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climate
And a recent paper published in Nature concluded that the planet is less sensitive to increases in CO2 than the computer models say .
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But will they ?
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With their reputations and huge amounts government grant money at stake , it 's unlikely that many climate scientists would ever admit to being wrong .
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With their reputations and huge amounts government grant money at stake , it 's unlikely that many climate scientists would ever admit to being wrong .
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They failed to predict a decade-long pause in global temperatures .
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Nor have various calamities that were supposed to have occurred by now materialized .
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But climate scientists assumed that the ability to plants to perform this function was limited because the availability of nitrogen in the atmosphere was limited .
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Climate Change : Scientists just discovered a massive , heretofore unknown , source of nitrogen .
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If Houlton 's finding about these vast , previously unknown nitrogen stores holds true , then it would have an enormous impact on global warming predictions .
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The international team onboard the Russian research ship R/V Akademik Keldysh said most of the bubbles were currently dissolving in the water but methane levels at the surface were four to eight times what would normally be expected and this was venting into the atmosphere .
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High levels of the potent greenhouse gas have been detected down to a depth of 350 metres in the Laptev Sea near Russia , prompting concern among researchers that the discovery could have β€œ serious climate consequences ” .
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The Arctic is considered ground zero in the debate about the vulnerability of frozen methane deposits – which have been called the β€œ sleeping giants of the carbon cycle ” - in the ocean , and if releases were to exceed a tipping point it could increase the speed of global heating .
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Methane seeps detected in the past were found to be historic , but the expedition believes these are new based on an earlier study showing movement of the subsea permafrost between the early 1980s and 2015 .
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Despite all this evidence , however , Governors and Senators who are often climate change deniers still get voted back into power there .
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A new study , published in Geophysical Research Letters , suggests that even this ludicrously short-sighted measure won ’ t be enough to stop the incoming tide .
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All in all , it ’ s bad news for Florida ’ s near-future , which is set to be underwater faster than anyone has previously estimated .
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Another study revealed that , by 2100 , there will be 2 billion climate refugees – and several million of them will be migrating from Florida to places further inland .
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Despite all this evidence , however , Governors and Senators who are often climate change deniers still get voted back into power there .
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As a result , instead of investing in climate change prevention measures , streets in Miami are literally getting raised up off the ground to stop floodwater coming in .
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All in all , it ’ s bad news for Florida ’ s near-future , which is set to be underwater faster than anyone has previously estimated .
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Another study revealed that , by 2100 , there will be 2 billion climate refugees – and several million of them will be migrating from Florida to places further inland .
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For good reason : In the U.S. , and for much of the world , the most dangerous environmental pollutants have been cleaned up . U.S. emissions of particulates , metals and varied gasesβ€”all of these : ozone , lead , carbon monoxide , oxides of nitrogen and sulfurβ€”fell almost 70 % between 1970 and 2014 .
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National polls show that climate change is low on the list of voters ’ priorities . For good reason : In the U.S. , and for much of the world , the most dangerous environmental pollutants have been cleaned up . U.S. emissions of particulates , metals and varied gasesβ€”all of these : ozone , lead , carbon monoxide , oxides of nitrogen and sulfurβ€”fell almost 70 % between 1970 and 2014 .
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β€œ It ’ s sobering to think of this magnificent landscape and how fundamentally it can change over a relatively short time period , ” he added .
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Estimates vary on how much carbon is currently released from thawing permafrost worldwide , but by one calculation emissions over the rest of the century could average about 1.5 billion tons a year , or about the same as current annual emissions from fossil-fuel burning in the United States .
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In addition to greenhouse gas emissions , thawing wreaks havoc on infrastructure , causing slumping of land when ice loses volume as it turns to water .
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What ’ s the point ? ’ said Boy . β€˜ By the time I get to Australia to see it the whole bloody lot will have dissolved . ’
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Ocean acidification is the terrifying threat whereby all that man-made CO2 we ’ ve been pumping into the atmosphere may react with the sea to form a sort of giant acid bath . First it will kill off all the calcified marine life , such as shellfish , corals and plankton . Then it will destroy all the species that depend on it β€” causing an almighty mass extinction which will wipe out the fishing industry and turn our oceans into a barren zone of death .
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Unfortunately for the doom-mongers , we sceptics have just received some heavy fire-support from a neutral authority .
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Howard Browman , a marine scientist for 35 years , has published a review in the ICES Journal of Marine Science of all the papers published on the subject . His verdict could hardly be more damning . The methodology used by the studies was often flawed ; contrary studies suggesting that ocean acidification wasn ’ t a threat had sometimes had difficulty finding a publisher .
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Why , between 2009 and 2014 , did Defra spend a whopping Β£12.5 million on an ocean acidification research programme when the issue could have been resolved , for next to nothing , after a few hours ’ basic research ?
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According to a report last year by Climate Change Business Journal , it ’ s now worth an astonishing $ 1.5 trillion β€” about the same as the online shopping industry . If the scare goes away , then all bets are off , because the entire global decarbonisation business relies on it .
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Ocean acidification β€” the evidence increasingly suggests β€” is a trivial , misleadingly named , and not remotely worrying phenomenon which has been hyped up beyond all measure for political , ideological and financial reasons .
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The impact on calcification , metabolism , growth , fertility and survival of calcifying marine species when pH is lowered up to 0.3 units ( beyond what is considered a plausible reduction this century ) is beneficial , not damaging . Marine life has nothing whatsoever to fear from ocean acidification .
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Hence the need for a fallback position β€” an environmental theory which would justify the massively expensive and disruptive ongoing decarbonisation programme so assiduously championed by politicians , scientists , green campaigners and anyone making money out of the renewables business .
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What it does do is lend credence to something we much-maligned sceptics have long been saying : that in many environmental fields , the science is being abused and distorted to promote a political and financial agenda .
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It ’ s no wonder he should find it worrying , for it has been assiduously promoted by environmentalists for more than a decade now as β€˜ global warming ’ s evil twin ’ .
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By the time I get to Australia to see it the whole bloody lot will have dissolved . ’
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Last year , no fewer than 600 academic papers were published on the subject , so it must be serious , right ?
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Even the great David Attenborough β€” presenter of the Great Barrier Reef series β€” has vouched for its authenticity : β€˜
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Ocean acidification β€” the evidence increasingly suggests β€” is a trivial , misleadingly named , and not remotely worrying phenomenon which has been hyped up beyond all measure for political , ideological and financial reasons .
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The impact on calcification , metabolism , growth , fertility and survival of calcifying marine species when pH is lowered up to 0.3 units ( beyond what is considered a plausible reduction this century ) is beneficial , not damaging .
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To those of us who have been studying the global warming scare in some detail , the answer is depressingly obvious . It ’ s because in the last decade or so , the climate change industry has become so vast and all encompassing , employing so many people , it simply can not be allowed to fail .
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An β€œ inherent bias ” in scientific journals in favour of more calamitous predictions has excluded research showing that marine creatures are not damaged by ocean acidification , which is caused by the sea absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere .
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The review found that many studies had used flawed methods , subjecting marine creatures to sudden increases in carbon dioxide that would never be experienced in real life .
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β€œ In some cases it was levels far beyond what would ever be reached even if we burnt every molecule of carbon on the planet , ” Howard Browman , the editor of ICES Journal of Marine Science , who oversaw the review , said .
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Dr Browman , who is also principal research scientist at the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research , found there had been huge increase in articles on ocean acidification in recent years , rising from five in 2005 to 600 last year . He said that a handful of influential scientific journals and lobbying by international organisations had turned ocean acidification into a major issue .
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Skeptics have long pointed to ice gain in the Southern Hemisphere as evidence climate change wasn ’ t occurring , but scientists warned that it was caused by natural variations and circulations in the atmosphere .
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Skeptics have long pointed to ice gain in the Southern Hemisphere as evidence climate change wasn ’ t occurring , but scientists warned that it was caused by natural variations and circulations in the atmosphere .
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While it is too early to know if the recent , rapid decline in Antarctic sea ice is going to be a regular occurrence like in the Arctic , it β€œ certainly puts the kibosh on everyone saying that Antarctica ’ s ice is just going up and up , ” Meier said .
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Moreover , the study says , massive human greenhouse gas emissions since that time have likely β€œ postponed ” what might otherwise be another ice age β€œ by at least 100,000 years . ”
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This idea is credited to University of Virginia climate scientist William Ruddiman , who was not involved with the current paper .
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Indeed , they note that about 800,000 years ago , orbital alignments were similar but carbon dioxide concentrations were around 240 parts per million , and glaciation did indeed occur .
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But as an energy expert asked by Congress to provide objective expert testimony , and invited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) to serve as Expert Reviewer of its next Assessment Report , I feel an obligation to apologize for how badly we environmentalists have misled the public .
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In reality , the above facts come from the best-available scientific studies , including those conducted by or accepted by the IPCC , the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO ) , the International Union for the Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) and other leading scientific bodies .
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But there are also reasons to believe that environmental alarmism will , if not come to an end , have diminishing cultural power . The coronavirus pandemic is an actual crisis that puts the climate β€œ crisis ” into perspective . Even if you think we have overreacted , Covid-19 has killed nearly 500,000 people and shattered economies around the globe .
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Climate change is happening . It ’ s just not the end of the world . It ’ s not even our most serious environmental problem .
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And in January , one out of five British children told pollsters they were having nightmares about climate change .
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” Britain ’ s most high-profile environmental group claimed β€œ Climate Change Kills Children . ”
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And in January , one out of five British children told pollsters they were having nightmares about climate change .
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The trend is always in one direction . ''
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Still , the shift is precisely what he and other cyclone experts said would be expected from climate change .
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Once a year or so , journalists from major news outlets travel to the Marshall Islands , a remote chain of volcanic islands and coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean , to report in panicked tones that the island nation is vanishing because of climate change .
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Once a year or so , journalists from major news outlets travel to the Marshall Islands , a remote chain of volcanic islands and coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean , to report in panicked tones that the island nation is vanishing because of climate change .
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Their dispatches are often filled with raw emotion and suggest that residents are fleeing atolls swiftly sinking into the sea .
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Plimer says every occurrence of icebergs expanding and shrinking happened with β€œ more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than now ” .
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β€œ We are getting towards the end of the warm period , the peak of the warmth was about 5,000 years ago and we are heading for the next inevitable ice age , ” he told Sky News host Cory Bernardi .
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They live in a world where conditions are so extreme that fire seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres overlap , stretching resources at a time when they ’ re needed most .
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And when temperatures head towards this threshold it starts to impact the ability of people to lead normal lives .
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At home , Australia emits less than 1.24 per cent of global emissions , but so do most countries . More than 170 countries emit less than Australia each year , and combined , this group of countries emits more than any of the largest emitters β€” 40 per cent of all emissions come from countries that each emit less than 2 per cent of global emissions . So , even if the major emitters decarbonise , it won ’ t be enough .
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In this scenario , by 2100 , 73.9 per cent of the world ’ s population will be facing at least 20 days a year of deadly heat and humidity . And before you think that 20 days of this sort of heat is manageable , that ’ s just a minimum .
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By this point you ’ ve seen a few summers , probably run through a few sprinklers , burnt your feet on hot pavement β€” six-year-old you knows what hot feels like .
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Economic productivity decreases , and the sorts of activities that are a central part of Australian life β€” like playing sport or heading to the beach β€” are affected . As the globe continues to warm , this sort of heat will spread , affecting more and more people for longer and longer periods of time .
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The 2009 Black Saturday bushfires , which claimed the lives of 173 Australians , are etched into the national consciousness . But in the heatwave that led up to the fires , the number of deaths soared .
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In this scenario they may still have the opportunity to visit a living Great Barrier Reef .
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As countries get more peaceful in Africa we could lose more tropical forests , which really worries me . ”
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β€œ It breaks my heart to think we ’ d lose half our tropical forests for plantations just to save ourselves , ” Lawrence said . β€œ It ’ s horrifying that we ’ d lose our biodiversity to avert climate change .
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Losing tropical forests is not somehow cheaper than putting up wind farms in the US or Sahara . ”
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Lawrence said a steep drop in emissions to zero by 2040 would negate the need for β€œ negative emissions ” technology that would damage forests ’ ability to suck up carbon , maintain local water supplies and weather patterns and provide a home for a riot of birds , mammals , insects and other creatures .
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But looking to the future , mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef will likely be an annual phenomenon within a decade , Torda said .
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