I have a Guest Post on Watts Up

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/11/02/who-are-the-climate-fools-climate-fools-day/#comment-521479

Their Lordships are debating energy policy and climate change this afternoon.

http://services.parliament.uk/calendar/#/calendar/Lords/MainChamber/2010/11/2/events.html

Good post over at Pielke Jr's on the predictive power of Paul the (recently deceased) octopus.

http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2010/11/did-paul-rip-have-skill.html

It raises some interesting quesions about predictions and the blinkers used in selecting them.

A while back it was hinted that RP Jr was going to be giving a talk in London this month, anyone know if it's on, and where/when?

Abrupt shifts in climate can occur over much shorter timescales. Greenland ice cores record that during the last glacial stage (100,000 – 11,500 years ago) the temperature there alternately warmed and cooled several times by more than 10ºC 26,27. This was accompanied by major climate change around the northern hemisphere, felt particularly strongly in the North Atlantic region. Each warm and cold episode took just a few decades to develop and lasted for a few hundred years. The climate system in those glacial times was clearly unstable and liable to switch rapidly with little warning between two contrasting states. These changes were almost certainly caused by changes in the way the oceans transported heat between the hemispheres.

Does that mean that considered geological opinion is that the climate is normally in a stable state?

The Geol Soc statement is on balance a great disappointment. A bit of a curates egg. Initially there seemed to be reasonable discussion of the dramatic natural swings of climate in the geological record. It demonstates the transience of climate stability that is the natural state of the planet. I had hoped that it would truthfully stess the complexity of past influences on climate, and the continuing uncertainty both of past drivers, and the role of the potency, or lack of, the influencial significance of varying CO2 atmospheric concentrations. That at the present state of the art there is a heated ongoing controversy in the scientific community concerning the feedback mechanism. However the statement deteriorated into impugning CO2 at every available opportunity, based on opinion rather than hard evidence.

The Geol Soc Climate Change Statement is out. Have not yet had a chance to digest it

http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/views/policy_statements/climatechange

Crimes against humanity"

"Is climate science disinformation a crime against humanity?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/nov/01/climate-science-disinformation-crime

Central England air temperatures from 1659 to present:

Annual average temp in Celcius since 2000

2000 10.3
2001 9.93
2002 10.6
2003 10.5
2004 10.48
2005 10.44
2006 10.82
2007 10.48
2008 9.96
2009 10.11
2010 ????

Bets now being taken with two months to go, will it be higher than 2009, will it be lower?

My best guess will be 9.5 +- 0.2 degrees celsius the lowest since 1996 which was 9.2.

Spin greater than that required for nuclear isotope separation:

http://joannenova.com.au/2010/10/funeral-for-property-rights/

Do you know that the Southwest of Western Australia is a UN-declared “biodiversity hotspot?” I ask you this: If property owners are so bad, how could we possibly have such a diversity of flora and fauna in the southwest of our state when it has been held in and managed by private hands for the last 130 years? Sid lays a wreath today for the negative impact of “Biodiversity Corridors” on Private Property Rights.

The actuality is that the biodiversity hotspot is in unfarmed heathlands. The corridors are to allow separated heathlands to exchange fauna, sometimes flora.

There's nothing sinister about this. The biodiversity is fantastic. It exists because the land is so marginal (do some research on biodiversity) The complaints are about people trying to convert very marginal land and being foiled.

For most. Just come to Western Australia in late winter/early spring and travel to the mid-west (South-west as well but not as good) Look at the incredible burst of wildflowers and associated fauna. Be impressed.

Heads up for what could be an interesting program.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/what-the-green-movement-got-wrong