Record Heat Bakes #Australia - #GOP Climate Experts say..."Uh!"

Australia experiences its hottest two years on record

High temperatures, which are forecast to continue through winter, are a clear sign of climate change, report warns

 heguardian.com,

Press) – Australia has experienced its hottest two years on record and high temperatures are set to continue through winter in a clear sign of climate change, a report warns.
May 2012 to April 2014 was the hottest 24-month period ever recorded in Australia, but that is likely to be eclipsed by the two years between June 2012 and May 2014, according to the Climate Commission's latest report, Abnormal Autumn.

"We have just had an abnormally warm autumn, off the back of another very hot 'angry summer'," Professor Will Steffen of the Climate Council said.

"The past two-year period has delivered the hottest average temperature we have ever recorded in Australia.

"Climate change is here, it's happening, and Australians are already feeling its impact."

The average temperature across Australia in April was 1.11C above the long-term average, the report says, citing Bureau of Meteorology figures.

The average minimum temperature was 1.31C above normal.

Unseasonable temperatures in the autumn "warm wave" set records, with Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne setting benchmarks for the consecutive number of May days when the mercury reached 20C or higher.

In its report, the Climate Council says the abnormally warm weather in April and May "are part of a longer-term trend towards hotter conditions in the summer months and more warm spells in autumn and winter"


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Hottest Summer on Record!

Climate Poster Child - Norfolk, #Virginia

In Norfolk, evidence of climate change is in the streets at high tide




By Lori Montgomery





NORFOLK

(Washington Post) – At high tide on the small inlet next to Norfolk’s most prestigious art museum, the water lapped at the very top of the concrete sea wall that has held it back for 100 years.





It seeped up through storm drains, puddled on the promenade and spread, half a foot deep, across the street, where a sign read, “Road Closed.”   The sun was shining, but all around the inlet people were bracing for more serious flooding. The Chrysler Museum of Art had just completed a $24 million renovation that emptied the basement, now accessible only by ladder, and lifted the heating and air-conditioning systems to the top floor. A local accounting firm stood behind a homemade barricade of stanchions and detachable flaps rigged to keep the water out. And the congregation of the Unitarian Church of Norfolk was looking to evacuate.



  “We don’t like being the poster child for climate change,” said the Rev. Jennifer Slade, who added that the building, with its carved-wood sanctuary and soaring flood-insurance rates, would soon be on the market for the first time in four decades. “I don’t know many churches that have to put the tide chart on their Web site” so people know whether they can get to church.


On May 6, the Obama administration released the third National Climate Assessment, and President Obama proclaimed climate change no longer a theory; its effects, he said, are already here. This came as no surprise in Norfolk, where normal tides have risen 1¹ / ₂ feet over the past century and the sea is rising faster than anywhere else on the East Coast.



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And when the storms come - look out!

Doc's Comments

Perhaps this futuristic picture of Norfolk is a little dramatic, but then again maybe not. One thing is for certain though no one wants to be a "poster child" for climate change. Particularly when the storms unleash their furies.

 

Dr Peter G Kinesa

June 2, 2014

#Antartica - Earth's Air Conditioner Broken-- CANNOT BE FIXED!

 Guys it's broken, time to march on!

Catastrophic Collapse of West Antarctic Ice Sheet Begins

By By Becky Oskin, Senior Writer
(LiveScience.com) 

– The biggest glaciers in West Antarctica are hemorrhaging ice without any way to stem the loss, according to two independent studies. The unstoppable retreat is the likely start of a long-feared domino effect that could cause the entire ice sheet to melt, whether or not greenhouse gas emissions decline.

"These glaciers will keep retreating for decades and even centuries to come and we can't stop it," said lead study author Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "A large sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has passed the point of no return." [Vanishing Glaciers: See Stunning Images of Earth's Melting Ice]

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds 10 percent of Antarctica's ice. Glaciers here sit in a giant bowl, with their base below sea level, making melting a concern since the 1970s. As the ice retreats into the bowl, it shrinks back into deeper water, making the glaciers unstable. Like frozen levees, the retreating glaciers pin back more stable parts of the Greenland-size ice sheet. Their collapse threatens the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet. 

Two papers published today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and Science used different approaches to forecast the future of West Antarctica's shrinking glaciers. One study tracked the region's biggest glaciers for 40 years, and concluded from direct observations that the ice is unstoppable. The other relies on sophisticated computer models to predict the future melting of Thwaites Glacier, the biggest of West Antarctica's frozen ice rivers. 

Both studies conclude that even dramatic changes in climate won't stop the retreat, because the glaciers are shrinking back into deep valleys with no ridges or mountains to halt their rapid pace. Any high topography can act like a speed bump and slow the galloping glaciers. 

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This Video Is  Not A Horror Film: 

IT'S MUCH WORSE!

Doc's Comments

  What happens when Earth's air conditioner breaks and cannot be fixed? One thing is for sure, more than Penguins will be marching to the tune of a different drummer.

Dr Peter G Kinesa
May 26, 2014

#CLIMATE Catastrophe Strikes #Bosnia and #Serbia

Serbia and Bosnia Flooding Disturbs Land Mines From Region's 1990s War

18 May 2014 (Associated Press) – Floodwaters triggered more than 3,000 landslides across the Balkans on Sunday, laying waste to entire towns and villages and disturbing land mines leftover from the region's 1990s war, along with warning signs that marked the unexploded weapons.
The Balkans' worst flooding since record keeping began forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and threatened to inundate Serbia's main power plant, which supplies electricity to a third of the country and most of the capital, Belgrade.

Authorities organized a frenzied helicopter airlift to get terrified families to safety before the water swallowed up their homes. Many were plucked from rooftops.
Floodwaters receded Sunday in some locations, laying bare the full scale of the damage. Elsewhere, emergency management officials warned that the water would keep rising into Sunday night. 

"The situation is catastrophic," said Bosnia's refugee minister, Adil Osmanovic. 

Three months' worth of rain fell on the region in three days, producing the worst floods since rainfall measurements began 120 years ago. At least two dozen people have died, with more casualties expected. 

The rain caused an estimated 2,100 landslides that covered roads, homes and whole villages throughout hilly Bosnia. Another 1,000 landslides were reported in neighboring Serbia. 






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Power Plants Also Threatened

Doc's Comments

This is a disaster of unmeasured proportions - again, we are seeing the climate chaos being caused by global warming leaving no region on the planet untouched. Where are our leaders? Hmm...

Dr Peter G Kinesa

May 23,2014

More #Climate Floods Shock Balkans - Thousands Flee!

Thousands flee, 25 die in record Balkan floods

By JOVANA GEC and ALMIR ALIC, with additional reporting by Aida Cerkez and Sabina Niksic from Sarajevo, Bosnia; Irena Knezevic in Banja Luka, Bosnia; and Marko Drobnjakovic in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia



MAGLAJ, Bosnia (AP) – Packed into buses, boats and helicopters, carrying nothing but a handful of belongings, tens of thousands fled their homes Saturday in Bosnia and Serbia, seeking to escape the worst flooding in a century.


Authorities said 20 people have died but warned the death toll could rise further.
Three months' worth of rain has fallen on the region in just three days, creating floods that meteorologists say are the worst since records began 120 years ago.
Observed from the air, almost a third of Bosnia, mostly its northeast corner, resembled a huge muddy lake, with houses, roads and rail lines submerged under water. Admir Malagic, a spokesman for Bosnia's Security Ministry, said about a million people, or over a quarter of the country's population, live in the affected area. 




Surging water reached up to the second floors of homes at times, sweeping away traffic lights and signs as it coursed through villages and towns in the two neighboring countries. Roads were blocked and metal bridges crumbled at the onslaught. 







In the eastern Bosnian town of Bijeljina, some 10,000 people were being evacuated Saturday after the rain-swollen Sava River pushed through flood defenses.


"We need everything, we are underwater," mayor Mico Micic said as he appealed for help. 












Read More 

Balkan Flood Havoc and Devastation

#Antarctica: Where's the ICE?

New Antarctic ice shelf threatened by warming

By Chris Wickham; Editing by Janet Lawrence






LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists are predicting the disappearance of another vast ice shelf in Antarctica by the end of the century that will accelerate rising sea levels.

The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf fringing the Weddell Sea on the eastern side of Antarctica has so far not seen ice loss from global warming and much of the observation of melting has focused on the western side of the continent around the Amundsen Sea. But new research from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany says the 450,000-sq-km ice shelf is under threat.

"According to our calculations, this protective barrier will disintegrate by the end of this century," said Dr Harmut Hellmer, lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature this week.

The huge ice shelves that float on the seas fringing Antarctica provide a buffer against warming waters eating away at the base of the much larger glaciers behind them that sit on the land.
"Ice shelves are like corks in the bottles for the ice streams behind them," said Hellmer. "They reduce the ice flow.

"If, however, the ice shelves melt from below, they become so thin that the dragging surfaces become smaller and the ice behind them starts to move."

Hellmer and his team predict the melting of the Filchner-Ronne shelf could add up to 4.4 mm per year to rising global sea levels.

Ya gotta believe

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Believe Me #Coal Does Not Affect Climate?

Coal industry lobby won’t admit to role in climate change

By Lee Fang
(Republic Report) – Does burning coal, one of the most carbon-intensive fuel sources on the planet, contribute to climate change? 

That simple question stumped the industry’s most prominent advocate, Robert 


“Mike” Duncan, at a Colorado mining conference last week. Asked twice by Republic Report, Duncan first said that a “lot of people believe” that coal causes climate change, before replying, “I’m not answering your question.”

Duncan, the president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), gave a talk to a room filled with mining industry executives about the dangers of new EPA rules concerning greenhouse emissions. ACCCE, which represents the largest coal companies in the nation, has pushed back against the administration’s coal power plant rules.

In an interview with E&E TV in January, Duncan said that instead of the EPA rules, his industry could take a gradual approach to reducing emissions with carbon capture sequestration, which he claimed can “make coal even cleaner. 





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Sure Lets Just Burn More Mid-Night Coal 

Plastic Garbage Killing Oceans

Is 20 millions tons enough? Scientists recommend plastic crackdown as oceans chok
Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0402-samoray-plastic-ocean.html#s5Z29cFSclFcXDmi.99

Is 20 millions tons enough? Scientists recommend plastic crackdown as oceans choke
Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0402-samoray-plastic-ocean.html#s5Z29cFSclFcXDmi.99

Is 20 millions tons enough? Scientists recommend plastic crackdown as oceans choke
Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0402-samoray-plastic-ocean.html#s5Z29cFSclFcXDmi.99

Is 20 Million Tons  Enough. Scientists say Oceans are choking







By Chris Samoray 





(Mongabay.com) – Every year, 20 million tons of plastic enters the world’s oceans. In 2012, the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development dubbed marine plastic litter “a major environmental issue that the world must address,” and asked for management action by 2025. One group of researchers started early and was among the first to take on the Rio +20 call to tackle marine plastic pollution, presenting a “Top Ten” list of recommendations ranging from international treaties to public education and awareness programs. 




“Plastic marine litter is far more than an aesthetic problem,” writes the team from the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability in a study published in UCLA’s Pritzker Environmental Law and Policy Briefs [pdf]. “Increasing harm to marine wildlife and rising economic costs provide an enormous incentive to tackle the global plastic marine litter problem more aggressively.” 

New Breed of Fish?

The team suggests that international cooperation is among the most urgent action needed to better control marine plastic waste. One of their recommendations is an international treaty on par with the 1989 Montreal Protocol—an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer—that would employ strong monitoring, tracking and reporting practices, along with marine litter standards enforceable on a global scale.


Another international treaty the team ...


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Or watch more ...

China's Fresh Air Supply At Risk

China's latest fad is breath of fresh air: Oxygen stations set up across the country

By Susannah Hills

(Daily Mail) – It is one of the most polluted countries on earth.

So it may come as little surprise that the latest fad in China is literally offering its city dwellers a breath of fresh air.


Numerous fresh air stations have been set up in some of China's most polluted cities.

The stations are stocked with individual air bags which provide users with pollution-free fresh air.



And they have proved to be a big hit with one air station in Zhengzhou city in central China's Henan province which was inundated with visitors.

China's Newest Fashion Statement

Uniformed air hostesses hook up visitors to oxygen masks so they can breathe air sourced from the Laojun Mountain scenic spot in Luanchuan county, which is 80% green land, in Henan province.



There was no shortage of takers as locals flooded to enjoy the free fresh air.

User Feng Lin, 75, said: 'The air is really good, but the time is too short. I had to stop too soon but it was really great until then.'

It comes after just three of China's 74 cities met the official air quality standards, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection in China.

Snow Storm in Buffalo N.Y?  Wrong again!

The air bags are China's latest attempt to address its dangerous smog levels - described as an environmental crisis by the World Health Organisation - after canned and bottled air already hit the streets.

The air stations follow on from last week when costumed characters called Oxygen Babies were giving away air bottles filled with air collected at the Tianmu mountain scenic spot in the county of Linan in Zhejiang province

See For Yourself

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Human Extinction Fears Grip Climate Experts

Climate change could make humans extinct, warns health expert

By Deborah Snow and Peter Hannam 

(Sydney Morning Herald) – The Earth is warming so rapidly that unless humans can arrest the trend, we risk becoming ''extinct'' as a species, a leading Australian health academic has warned. 

Helen Berry, associate dean in the faculty of health at the University of Canberra, said while the Earth has been warmer and colder at different points in the planet's history, the rate of change has never been as fast as it is today.    
 
''What is remarkable, and alarming, is the speed of the change since the 1970s, when we started burning a lot of fossil fuels in a massive way,'' she said. ''We can't possibly evolve to match this rate [of warming] and, unless we get control of it, it will mean our extinction eventually.''

Professor Berry is one of three leading academics who have contributed to the health chapter of a Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report due on Monday. She and co-authors Tony McMichael, of the Australian National University, and Colin Butler, of the University of Canberra, have outlined the health risks of rapid global warming in a companion piece for The Conversation, also published on Monday. The three warn that the adverse effects on population health and social stability have been ''missing from the discussion'' on climate change. 

''Human-driven climate change poses a great threat, unprecedented in type and scale, to wellbeing, health and perhaps even to human survival,'' they write.

They predict that the greatest challenges will come from undernutrition and impaired child development from reduced food yields; hospitalisations and deaths due to intense heatwaves, fires and other weather-related disasters; and the spread of infectious diseases. 

They warn the ''largest impacts'' will be on poorer and vulnerable populations, winding back recent hard-won gains of social development programs. 

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Just 13,000 Years Ago - AN EVENT

Ice Age, Climate, or Outer Space?

 

IPCC: Climate Report Maps Out Human Fate?

Climate Change - Possible Human Complexities

More and More Truths...

30 March 2014 (IPCC) – The Final Draft Report, dated 28 October 2013, of the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment ReportClimate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability was 

accepted but not approved in detail by the 10th Session of Working Group II and the 38th Session of the IPCC on 29 March 2014 in Yokohama, Japan. It consists of the full scientific and technical assessment undertaken by Working Group II.

The Final Draft Report has to be read in conjunction with the document entitled “Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Working Group II Contribution to the IPCC 5th Assessment Report — Changes to the Underlying Scientific/Technical Assessment” to ensure consistency with the approved Summary for Policymakers (IPCC-XXXVIII/DOC.4) presented to the Panel at its 38th Session. This document lists the changes necessary to ensure consistency between the full Report and the Summary for Policymakers, which was approved line-by-line by Working Group II and accepted by the Panel at the above-mentioned Sessions. A listing of substantive edits additionally indicates corrections of errors for the Final Draft Report.

WGII AR5 Final Drafts (accepted

---

ASSESSING AND MANAGING THE RISKS OF CLIMATE CHANGE 

Human interference with the climate system is occurring, and climate change poses risks for human and natural systems (Figure SPM.1). The assessment of impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability in the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (WGII AR5) evaluates how patterns of risks and potential benefits are shifting due to climate change. 

It considers how impacts and risks related to climate change can be reduced and managed through adaptation and mitigation. The report assesses needs, options, opportunities, constraints, resilience, limits, and other aspects associated with adaptation. 

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The same old song... with the same meaning

For fun - no holds barred today. But these guys at the IPCC must think that we are all really stupid. They present a graph with a bunch of circles, add some pretty colours and words. Then presto! All our problems are defined and thus somehow possibly within their control or ability to fix. Now should we all walk away with the comfort and knowledge that these folks have humanity's fate well in hand? Sorry, but nothing could be further from the truth..

Why? Because the now world -famous Kinesa Climate Change Curve (KCCC)  looks extremely different in comparison. First, draw a  straight 12 inch vertical line from the left to the right side of a page. Call it lapsed time 

Then draw a horizontal line somewhere along the vertical line. Call it climate order. Remember too, that the vertical line continues on and on for miles and miles at both ends. There you go - your very own  KCCC graph with a very different story.

What do you  mean it doesn't curve? Actually it does,  if you look close enough!

Dr. Peter G Kinesa
April 4, 2014   

A Final Word

No Kidding...