Posts tagged…Climate
Monckton Lecture, Melbourne Feb 1, 2010
Thu, Jan 28 2010
A number of people have asked for these details:
Monday, 1 February 2010, 5:30 pm
Ballroom, Sofitel Hotel (25 Collins St Melbourne)
Entry by $20 'donation' at the door (no reservations).
Christopher, Viscount Monckton is a serious analyst and good fun: he has mastered the art of keeping it simple and exaggerating (a little bit). So I expect a big crowd, a great atmosphere and some clever,…
Read more…U.S. looks for a ‘critical mass’ climate deal
Fri, Jan 15 2010There is absolutely nothing new in U.S. exasperation with the United Nations and its overblown processes. This statement from the deputy U.S. climate envoy recalls the responses of thousands of technocrats exposed for the first time to the diplomatic morass; for decades, we've heard something similar from every new Administration.
"Pershing said the flaws in the UN process, which demands…
Rahmstorf rebuffed
Tue, Jan 12 2010The Potsdam Institute physicist whose 2007 paper Ross Garnaut relied on for his assertion that "on the balance of probabilities" CO2-driven warming was accelerating dangerously, has been exposed as a scientific gadfly.
At the time of the publication of Garnaut's interim report, several well-qualified sceptics disputed Rahmstorf's projetions, including David Stockwell, Lucia Liljegren and Steve…
How the deal was done
Mon, Dec 28 2009
Official Chinese account of the negotiation of the accord at Copenhagen, emphasising, of course, their own role:
The Copenhagen conference has put China on a higher and broader world stage. China has reason to be proud and China will work even harder! Verdant mountains cannot stop water flowing; eastward the water keeps on going.
The report provides a detailed account of Premier Wen's movements…
Don’t tell the trees
Tue, Dec 08 2009Like the 'Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme', this is appalling twaddle. The main 'GHG', CO2, and the cycle of energy distribution that it mediates throughout the biosphere is essential to just about every form of life on earth.
"After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that…
Let’s look at the data
Fri, Oct 30 2009
This is a very fine summary of the case that nothing very unusual is happening to the global climate and of the evidence—direct data, not proxies—that the IPCC projections are simply wrong about the key factor they say will result in alarming climate change (by the way that's not CO2)
Lindzen has a record that calls for attention. He has researched and taught atmospheric and climate science for…
Why Australia should not adopt an ETS
Tue, Oct 13 2009The mainstream media offer us nothing but politics on the question of whether the proposed Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) legislation should be adopted. Political calculation is less demanding for the journalists and offers readers an engaging melodrama. But the politics are no guide to a responsible decision on the ETS. In this post I review both the governments' stated reasons for the ETS and my…
Century trends in Victorian temperatures
Mon, Aug 17 2009
There are a dozen or so rural Victorian weather stations, of the 255 listed as reporting maximum temperature data to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, that have records stretching back to years before 1900. I have found them by skimming through the listings on this page at the BOM website. It has a helpful graphic that dynamically displays the record length.
I thought it might be interesting…
Temperatures for June in Victoria
Tue, Jul 14 2009
June 2009 was not as warm as June 2008, but still 0.8° C above the average for 1961-1990, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. There have been ten hotter Junes since 1950.
Carbon tariffs, permits and subsidies
Thu, Jul 09 2009Gary Horlick, Washington trade attorney, former senior official of the Commerce Department and a very fine analyst of WTO law, sets out some of the impossibly tricky technical questions in plain langugage
"Perhaps the biggest international trade challenge -- and one on which a lot more work needs to be done -- is how the mechanics of international trade will work if each of the hundred and ninety…
How bad is global deforestation?
Sun, Jul 05 2009
The short answer: if the data is reliable (it may not be) annual forest 'loss'—mostly conversion of land to agriculture—is small: a fifth of one percent and slowing. Does this small loss of forest add to net CO2 emissions, or reduce them, or make no difference? It's not clear.
In this post I take a look at the FAO data on global deforestation rates, just to get a feeling for the size of the…
Temperatures for May in Victoria
Sun, Jun 14 2009
Temperatures in May 2009 were 0.52° C above the historical average.