Sign our petition against the Emission’s Trading Scheme, click here.
Archives for March 17, 2009
Coal4Breakfast: Update from Geoff Hewitt
LAST year Queensland farmers were informed that the Government had granted Tarong Energy a mineral development licence over the Haystack Road coal deposit on prime agricultural farmland. The farmers are running a campaign against it. Here’s the latest update:
It was pleasing to see the very public commitment on the front page of the Toowoomba Chronicle on Saturday, 7th March, from party leader Lawrence Springborg committing his party, should they win government, to the protection of the iconic farming areas of Haystack Road and Felton, and to the introduction of a planning process to identify and protect other areas of prime farm land in Queensland. Mr Springborg said, in releasing the policy commitment, that it was not an anti mining policy, and that LNP recognize the need to protect our prime farm land for future generations. LNP should be congratulated for recognising the importance of this issue.
A few days earlier, the Queensland Greens had announced that they too would protect areas of prime farm land from unnecessary mining development. During the following week, a number of notable independent candidates also stated a commitment to this policy.
Urban Heat Islands in China
P.D. Jones et al are now accepting urban warming over China at a rate of a degree per century. Bit of a change from 0.05 that the IPCC have parroted for decades, say Warwick Hughes, read more here.
Synchronous States and Climate Shifts
We were very excited when we realized a lot of changes in the past century from warmer to cooler [global temperature trend] and then back to warmer were all natural, says Anastosios Tsonis, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Read more here.
Heaven and Earth: New Book by Ian Plimer
CONNOR Court Publishing is about to release a new book by well known Australian geologist and climate change skeptic, Ian Plimer.
It is entitled, ‘Heaven and Earth – Global Warming: The Missing Science’
According to the pre-release publicity:
THE Earth is an evolving dynamic system. Current changes in climate, sea level and ice are within variability. Atmospheric CO2 is the lowest for 500 million years. Climate has always been driven by the Sun, the Earth’s orbit and plate tectonics and the oceans, atmosphere and life respond. Humans have made their mark on the planet, thrived in warm times and struggled in cool times.
The hypothesis that humans can actually change climate is unsupported by evidence from geology, archaeology, history and astronomy. The hypothesis is rejected.
More Palm Oil Plantations in Peatlands
Indonesia needs to squeeze far higher yields from existing palm oil plantations rather than open up more land – but chances are they will do both. Read more here.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.