Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

jennifer

Solar Cycle Link to Global Climate: Now Something Official

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Darwin Part 1 Oct 05 049 blogTHERE is nothing new about claims of a link between solar cycles and global climate.  But now there is research which has been peer-reviewed and published somewhere reputable. Also, the work was by scientists at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.  According to yesterday’s press release it shows that maximum solar activity and its aftermath have impacts on Earth that resemble La Niña and El Niño events in the tropical Pacific Ocean.  This is what they say:

“THE research may pave the way toward predictions of temperature and precipitation patterns at certain times during the approximately 11-year solar cycle.

“These results are striking in that they point to a scientifically feasible series of events that link the 11-year solar cycle with ENSO, the tropical Pacific phenomenon that so strongly influences climate variability around the world,” says Jay Fein, program director in NSF’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences. “The next step is to confirm or dispute these intriguing model results with observational data analyses and targeted new observations.”

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Sorting Priorities

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“Right now the only certain way to save lives is by calling off this misguided war on climate change. If and when climate change promises to claim more casualties than poverty and starvation, the world will begin heeding their calls. If, however, these climate-change casualties don’t materialize, there would have been no need to act in the first place. Either way, the world has far more immediate and scarier problems than climate change to address right now.” Shikha Dalmia, Forbes, 15 July 2009

No Warming Until Maybe 2020

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OK.  It is not pleasant to call someone a ‘warmaholic’. 

I guess it does suggest a dependency.

I always thought of the blog RealClimate as dependent on their being global warming.  But in a recent article they are suggesting there may be no more warming until 2020.   I reckon if you can live without something for 11 years it suggests a lack of dependency.

But they are denying there is cooling.  

A reader, Robert Ellison, has suggested it is OK to leave the question of whether this is a longer term trend – for the moment.  But, he insists, “The real point is that 0.08 degrees per decade (and declining sensitivity to greenhouse gases) is not sufficient to warrant restricting the economic aspirations of billions of people.”

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Notes and Links

Warming, interrupted: Much ado about natural variability
By Kyle Swanson – University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
http://www.uwm.edu/~kswanson/publications/2008GL037022_all.pdf
discussed at http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/07/warminginterrupted-much-ado-about-natural-variability/

Hong Kong Cleans Up It’s Environment

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HongKong Sept 06 005 blogACCORDING to many commentators, one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century is the protection and conservation of the environment.   It’s a mainstream issue and not just in places like Australia.  Indeed even the government of Hong Kong is now making environmental sustainability a key objective which it intends to integrate with economic and social objectives. 

And according to recent Australian government advice there are opportunities for Australian businesses in pollution prevention and control technologies as the country seeks to address air and water pollution.  Current major suppliers of environmental equipment are apparently from the USA, Japan, mainland China and the UK.

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Actions Don’t Accord with Intensions

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Young people don’t need to be persuaded of the climate crisis. Poll any group of people, young or old, and a majority will talk of their passion to live in a greener world.  But ask that same group how much they drive, or fly, or how many children they intend to have and you’ll be amazed.  It simply doesn’t add up.  Read more here.