Extreme weather events, of which Cumbria is one example, are consistent with AGW theory.That is the tried and trusted phrase that a medical witnesses use in court. "The injuries seen are consistent with attack by a blunt instrument". That is the evidence. It is up to the judge and jury to decide whether the blood stained pick handle is the blunt instrument in question.A good question is: are extreme weather events increasing?See above. Seem to be.Those in denial will quibble about the data,... Read Full Story
You can listen to Caroline's speak here. Starts about 10 minutes in.She was clear as ever, giving a positive message about the opportunity that climate change presents. Very effective sigh as boring MP chunters out old-style misperceptions. She definitely dominated the discussion.Well done. Read Full Story
On Saturday I attended a DECC "consultation" on the plan to build a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset.We had very short notice, and the conference venue was given as "Near J24 on the M5". I could not find it on Multimap, so though it must be a massive well signed centre that I couldn't miss. Wrong. Drove round the vicinity of J24 and finally arrived 10 mins late. Others had the same problem.As expected, government officials - civil servants - were presenting. My heart san... Read Full Story
The Keeling Curve of atmospheric CO2 concentrations measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory.Thanks to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.Acknowledgments to NRDC.The red line is CO2 levels, the dark blue dots are CO2 levels, and the light blue are the ocean pH, which goes down as acidification due to CO2 goes up, in accordance with predictions.Over on the Daily Mail debate board, someone asks for correlation between CO2 and ocean acidification. This is shown in the lowest of the three gr... Read Full Story
The news that hackers have published a huge series of emails from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia is causing great excitement in global warming denial circles.The most serious excerpt is this:Phil Jones in discussing the presentation of temperature reconstructions stated that “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.”The explanation g... Read Full Story
Norwegian medics have found a mutation of the H1N1 swine flu virus. It is not certain whether it is more pathogenic, and is not markedly more infectious so far.Too early to tell.Don't Panic!I'll tell you when to panic. Read Full Story
The Guardian has an article on the current Ayn Rand revival.There's an Ayn Rand revival in America these days. Sales of her books Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead have skyrocketed in the past year, along with the number of Rand-themed articles in mainstream publications.The central philosophical (and indeed, scientific) problem for individualist like Rayn is the fact that homo "sapiens" is a social animal. Individualism is an idealism in an age when all philosophers are non-idealists. Th... Read Full Story
Herman van RompuyLady AshtonSo. President Chairman Herman van Rompuy. At least he's not a war criminal, and he is practised in the art of finding the point of agreement in committees where people speak different languages and have different priorities.And good luck to Cathy Ashton, promoted from obscure NHS managerialisationism to one who speaks for the third most powerful political and economic bloc on the planet.Appointees both. No election by us, the people. This proves that the EU is not... Read Full Story
Our commiserations to people in Cumbria affected by floods. Let's hope there is no worse to come.For any DIY enthusiasts, garden shed engineers amd entrepreneurs out there if you Click here you can find out how to build a pump that can shift large volumes of water to other places using an outboard motor and few intermediate technology skills.I made one myself and tested it in the Congresbury Yeo. It worked very well.Low head, high volume, ideal for dealing with floods.Might prove of use in t... Read Full Story
