CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING

[Tizer]

Amazing - remind me not to go to Needles!

`CFC ban bought us time to fight climate change, say scientists' LINK
Here's something that isn't in that report...A few years ago I mentioned on OG that although CFCs were banned in 1995 they were still being used illegally in China and that use had been increasing. Monitoring was being boosted and pressure put on China to stop the illegal use. I'm glad to see that this worked. Here's a report from February this year...
`Illegal CFC emissions have stopped since scientists raised alarm: Analyses suggest that China has successfully curbed production of an ozone-depleting chemical, a win for the international treaty that protects the ozone layer.' Nature

[Stanley]

It has its good points Peter. I had the best meal in the cafe opposite the filling station that I had had for three months.
The forecasters are already saying that the main feature of our August weather has been the amount of cloud. They didn't say so but I think we may be heading for another record.

[Stanley]

Read THIS and weep. Part of Madagascar is in the middle of a drought and famine reckoned to be the first caused by climate change. The people who are dying have not burned any fossil fuels or done anything to cause climate change but they are the ones that are dying.

[Tripps]

SKY News report

The UK is on course for one of its warmest summers on record, with temperatures amounting to around one degree warmer than average.The Met Office said relatively high temperatures in Scotland and Northern Ireland have helped elevate this summer towards the top 10 on mean temperature. This is despite a far wetter and "duller" season than usual in London and southeast England, the agency said.

I don't believe it. . . .

[Tizer]

The Met Office said relatively high temperatures in Scotland and Northern Ireland have helped elevate this summer towards the top 10 on mean temperature.

That raises an interesting question - what do they mean by `mean temperature'? Do they take all the maximum daily temperatures for the summer and divide them by the number of days. If so that wouldn't show whether night-time temperatures had been any higher this summer. Here we've been having very warm nights right through summer, regardless of the daytime temperatures. But if, for example, they were using temperatures taken every hour, night and day, that would be more meaningful.

[Tripps]

Reminds me of a piece of research I was involved in. The main man wasn't happy with how we had done the measurements on a previous bit of work, so accompanied us on a field trip to investigate ground wave propagation. I thought it was all pretty well established actually.

How would you like these field strength measurements done then ? Peak or average.
Err - what do you think Dave?
Perhaps peak - in which case over what time period would you prefer?
What do you think Dave?
I'd say see how much it's varying and make a judgment - if it's fairly stable perhaps a couple of minutes?
Or then again we could do an average reading, but over what time period would you prefer?
What do you think Dave?
The same I think.
Do you want to do just one reading at each location or should we take several, in the nearby area, and introduce a bit of space diversity.
What do you think Dave? . . . . . . .

The week went very well, from Somerset along a radial through the South Wales valleys, Brecon Beacons, Herefordshire till the signal petered out.

Pleasant job, some nice views, and I enjoyed it, but I don't think we added a great deal to the canon of knowledge on the subject. .

[Tizer]

That went OK, after all, you got results didn't you?

I'm an enemy of carbon offsetting so this BBC Reality Check pleased me...but I wish the video had mentioned that carbon offsetting removes the motivation for doing something about the real problem...kicking the can down the road comes to mind.
`Climate Basics: Can carbon offsetting help the planet?'LINK

[PanBiker]

Reminds me of a piece of research I was involved in. The main man wasn't happy with how we had done the measurements on a previous bit of work, so accompanied us on a field trip to investigate ground wave propagation. I thought it was all pretty well established actually.

How would you like these field strength measurements done then ? Peak or average.
Err - what do you think Dave?
Perhaps peak - in which case over what time period would you prefer?
What do you think Dave?
I'd say see how much it's varying and make a judgment - if it's fairly stable perhaps a couple of minutes?
Or then again we could do an average reading, but over what time period would you prefer?
What do you think Dave?
The same I think.
Do you want to do just one reading at each location or should we take several, in the nearby area, and introduce a bit of space diversity.
What do you think Dave? . . . . . . .

The week went very well, from Somerset along a radial through the South Wales valleys, Brecon Beacons, Herefordshire till the signal petered out.

Pleasant job, some nice views, and I enjoyed it, but I don't think we added a great deal to the canon of knowledge on the subject. .

A master of passing the buck! He wasn't in training to be a Tory MP was he?

[Stanley]

I totally agree about carbon offsetting Peter. I look at all that land at Broughton locked out of food production for at least 50 years and then at the fact we only grow 40% of the food we eat and wonder what is going on in the tiny minds of those who are planning what I am sure will be seen as a big mistake. Do they think our food grows on trees?

[Tripps]

Despite the Met office saying this is the warmest August since records began, and though there are still three days left, I weakened and put the winter weight duvet on last night. I slept better than I have for some time.

[Stanley]

We have had two nights of single figures David, not long before CH kicks in again.
See THIS BBC report. Hurricane IDA has hit New Orleans and, as promised, is more powerful than Katrina. Question now is whether the rebuilt levees will hold.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the aftermath of the New Orleans hurricane. We may complain about boring weather here but this is better than exciting stuff like a hurricane!
It's generally accepted that the rise in frequency and intensity of these weather events can't be divorced from climate change.

[Stanley]

Hurricane Ida has caused flooding in more Northern seaboard states, see THIS BBC report. The flooding in New York and New Jersey is said to be the worst since 2012.

[Tripps]

Stop the world I want to get off. I think this is known these days as 'jumping the shark'

This is not a spoof. . . .Green football

[plaques]

As one of the main players leading the charge on climate change it all goes belly up when organising a trade deal with that leading superpower Australia. Far from holding all the cards the UK has just shown what a weak position we are in when only weeks away from hosting the Cop26 on Climate Change we will turn our backs on all previous promises just to get a quick deal on hormone fed cattle so that the shops have something to sell.

Sky News reports that Liz Truss folded following demands from the Australian negotiating team to drop two aspects of the UK-Australia post Brexit trade deal which concerned climate change. This flies in the face of Brexiteers holding all the cards to operating from a position of strength post Brexit. It will be interesting to see where else Liz Truss has compromised in order to get a quick deal with nations around the world.

[Stanley]

It would be a lot more sensible to invest in farming at home than transport it 10,000 miles. Or am I just being too simplistic? I know we can never produce enough food to stop imports completely but it seems to me that we are selling our farmers down the river. And good land at Broughton is being abandoned to trees for these stupid carbon credits.

[Tizer]

`Climate change risks triggering catastrophic tsunamis, scientist warns: Melting of ice sheets could unleash intense seismic activity as weight on crust below is reduced' LINK
`The world is underestimating the geological consequences of global warming, which could trigger catastrophic earthquakes and tsunamis as the melting of ice sheets reduces the weight on the crust below and unleashes intense seismic activity, a leading earth scientist has warned. The biggest threat in the north Atlantic comes from the thinning of Greenland’s ice cap, Bill McGuire, professor of earth sciences at University College London, told the British Science Festival in the UK town of Chelmsford on Thursday. Within decades, that could spark huge submarine earthquakes off the coast of Greenland, causing tsunamis with disastrous consequences for North America and probably Europe, he said.

A possible precedent was the “great Storegga tsunami” that devastated the coasts of Scandinavia and the British Isles 8,200 years ago. An offshore earthquake, triggered by the release of pressure after northern Europe’s ice sheets had melted, set off a vast landslide of submarine sediments under the Norwegian Sea. Geological evidence shows the resulting tsunami wave reached 15 to 20 metres high in the Shetland islands and 3 to 6 metres high further down the North Sea.

“As the Greenland ice cap melts, the uplift in the crust is going to trigger earthquakes,” said McGuire. “We don’t know enough about the sediments off the Greenland coast to predict confidently what might happen there, but it is certainly possible that within decades there could be a tsunami right across the north Atlantic.” Its impact might be comparable to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean, he said....'.

[Stanley]

I remember when I wrote an article for the BET on the tilting of the Isles after the ice sheets retreated causing the sinking of Doggerland and the land bridge to Europe and the rise of the NW that I was accused of drinking too much. I gave the doubters the proof and they vanished into the wings. There are a lot of raised beaches inland on the Scottish west coast.

[Stanley]

See THIS news item which reports that Ministers have bowed to pressure from Australia to drop binding climate change commitments from a UK-Australian trade deal. Economics and political advantage trumps common sense. Great.....

[Tizer]

I remember when I wrote an article for the BET on the tilting of the Isles after the ice sheets retreated causing the sinking of Doggerland and the land bridge to Europe and the rise of the NW that I was accused of drinking too much. I gave the doubters the proof and they vanished into the wings. There are a lot of raised beaches inland on the Scottish west coast.

I might have mentioned before how the tilting still affects Finland much more than it does here. Men with fishing boats on the Baltic coast will tell you how much farther they have to walk to their boats now compared with decades ago and some harbours are drying out. Finland tilting

[Stanley]

I had forgotten that Peter and yes, exactly the same thing. Some places are affected more than others and there are some very striking raised beaches on the west coast of Scotland above Ayr.

[Tizer]

I'm not surprised the young are very worried by the lack of a serious effort to stop climate change - I'm very worried by it even though I won't have to suffer the consequences myself. Perhaps I'm even more worried because I've been convinced for several decades that we've been causing climate change and that it's very dangerous yet witnessed a lack of motivation, let alone action, by governments and saw millions of dollars spent by the vested interests to thwart any attempts to tackle the problem.
`Climate change: Young people very worried - survey' LINK

[Whyperion]

August had very light winds (and was overcast), so not much wind power, therefore a lot of electric from Gas and the two main Coal fired plants. Not really a lot that can be done about that, perhaps more Tidal to come on stream ?

[Stanley]

I read the link Peter and yes, they have good reason to be worried. For any good to be done we need action now but it's the same old story, governments gaming the situation and not committing to anything properly. I heard one spokesman for a small country at risk saying that the money promised at the last conference had not yet arrived·....

[Tripps]

The 'insulation rebellion' people are not too aware of recent history I'd say. I suggest what they aim at has already been done. Speaking personally, my previous house was surveyed about 15 years ago, and on recommendation, the loft insulation was topped up to about a foot deep free of charge. We were given a usage monitor device, and a free box of low energy bulbs.

When I moved here, we still qualified, and another survey was done. Very thorough - including test drilling the walls to check the cavities - and the conclusion was that apart from triple glazing, (too expensive) all had already been done. They could only recommend putting foil behind the radiators.

So from where I'm standing they're glueing themselves to the road to get the Government to do what actually they have already done.

The movement has replaced religion in the minds of the devotees. They think that their ideas trump all others. Puts me in mind of the martyrs who submiited willingly to the death penalty rather than recant.

Get fracking says I.

PS - Not just me it seems. The share price of Igas Energy has just almost doubled today already. I bought a few several years ago when it looked as if it was the future. Gave up, sold out, and and lost money - (no change there then). Ironic that they had also almost given up, and had pivoted the business, and were trying to get at the heat beneath the ground.