Monday 23rd of December 2024
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of bananas, of global warming, of the planet being raped for profit... and of science being dismissed by ignoramuses...

 

hot year...

This year is in the running to be the hottest globally and for the UK since records began, early estimates show.

In the first 10 months of 2014, global average air temperature was about 0.57 Celsius above the long-term average.

And the first eleven months in the UK have produced an average temperature 1.6C above the long-term.

A separate study by the UK Met Office says the observed temperatures would be highly unlikely without the influence of greenhouse gases produced by humans.

The global figures come in estimates from the UN's World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

If this year's current global trend continues for the next two months, the previous record years of 1998, 2005 and 2010 will be overtaken by a narrow margin.

The Secretary-General of the WMO, Michel Jarraud, said the preliminary data for 2014 was "consistent with what we expect from a changing climate."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30311816


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A rise in emissions in China is no excuse for Australia to remain the laggard on climate change. The fact is, if China's emissions per capita were anywhere near Australia's, it would be game over, writes Mike Steketee.

The extraordinary defensiveness the Abbott Government is displaying on climate change looks increasingly like a case of protesting too much.

The agreement between the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, China and the US, in which they promised further steps to reduce their carbon emissions was dismissed by Tony Abbott as so much idle talk in comparison to the real action Australia was taking:

... we are going to meet our 5 per cent reduction target within six years ... We are not talking about what might hypothetically happen 15, 20, 25, 30 years down the track.

The reality is that Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping already have taken stronger action than Australia to curb emissions by 2020 - in China's case through measures to slow the rapid growth in emissions that has accompanied its phenomenal economic development. In addition, both nations now have made commitments to further steps after 2020 - something that Abbott so far has refused to do.

Then there was Obama's supposedly calculated attack on the Abbott Government - on Australian home soil to boot. By now they have probably stopped scratching their heads in Washington over this one and written it off as those Aussies being mighty precious.

This, in all its starkness, is the language that Obama used in his speech to students in Brisbane and that the government found so offensive:

Here in Australia [climate change] means longer droughts, more wildfires. The incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened.

Worldwide, this past summer was the hottest on record. No nation is immune and every nation has a responsibility to do its part.

He added that both the US and Australia produced a lot of carbon and historically they had not been the most energy efficient of nations, "which means we've got to step up". He said that he wanted to come back and see the Great Barrier Reef and he wanted his daughters and grandchildren to do the same.

Is the Abbott Government seriously saying it disagrees with any of this? If global warming doesn't mean longer droughts, more bushfires and coral bleaching, amongst other things, then there is no reason for the Government to spend $2.5 billion of taxpayers' money to buy emissions reductions.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-01/steketee-australias-defensiveness-on-climate-is-revealing/5925038


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The first sign of serious tensions between Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop have emerged, with reports the deputy Liberal leader "went bananas" at the Prime Minister after Fairfax Media reported she would be chaperoned on a key overseas mission.

Fairfax Media reported on Sunday that Mr Abbott personally requested Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb - one of the Coalition's early opponents of emissions trading - accompany Ms Bishop to climate change talks in Lima, Peru later this month. Environment Minister Greg Hunt will not attend the conference.  The summit is a precursor to a summit in Paris next year where it's hoped a new binding global treaty for lowering carbon emissions will be struck.

Mr Robb was asked to make sure any new domestic carbon reduction commitments would be framed around Australia's economic impacts.  Sources told Fairfax Media the move was seen as a sign Mr Abbott was worried the Foreign Minister would go "too green" at the UN conference.

On Thursday, The Australian Financial Review reported the story triggered an angry response from Ms Bishop, who is said to have "gone bananas" at Mr Abbott. 

Ms Bishop is reported to have demanded a "please explain" from the Prime Minister, especially given she was not consulted on Mr Robb's attendance.

On Wednesday, Ms Bishop said any new climate targets would have broad impacts on the economy.

"This has significant economic impacts, so both the Trade and Investment and the Foreign Minister will be there," she said.

The tensions between leader and deputy leader have emerged amid heightened concerns about the role and influence of Mr Abbott's office, which ministers and backbenchers believe wields too much control.

On Sunday, News Corp reported Treasurer Joe Hockey "went off his tits" over reports that Mr Abbott's office was briefing journalists that the $7 GP co-payment would be shelved.

Some MPs say they are forbidden, or strongly discouraged, from speaking to the media by Mr Abbott's office. 

The Coalition's pollster, Mark Textor, this week called for the office to centralise the message but decentralise the delivery.

While there is no serious threat to Mr Abbott's leadership, MPs are becoming increasingly concerned about the government's position in the polls.

Many note Ms Bishop's public popularity is significantly higher than Mr Abbott's.

Mr Abbott on Monday backed his office and said it was responsible for the Coalition's election victory in 2013.

Fairfax Media has approached Mr Abbott's office for comment.

read more : http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/julie-bishop-went-bananas-at-tony-abbott-over-climate-chaperone-report-20141203-11zpvl.html

 

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Bananas are available in Australia all year round – unless disaster strikes. Cyclone Yasi which hit in 2011, caused a major shortage of bananas and exorbitant prices – but in spring, they’re at their best.

Banana ripening is an intensely controlled process, picked green, bananas are stacked into huge ripening rooms and kept at just the right temperature and then a gas, ethylene is introduced; a gas the bananas naturally give off as they ripen. When you put a banana in a paper bag with an unripe avocado, this is what you’re doing, letting the ethylene do its work.

I think bananas are best eaten just as they turn towards the brown. An unripe banana can be chalky, especially the ladyfinger bananas that are pictured here. For this recipe the bananas need to be tending towards brown. A yellow banana will produce a starchier ice-cream, so make sure your bananas are sweet and beautifully ripe.

Soft banana ice-cream


read more: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/australia-food-blog/2014/dec/04/seasons-eatings-soft-banana-ice-cream-recipe

 

ms bishop not going bananas at mr political magoo...

Tony Abbott must already rue the decision to send Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb to Lima to hold Julie Bishop's hand in international climate change talks next week.

Smaller slights than this have proved the defining moment in the descent into division of governments past. A bushfire can begin with just one match 

It is poor judgment in an area of policy in which Abbott has too often shown feet of clay and policy myopia.

 

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/lack-of-trust-between-julie-bishop-and-tony-abbott-could-spark-a-bushfire-20141204-11zzq8.html

 

another interview of a liar trying to fudge why he lies...

This evening (4/12/14) interview of Tony Turdy-the-Liar on ABC 7:30 by Leigh Sales took the award for the most fake contrition and sneaky claims of "de-mo-cra-cy" ever made by anyone on this planet. "The buck stops with me" guy had no consideration that his "buck" hurt people, as he is planning more hurt to you under his plan of rationalised takings from the poor and givings to rich while paying not a single honest second to global warming.

Tony Abbott is seriously dishonest as he always tries to wriggle out like a poker cheat being found out. 

He lied and tries to explain why he lied? Get out... You FINK!

some adjusted facts and figures...

The WMO Global Atmosphere Watch Programme shows that atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) reached new highs in 2013 — the most recent data processed to date.

Globally-averaged atmospheric levels of CO2 reached 396.0 parts per million (ppm), approximately 142% of the pre-industrial average. The increase from 2012 to 2013 was 2.9 ppm, the largest year to year increase.

Atmospheric CH4 concentrations reached a new high of 1,824 parts per billion (ppb) in 2013, about 253% of the pre-industrial level, and concentrations of N2O reached 325.9 ± 0.1 ppb, a rise of 121%.

https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/ocean-heat-drives-world-to-new-warming-record,7154

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Often, I use slightly different facts and figures which seem to be inflated. But here we must understand a couple of things: the atmosphere gaseous mix is not uniform everywhere around the planet. There are places where the concentration of CO2 is lower and places where it's much higher. And the process of sea surface warming up is SLOW. It takes far more energy to warm up water than to warm up the same amount of steel (or land). Water will stay warmer for longer than steel (or land). In the long run, the oceans will carry on warming under global warming conditions.

Tony Abbott is an ignoramus who cleverly lies like a dumb 12 year old kid while playing with matches. He needs to go.

 

GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL

a clever shifty nasty bastard...

 

Increases in greenhouse gases provide a warming effect but, due to natural variability, climate trends based on short records are very sensitive to the beginning and end dates and do not reflect long-term climate trends.

The rate of warming in any shorter period fluctuates because of factors such as short-term natural variability, ocean absorption of heat from the atmosphere, volcanic eruptions, changes in the 11-year solar cycle and so on. This does not change any conclusion about the long-term trend of warming due to human activities, which have increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

CSIRO research has shown that there is less than 1 chance in 100,000 that global mean air temperature over the past 60 years would have been as high without human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. That is, the probability of global temperature increases being due to human activity exceeds 99 per cent.

The world is not cooling.

Dr Helen Cleugh is Science Director of the CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship.

 

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/world-is-heating-up-and-the-oceans-are-rising-csiro-confirms-20141204-11zd8g.html

 

I often refer to Tony Abbott as an idiot... It's only a metaphor to actually say he is a clever shifty lying nasty bastard who DOES NOT WANT TO know about science ... Hear hear...

 

drought relief from record heat and dry...

 

Farmers may soon receive as much as A$100m (£53m) in drought assistance from the Australian government.

The package will offer concessional loans at interest rates pegged at 3.2%.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said some farmers in Queensland had not earned any income for three years because of drought.

Much of Australia has received lower than usual amounts of rain this year, while the country has just experienced its hottest spring on record.

"Large parts of Queensland and parts of New South Wales are experiencing the worst dry conditions on record, with rainfall at historical lows in many areas," Mr Joyce said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-30324357

Gus' bold.

It ain't going to improve despite alternate "bumper" crop years... Global warming is pushing the "extremes", the "worse on record" and dry and flood and heat... But then Joyce is in the "climate change is crap" camp that can't see anything beyond 1950.

 

Andrew Robb's Diurnal Variation

Thanks Gus for including Andrew Robbs early morning mood disorder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Robb

Why is guy with a self-proclaimed 'positive mood variation' negotiating free trade agreements across the International Dateline?

Thats like using a CommCar driver with narcolepsy to get him home.

Heard some journo on the last 'Insiders' for the year saying what a great year Andrew has had. Well how do we know when all of Robb's FTA work is still confidential? He could have traded that journos grandmother for 300 Chinese labourers taking Aussie jobs for all we know.

 

 

no appetite to repeat the G20 blunder...

 

Ms Bishop arrives in Peru's capital, Lima, on Tuesday, Sydney time, for the meeting of about 190 countries.

The episode demonstrates the tensions between ministers in the Abbott government on the one hand and the prime minister's office on the other. In particular, ministers sometimes chafe under the close control of Mr Abbott's chief of staff, Peta Credlin, according to many ministers.

The Lima meeting is supposed to draw a so-called "road map" to the Paris 2015 conference which is to set international climate policy for the post-Kyoto years, from 2020.

Ms Bishop argued in the cabinet that if the government sent no minister to represent Australia, that would become the dominant political and media issue, overshadowing anything positive the government was trying to do.

The painful experience of the Brisbane G20 summit was fresh in the minds of the assembled ministers, according to government sources. 

At the G20, the government's attempts to play down climate change had backfired. By refusing to acknowledge the issue as a priority, the government made it the dominant one.

Fairfax Media can also reveal that ministers in the Abbott government had repeatedly counselled the prime minister's office against trying to shut down G20 discussion on climate change.

The prime minister's office ignored the advice.

The cabinet consensus on Ms Bishop's Lima proposal demonstrated that the ministers had no appetite to repeat the G20 blunder.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/julie-bishop-outflanks-prime-minister-tony-abbott-on-climate-change-conference-20141208-122ug0.html

 

see also http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/02/quelccaya-ice-cap_n_4876827.html

For decades now scientists have observed rapid melting in the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru. The glacier ebbs and flows each year, as do all glaciers, but each year it also shrinks a little bit more than the previous year. A 2006 study concluded with the ice cap had lost 20% of its area since 1978 and that the rate of this decrease was increasing.

 

See toon at top. Methink that Julie is a major skeptic like Tony, but she is prepared to play the "game of global warming" to get a bit more kudos with the electorate — and get ahead of Tony Abbott at the same time. Clever humouring of the dumb masses. Of course Tony senses this betrayal from his Peta tower, like one smells a squashed stink bug three metres away. Tony has this great sense of blood smell like a hound, but like a hound he is quite useless at mathematics... Actually he is like a dumb mutt, but still incompetent with mathematics and sciences...

playing musical chair with aid cash...

The Federal Government has announced it will contribute $200 million to an international fund designed to help developing nations tackle climate change.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced the funding at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru.

The money, which will be paid over four years from Australia's aid program, will go to the UN's Green Climate Fund, which aims to fund projects in poorer countries.

"Our pledge to the Green Climate Fund will facilitate private sector-led economic growth in our region ... with a particular focus on investment, infrastructure, energy, forestry and emissions reductions," Ms Bishop told the conference.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-10/bishop-200-million-to-green-climate-fund-at-un-climate-summit/5956676

the story starts okay then it pushes the wrong crap.

If you hear about some important finding from a new scientific study, be skeptical: There’s a good chance it’s not true.

That’s a key point in the National Association of Scholars’ new report, “The Irreproducibility Crisis of Modern Science,” by David Randall and Christopher Welser. And it should raise eyebrows.

“Half the results published in peer-reviewed scientific journals are probably wrong,” write Randall and NAS President Peter Wood in a recent op-ed column, confirming the claim by Stanford professor John Ioannidis that made headlines in 2005.

Since then, they note, “researchers have confirmed [Ioannidis’] skepticism by trying — and often failing — to reproduce” the results of “influential” research. One 2012 study was unable to replicate the findings of fully 47 out of 53 “landmark” reports in hematology and oncology. Scary.

And while the best way to see if a finding is valid is to try to reproduce it, the scientific community doesn’t do that remotely enough.

The NAS paper cites political “threats” to the validity of scientific studies but focuses more on “the use and abuse of statistics.” That is, many findings can’t be reproduced because they’re wrong.

Yet shoddy research can become the basis of new medical recommendations, social or political movements or government laws and regulations.

The biggest flawed “newsmakers” have been in psychology. Wood and Randall cite studies on “negative stereotypes” and “implicit bias,” which have been widely embraced, especially on the left.
Yet researchers have been unable to reproduce the findings on those subjects. In 2015, they were able to validate only 39 percent of the conclusions in 100 key psychology studies.

Also badly troubled: climate-change science, “a farrago of unreliable statistics, arbitrary research techniques and politicized groupthink,” as Randall and Wood put it.

 

Read more:

https://nypost.com/2018/04/28/calling-out-the-world-of-junk-science/

 

The non-reproducibility of complex scientific experiments is worrying not only the idiot scribes but the scientists as well. Sciences ARE complicated. To reproduce the exact same result on some very precise set of scientific studies is frightfully difficult, often because of small variability that induce chaos. Scientists know this, but in general, sciences, as properly published in serious journals, are about 99 per cent right.

The sciences of global warming are 99.999 per cent right. This hurts a lot of sceptics who try to "publish" fake scientific articles in pseudo-scientific journals. One has to realise that here, the publisher of this article is The New York Post which is a Murdoch publication. Rupert Murdoch will do anything to hurt the sciences of global warming, even to the extent of using "creationists" to do the dirty work. 

GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL AND INDUCED BY HUMAN ACTIVITIES.

Read all articles published on this site, too numerous to list here except :

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33287