The three Siberian tigers from the northeast city of Dalian and two Bengal tigers from Sichuan in the southwest will be sent to a North Korea as “friendship envoys”. Read more here.
Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere 5-15 Years Only
IF carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels only stayed in the atmosphere a few years, say five years, then there may not be quite the urgency currently associated with anthropogenic global warming. Indeed it might be argued that the problem of elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide could be easily reversed as soon as alternative fuel sources where found and/or just before a tipping point was reached. The general consensus, however, is not five years, but rather more in the range of 50 to 200 years.
But in a new technical paper to be published in the journal ‘Energy and Fuels’, Robert Essenhigh from Ohio State University, throws doubt on this consensus. Using the combustion/chemical-engineering Perfectly Stirred Reactor (PSR) mixing structure, or 0-D Box, as the basis of a model for residence time in the atmosphere, he explains that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are likely to have a residence time of between 5 and 15 years. He further concludes that the current trend of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is not from anthropogenic sources, but due to natural factors.
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Cap n Trade Proposal Under Press
Australian Government’s own Climate Change Advisor suggests “Might be best to dump ETS”, Read more here.
Cold Even by Arctic Stanards
Extreme weather is hampering attempts by a team of three British explorers to examine the effects of climate change on Arctic sea ice around the north pole… the extreme weather, even by Arctic standards, has affected much of the team’s standard kit. They’ve had breakages to equipment such as stoves and skis.
Read more here. And background to the expedition here.
Defining ‘The Greens’ (Part 1)
According to George Megalogenis writing in the Weekend Australian neither the “right” nor the “left” in Australia can now win power without the support of the Greens.
But what exactly do the Greens stand for?
I recently suggested there are different types of Environmentalists, for example there are those like Tim Flannery who support geoengineering solutions to cool the planet, while Goreists tend to be more interested in changing societal attitudes.
According to the website for the Australian Greens, their vision is for a “fair, independent and sustainable” Australia. The home page has a banner stating they are about “peace and non-violence, grassroots democracy, social and economic justice and ecological sustainability”.
No one could disagree with any of this, but what does it mean in terms of the environment, power and politics?
Who Should Pay?
It’s quite amusing that, according to Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, the developing world wants the developed world, primarily the U.S., to pay them to cooperate with us on CO2 emissions. I say amusing because any money we send to China for its help, we first have to borrow from the Chinese. The world’s “richest” nation is its largest debtor nation. Eric Dalton, the Wall Street Journal.
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.