“Oh My Cod!” Climate Change will shrink your fish and chips

Last December British Fish and Chips was going to become Squid and Chips thanks to Climate Change. This year, cod will become anchovies. Battered anchovie anyone?   British Fish and chips have been dying for a decade.

Now, apparently, fish are shrinking, thanks to falling oxygen levels in the seas:

By 2050, the size of fish could shrink by 10 – 20 per cent, Dr William Cheung, a marine ecologist at the University of British Columbia, Canada, forecast.

Dr Cheung, who gave a keynote address at the 50th Anniversary Symposium of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles at Exeter University this week, said some fish in the North Sea, including haddock, were already getting smaller.

Some might say the shrinking Haddock might have more to do with over-fishing.

He predicted the trend would continue with common species such as cod shrinking by up to a fifth within our lifetime.

Get ready for “child’s portions” of fish and chips. No really, that’s the headline, not the punchline.

Climate change will extinguish Life on Earth but if that doesn’t scare you, let me tell you about your shrinking food. Kiddie meals are coming!

The marine ecologist said fish are shrinking because climate change is reducing the oxygen in the seas available for fish to breath.

The marine ecologist went on to say that because oceans are warming, fish that swim around Portugal and Spain will call the UK home.

Right now the ocean around the UK is 17C — at least three degrees colder than the water off Portugal. The ARGO buoys estimate the ocean is warming at 0.005°C per year (plus or minus 0.5° C, don’t laugh now.) So only 600 years to go at this rate, give or take 60,000 years.

How much is oxygen actually declining?

The rise in ocean temperature is reducing the oxygen in the waters for fish to breathe, while increasing fish’s need for oxygen simultaneously.  Fish are more easily ‘short-of-breath’ as they grow bigger.

As the temperature of the surface of the oceans increases, the water holds less oxygen for fish to breathe. This is exacerbated because, as the seas warm up, oxygen from the depths of the ocean does not mix with the surface water as readily. In addition, water does not circulate as swiftly, which means the deep ocean is not as well ventilated.

I’d like to see some measurements on those falling oxygen levels before I stock up on frozen codfish.

Dr Cheong seems to be mixing up atmospheric warming with ocean warming:

In the last few decades the surface oceans have warmed up by less than a degree celcius. Dr Cheung, a former lead author in the Working Group II of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), projected that achieving the Paris Agreement of the 1.5 – 2.0 oC global warming targets will substantially reduce impacts.  But if emissions are not reduced, there could be 3.5 – 4.0 oC warming, by the end of the century.

Extrapolated fish are coming your way.

“Oh My Cod” comes from Sophie Morris and The Sun.

h/t Willie

 

 

 

 

9.6 out of 10 based on 86 ratings

107 comments to “Oh My Cod!” Climate Change will shrink your fish and chips

  • #
    Alfred Alexander

    Maybe the great Australian marine ecologist, Barry Ereef will comment on this>

    240

    • #
      Ursus Augustus

      Oh My Cod, Satan O2 has sharunk the fishies!

      Pray, pray, pray to Gaia you unbelievers! Pray!

      40

  • #
    Leonard Lane

    More junk science. Literally everything that comes from the global warming socialists/world governance/feeding at public trough lemmings is negative and will be a crisis if we don’t restrict plant food. If these loonie leftists ever succeed in significantly lowering CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, then we will have a real food crisis.
    In the meantime, the blather goes on and on.

    110

    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      Dead right Leonard, its a shame, some people will swallow this tale hook, line and sinker.
      Had to get this one apologies . .
      GeoffW

      70

    • #
      bobl

      Seems pretty science free to me, on the one hand we have Ova saying algae – (plants) will overrun the barrier reef and plants of course take in CO2 and give of oxygen making fish food in the process, on the other hand we have this nutter saying that same CO2 will cause the ocean to outgas O2 and starve the fish, so which is it?

      I might also point out that if that much O2 outgassing happens then the same amount of CO2 outgassing must also be occurring and could it not be that thermally induced outgassing is CAUSING CO2/O2 rise in the atmosphere – Can’t get away from Henry’s law can we?

      Finally I’d like to point out the enormous deficit of edible fish in the obviously dead oceans in the tropics where surface water is 8 degrees or more hotter than the oceans around England! or perhaps the obvious fact that trawlers are in fact capable of fishing 100km north where the ocean will be the right temperature to have oxygen levels suitable for the poor Haddock.

      Note: that some of this is intended to be slightly sarcastic, (just in case anyone actually thought equatorial oceans were dead (instead of teeming with fish)

      What a load of tosh

      50

      • #
        Gazman

        And won’t all those extra storms predicted simply stir up the water and re-oxygenate it? What? There have less storms?

        So let me get this straight, if Cheung’s claims are correct about changing oxygen in the oceans, everything else claimed about AGW is incorrect. Personally, I am comfortable with the belief that both Cheung claims and most AGW scenarios are total codswallop.

        10

  • #
    Egor the One

    Climate Change will ‘Shrink your Brain’ …..whoops , already past tense for many !

    230

  • #
    Clyde Spencer

    And nets that allow smaller fish to escape provide evolutionary pressure favoring smaller fish.

    300

  • #
    bullocky

    “By 2050, the size of fish could shrink by 10 – 20 per cent, Dr William Cheung, a marine ecologist at the University of British Columbia, Canada, forecast.”

    Coupled with warmer oceans, and things are looking better for surfers all the time! 🙂

    140

    • #
      Allen Ford

      No doubt, these “predictions” are supported by real time aquarium studies on various degrees of oxygen deprivations on the nominated fish species.

      No?

      thought so!

      30

  • #
    Graeme No.3

    I see jokes about a small cod piece coming.

    190

  • #
    RobK

    So it will be “chips & fish” then.

    120

  • #

    By 2050 Dr William Cheung will likely be retired.

    So much niftier to make forecasts for dates just far enough out for impact but not so close as to be disproved before superannuation and daily golf. That’s the diff between a pro like William and a cheap sensationalist like Timmy. Otherwise, no diff.

    191

  • #

    fortunately the news last week was that cod stocks have recovered in the North Sea and sustainable fishing can be carried out. also Britain has just abrogated one of the pre EU fishing treaties which will give our fishermen the rights to fish 12 miles off our shores again.

    As for shrinking cod, the fish and chip shop nearest us serves cod portions so large that they look like miniature whales.
    tonyb

    181

  • #
    Ruairi

    Alarmists have given the nod,
    To their science of undersized scrod,
    A sad fishy tale,
    On how warming shrinks scale,
    Which amounts to a bit of a cod.

    220

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      The Haddock is a lucky fish,
      From all disease insured,
      For if he’s ill and caught at sea,
      Immediately he’s cured.

      Spike Milligan (who else).

      240

    • #
      Yonniestone

      There once was a fish called Wanda,
      Who couldn’t breathe for very much longer,
      When I asked her why,
      She looked at the sky,
      And said ’cause CO2 emissions are stronger’

      210

    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      Great one Ruairi, GeoffW

      20

    • #
      Reed Coray

      Ruairi, This is the first time I’ve heard procreation referred to in the pluperfect subjunctive.

      10

    • #
      Annie

      Cod science really?

      10

  • #
  • #
    Svend Ferdinandsen

    And next time we will hear that the warming may make them grow to be killer-cods.
    It is amazing how these scientists can come up with stories of something that might be influenced by warming or climate change, and always to some negative side.
    By the way, i find smaller cods are more tasty than the big ones.

    130

  • #
    R2Dtoo

    Another missive from UBC – a formerly good university. What Cheung missed completely was the fact that increasing CO2 will help “green” the cod. The photosynthesis from the leaves hanging off their tails will result in greater productivity.

    80

    • #
      Hat Rack

      Googled Dr. William Cheung. Apparently he worked for WWF Hong Kong for 2 years. ‘Nuff said.

      100

  • #
    Greg Cavanagh

    quote: “Fish are more easily ‘short-of-breath’ as they grow bigger.”

    I call BS on this one (as well as the rest of the study).
    There are some very big fish out there.

    111

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Yeah that’s why those huge White Pointers move so slowly…../sarc.

      70

    • #
      sophocles

      Not all of them are fish. Whales are mammals as are the rest of the cetacea, and breathe air.

      I think the surfers will be happy to hear the Great Whites will be shrinking.

      20

      • #
        Greg Cavanagh

        I didn’t think sharks where fish, but according to Wiki, they are; so…

        Greenland Shark (up to 7.3 meters / 24 feet) Greenland Shark. …
        Basking Shark (up to 8 meters / 26 feet) Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus). …
        Giant Oarfish (up to 11 meters / 36 feet) …
        Whale Shark (12.65 meters /41.50 feet)

        Lobe-Finned Fish (up to 2m, 6.6 feet)
        Lungfish (up to 2m, 6.6 feet)
        Ray-finned bony fish (up to 4.3m, 14 feet)
        Cod (up to 2m, 6.6 feet)

        and many, many more.

        30

  • #

    ‘Twas brillig and the slithy toves
    Did gyre and gimble in the cee-
    Oh -two. Upon the shore the Walrus
    Said to Doctor Cheung who stood
    Bare-footed on the burning shale,
    ‘Come gaze upon this fishy thing
    That swims within my pail. It looks
    To be a cod-fish but once it was a whale.’
    ‘Tis mimsy, ‘ said the Doctor, ‘it’s enough
    To make one quale,’ ‘I’ll write a weighty
    Paper on it with a porpoise to my tale
    Of borogroves and mome raths outgrabing,
    Oh my god!

    350

  • #
    ivan

    You can’t help wondering just where these tenured green twits get their data. Is it unvalidated models or just wishful thinking, because it most certainly is not from the real world.

    It would help if this twit actually got out on one of the fishing boats and took some real world measurements including simple things like age if the fish and size of catch multiplied by the number of ships fishing and so on. But then they can’t do that because the results wouldn’t follow the agreed agenda.

    141

    • #
      Geoffrey Williams

      Dead right Ivan-I’ll bet this marine ecologist wouldn’t know a sprat from a herring! Just more ‘flake’ news . . .
      GeoffW

      60

  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    … by the end of the century.

    The first generation iPhone was released on June 29, 2007.

    From August 2013
    The first lab-grown beef hamburger was cooked and eaten in London on Monday. “We proved it’s possible,” said scientist Mark Post, who created the cultured minced meat in his lab at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He said his hope is to come up with a new and environmentally friendly way to feed the world.

    I think I’ll have fish and chips tonight. Maybe I’ll get the last one ever.

    90

  • #
    Rereke Whakaaro

    As the temperature of the surface of the oceans increases, the water holds less oxygen for fish to breathe.

    Dr William Cheung does not define what he means by “surface”. If he is floating on a plank, the surface would be about an inch thick. If he was standing on the bridge of an Aircraft Carrier (which floats on the surface), the surface could be dozens of feet thick. If he is in a submarine that is submerged, then the surface would be the difference between the top of the hull and the mean height of the waves above.

    Anyway, the vast majority of fish that is edible and a commercial size to catch, does not swim “on the surface”, but at a significant depth, that is measured in hundreds of metres. Especially Cod, which is officially a deep water fish, that swims in water that is perpetually cold.

    290

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Lateral thinking will not be accepted where climate hysteria is concerned!

      If the cod are short of breath in the Magnetosphere then so be it.

      90

    • #
      Glen Michel

      Pelagic species- such as Tuna spend their life on the move within the top 10 meters of the oceans. OTO Halibuts and Flounders are Demersal or Benthic and live in lower level of dissolved O2; not surprising for the erudite contributors here. I can only assume the author is alluding to pelagics. Then again, with wind constantly whipping up the surface and causing oxygenation I can only say he’s basing his studies in the Sargasso Sea.

      110

  • #
    Another Ian

    O/T Re SA’s battery

    “Electric Car Maker Tesla Share Price Plunges”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/07/08/electric-car-maker-tesla-share-price-plunges/

    and comments

    100

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Same snake oil different bottle.

      80

    • #
      bobl

      I’m not surprises, Tesla has been having a lot of trouble getting finance to keep is troubled loss-making business afloat. If the SA gov goes ahead with this utter technical lunacy I predict he will have a stranded asset on his hands within 5 years. This is no way to run a government, the taxpayers deserve much better.

      I think it’s about time that the citizens put an end to this lunacy and either sued the government in a huge class action or went on a tax strike.

      20

  • #
    TedM

    So now fish are vulnerable to Karlization.

    40

  • #
    Mark M

    Brought to you by fossil fuels ..

    Byron Bay to get world’s first solar-powered train, courtesy of a coal baron.

    “Even if the sun doesn’t shine for a prolonged period the train battery can be charged from mains power using certified Green Power,” Mr Holmes said.

    The train will retain a back-up diesel engine for emergencies.

    http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/byron-bay-to-get-worlds-first-solarpowered-train-courtesy-of-a-coal-baron-20170702-gx31yo.html

    80

    • #
      Just Thinkin'

      How ironic…

      I reckon there will be the steady sound of the diesel thumping away EVERY day.

      Plus, nothing like using mains power…you know it is always there, supplied 24 hours a day, 365 days a year…..rain, hail or shine….(or darkness)

      40

  • #
    Manfred

    A quick look at the solubility of gases against temperature shows O2 solubility is nearly x15 less than the solubility of CO2 at the same pressure. With an increase in temperature (5C to 25C) the solubility of O2 barely changes at all, while the solubility of CO2 plummets by > 50%.

    In itself that may underpin the adaptation of aquatic creatures to a far more stable O2 rich environment and therefore the presence of haemoglobin in their blood, rather than a porphyrin ring with magnesium (instead of iron) at its heart ubiquitous on terra firma, cholophyll. The insensitivity of biological systems to perturbations in their dependent environments speaks to their success and adaptive capacities. Fish have been around what, for 500 million years?

    And BTW, did Dr Cheung mention the significant increase in CO2 outgassing from the Oceans with the modelled temperature increase, or was that one of those inconvenient distractions?

    140

  • #
    Robdel

    Codswallop(ed)

    130

  • #
    TdeF

    Obviously Ecology does not include physical chemistry

    “As the temperature of the surface of the oceans increases”

    “the water holds less oxygen for fish to breathe.”

    So why is this not true for CO2. Why wouldn’t CO2 leave the ocean too? Especially as CO2 is far more compressible and soluble and 98% of all CO2 is in the oceans. Now that would mean ocean warming increased CO2. No ecologist wants to say that.

    Why does CO2 increase when O2 decreases? What happened to ‘acidification’? What happened to Henry’s law? It only applies to Oxygen?

    2 oxygen from the depths of the ocean does not mix with the surface water as readily.

    Who said? Similarly the IPCC argues that CO2 is trapped in the deep ocean. Oxygen is not an ocean current. It is a dissolved gas. So is CO2. Nothing is ‘trapped’. This is a way of pretending ocean gases do not affect the atmosphere, when the atmosphere comes entirely from the oceans in equilibrium. In fact all life on earth came from the oceans and cannot survive without water and salt.

    3 water does not circulate as swiftly, which means the deep ocean is not as well ventilated.

    Again, this is just making stuff up.

    Overall, Cod awful science.

    Who said?

    3 this is just some sort of eco fantasy.

    160

    • #
      TdeF

      History of CO2 and temperature shows that CO2 levels lag temperature, as is simple science. Swinging it around to argue that CO2 controls ocean temperature is convenient. Arguing that tiny 0.04% CO2 is our only blanket but 22% O2 and massive H2O as in clouds does not is a forced logic, the only real forcing in global warming.

      When all this phony science is in, it will be proven conclusively that our surface temperature is controlled by only two things. Sun and clouds.

      Cod Armageddon tired of these fishy fantasies. To quote Tony Abbott, the CO2 science is ‘socialism masquerading as environmentalism’.

      131

      • #
        Manfred

        Couldn’t agree more.
        I’ve recently been at the pointy end of the galloping enthusiasm by pension funds et al. to vigorously embrace UNEP divestment strategies that lay claim to ‘ethical and sustainable’ investments, essentially targeting investment ‘not in fossil fuels’ (negative filtering) to ‘always in green renewables’ (positive filtering).

        To disagree is to be deemed ‘unethical’ at the very least. Of course it is dressed up in not investing in cluster bomb manufacture or pornography. It gets ‘interesting’ when one asks the brokers whether they are poised to stop paying their taxes to fund a standing army and state funded abortion, or paying the social benefit to unemployed prostitutes. The conversation with the company broker was ‘fascinating’ because he personally agreed with these observations. But….cognitive dissonance is avoidable when one has a mortgage to pay and family to support. For myself, I’m beginning to think this is what it must have felt in the early 1930’s in Germany, under burgeoning Nazi totalitarianism.

        The UN have an inexhaustible penchant to sequester words, utilising them very effectively to demonise (ethical), to conflate (the classic UN “civil society) or to misdirect (climate change). It’s as dishonest as it is intentional, and as repulsive as it is threatening. Yet many appear unable or unwilling to read the writing propaganda on the wall.

        Something must happen to shatter this slide into tyranny, so readily, incomprehensibly and thoughtlessly embraced by Australia and New Zealand among others.

        90

  • #
    pat

    PDF: 15 pages: 7/8 Jul: G20 Germany 2017: Communique: G20 Leaders’ Declaration: Shaping an interconnected world
    Improving Sustainable Livelihoods: Energy and Climate…
    We take note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. The United States of America announced it will immediately cease the implementation of its current nationally-determined contribution and affirms its strong commitment to an approach that lowers emissions while supporting economic growth and improving energy security needs.

    ***The United States of America states it will endeavour to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently and help deploy renewable and other clean energy sources, given the importance of energy access and security in their nationally determined contributions.

    The Leaders of the other G20 members state that the Paris Agreement is irreversible…
    https://www.g20.org/gipfeldokumente/G20-leaders-declaration.pdf

    8 Jul: TheAmericanInterest: Climate Politics and the English Language
    No surprise: the “Final Communiqué” of the (largely irrelevant, purely cosmetic) G20 summit was difficult for the participant countries to agree on. One of the main sticking points? Again, no surprise: climate change. Here’s part of the final language on “Energy and Climate”: EXCERPT

    Take note of the stark contrast in the language used in the official statement between the U.S.-authored first paragraph and the “Paris”-focused second…

    The first paragraph is written in crystal clear, easy to understand prose…
    The second paragraph is difficult to understand—all empty aspirations and limp hectoring swimming in a soup of acronyms and allusions to reports and annexes. Its only clear call to action is for developed countries to contribute money to the so-called Green Climate Fund—an effort that to date has fallen far short of expectations, and that President Trump has (correctly) criticized as an ill-conceived slush fund. Now go back and read the final sentence: “…full implementation in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances…” Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.

    The FT reported that the phrase in the first paragraph, about helping other countries access and use “fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently”, was particularly contentious. That should tell you all you need to know about how ideological and deranged environmental politics has become.
    https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/07/08/climate-politics-english-language/

    50

  • #
    graphicconception

    If a codling is a small cod then I predict that some of us are going to be in trouble when the cod get smaller!

    Still, look on the bright side. The extra greening caused by raised CO2 levels will mean that we can plant more potatoes and so have more chips with our cod.

    30

  • #
    David Maddison

    Shrinking fish can be added to this list of things attributed to “global warming”.

    http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/globalwarming2.html

    42

  • #
    pat

    9 Jul: ChannelNewsAsia: Reuters: Erdogan says US stance stalls Turkish ratification of Paris climate deal
    HAMBURG: The U.S. decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement means Turkey is less inclined to ratify the deal because the U.S. move jeopardises compensation promised to developing countries, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday…
    Erdogan said that when Turkey signed the accord France had promised that Turkey would be eligible for compensation for some of the financial costs of compliance.

    “So we said if this would happen, the agreement would pass through parliament. But otherwise it won’t pass,” Erdogan told a news conference, adding that parliament had not yet approved it.
    “Therefore, after this step taken by the United States, our position steers a course towards not passing this from the parliament,” he said…
    http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/erdogan-says-us-stance-stalls-turkish-ratification-of-paris-climate-deal-9016196

    8 Jul: RadioFreeEurope/Radio Liberty: Trump Wins Concessions On Climate, Trade As G20 Leaders Agree On Summit Statement
    With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa, TASS, and Interfax
    U.S. President Donald Trump has secured key concessions on trade and climate in the final communique of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Hamburg, in what German Chancellor Angela Merkel characterized as a need for compromise…
    The communique also conceded to the U.S. side’s wish to include language on fossil fuels that other leaders had balked at…
    Trade was another disputed issue during the talks, and the final statement left room for Trump to push forward with his “America First” trade policy, which has hampered consensus on globalization and trade since he took office in January…

    A European Union official close to the negotiations told RFE/RL that aides worked until 2 a.m. on the G20 summit’s joint statement before reaching consensus to include free-trade language on fighting “protectionism,” which Washington had been reluctant to agree to, the official said.
    But the communique included for the first time the right of countries to protect their markets with “legitimate trade-defense instruments.”…

    Reuters quoted an EU official as saying earlier on July 8 that there was a “critical mass of countries” that objected to including the reference to fossil fuels in the G20 communique.
    The final statement included language sought by the U.S. side, noting Washington would “work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently.”…

    French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Paris will host a summit on December 12 to make further progress on the 2015 Paris climate agreement and to mobilize private and public financing for projects committed to in the agreement…
    https://www.rferl.org/a/g20-final-day-communique/28603062.html

    30

    • #
      Ross

      They spend so much time on the words of these communiques but do they really amount to anything? How many people outside the group who writes them and a few political nerds actually read them ? It will be a “fish & chip ” wrapper within a couple of days.

      50

      • #
        Manfred

        …and yet it continues to furnish the noxious bureaucratic machinations that go on behind closed doors.

        20

  • #
    pat

    8 Jul: Greenpeace Tweet: Greenpeace activists have a message for the #G20HH2017 over the river Elbe: #endcoal Move from coal to renewable energy!
    reply from Friends of Science: ***Wonder who paid for that? (links to WashTimes article below)
    https://twitter.com/greenpeace_de/status/883592659205591040/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dw.com%2Fen%2Fg20-final-day-of-summit-in-hamburg-live-updates%2Fa-39606852

    ***good question.

    2015: Washington Times: Drew Johnson: Sierra Club puts almighty dollar ahead of Mother Earth
    In a new report, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute reveals that a number of environmental activists, including billionaires Nathaniel Simons, Roger Sant and Michael Bloomberg, benefit richly from their hefty donations to the Sierra Club…
    Mr. Bloomberg, a former New York City mayor, has donated more than $105 million to the Sierra Club since 2011. Mr. Bloomberg, who is well-invested in the renewable energy industry, is able to fan the fire of Sierra Club’s unfounded fossil fuel hysterics. By using his Bloomberg L.P. media empire to give credibility to the organization’s war on fossil fuels, he is able to spur demand for renewables, padding his portfolio in the process…

    The Sierra Club’s well-known “Beyond Coal” campaign has been largely discredited because the campaign appears bought and paid for by board members and other donors who benefit financially from the organization’s anti-fossil fuel crusades,
    Eight of the Sierra Club Foundation’s 18 directors are involved with organizations that profit from the Beyond Coal campaign, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute discovered.
    Those directors are owners, founders and CEOs of renewable energy companies and investment firms that donated millions to the Sierra Club’s war on fossil fuels…

    Companies with top executives on the Sierra Club’s board of directors include solar firms such as SolarCity, Sun Run and the Solaria Corp., as well as the green energy investment funds at Barclays, Walden Capital and Boston Common Asset Management.
    For those eight board members, earnings, not the environment, appear to motivate their involvement with the Sierra Club.

    The organization’s largest donor – ultimately the funder behind much of the Beyond Coal campaign – may have the biggest investment of anyone in strangling America’s cheap and stable conventional energy market. That man, David Gelbaum, has spent $500 million starting, buying and investing in more than 40 green energy companies, from solar panel makers to electric car producers, all of which benefit from the Sierra Club’s attack on fossil fuels. For Mr. Gelbaum, the $100 million he has donated to the Sierra Club is a marketing expense; a way to vilify his competition and entice more people to buy into his expensive green energy schemes…

    Obviously, today’s Sierra Club, which seems to operate first and foremost as a political lobbying firm focused on enriching its donors and board members, is a far cry from what celebrated naturalist John Muir had in mind when he created the organization in 1892…

    According to the IRS, if a nonprofit’s donors or board members intentionally financially benefit from the actions of the organization, it “would lose its tax exempt status for at least one year.”

    Losing its tax-exempt status would be a devastating blow to the Sierra Club. But, by engaging in activities to make its donors and board members a quick buck, the organization has already lost something far more valuable: its credibility.
    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/20/drew-johnson-sierra-club-has-become-front-group-do/

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  • #
    David Maddison

    It is simply beyond belief that basic science is now so poorly taught and practiced that unproven statements like the fish are shrinking due to “global warming” can be offered without consideration of a plausible mechanism by which this might happen or alternative hypotheses such as over-fishing being considered.

    Furthermore, even if the world were warming, this would be a GOOD thing for food production and the biosphere more generally.

    As it is the world seems to be cooling and that WILL result in reduced food production. And we will be unprepared as most of the world’s electrical grids

    82

    • #
      David Maddison

      Oops…accidentally hit Post.

      ….grids will be unstable by then and not able to deliver the cheap, reliable power to keep people (and probably greenhouses to produce food) warm.

      102

    • #
      bobl

      David absolutely 100% right. Since AGW the world’s obsession with warming has caused the body politik to completely lose touch with the far more likely prospect of cooling and subsequent CO2 starvation (from cold oceans absorbing CO2). In the LIA population was only about 1.8Bn, half of Europe died from starvation due to the crop failures.

      In the likely event of future cooling, (Likely because we live in a brief interglacial period…, and the glacial period WILL return) equatorial nations like Australia, N Africa, Central America and S. Asia will have to meet the food needs of over 7 Bn people with CO2 resource maybe 30% reduced over now. Is Australia or N Africa prepared for that? I think not! What happens when NYC is once again covered by a 1 km thick glacier, you think current migration is an issue!

      40

      • #
        David Maddison

        Thanks bobl,

        Since CO2 lags temperature by around 800 years would it be fair to say that even though the world is cooling now we won’t get CO2 starvation for about 800 years?

        And in 800 years, how low will it go?

        It’s a worry because plants die at 150 to 200 ppm CO2 and at 400 ppm there’s not much of a safety margin.

        11

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          bobl

          yes, but not quite true, biomass is at stasis around 200PPM so the total biomass doesn’t increase like it does now, everything becomes stunted. The megaflora of the past was driven by high CO2. Look at it like this, for every 2 PPM decrease in CO2 plant growth rate reduces by 1%.

          However it shows clearly that even a modest fall in Co2 of say 10ppm has a major impact on food (5% reduction) with population increasing at 1% per annum, the population growth is currently being fed by the CO2 increase of 2PPM per annum. Even if CO2 just stopped increasing, population pressure would induce famines within 30 years absent the compensating CO2 increases boosting the food supply.

          Stopping or reversing CO2 growth deliberately is therefore a crime against humanity!

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        sophocles

        What is not realised is that the Holocene temperature is already in decline. From early in the Holocene, average temps rose to about 2°C above what they are at present. That lasted until about 5000 years ago, and is known as the Holocene Optimum.

        We are regaled with predictions of reaching `tipping points.’ We’ve been there and passed one. From the time when the Holocene was established and settled, there was a gentle constant millenial cooling of about 0.05°C. Temperatures bounced around that both up and down. At the end of the Minoan Warming (c. 3300 years ago), that background temperature trend passed a `tipping point.’ It was no longer a gentle 0.05°C per millenium but 0.5° per millenium, which is a change of an order of magnitude. Ten times. The ride down the slippery slope towards the next glaciation had begun. Three millenia later, the mean temperature (if there can be said to be such a thing) has cooled by 1.5°C so the little bit of warming we’ve had over the 20th century is, as far as I am concerned, rather welcome.

        What it means, though, is the inevitable return of the ice. Enjoy things while they are warm and stop panicking about our good fortune. It ain’t gonna last and there’s nothing we can do about it. Like all lifeforms on this planet, we are ultimately controlled by our food supply. More food, population swells. Less food, it drops. Along the way, the civilisation put together during the times of the plentiful food, collapses. That’s unmercifully clear in the historic record, and in recent history: just look aback at the `Arab Spring’ in 2011. That was a foretaste of what is to come.

        Of course, we’re planning for all the wrong things. `Business as Usual’ is a short-sighted trap and we’re walking into it with our eyes wide shut.

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    toorightmate

    Does less oxygen in the ocean mean more oxygen in the atmosphere which in turn means healthier homo sapiens?

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    TedM

    Entering the era of homogenised fish, and why not they did it to milk decades ago.

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    pat

    8 Jul: UK Express: Vickie Oliphant: Merkel’s final dig at Trump: Chancellor ‘DEPLORED’ US decision to quit Paris agreement
    “You are familiar with the American position. You know unfortunately – and I deplore this – the US left the climate change agreement…

    “What becomes clear in this declaration is the dissenting view of the United States – but I am gratified to note the other members say the Paris agreement is irreversible.
    “We feel committed to what we agreed on and should be implemented as quickly a possible.”…

    Greenpeace director Jennifer Morgan has urged the G19 to “stand together on the right side of history and reject any diversions from the Paris Agreement”.
    “The G20, or G19 if necessary, must make it crystal clear that the Paris Agreement is the only ***GAME in town,” Ms Morgan added…
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/826322/G20-summit-Angela-Merkel-final-dig-Donald-Trump-deplore-Paris-agreement-climate-change

    8 Jul: Reuters: U.S. isolated on climate at summit of world leaders
    By Paul Carrel and Noah Barkin, HAMBURG
    For its part, the United States injected a contentious line saying that it would “endeavor to work closely with other countries to help them access and use fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently.”…

    “There is a clear consensus absent the United States,” said Thomas Bernes, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. “But that is a problem. Without the largest economy in the world how far can you go?”
    Jennifer Morgan, executive director at Greenpeace, said the G19 had “held the line” against Trump’s “backward decision” to withdraw from Paris…

    It was held only a few hundred meters from one of Germany’s most potent symbols of left-wing resistance, a former theater called the “Rote Flora” which was taken over by anti-capitalist squatters nearly three decades ago.
    Over the three days of the summit, radicals looted shops, torched cars and lorries. More than 200 police were injured and some 143 people have been arrested and 122 taken into custody…
    Merkel met police and security force after the summit to thank them, and condemned the “unbridled brutality” of some of the protestors, but she was forced to answer tough questions about hosting the summit in Hamburg during her closing press conference.
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-communique-idUSKBN19T07P

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      bobl

      Well it’s settled then, Hiliary was right, Trump is a “deplorable”. Angela says so!

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    David Maddison

    Eco-morons prefer fish farms but like wind farms they are environmental disasters.

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    pat

    9 Jul: Andalou Agency: G20 split on climate
    By Ayhan Simsek
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Hamburg that 19 members voiced commitment to the Paris accord but many are uncomfortable with the deal…
    Erdogan emphasized that last year, former French President Francois Hollande, who championed the Paris deal, promised Turkey would be regarded as a developing country and would not face financial sanctions.
    As part of the Paris deal, industrialized nations pledged financial support for developing countries for climate protection measures, technology transfer and capacity building programs…
    http://aa.com.tr/en/world/g20-split-on-climate-/857258

    8 Jul: Deutsche Welle: G20: USA abandons climate consensus
    Bernd Riegert reports from Hamburg.
    “Wherever there is consensus, there must also be dissent,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said, adding that she regretted the fact that the USA had abandoned climate consensus…
    In Hamburg, US President Donald Trump also refused to acknowledge the ***emissions’ reductions anchored in the Paris accord…

    ***can’t find anything covering this, but there was this earlier, which didn’t make it to the communique:

    7 Jul: Hindustan Times: AP: Climate: (Merkel is) eager to come up with a collective statement on the issue.
    That could include other countries expressing their commitment to exceed their treaty commitments to limit greenhouse gases as a response to Trump. The US could also at least commit to “a global approach” to fight global warming.
    That possibility dismayed the environmental group Greenpeace. Spokesman Tobias Muenchmeyer said since emissions reductions would be implemented at the national level, a vague global pledge “is a license to do nothing.”…
    http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/trade-climate-change-global-economy-a-guide-to-what-s-up-at-the-g20-summit/story-qXObpjAwttyS8q2EA8BJ9O.html

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    pat

    8 Jul: Spiegel: The G18.5: What the G-20 Declaration Means for the Climate
    All G-20 participants, except for the U.S., underlined their commitment to the Paris climate change agreement. It is a significant success for Merkel, even if Turkish President Erdogan changed his mind after the summit.
    An Analysis by Holger Dambeck
    Erdogan’s About Face
    Many of the questions centered on Russia and whether it would remain true to the Paris Agreement, particularly since Moscow has yet to ratify it. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had likewise thrown his support behind the domestic oil industry, which riled climate activists. (Read DER SPIEGEL’s G-20 interview with Prime Minister Trudeau here (LINK).)…

    And then there was Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Given the current tensions between Germany and Turkey, there were concerns that he could use the climate passage in the final declaration as a way to embarrass Merkel. In the end, he elected to support the final declaration, saving his bombshell for after the closing of the summit, when he indicated that Ankara might not ratify Paris after all…

    The real work is only just beginning. Paris is primarily a commitment to limiting global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius and to just 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible. But the self-named targets included in the agreement for reducing CO2 emissions are not binding…

    If one believes the calculation of the climate experts, average global temperatures will rise by much more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. Indeed, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research warned shortly before the G-20 summit that radical steps were necessary to achieve the 2-degree goal. If CO2 emissions don’t begin sinking within just a few years, the scientists warned, Paris is almost unachievable. The longer humanity takes to turn the corner on greenhouse gas emissions, the institute said, the faster emissions would have to sink in the ensuing years, making the achievement of the 2-degree goal all the less realistic.

    Time, in other words, is running out…
    If emissions continue on their present path of 40 gigatons per year, we will reach the 600-gigaton limit in 15 years. As of 2032, we would essentially have to live in a world of zero emissions. That will be extremely difficult.

    Merkel, though, can be satisfied with the G-20 closing declaration for now. Soon, though, she must ensure that German finally begins to sink its own CO2 emissions to the degree promised. Germany, after all, may be widely seen as a political standard bearer on climate issues. But as it stands now, ***the country will fall well short of its own emission reduction goals.
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/g-20-declaration-isolates-trump-on-the-climate-a-1156827.html

    what a farce.

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    Geoffrey Williams

    Well now, if the cod portions are shrinking we shall just have to eat more chips! Yummy!
    GeoffW

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  • #

    So this is how it how ends.

    No more mighty Murray Cod.

    Just that mighty fighting fish, the great Murray ….. Sardine!

    Tony.

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      Dennis

      No more disappearing cars, like the old fishing story about the bloke who caught a Murray Cod, a giant one, and to stop it from getting away tied his line to the tow bar on his Ford V8 sedan. The car disappeared and have never been found.

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        Glen Michel

        Or the Cod who lived in the deepest hole on the Murray River. When caught it was sunburned on the back and had gravel rash on its belly!

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    Reed Coray

    I think they have is bassackwards. Didn’t the largest shark ever, the megalodon, exist when atmospheric CO2 levels were much higher than they are today? Proof that global warming is going to lead to the closure of all beaches. Send me grant money, please!

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    Ross

    Just as bad as Dr Cheung’s statements we have France saying they will ban diesel and petrol vehicles by 2040. ( At least they have a reasonably good train system to help out)

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/07/08/france-will-ban-all-petrol-and-diesel-vehicles-by-2040/

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    Richard111

    No mention of phytoplankton. I wonder why.
    They like CO2 and make O2.
    Oh, I forgot, science is dead.

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    Bite Back

    Where do they get this stuff? I know damn well they have some link directly to a place I would never want to have a link to. I just don’t know which one of the several possibilities it is.

    How can they stand each other’s company?

    Shrinking fish and lack of oxygen in the ocean… Can we all have a break from this BS?

    BB

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    Watt

    Wasn’t this from a talk at the University of Exeter, another centre of Climate excellence heavily invested in Climate modelling & in league with the UK Met Office. https://www.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/climatechange/

    Perhaps Proff Cheung was just feeding a receptive audience with more of their favourite dish.

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    Patrick healy

    It is not so absurd really.
    The EU madhouse is under the control of a Mackerel (Macron/Merkel)
    This unhinged little English province is being run by a Sturgeon. She followed on from a Salmon.
    All a bunch of sharks if you ask me.

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    cedarhill

    With the world-wide obesity crisis, the Greens should be applauding this? They’ve found a complete cure, famine. A perfect solution for a perfect group of folks.

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  • #

    […] Jo Nova features the latest freakout over ‘climate change’ shrinking your fish and chips […]

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    RoHa

    WE

    ARE

    DOOMED

    !

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    John of Cloverdale, WA, Australia

    George Orwell in Spain, 1936:
    “Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie…. This kind of thing is frightening to me, because it often gives me the feeling that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world.”
    If George was alive today and looking at the climate alarmism that proliferates in the news today, he would probably reword that last sentence as, ‘…the very concept of objective truth has left the world.’

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    Doonhamer

    I have noticed this shrinkage of comestibles.
    Chocolate bars, confectionary bars, the weight and volume of stuff in packets (allthough, contrary to what you might think would be good Save-The-Planet practise the packets themselves do not get smaller. Pringles used to fill the packet, completely, and efficiently and would not smash if the packet was shaken, now the poor shrunken things rattle around knocking bits off each other.)
    This shrinkage has spread to non edible products. Andrex has reduced the number of sheets (careful how you say that, but the result is he same.) on each roll. Airline passenger seats and legroom get smaller.
    Previously I had put this down to corporate greed abetted by consumer gulability.

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    Doonhamer

    Continued from above (or below depending on your browser set up)
    Now I know the true reason. Global, Climate Warming / Change / Chaos.
    However, now in the UK the dreaded Global Warming , sorry, Climate Change is quietly being forgotten.
    Politicians and MSM hardly mention it now and probably hope that those who pay their wages will forget all their scaremongering.
    They have adopted the cunning Basil Fawlty stratagem.
    “ I may have mentioned the War(ming) once, but I think that I got away with it.”
    Now they have Brexit and all the ills ‘o life are put down to the fact that all the deplorables here voted to leave the beneficent, selfless, proto-republic.

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    Gazman

    There are so many problems with Cheung’s claims it is hard to know where to start. Other than the fact that it is entire bollocks.

    It has been known for years, but not widely publicised that fish sizes are declining because of minimum fish size limits imposed on most commercial species. Natural selection has inevitably produced a decline in size of sexually mature fish simply because the larger specimens are continually removed from populations.

    The other elephant in Cheu g’s room is the fact that if oxygen levels decline as water warms, so too does carbon dioxide, which then confirms that the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide responds to higher temperatures, rather than causes them. The data has shown it yet the reality is ignored for these hair-brained, peurile claims and predictions abot AGW.

    It is beyond parody. Fake news at its most stupid.

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    The size of fish in British waters has been shrinking, but this is due to over-fishing. The EU solution was to control licensed fishermen to set limited days of fishing. Which meant some had to put out in rough seas, when in the past they would have stayed in port. In two years time though, British waters will come back into the control of Britain.

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