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POPSRudd backs deep 2020 emissions cuts During the election campaign, Kevin Rudd has repeatedly said that Australia would not set its own 2020 target until he received a report from economist Ross Garnaut next year. But when he arrives in Bali next week he will face international expectations from Europe, China and Indonesia to make Australia's position clear whether, having ratified the Kyoto Protocol, it is committed to its own deep cuts:
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POPSHow much scientific abuse can a polar bear?
A favourite deceit of AGW sceptics is to present Bjorn Lomberg as a "scientist." He isn't. His PhD is in Political Science — a humanity. There are different methodologies between those used in "hard" and social sciences. Social sciences don't really use the scientific method. This is clearly demonstrated through out a recent Salon.com interview with Bjorn, and was especially telling in the discussion of Bjorn's use of polar bears. Here is a response to the writer quoting one expert's opinion (a front-line researcher in polar bears). "OK. But I've talked to a different expert that's up in Greenland, who works for the Danish government, and he has looked over my chapter, and said that it's OK." If only all experts were equal. Bjorn's referencing of another expert is supposed to counter the point, but he never makes a commitment on which has the better data and the better hypothesis — a fundamental step in science. We will be tested over the next twenty years, so we w
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POPSCar makers abandon petrol for electricity This is a big shift in our energy balance. With car manufacturers desperately trying to "counter a backlash" against the fuel guzzlers, by capitalising on the run away success of Toyota's Prius, they are articulating their solution to emissions problems, a flick pass to the electricity providers. Bob Lutz, GM of Product Planning puts it bluntly, "If people want an electric car, we can deliver it. Now go and get your electricity from a clean source." The implications are huge. If we plug 'er in, rather than fill 'er up, then what was once a petrol station will become a local area green electricity generator. All because the market demands it. Oil companies will lose their mainstream passenger vehicle market, but sell their oil to plastics manufacturers, which keeps the carbon sequestered.
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POPSPeak fitness hour National Ride to Work was an unmitigated success, given that the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, pledged $30 million over five years to construct 55 kilometres of separated cycle ways. I am yet to bite the bullet, giving in easily to my partner's argument that the 50km round trip is too far. I will let loyal blog readers know if and when I change my mind. Anyone a cyclist? Is 50km too much to fit into an intense working day?
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POPSWorld poll tolls death knell for global warming denialists I really like my BBC climate change news feed I embedded into my Firefox browser. Love it. For example, coming up for quick air during a hard stint working, I mouseover the feed icon, to catch up on GW headlines of news pieces I may have missed over the last three weeks or so. Seems I missed a sweet moment of poignancy when Howard was hosting his fascist-fence APEC green-bath with Bush, selling us not just a non-solution to global warming, but an irritant. How else do you describe "aspirational goals"? Anyway, it seems the UN was finding out the rest of the world has moved on from the recalcitrance of the fossil-fuel friendly Coalition of the Unwilling:
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POPSClimate Change in Australia The CSIRO and the BOM put their heads together to work out what the findings of the 2007 IPCC Report means to Australia. In a nutshell, we have to dramatically reduce emissions to keep Australia's average temperature from increasing more than the 1% that is already programmed into the system. If this is a Government agency report, then how can any self-respecting Government ignore the implications.
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POPSDavid Hicks goes green He's a candidate for causes, this one. Bet he's looking forward to New Year's Eve. I'm all for Hicks 'having a go' at being an environmental crusader, can't see the corporate world clamouring for his CV, and he is not allowed to make money from writing his story, so... break a leg. But he does have baggage that risks distracting from his message. "So there I was in the Hindu Kush, taking pot shots at the Indian Army and thinking that something was just not right.... ... then I realised it was the glacier; it was much smaller than in the brochure.
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POPS10 tips to attract wildlife to your garden Jackie French, the author of The Secret World of Wombats, gives great advice for maintaining a wildlife-friendly garden in her SMH article. We have an orange tree and a lemon tree, which attracts gangs of cockatoos on their end of the day forage, and possums at night. The cockatoos strew the lawn with half-eaten oranges — they're too good for lemons — discarded after holding the orange in their claw, peeling off the top of the skin with their beaks, and then ripping into the contents like drunks at a cocktail party. After its fill, the cockatoo flies off with a satisfied screech and a squawk... and a new replacement instantly appears in flash of white wings, sparing the tree no relief. At night, the possums race up and down the roof and launch themselves off the roof onto the orange tree. So there is a lot of noise day and night. But I'll take the din of wildlife over the drone of traffic, any day.
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POPSRoyal Society: Hurricanes doubled over century The dearly held tenants that the global warming denialists cling onto so tenaciously are disappearing faster than the Arctic ice-shelf. The latest one to crumble is the notion that global warming does not increase the number and frequency of hurricanes.
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POPSResearch to show UK flooding is from global warming I have just read about the fact that for the first time computer modelling has been able to detect a "human fingerprint" on the increased rainfall that Britain is seeing. They compare climate simulations run with, and without, anthropogenic GHG inputs and the difference that shows up is our "human fingerprint". It has been seen in temperature predictions before, but the research that will be published this week will be the first time the human fingerprint has been detected in rainfall predictions. It is essential to note that what is happening now — and increasing trend to heavier rainfall patterns over Britain — is what is claimed to have been predicted by the research. If this turns out to be substantial research maybe it will stop professional denialists like Andrew Bolt and Tim Blair carrying on like school kids with a fart cushion every time a cold snap ensues.
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POPSBritain's great flood a reminder of more to come An unusual meteorological event is responsible for this summer's weathe in the UK, not global warming. A shift to the south in the position of the jet stream brought a heatwave to eastern Europe and storms normally found in higher latitudes to England. But global warming is expected to cause more and more flooding in the UK into the near future.
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POPSGreening the Big Blue Cleantechblog offer some tantalising speculation about IBMs move into the solar cell business. Greenwash, or clean-up? We will have a better idea in the next eighteen months.
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POPSGreenbox turns car emissions into bio-oil Carbon dioxide engine emissions are diverted through a Greenbox, where algae fixes the carbon dioxide, i.e. grows. The algae is then collected and processed centrally into biofuel. Great idea, if it works.
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POPSBusiness is ready to tackle climate chang Australian business CEOs, GMs and MDs are an astute lot, or at least 85.82% of them are. A survey, by Business Climate International shows that, as a group, they are across the subject. I just think they need a little more education before they become a powerful environmental force. There's money to be saved by using energy more efficiently.
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POPSIndia to develop climate change mitigation policy Global warming is a quantifiable problem — at it's most reduced it is directly related to the amount of previously sequestered GHGs entering the atmosphere minus the amount of carbon that is being sunk — and to tackle it you need a quantifiable solution. That is, you need carbon emissions reductions targets. While it is theoretically a strong argument that it is India's turn to grow their economy so they should not have to tax their cheap fossil fuel energy, it is a short-term view. India is also one of the first-in-line, down-the-line, to pick up the real global warming tab which, in their case, is a not-so-mighty Ganges.
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POPSBan Ki-moon calls for UN action on climate change Moving the climate change debate, which has settled down into a consensus on AWG, out of the scientific body advising the UN — the IPCC — and into the General Assembly seems like a good idea. Even better, Ban seems to expect results coming out of his attempt to bang heads together: He said that the outcomes from this meeting would feed into the UN climate negotiation process. "I have been advised by many experts that if we act now - since we have the resources and heightened awareness - we can reverse it," he said. "Then we can give a much more prosperous planet Earth to our great, great, grandchildren.
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POPSHappy Friday the 13th The modern reason why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky is said to come from Friday October the 13th, 1307. On this date, the Pope of the church in Rome in conjunction with the King of France, carried out a secret death warrant Against "the Knights Templar". The Templars were terminated as heretics, never again to hold the power that they had held for so long. The Grand Master, Jacques DeMolay, was arrested and before he was killed, was tortured and crucified. The destruction of the Templar Knights was so complete and terrible that it will always be remembered as an unlucky day. Wikipedia.org It was also unlucky for the pope and the king of France at the time. When Jacques DeMolay was burned at the stake in front of the pope and King Philip the Fair, he cursed them wiz 'ees dying breath. They both died the next year.
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