Centre set to swelter as biggest heatwave in decades settles in:
A swath of central Australia stretching from Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy and Birdsville can expect maximum temperatures of 45 degrees or hotter for at least a week. Towns to the south and east, such as Mildura and Hay, can expect to broil with 40-degree maximum temperatures for just as long.
''We have a major heat event under way,'' Karl Braganza, a manager of climate monitoring at the Bureau of Meteorology, said. ''There are not many instances in the historical record where you get a heat event covering such a large area of the continent.''
Published Comment:
"Warming of 4-6C is truly unknown territory. We know, however, that crops needing cool conditions to grow, including the global staples of wheat, rye and barley, are especially vulnerable. Such warming would see Australia lose whole food-producing regions well before 2100.
By 2100, we'd have had to adjust to increasingly intense droughts and flooding, and life in most of inland Australia would have become intolerable. Tasmanian temperatures would be similar to those in northern NSW, and mosquito-borne subtropical diseases would have spread south, at least as far as Victoria."
And this post,"Centre set to swelter as biggest heatwave in decades settles in",makes it look all too real.
Then there's this : "Broome sets record for high temperatures"
"Broome has recorded its hottest ever December since records began.
The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed the daily maximum temperatures averaged 36.3 degrees, breaking the previous record set in 1951.
Forecaster Patrick Ward says it was an uncomfortably warm period throughout the West Kimberley.
"Broome airport scored it's hottest ever December, about two-and-a-half degrees above average, and hottest day for the month for 43 degrees on the ninth," he said.
"In terms of rainfall, about half the normal amount for a December."
I remember people making comments several years ago about,"these climate change predictions are very depressing,especially when we think of the world we will hand to our kids - it's terrible.And here in Broome and the peninsular we have the double nightmare of the worlds most polluting gas plant to deal with on top of that."
And it seems the JPP gas plant plan has become a giant symbol of all that is wrong with totalitarian encroachment,something people all over the world can point to and say,"That is wrong,that is why life on this planet is dieing,why life will not be worth living for future generations."
And it does seem strange that our little camping and fishing spot has found such fame.
Of course to the true keepers of the law and culture for that place it is a tragedy beyond words.
I think it would be true to say that in the minds of a lot of people it seems that if JPP,Walmadany,is saved there is some hope of turning this awful situation around.
But if Woodside,Barnett and others get their way then all is lost for all life as we know it on our Mother Earth.
And not just for the kids that will have to live in the shadow of this abomination.
A swath of central Australia stretching from Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy and Birdsville can expect maximum temperatures of 45 degrees or hotter for at least a week. Towns to the south and east, such as Mildura and Hay, can expect to broil with 40-degree maximum temperatures for just as long.
''We have a major heat event under way,'' Karl Braganza, a manager of climate monitoring at the Bureau of Meteorology, said. ''There are not many instances in the historical record where you get a heat event covering such a large area of the continent.''
Published Comment:
AnonymousJanuary 3, 2013 10:21 AM
The post from The Mercury,well named,nails down exactly where we are at this critical time."Warming of 4-6C is truly unknown territory. We know, however, that crops needing cool conditions to grow, including the global staples of wheat, rye and barley, are especially vulnerable. Such warming would see Australia lose whole food-producing regions well before 2100.
By 2100, we'd have had to adjust to increasingly intense droughts and flooding, and life in most of inland Australia would have become intolerable. Tasmanian temperatures would be similar to those in northern NSW, and mosquito-borne subtropical diseases would have spread south, at least as far as Victoria."
And this post,"Centre set to swelter as biggest heatwave in decades settles in",makes it look all too real.
Then there's this : "Broome sets record for high temperatures"
"Broome has recorded its hottest ever December since records began.
The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed the daily maximum temperatures averaged 36.3 degrees, breaking the previous record set in 1951.
Forecaster Patrick Ward says it was an uncomfortably warm period throughout the West Kimberley.
"Broome airport scored it's hottest ever December, about two-and-a-half degrees above average, and hottest day for the month for 43 degrees on the ninth," he said.
"In terms of rainfall, about half the normal amount for a December."
I remember people making comments several years ago about,"these climate change predictions are very depressing,especially when we think of the world we will hand to our kids - it's terrible.And here in Broome and the peninsular we have the double nightmare of the worlds most polluting gas plant to deal with on top of that."
And it seems the JPP gas plant plan has become a giant symbol of all that is wrong with totalitarian encroachment,something people all over the world can point to and say,"That is wrong,that is why life on this planet is dieing,why life will not be worth living for future generations."
And it does seem strange that our little camping and fishing spot has found such fame.
Of course to the true keepers of the law and culture for that place it is a tragedy beyond words.
I think it would be true to say that in the minds of a lot of people it seems that if JPP,Walmadany,is saved there is some hope of turning this awful situation around.
But if Woodside,Barnett and others get their way then all is lost for all life as we know it on our Mother Earth.
And not just for the kids that will have to live in the shadow of this abomination.
Photo Damian Kelly
Posts
The post from The Mercury,well named,nails down exactly where we are at this critical time.
ReplyDelete"Warming of 4-6C is truly unknown territory. We know, however, that crops needing cool conditions to grow, including the global staples of wheat, rye and barley, are especially vulnerable. Such warming would see Australia lose whole food-producing regions well before 2100.
By 2100, we'd have had to adjust to increasingly intense droughts and flooding, and life in most of inland Australia would have become intolerable. Tasmanian temperatures would be similar to those in northern NSW, and mosquito-borne subtropical diseases would have spread south, at least as far as Victoria."
And this post,"Centre set to swelter as biggest heatwave in decades settles in",makes it look all too real.
Then there's this : "Broome sets record for high temperatures"
"Broome has recorded its hottest ever December since records began.
The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed the daily maximum temperatures averaged 36.3 degrees, breaking the previous record set in 1951.
Forecaster Patrick Ward says it was an uncomfortably warm period throughout the West Kimberley.
"Broome airport scored it's hottest ever December, about two-and-a-half degrees above average, and hottest day for the month for 43 degrees on the ninth," he said.
"In terms of rainfall, about half the normal amount for a December."
I remember people making comments several years ago about,"these climate change predictions are very depressing,especially when we think of the world we will hand to our kids - it's terrible.And here in Broome and the peninsular we have the double nightmare of the worlds most polluting gas plant to deal with on top of that."
And it seems the JPP gas plant plan has become a giant symbol of all that is wrong with totalitarian encroachment,something people all over the world can point to and say,"That is wrong,that is why life on this planet is dieing,why life will not be worth living for future generations."
And it does seem strange that our little camping and fishing spot has found such fame.
Of course to the true keepers of the law and culture for that place it is a tragedy beyond words.
I think it would be true to say that in the minds of a lot of people it seems that if JPP,Walmadany,is saved there is some hope of turning this awful situation around.
But if Woodside,Barnett and others get their way then all is lost for all life as we know it on our Mother Earth.
And not just for the kids that will have to live in the shadow of this abomination.
Push for halt to Arctic drilling after latest Shell mishap
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON: Critics want a halt to offshore Arctic drilling in the wake of Shell's latest mishap in the waters off Alaska, but there is no sign the Obama administration and key members of the US Congress are backing away from their support for drilling in the sensitive region.
The Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, let Shell begin preparatory drilling in Alaska's Arctic waters this northern summer, for the first time in two decades. Environmental groups on Thursday called for the administration to immediately stop issuing permits for Arctic offshore oil exploration as a result of Monday's grounding of Shell's drilling rig in Alaska.
But Mr Salazar is not willing to put the permits on hold.
''The administration understands that the Arctic environment presents unique challenges, and that's why the Secretary has repeatedly made clear that any approved drilling activities will be held to the highest safety and environmental standards,'' Mr Salazar's spokesman, Blake Androff, said on Thursday.
''The department will continue to carefully review permits for any activity, and all proposals must meet our rigorous standards.''
It was the latest in a string of incidents that have dogged Shell's activities in the far north. In September the spill containment dome on Shell's response barge, the Arctic Challenger, was, according to an internal email by a federal regulator, ''crushed like a beer can'' during testing in Washington state's Puget Sound.
And a different Shell drilling rig, the Noble Discoverer, dragged its anchor in Alaska's Dutch Harbour in July, had a small fire in its smokestack and was cited for safety and pollution issues.
''This string of mishaps by Shell makes it crystal clear that we are not ready to drill in the Arctic,'' said Charles Clusen, the director of National Parks and Alaska Projects for the Natural Resources Defence Council.
''It's just another of the long line of incidents that have bedevilled Shell throughout the year that prove operating in the Arctic safely is a misnomer,'' said Ben Ayliffe, the head of the Arctic campaign for Greenpeace. ''You wonder how much more the US authorities have to see before it's clear to everyone that Shell shouldn't be operating there.''
The vessel that was towing the rig is owned and run by the politically connected Louisiana company Edison Chouest Offshore. The company was the top campaign contributor in the most recent election cycle for Mr Hastings, and also donated heavily to the Alaska Republicans Don Young and Senator Lisa Murkowski, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics in Washington. Edison Chouest is also among the top donors to the Alaska Democratic Senator Mark Begich, also an ardent supporter of Arctic drilling.
A major magnitude 7.7 earthquake shook an area in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the US state of Alaska, the United States Geological Survey said.
DeleteThe epicentre of the quake was located 102 kilometres west of Craig, Alaska, according to the USGS.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said there was no widespread threat of a tsunami at this time, but it issued a regional warning affecting the Alaskan coast in the proximity of the epicentre.
This is interesting,the US now forsees problems with their LNG export plants,which are much cheaper than Australia's,because of fraccing taking off in other countries.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/business/energy-environment/exports-of-us-gas-may-fall-short-of-high-hopes.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hpw
HOUSTON — Only five years ago, several giant natural gas import terminals were built to satisfy the energy needs of a country hungry for fuels. But the billion-dollar terminals were obsolete even before the concrete was dry as an unexpected drilling boom in new shale fields from Pennsylvania to Texas produced a glut of cheap domestic natural gas.
Now, the same companies that had such high hopes for imports are proposing to salvage those white elephants by spending billions more to convert them into terminals to export some of the nation’s extra gas to Asia and Europe, where gas is roughly triple the American price.
Countries around the world are importing drilling expertise and equipment in hopes of cracking open their own gas reserves through the same techniques of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling that unleashed shale gas production in the United States.
“It will be easier to export the technology for extracting shale gas than exporting actual gas,” said Jay Hakes, former administrator of the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration. “I know the pitch about our price differentials will justify the high costs of L.N.G. We will see. Gas by pipeline is a good deal. L.N.G.? Not so clear.”
The biggest threat, over the long term, is the spread of the American shale boom overseas. The United States has a big lead; shale drilling has been slow to get started in Europe, South Africa and South America because of environmental concerns, water shortages and political obstacles.
But China, which potentially has more shale resources than the United States, is poised for development. And Poland, Britain and Argentina are moving forward with more shale drilling.
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Maryland judge says Dominion Resources can export liqueified natural gas from Cove Point site
A Maryland judge on Friday ruled in favor of Dominion Resources in a dispute with the Sierra Club, declaring that the Virginia-based energy company can export liquefied natural gas from an expanded terminal facility in Calvert County, Md.
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LNG vital to Canada’s natural gas future
LNG export projects could pump C$940 billion into Canada’s economy over the next 23 years, create 130,000 jobs and see C$140 billion in capital investment in British Columbia alone, the Conference Board of Canada has estimated.
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Panama Canal expansion more than half completed to meet wave of US LNG exports
Thursday, 03 January 2013
The Panama Canal Authority waterway expansion programme that will allow larger LNG carriers to transit is on schedule and more than half-way complete, with dredging works at the Canal entrances on the Pacific and Atlantic sides the most advanced.
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China's demand for oil reached new record in November
China's oil demand rose to the highest on record, reaching 42.96 million metric tons (mt) in November. The demand averaged 10.5 million barrels per day, according to a recent report from Platts, a more than 9 percent increase from oil demand seen in November 2011.
Using recently released statistics from China's National Bureau of Statistics, Platts said oil refinery throughput also reached a record high, to 10.17 million b/d in November, an increase of 9.1 percent compared to last November. This and the increase of net oil product imports contributed to the rise in oil demand, the article stated.
Interesting to note that it was the US boom in building import terminals for LNG that really sent Don Voelte off.
DeleteHis call on fraccing that it would never compete with conventional gas,made only a couple of years ago,really shows how stupid a man he really is.
Procter and Campbell,Bergman and Martin,and of course the state and federal governments,are even more stupid!
I recall reading on this blog way before these stupid comments were made of the effect fraccing was going to have on LNG exports.
And yet these idiots call environmentalists stupid!Ha what a joke.
They could all learn a lot just by following green blogs.