science

Climate denial investigation - while scientists muzzled

http://bit.ly/Ad7hzA Dr. John Mashey investigates right-wing billionaires & corporations who pay alleged "charities", bloggers, & old weathermen to deny climate science. Some of that propaganda money went to New Zealand and Australia. Then Canadian journalist Margaret Munro on government muzzling scientists, plus update by UCS Francesca Grifo on science freedom in U.S.
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CD Quality of this Radio Ecoshock report (56 MB) here:
http://www.ecoshock.net/eshock12/ES_120229_Show.mp3

Climate down in Durban

Listen/download http://www.archive.org/download/ES111214/ES_111214_Show_LoFi.mp3

Diplomats from all over the world are returning home after a hard-won agreement in Durban, South Africa.

They agreed to do nothing to save our climate from disaster.

Our governments will talk until 2015, and then maybe do something serious about greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. By then, as Radio Ecoshock listeners know, we will be committed to at least 3 and a half degrees Centigrade hotter world in 2100, than our ancestors knew in 1750. It will only get hotter after that.

Fracking Gas = Climate Crash

For years, governments, industry, and TV ads told us natural gas is the safe bridge fuel while we move away from dirty coal and oil.

Cornell University scientist Robert Howarth wondered "Is that true?". When Howarth found no science to back up big claims for the gas industry, he and a team from Cornell went to work.

Temperature study funded by climate sceptics confirms rate of global warming

"We are seeing substantial global warming" declares new scientific work from an independent group of researchers called the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Study. The research team is at least partially funded by the Koch Brothers who fund several climate denial groups. The team was setup to identify flaws in the climate science of global average temperature trends, but has confirmed the analysis undertaken by NASA, NOAA and the Hadley Climate Centre in the UK that about 1 degree Celsius of global warming has occurred since 1950.

Related Commentary: Nature Different method, same result: global warming is real | Climate Progress Hot Dog Bites Skeptical Man: Koch-Funded Berkeley Temperature Study Does “Confirm the Reality of Global Warming”

Logging of Victorian mountain ash forests increases bushfire risk

New scientific research published in September 2011 highlights that logging in Victoria’s mountain ash forests is increasing the risk of catastrophic wildfires. The cycling of logging and wildfire is creating a landscape trap where the wet forest ecosystem is being permanently converted to a new landscape replaced by other species, particularly wattle, increasing the frequency and intensity of bushfire risk.

"These changes will significantly impair ecological functions like carbon storage, water production and biodiversity conservation," said Professor Lindenmayer. "This is historically unprecedented and is beginning to dominate the mountain ash landscapes we see today."

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Scientist: Less rain across southern Australia a long term climate trend

Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is increasing atmospheric temperatures changing the dynamic of the sub-tropical jet stream and thus the number and intensity of storms bringing autumn and winter rainfall to southern Australia, according to CSIRO climate scientist Dr Jorgen Frederiksen. He was addressing the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics conference in Melbourne this week regarding recent research on changes to atmospheric circulation, storm intensity and reduction in winter rainfall in Australia.

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Coral Reef record shows Queensland climate becoming more extreme

The Queensland climate is becoming more extreme with more frequent rain and drought events since the nineteenth century according to research on coral reef cores published in the scientific journal, Paleoceanography by Dr Janice Lough from the Australian Institute of Marine Science in April 2011.

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US study: Carbon neutral solar and wind powered world possible in 20 to 40 years

Is it achievable? You bet! All it takes is the political and social will to make it happen says two US researchers who have just published a study of the material resources and technology required to power the world 100 per cent by carbon emission neutral alternative energy technologies. It would also save 2.5 million to 3 million lives a year through slashing water and air pollution and simultaneously slow global warming and the problems of climate change, and develop secure, reliable energy sources and at costs comparable with what we spend on energy today.

Albedo feedback: Climate models underestimate loss of reflectivity in the Arctic

Loss of reflectivity in the Arctic is double the estimate used in current state-of-the-art climate models according to new analysis of the Northern Hemisphere's "albedo feedback" over a 30-year period. The research comes hard on the heels that Greenland had a record melt during 2010.

Climate scientist calls for Hazelwood immediate closure

Emminent Melbourne climate scientist Professor David Karoly has called for the Hazelwood coal fired power station to be closed down completely, saying "Hazelwood is partly to blame for causing climate change."

Photos: Replace Hazelwood (Takver) | Video: Close Hazelwood Power Station now says Climate Scientist Prof David Karoly