News at One today on BBC R4. The main items:
- The vast floods in Pakistan (No mention of manmade climate change, which will make such events progressively more common - until the glaciers in the Himalaya have melted away, after which the sub-continent will be in permanent drought).
- The growing forest fire menace in Russia (No mention of manmade climate change, despite the all-time record temperatures of the first half of this year which will have contributed strongly to these fires. See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703309704575413244052775582.html)
- Humungous iceberg breaking off from Greenland, two thirds the size of the Isle of White. At last, a mention of manmade climate change - the reporter reminds us of the record-breaking temperatures of 2010 - but tells us that a leading oceanographer remarked that "It isn't clear that global warming is to blame" for the iceberg breaking off...
...God save us all. If this is the best we can do, then we are doomed. ...There couldn't be more misleading reporting. It is of course right that, technically, it is never possible to link any one weather-event or other event 100% decisively with manmade climate change. What the latter does is greatly probabilify these events.
If we are not prepared to recognise that, and will not report it, then we are basically in denial. And if the denial persists, it will be too late.
We have 76 of those 100 months left, folks... 76 months left, to turn this supertanker around...
Comments
Nuff said... I'll be off to shuffle some deck chairs and keep the band playing...
but aren't the BBC believers?
and interesting to read your caveat 'it is never possible...'
Pakistan: I was interested to google this and find no references to this event being linked with climate-change - maybe no-body believes there is a link...?
Himalayan Glaciers: you are aware that it wasn't 2035 but 2350 :)
Russia: but rupert your link is to a report of what's been happening and not a scientific explanation of why the fires may be exacerbated by a runaway greenhouse. Also I've read that many Russian wildfires are probably related to negligence, careless agricultural burning and arson. Of course irrespective of how they start the current heatwave and wind doesn't help
Iceberg: why can't a leading oceanographer say that AWG may or may not be to blame...?
Your kids won't thank you for doing so.
What is your take on it Rupert?
Vindication for me and the Beeb.
check out Frozen jet stream links Pakistan floods, Russian fires
Sure it says that AWG will continue to dominate the planet's climate but despite this, the so-called extreme cold snaps that Northern Europe experienced and may continue to experience could be due to variations in the Sun's magnetic activity. So says a solar physicist at the University of Reading...
Paul:Green Party 'paper' candidate in Norwich
Isn't that precisely what AGW predicts?
A well-timed piece.
However specifically about the flooding in Pakistan and the heatwaves in Russia, so far, scientists aren't clamouring to claim that AWG is specifically and exclusively the cause.
If you check out the link to the Independent article (yes it's just one source and a journalistic one at that) a professor in solar physics suggests a link between solar activity and the jet stream which appears to affect the creation of 'blocking systems' which elsewhere others are suggesting is the cause of the Russian heatwaves and the Pakistan floods and the end of our warm summer! Specifically the current low solar activity could be the cause of recent UK cold snaps and may mean the UK could expect more cold winters in the coming decade "despite global warming".
The link Rupert has supplied (to another Independent article) says nothing to essentially contradict the point I'm trying to make. Rupert's 'article' states that a 'blocking event' is the cause of the heatwaves that they happen from time to time and that there is evidence that low solar activity increases the frequency of these events.
It says that current computer models cannot reproduce 'blocking events' so that it's impossible to say whether AWG is to blame.
Yes the article does say that models 'suggest' more and longer heatwaves.
But - as of last week no-where did it appear that scientists were categorically stating that the heatwaves and the floods were directly caused by AWG. Rupert will undoubtedly call this 'denial' and that's where my problem lies. Rupert reads to many books by the likes of Lynas claiming the 'end of the world is nigh'.