CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING

[Stanley]

I seem to remember that was the process that changed lush forest to The Great Painted Desert which I visited when I was driving Route 66.

[Tizer]

Yes, it was also a time when the several continents merged into one massive continent that was predominantly desert. There was no snow or ice at the poles to reflect the sun's heat.

[Tripps]

Big changes happen over long periods of time. I've just looked at the extent of the 'ice age' a few thousand years ago. It got down to as far South as Cambridge. Narrow esacape. Anyway - don't worry about the current climate crisis COP 27 next week will surely resolve all our concerns.

[Tizer]

Narrow escape? Not really, your Cambridge and my Taunton would have been just outside the ice sheet but in what's known as the periglacial region. The ground would be permafrost and everything above ground frozen during winter. In the summer a torrent of ice melt and rock debris would flood out across the periglacial area and erode the surfaces to bare rock. Not a good place to be!

[Tripps]

Don't take me too seriously. I've already confessed to serial flippancy.

I can't help wondering though what the CO2 levels were in those days.

[Stanley]

"Global annual mean CO 2 concentration has increased by 50% since the start of the Industrial Revolution, from 280 ppm during the 10,000 years up to the mid-18th century to 421 ppm as of May 2022. The present concentration is the highest for 14 million years."
I went and furtled for you David......

[Tizer]

Here's a NASA graphic showing the CO2 levels through the Ice Ages... NASA 4C



People often have difficulty understanding why we are so concerned about a few degrees rise in global temperature. An interesting fact from NASA is that `The global average temperature was around 4C cooler during the last ice age than it is today'. That 4C difference was enough to put us under an ice sheet more than a kilometre thick. Carbon Brief
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I've just seen something called the `Net Zero Scrutiny Group' mentioned in a news article. I'd not heard of it before but find that it's the climate equivalent of the ERG/ Brexit group. The same member names turn up. The Guardian wrote about it in February: `A new Tory faction is ‘scrutinising’ net zero – with tactics learned from Brexit' LINK and there's a lot more information here: `Net Zero Scrutiny Group' DeSmog

[Stanley]

Thanks Peter but that's possibly the most depressing political news I have seen for a while. We give these people power and they use it against us by advocating rabid and destructive policies. Look at Brexit!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on an aspect of the consequences of climate change which gets very little air time. The fact that it is predicted that diseases will increase.
"Scientists say climate change is making more than half of all infectious diseases worse; and the World Health Organisation says humanity needs to "get ready" to fight against this threat to global health security. As the planet warms, new viruses are emerging and pandemics are becoming more likely as animals and disease-carrying mosquitoes move to parts of the world they have never been found before."
Sorry about that but something else for us to worry about!

[Tizer]

Scientists have been warning about that for many years but, as you say, it gets little air time. It took long enough just to get climate change accepted.

[Tizer]

`Climate change: Dimming Earth, mustard shortages and other odd side-effects' LINK

[Stanley]

I heard that report as well. You missed out the shortages of Chillies for Chilli Sauce Peter.
It's like Brexit isn't it. Such an enormous change that there are unintended consequences.
(Eventually one might be near extinction of the human race.....)

[Stanley]

See THIS account of the agreement that was finally reached at Cop27. Question now is, will it make any difference?
Critics are also pointing out that there is no discernible advance on the conclusions of COP26. There is no money involved in setting the fund up, it is a matter of making sure that there are no financial rules mitigating against eventual contributions.

[Stanley]

See THIS report from Australia.
The continent is now 1.47C hotter than it was in 1910 and sea levels around the coastline are rising at an accelerating rate. Extreme weather events including torrential downpours, searing heat and dangerous bushfire conditions are all getting worse across Australia, with even more challenging events to come, according to the latest snapshot of the nation’s climate. The continent is now 1.47C hotter than it was in 1910 and sea levels around the coastline are rising at an accelerating rate, according to the 2022 State of the Climate report, a series released every second year.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on high temperatures throughout Europe.
"Temperatures for January have reached an all-time high in a number of nations across Europe. National records have fallen in eight countries - and regional records in another three. Warsaw, Poland, saw 18.9C (66F) on Sunday while Bilbao, Spain, was 25.1C - more than 10C above average."
Anyone care to argue against climate change?

[Tripps]

Anyone care to argue against climate change?

It's a tempting challenge - but since in my experience, you've never changed your mind about anything I'll resist.

[Big Kev]

Anyone care to argue against climate change?

It's a tempting challenge - but since in my experience, you've never changed your mind about anything I'll resist.

[Pluggy]

Basically the only one who stands a real chance of changing your mind is yourself. There are many who believe the Earth is flat, but changing their mind is an immense challenge. If they ever find their way out it will likely be of their own making. The ugly truths of the rather pathetic way the human mind works. Yeah, way too much time on my hands, a consequence of being a prisoner of an electric wheelchair and living 80% of your life in one room. Researching stuff is still something I can do.

[PanBiker]

Study for the RAE (Radio Amateurs Exam) Stephen and get yourself a licence. Even with the Foundation licence you can talk to folk all over the world with some HF kit, (Ebay maybe) and a wire antenna. There is no longer any practical component for the licence and It can be studied for and taken online.

Essex AR Club website has some good information:

How To Become a Radio Ham

[Pluggy]

I'm already a Radio ham G7SNQ call sign, been QRT for many years.

[PanBiker]

Ha! didn't know that Stephen, I was off the air for over 20 years before the bug hit me again.

A G7+3 issued 1989 -96 as a Class B licence. Now up converted to the current full licence. Post dates when I became less active.

[Pluggy]

I got the ticket in the late eightiies or early nineties I forget. Once the internet became a thing in the mid nineties I lost interest, it got harder and harder to justify it as the internet gained capability. Now with high quality real time worldwide video being so trivially available on something that fits in your pocket.......

I still have a 2m co-linear attached to the gable end, I suspect it won't work too well now.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on ExxonMobil's knowledge about the connection between fossil fuels and global warming/climate change.
"One of the world's largest oil companies accurately forecast how climate change would cause global temperature to rise as long ago as the 1970s, researchers claim. ExxonMobil's private research predicted how burning fossil fuels would warm the planet but the company publicly denied the link, they suggest. The academics analysed data in the company's internal documents. ExxonMobil denied the allegations. "This issue has come up several times in recent years and, in each case, our answer is the same: those who talk about how "Exxon Knew" are wrong in their conclusions," the company told BBC News."
In May a court in Massachusetts, US ruled that ExxonMobil must face trial over accusations it lied about climate change. This new evidence may be crucial to the verdict.

[Tizer]

...and more here: `Revealed: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s: Oil company drove some of the leading science of the era only to publicly dismiss global heating' LINK

...and here, in July 2021: `The scientists hired by big oil who predicted the climate crisis long ago' LINK

...and in September 2016 we had this Radio programme: `Big Oil Big Trouble' (Costing the Earth series) Big Oil
`The big oil companies are the pantomime villains of the global warming debate. They've been accused of everything from climate change denial to commercial incompetence in a rapidly changing world. Campaigners attack their boardroom practices and push pension funds and universities to withdraw their investments.

`Tom Heap examines the reactions of the likes of Exxon, Shell, BP and Total to the mounting evidence of man-made climate change. How much did they know? How much did they lobby against meaningful action? He meets Lord Browne, the former head of BP who famously rebranded his company as 'Beyond Petroleum' to find out why the rest of the industry failed to join his campaign to cut emissions and invest in renewable energy.

`Tom and Lord Browne also discuss the changing rhetoric since the signing of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement. With fresh commitments to alternative fuels could the oil companies finally turn themselves from the villain to the principal boy, using their engineering expertise to halt the planet's changing climate?'

[Stanley]

"could the oil companies finally turn themselves from the villain to the principal boy, using their engineering expertise to halt the planet's changing climate?'"
A bit late if they do.....