http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/what-scares-young-people-our-lack-of-passion-20121205-2av0f.html

 

It is grotesque, how Labor's scare-mongering has so terrified so many people. Consider the following facts: the world hasn't warmed in 16 years, the carbon tax would make at very most about 0.0038 degrees difference in a century, and modest warming could even leave us better off. Consider also man's astonishing ability to adapt, and the rapid progress in wealth, health and technology.

Andrew Bolt

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments

/fearmongers_shame_reader_fears_warming_will_kill_their_children/

---------------------------

 

Yes Andrew... Three bags full, Andrew... very well trumpeted Andrew... pity your arguments are grotesque crap, Andrew... 

 

The world HAS warmed in the last 16 years... 11 of the warmest years — since records by humans have been taken on this planet — have been in the last 11 years, 2005 being the warmest and 2010 being the second warmest, while it is likely that 2012 will join the list of the warmest — if not the warmest... But in this apparent "slowing of warming" (observed in earlier periods around the 1960s(?) possibly due to aerosols), we have to consider that the SUN had been "dormant"... The sun was quiet for the last 11 years till later this year when sun spots started to appear again... La Nina (a worldwide cooling weather pattern usually) did not have a pronounced cooling effect either...

 

Global warming trends are really quite small if one looks at it with a measuring tape...

 

The preliminary results of an assessment carried out by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature group and made public in October 2011, found that over the past 50 years the land surface warmed by 0.911°C, and their results mirrors those obtained from earlier studies carried out by the NOAA, the Hadley Centreand NASA's GISS.

(Note the Berkeley study was made by skeptic scientists and paid for by denialists...) 

 

As the latest storm in Auckland, where a tornado has carved a path through, seems to indicate a small change goes a long way to do strange things... Even the town folks used to bad weather were shocked : "I've never seen weather like this before!"... to which one can answer with a certain amount of probability that you'll will soon see the same again and possibly worse. 

 

CO2 "is adding energy" into the atmosphere... It's not really as simple as this statement.

 

But compared to say to the processes of photosynthesis — that we accept readily and know in fine details, scientifically, are actually very complex — the way CO2 "adds energy" into the atmosphere is also complex, though the process is much simpler than photosynthesis analysis or the theory of relativity... This extra energy is translated in greater difference of potential in weather extreme and in heat — by absorption of infrared wavelength from the sun and the release thereof in certain conditions.

 

Humans are undisputedly adding CO2 in the atmosphere.

 

Now you've heard about the massive drought in the US this year... You heard about the mild US winter... You've heard about weather being cooler in the US than in Canada for example as well... You've heard about Sandy... In isolation these weather events would be "exceptional" in their own right. As well we've got to remember that there was a nasty little storm that bruised New Orleans as well, and about 250 tornadoes in the mid-west... All this for the US alone, in one single year... Weather business as usual or something increasing uncomfortable? 

 

The damage bill of weather events last year (2011) in the US was around US$150 billions. this year, it will be more than $US200 billions... and the White House is demanding congress to give an extra 50 billion to aid damage relief from Sandy, alone... The damage caused is not just flattened houses but job losses and scarcity of supplies, including food and gas (of all things)...

 

The Australian carbon tax itself may not be ideal but it's a small start in the right direction towards making us reduce our carbon footprints... Though presently Australia exports about many times more the value of its carbon tax, in coal to China... But in its design and purpose, the carbon tax can be tweaked to be more and more relevant...

 

This year saw the lowest extend of summer ice in the Arctic — in human recorded history. Not only the extent was reduced but the thickness of the ice has reduced in greater proportion.

 

I have friends who hiked through Switzerland last month and the guides pointed out at every turn where the glaciers frontlines used to be only ten years ago... between 100 and 500 metres had vanished IN THE LAST TEN YEARS on all glaciers visited... This represent an enormous about of energy absorbed from the heat in the atmosphere, in the melting of the ice... Similar retreat has been noticed in the US

 

The science of global warming is very precise in it's observations.

 

Where there is some iffiness is in the interpretation of how much the place is going to warm up. It's a bit like bracketing the path of a hurricane, except this time the observed phenomenon is global... Massive... Thus various models based upon previous records of precise scientific analysis have been devised to give us a clue. Most of these models have been tweaked to the low end of predictions. These models are very CONSERVATIVE in their estimates.

 

You are admitting here, though, is your recognition that the globe is warming. But you don't think it's going to hurt that much... I can tell you "a little warmer" is going to leave many of us much worse of... Specially poor people living in low laying areas will suffer greatly... 

 

Engineers in Italy are working around the clock to build a huge new system of dikes to prevent Venice from being flooded "once more"... It's not that it has not been flooded before but it was far less often. Since 1900, the average sea level has risen by 15 centimetres as measured precisely — presently increasing by 1.5 millimetre per year.

 

Sure, "man"'s ability (let's call it humanity's ability, shall we?) to adapt is fantastic. But apart from battening the hatches, the solutions so far rest on better windmills than the old wheat-crushers and efficient solar panels. Most other solutions have been from mad scientists in tune with Frankenstein...

 

Beside this, Andrew, you show an extraordinary uncooth selfish aloofness about other creatures, most of which do not have the same ability to adapt, apart from some cockroaches (see toon at top) that slowly become resistant to stronger insecticides, but can get caught in some fine carpet weaves.

 

To talk of "modest warming" is not very scientific. What do you define as modest may be a lot for someone else, including an aware scientist, since no one has an idea of the value of "modest"... Where do I find a ruler to measure "modest"?

 

My latest argument will be that Labor has not terrified enough people...

 

Of the Australian population, about 54 per cent (Liberals/idiots) are prepared to go with Abbott/Pell/Plimer/Nova and not believe the science, while the science is correct. Of the remaining 46 per cent, I would suggest about half would also be prepared to believe that science is wrong, but are afraid science could be right — which it is. This of course is irrelevent to the facts, only pissy to our political perceptions which you are shit-stirring unreasonably with an unscientific dirty stick.

 

The certainty of global warming under present conditions of anthropogenic increase of CO2 (and methane as a side product) is not in doubt. 

 

The doubt (or prediction) is in the value of the feed-back mechanisms of albedo and at which level it will (or could) balance out... Previous record points to the possibility of sea levels more than 75 metres above what they are now... It has happened in the past. If you think that under present conditions, temperatures will stop rising, you are more stupid than I thought...

 

---------------------------

 

 

2012 hottest year on record, federal agency says
The first eight months of 2012 were the hottest ever recorded in the continental United States and the summer period of June, July and August was the third hottest ever, the National Climatic Data Center reported Monday.

Although the August average of 74.4 degrees Fahrenheit made it only the 16th hottest August on record, the hottest July ever combined with the hottest spring on record to keep January-August 2012 atop the record books.

The nation as a whole is averaging 4 degrees Fahrenheit above average for the year. That's a full degree higher than the same period in 2006, the second hottest January-August on record.

Record keeping began in 1895.

The record warmth is a constant for from cities north to south, from Fargo, North Dakota, at 5.7 degrees F above average, to Tampa, Florida, at 2.2 degrees F above average. Green Bay, Wisconsin, posted the biggest difference to the average, 6.7 degrees F above.

The hottest temperature recorded for the month was 126 degrees F in Death Valley, California, recently recognized as the hottest place on Earth.

If you were looking colder than normal weather, the West Coast was the place to be. San Diego was .2 degrees F below normal for the year, San Francisco was 1 degree F below normal, Portland, Oregon, .7 degrees F below normal and Seattle, 1.1 degrees F below normal.

 

 

There is a lot of information about global warming on the net, including a small crop of rabid denialist doozies... 

I don't know if Andrew Bolt reads Dutch, but there are some wafty denialist websites in that language... Those sites could be where he gets his inspiration, unless it is from the scientifically dubious Australian Galileo outfit.
One of the contentious issue of global warming is the rise of sea levels... I have already mentioned Janet Albrechtsen's irrational views on this subject, but the denialists have engaged (or tagged onto) various "experts", such as some oceanographers who claims the sea levels stopped rising in 1960, then went down a tad and stayed stable ever since... Rubbish. The recent NASA observation and compilation has shown a steady 3 mm rise average per annum worldwide since 1993.... The same proportional rise has also been established before 1993, since 1900 (even as far back as 1875, 25 years after the beginning of the industrial revolution).. To be noted is that the rise has not been equal around the globe and in some places, sea level has fallen... The discrepancy between places can be explained by depth, currents and other local factors...
There is one denialist site that seems to postulate that because the oceans do not warm from the CO2 in the atmosphere, then global warming is bunkum... Another site accuses scientists from the IPCC to postulate wrongly that the atmosphere getting warmer warms the sea in the process... Another expert argues that sea level has not risen and that the Maldives are secure...
There again the subject of the rising sea level is complex and there is much number crunching to find what's really happening.
We should realise that with some continental (Greenland, Arctic edges, parts of Antarctica, European and American glaciers) ice melting into the oceans, these will have a certain amount of influence on the sea levels, but the next influence will be temperature of the water. 
This is an issue where contraction and expansion of water plays a critical role. As well the various temperatures according to depth is also an issue... For example water will contract to its minimum volume at 4 degrees C. Thus as temperature rises, the sea volume might contract since the average sea temperature sits at 3.5 degrees... But once the average temperature reaches 4 degrees C, the average rising sea temperature will lead to a much faster expansion, leading to a faster rise of sea level as was witnessed by humans 12 to 10,000 years ago, when much continental ice melted...

When one looks at the process of the warming of oceans and the exchange between layers of water, one has to account thus that most of the ocean is below its average temperature of 3.5 degree C. The average of the entire oceanic mass is calculated at 3.5 degrees C, while the surface varies between frozen ice to more than 34 degrees C in some areas, like the Timor Sea... 

My own record of Sydney's sea level rise is empirical and relies only on my regular visual observations in which higher sea level seem to have crept up slightly closer to jetty beams and platforms, over the last 40 years. If we follow the mapping of sea level rise from NASA and from other serious scientists that have mapped sea rise for the last 300 years, I notice sea level has risen about 6 centimetres in Sydney which correlate with my own empirical observations. Actually in regard to NASA's entire planet record, the sea level in Sydney would have risen by 12 centimetres in 40 years which is about 6 centimetres above these estimates... All these measurements are quite difficult to determine as there are tidal variation under various atmospheric pressure, barnacles, moon phases and possible subsidence of point of reference.
Thus one scientific outfit with the help of the ABC is asking the public to record what they see at the next king tides in mid-December.
While the (including the insurance industry) accepted rise of sea level since 1900 has been set at 15 centimetres, more precise observation places it at 19 centimetres. Thought there are some variations in the records of tides of various ports in the Australasia region, the Fort Denison tidal gauge in Sydney, seems to correlate a 6 centimetres rise since 1970. Strangely or not so strangely, there is a trend of deceleration in the rise, at all centres except Newcastle. The general accepted trend is that by 2100, the sea level will have risen by 45 centimetres average around the world, sometimes noted up to 90 centimetres by some governmental forecasting bodies, though some dissenting (denialist?) scientist claims that it won't rise more than 10 centimetres in the next ninety years. This scientist also claims that the true "official" record is kept under wrap by the government so it can use the larger prediction figure to suit its agenda... But other models show that the rise will soon re-accelerate as the sun "has awakened".

The temperature of the sea surface is influenced directly by the sun rays at various wavelength up to a depth of 100 metes. For the previous observation of slowing "acceleration" one has thus to remember that the sun has been substantially less active in the last 11 years, influencing the changing rate of temperature rise of the oceans... The various major currents from depth to the surface also influence the trends, as well as large surface currents, such as the major Australian eastern current that brings warmer northerly tropical waters along the Sydney coast down to Tasmania in Summer. In Winter the current is not as strong... Some models of global warming predict some considerable changes to some of the major currents, such as a slowing of the Gulf Stream, leading to a cooling of the United Kingdom.
Yet, observation by scientists and fishermen alike has shown that "northern" fish species are establishing themselves way further south along the coast of Australia, as the average temperature of the east coast ocean has warmed up the sea further south.... 
This said there are also some low-depth convection effects that tend to mix the top warm layer of oceans with cooler water below... As I have mentioned before on this site, evaporation tends to cool the surface but the overall effect is not very deep. a few millimetres at most, but it is a change that can induce convection vertical currents. Colder water is "heavier" (smaller volume) thus sinks.
What is to be noted as well (mentioned here before) is the more clear moisture in the air, the more heat energy can be transferred through the atmosphere to the surface — land or sea. 
Some denialists will postulate that the temperature of the sea is not affected by the temperature of the atmosphere above. I could buy this premise though I am not convinced... The reverse is evident that some of the heat in the oceans will be absorbed by the atmosphere. Results of the exchange mechanism can be various, including the formation of sea fog and/or low level frayed and shapeless clouds along the coast... The temperature of the air above oceans and land is in relationship with the surface temperature below and its albedo, as well as day or night.
One can observe that should a hot mass of air be moved by wind from land over the sea, this hot air might get trapped by an inversion layer above the sea and should the wind change, the same hot air now cooled down to a warmish level by the oceans will also carry a lot of moisture from sea evaporation... With a change of wind direction, this same air now laden with moisture will flow back over the land where it came from. Depending on the dew point and the ambient temperature, these clouds will stay as frayed and shapeless clouds or will provide some rain... At this level, the weather variations are too great to make any prediction of global warming or not, locally. BUT, noticeable changes of weather pattern, locally, including stronger local storms can be an indication of "climate change".
Thus global warming is studied as a GLOBAL phenomenon, from a compilation of many local records around the world. 
The rite wingnuttery prefer to call it "climate change" in order to place the process in the natural basket as part of the greater cycles of nature. It's of course a spurrious proposition and a delay tactic. 
Scientific experiments and most geological records show that CO2 and temperature are strongly linked, no matter which comes first — in a natural cycle. 
Presently, with humans adding CO2 in the atmosphere in record amount despite recession and weak economic performance, the natural cycle is modified beyond its ability to cope or to reabsorb the extra carbon dioxide.... 
Some denialist sites will harp on how "higher temperature comes first, then CO2 follows" and that's okay by me. It is a possibility in a FULLY natural cycle with other changing conditions such as sun cycles, oxygen level (a cooling gas), methane (a warming gas) proportion and atmospheric particles (dust) in the air... 
AFTER HAVING TAKEN ALL OTHER FACTORS INTO ACCOUNT, UNDER THE SPECIFIC CONDITIONS OF THE PRESENT GASEOUS MIX, OF THE DUST PARTICLE LEVEL, THE CULPRIT FOR THE PRESENTLY OBSERVED GLOBAL WARMING IS CO2 — SPECIFICALLY THE EXTRA CO2 added by humans burning fossil fuels that have been out of the atmospheric equation for millions of years...
Gus Leonisky

 

Every day, a long list of majestic creatures are cruelly slaughtered by poachers -- driving them closer to extinction. And they are killed to fuel violent syndicates getting rich on bogus goods -- elephant tusks become trinkets, rhino horns become fake sex remedies, and shark fins become soup. It is a global disgrace, and the sad truth is we’re losing this fight. But we know how to tip the balance to save these noble animals, before the last elephant falls. 

Just days ago, Thailand’s Prime Minister promised to shut down her country’s ivory trade. Why? Because of us, Leonardo DiCaprio and our friends at WWF. When we heard she was hosting the UN summit on endangered species, we did what we do best -- we found a specific, doable demand that could have huge impact, and then weighed in all our people power behind a massive petition, combined with high-level advocacy and a barrage of social media. And we won!

This is just one of the many fights we are in to save endangered species -- we stopped a global proposal to legalise the whale slaughter, we are fighting a legal battle in South Africa to stop the lion bone trade, and in Europe we are in the final stretch of a huge campaign to save bees from pesticide annihilation! But for every battle, there are hundreds more animals facing extinction and time is running out. To truly win, we need to supercharge our team. 

Here's the plan -- we take our tiny staff and grow a team focused on beating the poachers and profiteers, and we use our campaigning magic to take on fights across the globe. We know what we do can save these endangered species from disappearing from our planet. And it doesn't take much -- if 30,000 of us pledge to donate $4 today, we could grow our team and scale up all our conservation campaigns. Avaaz will only process the pledges if we get to 30,000, enough to make a real difference:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/people_vs_poachers_loc/?

Never before has wildlife been so threatened by mankind. These lions, elephants, tigers and rhinos are the subject of ancient fables and tales, and now our generation is annihilating them. What we are doing is arrogant and sinister, and is a terrifying indication of a loss of our moral compass -- herds of elephants are executed with assault rifles for ivory, African lions are ground up to make bogus medicines, and thousands of sharks have their fins cut off while they’re alive. It's crazy! The UN estimates up to 200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal go extinct every 24 hours -- a rate faster than anything the world has seen since the vanishing of dinosaurs millions of years ago.

Taking on the poachers, smugglers, corporations and governments that drive so many species to extinction is no easy task. But these are battles we know how to fight -- and with just a handful more staff, here's an idea of what we could do:

• Hard-hitting consumer campaigns across Asia -- the top destination for shark fins, elephant ivory and rhino horns -- with targeted billboard and social media ads
• Show up to major summits and lobby elected leaders to make species survival a priority through stronger legislation and better enforcement of laws
• Push lawmakers in key wildlife trade countries to close down legislative loopholes fueling the illegal trade, just like we did in Thailand

• Publicly shame complicit officials and politicians with ads in countries where corruption is part of the cruel trade in animal parts
• Win a legal battle and help stop the lion bone trade in South Africa
• Pull out our whole gambit of winning strategies and tactics, from eye catching stunts to high-level advocacy, until we get a total ban on bee-killing pesticides

 

Some of these strategies have already worked with just 3 or 4 staff. If we now expand the Avaaz core team by just a handful, we can deploy winning campaigns and start turning the tide on global species extinction. Pledge $4 now to build our conservation team and save these amazing animals:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/people_vs_poachers_loc/

Our amazing 20 million-strong community has already helped lead the charge to safeguard our planet and the remarkable species that inhabit it. This is a fight we know how to win, and if we now take our campaigning to another level together we could tip the balance towards their survival.

With hope and determination,

Jamie, Alice, Nick, Marie, Lisa, Joo-yea, Ricken, Bissan and the rest of the Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

Thailand's Prime Minister commits to ending ivory trade (Mongabay)
http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0304-hance-cites-elephant-thailand.html  

Traffic: Why It’s Time to Get Serious About the Bloody Illegal Wildlife Trade (Time)
http://science.time.com/2013/03/05/traffic-why-its-time-to-get-serious-  

Shark kills number 100 million annually, research says (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21629173    

EU vote on pesticides is bugged by complexities (Telegraph)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/beekeeping/9899455/EU-vote-on-pesticides-

Protect nature for world economic security, warns UN biodiversity chief (Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security

100 most endangered species: priceless or worthless? – in pictures (Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2012/sep/11/most-endangered-species-in-pictures

 

-----------------------------

 

See also: 

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11157

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/9121

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11163

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/13823

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11167

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11165

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11161

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11159

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11169

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/11171

Toxic Threats to Grassland Birds

Ornithologists agree that in the United States no group of birds is declining faster than the grassland species that live in or migrate through agricultural areas. These include, among others, various sparrows, eastern and western meadowlarks, bobolinks, horned larks and at least two kinds of owl. Scientists have generally agreed that the major cause is the fragmentation and loss of prairie habitat, the conversion of grassland to farmland as well as alterations in established farmland.

But a new study by two Canadian toxicologists raises an old specter. They found that collapsing bird populations were more strongly correlated with insecticide use than with habitat alteration — that, in fact, pesticides were four times more likely to be linked with bird losses than any other cause.

This would not have come as news to Rachel Carson, whose most famous book, “Silent Spring,” documented the disastrous effects of DDT on birds. DDT was banned in 1972, but it was followed by organophosphate and carbamate pesticides that were also highly lethal to birds. And while these pesticides have since been largely withdrawn from use, a new generation of nerve-agent insecticides called neonicotinoids could pose a further threat.

These insecticides are now under review by the Environmental Protection Agency. They have caused huge die-offs of honeybees in Europe and provoked an uproar among scientists, not least because the studies that purported to establish their safety were financed by pesticide manufacturers. We hope that the Canadian study, establishing a clear link between pesticides and grassland bird losses, will cause the E.P.A. to consider the next generation of insecticides in a more critical light.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/opinion/toxic-threats-to-grassland-birds.html?hp&_r=0       

 

Read all articles here from top and all over this site about bees...:

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/10691

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/26016

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/18904

1,083,900 have signed. Let's get to 1,500,000

Right now, the US government is receiving public comments on whether or not to create the world's largest Marine Protected Area in the Pacific Ocean. But President Obama is under enormous pressure from a powerful fishing lobby to water down the plan.

We can’t let that happen -- majestic whales, turtles and fish stocks are all disappearing. Scientists say the best way to save our oceans is to protect large swaths from exploitation so that marine life can recover. Four years ago, we played a pivotal role persuading the UK government to create a massive marine sanctuary in the Indian Ocean, and the UK Foreign Ministry cited our campaign in its announcement. Now, if we all speak out, we can create a reserve the size of Mexico!

If we send Obama a tidal wave of global public support now, we will empower him to counter opposition and help save our oceans for generations to come. Sign the petition and tell everyone -- let's deliver one million voices from around the world.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/ocean_of_hope_loc/?btrulbb&v=43815
See article at top...