Climate change creates free real estate in Tuvalu: “climate refugees” can all go home

The Green Blob is going to have to get rid of satellites. Real data is so inconvenient.

For years many people called scientists have assumed, like any smart 5 year old would, that islands are fixed blobs of rock and sand that just sit there and sink as oceans rise. Now satellite images show that three quarters of the islands in Tuvalu are growing rather than shrinking.

Total land area is up 2.9%. Total government funded scientists who predicted reality, down 97%.

Since our emissions helped create nearly a square kilometer of free real estate in Tuvalu, it seems only fair that they return any climate funds, and pay a royalty. 😉

The whole of Tuvalu is 26km2 and about 10,600 people live there. Total GDP is $32 million. It’s a cheap marketing tool. In May last year, despite Tuvalu being used as an advertising posterchild for climate change for years, it had not received funding from the Green Climate Fund. In August 2017 UNDP finally promised $38 million. That’s theoretically an extra income equivalent to 20% of their GDP for the next seven years. No wonder these islanders are keen to talk “climate change”.

Scientists who have been getting it right for years are Kench (author of this study) and people like Nils Axel Morner. Organisations that are still getting this wrong include The IPCC and The World Bank. Another star of sea-level science is Dana Nuccitelli at Skeptical Science who said:

Nils-Axel Mörner’s claims regarding sea level rise are the very definition of denial, involving nothing more than conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated accusations of data falsification wich (sic) are easily proven untrue.

Indeed, highly adjusted tide gauges agree with highly adjusted satellite altimeters, and that land you see on satellite images is not there.

What’s the “definition of denial” Dana?

‘Sinking’ Pacific nation Tuvalu is actually getting bigger, new research reveals

A University of Auckland study examined changes in the geography of Tuvalu’s nine atolls and 101 reef islands between 1971 and 2014, using aerial photographs and satellite imagery.

Co-author Paul Kench said the research, published Friday in the journal Nature Communications, challenged the assumption that low-lying island nations would be swamped as the sea rose.

‘We tend to think of Pacific atolls as static landforms that will simply be inundated as sea levels rise, but there is growing evidence these islands are geologically dynamic and are constantly changing,’ he said.

‘The study findings may seem counter-intuitive, given that (the) sea level has been rising in the region over the past half century, but the dominant mode of change over that time on Tuvalu has been expansion, not erosion.’

It found factors such as wave patterns and sediment dumped by storms could offset the erosion caused by rising water levels.

Kench has been skeptical of Tuvalu’s disappearance and talking about how islands are not just simple lumps of rock since at least 2004. So for 14 years he’s been right, but the panic machine has rolled on:

Scientists generally assume that as sea level rises, sand and gravel erode away into the seabed as the shoreline recedes; accordingly, a place like Tuvalu will eventually disappear under a rising sea. “We think that’s nonsense,” Kench tells me. Instead, when big storms or rising sea levels send waves over a narrow atoll, he says, they can transport sand and other sediments across the island to the opposite shore. “It’s what happens on the sandy barrier islands off the U.S. East Coast,” says Kench, who has used computer models to test the scenario on atolls like Tuvalu. What the models projected, he says, was that waves washing over the island caused it to change shape and even move away from the reef edge, but not vanish.

The information that the islands may even benefit from climate change has been out there for years.

CAPTION to image

Examples of island change and dynamics in Tuvalu from 1971 to 2014. a Nanumaga reef platform island (301 ha) increased in area 4.7 ha (1.6%) and remained stable on its reef platform. b Fangaia island (22.4 ha), Nukulaelae atoll, increased in area 3.1 ha (13.7%) and remained stable on reef rim. c Fenualango island (14.1 ha), Nukulaelae atoll rim, increased in area 2.3 ha (16%). Note smaller island on left Teafuafatu (0.29 ha), which reduced in area 0.15 ha (49%) and had significant lagoonward movement. d Two smaller reef islands on Nukulaelae reef rim. Tapuaelani island, (0.19 ha) top left, increased in area 0.21 ha (113%) and migrated lagoonward. Kalilaia island, (0.52 ha) bottom right, reduced in area 0.45 ha (85%) migrating substantially lagoonward. e Teafuone island (1.37 ha) Nukufetau atoll, increased in area 0.04 ha (3%). Note lateral migration of island along reef platform. Yellow lines represent the 1971 shoreline, blue lines represent the 1984 shoreline, green lines represent the 2006 shoreline and red lines represent the 2014 shoreline. Images ©2017 DigitalGlobe Inc

REFERENCE

Kench et al (2018) Patterns of island change and persistence offer alternate adaptation pathways for atoll nations, Nature Communications (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-02954-1

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-pacific-nation-bigger.html#jCp

h/t Pat and previously DonA.

9.5 out of 10 based on 92 ratings

108 comments to Climate change creates free real estate in Tuvalu: “climate refugees” can all go home

  • #
    Graham Richards

    Sea levels rise in direct proportion to the amount of taxpayer funded climate funds available.

    To eliminate sea levels rising, eliminate taxpayer funded climate funding.
    I have a feeling it’ll work for Co2 emissions subsidies as well.

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    • #
      Geoff

      Not only can sea levels rise and fall, it is possible to get 97% of scientists to agree that sea levels rise and fall at the same time! The other 3% cannot be bought.

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  • #
    el gordo

    Some are increasing in size and others decreasing, I blame the pause in SLR.

    https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/seal-level-sat-oct2017-zoom.png?w=640

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  • #

    My questions.

    Why should sea levels not rise in an interglacial? What are they supposed to do? Christopher Walken impressions?

    Why is the recent sea level rise since the late 1700s so paltry? Still can’t paddle where the Romans parked fleets at Ephesus, still can’t get to the pass at Thermopylae from the sea without a long trudge while dodging highway traffic.

    Dude, where’s my SLR?

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    • #
      el gordo

      Tuvalu SLR is faster than anywhere else in the world, but I reckon if they took out the influence of ENSO cycles, which produce sea level fluctuations up to 20-30 cms, then Tuvalu would be pretty average.

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      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        It’s some time since I last looked, but when I did look it wasn’t the fastest.

        When they started their AGW scare campaign, the measure of their catastrophe was accelerating sea level rise, which was going to give us 50 million climate refugees by 2005, including the entire population of Tuvalu. It didn’t happen.

        So from time to time I used to draw attention to NOAA’s publication of the sea level at the Fort Denison tide gauge in Sydney Harbour, which has one of the world’s best kept records. It showed a remarkably steady rise of 0.65 mm/year But in 2010 NOAA stopped updating that chart. Why? Perhaps because it was embarrassing their narrative?

        I have been looking up that chart ever since, the cynic in me wondering if somebody was creating space for a corrupted record. At one time I am sure that, while searching for newer data from Fort Denison, I fond on a fresh website that the Fort Denison gauge was “cleaned and recalibrated monthly”. Alarmed by that word “recalibrated” I drew the attention of some people to it, I can’t remember who. But when I went looking for that page again, I found no mention of the recalibration. Sadly I didn’t keep a secure copy of the page.

        The NOAA Fort Denison chart still terminated at 2010 when last I looked, but http://www.sealevel.info publishes the NOAA 680-140 chart up to 2016. And whaddayaknow! It shows a sharp uptick from about 2010. Already the published rate of rise has risen from 0.65 mm/year to 0.71 mm/year.

        It’s too early yet to cry foul, but close scrutiny is needed

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        • #
          Radical Rodent

          I seriously doubt that a rise of 0.65mm/yr is actually measurable; even averaging it out over a 10 year period would be dodgy – 6.5mm is a little over ¼ of an inch; over a century, it is about 2½ inches (is that really meant to scare us? NOAA are letting themselves down a bit, here!). By way of example: half-fill your bath. Get into it, and measure the level. Now, pour a kettle-full of water into it, and measure the rise… Sorry, but claiming that measuring the level of the rather more capricious surface of the sea to an accuracy of millimetres – never mind sub-millimetres! – is feasible is taking us into realms of fantasy, especially when you bear in mind that the levels are also susceptible to other factors, such as atmospheric pressure, wind and weather.

          Yes, close scrutiny is certainly needed.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          This is where the link was:

          https://www.portauthoritynsw.com.au/corporation/news/myPorts_newsletter/myports_november_2015/fort_denison_tide_gauge_cleaned_and_calibrated

          You might be able to find a copy of that somewhere. You could even call them and ask them to send you a copy of the November 2015 newsletter.

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      • #

        Tuvalu SLR is faster than anywhere else

        The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser Tue 14 Mar 1837
        “The following interesting account of
        the Maldive Islands is copied from a
        publication which has recently emanated
        from the Bombay Geographical Society,
        (a branch of the Parent Society, in Lon-
        don) ;” “The natives observe the atolls to be wasting
        away , in some the cocoanut trees are standing in the
        water, in another the black soil of the island is dis
        cernible at low water thirty feet from the beach ; the
        south east side of an island in Phaidee Pholo Atoll
        is entirely gone but is marked by a banyan tree in the
        water. They say that some islands have disappeared
        entirely, and instance near the island Wardoo a
        rocky shoal, which (they say) was once an island in
        Atoll-Milla-Dou.
        https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2209875

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    • #

      We live in what the geologists call the sea level highstand, meaning that the sea level achieved its maximum or is near maximum, before we are poised for yet another cycle of a sea level fall. At present the sea level appears to be rising, but this is only a result of steady sediment compaction. What we currently experience is a sea level standstill with no acceleration or deceleration. This is why atolls grow as the system is in relative equilibrium.

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      • #
        yarpos

        Dont understand. Wouldnt sediment compaction effectively lower the bed and lower levels rather than raise them?

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        • #

          Subsidence is local and variable , seal level is global and the same. This is why we have variable measurement at various places.

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        • #
          Kinky Keith

          Probably meant accumulation.

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        • #

          Daruisz is inflicting gibberish on us.
          I don’t think sediment compaction would have a massive effect, because what is being compacted out of it is water, so there shouldn’t be any net change.

          The main clue Dariusz is missing is that the bulk of current sea level rise is caused by thermal expansion.
          Also, sea level is strongly affected by retention on land (or lack thereof).

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  • #
    Extreme Hiatus

    Let’s pretend some island was actually threatened. Just hire the Chinese to fix it. They know how to make them.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-07/new-surveillance-images-show-beijings-militarization-south-china-sea

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  • #
    Greg in NZ

    Just snuck in for a quick lunch-break at home before heading back out for the evening shift and wouldn’t you know it, our resident climate change crook, Dr Jum-Jum Salinger (he of the cooked NZ NIWA temp series) is, yet again, wailing and railing that we’ll have to run for the hills!

    http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/02/new-zealand-will-need-to-abandon-some-coastal-areas-climate-change-expert.html

    We are “going to reach a point where weather gets so bad we’ll have to abandon some of our seaside cities and towns… And the future is expected to get worse.” Oh, that old story again. And how’s this for gobbledegook from some insurance salesman: “The increase in weather losses is because of an increase in weather events causing [the] losses”. Huh? And he’s a CEO?

    “Another extreme storm could be about to smash into us next weekend… it could be worse than Fehi”. If this refers to little ex-cyclone Fehi from a few weeks ago – which was Cat 1 for less than a day – then yep, ANY cyclone is going to bigger than that. Like Tuvalu, New Zealand’s “islands are geologically dynamic and are constantly changing”. Paul Kench is a legend.

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    • #
      PeterS

      Yet another report by the “flat earthers” who claim the exact opposite of reality. They are so blind they are not seeing the cities they speak of are growing not shrinking. Reminds me of a comment made by someone else recently where he visited a topless bar and was refused entry because he wasn’t wearing a tie. What the? Then again it shouldn’t be surprising to see more and more up-side-down thinking. It has become a cancer and it’s still spreading. I suspect it has a long way to go before the big crunch happens.

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      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        … he visited a topless bar and was refused entry because he wasn’t wearing a tie.

        Would a bow tie count, I wonder? What about using a tie in lieu of a belt? Would that qualify? Or how about one of those plastic ties that light up at the push of a button? The opportunities for fun and mayhem are almost endless.

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        • #
          Joe

          That happened to me many years ago too – not a topless bar, just a nightclub and the bouncer at the door wouldn’t let me in because I had no tie on. I had to go back to the car and look for something to wear. I couldn’t find anything except jumper leads and so I wrapped one around my collar and went back. The bouncer looked me up and down again and said, ok you can go in this time – but don’t …

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        • #
          Chad

          Your idea of fun and mahem , may be different to those of the 150kg Kiwi bouncer on the door !

          20

    • #
      Extreme Hiatus

      Oh. I thought those increased losses were due to increased replacement costs of increased buildings and infrastructure? But them I’m not a CEO trying to increase the price of insurance, so what would I know.

      In the meantime, the always reliable Huffington Post is reporting (again) on the coral reef apocalypse and the heroes battling to save them.

      “Coral Scientists Eye ‘Radical Intervention’ To Save The World’s Reefs

      “The dire situation is here now,” said the coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch…

      “The most sobering appeal came from Joanna Walczak…

      “I’ve gone through many, many different stages of grief, from visceral sadness to disbelief and anger. I’ve definitely had some despondence and actually was planning for a career change because I really, truly didn’t see hope for a while there,” she told the committee via a video feed. “But I’ve ultimately come through all of that and have made it back with focus and determined action to do everything in my power to make a difference with whatever little time we have left.”

      http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/coral-reefs-intervention-noaa_us_5a7df39fe4b0c6726e133b4f

      I would post more but my tears have drenched the keyboard.

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      • #
        NB

        ‘was planning for a career change’
        Translation: ‘Thought the grant pool was going to dry up but it hasn’t yet.’

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Extreme Hiatus:
        “a newly formed committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine” so at least they should have ready access to psychiatric help.

        40

    • #

      And how’s this for gobbledegook from some insurance salesman: “The increase in weather losses is because of an increase in weather events causing [the] losses”. Huh?

      Makes perfect sense to me. Perhaps your incomprehension isn’t somebody else’s fault?

      An increase in losses could be caused by
      – fewer but bigger events
      – same number of events, but an increase in the number of risked premises
      – same number of events but a reduction in building standards

      The list goes on. The statement you failed to understand creates an important distinction. You would expect somebody working in insurance would understand these things.

      26

      • #
        Extreme Hiatus

        How about a decreased number of events and the increased number of structures and their increased replacement costs?

        Or to keep it simple, the increased number of structures and their increased replacement costs, period.

        What we do know is that there is no increase in “weather events” per se so this insurance salesman is either conveniently ignorant or just lying.

        You can start learning at this post (USA focused) and follow links or use google searches of its contents to get to the global picture:

        https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/extreme-weather-is-not-getting-worse-dr-roger-pielke-jr/

        40

        • #

          It appears that – unlike the poster I was responding to, you understand the point.

          https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21734467-reinsurance-industry-emerged-good-shape-natural-disasters-made-2017

          As to whether you should be more sceptical of an insurance salesman or of a sociologist, I confess I can’t choose between the two.

          43

        • #

          In fact, I now recall why the question is of little interest to me – this is what the IPCC had to say about it:

          when assessing changes in tropical
          cyclone activity, it is clear that detection and attribution aimed simply
          at long-term linear trends forced by increasing well-mixed GHGs is not
          adequate to provide a complete picture of the potential anthropogenic
          contributions to the changes in tropical cyclone activity that have been
          observed (Section 10.6).

          In other words, there is a lot going on but nothing interesting to be said about the subject. Anybody who tries to cover this topic with a pithy, definitive, sound-bite is trying to bull$#%@ you.

          33

          • #
            Mary E

            when assessing changes in tropical cyclone activity, it is clear that detection and attribution aimed simply at long-term linear trends forced by increasing well-mixed GHGs is not adequate to provide a complete picture of the potential anthropogenic contributions to the changes in tropical cyclone activity that have been observed (Section 10.6).

            See the bold up there? Please show me where the “observations of changes in tropical cyclone activity” being discussed are. And where the quantification of the types of changes are, and who made these assessments, and are they based on storm number, strength, or simply how much the payout for storm related damage was?

            Nothing interesting? It’s half the reason people are freaking out about climate change.

            00

  • #
    toorightmate

    Greg Sheridan’s feature piece in the Australian today says it very well:
    THE GUTLESS GREENS

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    • #
      Kinky Keith

      I read that too. A good piece.

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    • #
      PeterS

      That is putting it mildly. I believe most of us can think of far worse things to say to an extreme left wing party. Personally I’m still concerned why the Greens still exists as a significant party today given what they have said and done over the past decade or two. It goes to show Australia has a strong bias towards the left. After all we (fortunately) don’t have a party at the other extreme like the Golden Dawn Party in Greece; at least not one that has support anywhere near that of the Greens. This is despite the fact the extreme left are actually just as dangerous and evil if not more so that the extreme right. One only needs to study what Stalin and other extreme left wing leaders have down in the past.

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      • #
        Dennis

        I noticed a reference to a website that has been available for public examination for several years (stopturnbull.com) and revisited recently.

        Young Mr Turnbull was very much a leftist and expressed his view that the Labor and Liberal parties should be merged and the National Party eliminated. He also has many Green maates including one Tom Foolery who recommended Turnbull to the voters in Wentworth Electorate as being preferable to both Labor and Greens to become their local member. No need to wonder why is there. There are a number of Labor maates mentioned in the several stories published and other revealing and worrying information in my opinion.

        I am very concerned that a vote for the Turnbull Party masquerading as Australian Liberal Party is effectively a vote for Labor Greens, and that apart from political ambition of individuals who are MPs on the Labor side they view PM Turnbull as the best man for the transition to socialism based on climate change and other UN based agenda.

        20

        • #
          Dennis

          My post is relevant, climate change.

          30

          • #
            Dennis

            PeterS
            February 10, 2018 at 3:18 pm · Reply
            That is putting it mildly. I believe most of us can think of far worse things to say to an extreme left wing party. Personally I’m still concerned why the Greens still exists as a significant party today given what they have said and done over the past decade or two. It goes to show Australia has a strong bias towards the left. After all we (fortunately) don’t have a party at the other extreme like the Golden Dawn Party in Greece; at least not one that has support anywhere near that of the Greens. This is despite the fact the extreme left are actually just as dangerous and evil if not more so that the extreme right. One only needs to study what Stalin and other extreme left wing leaders have down in the past.

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            • #
              Dennis

              toorightmate
              February 10, 2018 at 2:52 pm · Reply
              Greg Sheridan’s feature piece in the Australian today says it very well:
              THE GUTLESS GREENS

              31

            • #
              philthegeek

              After all we (fortunately) don’t have a party at the other extreme

              Twaddle. The grumpy RW demographic in Oz is spoilt for choice with the Libs, Nats (ok, they are agrarian socialists is bad suits) and PHON, and now Corgi Bernardis Flying Circus.

              One only needs to study what Stalin and other extreme left wing leaders

              Stalin was not “left”. He was an authoritarian totalitarian…and a complete dick. Nearest equivalent in Oz politics, or at least a wannabee, is daS UberFurherTuber Dutton.

              11

      • #
        NB

        ‘extreme left are actually just as dangerous and evil if not more so that the extreme right’
        Without doubt more so, at least ten times worse, looking at the 20C body count of internal national killing. USSR, China, Cambodia, the list goes on…
        It always baffles me that having Marx or one of his minions on your selves shows how enlightened you are. Hitler is no fun, Marx is ten times less fun … unless you are into killing, of course.

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      • #
        PeterS

        Spoke too soon. The Golden Dawn Party is spreading to Australia: Golden Dawn Australia Not really surprised that nationalism is spreading in retaliation to the rise of Marxism here.

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  • #
    pat

    no wonder the ABC mob are frightened by CAGW tales!

    10 Feb: ABC: AFLW clash between Carlton, GWS delayed by thunderstorm as broadcasters run for cover
    A huge thunderstorm in Sydney saw a huge delay to the AFLW clash between Carlton and Greater Western Sydney, with the lightning threat and heavy rain sending broadcasters scurrying for cover.
    Carlton edged GWS 3.12 (30) to 1.3 (9), but not until the weather gods had forced a half-hour lightning delay after the first quarter was wrapped up.

    As thunder rumbled nearby, ABC Grandstand’s broadcasters were forced to vacate their spot beneath a temporary marquee, while sideline reporter Amanda Shalala had to sacrifice the brolly in spite of the downpour.
    “I’ve just had to put the umbrella away because if the players are going off, it’s definitely not safe to be holding an umbrella as well,” Shalala said on the broadcast…

    “It’s unusual, to say the least. We’re at a room in the back of the grandstand where everybody’s come in, now that the lightning has started to strike,” (ABC’s Matt) Clinch said on air.
    “The television, scorers, the umpires, everyone who is up on our balcony level [is in here]. I can’t think of anything like this ever happening before…
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-10/huge-storm-delays-aflw-clash-sends-broadcasters-running-for-cov/9419008

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    • #
      toorightmate

      Too true.
      This was the first and only thunderstorm ever experienced in Sydney.

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      • #
        Annie

        So the time we were stranded in Chatswood shopping centre because of giant hail, heavy rain, thunder and lightning back in December 1984 was just a figment of our imagination?

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      • #
        Allen Ford

        Verily, it was the first and only thunderstorm ever experienced in the history of the entire planet – 4.5 billion years, give or take.

        10

  • #

    This reminds me of that Gilligan’s Island episode where the Professor brought bad tidings to the castaways that the island was sinking. After much panic and what do do, it was discovered that Gilligan was moving the Professor’s measuring stick to relocate his cray pot. The island wasn’t sinking, it was just that the method of measuring was fraught with errors.

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  • #
    pat

    ***am i imagining it, or is this a pic of a rugged-up person in a snowstorm?

    10 Feb: ABC: Heatwave to hit Queensland with temperatures tipped to reach up to 46C
    AM By Rachel Mealey
    Updated about 3 hours ago
    ***Photo: The Queensland Ambulance Service advises people to stay out of the heat and keep hydrated. (Audience Submitted: Josh Thies)

    It is hot and getting hotter in Queensland.
    In some parts of the state, temperatures are expected to be ***10 degrees Celsius hotter than the average for this time of year (LINK)…

    The Bureau of Meteorology said the heat was set to linger over the central, west and northern parts of the state.
    Forecaster James Thompson said it was unusual — even for February…
    He said some parts of the state might experience the highest temperatures on record…

    In Windorah, in the state’s south-west, 46C is forecast for Monday…
    Temperatures in Longreach are expected to reach 45C on Monday and Tuesday, well in excess of 40C west of the divide.

    The Queensland Ambulance Service has advised people to stay out of the heat in the middle of the day and rest up…
    Clinical director Tony Hucker said sometimes Queenslanders carried on life as usual in hot weather because it felt
    normal…

    But Queenslanders said they intended to take the advice and stay indoors.
    Judith Munday from the inner-Brisbane suburb of New Farm works for the RSL — she said she would advise the veterans to stay in the cool…

    Ben Cross, who works behind the bar at the Western Star Hotel in Windorah, said that on a very dry day the town could feel like an oven.
    “I suppose the way to describe it is you feel it burning into you more,” he said.
    “In the sun you really feel like someone’s pushing something hot against your skin and you definitely feel it if you’re doing work outside.”…

    “It’s likely I’ll be in the pub restocking the fridges. I’ll be trying to spend as much time restocking the fridges as possible.”
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-10/heatwave-to-hit-queensland-with-temperatures-as-high-as-46c/9417732

    a quick search doesn’t show up “Judith Munday” on ABC previously, but Ben Cross made it on the following:

    5 July 2017: ABC: Outback Queensland town of Windorah reflects on six months of mobile phone reception
    ABC Western Qld By Harriet Tatham
    Photo: Danielle Weston, Rob Edwards, Trudy Gorringe, Marilyn Simpson and Ben Cross reflect on mobile reception.
    Photo: Marilyn Simpson and Ben Cross say penalising phone usage inside the bar has been effective.

    ***so much for Rachel Mealey’s 10C above average. try 8C:

    8 Feb: ABC: Queensland weather: BOM warns heatwave to hit this weekend with ‘no relief in sight’
    By Gail Burke
    Updated Thu at 11:27am
    The heat will linger for most of the week and records could tumble as some areas experience extreme heatwave conditions, forecaster Sam Campbell said.
    “So really hot overnight temperatures up to 8C above average,” he said…
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-08/queensland-weather-bom-warns-heatwave-this-weekend/9407436

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  • #
    Dennis

    Today I drove to Crowdy Head NSW just north of Taree past Harrington and stopped for a while at the Lighthouse. Crowdy Head was once a fishing port with a dozen or so trawlers but now the Fishing Coop is closed and the berths empty, Agenda 21 and related sustainability, creation of offshore marine parks with a ban on fishing imposed by Minister Burke when the Rudd-Gillard Labor Government was in office.

    My point is that a notice board explains that in the period between 10,000 years ago and 1.6 million years ago Crowdy Head was cut off from the mainland because the ocean rise and fall 4 times during those years was about 200 metres. The board explained that at the lowest point the present continental shelf which is approximately 30 kilometres off the present coast was the coastline.

    I don’t believe that man-made global warming and allegedly resulting climate change was to blame.

    sarc

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  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    There is interesting geography to a coastal island. Things such as wave action, salt spray resistant plants, fore dunes (and the ones behind). There was much concern years ago about some of the USA east coast islands because they had been altered. Natural defenses were destroyed and the sand was moving.
    About 1970 we visited Jekyll Island, GA. [Google Earth will show it.]
    Jekyll was getting development pressure but rules placed important parts off-limits. Thus, Jekyll Island looks much the same today as it did 50 years ago.

    Some of the south sea islands have been built on, dredged, and polluted. These are going to have issues.

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    • #
      RAH

      It’s not just Pacific islands either. Over half of Miami beach is made up of fill dredged from Biscayne Bay in the 1920’s. After the great hurricane of 1900 all of Galveston was raised with pumped fill. The center of the city stands about 10′ higher than it did when that hurricane wiped it out. These facts and the fact that the fill settles over time are always ignored by the alarmists.

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  • #
    Hasbeen

    Back in the 70s I built a number of jetties for isolated atolls & high islands in PNG & the Solomons. These were for loading the cargo boats, picking up copra from the plantations. Without a jetty loading 20 tons of copra by paddling it out to the anchored boat by canoe was a time consuming chore.

    We did this by going down in about 3 meters of water by hooker gear & hand grafting the bottom of a tube made of welded together 44 gallon drums into the coral then pouring concrete into the tube incorporating whatever reo we could find.

    The edge of these reefs are very steep so the piles were often close to shore, or the edge of the coral flat. The tidal range is usually only in inches, so not a problem.

    A plantation owner, another yachtie & I worked out a system doing his, than more people wanted one. It was pretty Heath Robinson, but timber was useless with the marine borers, & real building material & equipment was just not available out there.

    I mention this because I did a Google Earth inspection of some of them recently. Unfortunately Google have reduced the definition available in many of these areas recently, but some were clear.

    One is about 10 metres separated from the island, which has moved away. Two are totally land locked, the island having moved or grown past them, completely engulfing them. Some others are moving very close. They are definitely growing, just as the theory said they wood.

    I was horrified to see that some atolls that had perhaps 150 residents in the 70s had almost that many canoes, & many more houses than that today. Supporting that level of population on an atoll would be very destructive.

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    • #
      toorightmate

      Ah Ha,
      We have unearthed the culprit who destroyed every coral reef on Planet Earth.
      Watch out for the Gutless Greens. They’ll be after you.

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      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        I blame the Irish. They cannot be having with the Pacific Islands, atoll, atoll.

        Sorry.

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        • #

          Yer good, Rereke,laughter’s
          the antidote ter.. whatever?

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        • #
          Graeme No.3

          RR:
          I was going to give you a red tick, then I realised that you were talking Irish so it had to be a green tick.

          If you want a bigger green tick please indicate as we have a surplus in Australia (even in Parliament) and I would be delighted to post one to you. What you could do with one is a problem but I am sure with your intelligence you will find a use for it, unlike us in Oz who haven’t found any use for them at all, at all (except as bait in crab pots but that is discouraged as it affects the flavour).

          10

  • #
    pat

    7 Feb: Radio NZ: Tuvalu scholarships awarded
    Two students from Tuvalu have been granted university scholarships under the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project.
    The project focuses on building coastal resilience in three of Tuvalu’s nine inhabited islands and is funded by the Green Climate Fund…

    One of the students, 19 year old Tanu Sumeo, said she was interested in learning how to use geo-spatial technology but was still waiting to be offered a place at an Australian University…
    https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/349901/tuvalu-scholarships-awarded

    9 Feb: Phys.org: ‘Sinking’ Pacific nation is getting bigger: study
    Rather than accepting their homes are doomed and looking to migrate to countries such as Australia and New Zealand, the researchers say they should start planning for a long-term future.
    “On the basis of this research we project a markedly different trajectory for Tuvalu’s islands over the next century than is commonly envisaged,” Kench said…

    The study’s authors said island nations needed to find creative solutions to adapt to climate change that take into account their homeland’s evolving geography.
    “However, as the data on island change shows there is time (decades) to confront these challenges.”
    https://phys.org/news/2018-02-pacific-nation-bigger.html

    such a good news CAGW story, you would think the FakeNewsMSM would be rushing to cover it.

    however, a google news search for “Tuvalu” shows UPI News is the most mainstream media outfit covering this story so far, even though Drudge Report carried it from Friday evening.

    p.s. I do realise the pic in the ABC heatwave article I posted earlier doesn’t depict a snowstorm…but I couldn’t resist having a bit of fun with it.

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    pat

    so many reporters to make up half a story!

    9 Feb: Bloomberg: Trump Administration Is Weighing Emergency Aid for Some Coal Plants
    By Catherine Traywick, Jennifer A Dlouhy, and Ari Natter; With assistance by Jim Polson, and Tim Loh
    Updated on 10‎ ‎February‎ ‎2018‎ ‎4‎:‎11‎ ‎AM
    The approach would require Rick Perry to use his authority as U.S. energy secretary to spur emergency compensation for coal plants run by FirstEnergy Solutions that may be at risk of shutting, ***said the people, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public…

    When asked to confirm the talks, agency spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said “that is not correct information” but declined to provide further detail. The Energy Department’s press department later posted on Twitter that sources were “misinformed” on the consideration…

    Perry has the authority under Section 202 of the Federal Power Act to order a power plant online should he determine it’s needed in an emergency to “serve the public interest.”…

    In an interview Thursday, Energy Undersecretary Mark Menezes said the agency still expects FERC to come up with an alternative to Perry’s rejected plan. But he emphasized that the Energy Department is prepared to act alone if it doesn’t.
    “We have authorities that we can use when the need arises,” Menezes said, when asked if the agency could take its own action to keep coal and nuclear plants from retiring. “They’re well known. And we’ll use them if we need to.”…

    The step could face legal challenges…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-09/rick-perry-is-said-to-be-weighing-another-way-to-save-coal-units

    8 Feb: Reuters: UPDATE 1-China’s Jan coal imports hit highest in 4 yrs on blizzards, cold
    by Muyu Xu and Josephine MasonEditing
    China’s coal imports hit their highest in four years in January, customs data showed on Thursday, driven up as snowstorms across the country boosted demand from utilities and snarled domestic transport networks.
    The world’s No.2 economy brought in 27.81 million tonnes of coal last month, up 11.5 percent from 24.91 million the year before, the General Administration of Customs said. That compared with 22.74 million tonnes in December…

    The cold snap pushed daily coal consumption at utilities to a record seasonal-high of 850,0000 tonnes as of Feb. 2, while inventories at power plants fell to a critical level of less than 15 days of consumption, data from consultants Wind showed.
    In late January, four of China’s top utilities warned of heating and electricity shortages due to tight supplies of coal…
    “Foreign coal prices are more competitive as coal prices in China rallied on capacity reduction,” said Cheng Gong, analyst at China National Coal Association…

    Shanxi, the country’s coal mining hub, has ordered big coal mines to shorten or cancel staff holidays during Lunar New Year…

    Meanwhile, some coal imports have been stranded due to insufficient rail freight capacity in the wake of the snowy conditions.
    “Coal imports will remain at a high level in February and March due to robust demand at utilities for heating. Arrivals are likely to fall after March when the weather gets warm,” said Cheng…
    https://uk.reuters.com/article/china-economy-trade-coal/update-1-chinas-jan-coal-imports-hit-highest-in-4-yrs-on-blizzards-cold-idUKL4N1PY1VC

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    pat

    9 Feb: Reuters: British power capacity auction falls short of forecasts
    British power capacity auction fails to attract gas projects
    By Nina Chestney
    Britain’s latest auction for back-up electricity cleared well below expectations but without many new gas projects securing agreements which are thought to be needed to help bridge the gap when coal and nuclear plants come offline next decade.
    Thursday’s auction for 2021/22 supply cleared at 8.40 pounds ($11.71) per kilowatt (kW) per year, National Grid’s website showed, well below the 15 to 25 pounds range which analysts had forecast…

    Out of the 50.4 GW of capacity agreements awarded, 48.4 GW was existing capacity and interconnectors. Medium and large-sized new gas projects exited the auction above the clearing price…

    Britain began capacity auctions in 2014, looking to head off future power shortages as coal plants close and as low electricity prices dissuade investors from building new capacity.
    Plant owners are paid to make available back-up power at short notice.
    Some 8.3 GW of existing coal capacity withdrew from the auction, National Grid data showed.
    Bernstein analysts said around half of that could close down by October 2019 as the plants have no capacity market agreements after that time.

    A record amount of capacity, almost 10 percent, was secured by interconnectors which transport power to and from Britain and Europe.
    Three existing power links, connecting Britain with France, the Netherlands and Northern Ireland won a total of around 2.4 GW.
    Three links yet to be built – one connecting Britain with Belgium and two new links with France including Eurotunnel Group’s Eleclink – won contracts totalling 2.2 GW.
    https://www.nasdaq.com/article/british-power-capacity-auction-falls-short-of-forecasts-20180209-00087

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  • #
    Griffo

    Auckland Uni could do some guest collaboration with JCU,at least NZ has shown that real science as opposed to Star Trek science is still possible.

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  • #
    thingadonta

    It’s not complicated to understand why small coral reef-bounded islands might grow with a slow sea level rise.

    Think of it this way. Most coral islands are not formed on ‘land’ as such, but on the coral reef itself (some of these are also underlain by volcanic rocks), and are in a kind of equilibrium with the ocean and wind currents, sand supply, coral debris, rate of coral growth, and dead plant and organic matter.

    How to increase a small coral island with sea level rise:

    1. E.G. 100m2 of dry land forms from floating debris, sand, and dead coral over time, over an area of surrounding live coral reef, of say, 300m2.
    So ratio of dry land to coral area: 1:3.

    2. Rise in sea level occurs, so area of dry land area now gets smaller: say now 50m2. But the coral area underwater now starts to grow over the 50m2 area which is now submerged with the rise in sea level, so what was 300m2 coral reef area now gets an extra 150m2 in response to the missing area of land (50m2), again at a ratio of 3:1. So the coral reef area is now 450m2.

    3. But this coral area:dry land ratio of 450m2: 50m2 is now ‘out of equilibrium’ (9:1) with the ocean and wind currents, floating debris, sand and dead coral which normally forms the dry land within the coral reef area, so some of the 450m2 coral reef area will then form new dry land due from dead plants, sand formation, and extra coral debris, meaning with the same equilibrium of 3:1 coral reef area to dry land area, 450m2 coral area underwater now forms a new land area total of 150m2.

    The island has therefore increased due to sea level rise from 100m2 to 150m2, and the area of coral has increased from 300m2 to 450m2. The ratio of dry land to coral area is still 1:3.

    I don’t have a Phd in coral reef island science, but I suspect it works something like this. And I also suspect that all the UN ‘experts’ have missed this sort of thing because they are too ‘socialistly concerned’ about supposed ‘drowning islands’ to look at the data.

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    pat

    9 Feb: SBS: AAP: Adani dealt another blow to Qld coal mine
    Rail operator Aurizon has backed away from plans to build a line linked to the controversial Adani mine coal project in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
    Aurizon on Friday pulled its application for a taxpayer funded loan from the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility after failing to strike contracts with proposed mines in the coal-rich Galilee Basin.
    The plan to build a line that could be accessed by Adani, and other miners, to the Abbot Point port became a focal point for environmental activists after the Queensland government’s veto of a NAIF loan to the Indian mining giant late last year…

    Aurizon chief executive Andrew Harding said while there was not enough buy-in at this point, discussions would still continue with several Galilee Basin mine proponents…
    A Queensland government spokesperson said it was up to Adani to decide how to proceed in light of Aurizon’s decision.
    Adani says it is not impacted and remains focused on pushing ahead with early works…

    In Gladstone, federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who last week changed his previous non-committal stance to say he was “increasingly sceptical” of the project, again questioned Adani’s ability to deliver on the employment and economic benefits it had promised.
    “I don’t think anyone now can guarantee a whole lot of the commercial arrangements,” Mr Shorten said.
    “What we need to do is just make sure we have a Plan B, a plan beyond Adani.”
    But he denied his criticisms of Adani amounted to an anti-mining stance…

    Conservationists who claimed victory after the Adani NAIF veto before turning their attention to Aurizon said they would continue their stop-Adani campaign.
    “We haven’t won until either the state government or the federal government clearly state that they’re not going to allow coal mining in the Galilee Basin,” Greens activist Ben Pennings said.

    “We believe federal Labor is moving closer to that point, state Labor are less so, but there’s a vast majority of Australians who don’t want this.”
    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/adani-dealt-another-blow-to-qld-coal-mine

    AAP chose to demonise only Adani – why not name GVK Hancock as well?

    Carbon Brief on Financial Times article behind paywall: Adani: Blow to Indian coal miners as Australian rail funding withdrawn
    The papers says: “The decision by Aurizon represents a blow to Indian mining groups, Adani and GVK Hancock, which are seeking financial backing to push ahead with developing coal mines in the basin…The move was welcomed by environmental groups which oppose the Indian companies’ plans to develop new thermal coal mines in the Galilee basin, which they claim would pump 700m tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year for over half a century.”

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    OriginalSteve

    I fear for the safety of politicians and environmental groups who have conspired to block economic development like this, and right now while the econony is ok it might not seem an issue, but the lack of generating capacity and lack of coal supply will eventually cripple australia.

    The chooks will eventually come home to roost….and i suspect it wont be pretty when it happens…

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    pat

    another good news story the MSM has totally ignored. more is needed, but it’s a start:

    PICS: 10 Feb: eNCA: IN PHOTOS: Cape Town goes crazy as rain falls
    Around 8mm of rain was recorded in the city, Gauteng Weather reported…
    Models were indicating between 5 and 10mm of rain in the city with up to 20mm in the mountainous catchment regions…
    TWEET: Pamela Cooper: Good morning from Cape Town at 6.20. Southwest, some cloud, 21 degrees. 10mm rain last night
    https://www.enca.com/south-africa/relief-for-drought-hit-cape-town-as-it-rains

    9 Feb: Traveller24: WATCH: Time-lapse of Cape Town’s approaching rain is beautiful!
    Here Capetonian freelance photographer Jan Fischer captured an awesome time-lapse video of the rain approaching the drought-stricken city on Friday.
    “I filmed it in Somerset West today, from 17h15 to 18h45, using an iPhone 6s with the time lapse function,” Jan told SAPeople late on Friday evening. The cool soundtrack to the video is Galactic Invasion by Ivan Torrent. Take a look…
    http://www.traveller24.com/News/WeatherUpdate/watch-time-lapse-of-cape-towns-approaching-rain-is-beautiful-20180209

    8 Feb: EyewitnessNewsSouthAfrica: Van Rooyen: No scientific basis for ‘Day Zero’ term
    by Lindsay Dentlinger
    Cooperative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen told Parliament’s Water and Sanitation Committee yesterday that the term even caused havoc at the World Economic Forum in Davos
    CAPE TOWN – There was resounding criticism for the City of Cape Town in Parliament on Wednesday for its use of the term “Day Zero”.
    That’s the term the city uses to describe the day that Cape Town runs out of water.
    Cooperative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen told Parliament’s Water and Sanitation Committee yesterday that the term even caused havoc at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
    Meanwhile, the EFF says it believes the concept is being used as a scare mongering tactic.

    Van Rooyen believes that there’s no scientific basis for the term “Day Zero” saying it’s open to a variety of interpretations.
    Municipalities he says, have to simplify their communication.
    “We don’t want to communicate ambiguity, we don’t want to communicate messages that will confuse people.”
    The EFF’s Nazier Paulsen believes Cape Town’s water scarcity has been exaggerated…

    But the city’s Peter Flower says that “Day Zero” is a term coined on social media and refers to the day when the taps will be turned off and people will have to collect their water.
    The dam storage levels for Cape Town is currently at 25.2%, down 0.8% from last week.

    6 Feb: TheSouthAfrican: Watch: Grabouw dam releases huge torrents of water into Cape Town supply [video]
    The relief!
    By Tom Head
    As we reported yesterday, farmers from the Overberg region of the Western Cape have been able to make a “one-off donation” of 10 million cubic meters of water. Converted into liquid units, that translates to roughly 10 billion litres – enough to give the city a bonus 18-20 days respite from day zero…
    “We are in a different catchment area than the City of Cape Town, and although our rainfall has been much lower than what we are used to, farmers in the area realised that we are currently in a more favourable position than the City of Cape Town. Thus, they decided to pay-it forward.”…
    https://www.thesouthafrican.com/grabouw-dam-cape-town-water/

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  • #
    TdeF

    The scares are just getting silly. The sea rises have gone from 100 metres to 0.5metres in the next 70 years. The water should be 30 metres over my head as I type this but I cannot say I have seen a sea level rise in a lifetime. Just lucky, I guess.

    As for flat Pacific islands, has anyone stopped to think why thousands of coral atolls are precisely at sea level? What an amazing coincidence! Surely the seas have gone up and down by a hundred metres in the last few ice ages? How lucky are we, or are they being maintained at that level, as Charles Darwin surmised. Who can expect modern scientists to be half as smart as Darwin? Especially with advanced computer models which blame CO2 for every storm, every drought, every event.

    The scare mongers are declaring that we cannot get another winter Olympics, as it will be too warm.
    You might tell that to the half the crowd who could not sit in the grandstand at -20C for the opening ceremony.

    Then they are threatening our $40Bn tourist industry. Why not? It has earned hundreds of millions for JCU. Of course the greatest threat to the tourist industry is the misinformation being spread by people who want the cash, or is that just another coincidence?

    Really, the Climate Council have ramped up the scare tactics. Even the head of the Hepburn Springs Windfarm had a piece in the AUstralian announcing the end of coal, even in China. Great, because without coal we could not afford windmills either. They are only profitable because of the great coal ripoff in your electricity bills.

    It is all beyond logic, these coincidences. At least I cannot see the need to move away from the beachfront, despite the dire warnings of imminent flooding. That rapid sea rise is hard to spot. That’s Political Science Fiction for you.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      TdeF:
      You may want to rethink moving away from the beachfront as crowds of climate scientists and hangers-on starting moving in. Do you really want to live with Al Gore, Rudd, Gillard, Suzuki, Flannery etc.?

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      • #
        TdeF

        In desirable areas, half the people are successful business people and professionals who have contributed to the development of a richer, successful society with their study, risk, hard work and endeavor. The other half are crooks. That’s life.

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    • #
      Dennis

      TdeF you should research Keshik Capital Pte a Singapore based investment fund etc.

      And the Infigen wind turbine business in Australia.

      It is interesting to track the money trail following so called renewable energy taxpayer funded subsidies.

      10

      • #
        Dennis

        By David Leitch on 6 May 2016

        Australian renewables group Infigen Energy is another example of a company where everything that could go wrong, did. The equity market abandoned the share price and it fell away. Then there was a catalyst, in this case the increase in REC prices and the share price has picked up.

        It’s gone from a low of $0.22 in August 2015 to $0.74 today. Today if we looked at the briefest possible summary of what an investor might see it would look as follows:

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    • #

      Not sure where you are getting your info from, but the IPCC has reported the following projections for sea level rise by 2100 as follows:
      AR3(2001): 0.1m to 0.9m
      AR4(2007): 0.2m to 0.6m
      AR5(2014): 0.7m

      Maybe you need to review your sources and stop reading the ones that are spreading misinformation?

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  • #
    Mark M

    In other failed global warming doomsday news …

    Climate Change Just Got a Little Less Terrible

    A new analysis rules out the worst case scenario.

    But without radical change, we’re still in plenty of danger.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-09/climate-change-just-got-a-little-less-terrible

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  • #
    Mark M

    Turns out emitting a minute amount of a trace gas is a truly lousy way of turning the oceans acidic and killing a stunning diversity of creatures from the antarctic depths from tiny sea spiders, to feather stars, worms, krill and rare corals and sponges …

    First images of creatures from Antarctic depths revealed

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/10/first-images-of-creatures-from-antarctic-depths-revealed

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  • #
    TdeF

    The danger of the Greens is that our professional politicians only listen to the Greens. Shorten and Turnbull live on their every word. These new age politicians stand for nothing.

    At least Victoria’s Daniel Andrews blatantly looks after his Union mates and ignores the good of the people. He promised to not build a road we desperately needed, not matter what the cost to the people. He kept his promise and we spent $1.2Bn and the rest to not build a road. Why anyone voted for him is the question.

    Shorten and Turnbull pretend to care about electrical power and the weather. Really? They only care about who gets to be Prime Minister and that’s all about the few swinging voters. Labor voters and Liberal voters are both being short changed, unrepresented. So we are ungoverned. At least Tony Abbott stopped the boats, removed the most visible carbon tax and mining tax. Absolutely nothing has been done since.

    You have to wonder why we have politicians at all, especially with the moral strength of Adam Bandt.

    Still the Climate story rolls on. We have to live up to our Paris obligations? Why?

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    pat

    Nordhaus is more Bjorn Lomborg than zealous CAGW alarmist. worth a read:

    8 Feb: Foreign Affairs: The Two-Degree Delusion
    The Dangers of an Unrealistic Climate Change Target
    By Ted Nordhaus
    Global carbon emissions rose again in 2017, disappointing hopes that the previous three years of near zero growth marked an inflection point in the fight against climate change. Advocates of renewable energy had attributed flat emissions to the falling cost of solar panels. Energy efficiency devotees had seen in the pause proof that economic activity had been decoupled from energy consumption. Advocates of fossil fuel divestment had posited that the carbon bubble had finally burst.

    Analysts who had attributed the pause to slower economic growth in a number of parts of the world, especially China, were closer to the truth. The underlying fundamentals of the energy economy, after all, remained mostly unchanged—there had been no step change in either the energy efficiency of the global economy or the share of energy production that clean energy accounted for. And sure enough, as growth picked up, emissions started to tick back up again as well…

    To significantly alter the trajectory of sea level changes or most other climate impacts in this century or the next, emissions would not just have to peak; they would have to fall precipitously. Yet what progress the world has made to cut global emissions has been, under even the most generous assumptions, incremental…

    Forty years after it was first proposed, the two-degree target continues to maintain a talismanic hold over global efforts to address climate change, despite the fact that virtually all sober analyses conclude that the target is now unobtainable…

    My uncle, the Yale University economist William Nordhaus, is widely credited with being the first person to propose that climate policy should strive to limit anthropogenic global warming to two degrees above preindustrial temperatures. He didn’t arrive at that conclusion through any sort of elaborate climate modeling or cost-benefit analysis. Rather, he considered the very limited evidence of long-term climate variance available at that time and concluded that a two-degree increase would take global temperatures outside the range experienced by human societies for the previous several thousand years and probably much longer. The standard was, by his own admission, arbitrary…

    eanwhile, we need to stop trying to balance the increasingly parsimonious carbon emissions budgets entailed by a two-degree target on the backs of the global poor. There is no moral justification for denying those populations the benefits of fossil-fuel-driven development. Lower-emissions levels associated with curtailed development will not provide any meaningful amelioration of climate extremes for many decades to come, whereas the benefits that come with development will make those populations substantially more resilient to climate extremes right now…

    Liberating international climate policy efforts from the various constraints that the two-degree threshold imposes can’t eliminate all of the risks that climate change will bring. But doing so might allow us to manage them better.
    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-02-08/two-degree-delusion

    the author:

    Wikipedia: Ted Nordhaus
    Nordhaus is director of research at the Breakthrough Institute, which he co-founded with Michael Shellenberger in 2003…
    Breakthrough Institute analyses of energy, conservation and innovation policy have been cited by US President Barack Obama., National Public Radio the Wall Street Journal and C-SPAN…
    The Institute argues that climate policy should be focused on higher levels of public funding on technology innovation to “make clean energy cheap,” and has been critical of climate policies like cap and trade and carbon pricing that are focused primarily on raising energy prices…
    In 2004, Nordhaus and Shellenberger, both long-time strategists for environmental groups, co-authored a controversial essay, “The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World.” The paper argues that environmentalism is conceptually and institutionally incapable of dealing with climate change and should “die” so that a new politics can be born…
    Nordhaus and Shellenberger have argued for a “climate pragmatism” and an embrace of modernization and human development. They are co-authors of an alternative framework to the United Nations process focused on energy innovation, pollution control and adaptation…
    In April 2015, Nordhaus joined with a group of scholars in issuing An Ecomodernist Manifesto. The other authors were: John Asafu-Adjaye, Linus Blomqvist, Stewart Brand, Barry Brook, Ruth DeFries, Erle Ellis, Christopher Foreman, David Keith, Martin Lewis, Mark Lynas, Roger A. Pielke, Jr., Rachel Pritzker, Joyashree Roy, Mark Sagoff, Michael Shellenberger, Robert Stone, and Peter Teague.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nordhaus

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    pat

    8 Feb: CBC: Peter Zimonjic: ‘We’re going to ensure that pipeline gets built,’ Trudeau says on San Francisco visit
    Jason Kenney urges Trudeau to take B.C. government to court for trying to stop pipeline
    “We’ve moved forward on a plan that demonstrates that the economy and the environment must go together … and we’re going to get our resources to market safely and securely.”
    Trudeau is in California as part of a four day tour of the U.S…
    Asked if he intends to take the B.C. provincial government to court in order to overturn its efforts to prevent the expansion of the pipeline, Trudeau brushed off the suggestion — at least for the time being.
    “B.C. has not taken any action that we can take them to court over right now. They have only made statements,” Trudeau said.
    “We are intending to, and going to, be following through on building that pipeline.”…

    9 Feb: CBC: Activists protest Trans Mountain outside Trudeau’s hotel in San Francisco
    Opposition to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline has followed Justin Trudeau to sunny California.
    About a dozen climate change activists, including Vanessa Butterworth of Toronto, demonstrated today outside the hotel where the prime minister was holding meetings with top state officials.
    They chanted anti-pipeline slogans and held up signs demanding that Trudeau reverse federal approval of the project.
    Three of the protesters briefly got inside the hotel and demonstrated with their backs up against a wall directly outside the room where Trudeau met with California Gov. Jerry Brown.
    Trudeau has given no indication he’s willing to back down on the project. He’s said it’s in the national interest and his government will see it built one way or another.
    But Butterworth said Trudeau will have to say no to Kinder Morgan’s expansion of its pipeline between Alberta and Burnaby, B.C. if he wants to be a true climate leader…

    8 Feb: Chicago Tribune: The truth about Justin Trudeau
    by Molly Roberts, The Washington Post
    Justin Trudeau might be the “wokest” politician of all mankind. Sorry, make that “peoplekind.”…
    Trudeau’s forays onto the social justice battlefield have distracted us before. Trudeau has earned accolades for penning an essay for Marie Claire about how “our sons” can change sexism, shouting out #MeToo at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and assembling a half-female cabinet…
    Also, he’s really, really handsome…

    Then there’s climate change. Trudeau, as usual, says all the right things about the threat of a warming Earth. But he also loves oil, and he wants oil executives to love him. “No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and just leave them there,” he told a group of moguls in Texas last year. He touts a plan to pivot toward clean energy, and he’s imposing a carbon tax, but when it comes to constructing pipelines it’s drill, woman whom I respect deeply, drill…

    It’s the same way with other world leaders, from Emmanuel Macron to Angela Merkel.
    These politicians are miles better than the far-right alternatives. They’re miles better than Trump. But that doesn’t place them beyond reproach. Americans who call themselves progressives should hold politicians accountable to the code they keep so close, even from thousands of miles away. At the least, they shouldn’t blindly celebrate leaders who miss the mark. Think these are really liberal heroes? Come on, man — or women, or people.
    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-justin-trudeau-liberal-hero-20180208-story.html

    9 Feb: Guardian: Revealed: Trudeau government welcomed oil lobby help for US pipeline push
    Canadian government viewed Trump’s election as “positive news” for Keystone XL and energy industry
    by Martin Lukacs
    (This investigation was supported by the Corporate Mapping Project)
    The Trudeau government treated Donald Trump’s election as “positive news” for Canada’s energy industry and welcomed the help of Canada’s main corporate oil group in lobbying the US administration, documents show.
    Meetings conducted by senior government officials with TransCanada and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) reveal an one-sided approach more reminiscent of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s secret oil advocacy than Justin Trudeau’s green electoral promises…

    The documents, obtained through access-to-information, show the Parliamentary Secretary to Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister met around the same time with TransCanada’s CEO Russ Girling and CAPP to discuss the continued promotion of the pipeline and oil exports…
    CAPP shares many members with its US-counterpart, the American Petroleum Institute, whose lobbying of the Trump administration has resulted in cuts to environmental regulations and the speed-up of permits for oil and gas drilling.

    The briefing documents appear to present Trump’s approach to energy policy as an improvement over that of Obama’s.
    “The swearing in of a new administration in the United States that recognizes the strategic importance of Canada’s role in North American energy security is, so far, positive news for the Canadian energy sector with regard to a potential increase in energy trade,” a document from May 2017 reads.
    “The main guiding principle of President Trump’s energy policy is U.S. energy security independence through increasing domestic production of all energy forms (oil, gas coal and nuclear).”

    ***The words “climate change” do not appear anywhere in the government documents…

    “Canadians who voted for Trudeau probably didn’t expect him to use Trump’s election as an opportunity to bypass concerns over environmental protection and Indigenous rights,” said Keith Stewart, a senior energy analyst at Greenpeace who obtained the documents. “The Trudeau government’s abandonment of ambitious climate policy in dealing with Trump and their backroom outreach to oil lobbyists has more in common with the Harper government than the actions of a self-proclaimed climate champion.” …
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/true-north/2018/feb/09/trudeau-government-welcomed-oil-lobby-help-for-us-pipeline-push-documents

    lol.

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    feral_nerd

    Atolls are in no danger whatsoever from rising seas because: corals. This is Marine Geology 101.

    A post on this very subject from a couple of years ago, which, if I may toot my own trumpet, does a fair job explaining the process.

    http://www.computermedicaustin.com/2016/02/catastrophe-that-isnt/

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    Geoffrey Williams

    Attention greenies everywhere and especially Dana; visit this site and tell us where we are wrong. Come on Dana show us your mettle, the challenge is out!
    GeoffW

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    philthegeek

    ooh look, a sand bar, inhabit it!!

    Seriously? Sorry, forgot this is actually a humor /satire site. 🙂

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    Earl

    A little of topic, but pertinent I believe.
    A few days ago I was driving up the Hume Highway, in my Land Rover, pumping out vast amounts of CO2. I could see the roadside plants smiling at me, thanking me for the very substrate necessary for their very existence. As I drove along I pondered on the roadside rope barriers being installed all along the road by our Marxist Socialist Andrew’s government, and I wondered why it is the Left side of politicis that is so concerned with protecting people from themselves. The “Nanny State”.
    Then I realised, that protective measures such as barriers, radio warnings about hot days and drinking lots of water, prevent people with poor decision making skills from killing themselves.
    These are the the stupid people. People would will not accept personal responsibility, who believe that the government should look after them. People whose next thought is who to blame for their most recent life failure. They are the gullible, the humourless and the perpetually offended.
    Readers of the Gardian, the Age, listeners to the ABC.
    They have never had an original thought in their entire life, are not aware or embarrassed by their utter stupidity.
    Darwin’s theory is that these people will do themselves in, but the left are preventing them from doing as the laws of nature intend. As a direct consequence, the proportion of stupid people is increasing in the population, and they all vote Left.
    Perhaps this may be a little uncharitable, but when you consider Sarah Hason-Young and Adam Brandt and Bill Shorten, it makes one wonder.

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    Using remotely sensed data, change is analysed over the past four decades, a period when local sea level has risen at twice the global average (~3.90 ± 0.4 mm.yr−1). Results highlight a net increase in land area in Tuvalu of 73.5 ha (2.9%), despite sea-level rise,

    Strange that you didn’t quote this bit, and despite it saying the sea levels are clearly rising, you tried to shoe-horn the story into your “sea levels aren’t rising” narrative……

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      Mark D.

      You are pretty stupid aren’t you “Craig”..

      Annoyingly so.

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      AndyG55

      Funny that remotely sense, THEN ADJUSTED, data doesn’t match REAL tide data. Hey CT.

      Yep, MArk, CT is like the yappy little child at the back of bottom level class who refuses to actually learn or understand anything

      Then wonders why he is such a FAILURE.

      He has obviously been fed with “Craig was sometimes in class” awards most for his life.

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    For a bit of balance, you could also draw attention to those islands that are shrinking, eg Laiap:
    http://www.kpress.info/images/issue_18/laiap_01.jpg

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      Dave

      Old Patrick Nun again!
      Professor at Sunshine Coast University!

      Theologist & Geographer!

      WOW, an expert on Climate change? And co authored by:

      Roselyn Kumar currently works at the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific!

      Two of the best researchers in Suva!

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