Contoversial Topic #1 - Global Warming & Carbon Emissions Trading

[1965]

WTF 

QCoal's James Mackay developing environmental policy for Newman Government in Queensland

By the National Reporting Team's Mark Solomons and Mark Willacy

The head of corporate affairs for a mining company at the centre of an environmental dispute has been in charge of developing policy on the environment for Queensland's ruling Liberal National Party (LNP) since 2012.

James Mackay also worked full-time for the LNP during the 2012 election, while he was being paid $10,000 a month by the company, QCoal.

QCoal is embroiled in controversy over plans to divert Coral Creek in north Queensland to mine the coal underneath.

[Judge Roughneck]

Hottest May

[mightytiges]

THE Obama administration today plans to make public the first rules limiting carbon emissions from the thousands of power plants.

The pollution controls form the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's campaign to combat climate change and a key element of his legacy.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/markets/president-barack-obama-to-announce-rules-on-limiting-carbon-emissions/story-e6frfm30-1226939857328


I'll wait to see what is actually set-up over the next two years in the States but nevertheless so much for Australia acting alone and other countries doing nothing to limit their CO2 emissions. The world is moving towards global carbon pricing whether our Government wants to believe it or not. 

[Judge Roughneck]

http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2258.html

ARTICLE PREVIEW
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NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE |
Heavier summer downpours with climate change revealed by weather forecast resolution model


The intensification of precipitation extremes with climate change1 is of key importance to society as a result of the large impact through flooding. Observations show that heavy rainfall is increasing on daily timescales in many regions2, but how changes will manifest themselves on sub-daily timescales remains highly uncertain. Here we perform the first climate change experiments with a very high resolution (1.5 km grid spacing) model more typically used for weather forecasting, in this instance for a region of the UK. The model simulates realistic hourly rainfall characteristics, including extremes3, 4, unlike coarser resolution climate models5, 6, giving us confidence in its ability to project future changes at this timescale. We find the 1.5 km model shows increases in hourly rainfall intensities in winter, consistent with projections from a coarser 12 km resolution model and previous studies at the daily timescale7. However, the 1.5 km model also shows a future intensification of short-duration rain in summer, with significantly more events exceeding the high thresholds indicative of serious flash flooding. We conclude that accurate representation of the local storm dynamics is an essential requirement for predicting changes to convective extremes; when included we find for the model here that summer downpours intensify with warming.

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[dwaino]

THE Obama administration today plans to make public the first rules limiting carbon emissions from the thousands of power plants.

The pollution controls form the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's campaign to combat climate change and a key element of his legacy.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/markets/president-barack-obama-to-announce-rules-on-limiting-carbon-emissions/story-e6frfm30-1226939857328


I'll wait to see what is actually set-up over the next two years in the States but nevertheless so much for Australia acting alone and other countries doing nothing to limit their CO2 emissions. The world is moving towards global carbon pricing whether our Government wants to believe it or not.

Carbon will be worth more than gold. I don't agree with pricing it but as long as the money is put towards the research and development of renewable energy then I'm all for it.

[tiga]

THE Obama administration today plans to make public the first rules limiting carbon emissions from the thousands of power plants.

The pollution controls form the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's campaign to combat climate change and a key element of his legacy.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/markets/president-barack-obama-to-announce-rules-on-limiting-carbon-emissions/story-e6frfm30-1226939857328


I'll wait to see what is actually set-up over the next two years in the States but nevertheless so much for Australia acting alone and other countries doing nothing to limit their CO2 emissions. The world is moving towards global carbon pricing whether our Government wants to believe it or not.

Carbon will be worth more than gold. I don't agree with pricing it but as long as the money is put towards the research and development of renewable energy then I'm all for it.

Says a man who doesn't go outside because the graphics suck. 

[dwaino]

  Too many noobs IRL too.

But seriously, carbon tax and ETS is fine as a way to raise revenue for development of clean and renewable energy, otherwise it's just something else for the filthy rich to exploit.

[Diocletian]

Real conservationists understand that addressing overpopulation is the only real solution - unless we do that, everything else is just useless feelgood crap and kicking shyte up a hill.

[1965]

Real conservationists understand that addressing overpopulation is the only real solution - unless we do that, everything else is just useless feelgood crap and kicking shyte up a hill.

I like this idea.

Are we talking WW3 or The Black Death?

 

[Judge Roughneck]

''In contrast to the fabulously rich, the enormously poor make little useful contribution to society,'' wrote Mr Ralph, a long-time Liberal Party campaign strategist.

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''They consume more than they contribute, putting tremendous strain on the national budget.

''A modest cull would strike at the root of our fiscal dilemma. If the least productive 20 per cent of citizens were decommissioned it would directly release a recurrent $25 billion, which would almost cover overspending by the Gillard government between now and September 14th, assuming Mr Swan maintains his long-term average rate of profligacy.Kill the world a poorest 20%

[dwaino]

Real conservationists understand that addressing overpopulation is the only real solution - unless we do that, everything else is just useless feelgood crap and kicking shyte up a hill.

This actually is the issue. Forests have always been the Earth's natural CO2 scrubbers and carbon levels rock from around 200ppm (most trees suffocate around 50ppm) to around 2000ppm. Currently around 800ppm. Over population has lead to massive deforestation, and the demand for resources is releasing even more greenhouse gas that was trapped under the Earth.

If things get too drastic we could always just pump sulfate aerosol into the atmosohere for a decade. Otherwise we can just wait until a combination of anti-biotic resistant super bugs and the come back of nasty viruses due to paranoid, new age anti-vaxxers to make a come back and serve mankind a well deserved and overdue culling.

[mightytiges]

THE Obama administration today plans to make public the first rules limiting carbon emissions from the thousands of power plants.

The pollution controls form the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's campaign to combat climate change and a key element of his legacy.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/markets/president-barack-obama-to-announce-rules-on-limiting-carbon-emissions/story-e6frfm30-1226939857328


I'll wait to see what is actually set-up over the next two years in the States but nevertheless so much for Australia acting alone and other countries doing nothing to limit their CO2 emissions. The world is moving towards global carbon pricing whether our Government wants to believe it or not.

Carbon will be worth more than gold. I don't agree with pricing it but as long as the money is put towards the research and development of renewable energy then I'm all for it.

The value of a market price (as opposed to a fixed carbon price) will obviously depend on supply and demand depend on how industry and society moves to a less carbon intensive economy. The ETS will be a cap and trade system meaning there'll be a cap on the amount of collective CO2 produced (which will be lowered over time to bring down total emissions) and emitters will be required to buy/trade for permits to emit. If we reduce emissions faster than the cap then there will be a over-supply of permits and the cost of them will stay low; on the other hand if emitters struggle to collectively meet the cap then the cost of permits will rise and eventually it'll be cheaper to invest in and switch to alternative renewable energies rather than trade to buy more permits.

[dwaino]

I know that's how they're meant to work, but without just sounding cynical I can see ETS permits being exploited since they can be traded. There will only ever be a set amount of permits due to the cap so if someone buys up more than they need they can then on sell them for a cost that they choose. I can't speak for the USA but if Australia were serious we would go nuclear in the mean time for major cities, with solar and wind/hydro in other regions, while the countries serious about investing in clean and renewable energy come up with the solution. There are still way too many people, including the government, getting rich from fossil fuels.

[Penelope]

Real conservationists understand that addressing overpopulation is the only real solution - unless we do that, everything else is just useless feelgood crap and kicking shyte up a hill.

This is true, but.......

The back bone of capitalist economies is growth. For economic growth, you need population growth.

Even China realises this, which is why they have just changed their one child policy.

[Judge Roughneck]

Can you explain how this is the case?

I understand capitalism was written pre industrialrrevolution. But this still seems bizarre