Wednesday, June 6, 2012

6 June - Carbon Tax and Climate Concerns

Indonesian Community Assisted by REDD+ Proramme to Stem Deforestation (Photo credit: United Nations Photo)

Corporate Filter Failure (Photo credit: Fristle)

corporate gift basket ideas (Photo credit: Frederick Basket)

Geologic time scale Climate Change (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Dilemma of man's love of the world and yet destructive dependency upon it. Theme about Climate Change and Global Warming. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Graphic illustrating the percentages of public opinions on the likelihood of some scientists falsifying global warming research. Based on Rasmussen polling of 1,000 American adults conducted July 29-30, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia What percentage of respondents believe politicians lie like flat fish ? ( their usual state ) We are told the science is settled - which is an oxymoron in its own right. If it's exempt from review and contention it isn't science - let alone being a prediction of the future ! Woot !

English: The image shows how stabilizing emissions of carbon dioxide at present levels will not lead to the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide being stabilized. The graph on the left shows emissions of carbon dioxide being stabilized at a constant level over time. The graph on the right shows what effect emissions stabilization has on the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide over time. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Forest Transition Theory (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ciudad de Malaga al atardecer con los Montes de Africa (Photo credit: carloscASTROweb)

Tart cherries reduce arthritis pain

You CAN Make A Difference

Second hand clothes : a blessing or a burden to Africa ?

critics say the billion-dollar trade risks swamping fragile domestic textiles markets, and 12 countries in Africa are among 31 globally that have now banned their import.

The world's first climate refugees

Newtok, Alaska is literally sinking into the ocean.

When the elders of today were young boys, the snow outside lay thick on the ground and the sea was a single block of ice as far as the eye could see. The elders back then warned of a great reversal – a time when seasons would change and the coast of the Bering Sea would never see winter again.

This prediction came from observation of the land, the birds, the animals, the sea, and many other subtle clues for months and years. The elders today are equally observant and they say the change has arrived.

Alaska has 213 Native villages of which 184 are severely affected by erosion and flooding with six being classed as needing immediate help.

.....Then the topsoil is sucked into the ocean and vanishes causing the water to advance on the village at an astonishing 90’ a year. It has already taken the barge landing where the villagers used to moor their boats. It is estimated that it will be only two years or so until the first houses are claimed by the ocean.

( No mention of man making the change happen )

Corporates push voluntary carbon market to highest level since 2008

Transactions of voluntary carbon credits grew to $576m last year

Companies comprised over 92 per cent of voluntary emissions reductions (VERS), which allow businesses to invest in climate-related projects to offset the carbon impact of their organisation Prices bucked the downward trend seen in the EU emissions trading scheme, where credits have lost 60 per cent in their value in a year

projects reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) contributed most to overall market value, making up nine per cent of total market share.

Japan: 25 per cent emissions cuts may be impossible after nuclear shutdown

Government failing to grasp electricity storage potential

Global Warming: Is it All Caused by Natural Cycles?

opit 3 hours ago

Despite the rudeness with which the idea was put, I agree that representations by the UN department the IPCC do not represent the scientific consensus of a disinterested party. For starters, the UN is to administer global tax revenues on energy ! I happened across http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/1811 which should help expose practices of post normal science.

You cite the idea of co2 rise being manmade -a popular allegation - uncritically. I'm not so easy. I've posted so much analysis it's becoming difficult to track, but I think it was Burt Rutan who was hardest on that idea.

But looking at the graph and thinking of the briefness of a decadal timeline against a backdrop of ragged variation spanning eons makes it hardest for me to take the idea of projecting the future with any seriousness whatsoever.

We have problems of chemical pollution from pesticides, garbage, energy crunch, resource depletion, overpopulation, agrarian and water warfare ignored over the threat of what is,in essence,extremely shoddy prognostication which is by its nature totally unprovable. Yet such is promoted as background for the use of carbon credits - themselves perverting policy and setting up pollution trading credits over a so called accepted scientific fact.

Uh huh. We can dispense with the established activities of scientific method and go straight into hysteria at that rate.

Arguments about Climate Change Take Away from the Seriousness

Definition of "The Tipping Point" From Wikipedia:
Tipping points are "the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable." Gladwell defines a tipping point as a sociological term, "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point."
This "tipping point" in our climate is a point that can cause what's called "abrupt climate change".

Climate Change and Global Warming - What They Mean for Us

Climate change (especially that attributable to human activity) is contributing to global warming, and our awareness of this phenomenon is the key to understanding what is happening to our environment.

Climate changes have been occurring ever since the Earth came into existence, sometimes dramatically such as after a meteor impact, at other times more subtly such as that dictated by the sun’s energy output which follows an eleven year cycle. Volcanic eruptions are also responsible. These eruptions, somewhat surprisingly and contrary to logical expectation, cause a cooling effect which lasts only a few years.
The important thing is that climate change also occurs, and increasingly so, because of human intervention. A large percentage of the world’s scientists believe that human activity in the 10,000 years of its existence is responsible for an unexpectedly large increase in the Earth’s surface temperatures. This is the effect known as global warming.
There is consensus that global warming is taking place. There are differences of opinion on why this is happening and how much is because of human activity. Heavyweights like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) believe the single most important factor is GHG emissions created by man. The other major reason is deforestation - again man's doing.
( Desmedoma Despair bemoans ozone as responsible for killing trees - a greenhouse gas BTW definitely linked to combustion. Deforestation also affects rainfall patterns and is linked to desertification )

Warming Arctic tundra producing pop-up forests – ‘Change is far greater than we expected’

Even as insect infestations and other factors accompanying warming have led to the “browning” of some stretches of boreal forest between temperate regions and the Arctic tundra, the tundra appears to be greening in a big way, various studies have shown. The newest such work, focused on scrubby windswept regions along Russia’s northwest Arctic coast, has found a particularly noteworthy shift is under way.
In this part of the Arctic, which could be a bellwether for changes to come elsewhere with greenhouse-driven warming, what might be called pop-up forests are forming. Low tundra shrubs, many of which are willow and alder species, have rapidly grown into small trees over the last 50 years, according to the study, led by scientists from Oxford University and the Arctic Center of the University of Lapland. The researchers foresee a substantial additional local warming influence from this change in landscapes, with the darker foliage absorbing sunlight that would otherwise be reflected back to space. But the fast-motion shift to forests will likely absorb carbon dioxide, as well.
A particularly interesting aspect of this work, to my eye, is how it reveals the potential for fast-motion responses of ecosystems to environmental change in the far north. In work I covered in 2007, botanists found that Arctic plant species were extremely responsive to fairly rapid climate shifts in the past.

Oklahoma not Texas, had hottest U.S. summer ever recorded in 2011 – ‘Warmer than all those summers that they experienced during the Dust Bowl’

Obama budget defeated 99-0 in Senate - Washington Times

Hefty tab: Obesity will cost U.S. extra $550 billion by 2030

Hu2gh

As a physician, (MD), who has long looked at the obesity problem, let me make a couple of observations. First, people who eat the number of calories they need of most foods have no obesity problem. The worst single dietary problem is the over-use of grain-based food, especially wheat sources like bread, pasta, desserts, bagels and the like. Most people will find weight magically drop with the elimination of wheat products from their daily diet.