jennifermarohasy.com/blog - The Politics and Environment Blog

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Miniposts 0.6.5

Surface-based Temperature Records
THE warmaholics are fond of using the phrase “official records going back to 1850″, but the simple facts are that prior to the 1970s, surface-based temperatures from a few indiscriminate, mostly backyard locations in Europe and the US are fatally corrupted and not in any sense a real record.  Read more here. (0)

Crazy Claims from Climate Scientist
This is absured, but true: Australia’s use of coal and carbon emissions policies are guaranteeing the “destruction of much of the life on the planet”, a leading NASA scientist has written in a letter to Barack Obama.  Read more here. (4)

Learning by Candlelight
As I waited night after night for the electricity to return, candlelight kept teaching me about moving air’s talent for removing heat, hampering any effort to keep warmth “down here” by constantly sending it up and away.   Read more here. (0)

People Powered Gym
A US gym has installed specially-adapted exercise bikes that recycle energy generated by people as they work out.   Read more here. (0)

Flying on Vegetable Oil
A passenger plane has successfully completed a two-hour test flight partly powered by vegetable oil.  Read more here. (2)

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Tag: Drought (RSS -RSS 2)

More Drought for Southern Australia?

Based on the 130 years of data, Baker predicts that the current solar cycle, which reached a minimum in 2007, will continue a bit longer. In fact, he says, “there could be a 100-year minimum in solar activity,” meaning much of Australia could experience a prolonged drought.  Read more here.

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Australian Parliamentarian, and Sceptic, Banned Prevented from Tabling Climate Data

DR Dennis Jensen BAppSc (RMIT), MSc (Melb), PhD (Monash) is the only member of the Australian Parliament with any training in science a PhD in a science discipline. 
[As correctly pointed out in the comments following this posting, my brother Jim Turnour, also a member of the Federal Parliament, has a Batchelor of Agricultural Science.  Other [...]

How Melbourne’s Climate Has Changed: A reply to Dr David Jones (Part 3)

Rainfall data back to 1863 does not support the claim made by the Head of Climate Analysis at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology that there has been recent unusual climate change in Melbourne.

Virtual Science for Australian Drought Policy Review

Australia could experience drought twice as often and the events will be twice as severe within 20 to 30 years, according to a new Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO report.
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Tony Burke yesterday released the report commissioned by the Rudd Government as part of a review of national drought policy.
According [...]

Climate Change, Growing Populations and Political Concerns are Prompting a Fresh Look at Desalination

Water has always been a volatile topic in Australia, the world’s driest inhabited continent, but the political row that broke out last week was perhaps surprising. Protesters are complaining that a planned desalination facility outside Melbourne, Victoria, will generate too much freshwater.
As Neil Rankine ( a spokesman for protest group Your Water Your Say) and [...]

Beyond Media Headlines: The Key Issues for the Macquarie Marshes

Media reports yesterday** correctly drew attention to the fact that there are levy banks within the Macquarie Marshes and that they are depriving key wetland areas of water.
But the stories went on to lump upstream legal and planned irrigation development that makes allocations for environmental flows with legal and illegal levies on grazing land within [...]

Murray River Tributary Reduced to Billabongs

While the Murray River is flowing strongly despite the drought, many of its tributaries are drying up.
Yesterday I visited the Wakool River with Wakool Landholders Association Chairman John Lolicato.
He showed me a spot downstream of Gee Gee bridge where there is still water in deep holes. A bit upstream the river has been [...]

Rain Misses Murray-Darling Catchment

The heavy rain which has fallen across southern Australia in the past few days and caused flooding in parts of Victoria, has hardly made a dent in the record low storage levels of the Murray-Darling system.
ABC News: ‘Murray-Darling still in trouble despite welcome rain’
Thanks to Luke Walker for the link

Rain Fails to Boost Confidence in the Future of Farming

Rain may have fallen over parts of south-eastern Australia over the weekend - in some places to the point of flooding - but the confidence of farmers in the future of their businesses has fallen to its lowest level this year, results from Westpac and Charles Sturt University reveals.
ABC News: ‘Farmer confidence hits yearly low [...]

Drought and the ‘07 Election

The Coalition will not fund future drought preparedness measures as part of its agricultural election policy, due out in a fortnight, but will stick with its existing drought assistance measures despite calls for change from State Governments and the National Farmers Federation.
farmonline: ‘Election ‘07: Drought preparedness not in Coalition ag policy’