GE jet fuel and noisy easyJets

Helen Clark might think that curbing travel to cut carbon is “idiotic

On thin ice

Glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula are thinning and speeding up, according to new research by the British Antarctic Survey. They tracked 300 glaciers using aerial and satellite imagery, and report that 87% are retreating. Ice flow has speeded up by 12% from 1993 to 2003. From the BAS press release:

These observations – that echo recent findings from coastal Greenland – indicate that the cause is melting of the lower glaciers, which flow directly into the sea. As they thin, the buoyancy of the ice can lift the glaciers off their rock beds, allowing them to slide faster.

BBC coverage here.

At the other end of the planet, Reuters has been blogging (here and here) the activities of Koni Steffen of the University of Colorado and Jay Zwally from NASA as they make their annual visit to the Swiss Camp research post high on the Greenland ice sheet. Asked if he thought the IPPC’s fourth report underestimated future sea level increase, Steffen did not pull any punches:

I think it definitely underestimated. We complained heavily before it was released and that’s why they added a few lines that if there is a dynamic response of ice sheets the upper uncertainty might be higher. That tells you that the current IPCC report only takes into account the current understanding. We can model melt but we cannot model the dynamics.

And that’s why I keep covering this stuff…

Meanwhile, two Belgian explorers have been walking across the Arctic from Siberia to Greenland, taking snow measurements to help calibrate a new ESA satellite. ESA were able to help them to avoid early sea ice break-up to the northwest of Greenland in the Lincoln Sea. Story here, with some very cool animated pix of sea ice. For a look at the ice today, go to the NSIDC’s sea ice snapshot. Considerable thinning north of Alaska, where last year there was an unusual polynya. Cryospshere Today shows the same thing.

The wind in their sails

Good analysis of NZ’s current climate politics by Colin James in today’s Herald:

Having dawdled for seven years, in part because of strong adverse public opinion, the Government is now racing to make up time. Officials who have been frustrated by conflicting signals from the Beehive – wanting bold, imaginative policies but subordinating them repeatedly to number-crunching with minor parties – are now under the whip.

Big shifts in international markets are also blowing businesses along:

That sea-change offshore – coupled with a big public opinion shift here – has moved business opinion in this country. As a senior National MP says, “Politicians are struggling to stay up. Business is pushing past them.

Getting windy in the front row

All Black hooker Anton Oliver’s been putting the boot into Meridian Energy’s plans to build a 176-turbine windfarm on the Lammermore Range near Dunedin, called Project Hayes. Oliver, and notables such as poet Brian Turner, don’t like the potential damage to the landscape, but Oliver’s been doing some research:

“When you look at the practicalities and economics of wind farms overseas, Meridian’s and the Government’s claims that this wind farm will ensure security of supply and help Mr and Mrs Consumer are quite outrageous,�’ Oliver said. “Meridian’s campaign seems to have been one of half truths, misinformation and fudging information. The more I have looked into it, the more this has seemed to me tantamount to a Government-sanctioned corporate rort.�”

Right. Thanks for that compelling analysis, Anton. Meridian CEO Keith Turner wasn’t much impressed either:

Turner, a veteran of the electricity industry, said: “Anton’s entitled to his view. He’s a great All Black, but is he a great energy analyst?�” Lots of Oliver’s ideas were flawed, he said. “I wouldn’t want to develop a power system around Anton’s ideas …�”

Meanwhile, a lot closer to Hot Topic‘s home, plans by Mainpower for a windfarm on Mt Cass, overlooking the Waipara Valley, will prove an interesting test case for the author because the site is slap in the middle of the view from his veranda. I shall therefore be following developments closely. Will I turn into an All Black hooker or noted poet? Or an apologist for the power men? How will my neighbours respond? We live in interesting times…

India to G8: the party’s over

The [UK] Daily Telegraph‘s correspondent in India, Peter Foster, provides an interesting – but worrying – perspective on the G8 “deal