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Climate activists disrupt British cities with 'summer uprising'


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Climate activists disrupt British cities with 'summer uprising'

 

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Extinction Rebellion climate activists raise a mast on their boat during a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Britain July 15, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Environmental activists sought to sow chaos in five British cities on Monday in a bid to force the government to act to help avert what they cast as a climate cataclysm.

 

The Extinction Rebellion group disrupted London with 11 days of protests in April that it cast as the biggest act of civil disobedience in recent British history. Iconic locations were blocked, the Shell building defaced, trains stopped and Goldman Sachs targeted.

 

“This emergency mobilization of ordinary citizens, driven to action by the threat of climate breakdown and ecological collapse, will demand the government take immediate action to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gases to net zero by 2025,” the group said.

 

It said it was holding protests in Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds and London. In each city, a large boat with the words “ACT NOW!” will be unveiled.

 

Bristol said it had closed Bristol Bridge due to the protests and South Wales Police said roads in Cardiff city center were blocked. Outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, activists parked a blue boat and sat on the road doing yoga.

 

“Through a host of non-violent protests, communities around the UK will be coming together to stage a series of creative acts of civil-disobedience – blocking specific locations, bridges and roads – while also holding talks, workshops, trainings, family friendly activities, peoples’ assemblies and more,” Extinction Rebellion said.

 

Extinction Rebellion wants non-violent civil disobedience to force governments to cut carbon emissions and avert a climate crisis it says will bring starvation and social collapse.

 

It is a revolt against the extinction of species including, the group says, our own.

 

With largely peaceful stunts - such as blocking some of London’s most iconic locations, smashing a door at the Shell building and shocking lawmakers with a semi-nude protest in parliament - the group has garnered massive publicity.

 

The group is demanding the government declare a climate and ecological emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and create a citizen’s assembly of members of the public to lead on decisions to address climate change.

 

Last month, the government announced it would enshrine into a law a commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050. In 2017, total United Kingdom greenhouse gas emissions were 43 percent lower than in 1990 and 2.6 percent lower than 2016, according to government statistics.

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-07-15
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43 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

The thing is, solutions are already at hand. Coal is already not cost competitive with renewables. In fact, just the cost of continuing to run an already existing coal plant is greater than building a new solar or wind power plant. Renewables are now competitive with natural gas. And the costs of reneweables keep dropping. The era of fossil fuels is coming to an end. The harder goverments push, the faster it will happen.

 

if there is any aspect to Climate that we all need to know about, it is that there are positive as well as negative 'forcings' as a result of what we do.... plus... what happens 'naturally' (as if shale gas and CH4 were "Man Made").  Coal burning in particular has positive as well as major negative forcings, and the worst thing would be.... that the science folks have been underestimating the aerosol and PM effect.  positive forcing means more thermal effect and negative means "cooling".  

 

Science 
Feb 8, 2019
Aerosol-driven droplet concentrations dominate coverage and water of oceanic low-level clouds
Daniel Rosenfeld et. al.

 

N.B. February 2019.

meaning it will take a few years to enter general discussion.  

 

we underestimated it.  the IPCC forcings chart is wrong.  any significant change in aerosol and PM means

we need to manage it (SRM) or we have months at best this is kicked up a notch.

 

i.e. we stop or seriously decrease burning coal.  but not 'flying' in airplanes..... that's mostly all positive and we love to ignore than only a few hundred million of us 'fly'........ so far.

 

for those of us who live in Thailand, the following even more recent publication, May 2019.

 

Nature Geoscience
May 6, 2019
Higher frequency of Central Pacific El Niño events in recent decades relative to past centuries
Mandy B. Freund et. al.

 

although not about coal, might say between the lines that the smoke in Chiangmai in recent years and drought of the 1997 ENSO and 2015-2016 Los Ninos are the new normal.  this year we have some rain and it has not been very hot.  next year we could switch from a neutral/baby El Nino to something more like 2015-2016 or....

     

so.... the 2015 Hansen study on 'Superstorms', and the horrific PNAS 'Trajectories' report about 2 years ago were the heavy lifts for us to read.  for those of us who were at all surprised that at COP21 we did something more than just talk about 'ice melting'  and 'dirty fossil fuels' etc etc.

these two babies published in 2019, so far, are 'must reading' if you are younger than say 80 or 90 years old... and are either very unhealthy or have a bore hole well as well as solar power at your 'bahn'.  otherwise, especially in an urban area..... well, maybe you should not read about this topic anymore.         

 

 

 

        

Edited by WeekendRaider
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12 hours ago, bristolboy said:

Nonsense. 

New data confirm increased frequency of extreme weather events

Globally, according to the new data, the number of floods and other hydrological events have quadrupled since 1980 and have doubled since 2004, highlighting the urgency of adaptation to climate change. Climatological events, such as extreme temperatures, droughts, and forest fires, have more than doubled since 1980. Meteorological events, such as storms, have doubled since 1980.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180321130859.htm

Excellent point for discussion, Bristolboy. We're currently in a warming phase and it's to be expected that heat waves will increase, especially considering the effect of the Urban Heat Island. One would also expect precipitation to increase as a result of more evaporation due to the warming, whater the causes of the warming..

 

However, as I've mentioned many times, the IPCC report in Working Group 1, the physical sciences, which was published in 2013, (AR5), expressed low confidence, due to a lack of evidence, that extreme weather events had been increasing during the previous 50 years, on a global scale.

 

I can understand that more recent data could show that there has been a global increase in floods, droughts and cyclones during the 21st century, but how do they get the data to make a claim of a quadrupling of floods since 1980? Perhaps 1980 was an unusually low point for floods, globally. Something sounds a bit fishy here, or perhaps this is just the usual ploy to create alarm, ie. always choose the lowest point in the past records to demonstrate a current increase, whether the increase is temperature or floods or hurricanes, and so on.

 

It'll be interesting to see what the latest IPCC Working Group 1 report has to say about this new data. It's still a work in progress, but 'special' reports are occasionally released.

 

According to the following article:  
https://www.thegwpf.com/ipcc-report-extreme-weather-events-not-getting-worse/

 

“The IPCC once again reports that there is little basis for claiming that drought, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes have increased, globally.
Much like the IPCC’s 2013 climate assessment, the new special report confirmed what Pielke and others have said for years about the relationship between global warming and extreme weather."

 

I suspect this new data from the European National Science Academies you've linked to, relates mainly to extreme weather events in Europe. On a global level the data is probably not sound. 

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Thailand's economy is extremely vulnerable to climate change. The impact this is having is already obvious.

 

The agricultural sector is being battered year after year with more and more extreme weather events (extended droughts, flooding, insect infestations, shorter growing  seasons, depleted ground water, water shortages).

 

The more arid, dustier, and hotter climate, is making Thailand a less desirable vacation or retirement destination. Both of these economic pressures have the potential to increase social problems such as poverty, unemployment, and crime. Everyone living in Thailand should be concerned about climate change and doing everything they can to mitigate it.

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12 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

I see that Vincent has done a more comprehensive post than mine and bow to his research.

Thanks. I'm particularly interested in the issue of extreme weather events because I've experienced a few of them in Australia, particularly floods and droughts.

 

I've found that the initial media reports usually get it wrong when they report an extreme weather event as the worst on record, or a 'once in a hundred years' event. I find that he event is quite often only the 5th or 6th or 7th worst on record, when I search the BOM records.

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41 minutes ago, VincentRJ said:

Excellent point for discussion, Bristolboy. We're currently in a warming phase and it's to be expected that heat waves will increase, especially considering the effect of the Urban Heat Island. One would also expect precipitation to increase as a result of more evaporation due to the warming, whater the causes of the warming..

 

However, as I've mentioned many times, the IPCC report in Working Group 1, the physical sciences, which was published in 2013, (AR5), expressed low confidence, due to a lack of evidence, that extreme weather events had been increasing during the previous 50 years, on a global scale.

 

I can understand that more recent data could show that there has been a global increase in floods, droughts and cyclones during the 21st century, but how do they get the data to make a claim of a quadrupling of floods since 1980? Perhaps 1980 was an unusually low point for floods, globally. Something sounds a bit fishy here, or perhaps this is just the usual ploy to create alarm, ie. always choose the lowest point in the past records to demonstrate a current increase, whether the increase is temperature or floods or hurricanes, and so on.

 

It'll be interesting to see what the latest IPCC Working Group 1 report has to say about this new data. It's still a work in progress, but 'special' reports are occasionally released.

 

According to the following article:  
https://www.thegwpf.com/ipcc-report-extreme-weather-events-not-getting-worse/

 

“The IPCC once again reports that there is little basis for claiming that drought, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes have increased, globally.
Much like the IPCC’s 2013 climate assessment, the new special report confirmed what Pielke and others have said for years about the relationship between global warming and extreme weather."

 

I suspect this new data from the European National Science Academies you've linked to, relates mainly to extreme weather events in Europe. On a global level the data is probably not sound. 

I think you should also take into consideration that any data and conclusions released by the IPCC, and possibly 'influenced' by governments not to overly rock the boat, may be couched in terms so as not to spread pandemonium amongst the masses and/or cause major disruptions like these protest marches.

 

For example, medical science is very wary of disclosing that alcohol consumption can be a health benefit and not the worst evil to have befallen mankind. I'll leave you to make your own conclusions as to why not - suffice to say there are financial interests in play.

 

IMO as an amateur observer, clearly climate change is taking place - see pictures of Arctic ice floes melting. Whether that's the effect of human involvement or a natural planetary progression has not yet been established beyond doubt. However, I would suggest a prudent approach would be to continue to cut carbon emissions - possible on a shorter timescale than now.    

 

 

 

Edited by stephenterry
correction
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1 hour ago, bristolboy said:

The thing is, solutions are already at hand. Coal is already not cost competitive with renewables. In fact, just the cost of continuing to run an already existing coal plant is greater than building a new solar or wind power plant. Renewables are now competitive with natural gas. And the costs of reneweables keep dropping. The era of fossil fuels is coming to an end. The harder goverments push, the faster it will happen.

 

And you are convinced (no, certain) are you that the "era of fossil fuels" will, as the eco-terrorists demand, be all over by 2025???!!!!5555555

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6 minutes ago, blazes said:

 

And you are convinced (no, certain) are you that the "era of fossil fuels" will, as the eco-terrorists demand, be all over by 2025???!!!!5555555

And did I write that anywhere? Anywhere at all? But I do see you're laughing at your own lie. So maybe you really didn't mean it?

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2 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

And did I write that anywhere? Anywhere at all? But I do see you're laughing at your own lie. So maybe you really didn't mean it?

And did I write that you did???  I know that in your unseemly rush to impose your voice upon the rest of us it  is quite possible that you fail to read what is actually there!

 

What I actually wrote was:  And you are convinced (no, certain) are you that the "era of fossil fuels" will, as the eco-terrorists demand, be all over by 2025???!!!!5555555

 

"As the eco-terrorists demand"?????

As you can now see (perhaps) I did not actually say that YOU were demanding or predicting the year 2025!!  I merely asked whether you were "convinced" or even "certain" that the roof will fall in in 6 years' time.

 

Nonsense???

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