errr Global Warming?

[Rorschach]

‘Tis the season for all that global warming folly
The Australian | November 04, 2015 12:00AM
Janet Albrechtsen

With the UN climate summit in Paris due to start later this month, the global warming silly season is well under way.

This week France’s popular weatherman Philippe Verdier was sacked by a French TV station for writing a book that challenges some scientists for inflating the effects of global warming. The UN gabfest, or COP21, is aimed at securing agreement from countries with vastly different levels of development, from the prosperous West to fast-growing economies in China and India, to less developed in Africa, to restrict global temperature rises to 2C. It’s a big ask, which may explain why the madness started even before Verdier was sacked by France 2.

Addressing a September conference in London on climate change and international law, Philippe Sands QC called for a ruling from the International Court of Justice to “scotch” claims by “scientifically qualified, know­ledgeable and influential individuals” who challenge the “consensus” on man-made global warming. Are we re-entering the Middle Ages where you were treated as a traitor if you mentioned that the king might be dying — even if he was?

More recently, the future king of England, Prince Charles, repeated his favourite claim that the Paris conference was our “last chance” to draw up a “Magna Carta for the Earth”. Charles is no King John. But, equally, Charles seems to have scant understanding of the real Magna Carta, a document that aimed to curb the powers of the king. Charles and his global warming enthusiasts now want a treaty that will deny countries such as China and India the ability to do what rich nations have done — use readily accessible and cheap carbon energy to build prosperous economies.

Here in Australia, just as the Prime Minister turned 61, 61 so-called “eminent” people signed an open letter calling on Malcolm Turnbull to put a moratorium on coalmining and new mines. That went nowhere. It was easily demolished when Turnbull said shutting down our coal industry would make zero difference to ­global emissions.

And if every silly season has a Santa, Shorten is surely it. More and more, the Opposition Leader resembles a second-rate actor who has assiduously studied a set of lines but hasn’t managed to inject any conviction into the role. This week Shorten has been on “a fact-finding mission” to the Pacific ­Islands. Translation: the Opposition Leader thinks he can use global warming to dent Turnbull’s popularity.

Shorten’s core problem begins with his role in past policy. Shorten rode the Kevin ’07 wave into office when Labor’s position was that global warming was the great moral challenge of our time and required an emissions trading system. As a senior minister, he then backed Rudd’s change of heart to dump the ETS. Shorten was a critical backer of Julia Gillard, when Labor’s new position was “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead”. He was there too when Labor signed a deal with the Greens to legislate a carbon tax.

Shorten has a long and unfortunate history of reactionary-style politics. As a union leader, he injected passion into his position. In politics, he simply looks like a desperate political leader trying to attract the increasing number of centrist voters who are looking favourably at Turnbull and the Coalition. Last week, there were racy lines Labor would devote more funding to encourage girls to learn coding, as he tried to beat off Turnbull’s talk of innovation as a driver of growth. The education system has failed us, Shorten said. Ominous words, except it only serves as a reminder that while the country has doubled spending on education over the past decade to $40 billion, outcomes on basic measures of literacy and num­eracy have gone backwards ­according to the most recent international scorecards of educational achievements. Shorten’s shadow boxing was evident as soon as Turnbull became PM. Labor’s attacks on Turnbull’s wealth served only to remind voters we have a PM who was highly successful before he entered politics and understands business. It makes a refreshing change from the career politicians who have never worked in the real world.

Last week Shorten proposed giving the vote to 16  and 17-year-olds. That went nowhere except into the cynical box, given Shorten thinks his best chance at winning an election comes by winning over teenagers under 18. If you can’t attract enough adult votes, well, to put it politely, you’re stuffed.

With the COP21 summit fast approaching, Shorten is now desperate to make climate change a positive for Labor. But, once again, his problem is one of believability. No one can question that Turnbull genuinely believes in the human drivers of global warming. It drives his critics mad and weakens the knees of his admirers.

Shorten’s history, on the other hand, is replete with stark episodes of him making statements thrust into his hands by spin doctors and pollsters. There’s no detail on the Opposition Leader’s uncosted “aspirational” 50 per cent renewable energy target. Nor has Shorten told us what Labor’s emissions target would be if he were the PM heading to Paris. A four-day visit to our Pacific neighbours does nothing to build Shorten and Labor’s credentials.

The hyperbole around global warming, Magna Cartas, last chances and moratoriums on coal will only ratchet up over the next few weeks. But the hyperbole won’t alter Turnbull’s commitment to take the Abbott government’s policy of a 26 to 28 per cent emissions reduction target on 2005 levels by 2030 to Paris.

None of it will alter the fact, while China and India will happily extract money from the West’s promised $US100bn Green Climate Fund, they won’t agree to a deal that curbs their emissions, and therefore their economic growth. China is building a new coal plant every seven to 10 days and has plans to boost its coal power by 50 per cent by 2040; India is intent on doubling its coal production by 2020.

In other words, none of the hype will deliver a meaningful treaty at the Paris gabfest that is legally binding, enforceable and verifiable. Unless you believe in Santa.

[Super Nova]

[Rorschach]

BUT YOU DO BELIEVE...
THAT'S THE PROBLEM...

[Super Nova]

I wuz taking the piss.

This is interesting. I could poo poo this because they use the words "a Nasa study suggests. " however I won't, Nasa is a valid source of information.

This is news since the propaganda of warming of the past was we were losing ice down south.

Expanding Antarctica eases threat from rising sea levels

Antarctica is gaining more ice than it is losing and is helping to slow the rise in global sea levels, a Nasa study suggests.

The findings contradict claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the Antarctic ice sheet has been losing ice for the past two decades.

The ice sheet showed a net gain of 112 billion tonnes of ice a year from 1992 to 2001. The net gain slowed to 82 billion tonnes per year from 2003 to 2008.

An increase in snow accumulating on the ice sheet that began 10,000 years ago is adding enough ice to the continent to outweigh losses from its thinning glaciers, according to Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre. The snow, which has compacted over millennia, has been thickening the ice in East Antarctica and the interior of West Antarctica by an average of 1.7cm per year.

The increase in ice means that Antarctica is absorbing the equivalent of 0.23mm of sea water annually.

Jay Zwally, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Glaciology, said: “We’re essentially in agreement with other studies that show an increase in ice discharge in the Antarctic Peninsula and the Thwaites and Pine Island region of West Antarctica.

“Our main disagreement is for East Antarctica and the interior of West Antarctica. There we see an ice gain that exceeds the losses in the other areas.”

He said it was good news that Antarctica was not adding to the rise in sea levels, but the bad news was that “If the 0.27mm per year of sea-level rise attributed to Antarctica in the IPCC report is not really coming from Antarctica, there must be some other contribution to sea level rise that is not accounted for.”

Dr Zwally said the small thickening, that spread over the vast expanse of sectors of Antarctica corresponds to a very large gain of ice — enough to outweigh losses from glaciers in other parts of the continent and reduce global sea level rise.

The research team calculated that the mass gain from the thickening of East Antarctica remained steady from 1992 to 2008 at 200 billion tonnes a year, while the ice losses from the coastal regions of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula increased by 65 billion tonnes per year.

But Dr Zwally also said it might take only a few decades for Antarctica’s growth to reverse. “If the losses of the Antarctic Peninsula and parts of West Antarctica continue to increase at the rate of the last two decades, the losses will catch up with the longterm gain in East Antarctica in 20 or 30 years — I don’t think there will be enough snowfall increase to offset these losses.”

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/environme ... 602992.ece

[Super Nova]

However reading it again it says we have 20 to 30 years the gains will be lost then we will be in deep shit don't you think.

Warning Warning

[Rorschach]

No because there is so much disingenuousness from your side of the debate which BTW NASA is on oooooh how much would Hanson have been annoyed to admit as much as they did.

[Super Nova]

No because there is so much disingenuousness from your side of the debate which BTW NASA is on oooooh how much would Hanson have been annoyed to admit as much as they did.

I do think the politician and political do gooders have corrupted the debate.

I believe there is a real risk. You appear not to see any risk.

This is where we differ.

[Super Nova]

This is a major risk if this accelerates and this is what was predicted if we don't start taking action.


Methane Plumes Bubbling along U.S. Northwest Coast

Researchers report a spike in the number of methane plumes along the Northwest coast emanating from depths of about 500 meters, a possible indication that submerged frozen methane is becoming available

The Northwest is famous for its microbrews. But the region’s bubbles aren’t just for beer. Scientists have found plumes of the potent greenhouse gas methane bubbling up from the seafloor off the coast of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

The methane comes from rotting organic matter, that is, the waste and dead bodies of land and marine organisms. “They fall into the sediments and they decompose. It’s like a compost pile.” Paul Johnson, a marine geologist at the University of Washington.

Methane leaks out of this great compost pile all along the continental margin. But Johnson says some plumes may originate in vast layers of frozen methane called hydrates. Scientists worry that rising ocean temperatures may destabilize these deposits, freeing up even more methane. And Johnson thinks he already sees evidence that it’s happening.

Over the past few years, Johnson’s team compiled a map of more than a hundred Northwest methane seeps. In a new study in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, the researchers report a spike in the number of plumes emanating from depths of about 500 meters. [H. Paul Johnson et al, Analysis of bubble plume distributions to evaluate methane hydrate decomposition on the continental slope]

That’s the shallowest depth where frozen methane is stable—and the first place scientists expect it to start bubbling out.

But Johnson says we’re not facing a climate catastrophe just yet. Most of the methane released at the seafloor gets consumed by bacteria before it can escape into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, that’s still bad news for Northwest ecosystems. When bacteria feast on methane, they also consume precious oxygen and produce carbon dioxide—which makes seawater more acidic.

“We have a bad problem out here with ocean acidification and anoxia. There are fish kills along the Oregon coast and now they are spreading up here along the Washington coast. This is making that problem worse.”

After all, these hydrates seem to be belching out lots of gas.

“And we calculated that the amount of methane that’s released from this hydrate decomposition is equivalent to the Deep Horizons spill in the Gulf of Mexico, every year.”

As warming continues, Johnson says that figure could increase by a factor of four or five. In short, the bubbly waters of the Northwest won’t go flat anytime soon.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podca ... est-coast/

[IQS.RLOW]

Should be plenty of scare mongering bullshit for you to dredge up that never eventuates every time the convention convenes SN. I'm sure there's a subscription you can pay for to finance the crap and he it delivered daily to your email despite no warming for 18 years.

[Rorschach]

You are wrong SN... and I can tell you a certain fact and that is some day the Sun will be no more and neither will we and there is more fact in that than the alarmist crap you believe in.