Warming of Southern Oceans
Southern oceans play major role in absorbing world’s excess heat, study finds February 3, Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald The world’s oceans are heating at the rate of two trillion 100-watt light bulbs burning continuously, providing a clear signal of global warming, according to new study assessing data from a global fleet of drifting floats.
The research, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Climate Change, used data collected from the array of about 3500 Argo buoys from 2006-13 to show temperatures were warming at about 0.005 degrees a year down to a depth of 500 metres and 0.002 degrees between 500-2000 metres.
Oceans south of the 20-degree latitude accounted for two-thirds to 98 per cent of the heat gain during the period studied, with three giant gyres in the southern Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans largely responsible for drawing down the extra warmth.
“The global ocean heat content right now is the most reliable metric of that radiation imbalance” between the energy received from the sun and what is radiated back to space, said Susan Wijffels, an oceans expert at the CSIRO and one of the report’s authors………..
“The ocean is just vertically transferring the heat away from the surface to the depth,” Dr Wijffels said. “The ‘hiatus’ is not meaningful.”
Even with the relative slowdown in surface temperature increases, 14 of the world’s 15 warmest years on record have been in the 21st century, the World Meteorological Organisation said on Monday.
The United Nations body also confirmed that 2014 was the hottest year, edging out 2010 and 2005. The readings were based in part on United States agencies, including NASA which last month also declared 2014 as its warmest year.
John Church, another of the paper’s authors and also from the CSIRO, said the temperatures in the atmosphere – which accounts for just 1 per cent of the planet’s heat uptake – would rise sharply if oceans absorbed less of the heat……..
As it is, warming oceans are swelling in volume, lifting sea levels, and also affecting ecosystems, he said.
“If we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change then we need to start taking some mitigation action,” Dr Church said. This included cutting carbon emissions and lifting renewable energy targets at home and overseas.
Future Argo missions will extend coverage to higher latitudes, including sea-ice zones, and reach depths of 6000 metres.
However, Dr Wijffels said Australia’s contribution is in doubt with about half of its Argo budget tied up with the Abbott government’s stalled higher education reform bills. Those funds run out “in a few months”, she said.
The Nature study was led by Dean Roemmich of the California-based Scripps Institution of Oceanography. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/southern-oceans-play-major-role-in-absorbing-worlds-excess-heat-study-finds-20150202-133j2p.html
AUDIO: Fiji government helps nuclear veterans
AUDIO: Fiji nuclear veterans’ payout small win in huge battle http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific-beat/fiji-nuclear-veterans-payout-small-win-in-huge-battle/1411753 3 February 2015,
The Fijian government’s decision to compensate the remaining members of the Fiji Nuclear Veterans Association will bring some relief while a legal battle with the British government is still dragging on after nearly a decade in the courts.
Some 70 Fijian soldiers were deployed to what is now Kirbati back in 1958 to take part in Britain’s nuclear testing program on Christmas Island, and more than half a century later, only 24 survive.
The Fijian government payout of FJD$9,985 is designed to cover medical costs which the British government has steadfastly refused to cover.
Journalist and writer Nic Maclellan is co-author of a book on the Fijian nuclear veterans called Kirisimasi.
He says although the veterans will be helped by the payment from Fiji, the real fight is still with the British government.
Presenter: Richard Ewart
Speaker: Nic Maclellan, Journalist
Australians ignoring the danger from UV radiation
Sunburn cases continue to surge as Australians forget to slip, slop slap on the weekends SUE DUNLEVY NATIONAL HEALTH REPORTER NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA NETWORK FEBRUARY 03, 2015, COURIER MAIL,
NEARLY 2.4 million Australians are ignoring the slip slop slap message and getting sunburnt on the weekend new research released by Cancer Council shows.
A 22 per cent surge in the number of Australians getting sunburnt was a wake-up call about the need for a new national skin cancer campaign the Cancer Council says.
The council’s National Sun Survey has found the number of sunburn cases was up by over 433,000 on the last survey four years ago.
Men are the worst offenders with 18 per cent getting sunburnt on the weekend compared to 12 per cent of women………
The failure of Aussies to protect themselves against the sun comes despite the fact we the melanoma capital of the world with more than 14,200 new cases a year.
Melanoma, which is caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, kills over 1,500 Australians a year……..http://www.couriermail.com.au/lifestyle/health/sunburn-cases-continue-to-surge-as-australians-forget-to-slip-slop-slap-on-the-weekends/story-fnihoylo-1227206866638?nk=12eb6391f5cbbe65f220fb12fca19ba4
Interview with a young Aboriginal Warrior of Resistance
We Interviewed Australia’s Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance, VICE January 27, 2015 by Courtney DeWitt While most of the country’s citizens marked Australia Day with barbecues and beer, on January 26 a large group of protesters gathered on the steps of the nation’s parliamentary buildings to mourn the continents colonization by whites. There were several protests in Melbourne but one of the rowdiest came from the Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance, or WAR for short.
My grandmother alerted me to the amazing work that my co-founders were doing up north, primarily in Queensland. We got in touch, bonded, and WAR was born. Then we traveled to Canada together last August where we met like-minded groups. It was so inspiring that we came home and WAR launched before the G20 summit.
Something I’m wondering is how WAR is different from other activist groups. After all, this isn’t a brand new movement.
Yes but Australian militant Aboriginal activism has been dormant since the 70s. The 1990s were dire in terms of organizations for and by black Australians. So we’re here to change that. And unlike other groups we’re not here to dance with other existing enslaving power structures. We are young and ready to fight for everything our ancestors had taken from them.
Okay so what does fighting look like? What is WAR’s mission?
Decolonization. We want to inform our people and inspire them, particularly our youth, to take action in the anti-colonial struggle, because that’s the only way. Decolonization encompasses all aspects of life. It’s the food you eat, it’s the things you buy. Food and health are high on our agenda, but we’re also helping our own communities to learn their languages, their dances, the traditions. We want people to study and be informed of their true history.
I don’t think it’s helpful, but I’m not interested in naming names because we share a solidarity as Aboriginal Australians. I think these persons tend to be used as puppets by the white man. You know nothing really changes except they can say, Look we have this black person at the table, oh look how progressive we are ……….http://www.vice.com/en_au/read/interview-with-the-warriors-of-aboriginal-resistance
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 