Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for February 2007

Pop-Culture Wrong on US: A Speech by Kurt Volker

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According to Kurt Volker, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs speaking in Berlin a couple of days ago, the US is doing more than its bit to reduce greenhouse gas emmission infact:

“The United States, and this Administration, care deeply about climate change. We agree that human activity contributes to global warming. We support the recent IPCC report, in which U.S. scientists played a leading role.
We are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We have made tremendous investments in reducing emissions. We are working multilaterally to do so. We are continuing these efforts.

These efforts are producing results that stand up favorably against anyone in the world.
Just because we haven’t joined the Kyoto Protocol doesn’t make any of these statements less true.”

Furthermore, according to Mr Volker:

“Now, I know there is a deeply held view among many in Europe that the U.S. Government doesn’t get it. That we don’t care about climate change, that we are doing nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and that Europe, while perhaps not perfect, is doing a far better job of tackling the issue than the United States. This proposition–no matter how simple, no matter how widely held, and no matter how much it fits a pop-culture “blame-the-United States” paradigm–is completely wrong, on every point…

Read the full speech entitled ‘Post-Kyoto Surprise: America’s Quiet Efforts to Cut Greenhouse Gases Are Producing Results’ here: http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/rm/80465.htm

Now does he have a point, or not?

Virtual is Greener on Valentine’s Day

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Last year on Valentine’s Day, Rog made comment at this blog that “You would not believe the $millions no $billions spent on infrastructure to give the world flowers on 2 days of the year. And its all hi-tech cutting edge stuff too.”

Well this year there is a solution, virtual flowers. They apparently include traditional dozen roses, jauntier sunflowers and irises. By sending them over the internet, rather than buying the real thing, Hilary Osborne writing at The Guardian suggests you can become an eco-hero.

An eco-hero maybe, but probably definitely looking for a new Valentine.

The Chilling Stars – A New Book and a New Climate Change Theory by Henrick Svensmark

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Danish physicist, Henrik Svensmark, is a bit different from your average climate change skeptics. He has an alternative theory of climate change and he has just written a book about it.

Published this week by Icon books, but not yet available at Amazons, it is called ‘The Chilling Stars – A New Theory of Climate Change’ and its apparently all about cosmic rays.

According to the book’s co-author and former editor of New Scientist, Nigel Calder, the new theory can explain why Antarctica is not warming. Indeed the most recent ‘summary’ from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that while temperatures have increased by almost twice the global average at the Arctic, there has been no warming at the Antarctic.

I’ve always been fascinated by bits of information that don’t fit neatly within an accepted theory, i.e. no warming trend at the Antarctic, and I’m always intrigued when there is a new theory to explain the apparent anomaly.

Anyway, along with the book there is a new journal paper by Dr Svensmark ‘Cosmoclimatology: A New Theory Emerges’ in Astronomy & Geophysics, Volume 48 Issue 1, February 2007.

The abstract states: Changes in the intensity of galactic cosmic rays alter the Earth’s cloudiness. A recent experiment has shown how electrons liberated by cosmic rays assist in making aerosols, the building blocks of cloud condensation nuclei, while anomalous climatic trends in Antarctica confirm the role of clouds in helping to drive climate change. Variations in the cosmic-ray influx due to solar magnetic activity account well for climatic fluctuations on decadal, centennial and millennial timescales. Over longer intervals, the changing galactic environment of the solar system has had dramatic consequences, including Snowball Earth episodes. A new contribution to the faint young Sun paradox is also on offer.

Here’s an opinion piece from the Sunday Times Online entitled ‘An experiment that hints we are wrong on climate change’ by Nigel Calder which includes comment that:

“Disdain for the sun goes with a failure by the self-appointed greenhouse experts to keep up with inconvenient discoveries about how the solar variations control the climate. The sun’s brightness may change too little to account for the big swings in the climate. But more than 10 years have passed since Henrik Svensmark in Copenhagen first pointed out a much more powerful mechanism.

He saw from compilations of weather satellite data that cloudiness varies according to how many atomic particles are coming in from exploded stars. More cosmic rays, more clouds. The sun’s magnetic field bats away many of the cosmic rays, and its intensification during the 20th century meant fewer cosmic rays, fewer clouds, and a warmer world. On the other hand the Little Ice Age was chilly because the lazy sun let in more cosmic rays, leaving the world cloudier and gloomier.”

Read the complete article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1363818.ece.

The issue was previously discussed at this blog here: https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/001674.html

How to Get CO2 Out of the Atmosphere?

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Sir Richard Branson is offerering a prize of $32 million to the inventor who can come up with a design which removes harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Great idea?

What about genetically modified diatoms designed to consume more carbon dioxide for every tonne of iron dumped in Antarctic waters?

We could stop fertilizing them when carbon dioxide levels were low enough?

OK! So you don’t like the idea. Got a better one?

Ice Packs Thwart Fishing & Strand Bears

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According to Fishupdate.com:

“Fish merchants on the Humber may be throwing up their hands in frustration at the worrying decline in fish supplies from Iceland since the beginning of the year. But the underlying cause is something they would never have guessed at – a massive deep freeze around the west coast of the country.

While the rest of the world shudders at the prospect of global warming and all that it threatens to bring in the form of floods and soaring temperatures, Iceland has been bucking the trend – and it is having a dramatic effect on fishing activity around the island.

Thick packs of ice, which have not been seen for almost 40 years, have been moving into the western fjords across some of the best fishing grounds, followed by bitter winds and plummeting temperatures…

Read the article here: http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/6564/Ice_packs_(and_polar_bears)_thwart_Iceland_fishing.html

And it goes on to report that ice drifting in from Greenland has been carrying dozens of polar bears.

And Ann Novak sent me a link to a picture of a stranded bear, click here:http://www.bt.no/miljo/article337253.ece

Japanese Whalers Help Eco-Terrorists: Media Release from Institute of Cetacean Research

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“Eco-terrorist group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society telephoned Greenpeace yesterday to inform them of the position of their vessels and those of the Japanese research fleet.

ICR Director General Hiroshi Hatanaka said that while Sea Shepherd was putting a mayday call out to vessels in the area to assist with lost animal rights activists, they put in a telephone call to Greenpeace to inform them of everyone’s position.

“We have increasing concerns and evidence that both groups are working together, despite claims last year that Greenpeace had nothing to do with Sea Shepherd. Now it will develop into a competition between them to see who can perform the most dangerous and illegal stunts – to see which group gets more airtime.” The ICR today called on both organisations to keep their distance from the research fleet.

Animal rights activists from the Sea Shepherd pirate vessel Robert Hunter yesterday shot bottles of butyric acid onto the deck of the Nisshin Maru, as well as empty bottles, shards of glass and rubbish from their vessel. Video footage of the butyric acid being shot onto the Nisshin Maru can be viewed
here: http://www.icrwhale.org/gpandsea.htm. The video shot from a crew member on the Nisshin Maru clearly shows Sea Shepherd members shooting acid-filled bottles onto the deck.

Dr Hatanaka said: “Our concerns over the safety of crew and scientists have increased greatly. To shoot bottles of acid, as well as shards of glass, demonstrates these people are out to hurt others and damage property. Both Sea Shepherd vessels have been stripped of their registration after the UK and Belize refused to support their eco-terrorist activity, and the fact they are continuing with their piracy suggests they just don’t care about other people.”

In the attack, two Japanese crew members were hit by missiles. One crew member was hit in the face by a bottle while the other had butyric acid squirted into his eyes. Butyric acid is a corrosive chemical and contact can cause burns to eyes and skin, leading to permanent damage. “One of our crewmen is having difficulty opening his eye because of the acid but the full extent of his injuries has yet to be determined. The other received a cut on his face from contact with the bottle,” Dr Hatanaka said.

Despite the attack, the Nisshin Maru yesterday responded to Sea Shepherd mayday calls after two of their animal rights activists went missing after attempting to entangle the Nisshin Maru’s propeller with a net.

The Institute of Cetacean Research has completed much of their research programme for this year. The research contributes to greater knowledge of whale species in the Southern Ocean and provides valuable data to improve the IWC’s management scheme for sustainable commercial whaling in the area.

End of Media Release from the Institute of Cetacean Research