I met Bob Carter after one of my fossil-collecting mates, Duncan McLeod, came across some shell fossils in a ‘marl pit’ on his parents farm property near Winton, southern New Zealand. This was about 1974-1975 when I was at primary school. I traveled from my home in Alexandra to stay with Duncan and collect some… Continue reading Bob Carter, Greenhouse Warming, and One Alarmed Palaeontologist
Category: Climate
How to Thoroughly Confuse Everyone about Prescribed Burning in Australia
In the last couple of days, something of a ‘blue’ has developed among some Western Australian fire experts over ‘Prescribed Burning’ – the deliberate lighting of fires as part of fire management policy. On Jan 22, Byron Lamont and Tianhua He published a short opinion piece in ‘WAtoday’ called ‘Why prescribed burns don’t stop wildfires’.… Continue reading How to Thoroughly Confuse Everyone about Prescribed Burning in Australia
Did Queensland Rainforest Spread when Cultural Burning Stopped?
“This is the Giant Stinger tree – avoid it”. Work place health and safety now out of the way, I could then get on with introducing my students to Australia’s forests. *** In Queensland’s O’Reilly’s/Lamington Park I began my student classes with a walk down the road. There happened to be a convenient juvenile ‘Giant… Continue reading Did Queensland Rainforest Spread when Cultural Burning Stopped?
When New Zealand was a Burning Land
Broken River is a Hell of a place to get to. From Christchurch you need to head inland, driving along the road to Arthur’s Pass, the gateway to the West Coast. But then turn off and dog-leg back south along a narrow road beside, and sometimes actually along the railway line. There are 17 gates.… Continue reading When New Zealand was a Burning Land
Australia’s Black Thursday Fires 1851 – how big and why?
Have you noticed? Despite Australia’s on-going fire disaster, there are no shortage of reports telling us to … relax – it’s nothing new, and that it’s the fault of not enough hazard-reduction burning. And certainly, it’s nothing to do with global warming, which by increasing temperature, has exacerbated what would already be an extreme drought.… Continue reading Australia’s Black Thursday Fires 1851 – how big and why?
Limestones, Climate Change and Scepticism
What happens when a seal swallows a lump of limestone? *** The broad theme of my back-packing trip last year was to move around the northern rim of the Mediterranean (and visit a few of its islands along the way). During much of that trip, limestone was in my face. I trekked over it in… Continue reading Limestones, Climate Change and Scepticism
Sudden Stratospheric Warming Closed my Cafe
The weather around Wanaka, and the broader Otago Lakes area of New Zealand has gone slightly biblical. New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) (tweeted on December 4th “It’s only the 4th, but about a month’s worth of rain has already fallen this December in Queenstown (78 mm) and Wanaka (77 mm)”.… Continue reading Sudden Stratospheric Warming Closed my Cafe
Australia – both Greening and Burning?
Once again, the south east of Australia has had huge fires. But how can this be? Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising, carbon dioxide is ‘plant food’ and apparently the result is ‘global greening’. The greening phenomenon is actually real. Studies have shown that world vegetation has thickened, and that some of this is due… Continue reading Australia – both Greening and Burning?
How You Can Predict Bushfires in Australia – Four Days Out
Tomorrow, Tuesday Nov 12, 2019 is looking very bad for south-east Australia (especially New South Wales, but also parts of Queensland, Victoria and South Australia), and this was clear at least four days ago. The reason for this is the ‘synoptic’ pattern of atmospheric circulation that has been predicted for Tuesday – and how this… Continue reading How You Can Predict Bushfires in Australia – Four Days Out
What’s Happening to New Zealand’s Haast Pass?
It was next morning that I heard the bridge had washed away. I had hammered over it during the night – back in the 90s – a time when you could do a tad over the speed limit on country roads, with reasonable confidence nobody in uniform was waiting somewhere in the murk. On that… Continue reading What’s Happening to New Zealand’s Haast Pass?