Climate tipping out faster than forecast

Like the failing kidneys of an alcoholic , global warming may be reducing the capacity to plants and soils to absorb carbon dioxide. This is an anticipated tipping point, the next stage is runaway climate change, and we have a predicted ten years to stop it.

clipped from www.smh.com.au CLIMATE change may have passed a key tipping point that could mean temperatures rising more quickly than predicted and it being harder to tackle global warming, research suggests. Scientists at Bristol University say a previously unexplained surge of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in recent years is due to more greenhouse gas escaping from trees, plants and soils. Global warming was making vegetation less able to absorb the carbon pollution pumped out by human activity. Such a shift would worsen the gloomy predictions of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned last week that there is less than a decade to tackle rising emissions to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Wolfgang Knorr, a climate researcher at Bristol, said: "We could be seeing the carbon cycle feedback kicking in, which is good news for scientists because it shows our models are correct. But it's bad news for everybody else." Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Aboriginal weathermen say drought breaking soon

There is so much we can learn about surviving this vast, dry, continent from the Aboriginal people, especially now that the climate has taken a turn for the worse.

For example, I understand that in the north they have two seasons, and up to seven distinct seasons as you travel south. Makes sense if you have experienced both locales for at least a year or so, and it brings home the awkwardness of imposing our four-seasons template we imported from Europe - that it is not really appropriate. To Aboriginal tribes in the Sydney region, for instance, September and October are known as Murrai'yunggoray, the time when the red waratah flower blooms.

It is followed by Goraymurrai, a period of warm, wet weather during which Aborigines would not camp near rivers for fear of flooding.

Strong message: In the Sydney region, Aborigines recognize the beginning of the Murrai’yunggoray season in September and October by the red blooms of the waratah flowers. Patrick Riviere/Getty Images

Anyway, the good news about the drought, according to Djabwurrung, Jeremy Clark, chief executive of the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the Grampian Mountains of Victoria State, who knows something about this stuff, is that it will soon be broken. Something to do with when cockatoos were flocking and the wattle bushes were flowering. A few good months of rain are predicted. The BoM, with their satellites and synoptic charts, can only give us a fifty-fifty chance, and John Howard, well he can only give us a prayer.

clipped from www.csmonitor.com For a warmer future, Australia employs Aboriginal wisdom Faced with its worst drought in history, meteorologists are plumbing the Aborigines' 40,000 years of lore. Australia faces climate change's worst drought. These days, Australians need all the help they can get. Last month, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the country faced an "unprecedentedly dangerous" drought. But Australia isn't the only nation to recognize indigenous meteorological knowledge. Experts studying the effects of global warming in the Arctic are looking to Inuit expertise, and South American Indians' knowledge of weather patterns, such as El Niño, has long been recognized. "The Indians knew that when the ocean was warm they'd get rain from El Niño, so they'd plant potatoes," says Dr. Stern. "When it was cold, there'd be no rain, but the anchovies would be plentiful, so they'd feed on fish." In the years to come, the Bureau of Meteorology hopes to recruit more Aboriginal communities to the project.

Aboriginal wea ther forecasting is claimed to be 90% accurate by adherents. They take note of subtle changes to plants and animals get clues about the weather. "It's about reading the landscape and the environment through the activities of plants and animals," says Mr. Clark.

For example, in the Simpson Desert of central Australia, the appearance of wading birds called plovers is associated with the onset of seasonal rains.

In the humid north of the Northern Territory, the arrival of the brolga crane was traditionally seen as heralding the beginning of the monsoon season. The flowering of rough-barked gum trees indicates that winds will blow from the southeast, bringing in the dry season.

I googled up an Sydney based Aboriginal calendar: :::[Weather cycles around Sydney from the Bodkin/Andrews clan of the D'harawal People]

It's way cool.

Today, it's the 11th May, or the third last week of Bana'Murray'Yung when Lillipilli (Syzygium spp) fruit ripens. A time when it's wet, and getting colder; traditionally the time to make cloaks and journey to the coast.

More specifically, it's Marrai'gang, when the tiger quoll seeks her mate.

During the breeding season, the male Tiger Quolls emit a slow, deep growl and a loud, explosive spitting sound (like that of a cat, but enormously magnified). The female's call is not quite as loud. These nocturnal calls may have given quolls their fearsome 'tiger' reputation. They don't look so fearsome all curled up during the day. Sadly, they are a threatened species having to survive habitat fragmentation, predation on the young by introduced foxes and feral (and domestic) cats, fire, and accidental poisoning by 1080 baiting programs to control fox and wild dog populations. When 1080 baits are used, best practice management guidelines are encouraged in order to keep impacts to native species to a minimum.

Googling more information on the Sydney Aboriginal calendar reveals that in addition to the six annual seasons is an 11-year cycle which determines what the seasons will be like... all this in an eight phase cycle! I came across this report from February 15th, 2003. :::[Now for the 4000-year forecast]

To Frances Bodkin, a traditional D'harawal Aboriginal descendant, the massive flowering of the Sydney green wattle 18 months ago was a terrible meteorological warning.

According to the calendar of her ancestors, it signalled a meeting between the climate cycle Gadalung marool and the season Gadalung burara, bringing the harsh weather we are now experiencing.

Ms Bodkin, a botanical author, teacher and traditional storyteller at Mount Annan Botanic Gardens, is one of the last people in the Sydney region who inherited tens of thousands of years of weather wisdom.

[...]

In Sydney, says Ms Bodkin, there are eight phases to the 11-year cycle. They do not last for set periods but are based on subtle changes in the environment, invisible to all but the most observant.

Gadalung burara is the hottest and driest part of the cycle and is indicated by a massive blooming of Acacia decurrens. Also, gums begin to lose their leaves.

When Gadalung burara coincides with January and February - traditionally known as Gadalung marool - there will be "real trouble", Ms Bodkin says.

Unless her ancestors began burning as soon as the wattles flowered they risked fires getting into the tree crowns.

I live in Sydney; this is an awakening for me. Imagine how many us in NSW, from politicians to fire-fighters to property owners, would have liked to have known to look out for Gadalung burara coinciding with Gadalung marool?

More googling confirms that January 2003 was when Canberra had it's terrible bushfires causing insurance losses of $250 million with 2,500 individual claims. :::[Canberra burns]




How lucky are we to now have people like Frances Bodkin share their knowledge, and that of their ancestors? Here is more information. And if you have got this far, you are as hooked as me, so you can't go past the Bureau of Meteorology Indigenous Weather website.

Coal industry pledges "clean-coal" research dollars

Whenever I hear of "clean-coal", I think of safe-sex . Unless you and your partner are 100% 'healthy', and monogamous, there is no such thing as safe-sex, only safer-sex. Risks remain.

Anyhoo, there is more money for cleaner-coal research. This time coming from the industry itself:

clipped from au.news.yahoo.com Under political pressure over climate change, the coal industry has vowed to raise at least $1 billion to develop technology to curb greenhouse gases. The announcement increases by $700 million the funds producers have committed to clean coal technology. The Australian Coal Association said the $1 billion would be raised over 10 years by extending the $300 million COAL21 Fund. All black coal companies will contribute equally to the fund through a voluntary levy, which will continue indefinitely. "This should leave no doubt about the coal industry's intention to partner with state and federal governments on nationally significant clean coal projects," ACA executive director Mark O'Neill said. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie this week threatened to increase mining royalties, claiming the state's industry had reneged on a deal to invest in clean coal. Tags: global warming, climate change, clean coal, energy

Where have all the global warming denialists gone?

Now that Rupert Murdoch drives a hybrid and has announced an intention that News Corp. become carbon neutral within three years, strange, strange things are happening on Fox:



Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Methane damns green hydro-electricity claims

Deutsche Welle Radio presents recent research from scientists in the Brazilian Amazon that is showing that many hydroelectric dams cause the release of more greenhouse gas for the
equivalent amounts of electricity created, that would be released if that electricity was created by burning fossil-fuels. (Audio link to DW Radio's program, Living Planet - the piece on the methane dams is a little under half way through the 30 min program)

The culprit is dam design and methane, the latter is created by the floating plants that feed off the rich nutrients that the dam traps, and is concentrated in dissolved form by the pressurised water on the dam side of the dam wall.

When the dam water is released to drive the turbines, water pressure radically decreases, and the water releases its methane as gas just as carbonated water releases co2 when the bottle is opened.

Tonne for tonne methane is 20 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It’s estimated that around the world, 800 megatonnes of co2 equivalent is released a year in this way - more than the total emissions from the UK.

There are things that can be done to mitigate these problems; purposely harvesting the methane for clean electricity, and to move the turbine water intakes away from the pressurised methane rich water. And to design future dams to take these issues into account.

Powered by ScribeFire. Technorati Tags: global warming, climate change, methane, dams

Revenge is best served old

The Queen had Bush for toast, when she stirred him about his gaff exaggerating her already impressive durability. She also displayed how contemporary she is, by offsetting the carbon emissions caused by her visit.

clipped from www.truthdig.com Queen Elizabeth began a toast on Tuesday by teasing the president: “I wondered whether I should start this toast saying I was here in 1776 but I don’t think I will.” Though she has since departed our shores, the monarch is not done teaching Americans a lesson—her carbon footprint for the trip will be calculated and matched with a donation to an environmental charity. Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Myth busted: Cheap-coal powered electoral-cycles

The Liberal Government budget 2007 has been described as clever politics, but we live in a time that demands clever policies based on sound climate science. Not the clever politics of election year electoral largess.

Admittedly, the government can afford the splurge; Costello has provided good economic management, and all credit to him. But John Howard still hasn't communicated that he understands that the economy is but a system within a bigger system, and one that is under chronic, unsustainable stress, exactly as a result of how we fuel the economy. Dave Sag captures my sentiments. :::[Carbon Planet Bog]

In a follow-up article Greenhouse gas program disappointing, the Sydney Morning Herald also reports:

The budget contained tax incentives for people who want to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in purpose grown forests and confirmed speculation people would be able to receive an $8000 rebate towards the cost of installing rooftop solar hot water systems.

There was also $43 million for the CSIRO to set up a climate change adaptation centre and $50 million for a program to pay farmers for carrying out environmental programs on their land.

This money is chicken-feed compared to the investment really needed to avert disaster. Where are the serious funds for solar energy research? Where are the real incentives to get people out of their cars and onto bikes and footpaths? Where’s the money to promote localised food supplies and energy efficiency? How about a massive upgrade of the nations rail systems? Australia has a massive war-chest of cash and the government is pissing it away buying votes in a time of crisis. — DS

This budget communicates that, as far as the government is concerned, we are stuck with the consequences of coal, because coal makes for cheap electricity with which to power our cities, industry and lifestyles.

Well, no, actually. That begs the question of whether coal really is cheap. Coal isn't that cheap. In fact, it was revealed today that the government subsidises and supports coal fired power plants, some by more than what they return in profits. :::[SMH: Public purse props up fossil fuel industries]

Government support for the coal industry and coal-fired electricity is so generous that in some cases it has led to the construction of coal-fired power plants when other types of electricity generation would have been cheaper, the report by the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney has found.

Subsidies to fossil fuel energies, worth close to $10 billion, result in a serious market distortion, create an unfair disadvantage to renewable energy, and help increase greenhouse gas pollution, says the report, written by the institute's research principal, Chris Riedy, and commissioned by Greenpeace.

The report identified energy and transport subsidies in Australia during 2005-06 of between $9.3 billion and $10.1 billion. More than 96 per cent of that money flowed to fossil fuel production and consumption, with the remainder going to renewable energy and energy efficiency.

"This effectively creates an uneven playing field for renewable energy, making it much more difficult to respond to climate change in the energy and transport sectors," the report says. "Fossil fuel subsidies can increase greenhouse gas emissions because they reduce the price of fossil fuel energy, which encourages greater use of fossil fuels and higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions."

So, no, we are not stuck. The solution is simply stop the corporate-welfare, and let these electricity generation companies compete in the real world. One where the cost of carbon is picked up by the electricity companies now, not by our kid and grandkids. Myth busted.


Powered by ScribeFire. ::: Technorati Tags: global warming, climate change, coal, energy

Greenpeace's aggressive tactics not winning Mac users over

Apple is the tactical low-hanging fruit in Greenpeace's campaign to reduce toxicity in electronics, such as arsenic and PVC, and to encourage waste recycling. But is it wise to push Mac users, veterans of the PC wars, to pull their wagons into a laager?

H/t Mark Lawrence who provides this take on the Steve Jobs – Greenpeace stoush from online/email Mac magazine TidBITS.

clipped from db.tidbits.com But it also feels as though Greenpeace is targeting Apple not because Apple is necessarily worse than other, much larger companies, but because anything surrounding Apple generates media attention and controversy, and that attention is good for Greenpeace's ultimate goal. Therein, I think, lies the reason why many Mac users have reacted so defensively to Greenpeace's attacks; it seems as though Greenpeace is specifically targeting Apple for other-than-stated reasons. Apple isn't entirely free of culpability here either. As much as Apple fans sometimes lose track of this fact, Apple is a public company, and a big one at that. Above all else, Apple's loyalties lie with serving its shareholders by improving the bottom line.

Just how much can a polar bear?

Translation anyone?

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Tonight's Australian Government budget leaked to Greens

And they don't like it.

clipped from www.smh.com.au The Federal Government will spend nearly $20 billion over the next five years on environmental measures, according to the Australian Greens. The Greens claimed they have been leaked details of the budget in what would be a sensational breach of security of the tightly-held documents. According to a detailed document the Greens have received, $2.4 billion of the $10 billion water plan has been allocated over the next four years. This includes more than $900 million to buy back water licences and more than $1 billion to fund more efficient water infrastructure. The document also confirms that the solar rebate program would be extended for five years at a cost of about $150 million. The Greens said the Government spending figures show that the $4 billion would constitute less than half what the Government spends on "handouts" to the fossil fuel industry during a mining boom.

World Wolfowitz Bank almost solves climate change - for big fossil-fuel

A pro fossil-fuel agenda has been smuggled into the World Bank by another controversy-causing Wolfowitz Human Resources placed candidate. This time it's the former conservative finance minister from El Salvador, and strong Iraq war advocate, Mr Juan José Daboub, who is raising the hackles of senior staff.

The outcome of his intentions would have been to make developing countries completely reliant of fossil-fuels, and given developed countries less reason to stick to an international framework for greenhouse gas emissions reductions, like the Kyoto Protocol.

I have one question; If they were so wrong about the Iraq cake-walk, yet are still so cavalier, why on earth would you trust them on climate change, and our children's futures? Do we want the planet to resemble Iraq today, in twenty years?

Dr. Robert Watson, the Bank's chief climate scientist, co-chair of the 1995 IPCC working group and veteran of the US Whitehouse culture war on climate science, doesn't.

clipped from www.climatesciencewatch.org Wolfowitz deputy’s efforts to undercut climate change text in World Bank strategy paper Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007 One of Paul Wolfowitz’s two handpicked deputies, Juan José Daboub, tried to water down references to climate change in one of the World Bank’s main environmental strategy papers, the bank’s chief scientist Robert Watson told the Financial Times. In Dr. Watson, Daboub picked the wrong person to try to get around in Cooney-izing climate change text in an official report.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Catastrophe reinsurance buffeted by hurricanes, global warming

Warren Buffett's AGM is described as "Woodstock for capitalists" by NPR.org. In a neat, closed economy, his investors have the opportunity to buy the products of the thousands of companies Berkshire Hathaway invest in. The guy knows how to make money, so his words on future reinsurance rates are worth hearing. As are those of his vice chairman, Charlie Munger, on counter-productive low-energy-yield corn-ethanol.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Buffett on Energy Posted by WSJ.com Staff Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger had plenty to say about energy and climate change at the company’s annual meeting this weekend. Buffett, whose holdings include the General Re reinsurance business, said global warming had increased the likelihood of hurricane damage, meaning his company would have to charge more for hurricane insurance. ” It would be crazy to offer catastrophe reinsurance at the same rate in 2007 as we did in 2006,” he said. Munger, meanwhile, spoke ill of corn-based ethanol, heresy in Berkshire Hathaway’s home town of Omaha, Neb. “I think running automobiles on corn is one of the dumbest ideas,” said Omaha native Munger, according to this MarketBeat post by Karen Richardson. “I love Nebraska to my core, but it’s not my home state’s finest moment,” he said.

The 76 year old investment guru is also looking for a new chief investment offer and plans to try out three or four candidates, if you think you have what it takes.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Could Spanish cities run on tower power?

Holy Toledo Batman (well actually Seville), check out the solar tower:

clipped from www.engadget.com Just last month we witnessed a gigantic skyscraper / solar tower hybrid that generates a whopping 390-kilowatts of energy, but even that looks like child's play compared to the 40-story solar power plant that resides in Spain. The expansive system consists of a towering concrete building, a field of 600 (and growing) sun-tracking mirrors that are each 120-square meters in size, and a receiver that converts concentrated solar energy from the heliostats into steam that eventually drives the turbines. Currently, only one field of mirrors is up and running, but even that produces enough power to energize 6,000 homes, and the creators are hoping to see the entire population of Seville (600,000 folks) taken care of solely from sunlight. So if you're eager to see what's likely the greenest solar power plant currently operating, be sure to slip on some shades, tag the read link, and peep the video.

More information on The Spanish Tower of Power:

:::[Energy Planet Blog >> Solar Power Tower]

More information about concentrating solar power (CSP) may be found at:

:::[TREC: Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Cooperation]
:::[TREC-UK]

Global warming to change time as we know it.

Jochem Marotzke and research partners at the Max Planck Institute in Germany has published one of the most surprising effects anticipated by global warming in the March 28 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

This adds to LiveScience's Top Ten Surprising Things About Global Warming... making it a Top Eleven, I guess.

clipped from www.livescience.com In the next two centuries, global warming could cause the days to grow slightly shorter on Earth, a new study finds. Another effect of warming, however, might actually lengthen the day. As ocean water gets warmer due to climate, seawater expands thereby raising sea levels and changing the ocean’s circulation and even exerting more pressure on the ocean floor below in some areas, explained Jochem Marotzke of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. These pressure changes won’t be uniform across the globe, because global warming will cause the ocean to warm more in some places than in others. But over time, the differences will redistribute Earth’s ocean water, pushing it away from deep waters and onto shallower coastal shelf areas, primarily toward the North Pole. Like the physics behind a figure skater pulling in her arms to cause a faster spin, the pressure transfer would shift the ocean’s mass toward Earth’s axis of rotation

$10 per person will beat global warming

Kevin Grandia of the global warming denialist-busting website, DeSmogBlog, has done the calculations - it only takes $10 per person per year to save the planet.

He broadcast this email (which I amended to include his updated calculations).

4 May 07

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it would cost .12% of the world's domestic product to substantially reduce our collective greenhouse gas emissions.

• GDP of the world economy: US$60 trillion
• .12% of $60 trillion: $70 billion
• Total population of the earth: 6.5 billion
• Cost per person to significantly reduce heat-trapping gas worldwide: $10 a year
• Cost of saving the planet from droughts, famine, mass flooding, species extinction and rising sea levels: priceless.

His maths: $60 trillion/.0012/6.5 billion = $10 (rounded figures). He points out that it is more useful to break down the global figure by country and filter it though its GDP. For example, for Gambians this would cost $2.00 per head, and for Americans the cost would be $478.

Tags: global warming, climate change