Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
The Arabunna people live in the area around Lake Eyre in Southern Australia. It is a hot, hostile desert region, which is no surprise, because … well … it’s in Australia. Here’s the general area where they live:
Figure 1. Lake Eyre region in South Australia. Yellow line show the area from 25°-30°S, 135°-140°E
A new report from the University of Everybody-Panic is a study of the horrendous future faced by these poor folks:
The first stage of University of Adelaide research released today shows that South Australia’s Arabunna country, which includes Lake Eyre in the far north, is likely to get both drier and hotter in decades to come.
“Temperatures could increase up to four degrees Celsius in Arabunna country in the next century, threatening the survival of many plants and animals,” says the author of the report, Dr John Tibby from the University of Adelaide’s Discipline of Geography, Environment and Population. SOURCE: PhysOrg
Yes, temperatures “could” increase … and I could win the lottery, but I’m not quitting my day job just yet. Meanwhile, back in the real world, what’s been happening in the Lake Eyre region in the last thirty years? Figure 2 shows the satellite-derived temperature trends for the lower troposphere in the area around Lake Eyre, from both the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) and Remote Sensing Services (RSS).
Figure 2. Satellite temperatures for the lower troposphere in the Lake Eyre Region of Southern Australia. Photo shows the approach to Lake Eyre. Temperatures are the average of the region outlined in yellow in Figure 1. All data from KNMI
So … here’s the deal. We have no evidence that the temperatures are rising in the Lake Eyre region. There has been little change in the area temperatures since the satellite records began. Despite that, University of Adelaide professors are selling their fantasies of a terrifying future to the Arabunna, the aboriginal people who live in the area.
Meanwhile, the temperatures in the region are currently lower than they have been in the entire satellite record …
The professors seem to find nothing wrong with scaring the aboriginal people who have lived there for generations. And where do their projections of a 5°C temperature rise originate? Well, as usual, it’s models all the way down, and even the modelers say that their models are useless at the regional level … but despite that, these professors from the University of East Wankerton or wherever it is are more than happy to use these useless models to terrify the local folks.
I find this kind of crying wolf reprehensible, particularly when it is aimed at indigenous people, but hey, that’s just me.
w.
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ive said it before & i’ll say it again ” if the devil didn’t exist it would be necessary to invent him “
To Dr. John Tibby
Mediate on Isaiah 5:20 TNIV
Each person will have to account for their actions.
Interesting that this particular area is under scrutiny. The University of Adelaide School of Mechanical Engineering was established in 1946. Instrumental in this were sizeable donations from the mining giant BHP Bilton and others. BHP own the Olympic Dam which is a Uranium mine south of the area otlined on the map. This mine is mired in controversy:
“Not only is the expansion at Olympic Dam going ahead without the consent of traditional owners, but tens of thousands of gigalitres of water per day is being sucked out of the Artesian Basin on Arabunna land to service the mine,” he said. (AAP July 16, 2010)
“Aboriginal elder Kevin Buzzacott says the site holds historical significance and the Aboriginal community has been left out of the consultation process. “We don’t want that big great gaping hole in the desert, we just don’t want it,” he said. “We never wanted Olympic Dam in the first place because it’s a sacred site and we’re trying to protect our areas.”
“Referring to the Kokatha and Arabunna as examples of communities he believed were being “kicked off their land”, Mr Ashton said: “Olympic Dam has been causing cultural genocide and environmental destruction since operations began over 20 years ago”. “This needs to stop, we are standing here today in solidarity with the Kokatha and Arabunna communities impacted by Olympic Dam’s operations…” (Roxby Downs Sun Dec. 2, 2009)
“Not only is the expansion at Olympic Dam going ahead without the consent of traditional owners, but tens of thousands of gigalitres of water per day is being sucked out of the Artesian Basin on Arabunna land to service the mine,” he said. (AAP July 16, 2010)
“A group of eminent scientists and doctors, including a Nobel Prize-winner and two Australians of the Year, has warned of the “mind-blowing risk” to the health of South Australians from the Olympic Dam expansion. The experts warn of arsenic, mercury and uranium which will enter undergroundwater and the atmosphere.
“The federal court has rejected a move by an Aboriginal elder to block a giant expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine in South Australia’s north. (Adelaide Now Apr. 20, 2012) Mr Buzzacott has appealed against the court’s decision and a hearing has been scheduled for Thursday (June 21). (AAP June 19, 2012)”
http://www.wise-uranium.org/umopauod.html
From: Dow Jones Newswires
June 27, 2012
“BHP Billiton continues to snatch up prospecting rights around its Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine in South Australia, securing long-range options even as questions build around whether the company will proceed with a multi-billion dollar expansion of the existing mining operation. ”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/bhp-bolsters-olympic-dam-rights/story-e6frg9df-1226410000218
Perhaps it is part of the Univ of Adelaide disease ?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/don-suspended-over-financial-fraud/story-e6frg6p6-1111117127533
We’d all really be better off if 95% of academia was shut down.
I just received the magazine from the Alumni Association of the University of Western Australia and there is some wanker rabbiting on about how we’re poisoning the Earth with man made chemicals and some other git stressing about foreign registered ships being used around the Australian coast(the unions wrecked the business for Australians).
Really, shut these self important idiots down.
TheInquirer says:
June 29, 2012 at 12:05 pm
“No evidence?”
So explain why the observational surface temperature trend as presented by the ABM differs so markedly from the satellite temperature recorded trend. Perhaps the ABM uses the same station record adjustments as the master of the art, Jim Hansen.
The authors know that politically the aboriginals have the most leverage, so getting them scared is a most effective form of demagogeury. What, you Euroriginies are going to go telling aborigines that their fears are not rational?
As Lake Eyre is below sea level some engineers have proposed connecting it to the sea and keeping it permanently full. It was once part of the worlds oceans before sea levels fell.
Now that’s an experiment which I think has merit – besides it has been filled a few times recently despite Flannery’s demands that what little rain that falls will not fill our dams.
Lake eyre filled by floodwaters is a miracle of life.
I am an Australian and have never been to Lake Eyre. It is a damn long way from anywhere and probably the last place on earth I would want to go (2000Km for me). Way back David Campbell went there for an attempt at the world land speed record. At the time there was a sheep station which figureed every 7 years there would be rain so they bought sheep when the rains came. Fatten them up then sell. Lately I think it has been flooded for three years in a row and that is unprecedent in our history. BTW it is so flat the water moves emass from one end to the other when the wind blows.
As for the Arabunna people if Tibby’s models are right then perhaps he could move them to his back yard. I think a small SUV could move them in one trip. It is desert if they are there what do they live on? Boiled rock until the rains come?
Some other things about the area. Oodnadatta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oodnadatta is to the north and has a population of 277 (okay I exaggerated) and the highest recorded temperature in Australia 50° C. It is a 1000 Km from Adelaide and to the west is where we tested atomic bombs.
“hey, that’s just me” … Willis, I promise you, really, seriously, man, it’s not just you. Not by a long, long way.
@ur momisuglyJoseph Murphy: As far as any normal person’s discourse is concerned, I’d agree with you. But as a statement of how “our” self-styled “élite” think, it’s spot on. I have (real life, unlinkable) evidence.
And as for the “University of East Wankerton” … I don’t often ROFLMAO, but I (involuntarily) made an exception for that one! It’s going to turn up a lot in my AGW related conversations from now on.
Well, the CO2-tax starts next sunday, so temperatures will drop quickly there. That’s why the Wankerton division of AGW needed to publish now, or their study would have been obsolete.
Oodnadatta, January, 1960 – Australia’s hottest temp ever recorded of 50.7C. No wonder they started in 1970. And shouldn’t we have had higher temps there since then?
TheInquirer says:
June 29, 2012 at 2:14 pm
So a 40 year trend of 0.3 to 0.5C per decade in the observational record doesn’t contradict the claim of “no evidence” by the author?
Pay more attention. Two people explained why to you.
I lived in the region for about two years and yes it is bloody hot. Funny thing is not many (actually none) Aboriginal people live in the area. Here is the proof http://www.ilc.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/SA_RILS_170608.PDF
Only us silly miners are crazy enough,what a disgrace.
Otsar, your grasp of South African & Zimbabwean land policies is, I suspect, blinkered, though you provide no dates against which to measure your sweeping statements. Don’t use what you don’t really understand for other ends.
Yes, the ABC have been hard at all week to push the carbon tax but the Lateline clip on Lake Eyre and the Arabunna people was farcical as although we had the normal alarmist images inserted when they showed the real lake Eyre as it is today it is evident that the Lake has never been as good. ABC segment here:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3535239.htm
But never fear “The Adelaide University project will develop a climate change adaptation plan for the region by February next year.”
What would the ABC ever do without academics?
I note also that the aboriginal people want to rename the Lake “Kati Thanda.”
Lots of scope there for a new hit:
“I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.” (Yeahhh!)
Have to pull you up on this one Willis. ‘University of East Wankerton’ That would be Monash in Melbourne. Love your work.
“could”, “up to”, “in the next century”
At least with that last one the warmists are learning not to predict too close to the present so that their predictions can be checked. As for the fragile plant life in the area, it already copes with virtually no rainfall and a temperature range of -5c to 50c and if the temperature does rise 4c the Arabunna people will just spend more time in the air-conditioned comfort of the Coober Pedy supermarket.
“The professors seem to find nothing wrong with scaring the aboriginal people who have lived there for generations.”
Actually, tens of thousands of years.
Evidence from BOM for the Mean from 1910 to now, is 0.10 to.0.15c every 10 years, meaning by 2100 its about 1-1.3C. A far cry from the Liddy et al exaggerations.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/trendmaps.cgi?map=tmean&area=aus&season=0112&period=1910
..and thats assuming the BOM records, the corrections they have made, AND the trend stacks up and there has to be grave doubts about all of those parameters.
The BOM is under grave suspicion over its adjustments to the measures records particularly when all the adjustments have been upwards, and this being despite the BOM giving prior assurrances that the adjustments +/- balance out.
Further, the University of East Wankerton aka Adelaide University, has its fair share of water melons and actvivists,…. which is a shame given its previous track record for scientific rigour and discovery
PS: With the abundant administrative resources that the Wankers have it is surprising that some one didnt check the facts before the Press Release went out
So now we have the unedifying international spectacle of both the Univerisity of Melbourne ( Karoly and Gergis) and the University Adelaide (Liddy) being caught out peddling porkies on GW.
Tim Flannery was also at Adelaide University and he is infamous for declaring Australia faced more or less endless drought and that our dams would never fill again….the year before the floods began. Worth knowing that Adelaide gets much of its water from the Murray River which drains the region of Tim’s ‘endless drought’ and the rest from reservoirs in the Mt Lofty Ranges adjacent the city. Something in the water do you think? A strong irony content perhaps?
I would have thought the University of East Wankerton would have to be Melbourne thanks to Karoly, Gergis et al. ( my son went to Monash unfortunately). That means that, thanks to Tim Flannery and now these latest buffoons, Adelaide could only be the University of South Irony.
Incidently, looking at the BOM rainfall data in the region does not indicate any down trend over the past century or so. The trend for the continent over that period has been UP by about 20%. Not much basis for this sort of alarmist drivel it would seem – but hey, it was funded I assume and thats what counts!
Willis,
In addition to using dishonest, corrupt, sloppy, irreproducible, innumeracy and many other harsh descriptive terms, we should remember to use the term ‘fatuous’ to describe these examples of academic puffery. Mocking is fun.
fat·u·ous adj. Foolish or silly, especially in a smug or self-satisfied way
Gary–They upheld health care insurance “taxes” too. In striking down the Stolen Valor Act–same day–they said its ok to lie about receiving military honors. The guy who challenged the law claimed falsely to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. As the daughter of a deceased military veteran who really did serve and was awarded military honors, I’m offended. If I were Martha Stewart and spent 6 months in jail for lying, I’d be really offended, too.
RE: The Inquirer
Don’t be a lazy, trusting sod and depend on the BOM maps and graphs. Do as I did and download the GHCN data for Oodnadatta. You will find the data matches Willis’ satellite graph, with no net warming since the late 70’s, and a cooling trend since 1990.