Iceage cycles sorted, 26/5.

The latest edition of the New Scientist summarises decades of work to understand the two million years of 'wild oscillations' in the Earth's climate.

The facts: 'Immense ice sheets slowly advance across northern lands, then suddenly melt away to leave the planet basking in a relatively brief period of warmth before the ice creeps back again. Climate scientists have long suspected that these glacial cycles are triggered by changes in our planet's orbit'.

In summary: 'So the new evidence points to a coherent story. Ice sheets build up until they near the brink of stability, at which point a modest rise in summer sunshine is enough to tip them over the edge. As the ice sheets melt, fresh water is released into the Atlantic, shutting down ocean circulation and pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. As long as the combined effect of extra summer sunshine and rising CO2 outweighs the regional cooling produced by the shutdown of ocean circulation, the ice keeps melting, pouring more fresh water into the Atlantic. And the melting of a really large ice sheet keeps ocean circulation shut down for a long time, eventually pumping so much CO2 into the atmosphere that the ice sheets melt away in just a few thousand years'.

In conclusion: 'While orbital variations will continue to have a minor effect on climate, the epoch of ice ages is almost certainly over. With CO2 levels of 380 parts per million and climbing, the climate is currently on course to become like that of the Miocene 10 to 15 million years ago, long before the ice age cycle began, when it was 6 °C warmer and sea level was up to 40 metres higher. If the planet flips into a different climate regime rather than eventually returning to its pre-industrial state, the ice may never reconquer Europe and North America'.

A new clean energy initiative, 24/4.

The Economist reports: 'HAVING soared on the promise of carbon-free motoring, the idea of the “hydrogen economy” crashed and burned when it collided with reality. Hundreds of experimental hydrogen-powered cars—once hailed as the best solution for reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil for over half its consumption—are now gathering dust in manufacturers’ parking lots.

'Hydrogen’s main attraction is that when it is “burned” in a fuel-cell or an internal-combustion engine, the only emissions are heat and a wisp of water vapour. Using hydrogen as a fuel—actually, it is more accurate to refer to it as an energy carrier, since producing hydrogen requires energy from another source—therefore has the potential to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. As America has abundant supplies of coal and natural gas from which hydrogen can be made, what’s not to like about it?

Safer, cleaner nuclear power, 22/3.

'A NEW type of nuclear reactor that could permanently "destroy" atomic waste is being developed by French scientists, according to chief executive of Areva, the world's largest nuclear energy company.

'Anne Lauvergeon told The Times that the French group was developing a technology to burn up actinides -- highly radioactive uranium isotopes that are the waste products of nuclear fission inside a reactor.

'The technology could be critical in winning greater global public support for nuclear energy and cutting emissions of carbon dioxide'.

CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology says planet earth is heating, 15/3.

'EVERY state and territory in Australia has warmed over the past 50 years, according to a new assessment of the state of the nation's temperature, rainfall, oceans and atmosphere.

'Based on observational data obtained by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO, the State of The Climate report, released yesterday, is a snapshot of current conditions and projections. "We're putting it all together -- changes of temperature, rainfall, atmosphere and the oceans -- to give a complete picture for Australia," said CSIRO chief executive Megan Clark. She noted the report was the first to reveal that observed continent-wide warming was strongest in spring and weakest in summer.

' "That's something not expected by the general public," she said, noting many people assumed global warming would affect summers more than winters.

'Not only has the continent warmed, on average, by about 0.7C since 1960, some areas have experienced warming of up to 0.4C per decade, resulting in total warming of 1.5C-2.0C.
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'Rainfall has also shown variability, decreasing across southern and eastern Australia and increasing in parts of northern and central Australia. Australia's seas have also been affected by global trends. Measurements around the Southern Ocean indicate that the waters have become more acidic, as they absorb higher levels of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

''The ocean's acid balance affects the ability of organisms, such as corals and crustaceans, to build shells and support structures'.

Serious skeptics will say the CSIRO and weather officials a bunch of self-serving socialist wankers (or some similar term of abuse), but this is not good enough.  Show us how the CSIRO and the Mereorologists have got it so wrong, skeptics - play the ball not the man (or woman on the case of the CSIRO chief, ex BHP Billiton, incidentally.).

Myth of climate change collapses, 16/2.

Louis Hissink reports in: 'Henry’s gentle readers can be assured of one fact which they should be worrying about, for while the climate change myth is collapsing around the world, it seems our own media haven’t noticed it. Well the conservative media commentators have, but the rest will continue to deny it, since in their imaginary world, there is indeed a climatic catastrophe, the slow collapse of their ideological world view, which every time it accidentally intersects with physical reality, gets a drubbing.  And in the time honored practice of the intelligentsia, when things start to get tough, they simply don’t think about it, assuming that if it isn’t thought about, then it cannot exist.  Such is the world view of the intellectual'.

Climate change debate gets serious in australia, 4/2.

Henry says: 'Tony Abbott's becoming Liberal Party and opposition leader has changed the game on climate change in Australia'. 

Of course, the fiasco that was Copenhagen played into his hands, but now some of the real options are getting airtime.

Lord Monckton has been striding our stages, rolling this memorable eyes, throwing abuse at the climate change worriers and advocating unchanged policy in his to Henry patronising, often simply rude, manner.

Glaciergate has hideously embarrassed the United Nations climate change fanatics, and done great damage to the cause of those who think there is a problem.

Australia's Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett, has finally entered the debate, pleading it seems to Henry for a science-based approach to the subject and recognition that 'skeptic' should not be a term of abuse in any science-based debate.

Labor has reintroduced its ETS legislation, and there are fresh mutterings about a double dissolution election.  'Bring it on' says Tony Abbott.

More here.

Listen to skeptics says UK Chief Scientist, 27/1.

'THE impact of global warming has been exaggerated by some scientists and there is an urgent need for more honest disclosure of the uncertainty of predictions about the rate of climate change, according to the British Government's chief scientific adviser.

'John Beddington was speaking after an admission by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that it grossly over-stated the rate at which Himalayan glaciers were receding.

'Professor Beddington said that climate scientists should be less hostile to sceptics who questioned man-made global warming. He condemned scientists who refused to publish the data underpinning their reports'.

'Climate science on thin ice', says Cameron Stewart, 19/1.

'THE prediction, if true, was an apocalyptic one. The "rapid melting" of thousands of glaciers across the Himalayas would lead to deadly floods, followed by severe long-term water shortages across the food bowl of central Asia.

'The melting glaciers would cause havoc to water supplies feeding Asia's nine largest rivers, including the Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow rivers, affecting hundreds of millions of people.

'The result, according to a 2005 report by environmental group WWF, would be "massive eco and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and northern India".

The WWF's claim the 2400km Himalayan range was experiencing a rapid retreat in its glaciers was supported in stronger terms only two years later by the peak UN body on climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

'In its 2007 report, the IPCC concluded: "Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the earth keeps warming at the current rate."

'It was a sweeping, bold and alarmist prediction by the IPCC, and one that raised eyebrows among many of the small group of experts who study the behaviour of the world's glaciers.

'But the IPCC defended its glacier claims vigorously, with IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri recently describing those who cast doubt upon them as practitioners of "voodoo science".

'Yet today it is the powerful IPCC that stands accused of practising voodoo science in relation to its sweeping claims about the melting of Himalayan glaciers following revelations its apocalyptic predictions were based on little more than "speculation".'

Abbott, volunteers will fix Murray-Darling, 15/1.

'TONY Abbott has promised to take control of the Murray-Darling Basin if he wins the next election, vowing to hold a constitutional referendum if the states resist the takeover.

'In his first major policy speech since winning the Liberal leadership, Mr Abbott said last night that Kevin Rudd's "obsession" with climate change had led the government to neglect the nation's biggest environmental challenges, including the ailing river system.

'The Opposition Leader revealed that he wanted to build a volunteer conservation corps - a 15,000-strong "green army" to tackle practical projects including weeds, pollution and feral animals in national parks'.

Sideline the UN, 12/1.

Anthony Giddens, a former director of the London School of Economics, has found the gleam of light admidst the catastrophe that was Copenhagen.  'Sideline the UN', let groups of large greenhouse gas emitters get together and work on a plan.

Managing water at RIO, 7/1.

This interview with RIO's CEO, Tom Albanese, will be of interest. It comes courtesy McKinsey Quarterly.

'What we find—and we have the same issue with carbon—is that water
conservation within an existing facility, to some extent, has some limitations on how much you
can actually do, because certain processes just use a lot of water.

'Looking forward, probably the most important part of our strategy would be ensuring that
future facilities that we build or future mines that we develop are actually designed from the
very beginning with the principles of water conservation.'

Temperature data escalates climate change debate, 6/12.

Peter Garrett and the Labor Party today argued that climate data for 2009 proves global warming is real.

2009 was the second hottest Australian year on record according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The Australian reports, 'Environment Minister Peter Garrett said today the finding that Australia's annual mean temperature for 2009 was 0.9C above the 1961-90 average exposed Tony Abbott's false climate change claim that global warming has stopped.

“This false and misleading claim is today shown to be completely at odds with the rigorous scientific findings of the independent experts at the Bureau of Meteorology,” Mr Garrett said.

“This is the latest Abbott climate-change clanger to be exposed by the independent experts and once again shows why Mr Abbott cannot be trusted when it comes to climate change.”'

These new statistics will certainly escalate the climate change debate as Australia prepares for a federal election.