Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Climate change worse than feared: Australian expert (We're all gonna die! cont.)
google ^ | 9/20/07

Posted on 09/20/2007 11:48:40 AM PDT by pabianice

SYDNEY (AFP) — Global warming is occurring at a faster rate than the worst-case scenario envisaged by experts just six years ago, Australia's top climate change scientist said Thursday.

Tim Flannery, named the 2007 Australian of the Year for his work in alerting the public to the dangers of global warming, said the issue was the greatest challenge facing humanity in the 21st century.

Flannery said predictions in a 2001 UN report, warning the atmosphere was likely to warm by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius (2.5-10.4 Fahrenheit) from 1990 to 2100 now appeared conservative.

"In the six years since then, we've collected enough data to (check) whether those projections are valid or not," he said.

"It turns out they're not valid, but in the most horrible way -- because for the key performance indicators about climate, change is occurring far in advance of the worst-case scenario," he said.

"Carbon dioxide's increasing more rapidly, sea levels are rising more rapidly (and) the Arctic ice cap is melting away more quickly than were projected in 2001."

Flannery said the world needed an international organisation similar to the United Nations dedicated solely to climate change.

"The 21st century is going to be about environmental limits," he said.

"There's six billion of us on the planet, there will soon be nine billion, the atmosphere is tiny as a pollution receptacle, clearly that's going to be where the action is.

"But we haven't yet built the structures, the new version of the UN that helps us deal with the global pollution crisis as a species."

Flannery said nations needed to "de-carbonise" their economies by 2050, increasing reliance on geo-thermal, nuclear and renewable energy.


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agw; australia; climatechange; doomage; globalwarming; globalwarmingscare; hucksters; killmenow; medicineshow; oz; paganfundamentalism; wearedoomed
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 last
To: saganite
- mammaryologist-

That’s a career I have been reaching for all my life!

41 posted on 09/20/2007 2:01:04 PM PDT by B4Ranch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: pabianice
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

42 posted on 09/20/2007 2:04:57 PM PDT by JerseyHighlander
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pabianice

from Wikipedia:

Sea level has risen about 130 metres (400 feet) since the peak of the last ice age about 18,000 years ago. Most of the rise occurred before 6,000 years ago. From 3,000 years ago to the start of the 19th century sea level was almost constant, rising at 0.1 to 0.2 mm/yr. Since 1900 the level has risen at 1 to 2 mm/yr

>>The operative sentence is “since 1900.” As is evident to the naked eyes from the chart at the site, there is no recent acceleration. The trend is a straight line. For at least the past 100 years, the sea level has been rising by a very slow rate.

I suspect that actual measurements would show that this trend began around 1800, since so many other things that are correlated with global warming began rising back then.

Back in 1800, almost of all of mankind was in a primitive state, and only a few million were just starting in the industrial revolution. The potential of steam power was hardly developed, and the idea of an internal combustion engine had not yet been conceived.

Even so, we may be able to effect climate change, whether or not we are a major contirbutor to it. Using nuclear energy is a very good idea. It may be a LOT easier to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by planting trees than to try to cut down on our emissions of cardon dioxide.


43 posted on 09/20/2007 2:53:17 PM PDT by Redmen4ever
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: texianyankee; JayB; markman46; palmer; Bahbah; Paradox; FOG724; Mike Darancette; GreenFreeper; ...
DOOMAGE!

Global Warming PING!

You have been pinged because of your interest in environmentalism, alarmist wackos, mainstream media doomsday hype, and other issues pertaining to global warming.

Freep-mail DaveLoneRanger to get on or off: Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to all note-worthy threads on global warming.

Global Warming on FreeRepublic

Latest from Global Warming News Site

Latest from Greenie Watch

Latest from Junk Science

Worth a Look

Latest from Terra Daily

44 posted on 09/20/2007 5:37:14 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Oh, Geesh, not THIS crap AGAIN?!?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pabianice; All

Here’s the Money Quote. ALL of these ‘Global Doomage’ articles have ‘em:

“But we haven’t yet built the structures, the new version of the UN that helps us deal with the global pollution crisis as a species.”

We just need to throw more money (down a rat hole) at the problem and it will go away! :)


45 posted on 09/20/2007 5:43:05 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pabianice
Flannery said nations needed to "de-carbonise" their economies
by 2050, increasing reliance on geo-thermal, nuclear and renewable energy.


Hmmm,
So Flannery has no automobile, lives in a solar/wind-power-only
house and doesn't have any resource-consuming offspring.
And never consumes fossil fuels when traveling to attend scientific
meetings.

I'd salute him if he does all that.
But still wonder why he hasn't done his green duty and turned
himself into compost.

But, as another poster noted: at least he's sane enough to consider
nuclear energy.
46 posted on 09/20/2007 5:54:08 PM PDT by VOA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GSWarrior

Well, at least he considers nuclear power an alternative.

Yea....but not in his back yard.


47 posted on 09/20/2007 6:25:14 PM PDT by steveab
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Argus

We had snow in Wisconsin last week when the average high is still in the mid seventies.


48 posted on 09/21/2007 1:41:49 AM PDT by driftless2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: pabianice

There was an excelent presentation about global warming by Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace and co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (CASEnergy), on C-SPAN last week.

He has a very interesting perspective on causation and what we can do for clean energy. I’m including a link to the program here.

http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/cspan.csp?command=dprogram&record=555222792

In a nutshell, he presents a theroy that over the last 1 billion years, the earth has actually been much warmer than it is now, with little ice at the poles. He cites points in history to match it up with warming trends.

I’d recommend it for anyone who is still on the fence about the cause of global warming, or is interested in a fresh take on clean energy.


49 posted on 09/21/2007 2:26:56 AM PDT by dajeeps
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Argus
Meanwhile this morning it was 42 degrees at our house in LA County (mountains).

It was 48 yesterday morning here in SW Virginia, but this morning, it's 63.

OMG! That's a 15 degree increase! In just one day!!!!

He may be on to something....

(Or at the least, on something....)

50 posted on 09/21/2007 2:51:38 AM PDT by dirtbiker (I'm a liberal's worst nightmare: a redneck with a pickup, a library card, and a conceal carry permit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Tenacious 1

Forget it , the ice caps of Mars are melting too. We’ve destroyed the entire universe with our big cars ......
The sky is fallingggggggggggggggggggggggg


51 posted on 09/21/2007 2:55:31 AM PDT by sonic109
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Argus

The high was 69 degrees in Fresno yesterday. They are looking for snow in the Sierras down to 6500 ft this weekend.


52 posted on 09/21/2007 11:11:58 AM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion (Global warming is to Revelations as the theory of evolution is to Genesis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: TenthAmendmentChampion

I’m sittin here waiting for this rain storm we’re supposed to get today. No sign yet. On Channel 5 this morning they were all ragging on the weather guy, cracking out umbrellas and so on. Kind of funny.


53 posted on 09/21/2007 11:57:33 AM PDT by Argus ("Don't Tase me bro!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: Beowulf

bttt


54 posted on 09/23/2007 6:44:47 AM PDT by steelyourfaith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pabianice

55 posted on 10/01/2007 1:58:50 PM PDT by Flashman_at_the_charge (A proud member of the self-preservation society)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson