Opine away.
I’m going to try two separate posts. Comments last week were split on this.
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Last Thursday, WWF and Ecofys published The Energy Report, showing how the world could attain a 100% renewable energy supply by 2050. The report can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/WWFTER, and a summary can be found on Grist: http://bit.ly/GriTER. Would love to hear your feedback, after working on it for 2 years!
Global warming, a radical idea?
[JR: CBC was talking to the wrong scientists. Few were predicting long-term cooling then.]
1. Sustainable2050, “100% renewable energy by 2050″ Maybe much faster at wartime speed; check Lester R. Brown, Plan B 4.0.
Yet another item about increasing night time temps.
41 degrees: Sydney’s sixth day of sizzling
February 5, 2011 – 1:23PM
Sydneysiders are bracing for yet another day of baking temperatures as the record-breaking heatwave continues to sizzle across the state.
Temperatures are due to hit 41 degrees in parts of western Sydney today while along the coast, beachgoers can expect highs of up to 36 degrees.
It will be the sixth day temperatures have topped 30 degrees in Sydney, while the heatwave has set records for the number of consecutive hot nights.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/41-degrees-sydneys-sixth-day-of-sizzling-20110205-1ah8i.html
Food Banks: A Vital Link for Impoverished Unemployed Families and the Elderly in Today’s Economy
Sustainable2050 #1:
Simple answer to your question:
Unless the study was published in a top-notch peer-reviewed scientific journal, I am not taking it seriously.
There are all kinds of utopian claims to save the world made every day.
For example, a startup called “WindFuels” proposes using off-peak excess wind energy to recycle CO2 into standard transportation fuels on a scale large enough to eliminate oil use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjf3gRq32eo
If There’s Global Warming, Why Am I Freezing?
“At the moment, during the winter of 2003-2004, it is pretty hard for most people on the U.S. East Coast to take global warming very seriously. Temperatures have been below normal almost continuously for at least a month and there were a few days with record or near record cold.”
“Is global warming the figment of some scientists’ imaginations? How can we reconcile the global warming theory with the reality of what we find when we step outdoors?”
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2004january/
Scientists Predict Huge Pulse of Carbon into Atmosphere from 2010 Amazon Drought
Published by Nick Sundt on Thu, 02/03/2011 – 18:40
In November 2010, we reported on extreme drought conditions in the Amazon in Another Extreme Drought Hits the Amazon and Raises Climate Change Concerns. The posting compared the 2005 and 2010 “once in a century” droughts in the region, noted connections to rising global greenhouse gas concentrations, and raised several concerns including the impacts on global carbon emissions.
In The 2010 Amazon Drought, published in the 4 February 2011 issue of Science, scientists predict that the drought of 2010 ultimately may result in the release of about 2.2 × 1015 grams of carbon (1015 grams = 1 Petagram (Pg) = 1 billion metric tonnes) into the atmosphere. That is:
•Well over a third more than the emissions associated with the historic 2005 drought in the Amazon (estimated at 1.6 billion metric tonnes of carbon ).
•Roughly equivalent to a quarter of annual global carbon emissions from fossil fuel use (in 2009, emissions from fossil fuel use were 8.4±0.5 billion metric tonnes C; source: Global Carbon Project).
http://www.wwfblogs.org/climate/content/scientists-predict-huge-pulse-carbon-atmosphere-2010-amazon-drought
Vietnam appears to be taking Climate change more seriously than the US
Wind Energy in Vietnam
Vietnam’s energy consumption has been rising by some 15 percent a year. The country largely relies on fossil fuels like coal and oil, although it is ideally suited for harnessing renewable energy sources like wind power. http://www.newslook.com/videos/287202-wind-energy-in-vietnam?autoplay=true
To be honest dbmetzger my cat is taking climate change more seriously than the US.
@Bob Lang (#6). We’re working on the scientific publications, but that takes some time! However, I recommend reading the report. Part 2, the scenario, is a rational and transparant analysis, all based on existing technologies. And, yes, we do need adventurous types that come up with new solutions too. I have no problem with taking a serious look at stuff that hasn’t been published in a peer reviewed scientific paper yet.
@nz (#3) I agree with you that, once the corner is turned, developments can go even faster. Might be necessary too!
@nz (#3) .. and I just ordered Lester Brown’s plan B 4.0; intriguing!
This is a truly wonderful blog. The only defect may be that its laudable emphasis on good news about the fight to minimize climate change tends to obscure the reality that the world community is unlikely to act in time to hold the eventual increase in global temperatures to the science-based target of 2 degrees Centigrade. Sometimes that reality has been made quite clear, as in Joe Romm’s hard-hitting pieces on Obama’s “failed Presidency,” but the occasional reader may be led to believe that the good guys are winning.
The truth is that we’re unlikely to hold the eventual temperature increase to 2 degrees C, and even if by a near-miracle we succeed in doing so, scientists tell us that the global warming which is bound to occur will have effects that can only be termed disastrous. These include:
• The extinction of one-sixth or more of all the terrestrial species on earth.
• Catastrophic impacts on marine species and habitats.
• Major losses in food production.
• Droughts that will cause horrendous wildfires and loss of human life.
• Severe shortages of fresh water.
• Calamities in poor nations due to sea-level rise and more intense hurricanes.
It follows that it would be highly desirable to have the option of cooling the earth via geoengineering, and not just as a “last resort.” As Britain’s Royal Society recommended in 2009, we should move rapidly to establish a robust, well-funded, internationally coordinated program of geoengineering research, and to negotiate the global treaty that will be required for major geoengineering experiments and for possible use of geoengineering to cool the earth.
The case for moving quickly to make geoengineering an available option is set forth on my website, coolerearth.net.
Thomas B. Stoel, Jr.
[JR: I am doubtful that very many people consider the flaw in this website that I leave people with too optimistic a feeling. I am more doubtful that geo-engineering has a snowball's chance in hell of working without aggressive mitigation first, aside from its myriad practical and political challenges. But when the world gets desperate, will certainly be within a quarter century, all bets are off on what will be considered a plausible or practical strategy to pursue.]
Congress Shows Concern for Wealthy Oil Companies to the Detriment of U.S. Education and Job Creation
#8 I covered the Amazon drought Science article and the emissions will be like adding another China & USA sized emissions for one year. And it’s not just drought in the Amazon…other forests like Boreal are becoming CO2 sources.
Amazon Drought Accelerating Climate Change
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54347
Take a look at the air temperature anomalies in the last 30 days:
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/map/images/rnl/sfctmpmer_30b.rnl.html
It’s hot in the Arctic, and the “cold continents” pattern caused by an extreme negative Arctic Oscillation (AO) has broken down, and the biggest cold spot in December, Siberia, is now anomausly warm. At the same time, Europe temperature anomalies are near normal, Canada has cooled but is still anomausly warm and the USA is colder than normal.
The AO is now strongly positive:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/teleconnections.shtml
Bad news, toghether with the warm winter, for Arctic sea ice.
The related North Atlanctic Oscillation (NAO)is also positive and as a consecuence the Tropical Atlantic is cooling (positive NAO means higher trade winds that move the warm waters to the northwest), but the waters near Greenland are still a lot warmer than average:
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/map/clim/sst.shtml
Bad news for the Arctic but at least good news for the Amazon (a persistent negative NAO would cause warm Tropical Atlantic SST that will in turn cause another extreme Amazon drought like last year)
#14 Thomas there are many who view geoengineering as a free “get of jail card” since it avoids the need to raise gas/carbon taxes, permits yet more unrestrained growth, and poses no threat to consumer lifestyles.
UN put a moratorium on deployment last fall. http://bit.ly/cGRhxq
Sadly I think Joe’s assessment is correct.
NASA Study Suggests Extreme Summer Warming in the Future
May 9, 2007
A new study by NASA scientists suggests that greenhouse-gas warming may raise average summer temperatures in the eastern United States nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the 2080s.
“There is the potential for extremely hot summertime temperatures in the future, especially during summers with less-than-average frequent rainfall,” said lead author Barry Lynn of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University, New York.
The research found that eastern U.S. summer daily high temperatures that currently average in the low-to-mid-80s (degrees Fahrenheit) will most likely soar into the low-to-mid-90s during typical summers by the 2080s. In extreme seasons — when precipitation falls infrequently — July and August daily high temperatures could average between 100 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit in cities such as Chicago, Washington, and Atlanta.
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20070509/
Sustainable2050 #11
Have you ever considered the possibility that your “solutions” are “subverting a meaningful, open and empirically informed dialogue on climate change.”
We who comment here at CP feel very flattered that you seek our feedback on your work, but the vast majority of us have neither the expertise nor the time or inclination to give you any meaningful feedback.
Having looked at your solutions, I can state that there are numerous peer-reviewed studies based on rigorous scientific methods which show that your “solutions” are delusional. For example:
http://journalofcosmology.com/ClimateChange108.html
http://jpl.sagepub.com/content/9/4/343.abstract
I could go on and on …
The Secret of El Dorado, in case you not saw the movie yet …
http://biochar.me/science/23-the-secret-of-el-dorado.html
I finished James Hansen’s “Storms of My Grandchildren” about a week ago and have been trying to assess Hansen’s proposal of a “fee-and-dividend” carbon tax idea. Hansen criticizes the “cap-and-trade” proposals (which have been torpedoed in the US Congress) for being too complicated and ineffective.
Considering that cap-and-trade is practically dead (at least for the next several years) and that mentioning the word “tax” among free-market conservatives is sacrilegious, is there ANY chance of a direct tax upon carbon sources in the US in this decade?
The only realistic scenario I can see causing the rapid adoption needed in the US of an effective emissions reduction strategy involves an incredibly fatal weather event on a scale greater than Hurricane Katrina. Even then, though, I worry that Congress would dismiss its link to global warming.
Finally, is there any reason for hope of a future not involving climate-induced megadeath? (I apologize for the pessimism.)
Sustainable2050, interesting – huge information here.
Btw,
Greenpeace Report Shows Europe Could Convert to Almost Entirely Renewable Energy Resources by 2050
http://2sustain.com/2011/01/greenpeace-report-shows-europe-could-convert-to-almost-entirely-renewable-energy-resources-by-2050.html
Greenpeace: ‘Smart Grids’ – climate infrastructure for the 21st century
There’s no need to worry that renewable energy can’t keep the lights on, concludes a new study by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).
The report: Renewables 24/7 – Infrastructure needed to save the climate shows how the world’s power grids could be transformed to support a power mix comprising 90% renewable energy by 2050. The transformation would be achieved at a modest level of investment, presents a huge market opportunity for ICT companies, and would enable huge cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/greenpeace-smart-grids-cl/
Though i browsed the file and a few notes. It makes the impression of a print book, and is a lot to read. I see what you done there with a lot of nice graphics and graphic design/layout stuff.
But for the purpose at hand – to reach people like i.e. Bob Lang you have to channel the information, try to make a short version with maximum 4 pages or something.
And some layout things looked a little bit to much. IMHO best make it more conservative, because these are the people you want to win.
nevertheless great work, but maybe less is more. And when it comes to design i would stick to 1 color setup.
Cheers
matt heard #21
no reason for that hope, but that should not stop us from efforts to prevent it.
“With the earth’s human population expected to reach 7 billion sometime in October 2011, now is a crucial time to understand the implications this will have on us and our world. All of our biggest problems today – whether they be climate change, the huge proportion of people living in poverty, unemployment, or overconsumption of available resources – they can all be linked in some way to the size and growth of human population. So being able to talk without judgment about population in relation to these issues, especially within the scientific and political communities, is extremely important. That’s the point of the Global Population Speak Out – to have an open discussion about how to best sustain the Earth and the challenges we face in doing so. Your voice can make a real difference.” (GPSO)
february is GPSO month and it is easy for each of us to pledge to speak out: we can talk to people about it, write ltes, a blog post, make a poster and place it in a busy spot, copy the above paragraph and send it to your email list or facebook page, tweet something, defend planned parenthood now under attack by the same people who went after acorn et al, talk to your children about going childfree. the list is long.
it’s in these kind of actions that we combat despair. (don’t apologize for your pessimism. it’s proof you’re paying attention and care.)
re “going green with organic cotton” article:
the greenest thing a person can do is purchase everything secondhand. (well, maybe underwear would be an exception. so purchase organic cotton for that.)
Communicating Climate Change Science
Researchers often come up against the challenge of effectively communicating complex data to an audience beyond academia. In the case of climate-change science, this challenge is a special one. Now a highly politicized issue, climate change has camps of interested parties among specialists, policy makers, and the general public. In such an environment, what should researchers do—and what do they need to do—to make the scientific data widely accessible and interpretable? Panelists: Ned Gardiner, Climate Visualization Project Manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Climate Program Office; Gavin Schmidt, climate modeler at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, co-founder of the blog RealClimate.org, and co-author of a popular science book Climate Change: Picturing the Science; and Sabine Marx, Managing Director at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) at Columbia University.
Date: April 6, 2010
Sponsor: Columbia University Scholarly Communication Program
Cosponsor: The Earth Institute, Columbia University
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_QYyyNvqU
Matt Heard @21 — Maybe more frequent and hotter summer heat waves are climate-change induced. In any case, the full accounting is now done. The premature deaths due to such heat waves stand at
Europe (2003): 74,000+
Russia (2010): 44,000+
Had enough yet?
Stephen Leahy,
I too agree with Joe’s assessment of geoengineering. I’ve read two books on the topic — Jeff Goodell’s How To Cool the Planet and Eli Kintisch’s Hack the Planet — and they both share that assessment.
I do think there should be some small-scale experiments in some of the techniques, just in case.
I think an issue often ignored here is what will the World’s population be at any given date. The greater the population is, the higher the likelihood is of higher CO2 rates. If the Earth only had a million people, we could probably live like we to do without causing much impact. In most developed countries the birth rate is below replacement level meaning without immigration, populations should eventually fall and with almost every developed country save Canada generally trying to restrict immigration it is likely most will see their population decline in the not too distant future. In fact some have birth rates has low as 1.2 which would lead to a rapid population decline. The developing world which has much smaller carbon footprint has a high birth rate, but my guess as is they develop, CO2 emissions will rise, but birth rates will fall as the cost of having children will become more expensive meaning people will have children. I would be interested on what people’s thoughts are on this. While this will lead to CO2 increases in the short-term, I think long-term population decline (most demographers predict the World’s population will peak around 2050) will probably be the best solution. If anything promoting low birth rates rather than discouraging them as some countries do might be the best solution to tackling global warming.
Don’t forget the PriceWaterhouseCooper report 100% Renewable Electricity – a Roadmap to 2050 for Europe and North Afrcia
http://www.pwc.co.uk/eng/publications/100_percent_renewable_electricity.html
In the near-mid future fossil energy will be considered the greatest poison and threat to our way of life. So 90-100% clean tech will be the norm. It will be more about the potentials of zero or negative carbon properties. Stuff like artificial photosynthesis and carbon sequestration are the next generation gold mines.
A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”
The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.
“She rolled her eyes and said, “You must be an Obama Democrat.”
“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”
“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”
The man smiled and responded, “You must be a Republican.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”
“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my fault.”
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/fg0vn/how_to_spot_a_republican_joke/
Catastrophic drought in the Amazon – Region set to outstrip US as CO2 emitter.
“A widespread drought in the Amazon rainforest last year caused the ‘lungs of the world’ to produce more carbon dioxide than they absorbed, potentially leading to a dangerous acceleration of global warming. Scientists have calculated that the 2010 drought was more intense than the “one-in-100-year” drought of 2005.
They are predicting it will result in some eight billion tonnes of carbon dioxide being expelled from the Amazon rainforest, which is more than the total annual carbon emissions of the United States. For the second time in less than a decade, the earth’s greatest rainforest released more carbon dioxide than it absorbed because many of its trees dried out and died.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/special-report-catastrophic-drought-in-the-amazon-2203892.html
@Prokaryotes (#23). Thx! Part 1 (WWF) is the designy part, part 2 (Ecofys) is the scenario work. Looks less shiny, but has the reasoning and the content. We’ve been quite thorough, using only available technologies etc. The Greenpeace work for Europe is great, fits very well with the global vision.
@Heraclitus (#30): Thx as well. Interesting work, there’s another one on EU electricity: Roadmap 2050 by European Climate Foundation (www.roadmap2050.eu). Electricity is the ‘easiest’ part of the equation; that’s why, in The Energy Report, we end up moving a lot of demand (after stringent energy efficiency measures) from heat and fuel to electricity.
Sustainable2050, I’ve only looked briefly at your report so far, hopefully I’ll find time to look at it properly in detail. A couple of thoughts and questions:
Do you think you might have been too dismissive of nuclear at the start of the report? I don’t see nuclear as part of the solution either, but this is only on balance. There are strong arguments for nuclear and not acknowledging these may have alienated a lot of people.
Did you consider the potential for harnessing high-altitude wind?
When discussing subsidies for new renewable technologies I think it worth pointing out that nuclear received the equivalent of these subsidies through the military budget in its early days.
Heraclitus, our goal was to see whether the equation could be solved with renewables (and nuclear is not renewable). That proved to be possible, and electricity is really not the hardest part, so we didn’t need new nuclear.
We did not consider high-altitude wind, because we stuck to technologies presently available. Would be great if that were developed to maturity over the coming decades. It might have a more stable output than ‘conventional’ wind energy.
I hope all Decision Makers realize now that we have a window of Opportunity when it comes to projects like DESERTEC – Saharan Sun. What the North African sector needs now is revenues and energy to jumpstart their ecnomoy, and at the same time fuel ours. Thus providing us with the energy we need and grow to customers for our technologies and products.
Further once we have established a clean economy, the future carbon foot prints of these nations will pose no threat to the climate.
Love the joke, thanks Prokaryote!
Now let’s talk football. How does a climate hawk watch the Superbowl, which will be on Fox, with a good conscience? Answer: use sponsorship against the advertisers. Commit to make your next purchases for soft drinks, beer, pickup trucks, etc. from a competitor. Then write the companies and let them know they’re supporting a network that is deliberately misleading Americans about the greatest issue of our time.
For those who skip the game for other reasons, I’ll point to or make a list of advertisers next weekend.
Hi all! Is there anyone of you who knows why RSS change from version 3.2 to version to 3.3 only has changed the years after 1998 and not the years before 1998?
http://www.remss.com/data/msu/monthly_time_series/RSS_Monthly_MSU_AMSU_Channel_TLT_Anomalies_Land_and_Ocean_v03_2.txt
http://www.remss.com/data/msu/monthly_time_series/RSS_Monthly_MSU_AMSU_Channel_TLT_Anomalies_Land_and_Ocean_v03_3.txt
http://img573.imageshack.us/i/rss3233.png/
Our task must be to free ourselves
from this prison by widening our
circles of compassion to embrace
all living creatures and the whole
of nature in it’s beauty.
A quote – Albert Einstein
Wildfire burns 35 houses in Western Australia
PERTH, Australia – Wildfires tore across the outskirts of an Australian city on Sunday, destroying at least 35 homes, authorities said. One firefighter was reportedly injured.
Two fires fanned by hot summer winds were burning in forested areas to the north and southeast of Perth in Western Australia state, the Fire and Emergency Services Authority said.
At Roleystone and the nearby community of Kelmscott, residents were told to evacuate from the path of a fire that erupted after noon and had claimed 35 homes and was threatening more, the authority said.
“There is a threat to lives and homes. You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive,” it said in a warning statement. It said people should leave immediately if they believe the path is clear, otherwise they should dig in and be prepared to take shelter in
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110206/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_wildfire
Mickey, @ 29: “If the Earth only had a million people, we could probably live like we to do without causing much impact.”
This statement does not compute. Which million people are you talking about? If you take a million average folks, then you get ~ one really smart person in the bunch which is clearly not enough to get any significant scientific advancements. If you cull for only smart people then you get no laborers, farmers, etc. to allow the smart folks time to pursue esoteric advancements. If you take business folks, than they to will have a short future as they rely on the backs of the poor to achieve their supremacy. If you take a million “Koch Brothers” with a carbon stomp of ~ 33,000,000 third world folks each, then the effective world population would be ~ 33 trillion, clearly enough to disrupt a livable climate.
The facts are what they are. A viable future for humanity is only possible if “given facts” are dealt with in a rational manor and an expeditious time frame.
Question: Which generates more CO2? An electric car that gets its juice from a coal-fired power-plant or a high mileage 4-banger that runs on gasoline?
[JR: It's a close call. Fortunately very few places in this country are 100% coal-fired, the grid is decarbonizing, and consumers can choose their own low-carbon power.]
Leif – The point I was making is while it is true if the Earth only had a billion people we may not have all the advancements we did, our total output of CO2 would likely be much lower than it is now. I should also note I meant a billion, not a million. The point I was making is many seem to ignore the issue of World population, when in fact I would argue population is the single biggest factor determining the amount of CO2 people will emit. As such I believe having fewer people, not through a cull, but low birth rates is one of the best solutions. This doesn’t either require a one child policy like China, as long as having children has enough costs and people in the developing world have access to birth control this should take care of it. Most places with high birth rates are also places where birth control is not readily available and if available I suspect you would see birth rates fall closer to the developed countries. That is not to say we shouldn’t make efforts elsewhere to reduce our carbon footprint, I just happen to believe the Earth has more people than it can realistically sustain. Lets remember, it wasn’t until well into the 1800s the Earth hit a billion people while now we have 7 billion and if you go back to the Egyptians civilization around 3000 BC, there were only around 4 million humans, fewer than in many of our largest cities today.
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Heavy rain triggered flooding in Sri Lanka that killed at least 11 people and is threatening up to 90 percent of the staple rice crop, heightening concern about supply shocks and inflation, officials said on Sunday.
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE7150HU20110206
Cyclone adds to Barrier Reef’s flood woes
Coral growth has slowed markedly on the reef since 1990 and parts of it have suffered severe bleaching due to rising sea temperatures and acidity that kill its plant-like organisms, leaving just the white limestone skeleton.
Overall, both this and cyclone damage are symptoms of worsening and dangerous climate change, said John Merson, from the University of New South Wales.
“I think probably more damage is being done (to the reef) by the rising temperature in the ocean which is causing the cyclone, as well as the reef to be damaged,” said Merson.
“The other question is the complete lack of attention being given to the fact that we have a category five cyclone because we have climate change, yet we completely ignore this factor in the whole thing.
“The same thing — the heating of the water — is going to increase coral bleaching which will knock out the reef in the long term anyway.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hSqc_QJBa2ZW68I1k1-u0g2c31Ig?docId=CNG.735e6613aada0a9b07e96e8723b84324.3a1
Raw Video: Sri Lanka Hit by Deadly Flooding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEuUEgSu1bE
Sydney’s ‘big sweat’ sets heatwave record
The weather bureau said temperatures have been in the mid- to high-30s since last Sunday, the most enduring heatwave since records began 153 years ago in 1858.
Temperatures hit 41.5 degrees C (107 F) in central Sydney on Saturday, sending thousands to beaches and swimming pools to cool off. Meanwhile firefighters have battled scores of bush blazes.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Sydneys_big_sweat_sets_heatwave_record_999.html
——-
I as I understand it, they have been setting eye popping night time numbers with this one as well.
Malaysian forests destroyed for palm oil
The study shows that from 2005-10, almost 10 percent of Sarawak’s forests and 33 percent of its peat swamp forests were cleared, 65 percent of which was for palm oil production.
For the rest of Asia, the deforestation rate during the same period was approximately 3.5 percent.
http://www.biofueldaily.com/reports/Malaysian_forests_destroyed_for_palm_oil_999.html
Those night time numbers in Sydney -
Temperatures at Richmond reached minimum records for the first time in 72 years after failing to drop below 24.9 degrees, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/41-degrees-sydneys-sixth-day-of-sizzling-20110205-1ah8i.html
The latest flood in Melbourne is it’s 5th major flood since Sept. 2010.
Melbourne received half its average annual rainfall in just a day, AP says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12375918
Anyone know who the first person was to predict that of the populated regions, Australia would feel the effects of Climate Change first ? And how many years ago was this first put forward -
I think we have the proofs for them now.
Re Colorado Bob, wasn’t this the first sign
Why does Australia have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world? http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_does_Australia_have_the_highest_rate_of_skin_cancer_in_the_world
Re 43 Phillip Y, your question, beside similar one, gets answered in this remarkable video- at 6:10 time. Joe might even want to post this.
Fully Charged pilot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfTiRNzbSko&feature=player_embedded
Teta, Compressed Air Car: Looks like a game changer to me. Give ~3/4 of a billion Indian people access to this technology Powered by Wind Turbines or PV etc., hell, they just might have a chance.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/preview-concept/4217016
I would add for those Business people dropping in here at CP, those two items alone amount to a lot of manufacturing production. All I am asking is lets quit spending money on components of our society that are killing us and start spending on aspects that show promise for the continuation of the children of all species for all time.
Is that so much to ask?
But NOOOoooo… You GOBP, insist in the right to poison the Air, Waters and Earth because you can make the highest return on your investment! Oh yes, you spent a lot of money “stacking the deck” to make it so!
I would add that I am not advocating the end of Capitalism, I just feel that society must give Capitalism a moral compass. We forgot to do that the first time around. (Prevented from doing that?) Why? Clearly there is more money to be made with free dumping?
December 2010 ranks tenth warmest December in NASA record:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts+dSST.txt
December 2010 global temperature map (yellow-red represent warmer than the 1951-1980 average and green-purple are cooler than the 1951-1980 average):
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/do_nmap.py?year_last=2010&month_last=12&sat=4&sst=1&type=anoms&mean_gen=12&year1=2010&year2=2010&base1=1951&base2=1980&radius=1200&pol=reg
Come September the last “weather radar blind spot” on the Continental US Shores will be illuminated.
This area is also one of the most weather active sections of our coastline.
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/
Time history of atmospheric CO2
Time history of atmospheric carbon dioxide from 800,000 years before present until January, 2009. Recommend full screen/HD to read titles. See http://carbontracker.noaa.gov for more information on the global carbon cycle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2mZyCblxS4&feature=related
Thanks Prokaryotes. Very informative video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfTiRNzbSko&feature=player_embedded
The Arctic Oscillation Index is now very positive:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao_index.html
The ENSM forecasts show it to remain positive for some time:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao_index_ensm.shtml
The 3-month running mean value of the Arctic Oscillation (AO Index) since 1950:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/month_ao_index.shtml
Note the fluctuations from negative to positive over this record with very little long term change.
Re Michal “The Arctic Oscillation Index is now very positive”
If i recall this correctly, that NAO to PAO snap, occurred around the same time the last 2 years at least -_-
Hi Bob Lang (Post # 6)
I followed your link to the video by Bob Doty and the windfuels.com website, and I don’t share your negative opinion of the scheme.
It all seems technologically possible. He’s taking standard industrial processes, such as electrolysis, the reverse water gas shift reaction, and then Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons to make hydrocarbon fuels. These are standard industrial chemical processes, used for years.
The real objection I have to it is that his starting point is fossil fuel CO2, rather than biomass CO2. If he was starting with biomass CO2, his scheme would be carbon neutral. As it is, it is carbon positive, but gets double use out of emitted CO2, so it’s only about half as carbon positive as coal, if he’s using CO2 from coal.
In terms of carbon emissions, it would be better to just use the electricity directly to run electrical and plug in hybrid vehicles, I think. Unless he’s able to find large sources of biomass CO2, that is.
Is it economical?
Maybe. It depends on the availability of cheap off peak electricity. His best source for that might be nuclear, not wind, maybe. And he’s increasingly going to be in competition with energy storage technologies and smart power meters, which can be programmed to use off peak power to run household stuff and charge electric and plug in hybrid cars.
Hi Leif (post # 55)
Yes, compressed air storage has a very high power density.
Another potential game changer is carbon fiber flywheel energy storage, especially if a less flexible matrix than epoxy could be found. I’ve speculated about geopolymer as a matrix, myself.
These ideas have been around for a long time, but the easy availability and cheap price of fossil fuels suppressed their development.
Still looking at the temps. In Greenland
and the weather stream leading from
the southeast US over and up to that
area of the Globe. I’m guessing that
such is a different weather stream is
difficult to quantify. And with feedbacks
will be difficult to predict.
Willi Dansgaard, a Danish paleoclimatologist who was the first to recognize that the Earth’s climatic history was stored in the Greenland ice cap, died Jan. 8 in Copenhagen, according to the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. He was 88. Abrupt climate changes are now known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-willi-dansgaard-20110207,0,6280082.story
Paul Krugman’s’ column in today’s NY Times connects climate change to rising food prices.
“Droughts, Floods and Food”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/opinion/07krugman.html?_r=1
[JR: And links to CP.]
I’m a bit late with this because my computer is down.
Here’s my translation of a good article that appeared on Thursday on the website of a Belgian newspaper.
My favorite bit is where it says: “Scientists agree that the warming arctic ocean has already altered the climate system.”
How a warming north pole sends us freezing cold
To some it’s hard to believe in a warming climate when they’re confronted with persistent freezing temperatures and blizzards. But the warming of the climate, on a global scale, is precisely causing those cold snaps and snow records, locally. What’s more: winters in the northern US and in Europe will only become more severe because of the warming of the planet and more specifically the arctic.
Take the blizzard that paralyzed an area 3000 km across in Canada and the US: 10,000 cancelled flights, hundreds of thousands stuck in airports and traffic jams, 250,000 hit by black-outs, about 100 million people are said to have been affected by the storm.
20 degrees above normal
According to scientists the record snowfall is related to the warming of the arctic. Large amounts of warm water flow into the arctic ocean and accelerate the melting of sea ice. Consequence: a warm north pole. Currently, it’s even over 20 degrees warmer than normal up there.
“During the first week of January, we could still circumnavigate Baffin Island”, says David Phillips, a climatologist at Environment Canada. Baffin Island is located about 2000 km north of Montreal. It’s supposed to be 25 to 35 degrees below freezing there, but on some days in January the mercury rose above zero.
Unsafe ice
“For the second winter in a row, it’s not safe for people in the eastern arctic to go on the ice to hunt.” Anyone flying over northern Canada these days will be surprised by the traces of water in what should normally be a white plain.
Warmer water, melting ice
The consequences are immediately clear: the temperature of the water flowing through the strait between Greenland and Spitsbergen has risen by two degrees while it had been virtually unchanged for 2000 years. Another consequence: the polar ice cap is shrinking.
Some experts predict the arctic ice will be all but gone in august in 5 years. Just a few years ago, it was still believed this would be around 2060 at the earliest.
Important factor
The arctic ocean’s area is about 14 million square km, the same size as Russia. When an area of that size warms, it has consequences for the entire globe. Together with the south pole, the north pole is one of the most important factors in climate change.
Scientists agree that the warming arctic ocean has already altered the climate system. One of the consequences is that North America and Europe get more snow.
Wind patterns
How come? When polar ice melts, a larger surface is exposed to accumulate the summer’s sunshine. From October till January, that part of the arctic ocean releases the extra heat, instead of refreezing. That in turn influences wind patterns on the northern hemisphere, making the polar region relatively warm and bringing cold and snow to southern regions.
High precipitation
In the future, cold, snowy winters could become the norm in Europe and the eastern US. Until now, increased winter precipitation had only been predicted for western Europe. With these new findings, that looks like a correct prediction, but with the precipitation falling under the form of snow.
Polar bear
So, that’s bad news for us, but also for the polar bear. Because of the melting ice in the arctic, it will now become even harder for the bear to survive and produce offspring. Thus, this already threatened species is now really on the verge of extinction.
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/5396/Extreem-Weer/article/detail/1217123/2011/02/03/Hoe-de-opwarming-van-de-Noordpool-ons-vrieskou-geeft.dhtml
The same article followed by a parade of denialist comments:
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/5096/Cancun-2010/article/detail/1217123/2011/02/03/Hoe-de-opwarming-van-de-Noordpool-ons-vrieskou-geeft.dhtml