The IPCC climate change report - in 90 seconds

23 September 2013 Last updated at 00:16 BST

Scientists and politicians are gathering in Stockholm this week to await the latest report from the IPCC, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The last report from the panel - which came out in 2007 - was considered so important that it led to the IPCC being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Al Gore.

The BBC's Victoria Gill explains why this report really matters - in just 90 seconds

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24149439

 

See also, Tony Abbott and Jesus Christ at the end of: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/coalition-refugee-policy-and-our-global-backyard/

 

By disbanding the Climate Commission and deciding not to have a science minister, Tony Abbott shows he is mired in regressive religious ideology, says Robyn Oyeniyi.

 

John Shimkus is not a Roman Catholic, he is a Lutheran. Yet I see a similar pattern of belief in Abbott. Abbott’s words and actions all point to having a similar literal belief in the words of the Bible. I thought Shimkus was an idiot: now it seems an ideological clone of Shimkus may be running Australia.

I am an atheist, but let us just assume for the moment that God exists. Back in the days of the Book of Genesis, there was no knowledge of electricity, cars, planes, pollution, atomic bombs, nuclear or chemical weapons. No knowledge of all the things with which we are destroying our planet.

The verse says:

“…as long as the earth endures”.

Yes, I agree – as long as the earth endures the sun will shine (it is, after all the body this planet circles around) and we will continue to have cold and heat. Let us remember, this year the Bureau of Meteorology added purple to allow temperatures over 50 C do be displayed. Much has been written about whether we are getting warmer or not, I believe we are.

It is up to us ‒ the species that invented all these marvellous things and continued to breed unabated ‒ to ensure the world endures. I heard the Moderator of the Uniting Church on the ABC the other day: there is a Christian denomination that takes a completely different perspective of our relationship with the planet on which we live.  A perspective of guardianship.

Interpretation and translation are everything.

Another version of the Bible gives Verse 22 as:

‘While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.’

Remaineth? Endures? Similar, but different.

Nowhere, in either translation, do I see it saying the earth will remain forever. In fact, both specifically say “As long as“, which to me clearly indicates something other than forever! Many, too many, of the human race are like teenagers expecting their mythical creature to act like a parent and pay their speeding fines.

That’s just not going to happen, folks.

We ‒ all of us ‒ as citizens of the world, have to stand up and accept adult responsibility for our actions. We have to be prepared to say we are willing to curb our rampant consumerism and breeding to save the natural resources on which we depend. For our children and our children’s children.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-religion-and-the-dumb-country/

 

See mischief at top...

 

There has been no let-up in the spring heatwave gripping parts of Queensland with long-standing September records breaking on consecutive days.

More than 10 record temperatures were set yesterday in areas including the southern inland, and residents had been warned to expect more of the same today.

Charleville yesterday had its hottest day since records began 85 years ago - hitting 39 degrees.

Blackall (39.8) and Isisford (40.6) were among other centres to encounter record September heat.

Murweh Shire Mayor Dennis Cook says the heat and dry weather is bad news for farmers battling drought conditions.

"We've gone from one big cycle of flooding to dry, and it doesn't look like rain here at all," he said.

Local resident Lenny Gaulton says the past three days have been sweltering.

"It just makes everything dry. The roos come to town - it's a bit annoying, ticks in the grass."

Fire warnings

Fire weather warnings are current for more than a dozen districts.

Crews battled scores of grass and bushfires yesterday in the Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and central west near the Carnarvon National Park.

About 18 bush and grassfires are still burning - mainly in the Bundaberg and central regions - but no property is currently under threat.

A large bushfire north of Tambo has now burnt more than 150,000 hectares.

Beach relief

The heatwave, coupled with good surf conditions, was expected to draw big crowds to the state's beaches.

Aaron Purchase from Surf Life Saving Queensland said people should avoid the temptation to swim at remote or unpatrolled beaches.

"The most important thing for everyone heading down is to make sure they swim between those red and yellow flag and to take care with everyone on the beach," Mr Purchase said.

"When there are more people around it is more likely that we'll have an incident - but if everyone swims between the flags and keeps an eye on each other - we should all be able to enjoy the beach safely."

Blooming hot

Toowoomba on the Darling Downs was expecting a record 34 degrees as the city hosted its annual Carnival of Flowers, with thousands of visitors in the city to see floral displays in public and private gardens.

Councillor Geoff McDonald says the flowers should be able to stand up to the heat.

"Some of our gardeners actually displayed gardens through 10 years of drought," he said.

"This sort of weather is probably not something we're accustomed to this time of year but I think we can work around it."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-26/qld-heatwave-to-break-more-september-records/4982526

 

Over the next few years, this is not going to improve...  place your thinking cap on: global warming is at work, slowly, discreetly....

 

It's a lonely comment at the end of an article about Native Canadian fishermen. The article and the vision piece go thus: 

 

 

Polar regions are among the most dramatically affected by global warming.

In the far north, the Arctic Ocean is losing some of its summer ice cover. However, that is also providing an economic lifeline to some remote communities.

Al Jazeera's Daniel Lak reports from Pangnirtung, an Inuit village in Canada, where many fishermen are benefitting from the change in conditions.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/09/arctic-warming-boosts-fishermen-harvest-201392755131301346.html

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Then comes the comment:

 

Guy_in_Kingston • 5 hours ago−Funny.....I live in Canada and the article doesn't mention that Arctic ice has increased 67% this year.
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Now for the catch:
It seems that Guy_in_Kingston is a new religious zealot ring-in from the Glenn Beck stable of loony tunes at The Blaze... All over the world wherever there is something serious to discuss, clever idiots like Guy_in_Kingston, come from the anti-evolution, the anti-climate-change, the anti-atheists platforms, then take the floor and hug the microphone until the most gullible (most of us under pressure) are on their knees praying to god to forgive their sins... Guy_in_Kingston is all of these ratbags combined... His rants on the Blaze are vitriolic against anything that does not have angels in it... Evolution is evil and never proven (sorry: it is proven by modern genetic manipulations)... But the existence of god has never been proven for that matter, but hey?
People like Guy_in_Kingston make silly unverified comments: the Arctic ice increased by 67 % this year?... This is a lot of bullshit that only dedicated dangerous loonies can make — and unfortunately websites like Al Jazeera should counteract with proper observed figures....
People like  Guy_in_Kingston have god and bullshit on their side... Mostly bullshit... actually, only bullshit. 
God still does not exist even if we wish HIM to be..... 
Meanwhile people like Guy_in_Kingston may change their call sign once they have been exposed as the frauds they are... 
Gus Leonisky

 

 

Even before the IPCC released its report this week, widely discredited climate change skeptics unleashed a barrage of static designed to discredit the consensus science. Dr David Suzuki reports.

THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just released its Fifth Assessment Report in three chapters and a summary. But not to be outdone, even before it was released, the contrarians unleashed a barrage of attacks designed to discredit the science. Expect more to come.

Many news outlets are complicit in efforts to undermine the scientific evidence. Contrarian opinion articles have run in publications in Canada and around the world, from the Financial Post and Washington Post to The Australian and the U.K.’s Mail on Sunday.

In the Guardian, scientists Dana Nuccitelli and John Abraham point out that attacks cover five stages of climate denial:

1. deny the problem exists,
2. deny we’re the cause,
3. deny it’s a problem,
4. deny we can solve it, and
5. claim it’s too late to do anything.

One attack that’s grabbing media attention is the so-called Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change’s report Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science. It’s written by Fred Singer, a well-known tobacco industry apologist and climate change denier, with Bob Carter and Craig Idso, also known for their dismissals of legitimate climate change science, and published by the Heartland Institute, a U.S. non-profit known for defending tobacco and fossil fuel industry interests. Heartland made headlines last year for comparing people who accept the overwhelming scientific evidence for human-caused climate change with terrorists and criminals such as Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski!

 

The deniers network is far-reaching and well-funded.

Read Singer’s report if you want. But it’s full of long-discredited claims, including that carbon dioxide emissions are good because they stimulate life. It’s not the goal of deniers and contrarians to contribute to our understanding of climate change; they want to promote fossil fuel companies and other industrial interests, a point explicitly stated in the Heartland-NIPCC news release.

It claims the Singer report, which isn’t peer-reviewed, provides governments with

…the scientific evidence they need to justify ending the expansion of ineffective alternative energy sources and other expensive and futile strategies to control climate. Then they can focus on supporting our most powerful energy sources – coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, and hydro-power – in order to end the scourge of energy poverty that afflicts over one billion people across the world.

In other words, don’t worry about climate change, let alone health-damaging pollution or the fact that fossil fuels will become increasingly difficult to extract and eventually run out altogether. And even though mountains of solid evidence from around the world show climate change is and will continue to be most devastating for the world’s poorest people, the report feigns concern for those suffering from ‘energy poverty’.

Overall, the attacks on legitimate climate science are coming from people whose arguments have been debunked many times and who often have ties to the fossil fuel industry. Some, including Roy Spencer and Ross McKitrick, have signed the Cornwall Declaration, which states:

We believe Earth and its ecosystems – created by God’s intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by His faithful providence – are robust, resilient, self-regulating, and self-correcting, admirably suited for human flourishing, and displaying His glory. Earth’s climate system is no exception.

The declaration also states:

‘There is no convincing scientific evidence that human contribution to greenhouse gases is causing dangerous global warming’

and that renewable energy should not be used to replace fossil fuels.

Their world view can’t accept the reality of climate change or its solutions no matter how much evidence is provided — something that offends many people of faith who believe we have a responsibility to care for the Earth.

The IPCC report, on the other hand, is a review of all the available science on climate change, conducted by hundreds of experts from around the world. It confirms climate change is happening, burning fossil fuels is a major cause and it will get worse if we fail to act. It also examines what appears to be a slight slowing of global warming – but certainly not a halt, as deniers claim – and offers scientific explanations for it. Upcoming chapters will also propose solutions.

Resolving the problem of climate change will cost, but it will be much more expensive to follow the defeatist advice of industry shills, whose greed and lack of care for humanity will condemn our children and grandchildren to an uncertain future.

Dr David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Communications Manager Ian Hanington. Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

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See also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/19279... Read all articles in these line of blog.

See also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/27068

and:          http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/26647

and          http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/26989

and:         http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/26452

and:         http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/19728

and:         http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/19214

As Australia records its HOTTEST September yet, by a whopping 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, October starts with some mighty warmth... Today, only one month into Australian spring, and barely 10 days after the equinox, the temperature is a balmy 32 degrees Celsius in Sydney.

Darwin has consistently been about 2 degrees Celsius above average and other cities have had their dose of beaut weather, well above average — except Perth, if my observations are correct... Perth and the South West of Western Australia is in the grip of Antarctica melting away... The cold is reaching out in that small corner of Australia like an eddy of melting ice in a whisky glass... The overall temperature is rising but near the ice, the temperature is falling — or staying put, because the ambient temperature is too high...

Blab blah bloh blaw blem... We have now entered a full El Nino blast... The centre of the country has bubbled into hot DRY air and the edges, those on the eastern side are feeling the hot wind... Will this summer surpasses last summer's records? more than one hundred and twenty record of heat were broken. LET'S NOT FORGET IT...

Already the "HSBC" report talks of 6 degrees Celsius on top of average temperature by 2100 for Australia... This exceptional days like today would reach 38 degrees Celsius, and mid-summer would burn with a 55 degrees Celsius hot wind IN THE SHADE... Welcome. In fact, there is a slim chance that the extra heat can be as high as nine degree Celsius as calculated by Gus and explained in the early days of this website.

While conservatives continue to fight a losing battle on the science of climate change, the EPA is moving forward with regulation. As with healthcare reform, unless there’s a miraculous Republican revolution delivering 60 Senate votes and a Republican president in 2016, carbon-reduction efforts almost certainly are here to stay. The question that conservatives must now grapple with is whether we’ll achieve those emissions reductions through onerous regulation with no attention paid to cost, as the left desires, or through an approach based on limited government and open markets.

The best policy to address greenhouse gas emissions, while adhering to conservative principles, is a carbon tax combined with tax and regulatory reform. Merely uttering the phrase “carbon tax” strikes fear into the heart of many on the right. This is understandable, to the extent that what conservatives actually fear is a plan that would layer energy taxes on top of the overly burdensome tax and regulatory regime we already have.

But one need not engage in climate alarmism or capitulate to big government to make a case for a revenue-neutral carbon tax. In fact, President Obama’s recent speech helps illustrate why the right needs to consider one more seriously.

A conservative carbon tax has three key components: revenue neutrality, elimination of existing taxes, and regulatory reform. When combined, these policies would yield a smaller, less powerful government; a tax code more conducive to investment and growth; and the emissions reductions the law says we must achieve.

Read more: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-to-tax-carbon/

 

"There are currently more than 50,000 Acts and legislative instruments, many of which are a handbrake on Australia's ability to get things done," Mr Abbott said.

The bodies scrapped are: Australian Animals Welfare Advisory Committee; Commonwealth Firearms Advisory Committee; International Legal Services Advisory Committee; National Inter-country Adoption Advisory Council; National Steering Committee on Corporate Wrongdoing; Antarctic Animal Ethics Committee; Advisory Panel on the Marketing in Australia of Infant Formula; High Speed Rail Advisory Group; Maritime Workforce Development Forum; Advisory Panel on Positive Ageing; Insurance Reform Advisory Group; and the National Housing Supply Council.

At the CSIRO, staff leaders fronted their bosses on Thursday, demanding answers on the fate of the workers on contracts, which can often last up to 24 months.

CSIRO has an unusually high proportion of “non-ongoings” with 990 “term” workers and about 440 casual staff among its 6500 headcount."It's going to be a huge problem," said one staff member, who wanted to remain anonymous.

Staff were told last week of the decision, which will hit the organisation's 11 research divisions and 11 national research flagships, as well as critical support for frontline scientists.

In an email to staff, CSIRO chief executive Megan Clarke said: "I announce an immediate recruitment freeze covering the following: External recruitment; and, entering into any new, or extending existing term or contract employment arrangements."

Catriona Jackson, the chief executive of Science and Technology Australia, the peak lobby for the nation's scientists, said she was "concerned that cuts to the public service may fall disproportionately on scientists".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/razor-taken-to-csiro-20131107-2x4fu.html#ixzz2jztVUywz

Gus: please note that many of these committees under the axe DO NOT COST THE TAXPAYER A CENT. Most are done by people willing to give time to the community on subjects in which the old morality of religion has lost its mojo a long time ago... Most of these bodies present recommendations and ethical values to humans dealing with nature and amongst each others. By removing these "bodies", the Federal Abbott Government is basically telling the community to give up ethical improvements and to praise highway robbery.

In regard to the CSIRO, the Abbott government does not want to be reminded of global warming... The problem does not exist in their petty mind, which for Liberals (CONservatives) is no higher than their arse.

"Ozarm, mehsitwayenh" is Gus' new rally call for any person who knows that the rich elite is shafting us. "Ozarm, mehsitwayenh" of course is from "La Marseillaise", the rally call of the French revolution : AUX ARMES, MES CITOYENS, POM-POM, POM-POM... etc. The letter e stands for ethical, which the Abbott government is far from being.  The Abbott government is basically a ruthless careless ningnongerry...
Place this sticker anywhere it is legal to do so, including your bumper bar and your bicycle pump.



Eventually, the rally cry will be come shorter to "OZARM!"

 

CSIRO revenue slipping

In the CSIRO budget statement from May 2012-13, the organisation estimated its employee benefits - including salaries, super, wages and leave - to be $757 million. A year later in the May 2013-14 budget statement, that estimate had dropped to $725 million. This shows the CSIRO intended to make cuts prior to the Coalition being elected.

The budget statements also show the organisation's non-government revenue sources are in decline. In 2012-13 it was estimated its "own-source income" would be $505 million in 2013-14, but in the 2013-14 statement, that estimate had dropped to $492 million.

In order for the organisation to produce the same financial result to the Government in 2013-14, it needed to cut employee benefits and other expenses. In other words, the CSIRO is not raising enough revenue.

The verdict

Spin. Mr Bandt did not substantiate his claim that "the anti-science bias of the Government" was behind the CSIRO jobs freeze. His claim that a quarter of jobs at the CSIRO could be lost within a year is wrong.

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The fact checker at the ABC is obviously loaded to suit right wing crap... The fact is that since Mr Bandt claimed a quarter of jobs at the CSIRO "COULD BE" lost, does not mean he is 100 per cent wrong or right... It means it is likely to happen but may or may not happen... 

The verdict is that this fact checker is full of shit. And there is no dispute: the Liberal Abbott government is ANTI-SCIENCE...

Global average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached a new record high in March 2015, soaring to surpass 400 parts per million, scientists revealed on Wednesday.

The news came as a reminder that the international community has failed to come up with meaningful solutions to reverse the trend in greenhouse gas emissions that are a direct cause of global warming.

“I, and many other scientists, we are beginning to get worried. Because we see efforts that are not strong enough. We do not see the political will or the leadership to address this issue,” said James Butler, director of the global monitoring division at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The average in atmosphere carbon dioxide concentration observed in March has not been seen by scientists since NOAA monitoring started in 1957.

And scientific evidence suggests that these levels have been unseen for the entire history of human civilization as we know it.

Babylonian, Chinese and western civilizations were able to develop during a time of climate stability marked by carbon dioxide concentration levels of 270 to 280 parts per million, Butler said.

With the dawn of the industrial age, carbon dioxide concentration levels in the atmosphere began to climb, going from 280 parts per million in 1800 to 290 parts per million in 1900. In the last century alone, the rise in concentration is one that would normally be expected to happen over the course of 10,000 or 20,000 years, Butler said – definitely not 100.

This March, the International Energy Agency reported that greenhouse gas emissions had plateaued over the last two years, stopping an upward trend.

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Emissions may have stagnated, but the degree of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere – a direct cause for global warming – is continuing to rise.

“Once you get carbon dioxide up in the atmosphere, it’s very difficult to make it go away,” Butler said.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/06/carbon-dioxide-record-levels-noaa

 

Telling porkies gets easier for pollies as ABC shuts down its Fact Check unit

The ABC will make an imminent announcement on the closure of its fact-checking unit, just three years after it was created as a bold experiment in holding politicians and other public figures to account.

Fairfax Media understands senior staff in the ABC's News division will be briefed on the decision on Tuesday afternoon before an official announcement on Wednesday.

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/telling-porkies-gets-easier-for-pollies-as-abc-shuts-down-its-fact-check-unit-20160517-gowt3v.html#ixzz48sbUCRVW 

Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

 

 

As for one, I was never impressed with the "fact" checker at the ABC. More often than not, it was giving undeserved ticks of approval to crap on the right-hand side of politics. It never shown a proper understanding of "balance" especially on subjects in which sciences were involved.

 

See toon at top.