Getting warmer: the State of the Climate in five charts
Five charts from State of the Climate 2014 published this week by the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology, the third report in a biannual series monitoring long term trends in Australia's climate
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Energy & GHG
Mar 6, 2014
Click to download State of the Climate 2014
- Number of days each year where the Australian area-averaged daily mean temperature is above the 99th percentile for the period 1910–2013
- Change in ocean heat content (in joules) from the full ocean depth, from 1960 to present. Shading provides an indication of the confidence range of the estimate
- Global mean greenhouse gas concentrations
- Distribution of monthly maximum temperature in Australia
- Time series of anomalies in sea-surface temperature and temperature over land in the Australian region
The Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO contribute significantly to the international effort of weather and climate monitoring, forecasting and research. In State of the Climate 2014, they discuss the long-term trends in Australia’s climate. As with earlier reports, the focus is primarily on climate observations and monitoring carried out in the Australian region, as well as on future climate scenarios.
See also: GHGs: long-term change in three charts.
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One would suggest that the Bureau of Meteorology are putting forward a reasonably argued proposition – and one that Tony Abbott is in agreement with. Don’t know about the others, but pretty well everybody agrees that on the evidence the climate has been getting warmer over the last 200 years. The question is what, if anything should or even could, be done about it. The trouble is that so many in the alarmist camp exaggerate so much (think Hansen, Flannery) that people are turned off by wild prophecies that turn out wrong.
It is worth noticing that the USA has cut its greenhouse emissions substantially – but this is due to replacement of coal fired power stations by gas – the notorious methane and CSG that some politicians get up tight about. As a result, the USA exports more coal to elsewhere – especially Germany!
If you want to cut CO2 emissions, you deal with people who operate processes that emit it, and try to find the best way to reduce the emissions. A blanket tax that hits ALL industry is not the way. If a new power source is needed, the logical one is nuclear power, with CO2 emissions limited to the construction of the power stations. This is at present the only conceivable base load provider.
Worth noting, perhaps, that if the carbon tax does not get repealed, road transport will be hit by the tax from July (rail is already hit by it). This will at least even up the playing field between road and rail.
Liam might like to note that when all the CO2 now locked up in chalk, limestone and marble was in the atmosphere, it did not prevent plants taking out a lot more CO2 to build the coal beds and provide crude oil. So there is absolutely NO likelihood of extinction as a result of increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Just one of the alarmists’ furphies.
Good graphs, & yes thanks for skipping the fluffy language. I wonder if we’ll ever do anything about it, or if we’ll stick with denial & tokenism all the way to extinction.
The Bureau of Meteorology – what would they know when such great scientific minds as Alan Jones, Andrew Bolt, Maurice Newman and Tony Abbott have told us all we need to know on the subject.
Large stationary batteries will be needed at the local garage to flash charge electric vehicles. He may be happy, or find it cheaper, to buy intermittent power from local solar during the day, and sell it from his spare capacity at night.
Unlike lithium-ion, a stationary battery might be the cheaper sodium-sulphur, as it can be large and heavy, needing special housing and occasional maintenance.
Alan, excellent contribution from CSIRO and BOM. Thanks for bringing them to our attention. However, such comprehensible graphs will remain outside of many/most Australian homes due to Federal Govt. ideological priorities and Murdock Media ‘blockages.’ As did Nicholas Stern’s seminal paper linking increased financial penalties with delayed response to Climate Change. Would welcome your further comment on how the content of these graphs might be made available to broader Australian public?
Great graphs, they show better than most the actual picture. What I believe, however, is that actual climate implications of the warming of the oceans is pretty much lost on ordinary folk. They don’t understand that heat has been “stored” in oceans, which then potentially manifests as climate change, especially through say more intense tropical storms. I think there is a need to get that message clearly across, so that all understand the implications of such thermal changes in our earth system: climate change.
There must be a god after all, because each summer she is roasting Perth and Adelaide hotter than ever.
Alan, compliments on using a title without a question mark. With the high quality scientific evidence presented, global wide warming can be again taken as an unquestionable fact.
The question then arises of how the urban dweller’s adaption to the consequences of the air, land mass and ocean warming may be sustainably managed?
The second question to be considered needs to cover the level of investment to slow down the inevitable global warming through life style changes to allow for sufficient time for the planet’s ecological systems, including humans, to sustainably adapt?