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Climate4You Update May 2011

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Dear all.

Please find below a link which will take you directly to a monthly newsletter with meteorological information updated to May 2011:

http://www.climate4you.com/Text/Climate4you_May_2011.pdf

All temperatures in this newsletter are shown in degrees Celsius. Previous issues of the newsletter, diagrams and additional material are available on http://www.climate4you.com/

All the best, yours sincerely,
Ole Humlum

Ole Humlum, Professor of Physical Geography, Department of Physical Geography, Institute of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway

US Supreme Court Impressed by Climate Sceptic

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There was an important ruling last week in the USA. Would-be regulators of carbon dioxide lost an appeal in the Supreme Court.

They lost on technical grounds and in the process the Court cautioned, by way of a footnote in the judgement, that the science of climate change is hardly settled. Rather than citing some evidence, however, the Judge cited an article about the views of physics and sceptic Freeman Dyson, published in of all places, the New York Times Magazine and over two years ago.

You can read the article entitled ‘The Civil Heretic’ by Nicholas Dawidoff here… http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?pagewanted=1

You can read the Supreme Court ruling here…
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/10-174.pdf

Irresponsible: SA Politicians Unite Against Upstream Communities and Environments

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ADELAIDE in South Australia is a one paper town. Everyone reads the Adelaide Advertiser. Today, as usual, it’s full of parochial chatter including a one page advertisement devoted to a statement from all 23 South Australian Federal MPs (Green, Labor and Coalition) blaming the problems of the Lower Lakes and Coorong on upstream irrigators and their “chronic overuse of water”.

Of course the Adelaide Advertiser has never let the facts get in the way of a good story and so, without explaining that there is a local solution to the problem, their journalist Catherine Hockley supports the advertisement organised by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) with a nonsense story headlined ‘Politicians unite to rescue the Murray’

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/politicians-unite-to-rescue-the-murray/story-e6frea6u-1226080269703

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Carbon Tax as a Failed European Policy

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IF a new federal tax of $11.6 billion represents economic reform, then the Australian political culture has changed fundamentally, and economic reform means roughly the opposite of what it meant under Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard.

“First, rectify the names,” as Confucius said. The complete inversion of the language of economic reform under the Gillard government, especially in relation to the proposed carbon tax, is a clue to the much more fundamental question at hand.

Australia faces a profound and defining strategic choice. The carbon tax is part of that choice…

Read the entire article by Greg Sheridan here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/labors-euro-vision-provides-the-smoke-and-mirrors-for-a-carbon-tax/story-e6frgd0x-1226077328365

[Labor’s Euro vision provides the smoke and mirrors for a carbon tax, Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor
From:The Australian, June 18, 20111, 2:00AM ]

Major Drop in Solar Activity Predicted

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Three separate studies of the sun all predict that we may be about to enter a period of low temperatures because of unusually low solar activity. Comparisons are being made with the last grand minimum, the coldest period of the Little Ice Age, which occurred between 1645 and 1715. Known as the Maunder Minimum this was a period when crops failed across Europe.

Following is the press release from the annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society, being held at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces…

WHAT’S DOWN WITH THE SUN?
MAJOR DROP IN SOLAR ACTIVITY PREDICTED

A missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles say that our Sun is heading for a rest period even as it is acting up for the first time in years, according to scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

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