Climate Change In The News - Spring 2013

[Paul]

Restarting the climate change news thread - please discuss any recent news articles around the subject of climate change in this thread.

[knocker]

OSLO (Reuters) – A Chinese shipping firm is planning the country's first commercial voyage through a shortcut across the Arctic Ocean to the United States and Europe in 2013, a leading Chinese scientist said on Tuesday.

Huigen Yang, director general of the Polar Research Institute of China, told Reuters that the trip he led last year on the icebreaker Xuelong, or Snowdragon, to explore the route had "greatly encouraged" Chinese shipping companies.

"One commercial voyage by a Chinese shipping company may take place this summer," he said.

For China, the world's No. 2 economy after the United States, the route would save time and money. The distance from Shanghai to Hamburg is 2,800 nautical miles (5,185 kms) shorter via the Arctic than via the Suez Canal, Yang said.

Despite ice risks on a route that is opening because of climate change, shipping as well as oil and gas exploration and mining businesses are being drawn to the Arctic region.

http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2013/03/china-plans-first-commercial-trip.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[knocker]

Another extreme event.

13 March 2013 (Fairfax) – The Wellington region's water supply is at 'crisis' level, while even the typically wet West Coast is experiencing a big dry as New Zealand's summer drought extends.

Rural communities throughout the North Island are already reeling from extremely dry conditions. The Government has declared Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay as drought zones. Manawatu-Rangitikei, Wairarapa, and Taranaki are set to follow.

Nigel Wilson, who chairs the Wellington region's committee in charge of water supply, said 20 days of water was about all that's left for the people of Wellington, Hutt Valley and Porirua if the heavens did not open soon

http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2013/03/wellington-has-20-days-of-water-left-in.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Edited March 13, 2013 by knocker

[knocker]

New Zealand getting in on the act.

Bill English’s weasel words on weather, climate and drought

Occasionally — but only occasionally — the political pantomime that is parliamentary question time throws up something interesting. Yesterday, NZ’s deputy prime minister Bill English managed to dig himself into a drought-ridden hole, only to emerge looking like a climate denier. Green Party co-leader Russel Norman tried to get English to expand on his earlier comments that the government would not be able to help farmers hit by increased incidence of droughts, which led to this astonishing little exchange [Hansard transcript here]:

http://hot-topic.co.nz/bill-englishs-weasel-words-on-weather-climate-and-drought/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+co%2FRbRF+%28Hot+Topic%29

[jonboy]

New Zealand getting in on the act.

Bill English’s weasel words on weather, climate and drought

http://hot-topic.co....bRF (Hot Topic)

Reading the hansard transcript Bill English was making valid points about how farmers need to adapt to changing climate which has always bben the case. Those who are slow to change will enevitably suffer. Goverments can only give so much support. Equally the New Zealand record appears to at the better end of response when considering carbon reduction.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Paul
Removed un-needed comments - headline was taken from the website carrying the story.

[4wd]

It looks like another of those hysterical over-reactions to a weather event to me.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Paul

[BornFromTheVoid]

It looks like another of those hysterical over-reactions to a weather event to me.

I have to ask 4wd, but have you got anything other than a generalised sweeping dismissal to add?

Just to be clear though, I don't think jumping to the conclusion that this NZ drought is climate change related is useful. Other than projections, I've seen no studies that have made the link with this particular drought.

[knocker]

And also to be clear I've seen no studies linking climate change to this heat wave.

13 Mar 2013 (AAP) – Melbourne has endured a record seven nights above 20C, after nine days in a row above 30C.

Melbourne is continuing to break heat records, after sweltering through its hottest seven nights in a row.

After a record nine consecutive daytime temperatures over 30C, sleep-deprived Melburnians have now endured another record, for the longest run of high minimum temperatures.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Rod Dickson says the minimum temperature has hovered above 20C for seven consecutive days.

The previous record of six consecutive nights above 20C occurred twice before - once in 2009 and once in 2008.

"It has certainly been the warmest start to March on record," Mr Dickson said.

But it will take more hot days to beat the warmest March ever, in 1940 where the average maximum temperature was 28.9C.

"Currently our average for the first couple of weeks is 32.5C, so we're above the highest March average ever recorded but we've still got half a month to go," Mr Dickson said. [

more

]

http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2013/03/heat-wave-breaks-records-across.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[knocker]

Watts Interview – Denial and Reality Mix like Oil and Water

Posted on 14 March 2013 by dana1981

A website called Oil Price recently conducted an interview with climate contrarian Anthony Watts. In the interview, Watts tries to portray himself as the reasonable skeptic in the middle of the climate 'debate'. Watts claims that he's a "lukewarmer" (a term which frankly just refers to people who ignore inconvenient evidence), trying to position himself between the denialists and the climate scientists.

However, as Richard Alley has explained, in reality climate scientists are the reasonable skeptics in the middle, with denialists at one extreme and doomsayers at the other. The sheer number of myths Watts manages to jam in his Oil Price interview confirms Alley's view. In fact, the interview offers us a case study in the tactics climate denialists use to misinform the public.

http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=1914&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[knocker]

I haven't been able to locate the study.

Human-induced climate change played big role in Somalia’s 2011 famine, new study finds

NAIROBI, Kenya — Human-induced climate change contributed to low rain levels in East Africa in 2011, making global warming one of the causes of Somalia’s famine and the tens of thousands of deaths that followed, a new study has found.

It is the first time climate change was proven to be partially to blame for such a large humanitarian disaster, an aid group said Friday.

Three climate scientists with Britain’s national weather service studied weather patterns in Somalia in 2010 and 2011 and found that yearly precipitation known as the short rains failed in late 2010 because of the natural effects of the weather pattern La Nina.

But the lack of the long rains in early 2011 was an effect of “the systematic warming (of Earth) due to influence on greenhouse gas concentrations on the long rains,†said Peter Scott of Britain’s National Weather Service, known as the Met Office.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/human-induced-climate-change-played-big-role-in-somalias-2011-famine-new-study-finds/2013/03/15/46393300-8d63-11e2-adca-74ab31da3399_story.html

[knocker]

So I asked the Vatican about global warming... Special Report

Recently, I wrote an article for Catholic Online about global warming. The comments from so many readers, obviously intelligent, gave me pause and I took it upon myself to conduct further research, specifically into the Church's teachings on the subject. I pledged in advance to accept what I would discover, no matter what my personal opinions were, after all, I am Catholic and I have faith in my Church. Surprisingly, I soon found the Church has a well-developed, scientific position on the subject.

http://www.catholic.org/green/story.php?id=50128

[keithlucky]

What global warming? ..._Standstill.pdf

[gagerg]

Record Methane in the Arctic during the early days of March (from the 1st to the 10th).

Methane levels for this period are at record highs in the Barents and Norwegian Seas, i.e. the highest levels ever recorded by IASI, which is is short for Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer, a Fourier transform spectrometer on board the European EUMETSAT Metop satellite that has supplied data since 2007.

http://arctic-news.blogspot.ie/

[BornFromTheVoid]

Windfarm sickness spreads by word of mouth, Australian study finds

Health complaints from people living around turbines shown to be psychological effect of anti-wind lobby making people worry

Sickness being attributed to wind turbines is more likely to have been caused by people getting alarmed at the health warnings circulated by activists, an Australian study has found.

Complaints of illness were far more prevalent in communities targeted by anti-windfarm groups, said the report's author, Simon Chapman, professor of public health at Sydney University. His report concludes that illnesses being blamed on windfarms are more than likely caused by the psychological effect of suggestions that the turbines make people ill, rather than by the turbines themselves.

"If windfarms were intrinsically unhealthy or dangerous in some way, we would expect to see complaints applying to all of them, but in fact there is a large number where there have been no complaints at all," Chapman said.

Rest is here http://www.guardian....-word-australia

[Methuselah]

Rest is here http://www.guardian....-word-australia

You beat me to it!

[BornFromTheVoid]

Global temperatures in February were the 9th warmest on record, with January and February combined being the 9th warmest also.

http://www.ncdc.noaa...c/global/2013/2

Edited March 16, 2013 by BornFromTheVoid

[knocker]

This subject has been raised before but one of the authors of the paper on video.

I’m posting the interview I did by Skype with Anton Vaks, whose recent research figured prominently in

Doctor Vaks has looked at the growth of speleothems, i.e. stalactites and stalagmites, in caves underlying areas of continuous and discontinuous permafrost in Siberia. 400,000 years ago, doing an interglacial period slightly warmer than this one (so far), large areas of permafrost did go into a melting process once temp reached about 1.5 C above preindustrial temps. We are a little more than half way to that point, at about 0.8C above preindustrial.

The good news is, as the orbital cooling processes kicked in, the planet cooled, and permafrost did not run away. The bad news is, we are pushing the process much, much harder than the orbital forcings ever have.

Per Youtube limitations, had to break it up. Part 2 below.

http://climatecrocks..._medium=twitter

Edited March 16, 2013 by knocker

[Rainy]

This is probably not the correct place to post this

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/16/britain-farming-crisis-how-tough

But do take notice everyone. Things are going wrong..

Farms in large areas of the north and west of the UK, specially in the hills, have been mostly at a standstill since late "summer".. After the very wet and sunless autumn, this long sunless winter is adding to the misery. We need a rapid pick up as soon as possible with warmth, sun and evaporation.

Are we nearing the oft warned change to "weather like Newfoundland".?

[Polar Maritime]

No, the world ISN'T getting warmer (as you may have noticed). Now we reveal the official data that's making scientists suddenly change their minds about climate doom. So will eco-funded MPs stop waging a green crusade with your money? Well... what do YOU think?

The Mail on Sunday today presents irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global climate warming have been catastrophically flawed.And here it is....

And here it is.... they seem to be still playing with the IPCC's last update, which as we know isn't the first time.

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz2NmZrRSKa

I gather they still have not grasped the fact that warmings have periods where temps can flatten out or level off for anything up to 15yrs, as the past tells us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_0JZRIHFtk

Edited March 17, 2013 by Polar Maritime

[Hiya]

No, the world ISN'T getting warmer (as you may have noticed). Now we reveal the official data that's making scientists suddenly change their minds about climate doom. So will eco-funded MPs stop waging a green crusade with your money? Well... what do YOU think?

The Mail on Sunday today presents irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global climate warming have been catastrophically flawed.And here it is....

And here it is.... they seem to be still playing with the IPCC's last update, which as we know isn't the first time.

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz2NmZrRSKa

I gather they still have not grasped the fact that warmings have periods where temps can flatten out or level off for anything up to 15yrs, as the past tells us.

If you make a well publicised prediction and it doesn't hold true you can't blame people, especially laymen, for pointing it out.

[Methuselah]

No, the world ISN'T getting warmer (as you may have noticed). Now we reveal the official data that's making scientists suddenly change their minds about climate doom. So will eco-funded MPs stop waging a green crusade with your money? Well... what do YOU think?

The Mail on Sunday today presents irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global climate warming have been catastrophically flawed.And here it is....

And here it is.... they seem to be still playing with the IPCC's last update, which as we know isn't the first time.

Read more: http://www.dailymail...l#ixzz2NmZrRSKa

I gather they still have not grasped the fact that warmings have periods where temps can flatten out or level off for anything up to 15yrs, as the past tells us.

And that from those who gave us 'irrefutable' links between autism and MMR vaccine, and leukemia clusters?

Edited March 17, 2013 by Rybris Ponce

[pottyprof]

And that from those who gave us 'irrefutable' links between autism and MMR vaccine, and leukemia clusters?

Which have nothing to do with with the subject Pete.

We're at 9th warmest globally which makes for an eyebrow lifting 'why?' considering the forecast was for an ever increasing global temperature. This was a forecast from the IPCC not by a newspaper. I think that in itself gives it some credence unless we're now saying the IPCC speaks BS and their material is worth less than that of a newspaper?

I'm not saying that there won't be periods where temps flatten out for short periods, I'm saying that a question needs answering. Why are the temps levelling off? It can't be the quiet sun because according to the so called consensus, It doesn't have any real effect. If we can't answer that question, we'll never be able to project temperatures and the whole exercise will become pointless, if it isn't already.

[stewfox]

Which have nothing to do with with the subject Pete.

We're at 9th warmest globally which makes for an eyebrow lifting 'why?' considering the forecast was for an ever increasing global temperature. This was a forecast from the IPCC not by a newspaper. I think that in itself gives it some credence unless we're now saying the IPCC speaks BS and their material is worth less than that of a newspaper?

I'm not saying that there won't be periods where temps flatten out for short periods, I'm saying that a question needs answering. Why are the temps levelling off? It can't be the quiet sun because according to the so called consensus, It doesn't have any real effect. If we can't answer that question, we'll never be able to project temperatures and the whole exercise will become pointless, if it isn't already.

Yes and we still spend billions on green taxes

[knocker]

I'm not saying that there won't be periods where temps flatten out for short periods, I'm saying that a question needs answering. Why are the temps levelling off? It can't be the quiet sun because according to the so called consensus, It doesn't have any real effect. If we can't answer that question, we'll never be able to project temperatures and the whole exercise will become pointless, if it isn't already.

Why can't it be pollution and volcanic aerosols in the stratosphere from increased volcanic activity in the last ten years tamping down the warming as postulated in a recent paper?

[BornFromTheVoid]

Which have nothing to do with with the subject Pete.

We're at 9th warmest globally which makes for an eyebrow lifting 'why?' considering the forecast was for an ever increasing global temperature.

No, it wasn't.

This was a forecast from the IPCC not by a newspaper. I think that in itself gives it some credence unless we're now saying the IPCC speaks BS and their material is worth less than that of a newspaper?

The paper said their graph was similar to the IPCC one. I'll hold out for the real thing, rather than someone that considers a GWPF member an "expert"!

I'm not saying that there won't be periods where temps flatten out for short periods, I'm saying that a question needs answering. Why are the temps levelling off? It can't be the quiet sun because according to the so called consensus, It doesn't have any real effect. If we can't answer that question, we'll never be able to project temperatures and the whole exercise will become pointless, if it isn't already.

It's been discussed many times

La Nina dominant period

Low solar activity

Sulphate pollution