Monthly Archives: August 2011

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Drowning out the truth about the Great Barrier Reef

 

The Conversation.  Aug 30, 2011.  MEDIA & DEMOCRACY, Click here to get a copy of this article to republish.

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MEDIA & DEMOCRACY – Ove Hoegh-Guldberg dives into the media’s coverage of an Australian icon’s future.

One of the most straightforward climate change storylines is the link between global warming and coral reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef.

When our reef waters get too warm, corals sicken (bleach), often causing disease and death. And when the corals go, many of the other organisms go with them. At the current rate of ocean warming, we will soon exceed the critical temperature at which this happens every year, causing the Great Barrier Reef to rapidly degrade. Continue reading →

Jim Hansen’s Conservative Climate Plan

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I found this post by Jim Dipeso (shown), from almost a year ago (October 2010).  It reminds us that the carbon tax is not a left-leaning proposition, and in fact is much more consistent with conservative ideology.  Here in Australia, we have it quite back-to-front in a spectacular way.  Opposition Leader Tony Abbott from our conservative Liberal National Party coalition supports direct action (Government intervention), while Prime Minister Julia Gillard is pushing a carbon tax, which depends on the dynamics of business markets to solve the problem.  Maybe they should elect for a re-start, shake hands and swap policies.  It is too confusing otherwise!

There is what Jim Dipeso said on a Republican website in the United States:

As a climate change activist, climatologist Jim Hansen takes his activism a step beyond where most would be willing to go.  Continue reading →

East coast in Irene’s path, scrambles to prepare .

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Sydney Morning Herald, August 26, 2011

UPDATE:  See Scott Mandia on CNBC talking about Irene, the flood risk and other issues.

The north-east seaboard of the US, including Washington and financial centre New York, rushed to prepare for a possible mauling from Hurricane Irene that will hit the coast this weekend.  From the Carolinas to Cape Cod, more than 50 million people were potentially in Irene’s path. States, cities, ports, industries, oil refineries and nuclear plants scrambled to activate emergency plans, while residents stocked up on food and water and worked to secure homes, vehicles and boats. Continue reading →

Suspension Of Arctic Scientist Suddenly Lifted

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WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–August 26, 2011.  A top federal Arctic scientist is returning to work today after six weeks on administrative leave without any charges being leveled against him, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).   Meanwhile, the agency which suspended the scientist is itself under investigation for mishandling the matter.

On July 18, 2011, the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) suspended Dr. Charles Monnett in connection with an ongoing Interior Department Office of Inspector General (IG) investigation.  Continue reading →

The Atlantic: Michael Mann cleared (Again).

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James Fallows

UPDATE:  See Peter Sinclair’s insightful on the phony case made by the denialists and their inability to accept the results of the NSF inquiry:  “Climategate” Debunked Again. Climate Deniers: Mike Mann born in Kenya“.

JAMES FALLOWS – Aug 24 2011 – James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States, and once worked as President Carter’s chief speechwriter

In my article a few months ago about the importance of China-US efforts to find cleaner ways to use coal — because both countries, like it or not, are going to keep using coal, and because if they don’t find ways to reduce its carbon emissions, nothing else done about climate change will count — I quoted the Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann(right).

Continue reading →

Finding no research misconduct or other matter raised by the various regulations and laws discussed above, this case is closed.

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By Joe Romm on Aug 22, 2011 at 12:08 pm

NSF Inspector General:  “Finding no research misconduct or other matter raised by the various regulations and laws discussed above, this case is closed.”

Reconstruction of Northern Hemisphere temperatures, Mann et al.

Two things we know with extremely high confidence:

  1. Recent warming is unprecedented in magnitude and speed and cause (so the temperature history looks like a Hockey Stick).
  2. Michael Mann, the lead author on the original Hockey Stick paper, is one of the nation’s top climatologists and a source of first-rate analysis.

We know these things because both the Hockey Stick and Mann have been independently investigated and vindicated more times than any other facet of climate science or any other climate scientist (see links below). Continue reading →

Even more voting opportunities.

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Worried about climate change? Furious about the carbon tax? Confused about the science? Walkley-award winning journalist Michael Bachelard will lead The Sunday Age team investigating the 10 most popular questions on OurSay which will be featured and updated on The Age’s Climate Agenda website.

Go here to vote which question you would like to have investigated.  The one starting “There are some very vocal and seemingly influential climate change sceptics …” is a particularly interesting question in the light of what we have seen over the last 12 months!

The ‘Galileo Movement’ must have scientific hero rolling in his grave

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UPDATE – for more on this false scientific movement, Graham Readfearn has the details here.  Note how most of their ‘experts’ are unpublished in the expert literature and don’t believe that CO2 is a greenhouse gas!

By Douglas Fischer and The Daily Climate  | August 16, 2011, Scientific American 

A new group challenging the general consensus on climate science is getting significant air time in Australia, where uproar over a proposed carbon tax may topple the country’s minority government. Continue reading →

Poll shows support for media regulation inquiry

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Sydney morning Herald, Lenore Taylor, August 12, 2011
THE Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, and the Greens leader, Bob Brown, have discussed possible terms of reference for a parliamentary inquiry into media regulation, as a new poll shows 60 per cent of voters support the idea.The negotiation will continue when Parliament resumes next week, when the government is likely to make a final decision about whether to proceed.  An Essential Research poll commissioned by a GetUp!-linked activist group, Newsstand, suggests majority voter support for another media inquiry.  Sixty-one per cent of those surveyed ”agreed” or ”strongly agreed” with the proposition that ”a public inquiry into the Australian media is necessary so the public can better understand the relationship between politicians, corporations and media outlets.” Continue reading →