CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING

[Tizer]

I'm glad somebody is paying attention to this possibility - the way we're heading with more effort put into fighting each other than fighting climate change I don't see much future for the human species...
`Climate change: More studies needed on possibility of human extinction' LINK

[plaques]

Liz Truss, not her again, won't impose a windfall tax because she wants these companies to invest the money into more North Sea oil wells and gas extraction. Totally misguided but popular because it MAY bring the price of petrol down never mind that if they go down this road it will take years before they come on stream. All too late in terms of climate change but give rise to another gravy train with the possibility that the government will have to pay them for not pumping it out. We already do this on wind power when they produce too much electricity. I give up.

[Stanley]

"More studies needed on possibility of human extinction"
It's not studies we need Peter it's action. We already know enough to take action now that will help alleviate some of the problems.
Stop allowing land to be taken out of food production for dodgy wheezes like planting trees for carbon credits.
Pay farmers the cost of production plus reasonable profit and make it illegal to force them to take less. This means the price of food rises but it has to in order to make growing food economic.
Make it illegal to claim 'commercial confidentiality' to hide the economic details of deals, this of course includes the government where use of that ploy conceals a multitude of sins.
Stop the installation of obsolete atomic power stations, not one of which has been successfully commissioned.

I could go on but life is too short. We are living in a Looking Glass world where politicians can tell us bare faced lies and suffer no sanctions. If you don't believe this look at Sunak and Truss both bribing their tiny electorate and bugger the rest of the country while they are doing it. It's a crazy system and we allow it to happen.

[PanBiker]

Stop allowing land to be taken out of food production for dodgy wheezes like planting trees for carbon credits.

Also make sure that those that have employed the wheeze manage it properly. We went to Skipton the other day and I noticed at Elslack Road end at where the fields at both sides of the road and on the Broughton Estate have been planted with thousands of whips. They are being strangled by weeds. No apparent growth in the trees that I can see but the weeds in between them all are thriving.

[Tizer]

Many new trees planted in bulk here in recent years have withered and died in the heat and drought. I wonder what happens when the trees planted to get carbon credits die after a few years - will the receivers of the credits have to pay to plant again? Is there any monitoring? I'll bet they get away with ignoring the issue!

[Stanley]

And all that is good pasture Ian. It's a crazy policy allowed by officials who know nothing about farming, land use or food production.
A good point Peter and well made. Who checks up on these things. Forestry experts did say when the matter of planting these enormous forests was first mooted that we should make sure that resources were there to nurture the young trees. I doubt if anyone listened to them.
It doesn't matter as far as the government is concerned. A big box has been ticked, move on to the next cunning wheeze.

[Tizer]

It's good to see the US politicians doing something sensible!...
`Climate change: Landmark US bill clears Senate hurdle' LINK

[Stanley]

Yes and today I see Trump is complaining about the FBI cracking his safe. Sounds good to me! (LINK)

[Tizer]

He invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and declined to answer questions from the New York attorney general. `A source with knowledge of the deposition said Trump took the Fifth more than 440 times' (NBC News). Yet years earlier he had criticised his political opponents, including Hilary Clinton, for doing the same thing. Trump on 5th
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Back to climate change...the glaciers of the European Alps control the supply of water to about 80 European rivers. They act as a reservoir preventing all the winter rain and snow rushing away and flooding the plains and letting it out gradually throughout the year. Without them it will mean severe floods in winter and drought in summer. I remember writing that back on the old OGFB forum which I guess was at least 10 years ago....
`Europe’s rivers run dry as scientists warn drought could be worst in 500 years: Crops, power plants, barge traffic, industry and fish populations devastated by parched waterways' Guardian

[Stanley]

Quite right Peter, you did. And now it has all come as such a surprise to everyone. Think what's happening to the rivers that depend on the Himalayas for their water reserves....
It's very noticeable that the size and quality of field vegetables has gone down in the last few weeks due to the dry weather. Add to that the pressure on imports as well from countries like Spain and Portugal and then add in the global demands for food and its effects on exports. I haven't finished yet, then take account of the acreage of crops not sown this spring because of the rise in price of fertilizer (Ukraine War) and scarcity of labour (Brexit) and the fact that we are seeing the beginning of rationing through price now. Finally, we import 60% of our food. It all adds up to a very scary scenario.....

[Tizer]

Don't forget the loss of crops due to fires. As well as daft folk using barbecues in the fields and woods the farmers have suffered crop fires while trying to harvest cereals due to sparks from their machinery igniting dry straw and dust.

[Stanley]

Quite right Peter. We are just beginning to see clues as to what could be permanent changes in our lives due to climate change. That chart you posted the other day of highest temperatures was like the others showing extremes like driest and hottest years... they are all concentrated in the last ten years. There's a bit of a clue there!
Bottom line is we should be planning now for what many of us believe is inevitable.

[Tizer]

It's getting more difficult by the day. The biggest polluters are opting out of climate action, especially China and we're getting close to war with China and Russia. And if Trump gets back into the White House he'll be shutting down the EPA regulations and opening up more coal mines and oil wells etc.

[Stanley]

James Lovelock shuffled off this mortal coil just in time to avoid the worst consequences. He had a very jaundiced view in his later years of the possibility of us avoiding the ultimate proof of his Gaia Hypothesis.
I note that nobody is daring to talk about 'tipping points'. I think we may have passed them.

[PanBiker]

A sign of the times. This is Cloggers Beck (Fools Syke) yesterday, dry as a bone.



One of the feeder tributaries from Weets into Stock Beck and then into the Ribble. When I was a lad this was always a good foot in depth and with deeper pools in places. I used to tickle 3 - 4lb Brown Trout out of here and knew all the ledges under the banks right up as far as Brogden Farm where the big ones used to hang out. You needed a mate to hold your legs so that you could get right over and up to your shoulders to get to the back of the ledges.

[Stanley]

Well done Ian, as good an illustration as you could get. We've had a lot of showers but no weight of rain.

[Stanley]

See THIS Report on the floods in Pakistan. Scientists are warning that there are signs that this could develop into what they call 'A Mega Disaster'.

[Stanley]

Pakistan floods.... "The provincial government says this is a "climate change catastrophe" and that the people of Pakistan, especially in the poorer communities, have been the worst affected." as more and more are affected. Food is scarce and there are fears of disease due to the lack of clean drinking water.
This is the sharp end of climate change and yet people like Useless Eustise reassure us that our food supplies are safe. He may live to regret being so sanguine about our prospects.....

[Tizer]

...and the Pakistan floods have been going on since June!

[Stanley]

As I have been heard to say before, we have a lot to be grateful for.....

[Whyperion]

Pakistan floods.... "The provincial government says this is a "climate change catastrophe" and that the people of Pakistan, especially in the poorer communities, have been the worst affected." as more and more are affected. Food is scarce and there are fears of disease due to the lack of clean drinking water.
This is the sharp end of climate change and yet people like Useless Eustise reassure us that our food supplies are safe. He may live to regret being so sanguine about our prospects.....

He can try fasting, looks like he could do with it , supposedly cleanses the brain and makes better thinking too

[Tizer]

All this was predicted decades ago but action was prevented by climate change deniers...
`Switzerland's vanishing glaciers threaten Europe's water supply' LINK

[Stanley]

And let's be quite clear how something like this could happen. Leaving aside the historic causes of the changes in climate, our greed and profligacy consuming resources that altered the balance of the planet, let's look at the highly paid politicians who met in holiday resorts (All conferences are held in holiday resorts) at great expense to the taxpayers and produced a lot of hot air without actually doing anything for a variety of excuses ranging from cost to whom action would upset.
As Bob Smith said, we've plaited sawdust for years and now the pigeons have come home to roost. James Lovelock was right all along and he was also correct when he said we had passed the tipping point. We are looking at the start of the end game and it won't dawn on the politicians until large swathes of our modern world are uninhabitable.
Meanwhile our politicians rabbit on about things like sovereignty and borders.

[Tizer]

More on the melting glaciers. We pay attention to the melting glaciers in the European Alps and the Arctic because they are closer to home for us but Pakistan is suffering first and most...
`How Pakistan floods are linked to climate change' LINK
`Scientists predict that the average rainfall in the Indian summer monsoon season will increase due to climate change, explains Anja Katzenberger at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. But Pakistan has something else making it susceptible to climate change effects - its immense glaciers. The northern region is sometimes referred to as the 'third pole' - it contains more glacial ice than anywhere in the world outside of the polar regions. As the world warms, glacial ice is melting. Glaciers in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions are melting rapidly, creating more than 3,000 lakes, the UN Development Programme told BBC News. Around 33 of these are at risk of sudden bursting, which could unleash millions of cubic meters of water and debris, putting 7 million people at risk.

[Stanley]

As facts like this become more and more obvious I wonder where the climate change deniers are hiding?
You are quite right Peter and it's no good thinking this doesn't concern us because it is half a world away. Think of two things, movement of people away from areas rendered uninhabitable by climate change and the effects on global food supplies.
Then think about the fact we import 60% of our food.....