the elephant in the room... climate change

[eFestivals]

I didn't think you two would be i support of Nuclear power....

I'm not. However, right now it stands a decent chance of not fucking up the world quite as much as oil has.

Then again, once 80% of us have dropped dead by starvation those nuke power plants will get abandoned, and then we're really fucked.

We need to be telling our kids they're going to grow some extra arms, legs, fingers or heads..

[Guest]

Just like to point out that that article is 6 years old. Which isn't it to suggest things are any better or worse now, just thought it worth mentioning

[eFestivals]

Just like to point out that that article is 6 years old. Which isn't it to suggest things are any better or worse now, just thought it worth mentioning

don't you think there's been noticeable changes in the weather patterns in the last 6 years, which tend to indicate that the article is likely to be right (given the same guy has been right when everyone else has been wrong)?

The reason why both me and Scott are onto an article that's 6 years old is because it's just become front page again on the Guardian for some reason - when I'd read it last night I wasn't actually aware it was 6 years old.

[Guest]

don't you think there's been noticeable changes in the weather patterns in the last 6 years, which tend to indicate that the article is likely to be right (given the same guy has been right when everyone else has been wrong)?

[Guest]

So we only have 14 years left

[russycarps]

Looks like the UK will be one of the best places to be when the climate change monster is finally released.

I often daydream about selling up my house and buying something in the middle of the brecon beacons or somewhere, and trying to go self sufficient with just me and the family. You could live out the rest of your days in blissful ignorance of all this stuff....

[eFestivals]

Looks like the UK will be one of the best places to be when the climate change monster is finally released.

well, apart from the fact that the land area will be about 50% of what it is today.

[Buff124]

IJIS Arctic Sea Ice extent daily figure:

14,000,104 km2  (February 24, 2014) 3rd lowest for the day and going down three days running now, including the largest single-day drop since late August. For the record, we're fewer than two weeks from the average maximum in extent

[5co77ie]

So we only have 14 years left

[grumpyhack]

Interesting that farmers are saying farmland is more important than urban land - who's gonna win that argument? Which do you flood the fields which had food or the people.

[Buff124]

China's toxic air pollution resembles nuclear winter, say scientists

Beijing and broad swaths of six northern provinces have spent the past week blanketed in a dense pea-soup smog that is not expected to abate until Thursday. Beijing’s concentration of PM 2.5 particles – those small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream – hit 505 micrograms per cubic metre on Tuesday night. The World Health Organisation recommends a safe level of 25

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/25/china-toxic-air-pollution-nuclear-winter-scientists

[grumpyhack]

Signed the contract today for our solar panels. Should be installed in the next two weeks. Come on sun!

[Buff124]

Today's US weather forecast warns of a long cold spell for the Midwest, but its the cause that bothers me.

"Sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) events in the region of the North Pole have been found to set off a chain of events in the atmosphere that ultimately lead to Arctic air outbreaks from central Canada into the central and eastern U.S.

Indeed, there appears to be a significant stratospheric warming event in the offing over the next 10 days or so centered over the North Pole that could prolong winter-like conditions across the central and eastern U.S. as we progress through March and into the month of April."

http://thesiweather.com/2014/03/07/145-pm-an-upcoming-stratospheric-warming-event-could-prolong-winter-like-conditions-in-the-central-and-eastern-u-s/

This is NOT a good time for an SSW event over the Arctic....

[Buff124]

------------------------------------------

Total drop in Arctic sea ice extent on 8/3/14 is -158k km2.

Of that the Sea of Okhotsk takes the lions share, -112k km2. For a single Arctic region to hit a one day 'century break' is remarkable, even in the middle of summer, but in March ?

The Barents Sea corner is also "under a torch", so to speak.

----------------------------------------------

Copied from Neven's estimable blog. No link supplied as he gets enough trolls as it is.

[Buff124]

Arctic update - late season freeze in the Bering and Barents. Sea ice extent is now line with the average for the 2000-2010 period. So late in the season that the new ice has no chance to thicken and gain volume. Expect the maximum extent for the year in a few days as warm air flow will arrive by the 25th.

In the meantime.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCifBUtw1sE&

[Buff124]

Climate change series "Years of Living Dangerously" - Harrison Ford et al - full episode

[kaosmark2]

Subsidies for solar farms getting slashed:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27393805

"Vote blue to go green". Noone believed it then and we certainly don't now.

How long do we reckon it'll be before it's revealed that a competitor is mates with/donating money to a senior tory?

[LondonTom]

I take it all their mates have finishing installing solar panels and need to move onto the next thing they can get taxpayers money for then?

[eFestivals]

Subsidies for solar farms getting slashed:

Madness!

If anything they should be increased, because the most sensible investment this country could make would be to roll out panels across every roof in the country - and avoid pissing away the country's money on oil & gas.

[Guest]

Madness!

If anything they should be increased, because the most sensible investment this country could make would be to roll out panels across every roof in the country - and avoid pissing away the country's money on oil & gas.

[eFestivals]

imagine it, we could be generating all our electricity without polluting the atmosphere, without having to pay anyone for it.. cars be charged at home for free. It's all do-able.

it's not quite doable to that extent, unfortunately .... solar isn't much cop for night-time generation.

But it's more financially viable than the new Hinkley, for example - and without giving tens of billions to people over-seas.

[kaosmark2]

Madness!

If anything they should be increased, because the most sensible investment this country could make would be to roll out panels across every roof in the country - and avoid pissing away the country's money on oil & gas.