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Climate change: Science gets gloomier, crazies get crazier

Then there is the maths ....and the computer models.
Here’s another view of the same .....in a different bucket.
I was reading this
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/04/15/the-oceans-as-a-calorimeter/
....and getting lost :)
but led me to this
.....check the vid in the article below.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/04/15/rommula-sudden-acceleration/
Dave, I think you’ll like the example the guy uses in the utube vid for positive feedback ......made me giggle anyway.  ;)

Just an aside but I spent the morning installing the last bits of a row-in-row steering system (JD SP2) on a neighbours two tractors.
And what do you think we talk about while this is happening ......the weather of course!! heheheee
‘Maunder minimum’ has been the focus on these chilly mornings out of the south.
Local folklore has it that these morning chills fit with another dry year :(
..........so we boltbolt as the farm debt gets bigger and the gear gets dearer heheheeeee
‘Tis a game really .....but I refuse to play and he’s paying me in chook food.

[ Edited: 16 April 2009 11:48 AM by michael scull]
 

I got through 4 minutes of that rubbish and couldn’t stand the “Play School” vibe any more. Trying to promote such dishonest and unscientific drivel through a sarcastic children’s story just got… dull? If you’re going to try and play sceptic, at least quote something a bit more substantive. That was just moronic. The cartoon kept repeating that “no one had seen the monster” when in fact we’ve all seen global warming almost every night on the news. The Arctic ice IS thinner than in recorded history, the sea level IS rising, and the arguments are clear.

Oh, and that story bagged computer models. I’ll show you the argument without ONE computer model. Here goes.

Light_dispersion_conceptual.gif

+

4b0d65a3fd906060b878e08d35d0f3c9.png

= global warming. Get it know?


(Can also be expressed as:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrometry + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiative_forcing = global warming).

 

Could I be so bold as to suggest that we never forget the big picture in this debate about climate change. I’m sure Noah did not debate with God (like Job ) about the need for a boat when God warned him of the Great Flood. He did not sit down and pray either. He built a boat.
  God made us stewards of this planet, and we should accept the responsibility.
    The Big Picture—things that have never happened before:-
    #Man’s ability to destroy the planet- and not just with bombs.
      # The Planet is chock a block with people. No room for more.
        #Helium to fossil fuels are becoming exhausted. Every day resourses and species are dying and drying up.
    TIME FOR ACTION,  NOT WORDS.

 Signature 

Luke 17:21 ” The kingdom of God is within you.”

 

Exactly!

And for Christians on this list, as far as I can tell Global Warming is NOT like the flood. I do not see this as a special judgement of God, but a car accident. We are doing this to ourselves. Or more accurately, we are doing this to the poor (at this stage) because it is the poor who are already dying in droves from global warming (200 thousand a year according to W.H.O.). So there is the moral responsibility of the issue. As it turns out to be real, are you loving your neighbour in climate denial?

On a practical level Kevin, whose interests are you actually serving if you indulge in global warming scepticism and try and “spread it around” a bit? Why are you committed to the interests of big oil and King Coal? We are running out of these commodities, but cheaper, safer, healthier alternatives exist if we just tinker with certain infrastructures and start to culturally deal with certain issues. I don’t understand why the thought of a city plan that is “more European than Europe” infuses such fear into certain right-wing ideologues. They seem to think that a car-based way of life is somehow our God-given right. We can quickly retrofit much of our transport to a pubic transport plan that attracts New Urbanism around the new train & tram “lifeblood” of the city, creating “negabarrels” of oil independence that negates our need for the stuff in the first place.

We can do this… if certain cultural constipation does not prevent us.

 

Well well well!

Forbes LIKES a carbon cap and strong renewable agenda!
So lets see,

Renewables: Clean, green (admits the real science on climate change), energy independence & security (from sources at home), preparing for peak everything, and .... good for the economy right now!

Coal and other fossil fools: Dirty (causes all manner of cancers), Co2 emitting (and puts one in a state of anti-science denial), energy dependent on the Middle East for oil, remaining addicted to fossil fuels right up until there’s a supply crisis and then it’s TOO LATE PAL, and then finally, not as good for the economy right now!

So Kevin…. I’m scratching my head wondering why you’re going into bat for the bad guys here?

Forbes: “The Best Country For Business In The World” Is One With A Very Strong Carbon Cap And A 20% Renewable Standard For 2011

Joe Romm
April 17, 2009 5:55 PM

Well, Forbes magazine has given progressive advocates of climate action a terrific talking point: The “best country for business in the world”—for two years running—is uber-green Denmark (photo below courtesy of Forbes).

Denmark has one of the strongest cap-and-trade commitments in the world—20% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. And it has a requirement that 20 percent of its overall energy mix be renewable by the end of 2011. And its efficiency measures are such that Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard said last year, “In 2025, (Denmark’s) total energy consumption will not have risen in 50 years.”

And Forbes says that’s great for business!

Last month, Forbes magazine published its “The Best Countries For Business, 2009.” Swiss climate change expert Nicolas Müller e-mailed me that buried inside was an attack on cap-and-trade—and a delicious irony, which gives us the talking point.

Forbes’ #2 country for business is the good-ole-USA, but the blurb on our fair country contains this absurd warning:

  The biggest economy in the world and third-largest population, the U.S. continues to support business-friendly economic policies, despite a recent move in the balance of power from Wall Street to Washington. Broad policy shifts such as Cap and Trade, though, threaten to damage its economic competitiveness, particularly in industrial sectors.

Be afraid of cap and trade!

Or maybe not. I have argued that a strong leadership on energy and climate is crucial to competitiveness (see Why the United States REQUIRES a strong climate bill to remain competitive, Part 1 and Part 2: When the global Ponzi scheme collapses (circa 2030), the only jobs left will be green].

Now Forbes has made an even better case. Completely lost on Forbes is that their #1 country for business—“for a second straight year”—is heavily capped, uber-green Denmark!! Indeed, Müller notes the “big irony” in his email:

  The country N°1 in their list is Denmark which has spent plenty of money in renewables, is covered by a cap and trade system, has one of the most stringent emission targets, taxes cars 100% or more, and has globally one of the most constraining environmental regulatory framework.

Here is how Denmark’s government looks at clean energy, from a February 2008 article:

  Denmark aims to increase its use of renewable energy to 20 percent of its overall energy mix by the end of 2011, up from 15 percent today, the government said Friday.

  Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s liberal-conservative government [!], along with most other parliamentary parties, agreed late Thursday on the new target, the Climate and Energy Ministry said in a statement…

  The deal was reached less than a month after the European Commission set a renewable energy target for Denmark at 30 percent by 2020 as part of an EU-wide scheme aimed at reducing dependence on fossil fuel.

  The Danish agreement calls for better subsidies for developing energy from wind, biomass and biogas, and for two new wind parks to be built off the Scandinavian country’s coast by 2012.

  Cars running on hydrogen fuel will be exempt from taxes while the tax-free status of electric cars will be extended until 2012, according to the statement.

  “The creation of a stable framework for investments in renewable energy is in everyone’s interest,” Hedegaard said, adding that Denmark would also try to slash its overall energy use by two percent by 2011 compared to 2006 levels, and by four percent by 2020.

  When it comes to reducing energy use, “Denmark is a world leader and we intend to continue in the same mode,” Hedegaard said, pointing out that “In 2025, (Denmark’s) total energy consumption will not have risen in 50 years.”

Glad to see that someone at Forbes realizes aggressive government action on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and carbon caps are good for business.

[Yes, I’m aware that Denmark’s carbon commitment is so strong it will require complementary measures to meet. That is the nature of the EU approach.]

This piece originally appeared in Climate Progress.


http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009766.html

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009766.html

 

It looks like the crazies have taken over the Oz newspaper and the Adelaide University Dept. of Mining Geology (Ian Plimer).

Revealed:  Antarctic Sea Ice Growing, not shrinking

 

Yes, but as that article indicates, even if the sea ice area increases it is irrelevant to overall sea-level rises. Sea ice is generally neutral to sea level, except maybe for the Arctic region where a decrease in sea-ice could change the albedo of the surrounding ocean, warming Greenland which could be “bad”.

Only the land based ice is of real concern to sea level rises, so even if cooler temperatures localise around one region of Antarctica (which seems possible when extra energy in the system increases the great southern Antarctic Vortex or “constant circular winds and storm”), the WESTERN land based region is of concern.

Anyway, Antarctica is warming. So there. ;-)

cover_nature.jpg

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/02/antarctic-warming-is-robust/

[ Edited: 19 April 2009 01:17 PM by Dave Lankshear]
 

Here’s another of those inconvenient truths…

The following illustrations and graphs show loss of multi-year ice. Each season the 1st year ice melts and then regrows in the normal summer winter process. However, each year more of the OLD THICK ice melts, leaving the Arctic more prone to open waters at summer, which of course changes the summer albedo. Instead of 90% solar insolation reflected, it will be 90% absorbed by the Arctic ocean. And that my friends will affect Greenland.

Check the loss of multi-year ice.

Ladies and gentlemen, please proceed in a calm and orderly fashion to the nearest lifeboat, this is not a drill!

arctic.jpg

From…


Satellites Show Arctic Literally on Thin Ice
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/arctic_thinice.html#maincontent

Animation (watch it several times)
324806main_meierfig3_full.gif

[ Edited: 20 April 2009 09:23 AM by Dave Lankshear]
 

.....and with that input of energy and a velocity increase in the vortex pushes our rain band nth leaving the sth states a little dry.  Velocity of that vortex is everything to the farmers across the grain belt.
I think that is the immediate bad news for aus. ......already happening.

Anyone wondered if you can get a govt grant to make a bloody big ice maker .....power it with sonic quality wind generators and park it next to Mawsons hut ...windy spot I’ve heard ;)
Meter it of course :D
.....but then again, I may have had one too many coffees this morn.

 

Ha ha! Yes, coffee can do that. ;-)

Hey Michael, I think you meant pulls our rain SOUTH so that the southern rain clouds miss Australia all together.

Yes, there was a Catalyst on that… I googled around and found that it was from 2003!!!! Yikes the time flies! 6 years ago? Really?

Climatologists are desperately trying to explain the mystery of where southern Australia’s winter rainfall is going. They’ve known the rain is being pulled south by an unexplained force. Now they’ve devised a revolutionary new theory to explain why. It appears that the circulation of the entire Southern Hemisphere is changing to suck our rain away. The reason is the Antarctic Vortex - a natural tornado of 30km high, super-cold, super-fast winds spiralling around Antarctica. The vortex is not new; it’s one of the engines that drive climate in the Southern Hemisphere. But now it appears the vortex is shifting gear, and is spinning faster and faster, and getting tighter. As it does it’s pulling the climate bands further south dragging rain away from the continent out into the southern ocean. Most disturbing of all we might be responsible for shifting the speed of the vortex. Scientists at the US Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research believe the speeding up of the vortex is caused by the combined effect of global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer over Antarctica. If their theory is true it will have devastating consequences for our southern cities - the drought may not go away. It takes just a slight shift in rainfall patterns for our capital cities to start running out of water – and the reservoirs in Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne are all dangerously low right now.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s948858.htm

So anyway, as this Vortex spins up faster and faster I wonder if certain localities in Antarctica outside the vortex are more prone to warming and certain areas inside it are more isolated from the climate shift in the “outside” world? I don’t know… it’s just a suspicion. I’ve not read any papers to that effect.

The point is that climate is complex. The so called “Medieval Warm Period” in Europe may actually have been due to cooler GLOBAL temperatures which resulted in changes to wind patterns in the stratosphere, and isolated certain pockets of warmer climate in Europe? This is an example of where macro-cooling leads to local warming! (And also a prime example of Euro-centrism in history where the non-peer reviewed sceptics argue that because Europe “might” have been warmer, therefore the whole world was warmer! Evidence please!!?)

Also, macro-warming can lead to some local cooling effects. Don’t forget that a massive melt of Greenland’s fresh water could disrupt the saline balance in the North Sea and effectively shut down the Gulf Stream which could result in a much colder Europe (snapping into far more horrible winters if not quite the ice-age depicted by “Day After Tomorrow”). So even as the planet warms, some areas may cool, catastrophically.

Don’t forget that the other name for Co2 is Carbonic acid, which of course is having a terrible effect on marine life. Crustacean’s shells are shrinking in mass, some plankton are affected… the base of the ocean food chain being gradually eroded away.

Despite all this the sceptics sit back, relax, write their non-peer reviewed unscientific papers, and with the youth of today claim, “It’s all good!”

 

You’re right Dave, I’ll blame the coffee on this also heheheeee ......the vortex speed increase sucks the rain band sth and we don’t get any here!!!
i used to follow this stuff so closely my head hurt but then it got political and I tended to loose interest in the argument.
The spin in all arenas has gotten so thick in the last 10-12 years I haven’t been able to see over it! .......makes me a bit nauseus if i think about these things too seriously, so i don’t anymore.  ;)

 

Still laughing out loud at this latest effort from some PC climate change loonies. This Aussie group

“wants Australia’s population of almost 22 million reduced to seven million to tackle climate change”.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25366021-5001028,00.html

Green group calls for one child policy
Article from: AAP
April 21, 2009 05:37pm

AUSTRALIA should consider having a one-child policy to protect the planet, an environmental lobby group says.

Sustainable Population Australia says slashing the world’s population is the only way to avoid “environmental suicide’‘.

National president Sandra Kanck wants Australia’s population of almost 22 million reduced to seven million to tackle climate change.

Restricting each couple to one baby, as China does, is “one way of assisting to reduce the population’‘.

“It’s something we need to throw into the mix,’’ the former Democrats parliamentarian said.

More people means more coal-fired electricity, cars, houses, water use and food production, all of which increase greenhouse gas emissions, she said.

Ms Kanck, who has one child herself, expects her campaign will receive a hostile reaction.

“The Catholic church is going to be in like Flynn on an argument like this.’‘

Sustainable Population Australia, which has about 1300 members, is so worried about climate change it is preparing a formal submission to the UN.

It has also applied to attend high-profile world climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

Australia’s population has been increasing steadily and the Federal Government plans to continue the trend, largely through immigration.

The world’s population stands at 6.7 billion, according to the US Census Bureau.

“Increasing the population is basically suicide, it’s environmental suicide, it’s utterly irresponsible,’’ Ms Kanck said.

“We are eating away at the planet, we are eating into all the resources, be it petrol, be it superphosphate, be it clear air.’‘

Ms Kanck also suggested Australia scrap the baby bonus, and restrict paid maternity leave and IVF to the first baby only, to discourage large families.

She did not suggest restrictions to immigration, saying Australia should take responsibility for cutting its own population instead of barring entry to others.

China introduced its one-child policy in 1979.

A Chinese academic visiting Canberra last week said the policy had avoided 300 million births and had therefore made a major contribution to the fight against climate change.


The really funny PC bit is this :

She did not suggest restrictions to immigration, saying Australia should take responsibility for cutting its own population instead of barring entry to others.

That’s right - keep allowing overseas immigrants and illegal boat people to add to our population numbers - whilst somehow getting rid of 15 million Australians.

Who gets to vote who off the island ?  I would like to nominate the 1300 members of Sustainable Population Australia to be the first to go - I’m sure they would agree to such a reasonable request - after all, it’s for such a good cause !

I must check the calendar - pretty sure it’s not April 1st.  Anybody want to defend these IDIOTS ??

[ Edited: 21 April 2009 06:43 PM by Kevin Goddard]
 

(I edited this to get more back on topic)

Hi Kevin,
can you please link to the article that amused you so?

Also, SPA recommend rational population measures both on the immigration and domestic population front. I can’t see how any greenie can recommend the self-contradictory policies you referred to above… serves them right if they do!

[ Edited: 21 April 2009 06:58 PM by Dave Lankshear]
 

Hi Dave,

“Green group calls for one child policy”
Article from: AAP
April 21, 2009

link

[ Edited: 21 April 2009 08:19 PM by Kevin Goddard]
 

What’s the President of SPA doing recommending something to the media that is against SPA policy!

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25366021-29277,00.html

She did not suggest restrictions to immigration, saying Australia should take responsibility for cutting its own population instead of barring entry to others.

Huh? As I quoted in another thread, SPA has very clear limits to immigration policy! What is she talking about? Bring back John Coulter as President (another former Democrat, but at least one that can remember the game he’s in and the policies he’s meant to be advocating!)

Anybody want to defend these IDIOTS ??

I’ll vote for John Coulter at the next branch meeting so that the SPA President doesn’t make these mistakes again. Yes Kevin, I’m a member of SPA. But I won’t be leaving Australia any time soon. You see, we mean to take over!!!!! Cuts to “Empire” music from Star Wars…. Da! Da! Da! Doo-Da-da, Doo-Da-da!

 

Hi Dave ,

I was in the city on Monday and saw an advertising poster on a bus shed reminding me that the “STAR WARS: Where Science Meets Imagination” exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum ends THIS coming Sunday 26 April - so people will have to hurry to catch it in this galaxy !
But it travels to Scienceworks in Melbourne, showing from 3 June to 3 November 2009.

Go on an epic journey through the Star Wars universe with over 80 costumes, models and full-scale replicas from all six films.

Discover the real-world scientific innovations that are rapidly making the Star Wars fantasy a reality – experiment with magnetic levitation devices, manipulate robots, engineer droids, and journey into that galaxy far, far away.

Admission costs :
$24 adults
$12 children (4-15 years, children under 4 free)
$18 concessions and seniors
$60 families (1 adult and 3 children or 2 adults and 2 children)
$18 groups

All tickets include general Museum admission.

** Just noticed that annual membership is also available, including this deal for families to consider :

- Standard Household - Two adults and all students up to 18 at the same address - $105
[ Free entry and priority access for Powerhouse Members. Visit as many times as you like! ]

Have you seen it yet ?

[ Edited: 22 April 2009 06:53 AM by Kevin Goddard]
 

Here’s a laugh for you Kev. I am one of those dumb greenies who makes his own used vegie oil fuel. I’ve been making it for about 15 years and through all that time I’ve heard every type and experts saying ‘what a moron, you’ll destroy the engine” etc.
I’ve done 420,000 kms on my vegie powered landcruiser and every bit was used old vegie oil (otherwise going in the landfill)
This was never about making a difference to the environment as we all know it doesn’t ........if generally used it would see food taken from hungry mouths (as Maccers beef gets fed while people gleen food from the spillage ......we all saw the news items)
I fuel my landcruiser with vegie as an example of what can be done .....especially when I’ve been making this fuel while the authorities and experts say it can’t be done.
In the 70/80s I ran my ‘go to work’ car on natural gas ...worked at Tyabb airport quite a bit and there I got talking with the heli engineer I worked with and we both played with compressing these different gases…but it’s incompressable and barely took me to work and back…...I then tried methane for a few year but settled on vegie for the most workable fuel outside petroleum.

This was not about peak oil but really about opening narrow minds in aus. 10 year ago I was the village loonie about this fuel issue as most said it would not work (they all quoted the oil and car companies).......now they ask me to do workshops and show them how.
System was quite complex when I started but todays system only uses ......gum leaves in a wood fired barbie….a 100ltr stainless pot with a tap on the side….and old induction motor and paint stirrer…..and one sheet of coffee filter paper. That’s it for the l/cruiser…......same fuel used it my tractor has about 400 gms of caustic soda and about 12 ltrs methanol/100 of vegie .....‘tis a JohnDeere backhoe and likes the brew.
My wife doesn’t get involved. But talked her into a Hyundia i30 turbo diesel last year….the highest level ‘green’ car I could find in the market that is ‘aussie bush able’.......she works for rural health and has clocked 45000 in six mths .....about 5ltrs/100.
Most of the community have woken up to the fuel crisis in the last few years I’ve noticed ......but I see the complacency is back with the demand/price down again.
I guess we will have to suffer a similar scare about population before anyone wakes up to its environmental effects. 
(I’ll bet Pell drives a Stateman )

an aside, not that uncommon for me to raise my ideas on this at Sunday lunch in our home when the mobs in.
I’ve always found reasonable that we introduce legislation that allows ‘Culling Kids’ if a drought goes into it’s fifth year.
I can see there would be a few hurdles to putting the legislation through. (although with no human rights bill it shouldn’t be too hard)
This of course would relieve the financial strain right across the rural sector.
My biggest concern with all this is who and how the selections are made…..defeats the purpose if JoeBob or JimBob are kept and Andrew is culled :D
But I’m sure some computer modelling software could be developed to project possible life outcomes and make a selection from there.

[ Edited: 22 April 2009 09:21 AM by michael scull]
 

Hi Kevin,
No, I haven’t seen it, have you? Is it worth the dosh? I’m currently in “Star Wars” mode as I edit a home movie of the kids & friends dressed up in Star Wars mode. Had problems with the sound. I used the eye-piece instead of the flip out viewer, and so my breathing comes over all the dialogue. I’ll have to get the kids back to do a clean voice-over, dubbing it.

Then once I’ve edited the basic clips into the right places the REAL horror starts…. adding all the sound effects! Then, (gulps), I have to decide if THIS is the movie I REALLY go nuts on and add… (can’t breathe, panic attack starting…) “the glow” to the lightsabers! AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!

(edit to add)
Hi Michael,
I somehow missed your post.

That sounds amazing! Go for it. As you say, biofuels will not meet the sheer volumes required for the public, but if a village pools its resources they might keep a truck or 2 running just for their special errands.

The only chance I can see for biofuels possibly meeting some niche needs (like a drastically cut back airline industry) are some of the developments in algae farming. That could possibly meet some needs, but would take generations to set up enough algae farms to supply all the world’s oil needs!

Anyway, I work from home. I’ll ride my pushbike to Coles to get our groceries when this thing happens… if there’s any groceries there… IF I have any money left to buy groceries…

Lastly, you know that I am concerned about overpopulation because I care about the fate of our kids and value human life right? I’m not advocating “culling”... just had to have that on the public record. ;-)

[ Edited: 22 April 2009 09:46 AM by Dave Lankshear]
 

My grandchildren and I put cameras on RC planes but we have never gotten past Windows Movie Maker with the edit. Only recently gotten some putas with grunt so hopefully will get my number one grandson (13) into using a better edit suite than we have been doing.
Off topic but what’s a good video edit program you’d recommend to two bushies coming off WinMovieMaker ......quickly before they shut my access to pirate bay ;)
The lad made this one start to finish but I losing him to cricket at the time, as you can hear from the soundtrack he selected :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc5nocpAXLE&feature=channel_page
(all our planes are electric .....no smelly fuelers)

 

It’s about awareness and example I reckon ;)
I live 10 ks from the nearest shop/PO and 50 ks from a CBD and we are using an obscene amount of energy just getting about out here.  I see that plainly. Maybe my fuel making is from guilt :D

Here we sit with gthis discussion while i know all my farmer neighbours are burning their stubble. Every afternoon after 2pm right across the wimmera and mallee everybody who can’t afford direct drilling is burning paddocks at the moment.
Maybe the government should give every farmer a direct drill set .....and a bigger tractor to pull it!
This would offset carbon emissions and cause jobs.
While ever farmers don’t get a profit from what they produce ....how can they afford these new methods?
I say give ‘em all what they need and then with ‘best’ farming practises in place they wouldn’t have to burn .....sensible place to start I would have said.

 

No public transport out where you are Mike?

Meanwhile two contrasting articles, one from an environmental group and one from some skeptic:

Lobby Group Claims Austraia Should Reduce Population To 7 Million

22 April 2009, The Australian, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25369042-12377,00.html

AUSTRALIA should consider having a one-child policy to protect the planet, an environmental lobby group said.

Sustainable Population Australia told The Daily Telegraph that slashing population was the only way to avoid “environmental suicide”.

National president Sandra Kanck wants Australia’s population of almost 22 million reduced to seven million to tackle climate change.

And restricting each couple to one baby, as China does, was “one way of assisting to reduce the population”.

“It’s something we need to throw into the mix,” the former Democrats parliamentarian said.

Revealed: Antarctic Ice Growing, Not Melting

18 April 2009, The Australian, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25349683-601,00.html

ICE is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap.

The results of ice-core drilling and sea ice monitoring indicate there is no large-scale melting of ice over most of Antarctica, although experts are concerned at ice losses on the continent’s western coast.

Antarctica has 90 per cent of the Earth’s ice and 80 per cent of its fresh water. Extensive melting of Antarctic ice sheets would be required to raise sea levels substantially, and ice is melting in parts of west Antarctica. The destabilisation of the Wilkins ice shelf generated international headlines this month.

However, the picture is very different in east Antarctica, which includes the territory claimed by Australia.

East Antarctica is four times the size of west Antarctica and parts of it are cooling. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research report prepared for last week’s meeting of Antarctic Treaty nations in Washington noted the South Pole had shown “significant cooling in recent decades”.

Australian Antarctic Division glaciology program head Ian Allison said sea ice losses in west Antarctica over the past 30 years had been more than offset by increases in the Ross Sea region, just one sector of east Antarctica.

“Sea ice conditions have remained stable in Antarctica generally,” Dr Allison said.

The melting of sea ice—fast ice and pack ice—does not cause sea levels to rise because the ice is in the water. Sea levels may rise with losses from freshwater ice sheets on the polar caps. In Antarctica, these losses are in the form of icebergs calved from ice shelves formed by glacial movements on the mainland.

Last week, federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett said experts predicted sea level rises of up to 6m from Antarctic melting by 2100, but the worst case scenario foreshadowed by the SCAR report was a 1.25m rise.

Mr Garrett insisted global warming was causing ice losses throughout Antarctica. “I don’t think there’s any doubt it is contributing to what we’ve seen both on the Wilkins shelf and more generally in Antarctica,” he said.

Dr Allison said there was not any evidence of significant change in the mass of ice shelves in east Antarctica nor any indication that its ice cap was melting. “The only significant calvings in Antarctica have been in the west,” he said. And he cautioned that calvings of the magnitude seen recently in west Antarctica might not be unusual.

“Ice shelves in general have episodic carvings and there can be large icebergs breaking off—I’m talking 100km or 200km long—every 10 or 20 or 50 years.”

Ice core drilling in the fast ice off Australia’s Davis Station in East Antarctica by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-Operative Research Centre shows that last year, the ice had a maximum thickness of 1.89m, its densest in 10 years. The average thickness of the ice at Davis since the 1950s is 1.67m.

A paper to be published soon by the British Antarctic Survey in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is expected to confirm that over the past 30 years, the area of sea ice around the continent has expanded.

 Signature 

Facebook profile at here.

 

Public transport! hehehehheeeeee! .....nuh!
No services connected either other than the electrical grid ........and I’d like to pump back on that as soon as the array arrives. ;)

I still say my wind driven icemaker idea for the antarctic is a good one :D

 

Anyone see the news tonight?

Apparently Australian scientists are fighting back over the claim that Antarctica is showing no science of being affected by climate. They are saying that the million year old ice is melting, and the British study focussed mainly on the seasonal ice.

Kind of reminds me of certain other individuals that used to always point to winter ice build up in the Arctic and scream “look at all the ice, we’re going to be drowned in a floodening of ice!” There’s climate, and then there’s seaons. Sceptics need to understand how the 2 interact, and not just jump up and down and get all excited because they see some ice grow.

 

Norwegian proposal :

Ban petrol cars from 2015, says Norway’s Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen

Article from: Reuters       By Alister Doyle         April 26, 2009 02:49am

A PROPOSAL to ban sales of new petrol-powered cars in Norway from 2015 could help spur struggling carmakers to shift to greener models, Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said.

“This is much more realistic than people think when they first hear about this proposal,” she said, defending a plan by her Socialist Left Party to outlaw sales of cars that run solely on fossil fuels in six years’ time.

“The financial crisis also means that a lot of those car producers that now have big problems ... know that they have to develop their technology because we also have to solve the climate criss when this financial crisis is over,” she said.

“That is why we would like a ban from 2015.”

Under her proposal, carmakers could only sell new cars from 2015 that run fully or partly on fuels such as electricity, biofuels or hydrogen. Hybrids using fossil fuels and electricity, for instance, would still be permitted.

Ms Halvorsen’s party is a junior member of Norway’s three-party coalition led by the Labour Party. The 2015 proposal is unlikely to be adopted by the cabinet because it is opposed, among others, by Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Still, Ms Halvorsen said she knew of no other finance minister in the world who was even arguing for such a goal.

“I haven’t heard about any ministers. I’m not surprised. We are often a party that puts forward new proposals first,” she said.

A 2015 ban had backing from many environmental groups around the world as a way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25387916-5001028,00.html

 

Not a bad idea in a country that has nearly 5 million in an area a third larger than victoria.
I came across this the other day
http://www.think.no/Press-Pictures/Press-releases/Think-Announces-U.S.-Factory-Plans

Battery technology has come a long way .......a few years ago you would be laughed at if I’d said battery RC planes would compete with nitros/petrols.
(trust me .....this is the place that most of this edvelopment comes from ......never forget FlashGordon heheheheeeee)
Well in 40 scale it is already the case ......and the development of all the control peripherals using stepping motors and processors is where it’s at with batteries at the moment.
I know it’s only a stop gap technology if you consider fuel cells .....but this works now! so should be embrced I think.
Someone has to lead the way .....and lets not wait on the yanks as we tend to do ;)


ps…I also don’t forget that every time a mate comes to visit in his Prius, he has to stay the night to recharge :D
He’s installed solar panels in his work car park .....which I thought a brilliant idea. He’s been my shrink for ten years and I’ve seen him go through 3 of these things.
Persistant if nothing else :D .....I give him a hard time about his fees and his car and why the hell I’m involved in saving his world :D
Through him I meet all my old viet vet mates Dave ....he works mainly with vietnam vets.

[ Edited: 26 April 2009 09:32 AM by michael scull]
 
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