Comments on: Revkin declines Joe Romm’s bet on Arctic sea ice

By: Richard C (NZ)

Richard C (NZ) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:32:24 +0000

I would have thought that “the alien equivalent of James Hansen”…….is James Hansen.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:27:22 +0000

Simon @ACM crunches the numbers (for giggles, I guess)
http://www.australianclimatemadness.com/2011/08/more-alien-nonsense/

The closest star with a known planetary system is 15 light years away (see here), or in old money, 142 trillion kilometres (142 with twelve zeros). Voyager 1 is currently travelling at 62,000 km/h away from Earth, and even at that speed would take 260 thousand years to travel 15 light years. So even assuming our environmentally conscious aliens:

live on the closest planetary system to our own, AND
have been monitoring the atmosphere of a rather small, rocky planet orbiting a rather ordinary star, AND
have the technology to detect a 100ppm increase in CO2 from Earth’s emission spectrum, AND
have the same useless climate models we have here, AND
have the misfortune to count among their number the alien equivalent of James Hansen, who finds this treatment of a foreign planet abhorrent, AND
set off immediately on receiving this shocking information, intent on saving the Earth, AND
have the technology to travel at even 100 times as fast as the fastest human space vehicle ever, AND
are able to transport the numbers of invaders and weaponry required to subdue nearly 7 billion Earthlings,

they would still not arrive for at least 2,600 years.
And these researchers call themselves “scientists”? Actually, it has given me an idea: perhaps we could send all our climate alarmists off in a capsule to save some extrasolar planets instead, and leave the rest of us alone. Isn’t that a nice thought?

By: Ian Cooper

Ian Cooper — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:09:27 +0000

Tried it myself and it should actually be just this portion of the above address

i55.tinypic.com/35bxgfc

Cheers again, Coops.

By: Ian Cooper

Ian Cooper — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:02:04 +0000

Alexander,

check out this picture that I took on Monday night at 11.00 p.m. The Moon was partially obscured by clouds so I set the ISO to 1600 hence the graininess. The waterfall is the dark area on the extreme left of picture. This is one of my favourite sections of the Tararua foothills (the main range has been under a southerly shroud for 5 days now). So nice to see it covered in snow for a change.

This is my first attempt at a tinypic so hopefully this works for you.

[IMG]http://i55.tinypic.com/35bxgfc.jpg[/]

Cheers

Coops

By: Richard C (NZ)

Richard C (NZ) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:50:53 +0000

A “plausible outcome” apparently (by “scientists”), and peer reviewed too.

I agree, off topic Andy but what topic is this?

Guardian says “highly speculative scenario”, “unlikely” but “could” play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future.

We’ll need another “ET”S so maybe comes under ETS (another highly speculative and unlikely scenario that could play out)?

By: Mike Jowsey

Mike Jowsey — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:40:03 +0000

Laugh!!!

"Green" aliens might object to the environmental damage humans have caused on Earth and wipe us out to save the planet. "These scenarios give us reason to limit our growth and reduce our impact on global ecosystems. It would be particularly important for us to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases, since atmospheric composition can be observed from other planets," the authors write.

Better add "Alien Invasion" to the Warmlist

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:28:45 +0000

Off topic, but this one is too priceless to leave

Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists

Rising greenhouse emissions may tip off aliens that we are a rapidly expanding threat, warns a report for Nasa

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/18/aliens-destroy-humanity-protect-civilisations?CMP=twt_gu

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/18/bizarre-craptastic-theory-from-the-guardian-penn-state-and-nasa-et-will-kill-us-because-global-warming-will-tip-them-off-that-we-are-a-bad-species/#more-45379

By: Alexander K

Alexander K — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:34:39 +0000

Thanks, Coops. You have revived more memories of the area for me, and the absolutely awful weather we used to experience while fencing in the Winters there. I recall ripping the galvanized iron cap off on old and rotting strainer post we were replacing, chasing the nest of big black spiders out of the cap and using it to cook a feed of mushrooms, which we had collected walking in to the job. Best mushies any of the crew had ever tasted, we reckoned!

By: Ian Cooper

Ian Cooper — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 04:13:01 +0000

Alexander K,

you will be pleased to know that it wasn’t you in particular the weather was aiming at, it is just Tokomaru itself! The snow was 4 inches thick between Linton & Shannon, with Tokomaru having the heaviest falls in that area. I took some pics under moonlight up around Horse Shoe Bend where it was spectacular. The face along from the waterfalls towards Shannon wouldn’t have been out of place in Central Otago.

I think Tokomaru gully has a similar ‘great attractor’ effect to the Manawatu Gorge and Cook Strait sometimes. When I lived at Opiki 30 years ago I was amazed at how many thunder storms were channelled in towards the gully from off the Tasman Sea!

It may have been a ‘weather event,’ but it certainly was exceptional, and if you believe the hype espoused by CAGW Alarmists 10 years ago then we shouldn’t be seeing this type of thing at all! Children should only be reading about it in e-history books.

Of course now that ‘Climate Change’ is responsible for everything then extreme snow is back on the agenda/sarc off.

Cheers

Coops

By: Alexander K

Alexander K — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:23:27 +0000

Interesting post by Dr Pielke Snr on WWUT on this very topic, reinforcing the concept that weather, even in NZ, is always just weather .
As a teenager chopping thistles more than a half-century ago on the foothills behind Tokomaru in freezing winds laced with hail roaring in off the Tasman , I used to imagine the weather was aimed just at me!