Trump orders all climate scientists to bend over and jam their heads under the sand

Well close enough.

Trump has ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency to remove all climate change information from its websites.

My mind boggles at how this is all going in the USA.

What next? NASA told to de-orbit all climate research satellites? Or perhaps they'll just have to recalibrate them to "alternative facts"?

My blog has been archived by the National Library, plus the week's readings.

The National Library of Australia run an amazing resource called Pandora that saved entire copies of important websites in Australia, creating a historical record of this new societal resource. And recently they contacted me for authorisation to duplicate my blog!

To be fair, I think it had a lot more to do with my being an election candidate that the intriguing mix of science and society news—in fact I think that was really the only reason... But hey—it means they 'accidentally' preserved a whole bunch of neat science stuff too!

So, saved for posterity, is my blog in Pandora: http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-136401.

And wrapping up some other 'saved for my own reference' info, here's the last week's readings, via paper.li, replete with slushie Tony Abbott, bouncing tiger cub, homeopathy comeuppancy, climate crisis, and lots of rocket science:
Week ending 3 December 2012

And lastly, 60,000 views! Crikey...

Cyberbully pot-kettle, Greens launches, telescopes, more. The week that was.

Alan Jones learns what it's like on the receiving end; the ACT Greens campaign powers towards 20 October; the first stage of the Square Kilometre Array is turned on; a Nobel laureate yanks the rug out from under Newspoll; iPad Mini confirmed; and much more.

The week that was - my readings and posts.

What do political polling and climate change have in common? Not what you think! Brian Schmidt talks about uncertainty.

Here's the talk by our own Nobel Prize winner Brian Schmidt from the recent TEDx Canberra.

He talks about the certainty in uncertainty, showing how credible statistical analysis can reveal unexpected results.

You may be surprised...

What I've been reading and writing - a bit of a catch-up

This is a catch-up of my reading and writing lists as auto-compiled into e-zines by Paper.li. As usual, it is mostly for my own reference down the track, but maybe someone is interested.

The recycling bin may no longer be full of discarded newspapers, but holy moley I'm chewing through some online reading...

Editions for the week ending:

1 October

24 September

17 September

10 September

3 September

27 August

20 August

13 August

6 August

30 July

23 July

16 July

9 July

Phew. That's it. Must keep on top of this a bit better...

Glaciers - you never know when one is gonna whoop your ass...

The bottom end of a glacier can be a dangerous place, as these two guys found out. Far from being a static wall of ice, a glacier is always moving.

They thought they were far enough away from this glacier in Eqi, Greenland, but they were in for a big surprise in their 5.5 metre boat.


To cap off their day, they hot a small iceberg on the way home, disabling their engine... Time to take a hint?

Do you support light rail for Canberra's public transport? Here's a dead easy way to have your say.

Canberra Loves 40 is a local lobby group representing a coalition of community groups all supporting the ambitious ACT target for reducing greenhouse emissions to 40% of 1990 levels by 2020.

They have set up a really simple way that you can voice your support for their campaign to get the ACT Government to get serious about light rail as a solution for Canberra's public transport woes.


Just jump over to this web page, plug in your postcode, and up will come a list of your current local ACT MLAs. Select those you want to email, modify the draft email text if desired, then click Get On Board, and the rest is done for you. 

Then enjoy this short video by the group of what a light rail car could look like down Northbourne Avenue - it was shown on the big screen at the latest Raiders game at Bruce Stadium - great to have the Raiders on board with this campaign!

Catch-up on The Beach House Weekly reading summaries

The weekly Paper.li digital magazine tool dropped off for a while and they lost the ability to call up archive copies by week.

It's sorted now, so here's a catch-up . Likely this isn't of much interest to anyone else - more for my own record. But feel free to check them out if you like!


What I've been reading and/or writing about:
July 2
June 25
June 18
June 11
June 3

Astronomy 141 - an entire introductory university course available online and free

The internet has entered an amazing phase. All manner of materials that once cost extraordinary amounts of your hard-earned are now being posted for free.

Having finally caught up with all episodes on my list of 34 (!) regular podcast subscriptions, I'm now listening my way through this little brainfood goldmine: Astronomy 141 - Life in the Universe is an entire course from Ohio State University. The lecturer's description sums it up:

...an introduction to Astrobiology. The topics covered in this course lie at the interfaces between astronomy, chemistry, biology, geology, and the earth and planetary sciences. We will learn about scientists' ongoing quest for answers to some of the most fundamental human questions: How did life originate on Earth? Is there life on other worlds? Are we alone in the universe? What is the long-term future of life in the universe?

But it isn't just about the potential for life in space.

Despicable. Only way to describe this desperate ploy from the Heartlands "Institute".

Well the latest turn from the global warming denialist front really does take the prize for the most cretinist, pathetic ploy one could possibly imagine.

This fossil fuel funded PR mouthpiece commissioned a bunch of billboards in Chicago featuring some of society's lowest of the low who apparently believe in global warming - the Unabomber, Charles Manson, and even Osama Bin Laden!

This is a shallow attempt to paint everyone who believes that the world's climate experts are not trying to snowjob us as somehow as bad as these insane madmen.

And perhaps it is a sign that the denialists are getting truly desperate. Australia's emissions trading scheme comes into effect in two months. South Korea has just resolved to implement an emissions trading scheme. And so has China.

Canberra - we have a serious light pollution problem. And it's costing us all...

ANU's big dish is a much favoured location for politicians
launching big environmental promises that often don't go anywhere...
Photo: The Australian

An amazing body of work was released today by the ACT Greens' Shane Rattenbury. It's a "Report Card" on the ALP Government's performance in meeting the promises they made in 2007 through their Weathering the Change climate change action plan.

I was there in 2007 representing the Gungahlin Community Council when John Stanhope launched this new action plan in the shadow of ANU's big dish solar concentrator. I was pleased to see a number of the initiatives in the plan, but as always, the delivery is more important than the promises.

So it's good to see the ACT Greens have done this work to hold the ALP to account. The ALP - through Environment Minister Simon Corbell - continue to make grand promises about greenhouse reduction targets, but what has their delivery been like to date? According to the Greens' report card, not too well, despite some good intentions and some action.

And what of my pet hate of streetlights lighting the sky?

ALP Promise #13:

Undertake energy efficient street light replacement.

Greens Assessment:

• 1713 lights replaced in 2007
• 5600 installed through 2008-09 budget
• LED trials underway
• future roll-out plans unclear.

Hmm ... not much chop...

To which I'd add criticism of the woeful controls on the Land Development Agency - wilfully rolling out new streetlights 10 to the dozen that all have protruding luminaires, thereby ensuring that we all will be locked in for decades of paying for maybe 30% of the electricity to go straight up into the sky!

Surely the first step in fixing a problem is to stop making it worse??

"Australia has unwittingly become a social experiment..."

istock photo

At the hands of the so-called 'shock jocks' and Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd media outlets - primarily among them being The Australian.

There's a bit of false advertising for you - because there is little that is Australian about The Australian beyond the masthead. Owned by an American who calls LA home, and very very far from the Australian ethic of a 'fair go'.

Outstanding Australian science magazine Cosmos recently published this good analysis by Stephan Lewandowsky of the pitiful state of 'debate' on climate change. Not - let's call it what it is - global warming!

No need for me to rephrase:

Podcars: could this be the future of light rail?

While our local ACT Government struggles to discuss light rail as a serious contender for commuter transport, other governments continue to get on with doing it. The Gold Coast's light rail is moving ahead nicely, Sydney's may be expanding soon.

And in India and at the Heathrow Airport, these nifty little 'podcars' are taking light rail to a whole new level of 'light'.

And Stokholm in Sweden is planning a much more extensive network, as this video shows:

5 takeaways from the IPCC report on extreme weather and climate change

This is an interesting short article that describes some of the issues we all face, given the now near certainty of global climate change: 5 takeaways from the IPCC report on extreme weather and climate change

Key points:

• Extreme weather is on the increase globally and is a direct result of human-induced climate change.
• The costs of these events are increasing as are the intensities.
• Adaptation and mitigation of impacts are possible.

Update:

Here's a more detailed summary, via The Conversation. Including:

Turnbull ridicules climate sceptics - presumably including those in his own party

If only this bloke was Opposition Leader, you could head into the next election without quite so much concern for the country.

Malcolm Turnbull has piled the scorn on (in the way he does so well) onto climate change sceptics. So Barnaby Joyce - that's you he's talking about.

He points out that even when big deniers in the US financed a study to try to disprove it, even that study came up ratifying the IPCC.

Meanwhile, the commentators continue to start lining up their concerns about the unsustainability of Tony Abbott in leadership, with this piece from The Australian's Troy Bramston:

They will ask voters to "take another look" at the government and "a long hard look" at the opposition. When voters do, they'll find an opposition not ready to govern.

Greens bill is good news for renters

Crispin Hull is on the money with why Shane Rattenbury's draft bill on better housing for renters is a good thing:

Tenants suffer as market fails on energy

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 11:11 PM PDT

HERE we go again: another slug on landlords in addition to ever-increasing land taxes, stamp duty, development fees, planning rules, environmental-efficiency ratings, tree-protection orders, verge-protection plans and the list goes on, I can hear the property owners wail.

The wail this week it was the Greens plan to force landlords to pay for housing upgrades to meet energy-efficiency ratings and to provide deadlocks on all doors to improve tenants’ security.

Small wonder, they say, rents are so high. If government were serious about housing affordability for buyers and renters it would remove all these taxes, charges and red tape and let the market sort it out.

The landlords, real estate agents and property investors have a point, up to a point. But so do the planners and environmentalists.

Over the past 20 years or so, the property sector has squealed at every change to the building code that has mandated more energy-efficient dwellings. Every time, they have pleaded that the new rules would make dwellings less affordable. Every time, they have pleaded that the market should dictate change.

Carbon tax and ETS explained, and why the Liberals' "Direct Action" actually means more taxes

Economics Editor of the West Australian Shane Wright explains the difference between a carbon tax, an emissions trading scheme, and what the Liberals are calling 'direct action'. It's a long but easy read. Along the way, he dispells numerous myths peddalled by the Liberals and reveals why Direct Action would actually mean more taxes (or cuts to other programs):

What is the difference between an emissions trading system, a carbon tax and "direct action"?

Under an emissions trading system, a government sets a ceiling on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted.

"Permits to pollute" are then sold in an open market, allowing the owner to release a set amount of greenhouse production.

Over time the government reduces the ceiling on greenhouse gases, reducing the number of licences to pollute.

The money raised by the scheme can then be used to compensate households or businesses.

Under a carbon tax, a straight fee is imposed on the production of greenhouse gases by a company.

The money raised by the tax can, like an ETS, be used for compensation measures.

Direct action can encompass a range of things including direct regulation, the government of the day investing in low emissions technologies, buying-out heavy polluters or opening tenders for subsidies/assistance programs.

Unlike the ETS or carbon tax, all the cost of direct action is borne by the budget. And the budget is built on taxes on households and business.

On Alan Jones (and other pathetic flat Earthers)

So Alan Jones thinks that climate change is just a superstition? 99% of the world's scientists actually working in the field are clearly not enough for him, although I doubt that extra 1% would sway the likes of him either.

The Canberra Times' Crispin Hull sums it up well:

Superstitious Jones falls for the ad hominen fallacy

THIS week broadcaster Alan Jones called the proposition of human-induced climate change “superstition” and he launched an abrasive personal attack on Prime Minister Julia Gillard. It was hardly surprising.

The two things were just another example of the human aversion to science and logical argument.

It took more than a thousand years for humankind to generally accept that the earth is round. Aristotle proclaimed it, with evidence, in 330BC. A century later, the Greeks even calculated the earth’s circumference with some accuracy.

But it was only after Columbus did not fall off the edge of the earth that the bulk of humankind accepted it.

Carbon tax explained nice and simple

The big problem with the Emissions Trading Scheme proposed under Kevin Rudd was just how complicated it was to explain. A carbon tax was always going to be an easier sell. The Greens tried to get that point across to Rudd, but as we all learnt, Rudd was not one to listen to advise from outside his own little cartel.

So now Julia Gillard has done the politically pragmatic thing and agreed a way forward with the Greens that will work, and more importantly can be "sold" to the electorate. To demonstrate how easy that sell is, her own words from Question Time yesterday:

Essential simple guide to climate change

If you've ever wondered about climate change - what's it all about? then the scientists of the Australian Academy of Science have resisted the urge to produce more voluminous reports and instead got all the important stuff down in a simple little handbook.

It's called The Science of Climate Change. Enjoy.