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Typhoon Haiyan overshadows UN climate change talks in Poland

Monika Scislowska
The Independent
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 07:05 UTC
Philippine delegate weeps at UN climate conference
© UnknownPhilippine delegate weeps at UN climate conference
The devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan cast a gloom over UN climate talks Monday as the envoy from the Philippines broke down in tears and announced he would fast until a "meaningful outcome is in sight."

Naderev "Yeb" Sano's emotional appeal was met with a standing ovation at the start of two-week talks in Warsaw where more than 190 countries will try to lay the groundwork for a new pact to fight global warming.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres also made reference to the "devastating impact" of the typhoon in her opening speech, and urged delegates to "go that extra mile" in their negotiations.

Scientists say single weather events cannot conclusively be linked to global warming. Also, the link between man-made warming and hurricane activity is unclear, though rising sea levels are expected to make low-lying nations more vulnerable to storm surges.

Nevertheless, extreme weather such as hurricanes often prompt calls for urgency at the UN talks.

Comment: What happened in the Philippines as a result of the recent typhoon is tragic. It is therefore also important to direct the focus where it belongs and not use this loss of life to propagate false ideas about climate change.

Warming has occurred, also on some of our neigbouring planets such as Mars, but that warming has stopped here on planet Earth and it looks more like a global cooling is on the cards as the activity on the sun is getting eerily quiet.

As for the Philippines, the lack of sufficient infrastructure has more to do with the extent of the damage seen than global warming, and that lack of sufficient infrastructure is in no small amount due to the in all but name colonial exploitation of the Philippines by the ponerological elite of the world.

Rising global temperatures on Mars melt hints at solar-system-wide, not human, cause for warming
German scientists: Solar cycle 24 points to Dalton or Maunder-like minimum, boding ill for a climate cooling
Shock Doctrine in action: Anglo-Saxon elites send warships, destroyers and special forces to 'protect' crisis-hit Philippines

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Arrow Down

Accumulated Cyclone Energy of all cyclones below normal

Bjørn Lomborg
Watts up with that
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:23 UTC
It is phenomenal. Climate campaigners like [John] Vidal in Guardian keeps arguing that the terrible typhoon Haiyan shows we need to do more about global warming.

Yet, even *after* Haiyan, the Accumulated Cyclone Energy of all cyclones in the Western North Pacific is below normal (99%, http://models.weatherbell.com/tropical.php). The global ACE is at 74%.

As you can see in the graph below (updated Nov 10), both Northern Hemisphere ACE and global ACE are at the lowest since the 1970s.
Global running ACE
© Weatherbell.com

Comment: It is also worth pointing out that there has been no warming for the last 15+ years and that it looks more likely that we are entering a cooling climate if not a full blown ice age.

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Info

USGS: Magnitude 6.6 - 172km S of Ust'-Kamchatsk Staryy, Russia


USGS
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 06:01 UTC
Earthquake, Russia
© USGS
Event Time
2013-11-12 07:03:51 UTC
2013-11-12 19:03:51 UTC+12:00 at epicenter

Location
54.681°N 162.286°E depth=47.2km (29.3mi)

Nearby Cities
172km (107mi) S of Ust'-Kamchatsk Staryy, Russia
300km (186mi) NE of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia
305km (190mi) NE of Yelizovo, Russia
321km (199mi) NE of Vilyuchinsk, Russia
2733km (1698mi) NNE of Tokyo, Japan

Technical details
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Better Earth

Flashback Rising global temperatures on Mars melt hints at solar-system-wide, not human, cause for warming

Kate Ravilious
National Geographic News
Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:43 UTC
Image
© NASA Mars's southern polar ice cap, seen here in true color, has shrunk in recent years due to planetary warming—similar to what's happening on Earth.

According to the latest science, the simultaneous rise in temperatures on Earth and Mars indicates a natural—and not a human—cause for global warming. But this doesn't stop the politicians maintaining that humans are responsible for Earth's climate changes and that the Mars phenomenon is mere coincidence.
Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural - and not a human-induced - cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory.

Earth is currently experiencing rapid warming, which the vast majority of climate scientists says is due to humans pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures.

In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.
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Igloo

Best of the Web: German scientists: Solar cycle 24 points to Dalton or Maunder-like minimum, boding ill for a climate cooling

Frank Bosse and Fritz Vahrenholt
NoTricksZone
Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:21 UTC
In October 2013 there was a considerable rise in solar activity as the sunspot number (SSN) climbed to 85.6. That's 77% of the mean value reached at this time into a solar cycle since 1750. The following diagram shows the current situation:

IceAge_1
© NoTricksZoneSSN versus months since the start of the cycle.
October 2013 deviates significantly from solar cycle number 5.

However we continue to believe that SC 24 will be similar to SC 5. Just how large the uncertainties of the correct description of the 5th cycle is shown by a recently published paper by Rainer Arlt of the Leibniz Institute Potsdam and Ilya Usoskin of the Finnish University of Oulo, who after examining the solar cycles between 1750 und 1850 reached the conclusion that the sunspot count should be lowered by 20%. SC 24 shown by the blue curve is, however, still very much below average, let alone well below the large cycles of the solar maximums from 1940 - 1990.
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Bizarro Earth

Geophysicists look into cause of earthquake outbreak in Central Oklahoma

Evan Anderson
News 9
Mon, 11 Nov 2013 21:12 UTC
Oklahoma Earthquake
© News9.com
Edmond - It's the question being asked across the state. Why are so many earthquakes rocking Oklahoma? Four hit Edmond Monday.

The answer may come from California.

A group of geophysicists are studying what they're calling "induced earthquakes," or quakes caused by human activity. The number of earthquakes to hit parts of Oklahoma have skyrocketed since 2009.

"It was a little unnerving," said North Edmond resident, Ken Janz.

The number of earthquakes felt over the last few years in Oklahoma have without a doubt been unusual. But, for Edmond resident Ken Janz and his family, it's almost becoming the norm.

The latest earthquake was a 3.3 magnitude around 3:15 Monday afternoon outside Edmond.

"It didn't sound like the last earthquake I was in, it was more just a loud boom, house shook momentarily," said Janz. "I thought maybe a tree or something had fallen over and hit the house."

"We've been aware of earthquakes caused by human activity for many, many, years," said California Research Geophysicist, Justin Rubinstein.
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Bizarro Earth

Sinkhole eats part of Wentworth on South Side

Jon Seidel
Chicago Sun-Times.com
Mon, 11 Nov 2013 11:36 UTC

At first Christopher Carpenter was confused when his neighbor knocked on his door Sunday night to ask if he had water in his basement.

"I was asking her, 'Why would you ask me, you know, something like that?'" Carpenter said.

But then he looked outside - and saw water shooting up out of his grass in "about four different places" in the 12400 block of Wentworth.

"It looked like Buckingham Fountain," Carpenter said.

And later, after he called the water department, he said he was standing outside with his sister, daughter, niece and nephew when the west side of Wentworth in front of his home began to cave in. He said "it was like a big boom."

"They all started screaming and yelling and running," Carpenter said. "And it did kind of scare me as well."
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Attention

Dolphin virus outbreak in Atlantic is deadliest ever


The Times of India
Mon, 11 Nov 2013 13:42 UTC
Image
© AFPA mother and juvenile bottlenose dolphin.
The deadliest known outbreak of a measles-like virus in bottlenose dolphins has killed a record number of the animals along the US Atlantic coast since July, officials said Friday.

A total of 753 bottlenose dolphins have washed up from New York to Florida from July 1 until November 3, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

That is more than 10 times the number of dolphins that would typically turn up dead along East Coast beaches, said Teri Rowles, program coordinator of the NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program.

"Historic averages for this same time frame, same geographic area is only 74, so you get an idea of the scope," she told reporters.

The death toll is also higher than the more than 740 strandings in the last major Atlantic morbillivirus outbreak in 1987-1988.

And they have come in a much shorter time period, leading officials to anticipate this event could get much worse.

"It is expected that the confirmed mortalities will be higher," said Rowles.
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Info

Sea turtle deaths alarming Central America

Carlos Mario Marquez
newsdaily.com
Sun, 10 Nov 2013 13:29 UTC
Image
© Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia CommonsOlive ridley sea turtle
Hundreds of sea turtles are washing up dead on the beaches of Central America and scientists don't know why.

One hypothesis is that the killer is a potent neurotoxin that can be produced by algae during red tides, which are large accumulations of algae that turn sea water red or brown.

The puzzling thing, though, is that red tides have come and gone before without taking such a deadly toll on turtles.

Making things worse, some of the turtles dying are from endangered species.

In El Salvador, for instance, from late September to the middle of October, 114 sea turtles were discovered dead on Pacific coast beaches, according to the environment ministry.
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Bizarro Earth

Pet deer partially blinds owner during attack


CBS Atlanta
Fri, 08 Nov 2013 21:31 UTC
Image
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
An Alabama man was charged with illegally keeping seven deer as pets, including a buck that mauled and partially blinded him, wildlife officials said Friday.

On Oct. 30, Julius Dunsmore entered a fenced pen on his property in Marshall County in the northern part of the state and was attacked by a nine-point buck. Dunsmore said the deer lifted him up on its antlers and carried him 30 feet. One antler punctured his face and severed the optic nerve to an eye. He also suffered puncture wounds in his rib cage, hips and legs.

Dunsmore said he will never again keep deer as pets. His injuries will require several surgeries.

"People need to know that these things are dangerous," he said. "You never know when they are going to turn."
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