Hot Australia.

Submitted by mmghosh on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 8:57pm

Science and Tech

They have had to start a new colour code to allow 52⁰C!

Australia is gripped by a massive heatwave, records are tumbling and fires are burning across the continent. I’m not going to attempt a comprehensive post on the subject — events are moving too fast — but I would like to note a few things. The Bureau of Meteorology forecast chart above (courtesy of Watching The Deniers) for next Monday has forced BOM to add new colours to the hot end of the range, to allow for forecast temperatures over 52ºC — well above the previous national record high of 50.7ºC. Meanwhile the current heatwave has already set a new record for the number of consecutive days where the national average temperature has exceeded 39ºC — now running at seven days, with the heat forecast to continue. That’s the average temperature for the whole of the continent, which is no small place. The previous record was four consecutive days, set in 1973.

The formidable Gina Rinehart continues to fight on the denial side. (She also wants Australians to work for $2/day). And Lord Monckton is up to his usual tricks in the colonies.

The Sydney Morning Herald is blunt.

‘We know that global climate doesn’t respond monotonically – it does go up and down with natural variation. That’s why some years are hotter than others because of a range of factors. But we’re getting many more hot records than we’re getting cold records. That’s not an issue that is explained away by natural variation.’’
Australia’s climate is based on an interplay of many factors including regional and local weather patterns, El Nino and La Nina climate cycles and the Indian Ocean dipole, all superimposed on the greenhouse gas-driven warming trend.

---

“Those of us who spend our days trawling – and contributing to – the scientific literature on climate change are becoming increasingly gloomy about the future of human civilisation,’’ said Liz Hanna, convener of the human health division at the Australian National University’s Climate Change Adaptation Network.
‘‘We are well past the time of niceties, of avoiding the dire nature of what is unfolding, and politely trying not to scare the public. The unparalleled setting of new heat extremes is forcing the continual upwards trending of warming predictions for the future, and the timescale is contracting.’’

Links via DeSmogBlog

Freezing in Southern Cal Tonight...

(#299089)

Submitted by Traveller on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 11:07pm.

(CNN) -- Residents of large swaths of central and Southern California and Arizona shivered Saturday as plummeting temperatures prompted freeze warnings.

In Atlanta, meanwhile, shorts-wearing residents basked in the balmy weather as it and two other major Georgia cities set record highs for this date.

The weird weekend weather had temperatures as much as 30 degrees below normal in parts of the West and 30 degrees above normal in the East, said CNN meteorologist Jenny Harrison.

"We definitely have a temperature dichotomy across the U.S.," the National Weather Service said.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area keenly felt the chill, with an overnight low in Hollywood expected to dip down to 38. Lows near Stockton, in central California, were expected to be about 23 degrees.

The cold front was slowly marching eastward, where highs in the District of Columbia will drop from 62 on Sunday to 43 on Tuesday.

Very unusual weather across the United States (also) again.

Traveller

Wow. 50° C is 122° F

(#299090)

Submitted by Jay C on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 11:47pm.

That's HOT.

US on pace to increase by 10 degrees F, 5.5 C, in 21st century

(#299091)

Submitted by catchy on Sun, 01/13/2013 - 12:46am.

So says the most recent government report.

And speaking of off-the-chart pollution

(#299109)

Submitted by mmghosh on Sun, 01/13/2013 - 9:35pm.

and this especially for catchy

One Friday more than two years ago, an air-quality monitoring device atop the United States Embassy in Beijing recorded data so horrifying that someone in the embassy called the level of pollution “Crazy Bad” in an infamous Twitter post. That day the Air Quality Index, which uses standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, had crept above 500, which was supposed to be the top of the scale.
---
So what phrase is appropriate to describe Saturday’s jaw-dropping reading of 755 at 8 p.m., when all of Beijing looked like an airport smokers’ lounge? Though an embassy spokesman said he did not immediately have comparative data, Beijing residents who follow the Twitter feed said the Saturday numbers appeared to be the highest recorded since the embassy began its monitoring system in 2008.

The embassy’s @BeijingAir Twitter feed said the level of toxicity in the air was “Beyond Index,” the terminology for levels above 500; the “Crazy Bad” label was used just once, in November 2010, before it was quickly deleted by the embassy from the Twitter feed. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, levels between 301 and 500 are “Hazardous,” meaning people should avoid all outdoor activity. The World Health Organization has standards that judge a score above 500 to be more than 20 times the level of particulate matter in the air deemed safe.

Whereas we are, as of today, going to "celebrate" the gathering of a 100 million people in one place for a religious festival lasting more than a month. The sanitation statistics themselves are mind-boggling.

literally anything can become right or wrong if the dominant class of the moment so wills it

I turned down a job in China solely b/c of the air pollution

(#299111)

Submitted by catchy on Sun, 01/13/2013 - 11:05pm.

It was an hour south of Beijing and a generous offer: all research, no teaching, base pay of $36k, subsidized housing, a research budget, and airfare twice a year to return to the states.

I don't know exactly the purchasing power parity, but I calculated that the offer was about the equivalent of earning 100k in the US to just write articles on philosophy.

I turned it down w/out much thought b/c when I visited I didn't see the sun for 10 days and felt sick from breathing the air all day every day.

My 3 days in Beijing were similarly awful. I talked with a traveler who said the air indoors in Beijing is on average 4-5x more polluted than the maximum considered safe by the EU.

Thanks for giving me an excuse to vent, manish!

I stopped eating Chinese for the same reason.

(#299118)

Submitted by Darth Cuddly on Mon, 01/14/2013 - 8:17am.

General Tso hacking up a lung on my chicken just wasn't something I found appetizing.

In the medical community, death is known as Chuck Norris Syndrome.

Yes but if you drop out of the US academic ladder

(#299121)

Submitted by mmghosh on Mon, 01/14/2013 - 7:48pm.

I can see it would be difficult to get back on. You should probably wait until they invite you as Visiting Professor.

The Chinese, though as yet incompetent in politics and backward in economic development, have, in other respects, a civilization at least as good as our own, containing elements which the world greatly needs, and which we shall destroy at our peril.

Russell’s socialism, then, did not blind him to what he saw as the good points of the Chinese tradition—an argument that then as now had both adherents and critics in China itself. By the traditional civilization, Russell meant courtesy, harmony, understatement, tolerance, a certain unworldliness—features that Russell directly contrasted to the Western lust for domination and that have perhaps become Oreintalist tropes of a certain kind. Russell did find one trait that China shared with Britain, noting that the Manchu Qing conquerors of the seventeenth century

set to work to induce Chinese men to wear pigtails and Chinese women to have big feet. After a time a statesmanlike compromise was arranged: pigtails were adopted but big feet were rejected; the new absurdity was accepted and the old one retained. This characteristic compromise shows how much England and China have in common.

literally anything can become right or wrong if the dominant class of the moment so wills it

The people in Tehran don't have it too great either

(#299114)

Submitted by brutusettu on Mon, 01/14/2013 - 2:34am.

The cloud of yellow smog enveloping Tehran has become an annual event in recent years, as sanctions on imports of refined gasoline have forced the country to turn to low-quality alternatives, exacerbating Iran's already tenuous environmental state. "It feels as if even God has turned against us," a local artist told The New York Times as the city's skyline remained obscured with smog.

"I’m to believe that North Korea is so dangerously unhinged that they would attack without warning – yet so meek and easily cowed that they will sit quietly and not retaliate when we start bombing them."

Major Kong

They're canceling flights in Beijing b/c of pollution

(#299119)

Submitted by catchy on Mon, 01/14/2013 - 9:08am.

The heavy fog has affected flights at airports in Beijing, Hebei, Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Sichuan, with visibility reduced to around 100 meters at some airports.

Ten flights had been canceled and five flights delayed by more than an hour at the Beijing Capital International Airport as of 11 a.m. Sunday, the airport said.

Dropped under 50F today

(#299154)

Submitted by eeyn524 on Tue, 01/15/2013 - 10:05pm.

giving all the women here their once in a year chance to put on their fuzzy-boots-with-tight-pants outfits. About 30-40% took the opportunity.

Ouch

(#299245)

Submitted by catchy on Thu, 01/17/2013 - 11:43am.

the House’s top ranking Science Committee members are still not sold on evolution, let alone climate change.

Cite? n/t

(#299284)

Submitted by mmghosh on Thu, 01/17/2013 - 8:36pm.

literally anything can become right or wrong if the dominant class of the moment so wills it

So many YEC in the House

(#299288)

Submitted by brutusettu on Thu, 01/17/2013 - 9:12pm.

Broun (Buffoon - GA), that's one of them.

Pretty much any Tea Party enthusiast will be actively denying reality on a myriad of fronts.

Broun might even be a subset of people that think non-YEC aren't really Christians.

Major Kong

Two Terms, Starting A Third

(#299290)

Submitted by M Scott Eiland on Thu, 01/17/2013 - 9:13pm.

That counts as "top ranking"?

The universe may well have been created without a point--that doesn't imply that we can't give it one.

I got another edit that snuck in there.

(#299291)

Submitted by brutusettu on Thu, 01/17/2013 - 9:19pm.

catchy's quote deals with "top ranking members"

Major Kong

Plenty more where he came from

(#299292)

Submitted by HankP on Thu, 01/17/2013 - 10:19pm.

link

I blame it all on the Internet

Gulf states investing massively in renewables

(#299293)

Submitted by mmghosh on Thu, 01/17/2013 - 10:27pm.

Link.

World leaders, and all that sort of thing.

They are currently targeting around “41,000 megawatts of solar capacity within two decades,” 16,000 megawatt of which would be from photovoltaic panels, and the other 25,000 from solar thermal technology. The country currently has only around 3 megawatts of solar installations.
It is also still moving forward with its plan to build sixteen nuclear reactors by the year 2030, for a total nuclear capacity of 14,000 megawatts, which is projected to cost the country around $100 billion.

It seems a little unfair that those places who won the geographical oil lottery are also now in place to win the geographical solar thermal energy availability with little population lottery.

The largest single-unit solar power plant in the world is expected to be completed by the end of 2012 and officially open in the first quarter of 2013, solar power giant Masdar has announced. Shams 1 will have a generation capacity of over 100 MW of power, and was built with the stated purpose of providing 20,000 homes in the region with electricity. The project will be followed shortly thereafter by Shams 2 & 3, which are planned to generate similar levels of electricity.

literally anything can become right or wrong if the dominant class of the moment so wills it