Global Warming - How Valid and Serious?

Aussiejeff said:

Good read, Smurf1976.

In fact, his very last *recommended* option of "putting on warmer clothing" rather than using more energy for space heating was the one we used last year that cut over 35% off our winter gas space heating bill. All we did was buy one of those ultra-light-weight thermally efficient Made-in-China blankets for our bed, then turned down the comfort setting for night operation by 3.5C (from 18.5C to 15C).

Honestly, apart from having to dash a bit to the closet to jump into our tracksuits and ugg boots, we coped easily with the change. Mind you, it makes it a lot easier not being encumbered with screeching young'uns demanding 25C all year round "or else"!. LOL

Can you imagine all those thousands of nasty, black, CO2 balloons we must have kept grounded too!!

New Years Cheers,

AJ

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Sydney saves 57b litres of water in 2007
Posted 8 hours 5 minutes ago

New figures from Sydney Water show Sydneysiders have saved about 57 billion litres of water this year.

The State Government has applauded residents for using significantly less water now than in 1974, despite the population rising by 1.2 million.

Water Utilities Minister Nathan Rees says in 1974 one person used an average of 519 litres of water per day. In 2007 it fell to 464 litres

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Julia said:

Do you run your air conditioning/heating all year round, AJ?

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Aussiejeff said:

Hi Julia.

Barring the occasional unforeseen extreme weather event, for about 2 months in the changeover between early autumn and late autumn - we rarely have ducted gas heating on, and in the changeover between early spring to late spring - almost never have the ducted evaporative cooling on. So in total, about 4 months with virtually no use of either system.

While it has been possible to reduce the heating bill significantly with very little outlay and some judicious re-programming of the controller, lowering the cooling bill would take a lot more moolah (would need to install lots more roofing insulation, double-glazed windows etc, etc. Since we are paying rent for the house, this definitely won't happen unless the landlord wants to personally lash out big time!

Cheers,

AJ

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Melbourne is expected to have its hottest day in 2007 on Monday, a year climate experts say is Victoria's hottest on record.

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Smurf1976 said:

let's hope no idiots start fires - I'm sure the firefighters don't want to spend New Year's Eve running around with hoses trying to save houses etc.

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Where did you get that hat? (1953)
To his wife, the Queen, immediately after her coronation

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For conservation to be successful it is necessary to take into consideration that it is a characteristic of man that he can only be relied upon to do anything consistently which is in his own interest. He may have occasional fits of conscience and moral rectitude but otherwise his actions are governed by self-interest. It follows then that whatever the moral reasons for conservation it will only be achieved by the inducement of profit or pleasure.
World Wildlife Fund: British National Appeal Banquet, London, (1962)

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...man must accept responsibilities in proportion to his power and, if we are to exercise these responsibilities so that all life can continue on earth, they must have a moral and philosophical basis. Simple self-interest, economic profit and absolute materialism are no longer enough... It has been made perfectly clear that a concern for any part of life on this planet - human, plant or animal, wild or tame - is a concern for all life. A threat to any part of the environment is a threat to the whole environment, but we must have a basis of assessment of these threats, not so that we can establish a priority of fears, but so that we can make a positive contribution to improvement and ultimate survival.

.........
It is an old cliche to say that the future is in the hands of the young. This is no longer true. The quality of life to be enjoyed or the existence to be survived by our children and future generations is in our hands now.
The World Wildlife Fund Congress, London, (1970)

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treefrog said:

I'll know we are serious about global warming when:
but I'm sure the current decission makers will have some reason for moving the clock the wrong way - its just that I haven't heard one yet

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Smurf1976 said:

Record power demand in Victoria today. Peaked about 4:40pm local time but it was over the previous record for quite a while.

Energy demand keeps going up, up and up. People may well be concerned, but not enough to actually switch anything off it would seem.

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Record power use in Vic heatwave
Posted 5 hours 51 minutes ago
Updated 5 hours 24 minutes ago

Victoria's hot weather has led to record power use across the state.

The national body in charge of power supply, NEMMCO says Victoria set a new record this afternoon, when usage reached 9,100 megawatts.

Power use is expected to continue to climb with temperatures still rising across the state.

The temperature in Melbourne has reached 41 degrees Celsius. At Mildura, the high so far has been 42 degrees and 37 degrees at Ballarat.

Paul Bird from NEMMCO says despite the demand for power caused by the use of air conditioners, there are a lot of reserves in place.

"We still have around about 16 or 17 per cent of power reserves in place and we're very confident that we'll meet not only today's peak demand with the hot weather, but also tomorrow," he said.

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Fire authorities are predicting tomorrow's hot weather will bring the worst fire conditions so far this summer.

Firefighters were today fighting a grass fire near Portland in Victoria's far south west, that has burnt about 100 hectares.

A top temperature of 40 is predicted, with winds gusting up to 80 kilometres an hour.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment's Kevin Love says the strong winds will make any fires difficult to control.

"Combined with the very dry conditions particularly in grassland that is indicative of a very high fire danger day," he said.

"So we're asking people to be very careful and the DSE and CFA have declared tomorrow a day of total fire ban."

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Motormouth said:

And anyway, even if every nation meets its obligations under the Kyoto agreement, the Earth won’t be saved. In fact, the heat expected in 2020 would arrive in 2026. So we ruin our lives to buy just six more years.

The fact is this. Global warming’s coming, so you can don your King Canute hat and stand on the beach waving your Toyota Prius at the advancing heatwave, but it won’t make a ha’p’orth of difference.

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wayneL said:

I'm beginning to think Jeremy Clarkson is right:


Eat, drink and burn fossil fuel, for tomorrow we die.

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2020hindsight said:

they say a picture tells a thousand words ...

... :evilburn: .......:bad: ...... :nosympath.........:viking:........

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2020hindsight said:

they say a picture tells a thousand words ...

... :evilburn: .......:bad: ...... :nosympath.........:viking:........

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