Policymakers seeking to fight global warming need to reach an international agreement for post-2012 climate change policy, but developing countries seem unlikely to immediately participate. This column explains the importance of full …
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Fostering global climate change cooperation: How can China help …
The Australian Government’s climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, says a global agreement must be reached to successfully reduce the world’s carbon emissions and has urged action without delay.
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Key Australian Government Advisor Hands Down Final Report on …
but there was a so called lost cycle in the beginning of the Dalton Minimum . No, there is no good evidence for that. On the contrary, 10Be data shows no trace of ‘the lost cycle’
Go here to see the original:
Comment on NASA: Sun is “blankety blankest” it’s been in the Space …
.The Federal Government’s climate change adviser Ross Garnaut has rejected arguments for electricity generators to be compensated for the introduction of an emissions trading scheme.
Professor Garnaut says the system would work best if all carbon permits are sold.
“It wouldn’t affect investment, it wouldn’t affect price, it wouldn’t affect whether or not they turned out to be stranded assets and had to be abandoned,” he said.
Electricity generators say they should get a one-off transitional payment, but Professor Garnaut dismisses that.”
Professor Garnaut has forecast electricity prices will rise between 21 and 37 per cent under emissions trading.
“It’s just a transfer of money [I] just don’t see the justification for that, you need a good reason to hand over a lot of public money to a private business and the reasons haven’t been put forward.
“Generators will charge whatever prices the market will bear,” he said.
He says compensating electricity generators would have no affect on pricing.”
.
“Whether or not you make a one-off sum transitional payment to generators won’t affect those increases in electricity prices one little bit
India, China, global warming , climate change, pollution, brown clouds, aerosols, greenhouse gases, industrialization, coal, power, energy, air pollution, soot, National Geographic, National Science Foundation.
Originally posted here:
When Local Pollution Meets Global Warming
but there was a so called lost cycle in the beginning of the Dalton Minimum . No, there is no good evidence for that. On the contrary, 10Be data shows no trace of ‘the lost cycle’. Geomagnetic data also does not support this claim, ..
See the rest here:
Comment on NASA: Sun is “blankety blankest” it’s been in the Space …
From the BBC, a story an video so absurd, you wonder if it is an April fools joke. The premise? Noise from excessive ice calving and cracking due to “climate change” would affect the bear’s hearing.
More here:
BS Alert: Polar bear hearing affected to due global warming?
If you don’t think global warming and climate change has political overtones, think again. Often people focus on those like Sarah Palin who don’t “believe” in global warming , but attention also needs to be turned on scientists who are …
See the original post here:
Global Warming Doomsday: Meat Rationing?
The EU Emission Trading Scheme is seen by many as one of the biggest hopes for a significant long-term reduction in the overall volume of emissions in Europe. A new service launched in July enables you to influence it directly.
Original post:
Carbon trading with giants
It’s worthy of note that two years on from his first mention of the idea, David Miliband is still making reference to personal carbon trading .
View original post here:
Miliband is still thinking about personal carbon trading
Saul’s essential point is that climate change is a problem we can choose to tackle: that the means are within our control, if we’ll learn to think clearly about them. It’s a great talk, and like all great talks, there’s lots to quibble …
The last time the sunspot cycle went into extended hibernation was during the so-called Maunder Minimum between the years 1645 and 1715. This period coincided with Europe’s “Little Ice Age,” one of the most dramatic episodes of global …
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Jimmy Westlake: What’s up with the sun?
Initial above average increase in investment in generation portfolio planning analytics. Moderate investment to enhance existing ETRM systems for carbon trading . Above average increase in carbon price forecasting.
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alpacacock @ 2008-09-30T11:43:00
Now, even worse news — the current financial meltdown is making climate-change pretty low on the political priority list. A summit scheduled in Copenhagen by the end of 2009 is supposed to finalize what will succeed the Kyoto Protocol, …
Read more:
Financial meltdown threatens climate change discussions
The map here is from NOAA Paleoclimatology , which is the study of past climate, for times prior to instrumental weather measurements. Obvious sections of the topic are tree-rings and caves (with the layers of dripping preserved in rock.
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Borehole data on paleoclimatology – boring, no
He projects that climate change will destroy the wine producing potential of current wine producing areas of the UK, such as the Thames Valley, and the Severn valley. From an Imperial college press release: …
Here is the original:
Wine and climate change in the UK
ORLY?
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“Global Warming Has Paused”
A new report from the Food Climate Research Network at the University of Surrey says people will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change . ..
Originally posted here:
New Report Calls for Meat Rationing to Slow Climate Change
Fossilized amoeboids and pollen suggests Hemudu culture emerged and developed in the middle of the Holocene Climatic Optimum .
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Hemudu culture
Find a job you’re wild about at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the nation’s largest member-supported conservation organization, which is at the forefront of global warming issues, reconnecting our children with nature, …
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Senior Communications Manager, Global Warming
Very nearly all others in the hierarchy of your Church are clear that ascribing individual extreme-weather events to “ global warming ” is impossible. Why? Well, let’s take the question of landfalling Atlantic hurricanes such as Katrina.
Original post:
Monckton’s mocking reply to an email from a “Thermista” in the …
.Welfare groups are urging the Federal Government to help low income earners make their houses more energy efficient.
The Government’s climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, has released his final report on climate change.
The money could be used to install better insulation or to buy more energy efficient light bulbs or appliances.
He urges the Government to provide households with a $1,000 “green credit” to help them switch to energy efficient appliances.
“There is a real information deficit there and it’s a very big ask for people to know what to do in that circumstance,” he said.
Salvation Army spokesperson Brad Halse says it is important the Government also fund energy efficiency audits of houses for people who have little idea how to make energy savings.
“It’s every bit as important as providing direct payments or offsets in one format or another to have someone be able to advise them and give people reassurance, to educate them and help bridge the information gap which will exist and does exist in the community.
“We think this provision of so-called auditors to be available to a wide cross section of the low income community would be a very good option.”
… you go to a conference on major bioethical questions — controversial issues like abortion, embryonic stem cells, assisted reproduction and euthanasia — and a keynote speaker uses all his allotted time warning about global warming . ..
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Does global warming trump all hot-button ethical issues?
bugs atmospheric general circulation model national oceanic and atmospheric administration: climate noaa: paleoclimatology weather wiz kids: weather safety environmental protection agency: climate change kids site.
Go here to see the original:
health special section demos knowledge online
A global view of areas where methane hydrates are believed to reside among seafloor sediments and within permafrost. Scientists aboard a Russian research ship along Russia’s northern coastline have recently found an extensive area of …
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Large Methane Release Found in the Arctic
Every now and then, a new nugget of ‘information’ comes to our attention that supposedly proves that climate change ‘can’t be man-made’. One such story was that “Captain Cook and Lord Nelson’ s logs indicate 1730’s global warming wasn’t ..
See the original post here:
Creationists and Climate Change Deniers: Two Peas in a Pod
.Welfare groups are urging the Federal Government to help low income earners make their houses more energy efficient.
The Government’s climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, has released his final report on climate change.
The money could be used to install better insulation or to buy more energy efficient light bulbs or appliances.
He urges the Government to provide households with a $1,000 “green credit” to help them switch to energy efficient appliances.
“There is a real information deficit there and it’s a very big ask for people to know what to do in that circumstance,” he said.
Salvation Army spokesperson Brad Halse says it is important the Government also fund energy efficiency audits of houses for people who have little idea how to make energy savings.
“It’s every bit as important as providing direct payments or offsets in one format or another to have someone be able to advise them and give people reassurance, to educate them and help bridge the information gap which will exist and does exist in the community.
“We think this provision of so-called auditors to be available to a wide cross section of the low income community would be a very good option.”
From the article: The Indian government’s National Action Plan on Climate Change looked for evidence of harm to India from global warming . Its scientists found none. It also looked for man-made causes. Still no evidence. ..
Excerpt from:
Third-World Countries Beat with the Carbon Stick
Environmentalist and Arctic explorer Will Steger kicked off a weeklong bioenergy conference at MSU with a talk about the dangers of global warming .
Read more from the original source:
Talk focuses on global warming
Just how did the global warming myth begin? It all started at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, United States in 1975. Scientists needed a way to keep population growth in check and, out of that conference 33 years ago, …
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The Global Warming Myth is Tied to Genocide?
Why am I so confident that global warming is a myth? Once you read this article on determining credibility of global warming , you’ll understand. Surely something as important and life-changing as climate change would be up for debate, …
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Credibility Test for Global Warming
Sunspot minima have happened during human history, eg, the Maunder Minimum that just happened to correspond to the Little Ice Age of 1300-1850 (for more on which, see, eg, Brian Fagin, The Little Ice Age : How Climate Made History …
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Year of the quiet Sun
(Environment News and Information) The popular Introduction to Carbon Trading Finance seminar will be held at the NYMEX on October 14th in New York Taught by carbon markets expert and best selling author Peter Fusaro this course has …
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Introduction to Carbon Trading Seminar Held at NYMEX on October 14th
Global Warming Thermometer Global warming has inflicted its fair share of damage on the planet in recent years, but one problem growing in scope and severity is a growing cause for concern. According to the World Health Organization …
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Diseases Spreading As a Result of Global Warming
This will put the cat among the pigeons:. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4849167.ece.
Global warming : why cut one 3000th of a degree? | Bjørn Lomborg – Times Online Britain’s efforts to reduce the speed of global warming will cost huge sums of money and have a pitifully tiny effect ….The British Government estimates…
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Time to come to our senses about global warming
.Greens Senator Bob Brown says the Government must push for a 25 per cent cut in its emissions and take a tougher stance on global cuts at next year’s climate change meeting.
Today the Government’s climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, released his final report on climate change.
Senator Bob Brown says the 25 per cent cut must be agreed to in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Professor Garnaut said although a target of a 10 per cent cut in emissions by 2020 is more realistic, the Government should be open to pushing for a deeper cut at the Copenhagen meeting next year.
“We have got to take a lead and not repeat the mistake of the Howard Government.
“This country must go to Copenhagen, not only with that goal but stating how we’re going to achieve it,” he said.
“The Garnaut report points out this is clearly in Australia’s national interests and that this is economically affordable,” he said.”
Climate Change Institute chief executive John Conner also backs a 25 per cent cut.”
However, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Greg Evans has urged caution on setting a target and the introduction of an emissions trading scheme.
“Households will be better off taking the plunge to save the climate, putting Australia in a positive position in the global negotiations to help protect Australia’s long-term interests.
The Government has committed to implementing an emissions trading scheme by 2010, but is yet to release details of its economic impact, which are not expected until the end of the year.
“Now is not a time to experiment with the Australian economy and we’re particularly concerned to now see the results of Treasury modelling to be able to model the impact of different emissions reductions scenarios,” he said.
Professor Garnaut’s report emphasised that action against climate change is reliant on a global agreement on reduction.
The Opposition is using the report’s recommendations to stick to its position that 2010 is too early to bring in an emissions trading scheme.
“We’re seeing Treasury modelling months overdue, we’re seeing business in the dark about what the costs of it all will be, consultations are a sham and I think the indecent haste with which they’re rushing this scheme will cost Australia dearly,” he said.
Opposition climate change spokesman Andrew Robb says the Government’s insistence on bringing in a scheme by 2010 prior to the Copenhagen agreement is reckless.
“We’ll take into account Professor Garnaut’s advice and we’ll make our decision as we previously indicated prior to the end of the year,” she said.
Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Government will not announce what reduction target it will set until Treasury modelling is released in December.
The group argued that they had a “lawful excuse” for their actions: They were trying to prevent even greater damage like “flooding from rising sea levels and damage to species” from man-made global warming . …
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Global Warming and Double Standards
Posted in carbon emissions, carbon offsetting, carbon trading , climate change, energy, global warming Tagged: banking and climate change regulation, banking failures, carbon offsets, carbon trading , similarities with climate change and …
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We are using failed strategies to fight climate change
Up to now it has been generally assumed that global warming will be a linear process. However evidence from the geological past linked with climate modelling that takes into account the global warming that is already locked into the ..
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Accelerated Global Warming And Atmospheric CO2 Emissions
.
Tackling climate change is possible and affordable but depends
on international agreements that are largely outside Australia’s
control, the final report of Australia’s chief climate change
adviser, Ross Garnaut, concludes.
Professor Garnaut offered two main scenarios for cutting the
greenhouse gas emissions that scientists believe are resulting in
climate change.
Aiming for 550 parts per million, which Professor Garnaut says
will be easier to achieve although it does put the world at a
greater risk of very dangerous climate change, would require
Australian emissions cuts of 10 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by
the middle of the century.
Achieving a level of 450 parts carbon dioxide per million in the
earth’s atmosphere would require Australia to reduce its emissions
by a quarter by the year 2020 and 90 per cent by 2050.
The international climate change meeting in Denmark next year is
a key element, and a realistic and binding target that includes
developing nations such as China is at the centre of Professor
Garnaut’s thinking.
“There is a path to Australia being a low-emissions economy by
the middle of the 21st century, consistent with continuing strong
growth in material living standards,” the report says.
But the failure of negotiations on a new global agreement to cut
carbon emissions would be devastating, he warned.
“If things go well, very well, Copenhagen will be the end of one
process and the beginning of others that will lead, over time, to
effective global mitigation at a level that reduces risks of
dangerous kind to an extent that seems acceptable to most informed
people,” Professor Garnaut writes in the conclusion to his
report. When human
society receives a large shock to its established patterns of life,
the outcome is unpredictable in detail but generally problematic.
“If things go badly, they could go very badly.”
The report accepts that there is a slim possibility that
scientific predictions about impending global warming are wrong,
but says the safe option is to prepare for the most likely
scenarios.
Things fall apart.
“There is a chance that they are wrong.
“That formulation allows the possibility that the views on
climate change of the IPCC and the learned academies in all of the
main countries of scientific achievement are wrong,” the report
states. But to
heed instead the views of the minority of genuine sceptics in the
relevant scientific communities would be to hide from reality. Just a chance.
It is prudent to give the major weight to the mainstream
science. It
would be imprudent beyond the normal limits of human irrationality.”
.Greens Senator Bob Brown says the Government must push for a 25 per cent cut in its emissions and take a tougher stance on global cuts at next year’s climate change meeting.
Today the Government’s climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, released his final report on climate change.
Senator Bob Brown says the 25 per cent cut must be agreed to in order to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Professor Garnaut said although a target of a 10 per cent cut in emissions by 2020 is more realistic, the Government should be open to pushing for a deeper cut at the Copenhagen meeting next year.
“We have got to take a lead and not repeat the mistake of the Howard Government.
“This country must go to Copenhagen, not only with that goal but stating how we’re going to achieve it,” he said.
“The Garnaut report points out this is clearly in Australia’s national interests and that this is economically affordable,” he said.”
Climate Change Institute chief executive John Conner also backs a 25 per cent cut.”
However, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Greg Evans has urged caution on setting a target and the introduction of an emissions trading scheme.
“Households will be better off taking the plunge to save the climate, putting Australia in a positive position in the global negotiations to help protect Australia’s long-term interests.
The Government has committed to implementing an emissions trading scheme by 2010, but is yet to release details of its economic impact, which are not expected until the end of the year.
“Now is not a time to experiment with the Australian economy and we’re particularly concerned to now see the results of Treasury modelling to be able to model the impact of different emissions reductions scenarios,” he said.
Professor Garnaut’s report emphasised that action against climate change is reliant on a global agreement on reduction.
The Opposition is using the report’s recommendations to stick to its position that 2010 is too early to bring in an emissions trading scheme.
“We’re seeing Treasury modelling months overdue, we’re seeing business in the dark about what the costs of it all will be, consultations are a sham and I think the indecent haste with which they’re rushing this scheme will cost Australia dearly,” he said.
Opposition climate change spokesman Andrew Robb says the Government’s insistence on bringing in a scheme by 2010 prior to the Copenhagen agreement is reckless.
“We’ll take into account Professor Garnaut’s advice and we’ll make our decision as we previously indicated prior to the end of the year,” she said.
Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Government will not announce what reduction target it will set until Treasury modelling is released in December.
An article about me and my viewpoint on global warming was published on August 24, 2005 by Willamette Week. The article contained many misleading statements and errors.
Originally posted here:
Oregon's (former) State Climatologist on global warming
Global warming is the belief that the temperature of the air nearest to earth is consistently rising.
More here:
Global Warming’s Fever
.
Tackling climate change is possible and affordable but depends
on international agreements that are largely outside Australia’s
control, the final report of Australia’s chief climate change
adviser, Ross Garnaut, concludes.
Professor Garnaut offered two main scenarios for cutting the
greenhouse gas emissions that scientists believe are causing
climate change.
Aiming for 550 parts per million, which Professor Garnaut says
will be easier to achieve although it does put the world at a
greater risk of very dangerous climate change, would require
Australian emissions cuts of 10 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by
the middle of the century.
Achieving a level of 450 parts carbon dioxide per million in the
earth’s atmosphere would require Australia to reduce its emissions
by a quarter by the year 2020 and 90 per cent by 2050.
The international climate change meeting in Denmark next year is
a key element, and a realistic and binding target that includes
developing nations such as China is at the centre of Professor
Garnaut’s thinking.
“There is a path to Australia being a low-emissions economy by
the middle of the 21st century, consistent with continuing strong
growth in material living standards,” the report says.
But the failure of negotiations on a new global agreement to cut
carbon emissions would be devastating, he warned.
“If things go well, very well, Copenhagen will be the end of one
process and the beginning of others that will lead, over time, to
effective global mitigation at a level that reduces risks of
dangerous kind to an extent that seems acceptable to most informed
people,” Professor Garnaut writes in the conclusion to his
report. When human
society receives a large shock to its established patterns of life,
the outcome is unpredictable in detail but generally problematic.
“If things go badly, they could go very badly.”
The report accepts that there is a slim possibility that
scientific predictions about impending global warming are wrong,
but says the safe option is to prepare for the most likely
scenarios.
Things fall apart.
“There is a chance that they are wrong.
“That formulation allows the possibility that the views on
climate change of the IPCC and the learned academies in all of the
main countries of scientific achievement are wrong,” the report
states. But to
heed instead the views of the minority of genuine sceptics in the
relevant scientific communities would be to hide from reality. Just a chance.
It is prudent to give the major weight to the mainstream
science. It
would be imprudent beyond the normal limits of human irrationality.”
The idea that human beings have changed and are changing the basic climate system of the Earth through their industrial activities and burning of fossil fuels—the essence of the Greens’ theory of global warming —has about as much basis …
View original here:
Global Warming concerns take back seat to economic concerns
When you hear about the effects of global warming it is important to understand that the effects we are experiencing today are moderate compared to what the future will see if we do not take preventative action. …
Continued here:
The Effects of Global Warming
.
Tackling climate change is possible and affordable but depends
on international agreements that are largely outside Australia’s
control, the final report of Australia’s chief climate change
adviser, Ross Garnaut, concludes.
Professor Garnaut offered two main scenarios for cutting the
greenhouse gas emissions that scientists believe are resulting in
climate change.
Aiming for 550 parts per million, which Professor Garnaut says
will be easier to achieve although it does put the world at a
greater risk of very dangerous climate change, would require
Australian emissions cuts of 10 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by
the middle of the century.
Achieving a level of 450 parts carbon dioxide per million in the
earth’s atmosphere would require Australia to reduce its emissions
by a quarter by the year 2020 and 90 per cent by 2050.
The international climate change meeting in Denmark next year is
a key element, and a realistic and binding target that includes
developing nations such as China is at the centre of Professor
Garnaut’s thinking.
“There is a path to Australia being a low-emissions economy by
the middle of the 21st century, consistent with continuing strong
growth in material living standards,” the report says.
But the failure of negotiations on a new global agreement to cut
carbon emissions would be devastating, he warned.
“If things go well, very well, Copenhagen will be the end of one
process and the beginning of others that will lead, over time, to
effective global mitigation at a level that reduces risks of
dangerous kind to an extent that seems acceptable to most informed
people,” Professor Garnaut writes in the conclusion to his
report. When human
society receives a large shock to its established patterns of life,
the outcome is unpredictable in detail but generally problematic.
“If things go badly, they could go very badly.”
The report accepts that there is a slim possibility that
scientific predictions about impending global warming are wrong,
but says the safe option is to prepare for the most likely
scenarios.
Things fall apart.
“There is a chance that they are wrong.
“That formulation allows the possibility that the views on
climate change of the IPCC and the learned academies in all of the
main countries of scientific achievement are wrong,” the report
states. But to
heed instead the views of the minority of genuine sceptics in the
relevant scientific communities would be to hide from reality. Just a chance.
It is prudent to give the major weight to the mainstream
science. It
would be imprudent beyond the normal limits of human irrationality.”
.
Tackling climate change is possible and affordable but depends
on international agreements that are largely outside Australia’s
control, the final report of Australia’s chief climate change
adviser, Ross Garnaut, concludes.
Professor Garnaut offered two main scenarios for cutting the
greenhouse gas emissions that scientists believe are causing
climate change.
Aiming for 550 parts per million, which Professor Garnaut says
will be easier to achieve although it does put the world at a
greater risk of very dangerous climate change, would require
Australian emissions cuts of 10 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by
the middle of the century.
Achieving a level of 450 parts carbon dioxide per million in the
earth’s atmosphere would require Australia to reduce its emissions
by a quarter by the year 2020 and 90 per cent by 2050.
The international climate change meeting in Denmark next year is
a key element, and a realistic and binding target that includes
developing nations such as China is at the centre of Professor
Garnaut’s thinking.
“There is a path to Australia being a low-emissions economy by
the middle of the 21st century, consistent with continuing strong
growth in material living standards,” the report says.
But the failure of negotiations on a new global agreement to cut
carbon emissions would be devastating, he warned.
“If things go well, very well, Copenhagen will be the end of one
process and the beginning of others that will lead, over time, to
effective global mitigation at a level that reduces risks of
dangerous kind to an extent that seems acceptable to most informed
people,” Professor Garnaut writes in the conclusion to his
report. When human
society receives a large shock to its established patterns of life,
the outcome is unpredictable in detail but generally problematic.
“If things go badly, they could go very badly.”
The report accepts that there is a slim possibility that
scientific predictions about impending global warming are wrong,
but says the safe option is to prepare for the most likely
scenarios.
Things fall apart.
“There is a chance that they are wrong.
“That formulation allows the possibility that the views on
climate change of the IPCC and the learned academies in all of the
main countries of scientific achievement are wrong,” the report
states. But to
heed instead the views of the minority of genuine sceptics in the
relevant scientific communities would be to hide from reality. Just a chance.
It is prudent to give the major weight to the mainstream
science. It
would be imprudent beyond the normal limits of human irrationality.”
More like global fooling:. In yesterday’s “The Day The Earth Cooled” Investor’s Business Daily noted Al Gore’s call for civil disobedience against coal plants, and the inconvenient truth of NASA’s recent discussion of Ulysses’s …
Read the original here:
Global Warming or global cooling?
Global Warming Odds and Ends: Here are some items that I have been storing up for a day when it was rather boring in the weather department and boring on the history front. First is the global climate conditions for July. …
The rest is here:
Global Warming Odds and Ends; Cooler Air Set To Move Into Ohio Valley
.The Federal Government’s climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut says a global agreement must be reached to favourably reduce the world’s carbon emissions and has urged action without delay.
He has also warned that Australia would be the worst hit developed country if efforts are not made to reduce climate change.
But he has stuck by his recommendation – which has been criticised by scientists and environment groups for being too soft – that Australia reduce its emissions by 10 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020.
Professor Garnaut today released his final report into climate change in which he outlined the steps Australia should take to reduce its emissions while maintaining economic growth.
Professor Garnaut says the success of a global agreement relies on setting realistic targets that can be met while still allowing for economic growth in developed and undeveloped countries.
However, he says Australia should advocate for a deeper cut of 25 per cent at next year’s discussions for the next agreement on global emissions.
Professor Garnaut believes the chance of an effective agreement based on 550ppm is a step towards an agreement for a tougher cut of 25 per cent.
The 10 per cent target has been modelled on an international agreement on capping global concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere at 550 parts per million (ppm).
“It would therefore be a path towards a subsequent agreement with more ambitious mitigation objectives.
“It would also support the beginnings of international cooperation of emissions reduction and the development and transfer of low emissions technologies,” he said.
The next global agreement, due to begin in 2013, will be discussed in Copenhagen next year.”
Scientists and green groups were urging a 25 per cent cut in emissions by 2020, which would set global emissions at 450ppm.
Professor Garnaut says the country can make the transition to a low emissions economy by examining at other energy options such as geothermal, wind and solar power as well as creating successful methods of carbon capture and storage.
Rivals are ‘neck and neck’ in race for global trading role, says expert Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 30 Sep 08; SINGAPORE and close rival Hong Kong are ‘neck and neck’ to claim the title of Asia’s first carbon trading hub, …
See the original post:
Asia's first carbon hub: Hong Kong closing in on Singapore
Napa, California 7-12 Dec 2008.
The rest is here:
Solar Activity During the Onset of Solar Cycle 24
I’d like the HPA to address the issue of global warming . Talk about the need for a Dumbledore’s Army to wake the world up! It seems that each day that we don’t see a green revolution global warming grows more powerful.
Continued here:
Global Warming
.The Federal Government’s climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut says a global agreement must be reached to favourably reduce the world’s carbon emissions and has urged action without delay.
He has also warned that Australia would be the worst hit developed country if efforts are not made to reduce climate change.
But he has stuck by his recommendation – which has been criticised by scientists and environment groups for being too soft – that Australia reduce its emissions by 10 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020.
Professor Garnaut today released his final report into climate change in which he outlined the steps Australia should take to reduce its emissions while maintaining economic growth.
Professor Garnaut says the success of a global agreement relies on setting realistic targets that can be met while still allowing for economic growth in developed and undeveloped countries.
However, he says Australia should advocate for a deeper cut of 25 per cent at next year’s discussions for the next agreement on global emissions.
Professor Garnaut believes the chance of an effective agreement based on 550ppm is a step towards an agreement for a tougher cut of 25 per cent.
The 10 per cent target has been modelled on an international agreement on capping global concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere at 550 parts per million (ppm).
“It would therefore be a path towards a subsequent agreement with more ambitious mitigation objectives.
“It would also support the beginnings of international cooperation of emissions reduction and the development and transfer of low emissions technologies,” he said.
The next global agreement, due to begin in 2013, will be discussed in Copenhagen next year.”
Scientists and green groups were urging a 25 per cent cut in emissions by 2020, which would set global emissions at 450ppm.
Professor Garnaut says the country can make the transition to a low emissions economy by examining at other energy options such as geothermal, wind and solar power as well as creating successful methods of carbon capture and storage.
The proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street failed to pass the US Congress last night. Across the world disappointed investors are now fleeing stock markets as the global economy teeters on ruin. ..
Go here to read the rest:
Financial Crash, Not Good for Concept of Carbon Trading
Greenpeace seeks fundraisers to stop global warming and protect ancient forests Work for Greenpeace to recruit supporters for our important work protecting the environment: * Make money while actually doing something …
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STOP GLOBAL WARMING! Work for GREENPEACE in New York City!
keywords: environment, environmental, full-time, global warming , forests, oceans, conservation, peace, nonviolence, activist, activism, students, student, grad, graduate, entry level, deforestation, solar power, wind power, …
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STOP GLOBAL WARMING – Work for GREENPEACE in Honolulu!
3d geological modeling incorporates many other aspects of the field, including; diagenesis, structural geology, paleoclimatology and sedimentology.
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3d models for use in geological modeling
Carbon trading isn’t directed at that goal. Instead, it’s organized around keeping the wheels on the fossil fuel industry as long as possible. Carbon trading allocates industries generous short-term numerical emissions budgets and then …
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Carbon Trading: The Wrong Way to Deal with Global Warming
Marxism, Freudianism, global warming . These are proof–of which history offers so many examples–that people can be suckers on a grand scale
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Historian: 'Marxism, Freudianism, & global warming' are proof …
The following news ought to be a shocker and reported all over in the mainstream media, GLOBAL WARMING HAS STOPPED. This is in spite of the continued rise of carbon dioxide emissions. Something has to be wrong with the theory of …
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Global Warming Has Stopped and May Not Start Again For At Least 50 …
CNT’s program initiatives are organized primarily around four areas: Transportation and Community Development, Energy Efficiency, Natural Resources, and Climate Change . Much of CNT’s work relies on original research that we conduct ..
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Climate Change Associate
Quercus, which is Portugal’s Association for the Conservation Nature, wants you to know that the fight against global warming must go on. Humans must continue their efforts to battle this planet-wide crisis because if we don’t, …
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Global Warming And Animal Suicide
This article highlights early and emerging warning signs of global warming for each of the worlds regions, namely, Africa, Antartica, Asia, Central America, Europe & Russia, North America, Oceania, and South America.
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Early Warning Signs Of Global Warming
No, that would be the issue of global warming , and what to do about it.
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McCain’s Plan for Fighting Global Warming
Global Warming is much more than just a rise in temperature it is a change in the weather of the world. I feel that the name global warming is becoming a misnomer for the real problem… yes the world is warming up and the poles are …
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Observed Global Warming
Eight University of Toronto research projects looking at a variety of climate change and air quality issues have received funding from the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS). The $1.6 million in funding …
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Climate change & air quality focus of funding
The scheme selling permits to emit greenhouse gases in 10 US states was set up in an absence of federal guidance.
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Carbon-trading scheme gets underway in US
(TrendHunter.com) The Inconvenient Youth, a group of teens dedicated to raising awareness of global warming , are acquiring a cult following. Their goal is to inspire and motivate young people to rally their peers together…
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Teen Global Warming Activists – Inconvenient Youth
… sunspot activity and many scientists believe that prolonged periods of minimal sunspot activity lead to a cooling of the Earth, as seen in the Maunder Minimum in the 1600s (the Little Ice Age) and the Dalton Minimum in the 1800s. ..
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“the fastest decline in the age of instrumentation”
.
AUSTRALIA must help craft a new international climate change
deal that imposes realistic, binding commitments because “we can’t
afford another Kyoto”, Professor Ross Garnaut says.
The Federal Government’s chief adviser on climate change
delivers the final volume of his report to the Prime Minister,
Kevin Rudd, at 9.
“The most important thing is to get a comprehensive agreement
and get it started,” Professor Garnaut told the Herald
yesterday.30 this morning, with the warning that “I am
putting a pin in the delusion” that an ambitious agreement is
possible.
This would require a cut of at least 25 per cent in carbon
output by 2020, whereas Professor Garnaut advises the Government to
cut by only 10 per cent. While an agreement to stabilise the level of carbon in
the atmosphere around current levels of 450 parts per million – the
level that climate scientists stipulate is necessary to avoid
dangerous warming – would be “an ideal worth aiming for”, it was
not realistic at the moment. If that’s not tied
down, it’s delusional. If the world were to agree this lower
target, it would achieve a projected carbon concentration of 550
parts per million
Professor Garnaut said: “The hard message is that it’s
delusional to say, ‘Ra! Ra!, we’ve got an agreement to reach 450,’
but then not to have a practical program to allocate the burden of
exactly who does what, of how to get there. Twelve years later, we can’t afford another
Kyoto. It would set us back, not forward, to have a
delusional agreement. Most signatories will exceed their limits and there
are no meaningful restraints or sanctions.”
The Kyoto Protocol set carbon reduction targets that, on
average, cut emissions of developed nations by 5 per cent of 1990
levels by 2012.
A conference of world governments in Copenhagen next year is
supposed to agree on the next protocol.
The Australian Government will take account of the Garnaut
review this year in deciding Australia’s 2020 target for
restraining carbon output, and in negotiating an international
protocol for the years after the Kyoto Protocol expires in
2012.
“If a sombre assessment of the risks changes what’s possible in
an agreement, I will be delighted,” Professor Garnaut said, “but
550 would be a huge step forward.
A group of 16 of Australia’s leading climate scientists wrote an
open letter to Mr Rudd last Friday urging him to set a target of
450 parts per million – exactly the level Professor Garnaut
describes as “delusional” – as the basis for an international
agreement. “It’s very understandable.”
He dismissed the so-called sceptics, who argue man-made climate
change is not real or dangerous, or that temperatures are falling,
not rising.”
New material in today’s report includes ways that the main
carbon-emitting industries – energy, agriculture and transport -
can cut output. You get crank religious
movements that reinterpret the evidence around them whenever
humanity faces a great challenge.
. It proposes “a way to effectively decarbonise the
economy without compromising economic growth”
addthis_url = ‘http2F2F20082F29%2Fthe-cause-of- global-warming %2F’; addthis_title = ‘The+cause+of+Global+Warming’; addthis_pub = ”;
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The cause of Global Warming
… sunspot activity and many scientists believe that prolonged periods of minimal sunspot activity lead to a cooling of the Earth, as seen in the Maunder Minimum in the 1600s (the Little Ice Age) and the Dalton Minimum in the 1800s
Original post:
“the fastest decline in the age of instrumentation”
Articles marked with an asterisk (*) contain, in my opinion, a notable interplay of socioeconomic and environmental issues. Ie human ecology. ECO-NEWS, WEEK 2 A coalition of western states and provinces proposed beginning its own …
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Monkeys, mercury, lakes, carbon trading
Convenience stores in the city of Kyoto are being asked to not remain open 24 hours to help fight global warming . As Anthony Watts puts it, there’s only going to be a real savings on electricity from light. The refrigeration units must …
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Government Gets in Business of Private Industry
The sun is currently spotless, conditions that obtained during the ” Dalton Minimum “, an especially cold period that lasted several decades starting from 1790 and which was implicated in the rout of Napoleon’s Grand Army during the …
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Patient to sue NHS over top-up drug A woman's fight to halt the …
Already at-risk public employee pension funds are being placed at further risk by state officials who are lobbying for global warming regulation and by state officials who are ignoring the risks posed by such regulation, …
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Public Employee Pensions Endangered by State Officials Playing …
.
AUSTRALIA must help craft a new international climate change
deal that imposes realistic, binding commitments because “we can’t
afford another Kyoto”, Professor Ross Garnaut says.
The Federal Government’s chief adviser on climate change
delivers the final volume of his report to the Prime Minister,
Kevin Rudd, at 9.
“The most important thing is to get a comprehensive agreement
and get it started,” Professor Garnaut told the Herald
yesterday.30 this morning, with the warning that “I am
putting a pin in the delusion” that an ambitious agreement is
possible.
This would require a cut of at least 25 per cent in carbon
output by 2020, whereas Professor Garnaut advises the Government to
cut by only 10 per cent. While an agreement to stabilise the level of carbon in
the atmosphere around current levels of 450 parts per million – the
level that climate scientists stipulate is necessary to avoid
dangerous warming – would be “an ideal worth aiming for”, it was
not realistic at the moment. If that’s not tied
down, it’s delusional. If the world were to agree this lower
target, it would achieve a projected carbon concentration of 550
parts per million
Professor Garnaut said: “The hard message is that it’s
delusional to say, ‘Ra! Ra!, we’ve got an agreement to reach 450,’
but then not to have a practical program to allocate the burden of
exactly who does what, of how to get there. Twelve years later, we can’t afford another
Kyoto. It would set us back, not forward, to have a
delusional agreement. Most signatories will exceed their limits and there
are no meaningful restraints or sanctions.”
The Kyoto Protocol set carbon reduction targets that, on
average, cut emissions of developed nations by 5 per cent of 1990
levels by 2012.
A conference of world governments in Copenhagen next year is
supposed to agree on the next protocol.
The Australian Government will take account of the Garnaut
review this year in deciding Australia’s 2020 target for
restraining carbon output, and in negotiating an international
protocol for the years after the Kyoto Protocol expires in
2012.
“If a sombre assessment of the risks changes what’s possible in
an agreement, I will be delighted,” Professor Garnaut said, “but
550 would be a huge step forward.
A group of 16 of Australia’s leading climate scientists wrote an
open letter to Mr Rudd last Friday urging him to set a target of
450 parts per million – exactly the level Professor Garnaut
describes as “delusional” – as the basis for an international
agreement. “It’s very understandable.”
He dismissed the so-called sceptics, who argue man-made climate
change is not real or dangerous, or that temperatures are falling,
not rising.”
New material in today’s report includes ways that the main
carbon-emitting industries – energy, agriculture and transport -
can cut output. You get crank religious
movements that reinterpret the evidence around them whenever
humanity faces a great challenge.
. It proposes “a way to effectively decarbonise the
economy without compromising economic growth”
The bill seeks to promote accelerated development of sustainable biofuels and other renewable energy production, help establish voluntary carbon trading markets, leverage private investment in new energy, promote research, …
The rest is here:
Bill Promoting Energy and Climate Cooperation with Brazil Advances …
Global warming is seen everywhere as one of the most important issues. From the EU to the G8, leaders trip over one another to affirm their commitment to cutting CO2 to heal the world. What they do not often acknowledge – in part …
Read more from the original source:
Global warming: why cut one 3000th of a degree?
Under a carbon trading initiative proposed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, industrialized nations would be able to pay rainforest nations to protect their forest and offset greenhouse gas emissions …
Excerpt from:
Kyoto Protocol Could be Key to Myanmar’s Economic Development
Subject headings of the article: EXTINCTION (Biology) *FORAMINIFERA *GLOBAL warming *BIOLOGY — Classification * PALEOCLIMATOLOGY — Paleocene * PALEOCLIMATOLOGY — Eocene.
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Reading citation 2
Prasad sets sail for the Arctic with message on global warming Building Design – UK By Victoria Watts RIBA president Sunand Prasad has set sail for the Arctic, joining an eclectic bunch of artists and scientists including Jarvis Cocker …
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- “global warming”
Figures came out today stating that the Australian public is now more concerned about job security and strengthening the economy than global warming . This is understandable on one level with the global credit crisis still grabbing the …
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Global Warming concerns drop from top spot for Australians.
A July poll of 1001 people in Australia found that 21% were not willing to pay additional costs for their electricity to help fix global warming . Another 32% were willing to pay an extra $10 per month on their power bill to help fight ..
Excerpt from:
Australians Put Jobs Before Climate Change
The Daily Times is reporting that amphibians are at risk of declining numbers, thanks to global warming . Warmer winters in southern England are forcing toads to use more energy and, in turn, emerging from winter in poor health
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Global Warming Killing Amphibians
It’s global warming , of course. That’s the Greens’ stock response to anything weather-related. Too much sun
See the rest here:
The Nonsense of Global Warming
The well-known shortsightedness of Power and Capital towards environmental issues in general and towards Global Warming in particular, now wears glasses. Great, we think, trying to figure out what might have brought on this unexpected …
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Global warming – the planet is thankful
Birdwell presented the current state of knowledge, on environmental science, noting that global warming does occur.
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Global warming, the complexity explained
Meanwhile, a crackly region near the sun’s equatorial area, a solar cycle 23 region, has been trying to form a spot:. Lately, this is the sound the sun has been making as it tries to get cycle 24 started. …
See the original post here:
More Tiny Tims and Cycle 23 solar crackles « Watts Up With That?
Of course, this type of correlation between observation and theory is completely absent in the AGW theory and it is not very good either in the predictions for the coming solar cycle 24 that have been made by most established academical …
View original post here:
New solar cycle 24 goalpost established « Watts Up With That?
As perhaps the most widely recognizable face in the fight against global warming he has been scoffed at and ridiculed by the same individuals who would have us believe global warming is nothing more than a myth! …
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Global Warming-How It Could Spark World War III
The sun is currently spotless, conditions that obtained during the ” Dalton Minimum “, an especially cold period that lasted several decades starting from 1790 and which was implicated in the rout of Napoleon’s Grand Army during the …
Continued here:
Blind Greenie propaganda in "The Economist" A comment in reply by …
In addition, the next 11-year cycle of solar storms- Solar Cycle 24 -is late by more than two years. The sun is currently spotless, conditions that obtained during the “Dalton Minimum”, an especially cold period that lasted several …
See the rest here:
Blind Greenie propaganda in "The Economist" A comment in reply by …
The Guardian (UK): When the millennium development goals were set in the summer of 2000, another UN body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was putting the finishing touches to its latest report. ..
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Suffering the most from climate change — Africa
In the wake of the financial meltdown, some have wondered about about the broader implications of the disappearance of Lehman Brothers’ carbon trading desk. And the answer to that question, at least, is easy: there are no broader …
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Solar Sunday
http://suprememastertv.com – US media encouraged to accurately report global warming – News 21 Apr 2008, Episode: 585.
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US media encouraged to accurately report global warming (User Video)
Spencer is a noted man-made global warming skeptic while Hansen has been warning the public of the dangers of human induced climate change for years. I have talked about Dr. Hansen on a number of occasions and just recently about his …
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Opposing Views Converge on Kansas
Under the carbon trading initiative, industrialized nations over the cap would be able to pay nations like Myanmar to protect their rainforest. Preserving rainforests will allow the photosynthetic plants and trees to absorb carbon …
Original post:
Carbon trading for Myanmar
A British scientist says there aren’t enough carbon credits to save the airline and shipping industries, and their only hope for cutting emissions is limiting growth.
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Carbon Trading Won't Save Aviation and Shipping
Lord Monckton, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, says he was made to look like a ‘potty peer’ on a TV program that ‘was a one-sided polemic for the new religion of global warming ’Earth: The Clim …
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BBC investigated-deliberately misrepresenting global warming
.A new survey suggests the commitment of Australians to tackling climate change might be waning.
The Lowy Institute surveys the attitudes of Australians to foreign policy issues every year.
Those surveyed still consider both global warming and water shortages critical threats to the country.
This year, climate change has slipped in ranking from first to fifth most important.
The poll also revealed that a majority of people are unwilling to pay more than $10 extra per month for greener electricity.
But tackling climate change itself has fallen as a foreign policy goal, replaced by job security and strengthening the economy.
“The response to the carbon pollution reduction scheme, the response to Professor Garnaut’s report, the things we hear and see in terms of talking to people in terms of reaction to these things, it seems to me very clear that Australians do want action taken,” she said.
Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the survey does not reflect what she is hearing.
The Federal Government’s climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, will release his final report on climate change tomorrow.
– ‘Greater cuts needed’ -
Meanwhile a group of top level climate change experts has written a letter to the Prime Minister arguing that cutting greenhouse gas emissions by only 10 per cent would be dangerous.
But he also said a 25 per cent cut would be more effective.
Professor Garnaut recently flagged a target of 10 per cent reductions by 2020, drawing criticism from the scientific community for not being high enough.
“This is unprecedented for a group of scientists to write a letter to the Prime Minister of a nation advocating a certain emissions trajectory,” he said.
Professor Matthew England from the University of New South Wales says he and 15 of his peers are urging Kevin Rudd to decide on a 25 per cent cut in emissions.
“A couple of weeks ago we had the release of an interim report from the Garnaut team and that stated, it came away from the 450 target and it went right up to 550 which is really a dangerous level of carbon dioxide to be speaking about.
“It’s just a message of ‘take the deepest cuts possible’ because the science tells us that anything less than than will commit us to dangerous climate change.”
SC24 will be unlike any of the last 14 cycles and we just have to wait and see …. cue alarmist talk about Maunder minimum and a little ice age
View post:
Comment on Will September be the month the sun truly transitions …
The first of a series of community meetings to highlight global warming’s anticipated impact on NSW will be held today.
.A new survey suggests the commitment of Australians to tackling climate change might be waning.
The Lowy Institute surveys the attitudes of Australians to foreign policy issues every year.
Those surveyed still consider both global warming and water shortages critical threats to the country.
This year, climate change has slipped in ranking from first to fifth most important.
The poll also revealed that a majority of people are unwilling to pay more than $10 extra per month for greener electricity.
But tackling climate change itself has fallen as a foreign policy goal, replaced by job security and strengthening the economy.
“The response to the carbon pollution reduction scheme, the response to Professor Garnaut’s report, the things we hear and see in terms of talking to people in terms of reaction to these things, it seems to me very clear that Australians do want action taken,” she said.
Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the survey does not reflect what she is hearing.
The Federal Government’s climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, will release his final report on climate change tomorrow.
– ‘Greater cuts needed’ -
Meanwhile a group of top level climate change experts has written a letter to the Prime Minister arguing that cutting greenhouse gas emissions by only 10 per cent would be dangerous.
But he also said a 25 per cent cut would be more effective.
Professor Garnaut recently flagged a target of 10 per cent reductions by 2020, drawing criticism from the scientific community for not being high enough.
“This is unprecedented for a group of scientists to write a letter to the Prime Minister of a nation advocating a certain emissions trajectory,” he said.
Professor Matthew England from the University of New South Wales says he and 15 of his peers are urging Kevin Rudd to decide on a 25 per cent cut in emissions.
“A couple of weeks ago we had the release of an interim report from the Garnaut team and that stated, it came away from the 450 target and it went right up to 550 which is really a dangerous level of carbon dioxide to be speaking about.
“It’s just a message of ‘take the deepest cuts possible’ because the science tells us that anything less than than will commit us to dangerous climate change.”
GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE….What with financial Armageddon crashing down on our heads as we speak, it’s hard to believe that the worst news of the week was actually buried on page A2 of the Washington Post. But it was: …
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Global Warming Update
…
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Inconvenient Youth: Teens Taking On Global Warming
Carbon trading schemes won’t solve the aviation and shipping industries’ problem of soaring carbon emissions, a British climate scientist says, and the cuts needed to address global climate change are so deep that both sectors must …
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Carbon Trading Won’t Save Aviation and Shipping
Global Warming and Reinventing Government have been Gore’s two lifelong causes. He is using the one to accomplish the other. His fundamental assumptions and views of global warming were well documented in his film, An Inconvenient Truth …
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Fraud of Global Warming
Photo courtesy of Captain Ozone Calling Captain Ozone Perhaps what the modern environmental movement needs is more masked, spandex clad superheroes who make public appearances perched atop latrines lashed to the roofs of cars. ..
Originally posted here:
Climate Change? This Looks Like a Job for Captain Ozone …
To demonstrate the impact global warming will have on our cities, they suspended lifeboats high above downtown streets.
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Offsetters: Stop Global Warming
Here are a few good links: Solar Cycle 24 : Implications for the United States The Deniers: Our spotless sun this article has pretty cool information about how art and literature was effected in previous cycles that brought on mini ice ages.
Original post:
Solar Cycle 24 – signs of a coming ice age?
… sunspot activity and many scientists believe that prolonged periods of minimal sunspot activity lead to a cooling of the Earth, as seen in the Maunder Minimum in the 1600s (the Little Ice Age) and the Dalton Minimum in the 1800s.
Original post:
Strange happenings with the sun.
…
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Strange happenings with the sun.
But this year — which corresponds to the start of Solar Cycle 24 — has been extraordinarily long and quiet, with the first seven months averaging a sunspot number of only 3. August followed with none at all
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Flash To The GW Cultists: The Sun Matters In Global Warming!
Aiding this mission is a site-specific art installation called, Nine Planets Wanted!, designed by team ZAGO LLC as part of the United Nations Development Programme’s One Planet, One Chance campaign on climate change and social …
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Nine Planets Wanted! UN Climate Change Exhibition
This happened during the Little Ice Age , a period starting around 1625 and lasting for centuries, says NASA’s Goddard Space Center, which claims that the absence of sunspots is linked to the cold that then descended on Earth. …
Originally posted here:
Sunspots. Ready to Chill Out?
Assessing risks of climate change – Age, The (AU) (Sep 25, 2008); Climate-Change Program Gets New Funds and Home – NY Times (Sep 25, 2008); Cutting deforestation can fight climate change , reduce poverty and conflict – Mongabay (Sep 24, …
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Climate Change in the News, Week of September 27, 2008
So with the recent appearance of a solitary sunspot very late in the game, we are now at the beginning of Solar Cycle 24 (the scientific designation). Chill out, fire up your 10MPG gas-guzzling SUV, and take a nice drive in the soon to …
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Sunspots. Ready to Chill Out?
“Limitations Of Charcoal As An Effective Carbon Sink.” ScienceDaily 4 May 2008. 15 September 2008 .
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Making Charcoal Counters Climate Change
Targets, measured in expected outcomes, rather than actual measures are the world’s favourite way to attempt to slow down the pace of climate change , and the targets are different in different parts of the world. …
Carbon trading scheme could force transport prices up PUBLIC transport fares will jump unless compensation payments are made to offset the costs of Australia’s fight against global warming, according to the … …
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Carbon News Sept 26
One of these is climate change . He noted his country’s leading position on renewable energy.
Originally posted here:
Energy and Climate Change at the World Leadership Forum
Global climate change could cause widespread extinction of all sorts of plant and animals. The common sense explanation for this is that some, though it’s more likely many, species will not be able to adapt to changes in their local …
Chris is a solicitor in London working in the field of carbon emissions trading. Chris Grey christopher.grey@cliffordchance.com. Clifford Chance.
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Chris Grey – Carbon Trading Lawyer
Felix Tse is currently a lawyer at Clifford Chance in London. Previously in Sydney, Felix was in environmental product and commodity derivatives trading at Mallesons Stephen Jaques. At Clifford Chance he has advised the International …
Ten US states engaged yesterday in the first auction of carbon dioxide emissions. read more.
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Ten US States Begin Carbon Trading
Jarrett’s post reminded me of NOAA’s old dishonest position regarding the Medieval Warm Period (which said there was no medieval warm period , and then offered as the only evidence a study that argued no such thing), followed by their …
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Morning Medieval Miscellany
One way in which climate change can affect exposure to chemicals is through its effect on how chemicals move and transform in the environment. For example, increased temperatures may cause volatile chemicals to disperse more quickly in …
Original post:
New brochure on climate change and chemical safety
Greenhouse gases went on sale Thursday as 10 Northeastern states held the nation’s first auction of pollution credits aimed at curbing global warming.
Excerpt from:
Northeast opens carbon trading
This week saw the appearance of another sunspot — a new Solar Cycle 24 spot — larger and lasting a little longer than last week’s Solar Cycle 23 sunspot. It appeared for two days, September 22 and 23, with sunspot numbers of 18 and …
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The K7RA Solar Update
Opsahl Sorteberg agreed that GMOs were not “the” answer to mitigating climate change or the food crisis, but argued that it might offer some part of the solution. According to her, the GMO debate has become so politicized that it is no …
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Are GMOs a solution to climate change and food crises?
Dalton Minimum Returns: Geomagnetic variation and cooler temperatures?
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Dalton Minimum Returns: Geomagnetic variation and cooler …
Cities are unfairly blamed for greenhouse gas emissions by misguided politicians and well-meaning people who listen to them, and this threatens efforts to truly impact climate change , warns a study in the October 2008 issue of the …
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Climate Change – Cities Are The Solution, Not The Problem
Durban is unusual among cities worldwide in having a municipal government that has developed a locally rooted climate change adaptation strategy. This paper considers how climate change came to be considered by local government against …
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Thinking globally, acting locally — institutionalizing climate …
The whole concept of carbon trading is based on global co-operation, but with developed countries (especially USA) showing reluctance, the whole essence of the scheme seems to lose relevance or go into oblivion. …
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Pay or get paid for GHGs
The problem with state climate change initiatives: if the states sign on to emissions reductions on their own, the US will be in a weaker position to extract emissions reductions from other countries. That’sa plausible argument against …
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Updating State Climate Change Activity (Kysar and Meyler Wonder If …
.South Australia’s Deputy Premier Kevin Foley says the Victorian Premier has lashed out at SA water management because he is under pressure from his own irrigators.
Victorian Premier John Brumby says a South Australian Government plan to buy water to save permanent plantings in the Riverland is an unsound policy which will push up the price for irrigators.
Mr Foley says the comments are a sign that Mr Brumby is buckling under pressure in his own state.
He says Victoria was doing the lion’s share of work under the Living Murray initiative.
“Now clearly Mr Brumby is probably feeling some pressure from his own farmers and his own irrigators because he’s not doing the same.
“What we have done this week is to secure and underwrite the plantings of our citrus industry, our fruit industry in the Riverland and that is the right thing to do,” he said.
Federal Water Minister Penny Wong says she will not comment on the war of words between the states over water.”
Mr Brumby also took a swipe at New South Wales, saying it had secured less than 10 per cent of the water savings achieved by Victoria.
“State governments retain policy responsibility for a range of water policy matters, they do have differences in views at times,” she said.
She says she is not the person to arbitrate on conflicts between the states. I’m sure we’ve all seen that over the years.
“It’s not really news that different state governments have differences in views on certain water policy matters.
“Australians expect all jurisdictions involved in the Murray-Darling to do the right thing and make responsible decisions for an Australian icon that are essentially borderless, and make sure that the whole river system is restored for Australia,” he said.”
The New South Wales Premier, Nathan Rees, has been less diplomatic, saying the states need to work together to restore the river system.”
– Tender process -
Meanwhile, Senator Wong has announced the Federal Government will call for tenders next month for the next stage of its plan to buy back water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin.
“It’s not about any one jurisdiction having precedence over another.
A call for entitlements in the northern reaches of the basin started earlier this month.
Tenders will open on October 7 for willing sellers of water entitlements in the southern part of the basin.
“So this is the next step in our plan to restore health to the Murray-Darling Basin and as you know the Murray-Darling Basin is facing very difficult times,” she said.
Senator Wong says water bought in South Australia will go towards achieving an $80 million buyback promised for the state.”
.
“We face a history of over allocation, we face the onset of climate change, and we face an extraordinarily difficult drought
A friend of mine who rejoices in that most ambiguous of titles, ‘independent scholar’, was telling me in a pub the other day that he was trifling with some research on the possibility of Irish settlement in Iceland before the Vikings …
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Vikings in the Atlantic: confusion and Christianity
Carbon trading scheme ‘could close mines’ Fears carbon trading scheme would kill off NSW coal miners’ jobs. Click here to display full story.
Originally posted here:
Carbon trading scheme ‘could close mines’
.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called for tougher international regulations and improved transparency of the world’s big banks and financial institutions.
The Prime Minister has made the call in his first speech the United Nations General Assembly, where he outlined the widespread reform program in response to the international financial crisis.
The strong emphasis in his speech on addressing the global economic volatility was a late shift in priority for Mr Rudd, after agreeing in meetings with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to unite to push a tougher regulatory strategy.
Mr Rudd said strong political will is needed to enforce reforms which he believes should be pushed through the G20 nations and implemented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to avoid a repeat of the problems now hitting the US economy.
He also says the big firms should be required to build up capital during good economic periods and the licensing of large firms should be conditional on the disclosure of company figures.
Mr Rudd has told the General Assembly banks and institutions needs to have better incentives to encourage responsible action as opposed to “unrestrained greed”.
“There has been a failure of internal governance within financial institutions.
“The global financial crisis is a call for the global community to act,” he said.”
Mr Rudd wants the stronger regulations and rules to be agreed to internationally and taken on by the IMF, which he says should also be given more powers to keep checks on firms.
“There has been a failure of external oversight.
He has also proposed that the IMF develop a system which could give warnings of any indications that a firm may be in trouble.
Each country’s central bank should also be responsible for economic stability, Mr Rudd said.
“The purpose of this reform agenda is to provide a real political mandate for out international regulatory institutions to do their job in defending the integrity of the international financial system.
Mr Rudd says Australia will work with the G20 nations to agree on reforms which could be implemented as soon as possible and he wants G20 nations to take a lead on showing better financial regulations.”
Mr Rudd says the G20 finance ministers should agree on a clear timetable of reform at their next meeting in November.”
“The global financial crisis of today presents us afresh with a critical opportunity to act comprehensively and collectively for the long term, rather than selectively and separately for the short.
He criticised Iran and North Korea for undermining a united position on reducing the use of nuclear arms.
– International security -
Mr Rudd also urged other countries to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and said Australia is committed to abolishing nuclear weapons.
Mr Rudd is lobbying for Australia to take a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council in 2013 but he warned that the UN itself must be effective in maintaining peace and says the council needs some reform.
“We remain concerned that states such as Iran and North Korea continue to defy the international community and fail to comply with demands for a full declaration and a an accounting of their nuclear programs,” he said.
Mr Rudd said solutions must be found in order to reduce the world’s dependence on producing energy from coal.
– Clean coal -
As expected Mr Rudd also extended an invitation to governments around the world to become involved in Australia’s Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, which will begin work early next year.
.
“We are determined to be part of the future on climate change,” he said
.Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says it is wrong to describe the Federal Government’s workplace relations changes as “WorkChoices Lite”.
Some unions have used the term to attack the Government’s proposals under their Forward With Fairness plan.
“Employers have got some complaints about Forward With Fairness,” she said.
Ms Gillard says the fact that there are complaints about her new system from both unions and employers is a positive sign.
“I think that means we got the balance right.
“Unions have got some complaints about Forward With Fairness.
She says it will also be possible to include adaptation to climate change in the negotiations.”
Ms Gillard says the new laws will allow workers to bargain on more things including getting payroll deductions for child-care or private health insurance.
“What can’t be bargained about are things completely extraneous to the workplace, for example a demand that the employer donate regularly to a climate change advocacy group.
“If that means that shift arrangements are going to be different or the way in which work is going to be performed is different that can be bargained about,” she said.
“I anticipate that many employers in this country, as we all adapt to climate change, will want to change the way that work is performed, want to find low energy efficient ways of doing what we do now,” she said.”
Ms Gillard says the new laws will be much more flexible than the previous government’s laws.
“Now if that changes the pattern of work then of course it can be bargained about.”
Carbon trading scheme could just about shut down Australia. And some AGW Gurus are not unhappy about it – it won’t impact on their lives. Update: Thanks to wand. Visy warns of job cuts from ETS Christian Kerr September 29, 2008 ..
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Carbon trading scheme could close mines
I would say that the first rule of grant application writing today is “include climate change in your study.” Examples, sent by a reader:. Global warming and pet allergies; Global warming and fall foliage.
Go here to read the rest:
Make Sure "Climate Change" is in Your Grant Application
He’s got an important message for Americans which is that we have a unique opportunity to help eliminate poverty and address climate change at the same time. How
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CGI: Van Jones Represents on Climate Change
The EDAF is offering a $10000 prize to anyone who can put together a clear, articulate video or graphic explaining how a carbon trading system will reduce our need of foreign oil. The way the EDAF puts it: …
Original post:
Environmental Defense Fund Offers $10000 Prize to Explain Carbon …
.A new report has revealed a dramatic rise in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions since 2000.
The report by the international Global Carbon Project (GCP) team shows a four-fold increase in the rate of emissions.
CSIRO scientist and GCP executive director Dr Pep Canadell says the trend is concerning in light of global efforts to curb emissions.
Carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and land use changes reached almost 10 billion tonnes in 2007.
“So it comes a little as a shock when you look at the measurements and compare what happened in 1990 and what has been happening in 2000 is so strikingly different.
“Econom[ies] have grown substantially and at the same time we’ve been saying we’re doing all sorts of different things to address climate change and reduce emissions,” he said.
Dr Canadell says despite a small dip in 2007, Australia’s emissions are still rising.”
The report found Australia’s fossil fuel emissions have grown by 2 per cent each year since 2000.
“We just picked up a small decline in Australia for 2007 but that is part of a really strong increase trend of 2 per cent.
“The old data is preliminary, we’re just trying to get it as soon as possible out so people understand what is happening,” he said.
“For Australia to achieve a 2020 fossil fuel emissions target 10 per cent lower than 2000 levels – the target referred to by Professor Garnaut this month – we would require a reduction in emissions from where they are now by 1.”
GCP co-chair and CSIRO scientist Dr Michael Raupach says Australia is unique among developed countries because its emissions are rapidly growing.
“Every year of continuing growth makes the future reduction requirement even steeper.5 per cent per year,” he said.
.”
The report will be released by the Global Carbon Project in Washington and Paris today
This isn’t a new argument, but it’s one that bears repeating in the current and, to my mind, welcome frenzy over climate change . “Children will be put on the front line of the battle to save the planet under radical proposals to shake …
See the original post here:
Climate Change and the Need for Responsible Education Reform
So much so that I purposely moved to the beach, to enjoy what may well be one of the last truly mild summers before we plunge into the next iteration of a Maunder or Dalton minimum . If true, we won’t see the full on effects until …
Original post:
Yet another data point
.A new report has revealed a dramatic rise in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions since 2000.
The report by the international Global Carbon Project (GCP) team shows a four-fold increase in the rate of emissions.
CSIRO scientist and GCP executive director Dr Pep Canadell says the trend is concerning in light of global efforts to curb emissions.
Carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and land use changes reached almost 10 billion tonnes in 2007.
“So it comes a little as a shock when you look at the measurements and compare what happened in 1990 and what has been occuring in 2000 is so strikingly different.
“Econom[ies] have grown substantially and at the same time we’ve been saying we’re doing all sorts of different things to address climate change and reduce emissions,” he said.
Dr Canadell says despite a small dip in 2007, Australia’s emissions are still rising.”
The report found Australia’s fossil fuel emissions have grown by 2 per cent each year since 2000.
“We just picked up a small decline in Australia for 2007 but that is part of a really strong increase trend of 2 per cent.
“The old data is preliminary, we’re just trying to get it as soon as possible out so people understand what is occuring,” he said.
“For Australia to achieve a 2020 fossil fuel emissions target 10 per cent lower than 2000 levels – the target referred to by Professor Garnaut this month – we would require a reduction in emissions from where they are now by 1.”
GCP co-chair and CSIRO scientist Dr Michael Raupach says Australia is unique among developed countries because its emissions are rapidly growing.
“Every year of continuing growth makes the future reduction requirement even steeper.5 per cent per year,” he said.
.”
The report will be released by the Global Carbon Project in Washington and Paris today
The lowest number of sunspots occurred during the Little Ice Age and the period of maximum solar activity occurred recently.
Read more here:
Here comes the Sun, not so much
Populus has found that climate change is our strongest issue with the voters. Some say that it should be a cornerstone of our European Parliament election campaign in 2009.
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Here's a tough one: reading the British public's views on climate …
Two weeks ago, I wrote that 1500 ships could fight climate change .
Original post:
Should engineers fix climate change?
One has to wonder if this is what the beginnings of the Dalton or Maunder minimum looked like. We have much more sensitive instruments today to observe sunspot activity – so the sunspeck of August likely would not have been observed in …
See the original post here:
Solar MINIMUM!
Auctions for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative unfolds in.
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Northeast Carbon Trading System Gets Under Way
If Washington won’t move on climate change , the states will, and the Western Climate Initiative is the most ambitious program yet, covering 20% of the US economy, also in the LA Times. That makes it a lot bigger than the northeastern …
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Green Ink: States Tackle Climate Change, but Coal Dominates Campaign
As a general recommendation, if you are interested in the science and politics of climate change , Joe’s Climate Progress blog is the most reliable source of information available. Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Has runaway climate ..
Original post:
Climate Progress – Has runaway climate change begun?
Two, Maunder Minimum ! Did she say ” Maunder Minimum ?” Did she say that that feeble little sunspot was the only assurance we have that we’re not entering another Maunder Minimum ?
Continued here:
Out, Damn’d Spot, Out I Say!
Two, Maunder Minimum ! Did she say ” Maunder Minimum ?” Did she say that that feeble little sunspot was the only assurance we have that we’re not entering another Maunder Minimum ? If that’s true, we are so hosed! …
Originally posted here:
Out, Damnd Spot, Out I Say!
Mind you, the events from the latter part of the 18th century took place during what is called the Dalton Minimum , a period of somewhat more intense (“intense” being a relative term) solar activity than the Maunder Minimum. …
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Out, Damnd Spot, Out I Say!
Nevertheless, the overwhelming consensus is that climate change is a reality, and that we will all have to adapt accordingly. With tourism one of the industries most likely to be affected as the climate changes (positively in some …
More here:
World Tourism Day focuses on climate change
iea : Climate Change Policy: Challenging the Activists There is currently a consensus amongst the political establishment – and amongst the intellectual communities that feed into it – that detailed and wide-ranging government …
While the financial markets flounder, one exchange in Chicago had a record day this week. The Chicago Climate Exchange hosted its biggest trading day for a particular commodity. It’s not pork bellies or corn futures—it’sa kind of carbon …
View post:
New Rival for Carbon Trading Guru
What if the sun really did shut off its 11-year sunspot cycle for some reason, and move into a new extended (multi-decadal) period of low activity like was observed during the Maunder Minimum – would this be sufficient to offset the …
Original post:
What if the sun got stuck?
By the end of this century, experts say, Earth’s climate will have changed. Here in the US, the climate in the southwestern states might change most, according to Noah Diffenbaugh of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center.
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Research identifies US climate change hot spots
These states are taking a big step to create a market for carbon trading .
View post:
Carbon Trading Coming to the US This Fall
NOAA Paleoclimatology Global Warming – The Data studies differ in methodology, and in the underlying paleoclimate proxy data utilized, but all reconstruct the same basic pattern of cool “Little Ice Age”, warmer “Medieval …
Read more here:
Technology in the Medieval Age
Some people have been gloomily predicting another Maunder Minimum (though, with other doom sayers predicting dire consequences to out of control production of greenhouse gases, that might not be a bad thing). ..
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A Sunspot!
On the occasion of the International Congress of the CEU “Urban Design and Climate Change ” held in Oslo in September, 2008, the Council for European Urbanism (CEU) and the Congress of the New Urbanism (CNU) are starting a joint …
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Oslo-Denver Initiative on Urban Design and Climate Change
None of us were alive at the time but the Dalton Minimum was a forty year period (1790 to 1830) of low sunspot activity that would lead to a dramatic cooling of the planet. So, low sunspot activity could well be an indication that ..
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Climate Change And The Quiet Of The Sun
Of course, none of us were alive at the time, but the Dalton Minimum was a forty year period (1790 to 1830) of low sunspot activity that would lead to a dramatic cooling of the planet. So, low sunspot activity could well be an …
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Climate Change And The Quiet Of The Sun
Reading University researchers are attempting to understand how London’s existing and new buildings directly affect, and need to adapt to, climate change .
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Building towards climate change
When I started writing this blog I thought that I would talk quite a bit about climate change and climate change policy.
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Adding Noughts on Climate Change
There is something else which I can show that demonstrates how prevalent this false temperature shape is in paleoclimatology . In the graph above section A is rising behind the 1900-2000 correlation period. This feauture is prevalent in …
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Temperature Scale Distortion in Hockey Sticks « The Air Vent
I will keep the Solar Cycle 23 -24 animation updated. I do suspect that we will be seeing revised predictions very shortly
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Solar cycle minimum at the earliest in second half of 2008 …
With regard to climate change , the meeting adopted a resolution on climate change and migratory waterbirds, as well as conservation guidelines on measures needed to help waterbirds adapt to climate change .
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AEWA MOP-4 Adopts Resolution on Climate Change and Migratory …
Abrupt climate change is a potential menace that hasn’t received much attention. That’s about to change.
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Studies on the threshold of abrupt climate change
Perhaps the upcoming minimum of the longer Gleisberg cycle plays a role – but there is no indication of another Maunder Minimum on the horizon.
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QUICK UPDATE: Solar wind 20-25% "less hard" now than during …
Oh no! Just when you thought it was safe to live in Cambodia without being terrorised by the CCBs ( Climate-Change -Bullies), along…
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Climate change bullies
However, there is also a chance this could herald the beginning of accelerated solar activity, possibly still fulfilling NASA’s 2006 prediction that Solar Cycle 24 will be a “doozy.” Much better than having another Maunder Minimum . ..
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Sunspots – Major!
Palin believes that the effects of climate change are impacting Alaska and has advocated for action, but continues to hedge on whether or not humans are a cause. McCain, on the other hand, believes that “the science of man made global …
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For Palin, Is it God-made Climate Change? Journalists Need to Ask …
The Maunder Minimum . Early records of sunspots indicate that the Sun went through a period of inactivity in the late 17th century.
Read more from the original source:
daily sunspot
However, there is also a chance this could herald the beginning of accelerated solar activity, possibly still fulfilling NASA’s 2006 prediction that Solar Cycle 24 will be a “doozy.” Much better than having another Maunder Minimum.
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Sunspots – Major!
The cross-cutting nature of the challenge of climate change requires action beyond the climate regime. Solutions are already being contemplated within the multilateral trading system, making it critical for the trade regime, …
View post:
WTO PUBLIC FORUM – Climate Change, Competitiveness and Trade …
The United Kingdom Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change is a body sponsored by the Price of Wales and they are concerned with climate change . They believe that there is an urgent need to establish new and long term strategies for …
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Corporate Climate Change leaders provide poor advice
Ever since the beginning of Solar Cycle 24 back on January 4th 2008, solar physicists have been eagerly awaiting the fireworks to begin… alas, the Sun decided to take a break and stay blank for nine months, keeping any Cycle 24 sunspot …
Excerpt from:
Cycle 24 Sunspot Observed… At Last!
Climate Ride 2008 is the first multi-day bicycle ride where my pedal strokes help raise money and awareness for meaningful climate change and renewable energy legislation! I believe that change is possible and that America can take the …
Original post:
320 miles – 5 days – Climate Change Awareness
The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum , an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790.
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Are We Headed For An Ice Age?
A small sunspot group has appeared with a magnetic polarity suggesting the beginning (again) of solar cycle 24 . Maybe this time it’s for real. For what it’s worth, this group actually has a number (11001), which the previous faint spot …
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Cycle 24 Spots: Can It Be?
(It is right at the beginning of Solar Cycle 5, ie the Dalton Minimum ). Are we watching the beginning of a new 200 year cycle like what began with the Dalton Minimum in the early 1800’s? Obviously, no one knows.
See the original post here:
New Dalton Minimum?
(It is right at the beginning of Solar Cycle 5, ie the Dalton Minimum ). Are we watching the beginning of a new 200 year cycle like what began with the Dalton Minimum in the early 1800’s
Excerpt from:
New Dalton Minimum?
Can you find it? (It is right at the beginning of Solar Cycle 5, ie the Dalton Minimum )
See the rest here:
New Cycle 24 Sunspot and SSN wavelet analysis
Parliamentarians from the South and North need to take joint action to meet the consequences of climate change , not least in Africa. That is the conclusion of the Parliamentary Forum on Sustainable Development and Aid Effectiveness, ..
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European Parliamentarians for Africa launch Action Plan for …
Former Congressional candidate Al Weed will join the University Democrats to lead a discussion on climate change and the dangers it presents to the world and what we can do about it.
Original post:
A Discussion on Climate Change (9/24, 6:00 pm, Clark Hall)
Flood in paleoclimatic data.- Stonehenge number one (the astronomical one, later versions are religious ones)- The unification of Egypt as if a cooperation would be needed.- Methane peak (fires).- Cold time according to bristlecone …
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An Impact Event in 3114BC? The Beginning of a Turbulent Millennium.
Introduction – waking up to climate change . Global issue provokes fragmented opinions from world leaders.
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Climate change and the food industry
Adam has noted several times that he is in favour of sensible steps to mitigate climate change , though he does agree with MacDoctor that much of this is not about saving the planet, but about keeping the species on the planet from …
Original post:
Climate change nutters strike again
.
New Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull has demoted key
supporters of ousted leader Brendan Nelson – Nick Minchin and Tony
Smith – in his new-look front bench announced today that also
promotes Julie Bishop and Helen Coonan to two of the highest
profile jobs in politics.
The big winner, as expected, was Ms Bishop, the deputy leader,
who takes the shadow treasurer’s job. She was education minister in the
Howard government and, until today, spokeswoman for workplace
relations.
She becomes the first woman to hold the treasury portfolio for
either of the major parties.
Senator Coonan was communications minister in the Howard government
and was spokeswoman for human services.
NSW Senator Helen Coonan was the surprise choice as foreign
affairs spokeswoman – also the first woman to hold that portfolio. The new defence spokesman is Senator David
Johnston from Western Australia.
Senator Minchin remains Senate leader but was dumped from the
prime defence portfolio and shifted to the portfolio of broadband
and communications.
Key supporters of Mr Turnbull, who helped him win the Liberal
leadership by 45 votes to 41 from Dr Nelson last week, also won
promotions.
Former education spokesman Tony Smith was demoted from the
shadow cabinet to the junior role of assistant treasurer, although
it does keep him in the critical economic portfolio.
Bronwyn Bishop and Pat Farmer from NSW were dumped from the
shadow ministry while Joanna Gash was demoted from the outer ranks
of parliamentary secretaries. They include Christopher Pyne, Michael Keenan, Peter
Dutton, Michael Ronaldson, Steven Ciobo, Scott Morrison and Chris
Pearce.
Mr Pyne, a former junior minister in the Howard government and
the Opposition justice spokesman, leaps into the shadow cabinet as
spokesman for education, apprenticeships and training. Former minister Kevin Andrews was
again overlooked. Mr Dutton switches from
finance to health.
Mr Keenan rises to the inner circle, taking the job of spokesman
for employment and workplace relations. He keeps
the role of shadow special minister of state.
Senator Ronaldson becomes Mr Turnbull’s secretary to the shadow
cabinet, which places him at the heart of the Opposition.
Mr Morrison takes housing while Mr Pearce becomes a junior
spokesman for financial services. Mr Ciobo keeps his
role as small business spokesman but rises to the shadow cabinet.
Sharman Stone rises into the inner cabinet, taking over
immigration and citizenship.
Andrew Robb, was foreign affairs spokesman, who had lobbied for
the shadow treasurer’s job, takes a new portfolio that Mr Turnbull
said would be at the “cutting edge” of the most complex economic
issues as the spokesman for infrastructure, federal-state relations
and helping Mr Turnbull write the Coalition’s policy on emissions
trading.
Tony Abbott, who last week said his role as families spokesman
was not close enough to the action, has been kept in that job. Joe Hockey moves from health to
finance, Ian Macfarlane shifts from trade to energy and resources,
and Bruce Billson – who also backed Dr Nelson – loses the inner
cabinet role of communications but takes a new junior role in
charge of sustainable development and cities.
George Brandis stays shadow attorney-general and John Cobb
remains as agriculture spokesman.
George Brandis stays shadow attorney-general and John Cobb
remains as agriculture spokesman. Greg Hunt remains spokesman for
an expanded environment, climate change and water portfolio.
Mr Turnbull said it was “a new team to provide the leadership
Australia needs to meet the great challenges of our time”.
He said the economy was the most “vital” challenge but also
highlighted the environment as crucial.
“My vision is for an Australia where economic growth and a clean
environment go hand in hand,” he said.
Climate change is the popular environmental problem of today’s generation. In the 70s it was concern over pesticides (thanks to Rachel Carson), in the 80s sustainable development entered our lexicon, and today it is climate change . ..
Here is the original post:
Complex Systems Theory and Climate Change: Huh?
.
New Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull has demoted key
supporters of ousted leader Brendan Nelson – Nick Minchin and Tony
Smith – in his new-look front bench announced today that also
promotes Julie Bishop and Helen Coonan to two of the highest
profile jobs in politics.
The big winner, as expected, was Ms Bishop, the deputy leader,
who takes the shadow treasurer’s job. She was education minister in the
Howard government and, until today, spokeswoman for workplace
relations.
She becomes the first woman to hold the treasury portfolio for
either of the major parties.
Senator Coonan was communications minister in the Howard government
and was spokeswoman for human services.
NSW Senator Helen Coonan was the surprise choice as foreign
affairs spokeswoman – also the first woman to hold that portfolio. The new defence spokesperson is Senator David
Johnston from Western Australia.
Senator Minchin remains Senate leader but was dumped from the
prime defence portfolio and shifted to the portfolio of broadband
and communications.
Key supporters of Mr Turnbull, who helped him win the Liberal
leadership by 45 votes to 41 from Dr Nelson last week, also won
promotions.
Former education spokesperson Tony Smith was demoted from the
shadow cabinet to the junior role of assistant treasurer, although
it does keep him in the critical economic portfolio.
Bronwyn Bishop and Pat Farmer from NSW were dumped from the
shadow ministry while Joanna Gash was demoted from the outer ranks
of parliamentary secretaries. They include Christopher Pyne, Michael Keenan, Peter
Dutton, Michael Ronaldson, Steven Ciobo, Scott Morrison and Chris
Pearce.
Mr Pyne, a former junior minister in the Howard government and
the Opposition justice spokesperson, leaps into the shadow cabinet as
spokesperson for education, apprenticeships and training. Former minister Kevin Andrews was
again overlooked. Mr Dutton switches from
finance to health.
Mr Keenan rises to the inner circle, taking the job of spokesperson
for employment and workplace relations. He keeps
the role of shadow special minister of state.
Senator Ronaldson becomes Mr Turnbull’s secretary to the shadow
cabinet, which places him at the heart of the Opposition.
Mr Morrison takes housing while Mr Pearce becomes a junior
spokesperson for financial services. Mr Ciobo keeps his
role as small business spokesperson but rises to the shadow cabinet.
Sharman Stone rises into the inner cabinet, taking over
immigration and citizenship.
Andrew Robb, was foreign affairs spokesperson, who had lobbied for
the shadow treasurer’s job, takes a new portfolio that Mr Turnbull
said would be at the “cutting edge” of the most complex economic
issues as the spokesperson for infrastructure, federal-state relations
and helping Mr Turnbull write the Coalition’s policy on emissions
trading.
Tony Abbott, who last week said his role as families spokesperson
was not close enough to the action, has been kept in that job. Joe Hockey moves from health to
finance, Ian Macfarlane shifts from trade to energy and resources,
and Bruce Billson – who also backed Dr Nelson – loses the inner
cabinet role of communications but takes a new junior role in
charge of sustainable development and cities.
George Brandis stays shadow attorney-general and John Cobb
remains as agriculture spokesperson.
George Brandis stays shadow attorney-general and John Cobb
remains as agriculture spokesperson. Greg Hunt remains spokesperson for
an expanded environment, climate change and water portfolio.
Mr Turnbull said it was “a new team to provide the leadership
Australia needs to meet the great challenges of our time”.
He said the economy was the most “vital” challenge but also
highlighted the environment as crucial.
“My vision is for an Australia where economic growth and a clean
environment go hand in hand,” he said.
it was formed as a limestone cave during the last iceage . 4. bingham canyon mine
Read the original:
top 10 amazing holes in the earth
Good news: for the first time ever, climate change is a central issue in the political debates. Bad news: despite much sound and fury, none of the major political parties is proposing effective measures for dealing with the climate …
View post: Climate Change in Europe?
Continued here:
Comment on Climate Change in Europe? Always Been No Big Deal by …
The scientific consensus now is that climate change will progress in sudden, violent leaps that will go beyond our ability to stop it. As British writer Mark Lynas put it, “The end of the world is nigh, and it’s already been published …
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Climate Emergency: Building a New Protest Movement
Australian companies may face securities class actions unless they adequately report the risks that climate change poses to their businesses. The potential exposure is for 700 companies that will “eventually be required to report their ..
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Australia: Companies May Face Securities Class Actions Related to …
If you want to address climate change , then the best thing you can do is get politically active, according to Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, speaking here in Sackville on Saturday evening. …
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“Climate change is the result of a massive market failure” – LB
Climatology and Paleoclimatology Resources Resource list compiled by the Dept. of Oceanography at Texas A&M University.
Go here to read the rest:
Earth Science sites (Courtesy: http://www.lib.flinders.edu.au …
I attended a fascinating closed dialogue between some of the leading climate change and national security players from the US, China and Australia last Thursday…
The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum , an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790. Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon’s Grand Army during the …
Continued here:
Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh
-By Warner Todd Huston An AFP story from September 5 headlined “Melting Swiss glacier yields Neolithic trove, climate secrets” was quite interesting. In fact, it was down right educational.
View post:
Climate Change in Europe? Always Been No Big Deal
Down to Earth (subscription), India. … the current emissions, you must also look at the historical cumulative emission, because that is the root cause for climate change and global warming.
Continued here:
Dividing the developing countries will spell disaster for …
You Can Change The WorldNewsweek.
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You Can Change The World – Newsweek
The “triple crunch” of a credit-fuelled financial crisis, accelerating climate change and soaring energy prices – how did we get into this mess? In the face of so many simultaneous crises, we all have legitimate questions for the …
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Tackling the 'triple crunch' with a green new deal
Solar Cycle 24 just can’t seem to get rolling. IPS announced today (IPS is the Australian Space Weather Agency) , that it has changed its forecast for Solar Cycle 24 , pushing it’s start into the future by six months.
Continued here:
Australian Space Weather Agency Revises Solar Cycle 24 Start …
In some cases, human activities directly affect the nature of the hazard, in particular through climate change and desertification. WVP is working in disaster prone areas while the area has already been declared as “ecologically …
Read more:
Training Consultant Environment in DRR/ Climate Change Training
From Oxfam America: You’re invited to The Human Face of Climate Change , divided into two very special events. On Monday, Sept
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The Human Face of Climate Change: Monday in Santa Fe & ABQ
Poneke has another excellent post on Climate Change here. He notes a number of recent developments.
View original here:
Poneke reflects on Climate Change
With a growing number of reports show that climate change will impact human health, economic and national security, and agricultural and natural resource management, scientists and policymakers are now considering how to regulate carbon …
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Responding to Climate Change: A Role for Ecosystems
The news item ‘ Climate Change Devastating Women’s Lives‘ re-iterates the harsh reality that whilst climate change affects all members of such poor communities, there are added, knock-on social issues for the women and girls in these …
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Climate change knock on effects for women
It is one at which the coming battle to contain human-induced climate change may well be decisively shaped. There are three crucial signposts to this juncture. Firstly, it is being widely recognised that we have very little time left to ..
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Climate Change – The Desert, The Mirage and The Last Chance Saloon
Correlation is the rational that paleoclimatology uses for its excuse to discard otherwise valid data.
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How Come So Many Independant Papers Claim Hockey Sticks « The Air Vent
One of the things about the Dalton Minimum was that it started with a skipped solar cycle, which also coincided with a very long solar cycle 4 from 1784-1799. The longer our current cycle 23 lasts before we see a true ramp up of cycle …
The rest is here:
Where have all the sunspots gone? « Watts Up With That?
Members of Plane Mad entered the meeting as shareholders and told Michael O’Leary directly that he was lying about climate change . The Campaigner, Rob Mac, told the AGM that he was campaigning for the responsible use of aviation.
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Denial at twenty thousand feet – Irish climate change activists …
Scratch That – Newsweek (Sep 18, 2008); Global warming law will boost California economy, study finds – Christian Science Monitor (Sep 18, 2008); Abrupt Climate Change Focus Of US National Laboratories – Science Daily (Sep 18, 2008) …
See the original post here:
Climate Change in the News, Week of September 20, 2008
Daly laid out a plan to cut Chicago’s emissions to 3/4 of 1990 levels by 2020, announced yesterday in an ambitious and comprehensive Chicago Climate Change Action Plan, reports Chicago’s NBC5. Not only is this plan designed to slash …
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Chicago Unveils New Climate Change Plan
“It is critical our community be an integral and active part of the debate because African-Americans are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change economically, socially and through our health and well-being.” …
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Jim Clyburn, Climate Change, and African Americans
Like the Legend of the Five Rings log, the Champions log has gotten well behind – so here’s the first section of catch-up. . So: They had the undead warriors/soul-harvesters of an ancient death cult to deal with – a group of them and …
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Session 39: The Little Ice Age
climate matters video contest brighter planet 1sky vimeo maggie gyllenhaal judge read white and blue star Tre…
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Maggie Gyllenhaal Wants Your Video on Climate Change – Win $3000!
18 September 2008: The UN Secretary-General has appointed Festus Mogae, former President of Botswana, and Srgjan Kerim, outgoing President of the UN General Assembly, as Special Envoys on climate change . They will join two other Special …
Excerpt from:
UN Secretary-General Appoints Two New Climate Change Envoys
Climate change is a major threat to migratory waterbirds, according to a new report by 18 September 2008: Climate change is a major threat to migratory waterbirds and international cooperation is required to reduce the many pressures …
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Report on Migrant Birds and Climate Change Launched at AEWA MOP
.
THE melting of Arctic sea ice has reached disturbing levels,
with satellite images showing the disappearance of the ice this
year has peaked at a level close to last year’s record melt, making
it the second-worst since satellite records began.
Figures from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre supported
by satellite imagery from the US space agency, NASA, shows the
northern summer melt peaked during this week when the Arctic sea
ice dropped to 4.
The figures put the size of the Arctic sea ice at the end of the
northern summer about one third lower than the average recorded
over the last three decades.52 million square kilometres, the second-lowest
spread on record. Hopes the Arctic
can recover are now slim.
“This year further reinforces the strong negative trend in
summertime ice extent observed over the past 30 years,” analysts at
the ice data centre say in their latest report. Scientists fear the vast
Arctic sea ice, which covers the North Pole, could disappear in
summer within a few decades. As the sea ice fails to return, there are
concerns the melt will become one of the “tipping points” pushing
the planet towards faster climate change. “There are some scientists out there who
think that even might be optimistic”.
“We might see an ice-free Arctic Ocean by the year 2030, within
some of our life times,” the centre’s Mark Serreze told the
Herald recently. “As close to as we can
tell, examining at the historical record, there’s been ice in the
Arctic in the summer for at least 16 million years.
The loss of the Arctic sea ice in summer would be unprecedented
in human history, says Dr Don Perovich, of the US Army’s Cold
Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
With the end of the Arctic summer and the peaking of the melt,
scientific attention will switch to the planet’s other pole, the
Antarctic, where Australian researchers plan a series of
expeditions heavily focused on climate change.”
The record melt is believed to be caused by a combination of
naturally varying weather patterns combined with rising
temperatures from global warming, caused in part by the burning of
fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal.
The cores may help reveal a record of the world during abrupt
climate change of ice ages and periods of warming. Head of the
Australian Antarctic Division, Dr Tony Press, said eight Australian
scientists would explore the continent’s interior as part of the
global search to find the oldest ice core in the world – one more
than a million years old. A US aircraft will
survey the region to chart the thickness of the ice.
Dr Press said the scientists would be dropped 330 nautical miles
from the Australian research base at Casey and will initially drill
a 400-metre core to test the age of the ice. The Arctic and Antarctic are attracting
unprecedented attention from scientists concerned that temperatures
in the poles are rising at twice the global average and could
trigger faster climate change in the rest of the world.
Australian scientists will also examine changes in the Southern
Ocean off Antarctica to judge the impact of warming temperatures on
weather patterns in the southern hemisphere, including wind and
rainfall in Australia.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed two new Special Envoys on climate change , an issue he has made one of his top priorities.
Read more from the original source:
Ban Ki-moon Appoints Two New Special Envoys on Climate Change
.
THE melting of Arctic sea ice has reached disturbing levels,
with satellite images showing the disappearance of the ice this
year has peaked at a level close to last year’s record melt, making
it the second-worst since satellite records began.
Figures from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre supported
by satellite imagery from the US space agency, NASA, shows the
northern summer melt peaked during this week when the Arctic sea
ice dropped to 4.
The figures put the size of the Arctic sea ice at the end of the
northern summer about one third lower than the average recorded
over the last three decades.52 million square kilometres, the second-lowest
spread on record. Hopes the Arctic
can recover are now slim.
“This year further reinforces the strong negative trend in
summertime ice extent observed over the past 30 years,” analysts at
the ice data centre say in their latest report. Scientists fear the vast
Arctic sea ice, which covers the North Pole, could disappear in
summer within a few decades. As the sea ice fails to return, there are
concerns the melt will become one of the “tipping points” pushing
the planet towards faster climate change. “There are some scientists out there who
think that even might be optimistic”.
“We might see an ice-free Arctic Ocean by the year 2030, within
some of our life times,” the centre’s Mark Serreze told the
Herald recently. “As close to as we can
tell, examining at the historical record, there’s been ice in the
Arctic in the summer for at least 16 million years.
The loss of the Arctic sea ice in summer would be unprecedented
in human history, says Dr Don Perovich, of the US Army’s Cold
Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
With the end of the Arctic summer and the peaking of the melt,
scientific attention will switch to the planet’s other pole, the
Antarctic, where Australian researchers plan a series of
expeditions heavily focused on climate change.”
The record melt is believed to be caused by a combination of
naturally varying weather patterns combined with rising
temperatures from global warming, caused in part by the burning of
fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal.
The cores may help reveal a record of the world during abrupt
climate change of ice ages and periods of warming. Head of the
Australian Antarctic Division, Dr Tony Press, said eight Australian
scientists would explore the continent’s interior as part of the
global search to find the oldest ice core in the world – one more
than a million years old. A US aircraft will
survey the region to chart the thickness of the ice.
Dr Press said the scientists would be dropped 330 nautical miles
from the Australian research base at Casey and will initially drill
a 400-metre core to test the age of the ice. The Arctic and Antarctic are attracting
unprecedented attention from scientists concerned that temperatures
in the poles are rising at twice the global average and could
trigger faster climate change in the rest of the world.
Australian scientists will also examine changes in the Southern
Ocean off Antarctica to judge the impact of warming temperatures on
weather patterns in the southern hemisphere, including wind and
rainfall in Australia.
It is vital that Australia’s policy approach to managing climate change calibrates the three pillars of an effective response – an efficient and effective emissions trading system; a credible global agreement that covers all major …
Here is the original post:
Carbon Capture and Storage Institute – missing link in climate …
The LIA is just one example of a natural climatic anomaly in the past that can provide insights into the strength of the coupling between the Earth’s climate and carbon cycle. Paleoclimatic data cannot tell us how to meet the challenge …
Here is the original:
Past Climate Implies Higher Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels in …
.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a new body which will act as a global centre to drive clean coal technologies in Australia and worldwide.
The Government will spend $100 million on establishing the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, which Mr Rudd says will coordinate funding and research for new projects.
Investment into technology which enables the capture and storage of carbon dioxide is a core pillar of the Government’s pollution reduction strategy, Mr Rudd said.
Mr Rudd will take the proposal to the UN General Assembly next week, where he hopes to get more governments and industry on board as investors.
“It is a threat also for the future of our coal industry in Australia.
“Climate change is a threat for the future,” he said.”
Mr Rudd said the institute would organise funding, from both public and private sources, for carbon capture projects, and also act as a centre for research and development. Not enough is being done globally on this.
“It’s time this was brought under a single roof – that is – Australia to be the go-to place globally for information about how you do carbon capture and storage projects.
“There is so much going on around the world which is not coordinated,” he said.
“That partly explains why we have so few at-scale projects in any of the technologies across the world at present and none involving integrated technologies,” he said.”
The start-up costs for such projects are huge, Mr Rudd said.
Resources and energy Minister Martin Ferguson says the bill, which has passed in House of Representatives, will soon go to the Senate.
The Government also hopes to pass legislation, which it says is a world first, which would enable the offshore storage of carbon dioxide.
The recent G8 meeting in Japan set a goal to have 20 carbon capture projects by 2020.
“I’ve come a long way in terms of my engagement with the Opposition and we are very close to reaching an agreement hopefully with respect to a couple of outstanding issues,” he said.
Greens Senator Christine Milne says research should be directed at renewable energy sources rather than helping the coal industry.
A substantial portion of Australia’s energy is supplied by coal-burning power stations.
“The coal industry has made mega profits for many, many generations at the expense of the atmosphere, and now we are all paying for that.
“The coal industry should be paying for its own research,” she said.”
Abrupt climate change is a potential menace that hasn’t received much attention.
Excerpt from:
IMPACTS: On the threshold of abrupt climate change
.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a new body which will act as a global centre to drive clean coal technologies in Australia and worldwide.
The Government will spend $100 million on establishing the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, which Mr Rudd says will coordinate funding and research for new projects.
Investment into technology which enables the capture and storage of carbon dioxide is a core pillar of the Government’s pollution reduction strategy, Mr Rudd said.
Mr Rudd will take the proposal to the UN General Assembly next week, where he hopes to get more governments and industry on board as investors.
“It is a threat also for the future of our coal industry in Australia.
“Climate change is a threat for the future,” he said.”
Mr Rudd said the institute would organise funding, from both public and private sources, for carbon capture projects, and also act as a centre for research and development. Not enough is being done globally on this.
“It’s time this was brought under a single roof – that is – Australia to be the go-to place globally for information about how you do carbon capture and storage projects.
“There is so much going on around the world which is not coordinated,” he said.
“That partly explains why we have so few at-scale projects in any of the technologies across the world at present and none involving integrated technologies,” he said.”
The start-up costs for such projects are huge, Mr Rudd said.
Resources and energy Minister Martin Ferguson says the bill, which has passed in House of Representatives, will soon go to the Senate.
The Government also hopes to pass legislation, which it says is a world first, which would enable the offshore storage of carbon dioxide.
The recent G8 meeting in Japan set a goal to have 20 carbon capture projects by 2020.
“I’ve come a long way in terms of my engagement with the Opposition and we are very close to reaching an agreement hopefully with respect to a couple of outstanding issues,” he said.
Greens Senator Christine Milne says research should be directed at renewable energy sources rather than helping the coal industry.
A substantial portion of Australia’s energy is supplied by coal-burning power stations.
“The coal industry has made mega profits for many, many generations at the expense of the atmosphere, and now we are all paying for that.
“The coal industry should be paying for its own research,” she said.”
The evidence from their study of paleoclimatic systems is that 350 parts per million of CO2 seems likely to be closer to the upper limit of safety, if irreversible ice sheet and species loss, with all their attendant impacts on humanity …
Go here to read the rest:
Reflections on Flannery’s National Library lecture (part 1)
I personnaly find the match between the sun and falling temperatures ( maunder minimum , dalton etc.) to be convincing. If you go back in time before 1600, the match breaks down
Originally posted here:
Comment on New paper from Christy suggests atmosphere hit max CO2 …
On January 4, 2008, a magnetically reversed, high-latitude sunspot emerged marking the beginning of Solar Cycle 24 and the first step toward a new solar maximum. Of course, intense activity on the Sun won’t begin right away. …
Original post:
The Icy Flip Side
As someone who spends most waking hours thinking about climate change in a rational way, I found it refreshing – and fun – to come at it from a completely different angle. We had ‘show and tell’ workshops where we discussed objects …
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Getting creative about climate change
The previous day, outgoing UNGA President Srgjan Kerim closed the Assembly’s 62nd session, noting that while Security Council reform had been the most difficult issue of the session, climate change and the Millennium Development Goals …
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UNGA: Climate Change to be a Priority during 63rd Session
Arguably the most influential graphic from the latest IPCC report is Figure SPM.2 from the IPCC WG 2’s Summary for Policy Makers (on the impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change ). This figure, titled “Key impacts as a …
Read the original post:
How the IPCC Portrayed a Net Positive Impact of Climate Change as …
.
BIG BROTHER is about to go 3D. A Wollongong company has been
contracted by the City of Sydney council to create life-like 3D
aerial maps of inner Sydney that will aid town planners but raise
the hackles of some privacy-conscious residents.
“It’s a really sexy, complete model,” said Brian Nicholls of
AAMHatch, the company that will develop the system.
The maps, which will allow council staff to zoom in on
photographs to see the sides of buildings, will build on the
council’s aerial mapping program, E-view.”
The Herald reported yesterday that civil libertarians
were outraged to discover that councils across NSW use geographic
information systems such as E-view to monitor residents’
properties, consider applications for parking permits and even
track data on complaints from the public. “So if someone
says they want to build a 20-storey building at 50 Pitt Street, you
can see how that’s going to look, how the shadows will fall and so
on. “It’s the most widely used product internally [at
the council].
“These programs allow us to link a phone call to a spot on the
map,” said the City of Sydney’s “spatial information” officer,
Matthew Dobson.
“The privacy implications are huge.”
Jon Fairall, editor of the aerial mapping industry magazine
Position, said statutory authorities would increasingly use
“3D models in which you can look at artefacts on the ground from
any angle, from any distance, much the same as the technology in
video games”.
“What people are frightened of is the idea that Big Brother sits up
there and God alone knows what he knows. I think the answer is that
people need to know what other people know about them,” he said. The flipside was that this would mean more and more
realistic data about people’s backyards feeding into council and
government computers.”
Mr Fairall said climate change would also encourage Government
authorities to use increasingly sophisticated geographic monitoring
technology.
Wollongong City Council makes its online mapping system publicly
available and the Department of Lands has its aerial mapping
program on its website.
E-View is used by the councils of Baulkham Hills, Byron Shire,
Canterbury, Hornsby, Liverpool, Randwick, Sutherland Shire and
several others in NSW.
“We are talking about official bodies using information from
these sources for legal purposes.
Stephen Blanks of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties said the
prospect of 3D programs were “even scarier” than existing aerial
mapping systems, including Google Earth, because they allowed more
detail about a residence to be amassed.
Planners say they have been using computer aerial maps for more
than a decade but Mr Blanks said that view “failed to take into
account the new age of pervasive data holding we now live in. They should have published
policies which outline how people can have information about
themselves removed,” he said.
.”
Ed Garvin of the Australian Spatial Information Business
Association said no council aerial mapping programs allowed
real-time monitoring
.
BIG BROTHER is about to go 3D. A Wollongong company has been
contracted by the City of Sydney council to create life-like 3D
aerial maps of inner Sydney that will aid town planners but raise
the hackles of some privacy-conscious residents.
“It’s a really sexy, complete model,” said Brian Nicholls of
AAMHatch, the company that will develop the system.
The maps, which will allow council staff to zoom in on
photographs to see the sides of buildings, will build on the
council’s aerial mapping program, E-view.”
The Herald reported yesterday that civil libertarians
were outraged to discover that councils across NSW use geographic
information systems such as E-view to monitor residents’
properties, consider applications for parking permits and even
track data on complaints from the public. “So if someone
says they want to build a 20-storey building at 50 Pitt Street, you
can see how that’s going to look, how the shadows will fall and so
on. “It’s the most widely used product internally [at
the council].
“These programs allow us to link a phone call to a spot on the
map,” said the City of Sydney’s “spatial information” officer,
Matthew Dobson.
“The privacy implications are huge.”
Jon Fairall, editor of the aerial mapping industry magazine
Position, said statutory authorities would increasingly use
“3D models in which you can look at artefacts on the ground from
any angle, from any distance, much the same as the technology in
video games”.
“What people are frightened of is the idea that Big Brother sits up
there and God alone knows what he knows. I think the answer is that
people need to know what other people know about them,” he said. The flipside was that this would mean more and more
realistic data about people’s backyards feeding into council and
government computers.”
Mr Fairall said climate change would also encourage Government
authorities to use increasingly sophisticated geographic monitoring
technology.
Wollongong City Council makes its online mapping system publicly
available and the Department of Lands has its aerial mapping
program on its website.
E-View is used by the councils of Baulkham Hills, Byron Shire,
Canterbury, Hornsby, Liverpool, Randwick, Sutherland Shire and
several others in NSW.
“We are talking about official bodies using information from
these sources for legal purposes.
Stephen Blanks of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties said the
prospect of 3D programs were “even scarier” than existing aerial
mapping systems, including Google Earth, because they allowed more
detail about a residence to be amassed.
Planners say they have been using computer aerial maps for more
than a decade but Mr Blanks said that view “failed to take into
account the new age of pervasive data holding we now live in. They should have published
policies which outline how people can have information about
themselves removed,” he said.
.”
Ed Garvin of the Australian Spatial Information Business
Association said no council aerial mapping programs allowed
real-time monitoring
.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is trying to assure people that Australia is protected from much of the fallout from the global financial crisis.
Mr Rudd says he is in daily contact with Australia’s financial regulatory authorities to gauge how the global credit crisis is affecting Australia’s banking sector.
“The Reserve Bank Governor, in making statements as he’s done, is very mindful of the state of the balance sheets of Australia’s banks,” he said.
Mr Rudd told The them , Australia’s regulators are up to the task and are performing very well.
“His advice and that of APRA is the balance sheets are in sound order and for those reasons we should have confidence in what the regulator has to say.
“He’s very mindful of that in relation to what has been the balance sheet of the relevant US institutions.
“Most financial regulatory systems around the world look at Australia and ask this question, why don’t they have as robust regulatory arrangement as we do in this country?” he said.”
Mr Rudd admitted Australia is facing uncertain economic times but reinforced the health of the country’s banking and finance system.
He will travel to the United States next week while Parliament is sitting where he will address the United Nations General Assembly and meet with the Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve, the President of the World Bank and US treasury officials.
– International agenda -
Mr Rudd also defended the amount of time he spends overseas in the face of fresh attacks from the Opposition.
“I have been on the phone and had other meetings with a number of these individuals since then and it’s very important that those discussions be renewed and there are concrete practical reasons for it,” he said.
Mr Rudd said it is important for Australia that he maintain strong global ties. We need to make preparations when that’s necessary.
“And that is in terms of the future health of various US domestic financial institutions and their global impact, we in this country need to know what’s occuring.
“And relationships in all that as I’ve discovered in recent days on this global financial crisis has really been important.
“It is necessary in an age of complete global interdependence as on security, climate change or the state of the global economy – to be in a position where you can pick up the phone and deal with people and or meet with them, because the challenges are really hard.”
Speech by Peter Mandelson at the Seminar on Climate Change . Oslo EN.
The rest is here:
Is climate change policy incompatible with free trade?
.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is trying to assure people that Australia is protected from much of the fallout from the global financial crisis.
Mr Rudd says he is in daily contact with Australia’s financial regulatory authorities to gauge how the global credit crisis is affecting Australia’s banking sector.
“The Reserve Bank Governor, in making statements as he’s done, is very mindful of the state of the balance sheets of Australia’s banks,” he said.
Mr Rudd told The them , Australia’s regulators are up to the task and are performing very well.
“His advice and that of APRA is the balance sheets are in sound order and for those reasons we should have confidence in what the regulator has to say.
“He’s very mindful of that in relation to what has been the balance sheet of the relevant US institutions.
“Most financial regulatory systems around the world look at Australia and ask this question, why don’t they have as robust regulatory arrangement as we do in this country?” he said.”
Mr Rudd admitted Australia is facing uncertain economic times but reinforced the health of the country’s banking and finance system.
He will travel to the United States next week while Parliament is sitting where he will address the United Nations General Assembly and meet with the Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve, the President of the World Bank and US treasury officials.
– International agenda -
Mr Rudd also defended the amount of time he spends overseas in the face of fresh attacks from the Opposition.
“I have been on the phone and had other meetings with a number of these individuals since then and it’s very important that those discussions be renewed and there are concrete practical reasons for it,” he said.
Mr Rudd said it is important for Australia that he maintain strong global ties. We need to make preparations when that’s necessary.
“And that is in terms of the future health of various US domestic financial institutions and their global impact, we in this country need to know what’s occuring.
“And relationships in all that as I’ve discovered in recent days on this global financial crisis has really been important.
“It is necessary in an age of complete global interdependence as on security, climate change or the state of the global economy – to be in a position where you can pick up the phone and deal with people and or meet with them, because the challenges are really hard.”
.The Federal Opposition says Russia’s actions against Georgia could be a legitimate reason for Australia to delay exporting uranium to Russia.
A Parliamentary Committee has recommended an agreement, signed last year and reported to be worth $1 billion a year, not be ratified until Russia meets certain conditions.
But he says he accepts that the Prime Minister wants to consider the conflict in Georgia before making a decision.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Robb says Russia has already met its international obligations.
“Whether it means that we don’t proceed with this agreement is a matter for the Government to make some judgment on and then explain that decision to the community.
“It is an act which needs to be strongly condemned, and we’ve done so and the Government’s done so,” he said.
“It was very clear leading up to APEC last year that the Russians were receding from any notion of democracy and engagement but instead were going back to the old KGB days,” she said.”
Greens Senator Christine Milne earlier cited Russia’s human rights record as another reason to rip up the agreement.
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said today the Government will consider the committee’s report before making a final decision.
She went on to accuse the Liberal Party of seeking profits over human rights and failing to understand climate change issues.
Mr Smith says the Government will also take into account the events in Georgia, and Australia’s bilateral relationship with Russia.
Thanks to a certain lipstick pitbull, the long-running debate about whether we are responsible for climate change has been given some high-profile coverage recently. But while Sarah Palin wowed the Republicans in Minnesota, ..
Read more:
The burning issue of climate change
.The Federal Opposition says Russia’s actions against Georgia could be a legitimate reason for Australia to delay exporting uranium to Russia.
A Parliamentary Committee has recommended an agreement, signed last year and reported to be worth $1 billion a year, not be ratified until Russia meets certain conditions.
But he says he accepts that the Prime Minister wants to consider the conflict in Georgia before making a decision.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Andrew Robb says Russia has already met its international obligations.
“Whether it means that we don’t proceed with this agreement is a matter for the Government to make some judgment on and then explain that decision to the community.
“It is an act which needs to be strongly condemned, and we’ve done so and the Government’s done so,” he said.
“It was very clear leading up to APEC last year that the Russians were receding from any notion of democracy and engagement but instead were going back to the old KGB days,” she said.”
Greens Senator Christine Milne earlier cited Russia’s human rights record as another reason to rip up the agreement.
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said today the Government will consider the committee’s report before making a final decision.
She went on to accuse the Liberal Party of seeking profits over human rights and failing to understand climate change issues.
Mr Smith says the Government will also take into account the events in Georgia, and Australia’s bilateral relationship with Russia.
Observational records and climate projections provide abundant evidence that freshwater resources are vulnerable and have the potential to be strongly impacted by climate change , with wide-ranging consequences for human societies and …
More:
IPCC Technical Paper VI: Climate Change and Water…Now, For the …
.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will consider a report that has advised against the sale of uranium to Russia before the Federal Government makes a final decision on the matter.
Federal Parliament’s Treaties Committee today recommended the Government delay ratifying a treaty to sell uranium to Russia because of fears about the country’s nuclear weapons program.
Mr Rudd says he fears the West is approaching a turning point in its dealings with Russia.
The treaty was signed last year by the Howard government, and the deal is reportedly worth $1 billion a year.
“We’ll be working closely with international governments on the best response to the Russians.
“Obviously the global situation in relation to the Russian Federation is now complex as a result of what we have seen in Georgia and most particularly in Southern Ossetia,” he said.”
After examining the proposal, the majority Labor members on the Treaties Committee say it should be torn up if eight stringent conditions cannot be met, including the separation of Russia’s civil and military nuclear facilities and the resumption of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of facilities that will take Australian uranium.
“This is again a very difficult challenge for the global order.
They also say nuclear power might help Russia lower its greenhouse gas emissions.
Committee members had earlier expressed fears that Russia could use Australian uranium as part of its nuclear weapons program, though Coalition Senators have issued a dissenting report saying that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty provides safeguards against Russia’s use of uranium for military use.
“When we went to war in Iraq, the Liberal Party insisted that we were at risk from weapons of mass destruction and advanced the notion of preventive war,” he said.
Committee chair and Labor MP, Kelvin Thomson, said the Liberal Party was having a bet each way with the international atomic inspections body. But now this same Liberal Party says the IAEA will ensure that nothing goes wrong, and this despite the IAEA not having carried out any inspection in Russia since at least 2001 and probably longer.
“This was a massive vote of no confidence in the IAEA. They are prepared to turn a blind eye to what happens after we sell the uranium to Russia.
“The Liberal Party is so hungry for the uranium export dollars that they want to believe nothing can go wrong.
The dissenting Liberals included Victorian Senator Julian McGauran.”
– Second thoughts -
The Russians have already sensed that Australia is having second thoughts on the agreement with the country’s ambassador paying a visit to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith earlier this month, and saying that Australia’s economic interests could be harmed if the deal was not ratified.
“They don’t rely on the experience and expertise of the departments, they have instead relied upon what I would classify as some extreme anti-nuclear groups,” he said. He said the majority members of the committee had gone on a “frolic”.
Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham mocked the Government for taking different stands with different countries.
The tabling of the report led to some heated exchanges in the Senate. Well, we’d expect that from the Prime Minister that China would be an OK destination for uranium.
“China is OK. And yet now today we discover today with the tabling of this treaty Russia, we’re not sure. And yet now today we discover today with the tabling of this treaty Russia, we’re not sure. That’s right we’re not sure,” he said.
“China’s OK, India’s not and Russia, well, it seems the Government is having a bob each way. Because the left wing-dominated members of this Treaties Committee, they’ve said no, they’ve said no way,” Senator Birmingham added, calling for clarification from the Government.
The committee also points to Russia’s recent conflict with Georgia, saying that action underlines concerns that Moscow cannot be trusted, even though it is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Greens Senator Christine Milne cites Russia’s human rights record as another reason to rip-up the agreement.
“It was very clear leading up to APEC last year that the Russians were receding from any notion of democracy and engagement but instead were going back to the old KGB days,” she said, going on to accuse the Liberal Party of seeking profits over human rights and failing to understand climate change issues.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, says the Government will consider the committee’s report before making a final decision.
Mr Smith says the Government will also take into account the events in Georgia, and Australia’s bilateral relationship with Russia.
The dockets of the federal and state courts have been filling with lawsuits concerning climate change . Join Michael Gerrard, the head of Arnold & Porter LLP’s New York office and editor of the authoritative ABA book Global Climate …
Read the original post:
Climate Change Litigation Update: Critical New Developments
.Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will consider a report that has advised against the sale of uranium to Russia before the Federal Government makes a final decision on the matter.
Federal Parliament’s Treaties Committee today recommended the Government delay ratifying a treaty to sell uranium to Russia because of fears about the country’s nuclear weapons program.
Mr Rudd says he fears the West is approaching a turning point in its dealings with Russia.
The treaty was signed last year by the Howard government, and the deal is reportedly worth $1 billion a year.
“We’ll be working closely with international governments on the best response to the Russians.
“Obviously the global situation in relation to the Russian Federation is now complex as a result of what we have seen in Georgia and most particularly in Southern Ossetia,” he said.”
After examining the proposal, the majority Labor members on the Treaties Committee say it should be torn up if eight stringent conditions cannot be met, including the separation of Russia’s civil and military nuclear facilities and the resumption of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of facilities that will take Australian uranium.
“This is again a very difficult challenge for the global order.
They also say nuclear power might help Russia lower its greenhouse gas emissions.
Committee members had earlier expressed fears that Russia could use Australian uranium as part of its nuclear weapons program, though Coalition Senators have issued a dissenting report saying that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty provides safeguards against Russia’s use of uranium for military use.
“When we went to war in Iraq, the Liberal Party insisted that we were at risk from weapons of mass destruction and advanced the notion of preventive war,” he said.
Committee chair and Labor MP, Kelvin Thomson, said the Liberal Party was having a bet each way with the international atomic inspections body. But now this same Liberal Party says the IAEA will ensure that nothing goes wrong, and this despite the IAEA not having carried out any inspection in Russia since at least 2001 and probably longer.
“This was a massive vote of no confidence in the IAEA. They are prepared to turn a blind eye to what happens after we sell the uranium to Russia.
“The Liberal Party is so hungry for the uranium export dollars that they want to believe nothing can go wrong.
The dissenting Liberals included Victorian Senator Julian McGauran.”
– Second thoughts -
The Russians have already sensed that Australia is having second thoughts on the agreement with the country’s ambassador paying a visit to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith earlier this month, and saying that Australia’s economic interests could be harmed if the deal was not ratified.
“They don’t rely on the experience and expertise of the departments, they have instead relied upon what I would classify as some extreme anti-nuclear groups,” he said. He said the majority members of the committee had gone on a “frolic”.
Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham mocked the Government for taking different stands with different countries.
The tabling of the report led to some heated exchanges in the Senate. Well, we’d expect that from the Prime Minister that China would be an OK destination for uranium.
“China is OK. And yet now today we discover today with the tabling of this treaty Russia, we’re not sure. And yet now today we discover today with the tabling of this treaty Russia, we’re not sure. That’s right we’re not sure,” he said.
“China’s OK, India’s not and Russia, well, it seems the Government is having a bob each way. Because the left wing-dominated members of this Treaties Committee, they’ve said no, they’ve said no way,” Senator Birmingham added, calling for clarification from the Government.
The committee also points to Russia’s recent conflict with Georgia, saying that action underlines concerns that Moscow cannot be trusted, even though it is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Greens Senator Christine Milne cites Russia’s human rights record as another reason to rip-up the agreement.
“It was very clear leading up to APEC last year that the Russians were receding from any notion of democracy and engagement but instead were going back to the old KGB days,” she said, going on to accuse the Liberal Party of seeking profits over human rights and failing to understand climate change issues.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, says the Government will consider the committee’s report before making a final decision.
Mr Smith says the Government will also take into account the events in Georgia, and Australia’s bilateral relationship with Russia.
… and the EAWR – East Atlantic West Russian index). Hence, as supreme paradox, for once that there is evidence for climate change , do not expect it to be any popular among people that blame human activities for… climate change .
Read the rest here:
Evidence of Climate Change in Northeastern Italy
.The ACTU says it wants more talks with the Federal Government on planned industrial relations changes which will require unions to give notice of strikes and hold secret ballots before taking industrial action.
The changes, which will replace the former Howard Government’s WorkChoices laws, will also allow small businesses to dismiss workers at any time in the first year of employment and thereafter to sack staff after a single warning.
She has told NewsRadio that after an extensive consultative process on the legislation, the only room for change now is on technical details.
Deputy Prime Minister and Industrial Relations Minister Julia Gillard outlined the details of the draft legislation yesterday.
“We said to the Australian people if we were elected we’d get rid of WorkChoices and implement that policy.
“The important thing is we went to the Australian people in the 2007 election with a comprehensive workplace relations policy called Forward with Fairness,” she said.”
She also warned the Senate, where the government does not have the numbers, not to obstruct passage of the legislation.
“And that is precisely what we’re doing, we’re keeping our word to the Australian people.
“Any senator who stands in the way of that legislation becoming law isn’t standing in the way of the Australian Labor Party, they’re standing in the way of the Australian people.
“We are calling on all senators and particularly on the Liberal Party to respect the will of the Australian people,” she said.
“We do think that it’s important that there be able to be bargaining as freely as possible, and bargaining which is appropriate to the circumstances of industries, bargaining which is able to deal with some of the concepts and concerns which workers have,” he said.”
Also speaking to NewsRadio, ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said unions would be pressing the Government for changes.
Mr Lawrence said the Government was retaining too much of the old WorkChoices model on bargaining.
The unions are pressing to be able to include issues such as the implications of climate change for the work place.
And the ACTU is concerned that the new independent umpire, Fair Work Australia, lacks the power to enforce equity in the workplace.
He was also critical of the Government plan to keep the provision that workers be docked a minimum of four hours pay for unauthorised industrial action.
“We’ve also made it clear that there are some parts of some of the aspects that the Deputy Prime Minister addressed yesterday that there needs to be more work,” he said.
Mr Lawrence said unions welcomed the move to restore collective bargaining and a safety net, along with other rights at work.
.The ACTU says it wants more talks with the Federal Government on planned industrial relations changes which will require unions to give notice of strikes and hold secret ballots before taking industrial action.
The changes, which will replace the former Howard Government’s WorkChoices laws, will also allow small businesses to dismiss workers at any time in the first year of employment and thereafter to sack staff after a single warning.
She has told NewsRadio that after an extensive consultative process on the legislation, the only room for change now is on technical details.
Deputy Prime Minister and Industrial Relations Minister Julia Gillard outlined the details of the draft legislation yesterday.
“We said to the Australian people if we were elected we’d get rid of WorkChoices and implement that policy.
“The important thing is we went to the Australian people in the 2007 election with a comprehensive workplace relations policy called Forward with Fairness,” she said.”
She also warned the Senate, where the government does not have the numbers, not to obstruct passage of the legislation.
“And that is precisely what we’re doing, we’re keeping our word to the Australian people.
“Any senator who stands in the way of that legislation becoming law isn’t standing in the way of the Australian Labor Party, they’re standing in the way of the Australian people.
“We are calling on all senators and particularly on the Liberal Party to respect the will of the Australian people,” she said.
“We do think that it’s important that there be able to be bargaining as freely as possible, and bargaining which is appropriate to the circumstances of industries, bargaining which is able to deal with some of the concepts and concerns which workers have,” he said.”
Also speaking to NewsRadio, ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said unions would be pressing the Government for changes.
Mr Lawrence said the Government was retaining too much of the old WorkChoices model on bargaining.
The unions are pressing to be able to include issues such as the implications of climate change for the work place.
And the ACTU is concerned that the new independent umpire, Fair Work Australia, lacks the power to enforce equity in the workplace.
He was also critical of the Government plan to keep the provision that workers be docked a minimum of four hours pay for unauthorised industrial action.
“We’ve also made it clear that there are some parts of some of the aspects that the Deputy Prime Minister addressed yesterday that there needs to be more work,” he said.
Mr Lawrence said unions welcomed the move to restore collective bargaining and a safety net, along with other rights at work.
Tom asked earlier what the “anarchic” disintegration of Lehman Brother’s carbon trading desk — taking place within the broader disintegration of the entire company — means in the bigger picture. And the answer, most likely, …
More here:
The sea-ice melt is to the Arctic as the Wall Street melt is to …
.The new AgForce president will formally take over the top job today as the farming lobby group continues its state conference at Proserpine in north Queensland.
The State Opposition’s agriculture spokesperson, Mike Horan, will today address about 250 delegates on the second and final day of the forum.
Farmers also expressed their anger at the Government’s response to the drought and called for tax incentives to build dams on their land.
Issues involving climate change and research and development were canvassed yesterday, with concerns being voiced over the impact of the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme.
State Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin addressed the meeting yesterday, saying Queensland’s farming sector is set for huge increases in profit.
Peter Kenny will hand over the AgForce presidency to Goomeri cattle producer John Cotter this afternoon during the organisation’s annual general meeting.
But Mr Kenny says governments have failed to make a genuine attempt to discuss the impact and costs of climate change.
“I estimate that agriculture could be worth $34 billion by 2020, it’s currently worth $12 billion,” he said.
.
He called for the industry’s contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to be factored in if it is to be part of an emissions trading scheme in the next decade
“There is good reason to doubt the appropriateness of the current ad hoc, state and local responses to climate change ,” Coglianese says.
View original post here:
Policymaking Under Pressure: The Perils of Incremental Responses …
It is probable that timely and aggressive action to reduce emissions during the next few decades could limit climate change to below that projected under the “lower” emissions scenario. The city of Chicago, with a little less than 3 …
Read more:
Embargoed: Impacts of Climate Change on Chicago Expected to …
15 September 2008: Noting that media interest in climate change issues has been fading since the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ’s Fourth Assessment Report in November 2008, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has …
Originally posted here:
UN Secretary-General Calls for Global Solution to Climate Change …
He recalled the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ’s report, according to which up to 30% of all known species are likely to be at an increased risk of extinction before the end of this century, and outlined …
See original here:
CBD Executive Secretary Underlines Effect of Climate Change on …
The “scientists” (plural) turn out to be one man, a campaigner for WWF who rejoices in the title of “senior climate change advisor” at WWF International’s Arctic Programme.
The programme then moved to the medieval warm period , explaining what it was and accusing sceptics of moving from saying the planet was not warming (when this was disproved by the “facts”) to claiming the warming was nothing unusual in …
Read more from the original source:
‘Earth: The Climate Wars’ – More Bias from the BBC
… diatom deposition in the upper part of the holocene suggests that a major retreat of the amery ice shelf to at least 80 km landward of its present location may have occurred during the mid- holocene climatic optimum . …
Read the original:
questionable claims by "co2 science"
“Such an event would not be unprecedented, since during a famous episode from 1645-1715, known as the Maunder Minimum …” That solar cycle “was shown to correspond with the reduced average global temperatures on the Earth. …
See more here:
A Spotless Sun … by Alan Caruba
The false start announced last year for the new Solar Cycle 24 has been followed up with speculation of things like ‘double dip’ minima and even a new ice age for sunspots.
Read the original post:
Solar Cycle 24 where are you?
More than 65pc of Australian agricultural businesses say they have perceived a change in the climate and 62pc say the change is affecting their operations, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. …
Read the rest here:
Australia: Climate change already altering farm practices
This work represented a big advance in that it used extensive data from the paleoclimatic record — that is, hard evidence from studies of what climates were like tens of millions of years ago, when greenhouse gas levels were much higher …
Excerpt from:
How to crash a planet: Just follow Garnaut
I will add that I do not find the evidence for a medieval warm period given in the later half of the paper particularly convincing. I think there was a medieval warm period , but I am not convinced by the examples and methods he …
The rest is here:
Questionable behaviour by the global warming alarmists
.Scientists and graziers have met in Longreach, in central western Queensland, to develop a five-year action plan for the Lake Eyre Basin.
The basin covers more than a million square kilometres of Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia, or about one-sixth of the continent.
Professor Stuart Bunn from the Australian Rivers Institute says the crisis in the Murray-Darling system has highlighted the importance of careful planning.
It is also regarded as being home to some of the world’s most undisturbed ecosystems.
“The Lake Eyre Basin is nowhere close to that.
“You can see the tremendous environmental, social and economic costs associated with that kind of degradation, so big lesson to learn from that one,” he said.”
Scientists says more waterbirds are taking refuge in the wetlands of the basin as the condition of the neighbouring Murray-Darling worsens. What you see with the Lake Eyre Basin is that with some careful planning and a modest investment you could go a long way to make sure that never happened here.
“Most of the wetland areas that would sustain birds in the Murray-Darling Basin are really stressed at the moment.
Professor Bunn says environmental damage and climate change are forcing waterbirds to move further inland for breeding.
“Birds that are migrating backwards and forwards are going to become more and more dependent on these undisturbed wetland systems. As they become more degraded, it puts more emphasis on the use of wetlands in the Lake Eyre Basin so they become even more important,” he said.”
.The Federal Government’s proposed emissions trading scheme will be one of the main issues discussed at the AgForce state conference in north Queensland earlier today.
A total of 250 delegates will attend the two-day event in Proserpine, including federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke and Queensland Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherin.
“The ramifications could be significant,” he said.
Brett de Hayr, the chief executive officer of rural lobby group AgForce, says many farmers are concerned about what will happen if agriculture is included in an emissions trading scheme.
“We’ve got to deal with the practicalities of climate change and hopefully the politics won’t strangle us at the same time.
“The modelling that we’ve seen shows that it could decrease people’s profit margins by over 100 per cent in some cases, so that’s why AgForce, with the signals from its members, is certainly opposing having agriculture as a covered sector.
He says the meeting will also focus on new technologies to help ensure the future of local food production.”
Mr Hayr says they will discuss challenges including fuel prices and ways to better support farming families.
“You put on top of that factors such as climate change and drought and the pressure on food production is increasing worldwide – and Australia is well placed to capitalise on that .
“We’ve got competition for land from urban development, from the resources sector,” he said…. as long as we can stay ahead of other developments and agriculture has shown a propensity to be able to do . that..”
for anyone into natural disasters, paleoclimatology , paleo-indians, and… okay, just say anything “paleo”. this is an intriguing theory.
Read the original here:
the clovis comet~
The funny thing is that the Maunder minimum corresponded to a time of very cold temperatures in Europe; it was the time of the so-called “little ice age”. The effect of sunspots on the earth is to change the amount of cosmic radiation ..
Read the original here:
The image of the Sun
.Ousted Liberal leader Brendan Nelson has stood by his decision to hold a leadership spill and has pledged to get behind the newly-elected Malcolm Turnbull.
At a media conference with his wife at his side, the at times emotional Dr Nelson also said he would not seek or accept a position on the frontbench.
“In my very strong view it was the right thing to do.
Dr Nelson lost a leadership ballot to Mr Turnbull 45 votes to 41 but he stood by his shock decision to call the vote.
Dr Nelson congratulated Mr Turnbull and said the party had to get behind the new leadership team. I deal with things on my terms,” he said.
“All of us need to get behind Malcolm Turnbull, [deputy leader] Julie Bishop, and the leadership team.
“There is absolutely no question, I will do everything I possibly can to support a change of government in 2010,” he said.
“I think it’s important in life that you stand up to the plate, you take on responsibilities,” he said.”
Dr Nelson said he had no regrets about taking on the leadership after last year’s election loss.
Dr Nelson also stood by his call yesterday to take a tougher stance against the Government’s emission’s trading scheme.
When asked if he received enough support from Mr Turnbull and others in his party during his leadership Dr Nelson said: “I believe so”.
“I can only repeat to you what I said to my colleagues last night and that is that in my view we need to take a stronger line in defending and protecting Australia’s national economic interests in relation to climate change,” he said.
.Ousted Liberal leader Brendan Nelson has stood by his decision to hold a leadership spill and has pledged to get behind the newly-elected Malcolm Turnbull.
At a media conference with his wife at his side, the at times emotional Dr Nelson also said he would not seek or accept a position on the frontbench.
“In my very strong view it was the right thing to do.
Dr Nelson lost a leadership ballot to Mr Turnbull 45 votes to 41 but he stood by his shock decision to call the vote.
Dr Nelson congratulated Mr Turnbull and said the party had to get behind the new leadership team. I deal with things on my terms,” he said.
“All of us need to get behind Malcolm Turnbull, [deputy leader] Julie Bishop, and the leadership team.
“There is absolutely no question, I will do everything I possibly can to support a change of government in 2010,” he said.
“I think it’s important in life that you stand up to the plate, you take on responsibilities,” he said.”
Dr Nelson said he had no regrets about taking on the leadership after last year’s election loss.
Dr Nelson also stood by his call yesterday to take a tougher stance against the Government’s emission’s trading scheme.
When asked if he received enough support from Mr Turnbull and others in his party during his leadership Dr Nelson said: “I believe so”.
“I can only repeat to you what I said to my colleagues last night and that is that in my view we need to take a stronger line in defending and protecting Australia’s national economic interests in relation to climate change,” he said.
.Malcolm Turnbull says he is “humbled” to take the reins of the Liberal Party after beating Brendan Nelson in this morning’s leadership spill.
Mr Turnbull fronted a Parliament House press conference after beating Dr Nelson 45 to 41 in this morning’s vote.
“Ours is a great party, a party whose values are as important to the prosperity and security of Australia in the years to come as they have been in years gone by,” he said.
He paid tribute to Dr Nelson, pledging to restore unity to the Liberals and sell their values to the Australian electorate, and described Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as vain. Australia and Australians can do anything.
“This is a land of opportunity.”
Mr Turnbull said he had offered Dr Nelson a frontbench role but said the vanquished former leader had told him he intended to go to the backbenches.
“But we need to have confidence, we need to have leadership, we need to have the opportunity to do well.
And Mr Turnbull wasted no time in taking aim at the Federal Government’s emission trading scheme, saying he would hold Mr Rudd accountable for his climate change plan.
“Brendan has led the party through very difficult times, he’s done that very well and we owe him a great debt of gratitude,” he said.
“We believe that Government’s role is to enable each and every Australian to do their best,” he said.
Mr Turnbull says the Opposition still supports a 5 cent cut in the petrol excise and will also continue to oppose the raising of the Medicare levy surcharge threshold. We are not so vain as Mr Rudd.
“Labor believes Government knows best.
“All of our policies, in light of our policy development work and in the light of political and other events and international events, [will be reviewed].”
He also says the Opposition’s position on an emissions trading scheme remains the same, but has also signalled policies will go under review.
“I know what it’s like to be very short of money,” he said.”
The multi-millionaire from Sydney’s north shore stressed his humble beginnings.”
Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop congratulated Mr Turnbull and said she was excited about working with him. “I know what it’s like to live in rented flats, I know what it’s like to grow up with a single parent – with no support other than a devoted and loyal father. “His life story represents the values of the Liberal Party – reward for effort, hard work and enterprise.
“Our party will be well served by Malcolm’s intellect and energy and vision,” she said.
“On behalf of the party I thank Brendan Nelson for leadership over the past nine months,” she said.”
Ms Bishop also thanked Dr Nelson for his leadership.
“Malcolm will provide a strong and credible alternative to the weak and ineffective Kevin Rudd,” she said.
“Malcolm will provide a strong and credible alternative to the weak and ineffective Kevin Rudd,” she said. “I’m looking forward to taking the game up to Labor.”
.Malcolm Turnbull says he is “humbled” to take the reins of the Liberal Party after beating Brendan Nelson in this morning’s leadership spill.
Mr Turnbull fronted a Parliament House press conference after beating Dr Nelson 45 to 41 in this morning’s vote.
“Ours is a great party, a party whose values are as important to the prosperity and security of Australia in the years to come as they have been in years gone by,” he said.
He paid tribute to Dr Nelson, pledging to restore unity to the Liberals and sell their values to the Australian electorate, and described Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as vain. Australia and Australians can do anything.
“This is a land of opportunity.”
Mr Turnbull said he had offered Dr Nelson a frontbench role but said the vanquished former leader had told him he intended to go to the backbenches.
“But we need to have confidence, we need to have leadership, we need to have the opportunity to do well.
And Mr Turnbull wasted no time in taking aim at the Federal Government’s emission trading scheme, saying he would hold Mr Rudd accountable for his climate change plan.
“Brendan has led the party through very difficult times, he’s done that very well and we owe him a great debt of gratitude,” he said.
“We believe that Government’s role is to enable each and every Australian to do their best,” he said.
Mr Turnbull says the Opposition still supports a 5 cent cut in the petrol excise and will also continue to oppose the raising of the Medicare levy surcharge threshold. We are not so vain as Mr Rudd.
“Labor believes Government knows best.
“All of our policies, in light of our policy development work and in the light of political and other events and international events, [will be reviewed].”
He also says the Opposition’s position on an emissions trading scheme remains the same, but has also signalled policies will go under review.
“I know what it’s like to be very short of money,” he said.”
The multi-millionaire from Sydney’s north shore stressed his humble beginnings.”
Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop congratulated Mr Turnbull and said she was excited about working with him. “I know what it’s like to live in rented flats, I know what it’s like to grow up with a single parent – with no support other than a devoted and loyal father. “His life story represents the values of the Liberal Party – reward for effort, hard work and enterprise.
“Our party will be well served by Malcolm’s intellect and energy and vision,” she said.
“On behalf of the party I thank Brendan Nelson for leadership over the past nine months,” she said.”
Ms Bishop also thanked Dr Nelson for his leadership.
“Malcolm will provide a strong and credible alternative to the weak and ineffective Kevin Rudd,” she said.
“Malcolm will provide a strong and credible alternative to the weak and ineffective Kevin Rudd,” she said. “I’m looking forward to taking the game up to Labor.”
… known to history as the medieval warming period when greenland supported viking farms, the roman warming period, and the holocene climatic optimum , when suvs and coal-fired electric plants were notably thin on the ground. ..
Go here to see the original:
global warming: silencing the critics
First the science- paleoclimatology to be precise:. Recent short-term gains in Arctic ice coverage indicate nothing about the eventual state of the Arctic
Original post:
When Meltdowns are a Good Thing
.Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson’s supporters have lashed out at the backers of his rival, Malcolm Turnbull, as the two sides lobby before for this morning’s vote on the future of the Liberal leadership.
Dr Nelson adopted surprise tactics and announced the leadership spill without even warning even his deputy, Julie Bishop.
Dr Nelson has also changed his policy on an emissions trading scheme and he says he is confident.
He says if he wins there will be a reshuffle and some will be dumped.
Dr Nelson has the most vocal support including the Senate leader Nick Minchin.
Last November Dr Nelson won with 45 votes to 42 and Mr Turnbull’s camp says this vote will be very close as well.
Dr Nelson’s camp also includes frontbencher Bob Baldwin, who says the leader has been white anted.
“I think he’s done an outstanding job in the nine months that he has been our leader,” he said.
“If those who have been running around and undermining him put the effort in to running forward with the team instead of holding it back we would be much further advanced as a liberal party and an alternative government.
“I think that Brendan first and foremost hasn’t been given a fair go by some of our colleagues who have sought to undermine his authority as leader,” he said.
“I thought it was one of the most inspiring leadership speeches I have ever heard,” he said.”
Mr Baldwin says Dr Nelson gave a rousing and spirited defence of his leadership when he called his MPs together.
“It was a great speech.
“He laid it clearly on the table he talked about the new direction he wanted to take the Liberal party, our responsibility not only to party members but indeed to the people we represent out in the community. He has told the they that Dr Nelson is right to change the Coalition’s approach to dealing with climate change.”
Liberal frontbencher Bruce Billson is also a strong backer of Dr Nelson.
“No-one will thank a government of Australia for crippling the Australian economy to address the climate change objective that changes nothing in the atmosphere.
“Brendan’s made it clear that we’re going to take a leadership role in tackling climate change but we’re not going to junk the economy along the way,” he said.
“It’s going to clear it up once and for all isn’t it?” she said.”
Victorian Fran Bailey says Dr Nelson’s surprise move to call on the vote will be cathartic.
Speculation about Mr Turnbull making a move on Dr Nelson’s position as Opposition Leader has increased since former treasurer Peter Costello confirmed he did not want the leadership.
But Mr Turnbull’s backers say Dr Nelson’s surprise tactic could backfire on him.
.Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson’s supporters have lashed out at the backers of his rival, Malcolm Turnbull, as the two sides lobby before for this morning’s vote on the future of the Liberal leadership.
Dr Nelson adopted surprise tactics and announced the leadership spill without even warning even his deputy, Julie Bishop.
Dr Nelson has also changed his policy on an emissions trading scheme and he says he is confident.
He says if he wins there will be a reshuffle and some will be dumped.
Dr Nelson has the most vocal support including the Senate leader Nick Minchin.
Last November Dr Nelson won with 45 votes to 42 and Mr Turnbull’s camp says this vote will be very close as well.
Dr Nelson’s camp also includes frontbencher Bob Baldwin, who says the leader has been white anted.
“I think he’s done an outstanding job in the nine months that he has been our leader,” he said.
“If those who have been running around and undermining him put the effort in to running forward with the team instead of holding it back we would be much further advanced as a liberal party and an alternative government.
“I think that Brendan first and foremost hasn’t been given a fair go by some of our colleagues who have sought to undermine his authority as leader,” he said.
“I thought it was one of the most inspiring leadership speeches I have ever heard,” he said.”
Mr Baldwin says Dr Nelson gave a rousing and spirited defence of his leadership when he called his MPs together.
“It was a great speech.
“He laid it clearly on the table he talked about the new direction he wanted to take the Liberal party, our responsibility not only to party members but indeed to the people we represent out in the community. He has told the they that Dr Nelson is right to change the Coalition’s approach to dealing with climate change.”
Liberal frontbencher Bruce Billson is also a strong backer of Dr Nelson.
“No-one will thank a government of Australia for crippling the Australian economy to address the climate change objective that changes nothing in the atmosphere.
“Brendan’s made it clear that we’re going to take a leadership role in tackling climate change but we’re not going to junk the economy along the way,” he said.
“It’s going to clear it up once and for all isn’t it?” she said.”
Victorian Fran Bailey says Dr Nelson’s surprise move to call on the vote will be cathartic.
Speculation about Mr Turnbull making a move on Dr Nelson’s position as Opposition Leader has increased since former treasurer Peter Costello confirmed he did not want the leadership.
But Mr Turnbull’s backers say Dr Nelson’s surprise tactic could backfire on him.
.
THE NSW Aboriginal Land Council has staked a land rights claim
for North Head, one of Sydney’s dearest pieces of real estate.
“To our knowledge the area is not being used currently and that
makes it available for claim,” the council’s chief executive, Geoff
Scott, said.
Most of the land is part of the Sydney Harbour National Park,
although the Department of Environment and Climate Change has
leased the old quarantine station to a private company to run as a
resort for 21 years.
A spokesman for the council said it is claiming all the land
from Manly Hospital to the headland.
The headland also houses one of Sydney Water’s sewage treatment
works and outfalls.
The old artillery school has been taken over by the Sydney
Harbour Trust, which is restoring the buildings and has plans to
make the site a wildlife reserve.
Alex Tibbitts
.
A 2001 report commissioned by the National Parks and Wildlife
Service and done by archeological services company Darwala-Lia
concluded that North Head was a unique place of great Aboriginal
significance and association
.
THE NSW Aboriginal Land Council has staked a land rights claim
for North Head, one of Sydney’s dearest pieces of real estate.
“To our knowledge the area is not being used currently and that
makes it available for claim,” the council’s chief executive, Geoff
Scott, said.
Most of the land is part of the Sydney Harbour National Park,
although the Department of Environment and Climate Change has
leased the old quarantine station to a private company to run as a
resort for 21 years.
A spokesperson for the council said it is claiming all the land
from Manly Hospital to the headland.
The headland also houses one of Sydney Water’s sewage treatment
works and outfalls.
The old artillery school has been taken over by the Sydney
Harbour Trust, which is restoring the buildings and has plans to
make the site a wildlife reserve.
Alex Tibbitts
.
A 2001 report commissioned by the National Parks and Wildlife
Service and done by archeological services company Darwala-Lia
concluded that North Head was a unique place of great Aboriginal
significance and association
.The grocery sector is warning of large job losses if the Federal Government adopts the price structure recommended for its carbon emissions trading scheme.
The Government’s climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut is suggesting a carbon starting price of $20 a tonne.
And it says a higher price will see Australian jobs lost as consumers switch to buying imported food produced in countries with no carbon price scheme.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council is calling for a price of less than half that.
“Five per cent’s a lot on a can of tomatoes, especially if it’s right across your whole grocery bill,” she said.
Grocery Council chief executive Kate Carnell says import tariffs should otherwise be increased or grocery prices will rise by around 5 per cent and local jobs will be lost.”
Ms Carnell says the industry risks losing its competitive edge.
“Unfortunately we think they’ll go for that lower price and that 5 per cent increase of just Australian manufactured goods will really push purchasing offshore [with people buying] imported products.
“Imports have no impost one them so Australians, unfortunately, will probably go for the lower prices, particularly because they’re under a bit of financial stress at the moment.
“Not all food and grocery prices will go up, just the ones manufactured in Australia.
“Australian products will lose market share and that means jobs will go.”
.The grocery sector is warning of large job losses if the Federal Government adopts the price structure recommended for its carbon emissions trading scheme.
The Government’s climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut is suggesting a carbon starting price of $20 a tonne.
And it says a higher price will see Australian jobs lost as consumers switch to buying imported food produced in countries with no carbon price scheme.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council is calling for a price of less than half that.
“Five per cent’s a lot on a can of tomatoes, especially if it’s right across your whole grocery bill,” she said.
Grocery Council chief executive Kate Carnell says import tariffs should otherwise be increased or grocery prices will rise by around 5 per cent and local jobs will be lost.”
Ms Carnell says the industry risks losing its competitive edge.
“Unfortunately we think they’ll go for that lower price and that 5 per cent increase of just Australian manufactured goods will really push purchasing offshore [with people buying] imported products.
“Imports have no impost one them so Australians, unfortunately, will probably go for the lower prices, particularly because they’re under a bit of financial stress at the moment.
“Not all food and grocery prices will go up, just the ones manufactured in Australia.
“Australian products will lose market share and that means jobs will go.”
.
LABOR’s battering at the weekend local government elections is
expected be repeated next month when voters go the polls in four
byelections, with senior ALP strategists warning that even its
safest seats are under threat.
With the stench of the Wollongong corruption scandal, developer
donations and the State Government’s radical planning reforms
believed to be the main reasons for the ALP’s fall from favour, the
Premier, Nathan Rees, said voters had sent a clear message to his
Government. “I’m apologising for having put
our local councils in a position where anger at the last 18 months
was visited on them yesterday.
“I apologise to them for the last 18 months for this
Government’s performance,” he said. I think Lakemba and Cabramatta
will be difficult as well.
“I’ve said previously I think we’re going to have a really
uphill task in [the seat of] Ryde.”
Labor’s wall-to-wall reign across Australia ended yesterday when
the West Australian Nationals opted to form a coalition Government
with the state Liberals, bringing to an end a run of 17 electoral
defeats for state Liberal parties in the past 10 years. People gave us a dose of medicine
yesterday and I suspect we’re going to get another dose in the
byelections.
The ALP’s performance was so disastrous it lost councillors in
areas once thought impregnable.
But NSW could be another Labor domino to fall in 2011 if the
sharp swings recorded against it in many of its heartland council
areas on Saturday are repeated, as some in the party fear.
Its failure in the once blue-collar heart of Sydney spells
almost-certain disaster for the party in the seat of Balmain when
the Government goes to the polls.
As of last night, it looked certain the party had failed to win
even one council spot in Leichhardt’s Balmain ward, the birthplace
of NSW Labor.
“They say that Balmain boys don’t cry, well today they certainly
do.
“Twenty years ago, the ALP had all the councillors in the
Balmain ward, and now they have got none,” said Greens Leichhardt
councillor Jamie Parker.”
The swing against Labor was not confined to its former
stronghold in Sydney’s inner-west. On these numbers [ALP member and Education Minister] Verity
Firth is in real trouble.
The next state election should not be seen as a contest between
Labor and Liberal, said the ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green. Voters delivered a stinging
rebuke to the Government across the state, including in the Hunter
and Parramatta.
“If those votes were repeated at the next state election, the
result would look like Saturday’s local government polls, Labor
hemorrhaging support in its own safe seats … as it tries to
fend off the Coalition in traditional marginal seats,” he said.
He said recent polls showed Labor’s primary vote falling to the low
30s, and votes for the Greens and “Others” at about 25 per
cent.”
The Greens and the Liberal Party fielded record numbers of
candidates on Saturday, hoping to cash in on voter discontent.
“Saturday’s local government elections may be dismissed as
sideshows, but if Labor’s primary vote continues to hover around 30
per cent, the sideshow may return as the main feature in 2011.
“We attribute this not simply to a backlash against Labor,
although that has undoubtedly been severe, particularly in Labor’s
heartland, but also to the Greens’ consistent policies relating to
a ban on developer donations, consistent opposition to the changes
to the planning laws … a commitment to climate change and to
working on that at the local level,” said Greens MLC Sylvia
Hale.
Having already made strong inroads in once tightly held Labor
areas such as the inner-west, the Greens representation on councils
increased 25 per cent, including 10 which have a Greens presence
for the first time.
The Greens took more than 40 per cent of the primary vote in
Leichhardt and Marrickville, and expectsits first councillors in
Canterbury, Burwood, Wyong, Yass and Armidale.
The Greens took more than 40 per cent of the primary vote in
Leichhardt and Marrickville, and expectsits first councillors in
Canterbury, Burwood, Wyong, Yass and Armidale.
One of its surprise wins was in ALP-dominated Hurstville. A
local resident, Anne Wagstaff, had battled for years to draw
attention to what she believed was serious overdevelopment in the
south-western suburbs. Out of frustration, she decided to stand as
a Greens candidate.
“I thought no one was listening but I was wrong about people
being apathetic,” said Ms Wagstaff, whose Greens group had at last
count won 20 per cent of the vote in the Peakhurst ward, giving her
a seat on the council.
The Liberals’ push also paid off. The number of Liberal
councillors increased 30 per cent from 100 to 130, said the
Opposition Leader, Barry O’Farrell.
“That is everything from Baulkham Hills where we might get nine
of the 12 council seats, to Holroyd [a 32.4 per cent swing], where
we have run for the first time and have got up four councillors,”
he said.
Swings to the Liberals included 55 per cent in Baulkham Hills
and 33.5 per cent in Ryde, where a byelection will be held next
month after the departure of the former deputy premier, John
Watkins.
The Liberals made ground in Parramatta, Fairfield, Campbelltown
and Randwick. In the former ALP stronghold, the Hunter,
independents entrenched their positions in Maitland, Cessnock and
Newcastle.
A senior Government source said Labor’s general secretary, Karl
Bitar, had told the party’s administrative committee on Friday that
he was preparing for the unthinkable – losing Lakemba, Labor’s
safest state seat with a margin of 34 per cent. It is held by
former premier Morris Iemma who has signalled he will soon
quit.
Mr O’Farrell scoffed at the suggestion, saying there was no
precedent in a byelection for such a huge swing against the
incumbent party.
He said Labor was likely to be damaged but not defeated in its
second safest seat, Cabramatta, held by dumped health minister Reba
Meagher.
In a sign of the breakdown inside the Government, Ms Meagher
issued her resignation statement on Saturday before speaking to Mr
Rees.
A senior Labor strategist said the party had ruled out winning
Ryde, and feared a backlash against Ms Meagher – who lives in
Coogee, far from her western suburbs electorate – could cost them
that seat as well.
A list being circulated of MPs considering quitting politics
included Frank Sartor, Matt Brown, and Noreen Hay, which would
prompt more potentially damaging byelections.
Polar Bears also survived the Holocene Climatic Optimum 5-7000 years ago, during which it was a full 1 degree C warmer than today. Therefore, Polar Bears are not threatened with extinction by the climatic conditions of today. ..
Read more from the original source:
WWF: Melting Arctic adds urgency to climate deal
This legitimate and vociferous scientific debate focuses not on the current warming trend, which seems accepted by all participants, but on the degree and extent of warming during the ” Medieval Warm Period ” which affected Europe between …
See original here:
while some folks play hockey…
This work represented a big advance in that it used extensive data from the paleoclimatic record — that is, hard evidence from studies of what climates were like tens of millions of years ago, when greenhouse gas levels were much higher …
Excerpt from:
Proposed ‘soft targets’ ignore the real dangers of climate change
2008 Cape Farewell Expedition Blog » Blog Archive » Greenland Landings. I am part of the biogeography group (the study of plant and animal life) and what we have been doing is estimating the abundance of each species. ..
View post:
But how did the reindeer survive the Medieval Warm period?
just to point out that there are still no sunspots – it has been 6 weeks now since august started, and no solar cycle 23 sunspots have appeared in august and september – which is good, in a certain way.
Here is the original:
comment on solar cycle 24 has officially started by robert a. cook, pe
… and no solar cycle 23 sunspots have appeared in August and September – which is good, in a certain way. At least cycle 23 is (possibly) over, so solar cycle 24 can begin thinking about beginning to start beginning. …
The rest is here:
Comment on Solar Cycle 24 has officially started by Robert A. Cook, PE
.Voting in the state’s local government elections is underway, with 4.5 million people expected to go to the polls.
The New South Wales Electoral Commission will conduct more than 300 individual elections in 223 wards and 86 undivided council areas.
Polling booths will be open until 6:00pm AEST.
Premier Nathan Rees has admitted Labor will struggle to retain the majorities it has on many of the state’s local councils.
The poll will also include 29 mayoral elections.
“I said last Friday that the people of New South Wales are entitled to feel disappointed and frustrated and angry with us and they are and that won’t dissipate quickly.
“Look I’m under no illusions about where we are in terms of our popular stocks at the present,” he said.
election analyst Antony Green says Labor’s performance in today’s elections may offer some valuable insight into voter behaviour at the next State election.”
Some political analysts are forecasting a backlash against Labor over political donations, the State Government’s electricity privatisation plans and changes to planning laws.
Mr Green says he will be looking for two key trends in today’s ballot.
“The main thing you’d be looking for is whether Labor is being clobbered in areas which at the next state election are within marginal seats,” he said.
“But also those old heartland Labor areas in the inner city of Sydney and in the Hunter Valley, to see whether Labor is losing votes to the Greens, particularly in reaction to the privatisation of electricity.
“Whether in some of the outer-suburban marginal seats at state elections, the councils in those areas, whether the Liberal Party are picking up votes from Labor,” he said.
State Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell says the council elections enable voters to give New South Wales Labor a mid-term report card.”
The Liberals and the Greens say they are hoping the State Government’s declining popularity will bring them significant gains in today’s elections.
The Greens’ Local Government spokeswoman, Sylvia Hale agrees there will be a backlash against Labor, but says voters are sceptical about the Liberals too.
“A message that says lift your game, start focusing on the public and stop focusing on yourself,” he said.
– Referendums -
The NSW Electoral Commission’s Adrian Kerr says some voters will have extra responsibilities.
“They are incredibly riven by factional differences, but one must remember that the Liberals are equally divided,” she said.”
The referendum questions range from reducing the number of councillors, to popularly electing their mayor, abolishing wards, or in the City of Sydney’s case introducing new wards.
“We’ll conduct referendums and poll questions in 22 council areas and a good reminder that voting in a referendum is compulsory.
Voting in council elections is compulsory in New South Wales.
Poll questions will canvass support for local governments being proclaimed as cities, a climate change levy, and including local government in the Australian Constitution.
.Voting in the state’s local government elections is underway, with 4.5 million people expected to go to the polls.
The New South Wales Electoral Commission will conduct more than 300 individual elections in 223 wards and 86 undivided council areas.
Polling booths will be open until 6:00pm AEST.
Premier Nathan Rees has admitted Labor will struggle to retain the majorities it has on many of the state’s local councils.
The poll will also include 29 mayoral elections.
“I said last Friday that the people of New South Wales are entitled to feel disappointed and frustrated and angry with us and they are and that won’t dissipate quickly.
“Look I’m under no illusions about where we are in terms of our popular stocks at the present,” he said.
election analyst Antony Green says Labor’s performance in today’s elections may offer some valuable insight into voter behaviour at the next State election.”
Some political analysts are forecasting a backlash against Labor over political donations, the State Government’s electricity privatisation plans and changes to planning laws.
Mr Green says he will be looking for two key trends in today’s ballot.
“The main thing you’d be looking for is whether Labor is being clobbered in areas which at the next state election are within marginal seats,” he said.
“But also those old heartland Labor areas in the inner city of Sydney and in the Hunter Valley, to see whether Labor is losing votes to the Greens, particularly in reaction to the privatisation of electricity.
“Whether in some of the outer-suburban marginal seats at state elections, the councils in those areas, whether the Liberal Party are picking up votes from Labor,” he said.
State Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell says the council elections enable voters to give New South Wales Labor a mid-term report card.”
The Liberals and the Greens say they are hoping the State Government’s declining popularity will bring them significant gains in today’s elections.
The Greens’ Local Government spokeswoman, Sylvia Hale agrees there will be a backlash against Labor, but says voters are sceptical about the Liberals too.
“A message that says lift your game, start focusing on the public and stop focusing on yourself,” he said.
– Referendums -
The NSW Electoral Commission’s Adrian Kerr says some voters will have extra responsibilities.
“They are incredibly riven by factional differences, but one must remember that the Liberals are equally divided,” she said.”
The referendum questions range from reducing the number of councillors, to popularly electing their mayor, abolishing wards, or in the City of Sydney’s case introducing new wards.
“We’ll conduct referendums and poll questions in 22 council areas and a good reminder that voting in a referendum is compulsory.
Voting in council elections is compulsory in New South Wales.
Poll questions will canvass support for local governments being proclaimed as cities, a climate change levy, and including local government in the Australian Constitution.
Unfortunately, the Medieval Warm Period pre-dated direct observation of sun spots, but for about 100 years (beginning in 1609), sun spots were rare (the Maunder Minimum ) and global climate was icy. Virtually all scientists now accept a …
Here is the original:
Please keep me posted if there's more confirming evidence of the …
.
PETER COSTELLO has taken aim at leadership aspirant Malcolm Turnbull, claiming he is economically irresponsible and insinuating he was behind the leaking of cabinet details to save his seat of Wentworth at last year’s election. And he has also exposed "Howard loyalist" Tony Abbott for twice promising to help him take the leadership. Dr Nelson dug his heels in yesterday, calling for discipline and vowing to take the party to the next election. Following Mr Costello’s declaration in yesterday’s Herald that he would not be seeking the leadership, attention shifted to when Mr Turnbull would supplant Brendan Nelson as Opposition leader. In his memoirs, extracts of which will be published exclusively in the Herald from tomorrow, Mr Costello recounts how in 2005 Mr Turnbull released 274 different tax combinations. But his support base has crumbled and, barring a sudden turnaround in the polls, a spill within weeks is almost certain. "He did not promote any particular one but he gave the impression that whatever we had done, it wasn’t enough," Mr Costello writes. Mr Costello had just cut taxes for the third successive year in his budget and he accuses Mr Turnbull of undermining his work with his tax options. "He understood this point and agreed with it as a backbencher. He says he told Mr Turnbull that the best way to cut tax was to restrict spending but alleges Mr Turnbull forgot this lesson when he became a minister." Mr Costello also took issue with a damaging leak during the election campaign that Mr Turnbull, as environment minister, had argued in cabinet to ratify the Kyoto protocol. Later in that term, when he became a minister in charge of expenditure programs, he produced an array of them. "It may have been thought that if it was known that Turnbull supported the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, it would help him in Wentworth," Mr Costello writes. Mr Turnbull was under assault over the environment in his eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth and Labor was campaigning favourably on Kyoto and climate change." Mr Costello also exposes Tony Abbott, long regarded as an absolute Howard loyalist, by revealing he promised to help push Mr Howard out after the 2004 election. "The story was counterproductive because it switched the campaign to environmental issues, where Labor had a strong lead. Mr Costello had just publicly accepted a recent declaration from Mr Howard that he would be staying on to contest the 2004 election. Mr Costello says that in June 2003, there was a meeting in Joe Hockey’s ministerial office with three other colleagues, including Mr Abbott. He says Mr Abbott assured him Mr Howard would stand down after the 2004 election. "Howard loyalist Abbott made a point of telling me how much the party had respected the decision I had made," he writes. But he writes that Mr Abbott promised that if Mr Howard refused to go, "a few of us will go and see him". Mr Costello was sceptical." A year ago, when Coalition ministers met during the APEC summit to discuss replacing Mr Howard, Mr Abbott briefly favoured a change and asked Mr Costello whether he was prepared to take over. "He’ll do the right thing." Mr Abbott then changed his mind and once more fell in behind Mr Howard." Mr Abbott then changed his mind and once more fell in behind Mr Howard. Mr Turnbull is not pushing for an immediate spill but others are. Party hardheads believe there is no rush and that Dr Nelson deserved another month or so to operate in "clean air" without the spectre of Mr Costello looming over him. "There’s no doubt the speculation about the possibility of Peter remaining in Parliament and putting his hand up to be leader has not been helpful for Brendan," the senior frontbencher Nick Minchin said yesterday.
.
PETER COSTELLO has taken aim at leadership aspirant Malcolm Turnbull, claiming he is economically irresponsible and insinuating he was behind the leaking of cabinet details to save his seat of Wentworth at last year’s election. And he has also exposed "Howard loyalist" Tony Abbott for twice promising to help him take the leadership. Dr Nelson dug his heels in yesterday, calling for discipline and vowing to take the party to the next election. Following Mr Costello’s declaration in yesterday’s Herald that he would not be seeking the leadership, attention shifted to when Mr Turnbull would supplant Brendan Nelson as Opposition leader. In his memoirs, extracts of which will be published exclusively in the Herald from tomorrow, Mr Costello recounts how in 2005 Mr Turnbull released 274 different tax combinations. But his support base has crumbled and, barring a sudden turnaround in the polls, a spill within weeks is almost certain. "He did not promote any particular one but he gave the impression that whatever we had done, it wasn’t enough," Mr Costello writes. Mr Costello had just cut taxes for the third successive year in his budget and he accuses Mr Turnbull of undermining his work with his tax options. "He understood this point and agreed with it as a backbencher. He says he told Mr Turnbull that the best way to cut tax was to restrict spending but alleges Mr Turnbull forgot this lesson when he became a minister." Mr Costello also took issue with a damaging leak during the election campaign that Mr Turnbull, as environment minister, had argued in cabinet to ratify the Kyoto protocol. Later in that term, when he became a minister in charge of expenditure programs, he produced an array of them. "It may have been thought that if it was known that Turnbull supported the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, it would help him in Wentworth," Mr Costello writes. Mr Turnbull was under assault over the environment in his eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth and Labor was campaigning favourably on Kyoto and climate change." Mr Costello also exposes Tony Abbott, long regarded as an absolute Howard loyalist, by revealing he promised to help push Mr Howard out after the 2004 election. "The story was counterproductive because it switched the campaign to environmental issues, where Labor had a strong lead. Mr Costello had just publicly accepted a recent declaration from Mr Howard that he would be staying on to contest the 2004 election. Mr Costello says that in June 2003, there was a meeting in Joe Hockey’s ministerial office with three other colleagues, including Mr Abbott. He says Mr Abbott assured him Mr Howard would stand down after the 2004 election. "Howard loyalist Abbott made a point of telling me how much the party had respected the decision I had made," he writes. But he writes that Mr Abbott promised that if Mr Howard refused to go, "a few of us will go and see him". Mr Costello was sceptical." A year ago, when Coalition ministers met during the APEC summit to discuss replacing Mr Howard, Mr Abbott briefly favoured a change and asked Mr Costello whether he was prepared to take over. "He’ll do the right thing." Mr Abbott then changed his mind and once more fell in behind Mr Howard." Mr Abbott then changed his mind and once more fell in behind Mr Howard. Mr Turnbull is not pushing for an immediate spill but others are. Party hardheads believe there is no rush and that Dr Nelson deserved another month or so to operate in "clean air" without the spectre of Mr Costello looming over him. "There’s no doubt the speculation about the possibility of Peter remaining in Parliament and putting his hand up to be leader has not been helpful for Brendan," the senior frontbencher Nick Minchin said yesterday.
Professor King’s research interests include geomagnetism, paleomagnetism, environmental magnetism, sedimentology, paleoclimatic studies, trace metal geochemistry, pollution studies, and sediment core logging. …
Original post:
Sunday 9/14 – What is the Future of RI's Coast?
.
PETER COSTELLO has taken aim at leadership aspirant Malcolm Turnbull, claiming he is economically irresponsible and insinuating he was behind the leaking of cabinet details to save his seat of Wentworth at last year’s election. And he has also exposed "Howard loyalist" Tony Abbott for twice promising to help him take the leadership. Dr Nelson dug his heels in yesterday, calling for discipline and vowing to take the party to the next election. Following Mr Costello’s declaration in yesterday’s Herald that he would not be seeking the leadership, attention shifted to when Mr Turnbull would supplant Brendan Nelson as Opposition leader. In his memoirs, extracts of which will be published exclusively in the Herald from tomorrow, Mr Costello recounts how in 2005 Mr Turnbull released 274 different tax combinations. But his support base has crumbled and, barring a sudden turnaround in the polls, a spill within weeks is almost certain. "He did not promote any particular one but he gave the impression that whatever we had done, it wasn’t enough," Mr Costello writes. Mr Costello had just cut taxes for the third successive year in his budget and he accuses Mr Turnbull of undermining his work with his tax options. "He understood this point and agreed with it as a backbencher. He says he told Mr Turnbull that the best way to cut tax was to restrict spending but alleges Mr Turnbull forgot this lesson when he became a minister." Mr Costello also took issue with a damaging leak during the election campaign that Mr Turnbull, as environment minister, had argued in cabinet to ratify the Kyoto protocol. Later in that term, when he became a minister in charge of expenditure programs, he produced an array of them. "It may have been thought that if it was known that Turnbull supported the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, it would help him in Wentworth," Mr Costello writes. Mr Turnbull was under assault over the environment in his eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth and Labor was campaigning successfully on Kyoto and climate change." Mr Costello also exposes Tony Abbott, long regarded as an absolute Howard loyalist, by revealing he promised to help push Mr Howard out after the 2004 election. "The story was counterproductive because it switched the campaign to environmental issues, where Labor had a strong lead. Mr Costello had just publicly accepted a recent declaration from Mr Howard that he would be staying on to contest the 2004 election. Mr Costello says that in June 2003, there was a meeting in Joe Hockey’s ministerial office with three other colleagues, including Mr Abbott. He says Mr Abbott assured him Mr Howard would stand down after the 2004 election. "Howard loyalist Abbott made a point of telling me how much the party had respected the decision I had made," he writes. But he writes that Mr Abbott promised that if Mr Howard refused to go, "a few of us will go and see him". Mr Costello was sceptical." A year ago, when Coalition ministers met during the APEC summit to discuss replacing Mr Howard, Mr Abbott briefly favoured a change and asked Mr Costello whether he was prepared to take over. "He’ll do the right thing." Mr Abbott then changed his mind and once more fell in behind Mr Howard." Mr Abbott then changed his mind and once more fell in behind Mr Howard. Mr Turnbull is not pushing for an immediate spill but others are. Party hardheads believe there is no rush and that Dr Nelson deserved another month or so to operate in "clean air" without the spectre of Mr Costello looming over him. "There’s no doubt the speculation about the possibility of Peter remaining in Parliament and putting his hand up to be leader has not been helpful for Brendan," the senior frontbencher Nick Minchin said yesterday.
.
PETER COSTELLO has taken aim at leadership aspirant Malcolm Turnbull, claiming he is economically irresponsible and insinuating he was behind the leaking of cabinet details to save his seat of Wentworth at last year’s election. And he has also exposed "Howard loyalist" Tony Abbott for twice promising to help him take the leadership. Dr Nelson dug his heels in yesterday, calling for discipline and vowing to take the party to the next election. Following Mr Costello’s declaration in yesterday’s Herald that he would not be seeking the leadership, attention shifted to when Mr Turnbull would supplant Brendan Nelson as Opposition leader. In his memoirs, extracts of which will be published exclusively in the Herald from tomorrow, Mr Costello recounts how in 2005 Mr Turnbull released 274 different tax combinations. But his support base has crumbled and, barring a sudden turnaround in the polls, a spill within weeks is almost certain. "He did not promote any particular one but he gave the impression that whatever we had done, it wasn’t enough," Mr Costello writes. Mr Costello had just cut taxes for the third successive year in his budget and he accuses Mr Turnbull of undermining his work with his tax options. "He understood this point and agreed with it as a backbencher. He says he told Mr Turnbull that the best way to cut tax was to restrict spending but alleges Mr Turnbull forgot this lesson when he became a minister." Mr Costello also took issue with a damaging leak during the election campaign that Mr Turnbull, as environment minister, had argued in cabinet to ratify the Kyoto protocol. Later in that term, when he became a minister in charge of expenditure programs, he produced an array of them. "It may have been thought that if it was known that Turnbull supported the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, it would help him in Wentworth," Mr Costello writes. Mr Turnbull was under assault over the environment in his eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth and Labor was campaigning successfully on Kyoto and climate change." Mr Costello also exposes Tony Abbott, long regarded as an absolute Howard loyalist, by revealing he promised to help push Mr Howard out after the 2004 election. "The story was counterproductive because it switched the campaign to environmental issues, where Labor had a strong lead. Mr Costello had just publicly accepted a recent declaration from Mr Howard that he would be staying on to contest the 2004 election. Mr Costello says that in June 2003, there was a meeting in Joe Hockey’s ministerial office with three other colleagues, including Mr Abbott. He says Mr Abbott assured him Mr Howard would stand down after the 2004 election. "Howard loyalist Abbott made a point of telling me how much the party had respected the decision I had made," he writes. But he writes that Mr Abbott promised that if Mr Howard refused to go, "a few of us will go and see him". Mr Costello was sceptical." A year ago, when Coalition ministers met during the APEC summit to discuss replacing Mr Howard, Mr Abbott briefly favoured a change and asked Mr Costello whether he was prepared to take over. "He’ll do the right thing." Mr Abbott then changed his mind and once more fell in behind Mr Howard." Mr Abbott then changed his mind and once more fell in behind Mr Howard. Mr Turnbull is not pushing for an immediate spill but others are. Party hardheads believe there is no rush and that Dr Nelson deserved another month or so to operate in "clean air" without the spectre of Mr Costello looming over him. "There’s no doubt the speculation about the possibility of Peter remaining in Parliament and putting his hand up to be leader has not been helpful for Brendan," the senior frontbencher Nick Minchin said yesterday.
“On January 4, 2008, a reversed-polarity sunspot appeared—and this signals the start of Solar Cycle 24 ,” says David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. Nice to see that David Hathaway is still on the job, in spite of the the …
Original post:
NASA – Solar Cycle 24 Begins
It also speaks to WW III, that will NOT happen, and the coming cataclysmic Earth Changes in Solar Cycle 24 that will unfold as civilization goes into chaos from a HUGE solar flare, Coronal Mass Ejection, ultimately not to destroy the …
Original post:
Solar Cycle 24 Breaking 'Ice Age' News
.
THE Rudd Government’s adviser on climate change, Ross Garnaut,
has hit back at his critics and written to scientists and leaders
of environment groups rejecting their claims that his latest report
is weak and pessimistic.
United Nations scientific advisers and the heads of WWF, the
Australian Conservation Foundation and the Climate Institute
confirmed that Professor Garnaut had written lengthy letters to
them on Tuesday. He maintains it is accurate and
realistic.
In them, he strenuously defended his advice that the world is
not yet ready to sign an agreement that will avoid the risk of
catastrophic climate change.
He acknowledged that most scientists believed these
concentrations would lead to a possible rise in global temperatures
of more than 3 degrees and risked catastrophic climate change
including the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the
destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.
Professor Garnaut unleashed a storm of criticism last week when
the latest report from his Climate Change Review argued that
Australia should support a new global climate agreement in 2009
that aimed to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere at the dangerous level of 550 ppm (parts per
million). His strategy, he argued, was the best path to
reach a safer outcome in a future agreement that could stabilise
greenhouse gases at the lower figure of 450 ppm – the level the
UN’s peak scientific body advises would give the planet a chance of
avoiding catastrophic climate change.
But Professor Garnaut argued that supporting a lower, less risky
target would fail. I hope it is obvious from the
various publications of the review that I would be delighted if
there were a sound basis for this alternative judgment but there is
not.
In his detailed letters to his critics, Professor Garnaut
writes: “I note your views that I have been too pessimistic and
that an effective agreement around 450 ppm is possible at
Copenhagen at the end of 2009.
“If there were credible evidence that there are reasonable
prospects of an effective agreement around 450 ppm coming out of
Copenhagen, I will be delighted to reflect this reality in my final
report.”
He continues: “I expect you will agree with me that we would
serve no good purpose and waste valuable time if each country said
it supported 450 ppm but was not in fact prepared to accept an
emissions constraint which, when put alongside the commitments of
others, did not add up to 450 ppm. “I don’t think we misinterpreted him,” he said.”
David Karoly, who worked for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, told the Herald he was still not convinced
by his arguments.”
Professor Garnaut has argued Australia should offer to support
the 450 ppm outcome but accept it is unlikely.
“He’s giving in.
The head of WWF, Greg Bourne, told the Herald he also was
not convinced by Professor Garnaut’s arguments which would mean
Australia accepting a “weak” target to cut its own greenhouse gas
emissions only 10 per cent by 2020 on 2000 levels while European
countries have agreed to cut a minimum of 20 per cent by 2020. But Professor Karoly
said European leaders were still arguing for the 450 ppm agreement
in the UN negotiations.
John Connor of the Climate Institute and Don Henry of the
Australian Conservation Foundation also remain critical.
“If Australia goes for a 550 ppm global agreement and 10 per
cent emissions cuts by 2020 we will be laughed out of court in
Copenhagen,” he said. To think we can negotiate another
agreement post-Copenhagen to achieve a turnaround by 2015 is just
unrealistic,” Mr Connor said.
“Global deadlines for the next stage of climate talks take many
years to engage and build up to.
.
THE Rudd Government’s adviser on climate change, Ross Garnaut,
has hit back at his critics and written to scientists and leaders
of environment groups rejecting their claims that his latest report
is weak and pessimistic.
United Nations scientific advisers and the heads of WWF, the
Australian Conservation Foundation and the Climate Institute
confirmed that Professor Garnaut had written lengthy letters to
them on Tuesday. He maintains it is accurate and
realistic.
In them, he strenuously defended his advice that the world is
not yet ready to sign an agreement that will avoid the risk of
catastrophic climate change.
He acknowledged that most scientists believed these
concentrations would lead to a possible rise in global temperatures
of more than 3 degrees and risked catastrophic climate change
including the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the
destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.
Professor Garnaut unleashed a storm of criticism last week when
the latest report from his Climate Change Review argued that
Australia should support a new global climate agreement in 2009
that aimed to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the
atmosphere at the dangerous level of 550 ppm (parts per
million). His strategy, he argued, was the best path to
reach a safer outcome in a future agreement that could stabilise
greenhouse gases at the lower figure of 450 ppm – the level the
UN’s peak scientific body advises would give the planet a chance of
avoiding catastrophic climate change.
But Professor Garnaut argued that supporting a lower, less risky
target would fail. I hope it is obvious from the
various publications of the review that I would be delighted if
there were a sound basis for this alternative judgment but there is
not.
In his comprehensive letters to his critics, Professor Garnaut
writes: “I note your views that I have been too pessimistic and
that an effective agreement around 450 ppm is possible at
Copenhagen at the end of 2009.
“If there were credible evidence that there are reasonable
prospects of an effective agreement around 450 ppm coming out of
Copenhagen, I will be delighted to reflect this reality in my final
report.”
He continues: “I expect you will agree with me that we would
serve no good purpose and waste valuable time if each country said
it supported 450 ppm but was not in fact prepared to accept an
emissions constraint which, when put alongside the commitments of
others, did not add up to 450 ppm. “I don’t think we misinterpreted him,” he said.”
David Karoly, who worked for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, told the Herald he was still not convinced
by his arguments.”
Professor Garnaut has argued Australia should offer to support
the 450 ppm outcome but accept it is unlikely.
“He’s giving in.
The head of WWF, Greg Bourne, told the Herald he also was
not convinced by Professor Garnaut’s arguments which would mean
Australia accepting a “weak” target to cut its own greenhouse gas
emissions only 10 per cent by 2020 on 2000 levels while European
countries have agreed to cut a minimum of 20 per cent by 2020. But Professor Karoly
said European leaders were still arguing for the 450 ppm agreement
in the UN negotiations.
John Connor of the Climate Institute and Don Henry of the
Australian Conservation Foundation also remain critical.
“If Australia goes for a 550 ppm global agreement and 10 per
cent emissions cuts by 2020 we will be laughed out of court in
Copenhagen,” he said. To think we can negotiate another
agreement post-Copenhagen to achieve a turnaround by 2015 is just
unrealistic,” Mr Connor said.
“Global deadlines for the next stage of climate talks take many
years to engage and build up to.
NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA. ORIGINAL REFERENCE: D’Arrigo, R., R. Villalba, and G.
Here is the original:
Data Collection: Oscillations
.The Greens have released a report they say shows that Adelaide’s water supply can be secured without spending more than $1 billion on a desalination plant.
The report ranks managing water demand – with use restrictions and stormwater harvesting – as the most cost-effective and environmentally-sound way to secure water supplies.
South Australian Greens MP Mark Parnell says the report has some good news.
Expanding Mount Bold reservoir and using water from the River Murray rank at the bottom of its list.
“We don’t need to rely on the River Murray, we don’t need a desalination plant.
“We can be self-sufficient in water by relying on the water that falls from the sky,” he said.”
Hydrologist Richard Clarke, who co-wrote the report, says desalination is a costly option with few environmental benefits.
“If we were smarter about using the water we already have, we could meet all of our present need demands as well as the demands of a bigger population, including in a scenario of climate change.
“Rather than spend all that large amount of money on one, why not spend it on something which is both cheaper but can do all these other things at the same time?”
The State Government says it has considered stormwater harvesting as a means of increasing Adelaide’s water supply but discarded the idea for cost and practical reasons.
“Sustainability is much more than just water supply, there’s a whole raft of other things which require to be thought about,” he said.
“It is an expensive operation, a logistically difficult operation,” he said.
– Desal ‘essential’ -
Acting Premier Kevin Foley has described stormwater harvesting as a superficially attractive option.”
Opposition water spokesman Mitch Williams agrees that desalination is essential for securing Adelaide’s water in the future.
“By a country mile the quickest, safest and most efficient way of guaranteeing our city’s and our state’s water supply is a desalination plant.
“You’re denying that climate change is something that’s going to impact on our water supplies into the future.
“If you take desalination out of the equation as one of the options, all of a sudden you have to be in the position where you’re denying that climate change is a reality,” he said.”
.The Greens have released a report they say shows that Adelaide’s water supply can be secured without spending more than $1 billion on a desalination plant.
The report ranks managing water demand – with use restrictions and stormwater harvesting – as the most cost-effective and environmentally-sound way to secure water supplies.
South Australian Greens MP Mark Parnell says the report has some good news.
Expanding Mount Bold reservoir and using water from the River Murray rank at the bottom of its list.
“We don’t need to rely on the River Murray, we don’t need a desalination plant.
“We can be self-sufficient in water by relying on the water that falls from the sky,” he said.”
Hydrologist Richard Clarke, who co-wrote the report, says desalination is a costly option with few environmental benefits.
“If we were smarter about using the water we already have, we could meet all of our present need demands as well as the demands of a bigger population, including in a scenario of climate change.
“Rather than spend all that large amount of money on one, why not spend it on something which is both cheaper but can do all these other things at the same time?”
The State Government says it has considered stormwater harvesting as a means of increasing Adelaide’s water supply but discarded the idea for cost and practical reasons.
“Sustainability is much more than just water supply, there’s a whole raft of other things which require to be thought about,” he said.
“It is an expensive operation, a logistically difficult operation,” he said.
– Desal ‘essential’ -
Acting Premier Kevin Foley has described stormwater harvesting as a superficially attractive option.”
Opposition water spokesman Mitch Williams agrees that desalination is essential for securing Adelaide’s water in the future.
“By a country mile the quickest, safest and most efficient way of guaranteeing our city’s and our state’s water supply is a desalination plant.
“You’re denying that climate change is something that’s going to impact on our water supplies into the future.
“If you take desalination out of the equation as one of the options, all of a sudden you have to be in the position where you’re denying that climate change is a reality,” he said.”
.A leading Australian climate scientist says the greenhouse gas reduction targets proposed by the Government’s climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut are too weak.
David Karoly is a Professor of Meteorology at Melbourne University and was a lead author on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth report.
“The longer we wait to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will be in the atmosphere, the more climate change we will experience,” he told them on radio program.
He says Professor Garnaut’s proposed emissions cuts of 10 per cent by 2020 is not enough to minimise the dangerous effects of climate change on Australia and the rest of the world.”
Professor Karoly says Professor Garnaut’s approach to cutting Australia’s emissions is too conservative and sends the wrong message to the rest of the world about Australia’s intentions on climate change.
“Australia needs to have substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and they need to be cut urgently if we wish to minimise dangerous climate change..
“It appears . that he is taking an approach which is politically and economically palatable or acceptable, rather than taking the opportunity which we have perhaps once in this century to take bold action, for Australia to take a leading role in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions,” he said..
“He appears to be putting the problem in the politically ‘too hard’ basket and taking a weak or easy option, leaving it to other countries and other generations to solve the problem.
“It would probably send a message that Australia does not want to seriously consider or address the fact that it has the highest greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and would probably send a message that Australia is not serious on addressing greenhouse climate change and its very high emissions.
Last week Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the Government would consider Professor Garnaut’s recommendations.
When he unveiled his 10 per cent target last Friday, Professor Garnaut said he preferred a cut of 25 per cent but believed it was not achievable.
Professor Garnaut’s recommendations have already been criticised by environmental groups and the Greens for being too low.
But the Government will not conform what the 2020 emissions target will be until it releases more Treasury modelling later in the year.
.
Australia has committed to cutting 60 per cent of its 2000 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
.A leading Australian climate scientist says the greenhouse gas reduction targets proposed by the Government’s climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut are too weak.
David Karoly is a Professor of Meteorology at Melbourne University and was a lead author on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth report.
“The longer we wait to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will be in the atmosphere, the more climate change we will experience,” he told them on radio program.
He says Professor Garnaut’s proposed emissions cuts of 10 per cent by 2020 is not enough to minimise the dangerous effects of climate change on Australia and the rest of the world.”
Professor Karoly says Professor Garnaut’s approach to cutting Australia’s emissions is too conservative and sends the wrong message to the rest of the world about Australia’s intentions on climate change.
“Australia needs to have substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and they need to be cut urgently if we wish to minimise dangerous climate change..
“It appears . that he is taking an approach which is politically and economically palatable or acceptable, rather than taking the opportunity which we have perhaps once in this century to take bold action, for Australia to take a leading role in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions,” he said..
“He appears to be putting the problem in the politically ‘too hard’ basket and taking a weak or easy option, leaving it to other countries and other generations to solve the problem.
“It would probably send a message that Australia does not want to seriously consider or address the fact that it has the highest greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and would probably send a message that Australia is not serious on addressing greenhouse climate change and its very high emissions.
Last week Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the Government would consider Professor Garnaut’s recommendations.
When he unveiled his 10 per cent target last Friday, Professor Garnaut said he preferred a cut of 25 per cent but believed it was not achievable.
Professor Garnaut’s recommendations have already been criticised by environmental groups and the Greens for being too low.
But the Government will not conform what the 2020 emissions target will be until it releases more Treasury modelling later in the year.
.
Australia has committed to cutting 60 per cent of its 2000 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
After all, we have a wealth of paleontological and paleoclimatic data to help us put unchecked emissions growth into perspective in terms of impact on species. But that isn’t the kind of “history” that Easterbrook is interested in at …
Continued here:
Cracks in the Slate II
.
AUSTRALIA’S most respected climate scientists have condemned the
advice of greenhouse adviser Ross Garnaut and urged the Federal
Government to take a more aggressive position at global climate
change negotiations.
Three authors with the UN’s climate change panel say Professor
Garnaut misjudged his role by advising the Government to accept a
deal that would all but guarantee environmental and social
disaster.
All believe Australia, as the developed country expected to be
worst hit by climate change, should be aiming for a cut in
emissions of 25 per cent to 40 per cent by 2020.
Speaking separately, Bill Hare, David Karoly and Amanda Lynch -
all authors with the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change – criticised Professor Garnaut’s approach,
describing it as inconsistent, disappointing and wrong. He said
Australia should make a proportionate commitment within a global
framework based on per capita pollution levels.
Professor Garnaut last week recommended the Government set a
target of cutting emissions by 10 per cent below 2000 levels by
2020 as part of a modest but achievable global deal.
Dr Hare, based at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact
Research, said adopting Professor Garnaut’s recommendation would
devastate ecosystems, dry up Asia’s water supply and trigger huge
sea level rises.
He believed Australia should be willing to commit to a more
ambitious global deal, under which Australia would make a 25 per
cent cut, but said it could not be achieved in the short term.
Professor Garnaut has acknowledged under his best short- term
target – an atmospheric carbon dioxide level of 550 parts per
million – the “odds are not great” for the Great Barrier Reef or
communities on the Murray River.
He said Professor Garnaut had taken the wrong approach: he
should have made a case for a strong global deal, not give a
political assessment.
Global negotiations were yet to get to realistic discussions of
what was achievable, he said.
But Dr Hare said a stronger global treaty might still be
possible in Copenhagen next year, when a new agreement was due.
“It has failed to face up to this risk issue … As a highly
vulnerable country, I would have thought it would have been better
for Australia to be going forward with a more aggressive
position.
“Ross Garnaut’s report is effectively putting off the cost of
climate change to another generation, who will have to deal with a
3-degree rise in temperature,” he said.
“I think they will take it as another piece of evidence that
Australia is not really interested in walking the walk,” she
said.”
Professor Lynch, a federation fellow at Monash University, said
the latest Garnaut report would confirm perceptions that
Australia’s rhetoric about climate change was not backed by action. For example, it failed to recognise that Australia’s per
capita emissions would fall as its population grew through
immigration, enabling it to take on a more ambitious target.
There were technical problems with Professor Garnaut’s
modelling. “How much is it worth to us to have a Great
Barrier Reef? How much is it worth to us to be self-sufficient in
food?” Professor Lynch said.
Australia needed a strong carbon price to help discourage
coal-fired power.
He said Australia’s minimum 2020 target should be a 20 per cent
cut.
Professor Karoly, federation fellow at Melbourne University,
said Australia would abandon any claim to international leadership
if it adopted the Garnaut position.
The Government is due to set its targets for 2020 before the end
of the year. “I would anticipate the Government would take an even weaker
approach than Garnaut, which is going to essentially be no change
whatsoever,” he said.
.
AUSTRALIA’S most respected climate scientists have condemned the
advice of greenhouse adviser Ross Garnaut and urged the Federal
Government to take a more aggressive position at global climate
change negotiations.
Three authors with the UN’s climate change panel say Professor
Garnaut misjudged his role by advising the Government to accept a
deal that would all but guarantee environmental and social
disaster.
All believe Australia, as the developed country expected to be
worst hit by climate change, should be aiming for a cut in
emissions of 25 per cent to 40 per cent by 2020.
Speaking separately, Bill Hare, David Karoly and Amanda Lynch -
all authors with the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change – criticised Professor Garnaut’s approach,
describing it as inconsistent, disappointing and wrong. He said
Australia should make a proportionate commitment within a global
framework based on per capita pollution levels.
Professor Garnaut last week recommended the Government set a
target of cutting emissions by 10 per cent below 2000 levels by
2020 as part of a modest but achievable global deal.
Dr Hare, based at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact
Research, said adopting Professor Garnaut’s recommendation would
devastate ecosystems, dry up Asia’s water supply and trigger huge
sea level rises.
He believed Australia should be willing to commit to a more
ambitious global deal, under which Australia would make a 25 per
cent cut, but said it could not be achieved in the short term.
Professor Garnaut has acknowledged under his best short- term
target – an atmospheric carbon dioxide level of 550 parts per
million – the “odds are not great” for the Great Barrier Reef or
communities on the Murray River.
He said Professor Garnaut had taken the wrong approach: he
should have made a case for a strong global deal, not give a
political assessment.
Global negotiations were yet to get to realistic discussions of
what was achievable, he said.
But Dr Hare said a stronger global treaty might still be
possible in Copenhagen next year, when a new agreement was due.
“It has failed to face up to this risk issue … As a highly
vulnerable country, I would have thought it would have been better
for Australia to be going forward with a more aggressive
position.
“Ross Garnaut’s report is effectively putting off the cost of
climate change to another generation, who will have to deal with a
3-degree rise in temperature,” he said.
“I think they will take it as another piece of evidence that
Australia is not really interested in walking the walk,” she
said.”
Professor Lynch, a federation fellow at Monash University, said
the latest Garnaut report would confirm perceptions that
Australia’s rhetoric about climate change was not backed by action. For example, it failed to recognise that Australia’s per
capita emissions would fall as its population grew through
immigration, enabling it to take on a more ambitious target.
There were technical problems with Professor Garnaut’s
modelling. “How much is it worth to us to have a Great
Barrier Reef? How much is it worth to us to be self-sufficient in
food?” Professor Lynch said.
Australia needed a strong carbon price to help discourage
coal-fired power.
He said Australia’s minimum 2020 target should be a 20 per cent
cut.
Professor Karoly, federation fellow at Melbourne University,
said Australia would abandon any claim to international leadership
if it adopted the Garnaut position.
The Government is due to set its targets for 2020 before the end
of the year. “I would anticipate the Government would take an even weaker
approach than Garnaut, which is going to essentially be no change
whatsoever,” he said.
.Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has announced a new $400 million tender to buy water entitlements in the northern section of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Senator Wong has invited property owners in Queensland and northern New South Wales to respond to the offer, which opens next Monday.
“The Federal Government does understand that communities in the basin are doing it tough,” Senator Wong said.
She says while there is no target for the buyback, she hopes it will build on the 35 billion litres of extra water delivered by the last tender.”
Senator Wong says the Commonwealth will for the first time work with the states on negotiating to buy land.
“We are facing the combined effects of climate change, years of over allocation and drought, and we know that to address this we have to purchase water entitlement to return to the river. We think the best way forward is to work in partnership with state governments where water and land can’t be unbundled, where there are environmental benefits to such purchases.
“Clearly state governments are already in the market for the purchase of land.
.”
The tender closes in December
.Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has announced a new $400 million tender to buy water entitlements in the northern section of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Senator Wong has invited property owners in Queensland and northern New South Wales to respond to the offer, which opens next Monday.
“The Federal Government does understand that communities in the basin are doing it tough,” Senator Wong said.
She says while there is no target for the buyback, she hopes it will build on the 35 billion litres of extra water delivered by the last tender.”
Senator Wong says the Commonwealth will for the first time work with the states on negotiating to buy land.
“We are facing the combined effects of climate change, years of over allocation and drought, and we know that to address this we have to purchase water entitlement to return to the river. We think the best way forward is to work in partnership with state governments where water and land can’t be unbundled, where there are environmental benefits to such purchases.
“Clearly state governments are already in the market for the purchase of land.
.”
The tender closes in December
.
NSW Premier Nathan Rees has finalised his new cabinet, naming
Eric Roozendaal as the state’s new Treasurer and
putting John Della Bosca in charge of Health.
After announcing the members of the front bench yesterday, Mr
Rees today revealed the allocation of portfolios.
David Campbell has been promoted from the
Police portfolio to the important Transport Ministry, while
Verity Firth takes over Education and Training, as
well as Women.
John Hatzistergos remains Attorney-General,
while Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt takes on the
Climate Change and Environment portfolio as well as Commerce.
Joe Tripodi retains Ports and Waterways, and
Regulatory Reform, but adds the title of Finance Minister and
Infrastructure Minister.
Axed minister Frank Sartor’s Planning responsibilities have been
handed to Kristina Keneally , while Maroubra MP
Michael Daley enters cabinet as Roads
Minister.
Phillip Costa is Minister for Water, Rural
Affairs and Regional Development, while Tony Kelly
is Industrial Relations Minister, but also heads the Emergency
Services and Lands portfolios.
Matt Brown becomes Police Minister, leaving his
former housing responsibilities to new frontbencher David
Borger .
Tony Stewart was named Small Business Minister
and Minister for Science and Medical Research, and Assistant Health
Minister (Cancer).
Newcomer Jodi McKay is Tourism Minister and
Minister for the Hunter, while Paul Lynch is
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ageing and Disability
Services.
Kevin Greene takes over from Graham
West as Gaming and Racing, and Sport and Recreation
Minister, while Mr West is now Juvenile Justice, Youth, and
Volunteering Minister.
Linda Burney takes over as Community Services
Minister, while Ian Macdonald remains Primary
Industries, Energy and Mineral Resources and State Development
Minister.
Barbara Perry is Local Government Minister, and an
Assistant Health Minister (Mental Health), and the new Fair Trading
Minister is Virginia Judge , who also has
responsibility for Citizenship, and assisting the new Arts
Minister, who is Mr Rees.
.New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees has unveiled his new look Cabinet, appointing former roads minister Eric Roozendaal as the state’s new Treasurer and handing Labor heavyweight Joe Tripodi the finance portfolio.
The new frontbench is being officially sworn in at Government House in Sydney.
Mr Roozendaal has been handed the difficult task of bringing down a mini-Budget in eight weeks and convincing credit ratings agencies to maintain the state’s AAA rating.
Mr Rees met with Caucus yesterday and negotiations for portfolios were only finalised this morning.
As expected, Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt has been handed the environment and climate change portfolio, while Joe Tripodi will take on finance.
It comes after a tumultuous day on Friday in which Treasurer Michael Costa was sacked by the Premier Morris Iemma, who later resigned after failing to win the Right faction’s support. He will be replaced in education by Verity Firth.
Former education minister John Della Bosca replaces Reba Meagher in health, despite the recent Iguanas nightclub scandal.
Linda Burney has been promoted to community services while Kevin Greene has been demoted to gaming and racing.
Responsibility for transport has gone to David Campbell while Matt Brown has taken on Mr Campbell’s police portfolio.
.
NSW Premier Nathan Rees has finalised his new cabinet, naming
Eric Roozendaal as the state’s new Treasurer and
putting John Della Bosca in charge of Health.
After announcing the members of the front bench yesterday, Mr
Rees today revealed the allocation of portfolios.
David Campbell has been promoted from the
Police portfolio to the important Transport Ministry, while
Verity Firth takes over Education and Training, as
well as Women.
John Hatzistergos remains Attorney-General,
while Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt takes on the
Climate Change and Environment portfolio as well as Commerce.
Joe Tripodi retains Ports and Waterways, and
Regulatory Reform, but adds the title of Finance Minister and
Infrastructure Minister.
Axed minister Frank Sartor’s Planning responsibilities have been
handed to Kristina Keneally , while Maroubra MP
Michael Daley enters cabinet as Roads
Minister.
Phillip Costa is Minister for Water, Rural
Affairs and Regional Development, while Tony Kelly
is Industrial Relations Minister, but also heads the Emergency
Services and Lands portfolios.
Matt Brown becomes Police Minister, leaving his
former housing responsibilities to new frontbencher David
Borger .
Tony Stewart was named Small Business Minister
and Minister for Science and Medical Research, and Assistant Health
Minister (Cancer).
Newcomer Jodi McKay is Tourism Minister and
Minister for the Hunter, while Paul Lynch is
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ageing and Disability
Services.
Kevin Greene takes over from Graham
West as Gaming and Racing, and Sport and Recreation
Minister, while Mr West is now Juvenile Justice, Youth, and
Volunteering Minister.
Linda Burney takes over as Community Services
Minister, while Ian Macdonald remains Primary
Industries, Energy and Mineral Resources and State Development
Minister.
Barbara Perry is Local Government Minister, and an
Assistant Health Minister (Mental Health), and the new Fair Trading
Minister is Virginia Judge , who also has
responsibility for Citizenship, and assisting the new Arts
Minister, who is Mr Rees.
.New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees has unveiled his new look Cabinet, appointing former roads minister Eric Roozendaal as the state’s new Treasurer and handing Labor heavyweight Joe Tripodi the finance portfolio.
The new frontbench is being officially sworn in at Government House in Sydney.
Mr Roozendaal has been handed the difficult task of bringing down a mini-Budget in eight weeks and convincing credit ratings agencies to maintain the state’s AAA rating.
Mr Rees met with Caucus yesterday and negotiations for portfolios were only finalised this morning.
As expected, Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt has been handed the environment and climate change portfolio, while Joe Tripodi will take on finance.
It comes after a tumultuous day on Friday in which Treasurer Michael Costa was sacked by the Premier Morris Iemma, who later resigned after failing to win the Right faction’s support. He will be replaced in education by Verity Firth.
Former education minister John Della Bosca replaces Reba Meagher in health, despite the recent Iguanas nightclub scandal.
Linda Burney has been promoted to community services while Kevin Greene has been demoted to gaming and racing.
Responsibility for transport has gone to David Campbell while Matt Brown has taken on Mr Campbell’s police portfolio.
.The New South Wales Labor Government’s