Author: Gareth

Air travel carbon costs

A380The Economist uses the climate protest at London’s Heathrow airport as a peg upon which to hang an overview of the difficult carbon prospects for the international aviation industry. An emissions trading scheme is being drawn up under the wing of the UN, and the European Commission plans to make carbon trading compulsory for all EC carriers in 2011. The Economist is admirably straightforward in its judgement:

The introduction of carbon-trading is a welcome step by governments that are not yet willing to consider a carbon tax. The air-travel industry should have to stump up for the pollution it causes. And anyone priced out of a cheap holiday in Spain might like to consider a week-long camping break near Heathrow.

Good job they didn’t mention long haul holidays…

Electric cars or coal-to-diesel?

TeslaThe carbon neutral flagship of New Zealand’s power sector, Meridian Energy, has announced that it’s planning to start trials on electric cars next year [Stuff, Herald] . CEO Keith Turner also announced a new service specialising in helping to design and build energy efficient homes, and a new environmentally friendly Wellington headquarters. Discussing the car trial, Turner said:

“The prize in making the move to electric vehicles comes when you recharge them with renewable electricity. Meridian will be able to demonstrate renewable, zero-emission, certified carbon neutral mobility.

How green is my skyline?

WindturbineReaders with functioning short term memories may recall that my local lines company, Mainpower, through its Local Generation subsidiary is planning to build a wind farm on Mt Cass, looking down over the Waipara Valley. The site (or a large chunk of it) can be seen from the comfy chairs on my veranda, testing my commitment to low carbon energy and landscape aesthetics. To help me (and others) come to terms with what this means, Mainpower’s main wind energy people, Andrew Hurley and Todd Mead, have launched a blog covering the planning and development process. It promises to give an interesting insight into the way wind farms are developed, and already demonstrates a refreshing openness about the process. Andrew’s commented here on wind issues, and has been up to Limestone Hills to talk climate blogs and wind, so I wish them luck with their new venture. Not sure about the turbines on the skyline though… 😉

First forecast for the next ten years

FishResearchers at the Hadley Centre in Britain have produced the world’s first short range climate forecast, covering the next ten years. And there are no surprises, it’s going to get warmer. From New Scientist:

Although average global temperatures have been relatively flat in recent years, the model says they will start rising again next year. At least half of the years between 2009 and 2015 will exceed the current warmest year on record. By 2015, global temperatures will be 0.5 °C above the average value for the last 30 years.

[More from the BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, Nature]

Continue reading “First forecast for the next ten years”

Arctic ice sets new record

Ice070810I follow the Arctic sea ice extent at Cryosphere Today. The site publishes pictures, maps and graphs of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, derived from NASA satellite data. They’ve just announced a worrying new record:

Today (August 9th), the Northern Hemisphere sea ice area broke the record for the lowest recorded ice area in recorded history. The new record came a full month before the historic summer minimum typically occurs. There is still a month or more of melt likely this year. It is therefore almost certain that the previous 2005 record will be annihilated by the final 2007 annual minima closer to the end of this summer. In previous record sea ice minima years, ice area anomalies were confined to certain sectors (N. Atlantic, Beaufort/Bering Sea, etc). The character of 2007’s sea ice melt is unique in that it is dramatic and covers the entire Arctic sector. Atlantic, Pacific and even the central Arctic sectors are showing large negative sea ice area anomalies.

I find this news disturbing for two reasons. First, the fact that the new record should be set so early in the season. That suggests that there is a lot more melting to go. The second is the language: normally cautious scientists seldom use words like “annihilate