Jennifer Marohasy

”We compare new observationally-based data sets of Antarctic near-surface air temperature and snowfall accumulation with 20th century simulations from global climate models (GCMs) that support the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report. Annual Antarctic snowfall accumulation trends in the GCMs agree with observations during 1960–1999, and the sensitivity of snowfall accumulation to near-surface [...]

A former resident of Canberra complained today on talkback radio about how the city had become “tatty” during her brief absence. Apparently her family now lives somewhere up the north coast and have green lawns. The difference I reckoned was that the ACT region has missed out again in late autumn with our miserable share [...]

Using evidence from an Antarctic ice core, Zebee and Caldiera calculated that over a period of 610,000 years the long-term change in atmospheric CO2 concentration was just 22 parts per million volume (ppmv), although there were larger fluctuations associated with the transitions between glacial and interglacial conditions.
By comparison, two centuries of human industry have raised [...]

The recent prediction by the head of Caltex Australia that the price of oil may very well double the already record highs for crude, have only heightened concerns about the security of Australia’s future fuel supplies. The Federal Government, for instance, has launched a national energy security assessment.
As oil production in Australian fields declines, the [...]

The United States and the European Union have taken a “criminal path” by contributing to an explosive rise in global food prices through using food crops to produce biofuels, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food said today.
At a press conference in Geneva, Jean Ziegler of Switzerland said that fuel policies pursued [...]

The latest research from scientists in Antarctica reveals the deep ocean around the frozen continent is becoming less salty and that this could play a major role in changing ocean currents and the climate. New details about changes to salinity are coming from deep beneath the sea ice, courtesy of satellite tagged seals. This unique [...]

Funny, the things that you see in nature, like this humanoid face on the cephalothorax of a golden orb-weaver, Nephila pilipes.
I have previously described aspects of this spectacular species of spider, here and here. With this instalment, the adult female in the image below descended from her web on the 19th April to build [...]

Fred Singer, one of the world’s renowned scientists, believes in Martians. I discovered this several weeks ago while reading his biography on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. “Do you really believe in Martians?” I asked him last week, at a chance meeting at a Washington event. The answer was “No.”
Wikipedia’s error was neither isolated nor inadvertent. [...]

In case anyone didn’t notice, the UK Treasury is the epicentre of climate related reports and also benefits from the resultant so called ‘green taxes.’ Nicholas Stern was a member of the Treasury at the time of the Stern Review on the economics of climate change, which was based on extreme computer modelled scenarios. [...]

This morning’s Ockham’s Razor broadcast was by Don Aitkin on global warming. Presenter Robyn Williams introduced him in these terms:
“It is one of the disappointments of my life as a broadcaster that I’ve never managed to interview Nigella Lawson. How would she fit into a science program you may wonder, but that’s mere detail.
I have, [...]