popnperish
But the fact that temperatures have stalled for the last decade is now widely admitted. James Hansen himself has produced a paper acknowledging this.. see this paper from the Goddard Institute http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/719139main_2012_GISTEMP_summary.pdf He discusses reasons why he thinks temperatures have been flat. Although the mean is steady there are variations around the mean, hence the higher temperatures this year and much cooler temperatures last summer.

Günter
Peak coal? Oh come now.. peak oil was fashionable a few years back but its time has passed. However, peak coal always was really fringe stuff. You have to ignore a lot of reality to believe in it.. you won't find anyone in the coal industry who pays the least mind to it. Some academics and activists will, but what can you expect?

Robert LePage
At least when you rant about peak oil you could acknowledge that your views are now held by a handful of activists on the fringe of even the green movement, which is really fringe. Peak oil beliefs had a broader audience a few years back but not now

@Gunter:

"Neither renewables nor nuclear will work without fossil fuels."

Poppycock!

If/when renewables and nuclear power sources become dominant, it will only be a matter of time before technologies which convert, for example, C02 from air or oceans into liquid and gaseous fuels, which are able to be stored and are suitable for transport use in ships, planes and trucks.

Of course, this cannot happen overnight, but it is certain that it is feasible in the long run and could lead to complete independance from fossil fuels and to truly zero carbon, high energy density fuel sources.

The big question is When, not If. I'm no optimist on this score. It is clearer every month that a huge environmental crash will be essential in order to prompt this transformation. That which should take place over the next hundred years is likely, for many reasons, to have to wait for a century or more, by which time it will be just so much more difficult.

And why is this?

Because intelligent people have chosen to ignore the truth that is climate change and because such as Gunter choose to prattle on about how impossible the necessary changes are, instead of starting with the possible, today.

Gunter. Remember those Japanese soldiers still fighting the war 30 years after the war had ended? Ya gotta feel sorry for them really.

Lamenting? Grieving? The only lamentation I feel is for all those poor people in developing countries who could benefit so much from the misdirection of massive amounts of money being squandered on this hubristic idiocy.

Lamentation that the genuine environmentalists have been sidelined by the amoral IPCC crowd. Disastrous global warming? Refer Curmudgeon link above.

I'm just wondering to what extent all these greenhouse gas spewing bushfires totally cancel out Julia's greenhouse de-spewing projects?

Sure we can throw $Billions at Big Industry to win votes and create a class of Swinging Voter Carbon Brokers but is the real answer to throw those $Billions at bushfire minimisation?

While thinking bushfire - does burning off in fact cancel out all greenhouse gas reduction measures?

John Ridd here. An interesting article but, I think, over pessimistic. The assumption seems to be that AGW is and will take place and that there is no reasonable/viable way to provide ourselves with the reliable energy that we have come to expect.
It may well be true that the human race is incapable of making correct decisions, certainly that seems to be true for Australia, but that does not mean that there is 'no way out' of the problem.
I am convinced that the way forward, a safe way forward, is nuclear power. That is why I last week had an OLO article on the issue. Last July I had another on the crucial question of nuclear/radiation safety.
The author of this present article has influence and perhaps power within the Anglican Church. Bearing in mind that the Christianity is about hope I would ask him seriously to examine the possibilities and promise of nuclear energy, perhaps starting at a low level with my two relevant articles. It would be splendid the think that the Anglican Church would start to hold out hope to their flock and to the wider public. The pessimism of this article is rather unbecoming I think. It is certainly unwarranted.

Watch out folks.

Tinkerbell & her mob have escaped from the foot of the garden, & they've let the flying pigs out too.