Alan Jones AO Radio 2GB, Sydney Dear Alan, This spring has begun with the Bureau of Meteorology announcing a new ‘hottest September day on record’ almost every other day. Last Saturday, for example, we heard that it was the hottest September day in Mildura since 1889. Really? Hotter than 1905 or even 1938 – those […]
The post Faux Record Hot Days, Including at Mildura appeared first on Jennifer Marohasy.
via Jennifer Marohasy
September 27, 2017 at 10:14PM
Europe‘s march towards a carbon-free future will be on hold for a month or two while Germany makes up its mind in what direction it is going to lead the European Union. The likely coalition with the fervently anti-coal anti-nuclear Greens, and the Free Democrats, who argue for a “rational” pro-business energy policy, may bring … Continue reading →
via Climate Scepticism
September 27, 2017 at 08:05PM
By Rachel Millard For The Daily Mail
Published: 16:51 EDT, 25 September 2017 | Updated: 16:51 EDT, 25 September 2017
The newly privatised investment bank that was founded by the Government to develop renewable energy in the UK has quietly ditched this country.
A pledge to invest in Britain was scrubbed from the Green Investment Group’s (GIG) constitution on the day of its takeover by Australian investment bank Macquarie.
The Government sneaked in the change before handing control to independent trustees who would have had to vote on the matter.
It is believed the change was made in order to help the hotly opposed sale to Macquarie, which has made no secret of its plans to use the bank to invest heavily abroad.
But it has raised concerns that GIG now plans at the same time to invest less in the UK – harming the country’s efforts to embrace greener energy for which the bank was founded. GIG, however, rejects those concerns.
Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK, said: ‘The UK’s burgeoning green economy has likely already lost European Investment Bank funding, and if the Green Investment Group shifts its focus away from us too, we will need to work even harder than our competitors to ensure the green economy gets the finance it needs, and we secure the jobs that go with it.’
Before it was taken over by Macquarie, the stated ‘green objective’ of GIG, then known as the Green Investment Bank, included investing in projects that reduced greenhouse gases in the UK and protected the environment.
Vampire Kangaroo: Macquarie, which was heavily criticised as owner of Thames Water, bought GIG in the face of stiff opposition from campaigners
‘It said the board would consider investing in projects ‘likely to contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the UK and globally’, but in articles of association filed at Companies House – which outlines the purpose of a firm – the UK has been removed from the wording.
GIG will now consider projects ‘likely to contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions globally’ – and a resolution outlining the changes was signed on behalf of Business Secretary Greg Clark on August 17.
When the £2.3billion sale to Macquarie closed in August, the Australian predator said the bank, which uses private funding, would remain one of the leading investors in green infrastructure in the UK and Europe ‘with added scope to further expand internationally’.
Macquarie, which was heavily criticised as owner of Thames Water, denied any change in focus away from the UK, pointing to an announcement earlier this month of a £38million investment in an energy-from-waste plant in West Yorkshire.
A Business Department spokesman said: ‘Ministers stated as far back as 2015 that Government ownership was holding back GIB’s ambition and that it was limited to operating within the UK.’
HT | The GWPF
via Watts Up With That?
September 27, 2017 at 08:03PM
Newswise — A Texas A&M University research team has examined a 100,000-year-old ocean core and found that there have been at least eight occurrences of iron penetrating the Pacific Ocean, each likely associated with abrupt global climate change over thousands of years.
Texas A&M scientists Franco Marcantonio, Matthew Loveley and Marilyn Wisler, all in the Department of Geology and Geophysics in the College of Geosciences, and colleagues from the University of Connecticut, Oregon State University and Old Dominion University have had their findings published in Nature Geoscience.
The team examined ocean sediment cores and found that over the past 100,000 years, at least 8 “pulses” of iron have penetrated the eastern equatorial Pacific. The iron came in the form of dust blown into the ocean during the last glacial period 71,000 to 14,000 years ago.
Each pulse of iron into the Pacific almost certainly resulted in some sort of climate change event that affected temperatures, their findings show.
“Dust was blown into the ocean, and much of this dust contained iron,” explains Marcantonio.
“Some of the dust dissolved and released iron to the surface waters of the ocean. Each time the dust and iron were added to the surface ocean, we found that there was a corresponding pulse of algae growth. The timing of the pulses is associated with cooler temperatures in the northern hemisphere.
“The connection to carbon dioxide levels is not clear,” he adds, “but we do raise the provocative idea that the last time global carbon dioxide levels were rising in the past, adding iron to the equatorial Pacific Ocean may have acted to lower these levels to some extent.”
He notes that some researchers think that by seeding the ocean with iron, we can capture large amounts of carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas which makes the atmosphere warmer — the more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the warmer it is, and the less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere the colder it is.
“What does iron have to do with the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Plants need trace amounts of iron to photosynthesize,” Marcantonio says.
“So adding iron to the oceans would fertilize the growth of algae. The algae would absorb more atmospheric carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then sink to the seafloor when they die.
“If a lot of atmospheric carbon dioxide is absorbed and removed from the atmosphere by algae and then transported to the deep ocean, then the atmosphere should theoretically stop warming and get cooler.”
Their research gives us more clues about past climate change events on Earth and the impacts these have had through time.
The project was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Jane and R. Ken Williams ’45 Chair in Ocean Drilling Science, Technology and Education.
HT | Ian H
via Watts Up With That?
September 27, 2017 at 04:02PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 