Some time ago, my statement that the rapidly warming Arctic was behind the cold weather being experienced in the Northern Hemisphere was rejected by many here. Here is some information which supports that statement:
More cold and snowy winters to come in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America
Please note the statement:
"
Irreversible change
The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet. This is known as Arctic amplification -- a much debated phenomenon at the IPY-OSC, where 2400 polar scientists have gathered to discuss the huge amount of research and new findings which are the direct result of the International Polar Year.
The changes are happening a great deal faster than the scientific community expected. Given the recent reduction of the area of multi-year sea ice and reduced ice thickness, it is unlikely that the Arctic can return to its previous condition.
"The changes are irreversible," says Dr Overland."
Note this was published 15 June 2010. Since then the loss of Arctic Ice Cap volume has accelerated even faster, with Arctic warming and ice melting at 3 times the expected rate.
So again, the Carbon Tax is not going to fix this. It is too little and too late. The Greens need to wake up and understand taxing carbon is not what is needed to ensure Australia can continue to support our life style in a world were Global Warming and Climate Change is now unstoppable.
As soon as the politicians change tack and start to talk about securing sufficient water and food to support the Australian people, the better. This time we can't wait 20 years to find out we waited too long to start doing something to ensure our cities have sufficient water from desal plants and thus we can allocate all our catchment water to growing food. We can handle increasing temperatures and can even handle increasing sea level in say 100 years but we can't handle not having enough water to use domestically, commercially, industrially and to grow food with. Had the La Nina not returned, Oz would be in a very serious situation, water wise, right now. La Nina will leave, El Nino will return and we need to be ready to handle a very dry Oz.
Bob Brown if you are listening, you are going in the wrong direction. It is too late to reduce carbon emissions as soon Methane released from the Arctic will be more powerfull than CO2. While we may be able to stop some CO2, we can't stop the Methane as we can't stop the Arctic warming and the ice cap melting.
Time to think again and to work out how to protect Australia from water and food shortages.