Forget coral reefs and polar bears – they are so yesterday’s climate scare stories. The real big one, the tipping point du jour, is the collapse of the West Antarctica ice shelf and the prospect of global flooding on a biblical scale last reported in the times of Noah. It’s in rapid retreat says every scaremonger from Sir David Attenborough to the BBC’s resident green activist Justin Rowlatt. It is in retreat – a natural process as the Earth slowly moves out of an ice age. But now, new scientific work has found the process at the huge Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica – nicknamed the ‘Doomsday Glacier‘ for the supposed approaching catastrophe of its swift demise – is much slower than in the recent past.
The Thwaites Glacier has long been of interest. It is the second largest ice stream in West Antarctica and occupies an area the size of Florida. A group of oceanographers, led by Dr. Alastair Graham of the University of South Florida, has mapped part of the floor once occupied by the glacier, and discovered it was retreating at twice the rate in the past than that now indicated by the satellite measurements made between 2011-2019. The earlier rate of retreat was said to be “exceptionally fast”. Work is in progress to establish when that fast retreat occurred, but it is almost certain it pre-dates the 1950s, could be about 180 years old, and possibly dates back several centuries. What is completely clear, however, given the timing, is that human-caused climate change was not a factor in the faster retreat.
The results were obtained by using autonomous submersibles to map an area of the sea floor where markings were discovered representing the retreating glacier. Mapping 13 square kilometres, the researchers found a series of ridges caused by the moving glacier hitting the sea floor as it rose and fell with the tides. It was found that during the daily tidal cycle, the glacier retreated around 6-7 metres a day, although sometimes reaching 10m. Over about five months of data, the glacier retreated 2.1 kms a year, twice the current rate measured by the satellites.
The ridges were discovered on a ‘bump’ in the sea floor that had helped pin the glacier. It was found that over a 5.5 month period, the average spacing of the ridges increased upstream from 5.8m to 6.3m. This 8% increase accelerated the annual retreat rate from 2.13km to 2.3km. The results are said to indicate that the movement across the area to the present day position was “probably rapid”. The scientists note: “Our results indicate that the rate of retreat from the bump was double the average estimated for the period 1996-2009, and about three times faster than a location immediately inland of the bump between 2011 and 2017.”
Two years ago, another group led by glaciologist Professor Julian Dowdeswell of Cambridge University measured similar tidal wedges under the Larsen continental shelf in the western Weddell Sea. Grounding line retreat rates of 40-50m a day were discovered, equivalent to 10kms a year. The scientists concluded that this retreat occurred 14,000 years ago and was 100 times faster than the rate over the past 10,000 years.
This is all fascinating scientific work that gives us more information about the natural processes that shape the Earth. But it will be largely ignored in the mainstream if such findings are seen to cast doubt on the ‘settled’ science of human-caused global warming. In March 2020, the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt took a camera crew to the middle of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, an area he called the “front line of climate change”. The equilibrium that had held our world in balance for tens of thousands of years was beginning to slip and crash, he claimed. The “epic forces” at work were like a “scream of anguish”, he continued. “The glacier is being torn and shattered.” The acceleration in melting that affected the entire West Antarctica ice sheet was, “needless to say”, the result of the global warming gases our lifestyles produced. The emotional tosh continued: “A colleague interviews me for a programme we are making and I burst into tears. It takes me days to process my emotions.”
Humans may have a part to play in a climate that has always changed. Considering the massive forces at work in the natural world, many only partly understood, it is probably minor or even insignificant. But the move to declare the science around the subject ‘settled’ is harming our efforts to better understand the natural forces that shape the planet. It is certainly harming our ability to have a reasoned conversation about it. Vast sums of money are being diverted into a command-and-control Net Zero political agenda designed to radically alter the lifestyles and economic prospects of every single human on the planet. Only science that supports this political narrative gets a hearing in the mainstream media, and when politics is involved, emotion is never far from the controlling message.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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More on the disgraceful situation of Germany funding NGOs to hoover up migrants on ships and dump them on Italy but refusing to then take any in once they’re in Italy;
”NGOs resort to disturbing tactics: advising migrants to conceal poverty as a reason for asylum and coaching false claims of origin, all while enjoying substantial funding, primarily from Germany and France.
In a shocking revelation, Germany’s role in the European migrant crisis has taken an unexpected twist. While well-known for supporting “anti-fascist” groups (Antifa), it has now come to light that the German government is also providing significant financial backing to left-wing organizations, purportedly non-governmental (NGOs), conducting migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean waters. What compounds this situation is Germany’s unequivocal refusal to accept any of the illegal immigrants who reach Italy, effectively distancing itself from the very crisis it finances. This unsettling revelation has stirred tensions between the Italian and German governments, resulting in a bitter exchange of accusations involving deliberate foreign invasion, population replacement, and diplomatic rifts.
The intent behind bringing a large number of migrants from third-world countries into the West does not serve the interests of either the migrants or Europeans. Migrants are frequently left in squalid tent camps for years, and in a significant majority of cases in Europe, acts of terrorism and violent crimes are committed by migrants.
As previously reported by RAIR, video evidence reveals a connection between NGO migrant ferries and illegal human traffickers. These human traffickers even promote their illegal services on left-wing Facebook platforms.”
https://rairfoundation.com/invasion-of-italy-exposed-left-wing-ngos-population-replacement-attack-is-funded-by-germany-and-france-video/
Reading Koonins book, during lockdowns, at least CO2 emmisssions in the UK were reduced. Reduced by a grand total of 8.5%. 8.5%. We closed pubs, and stopped people driving around. The streets were empty of cars, and you couldn’t go on holiday. OK it didn’t last all year, but if we had locked down all year, we wouldn’t have recued emissions by more than 50% at the best. Makes you wonder what would happen if we did go to 0. Major depression? People starving and freezing to death? In addition, we have people in authority who have mucked up HS2- what do you think is going to happen to our energy system? Another engineering system that is being mishandled, and one that is rather important.
By no more than 50% is what I meant. I shouyld read what I type.
“shouyld”
“Britain’s businesses are battling to make their “entitled” ‘Generation Covid’ employees return to the office”
Yawn. When will these idiots stop with this nonsense? Instead of making them return to the office, try making them do some work. I’ve been working in an office, for other people in offices, for nearly 40 years and in my experience “being the office” and “doing useful work” are not at all the same thing. Some of my most productive team members are “generation Z” age young men and women, and some of the least productive are old farts like me who travel to the office because they are lonely and spend half the day chatting instead of working.
I’ve no issue with the idea of going to the office for social purposes, and if people need that for their sanity, that’s great. But don’t confuse being in the office with useful work – instead try finding ways to measure what people actually do, and incentivize them to do more of it.
Thank you.
“Being in the office” is hardly humanity’s highest calling and it’s not a requirement for progress.
It’s just that, sadly, most people seem to need a “manager” breathing down their neck. And many managers get a kick out of it. The modern “workplace”, in my experience, is anything but a place of work.
Plainly, a state of being unruled and making your own decisions (anarchy) is not for everyone.
Yes, all good points.
We manage to employ and motivate people who can work independently (i.e. adults) but perhaps other firms find it harder. We should ask more of our workers and of ourselves.
Also worth making the point that you can breathe down someone’s neck without being in the same room as they are. Find ways to measure productivity not mere presence – reward it and punish slackness.
Downtickers pay your £5 or jog on.
Very true. There is an old “Dilbert” cartoon on the dilemma of working from home; “Do you do 8 hours work, or the 3 hours productive work you would have done had you gone into the office?”
That being said, many people need to be in an office to be productive and to learn how to be productive.
“many people need to be in an office to be productive and to learn how to be productive”
Well I don’t know about that. My experience has been that productive people are productive everywhere/anywhere, ditto unproductive people. Arguably if you are unproductive and you are surrounded by productive people physically then you may pick up on their habits and improve your own, but I think it’s quite subtle. I’ve got people on my team who joined us from Uni and have never been to the office and they chomp through work like nobody’s business. But other firms and people may have different issues.
Monday’s leaflet
Excellent
Because who wouldn’t want 80 migrants living in containers on your kid’s school grounds? Surely only a right-wing fascist..FFS!
”Outraged parents have condemned the local mayor’s decision to accommodate up to 80 asylum seekers in containers on the grounds of a primary school in the German town of Monheim am Rhein.
Dozens of local residents attended a recent question time of the local council to voice their displeasure over the controversial move proposed by Mayor Daniel Zimmerman’s administration and expressed their concerns for child safety, calling the plans both inappropriate and unacceptable.
Starting next spring, a cohort of migrants will reside in containers located on the school grounds, which are no longer used for educational purposes.
In response to the protestations of locals, the council cited economic factors as a primary reason for the move, insisting that the estimated €150,000 it would cost to convert the containers into housing was substantially lower than the cost of renting private accommodations, where around 80 percent of the migrants recently received by the municipality currently reside.
“We simply can’t keep up with renting anymore,” a city press spokesperson told parents at the meeting.”
https://rmx.news/migrant-crisis/german-mayor-calls-concerns-over-child-safety-unfounded-amid-plans-to-accommodate-80-asylum-seekers-at-a-primary-school/
People gotta wake up fast and take matters into their own hands because this is the beginning of a tidal wave. Unreasonable policies and actions need to be resisted. There is already a lot of evidence that some of these migrants are dangerous. Most of them come from different cultures where they are not used to seeing young girls and women being so free and open. It is not a case of racism, it is a case of completely incompatible cultures.
I couldn’t agree more Aethelred.
Scheesh. What took them so long? We gave up on Today (and R4) years ago. If I turn Today on it is solely to remind me why I don’t. And it always works.
To be fair, though, it has recently become worse than “dull, holier-than-thou centrism”, I don’t remember Today ever being as biased as it is now with Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson presenting it, and almost every Radio 4 programme is infused with wokism.
Haven’t listened to or read mainstream news whether on radio, TV or papers for ages. When I do hear those lofty, censorious tones by mistake, I want to gag. I can understand why people listen to it though because they have broadcasters who have the right ‘tone’ to imbue their listeners with confidence and trust in what is being said. But it’s all nonsense, well most of it is anyway.
No, I correct myself…all of it is!
That’s better
“Debanking comes to Germany”.
The Laughing Librarian has a joke about the problem of ordering pizza online in 2023. (Tino Chrupalla would find it impossible in the UK!)
It’s both funny and not funny, judging from the comments.
This is a neat summary of where we are and the direction of travel.
https://gab.com/surazaL/posts/111163891182002360
If the author had tried to post that poem on YouTube and monetize it, it would have been taken down or being “off-message”!
Turdeau strikes again….this man needs voting out by the people before the next law he invokes is enshrining himself in place for the next twenty years!!
Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
The Canadian government, armed with one of the world’s most repressive online censorship schemes, announces that all “online streaming services that offer podcasts” must formally register with the government to permit regulatory controls:
https://www.canada.ca/en/radio-television-telecommunications/news/2023/09/crtc-takes-major-step-forward-to-modernize-canadas-broadcasting-framework.html
Re:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12580849/Is-Rishi-backsliding-20mph-crackdown-Sunak-says-councils-able-impose-Wales-style-speed-limits-consent-local-residents.html
Since when have the self-important, tin-pot dictators in local councils taken into account what the residents want? When have they ever asked for ‘consent’ when implementing their tyrannical and / or crazy actions?