11 August 2015, The Conversation, Odds keep rising for a big El Niño in 2015. El Niño has arrived, it’s getting stronger, and it’s not about to go away soon. And already there are rumblings that this could be a big one. El Niño in Australia means warmer temperatures, and sometimes, but not always, drier conditions. In 2014, some climatologists thought a big El Niño might have been on the cards. Ultimately, after some vigorous early warming in the Pacific, conditions only touched on El Niño thresholds. This year, with an event already established, climatologists are suggesting the odds are rising of an El Niño rivalling the record events of 1982 and 1997. So what’s all the fuss about, and how are conditions different from last year? Read More here
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11 August 2015, DeSmog, Australian Psychological Society “Disturbed” By Climate Denialist Group’s “Misleading” Newspaper Advert. Australia’s peak body representing psychologists has attacked a climate science denial group for a prominent advert taken out in a major national newspaper. The Australian Psychological Society (APS) says the advert from a little-known group “misuses psychology-based arguments” to “mislead the public” on the science of climate change. In a stinging letter to The Australian newspaper, which ran the half-page advert, the APS said the authors had shown “cognitive biases” in ignoring a “huge body of scientific evidence” on climate change. The advertisers identified themselves only as “The Climate Study Group” in the page five advert that appeared on 7 August under the title “Psychology and the New Climate Alarm”. DeSmog has found the group members have links to mining, finance, agriculture and free market “think tank” the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). Professor Lyn Littlefield, APS executive director, wrote in the letter: “The Australian Psychological Society was disturbed to see psychology being misused to mislead the public on such an important topic as climate change, and for this to be published in a reputable newspaper.” Read More here
10 August 2015, Washington Post, A stunning five million acres have now burned in Alaskan wildfires this year. Last month, wildfire watchers were astounded as terrifying wildfires raged across the state of Alaska. Sometimes the records would come in with 300,000 or more new acres burned in a single day. It seemed inevitable that the 2015 wildfire season would quickly catch up with and then surpass the all-time record year, 2004, when 6,590,140 acres burned. But then the weather shifted. Rains moved in, and satellite analysts downsized their size estimates of some fires. Instead of racing forward, the fire acreage numbers slowed or even stopped their increase. Only recently have they started to tick back up again. Nonetheless, according to the latest report Tuesday from the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center, Alaska fires have now consumed 5,098,829.9 acres in 2015. That’s about five-sixths of the total acreage consumed by wildfires anywhere in America this year —currently, 6,224,545 acres. It’s also enough to put the 2015 Alaska wildfire season ahead of what was previously the second-place year — 1957, with 5,049,661 acres burned, according to the Alaska Division of Forestry. [Alaska’s terrifying wildfire season and what it says about climate change] So will 2015 overtake 2004 and set a new record for the most acres burned? A seasonal wildfire outlook from the National Interagency Fire Center shows a big red splotch across Alaska for the month of August — a forecast of areas where conditions would be favorable for increased wildfire activity. “The volume of active fires on the landscape should continue to produce acreage gains through August,” the agency notes. As of Tuesday, 238 fires were still burning across the state. Read More here
10 August 2015, Climate Network News, Clouds over China’s solar power industry. China is by far the world’s biggest producer of solar panels, but the industry could become a victim of its own success. The recent turmoil in China’s stock market has sent shockwaves through the country’s corporate sector, including its mighty solar power industry which in recent years has grown to dominate the world market. Harnessing solar energy is considered a key way of cutting back on fossil fuel use and of meeting the challenge posed by climate change. Seven out of the world’s top ten manufacturers of solar panels are China-based companies, together providing about 40% of global solar supplies. But now the industry’s future expansion is under threat as companies try to cope with too much production capacity, very low profit margins and crushing amounts of debt. In 2013 Suntech, a Chinese company which was at one time the world’s biggest manufacturer,went bust. International creditors are still trying to recoup millions lent to the company. Read More here