It’s the end of the world, and kittens will probably die too. Here’s another round of Global Panic.
Horror part I: you will get stuck at airport-world
Earlier this week, nearly 50 flights out of Phoenix were cancelled. At 120 degrees, the temperature forecast exceeded the airline’s 118 degrees maximum operating temperature.
It’s difficult not to connect the delays to climate change….
It’s difficult not to blame climate change, after a generation of brainwashing.
So Phoenix got to 48.9C which made it nearly as hot as Marble Bar, Australia, last year (when it was 49C). After 80 years of deadly global warming both towns were nearly as hot as Marble Bar was in 1922.
As the world continues to warm, such plane delays will become more common, says Camilo Mora, an associate geography professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. And that’s just the beginning.
And imagine what associate professors of geology might forecast on flight patterns circa 2080? You’ll never know if you read Fortune, where anyone can forecast climate bad-news, but prize-winning atmospheric scientists remain invisible if they stick to things they know, like the failure rate of climate models.
Horror part II: You will spend all summer locked indoors and You Might Die
According to a study co-authored by Mora, if carbon emissions aren’t reduced, by 2100 New York City will experience about 50 days per year of heat and humidity conditions that has resulted in death (up from about two days now).
Meanwhile, in cities such as Orlando and Houston, this threshold will be crossed for the entire summer, making it unsafe to go outside for extended periods of time.
“We’ll become prisoners of our houses,” says Mora.
Mora is doing what he was paid to do. Apparently his role is to take predictions from broken climate models, extrapolate that failure for decades, and turn that bad news into a press release. What almost no one is paid to do is check the assumptions on failing GCM’s or find natural causes of climate change. Thus proving that evolution works in science funding, grants support research that supports more grants.
Horror part III: Power failures will kill you
Unlike the other predictions, this one may actually happen, but the deadly force is renewable subsidies:
Power outages, like the one that swept through Northeast and the Midwest in 2003 — leaving 50 million people without electricity—will no longer be an inconvenience, but a national emergency.
Horror Part IV: Roads and train tracks will melt and buckle under the heat.
Like chocolate, asphalt can grow mushy under the blazing sun. As the temperatures becomes more extreme in the summers, highways will “start to melt,” says Mora.
Do people in the US not know that asphalt and bitumen go soft in the high 40s? Did we need a study to see that?
Fortune subscribers like to hear that other people are more stupid than they are?
The Global Smugness is strong with Laura Entis and Assoc Prof Mona:
Unfortunately, as a species, “we suffer from short-term memory,” he says. When, earlier this week, a heat wave hit the Southwestern states, climate change was in the news. But “next week, when the heat wave is gone, everyone will be talking about something else.”
Instead of putting your head in the sand, Mora urges action, even if it’s minor: “consume less,” he says. Try to drive less, turn down your thermostat, or reduce your meat intake.
Why would people pay to be told they have memory loss, are short term, probably mentally deficient, selfish sods with their heads in the sand? Surely this patronizing preachy dictat is not written to convince the unwashed masses. So who wants to buy this — could it be the patsies who think that eating Tofu, catching a bus, and staying cold at home will help to improve the weather for their children’s children? Could be. People who hold those improbable notions might enjoy hearing how stupid everyone else is. This is self-congratulation as form of subscription driver.
I predict that Fortune subscriptions will be trending lower…
It is amazing (sad may be a better word) the things that people will say and do to push their agenda.
Related to the Arizona heat wave, I found some of the picture in this quite rediculous. Attributing the garbage can melting to the heat wave was the most preposturous. Nobody seem to pay attention to details anymore.
Additionally, nobody seems to remember the edict to produce biodegradable plastics and rubber that pretty much dissolve after a few years, but that garbage can ain’t one of them 😉
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-25/epic-pictures-arizonas-heatwave-everything-literally-melting
141
Strange pictures. It was 50C one day recently when I was in Dubai…nothing seemed to melt, apart from me. Aircraft were still operating into and out of the airport and the roads were as crazily busy as usual.
201
Fifty degrees Celsius, is not extreme, and neither is a hundred and twenty two degrees, Fahrenheit. The British were operating aircraft out of Aden, in the Yemen, in temperatures somewhat higher than that.
This story is really about the full-up loaded operating weight of the aircraft, and the length of the runways at Phoenix Airport. The density of the air, which is proportional to temperature, only becomes an issue when the aircraft is operating at the margin.
American Airlines have a policy of flying their planes fully loaded to capacity, whenever possible, depending upon the length of the runway in use.
It will be cheaper for them to hold a flight on the ground, until the heat of the day subsides, than off-load some freight. They can always offer passengers free coffee, in an air-conditioned transit lounge.
110
Meanwhile, upper mid-west USA is suffering from “unseasonably” cold weather.
Would someone please tell Al Gorable to make it better?
21
Why has only some of the plastic fence melted? Did someone just go there with a blowtorch instead?
50
Regarding things melting… let’s remember that something with a dark surface sitting out in the Arizona sun can get hotter than air temperature.
About the gloves on the steering wheel — I got in my car to go home after it had been sitting in the parking lot with the afternoon sun hitting the steering wheel many a day and I had to be careful how I gripped the wheel because I would have been burned. So yes, it can get to the point of minor burns or worse. After I had the A/C going a few minutes it cooled off. But temperatures too hot to handle inside a car are not a joking matter.
I don’t believe it has anything to do with climate change but the heat is certainly real and at those temperatures it’s possibly dangerous.
40
Putting a reflective windshield sunshade cover on makes an amazing difference to a parked car’s interior temperature as does leaving the windows down a small amount like 5mm.
30
Knew a guy that converted an old (Chevy Corvair?) to a solar slow-roasting oven. He got a pretty consistent temp of between 225F and 240F.
The family hates the summer here, because I refuse to make baked goods until at least Labor Day. I’ve been wondering if maybe an old mini-van would get hot enough (you need 350F for most things).
00
About the steering wheel – you learn to drive for the first few minutes with the heel of your hands. (Although I don’t think that was possible before power steering, I don’t know when you lived in these parts.)
00
Actually I used my fingers on the inside of the wheel where the two center supports joined with the wheel. And it does take power steering. Without it the thing is like a barge and takes all you have to make a turn. I know because I once did some experimenting by turning off the engine after I was moving. If you don’t remove the key the steering lock doesn’t engage and putting it in neutral will give you all the “joyride” you can stand. It fought back against even the small movements needed to keep it straight down the road.
Rack and pinion fast ratio steering would never be possible without power assist.
00
In Perth we grow up knowing that dashboards, steering wheels and metal buckles can burn. It’s just summer.
50
Lateline on ABC TV tonight is going to interview climate scientists concerned about the future for their families and themselves. I can’t wait! Will they be heading into the hills with their families with cans of baked beans and bottled water to await the great climate catastrophe? The Monty Python comedy team didn’t end years ago, they simply became climate scientists. Lol
20
@JoNova – same in Yuma, AZ. For the record a small stretched business jet quite common for small markets gets grounded occasionally in Arizona when it gets over 115. At 118 it can’t generate enough lift to get off the ground in a safe roll distance. Everything else in that news story is fake news. There were no records set and those of us who live in Southern Arizona know perfectly well how to deal with the heat. It is our version of a cold winter, except we get to wear minimum clothing outdoors and inside. My 70-year-old wife is currently working in our yard from 6am to around 11 each day. You just drink a lot of water and protect yourself from the sun with a hat and long sleeves.
The advantage of living in Yuma, right next to the Colorado River is that it is 2 1/2 hours on the way to San Diego to pine trees at 6,000 feet, cooler temps, and camping. It’s three hours to San Diego beaches where 75 degrees F is a hot day. The Pacific is always cool to cold.
Ironically, I had lunch with a group of Australian students on their way to tour the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and Yosemite. I found myself seated among them at a fast food restaurant just off the freeway. They were very polite and attentive, asking for details about the parks they were headed toward. The young man across from me had never seen snow and was hoping he might actually see some. They were using excavators and dump trucks to get snow off the main road through Yosemite last week. I told him he might actually get to throw snowballs, scheduling permitting. Hope our kids visiting your country are as polite and respectful.
00
PS – our city-provided trash containers are formulated for our worst temperatures. Any pictures of melting trash cans were faked. One of our soft plastic containers has been in use for 27 years, getting squeezed once a week so the automatic dumping mechanism can maintain a grip.
00
Same here Jo. I think I said once before that hotter than usual is the usual around Southern California. People have short memories and maybe worse, they don’t tell their children about past hot weather so every new hot day is suddenly the first time anyone has ever seen it that hot.
10
PS:
My watermellon red Crepe Myrtle tree loves the few hot days we had a week ago and last weekend and it’s going to be gorgeous this year. So at least something loves the heat. 🙂
00
Pre car air conditioning, when you could get thin woven cane type cushions to make plastic seats less prone to burning from solar heat.
A bloke requisitioned one and got knocked back. He parked the car in the sun with all windows rolled up and with a thermometer installed. The reading of 153 F got him the cushion.
10
Overly hot steering wheels (and seats) don’t just happen in the USAn south or southwest – on a hot sunny day even the northern summers, generally running 10-20 degrees F cooler, will cause the steering wheels and seats to heat up to the point of burning skin – I know this from painful experience.
I also recall driving on the freeways of coastal South Carolina and learning, by observation (thankfully) that thin, old and balding tires tend to blow on hot asphalt a bit before said asphalt goes mucky and soft.
And like others have stated, length of runway, weight of airplane, etc., have as much to do with being grounded on a hot day – or more to do with – as the temps. An unusually fair piece on the whole thing http://nypost.com/2017/06/21/why-some-airplanes-wont-fly-in-extreme-heat/ that I haven’t seen promulgated across the (social) media at all – unlike the OMG!!! articles.
00
The New York Post writer’s premise is correct but his explanation would never get past my flight instructor. It’s not the amount of air under the wing. The wing doesn’t care. It’s the difference in pressure between the air passing over the top and bottom surfaces of the wing that generates lift. If you’re at low altitude or high, hot or cold, it makes no differences as long as there is a net pressure against the bottom surface that when multiplied by the surface area of the wing is equal to the weight of the aircraft, then you’re flying. Otherwise not. If you want to climb then make that greater than instead of equal.
10
Kind of close, though. Less dense air = less mass differential = less pressure differential. I give him a pass on this one, for a popular article.
00
Forty years ago, when I was working in Nassau (Bahamas) there was an airline called International Air Bahama (actually a subsidiary of Icelandic Airways) that ran daily flights between Nassau and Luxembourg. They operated “Stretched” DC8 aircraft and sold their seats very cheaply (about $99 from memory – that would be around $400 in today’s money, I suppose). They always ran fully loaded and passengers were each allowed 60lb of baggage. Their flights out of Nassau always took off after 9pm because they had to wait for the air to cool down from the heat of the day in order to be able to get the aeroplane off the ground. My (late) wife and I travelled this way on our honeymoon in early 1978.
30
Putting out superphosphate at our place, a plane taking 25 hundredweight at 5 am cut back to 18 hundredweight by 9 am.
30
In a somewhat related article, it turns out green energy is too expensive to recycle plastics:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/sa-recycling-business-power-bills-rise-causing-closure/8654638
It’s a shame most Greens supporters don’t get irony.
You want renewable energy or recycling? Pick one…
80
SA Environment Minister has some priceless quotes at the end of the article like:
Because burning fossil fuels shipping low value plastic waste across a stretch of the country makes perfect sense… Do they even think before opening their mouths? That’s a real question…
So we would use fuel that could have been made into plastics to ship waste plastic to be recycled elsewhere into low value recycled plastic products. Yeah, maths checks out!
60
Yes, like all other industries except submarines, bye bye South Australia. But the nearest “other” is a long way from Adelaide.
10
South Australia isn’t a cheaper or better place to make submarines. It’s just where the government wanted to buy some votes.
30
To be fair Bulldust, they can think. They thought up the +50% renewable penetration in South Australia and the associated grid instability, statewide blackouts and soaring electricity prices leading to thousands of families being disconnected from the grid and freezing or frying in the dark, as well as crippling major industry and the economic future of the society. Their major motive is of course the associated boost to Union super funds over-invested in renewables, and the ‘sustainable’ funding of the Labor political machine.
But they cannot think and open their mouths at the same time.
10
Come to think of it. SA has for years levied a fee on containers which was added to the cost of the drink/whatever. How much did that system cost, and how was the money raised there spent?
00
Was it “says Camilo Mora, an associate geography professor at the University of Hawaii ” or “what associate professors of geology might forecast “. I’ve studied geology, I couldn’t imagine a professor of geology being so stupid. Professors of geography on the other hand…..
Also note that associate professor in Australia is a senior academic position. But professor in America usually means only a lecturer. So an associate professor in geography may only be an assistant teacher in geography – a pretty low, junior position in academia, usually held by young post-grad students trying to earn some part-time income.
70
yes, exactly my point. I would think Geology profs were “just as qualified” as geography ones to comment on flight forecasts, but have a longer better perspective. I may not have conveyed that…
We all know the media won’t be asking Geology profs.
61
It has started already. A French channel tv5monde.com reports that landslides in China are caused by a climate change. Before the climate change monsoons have always been dry.
261
I was living in Tucson between 1988-91 and we had a few scorchers. I remember Phoenix having a 122F (50C) day at the time. I also remember the road being sticky to drive on and opening my car door at one point and being able to sink my finger into the asphalt a knuckle or two… it was that soft). I did not hear of kittens dying, but I am sure it happened /nod … which would have been good for the local fauna of course.
20
Bulldust,
Your memory serves you well.
From CNBC. 20 june Robert Ferris.
…The highest temperature Phoenix has ever experienced is 122 degrees, recorded on June 26, 1990, according to David Harwell, a spokesman for the Phoenix city government’s aviation department. At the time, many airlines did not even have performance data for flights at that temperature, but have mostly updated their information for flights in the 122-plus range…
Arizona has 11 of the top 20 hottest cities in the nation and Phoenix Arizona has a Summer mean of 34c or 93.1F.
From CurrentResults website by Liz Osborn…Phoenix Arizona excels at extreme hot weather. It consistently ranks number one for the most days a year when temperatures rise above 99 °F…80 days above each year.
Arizona’s sole nuclear power plant, the three-unit Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, is the largest nuclear power plant in the country. It provides about one-fourth of Arizona’s total electricity generation.
Arizona also has the Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams but note that ArizonaExperience Website notes that its electricity generation is.. from coal, natural gas, and nuclear generation…
Imagine if such a State and City relied on Solar and Wind to get it thru such a torrid, and common, Summer Heat.
11
I also remember one of the local radio stations having an “ice break” competition. The idea was the guess the time and day on which the temperature first hit 100F for the year.
That said, you can drive an hour or so to the northern suburbs of Tucson and up Mt Lemmon to ski in winter. One lift only IIRC but, yes you can ski within an hour’s drive of saguaro cacti. Crazy stuff.
10
If you live in Phoenix, much better to go up to Snowbowl in Flagstaff. Bit further, but much more likely to have enough snow most winters – plus better facilities.
(Yes, I’m being selfish here – Mt. Lemmon is my getaway, not for those Valley people…)
00
Death Valley is famous as the hottest place on earth and driest place in North America. The world record highest air temperature of 134°F (57°C) was recorded at Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913. No new records since. It’s worse than we thought!!
192
Well obviously the missing heat is not hiding at the bottom of Death Valley.
71
Jim,
I remember 10 July 1913 only too well.
They were burning coal like it was going out of fashion that day!
50
Cold kills 17 times as many as heat. So let’s keep the CO2 flowing! (If, that is, it actually causes temperature to rise.)
192
Big, BIG IF!
61
An enormously large majority of people die where it is neither hot nor cold.
Can I infer from this that people would live longer by living in extreme cold or extreme heat?
70
Not that I am an expert, but I thought that the predictions were greater warming in the poles and at night, which means that day times highs in places already warm are not changed nearly as much.
How hot do these people think it is going to get?
162
This is obviously in the category of “more funding needed”. It’d be a shame if this paper wasn’t presented at several widely-scattered international venues so the authors could be properly feted by the climate establishment. /sarc
110
My parents moved to Phoenix in early July 1952. It is my recollection that the temperature was 118 deg F on the day that we arrived. The major difference between then and now was that it used to cool down nicely at night and ‘swamp’ coolers were effective. Now, with all the swimming pools, golf courses, and misters at bus stops, gas stations, and backyard patios, the humidity conspires to keep the night time temperatures higher than previously.
121
A bit off topic, but a thought just occurred to me:
The apartment building fire in London was said to have started because a refrigerator caught alight. Today’s fridges often have flammable gases as the refrigerant. The old, very effective but now banned R12, Freon had an additional benefit of being non flammable. Would the tower fire have happened at all if there was no Montreal treaty banning R12 as a common refrigerant?
202
With modern politically correct refrigerants the compressors have to work much harder and are more likely to overheat.
31
This ‘flammable refrigerant’ idea has already been suggested. But the evidence to date is that it was an electrical fire. Also it was suggested that the flammable cladding was installed to insulate against the increased heat from climate change. But again it appears that it was installed for heat insulation in winter and to improve the appearance of the building exterior. On that account it was a flaming success.
41
There is a report that the fire brigade were already in attendance, putting out the fire caused by the fridge… Then they noticed the fire outside.
Yet another of the unintended (not necessarily unforeseeable) consequences of the “Green” agenda.
11
Once upon a time I was an aircraft engineer and flight engineer, very high pressure bottles of cfc with a metal disc that was explosively broken and discharged with a puff to blow out engine fires.
We had hand extinguishes in the cock pit they were safe poof and the fire is out.
What the hell do they use now or are aircraft exempt.
00
The only planes not allowed to fly in or out of Phoenix were made by the Canadian company Bombardier. The issue was that they were not certified for the temperature, but all other airlines and types of aircraft were flying. As a Canadian company typically they would not spend the money to get certification for higher temperatures. This has NOTHING to do with “climate change”
131
It don’t take much to stretch the envelope on a hot day at a high altitude… few extra pounds of fuel or one more passenger at the last moment.
40
See my explanation of density altitude below.
30
Sometime in the mid-80’s the Phoenix airport had shut down the last week in June due to temps 120 and over. We visited from California during the 4th of July week (our habit from about ’84 to ’92) high temps were 113 (afternoon thunderstorm) to 118 and the airport was running. Note part of the issue is the length of the Phoenix runways and the about 1000ft (about 304m) altitude.
These temps are uncomfortable for humans and many other creatures (although the saguaros seem to like it) . I should know as we’ve been living in Tucson for the last 23 years, where temps were running north of 110F (about 43C) a good part of last week, high of 116 – one deg F short of all time record. Note that June records of 110 in Tucson go back to at least 1896.
50
Unless engine cooling at the higher temperature is the problem, which I doubt, then the limitation is what pilots call density altitude. You may be at Phoenix with an actual altitude of 1,000 feet but because of heat and possibly barometer reading, actual air density is much less that it would be at that altitude on a cooler day. You are at a higher density altitude than the runway’s actual altitude.
Everything that flies, flies be density altitude, not real altitude. So everything is affected by higher density altitude. Engine performance is reduced. Lift generated by the wings is reduced. Even the effectiveness of the control surfaces is reduced. So in the heat you may have those 10 and 11 thousand foot runways at Sky Harbor, essentially 2 miles but because of reduced performance you won’t achieve enough airspeed to fly before you run out of runway.
That’s a good time to stay home.
70
Definitely not engine temperature issues, although keeping passengers cool might be an issue.
Agree on density altitude. My area of expertise is missiles (canards, tails, body,roll/not roll, etc) but since its aerodynamics and lift/authority (effectiveness of control surfaces) and runways don’t matter – but initial height from the launch point has a similar effect (and we often cheated by using multistage propulsion).
00
Climate Change caused me to deny science.
But I do worry about the kittens.
101
Climate change coupled to daylight saving, what a combination.
30
Meanwhile on the Californian coast – observations by Chiefio
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2017/06/26/is-the-average-variation-of-clouds-co2/#comments
50
To which I added —
From http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1885/4613
There are many more links to see by searching with ‘ forest terpenes VOC in rain clouds’.
Also of note is that bacteria, algae, fungi, etc, affect precipitation and ice formation within clouds (something the climate models fail to accurately assess due to a lack of knowledge).
From http://discovermagazine.com/2012/apr/07-does-rain-come-from-life-in-the-clouds
There are many more such links by searching with — bacteria rain clouds .
30
It’s difficult not to blame climate change…for 1896:
http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/deadly-mostly-forgotten-heat-wave-1896/
And you get both hemispheres bundled (but no steak knives)!
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/162826267
The death rate for the Oz heat in 1896 remains our second highest from a natural disaster (just behind 1939 heatwave, but none of this is counting fire deaths from 1939). Death rate for 1896 in US includes 1500 for New York alone. Interestingly, the 1953 NY heatwave was even longer, ten days officially.
The reason it’s difficult not to blame climate change (a meaningless term, but we have meaningless media, so what-the-hell) is that we have been conditioned not to question, not to check. That old memory hole gets wider and wider. We have an education system but it’s more system than education. You don’t have to check anything because the system did it for you.
Are we at war with Eurasia or Eastasia this morning? Or maybe we are Eastasia? No, I’m sure we’re Oceania…
122
Hey, red-thumbers…
Don’t you just hate it when people check? You have a perfectly good climate “narrative” for the day, fresh from the central news cooker and ready to do the rounds of the MSM, complete with “scientists say” and “findings indicate”…
Then some party-pooper has to go and check.
41
‘Anthropological Global Warming”
went through the looking glass
and came out as
“Climate Change.” Say, you
clever-little-humpty-dumpty-
climatologist,you, why, when you use
a word,it means just what you choose
it to mean , no more and certainly
no less.
31
Another Charles Dodgson groupie? Who would have guessed that a hundred and forty years on, his words would still make sense, when it came to Clim Sci
30
“we suffer from short-term memory,” he says.
Short-term memory is the brain’s post-it note, I found this yarn laying about somewhere.
‘It can be thought of as the ability to remember and process information at the same time. It holds a small amount of information (typically around 7 items or even less) in mind in an active, readily-available state for a short period of time (typically from 10 to 15 seconds, or sometimes up to a minute).
‘However, this information will quickly disappear forever unless we make a conscious effort to retain it, and short-term memory is a necessary step toward the next stage of retention, long-term memory. The transfer of information to long-term memory for more permanent storage can be facilitated or improved by mental repetition of the information or, even more effectively, by giving it a meaning and associating it with other previously acquired knowledge. Motivation is also a consideration, in that information relating to a subject of strong interest to a person, is more likely to be retained in long-term memory.’
50
I distinctly remember as a 10 or 11 year old having to mind where I put the kick stand down when parking my bike. On a scorching piece of asphalt it was likely to sink in, toppling my bike. This was back in the 60’s. Nothing new to see here, move along.
70
I had a similar experience. I believe polymer additives were developed in the early 1970’s to give asphalt a higher softening temperature.
41
That would explain why Australian roads don’t melt in the heat.
30
Modern asphalt does not melt in the Arizona summer. I travel on asphalt roads every day without any problems. Interstate 8 across southwest Arizona is made entirely of asphalt and I don’t remember seeing 18 wheelers making ruts. When I was living here in the 70’s it was the same story, although some older roads suffered from slight depressions due to 18 wheelers. I was traveling through Lake Havasu City during 1991 within a day of when the all-time record for Arizona was set of 123 degrees F. Wasn’t concerned about sinking in the asphalt that day, either. Any story claiming different is fraudulent. I wouldn’t go pushing my finger against asphalt in the afternoon when it is 118. You could get serious burns.
00
I have read this story before.
20
a grim tale; “climate scientists” don’t know why, but would have the answer, if only there was more funding & Trump wasn’t in the White House cutting budgets:
26 Jun: NYT: Justin Gillis: Carbon in Atmosphere Is Rising, Even as Emissions Stabilize
(Christopher Buckley contributed reporting from Beijing)
PHOTO CAPTION: The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station, in Tasmania. The station, along with its counterparts across the world, has been flashing a warning: The excess carbon dioxide scorching the planet rose at the highest rate on record in 2015 and 2016.
Credit: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
CAPE GRIM, Tasmania — On the best days, the wind howling across this rugged promontory has not touched land for thousands of miles, and the arriving air seems as if it should be the cleanest in the world.
But on a cliff above the sea, inside a low-slung government building, a bank of sophisticated machines sniffs that air day and night, revealing telltale indicators of the way human activity is altering the planet on a major scale…
Scientists are concerned about the cause of the rapid rises because, in one of the most hopeful signs since the global climate crisis became widely understood in the 1980s, the amount of carbon dioxide that people are pumping into the air SEEMS to have stabilized in recent years, at least judging from the data that countries compile on their own emissions…
“To me, it’s a warning,” said Josep G. Canadell, an Australian climate scientist who runs the Global Carbon Project, a collaboration among several countries to monitor emissions trends…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/climate/carbon-in-atmosphere-is-rising-even-as-emissions-stabilize.html
10
The more i read stuff like this, the funnier it actually gets.
Surely most people think this is the stuff of a comedy routine by now? ( surely people cant be that dumb, could they? )
40
LoL! There is a “pot, kettle, black” moment to be cher to be cher. 🙂
20
A good journalist needs to cultivate cognitive dissonance.
20
with King Coal on the rise in US, China & India, as per AP and posted on jo’s “Unthreaded” thread, there’s a bidding war going on:
27 Jun: Australian: Rio Tinto again backs revised Yancoal bid
by Prashant Mehra, AAP
Rio Tinto still plans to sell its NSW coal operations to Yancoal after the Chinese company raised its bid to $US2.69 billion ($A3.55 billion) in response to a rival offer by Glencore.
Yancoal says it will pay $US2.45 billion ($A3.23 billion) in cash as previously agreed, plus another $US240 million in royalty payments and has more than doubled the break fee, from $US100 million to $US225 million.
Its latest offer for Rio’s Coal & Allied business, announced late Monday, has trumped a revised $US2.675 billion cash bid from commodities giant Glencore which upped its initial $US2.45 billion approach following Rio’s rejection.
Rio chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques said Yancoal’s latest $US2.69 billion bid offered compelling value for the Australian thermal coal assets, and the approval process was further advanced…
The Yancoal deal already has NSW government approval.
Consequently, Mr Jacques said, Rio would proceed with a general meeting of shareholders in London at 11am (2000 AEST) Tuesday to vote on Yancoal’s offer…
Yancoal, which is controlled by state-owned Chinese group Yankuang, already owns seven Australian coal mines.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/rio-tinto-again-backs-revised-yancoal-bid/news-story/1969d7351bb352c2655fc8be6731415e
theirABC doesn’t appear to be interested in the AP “Coal on rise” story, but manages to cover the above bidding war, as a second-tier story, with typical ABC attitude:
27 Jun: ABC: Wall Street flat as Chinese-backed Yancoal ups bid to buy Rio Tinto’s NSW coal mines
By business reporter David Chau
Rio’s mines in NSW’s Hunter Valley region are attractive to both Glencore and China because the quality of their coal means it is likely to continue to be burnt even as concerns about emissions deter generators from using poorer quality coal, which is the most polluting of all…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/market-wrap-27.06.17/8654646
00
I disagree with phrase “broken climate models”.
You cannot break something that never worked.
90
I read the article about cancelled airline flights due to high temperatures at Phoenix, Arizona in the New York Times.
The article insinuated, without actually saying so, that the heat conditions were unprecedented. It also proclaimed that such events will become more common in the future.
However nowhere in the article was any mention made about the historical records. It may be that Phoenix, Arizona often gets heat waves but if so we were told about it.
The problem amy be short runways. Dubai gets temperatures like that every day so the runways are longer and the jets take off ok.
40
I commented under JoNova above about that problem. Most jets have no problems operating every day out of Phoenix. The summer is a heat wave in the Desert Southwest. Air conditioners and modern cars have no trouble operating out in 115+ temps. My 1998 Civic coupe has no problems operating at 120 degrees. I keep it well maintained and have accumulated 214,000 miles in it.
00
Oh the irony…….own goal…..where else, but SA?
#CensusFail
#ATO_Fail
#SA_Renewable_Power_Fail
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/sa-recycling-business-power-bills-rise-causing-closure/8654638
“South Australia’s sky-high electricity prices have forced an Adelaide plastics recycling business to shut its doors, costing 35 workers their jobs, its managing director says.
Plastics Granulating Services (PGS), based in Kilburn in Adelaide’s inner-north, said it had seen its monthly power bills increase from $80,000 to $180,000 over the past 18 months.
Managing director Stephen Scherer said the high cost of power had crippled his business of 38 years and plans for expansion, and had led to his company being placed in liquidation.
“It’s where the cash went out of the business, and without the cash, we couldn’t service what we needed to service,” he said.
“We were basically marking time, draining ourselves of cash.
“I hate to think of how many hours I’ve wasted on the AEMO website with tools to monitor spot pricing, to assess the implications of power, the trends of power and the future costs of power.”
Please Jo – there is sooo much milage in this latest Green/SA/Renewables debacle….
50
Comments?
#Battery_Fail ?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-30/new-solar-project-announced-for-sa-riverland/8400952
“A $1 billion battery and solar farm will be built at Morgan in South Australia’s Riverland by year’s end in a project the proponents describe as “the world’s biggest”.
The builder, Lyon Group, has already proposed a smaller solar farm and battery storage facility, named Kingfisher, in the state’s north.
Lyon partner David Green said the project was 100 per cent equity financed and construction would begin within months, employing 270 workers.
“Riverland Solar Storage’s 330-megawatt solar generation and 100-megawatt battery storage system will be Australia’s biggest solar farm with 3.4 million solar panels and will also include 1.1 million batteries,” he said.
Mr Green said land had already been secured and grid connection was already well advanced.
Work on Lyon’s 120 megawatt Kingfisher project is slated to begin in September next year.”
10
A battery…farm? I guess that is where they cage the 270 workers, so as they can change the battery, when they run out? Not so cheep then…
00
I read about the planes not taking off from Phoenix, Arizona in the Washington Post. WaPo is even more strident about Climate Change than the Fairfax papers in Australia.
The article managed to imply, without actually saying so, that the conditions were unprecedented. It then claimed explicitly that such conditions would become more common in the future with Climate Change. However at no point did the article refer to the historical records for Phoenix, Arizona.
This article by comparison says that the heat wave conditions are unusual but not unprecedented. Temperatures of 49C have occurred 3 times in the historical reords and temperatures of 48C have been recored 15 times since 1896.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/north-america/it-is-so-hot-in-phoenix-that-planes-cant-fly/news-story/dfdcd68490ed9eaf37a5440b69ee56df
Similar conditions occur every day in Dubai and the jets still land and take off all day long. They have made the runways longer to compensate
30
O/T
Another casualty of electricity prices.
$100,000 POWER PRICE HIKE SENDS RECYCLING BUSINESS TO THE CRUSHER.
South Australia’s sky-high electricity prices have forced an Adelaide plastics recycling business to shut its doors, costing 35 workers their jobs, its managing director says.
Plastics Granulating Services (PGS), based in Kilburn in Adelaide’s inner north, said it had seen its monthly power bills increase from $80,000 to $180,000 over the past 18 months.
Managing director Stephen Scherer said the high cost of power had crippled his business of 38 years and plans for expansion, and had led to his company being placed in liquidation.
“It’s where the cash went out of the business, and without the cash, we couldn’t service what we needed to service,” he said.
“We were basically marking time, draining ourselves of cash.
“I hate to think of how many hours I’ve wasted on the AEMO website with tools to monitor spot pricing, to assess the implications of power, the trends of power and the future costs of power.
21
I read Germany exempts companies of the higher prices, thereby forcing regular citizen’s bill to go up. When that helps keep a person’s job, that’s great. It is not so great if it is not your job and you have a difficult existence.
10
27 Jun: Australian: Sid Maher: Energy watchdog to keep closer eye on renewables’ effect on stability
Renewable energy generators, such as wind and solar farms, face tougher checks to ensure they are not undermining the stability of the electricity network as part of a new regulatory framework to prevent increased blackouts.
The rules, released by the Australian Energy Market Commission today, will oblige all electricity distribution networks in the national market to assess areas of weakness, and where they are found, renewables generators will be required to pay for equipment to rectify any problems…
New rules under examination by electricity market regulators could also speed the introduction of batteries into the system to enhance stability where there is a high penetration of renewables…
(AEMC chairman John) Pierce said the rules addressed risks to energy security created by the power system’s changing generation technologies — as more non-synchronous, lower emission generators like wind and solar came in; and synchronous generators like coal retired. “We are focused on the power system’s evolution. Our reform package is looking at ways to stabilise the system as the generation mix changes, and new technology generators connect,” Pierce said…
A future AEMC review will examine a new market mechanism to maintain system inertia.
One recommendation was that all new generators need to be capable of injecting power quickly when needed.
The AEMC said: “This review will examine options for new fastfrequency response services like batteries to inject power rapidly.’’
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/energy-watchdog-to-keep-closer-eye-on-renewables-effect-on-stability/news-story/09377d621097840a062336cb255013d4
00
“Do people in the US not know that asphalt and bitumen go soft …”
Highway traffic planners do.
It is common for old roads, especially at intersections, to be deeply grooved. Thick concrete is used to replace sections where large trucks slow, stop, and turn.
~~~
I’ve been in Tucson and Phoenix In June. One does not have to be raised there to appreciate the region and the climate. I prefer to live in a cooler region.
20
Journalist code of ethics.
http://blogs.spjnetwork.org/ethicscode/?p=10
00
Because they’re self-hating, Fortune reading American trust-fund babies who probably feel as if being self-deprecating (westaphobes) is some kind of employment option, thus psychologicaly making them feel as if they did something constructive that particular day, as opposed to their being useless, probably mentally deficient, selfish sods with their head up their _ _ _ ?
… and 99% probability of having Democratic Party voting preferences, of course.
10
They have not addressed the key question.
Will giant cane toads eat my grandchildren?
00
No, you will have to eat them yourself.
10
**Climate change is responsible for everything.**
Climate change makes for shorter winters
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/95188/20151016/winter-will-be-shorter-over-the-next-century-thanks-to-global-warming.htm
Climate change makes for harsher winters http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/26/global-warming-has-doubled-risk-harsh-winters-eurasia-research-finds
Climate change means less snow https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-the-independent.pdf
Climate change means more snow http://phys.org/news/2011-03-global-snowstorms-scientists.html
Climate change causes droughts in California http://earthsky.org/earth/has-global-warming-worsened-california-drought
Climate change causes floods in Texas and Oklahoma http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/sep/02/global-warming-intensified-the-record-floods-in-texas-and-oklahoma
Climate change makes wet places wetter and dry places drier… https://www.ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/climate-science-highlights/463-wet-regions-getting-wetter-dry-regions-drier-as-planet-warms
…except when it makes wet places dryer… https://www.ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/climate-science-highlights/463-wet-regions-getting-wetter-dry-regions-drier-as- planet-warms
…and dry places wetter http://mashable.com/2015/10/05/south-carolina-floods-global-warming/
Climate change causes more hurricanes http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/07/070730-hurricane-warming.html
Climate change causes less hurricanes http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/05/global-warming-means-fewer-but-more-powerful-hurricanes/
Climate change causes more rain (but less water) http://www.livescience.com/496-irony-global-warming-rain-water.html
Climate change causes less rain http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040401/full/news040329-10.html
Climate change decreases the spread of malaria http://www.nature.com/news/global-warming-wilts-malaria-1.9695
Climate change increases the spread of malaria http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/climate-change-increasing-malaria-risk-disease-spreads-higher-altitudes-1439262
Climate change makes San Francisco foggier http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Get-ready-for-even-foggier-summers-3226235.php
Climate change makes San Francisco less foggy http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/7243579/Fog-over-San-Francisco-thins-by-a-third-due-to-climate-change.html
Climate change causes Africa to frost in the summer http://allafrica.com/stories/200807240806.html
Climate change makes Africa hotter in the summer http://thebulletin.org/naomi-klein-climate-change-makes-hotter-and-meaner-world8910
Climate change causes duller autumn leaves http://www.livescience.com/39820-climate-change-fall-leaves.html
Climate changes causes more colourful autumn leaves http://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/nov/18/thisweekssciencequestions1
Climate change makes for less salty seas http://www.livescience.com/3883-global-warming-sea-salty.html
Climate change makes for saltier seas http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/oct/27/climate-change-water
Climate change causes Antarctica to lose land ice http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/12/antarctic-ice-melting-so-fast-whole-continent-may-be-at-risk-by-2100
Climate change causes Antarctica to gain land ice http://www.wired.com/2015/11/antarcticas-ice-gains-dont-mean-global-warming-is-over/
Climate change makes the earth hotter… http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/ipcc_feb2007.html
…unless the earth isn’t getting hotter… http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/12/04/the-robust-pause-resists-a-robust-el-nio-still-no-global-warming-at-all-for-18-years-9-months/
…in which case climate change can explain that, too. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3155568/Have-seas- HIDING-true-scale-climate-change-Nasa-report-claims-global-warming-pause-never-happened.html
Because Climate Change is the only thing holding off the next Ice Age http://phys.org/news/2016-01-human-made-climate-suppresses-ice-age.html
Claimte change makes beer tastier
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060803-warming-beer.html
Climate change makes beer less tasty.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327253.400-climate-change-depresses-beer-drinkers.html
Climate Change makes killer cornflakes
http://news.smh.com.au/climate-change–killer-cornflakes/20080513-2dm3.html
Climate Change makes the Green Bay Packers lose. http://www.wisconsinenvironment.org/newsroom/global-warming/global-warming-news/could-global-warming-threaten-the-packers-edge
Climate change makes for less circumcision http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/11/02/circumcision-rates-africa-decline-because-global-warming#comments
Climate change is making brains shrink http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/03/global_warming__1.html
Climate change is making brothels close http://metro.co.uk/2007/03/06/global-warming-now-it-hits-brothels-131941/
Climate change turns women into prostitutes http://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/4906/20150327/global-warming-may-cause-women-to-become-prostitutes-says-rep-barbara-lee.htm
Climate change kills our sex drive. http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/06/health/climate-change-sex-drive-birth-rate/
Science as Falsification http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/popper_falsification.html
[Thanks Tim. Great list! – Jo]
00