Opinion

Warming winters

The last thing I want to do, truly, is goad the climate change beast that seems to occupy the space reserved for adamance in most people's heads. The global warming beast has been napping for a few months, perhaps sent to sleep by a winter that has seemed colder than usual. But is this winter colder than those of recent years? I went to the Bureau of Meteorology's climate data and found that the minimum temperature for the June I've just shivered through is indeed lower than that of the previous two years.

But then I noticed an interesting contrast. The average, or mean, minimum temperature at Nobbys in Newcastle of the June we've just had is 10.5 degrees, higher than the site's reported June minimum average of the previous 148 years at Nobbys, 9.7 degrees. But as I looked quickly over the June averages of the recent 20 years the 9.7 seemed an odd figure - it was obvious that most of the June minimum averages over the past 20 years had three figures and were thus over 10.0 degrees. In fact, 13 of those 20 averages had triple figures.

Hmm. So I went to the first 20 years of temperatures at Nobbys, from 1862 to 1883, and it was immediately obvious that triple figures for the June averages were scarce. Just three, as opposed to the most recent 20 years' 13.

Fifteen of this first 20 years of June averages were below the 148-year June minimum average of 9.7 degrees, but in the most recent 20 years only five have been lower than 9.7 degrees.

There's much more that can be drawn from these freely available figures, and of course the temperatures are available for all months. Go to bom.gov.au/climate/data, click for temperature, monthly and Newcastle Nobbys, or wherever you wish, and tell us what you see. Is our climate changing or do you still see it as a CIA conspiracy to destroy the Arab oil cartel?

Posted By: Jeff Corbett on 26/07/2010 5:00:00 AM | Comments (49)

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Yes the climate is changing , I remember in my youth it was always sunny , seriously though , we get cold winters and we get warmer ones but in the great scheme of things there is no exact science - I believe climate change is the current version of the Y2K bug , only it's going to keep the gravy train passengers happy for a lot longer.

Posted by smithy, 26/07/2010 7:18:26 AM, on The Herald

Mmmmmmm, had a look, like all gov't websites it wasn't that easy to get around but then maybe Dubbo didn't care about the weather way back when,,,,,,,, I'l take your word for Nobby's. What I have noticed is how quickly people stopped caring about the climate debate when our 10 or so years of drought gave up the ghost, city resevoirs started filling up and suddenly we could wash our cars again without fear of being chastised. Even the pollies are not getting anywhere with it - Funny things us human beings.

Posted by Bush Bunny, 26/07/2010 8:31:59 AM, on The Herald

anyone that thinks this planet is big enough for us humans to be able to just keep creating and pumping out pollution into our environment without it having an impact is daft. there is a problem and its going to get worse. the oil slick off america is clearly visible from space. the chernobyl fallout spread across a number of countries. this planet is not really that big.... we have over populated it with homo sapiens who think they are clever. unfortunately it appears that we aren't as smart as we like to think we are.

Posted by judgedredd, 26/07/2010 9:00:35 AM, on The Herald

By the way, if anyone out there could easily explain the ETS and the Carbon trading thing to me in a just a few simple lines I would be grateful. Next thing it will be oxygen when they wake up how badly we need it - How come someone can actually have an ownership to these things and then PROFIT from it??

Posted by Bush Bunny, 26/07/2010 10:22:33 AM, on The Herald

Although temperatures are important. From what I understand it is the sea temperature that is more important and has a greater impact on our lives. And sea temperatures are rising. It is affecting the food chain dramatically, currents are affected, sea ice is affected, sea levels are affected. So I'm pretty sure if you research sea temperatures around the globe you will see a rise.

Posted by leahkf, 26/07/2010 10:32:28 AM, on The Herald

Globalwarmthink is just the latest hysterical flag run up the pole by the loopy left. Of course the climate is changing - always has, always will. How warmer weather that will turn tundra into wheat fields is a BAD thing isn't entirely clear though. Canadians, Greenlanders, Russians, etc will be laughing if the globe really does warm. As for sea levels - they aren't rising. Aren't going to by any meaningful amount - you just watch. Even the minister assisting the minister on Globalwarmthink - Greg Combet - bought a beachfront house when he moved to Newcastle to represent the unwashed out in Cardiff. He can't be too concerned about sea level rises. As for the supposedly "unsustainable" population growth - yes, it will eventually reach a point where the planet is incapable of supporting the population. That may be at 10 billion, or 20 billion, or 100 billion human beings - I don't know - but the best thing to do is get as many offworld as soon as we can to alleviate population pressure, and get some of our eggs out of this very small and fragile basket called "Earth".

Posted by Scott Hillard, 26/07/2010 10:35:49 AM, on The Herald

One of the more amusing aspects of the climate debate are the people who expend all their energy debating whether global warming is man-made or not. Seems to me its their way of ignoring the elephant in the room while they argue the semantics of it's droppings.

Posted by Nowonmai, 26/07/2010 10:39:51 AM, on The Herald

look at it this way..if the planet was dying and needed to be 2 degrees warmer to survive do you think humans would be capable of achieving this ? not a chance, no way ,no how.. go roll some whales back into the water to get your warm and fuzzies. if you lot are serious go and pull your house down and plant the original flora and fauna there you dribblers. respectfully judgedred this planet is huge ,if you take evry human being alive right now and put them in a box it would only be 700m x 700m x 700m not a lot of space we are taking up .

Posted by catl, 26/07/2010 10:56:46 AM, on The Herald

There is no doubt that the climate is changing, and our political response to that fact is poor. Read Tony Kevin's book, 'Crunch Time', for a good, current synopsis of the science and the political landscape. [Anyone that reads my posts on this blog knows that I'm a bit of a right winger and a skeptic - I don't endorse things like this lightly]. We need to collectively turn our minds to this issue now - in 2010 - and be prepared to dramatically change the way we live.

Posted by Abundance, 26/07/2010 11:02:50 AM, on The Herald

Global warming? Global cooling? Scientists reckon this has been happening all the time for thousands of years. Now the powers to be want to tax air or pay for pollution. Who is going to be taxed for volcano eruptions. Who is responsible for these polluting monsters (volcano's).Our friend Scott is off in his space ship again and there may be a new cadet .... judgedredd. As for politics ie loony left and the "right wing" the wife and I slept through the "ungreat" debate last night. TRUE

Posted by old boy, 26/07/2010 11:33:40 AM, on The Herald

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