Friday 29th of March 2024

stupefying stumping...

stumping

...

[Greg Hunt]; “Only those areas which have been degraded or damaged, of which there are 117 of them, which many, many people feel should never have been added are those that are being reconsidered.”

But earlier on Monday, Peter Hitchcock, an environmental and heritage consultant specialising in world heritage, disputed Hunt’s claim that many of the areas were logged.

“The great majority of the area that is being proposed to be removed from the world heritage area is in fact unlogged forest and much of it with important conservation values,” he said.

“Some of it is being retained but I think we need to have the full story. Some of it is being excised and in the case of the Weld some of the area that is being taken out are regarded as some of the most impressive tall eucalyptus forest over rainforest anywhere.”

When asked whether he had visited the area, Hunt did not give a clear indication on whether he had inspected the region. “I have been right over the maps, the photographs, we had a mission fly over the area,” he said.

The proposal has sparked opposition from the Tasmanian government, environmental advocates and logging groups. The Tasmanian environment minister, Brian Wightman, had earlier said in December that simply delisting a world area would bring Australia into disrepute.

"The Tasmanian forest agreement is paving the way for the establishment of a sustainable, long-term and successful forest industry,” he said. "But the federal and state Liberal parties are hell-bent on taking the industry backwards and removing any chance for Tasmania to market its products.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/03/tasmania-wilderness-greg-hunt-says-areas-to-lose-heritage-status-degraded

What is amazing is that the Abbott solution to fight global warming is to plant "some trees" (not one has been planted yet, more than three months after his dubious election)... One could be at a loss trying to understand why cut trees that already exist and that are absorbing CO2 more than small saplings... One has to realise that Abbott is a non-believer of climate warming (climate change is crap he said once) and he could not care less about nature — or if he does he does not show it by his actions.

As a royalist, Abbott should be pissed off as Prince Charles compares climate sceptics to headless chickens... He's a bit off the mark, though chickens are descendants of dinosaurs, the climate sceptics are more like dangerous rabid stupid dinosaurs nastily fighting a battle they do not understand. Greg Hunt is a dinosaur with a headless chook attitude. 

 

idiocy is bliss...

 

Sydney has recorded its lowest summer rainfall to date in more than 70 years, as the state swelters through its driest January in more than a decade. 

Since December, the city has had just 48.4 millimetres of rain, a little more than a quarter of the usual amount, and the lowest since 1941-42, said Acacia Pepler, a climatologist at the weather bureau.

NSW has had its driest January since 2003, with a statewide average of just 20.6 millimetres - or less than a third of the average rainfall.

For grazier Rod Barnes, drought has advanced on his property and those of his neighbours in northern NSW much quicker than anybody expected.


"This has been short and sharp; it's caught a lot of people by surprise," Mr Barnes said. "The burning heat has just scorched everything off right back to the ground and then these hot winds have just blown it all away."

His farm, with about 300 sheep and a similar number of cattle, is 22 kilometres north of Gunnedah, a town that posted its driest January on record with 0.2 millimetres of rain. Early last month, the mercury climbed to 45.9 degrees, beating the previous record for any month by 2.8 degrees.

"It wasn't too bad until Christmas," Mr Barnes said. "Then these scorching hot days have ruined everything."

Three big heatwaves have hit the state this year, the latest one still searing its way across southern parts of the state on Monday. Hay Airport clocked up 45.5 degrees, Deniliquin a fourth day of at least 43, while Canberra set a record for the most days of 37 or warmer with its sixth such day.

Sydney, while shielded from the worst of the blasts of summer by sea breezes, is also drying out. 

Last month alone, Sydney collected just 17.4 millimetres of rain, or less than a fifth of the long-term average, making it the driest January since 2003. Temperatures were about 1 degree above average for the city.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/weather-farmers-feel-the-heat-as-drought-advances-20140203-31xgf.html#ixzz2sFrCN1uf

Gus: while the Prime Minster Tony Rattus Abbott is blasting the ABC for "getting some of its information wrong" (which it may not be wrong as solid investigation might show eventually), he is callously and dangerously ignoring GLOBAL WARMING. This is a far bigger problem by a long shot. Not only his idiotic denialism does not make the commercial news AS IT SHOULD, his treasurer Joe Hockey is ignoring the same REALITY. REALITY BITES. These dorks live in ivory towers amongst "economic" figures that do not add up in their tiny heads because the figures cannot add up in REALITY due to circumstances the idiots ignore. Economics is a balance between what is and what has to be done in order to sustain a country.
These idiots are ignoring that the environment is of primordial importance in this balance, including the NATURAL FORESTS (see article above) and the present drought. To tell people that they have to pull their weight is a bit mean when most farmers are doing a shit load of work for nothing as the weather is going against the grain. Fat Joe is an idiot for even suggesting that some people are not pulling their weight... 99 per cent of the Aussie community is doing far more than its fair share but the pollies presently in charge are idiots throwing rotten potatoes as if everyone was bludging. CRAP. 
Of course none of these CONservative pollies would get away with their stupidity without the merde-och press biased support for their crap... 
The drought has not caught Gus by surprise... I did mention to John that the summer would be dry and hot, and I have made predictions on this site of severe storms in Europe — including the UK which is suffering a bit from flooding at the moment. The weather charts are there to be looked at. 
For Greg Hunt to suggest that the Tassie forest are of no significance is also the pits of ignorance. It's like exchanging a Rolls Royce for a slice of bread, because one is hungry — yet there are other sources of food that can be got smartly for nothing... the conservatives are idiots, DANGEROUS IDIOTS.
I am waiting for the day when the BoM will be told not say anything anymore, as the present dogs ruining this country's psyche will judge the information as "operational matter" and secrecy shall prevail... Lucky for us, there are plenty of other source material to get REAL information from.
GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL and is anthropogenic.
Meanwhile, despite two "polar vortexes" hitting the east side of the US this year, California and the west of the US are in a MASSIVE DROUGHT. WOULD people realise that the "guy upstairs" has nothing to do with this problem? GLOBAL WARMING HAS!

 

meanwhile in a defrosting greenland...

A river of ice in Greenland has become the fastest-flowing glacier currently known in the world, a study suggests.

In summer, the Jakobshavn Glacier - widely thought to have spawned the iceberg that sank the Titanic - is moving about four times faster than it was in the 1990s.

The Greenland Ice Sheet has seen record melting in recent years and would raise sea levels 6m were it all to vanish.

Details of the research are published in The Cryosphere journal.

Ian Joughin and Ben Smith of the University of Washington's Polar Science Center in Seattle analysed pictures from the German TerraSAR-X satellites to measure the speed of the glacier.

"As the glacier moves we can track changes between images to produce maps of the ice flow velocity," said Dr Joughin, the study's lead author.

In the summer of 2012, the glacier reached a record speed of more than 17km per year - more than 46m per day.

"We are now seeing summer speeds more than four times what they were in the 1990s on a glacier which at that time was believed to be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, glacier in Greenland," Ian Joughin explained.

The researchers noted that summer speeds are temporary, with the glacier flowing more slowly over the winter months.

But they added that even the annually averaged speed-up over the past couple of years is nearly three times what it was in the 1990s.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26032188

 

The attitude of the climate change denialists reminds me of a Hagar cartoon where Hagar and Lucky Eddie are caught in quicksand... The first frame shows Hagar and Eddie up to their waists in the muck, while Hagar tells Eddie "not to worry"... In the second frame, as Hagar and Eddie are up to their neck in it, Lucky Eddie says : Is it okay to worry now?"

culprit, anyone?

 

Parts of Britain have been hit by a storm which destroyed a stretch of railway, forced people from their homes and left thousands without power.

A section of the sea wall in Dawlish, Devon, collapsed and left the railway to Cornwall suspended in mid-air.

Residents of homes on the Somerset Levels were evacuated amid fears flood defences could be overwhelmed.

David Cameron chaired his first Cobra meeting this year and announced an extra £100m for flood works.

At Prime Minister's Questions he pledged £75m for repairs over the next year, £10m for urgent work in Somerset - where several rivers have flooded - and £15m for maintenance.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26042990#

As my processing of information last year proves more accurate everyday (In November, I indicated at least FOUR MAJOR storms to hit the UK this winter, one can only speculate further in regard to GLOBAL WARMING. For example such sea wall (where the track line was) has withstood many storms before, and it has been built to resists such force as encountered previously. So why did it fail NOW?  Simple answer is the storms are getting FIERCER than before and (possibly) more numerous in a given time frame. GLOBAL WARMING is the culprit.

Presently there is also a strong little storm in mid-Atlantic that could do some serious damage in northern Spain and France by Friday afternoon (local time)... This little storm seems to soon followed by a fast moving massive super storm in the mid-Atlantic as well. The massive super-storm is possibly the remnant of the second "polar vortex" that is feathering out of the USA to re-form over the open sea as a massive depression (low). This large storm will hit the UK by Saturday 6 AM (local time) with sustained winds way above 50 knots.

My assessment. Pass it on.

Global warming is real...

act against climate change...

US Secretary of State John Kerry is to deliver a speech urging the global community to act against climate change, during a visit to Indonesia.

He will say that there is scientific proof of climate change threatening not only the environment, but also the world economy.

Mr Kerry is due to give his address on Sunday in the capital, Jakarta, as part of a regional tour.

The US, along with China, is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

On Saturday, both nations issued a joint statement pledging to do more to curb their carbon dioxide output.

Steps include reducing car emissions and improving the energy efficiency of buildings.


'Point of no return'

Mr Kerry, who started his tour in South Korea on Thursday, arrived in Indonesia on Saturday after visiting China.

It is part of President Obama's "pivot to Asia" policy, begun in 2012, shifting the US foreign policy focus more towards Asia and away from Europe and the Middle East.

In his Jakarta speech, Mr Kerry will underscore the way in which climate change is impacting Asian countries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26214135