World Temperature Trends

Is the world's average temperature warming? Yes, it is.
Here is a chart I have made with the R programme from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies data.

The data is the Combined Land-Surface Air and Sea-Surface Water Temperature Anomalies (Land-Ocean Temperature Index, LOTI), Global-mean monthly, seasonal, and annual means, 1880-present

The chart is a line plot of differences in annual land-ocean average temperature from the average for the base period 1951-1980 global mean temperature index, 1880 to present. The dotted blue line is the annual mean and the solid red line is the five-year mean, calculated with a Lowess function.

Powered by coal

Here's a CBS 60 minutes documentary featuring James Hansen and the CEO of Duke Energy, the USA's third largest coal thermal power plant owner. The CEO says he totally accepts that carbon dioxide contributes to global warming. However, his plan is to phase out coal over 40 years. CBS cut to Hansen who of course says "No new coal fired power plants and a phase out must take place in 20 years or less". CBS goes back to the CEO and ask him how much Duke has invested in carbon capture and sequestration. The answer is not a cent!

The Carbon Forest: Book launch

The Carbon Forest: Book launch is given some coverage in the New Zealand Wood Watch Blog!

There was also a mention on Intersect website complete with a very serious picture of Tom Bennion.

Jan Wright says leave the lignite

Dr Jan Wright, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has channeled her inner James Hansen into her latest report Lignite and Climate Change: The high cost of low grade coal.

She concludes that the lignite plans of NZ's state-owned coal miner, Solid Energy, will just exacerbate the gap between NZ's actual greenhouse gas emissions and our policy goals. She recommends that the Government (as shareholder) should instruct Solid Energy to withdraw their plans to develop the Southland lignite deposits.

Here she is on Youtube

New Zealands GHG emissions

Here is a line chart of New Zealand's emissions of greenhouse gases from 1990 to 2008. It can be found on the Wikimedia Commons webpage. I made it.

James Hansen on cap and trade with offsets

James Hansen has an opinion piece in the Guardian.

Hansen asks:

Am I an activist for caring about my grandchildren's future? I guess I am.

Hansen gets to the point.
Stabilising climate requires restoring our planet's energy balance. The physics is straightforward. The effect of increasing carbon dioxide on Earth's energy imbalance is confirmed by precise measurements of ocean heat gain. The principal implication is defined by the geophysics, by the size of fossil fuel reservoirs. Simply put, there is a limit on how much carbon dioxide we can pour into the atmosphere. We cannot burn all fossil fuels. Specifically, we must (1) phase out coal use rapidly, (2) leave tar sands in the ground, and (3) not go after the last drops of oil.

Hansen favours a carbon 'tax and dividend'.
A carbon fee is the only realistic path to global action. China and India will not accept caps, but they need a carbon fee to spur clean energy and avoid fossil fuel addiction.

Hansen has no time for emissions trading.
Governments today, instead, talk of "cap-and-trade with offsets", a system rigged by big banks and fossil fuel interests. Cap-and-trade invites corruption. Worse, it is ineffectual, assuring continued fossil fuel addiction to the last drop and environmental catastrophe.

Recapping the cap-less cap and trade scheme

Lets recap the post of the other day about how the NZ ETS has no cap.

'Cap and Trade' emissions trading schemes have fixed volume caps on emissions, according to the economics literature (such as Jaffe, Ranson and Stavins (2009), Tietenberg (2003) and Stavins (2001)).

The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme has no cap or limit on the amount of international carbon credits that can be imported by emitters.

The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme has no cap or limit on the amount of NZ Units that will be allocated to emitters.

Conclusion.

The NZ ETS has no Cap. It is not a cap and trade scheme. It will not reduce NZ's emissions of greenhouse gases.