19 December 2016, Climate News Network, Growing tornado impact puzzles scientists. The US seems to be experiencing more and worse tornado outbreaks – groups of twisters in quick succession. But climate change may not be the culprit. Tornado outbreaks – those sudden, multiple whirlwinds that can randomly destroy whole townships or pass by and do little more than ruffle the prairie grass – may be getting more frequent and more powerful in the United States. And nobody can be sure why. Climate change driven by global warming which is in turn the consequence of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion could be a candidate cause. But meteorologists cannot rule out some other potential explanation, such as some natural cycle in climate behaviour involving oceans and atmosphere. But they do know that tornado outbreaks are becoming potentially more destructive. Two years ago, researchers checked the data and found that the tornado “season” in the US was now two weeks earlier than it had been in the early 20th century. In the spring of 2016 a team from Columbia University checked the records since 1954 and found that the number of individual tornadoes during any single episode of tornado outbreaks has been rising for the past six decades. Worse winds And now Michael Tippett, a physicist at Columbia Engineering, has returned to the challenge. He and two colleagues report in the journal Science that not only are the numbers of twisters in each outbreak growing, but the overall severity of the whirlwinds is on the increase. And the fastest increase is in the most extreme range of the phenomenon. Read More here
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16 December 2016, The Conversation, Full response from Craig Kelly. In relation to this FactCheck on electricity prices, Liberal MP Craig Kelly sent the following comments and sources to support his statement: Firstly, RenewEconomy – a pro renewable energy website. They quote prices (in US cents per kilowatt hour) in the USA at 12 cents per kilowatt hour and Australia at 29 cents – so on their numbers it’s actually closer to 2.4 times higher rather than double. These costs are described as “average national electricity prices” which I’d take as both businesses and households. However, I’d note that these figures can bounce around a bit subject to exchange rate fluctuations. Secondly, a report titled Electricity Prices in Australia: An International Comparison by CME (an energy economics consultancy focused on Australian electricity, gas and renewables markets) concludes: “In 2011/12 average household electricity prices in Australia (just under 25 cents/kWh) were 12% higher than average prices in Japan, 33% higher than the EU, 122% higher than the US.” Read More here
16 December 2016, The Conversation, FactCheck: Are Australians paying twice as much for electricity as Americans? Business here and households here, already we’re paying twice the cost of the US for electricity. – Craig Kelly MP, chair of the backbench environment and energy committee, ABC Radio National Breakfast interview, December 6, 2016. (Listen from 7.38). Environment and energy minister Josh Frydenberg recently left open the possibility of some form of carbon trading in the electricity sector. He later ruled out that option, saying he wanted to keep electricity prices down. Following Frydenberg’s initial comments, Liberal MP Craig Kelly said businesses and households in Australia are already paying twice as much as Americans for their electricity. Is that true? Read More here
16 December 2016, Australian Antarctic Magazine › 2016-2020 › Issue 31, Low winter sea-ice coverage bucks trend. Winter sea-ice coverage around Antarctica was noticeably reduced in September this year, with sea ice extent starting its annual retreat early and setting new daily record lows. The result comes two years after winter sea ice extent around Antarctica reached a record high in September 2014, when it exceeded 20 million square kilometres for the first time since satellite measurements began in 1979. This year, Antarctic sea ice began its annual spring retreat roughly four weeks earlier than average, after peaking at 18.5 million square kilometres on 28 August 2016, which was close to the lowest winter maximum on record. Dr Jan Lieser from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) and the Australian Research Council-funded Antarctic Gateway Partnership said it was a surprising finding, given the trend in recent years.“Within the space of just two years we have gone from a record high winter sea-ice extent to record daily lows for this point in the season. This is a great reminder that we are dealing with an extremely variable component of the climate system,” Dr Lieser said. “It’s also a reminder of why it can be unwise to leap to conclusions about the link between Antarctic sea ice and climate change on the basis of one or two years of data. It is the long-term trends that are most important, as well as the regional variability, which is high around Antarctica.” Read More here