Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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What to Listen to, Read, and Action This Week

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“THE Gillard government’s chief promoter of the climate change debate has admitted even a global effort to cut carbon emissions would not lower temperatures for up to 1000 years… 
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/no-fast-result-in-cuts-flannery/story-e6frg6xf-1226028366173

“JULIA Gillard has told Labor MPs to warn voters that a failure to back a carbon tax will lead to more bushfires and droughts as well as coastal inundation and shorter skiing seasons.   MPs have also been instructed to warn constituents that unchecked climate change would lead to people in northern NSW experiencing a climate like that of Cairns, in far north Queensland…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/mps-told-to-warn-of-climate-mayhem/story-fn59niix-1226028368404

“UNTIL now, the Productivity Commission has been excluded from Australia’s climate change debate. Now he has been let in, Gary Banks has thrown a hand grenade into Julia Gillard’s rush to bed down a carbon tax by mid next year.   
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/productivity-commission-chief-turns-up-the-heat-on-carbon-tax-debate/story-e6frg9p6-1226028337294

Consider this an open thread.  Let other readers of this blog know what you are watching, listening to, and reading, this week by way of a comment.

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Cartoon via Bishop Hill
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2011/3/25/more-flannel-josh-88.html

‘Carbon Tax’ Hurt Labor Vote in NSW

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Tonight, in the Australian state of New South Wales, Barry O’Farrell has swept 16 years of Labor government into history with a landslide victory.   The magnitude of his 17 per cent swing has surprised many.  Labor is likely to end up with as few as 20 seats in the 93-seat parliament.

During the election campaign, while Mr O’Farrell could have played it safe and stuck to state issues, he choose to also campaigned on the federal issue of the carbon tax.   Remarkably, Mr O’Farrell also mentioned the carbon tax and the need to “fight the carbon tax” in his victory speech.

According to Samantha Maiden writing in the Herald Sun: While the outcome was regarded as a foregone conclusion, Labor MPs at a state and federal level complained the Prime Minister’s decision to announce a carbon tax hurt the campaign.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/election-leads-to-labors-bloodbath/story-fn7x8me2-1226028702873

Total Emissivity of the Earth and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide: A Note from Nasif S. Nahle

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Introduction

Central to the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is the assumption that the Earth and every one of its subsystems behaviors as if they were blackbodies, that is their “emissivity” potential is calculated as 1.0. [1]

But this is an erroneous assumption because the Earth and its subsystems are not blackbodies, but gray-bodies. The Earth and all of its subsystems are gray-bodies because they do not absorb the whole load of radiant energy that they receive from the Sun and they do not emit the whole load of radiant energy that they absorb. [8] [9] [10]

Furthermore the role of carbon dioxide is misunderstood.   According to AGW hypothesis, carbon dioxide is the second most significant driver of the Earth’s temperature, behind the water vapor, which is considered the most important driver of the Earth’s climate. [2] Other authors of AGW discharge absolutely the role of water vapor and focus their arguments on the carbon dioxide. [3]

What is the total emissivity of carbon dioxide?   I will consider this question with reference to the science of radiative heat transfer.

[Read more…] about Total Emissivity of the Earth and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide: A Note from Nasif S. Nahle

Give Me Nuclear Power: George Monbiot

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IN an article entitled ‘Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power’ environmental activist and Guardian columnist, George Monbiot, explains why he favours nuclear over many renewable…

“A crappy old plant with inadequate safety features was hit by a monster earthquake and a vast tsunami. The electricity supply failed, knocking out the cooling system. The reactors began to explode and melt down. The disaster exposed a familiar legacy of poor design and corner-cutting. Yet, as far as we know, no one has yet received a lethal dose of radiation.

“Some greens have wildly exaggerated the dangers of radioactive pollution. For a clearer view, look at the graphic published by xkcd.com. It shows that the average total dose from the Three Mile Island disaster for someone living within 10 miles of the plant was one 625th of the maximum yearly amount permitted for US radiation workers. This, in turn, is half of the lowest one-year dose clearly linked to an increased cancer risk, which, in its turn, is one 80th of an invariably fatal exposure. I’m not proposing complacency here. I am proposing perspective.

Read more here:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nuclear-japan-fukushima

Rally Against the Carbon Tax

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Congratulations to all those who attended the rally in Canberra, and other capital cities, against the carbon tax.   And especially to the organisers …  you got enough people there to be noticed and vilified.  Well done.   

I understand the Prime Minister was invited but declined.  And thanks to 2UE for the cartoon… 

http://www.2ue.com.au/blogs/2ue-blog/zegs-take-on-carbon-tax-protests–have-your-say/20110323-1c64v.html#next

What Percentage of Air is Human Sourced C02?

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In Australia, the public is not in favour of a proposed carbon tax, but the mainstream media, particularly the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, keep pushing the proposal along with the idea we face inevitable catastrophic climate change unless we change our ways.    The host of one commercial radio station, Alan Jones, has been putting the alternative perspective and is now being reprimanded…  interestingly on the science.   

Activist group, GetUp, claim Alan Jones is wrong to have broadcast that only 0.001 per cent of the carbon dioxide in the air if from human sources and claims the correct figure is 28 percent.  I thought the official figure was something like 3 per cent. 

[Read more…] about What Percentage of Air is Human Sourced C02?