They were supposed to be underwater by now.

The Carteret Islands in the Pacific were the first place in the world to require population relocations due to climate change related sea level rises, with predictions they would be submerged by 2015.

However the islands are still there sitting roughly 90 kilometres from northern Bougainville, but only just — with a highest point of just 1.5 metres, the atolls are vulnerable to even slight sea level rises.

Photographer Darren James visited the string of coral atolls and discovered how they have coped with these challenges.

 

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-04/the-race-against-time-to-save-the-...

 

(Arctic ice)

Total ice loss during July was 3.27 million square kilometers (1.26 million square miles), or a rate of -105,400 square kilometers (-41,000 square miles) per day. This was faster than the 1981 to 2010 long-term average rate of retreat for the month of -86,800 square kilometers (-34,000 square miles) per day. Ice retreat occurred primarily within Hudson Bay and the Kara, Laptev, and Chukchi Seas, and to a lesser extent within Baffin Bay, the East Greenland Sea and the East Siberian coastal regions. In contrast, ice expanded slightly in parts of the Beaufort Sea. While there was little overall change in ice extent in the Beaufort Sea, ice concentration remained low over much of the region, with large areas of open water developing between ice floes. Open water areas between floes readily absorb the sun’s energy and help to enhance lateral (from the side) and basal (from the bottom) melting. However, by the end of July the sun is lower in the sky as compared to June, so this effect is diminishing.

Continuing the pattern of the last two summers, low sea level pressure persisted over the central Arctic Ocean during July, a pattern that historically has tended to slow summer ice loss. Low sea level pressure also persisted over Greenland, paired with high sea level pressure over northern Europe and Siberia to the east, and high sea level pressure over Alaska and Canada to the west. This led to air temperatures at the 925 hPa level (approximately 2,500 feet above the surface) ranging from -0.5 to -4.0 degrees Celsius (-0.9 to -7.0 degrees Fahrenheit) below average over the Kara and Laptev, and from -0.5 to -2.0 degrees Celsius (-0.9 to -4.0 degrees Fahrenheit) over the Beaufort Sea. Near the pole, air temperatures were near average or slightly above average (+0.5 to +1.0 degrees Celsius or +0.9 to +2.0 degrees Fahrenheit). Air temperatures -0.5 to -3 degrees Celsius (-0.9 to +5.0 degrees Fahrenheit) below average also persisted over central and northern Greenland.

Meanwhile, over in Scandinavia several new record high temperatures were observed during the month. In Turku, Finland, temperatures soared to 33.3 degrees Celsius (91.9 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 17, the highest temperature recorded since 1914. In central Norway, the Trondheim airport reported a temperature of 32.4 degrees Celsius (90.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 16, the highest on record, while Bardufoss, just south of Tromsø within the Arctic circle, saw a new record of 33.5 degrees Celsius (92.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 18. In Sweden, more than forty forest fires raged across the country during the unprecedented heatwave in mid-July. Fires were also burning within Lapland and Latvia. However, it was not only Scandinavia experiencing hot and dry conditions. Western Europe continued to experience prolonged heatwaves. Wildfires in Greece have already killed nearly ninety people, while Japan declared their extreme heatwave as a natural disaster, as more than sixty-five people have died and 22,000 have been treated in hospitals.

 

Read more:

https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Climate change resulting from human activities made the current Europe-wide heatwave more than twice as likely to occur, say scientists.

Researchers compared the current high temperatures with historical records from seven weather stations, in different parts of Europe.

Their preliminary report found that the "signal of climate change is unambiguous," in this summer's heat.

They also say the scale of the heatwave in the Arctic is unprecedented.

• 2018 and 1976 - a tale of two heatwaves
• How long will it last? Your heatwave questions
• Regular heatwaves 'will kill thousands'

The scale and breadth of the current heat being experienced across Europe has prompted many questions about the influence of global warming on extreme events. 

To try and see if there is a connection, researchers looked at data from seven weather stations, in Finland, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. 

They chose these locations because they all had digitised records dating back to the early 1900s, unlike the UK. The team also used computer models to assess the scale of human-influenced climate change.

The researchers found that in the weather stations in the Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark, climate change has generally increased the odds of the current heatwave by more than two-fold.

 

Read more:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44980363

 

"Climate change resulting from human activities made the current Europe-wide heatwave more than twice as likely to occur, say scientists." Now it's time for: "Climate change resulting from human activities made the current Europe-wide heatwave more than twice as likely to occur, say POLITICIANS — including Trump and May."

 

And so far, we are coming out of a La Nina event, going towards an El Nino...

 

Meanwhile, in the land of the BIG DRY (or big floods)....:

The Turnbull Government has signed off on emergency "special" payments for eligible farmers who are under intense financial strain due to the relentless drought conditions.

Key points:

• Latest cash relief offers up to $12,000
• Part of the $190 million FHA scheme will go to Rural Financial Counsellors and mental health support
• This will bring the government's drought spend up to $576 million

 

The payments will be made through the Farm Household Allowance (FHA) scheme and will be announced today by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on a farm near the New South Wales town of Trangie. 

Currently, those on the FHA scheme can access a payment equivalent to the unemployment benefit, worth around $16,000 a year.

Today's announcement will provide households up to $12,000 in additional lump-sum payments for couples. Single households will get $7,200.

 

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-05/federal-drought-relief-for-farmers...

 

See also:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/drought/

 

And don't forget: 

da fuct dun't chicks aut... (The Drought of the century, four years ago, now followed by another drought of the century...)

LISBON, Portugal — Lisbon broke a 37-year-old record to notch its hottest temperature ever as an unrelenting heat wave baked Portugal and neighboring Spain. New heat records were set in 26 places around Portugal.

Portugal’s weather service said the capital reached 111.2 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday afternoon, surpassing the city’s previous record of 109.4 F set in 1981.

The day’s hottest temperature of 116.2 F was recorded at Alvega in the center of Portugal. The country’s highest temperature on record is 17.3 F from 2003.

Portugal’s weather service said new maximum highs were recorded at 26 places from measurements taken at a total of 96 weather stations around the country. More than 60 percent of the country registered temperatures of over 104 F.

The hot, dusty conditions across the Iberian Peninsula are the result of a mass of hot air from Africa and have increased the risk of forest fires. Over 700 firefighters were still battling a forest fire near the Portuguese town of Monchique in the southern Algarve region, a popular tourist destination.

Six people were injured late Saturday as they escaped a separate blaze near the Portuguese town of Estremoz, civil protection officer Jose Ribeiro told the Portuguese state television RTP.

Sunday’s forecasts called for temperatures to dip slightly while remaining extremely high.

Portugal issued warnings of extreme heat for most of the country and forecast maximum temperatures of 111.2 F for some areas in the south.

 

Read more:

https://nypost.com/2018/08/05/lisbon-reaches-its-hottest-temperature-ever/

 

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The NEG was a hot topic during QT, with the coal dinosaurs ignoring climate change for promises of cheap, reliable energy, writes John Passant.

THE NATIONAL ENERGY GUARANTEE(NEG) dominated Question Time (QT) on Tuesday. This is not surprising given that the Coalition’s Joint Party Room approved it earlier in the day.

What is the NEG? 

Katharine Murphy in The Guardian gives a good summary:

'The National Energy Guarantee imposes two obligations on energy retailers: An obligation to supply sufficient quantities of “reliable” power to the market and an obligation to reduce emissions over the decade between 2020 and 2030.'

The obligation to reduce emissions is a furphy since the target of a 26 per cent cut in emissions by 2030 will mainly be borne by the current Renewable Energy Target. In 2020, when the NEG starts, the RET will, it is predicted, have delivered cuts in emissions of 24 per cent. Doctors for the Environment Australia goes further.

As Dr Graeme McLeay, a member of DEA, wrote in IA yesterday:

‘The NEG will not result in reduced emissions and leaves Australia without a climate policy beyond 2022.’

read more:

 

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/more-neg-lies...

 

So far it appears that Australia's emissions are on target to reduce nothing... and increase CO2... Can we trust the beige cardigan dummy? See:

wearing a beige cardigan on a hot day at the beach because mum said so...

 

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Church and Climate Change — Love Thy Neighbor, With Truth

                                                                                (deceit, lies and porkies)

By Op-Ed Contributor Vijay Jayaraj (M.S., Environmental Science) — Research Associate for Developing Countries for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.

 

...

But as Christians, we believe things based not on popular opinion but on truth.

The truth is that global temperature has not risen to levels that the church has not witnessed before. And, yes, life on earth continued to be normal in those past warm periods.

Hundreds and hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific papers challenge the notion that human activity has been the primary cause of recent warming and that it is dangerous. Meanwhile, the very same scientists who continue to warn us about a dangerous climate future have also admitted the bankruptcy of their climate forecasts.

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

 

The Murdoch syndrome is reaching wide and far, in "la la xtian land"... What a lot of dishonest bullshit is being pumped out here by this creationist from India. What can we say? Nothing much that he would understand...  Ah yes, he proudly points out to "the very same scientists who continue to warn us about a dangerous climate future have also admitted the bankruptcy of their climate forecasts". This utterance is actually corrupt, false, idiotic and selectively bullshittic. 

 

I call upon the link to which he refers fo saying this crap and a certain John Christie (what a name!) who dissents against a million serious climate scientist around the globe — who ARE NOT THE VERY SAME and "have not admitted any bankruptcy in their climate forecasts" which so far have been accurate. Like our own idiot Turdy, our creationist Vijay Jayaraj also mentions the warmer period during the time of Jesus, which is an iffy stupid vague comparison to the present conditions. 

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

 

Even Christie's technology needed to be corrected and recalibrated to be a bit more accurate...

 

Part of the discrepancy between the surface and atmospheric trends was resolved over a period of several years as Christy, Spencer and others identified several factors, including orbital drift and decay, that caused a net cooling bias in the data collected by the satellite instruments. Since the data correction of August 1998 (and the major La Niña Pacific Ocean warming event of the same year), data collected by satellite instruments has shown an average global warming trend in the atmosphere. From November 1978 through March 2011, Earth's atmosphere has warmed at an average rate of about 0.14 C per decade, according to the (Christie) UAHuntsville satellite record.

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

But this does not tell the whole story of global warming, especially in the recent last years, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Nor does it tells of the accelerated melting of the ice-sheets and glaciers of this planet plus the warming of the oceans, all which in turn retard (and mask) the true extend of global warming. Nor does it tells of the various layers of the atmosphere — and the one we're interested in is the lowest part, near the surface of the earth. On average this has gone up about 0.3 per decade, except in 2016 and 2017 when it ran above 0.7 PER ANNUM.

It has to be NOTED WITH STRONG SCEPTICISM that the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space & Technology, on the 29 Mar 2017, was already under the influence of trump and his minions who were looking for a "scientist" with contrary views to the general concensus, in order "not to believe" in global warming.

 

Christie's conclusion in this 'testimony" was of course biased in favour of denialism of global warming: 

One way to aid congress in understanding more of the climate issue than what is produced by biased “official” panels of the climate establishment is to organize and fund credible “Red Teams” that look at issues such as natural variability, the failure of climate models and the huge benefits to society from affordable energy, carbon-based and otherwise. I would expect such a team would offer to congress some very different conclusions regarding the human impacts on climate.

This is bullshit and one has to look at the real data, THE TRUTH, once more, and Christie is selectively wrong.

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

Christy is associated with climate change skeptic Roy Spencer, who is is best known for jointly developing a satellite temperature record. Christy also collaborated with Spencer on a George C. Marshall Institute Roundtable discussion on climate change in April 2006. Christy noted that the two of them had been described as “swimming upstream against the climate change debate.”

John Abraham, a professor of thermal science, writes at The Guardian about additional errors identified in Roy Spencer and John Christy's temperature estimates. According to Abraham, Spencer and Christy's claims that troposphere and stratosphere temperatures have not been rising are wrong:  

“They errantly include stratosphere temperatures in their lower atmosphere readings; and they have incorrect temperature calibration on the satellites,” Abraham writes. 

He also points to a recent paper that had questioned Christy and Spencer's decision to use preliminary data in their congressional testimony while it was still in the peer review stage: 

“At present, the UAH v6 (most recent Christy/Spencer data) results are preliminary and a fifth revision has now been released as v6beta5 (Spencer 2016). The release of the UAH version 6 products before publication is unusual, and Spencer recently stated that a manuscript has been submitted for a peer-reviewed publication. While some may find it scientifically inappropriate to utilize UAH v6b6 data before publication, these data have already been presented in testimony during congressional hearings before both the U.S. House and Senate and have also appeared on websites and in public print articles,” Abraham quotes the January 207 paper. 

 

Abraham adds, “let’s not be deluded into thinking these satellites are more accurate than thermometers (as some people suggest).” 

 

So the article by Op-Ed Contributor Vijay Jayaraj of the Christian Post is total crap. But since he mentions god and Jesus in the same breath as denialism of global warming, all the Christians will swallow the bullshit as gospel. That is what religious people do.

 

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