100 light years from Earth approximately once every 8.6 million years. A supernova would occur within a radius of 200 light years approximately once every million years, within 500 light years every 69,000 years, and within 1,000 light years roughly every 8,625 years.
Back in 2016, scientists announced they’d discovered traces of the isotope iron-60 in ancient ocean sediments and lunar soil, confirming a series of supernovae that lit up the sky between 3.2 and 1.7 million years ago.
Rough estimates put the supernovae at around 100 parsecs, or roughly 330 light-years away, suggesting they would have been visible during the day and about as bright as the Moon.
Since then, follow up studies pretty much cut that distance in half, putting the dying stars about 60 parsecs, or 195 light-years away at the time.
https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-rethink-the-impact-of-ancient-supernovae-in-our-neighbourhood
MIKE MCRAE
13 MAY 2017
Then the KILLER QUOTE
Historically, each near-Earth supernova explosion has been associated with a global warming of around 3–4 °C. An estimated 20 supernovae explosions have happened within 300 pc of the Earth over the last 11 million years
That disputes the claim that a supernova caused the Ice Age.
20
It would depend on how many stars are within the required spectral class, on the Hertzsprung-Russell curve, in that volume to go to supernova.
Iceages (full blown) are almost a regular event, Id agree with the last statement.
00
Also there must be a reminant if one occurred within last 100000 years or so.
00
Climate alarmists are an example of human devolution.
51
30 May: ABC: Australia just had its record warmest start to a year. Will winter turn it around?
ABC Weather By Kate Doyle
Despite recent rain, and snow even in the past few days, soil moisture levels remain relatively low for large parts of the east and west coasts.
So is this the winter when it could all turn around, when the skies open, the soil gets nicely damp and the dams fill?
The current outlook suggests not…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-30/winter-outlook-australia-warmest-start-to-year-on-record/11159656
20
pat I book marked his article by the ABC.
So in 3 moths time I can come back to it
And compare it with what actually happened.
Already I am doubtful.
Supposedly Winter starts on the June first here in SA
But we have been putting up with cold wet & windy
Wintery weather for three weeks already
In the Adelaide Hills.
No frosts in that time because of the cloud cover
Which is also an indication of rain.
Whereas in April we had cold, cold nights with light frosts
Because then there was no cloud cover & no rain.
20
doubt there’d be more CAGW on theirABC if Labor/Greens actually won:
30 May: ABC: How climatic patterns in the Indian and Pacific Oceans affect Australian wines
By Irena Ceranic
Climate change isn’t just affecting our planet, it’s also shifting the language we use, as idioms take on new meaning and words are created to express the unique phenomenon.
Some words have been popularised by musicians and filmmakers, while the rather grandly named Bureau of Linguistic Reality has started crowdsourcing new terms and definitions…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-30/how-climatic-patterns-in-oceans-impact-australian-wines/11161696
AUDIO: 3min1sec: 30 May: ABC The World Today: Resources Minister rejects calls for a carbon price
By Isobel Roe on The World Today
At a meeting in Brisbane today, the Resources Minister warned the oil and gas industry against moving towards a carbon price.
Major players in the industry support a price on carbon and are under pressure from investors to address climate change.
Featured:
Matt Canavan, Resources Minister
Gardiner Hill, head of carbon policy, BP
Kevin Gallagher, managing director, Santos
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/resources-minister-rejects-calls-for-a-carbon-price/11163682
30 May: ABC: Humpback whales birthing off the Gold Coast 1,000km from traditional site
By Jennifer Huxley
‘We have to consider global warming’
Researcher and marine educator, Laura Torre-Williams: “We also have to consider global warming and climate change and that the Gold Coast Bay water may be just warm enough for the mothers to go ahead and give birth here so these conditions may be becoming suitable for calving habitat.”…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-30/humpback-whales-birthing-off-gold-coast/11160134
10
30 May: Crikey Tips & Rumours: Ita Buttrose picks a side — and it isn’t the ABC’s
New ABC chair Ita Buttrose thinks the broadcaster’s employees might have a bias problem. Plus other tips from the week
Ita picks a side. The ABC’s newly appointed chair Ita Buttrose raised eyebrows yesterday after telling ABC Radio that the organisation “might be biased” in its reporting, during a discussion about the election and the looming $84 million funding cut expected to hit the broadcaster. Buttrose said some staff could be unconsciously showing bias and that the broadcaster, which has survived every inquiry thrown its way, “could do with more diversity of views”.
Is Buttrose basing this on any recent evidence, or was she reaching out to the anti-ABC crowd? After every election, the ABC formally reviews its election coverage, and when reached by Crikey to determine whether an election coverage review had been completed a spokeswoman would only confirm that there were various reviews, “all still underway”…
https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/05/30/tips-ita-buttrose-abc/
29 May: SMH: ‘We might be biased’: More diverse views needed at ABC, says Buttrose
By Nick Bonyhady
ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose has said some staff at the broadcaster unconsciously let their biases show through, as she revealed she had no plans to cut jobs despite the almost $84 million budget reduction facing the organisation.
“Sometimes I think we might be biased. I think sometimes we could do with more diversity of views,” Ms Buttrose told ABC Radio on Wednesday. “Sometimes I think, people without really knowing it, let a bias show through.”
“I haven’t got a problem with anybody’s view but I think we need to make sure ours is as diverse as it can be … The more diverse views we can represent, the better it will be for us,” Ms Buttrose said in remarks that dovetail with the demands of some of the ABC’s conservative critics…
Ms Buttrose said ABC staff should not be afraid of losing their jobs, despite a 2018 funding indexation freeze that will cost the broadcaster $83.7 million over three years.
“I wouldn’t be nervous at all,” Ms Buttrose said. “There are many ways of achieving savings, you know. It’s not just people.”
The ABC still has an annual budget of more than $1 billion from the government (TAXPAYERS)…
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/we-might-be-biased-more-diverse-views-needed-at-abc-says-buttrose-20190529-p51sj2.html
***trusted even when they got the election totally wrong!
29 May: ABC: ABC chair Ita Buttrose says staff have no reason to fear job losses despite looming budget cuts
ABC Radio Melbourne By Kristian Silva
During an interview with ABC Radio Melbourne on Wednesday, Ms Buttrose was asked by host Rafael Epstein if any staff should feel nervous about losing their jobs.
“No,” she said, “Not at this point. I wouldn’t be nervous at all.”…
When asked about claims made by the ABC’s critics that it is biased, Ms Buttrose said: “Sometimes I think we might be biased. I think sometimes we could do with more diversity of views.
“I haven’t got a problem with anybody’s view but we’ve got to make sure ours is as diverse as it can be,” she said.
Ms Buttrose was asked to clarify whether it was the ABC’s news or radio programming she was referring to, to which she replied: “Sometimes I think, people without really knowing it, let a bias show through.
“The way you deflect the critics that love to give us a tough time is by having a wider viewpoint,” she said.
“The more diverse views we can represent, the better it will be for us.”
In a separate interview with ABC Radio National, Ms Buttrose said the ABC was ***trusted more than any other media organisation.
“On election night, who won the ratings? I know we’re not supposed to care about those things but we do,” she said.
“We won them. Because people turned to us because they wanted election coverage that was serious and sensible and would tell them what was happening in Australia.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-29/ita-buttrose-tells-abc-staff-not-to-fear-job-losses/11161524
20
30 May: Daily Mail: ‘We might be biased’: New ABC chair Ita Buttrose admits broadcaster lacks diversity of views – after it is slammed for left-wing groupthink
•ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose admitted they need to show more viewpoints
•She asked the ABC staff to not to worry about job losses following funding cuts
•Buttrose said she will meet the new communication minister about ABC’s future
•She said there is no plan to shut down branches of radio or television stations
By Sahil Makkar
‘People, without really knowing it, let a bias show through. I think we can all do that. But the way you deflect the critics that like to give us a tough time is by having a wider viewpoint.’…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7085421/We-biased-Ita-Buttrose-admits-ABC-lacks-diversity-views.html
27 May: UK Sun: BBC BIAS: Viewers slam Beeb’s European election coverage after it ignores Brexit Party success to focus on Remainer Lib Dems and Greens
Some of the BBC’s viewers took exception to the BBC not challenging Alastair Campbell over his claims about the funding of The Brexit Party.
By Jon Rogers
They also believed the BBC’s presenters emphasised the successes of the two smaller parties at the expense of the surge in support for Nigel Farage’s party which swept to victory with 32 per cent of the overall vote…
Former UKIP MEP Patrick O’Flynn said: “I know it’s early, but I must say BBC coverage is missing the obvious huge story – the Brexit Party has won these elections and won them big.”…
One Twitter user named Dan wrote: “The BBC coverage is disgraceful, they are ignoring the success of The Brexit Party. Instead they are reporting on the growth in the smaller pro EU parties. This is clear institutional pro EU bias from the BBC.”…
TV watchdog Ofcom had previously issued a note to broadcasters before the election, reminding them to comply with the relevant guidelines on election coverage…
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9161654/european-election-bbc-coverage-bias-brexit-viewers/
10
30 May: TV Tonight: Ita wants more diversity of views on ABC
by David Knox
Asked how to address concerns if the government keeps saying the ABC is too biased to the left, she said, “I don’t ever think we should we should start to think about what they might say. We don’t we just wait and see what they do say?”…
Buttrose also told Epstein her ‘media day’ consisted of ABC News Radio, “ABC News Breakfast“, Joe O’Brien on ABC News, reading 4 Sydney newspapers (both print & online), the ***New York Times online, Richard Glover on ABC Radio, ABC News at 7pm and “The 7:30 Report.”
https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/05/ita-wants-more-diversity-of-views-on-abc.html
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Standing upright AND dexterous hands go well together. We are unusual amongst animals in that we can throw well, (ever seen a chimp underarm a stone ? pathetic). Throwing was extremely useful to hunt and ward off predators, and you can’t throw on 4 legs.
The increase in soot by the way a few million years ago just likely corresponds to colder bring dryer, a warmer world is generally a wetter world (just don’t tell the modern computer screen watchers, who have barely seen a geological outcrop in their life).
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For what it’s worth, I quote from the article –
“The observation is that there’s a lot more charcoal and soot in the world starting a few million years ago,” Melott said. “It’s all over the place, and nobody has any explanation for why it would have happened all over the world in different climate zones. This could be an explanation.
This strikes me as some enterprising people that found something without an explanation and cast about, certainly with taxpayers funding, to find an answer, and it didn’t matter what it was. I suspect the “toss in” of the hominids standing upright was intended to point out the farce of the study without actually saying “this is BS, but we got paid well for doing it.” I doubt if they took this seriously.
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By the way, it is also an excellent example of what too much science is today – people trying to create a job for themselves by “selling” their ideas to money that wants to be spent, and has no actual value.
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Cooler means dryer, which means more fires. The world cooled a few million years ago, so more fires from lighting, and more soot. Don’t need to invoke cosmic rays.
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Lunar climate interaction with supporting data but Jo probably won’t like it (nor the establishment either so something for everyone) https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/7/2/31/htm
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Curve fitting?
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“…the rise in global mean surface temperatures (GMSTs) from increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has exhibited three ~30-year hiatus (surface cooling) episodes…”
…or be overridden by the continuing increase in radiative forcing from rising atmospheric GHG concentrations.”
Since this is the very assumption challenged constantly and daily on this site, there is no point in using it as a base for discussion here. Find some people who believe in the assumption and you have a base for discussion…but only with those people. (Pushing the badness back to 1850 was pretty daring, I must say. Usually the climatariat shows drawings of increasing temps starting no earlier than 1910 and encourages us to keep our eyes only on the high side of the diagram.)
Needs repeating: nothing extraordinary at all about any recent warming blips as compared to previous ones within our present interglacial; nothing extraordinary about this interglacial, which has not reached the temps of the Eemian.
The paper is just another pseudo-controversialist piece pushing the IPCC’s main narrative, but with some naughty bits for realism.
Good try, though. I guess.
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Like it.
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Might have also caused humans to start talking: “WT_?”
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