Archives for December 7, 2007

No change in atmospheric CO2, but:

THE drought-breaking La Nina weather pattern has finally kicked in, bringing flooding rains along the eastern coast and filling the tributaries that feed into the dying Murray-Darling river system.

Forecasters are predicting a wet summer and autumn but remain unwilling, at least officially, to call the end of the worst drought in living memory. And they warn it would still take rains of “biblical proportions” to fill the dams of cities and towns.

Drought-breaker La Nina kicks in for wet summer

Dr. Nils-Axel Mörner is the head of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University in Sweden. He is past president (1999-2003) of the INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, and leader of the Maldives Sea Level Project. Dr. Mörner has been studying the sea level and its effects on coastal areas for some 35 years. He was interviewed by Gregory Murphy on June 6 for EIR.

“Then, in 2003, the same data set, which in their [IPCC’s] publications, in their website, was a straight line – suddenly it changed, and showed a very strong line of uplift, 2.3 mm per year, the same as from the tide gauge. And that didn’t look so nice. It looked as though they had recorded something; but they hadn’t recorded anything. It was the original one which they had suddenly twisted up, because they entered a ‘correction factor,’ which they took from the tide gauge” in an area of Hong Kong that had been subsiding, or sinking.

Morner says that the claim that salt water invasion of a fresh water aquifer indicated a sea level rise ignores the more likely cause due to draining the aquifer for the pineapple industry.

Sea level in the Maldives actually fell during the 70’s according to Morner, but the area is cited as evidence of a sea level rise. He accuses Australian global warming advocates of knocking down a tree on one island to attempt to prove sea levels were rising.

Telegraph article here

Full interview here

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd last night did an about-face on deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, days after Australia’s delegation backed the plan at the climate talks in Bali. A government representative at the talks this week said Australia backed a 25-40 per cent cut on 1990 emission levels by 2020. But after warnings it would lead to huge rises in electricity prices, Mr Rudd said the Government would not support the target. The repudiation of the delegate’s position represents the first stumble by the new Government’s in its approach to climate change.
Peter Jean, Herald Sun, 7 December 2007

INDONESIA has struck out at developed countries for presenting “empty propaganda” during climate change negotiations in Bali and stalling proposals to pay to protect the world’s forests. “When it comes to the negotiating table here in Bali, they only come with promises,” Mr Salim said. “When it comes to the negotiating table here in Bali, developed countries are stingy. “Where are you?” Mr Salim asked of Australia, the United States and Britain. Indonesia’s Forestry Minister, Malam Kaban, yesterday said his country could expect “big payments” from the scheme, as much as $US10 billion ($11.48 billion).
Sydney Morning Herald, 7 December 2007

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – The United States has invited major economies to Hawaii next month for a new round of talks about setting goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

The White House sent invitations on December 1 for the meeting of 17 major economies, which account for more than 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, said Harlan Watson, the chief U.S. at U.N. climate talks in Bali, Indonesia.

“The meeting will be held in Honolulu,” Watson told Reuters. He said he believed the dates of the Hawaii meeting were January 29 and 30. The United States held a first round of the talks in Washington in late September.