i dont think you'd have to worry about it in our life time

short answer is yes - noticed a change in the winds over the last few years? I have, and I'm not just talking about the hot air coming out of this forum either...

I have noticed a big change in the wind patterns since I took up kitesurfing a few years ago.

When I surfed, water skied or fished it was always windy. Very frustrating. I took up a sport that could utilise the dreaded wind. Now I spend a lot of time surfing, skiing and fishing because there IS NO WIND !!!

There has been a lot of conjecture about the hole in the ozone layer causing global warming. But we need the hole in the ozone layer to let out all the smoke from the forest fires in Brazil

Fitzy Gold Coast OZ

Watch the movie"the day after tommorrow" and thats coming baby!

If you want to understand what is known about "global warming" the best advice I can give is to read "The Weather Makers" by Tim Flannery.
Global Warming has nothing to do with the hole in the ozone layer. I'm so sick of people thinking that if they don't use hairspray they are not part of the problem! That was an excellent example of the way industry can cooperate to solve an environmental problem, we stopped the production of CFC gasses and the situation is reversing.
Drive less, use less electricity, insulate your house instead of hooking up an air conditioner, buy less stuff. If you are capable of it then catch rain water, generate your own electricity, grow some food. The sh!t will hit the fan in our lifetimes, I'm kind of getting used to the news readers describing heatwaves, droughts, floods as "freak" or "once in a lifetime". In the mean time, lets go kiting!

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We shouldn't complain though at least we have access to kites and boards that will get us going in less than 10 knots unlike the poor old pole dancers who need a minimum of 15-20 knots to have any fun at all.

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HA HA HA ha ha ha ha ha
I laugh even more when the kites fall out of the sky and they're forced to self rescue, while I bobble my way merrily back in on my poleboard

OK back to reality, this is neither the hottest nor the coldest time in the earth's history. The biggest climate change occurred when plants started growing, sucking up all that lovely CO2 and producing a poisonous gas (well it was poisonous at the time): Oxygen. Now all we're doing is burning some of that plant matter (oil used to be dead plants) and putting it back into the atmosphere, where it was in the first place.

Yes it's worrying, however in the long term mother nature will endure, find new niches to fill and make the best of any situation.

Here's some info on what the ozone layer looks like now, compared to ten years ago (it's recovering):
www.earthfiles.com/2006/08/19/repair-of-earths-ozone-layer-has-slowed/

There are multi-year cycles going on in Australia, and have been going on for a lot longer than we've got records for. Explorers 200 years ago found fantastic grazing land in inland Australia, brought lots of stock in, and then whammo, the climate changed and the stock died of starvation. This change wasn't caused by an industrial revolution, it's a normal part of the chaotic cycle.

It's not a simple problem, the scientists really and truly don't know what effect global warming will have.

The biggest problem at the moment is burning fossil fuels. Little johnny saying that we should put 15% ethanol in petrol is just pissing in the wind, look at Brazil, they've got 2 million vehicles on the road right now that are capable of running on pure alcohol (they call it "Flex Fuel", can run on petrol or pure ethanol), making it really environmentally friendly.
Think about it, you grow some sugar cane, it sucks in sunlight and CO2 and makes alcohol, you burn it in a car, it produces energy and you get your CO2 back again. No net output of CO2 so the planet is happy.

So is little Johnny telling us about this? No. Is he telling us about "Butanol", a liquid that can be made from sugar cane, is 100% environmentally friendly, and WILL RUN IN ANY UNMODIFIED PETROL CAR? Of course not.

Draw your own conclusions

Who knows, but if it brings more wind and water, I'll all for it.

Lurve your thinking neo. Maybe the kite lines would create too much drag for the kite to get that high up. I agree though, this climate change thingy has been going on for too long...hopefully we humans will regulate it before it or something else regulates us.

Isn't it a great place to kite now?

Will climate change affect the wind? Yes. 'Climate' means average weather, weather includes wind velocity, if the climate changes, then the wind is most likely to change with it. We know the climate changes, so the average wind velocity will be affected by this. QED. Could have worked out the same thing 200 years ago.

Now global warming, that's a whole different story...

Biofuels isn't quite the answer. Ethanol actually reduces ghg emissions by 3-8% depending on the source of the ethanol (grain/corn/sugar) and the production methods. Keep an eye out for Primary Energy Ethanol being built in Kwinana WA. They have currently the best production method as they capture all waste products for recycling or power generation.

Ethano made from garden and cellulose waste, like paper, green waste and any other orgnaic landfill will be the way to go. Unfortunately using corn/sugar/grain isn't the best method as the production has devastating effects on biodiversity, salinity, erosion and it's not efficient at sucking up CO2 to produce 02.

The key is consumption. We use too much and with China and India on the way we use WAY too much fossil fuels. Simple solutions which work are:
using a direct injection diesel vehicle or hybrid
using a solar hot water system
using gas powered electricity instead of goal, even better is hydrogen or best is wind power from a GHG point of view
consume less - travel efficient, car pool, use public transport, walk to the shops, ride a bike, etc

A good solution is to encourage your company to purchase "green electricty" or participate ina carbon offset program.

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Originally posted by GreenPat

Australia and Australians in general are pretty good like that.

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Hey Pat! Got to pull you up on that one, it's just not true. Aussies are ranked 3rd in the OECD for energy consumption per capita, and if you also include carbon emissions from agriculture and land clearing then we are the most polluting in the world!
www.eia.gov/emeu/cabs/ausenv.html
We are not paying the full price of our energy use, the cost of future damage. If we did, renewables would make economic sense. Carbon Tax. Thankfully the price of oil might be slowing us down.
In recent years our energy use has shifted from being mostly at night, to run heaters and lights, to being mostly in the daytime, to run fkn air conditioners! That's why they're talkin about nukes or more coal burning power stations, to run more fkn air con!

Anyway, it's getting hotter if we like it or not, you're spot on, "climate" just means the average weather, so "climate change" means the weather changes, so don't expect the wind to do the usual things. I think kitings the perfect sport for the future, think of all the new spots rising sea levels will open up, big lagoons, you don't need petrol, could be a good way of getting around...

hello,
i have been coming to wa for a few seasons now and the wind really has been weird.
if i am not wrong, it is either too windy or not windy enough.
comparing to 96 when i first came, we could use our 4,5 windsurf sail most of the days at 12.00 sharp.
now, nothing like that.
this summer in Geneva, switzerland, we had 12 degrees during july and august when it is supposed to be around 25-30 !
June was over 30 degrees and more sometimes.
i think the weather is getting more extrem.

marc-a.

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Originally posted by Hammerhead

I have noticed that in the last few years that windy days are getting less frequent on the East Coast (Newcastle at least),

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I reckon at the rate I have been out in the last couple of months I would be lucky to get out 20 times a year.
My first summer season I seam to remember it was to windy a lot of the time on my 14 while learning, now I kinda know what I am doing 3 seasons later the wind is crap.

Lets hope they dig all that coal up in the hunter valley and it turns to one big desert sucking in all the seabreeze.
Hang on that sounds WA is

ric