Cliimate snapshot reveals things are heating up
Climate snapshot reveals things are heating up
TOM ARUP
March 15, 2010
THE nation’s two leading scientific agencies will release a report today showing Australia has warmed up significantly over the past 50 years. It is a response to recent attacks on the science underpinning climate change.
The ”State of the Climate” snapshot, drawn together by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, shows the mean temperature has increased 0.7 degrees since 1960.
The snapshot also finds average daily maximum temperatures have increased every decade for the past 50 years.
The report states temperature observations, among other indicators, ”clearly demonstrate climate change is real”.
Oil cartel fears losing control over supply as Iraqi output hits 20-yeat high
Oil cartel fears losing control over supply as Iraqi output hits 20-year high
- From: The Times
- March 15, 2010
OPEC fears that its grip on the global supply of oil is being threatened by the rising output of Iraq’s oilfields and the prospect of billions of dollars of multinational investment in the world’s leading untapped oil resource.
Iraqi oil exports in February were at their highest in 20 years, at an average of 2.08 million barrels per day, and the country plans to lift that to 2.15mbpd for the rest of the year.
According to the International Energy Agency, oil output from the country’s ageing infrastructure rose by 115,000bpd to 2.54m – the biggest single contributor last month to world oil-supply growth.
Moreover, Iraq is starting to worry OPEC, whose members meet on Wednesday in Vienna to review production quotas.
Antarctica once had a tropilal climate, scientists say
Antarctica once had tropical climate, scientists say ABC March 12, 2010, 3:06 pm ABC News © Enlarge photo An international team of scientists who have arrived back in Hobart from Antarctica say they have evidence the icy continent once had a tropical climate. The team studied ice and mud cores from the Antarctic sea Continue Reading →
Only a carbon tax and nuclear power can save us.
Only a carbon tax and nuclear power can save us
- From: The Australian
- March 11, 2010
- 15 comments
AUSTRALIA will suffer if fossil fuel use continues unabated. Climate extremes will increase. Poleward expansion of the subtropics will make Australia often hotter and drier, with stronger droughts and hotter fires, as the jet stream retreats southward.
But when ocean temperature patterns bring rain, the warmer air will dump much more water, causing damaging floods. Storms will become more devastating as the ice sheets on Antarctica and Greenland begin to disintegrate and cool the neighbouring ocean, as I describe in [my book] Storms of My Grandchildren. Ice discharge from Antarctica has already doubled in the past five years.
Science has shown that preservation of stable climate and the remarkable life that our planet harbours require a rapid slowdown of fossil fuel emissions. Atmospheric carbon dioxide, now almost 390 parts per million, must be brought back to 350ppm or less. That is possible, with actions that make sense for other reasons.
Is Arctic methane on the move?
Is Arctic methane on the move?
In today’s atmosphere, methane is a stronger greenhouse gas per molecule than CO2. Is now the time to get frightened?From RealClimate, part of the Guardian Environment Network
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 March 2010 11.22 GMT
- Article history
Methane is like the radical wing of the carbon cycle, in today’s atmosphere a stronger greenhouse gas per molecule than CO2, and an atmospheric concentration that can change more quickly than CO2 can. There has been a lot of press coverage of a new paper in Science this week called “Extensive methane venting to the atmosphere from sediments of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf“, which comes on the heels of a handful of interrelated methane papers in the last year or so. Is now the time to get frightened?
No. CO2 is plenty to be frightened of, while methane is frosting on the cake. Imagine you are in a Toyota on the highway at 60 miles per hour approaching stopped traffic, and you find that the brake pedal is broken. This is CO2. Then you figure out that the accelerator has also jammed, so that by the time you hit the truck in front of you, you will be going 90 miles per hour instead of 60. This is methane. Is now the time to get worried? No, you should already have been worried by the broken brake pedal. Methane sells newspapers, but it’s not the big story, nor does it look to be a game changer to the big story, which is CO2.
China and India join Copenhagen accord
China and India join Copenhagen accord
China and India formally endorse the last-minute climate agreement struck at the Copenhagen summit
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 17.36 GMT
- Article history
The head of the Chinese delegation, Xie Zhenhua, (standing left) and the Indian environment minister, Jairam Ramesh (seated) during an inter-governmental preparatory meeting at the Copenhagen summit. Photograph: Martin Argles
China and India wrote to the UN’s climate secretariat today agreeing to be “listed” as a parties to the Copenhagen accord, the last-minute agreement that emerged from the chaos of the UN’s summit in Copenhagen.