8 Comments

1. 

   Rain on August 3, 2023 at 10:34 am

   I just finished watching NZs weather channel, also agreeing that El Nino has not started in the south. Yet. Still too much wet in both countries, and the winds have not shifted to the dry El Nino winds. Yet. The “winter warmth” is being reported in the tropical northern bands, and is not extreme, but within normal variations for this time of year. /tongue-poking-out LoL Hold your horses Pan, sheesh…dont wish it on us early!!!!

   And many of our Alps have crap winters. The “Ski fields” are an in-joke. Any Canadian, American, European etc guffaws on seeing them 🙂

   Any Aussie serious about real skiing (downhill) goes to NZ. Aussie mainland Alps are one large water catchment and National Park, deliberately closed to development with little public access.

   The handful of “ski-fields” nearly always have to use the machines, they are designed for families to play in, so Aussie kids can grow up and say they’ve seen snow on a family holiday, do some tobagonning etc build a snowman or three, pretend they are in a Hollywood Xmas movie, drink some mulled wine in front of a pretty log fire…. a few days or a week, thats enough for most kids 🙂

   muuummm!! This is so boring, Can we go back to the beach now? We have several thousand miles of the most beautiful beaches on the entire planet… why would any of us go to the bloody snow? If you really like that white stuff, its just a short flight over “The Ditch”.

   However, there are some great places that are fantastic for cross-country wilderness treks, some with snow all year round, but these National Park trails are difficult to get to. Limited access… every last drop of that Nat Park snow-pack is for fresh water storage and hydro.

   However, El Nino is in the Eastern Pacific, affecting the west coast of south America as it always does… but has not moved along the Equator across to the west Pacific. Yet. The Pacific Trade winds have not reversed yet.

   It is still on schedule for last week of August/first week in September. Same as usual for a natural El Nino, nearly always starts for us here in the western half of the South Pacific, riding in with our southern spring blossoms, when the Trade Winds Shift.

   Thankfully, we are not getting anything like South America, or South Africa???? … sheesh.

   Speaking of the Beijing floods, Beijing is a long way north of the usual typhoon affected parts of China.

   This afternoon my time, I stumbled on this ‘report’ and was rivetted to my chair…

   “Official” news reports from China, said only 11 dead or 20 later ..

   The most startling, disturbing to me, was what Beijing authorities did to the smaller city just south (and downhill) of Beijing…

   https://www.youtube.com/live/9LbLXRtGoDg?feature=share

   • 

     Harmon on August 3, 2023 at 11:14 am

     Thanks, funny stuff about the ski business . I’m on my way back almost returned to my corner of Europe but having just seen most of the Andes highest zones , I found the Australian alps very underwhelming last decade, yes haha . I’d still rate Australia as my nr1 country, and I’ve seen most of the world now, but that’s all down to personal tastes, and only just in front of Costa rica and Namibia . New zealand was pretty but somehow not enough semi arid zones for me I guess , I’m a strange one . Stayed with some of the nicest people I ever met in Dunedin

     Regarding china , well.. as I explained to some of my fellow students and colleagues in years past, I one knows what China , the state , will do to their own people (think that disastrous destroyed dammed areas with many rivers lost) dont be so surprised how they treated Tibet , Uighur, Parts of Vietnam and the phillipines

     The most obvious exploits I saw first hand were the neo colonial chinese “villages ” in africa

     All the while German and Dutch governments doing their yearly knew bends towards even Ashanti descendants that were trading slaves for centuries, as were those lovely moroccans, and Germany taking in all the refugees that really could be handled by their oil rich neigbour states where they would culturally fit in

     Funny old world , both the consumer right liberal side as the crazy left liberal hypes

     Let’s see what the Nino will do. I’m very very front row for a lot of it , the Dengue was also frightening in Peru . I’ll be In Asia soon enough

     • 

       Rain on August 3, 2023 at 1:29 pm

       Harmon, I hear you. Sounds like me when travelling through Europe as a youngun on a gap year, and seeing the Spanish coast, Italian Riviera beaches etc for the first time. You call that a beach? *roll eyes* I even thought Hawaii was crap.

       Yes, the Aussie Alps are mostly alpine plateau on ancient limestone bedrock riddled with caves and deep ravines, so dont tend to have the majestic peaks and gorgeous views despite their elevation.

       Popular for caving, abseiling, rock-climbing, but not for skiing. Tassie has Cradle Mountain of course, but is more famous for losing skiers and summer hikers on its dangerous steep slopes and thick rainforest. Tends to get very foggy with poor visibility, people always getting lost, falling etc..

       But in a mostly arid continent it was saved for its rich water sources. The Snowy Hydro scheme diverted much of the alpine rivers from flowing east to the sea, to flow west and help water the “slopes and plains”.

       As for China, in my meaner cynical moments, I guess with 1.4? billion, you can afford to lose half a million now and then without taking much notice.

       And I saw the Dengue rise in Peru, we’ve had a few small outbreaks over the years, but only in the remotest areas of the far northern tropics. Never spread to the more heavily populated areas. Yet.

       El Nino for us is dry, drier than a dead dingo’s dong. With hot dry winds. That should help keep the mozzies down?

       El Nino for South and Central Americas is flooding landslides, they get all the water, and we get desertified. Then reverses in La Nina, Americas get the drought and we get the floods.

       As for me, Im enjoying these last days/ weeks of a true genuine 3-month winter in the highlands, it may well be the last true winter I see. Hoping for a true spring too, not looking forward to an El Nino summer, especially not if it decides to skip spring altogether, come too early and stay too late.

   • 

     Panopticon on August 3, 2023 at 11:19 am

     “The most startling, disturbing to me, was what Beijing authorities did to the smaller city just south (and downhill) of Beijing…”

     Rain, I’ve noticed over the years that China often has to strategically sacrifice some communities for the greater good when they get flooding.

     “More than 850,000 people in flood control zones in Hebei province have been told to move out of their homes as authorities open up areas along waterways to help drain record floodwaters in neighbouring Beijing. Hebei’s Emergency Management Department said it had activated seven flood storage zones, diverting 1.8 billion cubic metres of floodwater to “ease pressure on Beijing and Tianjin”.”

     https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3229896/capitals-moat-thousands-forced-homes-hebei-ease-flooding-beijing

     Having seen some of the footage of the floods, I agree that the official death toll is likely a severe under-estimate. Again, I think this is fairly common as local officials are under such pressure to save lives. I recall this article about the Henan flooding in 2021:

     “Officials in a Chinese province deliberately underreported or concealed 139 deaths from last year’s devastating flood disaster, the country’s central government has said, as authorities arrested some of those involved.”

     https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/23/chinese-provincial-officials-concealed-scores-of-deaths-from-flood-disaster

2. 

   VPK on August 3, 2023 at 1:42 pm

   Three-quarters of Republicans prioritize the economy over climate change
   August 3, 20235:01 AM ET
   Heard on Morning Edition
   Domenico Montanaro – 2015
   In fact, a plurality of Republicans – 43% – said climate change won’t have a serious impact on their communities at all. Another third said it will only have a minor one.

   These disparities show why such little action has taken place – or even will in the short-term – in Congress to address climate change.

   Former President Donald Trump, the current front runner for the GOP nomination once again, has talked down the impact of climate change for years now.

   But almost three-quarters of Republicans (72%) said the economy should be given priority, even at the risk of ignoring climate change. That is up 13 points since 2018 – despite the increases in climate-change-related weather disasters.

3. 

   Rain on August 3, 2023 at 2:05 pm

   Pan, yes they do under-report and ‘play down’ severity of disasters, refusing assistance, not allowing foreign journos in.

   “Strategic sacrifice” yes, tragic, but I guess that also another way of saying “making hard decisions”.

   My first (and only) trip to Mexico, I had my then 2 young kids and my then elderly mum with me. We had travelled down from LA to Tijuana for a 3-day touristy side-trip. Barely lasted a day, I just couldn’t emotionally cope with the sea of poverty, especially all the begging kids.

   Which I flashedback to, when very early in CoVid, I saw the news reports when it first hit Djakarta in Indonesia, and people were dying in the gutters on the crowded streets in the downtown, and everybody else just walked around, and went on with their business.

   The podcast channel I posted from, often makes fun of the absurdities of navigating Chinese society, like film of the emergency workers busy putting up visual barriers to prevent other people being able to see a collapsed bridge. Or a train disaster, where they just buried the train.

   Their last earthquake must have been a horrendous death toll too.

4. 

   zip on August 3, 2023 at 6:50 pm

   Hello Pan,

   Medium distillates are hot. OFW devotes a whole article to it. I would start with the ‘honest sorcerer’ to be honest 🙂 and then read Gail’s account. I do start to feel a bit more for her ‘religious’ notes by the way those do have ‘something’ like narrative structure. She is very typically American in her perception of ‘as the world turns’ though 🙂

   The comments on the update are interesting….

   Nature:

   Seas become comparable beaches, mountains become comparable ski slopes, and countries come on a list of preference with more or less arid landscapes. We have become bored and spoilt consumers mwt or without our mothers-in-law and students as if having the choice to express preferences based on eh….yes what actually our preferences is the most normal thing in the world. 🙂

   Lord Byron the snob is a nobody by comparison with ‘us’. 🙂 Fortunately, we fly to beaches and all in destination as much as we did before the corona crisis….. Let’s see how long that will last

5. 

   TR on August 4, 2023 at 4:11 am

   I’m starting to enjoy the consequences of the stupidity of the “It’s not my fault.” species.
   All the Americans,Main Slime Media,bloggers, pod-casters, on either side of politics are so fortunate to be immune to AGW.

   “Too Late” was an ingredient before the recipe was placed in the oven.