IN the following open letter to the President of the Australian Academy of Science, William Kininmonth explains that the science of climate change is ‘not settled’ and if the scientific community is to get to a position where it can confidently prediction future climate it will be necessary to both understand why and how the climate system has varied in the past, and to have a robust computer construct of the climate system. Given so far we have neither, the recent very public criticisms of Ian Plimer’s new book ‘Heaven and Earth’ are not logical or consistent.
Archives for June 2009
A Green Argues for Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy may well be that backup, or indeed (as I suspect) a mainstay for future energy generation in Australia and worldwide… there is a technology …called integral fast reactor nuclear power, which burns up 99 per cent of the nuclear fuel, leaves no long-lived waste, is passively safe … and does not generate weapons-grade material… read more here.
More on the ‘Sceptics Conference’ in Washington
Stressing the need for reporters to do a much better job on their fact-checking, Dr Michaels dissected assertions such as that 49 percent of the US is in drought conditions, that California bushfires are a result of global warming, and that warming will cause a decline in crop yields and a 3-foot sea-level rise – he demonstrated that, despite their widespread media currency, such claims are wildly in error. Read more here.
Noah’s Ark Revisited
“An alliance of pro-carbon sceptics and fundamentalists is retarding 11th hour attempts at mitigation of dangerous climate change,” according to Andrew Glikson from the Australian National University.
Dr Glikson’s latest article is entitled ‘Noah’s Ark Revisited’ and decries all the mainstream media attention recently heaped on Ian Plimer from the University of Adelaide and Steve Fielding from the Australian parliament – both now suggesting the earth is not about to flood.
Of course Al Gore and Bono have been preaching something else for a long time as Blunt by Knutz explains in his latest cartoon.
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Notes and Links
NOAH’S ARK REVISITED, By Andrew Glikson http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/06/08/noah-s-ark-revisited
Blunt’s Cartoon Revisited, by Knutz
Al’s face in biblical-beard and wearing a wrap around with all its cataclysmically, religio-climate metaphors – Bono fetching the water for Noah while he pours over the Ark’s charts (nee hockey stick graph) and extracts cash from gullible passengers –
The Daily Telegraph on Steve Fielding
Steve Fielding, in just one trip to Washington, has discovered what he does not know about global warming … Fielding’s finding is of historic proportion. He has returned with a series of serious questions about the Rudd Government’s agenda that go to the heart of the most important piece of legislation… Read more here.
Fielding the Hard Questions on Climate Change
THE Australian Government has committed itself to an emissions trading scheme (known as ‘cap and trade’ in the US) in its fight against climate change.
The legislation passed the lower house last week but is expecting to be defeated in the Senate on June 15th. The government, however, is likely to take the legislation back to the Senate in late September or October and has threatened a double dissolution if it doesn’t get its way. This could mean an election with a focus on the issue of climate change.
A few independents hold the balance of power in the Senate and the government has said it is keen to negotiate with them. Just last week one independent Senator, Steve Fielding, indicated that there had so far been no debate on the science of climate change in Australia.
In today’s ‘The Australian’ newspaper he has repeated this concern that there has been no debate on this important issue and says he is keen to talk with the Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, about the science.
[Read more…] about Fielding the Hard Questions on Climate Change
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.