A Brief History…

UPDATE: The Bali Conference is going on but they have probably not considered this. The article is here and the conclusion says: “The observed pattern of warming, comparing surface and atmospheric temperature trends, does not show the characteristic fingerprint associated with greenhouse warming. The inescapable conclusion is that the human contribution is not significant and that observed increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases make only a negligible contribution to climate warming.”

Oh oh.

Another UPDATE: This essay says pretty much what I believe about global warming. The linked article is interesting, though.
” But throughout the 20th century, solar cycles had been increasing in strength. Almost everyone agrees that throughout most of the last century the solar influence was significant. Studies show that by the end of the 20th century the Sun’s activity may have been at its highest for more than 8,000 years. Other solar parameters have been changing as well, such as the magnetic field the Sun sheds, which has almost doubled in the past century. But then things turned. In only the past decade or so the Sun has started a decline in activity, and the lateness of cycle 24 is an indicator.

Astronomers are watching the Sun, hoping to see the first stirrings of cycle 24. It should have arrived last December. The United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted it would start in March 2007. Now they estimate March 2008, but they will soon have to make that even later. The first indications that the Sun is emerging from its current sunspot minimum will be the appearance of small spots at high latitude. They usually occur some 12-20 months before the start of a new cycle. These spots haven’t appeared yet so cycle 24 will probably not begin to take place until 2009 at the earliest. The longer we have to wait for cycle 24, the weaker it is likely to be. Such behaviour is usually followed by cooler temperatures on Earth.”

Here comes the new Ice Age.

End UPDATES

Recently, I posted a piece about the loss by John Howard to Kevin Rudd in the Australian election. Part of Rudd’s campaign platform was “immediate action on climate change.” They disdained the Howard coalition government’s caution and said: “Unlike the Coalition’s Climate Change Fund – which starts in 2012 alongside an emissions trading scheme – Labor’s plan is fully costed and will start next year.”

Rudd is now PM and attended the Global Warming jamboree in Bali. What did he learn between the election and now ? The cost of his good intentions. Note the headline. “Rudd made progress towards Kyoto ratification his first executive act, a sharp way to symbolise the break from Howard’s era. Delegates to the UN conference in Bali applauded when informed (most such delegates represented nations that have no binding targets under Kyoto anyway). But by week’s end the reality of climate change policy was superseding the switch in Kyoto symbolism. As expected, Rudd said his Government’s 2020 emissions target would not be decided until the mid-2008 report from Ross Garnaut. Australia has no intention of being trapped into the 25-40 per cent emissions cut by 2020 that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change proposed for developed nations.

This betrayed the real political moral of the week: how quickly the gulf is opening between the Rudd Government and the scientific or green lobby groups in Bali and elsewhere demanding radical outcomes. This conflict, sooner or later, will assume epic dimensions.”

Well, that may set a record for the appearance of reality after an election.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 3:36 pm and is filed under general, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.