Showing posts with label CSIRO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CSIRO. Show all posts

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Climatology 101


In the strongly contested ground of climate science, don't fall for fake Climatology 101 written by lobbyists with connections to the mining industry. 

When the Australian scientist Ian Plimer, a geology professor and mineralogist with no background in climate science, wrote a general interest book, How to get expelled from school: a guide to climate change for pupils, parents and punters (2011), he framed it around 101 questions as a reference to university courses like Climatology 101, in a effort to pretend that his work was university-standard .

Not so. Plimer's book is of dubious quality and full of inaccurate and misleading information based on false premises.

Teachers and scientists were outraged when a right wing lobby group (Institute for Public Affairs) arranged for free copies of the book to be sent to schools. In response, the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has prepared a set of correct responses to the 101 questions in Plimer's book by drawing on climate scientists and science communicators from CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne, who helped review the document and provide feedback.

They say,
Many of the questions and answers in Professor Plimer’s book are misleading and are based on inaccurate or selective interpretation of the science. The answers and comments provided in this document are intended to provide clear and accurate answers to Professor Plimer’s questions. The answers are based on up-to-date peer reviewed science, and have been reviewed by a number of Australian climate scientists.

You can download the excellent booklet, Accurate Answers to Professor Plimer's 101 Climate Questions, here and read a Crikey article about it, here.

With large and powerful vested interests eager to spread misinformation about climate change, readers will do well to follow the advice of teachers and use trusted sources of information— scientists whose work passes peer review.

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Here's the latest news on the Transformation tab.

Hydrovolt power generators work in canals to generate 20MW power. Tens of thousands of miles of irrigation, flood management or transport canals can be tapped for hydrokinetic power using  Hydrovolt  generators.  Countries with extensive canals include the U.S., India, Pakistan, China, Australia and Brazil. Source: Grist.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Thank God the alarm worked, it saved our lives.


Are you an 'alarmist' and a 'warmist'? That's what climate change deniers call scientists, politicians, activists and anyone in the general public who accepts the evidence for climate change.

When they call everyone who accepts the science an 'alarmist', they try to say that we're like the boy who cried wolf. They want to discredit the warnings made by responsible people who recognise the evidence.

Where they are wrong is that the wolf is very real. Multiple strands of evidence point to the warming planet and the role of greenhouse gas emissions. There is abundant evidence for:

Alarms do much more than wake you up in the morning, though that is useful. Burglar alarms and car alarms protect property and many alarms save lives. Smoke detectors; tsunami warning systems; heart attack alarmsshark alarms; patient monitoring alarms all save lives by warning against imminent danger.

So next time you're called an 'alarmist', stand tall, point to all the evidence that says climate change is a real threat, and mention that alarms are good things – they save lives.