Last year was Australia’s hottest on record. And each of a set of five research papers published Monday in a special edition of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society reached the same conclusion regarding the year of unprecedented heat. The research teams independently concluded — in two cases writing that they could do so with “essentially” 100 percent certainty — that climate-changing greenhouse gas pollution played a substantial role in fuelling it.

Australia has left behind its climate of generations past and moved into an era where extreme heat waves and warm winter months, such as those of 2013, are more likely to occur, researchers concluded.

“They’ve left behind the climate that they used to have,” said NOAA research meteorologist Thomas Knutson.

Last year’s intense heat was perhaps most noticeable during summer, when temperatures of 120 degrees were recorded in some places. But the differences between recorded and average temperatures were greatest during the Austral winter and fall. Never in more than a century of record-keeping has the average Australian temperature reached last year’s level.

“We now have some very solid, quantitative work that says, ‘Hey, wait a minute, climate change is implicated in these things,’” said Australian National University professor Will Steffen, who was a climate commissioner until the new federal government terminated the nation’s climate advisory group. The former government agency has since reconstituted itself as an independent nonprofit. The high temperatures and frequent heat waves were the combined result of natural variation and human influence on the climate. Low rainfall that contributed to the hot conditions does not appear to have been caused by climate change, one of the research teams concluded. That natural phenomenon combined with unnatural climate change-juiced heat, however, leading to extraordinary temperatures. Heat waves killed hundreds of people, delayed play and injured players at Melbourne’s Australian Open, and caused 100,000 bats to spectacularly tumble from their perches, dead.

Steffen said he hopes the findings from Monday’s papers reach the desk of Australian prime minister Tony Abbott. Abbott promptly repealed the country’s carbon tax after gaining power and he is a conspicuous critic of efforts by other world governments to fight climate change. Australia is one of the world’s highest per-capita contributors to greenhouse gas pollution.

read more: http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/science-shows-how-climate-change-is-baking-australia

 

Gus note: 2014 is likely to beat 2013 heat records...

 

 

Global Highlights

• The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for September 2014 was the highest on record for September, at 0.72°C (1.30°F) above the 20th century average of 15.0°C (59.0°F).
• The global land surface temperature was 0.89°C (1.60°F) above the 20th century average of 12.0°C (53.6°F), the sixth highest for September on record. For the ocean, the September global sea surface temperature was 0.66°C (1.19°F) above the 20th century average of 16.2°C (61.1°F), the highest on record for September and also the highest on record for any month.
• The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for the January–September period (year-to-date) was 0.68°C (1.22°F) above the 20th century average of 14.1°C (57.5°F), tying with 1998 as the warmest such period on record.
• http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global

 

 

The Amazon rainforest has degraded to the point where it is losing its ability to benignly regulate weather systems, according to a stark new warning from one of Brazil’s leading scientists.

In a new report, Antonio Nobre, researcher in the government’s space institute, Earth System Science Centre, says the logging and burning of the world’s greatest forest might be connected to worsening droughts – such as the one currently plaguing São Paulo – and is likely to lead eventually to more extreme weather events.

The study, which is a summary drawing from more than 200 existing papers on Amazonian climate and forest science, is intended as a wake-up call.

“I realised the problem is much more serious than we realised, even in academia and the reason is that science has become so fragmented. Atmospheric scientists don’t look at forests as much as they should and vice versa,” said Nobre, who wrote the report for a lay audience. “It’s not written in academic language. I don’t need to preach to the converted. Our community is already very alarmed at what is going on.”

A draft seen by the Guardian warns that the “vegetation-climate equilibrium is teetering on the brink of the abyss.” If it tips, the Amazon will start to become a much drier savanna, which calamitous consequences.

The Amazon works as a giant pump, channeling moisture inland via aerial rivers and rainclouds that form over the forest more dramatically than over the sea, the author says. It also provides a buffer against extreme weather events, such as tornados and hurricanes.

In the past 20 years, the author notes that the Amazon has lost 763,000 sq km, an area the size of two Germanys. In addition another 1.2m sq km has been estimated as degraded by cutting below the canopy and fire.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/31/amazon-rainforest-deforestation-weather-droughts-report

 

Meanwhile the Liberals (CONservatives) want to cut more trees in Tasmania... Idiots !

 

 

The Commonwealth has already provided about $700 million in five-year drought loans at interest rates of between 4 and 4.5 per cent.

But in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania not all the allocated money has been used and senior ministers were discussing diverting $100 million to help farmers facing a one-in-100-year drought get back on their feet.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said reallocation of the unused drought money was unlikely to require cabinet approval.

"Rather than announce this on the ABC... I'll just say, hopefully I can redirect more money where there is a real need," he said.

"People are going three years without an income. Could many other businesses do that? I don't think so."

In September, Mr Joyce and Treasurer Joe Hockey toured drought affected parts of New South Wales and Queensland.

"Hopefully we can do this with an exchange of letters. It's changing certain criteria," Mr Joyce said.

"This is a substantial amount of money [available for] a longer period of time at a lower interest rate."

The Government is expected to make an announcement later in the month.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-04/drought-loans-expected-to-be-unveiled/5864884

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A one in a hundred-year drought? By not tackling global warming properly (Tony Turdy does not believe in global warming and as such he is giving taxpayers money to polluters to "pollute" less — which is a free market anathema), loans and subsidies to farmers will need to be increasing because of droughts, floods and increasing other natural disasters.. Due to global warming, science predicts that by 2050, Australia will experience 40 per cent more drought than in the past two hundred years. A "one in a hundred-year drought" every 5 to 10 years more likely... For some people this does not mean much but then how a record 48 degrees Celsius in Sydney do, say by 2020?... Or 50 degrees Celsius by 2075?

 

 

Almost half say the government's poor performance has had a negative impact on their business decision-making.

The AICD survey, which was conducted between September 29 and October 12, found more directors than not now disagree with the statement that the federal government understands business. More than 40 per cent disagreed with the statement, while almost 40 per cent agreed with it.

It found director sentiment has slipped 7.1 points since the last survey, continuing a downward trend that has been apparent since the Coalition took office.

It puts director sentiment towards the government on the same level as in early 2013 when the former Labor government was still in power.

But John Colvin, AICD chief executive, says the survey also shows that company directors sympathise with the government when it comes to the Senate, with most directors believing the balance of power in the Senate has had a negative impact on federal budget outcomes, foreign investment in Australia, major infrastructure projects, and business and consumer confidence.

"The [survey] results highlight the challenges faced by the government as it attempts to implement its policies, particularly those posed by the balance of power in the Senate," Mr Colvin said.

"An overwhelming majority of directors believe the make-up of the senate has an adverse impact on both business confidence and consumer confidence," he said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-government-losing-favour-with-business-community-20141105-11hf9r.html#ixzz3IEQcahff
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Should the Abbott Regime have some sensible policies, the senate would not be so hostile... ALL the Abbott policies ARE TURDY and those that pass with the help of double-flippo Palmer are as idiotic as the rest of them. But then business cannot fully bite the hand of those CONservatives they have elected to guide them out of relative prosperity onto the road of pot-holed greedy bastardry. Thus "business" has to blame someone else but the CONservative idiots presently in charge of economic mismanagement. So they blame the senate: welcome to Gough's country. Meanwhile, the Aussie dollar is taking a belated bath, possibly promoted by these "speculative" four big international banks led by J P Morgan who see a buck or two in pushing and shoving currency...

 

COPENHAGEN — Denmark, a tiny country on the northern fringe of Europe, is pursuing the world’s most ambitious policy against climate change. It aims to end the burning of fossil fuels in any form by 2050 — not just in electricity production, as some other countries hope to do, but in transportation as well.

Now a question is coming into focus: Can Denmark keep the lights on as it chases that lofty goal?

Lest anyone consider such a sweeping transition to be impossible in principle, the Danes beg to differ. They essentially invented the modern wind-power industry, and have pursued it more avidly than any country. They are above 40 percent renewable power on their electric grid, aiming toward 50 percent by 2020. The political consensus here to keep pushing is all but unanimous.

Their policy is similar to that of neighboring Germany, which has spent tens of billions pursuing wind and solar power, and is likely to hit 30 percent renewable power on the electric grid this year. But Denmark, at the bleeding edge of global climate policy, is in certain ways the more interesting case. The 5.6 million Danes have pushed harder than the Germans, they have gotten further — and they are reaching the point where the problems with the energy transition can no longer be papered over.

read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/science/earth/denmark-aims-for-100-percent-renewable-energy.html