Unthreaded
interesting report on biofuels on the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13056862
Today the original comments all seem to be re-instated on Simon's blog ...
http://slsingh.posterous.com/response-to-fraser-nelsons-blog
This is a crisis as big as war and you couldn't trade your ration book in the wartime. You were allowed three ounces of butter a week, or whatever, and that was it. And this is what it should be like with carbon. None of this carbon trading. We should have a fixed limit and if you use it all up in October, then tough, you shiver for the rest of the year."-Philip Pullman, author of children's books
This may be a bit parochial. But as I am about to go off on holiday, and the 12-month milestone of my little blog approaches on my return, I am hoping to get a better idea of what interest there is in climate in schools that intersects with my materials and readership:
http://climatelessons.blogspot.com/2011/04/climate-lessons-pausing-for-break.html
Any comments would be welcome.
I suggest that this article by Liam Halligan in today's Sunday Telegraph ("The BRIC countries’ Hainan summit could make the G20 redundant") is both interesting in itself and relevant to whether the UK's attempt to cut emissions is likely to make the remotest difference - apart, that is, from destroying our economy. The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) plus other fast-developing economies, such as South Africa, are increasingly gaining economic and political power and influence. They are beginning to set the agenda and patently have no real interest in the West's obsession with climate change and no intention of cutting emissions (viz. their torpedoing of the Copenhagen Conference) - hardly surprising as fossil fuels are the driving force of their economies, inter alia lifting hundreds of millions of people out of abject poverty. The idea that we can "provide leadership" on this issue is as absurd as it is embarrassing. Here's a quotation from an article by Oliver Letwin (Cabinet Office minister):
… this is an issue of moral leadership – we absolutely have to establish moral leadership on the issue of climate change ... Those of us who made the case at Copenhagen for a carbon cap now have a moral obligation to show that we are true to our word by delivering green changes in our own countries. Doing so will send a signal to more reluctant countries that we are serious, and will help build the conditions necessary to reach a global agreement to act.
Hmm ... perhaps he sees it as the White Man's Burden.
The Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) today published an Information Note on the performance of the UK renewables sector in 2010 based on analysis of new DECC and Ofgem data (see www.ref.org.uk). The work shows that the 2010 target for renewable electricity has been missed by a large margin, and confirms longstanding doubts as to the feasibility of this target, and the still more ambitious target for 2020.
http://www.ref.org.uk/press-releases/230-2010-renewables-target-missed-by-large-margin
Lets see if this makes the rounds of Whitehall or even the BBC.
Anthony Watts has come up with another great idea, a feature called Climate FAILS which is intended to be a crowd-sourced record of AGW claims that have not materialized such as Hansen's prediction the the East Side fo Manhattan would be under water by 2000 or the UN's 50,000,000 climate refugees. See wattsupwiththat.com/2011/04/16/new-permanent-feature-the-climate-fail-files-help-needed
In the unlikely event that anyone here actually wants a copy .. But note the cover. And the title. And the comments. It is tempting to say that one couldn't give it away -- but that is refuted by the fact that there are 42 seeders as I write this.
New frontiers in climate litigation. Note that you'll have to pay money, or assume the identity of a googlebot, if you want to read Hayward's WSJ link.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/04/ron-arnold-suppressed-epa-hushgate-climate-report-returns-snag-co2-regula
Here,s another from the Examiner