It appears that despite declaring publicly that it would not fund climate sceptic groups, Exxon Mobil has continued to fund some of the key lobby groups that politically oppose the idea that humans are responsible for climate change. Both the Heritage Foundation and National Center for Policy Analysis have cast doubt on anthropogenic global warming, but were apparently funded by Exxon Mobil in 2008.
Since there is a fad for plotting graphs of the earths temperature using publicly available data and then arguing on various blogs whether it has been 'cherry picked' or manipulated, I thought I would have a go at plotting a graph myself.
My fantastic graph is created using the data provided by the Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia and the Met Office Hadley Centre (HadCRUT3 data). I used the Global Hemispheric Means in ASCII format and used Plot 0.997 on an Apple Mac computer to create the graph.
Unfortunately Plot 0.997 required the data to be in a format of two columns (x and y). So i had to create some macros in Open Office to make it easier to strip out the monthly data in the HadCRUT3 ASCII file. The resulting file contained the yearly global mean values (y) and the year that each occurred (x), separated by a single space.
Once the data was loaded into Plot 0.997, the graph was produced. After tweaking the x/y axis and a few other things to make it look nice, the graph was ready.
What is an anomaly you may well ask!
Are they one of those things in ITV's Primeval?
And why are temperatures before the 1970s mainly negative??
Well of course mean global temperatures before the 1970s were not negative.
The way the data is calculated is that a base period between 1961 and 1990 is used to calculate a mean. This is then subtracted from each mean yearly value, so that any value below the 61/90 mean will be negative and any value above it will be positive. This new set of data is called 'anomalies'. Hence the resulting graph shows negative and positive values.
The actual global mean temperatures are greater than the differences shown in the graph and of course are all positive (the planet is quite cozy warm most of the time, that's why we have life on it).
The graph has not been smoothed or processed in any way, so you can make your own judgements about what is happening. You can see that yearly averages go up and down from year to year, with periods of years of highs and lows. But is 2008 cooler than 1850?!
Although the final figure for 2009 is not available, the mean calculated for 2009 to date is higher than 2008, we will have to see if the mean for the complete year is higher.
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New research by scientists led by Professor Eelco Rohling at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, focusing on records of changes to shells of foraminifers in the Red Sea, has shown that there is a direct link between sea levels and the Antarctic ice temperatures. They have shown that current sea levels result in a 16oc rise in Antarctic temperatures over thousands of years. This in turn will result in a 25m rise in sea levels over the same period. Not exactly of immediate concern, but the researchers are concerned about their findings and the contradictory 7m estimates predicted by the IPPC.
It doesn't get a lot of news coverage because it is a 'good news' story, but the UK has more companies developing marine energy systems than any other nation. Yes, we are the world leaders.
Marine energy projects range from underwater turbines, to machines that produce energy from waves. This is obviously of great importance to cities and towns along the South Coast, with the huge potential to exploit the tides, currents and waves along our coasts.
The companies taking the lead are distributed around the islands, in Scotland, England and Wales. The company probably taking the lead with a 'mature' product is Marine Current Turbines , with a large tidal turbine under test off the coast of Northern Ireland. Probably in equal first place (although not British) is Open Hydro , based in Dublin, Ireland. The Open Hydro turbine is interesting because it looks like a 'polo' mint, a turbine with a hollow centre.
A number of other companies are also developing tidal turbines, these include Lunar Energy (think about it!), Swan Turbines and Tidal Energy Ltd. All these companies are designing tidal turbines that have unique features that reduce/ease maintenance and can be installed out of sight on the sea bed or river bed. None of them require barriers or dams. Pulse Generation is taking a different approach to tidal energy in that they are using a hydrofoil principal to generate electricity, the advantage is apparently that the device is suitable for shallow waters.
As well as tidal energy a number of companies are developing devices to exploit wave energy. Green Ocean Energy has developed a wave energy device that attaches to an offshore wind turbine, it can use the same cables as the wind turbine. WaveGen - Voith Hydro produces wave energy systems that are built into the shore line, they include the Limpet which has been operating on the Isle of Islay for a number of years now and new systems such as Breakwater turbines designed to be incorporated into sea defences (maybe useful for Portsmouth in the future!). BulgeWave is a new wave energy idea that is being researched by local academics, it looks promising and relatively simple. However it has some way to go before it becomes a commercially viable device.
The new climate projections for the UK as reported widely in the news media this week, show up some sobering data. Some of the probability projections calculated this year for the end of the century in the Portsmouth area are (50% probability, Medium emissions):
Summer temperatures 3oc higher.
Summer rain about 40% less.
Winter rain about 20% greater.
The South Coast looks like it will get the biggest changes.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand talks about the photo series 'The Earth From Above', the new film 'Home' and the web project '6 billion others ' in this Ted Talk:
A new Greenpeace report shows how the cattle business, which is expanding rapidly in the Amazon, now poses the biggest threat to the 80% of the original forest that still stands. Where loggers have made inroads to the edge of the forest in the states of Para and Mato Grosso, farmers have followed.
The report details a three-year investigation into these cattle farms and the global trade in their products, many of which end up on sale in Britain and Europe. Meat from the cattle is canned, packaged and processed into convenience foods on sale in British supermarkeets.
Claus Volkening, a 23 year old engineering student at Portsmouth University has developed a new system for storing solar energy. The students design uses a solar updraft tower to generate electricity. This relies on the fact that air heated at the base of a 'chimney' is drawn up and can be used to turn a turbine to generate electricity. However such a system stops working at night. However Claus has developed a way of storing solar heat energy in a water store during the day, which is release at night to power the updraft tower and turbine.
Portsmouth University news article Green Wise Business News
The worlds first floating wind turbine takes to sea for a 2 year trial this weekend. The Hywind uses a Siemens 2.3 MW turbine mounted on a tubular float that is anchored to the sea bed with cables. The turbine is the creation of StatoilHydro's energy division, Statoil is better known for the drilling of oil in the North Sea. The turbine can be placed in water with depths of 120 to 700 metres.
