Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

What to Listen to, and Read, this Week

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Consider this an open thread.  Let other readers of this blog know what you are listening to, and reading, this week by way of a comment.

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This blog is about community, and access to information.  Information that is not politically correct or even fashionable…  But hopefully well considered.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. el gordo says

    Doing some detective work (looking for a lead) and I came across an email from Michael Mann to Tom Crowley dated 2 January 2007.

    ‘…meanwhile, winter warmth could have been due to a strong AO/NAO pattern associated with decreased volcanism and high solar, as discussed in the various Shindell et al paper.’

    ‘This simply underscores the point that we all often make, that one needs to take into account regional factors when interpreting regional records. This is especially relevant to the extrapolation of a long record from England to the entire NH (which appears to have been tacitly done by Jack Eddy?), mike.’

    Climate flips from warm to cool and back again, so we should look at regions for the warming/cooling signals. Luke is correct in linking SWWA as a possible discussion point and there are many others. For example, in Japan the corals are moving further north.

  3. spangled drongo says

    Yes, Malcolm, beautiful.

    What I am mainly listening to are the birds. I data log them on a weekly basis to try to get a handle on how they are all surviving and some of the most amazing are the various cuckoos. Just how they fool their victims into raising their young.

    This morning I found a newly fledged Koel being fed by both Noisy Friarbirds and Spangled Drongos. I don’t know which birds raised it but it was so successful in begging for food that many were happy to feed it.

    The various cuckoos fly around all summer with a bellyfull of eggs, dropping them [it seems] in any nest that presents itself. They obviously raise a lot more cuckoos this way.

    Remember that old Joan Baez song? “When you hear them cuckoos callin’, it’s a sign of rain buddy, it’s a sign of rain”.

    Well, this year they brought the floods so they must be doin’ OK.

  4. hunter says

    Here in the States we are recovering from freeze damage in our yrards and gardens, and prepping for Mardis Gras and SXSW
    http://sxsw.com/
    Jennifer,
    Your blog is a delight and and I am honored to support it in my own small way.

  7. val majkus says

    I know our NZ colleagues will need messages of support
    and here’s one place to send them:
    It’s a NZ website
    http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/2011/02/hone-is-a-lovely-man/
    I’ve left the following message
    Richard and all my NZ friends whom I’ve met on this site – we in Australia are seeing the news of what happened in Christchurch
    the best of luck to you and yours and to everyone in Christchurch
    from Toowoomba and I’m sure all in Australia to whom NZ is a much cherished neighbour

    I know there will be many others who share my feelings and I encourage Jen’s readers to leave a message of support there

    http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/2011/02/hone-is-a-lovely-man/

    please provide a message; I know many of Jen’s readers are so emphathetic

  8. val majkus says

    Debbie thanks for your comment; I’m hoping Jen will provide a post from you and link to documents including the transcript on line
    Even if we could obtain an update to now with further submissions to come on line
    I’d be very interested and I do have further comments

  9. Jennifer Marohasy says

    Stewart Franks on SBS Television tonight…

    As Christchurch reels from today’s earthquake, it’s been a summer of devastating rains and cyclones here in Australia. First, floods that claimed more than 30 lives and damaged thousands of homes and then, Cyclone Yasi. and today, another cyclone – Carlos – has been buffeting the West Australian Pilbara coast. So, what’s going on? What is this phenomenon called La Nina, responsible for all the wild, wet weather, and what’s likely to come? That’s what Insight is talking about tonight.

    http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/index/id/346#transcript

  10. Malcolm Hill says

    http://www.populartechnology.net/2010/04/correcting-misinformation-about-journal.html

    Here is something for the village idiot from Queensland to contemplate, with his incessant attempts at put downs towards E&E.

    As an additional observation, the Bach reference by me as above is also a metaphor for how most of these faux scientists judge the quality and relevance of any scientific paper by where its published and by whom….ie they are that bereft of any intellect and integrity, they can only judge a book by its cover, not the points being made.

    By the same token if one judges Martha Argeric by her shetland pony hair style, one would be missing out of a real tour de force of musicianship….so thats their loss.

  11. ralph says

    I don’t know how many have been following the newly revived debate in Victoria about alpine cattle grazing, but the one sure thing is that, like climate change, it is being conducted along tribal lines — VNPA and assorted greenies immediately taking sides against the experimental use of 400 cows in six small areas of a 700,000 hectare park to see if their presence reduces fuel loads and bushfire risk.

    Contrary to what you might have read, there is a substantial body of research that indicates cattle have reduced the risk and that there impact has been vastly overstated by the park “managers” who, as we know, let the High Country burn in 2003, due to their preference for theory over practicality.

    Anyway, The Age has yet to present a single word from cattleman or Mark Adams, the Sydney Uni researcher doing the study, but day after day its green fanatic reporters have broadcast any and every slur by opponents.

    There is a stinging dissection of the Age and its coverage of the issue here, if anyone is interested:

    http://maguidhir.blogspot.com/2011/02/age-truth-and-alpine-grazing.html

  12. el gordo says

    Yeah, nice one, Stewart Franks looks locally for Luke’s signal.

    ‘If we, for instance, had a category five cyclone that went barrelling into Tasmania, I think we could then have much stronger evidence. The fact is that carbon dioxide – the signal of carbon dioxide – is lost in the noise of natural climate variability. That in itself indicates that at present, at least, it’s not a significant impact if it’s impacting at all.’

  13. bazza says

    El Gordo goes for his little cherry , not the tree of knowledge: “Yeah, nice one, Stewart Franks looks locally for Luke’s signal” and Jenny enjoins us to watch the Stuart Franks show. Spare me. Scott Power actually took the high ground on that show with clear evidence that Franks should get deblinkered. He then politely demolished the rest of the stable: Franks hobby horse ( not suprising since Power did much of the serious original research anyway) and Power cautions us to not get too excited that we are about to embark on La Nina dominated decades, as Franks spruiks. The Power correction was ” Largely the causality goes from changes from ENSO to IPO”.
    There are but two ways to be a mug: argue with one or argue without evidence. So !

  16. el gordo says

    Bazza

    Power was doing fine, even Franks said he is a reasonable person, but when Power got up a full head of steam he failed.

    ‘Greenhouse gases are at higher levels than they’ve ever been for hundreds of thousands of years. The only way our climate models can replicate the rapid warming that we’ve seen is if we put in the human increases in greenhouse gases.’

    Ha, ha, ha….

  17. bazza says

    Comi-tragic that El Gordo. When a sad lad, they laughed when he said he was going to be a comedian -they are not laughing now.

  18. el gordo says

    Stewart Franks doesn’t have much faith in the models and his concern is soundly based.

    Also, the bulk of the audience seemed to think natural variability was responsible for the floods and not AGW, so I think the scientists getting bag loads of grant money should be developing an exit strategy as the world naturally cools over the next 20 years.

    This is nothing to laugh about, but from a scientific viewpoint it’s very exciting to watch.

  19. Malcolm Hill says

    “There are but two ways to be a mug: argue with one or argue without evidence. So !”

    There is a third ..getting sucked in by so called scientists who have produced evidence that has been manipulated, or they have manipulated the process to achieve the same outcome, all designed to further their own agendas at public expense.

    Several names spring to mind, Mann, Hansen, Bradley, Hughes, Briffa, Jones etal….and of course the worlds greatest scientists, Gore and Pachauri.