Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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Water Purchased for Bird Breeding at Narran Lakes

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“Four weeks into a six-week Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) watering at the Narran Lakes system has already resulted in a huge boost to the environmental health of the system’s plants and animals, particularly its birdlife.

“The MDBC bought 11,000 megalitres of water over the Easter weekend to supplement the natural watering occurring at the internationally important Ramsar wetland site in north central New South Wales.

“MDBC chief executive, Dr Wendy Craik, said today that expert ground surveys were showing that about 75pc of the 30,000 pairs of straw-necked ibis attracted to the lakes since January were now expected to successfully produce healthy, full-fledged offspring…

Read more at Farm Online: http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/article/85135.aspx

Solar Cycle and Sea Level Changes – A Correlation?

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I am reminded of a February 2007 post over at Climate Audit on a Simon Holgate sea level changes paper published in GRL, and a related poster presentation. Holgate claimed that sea levels rose more in the first half of the 20th century, than in the second half. The same could be said for solar activity.

Plotting the sun spot data on to Holgate’s graph of sea level changes produces an interesting result:

Sea Level Solar combined.JPG
Holgate 2007 Figure 2. Comparison of the global mean decadal rates of sea level change based on the nine records with the rates from the 177 stations used in HW04. All rates are corrected for glacial isostatic adjustment and inverse barometer effects. The shaded region indicates standard error. The sun spot numbers are from here.

The coincidence is good except for the last sunspot cycle. Note also that the sea level series are decade mid-point, so the sunspot series should be read as displaced 5 years to the left. Does this mean that the correlation is real, but the effect of CO2 or something else has become apparent during the last solar cycle? Who knows!?

Whilst on the subject of sea level rise, there is this graph below from NASA-GISS: Sea Level Rise, After the Ice Melted and Today

sea level changes.jpg

MWP = meltwater pulse. MWP-1A0, c. 19,000 years ago, MWP-1A, 14,600 to 13,500 years ago, MWP-1B, 11,500-11,000 years ago, MWP-1C, ~8,200-7,600 years ago.

I think the above graph puts modern sea level rise into perspective.

References:

Woodworth, P.L. A world-wide search for the 11-year solar cycle in mean sea-level records. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. 80(3) pp743-755, 1985.

S. J. Holgate, On the decadal rates of sea level change during the twentieth century. GRL, 2007.

European Commission Cut from Reality? PR from Bellamy and Duchamp

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Three cheers ! At last the peddlers of doom have seen the light : bio-fuels do displace food crops and rain forests !
Starving the poor and destroying biodiversity to give us good conscience as we pour cereal-based ethanol into our tanks is not a smart thing to do. Even Greenpeace admitted it, while avoiding to mention they had much to do with that fiasco.

But Eurocrats are not as smart : “there is no question for now of suspending the target fixed for bio-fuels,” said Barbara Helfferich, spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas (1).
– In other words, they’d rather cause starvation, and destroy rain forests, than admit they goofed.

Their rationale boggles the mind : “you can’t change a political objective without risking a debate on all the other objectives,” which could see the EU climate change and energy package disintegrate, an EU official said (1).
– It is all very clear : allowing a debate on public policy is what the European Commission fears most ; more than starvation in poor countries, more than widespread destruction of biodiversity, and more than economic havoc caused by their cherished “climate change” policy.

Will we, Europeans, tolerate this neo-stalinist behaviour ? It is not just a matter of bureaucratic arrogance : this time it has become obvious that we are dealing with dangerous lunatics.

The Eurocrats have everything to lose if they stick to their smoking guns any longer. A debate is dearly needed on everything they’ve been doing wrong, from bio-fuels to carbon trading, and from climate change hysteria to the destruction of peat and designated areas by expensive and redundant windfarms.

(1) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080414/sc_afp/euunfarmpovertyenergypoliticsbiofuel_080414143918

European Commission cut from reality ?

Co-signed on April 20th 2008 by :

Professor David Bellamy
and Mark Duchamp

Scottish Skiing Enjoys Best Spring Snow in Living Memory

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Rumours of the demise of Scottish skiing are beginning to look greatly exaggerated.

While many Alpine resorts have closed for the season, thousands of skiers are still enjoying perfect conditions in the Highlands.

Scotland’s five resorts have struggled for more than 15 years with the effects of global warming, and several have diversified into summer tourism. The perfect snow cover at CairnGorm this weekend follows the worst season on record last year.

There is even talk of skiing on midsummer’s day, as visitors make the most of the best spring snow conditions anyone can remember.

The Daily Telegraph: ‘Late snow gives Scots resorts a ski lift ‘

Energetic Particles Help Explain Polar Variations

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In amongst an article that contains yet another straw-man attack on cosmic rays via the BBC, there is something more interesting reported from the European Geosciences Union (EGU) meeting.

In periods of relatively intense particle activity, some areas of the Earth’s surface in both the Arctic and Antarctic are warmer while others become colder, showing differences of up to 2C or 3C compared to the long-term averages.

In periods of unusually low particle activity, the patterns are reversed.

The mechanism appears to be redistributing heat across the polar regions; there is no evidence for any overall warming or cooling, Dr Seppala added, nor that the scale of the effect has changed over time.

“The results were amazing, and I think it’s something significant that we have to take into account,” commented Katje Matthes from the Free University of Berlin, who chaired the EGU session which saw the new data presented.

“I think it’s rather a local effect,” she added, “and I don’t think it has a big impact on global temperatures.”

Read more here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7352667.stm