The
new climate change denial
****
Some people, well outside the mainstream, are noticing this new denial
....One reason is that the jet stream—a fast-flowing river of air snaking continually round the northern hemisphere at altitudes of around 6 kilometres—has stalled over Europe since May, and could continue to do so, trapping regions of high pressure that are cloudless, windless and extremely hot.
Here are just a couple of examples.
Let me (mis)quote Guy McPherson:
"At the edge of extinction only insanity remains"
We
have long had climate denialism paid for by powerful corporations and
preying on the minds of ignorant and clueless people.
Now
we have a sophisticated climate change denial that uses language and sophistry to
say that what is real, actual and present has “nothing” to with
climate change (or “may, might..”)
One example is the Guardian which has traditionally been a good source on climate change.
Until recently.
The article below says climate change might be "part"of the explanation. It may, according to the author, be explained by "other" causes - such as the jet stream.
Or it might "just" be the weather.... after all we've had heatwaves before.
The fact that this is a global phenomenon with the whole of the northern hemisphere (and part of the southern - witness the devastating winter drought in New South Wales) would have nothing to do with it.
Report it in a disjointed way with no contextualisation (or very little, as in the case of the Guardian article) and refuse to join the dots or quote relevant research and you can pull the wool over the eyes of even (or perhaps, especially) the liberal readers of the Guardian.
One example is the Guardian which has traditionally been a good source on climate change.
Until recently.
The article below says climate change might be "part"of the explanation. It may, according to the author, be explained by "other" causes - such as the jet stream.
Or it might "just" be the weather.... after all we've had heatwaves before.
The fact that this is a global phenomenon with the whole of the northern hemisphere (and part of the southern - witness the devastating winter drought in New South Wales) would have nothing to do with it.
Report it in a disjointed way with no contextualisation (or very little, as in the case of the Guardian article) and refuse to join the dots or quote relevant research and you can pull the wool over the eyes of even (or perhaps, especially) the liberal readers of the Guardian.
I
suppose if you are talking about “their”climate change (the nice
gradual one with a pretence of reducing carbon emissions and
transitioning to “a new economy”) as opposed to the real one
that’s true.
***
Now see the tosh that the Guardian is coming up with.
***
Now see the tosh that the Guardian is coming up with.
But
why is so much of our world currently being afflicted with blisteringly
hot weather? What is driving the wildfires, the soaring temperatures
and those melting rooftops? These are tricky questions to answer, such
is the complex nature of the planet’s weather systems. Most scientists point to a number of factors with global warming being the most obvious candidate. Others warn that it would be wrong to overstate its role in the current heatwaves, however.
“Yes,
it is hard not to believe that climate change has to be playing a part
in what is going on round the globe at present,” said Dann Mitchell of
Bristol University. “There have been some remarkable extremes recorded
in the past few weeks, after all. However,
we should take care about overstating climate change’s influence for it
is equally clear there are also other influences at work.”
One of those other factors is the jet stream –
a core of strong winds around five to seven miles above the Earth’s
surface that blow from west to east and which steer weather around the
globe. Sometimes, when they are intense, they bring storms. On other
occasions, when they are weak, they bring very calm and settled days.
And that is what is occurring at present.
They are still able to report the reality but then although this is current reality with a little bit of sophistry you can turn it into something happening in the future.
Here's more of the Guardian's "brilliant" analysis.
What ever happened to their environmental correspondents of the past one might ask?
What ever happened to their environmental correspondents of the past one might ask?
Scientists
say this ‘extreme’ weather in the northern hemisphere may soon be
the norm
Partly,
it’s just the luck of the weather. The jet stream – the
west-to-east winds that play a big role in determining Europe’s
weather – has been further north than usual for about two months. A
stationary high-pressure weather system has left the UK and much of
continental Europe sweltering. Iceland, by contrast, has been hit
with clouds and storms that would normally come further south.
The
jet stream’s northerly position may have been influenced by
temperatures in the north of the Atlantic, which have been relatively
warm in the subtropics and colder south of Greenland.
“The
current hot and dry spell in the UK is partly due a combination of
North Atlantic ocean temperatures, climate change and the weather,”
said Len Shaffrey, a professor of climate science at the University
of Reading.
The
influence of climate change on the jet stream is still being
explored.
Is
climate change good or bad for Britain?
Longer-term
(sic0, the green and pleasant landscape of the UK may vanish if
rainfall patterns change because of global warming. “People might
like a Mediterranean climate but it will be very different. For
wildlife, a change of that magnitude could be very traumatic because
it has nowhere to go,” said Allen.
Is
this a sign of things to come?
Yes.
“It’s a warning of what we will have to deal with,” said Stott.
Michael Mann, a US climate scientist, tweeted: “What we call an
‘extreme heatwave’ today we will simply call ‘summer’ in a
matter of decades if we do not sharply reduce carbon emissions.”
I
can’t really make up my mind which is worse.
***
Apart from the dreadful American media the worst has to be the New Zealand media.
Try doing a search for coverage on the ongoing heatwave anywhere in the world. You just won't find it.
I did a quick search on DuckDuckGo
From the "serious" broadcaster Radio New Zealand, the silence on the matter is deafening.
New Zealand TV1 showed an item on the iceberg that is close to a village in Greenland and managed to make it into what is called a "human interest story", managing, not only to avoid mentioning the elephant in the room but even to suggest that it was just a "natural phenomenon"
Well, I suppose a calving of an iceberg is an phenomenon of Nature and they've happened before.
That takes them off the hook and they don't need to mention that the sea ice is being melted from below by waters above zero, is super-thin and is breaking up.
***
Apart from the dreadful American media the worst has to be the New Zealand media.
Try doing a search for coverage on the ongoing heatwave anywhere in the world. You just won't find it.
I did a quick search on DuckDuckGo
New Zealand TV1 showed an item on the iceberg that is close to a village in Greenland and managed to make it into what is called a "human interest story", managing, not only to avoid mentioning the elephant in the room but even to suggest that it was just a "natural phenomenon"
Well, I suppose a calving of an iceberg is an phenomenon of Nature and they've happened before.
That takes them off the hook and they don't need to mention that the sea ice is being melted from below by waters above zero, is super-thin and is breaking up.
There
are fears an 11 million-tonne iceberg sitting dangerously close to a
small village in Greenland could trigger a deadly tsunami.
Dozens
of residents of the village Innarsuit were evacuated to higher
ground last week due to concerns the iceberg might break apart,
creating high waves that could wash away coastal buildings.
The
iceberg is so huge that it can be seen from space and it's around the
same height as London's Big Ben.
The
European Space Agency released an image last week showing the giant
iceberg just off the coast of Innaarsuit in northwestern Greenland.
A
huge iceberg perilously close to the village of Innaarsuit on the
west coast of Greenland. Source: Associated Press
Monster
icebergs are not uncommon at this time of year, but the danger with
this one is how close it is to land.
Watch
the video HERE
****
Some people, well outside the mainstream, are noticing this new denial
The BBC is
reporting some pretty apocalyptic weather today. On the front page of
its website, there are four major weather-related events.
There’s
the collapse of
a dam in Laos after “continuous rainstorms”. Hundreds of
people are missing and thousands are homeless. In Greece, a massive
wildfire has engulfed a
resort village, killing at least 60 people. In Japan, at
least 65 people
have died from the heat in the last week alone. And in the UK, the
heatwave continues,
with some places having had no significant rain for 54 days.
What’s the connection?
What’s
the connection between these extreme weather events?
The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change has
this to say
[pdf,p41] about
extreme weather:
While specific, local outcomes of climate change are uncertain, recent assessments project alteration in the frequency, intensity, spatial extent, or duration of weather and climate extremes, including climate and hydrometeorological events such as heat waves, heavy precipitation events, drought, and tropical cyclones.
There
is a clear pattern of
increasing numbers of severe weather events over recent years, with
many of these events attributable to
human influence – that is, climate change.
Don’t mention climate change
And
yet, to read the reports on the BBC, you might think that
all these events are just an unfortunate coincidence. Not one of the
four reports on extreme weather events around the world mentions
climate change.
Nigel Lawson
The BBC has
a pretty poor history when it comes to informing people about climate
change. In August 2017, it invited notorious climate change
denier Nigel
Lawson to
give his views on climate change in response to an interview with
former US vice-president and climate campaigner Al Gore. Presumably,
the BBC felt
that Gore’s interview needed ‘balancing’ by Lawson’s –
despite the fact that 97% of
climate scientists agree that the earth’s climate is warming.
The BBC was slammed for
giving Lawson’s views credibility. And in April 2018,
communications regulator Ofcom ruled that
the BBC had
been wrong not to challenge Lawson on his claims.
Maybe
that experience has led the BBC to believe that the safer path when
it comes to climate change is that of omission. Don’t talk about
climate change. Don’t mention the bloody great burning elephant in
the room.
Two degrees?
Climate
change is the biggest threat humanity faces. The Paris
Agreement came
into force in 2016 and has the support of 179 countries
(the US has since said it
is going to pull out). The signatories agreed to take
action to
limit the global temperature rise to 2C, but ideally to no more than
1.5C.
The
way we’re going, however, even the 2C limit is starting to look
like fantasy. According to
Friends of the Earth:
Even if all parties met their current levels of ambition – which they clearly don’t have to – it would still add up to over 3° of warming. That’s catastrophic climate change.
Three degrees?
Three
degrees would leave many cities underwater and
lead to more droughts and hurricanes. Hundreds of millions of people
would face disastrous
flooding. Others face suffering catastrophic droughts, losing their
homes to hurricanes, dying in heatwaves, or burning up in wildfires.
This
is not fantasy. This is happening now,
and we’re doing very little to stop it. I’m terrified for my
child’s future and for the future of children in parts of the world
without the resources to cope with what’s coming. Future
generations will look back from the nightmare we’ve plunged them
into, and ask why we didn’t act before it was too late. And perhaps
people will ask the BBC why
it wasn’t shouting from the rooftops about climate change.
Why
are some major news outlets still covering extreme weather like it's
an act of God?
By
EMILY ATKIN
July
26, 2018
A
record-breaking heat wave killed 65 people in Japan this week, just
weeks after record flooding there killed more than 200.
Record-breaking heat is also wreaking havoc in California, where the
wildfire season is already worse than usual. In Greece, fast-moving
fires have killed at least 80 people, and Sweden is struggling to
contain more than 50 fires amid its worst drought in 74 years. Both
countries have experienced all-time record-breaking temperatures this
summer, as has most of the rest of the world.
Is
this climate change, or merely Mother Nature? The science is clear:
Heat-trapping greenhouse gases have artificially increased the
average temperature across the globe, making extreme heat events more
likely. This has also increased the risk of frequent and more
devastating wildfires, as prolonged heat dries soil and turns
vegetation into tinder.
And
yet, despite these facts, there’s no climate connection to be found
in much news coverage of extreme weather events across the globe—even
in historically climate-conscious outlets like NPR and The New York
Times. These omissions, critics say, can affect how Americans view
global warming and its impact on their lives.
Major
broadcast TV networks are the most glaring offenders. Media Matters
reviewed 127 segments on the global heat wave that aired on ABC, CBS,
and NBC this summer, and found that only one, on CBS This Morning,
mentioned the connection between climate change and extreme heat.
This fits a long-running pattern. As Media Matters noted, its latest
annual study of broadcast coverage
Is
this climate change, or merely Mother Nature? The science is clear:
Heat-trapping greenhouse gases have artificially increased the
average temperature across the globe, making extreme heat events more
likely. This has also increased the risk of frequent and more
devastating wildfires, as prolonged heat dries soil and turns
vegetation into tinder.
And
yet, despite these facts, there’s no climate connection to be found
in much news coverage of extreme weather events across the globe—even
in historically climate-conscious outlets like NPR and The New York
Times. These omissions, critics say, can affect how Americans view
global warming and its impact on their lives.
Major
broadcast TV networks are the most glaring offenders. Media Matters
reviewed 127 segments on the global heat wave that aired on ABC, CBS,
and NBC this summer, and found that only one, on CBS This Morning,
mentioned the connection between climate change and extreme heat.
This fits a long-running pattern. As Media Matters noted, its latest
annual study of broadcast coverage found that “during the height of
hurricane season in 2017, neither ABC nor NBC aired a single segment
on their morning, evening, or Sunday news shows that mentioned the
link between climate change and hurricanes.”
Legacy
print and radio news outlets are generally much better at connecting
these dots. In the last five years, the Times, NPR, and The
Washington Post have built large teams of reporters dedicated to
explaining climate science, dissecting climate policy, and showing
how global warming affects communities. But when covering extreme
weather across the globe, the outlets don’t often include
references to climate change.
***
At least this article asks the question and quotes Jennifer Francis' research into the connection between Arctic melt and the behaviour of the jetstream.
For God's sake,this should be mainstream and not "controversial".
Paul Beckwith's response is entirely appropriate.
***
At least this article asks the question and quotes Jennifer Francis' research into the connection between Arctic melt and the behaviour of the jetstream.
For God's sake,this should be mainstream and not "controversial".
Paul Beckwith's response is entirely appropriate.
Could
be...
Could
be...
Really?
Of
course IT IS.
Has
to be.
The
Pole-Equator temperature difference is the reason the jetstream
exists in the first place. So Arctic warming has to affect it...
Duh...
....One reason is that the jet stream—a fast-flowing river of air snaking continually round the northern hemisphere at altitudes of around 6 kilometres—has stalled over Europe since May, and could continue to do so, trapping regions of high pressure that are cloudless, windless and extremely hot.
“It’s
been a key player in the astounding heatwaves across the UK and
Scandinavia this summer,” says Jennifer Francis of Rutgers
University in New Jersey.
She
says evidence is mounting that accelerated warming of the Arctic is a
major reason why the jet stream keeps getting stalled. The stream is
driven by collisions between cold air descending southward from the
Arctic and warm air pushing northward from the equator.
The
greater the temperature difference between the colliding air streams,
the more powerful the jet stream. But the temperature gap—and
therefore the power of the jet stream—is being weakened because the
Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, supplying
the stream with increasingly warmer air.
“Heatwaves
over northern hemisphere continents in recent years fit the
hypothesis that rapid Arctic warming is playing a role,” says
Francis.
****
While we are at it, in the current environment we have denial not only of the climate freight train bearing down on us but of just about anything of any significance.Here are just a couple of examples.
Let me (mis)quote Guy McPherson:
"At the edge of extinction only insanity remains"
In One Year, MSNBC Covered 'Stormy Daniels' 455 Times, 'War In Yemen' 0
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