https://www.unep.org/compendium2009/
Not a fairytale, and not a comforting bedtime story either.
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Global Warming : Public Nuisance
The floodgates of change may well open in the United States of America. It appears that power companies can be brought to court for the public nuisance of Global Warming…
https://www.thepoptort.com/2009/09/yowsa-major-environmental-ruling-in-greenhouse-gas-case.html
“September 30, 2009 : Yowsa! Major Environmental Ruling in Greenhouse Gas Case!”
“Corporate polluters have been getting hauled into court for many years for lotsa reasons, one being that their dirty activities are a “public nuisance”…”
“Well now, thanks to a landmark New York federal court ruling, this “public nuisance” theory has been applied in a major global warming case brought by eight states, New York City and environmental groups.”
“In a nutshell, the court panel (which consisted of two Republican appointees) found that the nation’s largest coal-burning utilities could be held accountable for global warming.”
The British Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband has admitted at the Labour Party Conference that there are low commitment levels to dealing with the causes of Global Warming :-
When I was asked to review a chunk of the 2008 Climate Safety report from the Public Interest Research Centre, I was less than positive about the social movement building outlined in the recommendations for “mobilisation” of the public (see below).
Tim Holmes, one of the people involved in the Climate Safety report, has started a new web log critiquing the very same issues :-
https://convenientlies.wordpress.com
https://convenientlies.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/greenwashing-government/
Image Credit : Climate Change News
There are a couple of compilations of facts out this week that are a mix of the good, the bald and the beautiful.
Note to any journalists reading : if you don’t understand the significance of any of the following facts, don’t hesitate to ask.
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The Great Repatriation
The “Big Dry” continues in Australia. News this week confirms that the Murray River is in dire straits and that Adelaide may soon be without drinking water as a result :-
https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/28/adelaide-water-drought
“Adelaide latest victim of global water shortages : Australia’s fifth-largest city could be reliant on bottled water as early as next week as overuse and drought stretch the Murray river to its limit…”
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Let’s Talk Paleoclimatology
Image Credit : Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/news/latest/four-degrees.html
The word that no one dares mention, for fear of tripping over their own tongues : paleoclimatology, the study of Earth’s Climate history, on the long scale.
The presentations from the 4 Degrees conference are being uploaded to the Internet website :-
My attention has been turned, once more, to the writing of James Delingpole this week.
This article, in my view, contains a number of pieces of misleading information, which in my view should be re-framed into their proper context by the author.
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This Is Not A Doomsday Scenario
Dr Richard Betts of the British Meteorological Office speaking at the 4 Degrees (and beyond) conference in Oxford this week :-
https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/programme.php
“It’s important to stress it’s not a doomsday scenario, we do have time to stop it happening if we cut greenhouse gas emissions soon.”
Some of the potential problems from a four degree average rise in global temperature are being outlined to the conference.
There are spectacular regional warming issues, most notably for the Arctic region.
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Let’s Get Serious
The Copenhagen Agenda is unwieldy and littered with areas of dispute :-
https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/awglca7/eng/inf02.pdf
https://unfccc.int/documentation/documents/advanced_search/items/3594.php?rec=j&priref=600005444#beg
Image Credit : A Sound of Thunder Movie
Students of Chaos Theory well know what is known as the Butterfly Effect – apparently small changes in system forcings result in major outcomes.
We’ve heard repeatedly about rising sea levels resulting from Global Warming, but there are more bugs crawling out of the woodwork now.
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God Is With Us
Many Christians continue to perpetuate narratives that are at odds with the Bible, in my humble opinion.
Three in particular annoy me : that the Kingdom of God is only to be reached after death; that God is in second-to-second control of our every robot-slave move; and that God is far away from us in Heaven.
As they say in detective novels, “nothing could be further from the truth”, and there are billions of people of different kinds of faith that can attest to the very opposite of those three unhelpful pieces of theology.
People always talking ’bout two degrees. For the last ten years. But now, almost overnight, people whispering four degrees under their breath. And shivering, in a kind of anxious, fearful manner.
What, I want to know, happened to the three degrees ? Why do we have to jump all the way to four degrees straight away ? Can’t we do it gradually ? Give ourselves some time to adjust, and chill.
This could all happen within 50 years ? You mean it’s all happening sooner than we thought ? Oh. My.
Not just a rainy weekend :-
Image Credit : Click Photo
There’s the real world. And then there’s “Daily Telegraph world”, a fantasy mindscape, it seems to me.
In yet another piece that seems to be written for the sole purpose of attacking wind power, massaged in under the banner of standing up for the fuel poor :-
is this outstanding piece of reporting about Atomic Energy in the United Kingdom :-
“Nuclear, by contrast, is unsubsidised.”
Whenever I am in the Westminster area of London, I try to make time to go and sit awhile with Brian Haw at his Peace Camp opposite the Houses of Parliament.
The juxtaposition of ragged ad hoc unspun protest shrine facing the ornate Gothic seat of power carries an enormous significance, not only for me, but thousands of activists and tourists and peaceloving citizens.
Brian must be the most photographed and sought-after person in London. He is an icon, alongside Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace.
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Read this Book, Watch these Charts
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Meltdown : Painting by Numbers
Dear Mr Delingpole,
When I politely enquired of you recently regarding your qualification to pronounce on Climate Change science, I did hope that you would reply to me in a similarly polite manner.
After all, we’re both professionals, in our own ways, aren’t we ? And it would be unsporting to be rude or underhanded, wouldn’t it ?
According to The Peoples’ Jeremy Clarkson, and the IPPR, the facts appear to show that people are “bored” with Climate Change.
The Global Warming sceptic-o-sphere is alight with loud complaining again, from one calling herself Joanne Nova.
When I first encountered this name, I was convinced this wasn’t a real person. I now know that there is a real person behind the name, but I still think it’s a made-up one. A stage name. After all, this person was an employee in a travelling theatrical show, ostensibly about science, run by the Shell corporation.
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Dustbowl Sydney
All of a sudden, Sydney, Australia took on the appearance of a filmset for a Martian science fiction drama. The cause : a massive duststorm. The reason ? Massive national drought brought on by Climate Change.
Jennifer Marohasy is muddying the water again in Australia, with a piece entitled “Why I am an Anthropogenic Global Warming Sceptic (Part 3)”.
She quotes a disputed work by one, Lawrence Solomon, called “The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud”.
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Letter to The Spectator
Re : Rod Liddle’s science education
To : letters@spectator.co.uk
Dear The Spectator,
I read with chagrin the following statement from Rod Liddle in a piece entitled “Moonbat” :-
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Letter to James Delingpole
James Delingpole writes a web log for the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
I find his pronouncements about Global Warming contentious, and littered with sceptical myths and denier legends.
It seemed like a good moment to enquire about his education, to check whether his ideological background can lend weight to his commentary, or in contrast, set him up to be a lightweight.