CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING

[Cathy]

Gosh Tize, is that Scientific?… doesn’t matter, I get what and agree with what you are saying.

[Stanley]

I can understand and believe that. I have always liked the Gaia Theory.....
Cathy, it makes sense if you think of all the damage we have done to the world.....

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the proposed new coal mine in Cumbria....
The government will no longer defend a decision, made by the previous government, to allow a controversial new coalmine in Cumbria. The new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, has accepted there was an “error of law” in the decision to grant planning permission for the mine in December 2022. Consequently, the government will not now be defending two legal challenges next week against the mine – by Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC). It has instead informed the court that the decision to grant planning permission should be quashed.
I think this is the right decision. The granting of permission was always part of the Conservative move against action on climate change triggered by the skewed result in a by-election. The theory was that resiling on these matters increased the Tory vote.... (Another example of the fact that they didn't really understand politics.....)

[Tizer]

...And also that they were (are?) stuck in the Conservative Party members echo chamber and unable to accept that most other people were against letting the mine go ahead. They were also content to let Joe Public believe that it was a nice little local Cumbrian company when the truth is that it's part of an international giant based on the other side of the world.

I'm also glad that the new government plans to impose an immediate ban on new North Sea oil and gas exploration but sad to see they face legal trouble from the companies concerned who say they spent millions on preparing their bids. The companies should have been able to see it coming and not bid in the first place.

[Tizer]

Talking of big international corporations hiding behind apparently small local UK companies, Australian Company Scotgold Resources Ltd is the owner of the Cononish gold mine near Tyndrum, Scotland. This was a recent start-up which has run into difficulties and seems to be in limbo while being an environmental threat to the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park. I've just found this interesting web site and its page posted in February....
`Scotgold in administration – the implications for the Cononish goldmine and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park' ParkwatchScotland

[Stanley]

Globalism has so much to answer for Peter! This is just one more example.

[Tizer]

`The ‘flying rivers’ causing devastating floods in India' LINK

[Stanley]

Fascinating Peter. We are basically ignorant of how the world works aren't we. I didn't realise the effect of water in the atmosphere could be so great.

[Tripps]

In a remarkably candid essay in the journal Nature this March, one of the world’s top climate scientists posited the alarming possibility that global heating may be moving beyond the ability of experts to predict what happens next.

“The 2023 temperature anomaly has come out of the blue, revealing an unprecedented knowledge gap perhaps for the first time since about 40 years ago, when satellite data began offering modellers an unparalleled, real-time view of Earth’s climate system,” wrote Gavin Schmidt, a British scientist and the director of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. If this anomaly does not stabilise by August, he said, it could imply “that a warming planet is already fundamentally altering how the climate system operates, much sooner than scientists had anticipated”.

I'd humbly suggest that what happens over a month is better called "weather" - and that there's quite a bit too much "positing" going on.

PS - Just noticed he wrote that in March, so perhaps his anomaly was the Mini Ice Age of April, May, and June? If so - the current August mini heat wave, should make him happy. Comment still stands though.

[Stanley]

I saw the same comment in the context of the remarkably consistent elevated ocean temperature levels.
There does seem to be quite a lot of exceptional activity and perhaps one of the characteristics we can expect from any tipping point is unpredictability.
I have believed for a while now that we are in deeper shit than we realise!

[Tizer]

This is literally a tipping point!...
`Mystery tremors were from massive nine-day tsunami' LINK
A massive landslide in a Greenland fjord triggered a wave that “shook the Earth” for nine days. The seismic signal last September was picked up by sensors all over the world, leading scientists to investigate where it had come from. The landslide - a mountainside of rock that collapsed and carried glacial ice with it - triggered a 200m wave. That wave was then “trapped” in the narrow fjord - moving back and forth for nine days, generating the vibrations....

Kev: Note that Arctic cruise ships visit this fjord - beware!

[Stanley]

I heard that report Peter. Quite amazing.......

I found a word I didn't know in the reports on Europe's water produced by Copernicus.
Eutrophication is the process in which a water body becomes overly enriched with nutrients, leading to the plentiful growth of simple plant life. The excessive growth (or bloom) of algae and plankton in a water body are indicators of this process.
So there!

[Stanley]

See THIS report from the EU climate watchdog Copernicus......
Summer 2024 was the Earth's warmest on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. It was also the warmest across Europe at 1.54C above the 1991-2020 long term average, exceeding the previous record from 2022. August was also the 13th month in a 14-month period where the global average temperature exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Despite the UK having its coolest summer since 2015, much of Europe experienced a hotter than average summer.
Take note. The pace of change may be increasing.

[Stanley]

See THIS report from the Gates Foundation.
SEATTLE (September 17, 2024) – In its eighth annual Goalkeepers report released today, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation urged world leaders to increase global health spending where it is needed most in order to boost children’s health and nutrition, especially in the face of the global climate crisis. The Goalkeepers report, “A Race to Nourish a Warming World,” projects that without immediate global action, climate change will condemn an additional 40 million children to stunting and 28 million more to wasting between 2024 and 2050. Scaling up solutions now can avoid this outcome, while also building resilience to climate change and spurring much-needed economic growth. In 2023, the World Health Organization estimated that 148 million children experienced stunting, a condition where children don’t grow to their full potential mentally or physically, and 45 million children experienced wasting, a condition where children become weak and emaciated, leaving them at much greater risk of developmental delays and death. These are the most severe and irreversible forms of chronic and acute malnutrition.
Peter and I were saying recently that the Gates Foundation spends money more wisely than billionaires in space. This report demonstrates how true this is.

[Tizer]

And Musk, for example, not only wastes his billions on trying to send a few people out into space but at the same time he pollutes the Web and social media with conspiracy theories - both his own and millions of other people's lies.

[Stanley]

Can I blame my defective email on him?

[Tizer]

`'It kills everything' - Amazon’s indigenous people hit by record forest fires in Brazil' LINK
The Amazon has had its worst forest fires in two decades. More than 62,000 square kilometres have been burned this year already – an area bigger than countries like Sri Lanka or Costa Rica. The world relies on the Amazon to absorb a lot of its carbon. These fires mean it is now emitting record amounts itself. Most fires here are illegally started by humans, according to scientists, the Federal Police, and the government: loggers and miners looking to exploit land in the Amazon, or farmers turning it into pasture. It is much rarer for fires to occur naturally in the humid, tropical rainforest....

[Stanley]

And it's been going on for decades Peter. A perfect example of why we humans aren't fit to run a planet. Mother Nature is fighting back though and we won't beat her in the end. I believe in the Gaia Hypothesis.

[Tripps]

Ed Miliband - he of the grimace and the bacon roll, and the "Edstone" in 2015, is now having a go at climate change. He announced today a scheme for "carbon capture and storage". I've copied this from elsewhere - having first fact checked it against the BBC. They agree with the numbers.

Ed Miliband has announced a £22 BILLION investment of carbon capture to make the UK net zero. Except
it aims to capture 8.5 million tons of CO2 yearly starting in 2028, which at the UK’s current emissions of 350 million tons is erm … 2.4% of total emissions per year.
So Ed …. What about the other 98.6% ?

edstone.jpeg

It was much mocked at the time; for example, John Rentoul, a biographer of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, described it as the "most absurd, ugly, embarrassing, childish, silly, patronising, idiotic, insane, ridiculous gimmick I have ever seen".

Hard to disagree. Does nothing have any effect on these people's arrogance? His father is said to have been a "Marxist historian" .Perhaps the Marxist idea of destroying the economy, in order to rebuild it is till being pursued?

[Stanley]

I share your scepticism David.... I think the bottom line is that there are only two choices, admit we are doomed or hold out the prospect of salvation through scientific remediation. They have gone for the latter and kicked the can down the road by spreading the actual spending of the £20billion over many years.....
PS, even the fact we could expect 2.4% reduction is disputed. Nobody can prove that any of the current schemes that are held out as examples could work in UK circumstances.

[Tizer]

Remember Storm Helene hitting Florida 10 days ago, said to be the deadliest mainland storm since Katrina in 2005? Well Florida's about to get a repeat...
`New hurricane threatens Florida as it reels from devastation' LINK

[Stanley]

Something to remember when we complain about our British weather! We have even been spared the extreme weather that has plagued Europe all year.....

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the impending arrival of Storm Milton in Florida.
Hours after police in Tampa, Florida, described Hurricane Milton as the "storm of the century", weather officials upgraded it to a category five storm - with wind speeds of up to 165mph (270km/h). Residents have started evacuating the area, with President Biden saying doing so was a "matter of life and death". One Tampa resident, Steve Crist, spoke to the BBC while boarding up the windows of his dentist surgery. "Everyone’s gone. I’ve never seen it so quiet," he said of his community. Those staying put have been photographed taking the necessary precautions at home, with forecasters warning of torrential rain, flash flooding, high winds and possible storm surges - which occur when water moves inland from the coast - of 10-15ft (3-4.5m). Milton is due to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday night, less than two weeks after the devastating arrival of Hurricane Helene, which went on to kill at least 225 people across six states. We have teams on the ground who'll bring us the latest throughout tomorrow and into Thursday.

The most we have to worry about is gusts of 40mph...... We should be grateful.

[Tizer]

`Trump victory is a major setback for climate action, experts say' BBC
I note this near the end of the article...
...But in the longer term, it is not clear if the new president will turn back the clock for coal, oil and gas, or curtail the growth of sustainable energy sources. For a start he faces opposition - and notably from within his own party. Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which may ultimately channel $1 trillion of spending into green energy, has been hugely beneficial to Republican districts. According to one analysis, some 85% of the money has been in areas that elected Republicans....

[Stanley]

I have heard similar arguments Peter but on other matters as well. Now that the Republicans have clawed back power for at least four years they may have their own ideas about policies. Looked at from a purely practical point of view, Trump has done his bit and may be surplus to requirements now. The Party members aren't stupid.... they will be looking for advantage.