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The coming ice age?


IMO
 
smurf
good summary - my point was probably that you are at risk of equating the tasmanian greens with IPCC. IPCC would I'm sure be happy to discuss nuclear for instance. (plenty of graphs already presented)

Personally I believe Aus - like most of the world - will be nuclear within 100years ((just as France is 75% nuclear as we speak). But in the meantime, (cos that ain't gonna happen yet it seems) let's look at clean energy options, even the carbon capture stuff I guess (though I have reservations, despite the wholehearted embrace of the Aus Coal Industry).

PS All POWER POLLUTES ?
does that mean that ABSOLUTE POWER POLLUTES ABSOLUTELY?

wayneL said:
BHP shareholders vs BHP and their contractors
As for BHP in say the iron ore industry .... where all of Australia rides on the miners' backs these days ...

If you could charge them (which you strictly can't) with the "sins" of the Chinese smelters because they are in the same industry - then their footprint would be much larger.

But likewise they mine uranium, which is one of the cleanest of all energies - and the only practical one imo for the power requirements of a modern world -

so with that approach, - averaging across those two - they probably come out looking pretty good.

Simply mining the stuff (either coal, oil, or uranium) is the clean end of the chain.

metric said:
this thread
Hey if a 2 or 3 month delay in the arrival of the first solar sunspot is gonna herald a mild 11 year solar cycle (bold claim) maybe two (bolder still) then that would indeed be a major cause for celebration. Bludy unlikely it would trigger an ice age you'd think - but might buy us some time to get our act together here on Earth with some sustainability instead of a lemming-like charge into a pretty sick looking future.
 

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The Tasmanian Greens are a proxy for the Green movement in general much like McDonalds is for take away food. Love them or loath them, the Tasmanian Greens are simply the current version of what was the world's first Green political party.

In the Australian context, that party, Bob brown and the Greens in general are, politically, the dominant face of the Australian environmental movement.

The primary problem I have with them is their focus on dams, forests, pulp mills and so on. All of which are examples of substantially or totally reversible damage. Meanwhile they support the constant growth of aviation, the ulitmate example of permanent damage to the environment. Hence I see it as conservation (dams, forests, pulp mills) on one side, sustainability (aviation, oil, gas etc) on the other.

The Australian environmental politicians focus almost exclusively on conservation, often at the expense of sustainability. The general pattern being save the river / forest or whatever and develop mass tourism as an economic alternative. That's an awful lot of aviation fuel they're burning and CO2 produced in order to conserve something that could be restored far more easily than oil can be put back in the ground or CO2 taken from the air.

As for nuclear power, to be perfectly honest I think we'll end up using every power source that works. That's certainly the track we're on. We'll drill, dam, mine, farm and react everything we can to keep the lights on and the wheels turning. I'm not advocating it, but I think it will happen as we won't give up on constant growth easily given that the entire economic system depends on it.
 


SMURF - you are flogging a dead horse somewhat and for my i've seen the Franklin 8 times by water and 2 times by air, for what it's worth I think Gordon below Franklin would not have been a disaster, just a shame that we all would have had to live with to support our power hungry lifestyle. Anyway it's protected, get on with the rest of the debate.

Forget conservation for conservations sake, it needs justification. The real debate is more broadly sustainability v's recognisable capacity. If CO2 emissions are unsustainable (no real evidence yet) then we need to look at relatively "sustainable" energy options like some of those you mentioned ie: harness energy from things with long term potential energy.

My preference is for geothermal, however, will this ultimately lead to heating the atmosphere and encouraging a greenhouse effect (no study done yet that I've heard of - one for the environmental scientists). My other preference is for modern tidal. No you don't need a dam, that's old school, we are talking propellers in the current and if housed properly no dead fish (better than killing migratory birds).

Basically we need very long term solutions not short to medium term cycle solutions such as biofuel (short) and dams (medium term).

Note - all power generation needs metal whether it be steel for pipes or copper wire for transmission. If you want power, heat, hot water, lights and the occasional electric massage ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES.

Also - you can become part of the solution - how? by micro-power generation, start your own windmill, it may not be totally efficient like a 65m tall three bladed monster but just harness some energy locally. Also consider the creek nearest you, does it run very often, do you have a right to plonk a small paddle wheel in it? Consider heating water on your north facing roof before it goes into your hot water cylinder etc. BECOME PART OF THE SOLUTION IF YOU REALLY CARE.
 
nuclear is the best option by far. modern plants are very safe and efficient, we have an abundance of uranium, and plenty of wide open spaces to store the waste. and the waste won't be an issue for long anyway as we'll just be able to send it into the sun. i don't understand the objections to nuclear power when we compare it to our current situation and options.
 
The greens have done more to damage the enviroment than they have done to save it.

By the pressure to save forests they have saved some and caused the ruin of many others. Every time the timber harvesting forestry department did a good job or managing forests the greens protested at any logging and had the forest taken from the forestry and placed in the hands of the national parks. This has caused the forestry to concentrate on clear felling and mono culture forestry. A lot of the national parks that I visit now are in worse condition now than they were when they were regularly logged. A lot of national parks could easily be managed better with some timber harvesting. A lot of the forests would have been better for the enviroment and biodiversity if managed as native forests.

As far as dams are concerned the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Visit any dam in Australia and you will find a scenic visiting spot with boating, fishing and camping which will out do any of the previous natural facilities. That is before you look at the financial employment and lifestyle benefits that the management of the water creates. I say damn the greenies and dam some more rivers.
 
SMURF - you are flogging a dead horse somewhat
As I said, I'm NOT advocating building that or any other dam. Just making the point that if you want power then something somewhere suffers some sort of impact. If you don't want that impact to be CO2 then you have to accept some other impact be it nuclear, dams, wind or whatever.

There ain't no free lunch and there ain't no pollution free power. All that changes is who pays and what form the pollution takes.
 

Somewhat off topic but the attached video is a lecture by Craig Venter, a biologist involved in genetics.
He talks about his research into "fourth-generation fuels" (amongst other things ) -- biologically created fuels using CO2 as their feedstock.
Basically, he sees a future of taking captured CO2 from sites and converting it to methane to drive the process in real time.
Thinks they might have the first 4th generation fuels in 18 months.

Limited only by a biological reality and their imagination

Welcome to the future of genetics :hide:

Over a 30 min video - relevant from about 10 - 15 mins.

 
Sounds pretty exciting.

But isnt Methane one of the worst greenhouse gases ? maybe after its combusted it becomes something nicer ? I cant seem to get my sound working so cant listen to story ):
 
Yah heres some bad news re methane ...


http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hWQzGPVOi1jaokoAG24HLH2tU61w
 
Sounds pretty exciting.

But isnt Methane one of the worst greenhouse gases ? maybe after its combusted it becomes something nicer ? I cant seem to get my sound working so cant listen to story ):

Methane is a major part of natural gas.

"By using methane produced by bacteria as a fuel source, we can reduce the amount released into the atmosphere and use up some carbon dioxide in the process!"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071210103934.htm
 
http://www.eworldvu.com/international/2009/2/4/a-cold-war-that-russia-can-win.html


http://en.rian.ru/science/20080122/97519953.html

http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/106922-2/

Global Cooling: The Coming Ice Age
Short video (6 minutes) about the coming ice age.
I especially agree with climatologist George Kukla, an ice-age alarmist
since the early 1970s, who still thinks an ice age is imminent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttLBqB0qDko

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ds-global-warming-law-cost-20-000-family.html
 
On a positive side, global warmers if they start their carbon schemes, for a while will be able to blow their trumpets that they saved the Earth from the catastrophe of global warming.
 
remember the below article...? well its a year later, and STILL NO SUNSPOTS.......

and nearly every country on earth has either recorded a record for cold or snow.....


Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh

Phil Chapman | April 23, 2008
Article from: The Australian



http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23583376-5018542,00.html


.
 
remember the below article...? well its a year later, and STILL NO SUNSPOTS.......

and nearly every country on earth has either recorded a record for cold or snow.....
I'd have to say it's been quite noticeable locally. For the first time in years, the Autumn "rain hole" hasn't happened this year and the grass is green everywhere you look.

Coincidence maybe but I do not that the "rain hole" emerged in line with rising temperature globally and seems to have disappeared when it fell. That's a multi-decade trend and not a one off annual event.

Rain hole? That's the near total disappearance of Autumn rain in much of Tas when the planet was heating up. Not 5 or 10% down, but truly massive declines compared to historical averages. This year's been pretty wet so far though.
 
What is the Autumn "rain hole"?

Isn't La Nina the explanation for the wet?
 
What is the Autumn "rain hole"?

Isn't La Nina the explanation for the wet?
In short, it is a sharp, consistent trend of declining Autumn rainfall (total March - May) across most of Tasmania commencing since the mid -1970's.

On a 5 year chart it is an almost perfect linear trend in many locations. A cumulative annual loss of about 1.5% of pre-1975 rainfall seemingly unaffected by changes in El Niño / La Nina cycles, cloud seeding or any other known natural or man-made non-temperature occurrences.

It does however correspond fairly well with changes in global temperature, particularly the starting in the 1970's when temperatures started to rise.

The actual form has generally taken that of a period centred on March - April of close to zero rain with a sharp ramp to normal on either side. In recent years it has at times persisted into Winter. Hence the "hole" - it's as though someone just turns off the rain and then turns it back to normal again.

The annual loss is less than 10% but in Autumn it had reached over 40% and rising in many key areas of the state.

Practical effects thus far have been on agriculture, water supply and power generation. An outright fortune has been and is planned to be spent on irrigation schemes, urban water supply, fuel for thermal power stations and the like to offset the effects.

There's no real explanation for this other than that it does correspond very much with changes in the earth's temperature. And sure enough, now that the temperature has dropped the rain seems to have come back.

A similar situation occurred in SW WA decades ago with an abrupt, literally in the space of months, huge permanent reduction in rainfall there. That wasn't at all gradual, high rainfalls just basically stopped in WA and thus far they haven't come back. Given that it's been a few decades, it's assumed to be permanent.

New Zealand also seems to have experienced an increasing frequency of low Autumn rains judging by the effects on water storage etc. I don't have hard data for the actual rainfall, but they've certainly had more trouble with it than they did historically.
 
aaaahhh...just leave them there.!!!!





 
http://www.solarcycle24.com/

Well not NO sunspots, just no solarcycle 24 sunspots.

It is interesting that the predicted peak seems to be decreasing iirc.

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtml


we usually have 50,000 sunspots per year. and just like during the maunder minimum we are at less than 50 (!) for the year passed.......and right now, NO sunspots.


http://www.solarcycle24.com/index2.htm
 
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