Increasingly strong evidence of a clear solar signature in a number of climatic indicators in Europe, strengthening the earlier conclusions of a study that included stations from the United States… With the recent downturn of both solar activity and global temperatures… Read more here.
News
Beach Houses to Go
MILLIONS of dollars worth of luxury waterfront homes at Byron Bay will be demolished in the name of climate change following a council decision to enshrine “planned retreat” in law. Read more here.
New Marine Data Website
THERE is now a website where, at least theoretically, anyone can download near-real time data on ocean temperatures, salinity and currents for the Australian marine environment.
The Australian government contributed $52 million to the development of the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) developed by the University of Tasmania with support from CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research. According to government information, “support will also be provided for the eMarine Information Infrastructure to store, analyse, retrieve and share data once it has been collected”.
Costing a Whale
LAST week the International Whaling Commission (IWC) met on the Portuguese island of Madeira and agreed that climate change is a threat to whales. A decision on the Danish proposal for Greenland to hunt 10 humpback whales a year was postponed. Australia’s Environment Minister was there and told the meeting that whale-watching is a growing industry worth more than whale hunting. Ian Mott disagrees:
“THE claim, by Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett, that whales are worth more alive than dead betrays a breathtaking level of economic ignorance and a dangerous penchant for simplistic, “Cargo Cult” panaceas.
More Mosquitos in Colombo
An outbreak of dengue fever in Sri Lanka has led to 151 deaths and is continuing to spread. To cover up its own responsibility for the erosion of public health care, the government has blamed ordinary people for the epidemic and imposed punitive measures on those who fail to comply with its regulations. Read more here.
New US ‘Clean Energy’ Bill versus Trade
President Obama praised the energy bill passed by the House as an “extraordinary first step,” but he spoke out against a provision that would impose trade penalties on countries that do not accept limits on global warming pollution. 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.
