The United Nations' climate change panel is facing fresh criticism after new research contradicted the organisation's claims about the devastating effect climate change could have on the Amazon rainforest.

A new study, funded by Nasa, has found that the most serious drought in the Amazon for more than a century had little impact on the rainforest's vegetation.

The findings appear to disprove claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that up to 40% of the Amazon rainforest could react drastically to even a small reduction in rainfall and could see the trees replaced by tropical grassland.

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ARE WE BEING CLIMATE SMART?

FREE public forum in support of Earth Hour Hosted by Bob Parker

Free networking function, wine tasting and cash bar from 6.30pm.

Public Forum from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.

Our changing climate: Local evidence and potential effects of climate change David Wratt, Chief Scientist, National Climate Centre, NIWA

Building a resilient city: Climate smart urban design and transport Mike Theelen, General Manager, Strategy and Planning, Christchurch City Council

Powering the future: Low carbon and renewable energy solutions Roger Sutton, CEO Orion NZ Ltd

A climate of opportunity: Business opportunities in a carbon constrained world Peter Townsend, Employers’ Chamber of Commerce

Climate smart living: Living on a low-carbon diet Rhys Taylor, Sustainable Living Education Trust

To register and for more information visit: www.climatesmart.co.nz

Have your say on the Council’s Draft Climate Smart Strategy from 22 March to 30 April 2010

Being climate smart means that Christchurch is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and responding to the social, environmental and economic challenges and opportunities presented by climate change.

* Hot Topic
* Earth Hour
* Free information sessions on the Climate Smart Strategy
* Why be climate smart?
* How to be climate smart

A climate smart Christchurch powered by renewable energy and resilient to the impacts of climate change is the vision of the Council’s Draft Climate Smart Strategy. This Strategy sets the direction for community and Council responses to the impacts and opportunities presented by Climate Change.

Hot Topic

The Government has predicted big changes in the weather patterns and sea level over the next 100 years, and the draft Climate Smart Strategy outlines what this means for Christchurch and how the Council will understand and respond to these changes.

Why be climate smart?

Its easy to be climate smart every day. By walking, cycling or taking the bus, by recycling and composting, or by saving electricity you help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is important because continuing to emit large amounts of greenhouse gases by using fossil fuels, could lead to future changes in our climate that would make enjoying life in Christchurch much harder.

Christchurch is vulnerable to the physical impacts of climate change, such as sea-level rise, drought, and floods. Our way of life, natural landscapes and our economy, based in agriculture and tourism, are all vulnerable to these changes.

Being Climate Smart means reducing our emissions by saving energy, reducing waste and by being powered with renewable sources of energy such as wind, hydro and solar. Being Climate Smart also means we plan ahead to ensure that our community is resilient to future unavoidable changes to our climate.

The Christchurch City Council has legal responsibilities under the Local Government Act 2002 to consider the wellbeing of current and future generations. It must also consider the impacts of climate change in its activities undertaken through the Resource Management Act 1991. The Councils Climate Smart Strategy is one way to help meet these legal obligations.

Having your say
There are a number of ways you can lodge a
submission on the Draft Climate Smart Strategy.

On the internet
Use the form provided on the Council’s website at
www.ccc.govt.nz/haveyoursay

By email
Email your submission to climatesmart@ccc.govt.nz
and make sure your name and address are
included in your submission.

By post
Mail your submission to us (no stamp required) to:
Freepost 178
Draft Climate Smart Strategy
Tony Moore,
Christchurch City Council,
PO Box 237, Christchurch 8140

The right-on brigade has been unmasked. About time too, says Iain Hollingshead

Every now and again there comes along a scientific study that proves beyond reasonable doubt what you instinctively know to be true: wine is good for you, exercise is dangerous, and self-righteous environmentalists are lying, cheating, thieving degenerates.

I'm exaggerating only a little.

Saturday March 27, 8.30pm
In 2009 hundreds of millions of people around the world showed their support for action on climate change by turning off their lights for one hour.

Earth Hour 2010 will continue to be a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community. A call to stand up, to show leadership and be responsible for our future.

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the, Sydney Harbour Bridge, The CN Tower in Toronto, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

In March 2009, hundreds of millions of people took part in the third Earth Hour. Over 4000 cities in 88 countries officially switched off to pledge their support for the planet, making Earth Hour 2009 the world’s largest global climate change initiative.

Earth Hour 2010 takes place on Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm (local time) and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas will stand in darkness. People across the world from all walks of life will turn off their lights and join together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet. So sign up now and let’s make 2010 the biggest Earth Hour yet!.

It’s Showtime! Show the world what can be done.

The purpose of the event gets lost in the debate about whether or not switching off lights can really save the planet.

The purpose of the event gets lost in the debate about whether or not switching off lights can really save the planet.

This year an anti-Earth Hour group celebrated Edison Hour at the same time, hoping to burn as much electricity as they could to offset the efforts of the dutiful light switcher-offers. Perhaps the lower savings this year showed that a few excessive consumers can have a big impact too. The Edison Hour group wanted to celebrate technology rather than live in the dark ages, but they totally missed the point of Earth Hour too. It’s not about saying technology is bad; it’s about raising awareness of Climate Change.

By its own admission, NASA’s temperature records are in even worse shape than the besmirched Climate-gate data.

E-mail messages obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that NASA concluded that its own climate findings were inferior to those maintained by both the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) — the scandalized source of the leaked Climate-gate e-mails — and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center.

The e-mails from 2007 reveal that when a USA Today reporter asked if NASA’s data “was more accurate” than other climate-change data sets, NASA’s Dr. Reto A. Ruedy replied with an unequivocal no. He said “the National Climatic Data Center’s procedure of only using the best stations is more accurate,” admitting that some of his own procedures led to less accurate readings.

“My recommendation to you is to continue using NCDC’s data for the U.S. means and [East Anglia] data for the global means,” Ruedy told the reporter.

“NASA’s temperature data is worse than the Climate-gate temperature data. According to NASA,” wrote Christopher Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute who uncovered the e-mails. Horner is skeptical of NCDC’s data as well, stating plainly: “Three out of the four temperature data sets stink.”

The Science and Technology Committee today publishes its report on the disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia. The Committee calls for the climate science
community to become more transparent by publishing raw data and detailed methodologies.

“Climate science is a matter of global importance. On the basis of the science, governments across the world will be spending trillions of pounds on climate change mitigation. The quality of the science therefore has to be irreproachable. What this inquiry revealed was that climate scientists need to take steps to make available all the data that support their work and full methodological workings, including their computer codes. Had both been available, many of the problems at CRU could have been avoided.”

The focus on Professor Jones and CRU has been largely misplaced. On the accusations relating to Professor Jones’s refusal to share raw data and computer codes, the Committee considers that his actions were in line with common practice in the climate science community but that those practices need to change.

On the much cited phrases in the leaked e-mails-”trick” and “hiding the decline”-the Committee considers that they were colloquial terms used in private e-mails and the balance of evidence is that they were not part of a
systematic attempt to mislead.

Insofar as the Committee was able to consider accusations of dishonesty against CRU, the Committee considers that there is no case to answer.

The Committee found no reason in this inquiry to challenge the scientific consensus as expressed by Professor Beddington, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, that “global warming is happening [and] that it is induced by human activity”. But this was not an inquiry into the science produced by CRU and it will be for the Scientific Appraisal Panel, announced by the University on 22 March, to determine whether the work of CRU has been soundly built.

paullm (17:07:31) :

Well, it seems that the UK-HOC has bought into the AGW scam hook, line & sinker!!!!! Bad timing – the gig’s up.

The IPCC has hung itself and the UK-HOC seems hellbent on joining them. Talk about a house of cards. This one is built on a fault line that’s already quakin’.

The Arctic ice is ready to hit recent record hi extent, Nino’s over the hump, and the rest is lining up for AGW’s facing the music. The Big’s want to hit the ground hard – got it.

Bulldust (17:07:19) :

Holy whitewash Batman! I am going to invest in paints, because demand in Britain just sky-rocketted!

MP Graham Stringer, widely recognized for insightful questioning of Jones at the Parliamentary Inquiry, voted against acceptance of the Parliamentary Inquiry report, against the inclusion of the Summary and against a number of individual items. In every case, Stringer was opposed by three MPs: Tim Boswell, Evan Harris and Brian Iddon.

66. Critics of CRU have suggested that Professor Jones’s use of the words “hide the decline” is evidence that he was part of a conspiracy to hide evidence that did not fit his view that recent global warming is predominantly caused by human activity. That he has published papers—including a paper in Nature—dealing with this aspect of the science clearly refutes this allegation. In our view, it was shorthand for the practice of discarding data known to be erroneous. We expect that this is a matter the Scientific Appraisal Panel will address.

The April 1st National Snow and Ice Data Center Arctic Sea Ice Extent plot continues its unusual upwards trend and is almost intersecting the “normal” line. Given the slope of the current trend it seems highly likely it will intersect the normal line with the April 2nd plot.

One of the best-kept secrets of British politics – although it is there for all to see on a Government website – is the cost of what is by far the most expensive piece of legislation ever put through Parliament. Every year between now and 2050, according to Ed Miliband's Department for Energy and Climate Change (Decc), the Climate Change Act is to cost us all up to £18.3 billion – £760 for every household in the country – as we reduce our carbon emissions by 80 per cent.

Each 100gm portion of lamb meat grown in New Zealand and consumed in Britain produces the equivalent of 1.9kg of carbon dioxide (CO2), a study concludes.

The AgResearch study shows 80% of those carbon emissions were generated on the farm, which scientists say was "broadly consistent with other international studies of products derived from farmed, ruminant livestock."

Flocks of spring lambs are usually a common sight during Easter week.

However snow and blizzards this Easter had a devastating effect on Northern Ireland's sheep and lambs.

UFO experts are linking the animal mutilations to strange orange lights in the sky. Some of the dead sheep have been found with their brains and eyes removed.

Phil Hoyle, 53, has spent nearly a decade investigating the strange deaths of the animals and said that the UFOs traverse a 50-mile "corridor" between Shrewsbury and Powys.

Prime Minister John Key will today front the first full meeting of a global alliance which is tasked with solving one of the greatest conundrums facing mankind: "How to grow more food to feed the exploding global population - yet emit less greenhouse gases."

Just one example: The International Food Policy Research Institute suggests rice and wheat yields in developing nations could decrease as much as 19 per cent to 34 per cent respectively by 2050 because of climate change. If no solution is found - it will pave the way for starvation in some countries.

Key highlighted the plight of developing countries in his speech and their high levels of climate emissions produced by agriculture. Unusually for a developed country, half of New Zealand's emissions are come from the sector.

Speaking to journalists, Key said the issue of developing countries needing technology to tackle emissions would be discussed during the three days of talks.