They call it B17B, or, as I prefer, BMFI – Big mother-fucking iceberg. It broke off from Antarctica about 10 years ago and is about 140 km square, 19 km long and 8 wide. And it’s headed for Western Australia. WA? Icebergs? Part of WA is in the tropics – admittedly the northern bit. I bet the climate change deniers will use it as evidence that the world is cooling: lookie here, we’re getting icebergs in WA; it can’t be that hot.
(The legitimacy of this photo is guaranteed by its dodgy quality, although I must admit I didn’t take it)
13 December, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I heard/read somewhere that the concept of global warming makes people think (simplistically but understandably) that this = the world gets warmer. BUT what it actually means is more ERRATIC weather, more weather extremes (in some places it will be warmer yes, but also in other places it will be colder, wetter etc).
I don’t really hear this clarification being made very often … and I begin to wonder if I made it up! But I think it’s a more accurate picture perhaps …
But speaking about weather, and with the B&CT conference in mind, and people coming to Dunedin in Feb (ie the height of summer), I also heard that while NZ is notorious for having “4 seasons in one day”, in Dunedin three of those are winter!
13 December, 2009 at 3:24 pm
It’s a shame they don’t make the clarification more often. I thought they changed the term deliberately from ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change’ to try and eliminate the misunderstanding although I’m not really sure whether I made that up or not either … but nevertheless deniers still identify ‘climate change’ with a literal ‘global warming’ and then understandably deny it.
And as for our four seasons in one day, George Byron said that English winters end in July and recommence in August. He was right too.
13 December, 2009 at 3:54 pm
My understanding was that a Bush official pushed to have the more neutral climate change replace global warming. In response you get terms like global scorching, but also EWEs – extreme weather events. I prefer FUW …
13 December, 2009 at 4:05 pm
FUW? It isn’t the Welsh Farmer’s Union…
13 December, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Uh no …
14 December, 2009 at 4:00 am
at the risk of being snubbed, what is it then?
14 December, 2009 at 4:50 am
fucking useless weather?
14 December, 2009 at 5:12 am
Close: fucked-up weather