Cyclone Winston, which hit Fiji with winds of almost 300 kph, was the second strongest to make landfall, the strongest being Taiphoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in 2013.
Jeff Masters lists the 13 strongest cyclones by windspeed to make landfall using 1-minute averaging: Continue reading Climate clippings 165
At the Paris climate conference a surprise result was for the world to aim to hold “the increase in … temperature to well below 2°C … and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”.
Fred Pearce in the New Scientist now takes a look at what some are saying needs to be done. Continue reading Saving the planet
The Brisbane company Tritium manufactures a range of products including the award-winning Veefil electric vehicle fast charger right here in Brisbane. Tripling production in a new facility it exports Veefil to the world including Europe and America. Continue reading Climate clippings 164
Dr Larry Marshall, former venture capitalist and now head of the CSIRO, has a brief and a vision to turn the organisation into an innovation catalyst. Climate science simply no longer fits, according to him.
He told the ABC:
So if you look at the climate market, I think after Paris the argument for climate change is pretty much decided, I think that question has been answered.
So that begs the next question, what do we do about climate change? How do we adapt to it? How do we mitigate it?
And it’s inevitable that people who are gifted at you know measuring and modelling climate may not be the same people who are gifted at figuring out what to do about it, or how to mitigate it.
China exponentially increased its use of coal in the early part of this century, so that 64% of its energy comes from coal. Now studies suggest that coal use in China declined in 2014 and may have peaked in 2013. No new mines will be approved in the next three years. Continue reading Climate clippings 162
The figures are now official, 2015 was the hottest year on record:
It hasn’t happened yet, not officially. The final decision rests with an august scientific body called the International Commission on Stratigraphy, which has a 36-person Working Group on the Anthropocene. Now 24 scientists, including some from the Working Group, have produced a paper advocating for the Anthropocene to be recognised as having begun in the mid-20th century. Continue reading Goodbye Holocene, hello Anthropocene?
Subjectively 2015 seemed like a very hot year, so there may be some surprise to find that according to the BOM’s Annual climate statement 2015 it was only the fifth hottest year. That’s possibly because the October-December period was the hottest on record. There was exceptional heat early in October, with parts of Victoria being 7°C above normal. Nationally October was 2.89°C above the 1961-90 average, a record monthly anomaly. Continue reading Australia’s annual climate statement 2015
The most important number in climate science is not 400 ppm or 2ºC. It’s climate sensitivity, the amount of warming we’ll get from doubling CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. Curiously the IPCC AR5 report declined to give a number. Continue reading Reconciling estimates of climate sensitivity
A freak heatwave has pushed the North Pole temperature to above freezing, about 20°C above average.
Nearby:
Courtesy of John D, from Gizmag, an item that has implications for algal blooms, health of species, food and methane emissions.
From Gizmag, courtesy of John D:
