Category: Climate Change

Big Climate Court Case Coming Up In Australia

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Peter Ridd is suing James Cook University for daring to challenge “settled science” about the Great Barrier Reef. Court case is coming up later in March.

Just letting you know that my court case is scheduled for 26-28th March in Brisbane. The main arguments of both sides have been submitted to the court and the James Cook University arguments will certainly make interesting reading when they become public during the hearing. My legal people have been excellent and I am confident that if this can be won, then they will do it.

On a philosophical note, in my opinion JCU will lose the ethical argument even if they manage to win on some narrow legal definition. If they win, it will mean that a judge has decided that a university has set up legally binding contracts that give them the power to effectively take away the right to intellectual freedom of an academic and silence him/her. That would be something of a pyrrhic victory. The university hierarchy may feel vindicated but the general public, especially those in North Queensland who are most affected by the questionable Great Barrier Reef science, will take a different view.

But without getting over-confident, I reckon the chances of us winning are considerably above average, so we will see.

Arctic region was warmer than today during the 1930s.

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It has been warmer in the Arctic.

Air temperature in 1899–1914 during three expeditions was 1.8–4.6 °C lower than the modern period in winter (Oct–Apr). However, during the 1930/31 expedition it was 4.6 °C warmer than the years 1981–2010. Our results relate to what has been called the ‘1930s warming’, referred to by various authors in the literature as the ETCW or the ETCAW.

Thanks to NoTricksZone

And I look forward to this:

This article is one of the first in the literature to present an analysis of biometeorological conditions in the Arctic in historical periods. The Department of Meteorology and Climatology of Nicolaus Copernicus University has a sizeable database of early instrumental data for the Arctic region, the Historical Arctic Database (HARD 2.0, http://www.hardv2.prac.umk.pl/), and work on climate reconstructions of the region is ongoing. This line of application of the data, i.e. the historical bioclimatology of the Arctic, will continue to be developed in the near future.

Scientists Detect ‘Shocking’ Drop in Male Fertility

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I’m amazed the word climate change isn’t in this article.

The homes we live in and the food we eat might contain chemicals that reduce male fertility – and that goes for both men and their dogs, new research suggests.

Recently, experts have grown ever more worried by what appears to be a ‘shocking‘ drop in human male fertility.

According to the team behind the latest research, some studies show that in the past 80 years alone, there has been a 50 percent global reduction in sperm quality, and no one can figure out why this is happening.

Then, we looked at dogs – and this could be an important clue. In 2016, a team at the University of Nottingham found that sperm quality had also taken a plummet in domestic dogs over the course of several decades.

Unlike the research on humans, this time the scientists could trace back the sperm quality decrease to dangerous chemicals in the dogs’ environment and food.

The results had the team curious: did this mean there was something in the shared environment of dogs and people that was to blame?

Their new research certainly suggests this might be the case. Specifically, the team identified two human-made chemicals, commonly found in homes and diets, that had the same adverse effects on both human sperm and dog sperm.

“This new study supports our theory that the domestic dog is indeed a ‘sentinel’ or mirror for human male reproductive decline,” says Richard Lea, a reproductive biologist at the University of Nottingham.

Using sperm samples from 11 men and 9 dogs in the same region, the researchers tested the effects of two human-made chemicals. One was the common plasticiser DEHP, which is commonly found in carpets, flooring, clothes and toys, and which can leach into our food and drink.

The other is polychlorinated biphenyl 153 (PB153), which belongs to a group of industrial chemicals found to be persistent organic pollutants in the 1960s and 70s.

Using the sperm samples and these two chemicals at concentration levels that are commonly found in our current environments, the researchers carried out identical experiments for the men and the dogs. In both subjects and with both chemicals, the effect was reduced sperm motility and increased fragmentation of DNA.

Read the rest here

The End of Recycling?

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Nobody wants the junk anymore.

After decades of earnest public-information campaigns, Americans are finally recycling. Airports, malls, schools, and office buildings across the country have bins for plastic bottles and aluminum cans and newspapers. In some cities, you can be fined if inspectors discover that you haven’t recycled appropriately.But now much of that carefully sorted recycling is ending up in the trash.

For decades, we were sending the bulk of our recycling to China—tons and tons of it, sent over on ships to be made into goods such as shoes and bags and new plastic products. But last year, the country restricted imports of certain recyclables, including mixed paper—magazines, office paper, junk mail—and most plastics. Waste-management companies across the country are telling towns, cities, and counties that there is no longer a market for their recycling. These municipalities have two choices: pay much higher rates to get rid of recycling, or throw it all away.

Most are choosing the latter. “We are doing our best to be environmentally responsible, but we can’t afford it,” said Judie Milner, the city manager of Franklin, New Hampshire. Since 2010, Franklin has offered curbside recycling and encouraged residents to put paper, metal, and plastic in their green bins. When the program launched, Franklin could break even on recycling by selling it for $6 a ton. Now, Milner told me, the transfer station is charging the town $125 a ton to recycle, or $68 a ton to incinerate. One-fifth of Franklin’s residents live below the poverty line, and the city government didn’t want to ask them to pay more to recycle, so all those carefully sorted bottles and cans are being burned. Milner hates knowing that Franklin is releasing toxins into the environment, but there’s not much she can do. “Plastic is just not one of the things we have a market for,” she said.

Read the rest here

Cold Kills: Rhode Island

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Burning wood for power ‘breaches EU treaty’

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It ain’t easy being green.

Campaigners are seeking to stop the EU counting wood as a renewable energy source, in a lawsuit which has been filed at the Court of Justice.

Plaintiffs from six European countries and the US argue that burning biomass for heat and power is a false solution to climate change. The EU Renewable Energy Directive promotes logging of ancient forests, according to the brief, contravening the bloc’s higher principles and individuals’ rights.

The suit challenges a major plank of efforts to generate 32 percent of EU energy from renewable sources by 2030. Nearly two thirds of EU renewables come from various forms of bioenergy, with more projects in planning.

Carbon sinks

“We are burning up our forest carbon sink and injecting it into the atmosphere,” said Mary Booth, lead science advisor to the case and president of the US-based Partnership for Policy Integrity.

“There is forest biomass being shipped thousands of miles to meet biomass demand in the EU. We think that needs to stop.”

At the point where it is burned, wood emits more carbon dioxide than coal. However, the EU treats wood burning as carbon neutral, on the basis trees will grow back, absorbing carbon dioxide from the air.

A spokesperson for the European Commission climate change division would not comment on the legal merits of the case.

The commission’s policy framework aimed to guarantee “sustainable development of bioenergy, while at the same time enhancing the role of land and forests as carbon sinks,” she said.

Renewables

That was endorsed by member states and the European Parliament when they adopted the directive last year.

Carbon accounting of forest management has long been fraught with controversy, as scientists like Booth warn it does not reflect the true climate impact. Instead of being harvested, she said in a press call, trees should be allowed to mature and store carbon.

The plaintiffs will also raise concerns about damage to biodiversity, cultural heritage and human health in their regions. These range from the deterioration of peat bogs in Ireland to threats to Estonia’s pagan religious traditions.

From a legal perspective, counsel Peter Lockley explained, the case needed to demonstrate the renewables directive clashes with higher law –  enshrined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – in a way that directly concerned individuals.

Atmospheric Rivers Could Flood California

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Atmospheric rivers could flood California again.

Storms capable of causing a $1 trillion flood in California have hit multiple times in the past, so it is only a matter of time before one occurs again. The most recent one occurred back in the winter of 1861 – 1862. A 45-day period of torrential rains from multiple storms carrying a strong “atmospheric river” (AR) of tropical moisture impacted the state, turning California’s Central Valley into a lake 300 miles long and over 20 miles wide. The resulting floods put downtown Sacramento under 10+ feet of water, forcing movement of the state capital to San Francisco.

Sediment research has found that six storms even more severe than the 1861 – 1862 storm hit California in the years 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605 AD.

If a storm with an equivalent amount of precipitation were to hit California now, it might do $900 billion (2019 dollars) in damage, according to a 2011 study by the USGS called the “ARkStorm Scenario” (the “AR” stands for Atmospheric River, and the “k” stands for the number one thousand, since the storm could be expected to bring 1-in-1000-year rains to some locations). The storm they modeled could flood up to 25% of all buildings in the state, breach approximately 50 levees, and force the evacuation of 1.5 million people.

Sacrameno 1862

Read it all here

Yes they try and claim “Climate Change” is going to make things worse. But to anyone with a brain the historic floods make it clear these atmospheric rivers are normal and will occur again.