No comment necessary !
Tag: Climate Change
The Daily Telegraph seems most keen that the business sector should be at the Copenhagen Climate Change negotiations :-
“Copenhagen Climate Change summit: do businesses need to be there? : The Copenhagen Climate Change summit is fast approaching. There’s going to be an army of negotiators in the Danish capital but do businesses need to be there? By Kamal Amed : Published: 19 Nov 2009 : …while there’s been an awful lot on the politics of Copenhagen…there has been relatively little on what the business sector is supposed to be saying or doing. Many big players are privately indicating that they need to be there for political reasons rather than business reasons and that the whole thing is, ahem, a load of hot air. Looking more broadly, […] there is a danger that the whole event becomes little more than a photo-opportunity…that might give us all time to consider exactly the business and finance sector is supposed to be doing to tackle climate change…”
George Monbiot has called for the head of the Climatic Research Unit on a plate, but I don’t think Phil Jones should jump, myself :-
“Global warming rigged? Here’s the email I’d need to see : The leaked exchanges are disturbing, but it would take a conspiracy of a very different order to justify sceptics’ claims : George Monbiot, guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 November 2009 : It’s no use pretending this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them. Yes, the messages were obtained illegally. Yes, all of us say things in emails that would be excruciating if made public. Yes, some of the comments have been taken out of context. But there are some messages that require no spin to make them look bad. There appears to be evidence here of attempts to prevent scientific data from being released, and even to destroy material that was subject to a freedom of information request. Worse still, some of the emails suggest efforts to prevent the publication of work by climate sceptics, or to keep it out of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I believe that the head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign. Some of the data discussed in the emails should be re-analysed…”
Phil Jones shouldn’t be pushed, either, in my view.
Phil Jones should be tasked with clearing up this mess, starting with rooting out and disciplining whoever made these e-mails public.
Stay in post, Phil, and get the job done !
This post is made about Paul Hudson, a BBC weatherman who penned an article sceptical about the Science of Climate Change, and promoting the perhaps pseudo-scientific views of Piers Corbyn, a weather forecaster, entitled “What happened to Global Warming” :-
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8299079.stm
Paul Hudson is also the author of a weblog post on “Climategate”, the “liberation” of years of e-mails from inside the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.
I’m going to cut and paste the whole of his post here, because it contains information regarding the alleged crime that took place when the e-mails were removed from CRU.
Far be it from me to comment on a matter under criminal investigation… Oh, OK then, I will.
As some readers of this post will know, some time in the recent past, a person or persons unknown allegedly took some files from a computer server belonging to the CRU, the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
They may have been “hackers”, “stealing” the files. They may have fabricated them. That is a matter for the Police and authorities yet to decide. The files may have been taken/invented last week : another fact open to investigation.
These alleged files allegedly contained information and e-mails pertaining to work by Climate Change scientists spanning a number of years.
“Where there’s muck, there’s brass”, as some people in England say. Waste and pollution can be big moneymakers for some, as local and national government bodies strive to ensure a safe, clean environment for their citizens.
Dealing with Carbon pollution is, however, in a different league of Big Dirt than the municipal waste stream, litter picks and recycling efforts. It’s even in a much larger landscape than Energy supply infrastructure and global fuel distribution systems.
Carbon emissions are in everything we do, practically, from texting to flying; from cooking to holidaying; from home comfort to laundry.
We can have school poster competitions that influence dog walkers to clean up after their pooches and hounds, but it’s not going to be so easy to cut the Carbon from our entire civilisation.
Categories
In Hotter Water
You know how the weather is : one day blowy, next day rain. The air, the atmopshere, is full of shifting, changing things like clouds, winds and pressure systems. All cyclonic and swirling and driving and stormy.
But you know, the seas are quieter, more regular and reliable, the ocean is calm and steady, deep under the surface that gets whipped up by the winds and the hurricanes and typhoons.
You would expect the atmospheric temperatures to chop and change, just as they do on the ground. But out at sea, it’s a different matter. Slowly but surely, planetary heat imbalance would warm up the whole world ocean. Like cooking soup on the camp fire.
And to use a current meme-phrase : the data’s in. After people went to the enormous trouble of dropping thousands of floating observation stations all over the world’s oceans, the picture of what’s happening to heat in the water is becoming clearer by the day.
Dear Kevin Rudd, current Prime Minister of all Australia,
Of all the meaningless things to stake your premiership on, it has to be that ridiculous notion of Carbon Trading.
You realise that it won’t raise a single dollar for the de-Carbonisation of your appallingly ginormous national Energy and Transport sectors, don’t you ?
My God made the World. From my point of view. From your point of view, your God (if you have a God), made the World. If you don’t believe in any Higher Power, then you make the World, as you learn about it and gain understanding.
Roger Helmer MEP, bless his holey cotton socks, has accused the Church of England of having “abandoned” the Faith, by espousing concern about Global Warming :-
https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/20/climate-denier-roger-helmer-church
Categories
The Copenhagen Diaries
Grist Magazine asks “How foerked are we ?” in the promotional picture for their Copenhagen Diaries.
For Professor Corinne Le Quere, from the British Antarctic Survey and East Anglia University, the answer is “very” :-
Categories
The Falling Bear
Polar Bear from Plane Stupid on Vimeo.
Parental Guidance : Do not allow young or sensitive people to watch this video film.
Reassurance : No animals were hurt in the making of this film !
In a digitally composed film reminiscent of the destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on the 11th September 2001 (as known as 9/11), Plane Stupid show polar bears dropping to their deaths from high rise buildings, with background aeroplane engine noise. Not Falling Man, but Falling Bear.
Global Warming isn’t really about polar bears any more, or rather not just, simply, merely, about polar bears any more. Actually, it’s probably not really about polar bears, at all, any more, because they’re effectively destined for extinction. We can’t save them. But we might be able to save some people, and some forests, if we act soon on cutting Carbon Emissions.
Yet another tree-ring-centric posting from Anthony (pronounced anth-o-knee) Watts, showing his complete obsession with something minuscule and mindblowingly meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
Watts will not allow fact to cloud accusation. All the charts on Global Warming show a sharp rise in the last few decades, from whichever reliable source. But Watts doesn’t see any of that. He’s fixated on Michael Mann’s Hockey Stick graph and trying to pull it down.
Tree rings. Now, trees, especially dead trees, are notoriously random in quality and style and abundance. You have to make reasonable decisions about which to keep in the data set as representative, and which to jettison. It doesn’t invalidate your results. In fact, it shows that you have done sufficient analysis to select the most accurate data.
So I’m talking to some people and someone says that people don’t care about the fact they’re wasting Energy, that people just don’t think.
Even though they know about Global Warming and the risks of dangerous Climate Change, and they know about the connection between burning Fossil Fuels and Global Warming, they just don’t care about how much Energy they’re using.
And I know this is heresy to say so, but I said that people shouldn’t have to think about Energy, that they shouldn’t be made to feel guilty about using Energy. I said that the Energy that is provided to them should be Carbon-free and responsibility-free. People shouldn’t be forced to act against their nature. Energy is effectively free at the moment. It’s way cheap, even cheaper than food for a lot of people. So people use it. People love using Energy.
Categories
The Tetchiness of Richard Black
[ UPDATE : More science on solar irradiation change and how it cannot explain the high levels of recent Global Warming : https://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/11/a-problem-of-multiplicity/ ]
Some people have been asking why I’ve been so picky about Richard Black, the BBC environmental journalist.
I found fault with a blog post of his that had a lot of good, illuminating stuff in it, yet still managed to misdirect people, in my opinion.
What we read in the papers, online and watch on the television has a longlasting effect on us. If the news is skewed, and if it continues to be skewed, we are being manipulated.
So this big plan for international Carbon Trading, how long will it take to set up all the national and regional markets ? And how long will it take to get some kind of serious reduction in Carbon Emissions using the market ?
Well, judging by this week’s slalom race on the melting Climate piste, I’d say it will be a good few years yet before a functioning international Carbon market will be viable, and a good few years after that that it will start to deliver any real reductions in emissions.
That could easily take us past 2015, the year that Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre knows we have to peak our emissions or face Climageddon (unless we can produce negative emissions. Yeah. Right.) :-
https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/programme.php
Presentation Slides : https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/ppt/10-1anderson.pdf
Presentation Audio : https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/audio/10-1anderson.mp3
https://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10617
I know a couple of people who are not eating because of Climate Change.
It’s not that their country is experiencing drought, flood, famine, storm, trade disruption, economic seizure or war.
It’s because they believe in Climate Justice.
We have consumed, and we will be consumed.
All our Fossil Fuel burning and plunder from the forests and intensive agriculture has eaten up the Earth’s ability to maintain its cool.
The sky will rain down disaster, plague, heatwaves, hurricanes. The sea will rise up and drown our cities.
We have eaten too much, and now it is time to stop.
Just in time for Christmas.
https://www.buynothingday.co.uk
What Would Jesus Buy ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGi21YQFjMM
Rights. Fair shares. It’s time for a Global Carbon Budget.
Someday, all journalists who report on Climate Change and Energy will not only have relevant Science and Technology training, but they will also be allowed the time to fact-check corporate-sponsored-academic-research Press Releases before being asked to publish articles written around those Press Releases.
I absolutely adore Alok Jha writing for the The Guardian newspaper. He’s young, smart, good-looking, intelligent, and studied Physics at Imperial College, London. He writes well. His heart is clearly in the right place. Some of the things the The Guardian publish with his name under them could, however, be a little more incisive.
Possibly some good news from the world of Carbon Sink science : the Earth may be soaking up progressively more Carbon Dioxide as time goes by instead of refusing to do so :-
This week, the campaigning organisation Friends of the Earth took the bold step of publishing their critical negative analysis of Carbon Trading. It is clear that money, alone, cannot buy you Carbon Emissions reductions, and as we come up to Copenhagen, it is essential that we reach beyond the ifs, buts, greys and muted tones to a framework that can be made to work, agreeable to all : Contraction & Convergence from the Global Commons Institute :-
No, Africa did not walk out on the Barcelona Climate talks. Africa needs a global Climate deal. They are insisting that the rich/developed nations make firm commitments on Greenhouse Gas Emissions reductions, is all.
Great Britain has since managed to bailout the Banks, once more. Some of these Banks are financing Carbon-intensive projects, so you could say that the UK is investing in Climate megadeath in Africa. The Africa Group is entitled to strong feelings of injustice. Listen and watch at Climate Radio for a strong analysis :-
Categories
Bad Science Bait & Switch Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Climate Change Energy Revival Low Carbon Life Media Non-Science Obamawatch Peace not War Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Protest & Survive Public Relations Renewable Resource Social Change Technological Sideshow Unsolicited Advice & Guidance Unutterably Useless Utter Futility Vote Loser
David Miliband : Expecting Someone Shorter
To be honest, he was taller than I expected, and more Eastern in appeareance, a kind of lanky version of Mehmet behind the deli counter at my local Turkish International Food Emporium.
David Miliband was also considerably thinner than I would have liked, considering he might one day rule the New Labour Party, who might just rule my country again. We wouldn’t want him blown away by the slightest breeze, surely, would we ? He needs feeding in my opinion.
Heads up to MediaLens for pointing me in the direction of this broadcast of an interview with the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nkxz6
“Free Thinking – David Miliband : Last broadcast on Tuesday 3rd November 2009, 21:15 on BBC Radio 3. In an interview given in front of an audience at The Sage Gateshead as part of the 2009 Free Thinking festival, Foreign Secretary David Miliband talks to Philip Dodd about his family background, his life in politics and his vision for democracy – both home and abroad. A rising star in the Blair government, Miliband has become a government heavyweight under Gordon Brown. He is among the youngest foreign secretaries in history.”
Somewhere during the interview David Miliband utters what I consider to be a myth. He said something along the lines of “…China…building four coal-fired power plants a month…or a week.”
Is there any truth in this ? And how could we verify it ? And why does pointing at China let American and European Coal expansion off the hook ?
The European Parliament, far from closing down Big Carbon, has just agreed a whole raft of exemptions to the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The original plan was to have all Carbon Allowances auctioned as of 2013. That won’t be happening now.
There will be more Carbon Dioxide floating away into the skies. And less revenues from the sale of Carbon Permits to finance Carbon Capture and Storage (which was part of the original plan).
Energy supply and Carbon-intensive industry : protected once again from serious change over Global Warming.
[ PREVIOUS ARTICLE : https://www.joabbess.com/2009/11/02/everyone-should-read-this/ ]
Since the book “Climate Cover-Up : The Crusade to Deny Global Warming” by James Hoggan does not appear to be available in the United Kingdom as of now, I have taken the liberty of transcribing a brief passage about Carbon Capture and Storage.
The thrust of the passage, and in fact two whole chapters of the book, which everybody should read, is that
(a) even with Carbon Capture, Coal will never be “Clean” and
(b) that there has been a deliberate propaganda campaign amongst the public and in the corridors of power to promote Carbon Capture even though it cannot clean up Coal.
A couple of weeks ago I was in discussion with some people considering what would trigger urgent global action on reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions.
Not just words and forms of words, but serious practical action to re-figure the global Economy around Low Carbon principles.
Someone mentioned Katrina. And someone else mentioned that despite the estimations showing that the damage from Hurricane Katrina was probably partly due to global warming (or, rather, ocean warming), it hasn’t been a wake-up call.