Earth ChangesS


Butterfly

ConocoPhillips, BP, Caterpillar to Quit Climate Group

ConocoPhillips, BP Plc and Caterpillar Inc. won't renew their memberships in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of companies and environmental groups seeking legislation to reduce greenhouse- gas emissions.

Proposals in the U.S. Congress "unfairly penalized" domestic refineries, ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva said today in a statement. The role of natural gas in lowering greenhouse-gas emissions has been ignored, he said.

"We believe greater attention and resources need to be dedicated to reversing these missed opportunities, and our actions today are part of that effort," Mulva said.

Comment: Interesting. First we have the revelations from ClimateGate and now this.


Binoculars

Buddy, Can You Spare a Banana? Study Finds That Bonobos Share Like Humans

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© iStockphoto/Ronald Van Der BeekVoluntarily sharing something with another may not be entirely exclusive to the human experience.
New research suggests that the act of voluntarily sharing something with another may not be entirely exclusive to the human experience. A study published in the March 9th issue of Current Biology, observed that bonobos -- a sister species of chimpanzees and, like chimps, our closest living relatives -- consistently chose to actively share their food with others.

"It has been suggested that only humans voluntarily share their food," says lead study author Brian Hare from Duke University in North Carolina. "However, the food sharing preferences of the unusually tolerant bonobos have never been studied experimentally." Dr. Hare and Suzy Kwetuenda from the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary for orphaned bonobos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo conducted a study with unrelated pairs of hungry bonobos.

In the study, bonobos had to choose whether to eat some food by themselves or to give another bonobo access to it. The test subjects had the opportunity to immediately eat the food or to use a "key" to open a door to an adjacent empty room or a room that had another bonobo in it. The test subjects could easily see into the adjacent rooms, so they know which one was empty and which was occupied.

Cloud Lightning

ClimateGate interview: It's not apostacy...

...but it's easy to understand why many have gotten excited about the interview that global warming high priest Phil Jones gave to the BBC. Jones was the director of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, whose emails, leaked by a whistle-blower, sparked a major scientific scandal. In some respects, Jones seemed candid in the BBC interview, if not remorseful. For example, he agreed that currently, the climate is not warming:

Bizarro Earth

Severe Storms hit Southeast Queensland

Severe thunderstorms have swept across Queensland's southeast, with flash-flooding carrying cars down Brisbane roads.

The storms struck at about noon (AEST) today, producing thousands of lightning strikes, strong winds and heavy rain.

Strathpine, Brisbane and Logan are among the hardest hit areas.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said the Brisbane CBD received more than 91mm of rain since 10am (AEST), leaving some of the city's roads under water and bringing traffic to a standstill.

Weatherzone.com.au reported the city received its heaviest 10-minute downpour of rain in at least eight years, receiving 25mm just after 11.40am (AEST).

In the Brisbane westside suburb of Milton, localised flooding carried cars down streets.

One local Milton resident, Tom Goldman, tried to drive his car through the severely flooded Haig Road, only to have the engine stall.

Bizarro Earth

Strong quake strikes off Indonesia

Jakarta: A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's eastern islands on Tuesday but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued, officials said.

The quake struck at 6:51 am (21:51 GMT Monday) at a depth of 128 kilometres and 295 kilometres west of the Tanimbar Islands and 383 kilometres east of Dili, Timor Leste, the US Geological Survey said.

Cult

Global fear-mongering: "Unless we announce disasters, nobody will listen"

Latest embarrassment comes as key sceptic Benny Peiser backs down in row over fabricated quote

Climate experts have been forced to admit another embarrassing error in their most recent report on the threat of climate change.

In a background note - released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last night - the UN group said its 2007 report wrongly stated that 55% of the Netherlands lies below sea level. In fact, only 26% of the country does. The figure used by the IPCC included all areas in the country that are prone to flooding, including land along rivers above sea level. This accounts for 29% of the Dutch countryside.

"The sea-level statistic was used for background information only, and the updated information remains consistent with the overall conclusions," the IPCC note states. Nevertheless, the admission is likely to intensify claims by sceptics that the IPCC work is riddled with sloppiness.

Light Saber

Utah delivers vote of no confidence in man-made global warming

The US's most Republican state passes bill disputing science of climate change, claiming emissions are 'essentially harmless'

Carbon dioxide is "essentially harmless" to human beings and good for plants. So now will you stop worrying about global warming?

Utah's House of Representatives apparently has at least. Officially the most Republican state in America, its political masters have adopted a resolution condemning "climate alarmists", and disputing any scientific basis for global warming.

The measure, which passed by 56-17, has no legal force, though it was predictably claimed by climate change sceptics as a great victory in the wake of the controversy caused by a mistake over Himalayan glaciers in the UN's landmark report on global warming.

Frog

Unsettled science: Phil Jones doublespeaks, admits there has been no global warming since 1995, yet 'trend is still a warming trend'

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© UnknownProfessor Phil Jones says his record keeping is 'not as good as it should be'
The academic at the centre of the 'Climategate' affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble 'keeping track' of the information.

Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually lost the relevant papers.

Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is 'not as good as it should be'.

The data is crucial to the famous 'hockey stick graph' used by climate change advocates to support the theory.

Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now - suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.

Bizarro Earth

Strong Earthquake Rattles Chile

Earthquake Chile
© LAHT
Santiago - A magnitude-6.2 earthquake shook seven Chilean regions, including the capital, without causing injuries or significant damage, authorities said.

The quake, whose epicenter was located in western Argentina, struck at 9:04 a.m. local time Friday and affected an area stretching from the Atacama region, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) north of Santiago, to Bio Bio, 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of the capital, the National Emergency Office said in a report.

Bizarro Earth

More Than 100 Homes Damaged in Honduras Quake

Earthquake
© LAHT
Tegucigalpa - At least nine homes were destroyed and 142 were damaged by the recent magnitude-6.1 earthquake that shook the northern and central regions of Honduras, the nation's civil-defense office said on Saturday.

Thursday's temblor, which caused no fatalities, also damaged six schools and two churches, the Copeco emergency-preparation commission said in a communique.