environment and ecology – Page 178

In Christmas, a denial

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My Christmas present to the world: Kurt Cobain’s great anthem revitalised by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Listen to the lyrics, and imagine them being sung by Monckton. I am about to disappear into the kitchen to dismember a turkey, prior to its reassembly for tomorrow’s lunch. Bryan promises some posts over the holiday period, and I will contribute the odd (possibly very odd) item from time to time, but do not expect diligence in a period of indolence. Compliments of the season to all our readers from the Hot Topic & Climate Show team.

[PS: I think I’ve used this video (from a Jules Holland New Year show a few years ago) on HT before, but for the life of me I can’t find the original post. However, I went to see the UOGB in Christchurch at the beginning of the month and their performance was so — moving — that I just had to give it another airing.]

The Carbon Forest

A suburban section has long been the limit of my landowning ambition and I’m too old now to start thinking of anything more, but the prospect opened up by a newly published small book had me imagining I could well become interested if I were younger. The book is The Carbon Forest: A New Zealand guide to forest carbon sinks for investors, farmers, foresters and conservationists (publisher’s site here). The four authors themselves appear motivated by climate change but the detailed advice they offer is far from tied to that concern. People looking to engage in a forestry venture for any reason, including reasonable financial return, will find the book very useful.

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A Christmas cracker for the cranks

The National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) released details of its recalculated New Zealand temperature series last week and in the last couple of days Richard Treagold and the Climate “Science” Coalition have issued statements in reply. And what a contrast they provide: Bryan Leyland for the NZ C”S”C is all bluster, demanding the resignation of the NIWA chairman and a declaration that the new series is “not valid” (whatever that means). Treadgold, meanwhile, describes the NIWA study as a vindication of his original “report”. One hopes they attend different carol services, because they’re clearly singing from different hymnals.

Lets review events to date, and see what the latest NIWA report really demonstrates…

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The Climate Show #4: Peter Gleick, the AGU, and climate sensitivity

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Our last show for 2010, and it’s over an hour of podcast/video goodness: featuring Peter H Gleick of the Pacific Institute discussing the news from the Fall AGU conference in San Francisco last week, John Cook discussing how we work out how sensitive the climate system is to the addition of heat, plus a roundup on Cancun, how French vignerons are looking to old vines to help them adapt to a warming climate, and London’s black cabs set to go electric.

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The Climate Show

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Show notes below the fold.

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Believing Cassandra

The gift of foresight given to Cassandra was nullified by the accompanying curse that no one would believe her. Her warnings were ignored and ancient Troy fell. It’s a haunting myth which Alan Atkisson harnesses in his book Believing Cassandra: How to be an Optimist in a Pessimist’s World. If we believe Cassandra and take action to avoid the disasters she prophesies we prove her wrong. But the worst and most painful outcome for any Cassandra is to be proven right.

The book was first published in 1999 but has been revised and updated for this 2010 edition. The author comments on how much that was in the future tense in the first edition had to be shifted to the present or past tense, and yet how little of it had to be changed. This is not surprising. The book is rooted in the many warnings that have been sounded for some decades now about the limits of growth, and the dangers that await us as we exceed the boundaries for safety for human civilisation. Those warnings and dangers remain current. Atkisson starts with the dizzying exponential population growth of the past century, is fully alarmed by the level of biodiversity loss, and invites readers to consider the graph of rising global CO₂ emissions as they would such horrific paintings as Picasso’s Guernica or Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son.

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