The British tax office arrested seven people in London on Wednesday in a suspected 38 million pounds ($62.6 million) value-added tax fraud in the European market in carbon allowances. [Reuters.]
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Total Solar Irradiance: Recalculated by N. Scafetta
THE popular view on global warming is that the sun has had a negligible influence on climate – at least over the last few decades compared to carbon dioxide. But taking into account the entire range of possible total solar irradiance (TSI) satellite composite since 1980, Nicola Scafetta, just published in Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, concludes that the solar contribution to climate change could range from a slight cooling to a significant warming, as large as 65% of the total observed global warming.
Here’s a short extract suggesting the science is far from settled:
“DETERMING how solar activity has changed on decadal and secular scales is necessary to estimate the solar contribution to climate change. Unfortunately, how solar activity has changed in time is not known with certainty.
“Direct TSI observations started in 1978 with satellite measurements. For the period before 1978 only TSI proxy reconstructions have been proposed. These TSI proxy models significantly differ from each other, in particular about the amplitude of the secular trends. [Read more…] about Total Solar Irradiance: Recalculated by N. Scafetta
Until Next Year… Little Rose Robin
“ROSE Robins (Petroica rosea) love to winter at our place on the western side of the Darlington Range in the south-east of Queensland. But come spring and they are off like a rocket to the Lamington Plateau or the New England Ranges to nest.” Jim Inglis
Thicker Ice on Hudson Bay this Summer
Too many cool, wet days resulted in a lousy summer — but you won’t find any polar bears complaining. The cooler-than-usual summer produced thicker ice on Hudson Bay, giving the area’s polar bear population several extra days to feed on tasty ringed seals. Read more here.
A Windy Future
THE Australian government didn’t get its carbon trading legislation through the Senate last week and has now decided, at least for the moment, to just push ahead with that part of the legislation relating to renewable energy targets.
It seems this legislation is likely to be passed sometime this week and according to many pundits the big winner will be wind farms.
Wind is available now, is relatively cheap, and could snap up all the relevant concessions under the new legislation before emerging technologies like geothermal and solar thermal are ready for rolling out.
Is this good news?
According to the following article… wind farms in South East Australia are unlikely to supply any significant power output that system operators can rely upon, rather they will load the distribution system with sudden variations in power that are not predictable and are of a size that is ten times larger than the random variations of user demand. [Read more…] about A Windy Future
On ‘Saving the World’ (Part 1)
“Not all environmental causes are sucker-proof. If one wants to fill up the inner void, by making the world a better place to live, then one should do one’s bloody homework first. And that includes becoming scientifically literate. If one is not willing to take that first step, then one should get a life, and forget about saving the world!” Larry Fields, August 2009
for some context … https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/2009/08/clean-up-just-stirs-up/
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.