CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING

[Stanley]

My two favourite Aussie trees were the Jarra and the Moreton Bay Fig.



The Moreton Bay Fig, actually a Banyan.

The big problem in Oz is the proximity of people in houses to the bush. The bush itself can survive, it has proved that. The humans have more difficulty. Same problem in the canyons above LA, when the Santana blows and everything is dry, wildfires are a natural phenomenon and Nature's way of cleaning the land. A friend of mine, an architectural photographer lost all his archive and research after such a fire.

[Stanley]

Davos today. Expect Trump to come under attack on the US stance towards global warming, particularly from young Greta Thunberg!

[Stanley]

Trump rubbished climate change worries as usual at Davos. Greta takes him to task. I wonder who the delegates took most note of?

[Tizer]

This is a very good on-the-spot report with excellent graphics explaining how the Thwaites glacier ice is melting.
`Antarctica melting: Journey to the 'doomsday' glacier' LINK

As an aside, the first picture of the aircraft that took the team to Antarctica puzzled me. It has the insignia of the New York Air Guard and looks like a Hercules but the props have 8 blades. The `old' Hercules have 4 blades and later ones have 6 blades. When I searched for pics of the Hercules belonging to the Air Guard I kept seeing ones with 6 blades, not 8. Eventually I tracked down the 8-bladed version - the 20% increase in low-speed acceleration is probably a welcome benefit when flying out of Antarctica! 8 blade Hercules

[Stanley]

I followed that report Tiz. The statistics relating to it and its associated ice sheets are mind boggling! Good bye London!

[PanBiker]

Aye, they will have no option about moving parliament up North. It will be one of the first buildings to go. Should do a little bit of forward planning now with a new build fit for purpose at the top of one of our lovely hills, transport links to suit. Part of the Northern Power House perhaps?

[Tripps]

I did a civil service course in the 1990's in London. . A chap on it was from the former DHSS. They had moved to Sheffield as part of a drive to de-centalise Government. He said that almost all the 'Master Cutler' train to London on a Monday morning was occupied by DHSS staff on their way to meetings in London. Of course now they could meet on Skype.

Plus ca change. . . .

[Stanley]

When they were building the M62 there was serious consideration about building a new administrative complex on the moor at Scammonden, then they looked at the weather and remoteness.....

[Tizer]

At last the public are beginning to see that climate change really is a threat. Soon they'll realise that they've been smokescreened by deniers such as Lawson and that we could have avoided all the sudden upheaval we now face if they and politicians had listened to the scientists decades ago. They're going to be angry..
`Climate concerns grow amid wettest February on record' LINK
`Last month was the wettest February in the UK since records began in 1862, according to the Met Office. The UK received an average of 209.1mm of rainfall, 237% above the average for the month between 1981 and 2010. Elsewhere, a survey suggested that almost a quarter of people felt that climate change was the "most pressing issue facing the UK". The representative sample of 1,401 people also suggested that "climate concern" had doubled since 2016....A study by Cardiff University's Understanding Risk Group, based on 1,401 nationally representative respondents, suggested that the issue and impacts of climate change was of growing concern among members of the public. Twenty-three percent of those questioned said climate change was the most pressing issue facing the UK in the next two decades, second only to Brexit (25%). Concern about climate change had also soared, with 40% - twice as many as in 2016 - of the respondents saying they were "very or extremely worried" about the issue. It also found in its sample group that climate scepticism was low, with 64% of respondents feeling that Britain was already feeling the effects of change, compared with 41% in the 2010 survey..'.

[Stanley]

And let's not forget THIS, the highest temperature ever recoded in Antarctica in the modern era. "According to the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have risen by almost 3C over the past 50 years, and that about 87% of the glaciers along its west coast have "retreated" in that time. Over the past 12 years, the glaciers have shown an "accelerated retreat", it adds."

[Stanley]

See THIS report on the fact that the Amazon Rain Forest is very close to becoming a net contributor to atmospheric CO2 rather than an absorber. This was always seen as possible but recent accelerations in burning for farming and logging has brought the date forwards.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC account of a report by an organisation that advises government in which they sat the carbon neutral target can only be reached by 2050 if there is radical change. No flying, no red meat and no dairy products. Doesn't sound feasible to me......

[Tizer]

Perhaps we need frequent doses of covid-19 to keep us in check!

[Stanley]

That was certainly something they left out of the calculations! Our old friend, the unexpected consequence.

[Tizer]

`Climate change: New rules could spell end of 'throwaway culture'' LINK
`New rules could spell the death of a "throwaway" culture in which products are bought, used briefly, then binned. The regulations will apply to a range of everyday items such as mobile phones, textiles, electronics, batteries, construction and packaging. They will ensure products are designed and manufactured so they last - and so they're repairable if they go wrong.

Note this bit: `The plan is being presented by the European Commission. It's likely to create standards for the UK, too - even after Brexit. That's because it probably won't be worthwhile for manufacturers to make lower-grade models that can only be sold in Britain.' Another reason we might as well have saved all these years and millions of pounds and stayed in the EU!

[Stanley]

"Another reason we might as well have saved all these years and millions of pounds and stayed in the EU! "
What strikes me every time I hear it is the phrase that 'Brexit is done'. Oh no it isn't and who knows, as the rest of 2020 reveals itself there will be some major shocks and one of them could be that Brexit becomes impossible.
Not holding out any hopes but we are in unknown territory at the moment and anyone who forecasts where we will be in eight months is whistling in the wind.
Oh by the way, did you notice the bit about carbon sinks in the budget? Is it that easy?

[Tizer]

...who knows, as the rest of 2020 reveals itself there will be some major shocks and one of them could be that Brexit becomes impossible.

I've been forecasting that for 4 years now and it seems to be getting more, rather than less likely! There are times when you simply know something is wrong and should be avoided but the lemmings go racing past you.

[Stanley]

My mind flies to Kenny Rogers.... "You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille"!

[Whyperion]

See THIS BBC account of a report by an organisation that advises government in which they sat the carbon neutral target can only be reached by 2050 if there is radical change. No flying,---

Looks like the House Of Commons might just have to move into Manchester Airport- its got ready made offices , rail connections and hotels , if the Covid-19 trashes much of the aviation industry and its related things this might be better. The small amount of flying mancunians do- they will have to use Leeds Bradford (with a new powerhouse rail connection - or Liverpool John Lennon.

[Stanley]

A thought. Remember what happened when all flights were stopped, first for Twin Towers then for the Icelandic Ash? It had an immediate effect on climate and weather. Could Covid19 be part of Gaia's fight back?

[Stanley]

It's clear now that a large proportion of air travel is shut down now and planes parked up. The carbon load gets less every day. Gaia's plan is working!

[Tizer]

Remember the satellite graphic I put on OG showing the dramatic fall in nitrogen oxide pollution in China since the virus outbreak? The same will be happening for carbon particulates and CO2.

It's good to see this point being made...
`Climate change: The rich are to blame, international study finds' LINK
`The rich are primarily to blame for the global climate crisis, a study by the University of Leeds of 86 countries claims. The wealthiest tenth of people consume about 20 times more energy overall than the bottom ten, wherever they live. The gulf is greatest in transport, where the top tenth gobble 187 times more fuel than the poorest tenth, the research says. That’s because people on the lowest incomes can rarely afford to drive. The researchers found that the richer people became, the more energy they typically use. And it was replicated across all countries. And they warn that, unless there's a significant policy change, household energy consumption could double from 2011 levels by 2050. That's even if energy efficiency improves..'.

[Whyperion]

That may be crude figures but in poorer Africa in particular there is pressure to burn local growing trees which gives a double problem of loss of habitat and enviroment and CO2 release from burning. Richer persons hopefully have a spending power to both have better insulated homes (lets ignore CO2 from Cement production), and by in renewables or fit solar / wind generation to their properties. Maybe this is an overal issue Bill Gates might just run his foundation charity over.

[Stanley]

Good point Tiz. Compare the Stanley of today with the one from twenty years ago. Then I was driving and using air travel, now my consumption in those areas is virtually zero (Only trips to hospital).
Flight tracker tells the story, apart from domestic flights, virtually no traffic. The long haul that is still working is repatriating nationals I suspect and soon that will cease as well.

[Stanley]

If you are interested in climate change and appreciate irony read THIS. One of Trump's companies has been refused permission to build a sea wall to protect its Irish golf course. Remember him rubbishing climate change?
We have speculated on the effects of Coronovirus on air pollution and CO2. See THIS BBC report on the latest news of dropping pollution levels in New York. A similar affect is expected in other large cities, it's already been reported on in China.
Even the darkest cloud can have a silver lining!