Unthreaded
"Pym Fortuyn was assassinated during the 2002
by a left-wing environmentalist and animal rights activist."
No doubt influenced by lefty political hyperbole
Debate that should not be banned, it was OK to challenge Fortuyn
But note when people challenge libmob's dogma
libmob disempower them by saying that those people should not be allowed on the field of debate
stewgreen
Jan 30, 2020 at 8:44 PM M Courtney
+1!
golf charlie
A pair of Eurasian beavers have been released on Exmoor in a National Trust effort to curb flooding and improve biodiversity."
Perhaps I'm just ignorant, but I'd like a fuller explanation of this. My gut feeling is that it is likely to make flooding worse, not curb it.
Jan 30, 2020 at 7:32 PM Mark Hodgson
The explanation in the article :
" Mr Eardley added: "Their presence in our river catchments is a sustainable way to help make our landscape more resilient to climate change and the extremes of weather it will bring."
"The dams the beavers create will slow the flow, holding water in dry periods which will reduce the impact of drought.
"They will help to lessen flash-flooding downstream."
The logic being that a stream with multiple dams does reduce flow during drought conditions, and the valley stays wet. Increased rainfall will lead to river flows increasing, but they will be averaged out - a bit.
Unfortunately......
Beavers don't t need plans to build a dam, but they won't accept instructions on where to build a dam.
Beaver dams block the movement of fish. This may have Ecology issues, it can ruin trout fishing, it will restrict salmon from returning to the head waters they seek. This may have issues for the local economy.
Beaver dams WILL fail under flood conditions, releasing water with a deluge of failed dam construction materials. This is not good for human life and constructions downstream, other animals and plants don't fare well either.
golf charlie
Science is meant to be self-correcting. The practice of science is meant to whittle away error.
Obviously science can be practised in many different ways. Loner sitting in a patent office and then publishing his ideas; huge teams with specific aims shooting for the Moon; sequential testing of physical properties of a new material by an over-worked post-grad.
All these are science.
But which ones eliminate error most efficiently? The answer is those that allow most challenge. Those that refine the statements most easily. That expose the assumptions most clearly. That double-check the observations most repeatably.
Climate Science refuses debate as it is "settled". It protects assumptions from challenge by the authority of the IPCC. It has journal gatekeepers, as Climategate shows.
It is bad a doing science, in theory. It should be bad at eliminating errors, in theory.
But is it? Perhaps they really are unassailable in their wisdom?
If that was so then none of the criticisms would ever prove to be eliminating errors. They would not be the self-correcting of science.
RCP 8.5 demonstrates that Climate Science has been slow to self-correct.
They need to let the better scientists into the public debate. The media needs to acknowledge that the science is not settled.
Which is quite a reversal for the BBC.
M Courtney
cliscep have opened a new thread on RCP 8.5:
https://cliscep.com/2020/01/30/the-taming-and-shaming-of-rcp8-5-climate-scientists-shrug-off-criticism-and-carry-on-as-usual/
Mark Hodgson
From the BBC: “Coronavirus has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.”
Would this be “emergency” as in climate emergency? Or is this actually an emergency - as in an engine fire on an aeroplane?
Stoic
"Jersey 'drowned landscape' could yield Ice Age insights"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51299755
"The effort aims to discover records of early human behaviour, insights into the ancient environment and could shed light on past climate change.
It will seek to understand how people used this landscape before the sea covered it around 6,000 years ago."
Sea rise due to natural climate change in the past...
"Australia heading for dramatic weather changes"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/51317711
"An active front will bring severe thunderstorms and a temperature yo-yo across parts of Australia in the next few days. Meanwhile, the South Island of New Zealand could see up to 500mm of rain and severe gales."
"Earlier springs bounce out some species, says trust"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment
"Spring is arriving up to three weeks earlier than it used to in the county because of the effects of global warming, according to Cumbria Wildlife Trust.
It says springtime flora and fauna appear more frequently in the winter months due to warmer temperatures.
The trust's chief executive, Steve Trotter, says that species that life on the cool fell tops may find their habitat simply disappears in the county."
"Beavers released on Exmoor by National Trust to 'reduce flooding'"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-51300345
"A pair of Eurasian beavers have been released on Exmoor in a National Trust effort to curb flooding and improve biodiversity."
Perhaps I'm just ignorant, but I'd like a fuller explanation of this. My gut feeling is that it is likely to make flooding worse, not curb it.
"Mr Eardley added: "Their presence in our river catchments is a sustainable way to help make our landscape more resilient to climate change and the extremes of weather it will bring.
"The dams the beavers create will slow the flow, holding water in dry periods which will reduce the impact of drought.
"They will help to lessen flash-flooding downstream."
Mark Harold, director of land and nature at the conservation charity said: "We need to work with natural processes in the right places.
"This is a different way of managing sites for wildlife - a new approach, using a native animal as a tool.""
Perhaps, but I'm not convinced.
"Social media marks the changing blooming dates of daffs"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment
"Looking for a recent tweet about daffodils in Cumbria to illustrate the story about earlier springs, I found more than I was looking for
Seeing spring flowers in February is still enough of a surprise to be worth noting
But go five or six years back, and you are looking at tweets from March.
It varies wildly from years to year, and depends on location and species as well, because in 2018, naturalist Issy Hardman noted the native daffs in Grisedale Forest in April.
Wordsworth saw the daffodils in April as well, and they were out when I came for my first job interview in Barrow, in April 1982. So what do you think?"
I think I see daffodils mostly in March and April in Cumbria, as I always have, but in some sunny south-facing sheltered spots I see them in February too, just as I always have in those sheltered spots.
"Ministers criticised for using plane for 150-mile trip to Cardiff"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51303304
"Ministers used a plane to fly from London to Cardiff for a meeting earlier this week - a 150 mile journey that takes less than two hours by train.
Former Environment Secretary Michael Gove was among those who made the journey from RAF Northolt to attend talks with devolved governments.
The government insisted that using the RAF plane was the most cost effective method available.
But opposition parties said ministers were out of touch.
The government has pledged to boost investment in greener forms of transport to help meet the UK's target of net zero emissions by 2050."
Given Gove's hyping of climate alarmism to date, I think I agree with the criticism, and put him in the same hypocrisy basket as large numbers of XR activists and Green politicians.
"Greta Thunberg to trademark 'Fridays for Future'"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51308536
Money, money, money.....
Mark Hodgson
Roger Scruton's departing gift
https://order-order.com/2020/01/30/scrutons-last-report-proposes-end-housing-crisis/
golf charlie
stewgreen
Twitter corporate antics are just ludicrous - I follow Svetlana Lokhova's efforts to clear the smears of being a Russian honeytrap / spook prostitute and find it useful to actually visit her timeline to catch up on stuff deemed too rich for me to be informed of.
tomo
Oh my.....