Tag: Hot

Bryan bites back

Regular commenter (and literary critic) Bryan Walker was so incensed by the Herald’s decision to print a specious opinion piece by Canadian climate denier Tom Harris (see comments to The midweek omnibus) that he submitted an article in rebuttal, and a letter. The paper printed the letter at the weekend and the rebuttal today, showing that perhaps good sense has returned from its summer break (or that the editor has started reading the opinion pieces again). Nicely done, Bryan.

Also in today’s Herald: Gwynne Dyer’s feeling rather gloomy about the pace of negotiations in the face of accelerating climate change. And the The Press has finally posted a piece on Dutton’s Climate Debate Daily site that ran in Saturday’s paper. It’s rather friendly to the whole thing, but does at least mention my main criticism – that it posits a false equivalence that distorts the balance of evidence.

The electric Kim Hill

X1-front-34-high.jpg Kim Hill’s Saturday Morning show on Radio NZ National is required listening in our house, and this morning she had a most interesting discussion with Ian Wright, a New Zealander who was involved in the early days of Tesla Motors, and who is now running his own EV start up – Wrightspeed. Here’s what he’s up to:

The X1 prototype is just the beginning. It meets its design specs of 0-60 in 3 seconds, 170 mpg equivalent; and at 1536 lbs, is only 36 lbs over the design target of 1500. It really does raise the performance driving experience to a new level, even for racing drivers. No clutch, no shifting, precise and immediate control of torque in drive and braking, perfect traction control…first gear takes you to 112mph…

If you want a glimpse of the future of transport, go get the podcast.

Another Hot Topic, skiing’s future, batteries, kites, u.s.w.

There’s another Hot Topic on the bookshelves – not in NZ, but in the UK. Sir David King, the sometimes controversial scientific adviser to Tony Blair has (with Gabrielle Walker) penned The Hot Topic: How to Tackle Global Warming and Still Keep the Lights On. Reviews in The Times and The Guardian. It will no doubt make its way over here eventually.

[Much more below the fold]

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Two gigs

hot-topic-cover.jpg I’ve been asked to take part in two conferences on climate change in Wellington in a couple of months time. The first is Climate Change – What To Do? (Westpac St James Theatre, Saturday 29 March), otherwise known as the World Peace Summit for Sustainable Development 2008, and is being organised by the Yoga In Daily Life organisation founded by His Holiness Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheswarananda (known as Swamiji). Speakers include Swamiji, David Wratt, Rod Oram, Rachel Brown, Andrew West and Nick Collins – programme here. The web site says I’ll be talking about “The issues for New Zealand: What are the predicted changes; what might it mean for our lifestyle; in terms of responsibility towards other nations? What can be achieved by a strong leadership role?” Tickets cost $60 until the end of January, then $75, and are available from Ticketec.

The following week I’ll be back in town for a two day legal conference organised by LexisNexis. The Environmental and Climate Change Legal Symposium is on April 2/3, and also features some very good speakers. I’ll have to put my best foot forward to keep up with the likes of Dave Brash, Jonathon Boston, Roland Sapsford and Karen Price. It’s a bit more expensive: $1095 + GST for the two days.

Here come the warm jets

Hot Topic has devoted a lot of posts to events in the Arctic over the last northern hemisphere summer. The loss of sea ice was dramatic – there was 25% less ice in September than the previous record, set in 2005. The little graph to the left shows just far off the trend line last year’s September area really was. And as I posted yesterday, recent studies suggest that the Arctic is primed for more significant losses in the near future. If the reduction in summer sea ice continues, there are some pretty major implications for the climate of the northern hemisphere and for our modelling of the global climate, and it’s those things that I want to consider in this post. Please note: I am not a climate scientist, and there are a lot of ifs and handwaves in this argument, but bear with me…

Continue reading “Here come the warm jets”