Image credit: BIRD

Who will be busier – the police or the hospitals?
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Electric scooter rental start-ups have been lobbying the Government to change transport laws since 2018, says The Daily Telegraph.

The Government has approved plans for trials of electric scooters to begin on the UK’s roads from July 4, clearing the way for scooter rental companies to start offering their services across the country.

The Department for Transport announced new rules on Tuesday which will govern local trials of the scooters starting from this weekend.

Local authorities across the country are now expected to begin operating scooter trials in partnership with a number of scooter rental companies which have been lobbying the Government for years.

Although the rules are widely flouted, the use of privately owned electric scooters on public highways remains illegal in the UK.

Anyone riding a private scooter on UK roads risks receiving a £300 fixed penalty notice and six points on their driving licence.

Full article here.

via Tallbloke’s Talkshop

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July 2, 2020 at 04:45PM

 YEAR MO GLOBE NHEM. SHEM. TROPIC USA48 ARCTIC AUST 
 2019 01 +0.38 +0.35 +0.41 +0.36 +0.53 -0.14 +1.15
 2019 02 +0.37 +0.47 +0.28 +0.43 -0.02 +1.05 +0.05
 2019 03 +0.34 +0.44 +0.25 +0.41 -0.55 +0.97 +0.58
 2019 04 +0.44 +0.38 +0.51 +0.54 +0.49 +0.93 +0.91
 2019 05 +0.32 +0.29 +0.35 +0.39 -0.61 +0.99 +0.38
 2019 06 +0.47 +0.42 +0.52 +0.64 -0.64 +0.91 +0.35
 2019 07 +0.38 +0.33 +0.44 +0.45 +0.11 +0.34 +0.87
 2019 08 +0.39 +0.38 +0.39 +0.42 +0.17 +0.44 +0.23
 2019 09 +0.61 +0.64 +0.59 +0.60 +1.14 +0.75 +0.57
 2019 10 +0.46 +0.64 +0.27 +0.30 -0.03 +1.00 +0.49
 2019 11 +0.55 +0.56 +0.54 +0.55 +0.21 +0.56 +0.38
 2019 12 +0.56 +0.61 +0.50 +0.58 +0.92 +0.66 +0.94
 2020 01 +0.56 +0.60 +0.53 +0.61 +0.73 +0.12 +0.66
 2020 02 +0.76 +0.96 +0.55 +0.76 +0.38 +0.02 +0.30
 2020 03 +0.48 +0.61 +0.34 +0.63 +1.09 -0.72 +0.16
 2020 04 +0.38 +0.43 +0.34 +0.45 -0.59 +1.03 +0.97
 2020 05 +0.54 +0.60 +0.49 +0.66 +0.17 +1.15 -0.15
 2020 06 +0.43 +0.45 +0.41 +0.46 +0.38 +0.80 +1.20

via Watts Up With That?

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July 2, 2020 at 04:34PM

Since Europeans arrived Koalas have been booming and busting

The calls were out this week saying that koalas will be extinct in New South Wales in 30 years. But they didn’t mention that Koalas thrive and multiply so fast that in the right conditions scientists talk of ‘plagues’. On Kangaroo Island last year, there were so many koalas, the South Australian government has been trying to sterilize or relocate thousands of them over the last twenty years.  Periodically scientists even discuss whether we have to cull them (the horror!).

They’ve survived twenty megafires in 200 years. They can recover. Ponder that Koalas were only introduced to Kangaroo Island in the 1930′s but by the 1990′s there were 14,000 of them and even though they are considered a tourism asset they are also considered a problem and pest too.

“Nearly everything you have read or heard about koalas, is wrong” — Viv Jurskis

Koalas favorite snack  |      Photo by pen_ash

Viv Jurskis is a veteran forester and fire expert who studied them for years. He’s written The Great Koala Scam, Green propaganda, junk science government waste and cruelty.

Jurskis estimates that thanks to European settlers there are more […]

via JoNova

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July 2, 2020 at 02:40PM

The image above shows melting of Arctic sea ice extent over the month of June 2020.  As usual the process of declining ice extent follows a LIFO pattern:  Last In First Out.  That is, the marginal seas are the last to freeze and the first to melt.  Thus at the top center and right of the image, the Pacific basins of Bering and Okohtsk seas lost what little ice they had.  Meanwhile at extreme left, Hudson Bay ice retreats 300k km2 from north to south.  Note center left Baffin Bay loses 320k km2 of ice during the month.  The most dramatic melting is in the Russian shelf seas at the center right.  Laptev and Kara Seas combined to lose 600k km2 of ice extent. The central mass of Arctic ice is intact with some fluctuations back and forth, and as well Greenland Sea and CAA (Canadian Arctic Archipelago) were slow to melt in June

The graph below shows the ice extent retreating during June compared to some other years and the 13 year average (2007 to 2019 inclusive).

Note that the  MASIE NH ice extent 13 year average loses about 2M km2 during June, down to 9.6M km2. MASIE 2019 started about 500k km2 lower and lost ice at a similar rate, ending nearly 476 km2 below average.  The most interesting thing being the wide divergence between SII and MASIE reports during June, SII starting the month about 500k km2 higher before narrowing at the end to exceed MASIE by 133.  I inquired whether NIC had experienced any measurement issues, but their response indicated nothing remarkable.  It is notable that MASIE is the low estimate of the two.

The table shows where the ice is distributed compared to average.  Bering and Okhotsk are open water at this point and will be dropped from future monthly updates. The deficit of 476k km2 represents 5% of the total, or an ice extent 5 days ahead of average.

Note that all of the deficit to average is accounted for by the Russian shelf seas of East Siberian, Laptev and Kara. Beaufort and Hudson Bay are slightly surplus.

Illustration by Eleanor Lutz shows Earth’s seasonal climate changes. If played in full screen, the four corners present views from top, bottom and sides. It is a visual representation of scientific datasets measuring Arctic ice extents.

via Science Matters

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July 2, 2020 at 01:38PM