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Are We Headed For Global Warming Collapse?

This is the first of several posts I will do on Global Collapse. I am not saying, right here anyway, that civilization as we know it will collapse, but I am asking the question: “Can collapse be avoided?” This post will deal with global warming and the associated climate change. Collapse Post 2 Right now CO2 is higher than it has been in over 20 million years. But it has been higher, a lot higher. The chart below was published in the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2015 and the source of their data was Goddard Institute for Space Studies Collapse Post 11 What this chart clearly shows is that global warming, so far, is primarily a northern hemisphere phenomenon and mostly above 60 degrees latitude. Texas C+C Eight month of flat to down production from the Bakken. Bakken Amplified OPEC 12 Saudi Arabia

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Are We Headed For Global Warming Collapse?

Collapse Post 2 Collapse Post 11 Collapse Post 3 Collapse Post 4 Collapse Post 24 The above is an artist creation of what the pockmarks look like on the seafloor. Collapse Post 18 Collapse Post 20 Collapse Post 25 Collapse Post 21 Collapse Post 26 In an attempt to get an idea of any impact renewables are having on fuel consumption and carbon emissions in my neck of the woods, I have been trying to come up with figures for installed capacity of wind generation and solar. The utility has a virtual monopoly on hydro and there is a web page at the relevant ministry (department for all you yanks) that, has the data for hydro and fossil fuels. There is no data for wind, solar, biomass or any other non-hydro renewables. After being tired of the paucity of information on the total installed capacity of solar PV for […]

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Rains rally Asia crops in El Nino year, but relief seen short-lived

SINGAPORE Surprisingly strong rains in an El Nino year, typically marked by droughts in parts of Asia, have eased concerns of a lower crop output in the region. But weather forecasters are not convinced, warning of severe dryness in the autumn months. The last El Nino in 2009 had brought the worst drought in four decades to India. It hit Australian wheat crop and also reduced oil palm yields across Southeast Asia. While the forecast is for an equally severe dryness this year, recent rains have buoyed farming in India, China and Australia. "Indian monsoon (started in June) is on track, in fact it has been better than expected, and we haven’t seen any decline in rainfall in a serious manner in Malaysia or Indonesia yet," an Australia-based commodity fund manager said, declining to be identified to avoid speculation over the fund’s investments. "Australia is dry but we have […]

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Alberta to Double Carbon Tax in Step to Toughen Environmental Policy

CALGARY, Alberta—The recently elected government of Alberta said Thursday it will double a carbon tax on industrial emissions of greenhouse gases by 2017, calling it a first step in toughening this oil-rich province’s environmental policies. In a move closely watched by Canadian oil and gas producers, the left-leaning New Democratic Party, or NDP, government said the policy is part of a broader review of environmental policies that will result in additional measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in time for a year-end United Nations climate-change conference in Paris. Alberta implemented its current carbon tax—the first in North America—in 2007, but that was set to expire at the end of this month. The new policy will increase levies on large-scale emitters of carbon dioxide to 30 Canadian dollars ($24.19) a metric ton by 2017, up from C$15. Alberta’s energy industry has been shaken by the NDP’s win, and has warned about […]

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ADB: Poor face greater climate risks

Asian Development Bank finds those in poverty face a greater risk from the threat of climate change. File Photo by UPI Photo/Mohammad Kheirkhah. MANILA, June 24 (UPI) — A report from the Asian Development Bank finds widening income gaps in the Asia-Pacific leaves the poor more exposed to the risks of climate change. Vinod Thomas, general director of an independent evaluation at the ADB, said wealth gaps in the region have secondary consequences . "Climate change hurts the poor disproportionally," he said. "Environmental shocks push the poor into direr straits. Hence, responding to climate change helps to reduce inequality." The bank, in an annual review of the Pacific energy regime , said the region’s heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels leaves it particularly vulnerable to foreign markets. The bank said its regional investments of more than $500 million by next year will support a low-carbon transition. Asian economies, the […]

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Karachi Heat Wave Death Toll Tops 650 During Ramadan Fast

KARACHI, Pakistan — Karachi’s poor learned long ago to cope with the many adversities that afflict Pakistan’s most crowded and chaotic city, including flooding, street violence and political crises. But since a suffocating heat wave descended on Karachi three days ago, killing at least 650 people, they have found no respite and no escape. “It’s so hot,” said a security guard, Shamim ur-Rehman, 34, as he sat on a cot, looking beleaguered. “There is no fan, there is nothing. I can’t sleep at night or during the day.” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared an emergency on Tuesday as the death toll from the heat wave soared, with overwhelmed hospitals struggling to treat a surge of casualties and morgues filling to capacity. The army set up emergency treatment centers in the streets and the provincial government closed schools and city offices. The Edhi Foundation , which runs an ambulance service […]

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DOE Study Finds Elevated Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Canadian Crude

A new peer-reviewed study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy says Canada’s oil sands greenhouse gas emissions are an average of 20% higher than U.S. conventional crude, adding ammunition to opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline and other critics of surging Canadian crude production. The study, conducted by DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with researchers at Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley’s Institute of Transport Studies, calculated greenhouse gas emissions from oil field extraction to the tail pipe in a so-called well-to-wheel analysis. Noting oil sands output is projected to more than double in the next 15 years and that much of that crude could wind up in the U.S., the study said “higher [well-to-wheel] emissions for gasoline and diesel production in the U.S. are expected when oil sands products become a larger fraction of the U.S. fuel mix.” “All crudes are not created equally,” Hao […]

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Pakistan calls for urgent measures as heatwave toll tops 450

Pakistan’s prime minister called for emergency measures as the death toll from a heatwave in southern Sindh province topped 450. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said it had received orders from Nawaz Sharif to undertake immediate response measures. The army has also been deployed to set up heat stroke centres and assist the NDMA, it added. Many of the victims are elderly people from low income families. The death toll from the heatwave has risen above 450 Health officials say many deaths have been in the largest city, Karachi, which has experienced temperatures as high as 45C (113F) in recent days. Hundreds of patients suffering from the effects of the heatwave are being treated at government hospitals, provincial health secretary Saeed Mangnejo said. The demand for electricity for air conditioning has coincided with increased power needs over Ramadan, when Muslims fast during daylight hours. Hot weather is not […]

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Green Star Over China

TLNIt wasn’t the sort of speech you’d expect from a soon-to-be minster of the Chinese government. On Jan. 27, Chen Jining waxed philosophical to graduating master’s degree students at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he was serving as university president. He talked about picking up Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers during a visit to Taiwan and about shooting the breeze with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg during a recent campus visit. Unlike the standard Chinese Communist Party apparatchik, Chen eschewed impenetrable party theory or bureaucrat-ese for personal anecdotes and motivational comments. The difference between mediocrity and excellence, Chen said , dressed in robes and a mortarboard, was not talent but “continued perseverance [and] sustained effort.” He closed his speech with a quote from China’s former premier and Tsinghua dean Zhu Rongji who in 2014 penned a letter to Tsinghua students telling them to be bold and fearless. “You’re young […]

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Climate Clashes Resume in Washington

Washington’s climate wars are heating up, with the White House and congressional Republicans both making moves this week that counter the other’s agenda. The Environmental Protection Agency released a report Monday highlighting the economic benefits of cutting carbon emissions, the first in a series of actions the administration is taking this week to bring attention to President Barack Obama ’s climate-change agenda. The focus comes two years after Mr. Obama first laid out his intentions to make acting on climate a legacy of his time in the White House during a speech at Georgetown University on June 25, 2013, where he directed EPA to write regulations cutting carbon emissions from the nation’s power plants, which at 30% are the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Other actions this week include a summit at the White House Tuesday linking climate change to public health. Mr. Obama’s climate agenda faces […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple