So . . Which is it going to be?

Here's a 2006 report that echoed the common terrorist threats of AGW cultists in the first part of the first decade of the 21st Century:

Global warming to cause massive drought over next 100 years, say climatologists

Global warming is predicted to be the cause of a massive drought that will threaten the lives of millions and take over half the land surface on our planet in the next 100 years, according to Britain's leading climatologists.


Extreme drought, which makes modern agriculture virtually impossible, is seen by a new study from the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research as possibly affecting about one-third of the planet in the next century. These predictions may actually be an underestimation, said the climate scientists who released the results of the study.

Now, in the first part of the second decade of the 21st Century, they are singing a different tune:

Heavy Rains Linked to Humans


An increase in heavy precipitation that has afflicted many countries is at least partly a consequence of human influence on the atmosphere, climate scientists reported in a new study.
Related


In the first major paper of its kind, the researchers used elaborate computer programs that simulate the climate to analyze whether the rise in severe rainstorms, heavy snowfalls and similar events could be explained by natural variability in the atmosphere. They found that it could not, and that the increase made sense only when the computers factored in the effects of greenhouse gases released by human activities like the burning of fossil fuels.


So which is it?  Are we going to starve to death because there's no rain to grow crops or are we going to drown?  And notice, there's no indication the fearmongers even CARE that we have the power to protect ourselves.  No evidence they understand that there are technologies that could be used to secure our food supply locally and in any eventuality.  No, only the fear . . .only the "omg the world is coming to an end and it's all people's fault . . . only "we have to stop climate change". 


Here's a bulletin, morons.  The climate has changed before, and we adapted as a species.  We are fully capable of adapting again.  So stop trying to sell bogus carbon offsets and faux green goods and start working toward protecting humanity.  Stupid git.

Obama Wants More Nuclear Power. Does that Make Sense?

Clean energy advocates may have noticed that President Obama didn't just tout solar and wind in this week's State of the Union address; he also encouraged the construction of new natural gas, clean coal, and nuclear power sites. Natural gas and clean coal aren't all that clean (that's for another column), but nuclear may be a decent option. Should we be paying more attention to it?


Read more . . .

New Storage Technology: A 100 Million Ton Stone

EscoVale Consultancy Services has come up with a new technology that Archimedes, Barney Rubble or your average Druid engineer would recognize.

The company, based in England, is proposing a sort of upside-down version of pumped hydro storage using a 100 million ton rock. In classic pumped hydro storage, water from an upper reservoir is released to fall into a lower reservoir. On the way down, it flows through a turbine and creates energy.

Read more . . .

My Kingdom for a Moment of Silence

I’m currently reading a non-fiction book titled One Square Inch of Silence, and it’s about how an auditory ecologist (if you can imagine this) who chose one little inch in a national park to protect from sound pollution, why he did this, and what happens next.  This has made me hyper-alert to noise–lawn mowers, traffic, planes overhead, that music blaring from the teen’s car across the street, and the piercing of my quiet moments by the sound of the seemingly-endlessly-repeated question, “Mom?”  If the author of that book can protect his little inch in the world, perhaps I can find a little silence here at home as well.  All roads seem to lead to insulation, don’t they?  But how about a vertical garden to bring “insulation, noise control, and a little urban reminder of the world outside” (as it says on this blog, about the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, which is pictured).  It’s like a little taste of that national park (and Europe) right on my home. Wouldn’t this be something?

Read more . . .

Environmental News

Humber Gateway wind farm gets government approval

Plans for one of the UK's largest offshore wind farms off the Yorkshire coast have been given the go-ahead by the government.

Energy group E.ON has been granted planning approval for 77 wind turbines five miles (8km) off Spurn Point.

The Humber Gateway wind farm will generate enough electricity to power 150,000 homes a year.

Read more . . .

Jatropha: Green Biodiesel from African Tree

Jatropha has been championed as a major environmental opportunity for developing countries with a semi-arid climate and marginal soil. Scientist Karl Hilding Thunes of the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute has been investigating whether this small, hardy and relatively pest-free tree lives up to its billing.

Read more . . .

(I still think we need to use less fuel of every kind, design our cities to allow us to drive less and grow as much of our food locally as possible . . .but that's really not going to happen, is it?)

 2 of the Worst Republican Ideas for the Environment

The latest idea eruption from Newt Gingrich is to can the Environmental Protection Agency and replace it with something called an Environmental Solutions Agency. 

Read more . . .


New melt record for Greenland ice sheet

New York: New research shows that 2010 set new records for the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, expected to be a major contributor to projected sea level rises in coming decades.

"This past melt season was exceptional, with melting in some areas stretching up to 50 days longer than average,” said Dr. Marco Tedesco, Director of the Cryosphere Processes Laboratory at the City College of New York (CCNY – CUNY), who is leading a project studying variables that affect ice sheet melting.

Read more . . .

Earth Hour 2011: The Big Switch Off

Millions switched off their lights for an hour in 2010 but, this year, the WFF is hoping even more will do their bit for the planet

On the 26th March at 8.30 pm, douse your lights and unplug the TV for Earth Hour, 2011. It’s only one hour but you’ll be joining millions around the world and taking a stand against climate change. The WWF hopes that this year’s event will send a clear message to world leaders: climate change is real, it is happening and we have to do something about it.

Read more . . . 

Are We Already Experiencing the Effects of Overpopulation?

They didn't call Thomas Malthus the "gloomy prophet" for nothing: his visions presaged an overpopulated world wracked with the resulting problems of famine and privation. His theories later fell out of favor, but with some reports tagging the unrest in Tunisia and Egypt to a spike in global food prices, it's worth wondering whether the globe is already experiencing some of the early affects of overpopulation. An article by John Yemma in the Christian Science Monitor points this out, and raises some relevant questions. By 2050, for example, the world population will hit 9.2 billion, according to the U.S. census bureau. "Because of declining birthrates, population specialists believe that will be the peak." But "can the planet carry another 2.3 billion people, the equivalent of another India and China?" And "where will the food come from? Agricultural specialists say that Africa....may be the next breadbasket."

Read more . . .

Commercial Organic Farms Have Better Fruit and Soil, Lower Environmental Impact, Study Finds

Side-by-side comparisons of organic and conventional strawberry farms and their fruit found the organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious berries while leaving the soil healthier and more genetically diverse.

Read more . . .

We still need to adapt our farming methods even further, to prepare for future climate change.

CSIRO should establish if there was medieval warming Down-Under

THE deferral of Australia's emissions trading scheme for three years allows us time for additional scientific studies that may be critical in shaping future legislation.

A touchstone in the debate on causes of global warming is the record of global temperatures of past millennia. Most who follow this debate are familiar with the cooling from the 16th to 18th centuries known as the Little Ice Age; this is generally accepted as a global phenomenon. Most are also aware of the Medieval Warm Period covering much of the 9th to 15th centuries. This has been the source of greater debate because, while it is clear in anecdotal descriptions from Europe, such as Vikings growing crops in Greenland, it is less clear whether it is a global phenomenon. The debate has high stakes because the rate of warming and temperatures attained in Europe during the MWP are of similar order to the warming of past decades. If the MWP were to be proven to be global, then the basis of present science stating that industrial-era carbon emissions are the dominant cause of today's warming would be significantly undermined.

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'Milestone' for wave energy plans

Ten sites on the seabed off the north coast of Scotland have been leased out to power companies in an effort to generate wave and tidal energy.

In the first project of its kind in the world, areas in the Pentland Firth and around Orkney have been leased to seven companies by the Crown Estate.

The companies are to push forward plans to generate enough electricity to supply 750,000 homes by 2020.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said it was a "major milestone".

Read more . . .