ABC & Lateline

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Thursday 12th July, 8.30pm – ABC television are showing the controversial documentary “The Great Global Warming Swindle“, written and directed by Martin Durkin followed by a Lateline analysis (10.30pm) interviewing Durkin and a range of scientists who oppose and support Durkin’s proposition. This will be essential viewing – originally shown in Britain by Channel 4 as ” Everything you’ve ever been told about Global Warming is probably untrue” (more).

Analysis of the “scientific facts” and social commentary to follow shortly from www.climateshifts.org and John Quiggin’s blog (www.johnquiggin.com) – watch this space. Meanwhile, take a look at two contrasting pieces published in The Australian newspaper yesterday (10th July)”:

“Sun not behind global warming”
– Leigh Dayton (10/07/07)		 “It’s good sense to avoid consensus on global warming”
– Bob Carter (10/07/07)
Updated: See Professor Ian Lowe’s detailed response in today’s Herald Sun (11/07/07):

“The Channel 4 film is indeed a great global warming swindle. It purports to show scientific evidence casting doubt on the conclusion that most of the recent climate change is due to human burning of fossil fuels. In fact, most of the “science” is either wrong or selective, so the film does not pose any real question about even the cautious conservative conclusions of the IPCC. If it is shown without an appropriate public health warning, it could give the misleading impression that the science is still uncertain and delay even further the urgently-needed concerted response..”

Hurricanes and coral bleaching

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A recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests that hurricanes may well be the ‘unlikely saviours of coral reefs’ (link to the New Scientist article). In short, researchers from the Caribbean determined that on average, hurricanes will actively cool sea temperatures by 1.5°C for upto 10 days. Since hurricanes occur during the hot summer months, this reduction in sea temperatures acts as a lifeline for thermally stressed and bleached corals within the region.

The authors conclude that “…severe bleaching events can have dramatic, long lasting impacts on the structure and function of coral reefs, and the cooling benefit of a hurricane can have substantial mitigative effects”. Parallels can be drawn between hurricanes in the Caribbean region and cyclone events on the Great Barrier Reef.

Back in the summer of 2006, substantial warming of the oceans on the GBR threatened yet another bleaching event of a magnitude of 1998 and 2002. Fortunately for the reef, the category 5 cyclone Larry produced significant cooling effects across the length of the GBR resulting in minimal coral bleaching – acting as an ‘unlikely savior”. At the time, I was the subject of this diatribe from the ‘journalist’ Andrew Bolt, published in the Herald Sun:

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Climate change “hysteria” ?

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Interesting to read the latest anti climate change op-ed piece by Professor Bob Carter in the Courier Mail the other day.

Instead of contesting the tone of his argument, I will stick to what Professor Carter describes as the ‘salient facts’ with which he uses to show that climate change is nothing but “hysteria”:

The accepted global average temperature statistics used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed that no ground-based warming has occurred since 1998. Oddly, this eight-year-long temperature stasis has occurred despite an increase over the same period of 15 parts per million (or 4 percent) in atmospheric CO2.

Whilst this finding of the IPCC is an interesting point (see Graph a below), this fact alone does not disprove climate change: what is more misleading is what Professor Carter isn’t telling you.

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Political agenda and scientific neutrality

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An article published in the New Scientist entitled “Climate change sceptics criticise polar bear science” (link) is an interesting read regarding scientific neutrality. A little background: In December 2006, the United States Department of Interior proposed that the polar bear be listed as a threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act – the first time such a proposal has been attributed to global warming (link). Although local numbers of polar bears have declined in recent years, the overall population has increased from ~5000 to 25000 in the past three decades – something that the climate change skeptics have jumped upon. One of these authors is Jennifer Marohasy, a freelance journalist and a senior fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs. On the topic of polar bear populations, Marohasy stated earlier this year:

The reasoning from the most shrill of the self-proclaimed experts has been that because there is a likelihood the situation might deteriorate into the future, we can’t acknowledge the good news now.

I completely reject the notion that any scientist, researcher, campaigner, or self-proclaimed expert has a right to withhold good news on an environmental issue of intense public interest because of what may or may not happen in the future.

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Coral reefs and garden sprinklers

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Further protecting the reef: a snippet from a recent ABC News article regarding our research with Quicksilver Cruises in Port Douglas – a little background to the story.

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Queensland marine scientists and a cruise company are investigating whether garden sprinklers could be used to protect the Great Barrier Reef from coral bleaching.

The University of Queensland and Quicksilver Cruises have been monitoring the effect large floating shade cloths have on reefs of the far north Queensland coast.

Too much light causes algae that fuels coral to deteriorate, leading to colour loss then bleaching.

Researchers have found algae in shaded coral is much healthier but shade clothes are unsightly and expensive to maintain.

Quicksilver spokesman Philip Laycock says solar-powered sprinklers will be mounted onto floats above reefs to see if they can reduce light penetration.

“Once we get a bit of wave action on the surface we reflect a lot more sunshine but a very calm ocean will let about 90 per cent of sunshine through,” he said.

Mr Laycock says similar experiments in the Red Sea have shown sprinklers can reduce light penetration by 40 per cent.

Freedom, not climate, is at risk

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A recent Op-Ed piece in the Financial Times by the President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus caught my eye recently:

“As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism”

The article goes on to say:

“The environmentalists ask for immediate political action because they do not believe in the long-term positive impact of economic growth and ignore both the technological progress that future generations will undoubtedly enjoy, and the proven fact that the higher the wealth of society, the higher is the quality of the environment”

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A Reef in Time

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“A Reef in Time: the Great Barrier Reef from Beginning to End”

Upcoming book release from J.E.N. Veron, expert coral taxonomist (over 35 years of experience) and the principal author of over 20 books and monographs on corals including the award winning “Corals of the World” and “Corals in space and time“.

“Drawing on a lifetime of experience, Veron combines an extraordinary broad array of different sciences to portray the world’s most famous coral reef as never before. This fundamentally original book takes the reader down one path after another, showing how they are linked together in very different time-frames. The central theme, which remains constant throughout, it that the origins, history, diversity, and ultimate fate of Great Barrier Reef – as with all coral reefs – is, and always has been, controlled by global climates.

A Reef in Time determinedly sticks to its fundamental objective of weaving together multiple fields of biology, geology and climatology in ways that are easily followed by non-scientists.

The expected launch date for this book is early December.