Why did Mars dry out? Carbon dioxide loss not a factor, say scientists

Mars from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope

The hunt is now on for the offending ‘missing ingredient’: “Carbon dioxide is a strong greenhouse gas, so it really was the leading candidate to explain the drying out of Mars,” said Kite, an expert on the climates of other worlds. “But these results suggest it’s not so simple.” The article calls this ‘unusual’, but is what it considers usual really so?
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Mars once ran red with rivers, says Phys.org.

The telltale tracks of past rivers, streams and lakes are visible today all over the planet.

But about three billion years ago, they all dried up—and no one knows why.

“People have put forward different ideas, but we’re not sure what caused the climate to change so dramatically,” said University of Chicago geophysical scientist Edwin Kite. “We’d really like to understand, especially because it’s the only planet we definitely know changed from habitable to uninhabitable.”

Weather’s unwanted guest: Nasty La Niña keeps popping up, confounding climate modellers

When observations show modellers ‘the opposite of what their best computer model simulations say should be happening with human-caused climate change’, it’s surely time to revisit their assumptions. Meanwhile, much head-scratching.
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Something weird is up with La Nina, the natural but potent weather event linked to more drought and wildfires in the western United States and more Atlantic hurricanes, says Phys.org.

It’s becoming the nation’s unwanted weather guest and meteorologists said the West’s megadrought won’t go away until La Nina does.

The current double-dip La Nina set a record for strength last month and is forecast to likely be around for a rare but not quite unprecedented third straight winter. And it’s not just this one.

Climate change effect on Peruvian glaciers debated in German court

Bumpy road ahead?[image credit: RWE]

Possibly the longest running climate ‘lawfare’ case ever. Sometimes the duration of a case is itself a large part of the desired effect, whatever the outcome. Lawyers win as usual.
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German judges and experts have arrived at the edge of a melting glacier high up in the Peruvian Andes to examine a complaint made by a local farmer who accuses energy giant RWE of threatening his home by contributing to global warming, says Digital Journal.

The visit by the nine-member delegation to the region is the latest stage in a case the plaintiffs hope will set a new worldwide precedent.

Leading the demand for “climate justice” is 41-year-old Peruvian farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya, who lives in the mountains close to the city of Huaraz.

He has filed suit against the German firm RWE, saying its greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for the melting of nearby glaciers.

Scientists shine new light on role of Earth’s orbit in the fate of ancient ice sheets

A reconstruction of the Anglian ice sheet in Precambrian North London (credit: BBC / The Natural History Museum, London)

They claim this solves the so-called 100,000 year problem described by Wikipedia:
‘The 100,000-year-problem refers to the lack of an obvious explanation for the periodicity of ice ages at roughly 100,000 years for the past million years, but not before, when the dominant periodicity corresponded to 41,000 years. The unexplained transition between the two periodicity regimes is known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, dated to some 800,000 years ago.’ [41,000 years being the approximate obliquity cycle period]
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In a new study published today in the journal Science, the team from Cardiff University has been able to pinpoint exactly how the tilting and wobbling of the Earth as it orbits around the Sun has influenced the melting of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere over the past 2 million years or so.

Scientists have long been aware that the waxing and waning of massive Northern Hemisphere ice sheets results from changes in the geometry of Earth’s orbit around the Sun, says Phys.org.

There are two aspects of the Earth’s geometry that can influence the melting of ice sheets: obliquity and precession.

Active Hurricane Season Expected in the Atlantic Ocean

Image credit: sanibelrealestateguide.com

Unusually, this is the third year in a row under La Niña.
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La Niña conditions and warm ocean temperatures have set the stage for another busy tropical storm year, says Eos.

If forecasts are correct, this season will mark the seventh consecutive above-normal hurricane season for the Atlantic.

NOAA forecasts out today predict a 65% chance of an above-average season, a 25% chance of a normal season, and a 10% chance of a below-normal season. The ranges account for uncertainty in the data and models of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

Energy firms warn against extending windfall tax to renewables

[image credit: beforeitsnews.com]

Renewables making excessive profits linked to booming energy prices? Say it isn’t true!
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Energy firms are warning that an attempt to extend a windfall tax to renewable energy would threaten the government’s entire energy strategy, says BBC News.

Industry sources told the BBC it could destroy investor confidence ahead of key auctions for licences to develop new wind and solar projects.

Shares in firms that could be affected fell sharply on Tuesday, with Centrica down 11% and SSE 9% lower.

An announcement on windfall taxes could come as soon as Thursday.

However, the Treasury said no decisions had yet been made.

West reaping consequences of “demonising oil and gas companies” says Qatari minister

Equating climate obsessions to facts is getting the offending governments into no end of economic trouble, which may well get even worse if current energy policies aren’t revised. They shouldn’t need to be told by visiting politicians that the wind and sun aren’t reliable energy sources.
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Qatar is willing to help the UK with its cost of living crisis, the country’s energy minister has said – but he also criticised western countries who spent years “demonising oil and gas companies”, says Sky News.

In an exclusive interview, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said that years of pushing for a rapid end to fossil fuel production and calling producers the “bad guys” had contributed to the current crisis.

He told Sky News that the root causes of the recent increase in gas and energy prices in Europe and beyond could be traced back many years before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

New measurements from Northern Sweden suggest methane emission hype overrated

Swedish permafrost [image credit: International Permafrost Association]

Another attempted climate scare gets dented. In short, nature takes care of it.
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It is widely understood that thawing permafrost can lead to significant amounts of methane being released, says Phys.org.

However, new research shows that in some areas, this release of methane could be a tenth of the amount predicted from a thaw.

The research was conducted in Sweden by an international group that includes researchers from the University of Copenhagen.

The Sun Is Waking Up — Right On Schedule?

Sunspots [image credit: NASA]

The Sun may still have a surprise or two for solar cycle 25 theorists, but what we hear is: “I believe this will likely be the best forecast to come out of one of the NOAA/NASA Cycle prediction panels.” The article below doesn’t include the question mark in its headline.
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The Sun is waking up, says Sky and Telescope.

In recent weeks, NASA has announced X-class solar flares, observers have seen large sunspot groups with the unaided eye, and online services have issued multiple aurora alerts even for mid-latitudes.

After years of quiescence — the Sun was more often spotless than not in 2018, 2019, and 2020 — the change of pace is exciting solar observers.

Freedom of speech: Stuart Kirk suspended for dropping truth bombs in public.

HSBC has suspended Stuart Kirk, global head of responsible investing at the HSBC’s asset management division following his presentation the Financial Times Moral Money event last Thursday, Stuart Kirk said “throughout my 25-year career in the finance industry, there’s always some nut job telling me about the end of the world”. One of the slides points out: “Unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings are ALWAYS wrong,”

These statements are true, but telling the truth in an age of universal deceipt is a dangerous thing to do.

London bus explosion: Five electric buses go up in a fireball – smoke seen for miles

BYD electric bus, London [image credit: China Daily]

Getting to be a monotonously regular thing. Insurers and fire brigades won’t need telling that. What about the travelling public? Hard to tell from the footage which type of e-bus it was, so may or may not be like the one pictured here.
[Update 1: A BBC report shows pictures of some buses that appear similar to the one pictured and says up to seven may be on fire]
[Update 2: BBC reported six buses caught fire, two electric and four diesel].
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FIVE electric double decker buses have exploded at the Potters Bar Bus Garage near London, reports the Daily Express.

Video footage posted on line shows flames and thick black smoke billowing skywards from the garage in the High Street, as by-standers watch on in horror.

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said six fire engines had been sent to the scene. The fire brigade urged the public to avoid the area and said the emergency could last for a “long time”.

Full report here.

US launches $3.5 billion gamble on ‘carbon removal’ tech

CO2 is not pollution

Carbon removal? Nature does that job. Carbon pollution? Plants and vegetation require carbon dioxide to grow. Investing? They must be joking. Subsidising foolish ideas isn’t much of an investment.
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The US Energy Department launched a program on Thursday to fund four large-scale projects across the country that can remove carbon dioxide from the air, investing $3.5 billion in a nascent technology the Biden administration says is necessary to meet a goal of achieving net zero emissions by mid century, reports msn.com.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report last month that said the world will need “carbon dioxide removal” technologies – ranging from planting trees that soak up carbon to grow, to costly technologies to suck carbon dioxide directly from the air to meet global goals to curb climate change.

“The UN’s latest climate report made clear that removing legacy carbon pollution from the air through direct air capture and safely storing it is an essential weapon in our fight against the climate crisis,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Namibia comes to Europe to sell its sunshine

Credit: worldatlas.com

Namibia is a long way from Europe, but desperate emissions-obsessed governments may not care. Morocco is a lot nearer as one UK energy firm has already noticed.
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As Europe struggles to decarbonise its economy and wean itself off Russian oil and gas, one of the world’s sunniest and most arid nations is pitching itself to the continent as an answer to its problems, says Euractiv.

A delegation from sub-Saharan Africa’s driest country has been touring Europe to tout their nation as a potential powerhouse of clean energy.

They say Namibia can produce so much solar power it will soon be self-sufficient in electricity – and, by the end of the decade, could become an exporter of so-called green hydrogen.

“We came to Europe saying we have this amazing sun,” said James Mnyupe, economic adviser to the Namibian presidency.

CLOUD discovers new way by which aerosols rapidly form and grow at high altitude

Ammonia in the upper troposphere originates from livestock and fertiliser emissions, say the researchers. CERN says “anthropogenic ammonia has a major influence on atmospheric aerosol particles”. Implications for climate models are suggested.
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Aerosol particles can form and grow in Earth’s upper troposphere in an unexpected way, reports the CLOUD collaboration in a paper published today in Nature.

The new mechanism may represent a major source of cloud and ice seed particles in areas of the upper troposphere where ammonia is efficiently transported vertically, such as over the Asian monsoon regions.

Aerosol particles are known to generally cool the climate by reflecting sunlight back into space and by making clouds more reflective. However, how new aerosol particles form in the atmosphere remains relatively poorly known.

Iceland Reykjanes volcano update – Alert level raised to yellow, magma activity near geothermal plant

Volcano alerts come and go, but magma disturbances under a geothermal plant are a bit different. A visit to the Blue Lagoon spa could get exciting…
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The alert level of the Reykjanes volcano in Iceland was just raised from green to yellow, says Strange Sounds.

This change was made in response to the confirmation of a new intrusion of magma on the Reykjanes peninsula.

This new intrusion is centered underneath the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, and is quite likely to result in a new volcanic eruption.

If an eruption were to occur, it would be likely to have an explosive component to it and potentially affect the city of Grindavik.

This video discusses the odds of a new volcanic eruption and how explosive it might be.
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Watchers News reports:
More than 3 000 earthquakes have been detected near Eldvörp in the Reykjanes/Svartsengi volcanic system in the past week. In addition, recent deformation observations identified the onset of a new inflation event west of Thorbjörn which is likely caused by magma intrusion.

Aramco dethrones Apple as the world’s most valuable company

Anti-fossil fuel types should ask themselves who’s doing all the buying and why. Whoever it may be, i.e. most countries, they don’t want to sit around waiting for renewables — which themselves need renewing every 20 years or so — to take over in some imaginary far distant future.
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Saudi Aramco reported a net profit of $39.5 billion for the first quarter of the year on the back of increasingly strong crude oil prices, reports OilPrice.com.

The figure represented an 82-percent annual improvement and a record quarterly profit for Aramco since it went public three years ago.

Media’s Favorite Bogeyman Falsely Blamed For S. Africa’s Tragic Floods

Too much instant attribution of single weather events to supposed human causes going on in today’s media, supported only (if at all) by rushed-out so-called analysis using climate models. Natural variation gets a low mark in this percentages blame game.
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A Google news search for the term “climate change,” over the past few days turns up dozens of stories in corporate media outlets blaming climate change for recent deadly floods in South Africa, says H. Sterling Burnett @ Climate Change Dispatch.

Although many of the stories accurately captured the pathos of the human tragedy resulting from South Africa’s floods, they all mispresented the facts: human-caused climate change did not cause the recent floods. [bold, links added]

History shows that floods regularly occur in South Africa because of its topography and regional ocean circulation patterns.

NOAA study finds reducing particulate air pollution in N America & Europe increases hurricanes in N Atlantic

The theme here is that aerosols have to some extent been having the opposite of the alleged effect of so-called greenhouse gases. This study, based on climate modelling, suggests at least some recent warming is linked to reductions in atmospheric aerosol content.
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A new NOAA study covering four decades of tropical cyclones found that reducing particulate air pollution in Europe and North America has contributed to an increase in the number of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic basin and a decrease in the number of these storms in the Southern Hemisphere, says Green Car Congress.

The open-access study, published in Science Advances, also found that the growth of particulate pollution in Asia has contributed to fewer tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific basin.

While a number of recent studies have examined how increasing greenhouse gas emissions are impacting global tropical cyclone activity, Hiroyuki Murakami examined the less studied and highly complex area of how particulate pollution in combination with climate changes is affecting tropical cyclones in different areas of the planet.

Heat pump costs soar because Britain’s radiators are ‘too small’

Domestic Air Source Heat Pump [image credit: UK Alternative Energy]

The ill-conceived ‘net zero’ emissions plan born of the UK government’s carbon dioxide obsessions takes another hit. Five-figure radiator installation bills will put people off bigtime.
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Homeowners trying to install eco-friendly heat pumps have been left with surprise £30,000 bills after it emerged millions of radiators are too small to work with the new technology, says The Telegraph.

The Government wants 600,000 heat pumps installed every year by 2028, in line with its “net zero” aims, but the majority of homes may need thousands of pounds worth of upgrades to accommodate them.

Heat pumps need larger radiators to achieve the same heat output as gas boilers, which heat water to much higher temperatures.

Some 99pc of British homes do not have radiators large enough to heat a room on the coldest winter’s day, using a low-temperature heat pump, the most common model, according to a Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy study.

“High temperature” heat pumps can help fix this but 90pc of homes would still need better radiators.

Full article here.

Electric vehicles could ‘fix the grid’? Still pushing an optimistic theory

Electric car home charging point [image credit: evcompare.ie]

Looks like yet another visit to cloud cuckoo land for climate alarmists fretting about trace gases in the atmosphere. They’re creating a massive problem with insistence on an EV-only future and now cast around frantically for solutions, as the clock ticks to chaos. Let’s try a food analogy: juggling oranges doesn’t give you more oranges.
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Transportation is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, accounting for about a third of all emissions, says TechXplore.

We could quickly lower those emissions by electrifying vehicles, but there’s just one hitch: we don’t currently generate enough power.

“If all transportation goes electric, we are effectively doubling demand,” said Matthias Preindl, an EV expert at Columbia Engineering. “And the grid isn’t built to withstand that.”